Aggroed NPC's in real life

[Euryalus]

So I've seen a thread or two in the past about how to deal with anger, but this one is both about dealing with anger as well as angry people.

I have a relatively short temper myself, so I tend to suck at dealing with people like that.

I usually either rage against the machine get angry back or just say nothing.

Not exactly good responses.

What techniques or ancient egyptian magicks do you use to stay calm or deal with people who aren't?

Also, any particular examples of people being irrationally angry you have to share?

 

[dyre]

IRL, I tend to make fun of them by mixing subtle jabs at their lack of emotional control into my responses. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my comprehension, that hasn't been a very effective tactic thus far. However, it does help me keep calm.

Usually I try to just get out of the situation.

 

[JoJo]

Usually I try to de-escalate the situation, depends on who they are. If it's a small child throwing a tantrum, I usually just find the whole display amusing and try to gently calm them down. If it's my mother, who has quite a short temper like you T0ad, I usually try to explain myself in a calm manner, though sometimes I can't help myself escalating somewhat since she can be very irrational and provocative, like accusing me of being rude when she's just sworn at me and told me to shut up. To be fair, she usually apologies afterwards. If it's my boss, I suck it up because I very much like having a job, though to be fair at worst he's just short with people, not actually angry or shouting

 

[shrekfan246]

I usually either rage against the machine get angry back or just say nothing.

I dunno, it's been a long time since I had to actually deal with another angry person in person.

I try to remain rational and calm them down, but if that doesn't work then I'll probably end up raging back at them.

I just wanted to post that song.

 

[Barbas]

You have to learn to stop in your tracks first of all, to give yourself enough time to think of the appropriate response; you really risk exacerbating things in a situation like that if you rush in. It also helps the other person to see that you're taking time to consider what they've said. Maybe lean back, blink in surprise and let them know that you're quite surprised, because you had no idea they felt that way and do they need anything. Ice cream seems to make people feel better, I notice; it really mends wounds. Offer them ice cream, or maybe some music. Let them know that they can talk to you and you will help them.


I 'unno, that's worked pretty well for me in the past. Just be earnest when the situation calls for it and people will be pretty decent back.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Cry, devour ice cream, punch (designated) things up...

Whatever calms me down. Really, it depends on what made me angry - people, stress, lack of sleep - and I get angry a lot. I'm either happy, or angry, never anythiing else. I'd say 70% of the time I'm angry, but that's only because I'm such a grump git.

So, I've developed a lot of ways to deal with anger. Probably too many to list, though, but a lot of them are more mundane, like eating or destroying things.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Well there's not much I can do to defuse wife aggro when she gets into her irish/scottish blood full-on batshit crazy anger. All I can do is play tank and mitigate the damage to the psyche and heart, sometimes body.

As far as other people aggro, I tend to rogue-style taunt them and smile ever more as they get more angry as I become more diplomatically insulting... I hate irrational angry responses and tend to mess with folks who get them.

In customer service style NPC aggro (customer mobs not bosses or management types) I handle it with logic, reason and a smile. I've learned so many angry response deflections in customer service and defeated many boss level customers with them.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I try to defuse the situation as smoothly and quickly as possible.

I tend to use subtle self-depreciating humor to get them to calm down and laugh. I also tend to lower my voice and talk slower since that forces them to pay attention to what I say and it gets them to calm down slowly as well. Having worked in customer service for a couple of years I've learned some tactics in dealing with angry people, and they've come in handy.

It's only later that I get annoyed and rant to someone over a beer or three about the whole thing.