Kicking a player out of my gaming group is something I’ve never had to do, but I’ve talked to folks who’ve done it (and had it done to them). It’s not a pleasant prospect, but it’s something that many GMs will have to address at some point in their GMing careers.

Have you ever had to kick out a player?

Unlike some of my other posts, this one has no connection to my current gaming situation — I’m fortunate enough to be gaming with a very good group. But it is something that comes up for a lot of GMs, and I don’t feel qualified to write a post on this topic since I’ve never done it myself.

So I’m turning this one over to the TT community — if you’ve ever had to kick someone out of your gaming group, tell us about it in the comments! I’m very interested to hear how it went, and I suspect a lot of other GMs will be as well.

As a starting point, here are 5 questions that seem like they would be useful to have answered:

  • Why did you kick out this player?
  • How did you go about it?
  • Did you talk to them about it first?
  • Was it the right decision?
  • What did you learn from the experience?

Depending on what kind of responses this post gets, I may do a follow-up that compiles your tips on this topic into an advice post.

Update: That follow-up has now been posted: How to Kick Out a Player and Respect Yourself in the Morning compiles all of your tips into a simple 3-step process for GMs to follow. My thanks to everyone who shared their stories and advice about this topic!