Ever benched a GM?

Keeper of Secrets · Sep 29, 2004

Bill Scott said:
We have never 'benched' a DM but we did boycot one at a certain point. Here is how it came about.

The group consisted of six players and the DM played two NPCs. The NPCs were a couple of high level wizards who hired the PCs as bodyguards and monster hunters for material components. This does'nt sound bad, does it? Now here is the problem. The DM played the wizard NPCs as greedy buzzards who took fifty percent of the treasure, magic items and coin, as well as all the material components we could gather. We could'nt even make our own decisions in game. My character voiced his disdain for the shoddy treatment of the wizards, in game, and tried to quit their service. The DM said that characters could'nt quit because that was their motivation. I was told by the DM that if I could'nt play as he wanted me to play, I could'nt play in his game any more. I told him I will not be railroaded by a poor DM, picked up my books and calmly walked away. Three of the other players followed me out and the other two players quit the game a week later when we got another campaign going

Was the GM you left a friend or was it someone you met for this specific game? Its a lot harder to walk out of a friend's house and a friend's game.

JoeGKushner · Sep 29, 2004

If the GM is really bad, yes. Life's too short to play crappy games.

DungeonmasterCal · Sep 29, 2004

it was against the code to bench a GM; they had to voluntarily quit.

Code? CODE? What the bloody hell does that mean???

diaglo · Sep 29, 2004

JoeGKushner said:
If the GM is really bad, yes. Life's too short to play crappy games.

that's my line(tm).

Henry · Sep 29, 2004

The Grackle said:
...Murph said it was against the code to bench a GM; they had to voluntarily quit. No matter how bad they suck, you must suffer until someone comes up with a replacement campaign that lures the GM out from behind the screen.

Code? Tell us more of this fascinating code of Murph's.

You know, there's always simply not playing, but the better alternative is to tell him honestly, all together, that you're not digging the direction this game is going, and is there something else you can try? If nothing else, come up with a cool card or board game you can all enjoy that does not require one person to DM.

"Murph" is right on one thing, though. It would help if you offered an idea of your own that you wanted to try; now might be the time to suggest some RPG you've never tried before, and give it a try. But it's not cool to tell a DM, "This game sucks. Come up with something better." It is fine to honestly telling a DM that you're not having fun with the current campaign, and your grievances about why you aren't finding it fun.

shilsen · Sep 29, 2004

dungeonmastercal said:
Code? CODE? What the bloody hell does that mean???

Obviously it's a group of all paladins

As for the original question - sure, we've benched DMs. My group tends to rotate DMing duties, and of the five of us who have DM-ed since I joined it in 2001, only one other and myself have run ours to a logical ending point. One was benched because his campaign was really not working out for anyone else (he later left the group, at least partly due to the benching, I'm sure). Another might have been benched if he'd continued much longer, but he reached a good stopping point and handed over. And the current DM's game looks like it might not last much longer.

To repeat what JoeGKushner said, life's too short to play crappy games.

just__al · Sep 29, 2004

We benched a GM. Our group founded to play on Saturdays and we decided to rotate DM's. As the first campaign was nearing it's stop point the discussion happened as to what campaign was next. One of the players wanted to run a rifts game. I had never played rifts but decided I would play.

The game was awful, the GM was an awful control freak but also just handed us stuff on a silver platter for no real benefit. Picture 1st level D&D characters with +5 weapons and armor and staves of power and magi (to give you an idea in D&D terms).

That was however not actually his damning fault. He kept cancelling games. We all agreed to set aside saturday afternoons to play before everybody went to Rocky and in 10 weeks he cancelled 5 games, 3 of them, the day of the game including the last one where we got a call 15 minutes before the game started from his roommate saying he was too sick to come to the game.

So, everybody rolled up characters for my campaign and we told him we weren't playing rifts. He was welcome to play in my campaign but he declined. We didn't talk for a few months because he thought I was really pissed off at him. Which I wasn't, and I didn't talk to him because I thought he didn't want to talk to me.

Not too upset over the whole thing though, I really hated Rifts.

Elf Witch · Sep 29, 2004

I have wanted to but it is hard when they are your friends. I have one friend who loves to DM she spends a lot of time making really interesting worlds. And she will work with you to make really cool character concepts.

But once the game starts the same thing always happens. First she has a very strong idea where she wants you to go and she tends to railroad. And then in come the pet NPCs her characters always do everything and know everything and worse even if they are a member of the party they withhold infomation that is vital to fulfilling the mission.

In the last game she ran I played a wizard and her hubby played a ranger and my roomate played a fighter. She added a rogue type who just happened to be a race she made up one who had sorcerer abilities and had wings and silent spell as a racial ability so did not have to cast silent spells at a higher level.

Then the game became about taking on an evil theives guild with the NPC rogue doing all the gather info and infiltration. We became the NPCs henchmen. Since her feeling get very easily hurt we all just started making up reasons why we could not play. I was so happy a sprained ankle stopped me from being able to climb the stairs to their place for a whole two weeks.

Piratecat · Sep 29, 2004

Elf Witch, that sounds like a GM who could be really good if anyone would give her feedback about what she's doing wrong. This is why I'm a huge fan of the DM asking for honest feedback about what they could improve; without that, it's really hard to detect this sort of major gaffe, since it's usually somewhere that the DM has a blind spot.

Elf Witch · Sep 29, 2004

Piratecat said:
Elf Witch, that sounds like a GM who could be really good if anyone would give her feedback about what she's doing wrong. This is why I'm a huge fan of the DM asking for honest feedback about what they could improve; without that, it's really hard to detect this sort of major gaffe, since it's usually somewhere that the DM has a blind spot.

The thing is that over the years we have told her that we don't like it when she brings in NPCs that is one of her major weakness. Because it has never failed they become these super powerful characters that just overshadow the PCs.

We even brought it up before she started her last game. The problem is that she loves to write and what tends to happen as the game goes on she starts writing stories about her world and the NPCs in it and she gets very protective of her vision of the world so we are no longer allowed any input. For example in the last game my wizard was married to the ranger she made her NPC rogue fall in love with my PC and then had the Gods we worshipped send my PC visions of the child I was to have to save the world and of course it had little wings.

You can tell her all this before a game starts but once the game gets going and she starts doing this stuff she gets all defensive and her feelings get hurt if you tell her you are not having good time. She loses all perspective on it. It causes problems with our friendship and with her marriage. She feels betrayed at the time.

It has been over a year and half since she DMed and I have told her why the game stopped being fun for us. And she swears that she has really good idea (which I am sure she does) and that she won't let it get out of control this time. She has promised not to write any stories about the new world if we will play.

At this point I am not sure what I am going to do.