I don't believe you. Something like that doesn't actually happen. It's just a horror story to scare players. In real life, it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. In the real world, a GM like this would immediately be beat up by all his players. I think there's even a law that specifically allows that. I read it in the Geneva Convention.Worst Gamemaster (for me):
Player: Alright I drive across town to fetch the guy the boss told me to get.
GM: Alright you're dead.
Player: What?
GM: Well you didn't specify you are obeying the traffic laws so the police go to pull you over, but since you said you are going to get the guy you don't stop until they crash your car and even though you are severely injured in the wreck you still resist arrest so they shoot you to death.
Player: WTF?!?!?!No rolling, no questions, and the guy was playing his first session ever using his first character ever using the system.
Worst part? It was Palladium Heroes Unlimited (2nd edition for those it matters to).
KayYoss I wish that was in the Convention -- but I was the player and it did happen. I watched the group after that (can't have a new character immediately since I screwed up and no one else should have to deal with my stupidity -- his wording not mine).
The guy was verbally abusive, mentally abusive, put the characters in no win situations and then blamed the players for sucking too much to find a way out.
I stopped playing with that group that night... which is to say I stopped playing for about 5 years since there wasn't another group to play with for 30 minute in any direction that I was aware of.
It was then I got really good at knowing what was in the books since the only connection I had to the hobby at that time was simply reading the books and constructing characters, and adventures for groups I would have in the future.
****
Honestly looking at some of these other stories I'm really happy that he wasn't worse.
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I don't believe you. Something like that doesn't actually happen. It's just a horror story to scare players. In real life, it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. In the real world, a GM like this would immediately be beat up by all his players. I think there's even a law that specifically allows that. I read it in the Geneva Convention.Worst Gamemaster (for me):
Player: Alright I drive across town to fetch the guy the boss told me to get.
GM: Alright you're dead.
Player: What?
GM: Well you didn't specify you are obeying the traffic laws so the police go to pull you over, but since you said you are going to get the guy you don't stop until they crash your car and even though you are severely injured in the wreck you still resist arrest so they shoot you to death.
Player: WTF?!?!?!No rolling, no questions, and the guy was playing his first session ever using his first character ever using the system.
Worst part? It was Palladium Heroes Unlimited (2nd edition for those it matters to).
KayYoss I wish that was in the Convention -- but I was the player and it did happen. I watched the group after that (can't have a new character immediately since I screwed up and no one else should have to deal with my stupidity -- his wording not mine).
The guy was verbally abusive, mentally abusive, put the characters in no win situations and then blamed the players for sucking too much to find a way out.
I stopped playing with that group that night... which is to say I stopped playing for about 5 years since there wasn't another group to play with for 30 minute in any direction that I was aware of.
It was then I got really good at knowing what was in the books since the only connection I had to the hobby at that time was simply reading the books and constructing characters, and adventures for groups I would have in the future.
****
Honestly looking at some of these other stories I'm really happy that he wasn't worse.
Killing you right ay the start for no reason, arbitrary solutions to impossible situations, and making fun of you for dying in an unwinnable game state?
You sure it wasn't Sierra Adventure Games RPG instead?
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What can I say some people are simply toxic. The funniest part is while they won't game with me, saying they kicked me out for being a snob and unable to role play properly, and being too whiny when the game doesn't go my way.
However I did end up splintering off some of the players that hadn't become worthless yet and start up a fresh group down there that is (in my not so humble opinion) much healthier, and I did help get some new groups in the area started.
Ran a book store for a bit in the area -- got some really fun stories from that for you. Smack center in the self-righteous Rusty buckle of the bible belt and I had the audacity to sell the 'devil's books' there.
Never mind all the bibles, and christian literature collecting dust the pastors had to walk pass to try to coerce me into taking those 'demon books' and burning them.
I taped an ultimatum on the door:
Dear Pastors, Witnesses, and Missionaries trying to 'do me some good':
I am running a business here, not a church. I will sell whatever books make money. If you want me to not sell D&D and WoD books, then buy the christian literature and bibles that have been sitting in front since the store opened. If you aren't buying anything you will be loitering after 10 minutes and will be asked to leave. If you don't I have the owner's expressed permission to throw you through the display window.Please tempt me for I am weak and give in easily (obviously true after all your bulling has changed what I'm selling hasn't it?).
Sincerely,
The Employee
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I would have renamed the store "The Devil's Books".
I would have renamed the store "The Devil's Books".
i wouldve went with one of the following:
mana from heaven
Water to wine books
God's Gift to...
The King James Version book store
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I would have renamed the store "The Devil's Books".
We were going under at the time and knew it -- area wasn't big enough to really support the store and with the Methodist and Baptist bad mouthing us we weren't getting any of their business either: But I maintain that if those Christian literature books and bibles had sold we would have become a Christian literature store -- we even had suppliers lined up for such a case (indeed for the gamer we were even getting in the redemption CCG).
But it was a fun go and helped open up more groups and got the area talking and thinking a bit more.
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I would have renamed the store "The Devil's Books".
Or maybe "Beelzebiblioteque"??
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Sorry for off topic. But about 15 years ago I was playing 40K at my FLGS. A couple of those ultra christins came in to tell the owner how he was doing the devils work and all that. Eric, the owner just smiled and brought them over to meet the person I was playing 40K with.
Father Roger. A catholic priest that played DnD, 40K, MTG, ect.. Great guy.
The look on the ultra christians faces was priceless. They never bothered the store again after that.
Sorry for off topic. But about 15 years ago I was playing 40K at my FLGS. A couple of those ultra christins came in to tell the owner how he was doing the devils work and all that. Eric, the owner just smiled and brought them over to meet the person I was playing 40K with.
Father Roger. A catholic priest that played DnD, 40K, MTG, ect.. Great guy.
The look on the ultra christians faces was priceless. They never bothered the store again after that.
Coming from a pretty conservative Christian background, I can tell you that a lot of conservatives don't believe Catholics to be true Christians. They were probably shocked to see Father Roger actually publicly demonstrating his demonic allegiance. :)
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Coming from a pretty conservative Christian background, I can tell you that a lot of conservatives don't believe Catholics to be true Christians. They were probably shocked to see Father Roger actually publicly demonstrating his demonic allegiance. :)Sorry for off topic. But about 15 years ago I was playing 40K at my FLGS. A couple of those ultra christins came in to tell the owner how he was doing the devils work and all that. Eric, the owner just smiled and brought them over to meet the person I was playing 40K with.
Father Roger. A catholic priest that played DnD, 40K, MTG, ect.. Great guy.
The look on the ultra christians faces was priceless. They never bothered the store again after that.
We had this too. One of my favorite pastors though was protestant. When the other churches in town were having the field day over the 10 commandment on government property thing they tried to force him to stand with them his reply was, "Why? I'm not Jewish."
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Sorry for off topic. But about 15 years ago I was playing 40K at my FLGS. A couple of those ultra christins came in to tell the owner how he was doing the devils work and all that. Eric, the owner just smiled and brought them over to meet the person I was playing 40K with.
Father Roger. A catholic priest that played DnD, 40K, MTG, ect.. Great guy.
The look on the ultra christians faces was priceless. They never bothered the store again after that.
Now I can't decide which possible faction he was playing would be funnier.
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I always wonder: Are there so many sicko freaks out there that have unhealthy sex/rape fantasies AND play RPGs AND think it's totally okay to tell some woman about it AND make her avatar the victim? Or is it just one guy who really gets around?
There's also always the issue with playing evil parties....
I mean I can see a Lawful Evil not raping a knocked out cleric. After all, he may have some sort of code of honour. Then again he might, depending on what god he served.NE might, my not.
CE, quite likely to happen.
Though often Even evil has its standards.
Not sure if considered a bad GM but here it is....
One of the very first games I ever played in after just turning 18, was a game found through the local newsletter that the game store put out for the Inland Empire Gaming Guild. My brother, a friend, and I went over and started making our characters. While we did, we were introduced to the other players as they showed up. Here is Bill, who will be playing three characters tonight, oh and this is Wayne, who will be playing two characters. And this is my 10-year-old son, he'll be playing only one character until he learns the system enough. Oh this is my pretty 14-year-old daughter who only has one character to play. Yeah her other character was found out to be working against the party. So they took the character and tied her to a table inside of a portable hole. Then they said that way each of their characters (including the dad's DMPC) had their way with the daughter's character that was tied up whenever they wanted. Apparently the daughter had no problem with this. This didn't happen the one-and-only session that we played but the awkwardness of the whole Electra complex made us not go back to the group.
Just readimg that gives me the creeps I declare this one a winner.
There's also always the issue with playing evil parties.... I mean I can see a Lawful Evil not raping a knocked out cleric. After all, he may have some sort of code of honour. Then again he might, depending on what god he served.
NE might, my not.
CE, quite likely to happen.
Though often Even evil has its standards.
Over the years, I have GM'd for a couple of parties that wanted to play evil groups. The pattern was the same in both cases.
The party started off by doing naughty things like embarrassing haughty NPCs. Then, the party moved on to petty crime. Then, more serious crime, and then, eventually some player crosses the line into truly horrific, anti-social role-playing actions.
Yuck!
I don't Ref/DM/GM for evil groups anymore and have not for around 15 years.
In service,
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This isn't the worst player I've ever met, but probably the worst team player.
About a decade ago, we were in a homebrew campaign by my college roommate put together. It was a post-apocalyptic world, where sentient computers tried to wipe out mankind with super-advanced mecha. We played as agents of the corporation that developed human-piloted mecha and ended the war some ten years ago. The campaign focused on reestablishing contact with lost human settlements, hunting down remaining pockets of AIs, and building a new nation. The PCs included (among many awesome concepts) Joe, playing a gun-nut soldier, and myself, playing a scientist and daughter of our corporate CEO. Unbeknownst to my character, she was actually a gynoid duplicate of the original daughter, who died several years earlier.
On a mission to aid and diplomatically woo a technophobic city-state, we had to make due without most of our gear. The town council demanded we turn over everything more advanced than WW2-era diesel-tech, which they stored in city hall protected by a electromagnetic field that shut down anything run by computers. Being a diplomatic envoy (with power armor) we complied and had a really fun, noir-style adventure on the city streets with nothing but our wits and revolvers.
Joe became more and more frustrated without his advanced weapons and explosives, though, and he eagerly volunteered to retrieve all our things from city hall when we concluded our adventures and prepared to leave. I went along because Joe usually caused problems when left unsupervised, and it was already late enough that we expected the building to be closed and didn't want him breaking in.
My character walks through the front door, into the EM field, and immediately shuts down. From the outsider perspective, I had just passed out. The security guard rushed over, and immediately proclaims "Your friend! She's not breathing!"
Joe thinks about this for a minute, before declaring "I put the guard in a chokehold!"
The entire table was silent for a good thirty seconds.
The GM asks if he's sure, because Crystal's character is unconscious and apparently not breathing. And Joe responds "Yeah! I put him in a headlock until he passes out. Are my guns behind his desk?"
After discovering the guard did not have his weapons, Joe proceeded to leave my apparently-dead body next to the newly-unconscious guard as he searched the building (at 10pm, mind you), putting janitors and interns in choke holds, until he finally found all his gear stored in the basement. After destroying the EM generator and donning his power suit, he loaded up all our gear and my body, marched out the front door, and proudly informed us "I left my five kilos of semtex in the building. I detonate it as I leave."
The game comes to a complete halt. We'd just spent three sessions trying to get on the good side of this city-state, and this action just came completely out of nowhere."
The GM groans, grabs her forehead, and says "Joe... WHY did you destroy the building?"
And Joe's answer, which still lives in infamy: "I had to blow it up. I was LEAVNG it."
-I've known one priest who said 'the accuracy and penalities of demonic possession in D&D are the same as in real life. No rational person would EVER give up the will to become possessed. You are now a handy object for an imortal spirit. That's pretty F****ing dangerous. You exist for an imortal's fun. But come on. Catholics actually believe the devil is 75-99% as bad ass as god.
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i had to blow it up. i was LEAVING it.
see? this is why we can't have nice things anymore. ;)
i'm lucky enough not to have many horror stories, though one guy we used to play with had an annoying tenancy to rock up with five eighteens and a seventeen as his statline... for three characters in a row. with no character history in a group that requires that kind of thing, and a tenancy to do dumb stuff that endangers the rest of the party. needless to say, his characters had a low survival rate and we've (hesitantly) let him back into the game as he appears to have wised up a little.then there was the group who somehow managed to get a TPK on a spiked pit THAT THEY KNEW WAS THERE AND KEPT PUSHING EACH OTHER INTO. then they'd jump in to steal the last guy's stuff. not sure what the logic there was, but in the end i leveled up the spiked pit from its accumulated experience. and no, the group weren't playing lemmings!
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then there was the group who somehow managed to get a TPK on a spiked pit THAT THEY KNEW WAS THERE AND KEPT PUSHING EACH OTHER INTO. then they'd jump in to steal the last guy's stuff. not sure what the logic there was, but in the end i leveled up the spiked pit from its accumulated experience. and no, the group weren't playing lemmings!
That's it! Lemmings RPG! I soo need to GM/play that! :D
By the way did it really escalated to calling the cops? Are there such persons?There absolutely are such people.
I was once in a game that ended with us all (the players, not characters) leaving before the cops showed up to where we were playing because the neighbors had called the police.
The game was being played in a garage (we set up some couches and tables to make it more like a lounge because we spent so much time with too many people over for any actual room in the house) and a player got a bit sour because the DM at the time didn't let him play out a a scene... because the DM noticed that all the other players got a bit of a squeamish look when the problem player attempted to initiate the scene with "Alright, so... I go up to the barmaid and convince her to come out into the alley with me."
The DM's attempt to just move on with the game irritated the player, which made him more obstinate about it... he moved on though. At least that's how it seemed until we met with a female NPC that was offering us a job, when he started demanding in-character that she pay him up front for the job with sexual favors.
The situation exploded, the problem player was trying to get us all to RP out the scene with his character raping our prospective employer and we were all trying to convince him to leave - he wouldn't budge and started yelling louder and louder about what his character was going to do (in first person speech, I should add) and how none of us could stop it because he wasn't leaving until we let it happen... and then we all made the biggest gaming mistake of our collective lives; We said "Fine... let's do this," and started playing out the scene.
His character went to grab her, our characters went to stop him - as you would expect with 3 on 1 PVP his character died. That's when the guy proves to us that all of the crazy he had shown us by that point had only been the tip of the iceberg and he literally stood up and flipped the table, then started trashing the...
This and those other creepy stories are why I am instantly skeptical of any and all campaigns that involve rape as well as evil characters.
I'm sort of glad I don't have any stories like this to share. The games I've been in have all had relatively reasonable people in them who know how to behave.
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I actually in a game where someone decided they wanted to play a mage elf prodigy and made their character like 15 years old, and then proceded to do the whole "no one would ever suspect that an elf child would be a violent sociopath or so magically powerful". The gaming group I was playing with at the time took him at his word and treated him like a 15 year old elf child. We only allowed him to have non-damaging spells and any magic items he got were imediately tested for lethality so that he couldn't hurt anyone. Maybe that made us the jerks there, but after hearing him tell the DM for the billionth time how his character was going to try and do a ton of evil crap, we felt pretty justified.
However my "horror" stories pale compaired to some of these. Some of these read like reasons to stop gaming.
Okay so this one guy. Those of us who have the good fortune of not having to deal with him on a daily basis have significantly lower blood pressures. We'll call him Chad.
He's a fun guy. But he really gets people's hackles up. Alot. In fact he derives some strange pleasure from it.
As a player:
-Cannot play any other alignment than chaotic evil. All his interpretations of Lawful, Good and Neutral alignments eventually boil down to chaotic evil. I think problem players all do this at some point. It's the inner sociopath shining through.
-Takes every opportunity to go off on his own and solo a nice side adventure. Usually involving looting, burglary, murder, revelry and in one truly bad example of dm favouritism: a 2 hour boss fight.
-Constantly schemes openly about killing or stealing from other pc's. Once or twice it's funny. After a while your not just 'ropleplaying' a douche. Your being one.
-Hoards every item, every gold piece, every chance to shine in the RP spotlight. A massive glory hog and selfish Scrooge in an easy going group who love fair play.
-Constantly cheats to the point where I have to covertly assign players to watch him. His math is nearly always wrong. Especially where gold is concerned.
-Lazy to the point of wanting to beat him over the head with a treadmill. He won't ever finish a character sheet if he can get someone to do it for him. And when he does, its always wrong. I once took over GMing a game where there had been some heavy GM favouratism (the two were brothers, we've gaming with them for years). I found 32 separate errors that basically made the whole character sheet a work of fiction. When he moaned at me nerfing his character I told that we don't make up our own rules, we use the printed ones. If he wanted to play a fantasy creation, he could do that without leaving his bedroom.
-The guy has to all of our knowledge never read more than a chapter of a book. But from 7 years of gaming he has a solid handle on the rules. However, he will complain vocally and abusively when you have to debate over the rules that the rest of the group know over his 'opinion'. He does however, have a knack for finding loopholes in obscure parts of the text and exploiting them. Until you actually read the rest of the passage when you do find it and realise he's been cheating for the last 6 sessions...
-After trying to look out for him in real life, we've always tried to include him in our campaigns. But he just disrespects everything a campaign stands for. His absences usually in the 50-60% range and always tries to make a joke out of whatever world lore the rest of us try and create.
-Oh and did I mention the guys an intolerant idiot who enjoys arguments? Seriously. The tales I could tell ya bout this guy could make your blood boil.
I guess I'll have to save the Bad stuff on GMing til another time tho. Cos that's a murkier area. As I still feel guilty for my actions as a player during 'chads' brief stint. Done a lot of growing since then. Founded a brand new gaming group and are heading towards our 50th session. Chad whined, joined, then eventually we stopped inviting him. The previous group all just put up with his crap in game for the sake of friendship and because there was no alternative. Now there is. And we won't be inviting him back.
The problem with Evil parties is that because the concept is so 'novel' when it actually happens the players get all carried away with it and the whole thing quickly slides into smutty and base actions and double crossing short-term interest double crossing.
Its like they think 'Evil = Mindless' and start playing accordingly.
Now I would like to see a proper Evil group where the party keeps it all sensible and maybe looks around for some better influences.
Al Swearengen in Deadwood is a fantastic anti-hero who is as evil as they come, yet he hold the whole thing together brilliantly, in many ways he's one of the best things the town has going for it, even if at the end of the day its really about his interests.
Dump
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So they took the character and tied her to a table inside of a portable hole. Then they said that way each of their characters (including the dad's DMPC) had their way with the daughter's character that was tied up whenever they wanted.As disturbing as this is, this is not the first time I read about female players' characters being raped by other player characters. It's not even close to the first time I read something like this.
I always wonder: Are there so many sicko freaks out there that have unhealthy sex/rape fantasies AND play RPGs AND think it's totally okay to tell some woman about it AND make her avatar the victim? Or is it just one guy who really gets around?
The other times it wasn't usually the GM's daughter. It was some girl/woman, and usually, the rapist guy would apparently get a kick out of telling her all of this.
Maybe I wouldn't make a good woman for being too squeamish, but I never understood how none of these stories end with "And then she broke out the mace (i.e. the pepper spray) to take the guy down and then she ran away screaming" (or, even, "then she broke out the mace (i.e. the blunt instrument) and beat his head in").
In fact, even as a guy, if that happened in a game I was playing in, I'd get hold of something dangerous and beat the guy's head in out of sheer self-preservation. Call me squeamish if you will, but I couldn't stand the idea of this person being anywhere around me or anyone I know and/or love.
We're not talking about groups consisting of years-long friends who know when they're joking and what everyone considers to be over the line creepy etc, by the way.
This times 1000. I'm a teenager, all my gaming friends are teenagers, and even we don't have problems with overly sexual/violent encounters. What's more, I garuntee that if something like this happened even in a first time group where noone knew each other, Myself and at least one of my guys would proceed to kick the guiy out. There's a line, this kind of behaviour is way past it.
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KaeYoss,
You'd be surprised (or not) by how many of the child porn convicts in Federal prison are gamers.
Does it count if I just wish I was surprised?
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Worst PC: The Alpha male
By far the worst sort of player is the aggressively extroverted type that are used to getting their way. They push for every possible advantage and sulk when you deny them anything at all. They'll convince you that everything is your fault and they can completely shatter your GM confidence.
Worst GM: Me 15 Years ago
I shudder whenever I think about my first few attempts of running games. GMPCs, railroading, rule zero overuse, etc
My very, very first attempting to GM was pretty lousy. It was a Star Wars: Saga one-off where I had a rancor throw someone a good distance. I do it and the two, more seasoned GMs asked me what the result of his strength check was. I was like "what strength check" and had just had the guy throw him. No dice. No stats. Like a boss. Yeah... That was quite a few years ago.
My worst player ever is number 1 of that post.
(My second is probably my number two entry, although he wasn't always terrible - mostly just those times I explain in the post.)
My worst GM was... well... uh... actually, I can't think of a really "bad" GM (though there have been some bad calls). If you mean poor GMing decisions the worst was probably myself.
I was in a hurry and once randomly generated some enemies and loot via an automatic generator (I've since lost the link, sadly) and arbitrated loot into two bags of holding: one with the magic stuff and one with the money.
The PCs wanted to know what the magic stuff was, but I didn't - I simply didn't have time, and I was pretty tired. So later they fought a recurring villain, and she cast a disintegrate at a rival wizard, and hit, but his "random deflection" ability kicked in and it switched to a random target, which - he rolled the dice - was one of the bags of holding... the one with the magic loot.
There are more boneheaded calls (probably worse ones) I've made as a GM, but that one is the one that comes t mind right now.
Worst Player Ever: The guy who showed up drunk. He was disoriented through the whole first half of the session. Then he puked all over and passed out missing the rest of the session which we needed to move elsewhere due to the smell.
Worst GM: Some online GM who started a ton of interesting games only to cancel them after one adventure. He also unabashedly played favorites with the players.
in lines with my worst game ever.
Worst PC?
Guy always played a thief, always.
Pickpocketed, robbed, left for dead, fellow PCs always. metagamed until his ears bled. Spent the game session reading manuals for that game, or quit often other games.Always new what combo killed what monster, ALWAYS. if you killed him he played his brother, hell bent on revenge.
Never role played a single time, but always power gamed Every single bloody character. If you played a human champaign, he played a kobold, and no you cannot always blame the dm, if you put your foot down he would weasel around rules, and whine,, and complain. But he played along until mid point, then always sabatoged the group.Worst Dm?
DMPC (Dm player character) I can live with them, have used them, however that being said. His character could never die, solved everything, was the life of the party, new the best everything. It was a group of four of us. And the three players finally got sick of it and when he went down in combat, well someone might have stepped on his windpipe.
Needless to say he was back to life in the next adventure, we found out he was divinly protected, lucky us.
That is something special.
I've got a competitor though, Christian dm playing all seeing all knowing all triumphant paladins and clerics. The forces of lawful religion were good, in control, always had the answer. We were but small fish compared to their might.
Everyone else in the party were atheist/agnostic.
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Back while i was in the army, we gamed a lot. D&D, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Gurps, d6 star wars, pretty much if you named it, we tried it and for most enjoyed it. One of our players we will call him Richard, was a amature like body builder. Big on the muscles not so much the brains. Since we worked with him everyday we let him play. Never got into charector, didnt understand why he couldnt do certain things. I think the time he tried to crush a dwarfs skull between his hands became the last straw cause he rolled poorly, another player quiped "really why are you trying that when you have a sword." Richard at this point (i guess tired of not being the best at everything) Told the player to shut up before he crushed his skull with his hands. We all died laughing, he threw the bowl of chips and stormed out... and well never asked to play again.
Back in my living greyhawk days we had a guy who when he ran games made it a compition sort of versus what he had done versus what his players were doing. He would get visually and audibly annoyed/sounding when we would succeed where his player had failed. Or if we came up with something he didnt think of. Some examples.
bad guy moved attacked didnt kill the pc. other pc, who had netfighting. That pc hit him with the net. Dm decided to have him shadowdance to disapear in plain sight. (pretty sure he wasnt high enough to do that if he tried.) oh and the net disapeared into the shadow too. Never mind the trailing rope was still in the pc's hand. The bad guy got away. (we never did bother to look into seeing if that bad was able to do that in the module afterwards, it was our first experiance with him.) Suddenly ever bad in the module appeared to have it out for the pc with the net. (here is the kicker) Even the raging sahaugin with favored enemy elf deciede that the human rogue with the net should die. Never mind my elven ranger decimating their forces standing almost right beside him.
Had a pc towershield, platemail wearing omg your ac is 32 at level 3 fighter who got hit with 6 arrows back to back to back to back in the second round. In the first round he had made a math mistake so we could do the math and realize those guys had a +5 to hit. So they needed 20's. Did i mention he rolled his dice behind the screen always and never showed a roll. Did i mention that attacking round he only rolled it 4 times. I didnt say anything it was annoying but...one of the other players did. I think the local triad got involved after that and we didnt see him at the local library we played at for almost a year i think. Never did see him run anything again.
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Man. Almost all of my games have been pretty positive. I've had a few bad sessions, but usually the players / GMs knew about the problems and rectified it afterwards. That said, I do game with someone who is sometimes a bit of a problem player.
I had one session wherein a player drank somewhere around a dozen bottles of alcoholic apple cider, and spent most of the session getting cheese poof powder all over...well, everything, really. I had to hand wash my dice after that session, and throw out my character sheet. The player in question ended the session face-down on the carpet - he had somehow ended up under his chair - attempting to make his dice rolls in that position. We decided it was for the best to cut that session short.
The same player made a character that had the backstory of "I have amnesia and can't remember anything about my past!", and wanted the GM to somehow work his backstory into the adventure path. In other words, I think he wanted the GM to write his backstory for him.
That character was at least better than his original two characters. The first one was a Grippli Monk, who he played because he wanted to be a punchy frog. His backstory was non-existent, and his personality was cultivated so that the player could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Outside of combat, the character mostly just sat around doing frog things. His next character was a Tengu Monk, with much the same problem. He mostly acted like a crow, yelling, "Corn!" at random intervals. He completely dumped charisma, so he never participated in anything until it was time to hit stuff.
I've got a competitor though, Christian dm playing all seeing all knowing all triumphant paladins and clerics. The forces of lawful religion were good, in control, always had the answer. We were but small fish compared to their might.What a drag.
Speaking as a Roman Catholic gamer, there're few tropes more entertaining than Holy Mother Church partly tainted by corruption at almost every hierarchic level. What fun if at least some of the Templars aren't rabid and intolerant ... if certain Inquisitors aren't schooled in both sophistry and discernment ... if not a few Bishops haven't succumbed to the lure of temporal power and sensual gratification? As someone wiser than me once said, "The Catholic Church is simultaneously the greatest and most horrific organization the cosmos has ever known, because it's founded by God, but run by people." Whether you think that's true or not, it's a great line.
Employing the real world monotheistic religions requires quite a deft touch. Either its adherents are mistaken and the gods of other pantheons are as valid and legitimate as YHWH, or the Judeo-Christian (and Islamic) weltanschauung is correct and the other so-called deities are wholly (necessarily) subordinate in might, if not perspective and action.
Back on topic.
Worst player: Recruit for my college game featuring high-level characters, an early twenty-something male who set off my warning bells with the desire to play his 21st level anti-paladin when I'd already mentioned that I didn't allow chaotic neutral, neutral evil or chaotic evil characters. Of course, he presented his pride and joy as lawful evil ("lawful" scrawled in over what looked to be a poorly and hastily erased word that looked suspiciously like a faded "chaotic"); wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, I mentioned the role-playing possibilities of a lawful evil with neutral tendencies, harsh and ruthless but arguably fair, and he wholeheartedly agreed that such would be...
That is a really funny quote. God founded Roman Catholicism in the seven councils between 325 and 787 AD? Sure it wasn't various religious bishops in the Roman Empire?
The early days of who were the actual Bishops of Rome is very messy, and it took time for the leadership term of pope to even show itself.
People found institutions, never gods.
Man. Almost all of my games have been pretty positive. I've had a few bad sessions, but usually the players / GMs knew about the problems and rectified it afterwards. That said, I do game with someone who is sometimes a bit of a problem player.
I had one session wherein a player drank somewhere around a dozen bottles of alcoholic apple cider, and spent most of the session getting cheese poof powder all over...well, everything, really. I had to hand wash my dice after that session, and throw out my character sheet. The player in question ended the session face-down on the carpet - he had somehow ended up under his chair - attempting to make his dice rolls in that position. We decided it was for the best to cut that session short.
The same player made a character that had the backstory of "I have amnesia and can't remember anything about my past!", and wanted the GM to somehow work his backstory into the adventure path. In other words, I think he wanted the GM to write his backstory for him.
That character was at least better than his original two characters. The first one was a Grippli Monk, who he played because he wanted to be a punchy frog. His backstory was non-existent, and his personality was cultivated so that the player could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Outside of combat, the character mostly just sat around doing frog things. His next character was a Tengu Monk, with much the same problem. He mostly acted like a crow, yelling, "Corn!" at random intervals. He completely dumped charisma, so he never participated in anything until it was time to hit stuff.
Ha ha, that would be hilarious leaving the backstory to the dm. Oh the fun you could have.
I've had bad DMs, but never a "worst".
In high school, one guy (who made every character based on some comic or book character) tried DMing. He made his own setting, with elements borrowed from Jordan and Eddings, then proceeded to have his self-insert DMPC (of the omniscient and omnipotent Elminister variety) give us a walking tour of his magical realm. After a couple hours of being shown things and talked at, he takes us to a pedestal with three floating spheres, and explains how only the delicate balance of their movements allows this world to exist. At which point one player declares he knocks them over.
The player in question had his moments of problem playing (tendency to make thief characters that stole from the party, or characters that were the opposite of the party), but that was a great moment.
I have had a worst player. In a White-Wolf crossover style game, a player asked one night if they could bring a friend. This wasn't a problem, as we had frequent single session players that were curious. The session was set in Tokyo, as the characters were visiting. This new player said he wanted to buy a particular list of goods, all things you'd find in supermarkets or hardware stores. Okay. Then he uses the items to mix up drugged candy and i.e.d. This is a little alarming, but we had all sorts of monstrous creatures in the group, so maybe he just wants to be ready to defend himself. (My policy was to begin characters as humans, then they could undergo their transition in game) He then goes around drugging people, robbing them, and random bombing. When the other players (understandably irate) corner him in the hotel, he drops a bomb and jumps out the window. If he hadn't gotten a ride from his friend (a good long term player) I would have asked him to leave before it got to that.
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Worst DM leading to a Worst Player Moment:
Long time ago, I was a "worst DM" (and still could be but most of my players generally say they enjoy my games now). This was about 25 years ago, loosely using 1st ed. AD&D. I say loosely as I was about 13 or 14 years old at the time, hadn't really read the combat rules. The game was basically, "you fight Orcus" roll some attacks on both sides, "you kill Orcus" DM (me) rolls up random treasure and artifacts and hands them out. "You level up," and everyone levels up their character. Rinse and repeat. There was some story element, but I don't remember it so it probably wasn't any good. But everyone else was new to the game so the newness and excitement kept them coming back despite my short comings; they just never had a good DM to know how bad things were with me.
But at the time, at least, I wasn't a DM that said "no" to the players often if ever. If they wanted to try it, I'd let them. Luckily 2nd edition came out soon which prompted other players to buy the books and read them and then correct me on the rules...which then made me read them closely and so I entered my "better DMing" phase.
So in the quagmire of my poor DMing, one evening, 5 or 6 fourteen-year-old-boys closed off in my bedroom, the body odor swirling in the rising temperature of the body heat, playing these 100th level characters with loot out their ears, the following happens:
There are two brothers that are playing in the game. The older brother, is the same age as the rest of the guys and the younger brother is a year younger than the rest of us. The older brother is one of the bad-asses of the school; nobody messes with him save the ones that do and they all have lost. The main reason this guy, and his brother, are playing with me is because I just moved in next door to them about six months ago or so (we'd been playing at least twice a week every week for 5 months at this point).
The younger brother is playing a Thief, and he decides to pick pocket some precious magical item off his brother's character. The other brother starts to get angry at even the suggestion of doing so. The younger brother rolls, and succeeds. Then the older brother goes ballistic. He starts yelling at the top of his lungs "f%$#! you, I'm going to kill you! You little s%$@!..." and so on. His fists are clenched, veins popping out on his forehead and neck.
There's a moment where I'm in shock. No body else is moving, largely due to fear of the older brother's reputation from school.
Then the shock leaves me and nonchalantly I interrupt and say to the older brother, "hey, can I see your character sheet, I need to check something" as I'm leafing through the DMG. Without thinking he hands his character sheet to me, all the while continuing to scream at his brother. Literally foaming at the mouth.
Then I ripped his character sheet in half.
"... there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." Though really it was a split second as the older brother slowly turned fully towards me, fists still clenched, and he started to yell at me.
I stopped him by saying calmly, "hey [name], look at yourself. This is a game, [name]. It's just a game. Look at what you're saying to your brother. Over a game."
He sat down.
I said, "don't worry, it can be an exciting game, but it's not worth getting angry over. Anyway, your character isn't dead just because the paper is torn in half. It's still legible, and here's a new character sheet," I tore one out of the prepackaged 1st AD&D blank character sheet book and handed it to him, "in case you want to copy it over instead of taping the old one back together."
To this day the rest of the players that were there comment that they can't believe I didn't get the crap kicked out of me then and there. But after that incident he turned out to be one of the best players I've had the honor of playing with and one of my longest and 'bestest' friends.
Worst player:
I was running a Gestalt game, Carrion Crown, because it sounded fun and a whole bunch of people were into it. First game I'd ever run myself, but we had a good bit of fun for a few months, despite my fumbles (I'm hardly the best DM ever myself), got to near the end of book 2 and...well I made the first GM call this guy didn't like.
I told him "No, your Eidolon cannot Rend multiple times in a single round, I don't care if it doesn't say you can't. That's not how Rend works, and here, there's a quote from one of the devs saying it doesn't work that way".
He flips out, telling me I don't care enough about the "story" and how much it "makes sense" for him to be able to do that if he has enough claws, and I tell him I'm not bending on this one. He's already the most powerful character at the table by a fair margin, and I don't see a reason to change the rules to boost his power any further.
So he gets pissed and quits the game entirely. The game comes to a grinding halt (he was the "pusher" of the group that kept everybody moving). We tried another couple of sessions, but everybody just wasn't feeling it and we eventually just stopped scheduling sessions.
Worst DM:
Created two DMPCs to help round out our party, supposedly. We were all new players at the time (this is the guy who got me into TRPGs in the first place), and we ran through Serpent's Skull. Had a lot of fun, though his GMing style was a bit lax and there wasn't much RP going on. Mostly our fault, not his, but he did little to encourage it.
The problem comes not from any of that, but the way he handled one particular scenario, and this is what makes him the worst DM to me. It has nothing to do with how he ran the game, which was...passable. Not bad, not good, he was fairly new to it and quickly improving.
No, what makes him the worst DM I've ever had is how he got mad at one of us (me, if you must know) one day over something, and he just shut down the game. Didn't just boot me from the game, which I would have been pissed about but not livid over, but shut down the game entirely because he didn't like something I had done. 5 other players out of a game because this guy got mad at ME.
I still get mad thinking about it.
Plot twist: It was the same guy, over the same event. Yes, he shut down a completely unrelated game because of a GM call I made in a separate game.
I still talk to the guy, and play some games with him (Pandemic, mostly) but I doubt I will ever trust him to run or play in a Pathfinder game with me again.
Runner up for worst player goes to a friend of mine whose character for every game (not just Pathfinder) is always Jack or some racial variant thereof (like Jrahk for his Orc).
IT'S NOT EVEN HIS REAL NAME ARGLE BARGLE
Yeah that's scraping the bottom of the barrel. I only really have the one bad player experience.
Runner up for worst DM goes to the guy who walked us all through character creation for a PF game over Roll20 set in Eberron that was shaping up to be pretty cool, and then claimed to be hit by a car and was like "Session goes forward as scheduled, I'm fine".
We show up...he doesn't.
So I'm like "Maybe he was drugged up and couldn't come. Or he died, iunno. Benefit of the doubt."
Never posted in that game's page again
*1 week later*
"Looking for Group: This Guy".
The Rage. I had it.
Worst DM, for me, lately...
I say "for me" as he has a group of regulars that enjoy his game. Also, he's a great human being; very nice, enthusiastic, etc.
He invited me to his game which he says is "a mix of 2nd ed and 3.5" and includes a home brew pdf for classes, races, character creation, etc. This pdf feels like 2nd edition, so I assume that basic rules are 3.5ish.
So we get to playing and I feel like I'm going insane. He's moving my miniature (and others) on the board without asking me where I want to go. Then we're attacked by flying creatures outside and they're swooping down on us and it's all just arbitrary. How and when they get to attack, their movement, etc. It's all just coming across as how the DM feels they should be maneuvering. There's no initiative, no order, etc.
This turns into a long argument between him an me. Me arguing that if they don't have fly-by-attack then their turn ends in the square they attack from, or at least attacks of opportunity for flying through the threatened "cubes" for 3D movement.
I realize that I'm starting to DM the combat instead of the DM and the other players have looks of...fear? concern? annoyance? I don't know...just bad looks and I realize that it's because of me fighting with the DM over the rules.
In between this game and the next, I ask the DM where to find the combat rules and he says 2nd ed PHB. So I reread those rules, brought the books to the next game, we do a short dungeon crawl, which I manage to survive. But still there's this "force" of the DM pushing the story along, I couldn't handle it.
Prior to that, we tried a 1st ed AD&D game where I got DM-pushed into acidic ooze that dealt Con damage in the first encounter of the dungeon.
After the mix-game debacle, we tried a whole different system, which was a lot of fun (because the rules were concrete) but there was still the railroading, the DM moving PC miniatures without asking, and so on.
Then, a long time ago...
We were 15-17 when this GM ran his games and for the first and last he allowed my younger, by 8 years, brother to play.
1. A Palladium Rifts game.
2. A 2nd ed D&D based on Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle.
3. West End Star Wars game.
In the Rifts game he set us up as gangers in Chi-Town with a heavy Akira feel to our gang. We're discovered by the cops and so we try to get away from them. We all hit our bikes and drive off. My brother, for some reason, turns around and starts heading back by the cops that had pulled up in front of the bar (I think to go the way my character went, he was 8 or 9 years old at the time). Well the back of the cop truck opens up, minigun doing Mega-damage opens up on my brother and wastes him. The rest of us pull this "not cool" complaint. The GM emotionally shuts down. Packs up his stuff. Gets in his car. Drives to the end of the street (a few houses down) and spends an hour or two smoking then drives away fast.
The Death's Gate Cycle never got off the ground. He spent days making maps, working up how to do it in a 2nd ed D&D system, had us start thinking about characters and then just dropped it.
In the Star Wars game he forced my brother to play an ewok. In the first encounter we're boarded, or going to be boarded, by Yuuzhan Vong and an NPC sends my brother's ewok out the airlock...again targeting and killing the 8-9 year old's PC with glee.
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I didn't think of it, because I wasn't the GM in both games that he was "part of", but I recall a terrible player I once gamed with.
First, to clarify: this was a neat guy in real-life... he had some minor emotional problems, but was otherwise pretty cool. Let's call him... Severus.
But, you know, life happens - I didn't think too much of it.
The bard and I were both investigating a mysterious violent event in Silverymoon. It seemed that some lycanthrope had been attacked in his home by the city guards... including a cleric of Lathander. Compelled by my curiosity (as the Lathanderites reportedly may have held the object I sought), I proceeded to lay on the flattery thickly (much to the Ron's amusement... and later chagrin, as I was attempting to distract said guard long enough to let him investigate, but the player mistook my character's gesticulations for "being weird" - never rolling a sense motive - and only afterwords regretted squandering the opportunity by verbally deflating my flattery at every chance) and successfully.
We were eventually allowed to "look but don't touch" (thanks to our combined diplomacy) and, gathering clues, were led to the Temple of Lathander. There, we met the aforementioned cleric, realized we had the same goals, and joined up... and... that's when Severus shows up! ... with a new character (a CG young, blonde, noble sorceress)... who would never be anywhere so "provincial" as Silverymoon, at least not on purpose. So, accommodating him (again), we allowed her to show up by magical mishap. It was an immediate disaster and only got worse.
Severus only had vague ideas of what his character could do, and, trusting me, the GM got me, Severus, and himself into a private chat room to help Severus develop his character independently - none of us had revealed anything to the other players except our race/class/alignment (the rest was supposed to be all RP and limited to in-character knowledge). I worked at separating my character knowledge from player knowledge, helped Severus fully develop his sorceress, tailored to his desires (which ran counter to a few pieces of advice I'd given him - I already had enchantment covered, while the bard had illusion, and I noted that if he wanted to stay good, [evil] spells shouldn't be chosen, but, you know, his character, his way and all that). I helped coach him somewhat on the group stuff (in the game, my character was slowly and methodically going over "stuff", searching for clues, thus wasn't part of any current conversation). Eventually, I helped Severus finish his character's stuff. We discussed and understood the general atmosphere and nature of the game and expectations as much as we thought we needed to... so we get back into the game.
The GM had allowed Severus to use his sorceress' perk to gain a minor magical artifact (a charisma-enhancing thing, as I recall). He didn't know what that was, so I explained it to him, but cautioned that not everyone had such nice things (I was totally cool with this - I didn't need stuff like that, but it clearly made Severus feel better). Immediately, Severus declared to us that his character had an artifact, "because she's so pretty!". I (and apparently Harry, too, I later learned) pulled him aside and chastised him (in a gentle way) for advertising the fact and potentially causing jealousy. I explained that different people play things different ways and that he should do his best to not cause problems. He pouts a little, but understands, and we go back to the game.
... and his character immediately begins acting like a spoiled brat, demanding her way, refusing to go with (or trust) the people who rescued her, attempting (and failing) to charm various NPCs and a couple of the party members into being her "servants", and generally being completely obnoxious and attention-hogging. Pulling Severus aside again, I explain that this isn't what RPGs are supposed to be about - they're supposed to be cooperative storytelling experiences that are fun for all. An argument ensues (him insisting that they're about allowing you to act out your character personally, no matter what), and Harry deftly used Severus' distraction (and approval) to move the scene along before he could chew more of it. We ended up in a nearly-abandoned bar, thankfully, where we began to hash out plans and ideas, as well as pool our knowledge and discoveries and, hopefully, form a functioning team.
... except that Severus' sorceress declared that she'd been kidnapped, and began screaming like a lunatic. She charmed the bartender to get Ron's bard thrown out and beaten for "harassing" her**** (which, one amazing bluff and diplomacy later, was deflected by sending the bartender out into the ally after "that guy that harassed her"). Severus' sorceress continued to be spiteful towards everyone, kind to her or not, and was not only derailing the plot, but threatening bodily harm against the other PCs. So, doing the only thing I could think of to calm the situation down (diplomacy had failed badly), I... charmed her. (Something I regret, strongly - at the time, I just saw no other way.)
This sent Serevus into a right tizzy (despite having attempted and failing to charm other players earlier), but I assured, and explained, that my purpose out of character, and in, was to simply cause peace to allow us to play the game. I explained that Serevus' actions (and the way the character felt about us) were making that impossible, but this way she trusted my character, and thus we could get along. Annoyed, but accepting, Serevus immediately had her sorceress declare that, while I was awesome, the other two (especially the bard) were awful people that she hated and did nothing but pick fights with them.
The GM intervened. Dropping a GMPC into the mix (and not as ham-handedly as this sounds - it made sense in-context), he rolled a beautiful diplomacy, offered Serevus' character a teleportation to anywhere in the world she wanted to go, and generally attempted to smooth things over, as it was clear Severus was interested in nothing but conflict. Severus refused, noting she would prefer to stay in this "filthy hovel of a town" (or something similar).
Not surprisingly, that's where the session ended for the night as everyone was tired, angry, and frustrated... except Severus.
A player who showed up late, demanded special treatment, and then derailed the entire game, not with interesting RP, but with nothing but petty, angry, irritating, frustrating RP taking every chance to belittle and undermine the other characters' attempts to do anything, and refusing every opportunity to either play with the group or leave. Added to that was a complete lack of comprehension of social interaction and a very determined to ruin-it-for-all play style.
I don't think we ever successfully got together again, sadly.
** Personally, I thought my plan was brilliant (and wasn't so humble about it, though I never boasted as such to my fellow gamers). Clearly he was seeking attention, and I'd noted that the MacGuffin (that they had to shatter anyway) contained his character, who'd started the whole series of strange events by using his powers in an area of unstable magical influence. It made things all about his character, allowed the rest of the players to continue the story without retconning everything, and generally allowed for smooth play. And, I figured, if he started getting creepy or antisocial (as in having his new character do strange things), the other players wouldn't have to put up with it for long; and if he started attacking their characters or the town they had sworn to protect, they'd stop him through diplomacy, magic, or force.
*** I'd talked to the GM in advance. I didn't know what his plot was, but thought it would be cool to have a character who's over-arching story was to find redemption, reject Bane, and follow Mystra by going from LE to LN (and maybe eventually to LG). He was raised in Calimport, and was an exile from Unther - he was born during the battle between Gilgeam and Tiamat, and, having been washed with divine blood, gained unusual power (access to the beguiler class). He'd been sent to the far North as a form of exile/penance for his "radical" ideas about honor, working together, and friendship (burgeoning sense of non-evil) not fitting in with his local temple/on a mission to find and acquire an artifact of some kind or another for his church to the south. The intent between the GM and myself was that he would never return it. I had also discussed this character OOC with my fellow players, ensuring that they were comfortable with me playing an evil character with the goal of eventually turning him "good". For me, it was the first time in the player seat with an evil character, and I was determined to play them as a real person.
**** He had dared to suggest that if she felt like she was being kidnapped, she should have said so earlier when they all walked in of their own free will - and that she was free to leave at any time. He then encouraged her to do so!
You know you could have just murdered the sorceress out the back of the tavern?