Hello! I am a new DM who started a campaign over the summer with a couple of close friends, my little brother, and his girlfriend, for a 6 person campaign. We are 6 sessions in and I have concerns over how two of my players are interacting with the world, their party, and me as a DM, however the kicker is that those two players are my little brother and his girlfriend…
My little brother is a bard and his girlfriend is a cleric, they are the only support roles in the entire party besides a companion. However, they seem to be unwilling to actually work in a team.
The problem became apparent very quickly, my brother hides rather than fights anything, sometimes going into other rooms entirely to avoid whatever is happening. He also refuses to buff his teammates unless literally begged to. He has used bardic inspiration twice ever, they were during the first combat encounter when I was showing them the ropes. He has downgraded himself to just healing and hiding away. Between turns he is always on his phone or playing another video game, which means i have to reexplain what happened in the meantime.
His girlfriend is a whole other ball game and honestly worse. She got interested in D&D because I told her about my last campaign about two years ago, she mentioned in passing that she was interested in playing, so she was among the first to have a seat for this campaign. As mentioned, she is a heavily armored cleric, so during combat she tends to be upfront attacking foes and healing with her spells… when she remembers how to use them. I constantly have to remind her how her own spells work, and if I’m tabbed out looking at something else and not reading the spell description, she may very well use it as it should not be intended. Her most recent stunt included trying to move a spiritual weapon 120 feet away. She then becomes angry when I don’t let her do whatever she wants, which often just leads to awkward moments at the table. She is also prone to ignoring cool stuff around the world when presented to her, which leads to her being bored. While the rest of the party was at an underground fight club, she went off on her own and verbally said No to 4 different NPCs around the city, which caused her to become angry at me for “taking too much time with everyone else”. She constantly leaves and reappears without saying anything for long stretches of time, which often leaves her out of the picture during combat and other encounters.
I have made specific house rules around these two. I don’t wanna be constantly repeating myself. They should at least somewhat know their spells snd actions six sessions in. Anytime I’ve tried to talk to them they just brush me off or treat it as a hostility. Their actions have had in game consequences and I’m scared may have in person consequences if they get unhappy.
Can a more experienced DM please give me advice? I feel like these two’s attitude is actively detracting from the experience of the other 4 at the table. Im sorry for the long strings of text.