Ever had the NPCs always roll their 50% miss chance and declare if it was 1-50% or 51-100% that meant a miss after the dice were rolled?
Yes, yes I have. I've also had a GM spring concealment on me after I rolled a crit, which he stated he would roll for me, behind the screen, after I dealt maximum damage and blew several abilities I couldn't use again. A one round fight with an allip suddenly turned into one that took 5(2 shadows showed up too), and I was finally saved by a DMPC after being drained repeatedly. Thankfully he dropped a magic item on me earlier, a keen/frost greatsword! Which was fantastic, except it was an undead focused campaign in 3.5.
Another story, The first time I played a warblade in 3.5, the GM decided to drop a cursed item on me when I was separated from the group. This cursed item reduced my damage by half apparently, and we had no way to know how or why or what it was. Oh! And it was stuck to my flesh, melded into my skin, and no npcs in the nearby village could remove it, and it was the only town nearby. He told me I could remove it, by ripping my own flesh off and being healed repeatedly as I do it. From top to bottom. This was a cloak and had melded from head to toe! Apparently, even though he let me play a warblade, he didn't want me to be too powerful so he reduced my damage by half even though I couldn't do more damage the barbarian. Thankfully I just leveled up and used Iron Heart Surge to remove the cloak.
This same GM let a 13 year old drow loving necromancer play with the group. He was young and immature, and he actively tried to kill his teammates. He killed 1 of our PCs, and an animal companion over the course of playing with him and his characters were killed or chased off from the party. I quit when the GM let him create a character to steal my role and made specifically to kill me. I didn't care if he was successful or not, that was just bleh.
I also had a GM who wouldn't let me reroll. I was delegated to healbot duty by the party. I thought I could tough it out and get to higher levels where I'd get some more hurtful spells and find magic items to help. Nope! No magic items and we'd be level 3 forever, or at least for a few months. When I wanted to reroll he said I'd have to wait until a good time, so when we finally ended a story arc I asked and he said no again and that it just wasn't the right time(in a populated area full of allies when my character had no reason to stay, it wasn't the right time). Finally I said I just wasn't having fun. He decided we couldn't be friends anymore over it.
Hmm as far as actual worst things, it's hard to narrow it down. Had some bad things, but as for worst, this comes to mind; starts off pretty awesome, but just stick with me:
We were playing in an epic-level 3.5e Eberron campaign. We had all hit level 21, and the DM informed us of an idea he had to take this all the way to 30 or so. 4the Edition was coming out soon, and he had planned on switching over to that, so this was to be our last hurrah in Eberron for 3.5e.
Right around the same time, WotC had put out these epic-level destiny paths on their website, to encourage groups to try epic level play before ending 3.5e. It was also a test-run for advancement paths from 4e, so my DM was all bout us trying it. The paths were pretty awesome, I have to say. So, each of us chooses an epic destiny for our character.
Everyone in the group chose something different, except for one other player and I; we chose the Demigod path. Pretty self explanatory, at the end of the path you become a demigod. Our alignments didn't necessarily conflict, so we didn't think it'd be much of an issue; I was playing a True Neutral, Demon-hunting Teifling Ranger, and he was some kind of Evil Psychic Warrior or some such. My character had no qualms about good or evil, so I figured we could coexist, especially being epic teammates.
Nope.
Between game sessions, he had told the other demigod path player that in order to achieve his godhood, he'd have to eliminate my character. No other reason why or anything, just sort of a Highlander-ish "there can be only one" type nonsense. He just wanted to see two epic demigod level 30 PC's fight each other.
So, here we are, I think it was around level 24 and we had just taken down a huge army of demons. My character was riding high, having just tore apart a small legion of her Favored Enemy. The battle was over, but the Psychic Warrior kept buffing himself up, spending Power Points all over the place. The rest of us were counting loot, and all of a sudden he takes flight and attacks me! I was too weak from the encounter with the demon army, and he just pulverizes me. Rips my character to pieces. What gives!?!
The DM had told him between sessions about having to face my character, but left out the part about needing to wait til we were level 30 to do it. Also, he forgot to tell me about the coming encounter(I didn't get the premonition/warning like the other player did). So, yeah. DM basically instigated an epic level PVP fight. My character I had played from level 12-ish to level 24 got ambushed by another player and obliterated. Oops.
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Worst thing a GM has done to me?
Said the words "You're a girl, so a druid is too complicated for you, you're going to play a barbarian instead."
This didn't happen to me, but it did happen to my wife ...
The GM apparently saw himself as 'chivalrous', but the rest of us saw him as 'chauvinist'. No matter how capable or badass my wife's characters were, they were continually relegated to one of two roles - Damsel in Distress or Babysitter. She'd constantly be "rescued" by NPCs even if she were fully in control of the situation, or be given some child or child-like character to tend to.
We determined that this was because of female player rather than female character, as one game I played a female character who would have been a MUCH better choice for a babysitter (cleric of a family/hearth/home goddess vs barbarian) and she *still* got stuck with the kid.
I have had this sort of GM before. His holding doors for me was cute but always having to set me up as a damsel in distress got old fast. You know just once let me rescue myself... or better yet give me a situation I don't need to be rescued from. Since the GM let me play ANY character regardless of game restrictions I had my power gamer friends make me a "broken" character. And even THAT character still needed to be rescued all the time. ~sigh~
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I think it was called 'Nightmare Keep', or something like that. A 2nd ed adventure for six 17th level PCs.
The adventure itself was meant to be scary. It was written to be especially frustrating, but the DM took that idea and ran with it...to the Moon!
I had always wanted to subvert the trope of a warrior with an intelligent weapon, so I made (with full permission and input from the DM mind you!) an intelligent weapon that had a warrior!
The sword was called Havoc, massively powerful intelligent greatsword. It needed to be wielded though, so when its current wielder wanted to retire it interviewed prospective wielders and when it found the right one they both voluntarily entered into an agreement; the sword would take control of the warrior (because of its massive Ego score), and use its telepathy to tell the warrior what to say. Since the sword was in control then the warrior would say it. This soon became very efficient.
Anyway, during the adventure the DM got worse and worse. His drinking alcohol during the game (he was the only one who did) didn't help, and his determination to 'win' made him beef up any bad guys, then be forced to deus ex machina a way out, telling us how useless we were.
His rulings were perverse and one-sided. Once, we wanted to know what was on the other side of a wall; we knew he had something nasty in store! So we made the wall invisible! Yay, us! Oh no. Just because the wall is now invisible that doesn't mean that we can see through it.
WTF!!!
No, see, because invisibility is from the illusion school, you only think that it's invisible. So you don't really know what's on the other side!
And yet, when we are all invisible and sneak into a hobgoblin camp, the hobbos can see us all perfectly! Why? Do the entire regiment just happen to have see invisibility cast on them at this very moment? (I wouldn't put it past him. He once said that every square inch of rock on an entire peninsular had been previously the subject of some magic, just so that we couldn't use some stone-shaping spell that we had used successfully before but which didn't affect stone that had previously been worked by magic!) No, it was because invisibility is an illusion spell, and since the hobbos knew that there must have been some people there, and since they couldn't see them, they deduced that these people must therefore be invisible. And because they knew that there were invisible people about, they were no longer 'fooled' by the illusion of invisibility!
From that point on, all of our foes were not fooled by our invisibility, but we couldn't see through their invisibility, ever!
We went into a room, using the key we had won earlier. After the adventure was over I looked at various encounters to see if he had altered them, because every time he screwed us over he claimed it was the book's fault. It turns out that if you used the key which we had won (the winning of which was the entire first half of the adventure!) then you didn't trigger the trap. He triggered it anyway. We could have skipped the first half of the adventure and opened the door without the key!
So this trap, according to the book, was a knockout gas; if you failed your poison save, you were knocked unconscious. Fair enough. He made us roll with a -8 penalty (for no reason), then made those that made the save roll again, and those that made that roll again, until we eventually, inevitably all failed. What was the point of that! He said because the gas was still there that we had to keep saving. When I read the adventure later it said no such thing: one save, no penalty!
When we awoke we were naked, in a pit, surrounded by large humanoids of some type. We tried to get out. We got pushed back in. We tumbled out. We couldn't get past them. We tried, there was no roll, he just said no. When I said that, using these rules he just made up, every single rush attempt in American football would be for zero yards. Yes, he said. But that just showed that his made-up rush rules were rubbish. Don't care, he said.
Later, we had fought back and were trying to recover our gear. There were only a couple of baddies left and they would die in short order. One of the baddies deliberately snapped a wand. Why? The DM ruled, off the cuff, that it released all of its unused magic explosively doing 1d6 damage per remaining charge: 40d6, save for half.
Brilliant, said I! We now have a new source of explosives! Oh, no, it wouldn't work for us, we'd just waste a wand.
For me, the worst part was when we had to break down a barrier. Any weapon hitting this barrier would mysteriously disappear after doing its damage. So I borrowed a crossbow, and my wielder used me (the greatsword) as a rest while still keeping hold of me. I squeezed the trigger, the bolt hit the barrier...and then he said 'You're sword disappears.'
WTF!!!! I am the sword! How can I disappear when I went nowhere near the barrier?
It's a mysterious place.
All right, where do I find myself?
You're still in the corridor.
I thought you said I disappeared!
Your sword disappeared. You are still in the corridor.
I AM THE SWORD!!!
Not now, you're not.
I eventually regained myself. : (
Later, we were trying to go through some flooded corridors. We could breathe in it, but not talk. No problem, says I, I'll communicate telepathically.
You can't.
Why not. It says I can on my sheet, I was created as a telepathic sword, and I've been using my telepathy throughout the adventure! Do you remember that time when we navigated through the undispellable darkness by the druid becoming a bat and me acting as interpreter using my telepathy?
Nope, won't work.
Oh, how about this one: we had to enter a library, walk through it a few feet, then leave by another door. Simple, right?
Not so much. There was an undetectable(!) trap, which meant we got hit by a dispel magic.
Never mind. Wait, what? It's not an area dispel, but a targeted dispel? What does it target? Everything?
Yes. Every single round, every single creature and every single magic item was hit by a (20th level, of course!) targeted dispel magic (there must have been more than 50 targets each round) and in the unlikely event that an item resisted, it would be hit again next round. And every round.
Then the enemy Galeb Dhurs came through the stone. That's right, they couldn't be hurt by non-magical weapons.
And yet, when we are all invisible and sneak into a hobgoblin camp, the hobbos can see us all perfectly! Why? Do the entire regiment just happen to have see invisibility cast on them at this very moment? (I wouldn't put it past him. He once said that every square inch of rock on an entire peninsular had been previously the subject of some magic, just so that we couldn't use some stone-shaping spell that we had used successfully before but which didn't affect stone that had previously been worked by magic!) No, it was because invisibility is an illusion spell, and since the hobbos knew that there must have been some people there, and since they couldn't see them, they deduced that these people must therefore be invisible. And because they knew that there were invisible people about, they were no longer 'fooled' by the illusion of invisibility!
Ow my brain! What just happened? That's just... what?
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I had always wanted to subvert the trope of a warrior with an intelligent weapon, so I made (with full permission and input from the DM mind you!) an intelligent weapon that had a warrior!
That's actually a really good idea! I might have to steal that and make something similar.
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And yet, when we are all invisible and sneak into a hobgoblin camp, the hobbos can see us all perfectly! Why? Do the entire regiment just happen to have see invisibility cast on them at this very moment? (I wouldn't put it past him. He once said that every square inch of rock on an entire peninsular had been previously the subject of some magic, just so that we couldn't use some stone-shaping spell that we had used successfully before but which didn't affect stone that had previously been worked by magic!) No, it was because invisibility is an illusion spell, and since the hobbos knew that there must have been some people there, and since they couldn't see them, they deduced that these people must therefore be invisible. And because they knew that there were invisible people about, they were no longer 'fooled' by the illusion of invisibility!Ow my brain! What just happened? That's just... what?
I know, right!
I had a GM assign a point of permanent ability damage to my intelligence score based on something that happened out of game with no in game justification. I chose to ignore said penalty.
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The moron sorcerer with a smarter familiar isn't a bad idea. =)
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The short version:
"Your wizard gains access to his master's library, which contains spell books of every spell from 2nd to 7th level!"
Unfortunately, we all had to leave, and I couldn't take any with me.
The next time I see the library, all the books have been burnt an torn to shreds, save for a few 5th-level ones. Though I expect, whether or not it was written into the adventure, the GM wanted everyone (save two) to feel some tragic, personal loss.
If he had known my CG abjurer's characterization, he would've known long before that the destruction of the town where he grew up and the many deaths involved (and the circumstances involved, which he had been fearing) was much more tragic than the dangling of lots of spells in front of him.
The long version:
The GM, however, ruled that the archer had to spend a round to string his bow, so that it wouldn't warp. My attempts to justify a hand-wave viaMending or alchemy were disallowed. After leaving in disgust, the paladin's girlfriend who came in to replace him (a foul-mouthed eleven ranger) didn't have to worry about the bowstring problem.
The paladin, who kept demanding that everyone convert back to Arodenism or die, refused to let anyone get moments of their own characterization or words in edgewise, and never learned anyone else's names. Since he kept charging into close combat before I could buff him properly, all I was able to do was to passive-aggressively poke him with an Enlarge Person wand, so as to make him a bigger target. When he died (by diving into an underwater passage all by himself and getting summarily devoured by the giant octopus within), he demanded that I sell things to raise him. He got even more brash after that.
The GM almost never included my requests to add to my guy's characterization, and when it was my time to figure things out, the paladin grew sulky. When I decided to jump ship, the GM asked if someone else could play as my wizard, because I was apparently the GM's pet instead of the Paladin.
I managed to carry him over into another adventure, wherein he has just recently gotten over his deep-seated distrust of violent holy men. He even got to include bits of his (now expanded) back story.
The worst thing my GM ever did to me was a combat. Against a single creature. Not even a particularly tough one.
The problem was that that single combat against a single creature went on for twelve. Full. HOURS. I'll spare you the gory details.
We finally finished him off in something like round 46. But really, after the first couple of hours it stopped being fun. AT ALL.
I would have quit after 30 minutes. Even 15 would've been a stretch.
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The worst thing my GM ever did to me was a combat. Against a single creature. Not even a particularly tough one.
The problem was that that single combat against a single creature went on for twelve. Full. HOURS. I'll spare you the gory details.
We finally finished him off in something like round 46. But really, after the first couple of hours it stopped being fun. AT ALL.
During a 3.5 Eberron campaign, I once ran an 8 hour session where we basically did one single combat. But it was a massive combat, with over 200 enemies who attacked in waves. There were lots of weak enemies (1 hit and they die types), with several more modest encounters and a couple tough ones all in one battle expanding most of a mondo mat. It was the wrap-up to a story arc and I wanted an epic combat out of it, something they would remember. I was having a blast running it the entire time. I have no idea how many rounds it lasted, but it was quite a few.
Turns out afterwards I was the only one who enjoyed it. I was so wrapped up in my own fun I wasn't aware the others were truding along by the end of it. I was actually kind of sad at that point and have never done anything quite like it again.
I had a DM who ruled that if a monster critted, something horrible would happen. If we critted, it was 2xdamage. A cleric I was playing got shot by an arrow. Natural 20. He got hit in the head, for 16 points of damage (5th level, so nowhere near killing him), however the arrow caused a traumatic brain injury, dropping his intelligence to 5 (from 14). No save, no cure as it was 2nd edition and restoration was way out of our league. Spent 6 months real game time before we got to a city big enough to find someone to cure me. Admittedly, after I got over being ticked, I had fun roleplaying the character.
I once had a GM who said he'd let me talk myself out of something. Rolled above 40 on the skill check. Nope! He lied. Still wasn't enough to avoid the encounter and he never intended to let me, he just didn't expect me to roll well.
Well, finally I've come to this thread.
As someone pointed out, this is the thread indeed.
So, let me start with something in my game group we like to call:
Anyway, we were in Book One, trying to rescue Arael and we successfully kept the Hellknights at distance (with clever use of Hydraulic Push, Stumble Gap and some Druid spells), so we only have to deal with the prison carriage and the crossbow. Our elven monk and halfling rogue tried to climb the carriage (once it has been stopped), the paladin and summoner keep the other Hellknights at bay and I kept looking for anyone who would appear atop the carriage.
Then someone appeared: for the emblems and outfit he carry, we deduced it was a cleric of Asmodeus. While the climbers approach him, I have prepared Burning Disarm and ask the GM if the "cleric" (later revealed to be an Inquisitor) held any weapon or if I need to make a Perception check to notice it.
He says: "You don't have to make any Perception check. He haven't drawn any weapon."
Then, I just withheld my action.
When the halfling rogue just came to the enemy's reach, the GM declared he has triggered an AoO. I said "Wow, the cleric went all the way to grab the Improved Unarmed Strike feat!?" but the GM corrected me:
GM:"No. He strikes with his morningstar."
Me:"But you just said to me that he wasn't holding any weapon!"
GM:"I always said that he have drawn a morningstar from the start of the battle."
Needless to say, the Inquisitor score a critical hit on the halfling and one-shot'd him to negatives. The narrative and numbers were so gruesome that we said the halfling was hitted so hard that became a goblin... a running gag that lasted the entire campaign.
Then, argument ensues. The conclusion was (coined by me) that we couldn't see the weapon because was made of a special metal that "if you aren't evil, you cannot see it", thus was named Hellsteel.
And that was not the only time we have to deal with it!
And that is just the point of the iceberg. More is coming soon!
I once had a GM who said he'd let me talk myself out of something. Rolled above 40 on the skill check. Nope! He lied. Still wasn't enough to avoid the encounter and he never intended to let me, he just didn't expect me to roll well.
What kind of skill check would be necessary for that? Autohypnosis?
I once had a GM who said he'd let me talk myself out of something. Rolled above 40 on the skill check. Nope! He lied. Still wasn't enough to avoid the encounter and he never intended to let me, he just didn't expect me to roll well.What kind of skill check would be necessary for that? Autohypnosis?
Diplomacy/Bluff. Said we could talk ourselves out of it, turns out he lied. Bothered me that he gave us false hope based on an assumption that I wouldn't roll well.
Autohypnosis can do a lot of things, but won't stop an encounter I don't think.
Left a message friday at 10pm telling us the game was cancelled.
Not the worst thing that's happened, but I used to have a GM who would call games on the day off, and sometimes would not tell us when or where, then quit suddenly because no one was showing up but everyone was asking him when and where he wanted to play. He once sent a message saying that it starts... an hour ago because he didn't know the time.
Another one told me games would last 4-5 hours. So I planned on that. Turns out they went 12, with a single break for food/drink. I left because I couldn't commit to that, and... he was a little shocked.
Let me move away. I still miss going to the games at least twice a week
Less than a year after the release of 3.0, a nearby college started a gaming society, and decided as an inaugural event to have an Orcs vs. Humans brawl. To keep things simple, it was main book only, lv 3 characters. I was a heavy armored two weapon human fighter. I took out a couple of the orc players, while most of the humans were overwhelmed. None of the orcs had ranged, so instead, they had bought up a tonne of alchemist fire (during the pregame equipping), and had it all loaded onto a horse, which they pushed (yes, the whole horse) off of a hill at me. The DM decided that the damage from each flask was cumulative, so basically the horse became a 30d6 fireball. Since they were already making up stuff, I asked for a reflex to get out of the way. I passed, but they decided to apply half damage, which still killed me.
As to worst things I've done as a DM, giving a player what they want. :P
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I'll be running Age of Worms soon. I expect I'll be making at least one post on here per module run. ;D
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p1: Running The Whispering Cairn as written."
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p2: Running The Three Faces of Evil as written."
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The worst (or at least the thing dumb enough that I still remember it) thing a GM has done to me:
Level 4 party is walking through the woods. Asked to roll Perception, but everyone fails (despite some really high rolls). Get ambushed by four skeleton mages. Surprise round: each skeleton mage casts Cloudkill.
...game over.
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I'll be running Age of Worms soon. I expect I'll be making at least one post on here per module run. ;D
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p1: Running The Whispering Cairn as written."
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p2: Running The Three Faces of Evil as written."
Whenever we run into something overly difficult or questionable in game, someone shouts "Age of Worms!" as our running gag.
What's funny, is that players who weren't even in the AoW campaign use the joke; that's how tough that AP is!
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The worst (or at least the thing dumb enough that I still remember it) thing a GM has done to me:
Level 4 party is walking through the woods. Asked to roll Perception, but everyone fails (despite some really high rolls). Get ambushed by four skeleton mages. Surprise round: each skeleton mage casts Cloudkill.
...game over.
What was the DM's reaction to the TPK? Surprise? Glee? Horror? What?
What was the DM's reaction to the TPK? Surprise? Glee? Horror? What?
Glee, I assume. The guy had a reputation for liking to "keep the PCs on their toes". It was the only completely unwinnable situation I can think of, though.
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I'll be running Age of Worms soon. I expect I'll be making at least one post on here per module run. ;D
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p1: Running The Whispering Cairn as written."
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p2: Running The Three Faces of Evil as written."
AoW was pretty easy when played on Pathfinder. Rogues can sneak undead and if you have a paladin and a cleric in the party its pretty much easy peasy.
Except for the wyrm knights
Give my brother's wizard humongous amounts of power (the wizard ended with 30 Con and 42 Str, to say the least), only for every monster we encounter afterwards was completely inmune to HIM. Heck, even physical damage was soaked by a hand-waiving "he transfer the damage to a demon" by the GM.
Supposedly, it was a D&D 3.5 Legacy of Fire campaign.
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My crimes remain unreported... excellent.
Mah DM kilt mah Paw!
In all seriousness, stories like Ashiel's and Justin's are infuriating as hell. Condolences. And here's hoping the people involved are either pariahs in their gaming communities or have done a remarkable amount of growing the hell up.
Left a message friday at 10pm telling us the game was cancelled.Not the worst thing that's happened, but I used to have a GM who would call games on the day off, and sometimes would not tell us when or where, then quit suddenly because no one was showing up but everyone was asking him when and where he wanted to play. He once sent a message saying that it starts... an hour ago because he didn't know the time.
Another one told me games would last 4-5 hours. So I planned on that. Turns out they went 12, with a single break for food/drink. I left because I couldn't commit to that, and... he was a little shocked.
Well, I guess if you were thirsty, should you have gone to a juice-bar instead of a play session!
Never mind what my GM has done to me, let me list what I have done as a Gm:
...Told everyone we're going to play a "political intrigue type campaign" and proceeded to make every single NPC's Sense Motive bonus so high that combat was the only reasonable choice in any PC vs NPC encounter? Check.
...Decided that my level 1 players, having been arrested for pick-pocketing, should have face a Displacer Beast in the trial by combat arena, "just for for fun?" Check.
I could go on, but it just gets more embarrassing, the more I search my memory.
Had a DM suspend class abilities because it suited his story,at that point in time.
"Just go with it, it'll work out."
Sure enough my character spotted some of the servers throwing things at people, that turned out to be poisoned darts. I'm a monk. I can deflect it. He had obviously forgotten this. When they went after me (one guy) i said "I'll attempt to deflect..." and rolled a reflex dc 20, and made it by alot. He did not like this.
"Dude, if you don't go along with this it will ruin my story. Just take the hit and trust me. Just go with it, it'll work out."
I was a bit miffed. There was no allowing for me to have feigned being hit, no allowing me to pretend to side with the rouges...no RP at all, just nope, you don't get deflect arrows for now.
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Oh, that reminds me.
In an introductory campaign, I was playing a 3.5 elven Scout that multiclassed Paladin of Freedom after traveling with the party Paladin for a good number of sessions.
Then came the horrid tale I've told on the forums before about a guest DM running a session in which said paladin was tempted into turning on the party right before they were ambushed in the night. The party is TPKed with my character the last to fall after seeing the new Blackguard slay other party members.
After a reset in the next session, in which the blackguard is killed by a summoned roc and the entire party is reincarnated by a druid, my character questions the other paladin about his actions.
After a few moments of awkward answering, the DM steps in and says the party is moving on.
What could have been a great roleplaying opportunity, cut off.
Had a DM suspend class abilities because it suited his story,at that point in time.
"Just go with it, it'll work out."
** spoiler omitted **
Taking into account the thread's title, you got it easy.
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I've had a DM who was constantly harping on the players about how we didn't plan well enough and strategize for combat - but almost every combat he initiated was an ambush.
The same DM also killed off a player's new character, which he had agreed to allow, after the player started using some class abilities that the DM suddenly decided he disliked.
Had another DM who kept messing with one PC's backstory, so the PC's abilities never matched what the player had stated he wanted the character to be capable of doing. The player would spend points and the DM would either ignore the abilities he'd bought, or rule that they worked differently than the player intended them to work. The player always discussed everything with the DM before spending the points, but the DM either forgot what he agreed to or changed his mind.
But the worst thing any DM has ever done to me is cancel a campaign I was really enjoying.
Had another DM who kept messing with one PC's backstory, so the PC's abilities never matched what the player had stated he wanted the character to be capable of doing.
I once had a GM who rewrote a PC's backstory. All that time he spent writing it up didn't matter. The worst part was that he had another character show up with that PC's backstory to make things 'interesting'.
I'll be running Age of Worms soon. I expect I'll be making at least one post on here per module run. ;D
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p1: Running The Whispering Cairn as written."
"Worst thing my GM has ever done to me, p2: Running The Three Faces of Evil as written."AoW was pretty easy when played on Pathfinder. Rogues can sneak undead and if you have a paladin and a cleric in the party its pretty much easy peasy.
Except for the wyrm knights
Hm. Maybe I shouldn't give them Action Points, then...
And then the leech swarm fell on your head. Or acid beetles, if we're talking 3.5.
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...After a few moments of awkward answering, the DM steps in and says the party is moving on.What could have been a great roleplaying opportunity, cut off.
I hate that. There's a DM, whom I won't play under anymore, who was notorious for this sort of thing. All that mattered was his story; anything else that detracted from it was swiftly dealt with. Countless RP opportunities shot completely down in a fiery blaze of "Come on guys, shut up already and get back to the game..."
...Yes, while were discussing, in-character, plot points, strategies, just character interactions in general, we were told to shut up. Sometimes, we'd even be arguing, in character, and about to break out into PvP, over things the DM instigated(he liked to start in-fighting btw), and he'd tell us to "shut up and pay attention" if it took too long.
Yeah, no. Write your novel on your own time, pal.
I played in a PF game with him as a player earlier this year, and it was like the above, in reverse. He'd constantly argue with the DM, and if he didn't get his way, he'd be in a big huff and shut the game down.
I consider the guy a good friend, but when it comes to gaming, there are some people you just can't game with.
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Okay, here's another one I did, but I really don't think this was a 'worst thing ever', but I do hear about it with a great deal of frequency so someone didn't like it.
I DM'd a 3.5 campaign we called the 'Epic Run'. Mostly because it took us into epic levels, but also because I took it to video game epic scale (world threatening danger). Now the big thing was the BBEG had several lieutenants who served him, all with some form of arcane casting. Plus many of the other baddies I used had arcane ability. In fact, at one point, it was a running joke that anyone they fought was going to be a wizard or sorcerer of some sort.
Fast forward to my next campaign. Eberron (shortly after it was released). So I was trying to learn from my mistake in the Epic Run and avoid using so many arcane casters. Like, seriously trying to avoid it. Now, I kind of knew what my player's were mechanically, but I was focusing more on the fluff part and tailoring the adventure to them that way. Well, one particular PC had made his character as sort of a Mage Slayer type. Lots of abilities that work quite well against Arcane Casters. Abilities which he hardly ever used. He also had joined the group towards the end of the Epic Run and was mostly going about based on rumors of my love of the arcane. So yea, slightly irritating situation that he still complains about.
Moral of the story? Learning from previous play experience can have it's consequences!
The worst thing I did to my players was arresting the PCs, by making extensive use of net-wielding mounted police force. At some point, they were complaining about how OP those nets were and then simply hand-waived the rest of the encounter.
Yeah, 2nd level warriors capturing 10th level PCs with normal, mundane nets...
And then the leech swarm fell on your head. Or acid beetles, if we're talking 3.5.
The leech swarm is one of the worst encounters I can remember from D&D 3.5 alongside half of Krynn's Bestiary.
It can kill you without you even notice it.
Nasty.