Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Serow 05-30-06, 05:03 PM	Come one! Come all! Vent! Rage! Dispise! How many times shave you seen this... Bad DM: ok, you are all in a dungeon, it is dark and damp. :plotting: Player: I cast light to... Bad DM: Sorry, :evillaugh its an anti magic field. Player2: ok, I light a tor... Bad DM: Oops, I also forgot to mention your stuff was all taken away. :devil: Player: oooookay... Then I take a spot che.. DM: roll me a will save. :smirk: Players: From what!? :eek: Bad DM: From the Finger of Death my Demi-god just cast at the both of you. Players: :rant: :nonono: :banghead: :tantrum: :headexplo :censored: These are the cream of the crop. The villianist viles. The Pewtred NPCs. These are the DM"s you love to hate. Post to your hearts content
stargate525 05-30-06, 05:32 PM	One of the DMs I play with has the annoying habit of pointing things out about three or four hours after whatever he says can make a difference. So we're going to fight a whole bunch of undead. I stock up on healing scrolls, to hurt the undead and to heal us. Right. So I spend a grand total of about 1000gp on these scrolls, and when I get there, I go to use one and... DM:"Why are you healing the zombie?" So I proceed to explain how healing hurts undead... DM:"That's stupid, it doesn't work that way here." Me:"..." and of course, he didn't tell me this when I bought the scrolls, that would be too easy. And naturally I didn't stock up on anything else that could do much.
BadCatMan 05-30-06, 09:33 PM	Oh, I could go on all day just with one DM, but I'll keep it short. He blames all the previous character's deaths on me. He said I didn't do enough combat tricks (conveniently forgetting all the stupidly overpowered creatures he threw us, the forced PvP, and my suspiciously bad luck). So I make a new Monkish character, with Improved Grapple and Trip, and Combat Reflexes. We're facing an enemy wizard, the final fight of the campaign. Me: I'll trip him. (Roll, success). Next Round: DM: The wizard stands up - Me: Attack of Opportunity! DM: Uh, no he doesn't. He casts a spell - Me: Attack of Opportunity! (It happens so rarely, I got excited). DM: Okay he rolls out the way. So somehow the wizard tumbles out the way.
RendakorRahn 05-30-06, 09:46 PM	My favorite has to be the hypocrite DM. PC: I cast cure light wounds on my self. DM: You proke an attack of opportunity from the three orcs. *rolls* 2 hits, one critical. *rolls damage* DM: You take 5, 8 and... PC: Um, I'm dead. I had 2 hp left. Then later on in the session. DM: Fighter, make a will save. PC: Er, why? DM: The cleric just cast harm on you. PC: That provokes an attack of opportunity. DM: Uh, no it doesnt. He casts defensively... *rolls* DM: ...and succeeds his concentration check. Now gimme that will save.
fefnir 05-30-06, 10:00 PM	Theres this one guy not allowed to DM for a while (reformed, and a ok dm now). He has givin a orb of dragon kind, a ring of wish(was 3 wishes only one left) and tons of other uber magic items to differnt first level partys. lucky that has stoped. Oh and turned his MMFs to that weird pink/purpulish color fushia (not sure how to spell it) Want very bright for a while. Oh one other Dm that wanted to do a epic level campain with geslat PrCs while I was the most expericned player and the other 2 there were noobs, literal first timers. He cant wait to get to high levels so trys to start as high as possible. And always trys to push the epic idea. The lowest hes got on his own with out others influincing him was 7th. and it was the 2 noobs third or fourth time playing.*beats head against wall while trying to explaing under water fighing to some one that wanted to do underwater campain and never look at the stuff for it.* now that that is off my chest i fell alot better.
robertliguori 05-30-06, 11:00 PM	Had one DM who demanded that I play a level 1 aristocrat female bedouin exotic dancer. I said no. He said that he had rolled the dice, and that was what they said. I said no, thanks to that campaign.
sneak_Blast 05-30-06, 11:49 PM	C my sig under "My Stuff".
Valthonis 05-30-06, 11:59 PM	Had a DM who blatantly favored his NPC. We got ahead of them on the trail to the treasure we were all after, set a pit trap and lay in ambush. just before the lead NPC (a huge human barbarian) steps into the trap area, the ranger (at the back of the group) notices the trap, no roll from the DM. We attack, and are winning easily, when the NPC mage casts Rainbow Pattern. The DM doesn't read the spell first and casts it very high up thinking that if we see it, we can be affected. When we pointed out that the spell affects only those within the spell area an argument insues, which ends when the DM slams his books closed and walks out without a word. Needless to say he didn't play with our group for a while and has not been allowed to DM our group since
KoalaKnight 05-31-06, 12:07 AM	Oh man.. I've so got this. Goes a few years back to 3.0. Small city Hobby / CCG store. There's a modest group of people wanting to get some D20 action in. So... the store owner gets this great idea.. they can play in his store. He charges $5 a session which normally lasted about 4 hours @ 1 table. But.. okay.. they're taking up space.. so.. let the wheels of mercantile spin. I'm put in charge of DMing as I managed the store. Getting paid to play D&D? Sounds like a great idea! So.. the first few sessions go.. while I don't like the idea of charging people to play.. not my store. Then.. the genius has an amazing idea... he'll be the DM... ...use D&D mechanics to raise even more money. Step one. Character creation fee to join the campaign. $10 + additional fees Additional Fees: - Any new players coming into the campaign started @ level 1... unless you paid $x.xx to be the level of everyone else. - If you wanted to be a 'non-core' class, prestige class or race... $x.xx fee. - If you wanted to be an evil character... $x.xx fee. - If you wanted to be a monsterous character... $x.xx fee. Other 'expenses': - $5 per session. - If you died... there was a $x.xx fee to create a new character. (I believe half of Step one if I remember right.) So.. after all these fees... someone might possibly.. maybe... see some rational.. help the business... etc. Here's the kicker. As the DM.. he'd use every trick in the book to kill characters.. but not the entire party.. so the campaign would continue.. and noone would want to leave. Case in point. 7 characters. Max level of 4. Min of 1. They encounter a Dracolich. 6 die. The 7th "mysteriously" gets spared with a warning from the dracolich to leave all his belongings and run back to town. ...and this happened probably every, if not every other.. session.
ArcTan 05-31-06, 01:19 AM	Had one DM who demanded that I play a level 1 aristocrat female bedouin exotic dancer. I said no. He said that he had rolled the dice, and that was what they said. I said no, thanks to that campaign. That sounds like a roundabout way of disinviting you from the campaign, really.
thasis 05-31-06, 01:49 AM	My friend who is a genius makes one common mistake that pisses me off. Or should I say two. First he makes almost every game heavily based of his recent video-game obssession. Secondly, he streamlines the game to make it a story which always ends bad for the players. Here's a real story. 1.) PC's go into town 2.) Town gets invaded by mysterious demons 3.) Faced to wade through Lv3 demons with a 1st level party of 4 4.) Finnaly decides to escape to roof (which conviently is the only place to go, as suggested by the DM) 5.) Get to roof top, fight off more demons. Demons surroud house so no escape. 6.) Big Bad Epic Demon comes. Forced to work for him or die. 7.) Try to diplomatically discuss plans with demons. Because we suggest something against the demon we get into a 30 min role-play discussion between the party and the demon. 8.) Demon kills us in the end because we're inferior mortals. 9.) End of session. That was a tame tale...
Hariman 05-31-06, 02:01 AM	Any DM that boots a player without ever telling the player about the problems/issues that caused the player to be booted. Doesn't make sense? Try being a player who gets a "You're booted" notice, without even being given a chance to change or warned that you might be booted. Yes, I'll admit that I was being a problem. But not even trying to talk it out is insulting. EVERY DM advice thread about problem players says that you should talk the problem out with your player/players before you boot someone. Can't you tell I'm a little sore about being booted without warning? Especially since It was about a year with that group before I was booted.
kelvinaw273 05-31-06, 08:13 AM	A few of these could apply to me as a DM, I must admit, but only under special circumstances. 1) Learning the new rules early on, I made some errors regarding spell-casting and AoO. 2) I have 'disinvited' players by limiting their choice of character. This was actually due to the player asking to join at the last minute after all backgrounds and new characters had been created and we were about to start, so all I could off was a pre-genned NPC unless I made the rest of party wait for an hour or two. 3) I have never charged for a session, though, other than a whip-around for tea & coffee! 4) I have booted players ... when I had a deputation from the other players saying: "You have three options: 1) get rid of him, 2) get rid of all of us, or 3) we kill him on your property, bury his body under the patio and if caught all swear that you did it." That kind of ties your hands a little ...
KVW 05-31-06, 09:17 AM	A few years ago back in the day of 2nd ed we had a DM who awarded xp on a merit only basis. Actually a combat merit only basis. We started at first level and actualy took xp penalties for fumbled roles. This system worked great if you were a fighter but was not good for anyone else. I played the party cleric and got no xp for healing just for casting destructive spells and swinging my mace. He also banned turning because it was not fair for the fighters. In the end his system looked like this 2 4th level fighters 1, 2nd level cleric, 1, 1st level mage and this is after 3 moduals. I don't play with him anymore.
Granpa_Weatherwax 05-31-06, 11:17 AM	giving xp out on a kills basis. the big bad fighter gets ahead of the mages and the archers, then the mages get ahead and then the archers get left behind. so infuriating.
Serow 05-31-06, 12:43 PM	Okay, here's one. we started out at, ketch this!, lvl 0. Sorc's and lvl0 do not mix. I only had lvl 0 spells (how ironic) And the DM thought this was well ballanced. Well balanced?! The fighter had a keened weapon, the cleric was alloted extra turning, the ragner had a +1 bow, and the sorc got 3 lvl 0 spells... He really didn't like sorc's, cause sorc's = magic, magic= easier gaming for the players, easy playing= mad DM for some reason. Every chance he got, he threw an anti magic field at me. How many orc and trogylite caves perm. anti magic fields? Thats a little over the hedge, don't cha think?
Gauze Fireforge 06-01-06, 01:50 AM	Oh man.. I've so got this. Goes a few years back to 3.0. Small city Hobby / CCG store. There's a modest group of people wanting to get some D20 action in. So... the store owner gets this great idea.. they can play in his store. He charges $5 a session which normally lasted about 4 hours @ 1 table. But.. okay.. they're taking up space.. so.. let the wheels of mercantile spin. I'm put in charge of DMing as I managed the store. Getting paid to play D&D? Sounds like a great idea! So.. the first few sessions go.. while I don't like the idea of charging people to play.. not my store. Then.. the genius has an amazing idea... he'll be the DM... ...use D&D mechanics to raise even more money. Step one. Character creation fee to join the campaign. $10 + additional fees Additional Fees: - Any new players coming into the campaign started @ level 1... unless you paid $x.xx to be the level of everyone else. - If you wanted to be a 'non-core' class, prestige class or race... $x.xx fee. - If you wanted to be an evil character... $x.xx fee. - If you wanted to be a monsterous character... $x.xx fee. Other 'expenses': - $5 per session. - If you died... there was a $x.xx fee to create a new character. (I believe half of Step one if I remember right.) So.. after all these fees... someone might possibly.. maybe... see some rational.. help the business... etc. Here's the kicker. As the DM.. he'd use every trick in the book to kill characters.. but not the entire party.. so the campaign would continue.. and noone would want to leave. Case in point. 7 characters. Max level of 4. Min of 1. They encounter a Dracolich. 6 die. The 7th "mysteriously" gets spared with a warning from the dracolich to leave all his belongings and run back to town. ...and this happened probably every, if not every other.. session. YOU WIN!, no doubt about it! Its so funny :rofl: it makes me want to cry :bigeyes:
Drone23 06-04-06, 07:33 PM	This all happened at a con several years ago... 1) A DM gave us pre-gens to play in his game and I got the female bard. We needed horses to get to the rest of the adventure and didn't have enough money. So he TOLD me that my bard performed certain "favors" for the stablemaster in exchange for the horses because that's what happened the first time he ran the adventure. Let's just say if I had the Silent Spell feat I would have still been able to cast spells... 2) The last night of the con, my friend suggested I use a pass I got for a cancelled game to get in on this one DM's last game of the con. "She's really good, blah, blah, blah. You'll have a great time, blah, blah." The game starts at midnight and goes until 8 am. OK, I'll give it a try. We can use our own characters and I chose my halfling fighter. He's a tough, gritty little guy on par with The Punisher. I tell her I have a flame tongue sword. She asks how I got it. There must be a reason I have it because all the magic in Lord of the Rings was there for a reason so I must have a good reason to have it as well. I say he picked it up on one of his many adventures. Not good enough. She disallows my sword. WTF? She then rants for ten minutes about how they had very little magic in LOTR and D&D should be like that. What?! The One Ring, Aragorn's sword, Gandalf's sword, Sting, the elven cloaks, Sam's rope (a rope of climbing?), etc is a "little magic?" After I tell her about my character, she TELLS me I'm going to be in the "comic relief" section of the party with the mage who was changed into a female by a girdle of femininity. And, of course, he also has the hots for said mage. "Uh, no, he doesn't," I reply. The rest of the party is made up of two anthropomorphic catgirls, a brother and sister fighting team who she tells half way through the adventure to "roleplay an argument between you two", and my friend playing her DMPC, an undead fighter with a Dex of 9 who can still slash as many arrows out of the air as he wants, even if twenty archers all fire at him at once. Which is exactly what happened near the start of the adventure. Long story short: my character was mesmerized and swallowed by a giant cobra (no save and no attack roll required), I can't cut my way out because I'm still mesmerized so the mage has to get me out; I figure out who's been murdering the greatest elf and centaur archers about an hour into the game (a merchant house called Draconath or somesuch guttural nonsense; it couldn't have been the other merchant houses because they had names like Hawkmoon and Lightsword [good guys, obviously]). And the kicker is this DM had recently been published in Dragon magazine (back in the early 90's) !!!
Hochiu 06-04-06, 08:09 PM	KoalaKnight, I hope he charged people to play card games there. Regardless of that, he should die. Just flat out die. Extorting people because of a love of a hobby is vile.
Karazephryn 06-04-06, 08:35 PM	Okay, this was in a Spycraft game a couple years ago. The biggest problem wasn't so much the DM as a couple of the other players. The DM sure acted like he was picking on two of us players as cannon fodder for the campaign. Now the first time it was my fault for failing 3 strength checks in a row. (I rolled a 3 on the last one.) The options were sacrifice 3 team members or blow a good sized hole in the middle of the ocean due to all the nukes on the submarine... Easy choice, and for that I don't blame anyone. The second time, it was clear that the DM was picking on a couple of people in particular... And then... THEN... the problem player ABANDONED the three of us that had gotten captured. If I'd gone back, I was going to go back as my character's older sister and the first thing I would have done was kill the characters of the problem players. We ended up not going back to the campaign. Beyond that, really, the only bad experiences I've had are with players and not DMs.
Snommelp 06-04-06, 08:51 PM	We had one DM who, frankly, scared us a bit. The cleric had died in the first session after one hit from some orc or another, and so after that all of our characters (especially the cleric) were very cautious. Fast forward to a few adventures later. The cleric finds a treasure chest. Our rogue wasn't around for some reason, so the cleric opened the chest up. The DM informs him that he pulled out a sword that felt evil to the touch. The cleric's player proceeds to complain that he only said open, not reach in. Normally a bad argument, but as I said earlier, the cleric's gotten paranoid after he got killed. The DM avoided the argument by throwing a monster at us. The cleric reaches for his mace, and for some reason the sword's in his hand instead. He tries to put it away and get his mace, but gets the sword again. We leave the dungeon and a celestial approaches us. The celestial tells the cleric that his sword is an evil artifact of some kind, and because he used it he is being stripped of his spells and abilities (turning, domain powers, etcetera). So now we have a healer who can't heal, because a magic sword jumped out of a random treasure chest and attached itself to his hand. Did I mention that we were second level? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Same DM, different game. I'm playing a fighter type. We're in a deserted town, and for some reason or another we split up to look around. The DM pulls me aside and runs an encounter with me. I find an enemy who's got an arrow pointed at my chest, and all I'm armed with is my sword. He's too far away to reach, so I duck back behind the corner. He follows me, but stays out of reach. I charge. I roll a 1. The DM looks at me. DM: Did you just roll a one? Me: Uh... yeah. DM: Well, you weren't going to be able to hit him anyway, but since you rolled a one... I somehow managed to throw my sword a good fifty feet or so and lodge it into a door. In this campaign setting, my character's life is tied to this sword. If his sword is taken too far away, he gets sick and dies. Luckily, the archer didn't take my sword. Instead, he shot at me and (without rolling) pinned me to a wall (I wasn't near any walls). And when this guy wasn't DMing, he was one of those rules-lawyer power players who always remembered rules that helped him and conveniently forgot rules that weren't good for him. He was the same way when we played M:tG or pretty much any game more complicated than tic-tac-toe.
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-04-06, 09:12 PM	I once had a DM who all but forced everyone to be a fighter. He thought that magic was overpowered and all but worshiped lord of the rings, so he said that all mages had to be a special race, and said that race was NPC only(even bard, cleric, and druid). He allowed paladin and ranger, but thought that paladin's save bonuses, turns, special mount, and smite evil were overpowered and didn't allow spells, so paladin basicly became a fighter without bonus feats. As for ranger, no spells, no animal companion, and said only 2 skill points instead of 4. He also thought sneak attacks were overpowered, and that monks' unarmed attacks were overpowered, (sensing a pattern?) so he MASSIVELY nerfed the rogue and the monk. He also only allowed the player's handbook, no other book no matter what, so the only thing you could play without it being "overpowered" was the fighter, so just about everyone was one. He then said that all magic items were massively rare, as only this special race could make them, so you couldn't buy magic items. He would not put any good treasure in his modules. By 3rd level we had 2000 gp between all four of us. He would occasionally put a magic item in, but it was something really useless and was the highpoint of the adventure. He treated +1 weapons like artifacts, we once had to play 3 sessions to get a +1 longsword off a BBEG. He accused everyone of being a powergamer. He would do abilities roll 3d6 put it in order, so I had to have my first fighter have an 8 in strength and a 11 in constitution. He wouldn't allow any rerolls whatsoever, someone had their highest score a 12. If we complaned he called us powergamers. We were four fighters, no good equipment (fighters need equipment more than anyone else), terable abilities, and we were fighting monsters 2 CRs or more higher than we were. No resurections, so we had to make new chars whenever we died (which was often). He then complaned that we couldn't beat anything!
Karazephryn 06-04-06, 09:13 PM	Oy! That reminds me! My best friend, who really is a very good DM, absolutely INSISTS that she runs all of her campaigns using RPGA rules. Now, she first did this to get used to them for gamedays and cons and such. Okay, I can deal... Now she wants EVERYONE IN THE GROUP to run their games by the same rules... and she doesn't like it when I run homebrew campaigns that use tweaked 3.5 rules. There are some things that I say don't make sense. Like the Keen enchant and the Improved Critical feat NOT stacking... If you actually think about it, they should. Keen is a sharper edge, while the feat is LEARNING TO USE YOUR WEAPON BETTER... So if you have a better weapon, and you know how to use it, then they should stack... but I digress.
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-04-06, 09:22 PM	Different DM, he seemed to think that D&D was set up to be players vs the DM. He would kill us allmost constantly, throwing balors and dracoliches on us at 6th level. Every time we died we had to make our characters at 1st level, so the highest anyone ever got was 8th level. He would put okay treasure in the modules, as he followed a chart of treasure per level found in the dm's guide. We died on average about twice in a session, about 3-5 encounters went by without a death. I dont think an npc ever failed a saving throw, and we succeded on them about 1 out of 7 situations. His plots were okay, but like I said, he went out of his way to kill us. It eventually got so annoying that I walked out in the middle of a session after my character got 1-hitted by a very old green dragon when I was 3rd level.
Karazephryn 06-04-06, 09:33 PM	Different DM, he seemed to think that D&D was set up to be players vs the DM. He would kill us allmost constantly, throwing balors and dracoliches on us at 6th level. Every time we died we had to make our characters at 1st level, so the highest anyone ever got was 8th level. He would put okay treasure in the modules, as he followed a chart of treasure per level found in the dm's guide. We died on average about twice in a session, about 3-5 encounters went by without a death. I dont think an npc ever failed a saving throw, and we succeded on them about 1 out of 7 situations. His plots were okay, but like I said, he went out of his way to kill us. It eventually got so annoying that I walked out in the middle of a session after my character got 1-hitted by a very old green dragon when I was 3rd level. DMs that go out of the way to kill characters are just asking to be the victims of the wonderful maze maker at IronyGames. http://www.irony.com/mkmaze.html Choose the "Please, please, please don't!" option and click the button labled "I hate my players' guts." Then, when you get to DM... make sure that his character, and ONLY his character gets put into that maze. See how HE likes being victimized. *nod*
Vlorich San'cheh 06-04-06, 09:54 PM	This was about3 months ago.. sorry it's a bit long. There were a lot of little problems that just added up to an aggravting experience. We (my fiance and I) find a DM, through our local game store, who was starting a campaign. He says he's running 2e DnD, in Mystara. When we get to the game, however, the DM has decided that he's actually going to run 3.5 for the first time, in Mystara still. I was still fine with this. I asked if I could play a Sorc, to make it easier for him (limited spells to check over, etc.) He says no, magic doesn't work that way (spontaneously) in his campaign, Bard's ok though for some reason. While I'm annoyed that he's not allowing a BASE class, it is his campaign. He says we are rich nobles and have 2x the normal skill points and approx. 5000 gp. (I think he assumes incorrectly that this will make us harder to kill) I play a male Cleric, my fiance picks a female Rogue, her reasoning being that if she were supposed to be both a female noble and an effective fighter, she'd have to be sneaky about it. Ok the session starts. The Dm informs us OoC that the player/PC that was the leader won't make it, so we need to pick a new leader. He then changes his mind and says that because my fiance's PC is the highest ranking now she is the leader. The next session the former leader PC is there. My fiance says she'll relinquish control. The Dm says no, we can't change leaders!!!! The biggest problem was the DM didn't know the rules or understand game balance. Examples: DM:"Roll a perception check" ME, (invariably): "which?" DM [glare at me]: "a spot " DM: "You see a large shadow fly far overhead, Spot check" One Player makes his spot check, and finds out its a Green Dragon (huge at least). We're all level 2, and in the middle of a desert. The worst for me was this.. DM: "You see a cloaked figure emerge from the woods flanked by two humans" Players now 3rd level, attack and the cloaked figure removes his hood. We see a gaunt faced old man. Fear effect, I am the only one who saves. Me, (assume OoC that this is an undead, my PC's specialty): "I roll a Knowledge Religion check" I get my max, a 28. DM, doesn't even check a book: "Nope, you don't know what it is" Me: "Ok so it's not any type of undead" (not wanting to waste any of my PREPARED cure spells or turning checks), "I use my Divine Spell Power feat, and cast Summon MOn 2 at +2 CL" Dm gets mad that I tell him what I do AND what my summon does each round. The battle ensues and I get beaten to a bloody pulp, 5 or six rounds later. I ask the DM about what the hooded figure looked like. He describes it. My first thought: lich. But that would be stupid, but considering he's sent us up against a Huge Green Dragon, 100 fighters, and 3 wraiths I ask. Me, confuddled be his contrary description and my roll: "But its not undead?" DM: "oh its undead" Me, trying to maintain my composure: "then why wasnt i able to identify it w/ Knowledge religion" Dm : "Why would you, its undead, you'd need to make a Knowledge undead check" Me: "Arggh... THAT BECAME Know. Religion in 3.5" Dm: "Oh. " no apology, no allowing me to restart 5 rounds back. I left right then and there.
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-04-06, 10:28 PM	A friend of mine had a DM who didn't understand ANYTHING, but he thought he did and wouldn't let anyone convince him otherwise. Every time a player called him on a misinterpreted rule, he would reply with "I'm the DM!" or "Rule 0!". Among his stupidities were: Thinking that you got an attack of opertunity every time you did anything in a threatened square. Not realizing that bigger creatures had bigger reaches, so EVERYTHING had a 5ft reach. Thinking that having the Exotic Weapon Profincy feat gave you profincy with every exotic weapon. Not realizing that monsters can attack in ways other than a basic attack, so he never used special attacks or spell like abilities. Thinking that multiclassing worked by taking XP into a second class like it did in 2e. Not understanding that some spells have costs and longer or shorter casting times, so every spell no matter what had a 1 standard action casting time and no gp or xp costs. Thinking that all magic items were artifacts. Not understanding that PCs need equipment to survive, so he almost never gave any treasure at all. PCs got like 50gp per adventure. Some other stuff, but it was a year or two since he told me about it.
Gryllmyre 06-04-06, 10:52 PM	One of my peeves was generously DMing a player's party in 2e from 1st all the way up to level 16+. My characters all seemed to be stuck around 11th level with no real chance to enjoy the spoils of being higher level. Until another DM came along that I had a lot more fun with, then the game actually became fun for me. It was nice playing the game with someone whose characters' careers we both mutually cared about. DM's with a silent desire to keep characters limited deserve to be trashed. He and another player liked talking to each other behind the DM screen about my characters' impending fates. I'm glad I'm not hanging around them any more. Don't waste your time with people you don't enjoy playing with.
AZNsupermarket 06-05-06, 12:08 AM	my current dm planned out the adventure to play to all my character's weaknesses my character is an archer who deals precision damage (only affects living creatures). Of the three encounters encounter we have had so far, two were against undead and of those two, one was in a wirlwind where my arrows "auto-miss". The third encounter was against a super bunny with 5 levels in barbarians (against me and a paladin - both third level). The bunny had the ability to increase it size by two catagories, and was assumed to have max hp per level. The paladin and I dealt over its max hp in damage and it still survived because my dm just wanted it to kill us. We got some xp even though it managed to knock us both out, but the characters who didn't participate in this battle got more xp than us because they were "doing more important things" than we were. BTW what the characters were trying to do was invent a hand-grenade on a deserted island using sand, a hollowed out tree stump, and pine cone oil. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: EDIT: oh yeah, every item I try to use, end up being cursed. Anytime an item seems like it could have been useful for me, he makes sure that someone else gets it. When I complain about how he pre-built this campaign to screw me over, he says that it's my fault for telling him my character concept before hand. He now is imposing some new house rules so he knows what items I bought using the money I got from the amount awarded before adventuring because he doesn't want me to technically defeat another one of his killer bunnies again by using potions of invisibility wisely.
stargate525 06-05-06, 01:02 AM	The third encounter was against a super bunny with 5 levels in barbarians it IS the rabbit! Sorry, couldn't help myself...
HeartbreakerHabberdasher 06-06-06, 02:13 AM	Well, considering what Zaku's Post is, I'd have to say... ME! All I do is make stories that are never followed, characters that are never talked to since they are believed to be evil and killed before defending themselves, and bosses that seem impossible but are quite easy to kill if they would look around the room. ...oh and also my neighbor that lives behind me, considering if you dont heed his every order he turns you into a furry weasle.
hmmmm 06-06-06, 03:28 AM	Well, considering what Zaku's Post is, I'd have to say... ME! All I do is make stories that are never followed, characters that are never talked to since they are believed to be evil and killed before defending themselves, and bosses that seem impossible but are quite easy to kill if they would look around the room. ...oh and also my neighbor that lives behind me, considering if you dont heed his every order he turns you into a furry weasle. I have already read Zakus post, but that guy who turns you into weasles, has he read the Dungeon Masters Guide?
HeartbreakerHabberdasher 06-06-06, 04:34 AM	yes, it's the fact that he choses to do so due to rule zero.
hmmmm 06-06-06, 05:12 AM	That rule has no meaning if the person using it does not know how to play, or they inturn abuse the rule.
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 07:26 AM	That rule has no meaning if the person using it does not know how to play, or they inturn abuse the rule. But doesn't rule 0 make it so you technically don't have to know all the rules in the book thus meaning you don't have to technically know how to play?
hmmmm 06-06-06, 07:32 AM	But doesn't rule 0 make it so you technically don't have to know all the rules in the book thus meaning you don't have to technically know how to play? And if you don't know how to play, and you are GMing you should be shot.
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 07:43 AM	And if you don't know how to play, and you are GMing you should be shot. But rule 0 says it's fine.
hmmmm 06-06-06, 07:53 AM	And rule 0 should be burned if used in that sence.
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 07:58 AM	We should design a rule "-1" that fixes the problems that rule 0 has.
DracoPhoenix 06-06-06, 07:59 AM	But doesn't rule 0 make it so you technically don't have to know all the rules in the book thus meaning you don't have to technically know how to play? I believe the original intent was to speed up the game by, in the event of a dispute, allowing the dm to say "we'll play it this way". Though many a bad DM has used it as justification for either not knowing the rules or being "socially challenged" (that should get through the filters :))
hmmmm 06-06-06, 08:36 AM	We should design a rule "-1" that fixes the problems that rule 0 has. Yes we should, or call it 0 squared.
HeartbreakerHabberdasher 06-06-06, 08:55 AM	But mathmatically that would be incorrect if called zero squared
hmmmm 06-06-06, 09:01 AM	I know that, but why bother to make such a stupid rule?
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 09:08 AM	To fix Rule 0.
Wood 06-06-06, 09:24 AM	it IS the rabbit! LOOK AT THE BONES!!! back on topic... In all the years I've been DMing I've endured just about every complaint a DM can endure. As any DM knows, this is inevitable. Sometimes things just dont work out. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But I think alot of the complaints I get about my DMing style have roots with how I learned to DM, and therefore with my mentor; my brother Dave. Dave was a nazi. In and out of game he was just a mean b&^#*!%. Still to this day I think he's one of the greatest storytellers on the planet, but he didn't consider the session a success unless he could visibly notice the suffering of the character being transferred to the player. He treated the title "Dungeon Master" as though it meant "The Merciless God of the Gaming World". And he picked on one player, and therefore one character, more than the others. For this one player in particular he would often go so far as to change actual game mechanics right in the middle of a session. Example: (keep in mind that this is 1st ed., the players all in their early teens, and he was in his twenties.) DM: "alright, uhhh, you. gimme a strength check." player: "Why?" DM: "Because I want to know if you're going to live through what I'm about to do to you." (character in question was a fighter with 18/?? str) player: "Uhhh, I got a four. I made it." DM: "Whats your strength? 18 right? Well in that case a four is a failure, and you're gonna die within the next five minutes." player: (rapidly searching for precedent in the PHB) "I think you're wrong on that one Dave." DM: "Jeremiah... (glaring with disgust) the Dungeon Master is never wrong. Now for those of you who aren't going to die a horrible death I suggest that-" player: "Wait a minute you can't do that. When you roll an ability check you have to roll UNDER the ability score. You can't just change the rules and kill me. I don't even know why I am rolling." It was at this point that Dave picked up the big red plastic bat that happened to be nearby and lunged at Jeremiah. ( ya know those short fat bats that toddlers play wiffle ball with) Jeremiah dodged away and ran to the bathroom where he immediately locked the door. Dave pursued him, tried the door knob, found it locked and then proceeded to whack the bat against the door and verbally taunt the terrified player. Only two things stick out about the conversation at this point. DM: "Come out of there you little hippy. I promise I won't hurt you." player: "SOMEBODY CALL MY MOM!!!" We all thought it was hilarious. He was always giving somebody grief about something. I still game with some of the guys from that first group, and we do sometimes reminisce about the years we played with Dave as DM. In fact he is the focal point of many of our most retold tales of gaming hijinks. But he was still a nazi. :D
HeartbreakerHabberdasher 06-06-06, 09:25 AM	Whoops misspost IGNORE
Starchaserva 06-06-06, 09:35 AM	It seems to me that the one thing that always reappears in this thread is DM's inlcuding that one "famous" female one from a while back forcing players to do, or play certains kinds of characters. The whole damn point of the game was coming in and playing what you wanted, or else, they'd never print any player books, and print a new one called the DM's Guide to Building Your Own Wonderland. Players hate being told what to play, especially when its something stupid or demeaning. I'd quit if a DM flat out told me that I had to play something. There's a difference between, i'd like you to stick to these books, and guess what? you're charater is a cross-dressing hadozee prostitue with a speech impediment. Anyway, my bad DM contribution is two fold, first, I just straight don't like Rules Lawyers. The second, DM's who blatantly favor certain Player Characters. For instance, the PC wandered off, and happened to find a room full of nothing but plat and wondrous magic items, eventually walking out with fifteen seperate items, whilst everyone else got seven. This has happened twice. There's also been at least one campaign session where for roughly three out of five hours, the rest of the players sat and waited for the pc to finish his side campaign that he set up with the DM
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 09:35 AM	Rule -1: This rule is unaffected by rule 0. Rule 0 does not apply. Does this sound good or will "rule -1" need a revision?
hmmmm 06-06-06, 09:51 AM	I think that it is fine, from now on I am going with rule -1.
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 09:55 AM	Word, and now that we have rule -1 worked out... Worst DMing experience I had was with a DM who stood way to close to rule 0. You might as well have thrown all the rules right out the window.
9JACK9 06-06-06, 11:01 AM	Rule 0 states this: "The DM is always right". This means that when the DM makes a call, that's his final decision, and that's what goes. For instance, DM's decide what the DC is for jumping across a gap with a 10' running start, in the rain, on smooth stone cobblestones, with a dire hampster on your head. The DM decides on the approporate DC, and has you roll a jump check. The ONLY thing that "Rule 0" protects him from, is one player wasting five minutes of game time telling the DM why he should lower (or raise, if the character isn't his) the numbers. It's the DM's job to know the rules, and to be fair and impartial to all of his players. But if somebody constantly argues, or complains, then it slows down the game, and ruins playing for everybody. The players have to trust that the DM knows what he's doing, and making the correct judgements, to the best of his ability. HOWEVER, if the DM decides on a DC, or ability roll, and a player pulls out a rare and obscure rule that the DM dosn't know about, then it's up to the DM to either change his ruling, or decide that it dosn't apply in this situation. IE: One of the players says that he thinks he remembered that Dire Hampsters can "Aid Another" on Jump checks from the Monster Manual, and that Dire Hampsters have a +4 to jump. Who could have guessed? Then, it basicly comes down to if your DM is a **********, or not. Most DM's, would, of course, let you add a +2 to your Jump check, based off this new information. Other ********** DM's, however, might try and hide behind "Rule 0", and say that they already made their decision. This is why they made "Rule -1". Rule -1 states that "Players don't have to tolerate ********** DM's, who don't know/bend/break/abuse/make up the rules". And, I believe that most players will tell you, there are many ways to show your displeasure... 1, The "DM Hammer", for instance, gets pulled out on many of these threads. 2, Try and help correct the DM, and guide him through this awkward stage in him DM career, to help him get better and improve with time. 3, Leave the **********, and find a better DM. or 4, Totally screw his game up in every way, shape, and form. This works best when everybody's in on it. IE, the party killing everyone they meet, making stupid charcters and not naming them (cause' they're just gonna die anyway) and ruining the DM's Railroad as best they can, till he storms out. 5. Intervention. 6. Everybody looks up rules, spell decriptions, and DC's for skill checks. That way, EVERYbody knows what the typical challange rating is for simple tasks, and they're not relying on DM ********** to make up numbers, or spells. *Disclaimer: I do not endorse or condone #4, but I think it would be fun to do* Wow, my post got kinda long. Sorry bout' that, especially cause' I'm pretty sure most people know this stuff already...
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 11:09 AM	Rule 0 states this: "The DM is always right even if it makes no sense what so ever". This is why "rule -1" is now in play. "rule -2" = new rule. It states "The DM is right when it makes sense, or is sensible to rule as such."
Serow 06-06-06, 11:17 AM	Whats that noise? bump bump bump...
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 11:42 AM	Adding to the list of bad DMing: DMs with no sense of humor what so ever because D&D IS MOST SERIOUS BUSINESS!
Starchaserva 06-06-06, 01:01 PM	Oh yeah, there's nothing worse than the type of DM from "Scared of Girls" who thinks that he's recreating Lord of the Rings in his basement. THe best games I've been in are the ones where the jokes and innuendo fly, not everything is dire. It's cool if you're running a horror campaig, though. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. DMs are people too, they can be jerks, idiots, they can hold grudges, and attempt to make up for past slights. They're basically given the power to do whatever they want, and some people just horribly take advantage of that. If the game isn't fun, for a majority of the players, tell the DM to go **** himself. It's not that hard to find new DM's and players in the modern world. And even if you hide behind "he's the only dm in the area" why don't one of you take up the Dungeon Master's Guide and show the prick how to run a game instead of just complaining. Some DMs just like the ability to dick people over, and do whatever they want, and some even deserve to have THEIR favorite pcs get tortured. It's not about the whims of the DM, if he doesn't have a group, he's just a ass with a bunch of books. There are many ways to deal with it. Screw with the dm, try to talk it out, stage a mutiny with the other pcs, be a bigger rules lawyer than he is, and the be all to end all, simply quit the game. It's only a game, something for everyone to enjoy, not just for the machinations of the Dm's whims. It shouldn't be DMs vs Players, it should be DMs working with the players
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-06-06, 01:27 PM	As far as I can tell, there are ten kinds of bad DMs: 1. Those who dont know what they're doing. (like my friend's DM whom I described on page 1) 2. Those who force players do play characters they don't want to play 3. Those who think D&D is DM vs the players, and kill them constantly. 4. Those who obviously favor some players over others. 5. Those who delibratly act like a jerk. (OOC like insulting players, or IC like making up rules specificly to annoy players) 6. Those who force players to do something they dont want to do. (railroading) 7. Those who change rules whenever they want to. 8. Those who don't understand that players need equipment to survive, and never give treasure. 9. Those who disallow a vital part of a balanced party (like arcane magic) 10. Those who allow real life events to get in the way of in game stuff .(Like killing a character because the player insulted the DM) 11. Those who make sexist remarks and/or impliment sex into adventures because a player made his/her character female.
9JACK9 06-06-06, 02:21 PM	"The DM is always right even if it makes no sense what so ever" I wrote that? Really? Well, tell you what, in a way, yes. The DM's job is to be fair, and you don't need the rules to go crazy into the negatives to tell you that. If the DM decides on a ruling, the players should trust the DM to know what he's doing, and expect that the DM is playing with the same rules the players have. Just because the players think the DM "Isn't making any sence", dosn't automaticly mean the DM's cheating or bending the rules. It's expected that the DM is playing fairly, too. That's the responsiblity we, the DM's have. I know my players don't think that I'm cheating when we play, otherwise, they wouldn't play under me. They'd find somebody else to run their games. And, with their faith in me, it's my responsibilty to run the game to the best of my ability, not to run roughshawed over the game and their characters. Get it?
The_Unfan 06-06-06, 02:27 PM	Get it? Indeed, but that doesn't make rule 0 any less retarded. Rule 0, states in so little words: THERE ARE NO RULES WHAT SO EVER ASIDE FROM WHAT THE DM SAYS. So in turn, I feel like rule 0 is dumb, even as a DM.
Witch 06-06-06, 02:33 PM	Rule 0 is a great rule, as long as it's not mis- or abused.
WayneTheGame 06-06-06, 03:10 PM	Rule 0 is/was intended to prevent holding up the game with a rules dispute, not to give the DM carte blanche to do whatever he pleases or to be an iron-fisted tyrant.
Serow 06-06-06, 03:14 PM	oh! l00K I f0und a zer0 000000! :eek: I get it... :embarrass 0P please... :weep:
Wood 06-06-06, 04:08 PM	Ya know... I hate it when people respond to a post on a message board with something like "say what?" or "what did you say?" or anything along those lines. Really irritates me. I mean, why don't they just go reread the confusing post until it makes some kind of sense. It's not like dude repeating what he posted will make it make any more sense. So I ask you why then would anyone ever reply to a post with, "what?" However, in reply to this... oh! l00K I f0und a zer0 000000! :eek: I get it... :embarrass 0P please... :weep: all I can say is... "What?"
WayneTheGame 06-06-06, 04:22 PM	all I can say is... "What?" I concur. At least keep it on topic, folks...
speeblefreak 06-06-06, 04:35 PM	1. Those who dont know what they're doing. (like my friend's DM whom I described on page 1) 3. Those who think D&D is DM vs the players, and kill them constantly. 4. Those who obviously favor some players over others. 6. Those who force players to do something they dont want to do. (railroading) 8. Those who don't understand that players need equipment to survive, and never give treasure. 10. Those who allow real life events to get in the way of in game stuff .(Like killing a character because the player insulted the DM) 11. Those who conbine all the above elements as follows: "Okay, player 1, you and player 2 (who hasn't arrived yet) were kinda mad at each other yesterday, so player 1's paladin pushes player 2's cleric off the cliff. He dies and you have to atone." Treasure wasn't a direct part of that, but at level 4 I had less equipment than I did at level 2. I no longer play in that group.
erc1971 06-06-06, 05:20 PM	Rule -1. See my sig. Works well with a hammergun or a nice big fist to the face ;) On topic... Name removed to protect the stupid. Our game consisted of 3 level headed people playing PC's, one idiot playing a PC and another idiot as DM. Game starts. We all go into the woods to hunt down a creature that is killing townsfolk. What we find is a steam powered, robotic, 6 legged creature that is around CR10 - keep in mind we are 1st level. We all try to hurt it, everything we have is completely inneffective - critical hits bounce off, mages spells are resisted. Then, idiot player who is a psionicist kills it in 1 hit with his psionics, turns out this creature can only be hurt by psionics. Favoritism suspect at this point. Next adventure. By the end of the 1st adventure, our idiot Psionicist had 7 or 8 +5 weapons, and a slew of other monty haul magic items. I forget what, but we ran into about 100 creatures of some type. Us 3 normal guys take 4 or 5 rounds to kill 1 monster each. Idiot psionic and the just as uber DMPC that arrived are killing 5 or 10 per round. I remember us giving each other knowing glances as the DM and idiot psionicist were having a blast laying waste to the monsters, forgetting we where even there. Then, idiot psionicist misses a session. That session was us following the uber DMPC around and watching his awesomeness. The laws of physics changed just to keep us alive so we could see his awesomeness. All packed into a 10 x 10 room, evil mage slams DMPC with a fireball. We are all dead, think again, the fireball only hit the uber DMPC. Now we too can tell tales of his uberness at the tavern tonight. I was playing a Jester type character who was Chaotic Neutral. I was one of 3 people on the planet to play this alignment and not try to abuse it to play Chaotic Stupid. My character would do silly things (though not disruptive, and never did anything to annoy another PC). Perhaps, jump up on a table at a tavern, announce the arrival of the party, tell a stupid joke and juggle - all on the spur of the moment. The other 2 normal people loved my character, and really enjoyed the personality I injected into him. The DM would have every NPC treat my character like an idiotic madman who needed a padded cell, and I had to stop role playing my character just to participate in the game, grr!!! The DM was actually shocked, appauled and ****** off when the 3 of us said we were quitting. He did threaten to come over to our houses and kill us, though none of us took him seriously, the guy was afraid to leave his own house, and afraid of the light. He always kept his blinds closed, and you had to squint to read your character sheets it was so dark in his room. ONCE, we got him out of his house to play at another player's house. He went into the basement, sat down, and looked up at the flourescent light with a look of absolute hatred I have never seen duplicated on another person's face ever again. And, I would like to claim that I have won this thread - I don't think anyone can top having thier DM seriously threaten to kill them - not thier character either. The guy is in his 40's now, and still living with him mom. Eric
speeblefreak 06-06-06, 06:16 PM	the guy was afraid to leave his own house, and afraid of the light. <snip> And, I would like to claim that I have won this thread - I don't think anyone can top having thier DM seriously threaten to kill them - not thier character either. He doesn't sound all that serious to me. He went into the basement, sat down, and looked up at the flourescent light with a look of absolute hatred I have never seen duplicated on another person's face ever again. :rofl:
Herald@Large 06-06-06, 06:28 PM	I've had 2 DMs that really irritated me, to the point where I quit the campaign: 1. The Obsessive Rules Lawyer. R was a co-worker who found out I was a D&D player and invited me to join his campaign. This was waaaay back in the days of 1st ed, and R was running the old Temple of Elemental Evil module. I diced up a pretty decent character (elf cleric/ranger) and we were off. I started getting suspicious because the other players seemed so uninterested in the game. Then it came time to level up, and I found out why: R had found an obscure optional rule requiring characters to train in order to level up. This wasn't that bad, except that the cost of training was insanely high: you had to pay as many GP as it took XP to level up. For instance, a 2nd-level thief needed 3000 XP to go up to 3rd, so the character needed to pay 3000 GP in order to train! I was speechless. Where on earth is a 2nd-level character supposed to come up with that much cash? Even worse, you couldn't earn the money by waiting tables or scrubbing floors, you *had* to earn it by adventuring, and you couldn't get any more XP until you'd leveled up! The campaign was at a standstill because of this ridiculous rule, but it was "in the book" and R refused to reconsider. I walked out, and a few weeks later the other players had walked out as well. Of course R blamed *me* for destroying his campaign. :mad: 2. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. K was a member of a group I played in (again, waaaaaay back in the days of 1st ed). We had 4 or 5 DMs, each with separate dungeons, who would trade off so everyone got a chance to play. K decided he wanted to give DMing a try. I lost interest quickly when I found out he was running the old "In Search of the Unknown" module: I'd played through that module twice and DMd it once, so it was a touch on the boring side, but I kept playing in hopes that things might improve. One of my characters died, and since we were too low a level to resurrect or raise him, I diced up a new character, an elf thief. Then I made my mistake: I made this character female. K introduced this new character as a member of another party who had been ambushed and killed by a pack of kobolds, all except for my character. You guessed it: the kobolds kept her as a sex toy, taking turns gang-raping her. :mad: By the time our party found her, she was coated in filth and half out of her mind. Did K give her a chance to clean up or recover? NO! We never found any clean clothes for her, nor a way for her to wash, and when I asked if she was pregnant, K would smirk and say "You can't tell yet". So we announced we were headed back to town to restock on rations & torches & such, and to allow my character to visit the temple. When we got to the dungeon exit, it was completely overgrown with vines and roots that would regrow as quickly as we chopped them away. For *three gaming sessions* K kept this up, neither letting us out nor granting us our earned XP ("you can only get XP when you're back in town"). I finally told K to quit calling me until he was ready to let us out and/or give us our XP. He never called me again. Talk about power going to someone's head ... :banghead:
getgoldcardsoul 06-06-06, 06:41 PM	You guessed it: the kobolds kept her as a sex toy, taking turns gang-raping her. :mad: By the time our party found her, she was coated in filth and half out of her mind. Did K give her a chance to clean up or recover? NO! We never found any clean clothes for her, nor a way for her to wash, and when I asked if she was pregnant, K would smirk and say "You can't tell yet". :uh-huh: W...wh... why did... why did you not bash him in the face? I know around these parts that usually calls for something blunt to be shot out of a crossbow... but I think some spikes need to be added to the ol' hammerhead for this one. :eek:
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-06-06, 07:00 PM	Okay, I offically add this to my Bad DM list: 11. Those who make sexist remarks and/or implement sex into adventures because a player made his/her character female.
Snommelp 06-06-06, 07:36 PM	:uh-huh: W...wh... why did... why did you not bash him in the face? I know around these parts that usually calls for something blunt to be shot out of a crossbow... but I think some spikes need to be added to the ol' hammerhead for this one. :eek: This DM deserves more than the hammer gun. I think it's time to bring back that coveted award, Arturick's Golden Shovel. Ahem... WHAM! dig, dig, dig...
AZNsupermarket 06-06-06, 07:49 PM	LOOK AT THE BONES!!! Ironically, it was the cleric who was trying to invent the hand grenade. We decided after that encounter to call it the holy hand grenade. LOL
Starchaserva 06-06-06, 07:57 PM	Ugh, that whole sex thing is revolting. It's that kind of person that gives gaming a bad name because of immaturity and stupidity. I would walk out myself if forced into that crap. I applaud any player that's stood up to a bad DM
UltimateReality 06-07-06, 01:33 AM	And, I would like to claim that I have won this thread - I don't think anyone can top having thier DM seriously threaten to kill them - not thier character either. This one (http://thingsihate.org/article/123/the_worst_dungeon_master_ever_part_one) is pretty bad too... There was also a thread on RPGnet about creepiest gamers ever, and although this was a case of bad players, some unfortunate person claimed to have been forced to DM for the Brazilian police. I really wish I could find the link -- the story was well told, even if its veracity is suspect. Edit: Found it (http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=2647234&postcount=311) .
Arbitrary Aardvark 06-07-06, 11:20 AM	I've had 2 DMs that really irritated me, to the point where I quit the campaign: R had found an obscure optional rule requiring characters to train in order to level up. This wasn't that bad, except that the cost of training was insanely high: you had to pay as many GP as it took XP to level up. For instance, a 2nd-level thief needed 3000 XP to go up to 3rd, so the character needed to pay 3000 GP in order to train! I was speechless. Where on earth is a 2nd-level character supposed to come up with that much cash? Even worse, you couldn't earn the money by waiting tables or scrubbing floors, you *had* to earn it by adventuring, and you couldn't get any more XP until you'd leveled up! Wow. That takes the cake. IIRC, the cost to level up was 100gp * current level. Given that 1st edition gave xp for gold as well as killing monsters, if you gained enough xp to level, you couldn't possibly have as much gp as xp.
erc1971 06-07-06, 04:50 PM	This one (http://thingsihate.org/article/123/the_worst_dungeon_master_ever_part_one) is pretty bad too... There was also a thread on RPGnet about creepiest gamers ever, and although this was a case of bad players, some unfortunate person claimed to have been forced to DM for the Brazilian police. I really wish I could find the link -- the story was well told, even if its veracity is suspect. Edit: Found it (http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=2647234&postcount=311) . Your first link: Yes, I have read that story before. It was a fun read, and that guy was truly a horrible DM. Though, someone who seriously intended to kill 3 players who left his game would top that (we just knew the guy was too afraid of the outdoors to follow up on his threat. It's 10 years later and we are all still alive, so we were right ;) ) Your 2nd link. WOW!! Luckily those guys were players and not the DM. I would not only have to apologize for falsley claiming a thread win, but then have to bow down, get on my knees and offer the trophy to the true winner. Eric
Herald@Large 06-07-06, 07:39 PM	Wow. That takes the cake. IIRC, the cost to level up was 100gp * current level. Given that 1st edition gave xp for gold as well as killing monsters, if you gained enough xp to level, you couldn't possibly have as much gp as xp. You think that's bad? According to "the book", the price I quoted was only for "Excellent" players. If you were a "Good" player, the price was twice as much. If you were a "Fair" player, it was three times as much, and "Poor" players paid four times as much! :bigeyes: I asked R "What if someone's new to the game and doesn't know the rules very well yet?" He promptly downgraded me from "Excellent" to "Good", just because I'd had the audacity to question his DMing style. That's when I started packing up my dice. I've played with some Rules Lawyers before, both as players and DMs, but R was the absolute worst.
Herald@Large 06-07-06, 07:46 PM	:uh-huh: W...wh... why did... why did you not bash him in the face? I know around these parts that usually calls for something blunt to be shot out of a crossbow... but I think some spikes need to be added to the ol' hammerhead for this one. :eek: What made it even worse was that a few of the other players actually snickered at her plight when we first found her. And one had the gall to trot out that horrible line "Well if rape is inevitable, why not lie back and enjoy it?" (Note to males on this forum: Women loathe that line :censored: ) Fortunately the rest of the group were outraged by this, and one of my best buds in the group said "If I EVER hear that line again out of ANYBODY'S mouth I will rip their tongue out!"
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-07-06, 08:00 PM	Okay, trophy goes (in my opinion at least) to the sexist kobold rapist DM. Anyone that mad with power and so obviously sadistic should be shot with seventeen hammers, then those hammers should be shoved up his ***
Herald@Large 06-07-06, 08:19 PM	Okay, trophy goes (in my opinion at least) to the sexist kobold rapist DM. Anyone that mad with power and so obviously sadistic should be shot with seventeen hammers, then those hammers should be shoved up his *** Thanks, gang. It's been quite healing to have so much support. :cheer: As to K, what irritated me the most about the whole thing was that he never answered our repeated question "Why won't you let us out?", he'd just change the subject. :mad: The other players got equally fed up with his stalling, and his dungeon quickly died. I think I only saw or had contact with him once or twice afterwards. (to my everlasting relief!)
Starchaserva 06-08-06, 12:37 AM	Totally agree with that trophy. This one Dm that I know actually said that he liked having female players in his campaigns because of the possibilty of them having to deal with either rape or attempted rape. I think one of the females in our school's club got out of her seat just to get up and slap him in the face as hard as she could. Suffice to say, girl's rarely ever game with him, and even some guys were disgusted
The_Unfan 06-08-06, 05:17 AM	Indeed, but all that aside I think rape could lead to some nice RP (not actually RPing the rape, but imagine the side affects it could have on your character and such) given that none of the players are offended by such material.
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-08-06, 10:58 AM	How could someone NOT be offended by having her character raped?! :uh-huh:
geekling 06-08-06, 11:19 AM	How could someone NOT be offended by having her character raped?! :uh-huh: Seperation between player and character. You know, like when the DM has monsters attacking my character, he's not actually attacking me the player. But, saying that... The peurile hur-hur-hur rape hur-hur-hur, all too commonly displayed by your archetypical D&D player/DM... is enough to send one of into a frothing feminist rage. And it is something I'd strongly advice against to bring up in a campaign unless everyone involved in the game is mature enough to handle it. Even then it's rather shady.
ski309 06-08-06, 11:29 AM	How could someone NOT be offended by having her character raped?! :uh-huh:I'm not sure if it's possible to not be offended. But if the character can get past it, and the DM has no malice towards the players themselves (aka using it truly as part of the story), it could potentially be a wonderful plot mechanic. For that to happen tho, I think the players would have to trust the DM enough to know his intentions.
9JACK9 06-08-06, 12:05 PM	I'd actually say that Unfan has a point. However, in my opinion, such... intense subject matter would have to be reserved for a MATURE audience, with every adult at the table knowing full well that there would be the possibilty of very adult themes in the game. An evil campaign, for instance, with torture or gruesome death. Definatly not the usual D&D type game, and definatly not for the groups at the local hobby store... But, in that case, it wouldn't fall under the "A total stranger DM did horrible things to my character" thread we're on right now.
Wood 06-08-06, 12:43 PM	Then I made my mistake: I made this character female. This reminds me of a story... So we had a new player in the group, and one of our regulars was helping him design a character. I was over in the recliner (where I always am) putting the finishing touches on a dungeon map, and this is what I overhear from the nearby couch. (keep in mind both of these people are male.) new player: "I want my character to be like a kind of witch or something like that." player: "You mean like somebody who uses natural magic and things like that?" new player: "Yeah like a wiccan or something like that." player: "Well then lets talk about druids..." (new player decides he wants to be a druid, they roll it up, build the stat, skill, and feat blocks... some time passes) player: "So what do you want your druid to look like?" new player: "Can I just choose anything I want?" player: "Well yeah pretty much. Within reason anyway." new player: "Well I want to have like a big pointy hat, ya know like a witch, and some brown robes, and I want warts- lots of warts, and I want her to have just like HUGE ****-" player: "What?" new player: "Yeah I want her to be like really sexy in the body but I want her face to be ugly as %^$*." player: ":uh-huh:" new player: "what?" player: "Dudes dont play chicks man." new player: "Why not?" player: "They just dont." new player: "Why?" It was at this point that the player turned to where I was sitting and asked for a ruling about dudes playin chick characters. I said, "Yeah thats alright. He wants to play a girl let him play a girl." He looked at me like I had lost my mind. Then I said, "However, I expect all of you to deal with this the way you'd deal with any problem within the party." about fifteen or twenty minutes later... me: "Ok, is everybody ready to go?" the group: "Yup" me: "alright boys, I assume you want your surprise round?" the group (except the transgendered player): "Ooooooooh YEAH!" one round later... players: "WOO-HOO! Ding Dong the witch is dead!" new player: "Why did you guys kill me?" me: "Because adventurers kill abominations dude. Thats how this game works." We did go on to explain to him the perils of transgendered roleplaying, and how it would just be a detriment to the group at large, and he did go on to make a male character and he did just fine. They did have alot of fun deciding who got what from the evil witch. So far as I know there is still a halfling thief wandering around in FR somewhere wearing a blood stained pointy witch hat. The point? The point is if you're a dude playin a chick in a group of all male players you can expect that your character is gonna be recieving the proverbial shaft, in one way or another. Thats just how gamers are. but I will admit... rape is a bit extreme, not to mention just outright wierd.
geekling 06-08-06, 12:52 PM	(keep in mind both of these people are male.) And about 14 years old?
KoalaKnight 06-08-06, 01:04 PM	*reads* *re-reads* *reads a third time* Kobold... gang.. rape. *shakes head and reads that again* Yeah.. I'm not going blind. Huh... *thinks* *thinks s'more* I have the answer! Yep... after damn near being sick to my stomach.. my evil Koala mind has devised a way to make the DM very uncomfortable. ...after every battle... even if you took a captive.. castrate every DM NPC - Bad Guy / Monster. And tell him your now "deranged" character keeps them as a necklace. Sorta like a trophy hunter. ...either that.. or do my first compulsion.. and drop kick a folding chair into his face.
Arandar 06-08-06, 01:07 PM	I play a very mature game with a friend and my girlfriend. I did have a rape scene, went well, ended well, left some scars for future roleplaying (all going well). I did this only after sitting down and talking with her if it was okay and if she was willing to go through with it. At that time she said no but she came to me a couple of months later saying she was willing to play it (try it at least). Didn't go into too many details about the actual scene, no reason making it completely PG-18 :D Anyhow, to topic at hand. I've only had 1 DM I considered terrible. We were a mix-matched group in a Dungeon (characters from different groups). I was lowest level, but always acting the tank in that character's usual party I did the same here. DM had us fighting some tremorsensing wanna-be cockroaches or somesuch. They were Medium size, I was medium size, the hall was 10ft wide. They could attack me 2 on 1 but none of the others from the party could help me (either by being next to me and fighting melee, or shooting at them becasue "I was blocking".) That got me quite angry considering she had DM'd for 20 years.
Wood 06-08-06, 01:26 PM	And about 14 years old? actually we were all in our late 20s/early 30s at the time. I play a very mature game with a friend and my girlfriend. I did have a rape scene, went well, ended well, left some scars for future roleplaying (all going well). I did this only after sitting down and talking with her if it was okay and if she was willing to go through with it. Thats wierd man. just... just plain wierd.
KoalaKnight 06-08-06, 01:35 PM	I play a very mature game with a friend and my girlfriend. I did have a rape scene, went well, ended well, left some scars for future roleplaying (all going well). I did this only after sitting down and talking with her if it was okay and if she was willing to go through with it. At that time she said no but she came to me a couple of months later saying she was willing to play it (try it at least). Didn't go into too many details about the actual scene, no reason making it completely PG-18 :D Did he really say .. scene? ..as in.. they RP'd it? As in.. acted out a rape? Right.. umm... and we wonder how D&D got bad press. That's not mature.. it's vile. Now.. if you did a close scene / open scene and summarized that she was taken against her will, tortured, etc... okay... maybe. But.. RP-ing the entire scene? ...what the hell is wrong with you?! There is a difference between realistic storytelling.. and journalistic tact. I feel bad for the female RP'er...
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-08-06, 01:50 PM	I'm pretty sure he means he roleplayed the effects and aftermath of the rape, not the actual action of it (that...would be strange). AKA used rape as a plot device.
MadMoly 06-08-06, 01:50 PM	I'll admit I havn't gotten to play under many DMs, but one that I had thought would be good made we walk. First off, I was playing an Exalted Vow of Poverty, , Nonviolence, Peace Monk with maxed Diplomacy. I had thought the DM was mature enough to handle a PC like this, I was wrong... :rolleyes: I had been the one trying to stop all combat before it began by talking it out, and once combat started I tried to disable all the enemies to keep total casualties to a minimum. The party entered a throne room with an Ettin sitting on the throne, noone else in room. This Ettin had led a mixed army (gobliniods, troll, Gargoyle,...) to take over a Dwarven Stronghold, so OBVIOUSLY it spoke Common. After the Paladin spoke to it, both heads started talking stupidly to each other. (While still sitting, mind you) My monk approached the throne, but stayed 30 feet back to try to talk down the impending battle. Once I got done trying to roleplay the speech, the DM asked me what my AC was. He then informed me that I took X damage from the ettins club. I was baffled! I knew that it would take three actions for my monk to be hit, so how did it happen without anyone rolling init? He informed me that my speech exceeded nine seconds so the ettin had time to take one and a half rounds (move: stand, move: approach, standard: club). Because this DM seemed to think storytelling and descriptions had no part in his game, since I was talking my character would not notice a hostile ettin stand and approach menecingly before beating the speaker with a giant club!!!!! I've since learned that he understands very few rules (ECL = character level + LA... YOU MUST INCLUDE RACIAL HD!!!!) and I have totally lost all respect for him as a gamer. Quite frankly an annoying person too... MadMoly
KoalaKnight 06-08-06, 01:53 PM	I'm pretty sure he means he roleplayed the effects and aftermath of the rape, not the actual action of it (that...would be strange). AKA used rape as a plot device. I'm hoping that's the case...
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-08-06, 01:54 PM	I'll admit I havn't gotten to play under many DMs, but one that I had thought would be good made we walk. First off, I was playing an Exalted Vow of Poverty, , Nonviolence, Peace Monk with maxed Diplomacy. I had thought the DM was mature enough to handle a PC like this, I was wrong... I had been the one trying to stop all combat before it began by talking it out, and once combat started I tried to disable all the enemies to keep total casualties to a minimum. The party entered a throne room with an Ettin sitting on the throne, noone else in room. This Ettin had led a mixed army (gobliniods, troll, Gargoyle,...) to take over a Dwarven Stronghold, so OBVIOUSLY it spoke Common. After the Paladin spoke to it, both heads started talking stupidly to each other. (While still sitting, mind you) My monk approached the throne, but stayed 30 feet back to try to talk down the impending battle. Once I got done trying to roleplay the speech, the DM asked me what my AC was. He then informed me that I took X damage from the ettins club. I was baffled! I knew that it would take three actions for my monk to be hit, so how did it happen without anyone rolling init? He informed me that my speech exceeded nine seconds so the ettin had time to take one and a half rounds (move: stand, move: approach, standard: club). Because this DM seemed to think storytelling and descriptions had no part in his game, since I was talking my character would not notice a hostile ettin stand and approach menecingly before beating the speaker with a giant club!!!!! I've since learned that he understands very few rules (ECL = character level + LA... YOU MUST INCLUDE RACIAL HD!!!!) and I have totally lost all respect for him as a gamer. Quite frankly an annoying person too... MadMoly Ughh, I hate DMs who manipulate that kind of thing. You COULD have pointed out in the players handbook that talking was a free action, but I doubt he would have listened.
ski309 06-08-06, 01:57 PM	These stories make me glad that while we may get into a lot of arguments/discussions over rules during our sessions, at least they're legit.
erc1971 06-08-06, 02:42 PM	This reminds me of a story... So we had a new player in the group, and one of our regulars was helping him design a character. I was over in the recliner (where I always am) putting the finishing touches on a dungeon map, and this is what I overhear from the nearby couch. (keep in mind both of these people are male.) new player: "I want my character to be like a kind of witch or something like that." player: "You mean like somebody who uses natural magic and things like that?" new player: "Yeah like a wiccan or something like that." player: "Well then lets talk about druids..." (new player decides he wants to be a druid, they roll it up, build the stat, skill, and feat blocks... some time passes) player: "So what do you want your druid to look like?" new player: "Can I just choose anything I want?" player: "Well yeah pretty much. Within reason anyway." new player: "Well I want to have like a big pointy hat, ya know like a witch, and some brown robes, and I want warts- lots of warts, and I want her to have just like HUGE ****-" player: "What?" new player: "Yeah I want her to be like really sexy in the body but I want her face to be ugly as %^$*." player: ":uh-huh:" new player: "what?" player: "Dudes dont play chicks man." new player: "Why not?" player: "They just dont." new player: "Why?" It was at this point that the player turned to where I was sitting and asked for a ruling about dudes playin chick characters. I said, "Yeah thats alright. He wants to play a girl let him play a girl." He looked at me like I had lost my mind. Then I said, "However, I expect all of you to deal with this the way you'd deal with any problem within the party." about fifteen or twenty minutes later... me: "Ok, is everybody ready to go?" the group: "Yup" me: "alright boys, I assume you want your surprise round?" the group (except the transgendered player): "Ooooooooh YEAH!" one round later... players: "WOO-HOO! Ding Dong the witch is dead!" new player: "Why did you guys kill me?" me: "Because adventurers kill abominations dude. Thats how this game works." We did go on to explain to him the perils of transgendered roleplaying, and how it would just be a detriment to the group at large, and he did go on to make a male character and he did just fine. They did have alot of fun deciding who got what from the evil witch. So far as I know there is still a halfling thief wandering around in FR somewhere wearing a blood stained pointy witch hat. The point? The point is if you're a dude playin a chick in a group of all male players you can expect that your character is gonna be recieving the proverbial shaft, in one way or another. Thats just how gamers are. but I will admit... rape is a bit extreme, not to mention just outright wierd. I have to strongly disagree about someone playing a character of the opposite gender being "a detriment to the group at large". And the way it was handled was very immature. Playing a character of the opposite gender has never been a problem for any group I have been in except for the occasional "Dude, she is a lesbian! Yeah, my chick likes chicks!", and those types of people I generally don't game with regardless of what gender thier character is. About 85-90% of the gaming sessions I have played in had 1 or 2 people playing an opposite gender character (I have seen men playing women and women playing men). As long as the character is made seriously, it has never been an issue. After all, unless the entire world is made up of people the same gender as the DM - the DM will be playing cross-gendered characters himself (herself), and I would be interested to see where the population comes from in a world with only 1 gender :cool: ;) Now, I will give this to you...It did seem like said player was the immature type when it came playing a female character. "Hehe, hehe, she has hooters!!! Whee, but she is ulgeeee!! hehe" But instead of wasting everyone's time, and insulting the poor guy by starting off the game with him getting killed while you all put him down, a better way to handle it would have been to tell him you prefer that all players play a character of the same gender as thier player. If I had sat down to play with a new gaming, and my first experience had been the DM having everyone kill my character, I would have packed my bags and left. Eric
Arandar 06-08-06, 02:55 PM	Uhm, peeps, there's a reason I said "we didn't go into too many details about it, no need to make it PG-18" I was referring to the rape-scene. It was a closed scene, quick descriptions (very quick and short descriptions). No actual playing it out or anything similar. It was the aftermath that was important :)
Herald@Large 06-08-06, 03:58 PM	Hi, I'm back ... Once again, my thanks to Voldar, KoalaKnight, and everyone else who agreed that my two HorrorDMs took the prize. :bow: Now, on the cross-gender character topic: I'm female, and over the years I've played a wide array of characters. The gender division was about 50-50, and with one exception no one has ever had any problem with me playing male characters (the exception was a DM who tried to rule that since I'm female, my character *had* to be female. The other players talked him out of it). The odd thing is, I've seen *very* few male players who could play a female character convincingly. Most of the time they made them either man-haters or sluts. Even long-term DMs often had problems running female NPCs. Maybe we should start a new thread and discuss why this might be. Dragging this thread kicking and screaming back on topic: DMing is tough. DMs often make it tougher than it has to be by: 1. Not knowing the RAW or game mechanics well enough; 2. Being too hard or too easy on their players; 3. Giving in to player demands too easily; 4. Playing favorites; 5. Playing when they shouldn't (unprepared, too tired, sick, going through stressful situation OOG, whatever) 6. Letting the "power" of Rule 0 go to their heads (making house rules, running an uber-DMPC and so on). And players often make it even harder! 1. Whining. 2. Hogging the spotlight. 3. Arguing with the DM about every nitpicky thing they can. 4. Using D&D as a way to live out their juvenile sex fantasies. 5. And worst of all, trying to "win" by whatever means possible. Sigh. :surrender
Arbitrary Aardvark 06-08-06, 04:13 PM	I have to strongly disagree about someone playing a character of the opposite gender being "a detriment to the group at large". And the way it was handled was very immature. As a matter of fact, it can be an improvement if there is a single female player in the group. In most of the games that I've played, my wife has been the only female player. I've noticed that the dynamics of the group change if she has the only female character or if someone else (often me) runs one as well.
Wood 06-08-06, 05:11 PM	But instead of wasting everyone's time, and insulting the poor guy by starting off the game with him getting killed while you all put him down, a better way to handle it would have been to tell him you prefer that all players play a character of the same gender as thier player. If I had sat down to play with a new gaming, and my first experience had been the DM having everyone kill my character, I would have packed my bags and left. I didnt waste anyones time and I didnt have anyone do anything. I encourage the players around here to express themselves in any situation. In that situation the fellas were wierded out by a dude who wanted to be a girl, and they let it be known at the onset of the game. Hey ya know it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. I understand that. I understand that not everybody in the world plays like we do. But around here we know how we like to game, and anybody who comes to our table will figure that out real fast. Usually when the boys have a problem with someone new they express it in game by destroying the offending players character, and they usually do it in the most horrifically graphic way possible. And I support this. I always have. Furthermore, if you were to come to a session with us you probably would leave after the first few minutes because we would humiliate and ridicule you into doing it, and we would laugh about it for hours afterwards. If you brought a female character to the table when you yourself are a dude the players would have that character drawn and quartered and I would gleefully describe every macabre moment of that characters suffering. On your way out the door I would ask you if you wanted your characters visage immortalized in stone in the Hall of Shame on our homebrew world. Around here we like the mountain dew ice cold, the rule books closed, and all the characters to be gender aligned to the players. You wanna go somewhere where you can indulge your bizarre fantasies and pretend to be a girl then go elsewhere. We dont want ya around here.
Ics 06-08-06, 05:41 PM	I didnt waste anyones time and I didnt have anyone do anything. I encourage the players around here to express themselves in any situation. In that situation the fellas were wierded out by a dude who wanted to be a girl, and they let it be known at the onset of the game. Hey ya know it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. I understand that. I understand that not everybody in the world plays like we do. But around here we know how we like to game, and anybody who comes to our table will figure that out real fast. Usually when the boys have a problem with someone new they express it in game by destroying the offending players character, and they usually do it in the most horrifically graphic way possible. And I support this. I always have. Furthermore, if you were to come to a session with us you probably would leave after the first few minutes because we would humiliate and ridicule you into doing it, and we would laugh about it for hours afterwards. If you brought a female character to the table when you yourself are a dude the players would have that character drawn and quartered and I would gleefully describe every macabre moment of that characters suffering. On your way out the door I would ask you if you wanted your characters visage immortalized in stone in the Hall of Shame on our homebrew world. Around here we like the mountain dew ice cold, the rule books closed, and all the characters to be gender aligned to the players. You wanna go somewhere where you can indulge your bizarre fantasies and pretend to be a girl then go elsewhere. We dont want ya around here. Beside the fact that the whole scene you described portraid extremely poor form (letting OOG affect IG? shameful...), i would also like to comment that it easy to see why there are no women in your group. kudos to erc1971 and Herald@Large.
9JACK9 06-08-06, 05:46 PM	Around here we like the mountain dew ice cold, the rule books closed, and all the characters to be gender aligned to the players. You wanna go somewhere where you can indulge your bizarre fantasies and pretend to be a girl then go elsewhere. We dont want ya around here. Wow. That's... somethin'. I'd say something, to, geez, I dunno, something to try and envoke a flamewar, but ****, I think there's gonna be a bunch of people who are gonna want to respond to this too, so I'll just hold off. But tell ya what, you boys have a fun time in your Homebrew world with all your 19 CHA Female Half-Elf NPC's, ok?
Wood 06-08-06, 05:55 PM	Wow. That's... somethin'. I'd say something, to, geez, I dunno, something to try and envoke a flamewar, but ****, I think there's gonna be a bunch of people who are gonna want to respond to this too, so I'll just hold off. I should certainly hope so. But tell ya what, you boys have a fun time in your Homebrew world with all your 19 CHA Female Half-Elf NPC's, ok? jealousy is an ugly thing jack.
Wood 06-08-06, 06:01 PM	i would also like to comment that it easy to see why there are no women in your group. Sorry, I didnt see you there or I wouldve responded to your post first. Im a busy man after all. Actually there are women in our group. And when the women are present at a gaming session we behave like gentlemen. But when theyre not I feel free to allow myself and the players to behave like racist homophobic bigots.
geekling 06-08-06, 06:04 PM	Well I think we might just have found ourself a selfconfessed applicant for the worst DM award.
Wood 06-08-06, 06:06 PM	Well I think we might just have found ourself a selfconfessed applicant for the worst DM award. Is there a cash prize involved?
Varia 06-08-06, 09:20 PM	Wood- Go away, hillbilly troll-boy. Someone else- 1.0 training costs are 1500 gc per level (that you are, not that you are trying to gain) per week of training, and it takes from 1 to 4 weeks of training depending on how good your play has been. So a lvl 3 thief with excellent play would pay 4500 gc per week of training for 1 week to gain lvl 4, 6000gc/week for lvl 5 etc. And, yes, 3000gc to gain lvl 3, but I put that one last to avoid confusion with your original example. Yes, 1.0 does indeed award exp for gold earned in addition to other sources, so it may seem like it would be impossible for a low level character (especially a thief) to have the cash needed for training when he gets the exp needed to level. However, exp for gold earned is not necessarily earned on a 1 for 1 basis. The exp earned is modified by the challenge involved in getting it, so while it can be 1 for 1 for a hard fight, it can be 3 gc per 1 exp or less for a cakewalk. *Hugs* Varia
AngelDust Anderson 06-08-06, 10:10 PM	Wow, after reading this, i'm glad to know I have a decent DM. I would go insane with some of those. The rape one <shudder> <chill down spine> <queasy stomach>... Uuuh. -Anderson
erc1971 06-08-06, 11:39 PM	Beside the fact that the whole scene you described portraid extremely poor form (letting OOG affect IG? shameful...), i would also like to comment that it easy to see why there are no women in your group. kudos to erc1971 and Herald@Large. Thanks much ICS and Herald@large As tempting as it is to lash back, I am not - let's get back to bad DM stories, not flame wars.
erc1971 06-08-06, 11:49 PM	Wow, after reading this, i'm glad to know I have a decent DM. I would go insane with some of those. The rape one <shudder> <chill down spine> <queasy stomach>... Uuuh. -Anderson The rape one is really getting to everyone. I don't know why, I have been witness to idiocy like that on a very regular basis, then we booted said person from our group, and continued on. I have accepted that as part of finding new people. Though, now that I think back, it was all while I was in the military. Probably proof that putting 20,000 men in an environment with no women as far as the eye can see is a bad idea! (Well, there were women, but with only 5 or so, they were all taken rather quickly :) )
Neratos 06-09-06, 10:24 AM	Well then........that was mature. :uh-huh:
ski309 06-09-06, 10:30 AM	how about all of you stop it before you ruin a great thread.
Witch 06-09-06, 10:34 AM	Actually there are women in our group. And when the women are present at a gaming session we behave like gentlemen. But when theyre not I feel free to allow myself and the players to behave like racist homophobic bigots. Hypocrit.
Neratos 06-09-06, 10:40 AM	Granted my experence pales in comparison to those above, but i will share it anyway. 1. Had a dm who every time you searched for a trap and you rolled bad, it magically created a trap. Oh, and he never mentioned this to us until we asked what was up with the trap at every door in the inn. 2. Granted this DM wasn't bad, just brutal. He made us roll our stats in order with 3d6 no rerolling. Ended up with a psion at lvl 5 with under 20hp. Oh and he had a PC death quota lol.
Serow 06-09-06, 11:59 AM	read... :whatsthis reread .... :blink: :uh-huh: re-reread... :OMG! ... w ... what the!? rape?! that is sick... Urk! ... bleah! :yuck: Not right, not right at all. Time to pull out the +5 pulsing pulpitating pistoning DM Hammer. Some one will die. That breaks so many moral and mental barriers and lines. Did he have a soul? How about a conscience? That makes me just about as mad as the time I got in a religous afar with my DM. During a time that we played against a great ruler (or something like that) I played my first paladin and the DM was a rule monger, saying all people had to have a source of power for devine spellcasters. I asked very kindly that I didn't have to have a religion, for it really bothered me, to a point that it even unnerved me to play. He must have been tired, withdrawl or something. The conversation went as the folloing, and I quote, DM: Chose one of these *hands the PHB, points towards the religion sect.* Me: *look at breifly* Ummm, I would rather not... DM: Just choose one! It took me by suprise, finding out for the first time he was an atheist, also being a good friend for a good part of two months. I wont down them, nor do I want to fight them, But this one was an a**hole. The rest went as, Me: oooooooookay, I think not. DM: Why. Me: personally, It disturbs me. DM: Why does it disturbs you!? Me: Look, If it will get you off my back, It goes against my religion, K? This is when all hell broke loose. I thought I was resonable, but I guess I wasn't DM: Stop being such a B****. Just take one like the rest of you. Me: what? (Include double take) DM: See here, all of your type are way to sensitive, you are all going to die eventually, dieing in a rotting festering (then some other fancy word I don't remember) grave, so get over yourself and play. That has been the only time I have purposely drenched someones books in coke-a-cola and left a game.
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-09-06, 12:03 PM	Okay people, lets stop insulting Wood. While I don't agree with his gaming style (at least the parts that he told us about), insulting him or flaming him acomplishes nothing, and provokes the unholy wrath of WotC people. Let's try to be mature. He understands that we disagree with him, so leave it at that.