about D.M.s [Archive] - Wizards Community

about D.M.s [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Shinyredbutton
05-30-07, 10:13 PM Sometimes my D.M. does things that make me mad (like having his players fight a monster that is 5 crs above the party level!!) what does your D.M. do that makes you mad?
Lixith
05-30-07, 10:24 PM Have us fight monsters 5 crs BELOW party level.
metatheurgist
05-31-07, 01:11 AM Yup. I have a DM who has the opinion that high CR monsters aren't up to scratch so we regularly get above CR fights. My 22 level character had to solo a Hunefer (CR 25) due to bad saves from the rest of the party. Because I won (holy warrior who was set up for this fight otherwise he would've died like everyone else), the result was my character got hunted down by 2 Glooms (CR 25) armed with Rods of Negation (6! 3 each) who specifically negated my armor and singled me out for attack while the rest of the party was being distracted by 2 Mithral Golems (CR 21), at this stage the party level was 23. Did I mention we've only got a party of 3 since a player left?

The best revenge is to min/max the **** out of your characters and make lots of druids and clerics.
penchant
05-31-07, 01:25 AM One game I play in, the DM is completely enamoured with his DMPCs. And I do mean plural. There are currently 2 players left (he chased off the others) and so we are relegated to a party of... SIX! So there are 4 of the DM's favorite DMPCs traipsing around with us two schlubs. They are likely at least 2 levels above ours and with extra stuff. At least two of them were "Chozen of Mystras" but they got traded out for some other min/maxed monstrosities. I keep suggesting that we PC's just run two characters or each have a cohort with PC level gear, but the DM is certain that we could not survive the encounters (As if it was out of his control). The only reason I still play with the guy is the other player is my good friend and they are roommates.

I think I'll be looking for a good online game or making my own soon.
navar100
05-31-07, 01:54 AM New house rules every few months.

Information we learn one game session turns out to be false the next game session and then sometimes what we learn in its place turns out to be false the following game session.

NPCs we never met before knowing everything about us and/or everything important we need to know.

NPCs achieving our goals for us.
the_Luggage
05-31-07, 02:33 PM Just to point out, not every encounter is supposed to be exactly on CR. With a mid level party, 5 above CR is okay for a big boss, especially if the players have some idea about what they are facing. Also, they could just...run away if the encounter was too dangerous. (Shocking I know)
Fluffykins0
05-31-07, 02:52 PM Have a DM that giggles when he kills a pc, and then whines when he misses getting crits on us. Mind you, we're at the level when the monsters hit every time anyway.
Astron the Wizard
05-31-07, 03:01 PM One player recently tried DMing, and he homebrewed everything. Most of the monsters were elementals that could regenerate, grow size catagories, and spawn other monsters. They also had telepathy with their allies. Still, the DM figured it was the same monster, aulbet with a few changes, and sent it after us. We killed it, but not without major battling and luck of the dice. And as if that weren't enough, he decided that all the monsters would be like that from now on, without a change in CR. Plus, he didn't know how to give out XP, so he ended up just giving us less XP than normal for the encounter, not counting the homebrewed-upgrade-template thing! In the end, I just quit because he made up way too many rules.
UltimateReality
05-31-07, 03:18 PM My DM doesn't DM on a regular basis. Also, he has yet to kidnap one of our mutual friends and Best Player Evar, who moved away, and force said player to participate in F2F gaming with us again.
AgravaneThane
05-31-07, 06:56 PM My original DM used to only give out EP's at the end of the adventure. Thing is, he rarely, if ever finished an adventure. I had a 5th lvl Fighter for 3 1/2 years because of this. Lots of starts and trouble but no rewards....
DarkNick
05-31-07, 07:40 PM It makes me mad the way I don't look at the CRs much and don't give "standard treasure" as it really bothers my players when they don't fight things of predictable level and for predictable rewards...;)

My DMs hot though :D
Contrast
05-31-07, 08:06 PM I once had a Dungeon Master who would consistently ruin my most recent characters. For example, I created a pair of skill-based characters and he employed an option that made skill-based characters much less useful.

He was my best friend at the time, so I knew he wasn’t malicious. It was still horribly annoying.
CCS
06-01-07, 12:21 AM I won't say I'm mad, just annoyed by one of my DMs quirks.

At least a few times per session he'll make strange/odd declarations of what happens, what we see/find, what hits/doesn't hit etc.

He fully intends these comments as a joke. We know this for a fact.

But discerning these "jokes" from what's really occuring is akin to trying to interpert sarcasm etc here on the web....
The end result tends to be general confusion. And nobody laughs.
Every now and then he'll throw something out that'll just cause us to simply stop & look at him funny as we try and decipher it.

Over the course of the year he's gotten better (as in he's doing it less & less thank God). Partly I suspect because we players, not being able to discern the difference, have held him to a few declarations. Other times we've simply ignored some strangeness and continued on as if he hadn't spoken. So I think he's starting to get the message that in a system where ALL info flows from the DM, & we can only react to what's given, he has a responibility to give us accurate descriptions, replies, etc.
Thunder Dragonbane
06-02-07, 11:32 AM I have two people who GM the group I am currently in. The first is a decent GM and while we are usually in situations where someone will be dropped to 0 or less, the story is good and well thought out. This game has 5 players and a few followers for those PC's.

The other is less fun to be arround. the other game has only 3 players, w/o followers. He is trying to run like the other guy, giving us situations where we have to think to survive. But he is ignoring the fact that the party has squat for magical gear, money, potions, or anything for that matter that will help us out. In one session my 5th lvl Barb had to fight 2 bearded devils with a non-magical weapon. I can't recall how I survived this, but I never bypassed the DR, of that I am sure.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Shinyredbutton 05-30-07, 10:13 PM	Sometimes my D.M. does things that make me mad (like having his players fight a monster that is 5 crs above the party level!!) what does your D.M. do that makes you mad?
Lixith 05-30-07, 10:24 PM	Have us fight monsters 5 crs BELOW party level.
metatheurgist 05-31-07, 01:11 AM	Yup. I have a DM who has the opinion that high CR monsters aren't up to scratch so we regularly get above CR fights. My 22 level character had to solo a Hunefer (CR 25) due to bad saves from the rest of the party. Because I won (holy warrior who was set up for this fight otherwise he would've died like everyone else), the result was my character got hunted down by 2 Glooms (CR 25) armed with Rods of Negation (6! 3 each) who specifically negated my armor and singled me out for attack while the rest of the party was being distracted by 2 Mithral Golems (CR 21), at this stage the party level was 23. Did I mention we've only got a party of 3 since a player left? The best revenge is to min/max the **** out of your characters and make lots of druids and clerics.
penchant 05-31-07, 01:25 AM	One game I play in, the DM is completely enamoured with his DMPCs. And I do mean plural. There are currently 2 players left (he chased off the others) and so we are relegated to a party of... SIX! So there are 4 of the DM's favorite DMPCs traipsing around with us two schlubs. They are likely at least 2 levels above ours and with extra stuff. At least two of them were "Chozen of Mystras" but they got traded out for some other min/maxed monstrosities. I keep suggesting that we PC's just run two characters or each have a cohort with PC level gear, but the DM is certain that we could not survive the encounters (As if it was out of his control). The only reason I still play with the guy is the other player is my good friend and they are roommates. I think I'll be looking for a good online game or making my own soon.
navar100 05-31-07, 01:54 AM	New house rules every few months. Information we learn one game session turns out to be false the next game session and then sometimes what we learn in its place turns out to be false the following game session. NPCs we never met before knowing everything about us and/or everything important we need to know. NPCs achieving our goals for us.
the_Luggage 05-31-07, 02:33 PM	Just to point out, not every encounter is supposed to be exactly on CR. With a mid level party, 5 above CR is okay for a big boss, especially if the players have some idea about what they are facing. Also, they could just...run away if the encounter was too dangerous. (Shocking I know)
Fluffykins0 05-31-07, 02:52 PM	Have a DM that giggles when he kills a pc, and then whines when he misses getting crits on us. Mind you, we're at the level when the monsters hit every time anyway.
Astron the Wizard 05-31-07, 03:01 PM	One player recently tried DMing, and he homebrewed everything. Most of the monsters were elementals that could regenerate, grow size catagories, and spawn other monsters. They also had telepathy with their allies. Still, the DM figured it was the same monster, aulbet with a few changes, and sent it after us. We killed it, but not without major battling and luck of the dice. And as if that weren't enough, he decided that all the monsters would be like that from now on, without a change in CR. Plus, he didn't know how to give out XP, so he ended up just giving us less XP than normal for the encounter, not counting the homebrewed-upgrade-template thing! In the end, I just quit because he made up way too many rules.
UltimateReality 05-31-07, 03:18 PM	My DM doesn't DM on a regular basis. Also, he has yet to kidnap one of our mutual friends and Best Player Evar, who moved away, and force said player to participate in F2F gaming with us again.
AgravaneThane 05-31-07, 06:56 PM	My original DM used to only give out EP's at the end of the adventure. Thing is, he rarely, if ever finished an adventure. I had a 5th lvl Fighter for 3 1/2 years because of this. Lots of starts and trouble but no rewards....
DarkNick 05-31-07, 07:40 PM	It makes me mad the way I don't look at the CRs much and don't give "standard treasure" as it really bothers my players when they don't fight things of predictable level and for predictable rewards...;) My DMs hot though :D
Contrast 05-31-07, 08:06 PM	I once had a Dungeon Master who would consistently ruin my most recent characters. For example, I created a pair of skill-based characters and he employed an option that made skill-based characters much less useful. He was my best friend at the time, so I knew he wasn’t malicious. It was still horribly annoying.
CCS 06-01-07, 12:21 AM	I won't say I'm mad, just annoyed by one of my DMs quirks. At least a few times per session he'll make strange/odd declarations of what happens, what we see/find, what hits/doesn't hit etc. He fully intends these comments as a joke. We know this for a fact. But discerning these "jokes" from what's really occuring is akin to trying to interpert sarcasm etc here on the web.... The end result tends to be general confusion. And nobody laughs. Every now and then he'll throw something out that'll just cause us to simply stop & look at him funny as we try and decipher it. Over the course of the year he's gotten better (as in he's doing it less & less thank God). Partly I suspect because we players, not being able to discern the difference, have held him to a few declarations. Other times we've simply ignored some strangeness and continued on as if he hadn't spoken. So I think he's starting to get the message that in a system where ALL info flows from the DM, & we can only react to what's given, he has a responibility to give us accurate descriptions, replies, etc.
Thunder Dragonbane 06-02-07, 11:32 AM	I have two people who GM the group I am currently in. The first is a decent GM and while we are usually in situations where someone will be dropped to 0 or less, the story is good and well thought out. This game has 5 players and a few followers for those PC's. The other is less fun to be arround. the other game has only 3 players, w/o followers. He is trying to run like the other guy, giving us situations where we have to think to survive. But he is ignoring the fact that the party has squat for magical gear, money, potions, or anything for that matter that will help us out. In one session my 5th lvl Barb had to fight 2 bearded devils with a non-magical weapon. I can't recall how I survived this, but I never bypassed the DR, of that I am sure.