Now at level eleven, We are about 20 000gold under what we are supposed to have. Nobody has an item better than a +1, (except one player) The enemy always gets away, or is ready for our every move. During a fifth level encounter, an enemy, in the middle of a forest had a magical walkie-talkie and radioed for help, whom arrived with in 3 rounds. LIKE HELLLOOO!??!
So the issue is no one in the campaign is happy with the DM, but we don't know how to tell him. We have actully hijacked the campaign, and for a while stopped taking his missions. I'm at a loss.
So the issue is no one in the campaign is happy with the DM, but we don't know how to tell him. We have actully hijacked the campaign, and for a while stopped taking his missions. I'm at a loss.
How about just being honest? No, really. Just calmly, plainly, non-agressively tell him that the group is unhappy with the way game is being run and tell him the very things you just said. Your DM can't know there is a problem until you tell him there is one. Passive-aggressive solutions ignore the actual problem are just going to make things more frustrating for everyone.
Just tell him. The game is supposed to be fun. It's not a game where one side wins and the other side loses. Everybody is supposed to win simply because everybody is supposed to enjoy it. If that's not happening, then you should change something. Ideally that can be something simple like how the DM plays. However, failing a simple solution, it always makes sense to look at switching players or DMs or even game systems. Life's too short to spend it not having fun.
maybe you could try inherant bonuses? Some DMs just really, really don't like the parade of treasure 4e throws at you, but don't seem to understand that the math breaks if you don't have that treasure. Inherant bonuses are a solid fix that keep you on track without forcing the DM to give out loads of treasure if he doesn't want to.
Don't get me wrong, your DM seems to be playing "you vs me" without leveling the field, but still, where did all this money go?
As for advice, talk to him. Tell him straight on that you guys are not having fun and that you don't want to play a funless game. Roleplaying is about etertaining each other, not one side entertaining the other. If he cares about DM'ing, he will listen, if he only cares about beating down players it may be time to look for a new DM.
We started playing this campaign over six months passed. When we started, the DM said that he would like to make a challenging game for us. Apparently he meant that he wanted to make every encounter impossible, and give us no treasure.
Now at level eleven, We are about 20 000gold under what we are supposed to have. Nobody has an item better than a +1, (except one player) The enemy always gets away, or is ready for our every move. During a fifth level encounter, an enemy, in the middle of a forest had a magical walkie-talkie and radioed for help, whom arrived with in 3 rounds. LIKE HELLLOOO!??!
So the issue is no one in the campaign is happy with the DM, but we don't know how to tell him. We have actully hijacked the campaign, and for a while stopped taking his missions. I'm at a loss.
Your DM seems to be running the game like an 8 year old. It reminds me of arguments that my brothers used to have.
"My spaceship fires unstoppable lasers at your ship!"
"Well my ship has a shield that stops unstoppable lasers!"
"I fire unstoppable lasers that aren't stopped by shields that stop unstoppable lasers at your ship!"
"I'm God!"
Basically, the DM made up this magical radio crap because he wanted to 'win' which isn't the point. Hell, he could've made it more exciting by saying they used a Boromir-esque horn which is more fantastical than a freaking walky-talky!
*Edit* I just happened to read the "Dm is beating the tar out of us thread" and saw that you mentioned your dm doing that in a 3.5 game...is this that 3.5 game? It doesn't really matter too much as its more of an issue of style then edition but still worst case scenerio its easier to give 3.5 characters a power bump which might help balance things out but I just expect the dm will respond with even more outlandish things.
@chaos
i agree with the player thing. have someone who isn't as big on "winning" take over as DM. it'll probably hold up your game a week or two, but once you get back on track i think you'll enjoy it more. also, did you manage to take the magical walkie talkies from the enemies? because those are probably worth a good deal.
Tell him what is making you unhappy. Be honest. it's everyone game not just his
I would ask your DM why is you group highly under what typical players at that level should have for magic items.
Tell him what is making you unhappy. Be honest. it's everyone game not just his
/humor ON
WHAT? Um HELLO!? They didn't spend hours on end, writing up the adventure and tailoring the ecounters to be UH-MAZING! How much money have they spent on tiles, and books and every freakin mini, just so those ungrateful little treasure hungry snot wads can pretend to be heroes.
Do you know hard it is to come up with something that is completely original?
Those jerks don't know how good they have it!
No way can they consider this their game! Mine. MINE! MINE!!!!
/humor OFF
Well, K_B, it doesn't sound like its nothing you can't solve (though I'm assuming that you and your group are in your early 20's). First off, do Fireclave suggests and tell the GM you are unhappy with some of the campaign fundamentals.
First off: Your issue with insufficient funding can be rectified, assuming that your GM is willing. He can make a stand-alone adventure that gives you guys a significant payout in terms of money and/or items with only a token challenge.
Why should the GM do this? Because it benefits him. If the PCs have more resources than they have now then he can use more exotic monsters in his encounters with. He can add levels to his NPCs and he can put more more traps into his dungeons.
What will it cost the GM? Well, in some cases the PCs will have access to tools that allow them to quickly "bypass" an encounter, i.e. outmaneuver, negotiate, circumvent or even bribe their enemies at one location. Is this really a bad thing? It just means you all will have time for another encounter that evening.
-DF
I would ask your DM why is you group highly under what typical players at that level should have for magic items.
Tell him what is making you unhappy. Be honest. it's everyone game not just his
/humor ON
WHAT? Um HELLO!? They didn't spend hours on end, writing up the adventure and tailoring the ecounters to be UH-MAZING! How much money have they spent on tiles, and books and every freakin mini, just so those ungrateful little treasure hungry snot wads can pretend to be heroes.
Do you know hard it is to come up with something that is completely original?
Those jerks don't know how good they have it!
No way can they consider this their game! Mine. MINE! MINE!!!!
/humor OFF
wait, was that supposed to be a joke? all i saw was well reasoned argument.
I would ask your DM why is you group highly under what typical players at that level should have for magic items.
Tell him what is making you unhappy. Be honest. it's everyone game not just his
/humor ON
WHAT? Um HELLO!? They didn't spend hours on end, writing up the adventure and tailoring the ecounters to be UH-MAZING! How much money have they spent on tiles, and books and every freakin mini, just so those ungrateful little treasure hungry snot wads can pretend to be heroes.
Do you know hard it is to come up with something that is completely original?
Those jerks don't know how good they have it!
No way can they consider this their game! Mine. MINE! MINE!!!!
/humor OFFwait, was that supposed to be a joke? all i saw was well reasoned argument.
Yes...yes it was
Your gaming group will be dissolving in 3....2.....1......
Your DM puts hours and hours of work into each session he runs. All you have to do is show up and try to enjoy yourself. If you have such a problem with the way he's running the campaign, why don't you try and do it yourself?
If he gave you guys more magic items, he would just have to scale up the difficulty of the encounters to match your higher levels. This isn't a video game, where there are set enemies with set stats and a twinked out party will go through them like a fat kid with a tub of icecream. The DM sets the difficulty level on the fly in relation to the strength of the party.
"Mm, ****. This encounter is going to be way too easy for these guys. Maybe they'll radio for reinforcements, that should work."
Your DM puts hours and hours of work into each session he runs. All you have to do is show up and try to enjoy yourself. If you have such a problem with the way he's running the campaign, why don't you try and do it yourself?
If he gave you guys more magic items, he would just have to scale up the difficulty of the encounters to match your higher levels. This isn't a video game, where there are set enemies with set stats and a twinked out party will go through them like a fat kid with a tub of icecream. The DM sets the difficulty level on the fly in relation to the strength of the party.
Also, it is, in my opinion, generally better for a DM to have an understrength encounter than an overstrength one. It is more realistic and easier to bring in reinforcements.
We started playing this campaign over six months passed. When we started, the DM said that he would like to make a challenging game for us. Apparently he meant that he wanted to make every encounter impossible, and give us no treasure.
Now at level eleven, We are about 20 000gold under what we are supposed to have. Nobody has an item better than a +1, (except one player) The enemy always gets away, or is ready for our every move. During a fifth level encounter, an enemy, in the middle of a forest had a magical walkie-talkie and radioed for help, whom arrived with in 3 rounds. LIKE HELLLOOO!??!
So the issue is no one in the campaign is happy with the DM, but we don't know how to tell him. We have actully hijacked the campaign, and for a while stopped taking his missions. I'm at a loss.
Sometimes a player sucks at playing, and sometimes a DM sucks at DMing.
This would be one of the times the DM sucks at DMing going solely on our post.
Sometimes people just need to be told they suck at what they are doing. If they flip out on that remark, the correct response is "I hear my mother/wife/boss calling, sorry gotta go. And just leave.
You won't live forever, why waste what you have on lousy activity eh.
I handle my treasure differently than in the books. Often a number of encounters in an adventure will contain little or no treasure (goblins with worthless weapons and armour) but I store up the treasure from that encounter and add it to more significant end of level encounters ( Dragons especially get more treasure than in defined by the rules). However ultimately the players get the treasure owed them so they can develope.
I really enjoy running the game but I'm running a loose story and my players approach their aspect story however they wish but the game is about the players getting involved and enjoying the story.
These have been my favorite d&d games so far(been playing for 12 years), enough for me to invest into tiles/game pieces/counters. I am the sole owner of the books/dice/etc (I own almost every 3.5 wizards book, which is alot!).
Honestly, it does burn me alittle that I am the only one investing in the game. However I do not forget that there would not be a game without the players.(I dm 80% of all the games we play)
That said, I highly suggest rotating dm responsibilities. Here are the major positive results of this approach:
3 of our players would only every play chaotic evil puppy kickers. So far, one has dm'd a game, and his attitude has turned 360 degrees. He also brought the other 2 players closer to neutral when he dm'd. He saw how they were treating his good guy npcs and told them to stop. It worked!
Last game, the guy who always attacks other pcs (the most immature player) was expressing good ideas about why we shouldn't kill every npc we met. Me and the experienced player sitting next to me were like....so you're not attacking us?! He seems to have turned over a new leaf!
I attribute some of this change in attitude to the revolving dm. They know their turn will come to dm, and they will be at the center of attention. They don't want to have their game ruined, so they aren't ruining anyone elses. Either that or the different dm styles displayed so far have had some kind of impact.
I cannot tell you how nice it is to play as a pc!!! Maybe your dm is frustrated at being the only dm. Under this system, I have a month to think of an adventure for a party that I have played with as a pc. I know their strengths and weaknesses. There is a huge difference between a month of prep time and a week or a day (I sometimes dm 2 games friday/sat which is insane!). I am so happy that I get to play a pc, that I volunteered to run an extra game!
So I suggest trying to let other people dm. Honestly, this has not only saved my group, it has renewed my love of 3.5. Be sure to make it as simple as possible for whomever is dming if they are inexperienced.
To each their own, I find rotating DMs to be a bad idea as the plot doesn't really exist as it'll just ultimatley jump around with each DM and unless you want the story spoiled it becomes very difficult to craft anything coherent.
Depends on how fast you rotate, and the game setup. For example, a game setup where your PCs work for a troubleshooting agency, shall we say, could work fine. Bob DMs a case until the case is finished, then Mary can DM a case, then Alice can DM a case, and so forth.
To each their own, I find rotating DMs to be a bad idea as the plot doesn't really exist as it'll just ultimatley jump around with each DM and unless you want the story spoiled it becomes very difficult to craft anything coherent.
The plot is a Macguffin. We all know what the MacGuffin is and does due to this being a continuation of an older campaign. For the new players I described the Macguffin in my house rules. Basically we are searching for the pieces of the Macguffin and that is the main goal. We have a fast travel system to change the setting if someone wants to run a game in a weird locale.
There is a master dm who has dominion over the game world to keep cohesion. So far no one has added anything that doesn't fit the world.
I don't mind having the plot spoiled and I can refrain from metagaming easily enough thanks to being dm for so long.
The direction of the game has so far been driven by enviornment. I have the orient, the main dm has mideastern, the newer dm has europe. One of the experienced dms just based his game around a weird mundane object (tanglefoot bags) he likes, which was more like a really long random encounter.
There are 7 players right now, so 3 more have to give it a shot before I decide if it will work completely. My current goal is to make dming as easy as possible for anyone. This translates to tiles/tokens/markers/trackers etc. The hard part is who plays the dm's pc when they are dming? I hope to find a solution to that soon.
The newer dm who's already gone has asked to dm 2 games in a row right after we get to level 2. He thought we were going in turn order or something. If he read the house rules he would have seen that the current dm gets to choose who dms the next game. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that people are volunteering to dm!
Honestly, it does burn me alittle that I am the only one investing in the game. However I do not forget that there would not be a game without the players.(I dm 80% of all the games we play)
You only need the main 3 books for a lifetime of play. Everything else is because you enjoy the books, and hey, gotta spend money on something.