This is obviously inspired by the similar thread (Things Players do that drive you insane). But it's easy enough to complain about players- what are some things that DMs have done that drive you insane? Heck, is there anything you've done that's driven a player insane?
I'll start off with a couple staples. First, DMPCs. I know that it's possible to do a DMPC right, but I haven't seen it. I've hated DMPCs ever since the first day I tried to make one (I was a terrible DM when I started, I'm aware of that). If you play the DMPC perfectly straight, by-the-book, that's one thing. But you know what I'm talking about. The DMPC where you never find out exactly how many HP he has, because no matter what he's always standing (even if he's the only one left standing). The DMPC that always seems to have spells left. The DMPC who just happens to be a race unavailable to players, and/or has stats way higher than anyone should be allowed. Extra points if this exact same character (name, race, & all) shows up in multiple campaigns.
(The last campaign I played in, the DM had one of these. He was a half-minotaur named Moo- a race of course banned from players and never quite defined in rules terms- and no matter what, he never went down. We'd face incredibly powerful enemies, that deal 50-60 damage per hit to a party of 4th-level characters, and even when Moo took two or three hits a round, he never went down. And to top it all off, Moo was dealing almost that same damage back. One savvy player devoted his entire build to buffing Moo, because he knew nothing the players could do would ever come close to making an impact compared to Moo.)
Second, DMs that cheat. I know that there's an amount of "fudging" that should be allowed by the DM, but sometimes, the DM just flat-out cheats. Whether this is for or against the party, I hate it- I don't think players should be privvy to enemy HP and stats and whatnot, and there ARE times when the DM should adjust enemies on the fly because of the situation, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about CHEATING. Example- I played with one DM where is BBEGs would NEVER fail a save. I don't care how many times you subjected them to one, or how high your save DCs are, they'd NEVER fail a save. Ever. (This DM was a player, too, and you can bet his character would never fail a save either, but that's another story.) On the opposite end of the spectrum, I played with someone who would make things too easy for the players. He put us up against a Balor once (at 10th level), and halfway through the battle he killed one of the PCs without a save, only to have that PC be reborn the next round, and let that PC kill the balor instantly in one hit. (And, of course, somehow the resurrected PC stopped the Balor's death throes from harming us.) This would be fine if it were simply part of the story, except the DM gave us full XP for killing the Balor, and brought that up any time later when we complained about anything ("What do you mean you don't like your character? You guys killed a Balor!"). I began to know for a fact that we were never in any threat with this DM, and it really made the game less fun.
Well I'll add my vote to cheating Dungeon Masters as well. Always makes me a little wary if I'm playing under a Dungeon Master that uses a screen. More so if he insists that every one else roll out in the open and becomes extremely agitated if he cannot get verification of your roll. It's been my experience that the cheaters are the one's most worried about other people cheating.
The Vengeful Dungeon Master. The one that takes the fights and events too personal. If the players get lucky and roll some nice attacks/saves/skill checks and make short work of the encounter then he brings out the beat stick. Expect to run into a much tougher but very similar encounter shortly. Tends to go hand and hand with the cheater. Experience for these encounter tends to slip through the cracks of the Dungeon Master's math.
Similar but not quite the same is when the Dungeon Master thinks that you should pull through every single combat by the skin of your teeth. Often ends up with insane encounter that have to readjusted on the fly, leading to things like floating AC when it becomes clear that the well-built fighter can only hit on a natural twenty.
When the Dungeon Master approves a character concept/build and then later decides that he doesn't like it and rather than talk to the player about it, chooses to secretly punish the player. Tends to include things such as hidden penalties, always being the target of the worse effects, talk about the player behind their back, and other passive-aggressive acts.
Dungeon Masters that neglect to inform the players of house rules until the middle of an encounter, often when the players are trying to do something that requires the rules to function as written. Worse if it comes into play as part of a long plan that the Dungeon Master listened to the players come up with and said nothing about.
And perhaps my favorite, the Dungeon Master that can't be bothered to learn the rules of the game and gets angry if you disagree with him. As a self-admitted rules lawyer this is a big one for me. I understand and agree that the rules should take backseat to good game play, but I also think that the rules should be followed whenever possible and in a constant manner to help game play run smoothly. If you can't be bothered to learn the rules, why did you offer to run the game?
I've personally had the pleasure of a single Dungeon Master with all of the above.
Pouting when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Throwing a fit when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Becoming antagonistic when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
It drives me crazy when nobody else in the group will ever GM anything.
-The Gneech
|
Reading all of these makes me appreciate my DM more. His DMPCs always fill out the one role our party needs filled (ex: loremaster) yet never overshadow us (ex: loremaster with str/con of 8-9 has dropped or died more times than we've lost horses); he improvises uncomplainingly when we throw a wrench in hours of his preplanning (getting ourselves made kill-on-sight in a city he'd planned out multiple sessions of plot threads in); and he rarely fudges for or against us.
There is one complaint I'd have to add though - the DM who feels like if your characters have any downtime whatsoever, he's not doing his job of moving the plot along. Sometimes it's good to have a few days to restock, refit, enjoy a few beers, visit the local shrine to your god, relax, etc. Every waking moment of a PC's life needn't be spent chasing the countdown for doomsday, nor does every town they encounter need to be afflicted with some wasting sickness/marauding raiders/drama & trauma. 2x this if DM uses PF's default terrible crafting rules and every waking hour not under siege is budgeted towards frantically renewing wands/items etc.
Railroad Required Campaigns: When the RRC requires that Plot Device 35, normally embodied in (for example) Princess Felony, be present to Move the Campaign Forward, it is OK that the players do something bone-headed in regards to Princess Felony. Such as stabbity death, severely insulting her or worse before the aforementioned stabbity death. If you're running a RRC, have the decency to move Plot Device 35 to another NPC as necessary.
Forced Genre campaigns or sessions: You have a group of hack-n-slashers / hardcore role-players that lay the smack down when necessary / emo drama queens that fight only when told "or else!" / <insert other generalization here>. In preparing your campaign you pick up on the fact that the group as a whole harbors a strong dislike for / rabid hatred of certain genres. Murder mystery or puzzle solving for examples. No one wants to wizz away valuable hours that they would rather spend killing things / role-playing / emo drama expressing / <insert descriptive phrase here> on something that they find ... taxing. Yet there are those who insist on cramming these things into a game. I'm not saying that genre X has no place in the game - only that a GM does need to take into account his players' preferences. If the genre comes up, and the group starts wandering outside and chain smoking, having side conversations, slobbering on their shirts or gnawing on a doggy chew toy ... you might want to reconsider what's being presented to them.
Wall o' Flavor Text: Kind of the opposite of the often minimalist flavor text we tend to see these days, some times a scene takes a long time to read out. If this is a homebrew game ... and your players start chain smoking / side conversing / slobbering while staring vacantly into space / gnawing on a chew toy ... might want to reconsider that wall. If you're running a "pre-fab" adventure and there is a WoFT - I've found warning the players upfront and awarding a meal/snack/multipurpose break before and - if necessary - after reading the WoFT tends to result in something other than " what did Princess Felony say again ? I lost track after the scented flowers in her hair ". Well, more often than not at least.
You roll a 1 on an attack and fall over; drop your weapon; throw your weapon; shoot an ally; shoot an ally around a corner; shoot yourself; fall over on top of your weapon; fall over onto a trap; break your weapon;.
Roll a 1 on a skill causing you to automatically fail.
Giving creatures ridiculous powers then not knowing how the hell they work or if they are level appropriate.
Arbitrary and inane occurrences that make no sense whatsoever to further some storyline. My favorite being, to generalize, I had some special items on me given my backstory. In the middle of a melee, some one secretly made off with them. After I spent some stupid amount of time asking around town trying to get them back (and nearly getting several people arrested), I find out the best way to get them back was to go to the town we were going to anyway. (By the way, we never even went there, the whole thing went off the rails on some other people's backstory related stuff and then the train got packed up and shipped off to Zimbabwe because of some made up effect of a player's attack on the environment).
Similar but not quite the same is when the Dungeon Master thinks that you should pull through every single combat by the skin of your teeth. Often ends up with insane encounter that have to readjusted on the fly, leading to things like floating AC when it becomes clear that the well-built fighter can only hit on a natural twenty.
When the Dungeon Master approves a character concept/build and then later decides that he doesn't like it and rather than talk to the player about it, chooses to secretly punish the player. Tends to include things such as hidden penalties, always being the target of the worse effects, talk about the player behind their back, and other passive-aggressive acts.
Dungeon Masters that neglect to inform the players of house rules until the middle of an encounter, often when the players are trying to do something that requires the rules to function as written. Worse if it comes into play as part of a long plan that the Dungeon Master listened to the players come up with and said nothing about.
And perhaps my favorite, the Dungeon Master that can't be bothered to learn the rules of the game and gets angry if you disagree with him. As a self-admitted rules lawyer this is a big...
Wow. Were you in the same group as me? (I know you aren't, because when I left that group and started my own, the entire group left and came with me. But the sentiment still stands.)
I'll add something else. DMs that nerf something very basic, and core (such as Darkvision) because it "makes it more realistic". Here's what I mean- the DM I mentioned above with the DMPC was constantly tossing new house rules (often confused with actual rules, resulting in many arguments between him a Type A personality players who knew the actual rules when the DM would apply a house rule and insist it was a core rule) that nerfed things that players had based their characters on. One player played a Half-Orc, and when we went into a dark dungeon with some torches and light spells, the Half-Orc wanted to scout ahead with his darkvision. The DM told him that his darkvision won't work, because he's been subjected to bright light within the last half hour- because, according to him, "the human eye takes half an hour to adjust to darkness". First off, that's not a rule, and makes Darkvision useless (because in order to use it, you're going to have to be in the dark, completely blind, for half an hour- helpless, in other words). Second, We're talking about half-orcs, not humans. I fail to see how human physiology has any bearing on half-orc physiology. Third, we're talking about a magical ability. Once again, human physiology has no bearing on an imaginary race using a magical ability that doesn't actually exist. Unfortunately, rulings like this happened more or less every session (with some other gems being bodies on the battlefield can be walked over, but impossible to end your turn in, no matter what; wearing heavy armor should reduce your initiative modifier [that one caused a very, very bitter rivalry between him and a player]; and if you're using a ranged weapon, it is physically impossible to hit someone standing directly behind someone else). Add to it the fact that the DM was very quick to hold a grudge if you contradicted him at the game, and if it happened on more than one occasion, expect many nasty emails from him. I don't mean to say that you can't make house rules to fit your game, if indeed you want a more realistic game. (If you're the DM, you can play the game however you want.) But changing one rule will not suddenly make a game realistic, especially when it's a game that involves dragons and magic. But this DM would often cite some of his army experience, or something he learned in college, and intend it to be a fitting reason why a particular rule in an abstract game about giants and sorcerers should be changed. And if you disagreed with him, he would often use the excuse, "Look, I've been playing this game for a long time. I know what I'm doing."
Speaking of which, that- right there- is my NUMBER ONE pet peeve of any gamer, DM or otherwise. Your experience with the game, whether it's five weeks or five decades, DOES NOT PROVE ANYTHING other than how much physical time you have spent playing the game. It does not mean that you're doing it correctly, and it does not mean that you know more about the game than someone else. I've played with people who were gaming for their first time that were better at it than people who were playing for thirty years. As I learned (hard) with this DM, doing something wrong for thirty years doesn't mean you're doing it right.
Pouting when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Throwing a fit when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Becoming antagonistic when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Pretty much this. A dm getting competative or antagonistic with the players is probably the most destructive thing they can do short of open hostility at the table.
Ah, the nasty e-mail. I forgot that one. Had that happen a couple of years ago with a Dungeon Master that was all smiles during the game, thanked me for looking up a rule that he was struggle to remember, everyone seemed to be having a good time and we had a pleasant talk after the game. Then first thing the next morning everyone gets a passive-aggressive e-mail about the new code of conduct for the next game, all of which only applied to things I had done. At first I thought that it was me but a couple of the other players had noticed the undercutting one-sided nastiness. Luckly we rotated Dungeon Masters so I just bore with it and when my turn to run the game came up I did my best not to bear a grudge and treat him fairly.
Building on that, the Dungeon Master that plays favorites. Allowing one player to do these outlandish ideas, over the top roleplaying, sterotyped actions and praising him for it. Then after getting a lecture on how I wasn't roleplaying properly and that the other players had asked him to talk to me (not true) because I was detracting from their gaming experience, I made a similar character figuring that's what he wanted. He proceeds to call me immature, that all I wanted to do was kill stuff, my character is nothing but a thug (the other player's character is a champion of all that's good and just), and that if I won't play right I can stop coming. The last was really funny because it wasn't his place and he was far from the defacto leader of the group.
So I guess I could have saved alot of writing by saying that ego-tripping Dungeon Masters drive me insane.
|
|
rather than repeat any of thw above pretty much agree with the above and have been victim of some of the above Dms.
The Coward DM.
Had this happen to me recently and more than once. The Dm who for whatever reasons boots you out of the game either ignores you when you try to contact why he has gone silent. Too afraid to respond or has someone else do it or even call you. Sends and emial or Facebook message instead.
The overbooking DM.
Has a decent sized group yet takes on more than he can manage. A novice Dm making such a mistale acceptable. A DM who has been running games for a long time should know better.
The Fine Print Dms
The Dms who seem okay with your character concept at first neglect to do their homework about what they allowed you to take than either try to force you to make a charscter more to their liking or try to screw you over in the game.
I hate Dms that skip encounters because. "You wouldn't have won anyway." I'm not joking. That happened.
I hate Dms that start you off in a jail cell so they can skip the PC "meeting each other" process. Everytime.
I hate DMs that say, "He passed his Will Save," before I hear the dice stop rolling.
I hate DMs that get pissed and cranky when they find out what my abilities actually do.
I hate DMs that don't let me do things because "It doesn't make sense." ex. Grappling a Minitour when I have Improved Grapple, am in a Rage, and have 26 Str.
/Rant
I had tactic using dire rats wipe out a party of 1st lvl adventurers. That still gets mentioned to this day. But i've only GMed a few games.
I've had GMs use not only GMPCs but GMPC PARTIES. There's a WHOLE OTHER GROUP of characters travelling with us and we're basically there to give them an audience to their awesomeness. The GM didn't even need players.
Then I've run in "Mystery" type games where the GM presented us with a mystery and during evidence collection we realize the GM himself doesn't know the answer to the mystery yet and is just spooling out rope to keep our characters busy. It's happened twice and it's REALLY annoying.
|
|
Then I've run in "Mystery" type games where the GM presented us with a mystery and during evidence collection we realize the GM himself doesn't know the answer to the mystery yet and is just spooling out rope to keep our characters busy. It's happened twice and it's REALLY annoying.
I kind of did this once with a one-shot zombie apocalypse game. Part of the goal was to figure out where the zombies were coming from - were they demonic, undead, super-virus, extra-terrestrial?
I did very little prep for the game, and I consciously decided not to predetermine the source of the zombies, so I could be more flexible to what people did during the game, and so I wouldn't give away anything by mistake. I just made sure to keep consistent with the on-the-fly decisions I made, and everything worked out fine.As it happened, the zombies turned out to be extra-terrestrial in nature...though there was one moment when the priest PC tried to "turn undead" on a zombie (this was a modern, non-d20 game), and by pure chance, he did this just as the zombie was expiring from wounds dealt to it by a different PC. The priest was ecstatic, convinced that the zombies were demonic/undead in origin, and ran around for awhile attempting to "turn" other zombies. He was frustrated when they kept making their saves (as he thought), and then very disheartened when he finally realized they were aliens. All these emotional reactions were both in character and out of character, so it was highly entertaining.
I've had GMs use not only GMPCs but GMPC PARTIES. There's a WHOLE OTHER GROUP of characters travelling with us and we're basically there to give them an audience to their awesomeness. The GM didn't even need players.
Now, a GMPC party that does the REVERSE is a great idea, I think. Have you ever read the module "Eye of Pain?" Awesome stuff...
Of course, the GMPCs get themselves into trouble, and the PCs have a chance to rescue them.
I'll jump on the DMPC bandwagon too. I've seen them done well, but a guy I know is DMing his first campaign and he has a hard-on for dual-wielding samurai. Especially his once-PC catboy samurai. A 3e Complete Warrior samurai, by the way. He likes to comment about how awesome he is, and to be diplomatic all I say is "okay."
Then I've run in "Mystery" type games where the GM presented us with a mystery and during evidence collection we realize the GM himself doesn't know the answer to the mystery yet and is just spooling out rope to keep our characters busy. It's happened twice and it's REALLY annoying.
Did it end in boredom? If so, yeah that sucks.
One of the guys I game with is good at improvising mysteries though. He runs a sci fi game called Blue Planet, and does little [if any] prep work. It works for him though, as it works for a lot of tv writers.
LoL. I like how in his reply he(the DM) tries to insult the writer, but he can't defend against anything she said. All these stories make me more grateful, not that I have not had some bad things happen, but they have been covered already.
|
It drives me crazy to play with GM's who....
... describe these cool, convenient, versatile, useful gear (magic, cyber, weapons, whatever...) that immediately grows in size, becomes unwieldy or develops some issue that makes is undesirable as soon as the PC's gain access to it.
... resolves running into the above problem by ensuring all the cool, convenient, useful gear is somehow linked to evil, biolocked or, in some way, impossible to use if you're not one of the bad guys.
... get half-way decent at some hobby (like rock climbing) and then make tests related to that hobby so much more difficult because you can't describe the left-handed, half-hooped, triple lindy knot that he knows is perfect for the situation. Woe to you for taking skill in martial arts if he's a Yellow Belt or higher...
... GM's introducing their new indy game at a convention. They start by showing you the 450 page tome dedicated to their setting, give you the 10 minute synopsis... then get crazy if you do something in the game that doesn't exactly fit with what I would have known if I read the designer notes in the margin of page 357 in chapter 48.
... GM's who get drunk during the game. It almost never ends well... and even when it does, its never as good as it could have been. (Exception: a game where EVERYONE is drinking and that's the point!)
To agree with some of the above posters...
1) DMs who make up the rules as they go along without thinking about the consequences.
I just started a new game with a new GM, and we were having our first fight. One of the PCs was being attacked by a monster and the attack roll was high enough to hit the PC's armor class. The player piped up: "Can I make a Reflex save to avoid the attack?" The GM said "Sure!" and I inwardly groaned as I watched the original rules fly out the window in the first 5 minutes of the game; now we suddenly had two chances to avoid every attack.
2) DMs who make every encounter incredibly hard, but then the bad guys miraculously give up just before the entire party dies.
I played in a 2E game where two out of every three encounters was a near TPK, but either the enemies would conveniently surrender/run away or we'd be rescued by a wandering NPC. Boo. The game was pretty good, otherwise.
|
|
I'm gonna toss in level caps and campaign abandonment. Not that I haven't run into my share of the things that have already been mentioned, but I do far more DMing than playing because of these two things.
It takes a lot of fun out of this hobby for me when I finally have a chance to play a character and then the DM abandons the campaign after two sessions. There are legitimate reasons for canceling a game, but flaking out isn't one of them. Alternately, there are the DMs who are only comfortable with, say, XP levels 1-4, and don't bother to tell anyone they are killing the campaign as soon as anyone hits level 5.
First, DMPCs. I know that it's possible to do a DMPC right, but I haven't seen it. I've hated DMPCs ever since the first day I tried to make one (I was a terrible DM when I started, I'm aware of that). If you play the DMPC perfectly straight, by-the-book, that's one thing. But you know what I'm talking about. The DMPC where you never find out exactly how many HP he has, because no matter what he's always standing (even if he's the only one left standing). The DMPC that always seems to have spells left. The DMPC who just happens to be a race unavailable to players, and/or has stats way higher than anyone should be allowed. Extra points if this exact same character (name, race, & all) shows up in multiple campaigns.
I kind of inwardly chuckle at this because my players keep taking along numerous NPCs, forcing me to roleplay them. In my last session, they had a four-armed sahuagin who ended up surrendering after being the last person left alive in his group and has proven incredibly loyal during the rest of the game. I seldom make any decisions with these NPCs, by the way. At any rate, he got killed in one hit with a prismatic spray spell. Got hit by poison, rolled a 1 on his fort save and died instantly. This is the second time the character has died in my game. The response around the table was generally vengeful. The character was based on a character I had made before in 3.5 who was a barbarian, with a few notable differences. As kind of an in-joke, he was a sahuagin with four arms and four stump knives.
I swear, I give these guys class levels and next thing I know the party is dragging them around. There's a transition in there somewhere that I wish I had more control over.
|
|
... GM's who get drunk during the game. It almost never ends well... and even when it does, its never as good as it could have been. (Exception: a game where EVERYONE is drinking and that's the point!)
Yeah, even if everyone's drinking, I try to limit it to just one if I'm GMing - it's a lot of work already, adding alcohol just makes it more difficult.
"To pass this door you need to solve a riddle!"
Insert half an hour of us just desperately guessing what the one correct answer is.
"To pass this door you need to solve a riddle!"
Insert half an hour of us just desperately guessing what the one correct answer is.
Obligatory "DM of the Rings" link
I had a good DM who tried a "puzzle dungeon" experiment with our party because he was getting tired of running high-level 3.5E fights. I hated it. The game rebooted (at low levels and in 4E) immediately afterwards.
Pouting when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Throwing a fit when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
Becoming antagonistic when players have less problems with something than the GM first thought.
+1.
This is the EXACT GM we use to have to deal with as PC's. So, so freaking irritating. KaeYoss, you hit the nail on the head with these three quotes.
The adventure would be over and all of us would be like, "Man that was a lot of fun!", and he's over there mad and pouty, because it wasn't "challenging" enough.
But if someone dies(or several people), then and ONLY then, was it a "challenging" adventure.
Otherwise, it was a dud. It never mattered wether or not we as players had fun, it was just about did he kill anyone.
"To pass this door you need to solve a riddle!"
Insert half an hour of us just desperately guessing what the one correct answer is.
This is why every puzzle I have done since has been well illustrated in its goal. Mostly because the party doesn't have Robin from the 1960's Batman movie to solve completely insane, nonsensical riddles.
Anyway, more on topic:
With regards to DMPCs, I played in a campaign where the DM forced one upon us. Essentially it showed up one day, told us that it was going to be joining our party, and then tried to tell us what to do. We hadn't asked for another character (there were 6 of us, and we hadn't had any trouble with anything yet), but the DM insisted that this new guy had to come along (and, of course, get an equal share of XP and treasure).
See, the whole getting xp and loot thing, not a good idea. The party just recently gave said sahuagin I think a +2 strength item and magic armor in the last few levels. It was indeed a great day when he went a melee round without getting hit by anything remotely near him.
So about DMPCs, I just remembered a bad, bad one. Some friends and I were playing with a friend who, while a decent guy, is a terrible DM. His last game I played a kobold ninja and out-thought every encounter he threw our way, most of them involving dragons. And by out thought I mean interrogated prisoners and used things like "Lying to a dragon that I, a random kobold will totally help him kill the adventurers outside." He killed the whole party with a group of 5 dragons while we were sleeping, all young adults I think. We were level 3 or 4. That should give you an idea of this guy.
So, we all decide to build our characters for this high level game as family members, the Dashing family. There were horrible puns all around, but I played an ice sorcerer named Kulend Dashing. Kulend was a branch out for me, a CN character not played like a complete ass. Selfish, but very loyal to his family. Kind of like an older brother who's a really bad influence. At any rate, Kulend was a silverbrow human with maxed out constitution and charisma, and a whole mess of draconic heritage feats. Now, while some of those feats may be pointless waste, I saw one that made me realize something amazing. Draconic Toughness. If every feat I took was a draconic heritage feat, I could gain 2 hp for each one, more than if I took improved toughness. Since I also got the ability to heal myself when I cast any spell equal to the spell level with another feat, Kulend was one tough customer. He had slightly less hp than a barbarian for his level. With a d4 hit die. And spells.
So, we start the game, our family members re-meeting, preparing for a great adventure. We were on a quest to serve a dragon king (Which my character had mixed feelings about, being a bit egotistical) and prevent something Bad from happening. Since it involved plane hopping we were all for it. I hadn't played in a multiplanar game for years. I fooled myself into thinking maybe he wouldn't screw up.
I can really fool myself sometimes.
We got a DMPC who didn't go with us, but as a guide. He was a hound archon who knew a bunch of things we didn't and that I managed to bluff IRL into giving away some information. I communicated such things via telepathic rings we had all spent our gold on. Even with my squeezing we basically got no information about what we were doing. And then we were sent off to do it.
We went to the elemental plane of ice. Which no, isn't on the cosmology chart. There we went through a few encounters with me buffing the group with what I had until finally I had to reveal Kulend's Dark Secret
Mostly because three frost giants somehow were invisible, flying and got the drop on us. Rather, the drop on me.
I took over 100 damage in that round. Which back in my day, was nothing to sneeze at. I still had around 20 or 30 hp.
DM: "So, how much hp does Kulend have left?"
I could see the look of satisfaction in his eye. The feeling that this game, I was dead. He had killed me. I would no longer be a problem. And I confess, I felt some satisfaction knowing I would crush that notion to dust. I kept my best poker face, slowly raising my eyes from my sheet to him.
Me: "Enough."
He seemed somewhat dumbfounded as I explained the combo to him, that it was mostly a result of getting two 18's from him at the start. Naturally, being legitimate it was dropped after a quick laugh from the table.
I withdrew the next round, cursing that my element was the first plane we visited (Odd coincidence, that). The rest of the party mopped them up, and after a bit of healing I was all patched up.
The next fight was with a balor.
After about two rounds later realizing it would kill us, he replaced it with a spiked devil.
Which still nearly killed us.
Funnily enough, ice wall doesn't need to adjoin to anything. So to try and get around his ridiculous saves I dropped an icy hemisphere on him. It did chump damage and, knowing I had been my most effective possible, just made a wall to cut off line of effect to injured party members each time the devil dealt heavy damage to someone.
We brought it down, the treasure being revealed having a mirror in it that was around 200,000 gp value that could open a gate to anywhere on any plane with perfect accuracy. Useful to be sure, but definately not something we should have gotten.
During this fiasco, a couple of my fellow party members had nearly died. Such is to be expected. But, my character being protective of his family berated dog head man for giving us no info or help at all aside from sending us there. I demanded more info, which he refused to give. He suggested we all rest for a few days.
During this time, we called a family meeting. They didn't trust him, and Kulend, while not suspecting foul play, decided that he was basically responsible for putting the family in danger, and that he needed to give us some answers or we were all going to pull out. No one knew where he was. We used a method coined by a friend of mine, "Scry and Die" to determine his location, and then promptly traveled to him using the mirror we had just gotten. When we appeared, he immediately told us we shouldn't be here and to leave. I told him we wanted some answers about some basic things, because a lack of information was actively hindering us. I'm sure there was a lot more insults and cursing, though. At any rate, he just kept telling us to leave instead of talking, and then he went for his sword. Only three of us, myself included with a rather ineffectual spell, even hit him and he went down.
According to the DM, he was supposed to be the final boss. The big bad evil guy. He was supposed to manipulate us along, and instead he had died in his big evil observatory thing.
DM: "Damn it Madcap, you ruined my game yet again."
Me: "Hey, man. Family comes first."
I haven't played with him since.
Gms who put a big emphasis on the gear you need to have, or give you a big enough budget for a good item you want; just so they can get you quickly arrested and thrown in a dungeon with nothing.
And people wondered I only played monks and sorcerors for 3 years.
I had a GM who did this every time.
Every game was "You wake up tied to a stone slab naked with none of your gear in a dark room."
It was mostly freeform, and some of them were fun. I really wish he had just said they were though instead of making me roll up a character every time.
|
GMs that kill the party but then say everyone was only unconscious so the campaign can continue. I understand it was supposed to be an introductory game, but teaching new players that the DM will always save you is not a good thing.
It was really bad when he left someone else DM for a session, and said DM explicitly killed off the party while two of the three paladins turned blackguard and betrayed the party. Next session the regular DM kills the blackguards with a 'rocks fall/ everyone dies' giant eagle and has a druid NPC reincarnate everyone so the party can continue. Turned out alright, but I was much more interested in a new or resurrected party going after the turncoats and bringing them down ourselves. I didn't even get a whole lot of chance to roleplay my distrust of the traitors because the DM clamped down on it.
I suddenly remember an anecdote from one of two times I ever DM'd.
Never let it be said that I am a good DM, because I will pull stupid things like this.
Me: You see a statue at the end of the hall. There is a 'Do Not Touch' sign in front of it.
(This is because the dungeon was basically an old museum.)
The party asked if they could save their game real quick. I said 'okay.' They said 'Okay, we save.' and then walked forward and poked the statue.
Me: It turns into a giant red dragon that eats you all.
Party: LOAD! LOAD!
...in all fairness I wouldn't have done that if they hadn't asked to save game right then.
Yeah, the DMPC is a cesspool of useless. However, sometimes, like the rotating DM they can be ...adequate. As long as when around the DM*N*PC is played in a passive, non-IWIN! mode.
Floating DCs on Skills. My fighter rogue is running down a hill towards a giant staning in what amounts to a ditch; DC 15 Balance (3.0) check one round becomes a DC 20 Balance check the next. Apparently 12th level and movement based was too good for me...
Vague opponent stats. Just played in a very enjoyable (otherwise) game where the bad guys stats/attacks would 'morph' mid fight as the DM was gauging the PCs ability to deal with the bad guy. Bear in mind that the GM really did a fine job outside of this! :D
Short lived campaigns. Or, when DMs realize that they cannot fulfill their end of the Player/DM Pact. Be on time, set aside the time to play etc... I know that all people have different levels of motivation to play, but if you obligate yourself to the group, please work to fulfill that obligation :)
Unprepared GMs. What are we going to do tonight Brain? Samething we do everynight, Pinky. Sit here until the floundering DM runs aground on *anything* to do...
GNOME
I am not a fan of GM's who won't tell you why something happened. I don't mean because it's a secret, but because they didn't bother to think why or how a monsters abilities worked except for the end effect.
"OK, you failed your save so you're paralyzed."
'uh, why?' what happened we were in an empty corn field.'
"You just do ok."
'Any kind of weird feelings or am I just totally no longer able to move.'
"You're just paralyzed, that's it."
Vague opponent stats. Just played in a very enjoyable (otherwise) game where the bad guys stats/attacks would 'morph' mid fight as the DM was gauging the PCs ability to deal with the bad guy. Bear in mind that the GM really did a fine job outside of this! :D
This goes hand in hand with "making stuff up as the DM goes along" and "bad guys surrender (and/or suddenly get weak) when the party is losing".
This goes hand in hand with "making stuff up as the DM goes along" and "bad guys surrender (and/or suddenly get weak) when the party is losing".
Vague opponent stats. Just played in a very enjoyable (otherwise) game where the bad guys stats/attacks would 'morph' mid fight as the DM was gauging the PCs ability to deal with the bad guy. Bear in mind that the GM really did a fine job outside of this! :D
Heh. I remember one time we fought a big group of guys, some kind of mercenary army. After we won, we were looting the bodies, and I asked what kind of armor they were wearing.
DM: You know, just ... armor.
Me: Chain? Leather? What?
DM: [opens the PHB to the equipment section] Um, okay, we'll say ... studded leather.
Me: How did you know what their armor class was if you didn't even know what kind of armor they were wearing?!? Are you just picking numbers out of the air?!
He would also never let us interrogate any captives. Doesn't matter what kind of Intimidate we rolled, they were still "more scared of the guy they're working for than they are of you." When I pointed out that the guy they're working for is not here and I am, holding my sword to his throat, ... the prisoners would invariably bite down on some kind of cyanide capsule and die instantly. We never got a single piece of information out of a captive -- mostly, I think, because he was making it up as he went along and didn't really know who the BBEG was or what his motivation was.
I don't play when he DMs anymore.