Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Giant_Moth 06-18-06, 08:30 PM	Ever been in the situation where you are playing, and your DM just really dosn't care if you had some bad luck or prepared the wrong spells, and wipes the entire party on that balor that he had prepared for you in the evil dungeon? Ever played a game where your DM is very careful with picking up all and every detail you make, taking every posible moment of your failure as a player to punish it out on your character(ie: IRL knowledge failing over something a character should know, and you get the blame.). Ever had a game where you die from infection because you forgot to mention you bandaged your wounds, and the DM gave no slightest hint of that you should do it even though you had 10 ranks in Heal? This is DM's gone bad thread, where we share and vent our experiences with DM's that has just been sinister on his or her players. Just the most sinister, unreasonable and evil things you think your DM has done against your party, either just being to rules strict or intentionally malcious against his/her players! Personaly I must admit I have had many of these experiences with my old group. But the one that takes the ultimate price is the one campaign we played in a homebrew world, where our players was hired merceneries on an expedition to the new world, which was funded by a local noble. The first thing that happends is that our ship gets attacked and shipwrecked by Sahaugin raiders, then we're trying to survive as we float on the wreckege. The first player dies here when me as the cleric forgot to anounce that I gave one player water... even though we had a plentiful fresh water supply, my cleric failed to think of this point as he tended the poor Bards wounds, and he succumbed from thirst. The next part of the adventure was trapped on a deserted island, survival to it's most extreme as PC after PC was one by one wiped out as we tried to survive. It wasn't like the DM was intentionally trying to get us killed, but he had his encounters, a bit dangerous for a bunch of exhausted and badly equiped level 1 characters(we lost a lot when the ship sank), and no one was spared the almighty result of the dice. That's randomplaying in it's finest!
LCD2YOU 06-18-06, 08:52 PM	Bad DM, bad DM whatcha want Whatcha gonna do when nasty ol' DM come for you tell me whatcha gonna do. Bad DM bad DM Watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they dice for you Bad DM, bad DM Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they dice for you He wants you to have only eights And gimp you with bad traits You go to these boards to learn the golden rule Everyone says you act like a bloody fool Your dice are not hot, just cool Bad DM, bad DM Watcha gonna do whatcha gonna do When they dice for you (repeat) You chuck it on this one You chuck it on this one You chuck it on elves and You chuck it on you order You chuck it on you dwarves and You chuck it on you ranger You chuck it on that one and you chuck dice at me No dragon naw give you no break Demons naw give you no break Orcs naw give you no break Not even you deity naw give you no break Why did you have to act so mean we don't know Are you a human being with a mother? The love of a player whose PC is now dead I know you want to smack 'im in the head I know you want to smack 'im in the head (With apologies to Inner Circle)
Zombayz1 06-19-06, 12:12 AM	LCD2YOU, you are a demigod. You portfolio: awesomeness, funk, 1337n355.
FeceMan 06-19-06, 01:05 AM	My DM: "I don't really care. I've never had a bunch of players so stupid as to let in-fighting ruin a game, and I don't care if they do ruin the game." Not exactly what the OP was looking for, but close enough, in my opinion.
Ganny.Harper 06-19-06, 04:06 AM	Always keep your DM in a nice cool dark room as the sunlight will only spoil him.
VrecknidjX 06-19-06, 08:50 AM	A DM without good players is a bored, sad thing. DMs need players every bit as much as players need DMs, probably more (after all, a group of players can leave a DM and one of them can pick up that role). I have left bad DMs in the past, and I'd do it again if I had to. At present, I have two DMs, and I'm the third in our group. I bend over backwards to make the game fun for my players. I can't see the game being great any other way. DMs that are out to ruin things for players should do something else for entertainment. Dave
Giant_Moth 06-19-06, 12:36 PM	Surely there are more who has tales when their DM has turned bad! :bump:
storm1402 06-19-06, 03:34 PM	When I played last year as a pc, my dm introduced a Kinder to me, I was a medusa rogue. :| it really makes u mad when the DM says "your poison shortbow is missing when u go to draw it" when in combat. Then when combats over u want to kill the NPC kinder and the dm says "You cant kill the kinder its a level 1 npc with over 6,000hp and it dodges all your attacks." First off I am a Medusa at this point and all I have to say is hello gaze!
LCD2YOU 06-19-06, 04:02 PM	LCD2YOU, you are a demigod. You portfolio: awesomeness, funk, 1337n355.Thank you. :D For my first deific decree, I appoint you as my herald. :dancin:
VerdugoExplode 06-19-06, 08:01 PM	Well my old DM did have a bit of a bad habit. It basically resulted in us never really getting past level 3 in any given campaign with one exception. After a few sessions we would simply start a new campaign with new characters and with this being my first experience with D&D I simply thought this was the way things were. He also didn't like magic items, at all, ever, and a slew of other addendums to help reinforce this point. In the majority of our short campaigns they were never even seen with the rationale of "It costs experience to make them so people wouldn't just be cranking them out in some sort of magic factory." This was, of course, combined with an almost complete disregard for the CR system which resulted in a lot of deus ex machina. Well I'm sure that a lot of level 5 parties have gone against a few hill giants and beaten them successfully, we just weren't one of them. The stories themselves were good, it was just the general unpreparedness of our equipment and stacked encounters that generally led to our demise. Fear not though, I'm with a different DM who is a far cry from the old, although it's a bad sign when youre ecstatic over getting a +1 mace simply becuase the amount of magical gear youve had on all your characters previous could be counted on one hand. So in honor of bad DM's everywhere we have a concoction of linguistics that will follow, probably making this post too long. The Ode to the Bad DM The moments apporaching for which Ive waited for days The time when we all sit down to play My character sheet's ready and my dice are all there My partners are ready, expectation fills the air The DM sits down, the king behind the screen Hours of campaigning lay there, unseen "Youre all in a tavern enjoying some ale" Not too original a start for a tale But its only just begun and theres still hope remaining as long as the story gets a bit more explaining "You hear rumors of a dragon, far to the west" A dragon you say? It's then I confess "We're only level 2, A dragon will make us dead How about we go kill some goblins instead" Just then the head of the church busts in Proclaiming that all of us commited some sin And the only way to atone is recieving a quest I wonder what the target is, come on, take a guess Well the party thinks "Damn, lets try to run A suicide mission is never any fun" We would have escaped if there hadn't appeared 5 lvl 10 paladins, epicly geared "Why don't you have the paladins go instead They have much better chances of not ending up dead" Theres some mumbling of a prophecy or a dream of some sort And are ushered out before we have a chance to retort So we set off to the west, dread in our hearts This campaign is really off to a miserable start. And of course on the way we see a small chipper fellow With eyes of bright green and a robe of light yellow "Hail there adventurers Im the DMPC Im willing to help you for a nominal fee" "What do you wan't we don't really have much, Just our armor and weapons and components and such" "Well I'm joining you anyway, Ill follow you night and day, No matter what you do, how you argue, what you say" Oh well, we think, another lamb to the slaughter Just us against the dragon, to save the kings daughter And yes, we just somehow just found out that fact With the Dm's usual amount of subtlety and tact Well the adventure progresses when we're jumped by some thieves Finally some experience and items to be achieved! At least thats what we thought, until we found That the DMPC gets 7 attacks every round "Well damn" I say, making a deep sighing sound "With him on the quest why are the rest of us around" "Heres there for some flavor" we here in response While I think the DM is a bit of a ponce We hatch a daring plan to run while he sleeps Freeing us all from this overpowered freak But as morning arises, lo and behold The DMPC is waiting for us on the road. We don't bother asking how he got there At this point in time we don't really care We try once again to flee from the doomed quest And are somehow, mirculously placed under arrest "Fine" we say, it's doomed, we know you can tell by the way our dice pyramids grow So we set out again, DMPC in tow Wondering why we even bothered to show And after an hour we reach the dragons lair And consider just how in the world this will be fair We devise a sinister and dubious plan With creative uses for spells well in hand It has rockslides and traps and treachery too We might just survive with just a death or two That is till the DMPC says "no" And runs in there screaming at the beast lying below We sigh and regretfully follow him in Knowing without a doubt that we just cannot win With dread in our hearts we reluctantly fight All while the DMPC hogs the spotlight The wizard has an idea, an epiphany if you will A creative way to achieve the needed kill But justs as he casts it he hears "It fails" No checks, no rolls, not even a light gail "But why" the player asks, obviously stewing "It say right here thats what the spell should be doing" "I don't like it, it's broken" Comes the DM reply "Well shouldnt you have mentioned it sooner?" he inquires "Instead of saying it now when its down to the wire?" No response comes from behind the screen Except "You take damage from his claws, subtract seventeen" Well the fight wears on, the players slowly drop The DMPC is, of course, still up And finally manages to strike the dragon down While the two living players wonder what else is around They find the treasure and after a quick inspect Decide to use the money for a lot of resurrects Except for the +5 Keen brilliant energy vorpal greatsword Which the DMPC quickly acquires from the hoard We don't care anymore we just want it to end So we can take our crushed dreams and begin to mend We sit in the bar and decide, right then No more dragons, ever, never again When we're all knocked out without a save to be seen And wake up, equipmentless, in a place we've never been And so starts another abysmal campaign Ruination after ruination, all miserably the same So if you are in a campaign and not having fun If all the DC's are your ranks plus 21 If it feels like its hopeless not matter where you go Then you might be riding the D&D railroad
Granpa_Weatherwax 06-19-06, 09:05 PM	awesome ode New high level campaign, me the halfling mage wiz or sorc, it matters not. The dm in question has a habbit of screwing everyone elses campaigns over by playing an overzealous paladin (see sig) or someother over powered char with specials he "forgets" to tell us about untill he uses them. I decide that turn-about is fair play and decide to screw with HIS campaign. DM:you are in a town and most of you don't know each other. Me: Pip and I know eachother, we went to the same magic school DM: Alright what ever. All the other pcs decide to go shopping except for me and pip. One gets himself thrown in jail... Me: I go into the guard house. DM:Okay. ME:I go up to a guard and hand him a piece of paper. Then I walk away. DM:The guard opens the paper and reads it. Me:Explosive Runes!!! :D DM:Role damage. I role and the guard dies (i didn't get more than 20) DM:All the guards set on you and attack *rolls* take ten damage. Me:I cast blink DM:Fine, take another ten. Me: Why? DM: U provoke an AoO. Me: ... *finishes spell and runs* DM:You get out into the street and run into a guard, he attacks. Me:i can run through stuff tho... DM:Not through him. He attacks and deals *rolls* 20 damage Me: WHAT!?!? DM: *ignoring me* second attack *rolls* 40 damage. Me:I'm dead. Later I found out that the guard I killed was the single level 2 guard in the guard house the rest were all lvl 15+ and the dm had been giving them all auto hits.
High Octane 06-19-06, 09:53 PM	Even my favorite DM once had us geased by a deity at levels 3-4. On the whole he was great though, just overzealous and tended to treat our characters like they were levels 10-11 when we were 3-5 (Loot and everything! +3 weapons at level 3) I had a DM design a trap to kill my character. Literally AT MY CHARACTER. In a group of 9 or so players (red flag!!) my character was a fairly obnoxious but overall still decent character who was a CN mage getting rogue levels to become a trickster (I would later change the character somewhat and keep him for later use) Now, first we all started in a dungeon at level 1. At level 6, we had not left the dungeon, (not kidding) had almost entirely the same items we had at the start (I didnt even have a single magic item besides my spellbook) We had completely lost all reason for being in the dungeon,, and the DM was rolling up outhe rooms AND encounters as we went on. We encountered lantern archons. That attacked us. NONE of us were evil nor did we show any malicious intent. In fact the one they attacked first was a lawful good monk. After a while of this, I made it clear my character was becoming more roguish while still a mage. Well, the DM set a trap. For some dumb reason, there was a statue of olidammara (my deity) holding up a rapier, pointing at a book that radiated magic. I said, out loud, that I knew it was a trap. I knew. My character didnt. My character had almost no decent items also and that was concerning him. So I played along and tried to get the book. I knew in my heart not only was the statue/floor under the statue probably trapped, but the book itself was probably some sort of magical trap in itself. ALL 3 WERE TRUE. Upon grabbing the book, the statue (which radiated no magic) transformed into a statue of St. Cuthbert, HIT me for like 1d12 +10 damage (given my AC of about 13 and the +12 to hit modifier, it was a pretty decent assumption it would hit), and then the bad part happened. Reflex save to avoid a pit 100 feet deep with spikes at the bottom. I failed. WAY dead (Around -27). The DM also informed me that the book was a soul trapping book (song and silence) and that had I made the reflex save I still would have fallen in the pit because not only that square had a pit but the one behind it did too. Apparantly I had annoyed some of the other players and this was the DMs version of handling it. Glad I not only left that session but never played with any (except 1 or 2) of that group ever again. By the way, the DM was laughing at the fact that I had just at the beginning of that session provided a hand drawn picture of the character which I spent a good amount of time on and provided a history. "Know whats funny? He just provided this stuff to me earlier! lolololol!!!!" In retrospect I wish I had left the first time a player verse player attack broke out due to too many players.
FeceMan 06-19-06, 11:59 PM	Wow. I hate this man. I hate him for bothering to exist.
zae 06-20-06, 12:12 AM	Hmm, I almost exclusively have good DMs, however one does have a bad trait that simply means I don't play any one-off games that he runs. He just loves his own characters too much. In any given one-off game, there will be more named NPCs than PCs. They will all be higher level, with cool equipment and abilities, and generally be not only more powerful, but designed to have more importance to the campaign. Usually, they're characters he's played in games before. Often, to ensure the one-off never becomes a campaign, everyone will be killed off by a random NPC who is arbitrarily more powerful than the party. Or, we'll all get in over our heads, and then suddenly the Deus Ex Machina appears to save the day. But he's only like that with games that are pre-decided to last for a single session. For campaigns, he runs them well, and lets the group feel important.
stargate525 06-20-06, 12:47 AM	The Ode to the Bad DM classic. Just Classic.
obrysii 06-20-06, 12:54 AM	The worst DM I've experianced is, well, myself. But I suppose I might be hard on myself...it was extremely difficult to be a new DM to a group of heavily min/maxed characters. And my star wars campaign is difficult due to all of the various loopholes in the rules.
Ralphius_Maximus 06-20-06, 08:27 AM	Oddly enough, the worst Thing a DM has done to one of my PC's was done by one of the best DM's. I had a Rogue5/Bard4 at the time. The DM had a vampire module in which there was a "being" who would appear and rescue each member of the party once should they require it, it's motivation being to prevent more vampires being made. When the vamp began trying to split the party, my PC did everything possible to keep them together and moving as a unit, only to be ignored by the vast majority of the party. The only one to listen was a spellcaster played by a very inexperienced player. Lo and behold, the vampire appears and attacks. Now, I have no problem with my PC losing to a vampire, nor even with the spellcaster chosing the wrong spells to cast (as I say, she was inexperienced). However, when the "rescue" comes along, the DM decided that to prevent my PC being turned, he would use Power Word Kill. Instant death. Others being rescued copped petrifications and mazes. At the end of the encounter, our mage (having escaped from his maze) found a bunch of scrolls to reverse the damage. Unfortunately, the reincarnate scroll was flawed, and as an arbitrary stomp by the DM took away one of my Bard levels and replaced it with Barbarian! In one entirely uncalled for move, the DM cost my PC his secondlevel spells and gave him a permanent 20% xp penalty unless he wasted morelevels on Barbarian to equal his Bard. In essence it was a choice between 20% forever or three levels in the wrong direction. I will point out that none of the other spells had anything wrong with them. When queried about the excessive penalty to my PC, he told me it was my fault for allowing it to die, despite the fact that it was the DM who decided entirely arbitrarily to use a death spell on him. Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper.
Galahad the Pure 06-20-06, 11:08 PM	http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=259802 I wrote this a long one a long time ago, but I'll bump it again. It's a 5 page long single spaced account of everything my awful DM did to me in that campaign. I was irate. But don't call it a rant, because rants are just random words. I took a lot of time to write something well thought out. I shouldn't complain anymore, because my current DM is great. He's a cool guy and he helped me get a job this summer. Anyway, it's a good story for bedside reading.
Jere_RB 06-20-06, 11:33 PM	Lesse, my now old DM (as of yesterday). His various screwups: 1. Rogue tosses some Alchemist's Fire on a Water Elemental. DM: DR 10/All. No damage! (not quite right). Refuses to check DMG. 2. Player next to me wants a Warforged Paladin/Monk. DM says basic composite plating counts as light armor. No monk abilities. Refuses to check Eberron Campaign Settings. 3. DM runs a one-on-one 20th level character competition. First match, forget to declare a couple of things, DM says, "can't go back, this isn't our monday night game!". Fourth match, other player uses a house-rule Called Shot, I ask DM what book it came from, "it's a houserule, we use it every monday night!" *simmers* 4. DM gives a player a crapload of cockatrice feathers at lv2. Takes them away when he pitches a fit and cannot figure out a way for the character to pull one from his backpack without being pricked himself (wanted to say "bound them feather-first", but his face to fall on, not mine). 5. One player trips another, causes the other to fall prone. Allows trip attacks on already tripped character. 6. Same prone guy. DM disallows full attacks while prone. Yes, this guy got gimped. 7. Allows a Ninja to make a full attack from the ethereal plane on 1 ki point. 8. Neglects to keep track of said Ninja's ki points as well. 9. Chain fighter disarms another character. DM says weapon fell two squares away... 10. DM allows dude to make a gay Paladin. Should have known better. Forces Girdle of Sex Change on character when he cannot deal with it. 11. Characters are average level 5. Tosses in a Half-Dragon 20 Paladin/10 Justicator to adventure with the party. His guy, of course. 12. Lets his brother mount a Mirror of Opposition on his tower shield with no penalty. Little Brother cries metagaming on every cleave attempt on it. Cleave attempts on tower shield magically miss said mirror as well. 13. Lets little brother activate magic items as free actions. 14. Lets little brother access weapon/shield enhancements from Epic Level Handbook. Neglects to apply errata. 15. Start of combat. Rogue goes first. DM declares all enemies are not flat footed. Rogue restrains urge to give DM a taste of real combat... 16. 4th lv Fighter vs 4th Lv Rogue. DM sees Fighter's +8 attack bonus, declares he gets two attacks. Rogue gets +11, DM does not allow extra attacks. (DM fighter, me rogue). I could go on, but I'm in therapy.
FeceMan 06-21-06, 12:33 AM	10. DM allows dude to make a gay Paladin. Should have known better. Forces Girdle of Sex Change on character when he cannot deal with it. LOL. Character synopsis?
Jere_RB 06-21-06, 12:49 AM	That's pretty much it. DM thought it was a joke when the player said his character's name was "Gay Figg." DM literally pitched a fit when the paladin started trying to get some guys in a bar to "experiment." Thus the forced sex change. Thus the player no longer playing.
FeceMan 06-21-06, 02:03 AM	That's pretty much it. DM thought it was a joke when the player said his character's name was "Gay Figg." DM literally pitched a fit when the paladin started trying to get some guys in a bar to "experiment." Thus the forced sex change. Thus the player no longer playing. I wish I was there for that session, lol. However, if the GM had wanted to handle the situation more appropriately, the guys in the bar probably would have knocked the paladin around a bit and left him unconscious.
PortapottyPunk 06-21-06, 03:20 AM	The Ode to the Bad DM Great stuff! Usually I DM due to disputes of who is the most neutral person that they know (Hazza), but one time I passed the torch to my friend who lives behind me. Never again. Everything was good, accept for the saves. Probably because there were no saves. None! And that, is something that I cannot accept as I was a rogue, with very little life, and reflex saves for things like fireball is something I do best. Other than that, he just Uberized the BBEG's so that you have to beat them in a certain way or you will almost never hit them.
Radijs 06-21-06, 03:53 AM	Always keep your DM in a nice cool dark room as the sunlight will only spoil him. Thats why you locked me in the closet last week didn't you?
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-21-06, 03:52 PM	My ex-DM - The Diablo Lover. He was in love with Diable 2, and styled his adventures after it. No encounters that weren't fights, and they wern't creative fights either, just "you open the door and see 5 orcs." He also DISPISED mages, and nerfed them to rediculous proportions. He used spell points (mana, another product of his Diablo facination) and allowed about half the spell points as if you converted slots to points. At level 1 the party wizard could cast 2 spells. Including 0s. He also used the "minimum level/ability score to use a magic item" thing from Diablo, so only characters with strength of 24 could wear a +2 breastplate we found. You could only carry a certain number of items, (another Diablo rip-off) and EVERYTHING was random. He didn't understand that when you killed a monster you had to LOOK for their treasure, so we just got treasure when we killed stuff (more Diablo) He had a vague plotline, but it mainly constisted of us running around killing stuff. No imaginiation whatsoever. I left after the third session, which constisted of (gasp!) us killing a bunch of monsters, no plotline at all.
High Octane 06-22-06, 05:05 AM	I hate this man. I hate him for bothering to exist. Thanks
Magician_Of_The_Coast 06-22-06, 05:33 AM	We had just started our first adventure, and by the end of it we were all level two and it was great fun. But, the next week (last week, lol) our DM thought that since we were lvl 2 he would throw us into a big fight straight away: DM: you walk into a dank-smelling, dark room, and instantly see a large door at the opposite end of it. Me: I walk forward to the door and do a listen check (rolls D20, succeeds, Massive footsteps) DM: BUT! you realise that the sound is coming from the room, as an Aspect of Hextor and 3 Orc Warriors step from the shadows. It was only his second time, but still, AND he was using the EPIC card, so it was bigger and badder. We made him go over his campaign, and he was going to put us in a room with 6 Kobolds, 2 Quahog Slaves (or what ever) and a Warforged Body gaurd and Warforged captain. I made him read the DM HAndbook, it turned out he hadn't really spent two weeks reading it. :D
BarBoBot 06-22-06, 10:52 PM	i dunno if this counts as anywhere near what you guys have went through but my DM favors two players over the other three (including me). He made them a cool diety named Nay Palm, and one guy used it as his diety for his paladin at level 1 and was able to make any of his weapon flaming at will(at the loss of the smite ability permanatly). For the other guy he let his sorcerer learn spells as a wizard. I still play because the missions and the plot are very well laid out and developed and hes a good guy overall. But hes done tiis on some occasions like in a older campaign he let the other guys start as level 2 when everyone else was at level 1. I guess what really annoys me is that these 2 guys dont even know the rules to well either.
crinos43 06-23-06, 02:42 AM	I will admit I am not a perfect DM. i have made errors and...stupid judgement calls, but some things I've seen DMs in games I've been part of are really annoying. 1) We play a 20-level game (mind you, before the Epic Level Book comes out) and the story is time is going backwards! When we gain XP, we lose levels. 2) In said game, we run into three retreivers with some of the worst abilities ever. -- DR 50/+10 -- fast healing infinite -- ALL dmage it gets dealt becomes subdual and it heals it all every character's turn 3) Also in this game, the DM told one of the players (a Bard10/Sorcerer10 who thinks he was a fighter) that when he hit Level 19, he oculd rechoose his spells (being he did not have Dispel Magic on either list). When he dies (and for some reason still drops a level), the DM decides that since he did not lose a level by Xp gain (or loss, or whatever), he cannot rechoose his spells. 4) Another DM I played with thought that it would be fun to put up roadblocks for everything we did. Basically any time we got close to our destined goal, he'd find a way to steer us away. 5) (Since this is going to be a long post with multiple DMs, I'm color-coding them. :) ) In the same game, I was playing an LN elf monk who was told by the DM that if I did not make a code of conduct for my hcaracter I would be forced out of my monkhood and be TN. Not shockingly enough, I leveled the same session and since i was not allowed to make the code during the game (nevermind the fact that I was not exaclty needed the whole gmae), I was forced to take a level in something besides monk. Being that I'm an elf, I figured I could become a wizard. Nope. I was told that since I did not get any training I had to take a level in something else, so I ended up with two levels of a 20% penalty. 6) Same game, the DM thought it would be nice to completely rape my character's background by having his family (whom my character said he saw die) as never having been killed. 7) In a totally different game (I really need to find a new gaming group, oh wait, I did), all the characters were citizens of a city called Everbright City, which was part of a coubntry the DM kinda...implanted into Realms, the city being run by a silver dragon and...Drizzt Do'Urden (sp). 8) Same game, same DM, 90% of all drow are good, and most of them are high-ass level wizards. (Read: EPIC) Like I said, i'm not perfect, and i have made stupid mistakes, but these are the worst of games I've been in. HEY, i hope a similar thread for characters is made. i have stories there too.
Krelios 06-23-06, 07:31 AM	Ever been in the situation where you are playing, and your DM just really dosn't care if you had some bad luck or prepared the wrong spells, and wipes the entire party on that balor that he had prepared for you in the evil dungeon?That's the DM's fault? LOL Ever played a game where your DM is very careful with picking up all and every detail you make, taking every posible moment of your failure as a player to punish it out on your character(ie: IRL knowledge failing over something a character should know, and you get the blame.).Okay, that's a bit emo and unnecessary. Ever had a game where you die from infection because you forgot to mention you bandaged your wounds, and the DM gave no slightest hint of that you should do it even though you had 10 ranks in Heal?That's wrong. I don't think the first one is a bad DM, but the other two certainly are. I'll share my worst experience... My fellow party members and I were travelling in the snow between towns and saw a monastery not too far out of our way. We go there for shelter and a decent meal and get caught up in a murder mystery. We put some clues together and decide we need to question the monks but the abbot tells us he won't allow it. We tell him, if you don't want to let us help, that's fine, and decide to leave them to their own devices. Rather than just letting us lose the potential xp we could have gotten for completing the adventure as it was published (Dragon Magazine, the "Guglimo" adventure), he actually gave us each -1000xp for the night. Needless to say, that was my last adventure with him.
SalParadise 06-23-06, 08:04 AM	I had been playing a 6th level rogue from level 1 in one group. The DM refused to allow me to get multiple sneak attacks in an encounter the entire time. "They know you're there now -- even if you hide, you still can't sneak attack again." My rogue was more of a scout than anything else, and was rather useless in combat, while the rest of the party were min-maxed melee machines (barbarians with 6 will and the like) whose weaknesses the DM would NEVER exploit. We never once came across a caster who felt the desire to test said barbarian's will save. At around level 6, he had an NPC come in, only the NPC was played by a player that had been killed by a monster. The NPC was level 9, had insane amounts of magic items, and was played by a former PC. The NPC was a paladin. The first time I used sneak attack in front of said Paladin, he started throwing magical throwing hammers at my head saying, "Evil thief!" When I pointed out to the DM that I hadn't ever actually stolen anything or committed evil acts, and that there's no way that the paladin could determine these things (in addition to the fact that they were untrue) he said, "He knows you sneak around and attack people in the back. Ergo you must be a rogue because that is the only class that gains sneak attack." I quickly quit the adventure.
Christal 06-23-06, 09:24 AM	I could write a compendium, but that would be horribly boring to read. My DM does something beyond moronic on a monthly basis (something new, mind you, while enforcing idiocy from earlier months), but the last tablerule just won some sort of prize. "No *****ing about rules." Yeah, right. I am a college graduate, I have majored in communication, psychology and sociology. I weigh my words, I make arguments and I enforce co-operation. I tried to make him realize that his rules were overall ruining the experience for the players (whom all agreed), and I pointed out the obvious flaws of his DMing. Instead of considering some changes for the good of all, he started whining that we were just *****ing and that he didn't want to DM that night, since we were being *****y. So the end of the story is that now we're supposed to start a new campain (average life-span of his campains are 1d10-1 sessions or so) where he added that to the tablerules. The problem facing him now is that the rest of us agreed to walk if he doesn't start compromising. Believing that you're right is one thing. Believing that everyone else are wrong and stupid is something quite different.
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-23-06, 11:41 AM	Here are some of mine: The Sorcerer Hater. He couldn't stand sorcerers, so he nerfed them beyond belief. If you wanted to be a sorcerer, you had to roll a d100, and you could only play if you rolled below an eighteen. "There's only a small chance you have dragon blood!" He also made you ROLL for your spells, on the scroll table, ignoring bard spells. "You dont have control over what your powers give you!" The party sorcerer (he only mentioned the roll for spells after the player decided on a sorcerer and actually rolled a 16 on the d100. Then the Sorcerer DM told him about the roll for spells, and he wanted to change to wizard but the DM said no. "You can't change your character!" He multiclassed to wizard at level 2, and since the DM didn't understand about favored class, he took a 20% XP penalty for the rest of the campaign. He also said that casting a spell cost 5 XP per level of the spell, because "magic is draining!" The nerfed sorcerer killed himself after he was level 2 when everyone else was level 5. He tried to make a new character, but the DM said he had to start at level 1. He made a monk, but died in the first encounter. He then left the game. The Elf Lover. Arwin syndrome coupled with DM favoritism. Said elves ruled the world and every other race was their slaves. Only let one player play an elf, his girlfriend. She could tell us to do anything she wanted, and we had to do it, as we were her slaves. She alloted all treasure (consisting of her getting everything good and us getting whatever she didn't want), and in roleplaying we were ignored, dismissed as "unworthy slaves". The Nerfer/ Fighter Lover. All but forced everyone to be a fighter. No mages, divine or arcane, as "they're broken". Paladins and rangers were allowed, but no spells, and paladins lost their warhorse, their immunity to disease, and their +Cha bonus to spells. Rangers lost favored enemy and the track stuff. Monks lost unarmed damage, speed bonus, AC bonus, and all supernatural abilities. No prestige classes, so the only class that wasn't nerfed was the fighter. He then gave no magical equipment. Strongest weapon in the world was a masterwork greatsword, yet monsters still had damage reduction and regeneration bypassable only by magical effects. Docter "No". If you asked, the answer was no. "Can I combine these effects? No!" Can I take this prestige class? No! Can I take this feat? No! The only things he allowed was beyond teriable feats (no chains, no metamagic, no saving throw boosting, only stuff like skill feats and stuff like track or rapid reload.) About 1% of official material wasn't overpowered. The Pervert. Did not happen to me, but was told to me by a friend. (The girl in question.) One of the players was female. Her character was introduced in the middle of an adventure, as the sex slave for the orcs they were chasing. She was found naked, and wasn't ever given the chance to get any clothes. Later in the campaign, she was hit on by every male NPC, and he set up every society so that women were considered inferior to men, ranging from being ignored by NPCs to being thrown in prision because she wore clothes. Yes, it was against the law for women to not be naked. The campaign was good, except that he kept harassing her! She didn't leave, as this was the only D&D game within the area that she could find, and she loved the game. Eventually she found another game and she left the pervert's.
Giant_Moth 06-24-06, 12:22 PM	The Pervert. Did not happen to me, but was told to me by a friend. (The girl in question.) One of the players was female. Her character was introduced in the middle of an adventure, as the sex slave for the orcs they were chasing. She was found naked, and wasn't ever given the chance to get any clothes. Later in the campaign, she was hit on by every male NPC, and he set up every society so that women were considered inferior to men, ranging from being ignored by NPCs to being thrown in prision because she wore clothes. Yes, it was against the law for women to not be naked. The campaign was good, except that he kept harassing her! She didn't leave, as this was the only D&D game within the area that she could find, and she loved the game. Eventually she found another game and she left the pervert's. I'd kick your DM in the face.
kelvinaw273 06-24-06, 02:54 PM	I'd kick your DM in the face. Personally, I would aim lower.
anarco_rata 06-24-06, 03:11 PM	Bad DM... I’ve had my share.. A little history so that you understand why did I endure those times. I live in Venezuela, and there aren't a lot of gamers in here. Most of them are either horribly bad players/DMs, or are very close minded and never allow new people in their games, mostly because 90% of the players are a pain... EDIT: of course! there're exceptions! I got a few friends in another city that are pretty much the opossite of what's pressented here. Well, I was "lucky" to find this roleplaying club, where there where a few DM. Now, most of the people in there where just newbies, they didn't really understand the game (having never read the PHB) but they could've been good players (or even DM) with the right tools. But a few where... woah.. First, the "DM against players" DM. This DM would run a game where EVERYTHING was a confrontation between players and the world. You couldn't enter a city, because you will immediately be arrested, or tricked into breaking the "law". I once found myself (wizard lvl 15) in a bar brawl where everyone seemed to be a high leveled monk. So I said: I teleport away. He asked: where?. I just said "don't know, somewhere safe, waterdeep, in front of the tower of Khelven, or whatever! (I was kidding, but...) DM: Ok! You teleport in front of the tower of Khelven, right in the middle of a fight between him and a dragon! And a disintegrate hits you, what's your reflex save? (-I- know disintegrate asks for a fortitude save) Me: 12 (or something like that) DM: the check is for 33 (that is, my save modifier +21) So I died. In other game with the same DM (yes, i played with him more than once... actually, I played at least 20 adventures with him. None of the DM ran campaigns, just stand alone adventures without plot of any kind) my die came up a 1 when I was trying to shoot someone with a bow. I lost a finger. Repeat 2 times. DM: "you can't use any weapon without 3 fingers" Me: "well, I use them in my off hand" DM: "you can't, you need to be a ranger for that" Me: :( In yet another game with the same DM, while playing "wheel of time" D20 (the only book he actually had), I was lvl 5, and another guy, from the same rolealaying club, joined in the middle of the game with an elven wizard (he actually thought he was an elf...still does). In wheel of time there aren't elves, or male wizards. He was both, and had a +4 sword. He killed me because I was to ugly, or something lame like that. AND The mary-sue DM. This was even worst. His adventures had a slight indication of plot (at least for the fist 10 minutes), so he was -OBVIOUSLY- the best DM in the club. He said that title extended all over the city. Well, in ALL of his adventures, there was a character that was supposed to be him. We always could tell wich one because it was the only NPC with: 1) a name 2) a picture drawn by the DM 3) Lots and lots of levels in anything (could enter rage, cast spells, use psionics, sneak attack…. 4) Immortal 5) Incredibly cool 6) The only one ho could defeat the BBEG His adventures ranged from the players being the forced sidekicks of his NPC, to mere spectators between the ultimate fight between good and evil. In some adventures, both the hero and the villain would have pictures and names. So no matter who wined, it was his character. Another DM was obsessed with catgirls. He once turned the complete party in catgirls and made us wrestle. In mud. And the last, but in no way least, worst DM I have ever played with was the mixer. He mixed EVERYTHING he liked of all game sin to a horrible spawn worthy of lovecraftian myths. Not only would he mix brujah vampires with elfs, he wouldn’t even modify for a single system. The last game I played with him (I was incredibly bored and never thought it would be so bad) I was a lvl 8 NB duergar cleric of moradin (I didn’t make this aberration, don’t blame me). My fellow party members where a Nosferatu vampire (even using the vampire: the masquerade sheet), a second edition, demigod ranger, and a freaking mecha. The mecha could grow taller than a building. Of course, I could killed them all, they didn’t even had a will save! And ALL of them would act like stupid perverts when the only girl in the club (a friend of mine… gladly she joined me when I left the club). All of her characters would either loose their clothes or be raped. Did I mentioned she was 14 at the time? And they where over 18? Besides those things, when I finally could find a decent DM (or had the audacity to DM myself), we where forced to add everyone in the table. And they wouldn’t create new characters, or provide balanced characters, or legal ones, or anything playable, nooo. Once, one of them (the catgirl fan) told the DM. “Can I play with her? She’s a lvl 1 sorcerer!” DM: “sure, the adventure is just lvl 2…” Turns out the catgirl was a great wyrm black dragon / sorcerer 1. We found out when she ate us. I left the club, but now I don’t have a group :( The last one I played with wasn’t bad at all, he actually knew half the rules. So. Think you can top that? I would GLADLY play with any of your DMs
Voldar_Mecorthio 06-24-06, 03:31 PM	Dude, that's just messed up. You win. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, in The Pervert's campaign, RAPE WAS LEGAL!!
Gray stranger 06-25-06, 08:04 PM	Oh yeah I forgot to mention, in The Pervert's campaign, RAPE WAS LEGAL!! /cue shocking music: DUN DUN DUN DUN I had a similar pervert DM, really weird guy, he was nice, but weird so, we were playing dark sun, which is a really cool campaign setting, and i played a high charisma (32 or something, the DM's rules were a bit broken, but still fun) pterran psion and all these girls started hitting on me, and the DM described it all in a gleeful voice... at that point I was like whatever, this is still fun eventually it got worse and worse, and even more worse when a girl entered the game, he would suddenly let lesbian hookers seduce people with domination and charm person it then became even worse, the worst point would be when we were negotiating with a few succubi, and the dm said and I quote: 'the Devil looks seducingly at you, and suddenly a vision of a wet (cat*) floats before your eyes' Yeah, that was strange *replace cat with a similar word
FeceMan 06-25-06, 08:46 PM	If someone ever told me that I was being looked at seducingly, I'd hit him/her and say that it was seductively.
The_Unfan 06-25-06, 09:56 PM	Not quite in game, but I know a DM who only plays with white people because black people and mexicans have no place enjoying white man's entertainment. (His words, not mine)
obrysii 06-25-06, 10:18 PM	Not quite in game, but I know a DM who only plays with white people because black people and mexicans have no place enjoying white man's entertainment. (His words, not mine) Um. Yikes. If I ever met him, there'd be a lot of trouble. He'd be more than kicked out of my game, that's for sure (even if he's the DM...the others would leave, too!)
Morrowner 06-25-06, 11:08 PM	Where do you people find these dicks? Anyhow, the worst I ever saw was a character playing a scaled back Tiefling Rogue(reccomended the race). The DM really had it in for him. At first I was whining that the Rogue wasn't really pulling his weight. Which was true. After talking to him he told me that he was so bored that none of the enemies the DM set against him were vulnerable to sneak attacks that his heart just wasn't in it. I think we played 8+ hours before the Rogue sneak attacked. The DM became progressively more and more of a dick to the Rogue Tiefling and the final battle our group was looking forward to, a Lich Sorcerer, was a total fiasco/DM screwjob. My Maces of Odo stopped the Lich(They also neutralize targetted spells which I didn't tell him) so we shut him down. The DM was angry! He ruled that the Maces didn't do that so the party met a terrible end.
draco1119 06-26-06, 02:56 AM	I just got back from a session in which the entire party died in 6 rounds. It wasn't a DM screw-job, so it may not be entirely on-topic. A CR 6 rated character party fighting a CR 7 demon. Sounds simple, right? Nope. It was a Demon Arrow. DR5/coldiron, SR17, 4 attacks/round (full attack) at +14/+14/+9/+9 with a bow that does 2d6+6 damage per hit, and 135hp. Five party members, and one dropped every round. First (surprise) round: NPC succubus drops after taking 54 on a crit. Second round: PC Avariel Cleric (Lvl 3) drops after taking 33. Then another 13 falling damage to hit -30. Third round: Druid drops after taking 30+ to hit -8. Fourth round: I take 36 to hit -13. Fifth Round: Druid drops again (to -17). Sixth round: Scout drops at -14. I'm just curious: is the Demon Arrow broken? Seems to me the CR should be more like 10-12.
TLomon 06-26-06, 04:15 AM	Oh, where to begin... 1) DM had a group of 1st level characters encounter a room full of Tiamats. (1st edition). 2) At a convention (this one irked me big time because I wasted a registration slot), magic was so common on the world, that it was cheaperto buy a magical weapon then non-magical weapons. (Law of supply and demand and all that). Yah. Didnt' take me 5 mins to leave that one. 3) One DM had us roll up our characters, then when we start, "Your character falls through a dimensional rift in the floor, and is now dead. HAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!" Seriously. No joke. 4) One DM added soulnames to game. If you figured out someone's soulname, you had ultimate power over them. Of note, the game was very casual, and OOC knowledge was commonplace - heck, it was the only way to survive. It took me 3 seconds to figure out a character named "Doug Bradley". I was immediately hit with an xp penalty of around -500,000 xp due to the mystical backlashes by figuring the DMPCs soul name was "Pinhead". 5) One guy repeatedly raped a male character in the game played by another player. Repeadely. At least once a session. At least. By orcs... by ogres... you get the point. Was very strange... only game in my area at the time... but it did get to be a bit much and I left. 6) DM had a session every Wed. One week, I am told my character is dead. I asked what happened, since I rather liked the concept, and it turned out I was killed in my home by a mysterious fire. It turns out the DMs girlfriend wanted a tome my character had me killed to get it. He at least let me make a new character with the same xp... lost all my gear though. 7) Storytime... DM made this beautiful handdrawn map of the continent. Had wonderful background. I was really looking forward to his campaign. Then, we get assigned pre-made characters, and are then led through a story. We had no choices. There was no free will. We were told what we did and when we did it. I left after the 2nd session (hoping that the 1st was just introduction to campaign). Such a shame, but the guy was seriously OCD (my wife purposely moved a kleenox box and he would stop the session to straighten it out --- 10 times in a row). I think we were reliving a favorite game of his or something. 8) A female character I had was drugged with acid. I was then told that my character was extremely horny. (Never tried the stuff, but never heard of that affect). I argued with him, since this was totally not in my characters beliefs. So, as a compromise, he had be passout, and then raped her. Yah. Last session there buddy. Up until then his games were rather fun. It came out of no where. 9) If you side tracked the story, the DM would have your character raped by six women and a coke bottle. (Recent news story at the time) 10) Same DM as 9 insisted that a quarterstaff was useless against a dagger, as it was only wood. We went outside so I can show him how useless a quarterstaff was... and I have zero training. Yah... wasn't invited back after that one. I could go on and on, but I think I vented enough.
draco1119 06-26-06, 04:21 AM	8) A female character I had was drugged with acid. I was then told that my character was extremely horny. (Never tried the stuff, but never heard of that affect). I argued with him, since this was totally not in my characters beliefs. So, as a compromise, he had be passout, and then raped her. Yah. Last session there buddy. Up until then his games were rather fun. It came out of no where. Actually, it's a somewhat common side effect. More so with others, however. 10) Same DM as 9 insisted that a quarterstaff was useless against a dagger, as it was only wood. We went outside so I can show him how useless a quarterstaff was... and I have zero training. Yah... wasn't invited back after that one. What an idiot.
Burrie 06-27-06, 09:28 AM	Right... in the end, I don't understand why I remained around in this particular campaign for so long. There was one player whom was sorta kind, but other than that... I just don't get it. To summarize... I don't quite recall what the storyline started off with... something with orcs starting a fire. We've cleared out a dungeon, and had to go to another forest to check something out(I forgot the specifics here, I'm afraid) We were in the third session when a new player was introduced, a bard. An arrogant bard at that. Furthermore, we had to pretend that said bard had been around ever since the first session and a viable party member. Odd, but doable. But thing is, the player was allowed to make all sorts of assumptions about his and our actions in the earlier session("It was a good thing I saved you back there when you were your worthless self once more"), and the DM basicially said that was okay. Luckily, the player left a session later and things went on as usual Things got a bit odd here. When we were searching in the town for something, the DM dropped a drow in there on a whim. As I was somewhat unfamiliar with FR lore at the time, I didn't quite get the hub-bub, but the other PCs apparantly liked the sudden inclusion of the drow. This is where things got strange. Basically, the main plot was dropped, and the earlier drow became something completely out of the left field. She could kill and resurrect us on a whim, and thus force us to go into a specific direction. If we'd protest, killed-and-resurrected. If we'd go in a wrong direction, killed-and-resurrected. No saves were involved here. For the record, this was played in NWN which supplies the DMs with an easy-to-use DM Kill and DM Heal button. As mentioned, I basically continued the game at this point because of one other player(we basicially convinced each other at times to continue), and because there was a subplot going on with my character being controlled by the drow. Ah yes, the drow... let me tell you a bit about her backstory. She was the first god. The very first god. Forget Ao and all that, she was the first god, just like that. She had been immensively powerful, and all the gods were basically evil and had forced her down from her position and truend her into a mortal. An immortal mortal(don't ask), but not a god anymore. Basically, the lapdo- party were gathering some artifacts for her to reclaim her throne. So, we gather said artifact, she DM-kills us all, and she's off for some ritual to regain her godhood. All the other gods couldn't stop her, they were afraid or something. Insert another god whom DM-healed us and told us of an artifact whom could possibly encourage the other gods to act on our behalf when we would shatter it in her absence. At this point, the game got interesting again. We underwent a few entertaining dungeons, did some fun RPing(with my character trying to redeem for his earlier traitorous actions), and it seemed that things were going to end. After an epic fight, we managed to get the artifact. We encountered the god just as the ritual was about to be completed(is there any other way? :p). In a moment of shock, my character had still been under the influence of the god and was about to hand over the artifact to her. Panic ensues as the rest of the party is held up by monsters while my character slowly approaches her. The half-orc in the group manages to break free, bruised and battered with his final HPS, runs up to my character, rips the artifacts away from his hands and shatters it, releasing enough power that would encourage the gods to act on our behalf, and... The artifact didn't work, we were all insta-killed, game over, thanks for playing.
kelvinaw273 06-27-06, 09:40 AM	Right... in the end, I don't understand why I remained around in this particular campaign for so long. There was one player whom was sorta kind, but other than that... I just don't get it. To summarize... I can't see why you stayed around either.
Voldar_Mecorthio 07-01-06, 09:06 PM	Here are some DMs friends told me about: The Video Gamer: He ran the whole game exactly like a video game. No amount of damage or lock picking could open a locked door, you HAD to find the key. Enemies only died when you attacked them a certain way, no way existed to get over a wall, ocean, or some other barrior that you weren't supposed to go over, everything could only be done a certain way and no other combination of effects could work, it was just idiotic. My friend occasionally asked if he could save his game and when he left the session he said he would log out, prompting dirty looks from the Video Gamer. The Scripter: Combat lasted exactly as long as he wanted it to. Characters died when they were supposed to die, they took exactly as much damage as they were supposed to take, enemies died precisely when they were supposed to, no amount of player influence could change any part of the world whatsoever. There were actual scripts for combat, my friend looked at them when The Scripter was in the bathroom. On round one the lich would cast finger of death, killing character 1. Character 3 would then miss him, character 2 would hit for 2 points of damage, and character 4 would miss. On round two the lich would attack character 3, hitting him for 18 points of damage. It was honestly that detailed! The players were spectators. One good thing about The Scripter was his phenominal storyline. He could have sold the scripts to Hollywood and had someone produce it. The Dumbass, AKA "that's stupid, you can't do that." Barely understood the simplist of rules, and every time a player tried to do anything remotely complicated or use any sort of combination move, like a trip/bullrush/grapple or using charm monster on an enemy, he would respond with "that's stupid, you can't do that." The Reviser, AKA "this is better": Changed about 90% of the rules. He had an elaborate combat system that took every nuance into account and took about ten minutes to resolve a single round. Fortunatly he wouldn't change rules without telling the players, but it was still stupid. By the time my friend left the game hardly resembled D&D at all. Class is Race, Race is Class: There wasn't a difference between race and class. Every race had a racial class, there was an elf class, a dwarf class, a halfling class, etc. You could only play your class. The Elf class was similar to ranger/arcane archer, the Dwarf class was similar to fighter/ dwarven defender, the Halfling class was similar to rogue/shadowdancer, the Orc class was similar to the barbarian, the Gnome class was similar to the bard, the Wizard class (yes wizard was a race, he was a lord of the rings fan. Fortunatly he was not stupid about this, the wizards were playable and did not rule the world) was similar to wizard/archmage, and the Human class was similar to the expert, as it got lots of bonus feats and every skill was a class skill. There were no half races. The Jerk: DMed purely to go on a power trip. Would kill PCs for no apparent reason, had a DMPC who could do anything, would put CR 20 monsters on a level 6 party and only the DMPC could survive, killing the monster imediatly after it killed the last PC, he was a total idiot. An endering quote (my friend left when he said it) was "I can do whatever the hell I want to whoever the hell I want!! I'm the DM, you're the players, I can do anything I want to you!!" Prompted after all four level 4 players died to a dracolich, and the DMPC looted their bodies. The Archtype Lover: No multiclassing. You picked one of the standard 11 bacic classes and you stuck with it. You WILL play an archtype, wizards/sorcerers are cannons, barbarians are meat shields, fighters are brawlers, rogues are scouts, clerics and bards are supporters, paladins are zealots, no druids allowed ("brokenest class ever!!!!!"), monks are brawlers, rangers are nature obsessed two weapon users. It extended to roleplaying too, barbarians are dirty psycos, bards are happy musicians, clerics are zelot priests, rogues are theives, rangers are city-hating hippies, monks are ninja-like diciplined martial artists, fighters are combat obsessed soldiers, sorcerers are hated loners, wizards are obsessed with magic, you get the idea. If you tried to customize a character then it would be struck down by the unholy wrath of a control freak DM.
FeceMan 07-01-06, 11:51 PM	The artifact didn't work, we were all insta-killed, game over, thanks for playing. LOL. Best. Ending. Ever.
Stormbrand 07-02-06, 03:49 AM	One DM who used to run alot would always dock players xp, rather than awarding it. There was never an award for good roleplaying, there was always an xp penalty for going against what HE wanted you to do. This was in 2nd Ed. Also quote about a high level campaign, 'It's high level because the DM *let* it get high level.' - aside from stating the blatantly obvious, the hint was that good DMs never let the characters past a certain level (I think it was 8th). Now he runs Runequest, which suits him better because it is the most restrictive system I have ever encountered. Other DM, running D&D on the Scarred Lands. Has an NPC from Wheel of Time game join the party. Level 50. Casts 6th level spells with 0 level spell slots. Also because he uses different magic his spells aren't subject to dispelling or antimagic or such. Recent example (ie:yesterday) was a DM looking to spark off party infighting. Not just disagreements, but for the characters to come to blows. Party gets corrupted by evil character, so new player comes in evil to fit in...then he turns the other PCs good so the new guy is the odd one out...then a new batch of players come in and immediately recieve an excuse to gang up on one player (me). The excuse. The new player was told I 'glow black.'
LCD2YOU 07-02-06, 11:11 AM	I've had my share of bad experiences, but for the most part I've been the DM. The people who've left my game were the ones looking for high magic. There are times though when a DM gets burned out real bad. From what I've been reading on this board some seem to be DM burnout others are what happens when you join a game but never checked the DM out before hand. As a player, the worst I've ever encountered was this: My Rouge had Int of 18 and Dex of 16, at 10th level his Escape Artist was maxed out and with synergies and feats, came out to over +22 or something like that. What was so interesting was I couldn't escape being tied up. Even when I rolled 15, as my opponents were that good at tying ropes. When I did escape, I rolled a 19 and 20, they caught me even with my hide skill, also maxed, of over 20 as well. I was on the DM choo-choo and was bait to lure my party members into a trap. We lost a player over that one. The PrC they created was too insane. They were the ones that had my character.
speeblefreak 07-02-06, 01:33 PM	*passes out hammerguns to the above posters* Use them well. Not quite in game, but I know a DM who only plays with white people because black people and mexicans have no place enjoying white man's entertainment. (His words, not mine) *takes back the hammergun, replaces with a gold shovel* Wham. Dig. Dig.
draco1119 07-03-06, 04:51 AM	Not quite in game, but I know a DM who only plays with white people because black people and mexicans have no place enjoying white man's entertainment. (His words, not mine) :rofl: *wipes tears from eyes* Whoo, that's rich. White man's entertainment?! So I take it he won't play with women either? I hate people like him, no matter what race/religion/whatever they claim is superior.
Elemental 07-03-06, 08:32 AM	The artifact didn't work, we were all insta-killed, game over, thanks for playing. [/list] "...and that's when I killed him, your Honour."
jasper 07-03-06, 10:05 AM	being a player and dm I discovered bad player(s) make bad dms. Either the bad player will follow in some or all the above mention dm types, or the dm had so many bad players he became a bad to cope.
DMStevo 07-03-06, 12:01 PM	raped raped my character....raped...rape In my defense as a DM, I did have a male character raped once, but it make perfect sense according to where they were and what was happening (the character's player has said that this was actually one of the funniest and most memorable parts of the campaign) Two characters had been captured by a Drow High Priestess. Drow society is martriarchal. Drow priestess take males to their beds and do whatever they want with them. So this is what happened to the one guy (he considered himself lucky, she was going to sacrifice the other guy to Lolth.) However, most of the instances of rape im reading about here are just awful and with no point. Those DMs should be shot for there misogynistic and childish stupidity. Horny preteen control freak mofos. :D
DMStevo 07-03-06, 12:13 PM	DM wont play with black people or mexicans.... *takes back the hammergun, replaces with a gold shovel* Wham. Dig. Dig. "I don't want no N****s or S***s in my game. This is a white man's game!! Now lets all put on our white sheets and play Crossburnings and Lynchings!!!! " ME (white): "Um, dude, if you don't stop giving white people a bad name, I have a shotgun and a Shovel and no one will miss you."
CryoSilver 07-03-06, 12:32 PM	Well, there was the DM who wasn't quite sure how 3.0 worked (this was about 2 years ago). Somehow (don't ask me how) I eneded up casting 5 level 6 spell per day at level 8, and my ranger (only 2 players; we each had 2 charcaters) had a +5 vorpal longsword... The other guy (with a clerci) could cast Heal at will. AT WILL!! HEAL!! AT LEVEL 8!! His rogue had a death attack (no save). It was like FInal Fantasy, but so much crappier. Racist DMs; wow. You must live in the suburbs, eh?
MerrelBlack 07-07-06, 01:43 AM	Alright, I have to add mine of some of the "fun times" myself and some other players had with this particular DM. This all happened over the course of one summer campaign several years ago, during the last days of 2nd ed. in the Forgotten Realms. The Dm used to like to use legitimate, Dungeon magazine adventures due to a busy work schedule, which is fine. I've used them myself and have no problem with it. First we roll up new PCs. I had made a half elf ranger with a kit that made him very primitive, much like Tarzan (raised by animals, couldn't use metal weapons, etc.). Our party consisted of myself, a drow fighter/mage (that dual weilded, no less), another drow fighter and a human wizard. Our first job is at a halfling fishing villiage that's got something attacking them in the lake. Ok, no problem, we think. Could be anything, considering how close to the Moonsea we were. Well, we figure we better play this smart, and do some investigating. First thing the drow fighter does is go for a swim in the lake. And the creature attacks him. Since the DM was using the critical hit chart, he rolls and crits against the drow. He rolls, and the chart determines that the drow gets his leg bitten off and the DM says he bleed to death before he can get to shore so we can save him. Alright, bad enough, probably player's fault, no problem. 10 minutes later he rolls up a human ranger and is back in the game. However, all we saw was a huge fin. Holy crap, we're thinking. What is this thing? Well, we come up with a brilliant plan to lure the thing as close as possible to shore, and then launch spears at it from land. Now, since this is the old days, you had to take proficiencies as per the weapon. I was the only one proficient in a spear, but the fighters were alright, and what did the wizard care? He'd just use Magic Missle. So that's what we did. We basically harpooned the beast from shore, and won. We haul the thing ashore, figuring it's a shark or something worse. I mean, it bit off the leg of the last PC. And what was it? A giant, mutated rainbow trout. that's what killed the swimmer and was terrorizing the halflings. We, the players, upon that revelation, sat in pure, cold silence and stared down the DM for a full 10 minutes til any of us could say anything. Now, two sessions later this same party is needing to get to a job across the Moonsea, so we get on a boat. The boat is haunted by a ghast, and the only way to kill it is to destroy it's home (the ship's masthead) with a magical weapon. We are 3rd level by now, and we have no magical weapons. the DM was a notorious miser on that aspect. Ok, so after two nights of mysterious deaths, we make some headway in our investigations and discover what it is and how to kill it. Luckily the ship has a 5th level mage onboard, who knows about the monster, but decides not to do anything about it. Just apparently doesn't feel like it, the DM says. Well, were in trouble, so the drow fighter/mage explains to the guy we have no magic weapons to deal with this thing, and we're still two days from shore. After ten minutes of whining the DM relents and the wizard hands over his promised magic weapon: a single +1 dagger. Again, this is 2nd. Ed. No one in the party can use a dagger ( the DM rules cause i know how to use a knife it's close enough with a -2 penalty). And, to make matters worse, the Ghast atacks, in the middle of the day. And instanly kills the ship wizard. No critical or anything, just up and dies. So we attack. Our wizard is killed soon after. there goes our magic support. I tell the other ranger and the drow to keep it busy while I attack the masthead. They do so, and I go to attack the masthead. I run up to a stationary object and tell the DM i strike it. The DM makes me roll a to hit. Um... ok, I roll. A natural 1. The DM rules the dagger slips out of my hand and splashes into the Moonsea. I will now recount the following conversation: DM: "That sucks for you guys." Me: "I go swimming after it." DM: "No, you don't." Me: "Yes, I do! I dive into the water." DM: "No, you don't." Me: "I own nothing! I'm not encumbered! I have the swimming skill! That dagger is the only thing that can save us!" Other players: "For f**** sake, let him go get it! We're dying here!" DM: "Too late. The dagger has sunk beneath the waves and is gone." Me: "Then we go nobly to our deaths." Which is exactly what happened. Within minutes my PC dies, quickly followed by the human ranger and the drow fighter/mage. Total TPK. We had a very long talk with the DM about this one afterward.
Tormsskull 07-07-06, 09:00 AM	As much as I defend good DMs, I love to call out Bad DMs (Or just DMs that made really bad moves) 1.) Playing Birthright, owning territories, etc. Our (the PCs) castle gets attacked, so we call our guards. The DM tells us we have 5 guards. I was like "In our castle? Where we rule? Where all of the treasure for the entire country lays in a vault?" DM gets upset and says "Fine, how many guards do you want? However many you get, the enemy has that many as well!" 2.) A fellow PC died, and then in-between adventures he complained to the DM that he wasn't having fun, and he wanted to be something exotic. The DM lets him come back (rezzed somehow) as a weretiger without the racial hitdice and the trade off is he went from a level 3 barbarian to a level 2 barbarian... 3.) A long time ago in basic D&D. I was playing a Neutral character. I went into a cave with 2 other NPCs (this was a solo adventure), we made some bad decisions and the two other NPCs were hopelessly lost to me (they were separated from me by like 20 kobolds (we were level 2 at the time I believe) so I flee from the cave figuring it is a lost cause. I get back to the queen who sent us on this mission, explain to her the terrible situation that occured, and she tells me to go back and wipe the cave of all kobolds. By myself. I ask for assitance, she says no one is available to go with me. I reluctantly return and end up getting tied down and eaten by kobolds (back when they were canines instead of reptiles). 4.) Same DM as 3. The entire campaign was built around Deus ex-machina. Our group had an NPC ally that would put deities to shame. She was effectively a level 36 Magic-user/ level 36 Cleric. In basic D&D :P
hollow_ghost 07-07-06, 10:33 PM	"If you don't like it, you can just leave."
lunacy05 07-08-06, 08:31 PM	This happened on last Sunday's game. 6 players, including myself, was playing a D20 Apocalypse/Cyberscape style game. The GM informed us that we start at level 5. Seeing that the party lacked a medic, i decided to play a German Dedicated Hero/Field Medic to balance out the team. Whereas the team consists of... A frenchman Strong Hero/Soldier An Italian Fast Hero/Gunslinger (Wants to be a sniper) An American Fast Hero/Gunslinger Another American Smart Hero And a Jamaicain Smart Hero/Field Scientist The GM and i are old friends, he used to run his games at his place for 6-7 months like Shadowrun and his version of Resident Evil style D20 game. We as a team, have our allegiance to the United States' military special forces. The game starts as we were informed to meet our superior for mission briefing. After briefing, i as a German, would say 'Jaworl' to acknowledge the Sargent. The GM didn't like the idea of me playing as a German coz he thinks i'm gonna go Nazi, roleplayed that the Sargent hated my guts and told me to stop saying that. I asked what's wrong with what i said coz i didn't do anything wrong. He turns to me and say... DM: Coz he's a racist. Dumbfounded by that remark. I asked the GM, if he's such a racist, why would he be our superiors since our team consists of many race. DM: Coz he's forced to. He don't have a choice even though he hates you all. Whatever. Our mission were pretty simple, head to Chernobyl at night, capture the psionic woman who can only mind control her own soldiers (No explaination to why she can't do that to us) and if possible, difuse the bomb. If we can't difuse the bomb, we are ordered to head back to the extraction point and escape. We arrive at Chernobyl, head to the base and combat began to make the story short. After a few shots on 1 guard, we suspected that the guards has more then a few levels after taking 30 plus damage. Turns out it's true as the GM said that the guards on the ground were level 4s and the guys in the tower are level 6s. We were shocked by this, and who wouldn't? Count them, 20 guards, 8 were level 4s and 12 were level 6s with M2HB against a team of 6 level 5s. You count the ECL. Some of us, including myself, took serious heavy damage. We were frustrated with the combat and trying to stay alive. The combat ran for an hour. The GM took pity on us and informed us that he'll lower the hitpoints for us on the spot. That really took out the realism of the game. When we found the lady we're supposed to capture, turns out she's a level 10 character with 2 Desert Eagles for Two Weapon Fighting. She almost killed our Jamaicain Scientist in 2 shots, leaving him with 4 hit points coz of a critical. A level 10...against 6 level 5s, and half of us sucked in combat and seriously injured. While the the combat is still going on, he was easily distracted by the conversation held between the Smart Hero player while the rest of us waited for the GM to continue the game. For every few minutes, the GM is distracted. To make things short, the ordeal were over coz the bombs exploded next to the Nuclear Toxydem (No explainations as to how that thing got there in the first place) and vaporizes our atom. We then found out, 80 years in the future, we were cloned. How, especially we're at point blank of the nuclear explosion...i don't know. The GM said, the marvels of science and technology. After the game, both me and the other player talked to him about the way he ran the game. Especially, the ECL of hell we got to endure. We asked if the GM ever read how the ECL suppose to be like to pit against us level 5s? His response was... DM: I never bother to read the rules. Then he apologized to us that the game were meant for his friend's character (For the Smart Hero player in previous game...a level 8 game) and forgot to change the ECL. We were still mad about this incident. Also, he was a player in the Iron Kingdoms game that we both used to play a few months back. He's a powergamer and played a Gun Mage level 14 that deals 20-30 D6 damage and the IK GM gave his character...a +10 Cloak of Charisma..at level 14. :mad: I really hate powergaming GMs. :mad: We're giving him another chance and see if today's game would be better after that talked we had a few days ago.
AlanBruce 07-08-06, 09:34 PM	I had a DM, about 5 years ago, when we had just gotten ahold of 3.0 rules. One of our players asks to be a Drow fighter. Wielding scimitars and of CG alignment.... but that didn't matter. It became a problem when... Player: "So... what's my SR again? I believe I get one when I'm a drow..." DM: "None... you have been away from drow matriarchies your entire life and raised by a high elven arcane archer. You lose all drow properties, except for ability boosts and the LA" And so it began. After an encounter with a Pitfiend at level 1, we began questioning whether this was headed in the right direction. And then it happened... Apparently my DM did not like players being races other than the custom ones in the PHB. As such, when we were level 3, we battled the drow fighter's father. A drow general in full plate, with a bastar sword (i'm guessing magical) and who single handedly took out a caravan we were tarvelling with after a well placed fireball and lightningbolt. On us, the horrified, pcs, he used flesh to stone, mirror image, and ray of enfeeblement. Please note, we were level 3. And yet, we managed to survive on account of a passing efreet who managed to weaken the drow well enough before dying s we could just pinch him in a final sad stockade of glory. The next session, we fought another drow. This time a sorceress who cut through us with a rapier like warm butter and cast gate, fireball, and cone of cold, before once, again, some npc dwarven psionic god happened to drop by and cleave her with his uber halberd. We were still level 3. But perhaps the closing chapter that fueled my decision to bid this man adieu happened the session following that, when, tired and at half our strength, we are taken prisoners to gnolls, led by a very high level flind cleric who cast flamestrike on our sorry arses and thus ended us hbeing unconcious and imprisoned. After 5 hours IRL of experiencing the wonderful new mechanics of fatigue and exhaustion. One of us manages to escape, at 1 hp, and nothing else on him out of the gnoll compound. The character in question was the drow fighter who unwillingly brought us so much pain with his original decision. it went like this: DM: "As you approach the exit of the mines, an old drow woman materializes several feet ahead of you. She wears expensive jewelry and a spider symbol on her chest. She also has two pet displacer beasts at either side." Player: "..." DM: "The elderly drow says to them... fetch!" I fethched my car keys immediately after that and bid them all a good afternoon.
The_Apathetic_Despot 07-09-06, 05:09 AM	Not sure I can compete with all the raping, and I'm glad for that, but in my short time playing D&D i've had some doozies. Please forgive the spelling, it's very late and I'm sleep deprived. 1: Ok, I don't want to malign this DM 'cause she is a very good friend of mine and aside from this a good dm, but you be the judge. we started at lvl 3, I was a psion and tried to find some decent armour. She flatly refused to let me find anything better than a buckler, annoying but tolerable. she had no problem letting another character play a lvl 3 sorcerer WERETIGER. As I understand the system that puts him at ecl 12, 512 times more powerful than the rest of us. 2: this one I can malign all I want, 'cause he aint a good dm. I was playing a dread necromancer, lvl 4. the first adventure started out ok, if unexciting. we got sent to find out what had happened to a shipment of pelts from a hunting lodge that formed the basis for the local economy. We get there fight some ice creature kill it, I am infected by some disease though I don't know what at the time. so we go back to the village, and find that a group of bad guyshad burned it to the ground. heres where things start to go bad. they spot un immediatly and their sorceress leader casts sleep on everyone before we can react, no save. we got a good laugh when she tried it on the elf, but that didn't help 'cause the others just sapped her unconceous, without even bothering to PRETEND to roll. So we get captured and tossed in jail. The afformentioned elf was a rogue, and so in the next session escapes her cell without difficulty. naturally thats when the sorceress and her goons arrive, the rest of us weren't out of our cells but it hardly matters, 'cause see our characters were male and the sorceress was hot so we all (each and every one of us) fail a will save and spend the whole fight standing there drooling. The elf gets some lucky rolls and kills all 3, and we loot the corpses. I grab a nifty amulet that gave me a +2 to ac, real handy for a combat caster like me. so we leave the prison after noting some insignias that id the villans as some ancient organization that created the book of vile darkness and now apparently has nothing better to do than raze worthless mountain villages. Around then is the point when the disease kicks in and I go insane and am told that I try to eat one of my compatriates. natually I am knocked out they gag me. I wake up that night and try to remove the gag, and tail an escape artist check (why was one required just ot remove a gag when my hands weren't bound?) so I try to take 20. the response I got shocked me "you can only try to remove the gag once per day" :confused: . 3 in game days and 2 encounters later (making 3 of the 4 encounters that I had sat out entirely) I finally become sane enough to decide my own actions and discover that the amulet I had mentioned earlier (naturally I knew about it ooc already, but not in character) had been stolen. Turned out that the dm had intended the amulet for the barbarian specifically, but she wasn't there that session, so he ORDERED her character to steal it from mine. my attemts to find it in character failed (surprise, surprise) and at that point I knew things were going terrably wrong. 3: Same dm/caimpaign as #2, we later got recruited by an organization called the valiant order (original eh?) who were the creators of the book of exaulted deeds. I should note that not one of the players trusted them or wanted to join them, but it was the only available course so what can you do? so this order sends us against a red dragon, without giving us any time to prepare or restock oh, say, potions of featherfall?. During this battle, in fact the first round, the dragon grabs me, which is fine, just what a dragon might do in a head to head fight, only it then flew 500' STRAIGHT UP in one round (a neat trick for a dragon with a fly speed of 150) and dropped me. I have no problem with my characte dying in battle, particularly from a reasonable tactic, but when my chance of survival is 0%, and it happens 5 times faster than it should (as a dragon with a manouverability of poor can fly at a maximum upward angle of 45 degrees) I start getting annoyed) 4: finally we came to the big climax, we were sent to find and destroy the bovd. why we were sent when the valient order was repetedly described as becing packed with characters who dwarfed us in level, I will never know or particularly care about. that was where the rails led. I had just taken undead leadership and had a farily large following of undead, and we had to go to two cities to find some people who knew where ot find the book. this was exaclty the type of roleplaying I had been looking foreward to from the moment I wrote necromancer on my character sheet. I wanted a chance to talk things out, convince people that necromancy was not the evil they thought it was, I had given a great deal of thought to what I would say, what arguments to make. As you would expect, that wasn't what happened. Instead, I bashed my head against a broken record dity guardsman saying "undead bad. undead bad" without listening to a word I said until the barbarian said "where *insert name of contact*?" and the guy stepped forward, gave us the information, and we left. huzzah. 5:on our way to find the bovd, wh came across some kind of huge undead thing. Necromancer or no I didn't bother trying to control it, as I had been informed in no uncertain termsthat I wouldn't be able to. we kill it without difficulty, and along comes a cleric and a group of 50 or so flunkies. Without even pretending to make a turning check, the dm declares that all my undead followers (including the sentient ones who were close friends of my character, and my cohort who had a wife and children) exploded. Naturally I called him on it, and the DM explained, as though it was obvious "well he is a level 40 cleric" :headexplo Having just watched 5 good friends die my character attacked and was killed, again without a single die being rolled. 6:moving on through the campaign, now as an archivist summoner, we enter the time I like to call "The Age Of Stupid Arbitrary Crap!" or TAOSAC for short. we were in the ancint ruin that held the book, and came across 2 blue dragons and around a dozen lizardfolk. my hippogrifs made me the parties strongest combatant, and we were short handed that day, so the dargons basically fell to me to handle (just as an aside, if you have never pinned 2 dragons simultaneously, youre missing out). amazingly, even though my summons did more damage than anyone else, they seemed incapable of scoring a killing blow, so I decided to perform a little test. At the end of the fight, with there was only 1 unharmed lizardfolk left, I had my surviving summons conferge on him. Combined they did around 3x the damage that had killed the rest of them, while the DM whined that he had a "action sequence" prepared. So to get to this "action sequence" he actually DENIED ME MY CHARACTER'S TURN and moved on to the turn of an absent character that he was playing. The "action sequence"? This is a direct quote "[the player's name] shoots an arrow, and kills it" :nonono: You guessed it, the DM had reached a brand new level of pettiness and refused to allow my character to succeed. 7: this was during the final battle, against some sort of guardian of the bovd. As an Archivist, I want to start the fight with my dark knowledge class feature, so I ask the DM what type it is so that I know what kind of knowledge check to make and re refuses to tell me. After spending 5 minutes arguing that yes I did need to know, he finally gave me an answer (sort of). His reply was "it doesn't have a type". Thats when I had had enough, said some mean things and left.
Voldar_Mecorthio 07-09-06, 08:12 PM	Gah. Railroading... is bad. I have to say, while your story is not unique it is still intolerable. Why on earth do DMs hate changing thier precious storylines at least a little!? D&D is a game, not a movie. I said this allready, but a friend of mine had a DM who literally scripted exactly what would happen. In combat and out of combat, player could only do what they were supposed to. If they tried to, something allong the lines of "a god appears and stops you" or "it doesn't work" would prevent them.
Zillah 07-09-06, 08:58 PM	this happened to me today actually. ive been playing a HARD campaign, hard. monsters are augemented, stuff is pulled out of the DM's A$$ and every time we were creative, instead of being rewarded we got fvcked more. im a sorcerer. er...3 weeks ago, i got paralyzed and used as a shield by a boss. one character didn't want to help cause it was a new character and nuetral, hunting one of the PC's. so i helped him and the other person didn't cause "they were playing their character" and it was the DM's gf. so yea anyway. last week, i get blinded and defeaned by Leonalds. EVIL ones, with an evil template. so the DM says blashpemy. not "evil holy word" arg. shut down for all of combat AGAIN. this week i am in a tourney, i am a caster. i get put against a shade steel golem. a fvckin golem. not even that, i COULD have delt with it, IF he didn't "modify" or play wrong(idk which one) the fact that the negative pulse couldn't hit me from over 100 feet away. so after doing as much as i could do (orb of acid, teleporting) i decided i had enough. i said i give in character, packed up and just left. where a friend explained to the DM that me being fvcked for 3 weeks in a row is wrong, and that he was playing things wrong. not just stuff i mentioned either. so yea. my first "real" campaign and i walked out cause i was being screwed repeatedly. i won't come again, until i get a re-match played right in the tourney, and an apology for the crap he pulled out of his a$$ :mad: nothing against the DM, but its not fair to the point of not fun
FeceMan 07-10-06, 01:03 AM	Honestly, I wish I had some of these horror stories to share. I'm afraid I don't, however. Damn masochistic urges...