Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BalobianKnight 02-13-07, 03:27 AM	just a list of the biggest mistakes you have made as DM i would give you several to start but i just started and we haven't actually gone past character creation so just one #1 agreeing to DM
Real_iceman 02-13-07, 08:24 AM	just a list of the biggest mistakes you have made as DM i would give you several to start but i just started and we haven't actually gone past character creation so just one #1 agreeing to DM i agree with that and #2 giving the PC a quest of finding a artifact for a wizard( you al know what hapens next )
Flushpuppie 02-13-07, 08:27 AM	#3 Allowing all spell compendium spells #4 (personal one) allowing the find the path and locate object spells. For it would ruin my game.
Emissary666 02-13-07, 08:42 AM	#5 Allow any non-core classes
Suzaku455 02-13-07, 09:00 AM	#5 Allow any non-core classes Why not they can't be worst then Druid, Cleric or Wizards :P
CharlieRock 02-13-07, 09:02 AM	#6 "Okay ... :rolleyes: ... you can be a jedi." #7 "Sure, he (an NPC) can do that! Look! Here are his stats. I'll prove it to you ..." #8 "I guess so ... but, you'll need to find some converts to your new religion" (thank you KoDT) #9 "The only way your gonna convince the King to renounce his throne is ..." #10 "Yes. I ,sorta, remember the backstory about your hometown having a resident Dragon ..."
pinky_si 02-13-07, 09:02 AM	#7 misreading the rules on altering a creatures disposition towards the party. As a very young DM using Basic D&D rules, my friend ruled that if you made a creature friendly with the then equivalent of a diplomacy check, then that creature joined your party. At fourth of fifth level I was wandering around with a Green Dragon, and a number of other creatures and people in tow, stomping anything that got in my way... Its what comes of playing Sorcerors Cave before graduating to D&D :D
Aratex 02-13-07, 09:12 AM	#8 "and here's the character I'll be playing with you guys..." #9 "No, no.. This world is low magic. Well, I mean it's low magic for you. Everyone you fight will have magic stuff, of course, but it'll be damaged beyond use by the time you kill them."
CharlieRock 02-13-07, 09:16 AM	#8 "and here's the character I'll be playing with you guys..." :rofl: funny link related to the above (http://www.cruisegazing.com/RPG_Motivational/gmpc.jpg)
Harkle 02-13-07, 09:20 AM	#10 allow the player to track the soul of the guy they just killed into the after life so the can interigate him. (you can theoretically do this with a little knowledge of the planes and the right spells, but the whole insident end with the soul being kidnapped an tortured)
DoctorRomulus 02-13-07, 10:55 AM	#11 - Using D&D as a social/moral learning tool. #12 - Agreeing to allow something you thought was kool but turned to crap once implemented. This applies mostly to house rules.
Holy_Avenger_441 02-13-07, 11:19 AM	#13. not watching your player roll their stats, "four sixteens a seventeen and an eighteen yeah right"
I'm not a fanatic 02-13-07, 11:35 AM	#14: not plan for their campaigns DM: So you guys start off in a tavern... Player: You didn't give this a second of planning did you? DM: ....No :weep:
BowenSilverclaw1986 02-13-07, 11:46 AM	#15: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=788593 I rest my case :nonono: Greetings, Bowen Silverclaw.
Grognor 02-13-07, 12:11 PM	#16 Allowing "creative" uses of Create Water. #17 Making a "Deck of Many Things" out of magic cards. #18 Allowing a Deck of Many Things for PC use.
CharlieRock 02-13-07, 12:22 PM	#17 Making a "Deck of Many Things" out of magic cards. :heehee
skywyze 02-13-07, 12:24 PM	All the above and... #19 Spend too much time working on each encounter. Our old DM used to do this and would get ****** and leave if the party managed to defeat it. #20 Have a girlfriend who doesn't enjoy D&D. Eventually she WILL make you choose between her and your friends. I've seen it happen to 8-9 different GMs in 3 different countries over the last 20 years. It's infallible. Eventually it WILL happen. However, if you find yourself a gaming girlfriend... Teach me how. :cool:
High Octane 02-13-07, 12:51 PM	#21 "No your character doesnt do that. He does this. No he isnt dominated, he doesnt have to be. Its in character for him to do this, so he will do this." #22 "The villain is now going to seduce your girlfriend's PC. DC 35 will save (on a level 2 PC)" #23 "She failed? Well then this is what he does to her... (Insert inappropriate description of date rape here)"
skywyze 02-13-07, 12:53 PM	#22 "The villain is now going to seduce your girlfriend's PC. DC 35 will save (on a level 2 PC)"*shivers with revulsion* I would seriously beat up a DM who did this. In real life. Or at the very least ruin his campaign if he's bigger'n me.
Keiichi_m 02-13-07, 01:05 PM	#23 "She failed? Well then this is what he does to her... (Insert inappropriate description of date rape here)" ... So much violance would insue if some DM tried that on me, probablly from my girlfriend, but I would be waiting in line for my turn. 24. allowing something you're not sure about (in my first D&D campaign a vetren abused my noobishness to allow me to sell him bulette plates for him to turn into armor, I had to **** him out of them later cause he was expecting some crazy badass armor at 2nd level) 25. "can I roll for wild psi?" "I guess."
Greg K 02-13-07, 01:16 PM	26: Let the cleric player create his own deity and choose own domains. Part of building a setting is designing your deities 27: ignore making codes of conducts/tenents/strictures for divine casting/powered characters . Deities have areas of interest. Divine characters are instruments for fullfilling these interests. Providing the player with tenents/strictutres reinforce this and gives the player knowledge upfront of how the deity expects the character to act and should provide them guidelines of what are minor and major transgressions. 28. be afraid to say no.
Greg K 02-13-07, 01:25 PM	just a list of the biggest mistakes you have made as DM i would give you several to start but i just started and we haven't actually gone past character creation so just one #1 agreeing to DM lol. I don't mind DMing. I find it fun play to play all those NPCs and doing worldbuilding. However, if I DM, I choose the style and the setting- I am not running a game with a flavor or rules that I would find unfun and unfun for me includes kitchen sink/sandbox settings.
jbsaff 02-13-07, 01:27 PM	All the above and... #19 Spend too much time working on each encounter. Our old DM used to do this and would get ****** and leave if the party managed to defeat it. #20 Have a girlfriend who doesn't enjoy D&D. Eventually she WILL make you choose between her and your friends. I've seen it happen to 8-9 different GMs in 3 different countries over the last 20 years. It's infallible. Eventually it WILL happen. However, if you find yourself a gaming girlfriend... Teach me how. :cool: I've a DM right now that is a guilty of #19. He just used a Longship with cannons on our little cutter at sea. He wouldn't let us finish the encounter (we had already boarded the other ship) until he got to blow down the mast on the cutter. And we still don't know what it happened. As for #20, I don't know how, but I found one of those girls. Fortunately, I married her too! And as for my contribution: #29 "I've played a couple times. I'm pretty sure that I could DM with just the SRD for reference." If you hear this, take up a collection or offer to loan your books. Spending 30 seconds on the web everytime I needed a monster to do something because I didn't have the books to prep with did not help move the battles along.:( Closely followed by... #30 New DM. New player. New player plays arcane caster. New DM has to look up each new spell when the player casts to make sure it's legit because new DM didn't ever play arcane caster. Things go very slow.....
Aberlonian 02-13-07, 01:33 PM	#31 Too many random encounters. #32 Use too much description when unneccesary* * I did this in my first campaign. I had a mayor who lived in a mansion and was corrupt, so I described the lavish surroundings of his house while the village lived in squalor. The PCs metagamed and thought that it must be a plot hook and decided to break in at 1st level. D'oh!
Averroes 02-13-07, 01:34 PM	#13. not watching your player roll their stats, "four sixteens a seventeen and an eighteen yeah right" Cheers to that. Actually last I rolled my stats. (4d6 remove lowest) I actually got 3 16's and an 18! So glad my DM was sitting/crying over my shoulder.
DoctorRomulus 02-13-07, 01:55 PM	All the above and... #20 Have a girlfriend who doesn't enjoy D&D. ....: Marry her and then she'll be stuck with you!! :D :D :D
High Octane 02-13-07, 02:01 PM	Sadly, there are DMs like that in existance. They should not be allowed to live.
RobbyPants 02-13-07, 02:09 PM	Marry her and then she'll be stuck with you!! :D :D :D Eh... she can still make you choose! :P #33 Allow players to bring in materials from splatbooks and/or Dragon issues that you do not personally own. #33b Allow players to use said materials, even when they don't bring them to subsequent gaming sessions!!! DM: What's that ability do exactly? Player: Uhhh.... I don't have my book on me. I'm pretty sure it...
Suzaku455 02-13-07, 02:18 PM	#38 Being a DM that can't count P.S. you guys repeated 7-10.
Greg K 02-13-07, 02:37 PM	#38 Being a DM that can't count P.S. you guys repeated 7-10. Nah, just a timing issue where two people typed their replies at the same time (it happened to me as well, but I caught it and adjusted my numbers). Then, the person after them probably just looked at the number on the last post prior to replying. However, I am sure you probably knew that already;)
a_psh 02-13-07, 02:51 PM	26: Let the cleric player create his own deity and choose own domains. Part of building a setting is designing your deitiesThere's nothing wrong with having more than one person build up the setting. Standard D&D religion is loose and shallow enough that extending it really isn't a problem, anyway. The key thing here is that if another player designs the god, he should give you some meat to go with his choice of themes and domains.
Greg K 02-13-07, 02:54 PM	There's nothing wrong with having more than one person build up the setting. Standard D&D religion is loose and shallow enough that extending it really isn't a problem, anyway. The key thing here is that if another player designs the god, he should give you some meat to go with his choice of themes and domains. You may have no problem with it (and I know you don't from other threads), but I would never play in nor run such a game where more than one person builds the setting.
CharlieRock 02-13-07, 03:09 PM	#38 Being a DM that can't count P.S. you guys repeated 7-10. er, my fault. I wrote something then was ,like, doh I need to add this and it took me so long that the other posts were already down. oh, and I can't count :drool:
CharlieRock 02-13-07, 03:11 PM	The key thing here is that if another player designs the god, he should give you some meat to go with his choice of themes and domains. I think it was meant more like what happened in KoDT when Bob made his deceased character into a deity and basically usurped the game. (from everyone) Edit: # 327 If using a dry erase board ,erase completely. The guy from the last battle shouldn't still have initiative. Especially and he died. # 1,228 "You guys get to pick one magical item to start with ..."
RK)13 02-13-07, 03:13 PM	20 Have a girlfriend who doesn't enjoy D&D. Eventually she WILL make you choose between her and your friends. I've seen it happen to 8-9 different GMs in 3 different countries over the last 20 years. It's infallible. Eventually it WILL happen. However, if you find yourself a gaming girlfriend... Teach me how. :cool: Eh, the trick isn't necessarily finding a woman who enjoys gaming, its finding a woman that doesn't mind you your hobbies. When my wife and I first got together, she kind of begrudged me my Wednesday night gaming group, but, just last week, she admitted to me that she kind of likes having me out of the house one night a week as it lets her get work done (she's a teacher) and some time to herself. Everyone needs their own time... mine happens to be spent with five other guys, farting, eating junk food, and killing imaginary beasts while making off color jokes.
a_psh 02-13-07, 04:31 PM	You may have no problem with it (and I know you don't from other threads), but I would never play in nor run such a game where more than one person builds the setting.*shrug* There's nothing untraditional about it. All the published D&D settings have been touched by more than one person. Even if you design an entire world in secret all by yourself before play starts, minimally using the pre-written core D&D material, players are effectively designing little parts of it when they say things like "my dad was a tailor" anyway (and they're definitely exerting influence over the setting when they ask you if they can take a particular prestige class that they really like, for example). Moreover, whatever you do, you absolutely can't escape the fact that the rest of the group will assume certain things about the setting in play, so your picture of the world and theirs will never really be perfectly aligned anyway.
Herald@Large 02-13-07, 07:29 PM	39. Play favorites among your players, especially if the one you favor is your SO or sibling. 40. Try to DM when you're drunk, stoned or ill. 41. Set up a game and then not show up without any warning. 42. Forget that you and your players have lives and obligations outside of the game. ("You're getting married next week and have to skip the game? That does it, you're outta here!") 43. Invent or change house rules in the middle of an encounter. ("Oh, by the way, I've decided that Magic Missile is now a ranged touch attack ...")
ravenshrike 02-13-07, 07:43 PM	#7 misreading the rules on altering a creatures disposition towards the party. As a very young DM using Basic D&D rules, my friend ruled that if you made a creature friendly with the then equivalent of a diplomacy check, then that creature joined your party. At fourth of fifth level I was wandering around with a Green Dragon, and a number of other creatures and people in tow, stomping anything that got in my way... Its what comes of playing Sorcerors Cave before graduating to D&D :D You can actually do so at helpful, unless the DM deus ex machina's their current situation. If you can make a DC 50 check after they're helpful, you can pretty much make everyone you come across and have time to talk to a member of your party. Of course, you level up so slowly as for adventuring to be pretty much irrelevant.
Greg K 02-13-07, 08:24 PM	Even if you design an entire world in secret all by yourself before play starts, minimally using the pre-written core D&D material, players are effectively designing little parts of it when they say things like "my dad was a tailor" anyway Except the setting still has to have cultures with a tailor. If only certain cultures have tailors, that may cut off certain race or class choices. If you are running a "primitive" campaign, you tell the players no as tailors do not exist. I prefer to have the DM think about the setting elements ahead of time. Deities (or lack thereof), cultures, organizations, history all help define the setting. I want to know what make that DMs setting not just some other dime a dozen kitchen sink game or barely fleshed out world without any real thought whose only difference is the BBEG. I want something though out and interesting and worth exploring. What are the cultures? How do they affect races and classes both in availabiltiy and abilities? What are the cultural elements (naming patterns, social structure, subsistance patterns, methods of exchange, belief systems, adornment, preferred weapons, marriage patterns)? What are some of the significant historical events in my character's culture. If I am playing the cleric or paladin of deity, what does it mean to be a cleric or a paladin of specifc deities in that world? Why do all the female clerics and paladins of one specific deity have their hair turn silver hair and fight unarmored while the males of the same deity? What does each deity expect of their clerics (tenents)? What is the relationship between clerics of my deity and those of the other deity and why is it so (history of relationship between the deities) ? What effect do these relationships have on my cleric or paladin (e.g., am I sworn to protect clerics of another particular deity? Will I kill a particular deity's cleric's on sight?) How do the relationships between the deitie's affect spell lists? How does magic work and how does this determine which system(s) of spellcasting are used? Are there positive and negative energies ? If not how does it affect the spells that normally draw upon them? As a player, if the DM has elements like the above preplanned, it creates a more interesting environment and element. If players are throwing in their wants, it runs the risk of ruining the verisimilitude of the setting with elements that should be intertwined having no cohesiveness, the setting having a lack of vision, players putting things in just for powergaming, and at least some sense of discovery about the world gets lost. Furthermore, if player has really good ideas for a setting, throwing them in just removes good ideas that should have been saved for the next campaign which they could have ran. (and they're definitely exerting influence over the setting when they ask you if they can take a particular prestige class that they really like, for example). if it does exist, it might only exist in certain cultures. If the character is from the appropriate culture, they might start off knowing about the Prc or they might not (e.g., if its a secret society). If they would know about at the start, you tell the character that the PrC is exists. If they would not know, the character has to discover it on their own. And, of course, if it does not exist in the setting, you say no. Moreover, whatever you do, you absolutely can't escape the fact that the rest of the group will assume certain things about the setting in play, so your picture of the world and theirs will never really be perfectly aligned anyway. Visions may not line up perfectly. However, by establishing deities, choice of races, choice of classes, cultures, religions background,history, etc. upfront you create a more common ground from which to work. However, I need to be clear, when I say that I wouldn't want to play in or DM a game in which playres are determining the elements, I am talking about the major factors like those I mentioned above. If a player understands their character's culture as set by the DM, I have no problem with them coming up with the name for some small village or town they are from or even some general information (no stats or levels) on minor npcs (e.g., family and friends).
Melpomene 02-13-07, 08:38 PM	*is a female gamer* 44.) Yell at your players. 45.) Make your players lose on purpose. The point of the game is to let your PCs win. Do your own power tripping elsewhere. 46.) Run a campaign without a grid and minis/tokens. You might think you can wing distances. You are wrong.
Greg K 02-13-07, 08:40 PM	I think it was meant more like what happened in KoDT when Bob made his deceased character into a deity and basically usurped the game. (from everyone" Partially. Playing a cleric or other divine caster should not be about taking random domains for powers. In a setting, deities have domains and interests. They also have histories amongt each other. Domains, interests and histories need to be taken into account when building the settng as they have are going to impact on what is expected of their clerics, paladins,etc. These in turn affect have other affects upon the setting including how the clerics and other divine powered characters interact with one another and how they are viewed by the populace at large etc. It may also in a homebrew setting affect which non-domain spells can be cast if alliances, rivalries, and hostility are played out using divine casters as pawns.
dunerunner 02-13-07, 09:16 PM	47) Throw a CR16 Archmage against a half-drained party of three level 12 PCs and expect them to survive. Oh, and they don't have any arcane spellcasting either...
CharlieRock 02-14-07, 12:22 AM	46.) Run a campaign without a grid and minis/tokens. You might think you can wing distances. You are wrong. :heehee #48 Lose your notes. "Tremble adventurers before ... er, Bob ...yes, that's it. Bob, Lord of Darkness. Are you trembling yet?"
a_psh 02-14-07, 12:25 AM	49. Give a bunch of totally new, never-played-D&D-before players an entire CD full of random prestige classes yoinked from forums and the net and tell them to just, err, figure it out. (Boy, did that guy suck. Such a trainwreck.)
Greg K 02-14-07, 12:30 AM	49. Give a bunch of totally new, never-played-D&D-before players an entire CD full of random prestige classes yoinked from forums and the net and tell them to just, err, figure it out. (Boy, did that guy suck. Such a trainwreck.) lol
Malraux 02-14-07, 12:34 AM	50. Ignore the wealth by level guidelines. Being somewhat off is ok. Being many levels off just screws up the game.
a_psh 02-14-07, 12:46 AM	51. Build your campaign setting out of puns.
Malraux 02-14-07, 12:56 AM	51. Build your campaign setting out of puns. 52: Build your campaign setting out of punpun.
CharlieRock 02-14-07, 01:06 AM	51. Build your campaign setting out of puns. Kinda like the original Greyhawk setting? :rofl: # 53 Railroading the team with blatant rule-fudging "Okay, the wizard casts sleep on the party ... even the elf. You wake up later in a dungeon ..."
a_psh 02-14-07, 01:20 AM	52: Build your campaign setting out of punpun.Now I'm imagining Pun-Pun, having ascended to godhood but been defeated by some even higher force, with his astral corpse being converted into a githyanki citadel. ;)
Prince_of_Murder_Kinghall 02-14-07, 02:11 AM	54: oh you wanna use a dragon type character? sure! I did this twice
OneWinged4ngel 02-14-07, 02:42 AM	#11 - Using D&D as a social/moral learning tool. :rofl: and I think I know *exactly* where you got that one from. *cough*SirElton*cough*
a_psh 02-14-07, 08:56 AM	I think like half of us have probably done this one when we were kids... 55. Use D&D to learn about weapons.
Melpomene 02-14-07, 12:06 PM	56.) Let your PCs leave thier house (or tavern, or whereever you're starting them) without an Amulet of Protection Versus Sucking and Dying. Losing your first level character because you fell off a ladder and your DM maxed the fall damage (before your first monster fight, no less) is never a good time. Amultet of Protection Versus Sucking and Dying If you character would die an ignoble death, instead you are reduced to -9 HP and immediately stabelize. This amulet does not prevent the BBEG from coup de grasing you to death, or prevent you from valiantly sacrificing yourself for the group, or likewise dying in a thematically appropriate way. Also note that despite being an amulet, it does not use up a body slot. Minior Artifact, CL --, faint abjuration
Grognor 02-14-07, 01:01 PM	haha, I'm so using that. 57. Make an advent calendar type thing out of the DM map instead of drawing player maps. What I did was I took the map, folded the page over so it'd stay, and taped small pieces of paper over the rooms. I originally intended for the paper to just fold over, but it kept folding back (argh). I just wound up pulling the tabs off, and ripped my map to hell :( Now it's the slaughtered map of the slaughtered gates of slaughtergarde. 58. Allow players to take Reserve feats from Complete Mage
revnk 02-14-07, 03:14 PM	59. Wear clothes. No. I mean, yes. Wait, I mean the DM should wear clothes. I think. Wait, is that right? The DM shouldn't wear clothes. Should. Shouldn't. Arggggh! Now I'm all confused!
GospelofRob 02-14-07, 03:23 PM	60: Kill charcters in a group when your the first DM to actually kill charcters. I was seriously considering changing my entire DM style... i feel sick...
tharivol266 02-14-07, 06:02 PM	61) let the pc get spell components by "just taking the gp off of his character sheet" "i cast true res" "do you have a diamond worth 23k" "yes" "I dont remember you buying that" "oh i just took the gp off of my character sheet instead"
Melpomene 02-14-07, 07:48 PM	Theoretically the player (and DM) knew it was coming when the spell was readied that morning.
Singer_of_the_Song 02-14-07, 08:22 PM	62. Allow anything non-core (anything not in DMG, PHB, MM) without careful, careful consideration of its effects. I'm looking at you, half of the Complete books.
Azerian 02-14-07, 08:50 PM	63. +2 Vorpal Boomerang on a PC that wasn't even involved in combat....I was young and newb, yet I'll never live that one down.
Archangel_yuki 02-14-07, 09:52 PM	62. Allow anything non-core (anything not in DMG, PHB, MM) without careful, careful consideration of its effects. I'm looking at you, half of the Complete books. Really? I was too busy watching them burn, and observing the daemon spirits that drifted up out of those accursed novels of terror. Oh, the purging of the utmost evil is most satisfying after a hard day. #63-Not correctly reading the information about Cr's. Oh, so 2 level 10's dont really equal out the Cr 20 Balor?Crap.
Bengal 02-15-07, 01:15 AM	Really? I was too busy watching them burn, and observing the daemon spirits that drifted up out of those accursed novels of terror. Oh, the purging of the utmost evil is most satisfying after a hard day. #63-Not correctly reading the information about Cr's. Oh, so 2 level 10's dont really equal out the Cr 20 Balor?Crap. *snort* Sounds like a good place to start a ghost-rider themed campaign.
Holy_Avenger_441 02-15-07, 10:42 AM	Cheers to that. Actually last I rolled my stats. (4d6 remove lowest) I actually got 3 16's and an 18! So glad my DM was sitting/crying over my shoulder. I just knew somebody would have those stats, I was on another thread and there was somebody that had four eighteens I sure hope their DM was watching.