*Rant* New Game - Annoying GM

[Brigidine]

Well my wife and I are looking at joining this new game, and the GM in character creation is being very difficult.

I have a first personality, and a desired class/s. I had two because one would most likely cause problems with the others. The second at first he is okay, then some how he equates having less special powers and the same skills than another class in the game as being, "Same powers but twice the skills".
He has these questions about the character's past.
With this first character he just makes all these awesome assumptions from these limited questions with limited details. He about TANKS the character and says that he would never last because he is crazy, which he was, but then tops it all off with that I am not "ROLEPLAYING" but "ROLLPLAYING" with no explanation. This is after he gives a long winded complaint about the personality of the character more than anything else.

I get it that the character wasn't going to work with the game, that's fine, but to say this wouldn't be roleplaying but "ROLLPLAYING" is insanely infuriating (to say the least). I'll play another personality with a different class.

Since he said they needed a front line fighter and someone that can fly, I decided to play this dragon/demon character (which is supported in the game). I didn't think he would but at first he was okay. The guy is quite a bit more calm and heroic. Things are going alright, then all of a sudden he just randomly starts pulling problems with the character out of thin air. I don't know what this guy is thinking!

Turns out because the classes I am wanting to play isn't a normal human in a world full of supernatural, psychic, and super tech, so he feals that this isn't *roleplaying*.

In the end, the guy is being many very nasty things worthy of censoring.

My wife however seems to be liking things alright, but she is just learning the game.

I will give it a chance, but I am full ready to burn this bridge and let him have it *verbally*.

[Bruunwald]

No offense, but what's offered here is neither detailed enough nor coherent enough to give anybody much to go on in terms of advice.

My first impulse is to say, just see what direction your wife is going in, and do something in the same vein. Sounds to me like this GM has not given clear details on the kind of game he is running, and instead of just telling you, he is letting you run through various iterations and just vetoing them as they come up.

But, since you wife is having fun, and he doesn't seem to be getting irate with her, I would suspect she has either a better idea of what the guy wants, or has hit on it accidentally. So just make your next character harmonious with hers.

[Brigidine]

Okay, the game is Rifts.

I wanted to play this crazy personality for a Psi-Stalker or a Super Spy with Psychic powers, as for those who know the game Psi-Stalkers and magic users don't get along too well, so the other was a substitute class as there were some magic users in the group. I did come up with this great idea on how to get past this problem, but he vetoed it. At first the Super Spy was alright, then he say how much psyhcic abilities they got, and some how equated 10 psychic powers and 21 skills to being twice the skills and the same powers as a Mind Melter which has 16 psychic abilities and 21 skills.

The personality alone was enough to cause problems with the other players and he made a good point of this. However the topped this off with that I wasn't "ROLEPLAYING" but "ROLLPLAYING" after a long winded comment about how the personality wasn't working. SO it made no sense that if his major problem was the personality but then turn around and say I wasn't roleplaying. Hypocrite! I am playing a personality that wasn't me much at all, so it was clearly roleplaying.

He tells me that they need a front line type guy, or a guy that can fly, so I ask, reluctantly, if I can play an Nightbane (as they are powerful). He seemed okay with this at first, but as things go on he starts talking about how the morphus form's aspects don't work together as they contradicting, which I could see a little, but was more of a lacking in his imagination. Then he starts talking about height of the morphus form, and starts saying it should be 15ft tall or something along those lines... Making using my morphus form anywhere but outside ill-advised. He starts talking about how that because I have draconic apsects that no-one trusts dragons. He starts to modify my concept saying that I don't have enough horns on the character's head for the morphus aspects I chose. At this point I am sure when the game came to be that he would about ensure that the character would be about dead meat when the first fight came.

So here is my rant. That is all it is.

[Kip84]

Ah Rifts... The first RPG i ever played. If this GM is whining about class balance I think he needs a new system :)

[UltimaGabe]

It sounds to me like your DM has a character (or type of character) he wants you to play, and so whatever you pick, if it isn't the type of character he had envisioned, he's not going to be happy with your choice. (I know I've done that, on a smaller scale, but I never intentionally try to stop someone from playing what they want.) He may not realize it, but that's why he keeps finding faults, whether they're founded or not, in your character concept.

I guess I'd try sitting down and asking him exactly what he doesn't like about your characters, and maybe try to work something out that both of you like.

[Brigidine]

Kip84 wrote:

Ah Rifts... The first RPG i ever played. If this GM is whining about class balance I think he needs a new system :)

I would be okay with the complaint about class balance, if it were true!

[Sissyl]

RIFTS is a bit like a disaster in slow motion. Parts of it is awesome, other parts horrifying, AND YOU CAN'T LOOK AWAY.

Since he seems to be able to find faults with anything you play, why not let him make your character? I am sure I am stepping on some toes here, but I wouldn't really see a problem with that.

Still, it could be that it's a case of personality conflict and immaturity on his part (or yours, or both), and then my advice would be to find some other game to play.

[Evil Lincoln]

Kip84 wrote:

Ah Rifts... The first RPG i ever played. If this GM is whining about class balance I think he needs a new system :)

This is the truth.

I'll add that GMs griping about game balance in any system is an amateur move. A great GM can usually find a compromise on any character concept, even far-fetched ones, or at the very least provide cogent reasons why not*.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a great GM to start with, but with a little patience and a constructive attitude, a player can help a GM become great.

What's important here is communication. You need to have a conversation with the GM that relates almost exactly every point you made in the original post of this thread. If he's GMing, then he wants to know what his players think. You need to tell him, but not in an adversarial manner.

If he's not receptive to your ideas, first try compromise. If he's unwelcoming to compromise, and there's an environment of hostility, then you ought to consider finding another group. If after three sessions you feel the game has created more stress through conflict than relief through fun, scrap it.

If you ever have to leave a campaign, and you can't find another GM, remember that GMing is fun and people pick it up from a position of zero experience all that time. Pick out a few of your closest friends, discuss it with them to create an interest, and make the gaming group you want.

The key to a great gaming group is 3-6 people who would be hanging around having a good time together anyway. Adding the game just makes it a great time.

* EDIT: That this guy is talking about game balance and using the terms roll/role-playing leads me to think he is a narcissist GM of the internet-type. He probably has little actual GM experience and is compensating by believing what he read on the internet. Proceed with caution, in case of emergency break glass and follow the instructions from the previous four paragraphs.

[DeathQuaker]

Oh, good freaking lord, don't play RIFTS with a GM like this. Every session will explode into, "Well, you can't do that because it's broken." Players can exploit RIFTS horribly, I've seen it happen and seen GMs get really frustrated as a result, but you need to be flexible and creative with a system like that and it sounds like he doesn't have what it takes.

If your wife likes the game, then by all means, leave her to play it and find another game instead. Me, I'd get the heck out of dodge no matter what game my partner wanted to play (but then I can bravely say that because I don't actually have an SO). But maybe your wife has a playstyle that can adapt to the GM's style more than you can with yours.

I dunno... otherwise, good luck. If you know the GM at all and feel you can trust him, yeah--hand your character concept over to the GM and have them build a character for you, like Sissyl suggests. If he makes you a lousy character, then get the heck out.

[Brigidine]

Evil Lincoln wrote:

* EDIT: That this guy is talking about game balance and using the terms roll/role-playing leads me to think he is a narcissist GM of the internet-type. He probably has little actual GM experience and is compensating by believing what he read on the internet. Proceed with caution, in case of emergency break glass and follow the instructions from the previous four paragraphs.

Actually he has been GMing for almost, if not, 2 decades. It is just that if you play anything that isn't a normal human.. your not really roleplaying anymore, or at least it seems.

[John Kretzer]

Make a human. If he is haveing problem with non-humans PCs(which he should just say plainly) than creat a human.

[snobi]

Brigidine wrote:

I will give it a chance, but I am full ready to burn this bridge and let him have it *verbally*.

What if he retorts "Well, your wife is a skank."?

[Mr.Fishy]

Does he have a crush on you?

[Brigidine]

Mr.Fishy wrote:

Does he have a crush on you?

Definitely not.

Well here is an update.

After a lot of thought I was able to think of a new concept of character that we would both be happy with. He was quite perturbed that I was changing what we had come up with.

After some mitigating we came to an understanding. Things were going great through character creation. Then I asked about a NE-C20 Camouflage Variable Armor. I said it was okay, then in the same paragraph told me why I wouldn't want it, as apparently it runs on batteries and that if I use any electronics with it it would lose its thermal stealth abilities.... None of this is listed under the armor's description; so I sent him an E-mail with a full copy of the armor's description and asked him if these were house rules. He didn't E-mail back fast like he did before, so I am a little concerned that he has gotten P.O.ed again.

Sigh. I really an trying to accommodate him, but if he can't stand people asking about house rules, then obviously I won't be playing his game long.

[Brigidine]

snobi wrote:

Brigidine wrote:

I will give it a chance, but I am full ready to burn this bridge and let him have it *verbally*.

What if he retorts "Well, your wife is a skank."?

I probably would not really say that. Put it up here as a point of anger as this is my rant thread, but you bring up a good point of warning.

[Ion Raven]

Meh, your GM seems like a control freak. Your wife is probably fine with it because she's new to the game, and it's easier to take in a few rules at a time with someone else holding the reigns of the things you don't quite understand. However, I can see this going sour later on with her trying to do something in game and the GM deciding that she can't (for "reasons"). My advice, warn your wife and maybe explain to her your reasons for feeling so uncomfortable with your GM (won't discuss house rules, being nit-picky but not setting out expectations, wants to dictate how others roleplay). If your wife is really new to the game, this will likely just ruin it for her.

[Brigidine]

Thought I would come back and tell you guys how it ended. I played with him for about 2 months before we came to a head with one too many issues. It got to where my wife was starting to learn magic abilities with no change to her class or her EXP chart progression. I wanted to learn some mundane abilities like bonuses to specific saving throws, from some other very similar classes, and was faced with the comment "I don't see how you could learn that." I also wanted to modify a pair of rocket boots from the Juicer Uprising book to go off in a short silenced burst so that my 250 lbs body falling 1000ft didn't break through a roof as I landed on it, or something of that sort and had it be like pulling teeth. I just gave up and left the game. This was insanely restrictive seemingly on my alone.

So sorry for the necro-thread. I just thought I would let everyone who helped know.

Thank you!

[Aranna]

Ahhh Rifts the most unbalanced system ever built.
Well good for you on getting out. Once someone has it in for you that is really the only real option left.

[Muad'Dib]

Rifts is the Long Island Ice Tea of gaming.

[Hama]

I thought that was tasty

[Muad'Dib]

A long island ice tea has everything but the kitchen sink in it and it will mess you up.

Rifts has everything but the kitchen sink in it and if you play the game it will mess you up.

Now I want to drink a Long Island Ice tea while playing Rifts! Perhaps that is the missing ingredient for making that game work?

[Hama]

I know. I have the rulebook. Nothing in it makes any kind of sense. Except artwork and mega damage. I like mega damage.

[Krensky]

Mega damage is messed up too.