(No numbering systems, please, gets too tedious and backed up)
Ultra-Competitive
Treats the game like it's him vs. the Players, although a slowly dying breed, this brand of DM is particularly annoying in his utter refusal to consider fun before the competitive spirit of the game. Without realizing that killing players is easy as pie for the DM, he relishes in what he perceives as a competition and loves throwing super high-level beasties at players armed with what few piddly enchanted weapons he gave them. Cannot understand why players don't like his game.
Mr. Player/DM
It would be unfair to say that any DM with a DMPC fits this, these are the ones that are the reason why DMPC has the bad connotation it does today. Likes making the game a story about his character and keeps the others around as cute little pets. Usually either a DM who never plays or a player looking to get back in the action as soon as possible. Also ties to Egomaniac, as detailed below.
Egomaniac
Is very confident about his skills as a DM, even if it's clear that his players hate his game. Absolutely, positively, cannot stand criticism and likes to punish people IC for OOC actions. Players will lose magical items, loved ones (who are NPCs and therefore even more helpless), and sometimes their own characters to sate his need for "vengeance".
The Conductor
Railroads to the extreme, forcing characters into whatever he's planned for the day. Goes so far as to make NPCs unkillable (especially villains that he wants to taunt or goad party members and then leave) or make locations PCs are in unleavable until they finish whatever quests he had wanted them to complete (usually by outlandish metagaming). Often cannot understand why players are being so difficult and/or why they won't do what he thinks it's obvious for them to.
I had a DM like this who DM'd about three games before he finally got out of his funk and became a better DM. Highlights of the sessions:
*Three clerics with glowing purple eyes appear while we're fighting a bunch of goblins, they are clearly the leaders surveying the battle and meant to be off limits*
Me (the elven wizard): I throw sleep on them
Him: *rolls a random die* It misses.
Me: Sleep is an area of effect spell...
Him: oh...well it has no effect
Me: *headdesk*
Another one:
*we're walking through the woods and are suddenly ambushed by a goblin rogue who instructs us to give him all our gold*
Me (human rogue specializing in thrown weapons: I throw a dagger at him *rolls* Natural twenty!
Him: it misses.
Me: Natural twenties are autohits...
Him: Oh...well it doesn't do very much.
Another one, same game:
*we enter a new village and everyone looks like there's something wrong with them. The DM draws a map of the town with only one building labeled. It is the "Bar"*
The party (to some random passerby): What's going on here?
Passerby: Oh it's terrible! There's a horrible plague gripping the city! Many people ahve died already!
Me (out of character): Okay, we go.
DM: You go to the bar?
Me: No, we leave, we're not staying in a plagued city!
DM: Oh, um, well the guy says "actually, the plague isn't really that bad..."
One more:
*we were conscripted by the military and sent to train with some people and help them defend a snowy outpost to the north (we were a chaotic party btw, so this was already kind of a bad setup since the DM expected our loyalty to the military to fuel our actions). There was evidence of a possible drow attack, which is why they were fortifying the castle. We went to the tavern and found, lo and behold, a mysterious stranger sitting at the table in the back, his hood pulled up so that we couldn't see his face, gloves on and everything so that we couldn't even see his skin. Of course we were like "drow," so we went and talked to the guy and while we did so, my character (the psion) used some minor telekenesis to pull his hood back, revealing that he was a drow for an instant before he pulled the hood back in place. We tried to arrest him right there, but he drew weapons, cut my character pretty badly, then ran. We went to report it to our superiors, this is basically how it went:*
Me (to the paladin, our superior officer): We just ran into a drow at the tavern, we tried to apprehend him but he got away. You guys should probably double the watch considering a drow managed to actually get into the city without anyone noticing. Also, I need healing
Her: And what evidence do you have of this attack?
Me: Are...are you serious? *points to gaping wound on chest* How about that?!
Her: Well anyone could have done that.
Me: :OMG! *brief pause as I stare at her like she's absolutely crazy* Okay, okay, you know what? You're right, I was wrong to come here, sorry to inconvenience you, just heal me up and I'll be on my way. *she does so, we exit her chambers* Alright guys, something is clearly wrong in this town. I suggest we get the f*ck out of here before these idiots get us killed.
The rest of the party: agreed.
*we then tried to steal some supplies from the armory both in a mild sort of revenge as well as in order to have food and all that to survive (it is the north, remember). We had a plan too, a pretty good one: My character used his disguise skill and a disguise kit he picked up during character creation in order to make himself look like an official of the king, though not a specific one. We then approached the guard of the armory at night. The convorsation went something like this:*
Me: Hail guard, I am (random fake name), I am an emissary from the king on a surprise inspection. Our spies tell us that the enemy may be enchanting some of our items with scrying magics in order to keep tabs on us. We are to inspect the armory for any of these enchantments and bring any equipment that is thusly enchanted to the mages in the main castle for study and disenchantment. You are not to interfere. Here are the proper papers *hands papers to him that we had forged earlier* (rolls bluff, gets 17 +ridiculous modifiers, since he had a maxed out bluff and an item that gave him bonus to bluff).
Guard: What did you say your name was again?
Me: *repeats same name as before* Now please hurry, time is of the essence.
Guard: I don't recognize that name.
Me: Well then clearly you don't know the names of everyone at court!
Guard: actually, I do *rings alarm*
Me:
OMG!:OMG!*After the episode of the amazing nobody guard who magically knew the names of every single official in a royal court that was miles and miles away from his fort, we tried to just cut our losses and leave, attempting to scale the wall in order to get over (we knew the DM would never let us go out through the front door, we were conscripts after all). No matter how well we rolled he kept us inside the castle. We never even passed first level in that game before we quit it.
Now, this DM has since become quite a bit better, and his more recent games are far more enjoyable, mainly because he learned not to be so rigid in his planning *hint to all potential DMs out there*
Also, to the OP: Do you want more bad DM archetypes, or just bad DM stories? =P
My first DM argued with me that my 3.5 CG Bard was clearly NG because he didn't break every law he found constantly for no reason. This at a point when we had been in a single town that didn't even have any described laws, and, y'know. Chaotic *Good*? Not Chaotic Stupid? It wouldn't even have affected my standing as a member of my class so it was even more bizzare.
That skill/class feature/whatever does what? No. Your class/skills/whatever let you do something. He doesn't like it, and won't allow it. Sometimes he'll relent, but he'll be cranky about it.
You're spending a week in town anyway while you wait for someone to recover, so you say your Bard is standing on the street corner turning tri- I mean, singing to earn money and roll a great Perform check. He gets cranky because he doesn't want you having money. Or you talk to someone in-character for ages and he still doesn't want you rolling Diplomacy.
What do you mean you have x equipment you all only get y. Isn't at all clear about the guidelines as to what you can or can't have or be and isn't consistent with it. Doesn't check character sheets the first session and then is cranky the next session when you have better equipment than he wanted to allow, despite him never actually telling you that he only wanted the PCs to have x.
This was the guy who taught me to grill the DM about everything even remotely relating to mechanical stuff, and most fluff stuff as well.
Rules? What rules? Oh those rules. Uh... They're different today. What do you mean Masterwork only adds to damage rolls and not to damage? Oh Jump? It works by the book today even though we didn't have it work that way last time. Oh sure, that weapon randomly does more damage to the creature you're fighting.
The retaliator Out to get you because of something that happened with your PCs in a previous game/games. Denies it when confronted with it, but it's blindingly obvious.
Often in conjunction with Rules? What rules? Oh those rules. Uh... They're different today.
The cackler Cackles, giggles, grins, or smirks about EVERYTHING he does, regardless of what it is.
Why don't you love my story you're barely in? Gets upset because everyone doesn't love his story/NPCs/etc. Railroads, mostly ignores PC backstories, mostly ignores the PCs themselves. When the campaign dies tells you about the story which was planned out an exact way to the very end and had no chance to figure out the twist in-character and no backup plans for exactly that happening.
Most of these apply to my last DM, who was like the poster child for this thread. <_>; Nice guy, made interesting characters, very painful DM.
This DM has so many cool and fascinating (to him) plots, NPCs, descriptions, events that he forgets about the players.
He is busy talking to himself, that the players are just the audience while his favorite npc steps to save the day.
In a broader spectrum:
-Forgets that the story should revolve around, or atleast focus on the actions of the players.
- Has a favorite npc, that the players can't touch no matter what.
"Ofcourse it's logical to trace the origin of every common pebble on the street"
This DM will expect you to pick up every obscure hint and be angry at you for not thinking about every little detail he describes.
Chances are that when you do chase something that you think to be a lead, it will probably be nothing.
The Master of Chaos
This DM has a game that's so sporadic, so random, so completely and utterly off the wall that he just absolutely has to be on drugs. He might have incredibly crazy or otherwise ridiculous custom monsters, magic items or other treasure that is either hideously underpowered or world crackingly overpowered, NPCs who are races of a power level that the PCs shouldn't even be dreaming of (gods, for example) interacting with them on a day to day basis. Between the horde of one million single hit point flying monkeys you fought last session and the halfling Godfather (as the movie) that you are negotiating with for no apparent reason this session, these games usually end with players getting utterly fed up and/or not being able to take the sheer amount of mindf*ck. These campaigns often have a sort of "anything goes" attitude in which the DM allows players to pretty much do whatever they want, almost no matter what with little if any reaction from the NPCs. Having a swordfight in a tavern barely seems to phase anyone, for example. These games are often trying to be funny, and occasionally they do succeed at it, but more often than not they are just frustrating to play in.
And for a classic one:
The Monty Haul DM
This guy gives you everything. All the time. Forever. Players get so much loot they don't even know what to do with it all. +5 Vorpal swords are thrown away by the bucketload because the players already have three mansions full to the brim with them. Loot is good, but too much is too much. DMs exhibiting this problem often just want the players to like them and/or to have fun (by having everything they could possibly want), but in truth games such as these become very boring very fast as the PCs' power levels skyrocket to godlike ability. Players usually quickly lose interest in the game and drop out.
Ultra-Competitive
Treats the game like it's him vs. the Players, although a slowly dying breed, this brand of DM is particularly annoying in his utter refusal to consider fun before the competitive spirit of the game. Without realizing that killing players is easy as pie for the DM, he relishes in what he perceives as a competition and loves throwing super high-level beasties at players armed with what few piddly enchanted weapons he gave them. Cannot understand why players don't like his game.
This can be fun (my players never complained) if the DM does this with the resources available to the BBEG.
Here’s my personal worst one:
Core only...because it’s balanced:
This DM mistakenly believes that having a core only game will balance the classes out, as an oppose to penalizing people like me who prefer martial characters to full casters. I don't mind a core only game, as long as the DM doesn't rant on about his quest for game balance.
This can be fun (my players never complained) if the DM does this with the resources available to the BBEG.
Here’s my personal worst one:
Core only...because it’s balanced:
This DM mistakenly believes that having a core only game will balance the classes out, as an oppose to penalizing people like me who prefer martial characters to full casters. I don't mind a core only game, as long as the DM doesn't rant on about his quest for game balance.
Ohh God...I have one of these in my group. I'm currently the DM, so we don't have this little problem with which to deal. However, I gave up after a few minutes of arguing with him about the "balanced" nature of core. He was completely convinced that staying to the core rules balances the classes.
I really considered taking a transmuter specialist level 1 against any fighter he wanted to build and beating the snot out of him at his own game....but I didn't. I let him live in his delusions.
"I want an archetypical game" "Well yanno what? I want a monk that can fire laser beams from his eyes- and there just so happens to be balanced rules for it in this book" "I think that book's too cheesy" "Druid 20" "What?" "Druid 20. If it's not as cheesy as a druid 20, will you let it in?" "Druids aren't cheesy, so okay."
That was a fair while ago, and he's now adopted a policy of "you can add a new book to our available material every OOC week" (we get one session a week)
So now we've got a fair amount of non core material, and options for the non primary casters (bard, paladin, the like)
Nobody's actually running a druid- I designed one a while back to show how cheesy they are, but didn't run it.
and you'll do anything,
you're my puppet..." (apologies to Sam & Dave)
"As the enemy breaches the main hall and makes it's way for your chambers, you leap out of the window and..."
My brother did this. When I protested he replied "Well, it's the only logical response. You're outnumbered."
My PC had spent the better part of the campaign reclaiming her late father's realm and restoring peace to the valley, which had irked a neighboring kingdom that wanted my valley. So far so good, and the combat leading up to this moment went fine. But it wasn't in his plan that my PC would fight to the death. She was supposed to try to make an escape... even though her cultural backstory found cowardice and running from battle for any reason to be pretty much inforgivable.
HIM:"No, no. Your character would find the fight unwinnable and would try to escape."
ME:"No she wouldn't."
HIM:"To stay would be suicide."
ME:"So be it. I will not scamper off like a frightened rabbit!"
HIM:"That's not a realistic attitude!"
ME: "Who's running the PC, you or me?!?"
Refuses to give out the appropriate gear to the group. In our current campaign, over 3/4 of the characters are at 1/2 the appropriate gear level, or lower, and we still aren't getting the right gear. The DM complains that we defeat the challenges he gives us too easily. What he fails to notice is that we have a group of 6 - 8 regular players, with 3 others who show up on occasion, and he's creating challenges stated for a group of 4. Usually, one group member gets KO'd in the first round, and then we win the fight on sheer numbers alone.
Double-Standard Man
Same DM. Once, while a player in the group, argued insistently that new gamers should not be allowed to join unless they had their own copy of the core rules. Now, that he's the DM, he refuses to bring his own copy of the rules b/c three of the players (myself included) already have a copy. One week, I didn't bring my copy, and he threatened to kill my character as punishment.
I Have what the Doctors Like to call a Short Atten... OOOHH!! A Kitten!!
Different DM. Completely forgot what they were doing, several times. Story line jumped so much that it was impossible to follow. Horrible, inane plot twists. Completely unaware of the world around them.
Wait! You aren't a god?
Luckily, not a DM I've campaigned under... A friend of mine once left a game after the 5th session b/c every NPC they encountered, and I mean EVERY NPC, was a deity of some sort. They spent most of every session being beat up by peasants who were actually gods of war, or something like that.
They're both excellent, whatever keeps this thread refreshing and amusing.
Comes up with ideas that sound good for your character, but don't work out, and then doesn't want to fix it.
I had a DM, who for the most part, was ok. He had this idea that each character would get a relic item, that was like an artifact that was some how connected to your families history. Good idea. But often his execution of the items fell short.
For example, the cleric in the group, his relic had most metamagic feats, but not the ones he wanted. We sat down and figured it out, and the meta magics worked about 1/5 of his spells in any way that could be considered useful.
I was a bard, and got a rapier. It had a feature that only worked on a special plane of existance, we only had to go to once, that guided us through a maze. It had no + to hit normally. If I missed my first swing, the next I got +1, if I missed it went up, all the way to +5, then it would reset. At level 15 the + doubled, so +2, +4...up to +10.
I figured it out. I would do more damage if I hit every single time, then if I even missed half the time. I never really wanted to use this feature, because it would mean less damage over time.
It was made out of adamantium, silver and cold iron. However we seldom fought anything that had those DRs to over come. Again another feature that I seldom got to use.
I talked to him about it, and he changed it. he took away the building to hit bonus, and all the different materials and made it a transmutating weapon, and gave it the ability to turn into a bow. It took a round to change from rapier to bow. And I had to hit before the transmutting properties took effect.
I kept trying to explain, all the different powers in the world aren't going to help if I can't hit anything because of the rediculous AC of all the monsters we are fighting, because my relic isn't even +1 to hit.
I mean, come on, part of the reason to having a magic weapon is to have a better chance to even hit.
Epic Battle
Every battle is an epic battle. You enter the dungeon. the first fight is an epic battle. You move on. You encounter more monsters. Another Epic battle.
You some how manage to make it to the boss mob. Double Epic Battle. How you manage to survive, you don't know.
All Monsters Are Master Tacticians
Every monster knows how to move to avoid oppurtunity attacks, every monster employs amazing tactics. How come they don't rule the world if they are so amazingly masterful at tactics?
Your powers are useless!
All encounters are designed where your powers and abilities don't work. Take fire spells, for some reason you are up against fire creatures, in an evironment that you wouldn't expect fire creatures. Good at sneaking, suddenly it's all monsters with great perception. However you build your character, the DM makes all the encounters so that you can't use them, with the idea that's the challenge. What fun would it be if you could actually be effective in the encounter? The only builds that work are generic damage dealers and damage mitigation ones.
Here’s my personal worst one:
Core only...because it’s balanced:
This DM mistakenly believes that having a core only game will balance the classes out, as an oppose to penalizing people like me who prefer martial characters to full casters. I don't mind a core only game, as long as the DM doesn't rant on about his quest for game balance.
Oh god, this.
And an offshoot;
"Psionics are Broken!"
Admittedly they can probably be broken, but then you might as well be playing a sorcerer. Psionics is about the shenanigans.
The most irksome thing is on at least two separate occasions, when I mentioned psionics to my friends they bring up "psionically dominating the rest of the party."
Okay, a legitimate concern I guess. I then quote them the rules for Psionic Dominate; "As dominate person (page 224 of the [b]Player's Handbook[/b]), except as noted here."
...
Yep, psionics is clearly the issue in that scenario
.If there's a female player* at the table, said player's character will be forced into the 'Damsel In Distress' role, regardless of her combat prowess. If the DM is running a NPC with the party, he will rescue her even though she's perfectly capable of saving herself. Opponents will be impossible for her to hit, yet fall easily to male players (or especially, the NPC). If a child is involved in the plot in any way, the female player and her PC will be relegated to the position of babysitter.
*Unless said female player is the DM's girlfriend, at which point she'll become an unstoppable juggernaut that the rest of the PCs sit around and watch annihilate armies, of course.
I played under one of these, and the female player in question was my wife. it did not go well.
So at the end of one adventure, the enemy Doppelganger ran away by using his invisibility power when bloodied, after taunting us. Okay.
A few minutes later, a little girl showed up with an envelope for our party leader. He opens it, takes a HUGE hit from a nasty poison that was impregnated into the paper, and finds out that it's a letter from the BBEG taunting us and threatening to invade the town leading into the next adventure. Okay.
At the end of the most recent session, the BBEG once again used his invisibility powerz to run away once bloodied. As we staggered away from the fight, beaten and bloodied, we noticed that the BBEG had left an envelope on the ground.
The party leader and I looked at each other.
I said, "I cast Scorching Burst and burn that @$!#!@# thing to ashes."
He's decided that we should be punished by having all subsequent letters include special important plot related things, since we'll just burn them.
I'm willing to live with that.
The DM who disagrees with you on how a particular class and/or alignment should be played and punishes you for it whereby nothing you do will work right.
When You Wish Upon A Card
Eagerly tempts the party with wishes and/or the deck of many things as an excuse to reem your character.
Jason Voorhees Takes Notes From Me
Loves to kill player characters. He keeps score and boasts how many player characters he has killed.
Would You Like Cheese With That
Any attempt by the player to talk with the DM about why he's not having fun is dismissed as the player being a whiny baby.
Would You Like Cheese With That
Any attempt by the player to talk with the DM about why he's not having fun is dismissed as the player being a whiny baby.
The variant of this being the DM who takes any attempt by the player to explain that he's not having fun is dismissed as the player being a OH GOD POWER GAMERZ!!!!!11011!
The lone Storyteller:
This DM has so many cool and fascinating (to him) plots, NPCs, descriptions, events that he forgets about the players.
He is busy talking to himself, that the players are just the audience while his favorite npc steps to save the day.
In a broader spectrum:
-Forgets that the story should revolve around, or atleast focus on the actions of the players.
- Has a favorite npc, that the players can't touch no matter what.
"Ofcourse it's logical to trace the origin of every common pebble on the street"
This DM will expect you to pick up every obscure hint and be angry at you for not thinking about every little detail he describes.
Chances are that when you do chase something that you think to be a lead, it will probably be nothing.
I had the misfortune to play under a DM that was both of these at once. I only played as long as I did because he was otherwise a pretty cool guy who really did for the most part run a fun game. Unfortunately when we (as a party) started deviating from his preapproved path, instead of talking with us and understanding why, he stated punishing us with "God" NPCs.
He eventually killed my character by blatantly breaking the rules (this was 3.5 DL: Age of Mortals) and then kicked me out behind the backs of the rest of the group (and against their express wishes) because I had the bad manners to come up with a strategy that killed off one of his favorite NPCs (a green dragon that should have had us for lunch).
He then had to cheek to claim it wasn't personal
Of course it was personal and I've been told that everyone else in the group understood as much.
-Polaris
I've outgrown the DMPC phase. But I admit, back in the day, my DMPC would show up and the players would become visibly annoyed. Hey, I was in high school.
And I've always tried to avoid the Monty Haul campaign. So, I can be stingy.
Cannot understand why players don't like his game.
This is beyond me. Why keep playing? Just find another DM and have fun.
Shoots down any attempts at outside-the-box thinking, example: instead of fighting the man on horseback, he tries to set a fire under the horse so that it panics and bucks its rider. DM either fails him no matter how good his roll was or shoots the idea down. Note, the line is very thin between player stupidity and player ingenuity, some DM shoot-downs are very reasonable.
Hater
Has it out for something in the game, usually a certain class or race. Anyone who attempts to play either of them will encounter difficulty in doing so, powers will be unexpectedly and unreasonably nerfed, racial abilities will disappear, and generally you'll get immediate hostility from NPCs.
Lover
Is enamored of a particular class, race, or something else, usually a part of his game that he made himself, like a city. This is not really at the exclusion of other things, he just makes his stuff much better, anyone who plays/is from the object of his affection can expect to be tripping over magic items and gold. Races get a giant empire that scares the hell out of every other one, classes get a few dozen training academies, and parts of the setting are usually the best in the world, the best city/shoemaker/box merchant.
Detail-focused
Expects players to check for traps every five feet if they expect to survive, and roll perception every five inches if they expect to get any treasure. Gets mad at players who complain, or worse, don't make the compulsory checks, likes to label them as lazy people who are little better than fungi. Skill challenges tend to be horrendous as well, often demanding players to remember what the janitor they met eight sessions ago thought about the city's economy.
The conductor is the worst. I hate being railroaded.
I've outgrown the DMPC phase. But I admit, back in the day, my DMPC would show up and the players would become visibly annoyed. Hey, I was in high school.
And I've always tried to avoid the Monty Haul campaign. So, I can be stingy.
This is beyond me. Why keep playing? Just find another DM and have fun.
I expect a lot of poor DMing habits can be traced back to either:
1. A desire to control the entire game. This of course leads to railroading, but also to "God" NPCs/DMPCs, inflexible story-lines, etc.
2. A desire to actually play rather than DM. This leads IMX and IMHO to "Ya'll Gonna Die" DMs (who regard it as a contest), DMPCs, and situations where the DM runs the show.
For all DMs that are reading this thread, here is a piece of quick and friendly advice from an experienced DM and player:
As DM, you control the world. The setting, background, and overall tapestry is yours to control and you have a right to have your players respect the conventions of your world.
However, the story and the stars of the show should always be the PCs. If you have an NPC that is consistantly "one upping" the PCs, then you should probably re-examine how and why you are DMing.
-Polaris
Will bring many props, laptop with music and sounds, refined minis for each player and monster, everything that "looks pro and builds climate"!
Pity actual adventures are dull and NPCs flat. What's more, all this stuff distracts rather than build climate.
I expect a lot of poor DMing habits can be traced back to either:
1. A desire to control the entire game. This of course leads to railroading, but also to "God" NPCs/DMPCs, inflexible story-lines, etc.
2. A desire to actually play rather than DM. This leads IMX and IMHO to "Ya'll Gonna Die" DMs (who regard it as a contest), DMPCs, and situations where the DM runs the show.
For all DMs that are reading this thread, here is a piece of quick and friendly advice from an experienced DM and player:
As DM, you control the world. The setting, background, and overall tapestry is yours to control and you have a right to have your players respect the conventions of your world.
However, the story and the stars of the show should always be the PCs. If you have an NPC that is consistantly "one upping" the PCs, then you should probably re-examine how and why you are DMing.
-Polaris
This. I couldn't agree more, Polaris.
IMHO, and IMX, the easiest way to avoid problem number 2: Trade off DMs every so often. When you get one person who spends 90+% of their time behind the screen, then things tend to go wonky.
Legalist: Takes a very strict interpretation of the rules as written. Basically, if it isn't in the book, you can't do it. Doesn't believe in the existence of Rule 42.
Hack Novelist: The DM whose plots tend to be thinly-veiled (or not-so-thinly-veiled) ripoffs of fantasy novels and movies. Especially bad if he's also a Conductor.
Low-Magic Nerfer: A DM which only likes to run 'low-magic' games simply because it keeps the PCs weak. Of course, said 'low-magic' restriction tends not to apply to the DMPC.
He mistakes rules in the worst possible way and doesn't have enough common sense to find out.
I haven't played under one but had the honor of talking to one in chat a few years ago which went like this (3.0):
DM: Last session I made my Level 4 party fight a beholder and a few ogre mages.
Me: So you obviously wanted to teach them that there are encounters you better run from.
DM: No no, I set it up so they couldn't possibly flee.
Me: Err... so you equipped them with artifacts or what?
DM: No, they only get basic equipment.
Me: So the use of the encounter was just to get them killed?
DM: No it was just a basic thing. CR 20 for 5 lvl 4 characters.
Me:
Yes CR was a mess to begin with but the sad thing is that he blamed the TPK on bad tactics of his players instead of thinking about his encounter design.
Low-Magic Nerfer: A DM which only likes to run 'low-magic' games simply because it keeps the PCs weak. Of course, said 'low-magic' restriction tends not to apply to the DMPC.
I've been accused of this one, although my intent was never to nerf the players. (In fact I give them inherent bonuses to stats to make up for missing enhancement bonuses.) I just happen to run low-magic settings.
Hater
Has it out for something in the game, usually a certain class or race. Anyone who attempts to play either of them will encounter difficulty in doing so, powers will be unexpectedly and unreasonably nerfed, racial abilities will disappear, and generally you'll get immediate hostility from NPCs.
One of my old DMs was a mixture of this and The Fool. He had some hatred for rogues and especially halflings. I felt very sorry for my friend Josh, who was playing both in the first campaign we were in with him. He was always targetted first, locked in unpickable rooms or shackles, or flat out told he could not use Sleight of Hand in X situation. This same DM had an unnatural love of Paladins, however, and always focussed his campaigns around them. Paladin players got the 'perk' of hearing him whine about the incompetence of the other players after the game.
Worse still he didn't understand what he was doing wrong, and got defensive when called out.
He was part The fool because he seemed convinced that the appropriate CR level was each character's level added together. At level 2, the three of us were fighting CR 6 monsters.
It was the only game around, unfortunately, so we grinned and bore it for the most part, complained to eachother later. If it weren't for the lot of us players being good friends, we'd never have made it through.
He also had NPCs he'd make out to be uber tough and unkillable, then get them killed in a single shot by another NPC as a sort of "Cutscene", and god forbid we tried to do anything he didn't want us to do, or in a way he didn't like.
It's also the reason my brother would pull things like "You're a wizard? Well, magic doesn't work here. No you can't wear armor. It would mess with your magical energies which you still have but can't use because magic doesn't work here."
This DM is a fan of 'optimizing' characters. Except that he's bad at it. And he insists on trying to 'help' his players optimize, regardless of whether they want his help or not.
It gets particularly chafing when you're actually capable of good optimization and he keeps badgering you for 'bad' choices.
I expect a lot of poor DMing habits can be traced back to either:
1. A desire to control the entire game. This of course leads to railroading, but also to "God" NPCs/DMPCs, inflexible story-lines, etc.
Some thoughts on the railroading issue:
Oftentimes, a DM will create an awesome story that just can't get derailed. And then the DM does everything in his or her power to keep the PCs on track. This is done, not to deny player initiatvie, but to keep the plot intact. It's well-intentioned, but is bothersome to the players.
Eventually the DM will learn to relinquish control. A good DM knows that even if the PCs wander off-track, they can be brought back to the story.
Though the DM becomes controlling, I don't think it's necessarily a control issue, I think it's more of a creativity issue.
And besides, when a DM realizes that the PCs rarely act in a predictable manner, accomodations must be made anyhow.
2. A desire to actually play rather than DM. This leads IMX and IMHO to "Ya'll Gonna Die" DMs (who regard it as a contest), DMPCs, and situations where the DM runs the show.
Yes, this is why my DMPC was created in the first place. I was the only DM anyone knew but I still wanted to play.
But remember, there is a difference between a 'killer DM' and a vengeful DM. For, me, I don't want to kill the PCs, but if they are to succeed, they will be challenged
Likes to switch games every few months. Promises you'll come back to the main campaign, as if, but wants to try out another campaign of lower level or even another gaming system. Are we playing D&D, Shawdowrun, or Ars Magica this week? You forgot? It's GURPS night.
There Ought To Be A Law
Every few game sessions likes to add in a new house rule. It could be a reworking of an official rule, something he made up or learned elsewhere, or adding in a new sourcebook from some 3rd party publisher. Players don't get a choice in the matter. It's now the law of the land.
This can be fun (my players never complained) if the DM does this with the resources available to the BBEG.
Okay, sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this one, but...
1. If your players like it, do it, I say screw rules, manners, and anything else if it makes the game fun when it comes to DnD.
2. You had a good reason to play that role, the BBEG was obviously out to get the party, and had significant resources with which to do so, that's completely fair, if adventurers want to pick a fight with powerful people, than they have to realize the consequences.
3. I meant more of the omnipresent crazy DMs who view the game as a competitive sport, despite the odds being permanently in their favor, they view killing PCs as an accomplishment, and brag openly about it. You are, in no way, the kind of DM I was describing for that post.
The exact opposite of the Conductor. Gives the players infinite freedom; so much, in fact, that he neglects to give the players any sort of goal or direction. I swear, we were roaming that king's road for three sessions, trying to find something to do.
Sybil
Likes to switch games every few months. Promises you'll come back to the main campaign, as if, but wants to try out another campaign of lower level or even another gaming system. Are we playing D&D, Shawdowrun, or Ars Magica this week? You forgot? It's GURPS night.
I am as guilty as hell on this one. My players have requested that my wife sheild me from "new game smell"
The thing is, though, I get bored if I play any given game longer than a couple of months, so that's why I switch.
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
The exact opposite of the Conductor. Gives the players infinite freedom; so much, in fact, that he neglects to give the players any sort of goal or direction. I swear, we were roaming that king's road for three sessions, trying to find something to do.
I used to make this mistake as a reaction against railroading by other DMs.
My advice to any DMs reading this is to do what Robin Laws suggests: Improvise Short but Plan Long. What I mean by that is you as the DM should have a very general idea what is going on and a very basic idea of what role in the world you expect your PCs to play (and be prepared to alter this!) This will give you a basic structure and some initial plot hooks for your players to sink their teeth into as well as giving life and vibrancy to your world.
However, do not try to anticipate or channel the short term actions of your players. It's a bit more work, but I've found the best approach (and yes 4E makes this much easier than before) is to make a setting/campaign-chapter that is much like the old Might-and-Magic Games...where there is one uber goal but you as the DM are prepared to handle whatever direction the players go within these broad guidelines. 4E makes this easier because it's a lot easier to scale encounters (and yes DMs you should absolutely scale encounters!)
-Polaris
Eventually the DM will learn to relinquish control. A good DM knows that even if the PCs wander off-track, they can be brought back to the story.
Though the DM becomes controlling, I don't think it's necessarily a control issue, I think it's more of a creativity issue.
And besides, when a DM realizes that the PCs rarely act in a predictable manner, accomodations must be made anyhow.
Of course. Many of these instances are due to the DM not knowing what to do if the players do something he didn't expect them to do. Railroading is most odious if it's obvious railroading (like the DM flat-out telling players they can't do anything that would cause them to jump the tracks). If you're going to railroad, it's best to be subtle, like setting up a number of plot points and placing them wherever the PCs end up going.
But enough of that tangent. Another annoying DM type that sometimes shows up...
Mr. Vindictive: The DM who brings personal grudges into the game. If one of the players did something to cheese him off in real life, expect him to drop a grudge monster or falling rocks on his character. Seems to happen occasionally when the DM's significant other is in the game and they break up.
-Polaris
The Spouse: This is the DM that games with his wife as one of his players (or vice versa doesn't matter), and the game is one way they date. The player-spouse of the DM somehow is always the most important character of the group, somehow always gets the best items, best contacts, and most interesting plot hooks, etc, yet will always vehemently deny any favoritism even though the pattern persists for game after game after game....
Actually, this is pretty okay if there are you two are all alone and not gaming with other people.
The Spouse: This is the DM that games with his wife as one of his players (or vice versa doesn't matter), and the game is one way they date. The player-spouse of the DM somehow is always the most important character of the group, somehow always gets the best items, best contacts, and most interesting plot hooks, etc, yet will always vehemently deny any favoritism even though the pattern persists for game after game after game....
-Polaris
I have played in a game like that (though it was live-in S.O rather than spouse, but same diff) and it irritated me to no end. My wife currently plays and I try really hard to not give that impression, to the point that I sometimes go to far the other way, I think, and seem to be out to get her.
The Spouse: This is the DM that games with his wife as one of his players (or vice versa doesn't matter), and the game is one way they date. The player-spouse of the DM somehow is always the most important character of the group, somehow always gets the best items, best contacts, and most interesting plot hooks, etc, yet will always vehemently deny any favoritism even though the pattern persists for game after game after game....
-Polaris
So far, my wife and I have managed to avoid this.
The Stripper: No not that kind of stripper (that would fall under 'BEST DMS EVAR!!!!") but the guy who seems to start a campaign by going through a published setting, identifying the four or five best things about that setting that makes it unique and interesting, then summarily stripping those things out. the guy that wants to DM an all-human/no-magic game of Shadowrun, for instance.
This is one of my old DMs exactly. He read over Ravenloft when I mentioned it, and then told me "I'll run it, but if i do I'm removing the Dark Powers, the mists, the domain lords, the funky way magic happens, and the Outcast Rating system." I told him not to bother, then.
This is one of my old DMs exactly. He read over Ravenloft when I mentioned it, and then told me "I'll run it, but if i do I'm removing the Dark Powers, the mists, the domain lords, the funky way magic happens, and the Outcast Rating system." I told him not to bother, then.
Interesting to some is annoying to others.
You know the part where your party goes in through one way and the NPCs go in through the other? This DM uses those excessively, and usually goes into detail about it, often prompting the question, "why weren't we doing that?" Unfortunately, it's a fairly easy DMing mistake, constantly detailing off-screen adventures that make the kobold-infested dungeon the players just went through seem like nothing compared to the grand adventure the NPCs are having.
Master of Cliche
Every dwarf guzzles ale, every elf hugs trees, and every dragonborn is an honor-bound samurai rip-off. Players who make something "against type" can expect to encounter difficulty along the way. Blatantly steals from Lord of the Rings and wonders why nobody wants to follow the main story, which, in an eerie coincidence to DM of the Rings, may lead to railroading. Otherwise, the game is just a hackneyed thing you're playing for the fun of it.
The Spouse: This is the DM that games with his wife as one of his players (or vice versa doesn't matter), and the game is one way they date. The player-spouse of the DM somehow is always the most important character of the group, somehow always gets the best items, best contacts, and most interesting plot hooks, etc, yet will always vehemently deny any favoritism even though the pattern persists for game after game after game....
-Polaris
My DM's wife plays, but fortunately my DM is not like this. She is allowed to make mistakes and does pay for it.
However, this does remind me of one game in college where the DM had a crush on a girl who decided to learn how to play D&D and didn't know about the crush. O .... M .... G! She could do no wrong. Every plan of hers worked. Anything she wanted to do she could do. The DM kept telling her over and over what a wonderful job she was doing and playing the game so well.
Master of Cliche
Every dwarf guzzles ale, every elf hugs trees, and every dragonborn is an honor-bound samurai rip-off. Players who make something "against type" can expect to encounter difficulty along the way. Blatantly steals from Lord of the Rings and wonders why nobody wants to follow the main story, which, in an eerie coincidence to DM of the Rings, may lead to railroading. Otherwise, the game is just a hackneyed thing you're playing for the fun of it.
Ugh. I hate this one on BOTH sides of the table.
This DM won't force you to do anything but won't help when another player starts acting like an ***hole. He won't talk to a player who constantly steals from teammates and won't lift a finger to save you when another player plants a dagger in your back while you are asleep.
I had a DM like this and a fellow player who played a chaotic evil rogue, needless to say the game ended when everyone realized that sessions devolved into people making characters who join the group only to immediately seek revenge for their previous character(s).
As the title implies, this DM should have been great. His encounters are fantastic, and you will be deeply immersed in his storyline. His NPCs are all three-dimensional characters. You can feel, taste and smell the world he has created.
The only problem is that you're playing a very Vampire: the Masquerade-esque campaign and everyone wants to play a not-so-scary campaign filled happiness. Or you're playing a political intrigue campaign when all you want is to bash doors and kill stuff. Or he wants a full-scale war campaign in the wilderness when everyone's into urban mysteries and romance.
This DM doesn't so much houserule or rule inconsistently as he just makes up a totally new set of rules for his encounters. Automatic weapons fire in modern games becomes an environmental effect instead of an attack roll. How well you roll on a reflex save determines how far you get in a trapped environment. Drowning rules are ignored in favor of doing HP damage.
He wants to call his game DnD or D20 modern, but doesn't actually want to play that game.
Sorry guys, but...
The DM who runs a weekly campaign that only gets played once per month. Enough players want to show up, but he doesn't, calling off at least half the sessions for some reason or another. Can be a coverup for sheer laziness. More generously, can be busyness or bad timing. Annoying either way.
I don't believe in taking notes
I'm guilty of this one. Makes up names for important NPC's on the spot but never writes them down. Nor does he write down what NPC died where, who owns the house in the forest, or which three of the players have actually spoken to the dwarf lord. Often has to coverup by referring to NPC's by their roles in game rather than their names. "The city leader that you spoke to earlier..." or "That one bandit that killed that other farmer dude."
If the company wrote it, it's kosher!
Doesn't believe in balancing the game. If someone wants to run a 3.5 druid who chain-casts maisma, that's fine. Half-dragon centuar hulking hurler? Sure. If you have the money, then yes, you can go ahead and buy that holy avenger at the nearest farmers market, right next to "Billy-Joe's last pub for 50 miles". Takes the authors of the material at their word that it's all balanced and that there's nothing at all mechanically wrong with any rules. Allows tear gas grenades in d20 modern and orb-locker paragon-level wizards in 4e. Blames the other players for not building strongly enough to keep up with the broken builds.
The Racist
This can also be "The Homophobe" or the "Sexist" or the snarling politico. Hates some group for no good reason and constantly makes terrible remarks that players would never normally tolerate but feel they shouldn't confront their DM about. Even if some of their hatred is justified, it's irritating to deal with on a constant basis.
Circumstances? What circumstances?
So your PC just spent half his gold around town on bribes. He's spent an in-game week making friends with the townsfolk and having them sign his petition. He's spoken with nobles, the royal family, and the house of commons representatives and done a lot of favors that he's too ashamed of to mention. His name has gotten around, and the king knows about his cause. When he finally gets his audience with the king, he asks "So, what's my circumstance modifier for all the extra work I've done in advance when I ask this king to support me?" Dm reponds with "Ok, fine, it's an especially favorable circumstance, so I'll give you a +2 to your roll."
Player cries.
You didn't say you brought rations.
THis is the type of nitpicking DM who makes your party starve to death if you leave without supplies and don't specify you're foraging as you go. He doesn't ask, he just starts the mechanics. He's also the type who, when you've intimidated the crap out of a peasant for information, will have the extremely scared rice-farmer immediatly alert the town guards because you didn't threaten him to keep him from reporting your influence, thus ruining any plans you were to use that information for. I understand that I need to declare when I *cast* Mordekainen's magical watchdog, but please, don't make me specify that my highly successful diplomacy check to seduce the NPC also included trying to prevent her extremely scary father who I know about from finding out.
Actually, this is pretty okay if there are you two are all alone and not gaming with other people.
Well at that point they should put away the Dungeons & Dragons, and start playing "Naughty Nurse & Patient Who's Viagra Won't Wear Off"
This DM cannot leave his or her personal politics/philosophies out of the game, especially if they don't fit. If your adventure centers around saving a sacred forest from the ravages of extensive logging, fine. But don't send the party out to stop a guy who's building a log cabin and preach about the environment to us all the way along and about how trees are people, too. Every animal we shoot for food just happens to be a mother with a litter that we must now take care of or else we're evil? Meat is illegal in Lawful Good societies? Nations don't believe in borders? All merchants are greedy and out to screw whomever they can? No businessman is honest? Geez, get a radio talk show already!
We were playing as rank 10+ deities, level 30-40 characters, and yet our money supplies were lower than an average level 10 character. We were not allowed to use Wish to create money, or the divine power to create magic items appropriate to our portfolios. The only money in game was what he dropped in. None. Over about 20 sessions. Oh, and Olidammara robbed me, after I saved his life, so I ended up with only the artifact greatsword the GM let me have. A lot of use that was, to a rogue / wizard.
On top of this, the main bad guys were 100% homebrew god hunters from another reality, who were immune to... everything. They were even immune to stuff that allowed no save and no spell resistance. The game ended long before I found out if there was a way we were meant to be able to fight them, but frankly, I had stopped caring a long time before the game got that far. The only thing that game was good for, was the fact that it got us together socially, and several of us in the game didn't see each other much outside of it.
It's My Soapbox and I'll Preach If I Want To
This DM cannot leave his or her personal politics/philosophies out of the game, especially if they don't fit. If your adventure centers around saving a sacred forest from the ravages of extensive logging, fine. But don't send the party out to stop a guy who's building a log cabin and preach about the environment to us all the way along and about how trees are people, too. Every animal we shoot for food just happens to be a mother with a litter that we must now take care of or else we're evil? Meat is illegal in Lawful Good societies? Nations don't believe in borders? All merchants are greedy and out to screw whomever they can? No businessman is honest? Geez, get a radio talk show already!
Geez, that brings back memories. I remember losing a year of my life playing with a RMSS group where the GM was the biggest Objectivist/Ayn Rand fan evar.
Gack.....all the towns were hell-holes. Everyone took every opportunity to hose you on anything you wanted to do. His world wasn't populated by nice. normal fun-loving children, but children that could have starred in "Children of the Corn", his animals attacked people on sight, and packs of wild man-eating dogs roamed his towns.....
Never again.
-Polaris
You didn't say you brought rations.
THis is the type of nitpicking DM who makes your party starve to death if you leave without supplies and don't specify you're foraging as you go. He doesn't ask, he just starts the mechanics. He's also the type who, when you've intimidated the crap out of a peasant for information, will have the extremely scared rice-farmer immediatly alert the town guards because you didn't threaten him to keep him from reporting your influence, thus ruining any plans you were to use that information for. I understand that I need to declare when I *cast* Mordekainen's magical watchdog, but please, don't make me specify that my highly successful diplomacy check to seduce the NPC also included trying to prevent her extremely scary father who I know about from finding out.
I have this type of DM. He's nice, but it took us an hour and thirty minutes (playing) just to travel through an uninhabitated swamp. We didn't bring rations, luckily I had a map. One player made an Endurance Check to run as fast as he could through the swamp. He got a moderate roll. The DM told him, "You run through the swamp quite quickly. Half way through, you pass out from the intense running and fall face first into contaminated water. You drown." He was following all of the rules and that would've actually happened, which made it worse. It took us forty five minutes to convince him it was unfair and forget that happened. After that, the adventure was really fun, however.
Yes, I'm guilty of this one. And it is so much fun. :D
You don't 'pass out and drown'
Sets up stupid, nonsensical alignment puzzles, want the evil overlord's treasure? Too bad because his lawful good elven friend is guarding it, no paladin could condone it without losing his powers. This DM brags openly about making paladins fall, and like every other crappy DM, fails to see why people hate him and his campaigns.
Restrictive
These are not always bad DMs, some do it out of necessity. An example of a good version of this DM is one I have who doesn't allow (most) content from Dragon magazine in his games, knowing the history of broken things from Dragon. The worst ones ban main PHB classes for no reason, nerf their powers, and take away PPs.
The Conductor,
That skill/class feature/whatever does what? No
The retaliator
The cackler
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
I'll just pull your string, and you'll do anything, you're my puppet..."
Your powers are useless!
You're Playing Wrong
Would You Like Cheese With That
Captain Bring-Down
Mr. Vindictive
Jackass
there's a southeast texas GM who is all of these in one, not joking, he is literally single handedly killing D&D in this area because players come to play, are victims of his utter ********, and swear the game off forever, i have literally bumped into a dozen people looking for players for my game who have said "no i played under XXX and the gmae sucks, not interested"
even worse they let this guy run game day for 4th edition release and phb release, and he openly hates 4th edition and the stories i heard about it he purposefully sabatoged the game to be ****.
some of the things hes done
on multiple occasions divine intervention to make a player not do something they want, force us to go on the obvious ghost ship with the lure of treasure (whihc.. btw there was none). bans or modifies a class ability and doesnt allow rerolls or exchanges to compensate (once ruled ninja invisibility is as the spell invisible instead of one full round and would not let the character change ninja levels to rogue). knee jerk nerfs, shield spell takes up an arm slot CONSTANTLY kills characters... there has been 6TPKs ina group, and the highest level was like.. 6... constantly throws single CR 5-7 monsters against a group of 6-8 people who average level 3 and calling it an even encounter as he goes around one rounding people. gets a HUGE attitude when he gets a rule wrong and it gets pointed out, blames the complaining player when they aren't having fun and kills the players character shortly after...
and the ego... his ego is sooooooooooooooo huge with such gigantic anger issues.... and hes no better when he plays... doenst pay attention to non combat.... breaks rules that he should know, jumps straight into combat instead of considering anything else...
i coudl go on but im gonna have an anhurism... hes seriosuly killing the hobby here.
Ultra-Competitive, Egomaniac
The Conductor,
That skill/class feature/whatever does what? No
The retaliator
The cackler
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
I'll just pull your string, and you'll do anything, you're my puppet..."
Your powers are useless!
You're Playing Wrong
Would You Like Cheese With That
Captain Bring-Down
Mr. Vindictive
Jackass
there's a southeast texas GM who is all of these in one, not joking, he is literally single handedly killing D&D in this area because players come to play, are victims of his utter ********, and swear the game off forever
Ouch...that's really too bad. Why's he allowed to DM big events if he's so abysmal at it?
Your character can have a +25 diplomacy, but if you, the player, don't come up with the right words, your character autofails the diplomacy roll. You want to do a quick check of the room. DM asks where. You respond by saying starting with the desk. DM says "Hah! You didn't say you look at the ceiling. You are surprised." Rogue searches for traps on the door. "Hah! You didn't say the floor. The 5ft square right before the door is a pit trap. You fall and take 10d6 falling damage plus 5d8 damage from the spikes, and make a fortitude save vs. poison.
Mind Over Minutae
Your character can have a +25 diplomacy, but if you, the player, don't come up with the right words, your character autofails the diplomacy roll. You want to do a quick check of the room. DM asks where. You respond by saying starting with the desk. DM says "Hah! You didn't say you look at the ceiling. You are surprised." Rogue searches for traps on the door. "Hah! You didn't say the floor. The 5ft square right before the door is a pit trap. You fall and take 10d6 falling damage plus 5d8 damage from the spikes, and make a fortitude save vs. poison.
Actually I use an old MMO term for a DM like this (and I despise it because I see it all too often myself). The term I use for this kind of DM is:
Pixel-[female dog]
Those that are familiar with old style Everquest MMOs or Might and Magic games will know precisely where this term comes from.
-Polaris
Edit: Sorry about the masking but that IS the term for this behavior. No foul language intended.
So while a book like the MIC will help everyone out, the rogue is screwed because the stuff he wants is in a book that nobody else wants anything from, so it'll never get 'voted in'
I am significantly less then pleased with this ruling, and plan to contest it for something better to the potentially bitter end.
Well at that point they should put away the Dungeons & Dragons, and start playing "Naughty Nurse & Patient Who's Viagra Won't Wear Off"
Hey, some people have more geeky ways of doing foreplay.
Er...
Actually I use an old MMO term for a DM like this (and I despise it because I see it all too often myself). The term I use for this kind of DM is:
Pixel-[female dog]
Those that are familiar with old style Everquest MMOs or Might and Magic games will know precisely where this term comes from.
-Polaris
Edit: Sorry about the masking but that IS the term for this behavior. No foul language intended.
You forgot Myst and it's sequels. Sometimes, I swear...
Edit: Also, I have a DM who combines Vindictive, Contestant, and crazy.
I had a forced three card draw from the Deck of Many Things in order to be in the campaign I was in. (This wasn't the problem. I knew the requirement going in.)
Things that happened:
1.) Lost all of my XP. (we were level 5, I'm now level 1.)
2.) Draw the cared that lets me get out of any bad situation once.
He asks me if I wanted to use it on the xp-loss, I say no. He asks me to try to not do anything that would completely destroy his campaign. I say of course.
3.)I draw the SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(I'm now level 10, with a necklace of Adaptation to boot!)
We do my character intro scene.
The first words out of his mouth: "you all of a sudden feel tired and weak."
I walk over to the mirror.
"You look old and are visibly aging at a rapid pace."
me: "I'll say, I'm a 100 yr old Sylvanesti Elf. ...
YOU [explitative deleted.]"He turned my good luck into an excuse to be a jackass, forcing me to waste the "get out of one bad situation," and to this day he doesn't see anything wrong with it.
I was just going to hold onto it until the upcoming apocalypse. (We were on Krynn, and I'd been reading the Dragonlance series at that point. I know what happens every few years there.)
The DM that refuses to let you use buff spells unless already in battle. He's running a campaign from a published book, and you know that the BBEG is coming up soon by his description of a large cavern with the smell of sulfur coming from it.
He insists that your party recklessly charged into battle with an adult red dragon, even though you haven't even SEEN it yet.
PC1: I cast Fireball.
DM(without even rolling): He leaps out of the way and out of range of your spell.
PC2: While he's dealing with the wizard, I send a couple of arrows his way!
DM: It won't do you any good. He'd already cast Protection From Normal Missiles.
PC2: When?!?
DM: Right before you guys entered.
PC3: We snuck in AND won the initiative!
DM: So the guy's paranoid. What can I say?
PC4: I know what I can say. 'I quit.'
DM: You're just mad 'cause your losing.
(That should have been a big tip off for the others. Two attacks in and he's already decided that we were losing?)
Flavor=mechanics Sorry, no arcane magic in this game you can't be an eladrin. I can't see how you could justify fey step as a not arcane thing. "What if it were he is really acrobatic and he leaps/hops/tumbles over to where he would normally teleport". Also call it a high elf, or heck I can even use the fluff of normal elves. No dice, well what if you houserule that eladrin soldier is open to non-eladrin because I mostly just want to play a spear user honestly. No? Thats not even remotly arcane.
Skills dont matter Discourages the use of skill checks, especially social ones. Would prefer you "roleplay it out", and then arbitrarily decides if you succeed or not based on a whim.
4E is basically the same as 3.5, I won't bother reading the changes Claims to read the new book, and love the new system so much more, while in reality DMs using the old systems rules. IE feats are assumed to do what they used to, monster special abilities, racial powers, classes (I assumed clerics get plate), magic items (+3 flaming frost longsword that adds d6 of each type on each hit anyone?) Will occasionally reference the BAB (or equivilent) of the players, who often times have never played anything but 4e, and is confused when no one knows.
One big mosnter All you ever fight is one big monster, so every fight is either cake walk, or a TPK. Results in DM escalation of monster levels, skewing it closer to TPK every fight. Rarely more than one foe.
All NPCs are better than you All the NPCs are better than you. Not only do you get the impression, but you are told. In character. "Greetings, I am ___ the fighter. I will train you. Go see ___, my level 23 apprentace fighter."
I've had the misfortune of being in a game with someone who thought it would be absolutely amazing if you put Eragon, DBZ, and Escape from LA into a D&D campaign. It lasted for 10 minutes before I gave up and said "If you stay behind that screen for one more minute, I'm going to smack you over the head with my DM's guide."
This one isn't so bad so much as it takes getting used to. He won't tell you the rules, and refuses to let anyone look at the combat rules in the PHB. If you ask him if it's possible to do something under the rules, or if he has any house rules about it, he responds with "Why don't you try it, and see?"
This DM either doesn't like the existing rules, or hasn't read them, and doesn't like the players being aware if it's even mechanically possible.
I was trying the D&D game day when 4th edition came out. This was my first time actually playing, though I had read through 3e rules quite a few times. It became very obvious early on that our DM was more interested in the miniatures and dice he was going to get instead of running the game.
So we are doing the pre-made adventure and get int to the first room of what I think was a pyramid with some sort of puzzle inside that involved something on the walls to open a secret passage. He hadn't read ahead at all and just kinda skipped this portion.
So we bypassed the puzzle to open the secret door and head down the stairs where we are ambushed by 3 goblins. All three roll crits on the ranger dropping her in the surprise round. I try to vault a sarcophagus that they were hiding behind, but it bursts into flames and kills me (the warrior).
We stuck out the game which didn't last much longer. On the bright side, my friend who was watching offered to DM for us, which led to our regular sessions and his campaign was incredibly fun.
No campaign lasts more than 2 or 3 sessions under his rule. Every third week, he thinks up something else for the players to try, using new characters in a new setting. Often gets bored quickly, or has too many ideas floating around to form a coherent, lengthy storyline.
My IRL group is exactly this. I don't think we've ever played a campaign that lasted much longer than a few sessions before we decided to abandon it to something else. This is the reason that I had to replace my old folder of characters, because the sheer number of characters filling it had caused it to gradually split in half (It was one of those document folders that doesn't have a sleeve in it, it's basically a large piece of paper folded in half).
Mr. Improv
Rarely has anything planned. Most encounters are decided on by him pulling out a Monster Manual and flicking straight to the back of the book, where the creatures are listed by level. Usually starts a new campaign by rolling a d10 and saying, "Start at this level" (The d10 roll).
Same deal with my IRL group. Another reason we haven't finished anything is because there usually isn't a coherent plot-significant reason for us to continue. You start off in a desert, and now you must fight x number of so-and-so creature...
"4th Edition? Pfeh! I can't make Homebrew, so we'll play 3.5."
This one's kind of my enraged rant...this DM flat-out refuses to play 4th Edition. Why? Because he's got too much homebrew created for 3.5. Rather than take the time to learn how to balance out homebrew things in 4e, he declares that the group will continue playing 3.5 indefinitely. He promises to learn how to homebrew 4e stuff, but it won't happen.
As I said, this one's kind of an angry rant for me. I love 4th Edition over 3.5 for the reason that it streamlines EVERYTHING you could think of, primarily combat. I love the fact that the 20th level Fighter is not just taking 4 basic attacks (Even if they are devastating, it's boring); he's doing special acrobatic moves along with his attacks. But my primary DM *still* wants to play 3.5 over 4e just because it's easier and more natural for him to create homebrew classes, races, and worlds.
"4th Edition? Pfeh! I can't make Homebrew, so we'll play 3.5."
This one's kind of my enraged rant...this DM flat-out refuses to play 4th Edition. Why? Because he's got too much homebrew created for 3.5. Rather than take the time to learn how to balance out homebrew things in 4e, he declares that the group will continue playing 3.5 indefinitely. He promises to learn how to homebrew 4e stuff, but it won't happen.
Au contraire. That's a DM I'd love to play with. In fact, that's my current DM. He was fine converting his campaign world from 2E to 3E. He was fine with making the changes to 3.5. 4E does not fit the campaign, at all. We are sticking with 3E and to that I say hallelujah!
I could just as easily say:
4E Fanboy
This DM thinks 4E is the messiah of D&D and will purposely destroy his 3E campaign world in some apocalyptic cataclysm. He will only run 4E forever more, refusing to play 3E despite his players prefering 3E.
But that would just drag into another edition war, and we wouldn't want that, so let's cut out the 4E lovefest and get back to the main topic where the game edition, or even game system, is irrelevant.
The Purveyor of Inconsistant Reality:
This DM doesn't make any effort for his encounters, or even worlds, to make any sense whatsoever. Attempts to make logical conclusions based on what he throws at you always fail, because there is never any thought behind it. You encounter Hydras in rooms that do not have exits big enough for them to leave and no sources of food, prides of lions on pyramids in barren deserts, polar bears in the swamps, Human bandits who liv in pitch dark caves without any lights, etc. Most often this is done when a DM just wants to use specific monsters against the PCs, which can lead to ridiculous combinations of forces for you to battle (like, oh, Drow and Pixies) simply because the DM thinks it's cool. This can get even worse if it extends to the DM's wold itself, which generally results in any conclusions players make based on the descriptions the DM gives to be about as accurate as it would have been to make a random guess. Traps work because the rules say they do rather than because of any actual mechanism, all of the habits of that evil cult you're hunting as told to you by the DM are just fluff and any attempt to act on that knowledge results in failure, and gods help you if you try to follow the world's political system...
I was just going to hold onto it until the upcoming apocalypse. (We were on Krynn, and I'd been reading the Dragonlance series at that point. I know what happens every few years there.)
lol, my friends once told me the easiest way to determine what was about to happen in a Dragonlance campaign that followed the story was every one or two decades the gods either appear or disappear, and in either case everyone gets screwed.
Please don't bring this vindictiveness to the thread Navar, save crap like that for General Discussion, there's plenty of 4E bashing going on there.
But 3E bashing is all fine and dandy?
Ever fight a dragon every session? Either the DM really likes dragons or he just cannot handle creatures that aren't solos. Either way, the entire campaign is based on slaying a different named dragon every session.
All characters have in-depth backstories involving their dreams, aspirations, vocations, etc. but once you enter his world, you're murdering dragons.
But 3E bashing is all fine and dandy?
He's not bashing 3e, he's bashing DM's who bash 4e.
The DM who fails to give an adequete description of the place/situation you are in, and then punishes you for taking actions based on what he said rather than what he meant to say.
example:
The DM i used to play with did this all the time, one example is when we came across a room in which we believed the floor was trapped, there were lit braziers on the othe side of the room. I threw my grappling hook over to one of the braziers, but apparently these braziers were 10 feet across with a fire burning hot enough that it burned through rope before my DEX 20 halfling could react. So i lost my grappling hook because i thought i was throwing it into a regular sized item rather than a massively oversized one.
there were also situations were a 10 foot deep inescapable ditch turns into a waist high one instead during the middle of combat, and I am not allowed to take my action back of course.
Has no ability to adapt to players. It's his way or the highway, and if the player goes off and deviates from the DM's path, he detonates the world and ends the campaign right there. If the party is too strong to get through his encounters, he declares that someone (Or everyone) is playing a broken character build, and ends the world to make you cut it out.
My group was using the secondary of two DMs (We have two who trade off from time to time) during a campaign where I was playing a Ninja homebrew class (Based on Naruto, using chakra to use jutsu), and the other player was using a Warlock built for pure AC - if he took a penalty to hit, he could get up to 35 at level 8. But after a session or two, when we finally beat one BBEG out of several, he declared that a planeswalker god decided to destroy the world on a whim and start over with something new, simply because we had moved through what he'd had prepared with relative ease.
But 3E bashing is all fine and dandy?
I never said that, just don't respond to idiots who troll about editions, it makes them win when you do that.
At the start of each encounter, tells you how many hit points each monster has, what it's weaknesses are and what your battle strategy should be with very little role playing because the session has to have 4 encounters by 9 pm. "What do you mean, you want to talk to the dragon??"
I never said that, just don't respond to idiots who troll about editions, it makes them win when you do that.
Just to clarify, I'm not trying to troll over 3.5. I don't mind 3.5, but when there's a new edition out that changes everything (Especially one that streamlines the confusion from 3.5), I want to play the new one.
And as RPJesus mentioned, I'm not bashing 3e, I'm bashing DMs who bash 4e.
Just to clarify, I'm not trying to troll over 3.5. I don't mind 3.5, but when there's a new edition out that changes everything (Especially one that streamlines the confusion from 3.5), I want to play the new one.
And as RPJesus mentioned, I'm not bashing 3e, I'm bashing DMs who bash 4e.
Ok, love all the backpedaling I'm doing, but that's a fair statement Angelic. Can we just forget about this edition wars business?
Has every book, read every novel cover to cover. Believes every other setting is bad. Tries to make players into stereotypes of the setting. See also "Dritzz clone". Believes that everything non-preferred-setting, non-core book is tainted in some way. "Does not exist in X setting", "They are all power-gaming", and such.
Much of this does not apply do Eberron fanboys.
[Wait! You aren't a god?
Luckily, not a DM I've campaigned under... A friend of mine once left a game after the 5th session b/c every NPC they encountered, and I mean EVERY NPC, was a deity of some sort. They spent most of every session being beat up by peasants who were actually gods of war, or something like that.
Yeah, had a DM who had herself as a goddess. I also faced off against random level 20 magistrates and such. Despite being a lord of a sizable piece of territory, after my character knocked up a peasant chick, I was told that "law of the land" required that I marry her, or else every other lord in the campaign world would turn on me.
Oh, and when I built my uber-keep (strictly for defensive purposes, not like I was launching a campaign to conquer the world), she attacked it with a god. While I wasn't there to defend it, no less.
You're perrty
The DM that has a crush on one player in the group and obviously favors her. My brother did this, and the player literally had more magical items than the entire group could have used, but they were all for her. One adventure actually went like this:
"You find a +5 intelligent dragonslaying katana made of pure gold."
"Ok, I'll hang it on the wall of the castle with all my other ones"
"Um...so I'm 11th level now and I still havent found any magic items."
"Oh...you...yeah...um...you find a +2 short sword."
"Are you ****ing kidding me?"
"Ok ok, you find two +2 short swords."
Said player was also bearing two children from two different divine parents (and since they were demigod children, the pregnancy magically didnt hinder her character, and earned her divine goodwill), and to protect these children, she was given an impenetrable suit of plate mail that had wings so she could fly.
Too bad the campaign ended and we all went our separate ways. The rest of us were going to kill her and seize her kingdom (psionic attacks and called shots to the head, as she never wore a helmet being that the monsters were too stupid to attack her head). Of course, he probably would have had the gods step in and save her anyway...
Runs a pre-published adventure and hasn't properly prepared. Doesn't really know what the players are supposed to be doing in said adventure, and so neither do the players. Constantly stalls the action to refer to notes about the adventure. Fails to give vital clues to the adventurers as to the objective, scene, motivations, etc. Read's the read-aloud text, and then is done.
Players eventually give up and just kill whatever happens to come along.
This guy and that one ...
"You walk into the hallway and you see this guy..." - puts miniature on table
"The room is full of a bunch of these..." - puts miniature on table
"This guy attacks you..." - points vaguely at the miniature somewhere on the table.
Especially bad when combined with "The um... wait...umm.... sorry...just a second..." DM because not only do the players not know what they're doing, or why they're fighting, they don't even know WHO they're fighting.
The um... wait...umm.... sorry...just a second...
Runs a pre-published adventure and hasn't properly prepared. Doesn't really know what the players are supposed to be doing in said adventure, and so neither do the players. Constantly stalls the action to refer to notes about the adventure. Fails to give vital clues to the adventurers as to the objective, scene, motivations, etc. Read's the read-aloud text, and then is done.
Players eventually give up and just kill whatever happens to come along.
I only did that ONCE!
>.>
<.<
Not kidding, actually. I just started DMing with the advent of LFR. This describes me perfectly during my first adventure. (Although partly it was because I couldn't look through my buddies' box of tiles until after we started. He left them at another Player's house, and they were the last to arrive. ><)
At least I ran an adventure I'd already run through...
I killed his DMPC by keeping a log of all his homebrew rules and what goes and what doesn't and used them against the god like being and destroying him through his weaknesses.
specific ALWAYS beats general
I have been DMing a campaign for about 5 months on a weekly basis and there are times where I miss playing a PC but fight temptation to DMPC.
DM's that target are the worse and will always hold there hand over the "NO" button and punish you for even trying something clearly legal (ie. tumbling through a threatened square without AoO on a 30+ skill check).
Again, my brother. As DM in whatever game we were playing, all of his female NPCs were amoral sluts with impossibly huge breasts. We're talking massively hormonal pre-teen boy fantasy land, here. These women would always hit on one PC in particular, and it made the player very uneasy. Also, it made the girls at the table (myself and two others that one partuclar night) pretty disgusted. He claimed it was because we were mad that we didn't look all hot and sexy. We grabbed the books and everything and left for one player's house who lived across the street. My brother got mad that he wasn't invited. Hmm... I wonder why that was? He actually followed us over there, but wasn't let inside. He hung out on the porch until the player who lived there threatened to call the police. I tell you, he was going through a really creepy phase, there. The only thing that kept the others feeling safe was because they knew he was a wimp and I could kick the living **** out of him.
System/edition X is OK, but its not system/edition Y:
The DM have nothing particular against the system/edition, he just insists on playing it as his or her favoured one. Sometimes it works out, and other times its pure horror...
I have a friend that insists on 2nd ed being the best system... he has never played 2nd edition, but has a older relative that has and is starstruck by all the cool stuff he talks about. Doesn't really help that we tell him that one can do all this without horribly breaking 4th ed to get there...
The Raging GM. When things don't go his way, he gets loud. It doesn't take much either. Out of character banter not to his liking, shouts about playing the game. Players can't figure out his convoluted plot, he gets his undies in a bunch. Best of all, Player's outsmart him. Hulk Smash.
Hates his game: The evil bastard child of "Hey lets give this a try" and "System/Edition is okay, but system/edition Y is better" . He starts running a game in a system. And at some random point, he determines that he hates everything about the game. Sometimes, "Rock Falls and Everyone Dies".
Current DM:
Ultra Competitive
(Part) Egomaniac
The retaliator
The cackler
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
The lone Storyteller
"Of course it's logical to trace the origin of every common pebble on the street"
The Miser (What treasure drops? What's wealth by level? Oh that, no. You don't get that.)
Wait! You aren't a god?
Epic Battle
All Monsters Are Master Tacticians (the ape, the fighter in plate mail, and the storm giant all do a tumbling ckeck to get away from you)
Your powers are useless! (every enemy is immune to breath weapons, and spells)
You're Playing Wrong
Jason Voorhees Takes Notes From Me
Hater
The SFX Guy
The Fool
The Optimizer. No, no, the Bad one
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
The Great Off-Screen Adventure
Do anything you want...
The Statted Out (He is especially bad for this.)
Tolkien Lives!
All NPCs are better than you
"4th Edition? Pfeh! I can't make Homebrew, so we'll play 3.5."
The um... wait...umm.... sorry...just a second...
This guy and that one ...
System/edition X is OK, but its not system/edition Y
The Great On-Screen Adventure while the NPCs bask in the sun in Hawaii
DM I had it out with:
What do you mean you have x equipment you all only get y
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
The lone Storyteller
The Master of Chaos
I'll just pull your string, and you'll do anything. You're my puppet..." (you partied last night so you're hungover, you hear the inn is on fire so you jump out of your room's window which is located on the 5th floor, and take 5d6 damage)
Wait! You aren't a god?
I thought it sounded cool
Epic Battle
You're Playing Wrong
Hater (anyone who plays an elf and isn't a wizard, or any race that isn't played as their favored class)
Lover (elf wizards)
Detail-focused
Legalist
Hack Novelist
The Fool
The Optimizer. No, no, the Bad one
Sybil
There Ought To Be A Law
The Spouse
Master of Cliche (to the extreme with wizards and elves)
He Should Have Been A Good DM Although...
Sorry guys, but...
I don't believe in taking notes
You didn't say you brought rations.
Tolkien Lives!
Skills dont matter
All NPCs are better than you
The Frankenstein
"Hey, let's give this a try!"
System/edition X is OK, but its not system/edition Y
DM #2 in old group who I always wanted to punch during every session:
Ultra Competitive
Egomaniac
Conductor
The cackler
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
The lone Storyteller
"Ofcourse it's logical to trace the origin of every common pebble on the street"
The Master of Chaos (wanted the characters to have an epic background story, so I made one, and he killed everyone my character loved because it was "too" epic. So, to get back at him, I made my Paladin go insane and turn into a Blackguard. He sure didn't see that coming.)
I'll just pull your string, and you'll do anything. You're my puppet..."
The Miser
Epic Battle
All Monsters Are Master Tacticians
Your powers are useless!
You're Playing Wrong
Jason Voorhees Takes Notes From Me
Captain Bring-Down
Detail-focused
Legalist
Hack Novelist
The Fool
The Optimizer. No, no, the Bad one
Sybil
There Ought To Be A Law
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
The Spouse
Do anything you want...
He Should Have Been A Good DM Although...
Sorry guys, but...
I don't believe in taking notes
Circumstances? What circumstances?
You didn't say you brought rations.
The Statted Out (all NPCs have +50 to pick pocket, and have Fast Movement, Run, and Endurance...works with Miser and All NPCs are better than you)
Jackass
Mind Over Minutae
It's too late, roll initiative
Sure you can do that
Skills dont matter
All NPCs are better than you
The Frankenstein
"Hey, let's give this a try!"
This guy and that one ...
DM #3 in old group:
Mr. Player/DM
Conductor
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
The lone Storyteller
"Ofcourse it's logical to trace the origin of every common pebble on the street"
I'll just pull your string, and you'll do anything. you're my puppet..."
Wait! You aren't a god?
I thought it sounded cool
Epic Battle
All Monsters Are Master Tacticians
Your powers are useless!
You're Playing Wrong
Captain Bring-Down
Detail-focused
Legalist
Hack Novelist
The Fool
The Optimizer. No, no, the Bad one
Sybil
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
The Spouse
The Stripper
He Should Have Been A Good DM Although...
Sorry guys, but...
I don't believe in taking notes
Circumstances? What circumstances?
You didn't say you brought rations.
Jackass
Tolkien Lives!
It's too late, roll initiative
Sure you can do that
All NPCs are better than you
The Frankenstein
"Hey, let's give this a try!"
The um... wait...umm.... sorry...just a second...
System/edition X is OK, but its not system/edition Y
DM who is also the wife of DM I had it out with:
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
What do you mean you have x equipment you all only get y
I Have what the Doctors Like to call a Short Atten... OOOHH!! A Kitten!!
Detail-focused
Legalist
Hack Novelist
The Fool
Sybil
There Ought To Be A Law
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
The Spouse
Do anything you want...
He Should Have Been A Good DM Although...
Sorry guys, but...
I don't believe in taking notes
Jackass
The Frankenstein
The DM that does't want to be there
"Hey, let's give this a try!"
System/edition X is OK, but its not system/edition Y
DM I'm still friends with:
The Monty Haul DM
Hack Novelist
The Fool
Sybil
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
Sorry guys, but...
I don't believe in taking notes
The DM that does't want to be there
Mr. Improv
Myself
DMPC (Sometimes I get really tired of being the DM for 12 sessions in a row)
The cackler
Your powers are useless! (I don't adapt well, and am a bit of a railroader in that aspect, so while I'm recovering, all the NPCs that are trying to capture, but not kill, the PCs, seem stronger)
Hack Novelist
The Fool
There Ought To Be A Law
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
Sorry guys, but...
I don't believe in taking notes
The Frankenstein
The DM that doesn't want to be there
"Hey, let's give this a try!"
The um... wait...umm.... sorry...just a second...
Another DM that I'm good friends with:
System/edition X is OK, but its not system/edition Y (Hates, hates, HATES any system after 2nd Edition)
The Great On-Screen Adventure while the NPCs bask in the sun in Hawaii
This DM has the players and the NPCs take the same adventure, but only the PCs have any kind of hardship. The PCs battle giants, oozes, werewolves, and every single possible incarnation of evil, while the NPCs, who were only five feet ahead of them, make it through the same scenario without a scratch. When the adventure is done, the NPCs are sitting at an inn, eating and drinking to their heart's content, while the PCs stagger in the door, and drop. The NPCs then all ask what took the PCs so long, and let them know that they had no problems at all.
The Undead DM
This is a DM who I'm an aquaintance with. His campaigns are exactly this. Full of undead and constructs. What really sucks is he has everyone play rogues, ninjas, thugs (fighter variants), and the only mages allowed are his (and they're usually all necromancers). Somehow he's still able to make a good storyline. Thankfully. But it's still annoying.
The Undead DM
This is a DM who I'm an aquaintance with. His campaigns are exactly this. Full of undead and constructs. What really sucks is he has everyone play rogues, ninjas, thugs (fighter variants), and the only mages allowed are his (and they're usually all necromancers). Somehow he's still able to make a good storyline. Thankfully. But it's still annoying.
Guilty about the undead thing. Not with constructs. And I rarely have rogue characters: usually they shine in dungeon-delving and NPC interactions.
But I use a lot of undead. As in A LOT. I figured that the way to scare new players is that you should show them a very disgusting, desecrated semblance of life that was once human (or something). When I describe something for the first time, a newbie who hasn't read the MM would be scared ******** of a commoner zombie or a skeleton warrior more than a gnoll, although the gnoll is more dangerous.
Core only...because it’s balanced:
This DM mistakenly believes that having a core only game will balance the classes out, as an oppose to penalizing people like me who prefer martial characters to full casters. I don't mind a core only game, as long as the DM doesn't rant on about his quest for game balance.
I don't even care if it is balanced. Why do we have books if we're only going to use core?!
People don't like it when I DM. I make them do stupid sidequests. The primary quest only takes up a small portion and the rest is just filler. Like an anime...
And the sidequests are like... playing in a miniature golf tournament... making use our of your dexterity stat!
This one's just stupid, and it kind of kills the whole purpose of being a ranger, rogue, scout, etc character. You're in a party that would not survive an ambush, you know what your destination is, so you go a few meters ahead of the group to make sure everything's fine. This is when the DM loudly proclaims "You're splitting up the party. That's a bad thing. It means consequences." Why does it have consequences? Because I'm going to find your perfectly planned ambush that you set up to kill us all off, and in turn you're going to set the trap off on just me?
Yes there's strength in numbers, but scouting ahead to look for danger isn't exactly a bad idea, nor should it count as "splitting" you from the rest of your group unless you're going WAY ahead of them. And even then, you're the stealthy, hidey one so who cares?
OVERBREWER: A variant of the "Tolkien lives!!". This guy homebrews everything, A list of thirty gods, complete with portfolios, domains, and common worshipers. New traits for every race, tweaks to every class, changes to many rules, new ways for things to work. New way of doing Xp. Has NPC's for every little thorp in the world. As well as noble lineages for every family, A 10,000 year history spanning twenty eras. Ten self made prestige classes. A complete code of laws for every town, city, county, and nation. Most of the time also a HUGE control freak.
Aside from that, do want.
The Setting Tramsuter
This GM has a favorite setting, and it doesn't really matter what game you're playing, content from that setting starts cropping up. You may be wandering around Krynn when a Mul shows up, or perhaps in Baldur's Gate, only to meet a Vampyr carrying pistols, or in truly egregious circumstances, the GM jumps companies and has those walkers from Rifts start popping up in the middle of Geoff.
Tends to overlap with DMPC's, as very often their DMPC will be from said setting, and will have magical powers and abilities far beyond the ken of you earth bound mortals.
On a personal note, if you have a bad GM, quit the game. If you find you're spending more time stressing and venting about the game than the time you have fun actually playing it, that game is a net negative impact on your life. Take the players and lead a revolt, then go game for yourself. If you're applying more than two or three of these descriptors to a person's GMing style, they should never, ever, ever be allowed to run a game.
Perhaps we need a RPG version of dontdatehimgirl.com for players and GM's. It would make for an interesting study in how tolerant nerds are when they perceive a lack of gaming possibilities.
If I can come up with a better name, I'll probably change it, but for now this works.
This DM feels the need to randomly give you a level adjustment with a creature who you didn't think (or even want) to take. This is done so that when you're unable to come to sessions, and fall behind in levels, the DM can pull out genetic material from your blood, and book your levels without you actually having to earn class levels. Note that you will either find a random book with a LA in it, or you have a half-celestial ancestor with which you're able to access their bloodline, and spawn at least one level of power from that race. You don't really get a say in the matter, other than maybe which race you get to choose from (unless you have a parent with a LA, then you're stuck with that).
4E Fanboy
This DM thinks 4E is the messiah of D&D and will purposely destroy his 3E campaign world in some apocalyptic cataclysm. He will only run 4E forever more, refusing to play 3E despite his players prefering 3E.
Guilty.
"4th Edition? Pfeh! I can't make Homebrew, so we'll play 3.5."
This one's kind of my enraged rant...this DM flat-out refuses to play 4th Edition. Why? Because he's got too much homebrew created for 3.5. Rather than take the time to learn how to balance out homebrew things in 4e, he declares that the group will continue playing 3.5 indefinitely. He promises to learn how to homebrew 4e stuff, but it won't happen.
This is a good segue into my DM pet peeve...The Excessive Homebrew/Houseruler!
I don't have anything against homebrewing and houseruling on general principle...most of us will wind up doing it sooner or later. Hell, I even run a pretty heavily altered PoL setting myself.
My problem is with DM's who do it obsessively and arbitrarily. This is the type of cat who will pick up a new game and immediately start rewriting the whole system before he'll even think of running it, which usually results in clunky, untested mechanics, capricious rulings, irrational restrictions and all around inconsistent play, since the games then become a defacto QA job.
This is the cat who refuses to run anything until he has tweaked it into unrecognizability, even to the point of "fixing" things that were never broken in the first place.
Take the Vancian magic system...thematically it's crap, but it does it's job as a resource management mechanic. This DM however, will have replaced this with his own broken-ass, nonsensical magic system right along with his "Armor as DR" mechanics and super cool featz that grant my a +5 untyped bonus to diplomacy/intimidate checks whenever I have a can of mushroom soup stuffed down the front of my trousers.
"You should play my homebrew race, the "zkfnxcvdorians" ...they're like a cross between anime catgirls, electric eels and cyborgs!"
"Uh...I just want to play a Dwarven Cleric of Moradin..."
"Sorry...Dwarves are rigid secularists in my setting...and the only god is a giant statue of a golden calf that beams dirty images into the minds of it's worshippers"
Let's see. Me:
Restrictive - When I make the setting I ditch what I don't want in the world. Obviously, if it doesn't exist, you can't play it. Thus.
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM" - Mind you, this is more a blank look at my players for continually sitting there doing nothing waiting for something to happen instead of, I don't know, looting the bodies of the guys they just killed, searching the room for traps/secret doors... It's getting to the point where the NPC cleric with no real personality or history they're with is getting frigging character development due to her continual use as a method of not TPKing them all in their cluelessness. (If I was running where they are like I had planned? Everyone dead, easily.)
All Monsters Are Master Tacticians - Most of what the party has fought so far has been human opponents, who consequently know how to do such exotic things as flank and take AoOs, and most of them have a skill trick to stand up from prone without provoking AoO to get around the Druid's tripping wolf companion. <_>;
My last DM:
Egomaniac
The Conductor
That skill/class feature whatever does what? No.
What do you mean you have x equipment you all only get y.
Rules? What rules? Oh those rules.
The retaliator
The cackler
Why don't you love my story you're barely in?
The lone Storyteller
Core only...because it’s balanced
The Miser
Epic Battle
Would You Like Cheese With That
Captain Bring-Down
Hater
Lover
Low-Magic Nerfer
Mr. Vindictive
He Should Have Been A Good DM Although...
Jackass
Restrictive
Mind Over Minutae
Skills don't matter
All NPCs are better than you
The Great On-Screen Adventure while the NPCs bask in the sun in Hawaii
(And if I put examples for those this post would be a mile long.)
Perhaps we need a RPG version of dontdatehimgirl.com for players and GM's. It would make for an interesting study in how tolerant nerds are when they perceive a lack of gaming possibilities.
I stayed in that campaign because at the time it was the only gaming I could get, and it was a glorious trainwreck of misery for me that I just had to watch to see how bad it would get. And I did actually enjoy the characters of most of the NPCs, even if they were all Elminster.
The DM throws tough monsters at you that are well beyond your typical capabilities, leaving only one of two possible outcomes. If you roll well and the monster rolls poorly, you win, and the DM might get misguided views as to how powerful you are. If not, the monster's start miraculously missing every round once you get to low enough HP, and you eventually win. This step is often precluded by the DM asking "how many HP are you at?"
"how many HP are you at?"
I always answer: "At least 1."
If I do run 4e like I've been wanting to the setting will be unrecognizable and at least one PHB race will be banned, one will be massively refluffed and half of PHB2 won't make it in. Kind of like how I banned Monks and any oriental-themed class and Paladins in my 3.5 game. Of course I make this sort of thing massively clear in advance the instant I start looking for players, so if people don't like it they're able to just not join a game they won't like. It works well enough, and kept the guy I didn't want in anyway out. ;P
Let's see. Me:
Restrictive - When I make the setting I ditch what I don't want in the world. Obviously, if it doesn't exist, you can't play it. Thus.
You're doing it wrong.
You're doing it wrong.
No. Just differently.
The DM is not obligated to allow races and/or classes just because they exist in the core books.
No. Just differently.
The DM is not obligated to allow races and/or classes just because they exist in the core books.
I beg to differ.
I beg to differ.
Beg all you want, but the DM designs the world, so your opinion is moot.
If the DM chooses to design a world without Dragonborn, your choices as a player in that DM's world are either no Dragonborn or change DMs.
How do you think Eberron, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance got started anyway? They were deviations from core material, that's how.
Beg all you want, but the DM designs the world, so your opinion is moot.
If the DM chooses to design a world without Dragonborn, your choices as a player in that DM's world are either no Dragonborn or change DMs.
How do you think Eberron, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance got started anyway? They were deviations from core material, that's how.
The difference being that these settings added something to the game, whereas exclusionists simply amputate the parts they don't like.
The DM may design the world, but the PC's are the ones that breath life into it, and they do so using the options the game provides for them. The managerie of races, classes, paragon paths, etc. are all part of the players' toybox and as such, falls under the purview of the PC's and not the DM. Rob from this toybox enough, especially for something as arbitrary as one's own personal preference, then you leave behind an atrophied, pitiful excuse for a world that is defined more by what you can't do than what you can. Like a lesser Greyhawk.
DM's have their own toyboxes to play with (sourcebooks, monster's manual, adventure modules) You don't see PC's telling the DM that he can't use Ghouls, or the Feywild, because they don't like them.
And while it may be true that their is technically nothing stopping a DM from taking whatever he/she doesn't like out of the hands of the players, there is also nothing technically stopping me from getting in my car and mowing down a bunch of people. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
This one guy would always run games and toss out any roll, event, or rule that deviated from his set plan. In the last game, he had some monsters "surprise" us while we were guarding a caravan. The monsters had no steathing capabilities, were affected by a -4 penalty to perception checks thanks the our Bard's Lullaby ritual, and still managed to get a surprise round on our scout who had a 25 stealth check (they had a +7 to perception - Natural 20 is the only way that's possible.) This guy must have rolled nat 20's every time, because our scout NEVER spotted anybody. EVER. We figured out that whatever we built our characters for, it wouldn't matter - we were building within the rules, and he would do whatever he felt like, victimizing our "heroes" on a weekly basis, because he felt justified that "rule zero" supported his complete and total lack of respect for the players.
We instituted the the Players' version of Rule Zero - "It's not fun - stop playing."
The difference being that these settings added something to the game, whereas exclusionists simply amputate the parts they don't like.
Yes, that's a fair point, but the DM might have reasons for his actions. He may be modeling his world on a scenario in which certain races don't fit. I have pondered building a Discworld setting, and Dragonborn definitely do not fit into it, because dragons are exceedingly rare in Discworld and must be sustained by substantial sources of magic. Elves, also, are rather evil in Discworld, and would not be playable. Trolls, however, would be.
A DM might also rule "no Dragonborn" because the campaign is built around the mystery of the suddenly vanished Dragonborn. All of them. Including the one you wanted to play.
The DM may design the world, but the PC's are the ones that breath life into it, and they do so using the options the game provides for them. The managerie of races, classes, paragon paths, etc. are all part of the players' toybox and as such, falls under the purview of the PC's and not the DM.
No, the toybox of the PC's falls under the purview of *both*, in collaboration.
Rob from this toybox enough, especially for something as arbitrary as one's own personal preference, then you leave behind an atrophied, pitiful excuse for a world that is defined more by what you can't do than what you can. Like a lesser Greyhawk.
We are in agreement on this point.
DM's have their own toyboxes to play with (sourcebooks, monster's manual, adventure modules) You don't see PC's telling the DM that he can't use Ghouls, or the Feywild, because they don't like them.
You can find PCs telling the DM that they think certain NPCs are stupid, though. But the PC's don't make the world. They're the Actor's on the stage. As I said, it's a collaboration. It's a setting without a script - but the character roster, that's part of the setting.
And while it may be true that their is technically nothing stopping a DM from taking whatever he/she doesn't like out of the hands of the players, there is also nothing technically stopping me from getting in my car and mowing down a bunch of people. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I think you may be mistaking my points as having any relationship to what a DM *should* do.
Go back please and re-read what I said. I said the DM is not obligated to use everything.
I have never suggested the DM should eliminate, oh, Elves, for example, just cause he doesn't like them.
You're doing it wrong.
And he can easily say that whichever way you are doing it; is 'wrong'
I, for instance, hate elves. I'll never play an elf. I'm not big on bards, either. But I don't ban them simply because I don't like them.
For instance in my current campaign, elves are feral, hostile beings who avoid other races. Orcs and other goblinoids don't exist.
Well, right off the bat I had a player who wanted to roll a half-elf. This didn't make a lot of sense in the campaign world, since elves and humans don't exactly get along. There are a few obvious paths to fix this but my player wasn't really happy with them. He wanted a half-elf who came from a fairly well-established elf/human society.
So, together we conjured up a new continent, where elves and humans co-exist peacefully. We came up with a pretty cool background for the city he came from and his motivation for traveling across the sea.
Later on down the road, another player wanted to play an orc. This one was a bit tougher; I'm not crazy about goblinoids. This is the closest I've ever come to denying a race. But, eventually we worked them into the story of this distant continent the half-elf character came from, and together we've created an in-depth history of the ongoing tribal wars over there between elves and orcs. It's a bit more Tolkienesque than I want my campaign to be, but those are the sorts of characters my players wanted to play; this was an acceptable compromise. I've even got a major quest coming up that involves traveling to said continent and fleshing it out a bit. Again, not my sort of adventure, normally, but I know those two will really enjoy it...so why not?
If a player wants to play a certain race or class...somewhere, somehow, they exist in the campaign world. That's my philosophy, anyway.
I also wanted to respond to some other things in the thread but I think I need a new post....this is a great thread. I've squandered an afternoon reading it. ;)
You know why? When players are annoyed about something the DM is doing, it seems they rarely actually approach the DM with their concerns. So, I hope anyone who is struggling with these sorts of problems in their game will take the time to communicate the issue to their DM. If your DM is actually a good DM (as opposed to someone who honestly doesn't belong in the role), and is doing everything he can to provide an enjoyable experience for everyone, it would be tragic to stand by and watch the game fall apart due to a build up of player frustrations the DM was completely oblivious to.
I find it interesting how many of these issues have to do with DM expectations vs. player expectations, including the preceding debate about when it is okay for a DM to forbid races/classes/etc. in his game. I try to tailor my game as much as possible to what my players want...but it is just as important for a player to get a sense of what kind of game the DM is running before jumping in. If it's not your style, it's not the game for you.
Sorry I didn't quote actual poster names below; I just copy/pasted the "Worst DMs" that stuck out to me for one reason or another.
Hack Novelist: The DM whose plots tend to be thinly-veiled (or not-so-thinly-veiled) ripoffs of fantasy novels and movies. Especially bad if he's also a Conductor.
This one made me chuckle a little. I guess if your DM is literally following a book or a movie page for page that would suck, for a lot of reasons. But if he's just picking and choosing aspects or even particular scenes from various fantasy sources, you have to give him a bit of leeway if you recognize one every once in awhile. It's a lot of work - especially if it's a campaign world built from scratch. If your DM has an awesome idea for a fantasy novel, he should probably write a book, not squander it on D&D! ;)
From the DMG:
"Don't be afraid to steal ideas from books, movies, and other sources for your personal use. The DM's job is to entertain, not to be original."
the "What, you don't know what to do? Well, don't look at me, I'm only the DM."
The exact opposite of the Conductor. Gives the players infinite freedom; so much, in fact, that he neglects to give the players any sort of goal or direction. I swear, we were roaming that king's road for three sessions, trying to find something to do.
Ack, I'm soooo guilty of this one. I have railroadophobia. I am completely guilty of letting my players twiddle their thumbs in town, unsure of where they are "supposed" to go, instead of yanking them into an adventure. I'm trying to be better about this, but go easy on your DMs here, this one is tough. :P It's a fine line.
The Stripper: No not that kind of stripper (that would fall under 'BEST DMS EVAR!!!!") but the guy who seems to start a campaign by going through a published setting, identifying the four or five best things about that setting that makes it unique and interesting, then summarily stripping those things out. the guy that wants to DM an all-human/no-magic game of Shadowrun, for instance.
This is another case of player expectations vs. DM expectations. The DM doesn't have to run Shadowrun, Forgotten Realms, whatever exactly as written and can make whatever dramatic changes he wants to make. If you can't deal with those changes, it's not the game for you, plain and simple.
But, when it comes to player choices, as I said in my post above, I agree that the DM is responsible for finding a way to incorporate the player's desired character.
I don't believe in taking notes
I'm guilty of this one. Makes up names for important NPC's on the spot but never writes them down. Nor does he write down what NPC died where, who owns the house in the forest, or which three of the players have actually spoken to the dwarf lord. Often has to coverup by referring to NPC's by their roles in game rather than their names. "The city leader that you spoke to earlier..." or "That one bandit that killed that other farmer dude."
Ha, I'm also quite guilty of this. I do actually write them down...but after the session I can never make sense of my notes.
I just recruited a player to do it for me. He's pretty into the back story of the game and the development of the campaign world, so he was a good fit to help me keep a meticulous record of this sort of minutiae. If I forget a minor character's name I know I can count on him to provide it.
"Hey, let's give this a try!"
No campaign lasts more than 2 or 3 sessions under his rule. Every third week, he thinks up something else for the players to try, using new characters in a new setting. Often gets bored quickly, or has too many ideas floating around to form a coherent, lengthy storyline.
My IRL group is exactly this. I don't think we've ever played a campaign that lasted much longer than a few sessions before we decided to abandon it to something else. This is the reason that I had to replace my old folder of characters, because the sheer number of characters filling it had caused it to gradually split in half (It was one of those document folders that doesn't have a sleeve in it, it's basically a large piece of paper folded in half).
I tend to get pretty excited about new possibilities for my players (i.e., classes, powers, items, etc.), so I guess I'm somewhat guilty of this. I just kinda let me players temporarily retire their characters so they can try a new one whenever they want within the new campaign. They can always go back to the old character. That way everyone gets a chance to try out the various roles throughout the course of the campaign. I haven't found it to be too disruptive. Not yet, anyway. It's a bit World of Warcrafty but they have fun with it. And it keeps my "oooooo look over there, shiny!" impulses in check. Usually.
Doesn't let you die
The DM throws tough monsters at you that are well beyond your typical capabilities, leaving only one of two possible outcomes. If you roll well and the monster rolls poorly, you win, and the DM might get misguided views as to how powerful you are. If not, the monster's start miraculously missing every round once you get to low enough HP, and you eventually win. This step is often precluded by the DM asking "how many HP are you at?"
Ha ha, okay I don't do this but every DM has accidentally found himself in this situation at one point in time (or many as the case may be). Hmmm....I guess they aren't *quite* ready to fight the elite vampire lich god...now what do I do...
The Statted Out: A DM who either throws ridiculously strong monsters at a party or a ridiculous NPC with the stats of a PC, but optimized through the neck, decked out with all the strongest magic items, and has the lich template. And there are four of them. A big pain unless you can make stronger characters than your DM can.
Yes, I'm guilty of this one. And it is so much fun.
Me too. :D The perfect antidote to the obnoxious min/maxer. Everything you can do, I can do better...
The DM that does't want to be there - Does everything in his power to make the game end as fast as possible.
I was trying the D&D game day when 4th edition came out. This was my first time actually playing, though I had read through 3e rules quite a few times. It became very obvious early on that our DM was more interested in the miniatures and dice he was going to get instead of running the game.
So we are doing the pre-made adventure and get int to the first room of what I think was a pyramid with some sort of puzzle inside that involved something on the walls to open a secret passage. He hadn't read ahead at all and just kinda skipped this portion.
So we bypassed the puzzle to open the secret door and head down the stairs where we are ambushed by 3 goblins. All three roll crits on the ranger dropping her in the surprise round. I try to vault a sarcophagus that they were hiding behind, but it bursts into flames and kills me (the warrior).
We stuck out the game which didn't last much longer. On the bright side, my friend who was watching offered to DM for us, which led to our regular sessions and his campaign was incredibly fun.
Wow, this one is sad. I'm sorry you had to deal with this...in your first fourth edition game no less!!
Bad, bad DM. I'm glad it all worked out in the end, though.We instituted the the Players' version of Rule Zero - "It's not fun - stop playing."
I think the best response (albeit a little less mature) is asking "what does my character do?" :D
Thus, a race of dragon people is an annoying 'this wouldn't even exist' thing to be gotten rid of.
Dragons themselves might exist on the planes somewhere, sure, but they have no reason to come to the Prime. Maybe somewhere on the planes there are dragonborn. They don't have any reason to come to the prime either.
*shrug*
I like dragons... As mythical beings.
Thus, a race of dragon people is an annoying 'this wouldn't even exist' thing to be gotten rid of.
Dragons themselves might exist on the planes somewhere, sure, but they have no reason to come to the Prime. Maybe somewhere on the planes there are dragonborn. They don't have any reason to come to the prime either.
*shrug*
Shouldn't you let the player decide if his character has a reason to come to the prime?
I've never run a campaign where any one race was extinct or banned. I have a small fear of reducing my player's opportunities to spread their imaginations no matter how I may feel about a particular race.
On to bad DMing, when I first started out my biggest problem was with consistency. A guy who'd been playing since the Arneson-Gygax edition helped me out.
Shouldn't you let the player decide if his character has a reason to come to the prime?
Note that I said 'maybe' they exist. The existance of Dragons isn't even a given.
And no, nobody I play with would have an actual legitimate story reason. Most of them in the current campaign don't have a legitimate reason their *elves* are with the party, much less some odd race from Elsewhere. (Not to mention 'Planar Visitor' is incredibly hard to justify at L1.)
I became the group DM out of necessity(Nobody else in the group will do it anymore) rather than 'I love DMing!', so my take on it is 'Yeah, no x. Some people ban elves. I don't play in their games. If it offends you that x isn't in mine, don't play in it. Find another group where you can play it or don't play. Or DM yourself and you can have Dragonborn and it's your world, I'll deal with it.'
Since when I'm DMing I'm automatically having the least fun, I'm going to make a world I like so that at least the PCs are ignoring a world I enjoy instead of one into which I've pounded everything possible regardless of whether it fits or is enjoyable to me or not. Making the world is my fun, I've found. And then I sit there while the PCs don't even try to find a way to get someone out of a trap and just shrug their shoulders and sit there twiddling their thumbs until I give up and have the NPC healbot help them figure it out because I'd like to get something *done* this session. They don't talk to NPCs, they just want to kill things, so having a setting I like for them to run around commiting mass murder in is the only fun I get, since I sure don't get to RP as the DM.
The game is about them, what little 'about them' they'll actually allow. The world is there for them to do whatever in, and it's their actions that determine how things go. They want to do nothing but kill kill kill, fine, they can kill kill kill and get a nasty reputation from their constant killing neutral human opponents that could be negotiated with and attempting to murder people who surrender. That's the kind of game they want, they can have it. And I knew it was going to devolve to this, which is a large part of why I banned Paladins and Monks - Nobody is going to stay Lawful in this campaign, especially not Lawful Good, and the guy who wanted to be a Paladin makes terrible stereotype Paladins of the sort that was just going to tear the party apart and cause massive problems anyway.
I'd much rather be playing than DMing. Further, none of these people cares about their characters from an RP standpoint much anyway, and since I know full well none of them will buy the 4e books or even likely *read* them, relying on me to teach them the rules instead, I don't even have the 'not letting them use something they paid for' guilt that might otherwise spurn me to allow it anyway.
I suppose I get my own entry here then:
The Bitter DM: Doesn't want to be DMing, but nobody else will. Will suffer through it as best as possible out of desperation for a game, but won't enjoy it. Bans something they don't want in their setting and justifies it as 'I'm the one who has to do this, I'm making the world so I actually like it'.
For what it's worth as well, 4e has so many 'core' races at this point I've started seeing them all as optional. 7 real races, not counting halfbreeds, in a setting is already pushing it from my point of view, and that's just PHB1. 3.5 had 5 full races and two half-breeds. And even with that, Gnomes aren't even really in the setting.
This one made me chuckle a little. I guess if your DM is literally following a book or a movie page for page that would suck, for a lot of reasons. But if he's just picking and choosing aspects or even particular scenes from various fantasy sources, you have to give him a bit of leeway if you recognize one every once in awhile. It's a lot of work - especially if it's a campaign world built from scratch. If your DM has an awesome idea for a fantasy novel, he should probably write a book, not squander it on D&D! ;)
From the DMG:
"Don't be afraid to steal ideas from books, movies, and other sources for your personal use. The DM's job is to entertain, not to be original."
Indeed, there's nothing wrong with writing scenes or quests into your games which were inspired by fantasy novels. The problem comes when the story starts to follow the plot of a fantasy novel verbatim, unless the DM admits it up front. There's a world of difference between "plots woven from a variety of popular fantasy scenarios" and "Lord of the Rings with the serial numbers filed off".
In my opinion, the latter is the essence of the Hack Novelist. "So Gandorf the Great wants the halfling rogue to go throw the evil ring into a volcano..."
As for more potentially annoying DMs:
Random Number Generator: The DM who decides everything based on rolls of the dice. Usually a relic of older editions and a big fan of massive random encounter tables. Will you find the next town in the forest, a hungry red dragon, or will a meteor randomly fall on your head? It's all up to the dice, and the entire game is a gamble. Especially polarizing if he enjoys random checks to see if the players trip and critical fumble tables that can result in players decapitating themselves.
Yes, that's a fair point, but the DM might have reasons for his actions. He may be modeling his world on a scenario in which certain races don't fit. I have pondered building a Discworld setting, and Dragonborn definitely do not fit into it, because dragons are exceedingly rare in Discworld and must be sustained by substantial sources of magic. Elves, also, are rather evil in Discworld, and would not be playable. Trolls, however, would be.
Those are story reasons though, which are a whole sight more valid then amputating things based on personal preference.
Incidentally, my own setting doesn't have Drow for stroy reasons...but if one of my players really had their heart set on playing a Drow character, I would find a way to work it in.
A DM might also rule "no Dragonborn" because the campaign is built around the mystery of the suddenly vanished Dragonborn. All of them. Including the one you wanted to play..
Really? Because to me that sounds like a damn good plot hook for a Dragonborn PC.
No, the toybox of the PC's falls under the purview of *both*, in collaboration.
Which is the crux of my argument...D&D is a collaborative effort. Why then, should the details of the sandbox they play be completely controlled by one individual.
I get that it is the DM's lot to facilitate the game, but a DM that emphasizes their fun over that of the players isn't doing their job.
I think you may be mistaking my points as having any relationship to what a DM *should* do.
Go back please and re-read what I said. I said the DM is not obligated to use everything.
I have never suggested the DM should eliminate, oh, Elves, for example, just cause he doesn't like them.
I realize what you were trying to say...I was simply responding with a hyperbolic argument.
And he can easily say that whichever way you are doing it; is 'wrong'
Well then...guess I'll have to defend my postion, won't I?
Has failed to understand how to read monster stat blocks, how CRs work, or any of the monster's special abilities/attack work. This can lead to long pauses while figuring out where a creature's attack bonus is, fighting creatures of much higher CR, and all sorts of shenanigans with their special abilities.
As an example, a 2nd level party is forced to fight a CR 12 creature. The same guy also thinks that "at will" meant "free action", which leads to an interesting fight with a Marilith.
Well then...guess I'll have to defend my postion, won't I?
Nope, we all play the game in ways that are fun for us and the people we play with. One way is not the correct way, nor is this way the 'wrong way' Or that way is the best way. Really, no way is better than the other.
Simply put, it's trolling to inform someone that their way of playing the game is 'wrong.' ;)
Aside from that, do want.
The Overbrewer I played under was horrible. Humans were beefed up, everyone else was either left alone or nerfed. Rogues got extra skill points, Fighters got bonus feats at every level, everyone else got a list of restrictions, Xp was make to where by the time you got to 12th level, everyone else is at Epic levels, One sting from an imp did the 16 dex damage needed to paralize my character, Everyone not a Human war veteran was a serf, subject to the whims of every non-serf out there.
The Overbrewer I played under was horrible.
Fair enough. It's just that that's one of the ones that can be done well too.
Nope, we all play the game in ways that are fun for us and the people we play with. One way is not the correct way, nor is this way the 'wrong way' Or that way is the best way. Really, no way is better than the other.
Simply put, it's trolling to inform someone that their way of playing the game is 'wrong.' ;)
I like to make value judgments based on wholly subjective ideas...a little hyperbole makes life fun...sue me.
This guy is enamoured with the idea that players could learn about themselves through the game. He'll insist that players play themselves and then put them through hardships that hit close to home -- or worse, he'll have NPC villains based on the players and create adventures that stem from your character flaws. But it's wholesome self-discovery, he'll insist!
Turns out one player had come from a very abusive family and some of the things I was describing brought terrible memories up for him. He was in therapy at the time for it, and I didn't realize anything was wrong. When it came time to take on the BBEG, it was a merciless slaughter. He threw his PC at my BBEG with everything he had and relished every last blood-spattering moment of it. When it was done, one of the players asked him OOC if he was all right. That was when he told us the story. I apologized profusely and offered to never do that again, but he said it was all right if I didn't do it too often. He also said it was fun to have a BBEG he could go to town on without any inkling of humanity or a conscience!
Well at that point they should put away the Dungeons & Dragons, and start playing "Naughty Nurse & Patient Who's Viagra Won't Wear Off"
Why not play both at the same time?
This is not necessarily a DM who runs a horror game, though some of those can take it too far, but this DM loves thrusting players into creepy or awkward situations, overlaps with the puppeteer, railroader DMs who think of players as actors in their(as in the DM's) story. Loves to send players on bizarre erotic adventures that are not to be discussed amongst mixed company.
Why not play both at the same time?
Because you wouldn't want to roll a one in that scenario.
This guy loves a certain setting (usually nicked off a video game )and wants everyone to do the same. The trouble is, he's too busy jerking off to it to make the game interesting for the players, and then he wonders why they now despise that particular setting.
This is also characterized by vapid NPCs and unkillable returning villains, who are often characters from aforementioned video games making a cameo so that the GM can stick the characters back on the failtrain to oblivion.
Just had to get that off my chest.
The Monstrously Ignorant
Has failed to understand how to read monster stat blocks, how CRs work, or any of the monster's special abilities/attack work. This can lead to long pauses while figuring out where a creature's attack bonus is, fighting creatures of much higher CR, and all sorts of shenanigans with their special abilities.
Holy crap, I just got out of a game with a GM like this, except this guy was basically ignorant of core rules, like how to flank or determine if movement provoked an attack of opportunity. It was very awkward.
So, My DM fits most of the characteristics of being a terrible DM, but tonight was the tipping point of sheer ridiculousness.
First off, the man doesn't have a job and still lives with his mother (he is in his thirties...), so I assume that he has a lot of time to look over the rules of 4e. He has been playing since 1e for God's sake!
In many instances in the past, the DM would move his monsters past multiple PC's and still not incur AO. How is that? We would ask him how he was able to do that, and his response was that he shifted. How the hell can an Ogre shift 6 spots!
Today however, a new game breaking ruling occurred. Our fighter, used an action point and his PP feature (Dread Reaper) dealt STR modifier damage to an adjacent enemy. But instead of dealing 5 points of damage, the fighter dealt 17 points of damage, citing that he gets to add in his weapons enhancement, and feat bonus, ect. The DM defended him on this, and accusingly asked if I wanted the fighter to deal less damage.
All of this to say that my Stormwarden Ranger now deals 22 points of damage to one enemy and 16 points of damage to another enemy for just being adjacent to me, upping my DPR by over 20.
I'm all for more damage, but I'd rather have balance... and a DM that doesn't suck balls.
Mr *fapfapfap*:
This guy loves a certain setting (usually nicked off a video game )and wants everyone to do the same. The trouble is, he's too busy jerking off to it to make the game interesting for the players, and then he wonders why they now despise that particular setting.
This is also characterized by vapid NPCs and unkillable returning villains, who are often characters from aforementioned video games making a cameo so that the GM can stick the characters back on the failtrain to oblivion.
Just had to get that off my chest.
Dude, totally feel you on that one. I believe that one of the greatest sins a DM can commit is converting their favorite [cartoon/movie/videogame/comic] to D&D. I suppose it would be ok if the DM talked to the players about it beforehand, "Hey, guys, I've really been into Zelda lately, what if we had a Zelda D&D adventure?"
But expecting anyone to like the same exact things they do in the same exact way... that's just crazy talk! Baaaaaad evil!
Best quote ever: "knowing the rules has very little to do with DMing"
I respectfully dissent with that quote at least in part. I would submit that knowing the rules is an essential component to being a good DM but only a component. Rules are exist in part to give the game structure but they also serve to partially protect players against overly capricious DMs (like many already discussed). The DM should be fair and consistant and when rules are changed (houseruled), he (or she) should be consistant and fair about it.
-Polaris
And, sadly, I find myself in the Grudging DM thing. DMing just has no taste for me when PCs refuse to take at least one of the hooks to get the story going, and get ****ed off when there -is- no story to follow (See: Ruin.)
In previous campaigns, I've done everything from allowing every race to restricting the races to just humans, elves, dwarves and halflings. It depends on what creative tone I'm trying to take with any given campaign.
Uhuh...
X3
You're all humans and you're all fighters! And you each have to use a longsword and a medium shield! The DM has spoken!
I was at a convention where one of the sessions was run by this guy who represented a group who had a very specific way of playing: all characters started as Commoners. They were Commoners with a bunch of extra feats like Athletic, Alertness, Run, etc, but still Commoners. Then they put us through a number of "character building" encounters in which we were kidnapped individually (with the other players playing the kidnappers), then enslaved, then forced into weird contests and battles.
I stuck with it for a while to see if they took it anywhere interesting, but I politely took my leave after my character was grievously wounded. At least it was at a convention, so I didn't have to wait long for another game.
The More the Merrier
The DM allows as many players as want to join to sit around the table. I admit to being one of these when I'm running at a game store and I want to accommodate the owner's customers, but it normally bothers me. Maybe he enjoys the extra effort and input, and maybe he figures he'll have some attrition and so wants to start with more than he wants, but more than five players really makes it hard for individual players to have much of an impact. Furthermore, when one player gets more than his share of attention it rankles that much more for the additional players it marginalizes.
The More the Merrier
The DM allows as many players as want to join to sit around the table. I admit to being one of these when I'm running at a game store and I want to accommodate the owner's customers, but it normally bothers me. Maybe he enjoys the extra effort and input, and maybe he figures he'll have some attrition and so wants to start with more than he wants, but more than five players really makes it hard for individual players to have much of an impact. Furthermore, when one player gets more than his share of attention it rankles that much more for the additional players it marginalizes.
I'm guilty of this one to an extent...I just don't like to tell people that they can't play X3. Still, I'd say that 7, not 5, is the reasonable maximum of players for a game. Also, some games totally work with even more than 7 players. I've been in two games where that was the case. One was a very heavy RP game (I think we've had, like, 5 combat encounters in all the time I've been playing in it) and the other was a game specifically tailored to developing characters individually where there wasn't even a party, just a city that each character was in. The DM played privately with each player unless the characters met up for whatever reason.
However if the group decides they'll open the classes then they'll have to be prepared for me to optimize the classes as opponents as well to deal with the optimized characters.
However as far as worst DMs... well
I Have what the Doctors Like to call a Short Atten... OOOHH!! A Kitten!!
Different DM. Completely forgot what they were doing, several times. Story line jumped so much that it was impossible to follow. Horrible, inane plot twists. Completely unaware of the world around them.
I had one of these. He actually had ADD and it was soooooo frustrating. We eventually quit the campaign after he kept restarting the campaign because he had a new 'idea.'
Best quote ever: "knowing the rules has very little to do with DMing"
I respectfully dissent with that quote at least in part. I would submit that knowing the rules is an essential component to being a good DM but only a component. Rules are exist in part to give the game structure but they also serve to partially protect players against overly capricious DMs (like many already discussed). The DM should be fair and consistant and when rules are changed (houseruled), he (or she) should be consistant and fair about it.
I believe that was a joke... Or, at least, a reference to -one-.
Sadly, no, this was not a joke. This is actually what a former DM told me, as his reason for overwriting/substituting RAW in the middle of a game.
"What? no, you can't play an elf. Elves suck. You play a human, or you GTFOut of my house. Who cares what you want, I'm the DM."
While I'm not a fan of the railroading, I get the feeling this guy and I would get along great outside of the game :D.
I had one of these. He actually had ADD and it was soooooo frustrating. We eventually quit the campaign after he kept restarting the campaign because he had a new 'idea.'
Had a player like this, although I don't think it's ADD. But she really have a short attention span. Sometimes she'll just stare blankly into space while massaging... yeah. She didn't come back after her first session, since, at she puts it, she was bored. That was the first time anyone said that adjective to describe my games.
Dut hurted. Dut really HURTED!
The DM was every bad DM from Page 1 and 2, cap that with a huge arrogance and sneering derision and that was him in the bag.
It's nice to know I'm not alone facing down these incompetent jerks who run games to satisfy multiple personality or social flaws or for any reason other than for everyone to have fun and use their imaginations.
That is something I thought reading through the thread, a lot of these bad DMs strike me as people who must have some kind of deep personal issues with control or ego or loneliness or what have you...
Had a player like this, although I don't think it's ADD. But she really have a short attention span. Sometimes she'll just stare blankly into space while massaging... yeah. She didn't come back after her first session, since, at she puts it, she was bored. That was the first time anyone said that adjective to describe my games.
Dut hurted. Dut really HURTED!
Well you're lucky since my DM actually did have ADD... I think I was mainly really wanting a game. Honestly I could put up with it somewhat, however the other players couldn't and dropped out. Thus I was yet again sent in search of a new campaign.
Eventually, I got more into the Dragonlance setting, and as a campaign came to a close, I started to take up the DM helm. It was my first time, but I had researched it thoroughly and worked really hard. My DM wasn't going to join the group; he was feeling like we didn't want him around any more. Being a petulant teenager, he finally joined, but tried to sabotage the story at every turn. We lasted about an hour before our DM got to be too much for us and I called it quits.
Another time, he ran an adventure with undead while we were level one. We were fleeing from the hordes (literal hordes) and ran down a flight of stairs. He had us make Dex checks, and the only one who failed (crit fail to boot) was the Dex 18 gnomish fighter/rogue, who tripped, fell, and knocked us all down a 4 flight spiral staircase. We rolled for damage and everybody died except for me, who had 1hp left. We all were rightly disappointed, and he had me reach into the cleric's bag and 'miraculously' pull out a Rod of Resurrection that had just enough charges to bring everyone back to life (missing one point of Constitution for the Res). Oh, except for the elf, who isn't allowed to be resurrected. Yeah, that sucked for the first fifteen minutes of a day long adventure.
Planescape (still a favorite of mine, I wish it would be rereleased...).
I never played it, but it does sound fun. Sigil's outlined in Manual of the Planes, but most of the rest of what's released for the setting will probably be in subsequent MoPs (if there are any) or in Dungeon and Dragon.
My DM wasn't going to join the group; he was feeling like we didn't want him around any more.
What gave him that idea?
Being a petulant teenager, he finally joined, but tried to sabotage the story at every turn. We lasted about an hour before our DM got to be too much for us and I called it quits.
What did he do?
The DM creates either a sentient magic item that the PCs need to complete a task, or gives them an annoying, incompetent liability of an NPC they must protect (alternately, an annoying, godmoding NPC who the PCs must follow) to complete a task.
For example, the magic talking sword that's the only thing that can open the gates to the demon lord's realm ... that lips off to everybody, ruining diplomacy attempts, will not shut up during stealth incursions, and seems to be opposing the very purpose it was forged for.
Or, the NPC whose response to 'shhhhhh' is "WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!".
I'm running a monk, and basically it's looking like next fight, I might very well pick up the damn sword and use it myself. Proficiency be damned.
I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome my NPCs are. Not quite the NPC wanker he seems to be, this DM just designs badly optimized DM fiat characters, and then pits them against the party. When party members start getting suspicious, he'll get quite vocal about how he's the DM and how he's allowed to make house rules that apply to the DMs but not your characters.
We're talking serious cheese here. I had a DM just like this, whom set a WIS 28 monk against us (no wizard in our party for whatever reason)
Now, this wouldn't have been so bad, but rather then being a Monk 12, it was a Monk 1/Monk 1/Monk 1/Monk 1/Monk 1/Monk 7.
Yes, you heard me. He took the first level of monk 6 times, retrained the bonus feats, and Fiated that they stacked for BAB, Saves, flurry of blows, AC, unarmed damage, and speed, but not for class features other then that.
We didn't have any casters in the party, and he expected us (or maybe he didn't) to hit his WIS-to-AC SIX ******* TIMES supermonk. I'm sorry, but we just weren't equipped to hit something with 70 AC at level twelve. Especially with the crappy magical items we'd been getting.
This Annoying Thing Is Critical
The DM creates either a sentient magic item that the PCs need to complete a task, or gives them an annoying, incompetent liability of an NPC they must protect (alternately, an annoying, godmoding NPC who the PCs must follow) to complete a task.
For example, the magic talking sword that's the only thing that can open the gates to the demon lord's realm ... that lips off to everybody, ruining diplomacy attempts, will not shut up during stealth incursions, and seems to be opposing the very purpose it was forged for.
Or, the NPC whose response to 'shhhhhh' is "WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!".
Oh man, my DM just sent us an NPC like that. He didn't stay long because me and another PC kept arguing with him. While no proof he was meant for something more than just an NPC we rescued in the basilisk lair whose owner we just killed, he knew too much information that was never told to him to have been a "normal" NPC. Now my character is being punished for arguing.
This Annoying Thing Is Critical
I'm *slightly* guilty of that one.
The Screaming Scimitar Of Abdul al'Hazred is a magic item that my past gamers still tell stories about. In a good way!
The short version: It's a very powerful magic item. In the last 3.5 game I used it in (added when the PCs were 5th level), it was a scimitar +3 that granted DR5/all. It is intelligent. It can speak.
It has *zero* ability to control or influence the wielder, and it's the "screaming scimitar" because it is *desperately afraid of everything*.
Goblins? Terrify it.
Dragons? Terrify it.
Blood? Makes it woozy and nauseated.
The dark? Scary.
Startle it (like, say, have it see an Orc you're trying to sneak past) and it's been known to shriek in terror.
Wield it in battle? Be prepared for an endless running commentary on why you're a terrible person and OH GOD I HAVE BLOOD ON ME AND I TOUCHED A TROGLODYTE PLEASE WON'T SOMEBODY, ANYBODY HELP ME? HEEEEEEELP!
It desperately, more than anything else, wants a nice warm inn where it can be hung over the mantlepiece and *never ever ever see anything scary ever again*.
Thing is, it's such a nice magic item that there's always the temptation to use it. There's usually at least one player who is all "Dude! I can put up with that!"
History shows that no, no they can't. Not forever, anyway.
The first group traded it, straight up, for a Longsword +1 that they had been promised DID NOT SPEAK from a weapons merchant.
The second group (who bought it from a weapons merchant, dirt cheap - they thought they'd gotten a great deal, until the merchant's 24hr Silence spell on it wore off) wrestled it away from the wielder and threw it into a midden, invited the former owner to go get it if he still really wanted it.
The third group (who found it in a midden) never really got annoyed with it - they left it behind in their inn rooms while trying to sneak into the temple of a dragon cult and never actually made it back to collect it.
But it was *never* plot-critical. It was always just an awesome magic item with a nice, nasty, nonmechanical curse, to make the players want to keep it around and get the benefits, and yet totally hate it and want to get rid of it.
The GM expects you to get clues and come to deductions that while obvious and self evident in his own mind, are ridiculous and nonsensical to anyone but them. This is usually compounded by an utter inability to come up with a "what if" plan should the PC's fail to deduce his
For example: One game we played in which we came to a town that had had been plagued by "an evil" for many years. There was no actual description other then this curse, and the uter certainty of everyone in the town that the evil was to the south for no disternable reason. We checked south till we ran into an ocean, and came back to town. Attempts at finding any additional information resulted in stupid lengthy headache inducing failure. We eventually quit after six or seven hours.
GM: Oh man, why didn't you look south?
US: Dwa?
GM: I mean, everyone was mind controlled into believing the eivl was SOUTH,
so it HAD to be North.
US: *FACEPALM*
The Hook That Wasn't There
The only time I let this guy DM, it was Star Wars and we started off in a dusty bar in a desert town, a barely disguised take on Mos Eisley. We were local farmhands, a band of itinerant workers who were chaffing under Imperial rule. At the end of the day we gathered at the local watering hole for some drinks and general carousing. The DM described a typical bar scene, being careful to detail one fellow sitting at the end of the bar nursing a drink. He emphasized that we had never seen this guy in town before. So, as a PC, what would you do? Easy, you take the bait.
The guy looked kind of down and depressed, so we decided we were in too good of a mood to let anybody be a wet rag. We knocked a couple of drinks back and invited him over to the party. After all, maybe he knew where there was some more work (read: the adventure!). He ignored any attempts at interaction, including a direct "You're new here. You lookin' for work or workers?" The guy got up and left with an annoyed expression, grumbling about not being allowed to enjoy a drink in peace and quiet. We followed for a little bit but lost him. We even tried to push it by asking around town. Small town, folks will notice a stranger. Nope, nobody'd seen him. No attempts at tracking were successful.
That was it.
He couldn't understand why we never asked him to DM again, even when we told him that actually having an adventure was kind of a critical part to the game. If we were going to play "Drunkards & Flagons", we'd rather LARP it down at Trial's Pub downtown!
I Don't Know What The Adventure Is. Let's Just Roll Some Dice And Something Will Crop Up, I'm Sure
My brother, potentially the World's Worst DM, was actually really good with Star Wars stories. Not DMing, mind you, but he could come up with some good plots most of the time. This time, rather than admit the well was dry, he started us in jail cells. We waited for whoever he had to planned to deliver the hook. We were anticipating a "You can earn your freedom if you do this for me..." type plot. When the hook was never delivered, we thought "Escape plot!". Nope, we couldn't even do that. All we could do was chat with one another through the bars.
Finally he drops us some info. The commanding officer of the base will be down in two days to talk to you. "Hot damn! A story!" we thought. One player asked "How long have we been in jail?" My brother looked at his watch. "Ten minutes."
Ten minutes was how long we'd been playing! He didn't have a story or anything ready and was hoping we'd come up with something while sitting in our jail cells.
He couldn't believe it when we closed our Star Wars books and brought out the D&D gear.
Wow...did you ever ask him what he had planned to happen for the game? 0.o
He told us that he was going to save the plot for later "when we were more ready to game".
I never played it, but it does sound fun. Sigil's outlined in Manual of the Planes, but most of the rest of what's released for the setting will probably be in subsequent MoPs (if there are any) or in Dungeon and Dragon.
What gave him that idea?
What did he do?
1. Sigil was a great jumping point to any plane possible, but the best part was the gritty stuff with the factions in Sigil itself. If you've ever had the pleasure to play Planescape: Torment with The Nameless One, you get a great feel for it.
2. He thought that we were having a mutiny. He had been the DM, the law of the land, and what he said was supposed to be taken as truth. I didn't want to usurp his position, I just had a story to tell.
3. Since he had said he didn't want to play, I had consulted him on how to set up encounters so it was balanced, et cetera. I was new to being a DM, so when he went and triggered three encounters at once and set us up in a trap that would kill the whole party, and then started acting like a fool, I was in no position (I was too flustered) to try to get everything back to normal. He knew there would be treasure in a chest; he would shoot a fireball at it. He knew that a valuable NPC was around the corner, he would set the party up to attack. It was chaos. I now take it as a learning experience to deal with problem players, but it was annoying 15 years ago.
No notes? Check
Optimization? Check
DMPC? Check, all the freakin time. But a reason.
Significant other? Check, but also, for a reason.
Umm..Uhhh...Lessee...? ALL THE TIME!
Don't want to bother goin through everything else, and on to the biggest one:
Ohh Shiny? BIG ASS CHECK! Holy crap. I can't go on without more freakin items and power. One example:
The campaign I'm running now has, as house rules:
Feats every level, Gestalt, all books alowed, +5 LA for free, and LA Buyoff. AND (Sarcastic better not read this):
Show
We are gonna be demigods at level 10 (with IH rules) come end of this adventure
But it was *never* plot-critical.
That was the important line. That I could handle, though I must admit I'd throw it down a well at the first opportunity. Over the years, I've discovered I have a definite distaste for hardware that talks back.
They have them in there so that if things go pear shaped, and we need someone to make a last stand while everyone else legs it, or if we need to sacrifice someone for any reason, there is a candidate that doesn't require a player to give up their character if they don't want to.
The players are still free to choose to volunteer to be the hero, they just do not have to.
We played for three hours. There was a bar. We got drunk. We received plot hook. It hurt. We walked to plot hook giver. We talked. We surprised the DM by not accepting his reason for why we would want to do this. We left town. There was barren plains to our left and right. We came to another town. It had one bar. We left. We discovered next town. We searched all of it, except the tavern. Found tavern had plot hook. We quit game.
And we (players) had more fun berating the railroadiness of the plot than playing the game. And his ego deluded him into thinking we were having a good time. The fights we got into weren't fights. We took maybe five damage over three fights.
The sentence above said by the DM to a player. In an attempt to show of his craftiness to the players, they reveal crucial plot points, monsters, or traps the PCs will encounter before the session, while expecting the one player they tell to not leak the information to his allies and sitting smirking, knowing the Beholder-not the Medusa everyone predicted- is what's really behind that door. A less drastic version is the teasing DM who gives cryptic hints to single players, usually impossible to decode without having the DMs own logic.
"You knew he was a vampire?"
Above said while bringing an Anne rice novel to the session. This player usually is a fan of a genre of fiction, Vampires for example, though Werewolves, Cthulhu-esque creatures, or ghosts are fine. outside sessions they talk about their favorite subject, to the point that there is little to no suprise in the players when this creature or fictional archetype makes its appearance. To further upset anticipating players, the weaknesses of the creature in question, or having a character prepared swith feats and skills intended for combating thise creature, are prohibited, because the PCs had no reason to beforehand.
The players would'nt metagame if you weren't so predictable.
"Don't tell anyone, but I'm gonna..." The sentence above said by the DM to a player. In an attempt to show of his craftiness to the players, they reveal crucial plot points, monsters, or traps the PCs will encounter before the session, while expecting the one player they tell to not leak the information to his allies and sitting smirking, knowing the Beholder-not the Medusa everyone predicted- is what's really behind that door. A less drastic version is the teasing DM who gives cryptic hints to single players, usually impossible to decode without having the DMs own logic. "You knew he was a vampire?" Above said while bringing an Anne rice novel to the session. This player usually is a fan of a genre of fiction, Vampires for example, though Werewolves, Cthulhu-esque creatures, or ghosts are fine. outside sessions they talk about their favorite subject, to the point that there is little to no suprise in the players when this creature or fictional archetype makes its appearance. To further upset anticipating players, the weaknesses of the creature in question, or having a character prepared swith feats and skills intended for combating thise creature, are prohibited, because the PCs had no reason to beforehand. The players would'nt metagame if you weren't so predictable.
I'm more or less the opposite of this. If you see an Ann Rice book at the table with me, probably the last thing you'll get is a vampire. My placement of monsters tends to seem random, but does have it's own internal consistency.
For example, the last campaign, they started off with a sample group of Minion-level Kobolds, with a Warcaster. Nothing unusual, except they were like that in a population center. Players called me on it, and were told that if they're inside the walls, there was a reason.
Lo and behold, there was. The kobolds were raiding from the basement of a house, which had a tunnel leading to a Lair. Nice lair, well-built, lots of space. Loads of kobolds, and very few rats.
Why is that? Most people try and keep the temples clean, and Kobolds are no exception. They had a young White to worship. They get a note at the end about a bunch of Slavers operating in a city that taxes the village.
A week to get there, and a group of Goblins, two groups of Kobolds, and a bunch of Gnolls later, and people are starting to wonder again. "Why would Goblins and Kobolds work together?" Answer: They're being paid, and they're more afraid of their Human bosses than they are torqued off at the other guy. Hobgoblins, Goblins, Humans and Kobolds in the next dungeon.Oh, and Rats. Mostly to be served as food.
Next place: Keep high in the mountains, overlooking a river. They expect to see Gobbies and Kobolds now (although they've pretty much exterminated all the Kobolds of any value).
They get Orcs, Gobbies, Devils and Sahaugin, with two combat teams of Warforged, a mixed bag of Humans, and a very low-end Drow Solo (custom created to give them a hard time, and did), with a variety of undead.
The Drow for the area under the keep wanted something inside it (the NPC they'd had along to balance what the party needed in damage output), and staged an invasion using Teleport Circles and the contents of the Crypts below. The Warforged had been there since the Keep's founding, and reactivated by our Drow buddy for causing a ruckus.
Mind, this is *not* Eberron, but a region from a custom campaign world. Humans are the extreme newcomers, having crashed a colony ship and watching in horror as the damage racked up. Modern materials still have to be made of something, and the ecology won't handle strip mining. Mineral-rich enough for everybody to make swords and the like, but not enough to make large-scale mining and etc a possibility. Therefore, Humans adapted to the things they could do, and the old stuff is buried deep down.
Fantasy campaign with the occasional bit of high technology tossed in when it could be fun to make a side-trip or whatever. These Warforged, fluffed hard to stereotype, took a whack out of the team the first time. The second, they learned.
The Cheater tended to metagame because I couldn't be exactly predicted. At one point, he tried to write the encounter for me. Betting you can guess how well that went over. This is the same campaign where I up front banned Deva and Shifters, Groused about the Goliath, and wound up dropping the Teifling because the players argued how they made no sense in the Campaign as fluffed in PHB.
Also works with overpowered enemies, this DM refuses to acknowledge that the encounters are simply too difficult. That, or he acknowledges their difficulty, but refuses to adjust it. A great example is when, in Pyramid of Shadows, we fought the ettin marauder (w/e it was called, it was an ettin something) and it was pretty much auto-hitting everyone, even the fighter, and it was impossible to get flanking EVER because every time we tried, it got an opportunity attack, and once again, instantly hit, and pushed whoever was moving.
We were able to kill the rest of the monsters, but it wasn't until everyone was dead or dying that he finally decided to have the ettin run by everyone so we all got opportunity attacks, then assumed that we all criticaled, and assumed that we killed it in one round. We hadn't even bloodied the thing, and we'd been fighting it for over ten rounds. This was a really unnatural way to handle the situation, and it pretty much killed the game then.
The Nazi Human fighters only. Nothing else. If some one tries to play, say, a half-elf, he will say that there are no half-elves in the area, or give the player all sorts of disadvantages.
One Of This And One Of That... This DM demands that there be one controller, one defender, one leader and one striker. In a party of five, the odd player out will be forced to play a human cleric.
The Book Hoarder Keeps his very own set of books, and demands that no one read them. Does not let anyone look at the MM, because he seems to believe that people will go through the trouble of memorizing every creatures AC, HP, and weaknesses. If, God forbid, someone get a book he doesn't have, he either outlaws its use, or demands that he keep it.
I tend to do this, all but the last bit. All races, classes, powers andetc are vetted for fluff appropriateness and balance before they're allowed in play. By theway, I *have* had players memorize the MM and then disrupt games to tell all and sundry I'm "cheating" by modifying creatures. I don't ban thins in a book I don't have for myself, but I reserve the right to say "no" at any time to individual bits.
If I do say "no"after play begins, that character gets an immediate swapout of that power/feat/whatever for something the same level.
Races get canned occasionally for Fluff and Fanboi/gurl behavior on the part of hte Players. If you can't keep you Vampire/Werewolf/Angel mythos straight, then you need to play something else.
Period.
Also, If I paid my money out for books (and I have precious little to begin with) why must I let anyone read them? 99% of all Players have no earthly need for the DMG/MM.
-Sarena
The Book Hoarder Keeps his very own set of books, and demands that no one read them. Does not let anyone look at the MM, because he seems to believe that people will go through the trouble of memorizing every creatures AC, HP, and weaknesses. If, God forbid, someone get a book he doesn't have, he either outlaws its use, or demands that he keep it.
I tend to do this, all but the last bit. All races, classes, powers andetc are vetted for fluff appropriateness and balance before they're allowed in play. By theway, I *have* had players memorize the MM and then disrupt games to tell all and sundry I'm "cheating" by modifying creatures. I don't ban thins in a book I don't have for myself, but I reserve the right to say "no" at any time to individual bits.
If I do say "no"after play begins, that character gets an immediate swapout of that power/feat/whatever for something the same level.
Races get canned occasionally for Fluff and Fanboi/gurl behavior on the part of hte Players. If you can't keep you Vampire/Werewolf/Angel mythos straight, then you need to play something else.
Period.
-Sarena
I can't imagine banning anything for such a silly reason.
It's My Soapbox and I'll Preach If I Want To This DM cannot leave his or her personal politics/philosophies out of the game, especially if they don't fit. If your adventure centers around saving a sacred forest from the ravages of extensive logging, fine. But don't send the party out to stop a guy who's building a log cabin and preach about the environment to us all the way along and about how trees are people, too. Every animal we shoot for food just happens to be a mother with a litter that we must now take care of or else we're evil? Meat is illegal in Lawful Good societies? Nations don't believe in borders? All merchants are greedy and out to screw whomever they can? No businessman is honest? Geez, get a radio talk show already!
Spray some dirt on him. He might be captain plantet!
If he is shove the old vcr caset tapes up his recycled ass
I can't imagine banning anything for such a silly reason.
Then I guess I'm silly. I don't like having people spouting Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Underworld, Vampire Chronicles, The Bible, or Twilight at me. Cross-millieu material is Out of Line. You can play or not, but I don't appreciate people shoving something down my throat in the name of "roleplaying." If we're playing WoD, fine. You can not only spout all the material you want along those lines, I'll encourage you. But don't ask to play a Dragonborn.
If a Race or Races don't fit the fluff of the setting, they don't get to just "come visit." Getting several of the Races to Toril required a huge stretch, and I don't feel the stretch is necessary in my previous Custom setting.
In Eberron, I'm planning to allow the Shifter as a PC race, although there shalt be a maximum of one for the party. The Player that chooses that Race will be told the first time I hear a pile of BS about the Lycan Race, Vampires, or any such other nonsense is going to have a dungeon ceiling tile dropped on him and he can start again. The Deva is still out, since there's not enough of them to make up a viable population.
You're welcome to call me a bitch, not play, whatever you like. If you come to my table, I expect you to play by the rules, both as they are written, and by the exceptions and restrictions I deem necessary to keeping the table civilized and moving. No more, no less.
-Sarena
The girl next to him decided that the Deva was an Angel and immediately decided to "ascend to heaven" to tattle to "God" for the lack of vampires for her to love up on. This behavior in *adults* who were otherwise intelligent. When told that their characters had not the abilities they were trying to play out, both were offended, and completely destroyed a more than considerable amount of work, as well as the gaming group sum total.
I prefer to avoid difficulties of this nature, thanks.
-Sarena
The Deva is still out, since there's not enough of them to make up a viable population.
Out of curiosity, why does it matter if there's a viable population? It only takes one to adventure.
The Deva is still out, since there's not enough of them to make up a viable population.
Out of curiosity, why does it matter if there's a viable population? It only takes one to adventure.
Does to me. If there are so few you can go your entire life without seeing another, they're all busy.
-Sarena
OMG I JUST SAW THE BEST ACTION MOVIE EVAR!!!
What I'm getting at is the kind of person who gets overly excited after watching those high-adrenaline action movies, then tries to recreate scenes from the movie in the adventure. I don't care if Bruce Willis escaped from a harrier by jumping on it and throwing it off balance. I'm not jumping into eatey range of that dragon's mouth!
Does to me. If there are so few you can go your entire life without seeing another, they're all busy.
Yeah. One is apparently busy adventuring with this particular group of PCs.
But I can get not allowing races that don't fit the setting. What I can't understand is killing a PC for remarks the player made. (Why the heck a player would try to dictate how a certain kind of mythological creature works to the DM is a mystery to me though).
Back on topic, I actually had a pretty bad case of the Pixel[female dog]-DM long ago. The worst case actually went down like this:
DM: You enter a cavernous room. The floor is covered in golden coins, rubies and other precious items. (Insert long and actually pretty interesting description of a huge treasure hoard)
Me: Way cool! I take that runesword you described.
DM: Okay, roll to dodge.
Me: Whut? Against what?
DM: Dragonbreath.
Me: There's a DRAGON there? Why didn't you tell me?!
DM: You didn't ask.
Sadly, I'm not joking. He had many other faults as well but could be an awesome DM at times.
Yeah. One is apparently busy adventuring with this particular group of PCs.
Nope. She's busy manipulating things behind the scenes in the hopes the PCs don't notice her for awhile. I have uses for the Deva, and they don't generally include watching one wander around making things difficult for the others.
But I can get not allowing races that don't fit the setting. What I can't understand is killing a PC for remarks the player made. (Why the heck a player would try to dictate how a certain kind of mythological creature works to the DM is a mystery to me though).
Well, it's happened more than once... Several times, in fact. Hungry vampires don't talk, they bite. If you're in their territory at lunchtime, you're the guest of honor.
If not, then maybe you get to live, if it suits the needs of the moment. No, he won't be giving interviews, no, there is no Camarilla, or any global conspiracy to hide. Just individuals and very small groups doing the best they can to remain as they are.
Werewolves are not the followers of Gaia, nor to they have a "Crinos" form. Lycanthropy was a disease, up until this edition, and thus it shall generally remain. Too many people out after werewolf bites so they can be mostly resistant to damage. "You can't do that, it has to be Aggravated damage" which of course doesn't exist in D&D. W:tA, yes.
Back on topic, I present the Power-madman. This character will take any excuse to bend the PCs over, tracking every monster in the place and moving them every minute the party spends doing something other than fighting. If you stand in one place long enough, you'll see every monster a particular dungeon has to offer... If you're really lucky, the entire level won't arrive all at once. Monsters have the uncanny ability to find the PCs and bring three times the force needed to kill them all dead. If they're really lucky, an NPC will show up, take them all out in a single blow(no xp for j00!) and pat them on the head just before he walks away. Gets irritated when the Party decides to go play the XBox/PS3 rather than sit in for the slaughter of the hour.
Which leads me to my next favorite...
The TPK is not happy unless the party is on the verge of dying at all times. Encounters are balanced so that one more stock Kobold more or less will be the difference between a total wipe, and 1d3 survivors from a party of twenty. Bring lots of character sheets, since Orcs do 1d10+ 800,000,000 damage, and you're level 1. (actual event. You don't want to know)
Followed by...
The Fanboi will modify the system, fluff, and anything else he has to to bring the campaign into line with whatever his particular fetish is. Will railroad in the extreme to get your characters "Embraced" and admitted to The Camarilla(or whatever). You will play true to you Blood Type (clan), too. Mind you, that's after a party of six wound up as Vampires of all different Clans, one of which was an Asamite. Can we say "Bloodbath?" I knew we could.
If you find one of these Three, run. Run for your very life.
-Sarena
My best friend and I were invited to this game because the DM's S.O. is also a good friend and the rest of the party is kind of hit or miss if they are going to be there, so with us there, she would have 3 players and would hope one or two more out the 6 remaining would be able show up. If not then there would not be game that week. We were told to just use the CB to build characters and we did so.
I am usually the person people goto for rule because I tend to memorize quickly and use small post-it notes to mark important rules for quick reference. So I was ask to look at a couple of character the DM helped make/level up to had been leveling correctly and one player asked for feat help. The first one was fine, the second was just plain wrong and the scores were rolled (-6 on the CB) the last one was correct, but also rolled (-21 on the CB).
To sum it up have an overly controlling DM that is inconsistance with ruling, and extremely miserly the PC's work for a mercenary company that pay a daily wage + hazard pay, but deducts from what we loot. So right now I think my friends character is 400 gold in the hole and I will make about 2000 gold from the difference in equipment aquired as of the last few sessions.
It's My Soapbox and I'll Preach If I Want To This DM cannot leave his or her personal politics/philosophies out of the game, especially if they don't fit. If your adventure centers around saving a sacred forest from the ravages of extensive logging, fine. But don't send the party out to stop a guy who's building a log cabin and preach about the environment to us all the way along and about how trees are people, too. Every animal we shoot for food just happens to be a mother with a litter that we must now take care of or else we're evil? Meat is illegal in Lawful Good societies? Nations don't believe in borders? All merchants are greedy and out to screw whomever they can? No businessman is honest? Geez, get a radio talk show already!
Spray some dirt on him. He might be captain plantet!
If he is shove the old vcr caset tapes up his recycled ass
Thats funny. It really is, because i thought the republicans were the only ones who did that and got on peoples nerves. Thats what the news always says.
I'd just say screw it.. and burn the whole damn forest down. "I love the smell of fireball in the morning." Imangine all the Exp you will get from killing all those animals and thier litters. >:D
OVERBREWER: A variant of the "Tolkien lives!!". This guy homebrews everything, A list of thirty gods, complete with portfolios, domains, and common worshipers. New traits for every race, tweaks to every class, changes to many rules, new ways for things to work. New way of doing Xp. Has NPC's for every little thorp in the world. As well as noble lineages for every family, A 10,000 year history spanning twenty eras. Ten self made prestige classes. A complete code of laws for every town, city, county, and nation. Most of the time also a HUGE control freak.
That's Hot.
My current DM resembles this minus the XP changes, and I quite like it. He's also got some Sybil and some DM vs Player Qualities, but it works for me. It helps that he is an amazing storyteller.