I want to know if it's me, am I expecting too much from my players, am I making things too difficult for them or are they really not capable of do something more complex than basic snatch & grab or b&e.
I've been gaming with this group for 3-4 years now. GMed SR during farming season last 2 years, but otherwise, was a player in Starwars, which I don't care for. Starwars I mean.
Group
human PI, high areas are social & datasearch
hobgoblin thief, high area are sneak, with minor hacking capabilities
troll bounty hunter, high areas are perception & combat /w uncouth quality
Dwarf medic/tech, high areas firstaid & armorer, uses skill wires for hacking
Mission
Plant evidence indicating X is a spy for rival corp, have 2 weeks to complete
The have info on where X works, how much he's paid, family situation, etc. Pretty much if they want to know about him, they have it or can get it easily enough.
He is pretty much squeaky clean, as far as they can tell at least.
The problems I've noticed is:
A) The PI player has played 2nd ed, and keeps reverting back to that. His characters are always the same, (PI, librarian, or D&D ranger) but all have same skills/abilities no matter what system. He's also big into calculating odds, which takes him along time.
(ex. GM: Do you want to scan for any guards leaving or just wait for the one you know is a guard to leave.
player: ...
GM: ...
Player: ...
GM: Which is it going to be?
Player: ...
) That took about 3 minutes for him to decide.
B) Troll player thinks that since his character is uncouth, any situation where PCs will have to con/bribe their way through, he will automatically F* it up. He also keeps claiming to not understand how to make a character for SR since he's really only played starwars & D&D.
C) I think the Hobgoblin player doesn't pay attention as he keeps going back to something that's already been discussed and gets angry with the other players just tell him that it won't work. He also blows off his contacts, who could have helped him, when they return with the information and just want some $$ compensation.
D) Dwarf player keeps shooting down ideas without providing any new ones or work-around/answers to the problems. He also used to bring his PSP and play that, but he stopped doing that so far.
E) Me, I think I give my players too much lee-way when giving them the missions. All I give them is an objective and let them figure out a way to accomplish it. I also get fed up with the players when there are simple solutions that I see, and they don't pick up on it. I'm usually good at not saying anything and just B*t*hing about it after words. I've mostly played 4th ed, and a bit, tiny amount of 3rd. There's probably more for me, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
I guess I'm really pissed off because I spent the last 6 hours, of my only day off during the week, listening to the players turn down idea after idea when I purposely gave them the mission at the end of last session so they could discuss it some during the week. I even gave them a forum to talk on so when they'd arrive, they'd be ready. Hell, after a few hours of listening to them bicker, I even wrote down what I would do to complete this mission and gave it to them.
Best idea they came up with is, hire a NPC to do it all. When I told them how much it would cost, they backed down as it would use up all of their expense account and cut into the reward they are to get.
</rant>