Then the actual first encounter of the DM's book. The DM was hellbent on killing/accusing me of cheating because whenever I was choosing a spell to cast, I would flip through Heroes of the Fallen Land. He made two gray wolves flank me and make me fall prone. One wolf got a 3 in the attack roll and missed so the DM wanted to roll again. It missed with a 2 so he gave up and hit me with the other one, which knocked me prone. I casted magic missle and the DM tried to say that I was cheating by saying that magic missle never misses. Cleric was the only person there concerned about my survival and healing worded me back to 18 HP but then the DM said I was trying to cheat and I had to show him the book. Cleric got ganged by a goblin and a wolf so I said that I would set a fountain of flame on the enemies and fey step to the edge of the map where nothing can reach me but the DM said that he would kill me if I helped anyone.
In the end, we couldn't finish the encounter because of this annoying DM.
If you want to keep playing look for another local group or if there isn't anyone around that's easy to find, start your own group. With a DM like you described, the other players would probably rather play with you and without him.
If you continue to play with him you're just going to be encouraging his behavior. Like I said, it sounds like he has issues and based on your story I don't think just talking to him about it is going to help.
You should ask him to make a DMPC to help out the party.
You should ask him to make a DMPC to help out the party.
I don't see that helping, it would just give him another way to try and force his view of how the PCs should act on the others. I'm with the others in saying to stay away from a game he's running.
You should ask him to make a DMPC to help out the party.
I don't see that helping, it would just give him another way to try and force his view of how the PCs should act on the others. I'm with the others in saying to stay away from a game he's running.
Better yet, have him make a party of DMPCs then walk away!
From what I understand from your post you said he accused you of cheating because you stated that magic missile never misses (which is correct). I could understand some confusion if he was familiar with the power before the change but it would easily be figured out by checking the newer sources which it sounds like you have.
Just walk away. If what happened at the table is even a little bit as bad as you have stated then I wouldn't play with that guy.
This reads like games I used to play or hear about when I was still a child. If OP's group are young and inexperienced (first game of D&D, perhaps under 16 years old), and are friends, they might benefit from trying again, or have someone else in the group be DM. You'll learn more from making mistakes and correcting them than by breaking up the group on every point of disagreement.
Depending on the circumstances, you shouldn't be too hard on your DM. I guess that they are anyway relatively new to being a DM (Red Box being intended for that). If this is how they always are, then some other one of you should probably DM. Or you should boot that guy from the group (if he's like this as player or DM), or find another group (if all the people in the group are annoying in that way).
Assuming you have some investment/interest in continuing to play with this person and group, then, I'd recommend requesting that, if they're going to fudge some rolls, that they don't show you the first one. Or, you can request they don't fudge at all, but that's trickier (if you can fudge a roll, you can be more relaxed about perfectly balanced encounter design, as you can cut the party a break if it's too tough or toughen it up if it's a boring cakewalk). Although the encounters in Red Box ought to be appropriately balanced anyway.
As to the magic missile thing, I think it's actually different in the PHB, so it's not surprising they wanted to check. Doing so in a bad way isn't good, of course, but hopefully they'll get better at that - if not, one way for you to defuse it is just to hand over the book right at the start, possibly with: "Well, I thought I was interpreting it correctly, but feel free to check." Also, if you've got D&D insider then you can use the character builder to make a character sheet with all your powers right on there. That speeds things up at the table a bit, and if you print a second copy for your DM he can get a feel for what your character can do, which can avoid this kind of troublesomeness (I wouldn't advise this if your DM loves the books and considers the web-tools an abomination, however).
The railroading... I'm not sure. Hopefully, once you've actually started the published adventure, it'll be sufficiently obvious what you're supposed to do that it won't be a problem, or it'll detail the different paths and options you can take in such a way that the DM won't have to railroad you into a particular course.
Yours,
JMH
The DM was hellbent on killing/accusing me of cheating because whenever I was choosing a spell to cast, I would flip through Heroes of the Fallen Land.
Looking through the book is not a reason toacuse you of cheating, and even if it is, it has an easy solution, ask to see the players sheet, jot down the names of the players powers, cheating averted.
He made two gray wolves flank me and make me fall prone. One wolf got a 3 in the attack roll and missed so the DM wanted to roll again.
Which IS cheating unless the wolf has a re-roll abiity, whih it does not. sorry but re-rolling because you missed is not acceptable on either side of the table, unless there is a game element that says you can re-roll.
I casted magic missle and the DM tried to say that I was cheating by saying that magic missle never misses.
Ha, though this has a simple solution for the DM as he simply needs to ask you to see the power, I assume you had the page open in the book. Also, MM provokes OAs so if you were still next to the wolves, he should not have cared.
Cleric was the only person there concerned about my survival and healing worded me back to 18 HP but then the DM said I was trying to cheat and I had to show him the book.
At this point is it obvious that the DM did not even bother to look over what players should be able to do.
...but the DM said that he would kill me if I helped anyone.
But D&D is a party game, you are suppose to be helping the other members of the party. If the DM can not accept that then he has problems, and should not DM again until he has resolved them.
Really this sounds like the DM did not understand how the game works (the players overcoming the obsticles together as a party, as opposed to each soloing an oponent or 2), and it seemed like he was acusing you of cheating whenever you halled out a power. Really if you are going to DM you need to either look over all the powers in advance (asking for a copy of the PCs sheets up front helps with this) or accept that powers will surprise you, and whe something does not sound right, do not acuse your players of cheating. Actually I think the best method is to make a note and check after the session, does not interupt play, does not offend the player when they are not actually cheating, and works just as well for catching someone who is cheating.
If even half of this is you post is actually how it reads, you should find a new DM.
play 3.5 edition instead, 4.0 isn't really dnd anymore.
play 3.5 edition instead, 4.0 isn't really dnd anymore.
Don't you people ever get tired of this diatribe? I'm pretty sure any book with "Dungeons & Dragons" printed on the cover is, in fact, Dungeons & Dragons. Keep the edition wars to the general discussion forum, this board is for people who actually want to be helpful.
play 3.5 edition instead, 4.0 isn't really dnd anymore.
3.5 is probably less D&D then 4E, But this requires experience with Basic and AD&D to see.
play 3.5 edition instead, 4.0 isn't really dnd anymore.
Don't you people ever get tired of this diatribe? I'm pretty sure any book with "Dungeons & Dragons" printed on the cover is, in fact, Dungeons & Dragons. Keep the edition wars to the general discussion forum, this board is for people who actually want to be helpful.
I must say that even though I am personally less than a fan of 4E there is just no call for such offhand denigrations. If you want to talk strengths and failures of various editions of the game or just outright fight the edition war then start a new thread and see where it gets you. Inserting such comments into any old thread out of the blue is just rude and should not be tolerated.
Im not familiar with 4e but im sure no where in any 4e book does it say this kind of behavior on a DMs(or player for that matter) part is acceptable.
Is this a good idea?
Long version:
I'd stick to the rules at first. Especially as you already have arguments about how the official rules work. You'll just have even more arguments if you start doing homebrew stuff.
And no DMPC. It's just an additional thing to keep track of besides all the rest you have to juggle while DMing. Start by getting DMing right. It'll take enough of your attention just to DM wihout having to worry about playing a character too. Besides, you already have plenty of stuff to play with: NPCs, monsters, traps ... the whole setting in fact.
Frankly, keep it simple at first. You'll just end up with another mess if you don't. You have plenty of time to expand once everyone has at least a basic grip on the rules.
I was thinking that I could start an entirely new campaign with hombrews allowed and everyone makes a new character and I would DM and have a DMPC and the DM that I was talking about in the first post could be a player if he wanted to be.
Is this a good idea?
No, for the reasons Mysteria said.
Also, be careful not to let 'the old DM' bully you or sink your game. If he joins, he may well be doing so just out of spite because he feels you ruined his game (despite the fact that he did that himself). Give him a fair chance, but be prepared to drop him like he's radioactive.
Or talk to the DM about his general rudeness if he is a close friend, in which case remind him that you are a friend; that you can see that something is going on because very few people act that way at a table without something going on.
This DM has problems beyond his lack of DnD experience. These are not problems that can be solved through gameplay.
Based on the description of the DM's behavior, there is probably something going on with him out of game.
Perhaps he got dumped by a lover. Perhaps a family member passed away. Perhaps the DM is simply immature and needs to learn how to play with others.
I don't think I described the DM's behavior properly. He didn't act like that because of any kind of trauma or bad out-of-game experience. It was a mix of him not having much DM experience and he just wasn't taking it seriously. I don't think he understood how a DnD character death works and confused it with something like Final Fantasy where it's actually easy to be brought back to life and thus why he was so careless about killing our characters.
I'd take someone accusing me of cheating pretty seriously. And if I were a DM who was new and untested on the rules, I'd give the player the benefit of the doubt and look up the rules later.
Bottom line, if you want to keep playing with him do it. Try to discuss your beef with his DMing in a mature, calm fashion. If you don't want to keep playing, politely take a walk. Then if you want, start your own game as a DM, and keep it simple to start. Don't be afraid to solicit players outside your immediate circle of friends either. Don't, however, flip the table over or throw a tantrum, or talk smack behind his back in retaliation, no matter what. But don't let him bully/intimidate/guilt trip you into continuing if you don't want to.
I've played under several DMs where I decided I didn't like the way they did things and didn't accept an invite to come back. Most of the time it was nothing personal. A couple of times it was. As a matter of fact, I'm possibly setting myself up for it again coming up soon in a PF game with a DM that I think will do way more RP and way less action than I like. We'll see how it turns out. I'm trying to go into it with an open mind and hopefully I will be wrong about the DM. If I'm not, I'll just politely decline to attend any further sessions and wish them luck.
Walk away clean man, walk away clean.
play 3.5 edition instead, 4.0 isn't really dnd anymore.
3.5 is probably less D&D then 4E, But this requires experience with Basic and AD&D to see.
Enough.
3.x is dnd, 4.0 is dnd. They are different. 4.0 lacks in some areas, 3.x lacks in some areas. They can be played by the same person but personal preference and opinion don't make one edition less dnd than another. If you find one lact combat tactics, or another lacks in roleplaying- it is the players, both have ample room for either, but are just a tool. How you use that tool determines the outcome.
On topic: the main reason I looked at this thread is an update- how has the aftermath fallen?
play 3.5 edition instead, 4.0 isn't really dnd anymore.
3.5 is probably less D&D then 4E, But this requires experience with Basic and AD&D to see.
Enough.
3.x is dnd, 4.0 is dnd. They are different. 4.0 lacks in some areas, 3.x lacks in some areas. They can be played by the same person but personal preference and opinion don't make one edition less dnd than another. If you find one lact combat tactics, or another lacks in roleplaying- it is the players, both have ample room for either, but are just a tool. How you use that tool determines the outcome.
On topic: the main reason I looked at this thread is an update- how has the aftermath fallen?
NUH-UH! THE ONLY REAL TRUE D&D IS PATHFINDER! :P
No, seriously, I'm also interested in learning what has happened in the aftermath.
1. An immature person who really doesn't understand how to run a game.
2. A raging douchebag!
Your DM is either one of two things:
1. An immature person who really doesn't understand how to run a game.
2. A raging douchebag!
3. All of the above.
