Quote Originally Posted by Snails View Post
While it is true that Belkar is displaying a number of the classic behaviors associated with the PC of a stereotypical Problem Player, ultimately Belkar is just a character who acts that way because it is fun to have intraparty conflict in this tale.

IMNSHO, the genuine real deal meta-level Problem Player is...The Snarl.

Imagine a high school gaming club with a few parallel and intertwined D&D campaigns. One Problem Player manages to cause the acrimony to rise by pouring gasoline on all the fires, until he actually causes a big blow up that grinds all gaming to a halt, then storms out of the room. One of the DMs (the lost pantheon) outright leaves the gaming club in disgust. Eventually, the remaining DMs restart their games with a hodgepodge of rules to keep things running smoothly enough (sort of). The Problem Player is still a member of the gaming club, but he is shunted out of the running D&D campaigns. Is that actually a sustainable solution? What if the Problem Player tries to "claw" his way back into a campaign? If shut out, what does he do? Does he try a hand at DMing himself? Or does he plot revenge and try to destroy the campaigns by indirect means?
I can't remember if it's in one of the books or elsewhere, but I think the Giant has explicitly said the Snarl is a metaphor for the strife between players that can tear gaming groups apart. Or maybe I just read someone else suggest that and thought it was so good I've internalized it as meta-canon.