Okay everyone, I really need some help. I have a bad DM, and everyone in our group is friends (heck, most of us work together). He rail-roads, throws encounters that are way to tough, makes up random DC's for things that are way to high (a DC20 to climb a rope), and just in general does whatever he wants no matter what us, the players, are trying to do ourselves. What do you do in this situation? How do you handle it tactfully? Normally, I'm all for straight forward blluntness, but I just really don't think that'll work this time.
I do DM a good deal, and I know no one else will. And while that is something I have considered trying, I don't know how to do it without it being an obvious "you suck, we want you to stop" sorta thing.
Megan's suggestion was the one I was going to make.
Alternatively, I think you should sit down with him on a one-to-one basis and be honest with him. "Look, we're friends, I like gaming with you, but I'm having trouble with your game. Can I offer some advice?"
Friends ought to be able to do that with each other. Just make the criticism constructive and impersonal and maybe it'll help.
Would you guys suggest a one-on-one, or a players-to-DM sit down?
Probably best if just one of the group sits down with him to go over the reasons why you're not enjoying his DM style.
Would you guys suggest a one-on-one, or a players-to-DM sit down?
One on one. If it's all of you he's more inclined to respond defensively ("Everyone's picking on me!") and that won't help the situation. Just approach him in a friendly fashion. You want to help him to increase the enjoyment of the game for everyone. Since you have the DMing experience, you'd be the best choice to do that.
My group actually just had a similar situation. The DM wasn't even bad, but was hell-bent on running a boring adventure path and nobody was having fun. We finally got to the point where we just stopped the game and told the DM, "look, I gotta be honest, we're not really digging this..." and the conversation just flowed from there.
As it turns out, the DM was really bored as well, and pointed out several things in the ap he didn't like. It was based on a series of novels which he is a huge fan of, so his fandom sort of blinded him to the glaring flaws of the game version of the story.
Maybe the DM just isn't aware of the things he does that you guys don't like? Or if he is, make it known that these types of things(purposely doing things players dislike) are a sure and fast way to destroy a campaign. Some people just need it spelled out for them.
I'm faceing a very similar situation in my games. We have an experianced GM that runs a wonderful game lets us roleplay and still keeps the pace from getting boring. The NEW GM created his own world and has these massively powered NPC's that can kill gods with a wrist flick so our charecters are pretty much useless.
None of us are haveing a whole lot of fun but we put up with the new GM or else he won't learn. Is you guy a new GM? If so talk to him, tell him why your not haveing fun and see if it works out. Ours did, he still has along way to go but he's gotten better after we talked and explained why we wern't enjoying his game.
I'm faceing a very similar situation in my games. We have an experianced GM that runs a wonderful game lets us roleplay and still keeps the pace from getting boring. The NEW GM created his own world and has these massively powered NPC's that can kill gods with a wrist flick so our charecters are pretty much useless.
Similar situation and bad product rant:
That was actually one of our biggest issues with the adventure path our DM was running. "The Wheel of Time: Prophecies of the Dragon" was the name, and I'll never forget it. The PC's were completely useless, and were only there to play second fiddle to the NPC's most of the time. Even when we were only 3rd level, the ap had level 20 demi-god npc's running in and stealing our glory at every significant encounter. Every time we almost did something cool, the ap called for some NPC to come in and do it better. We finally just stopped when some council person or something asked us for our help and we said "No, I think you guys have this handled. We're gonna go do something else."
The entire ap had the PC's sitting on the sidelines watching as NPC's from the novels did all the cool stuff and got all the credit. We were glorified cheerleaders. It amazes me this even got published.