[rant] Stupid DM, and Stupid players

adndgamer

First Post

• Jun 17, 2002

• #1

Gah. There's a new campaign that I was going to be playing in. Great, I think, because I never get to play, only DM. The DM planned on starting us at 8th level -- a bit higher than I'm used to, but hey, why not?

And so, the other night, I get a call up askign if I wanna play D&D that night. I say no, it's father's day and all and I'm busy. So, they say okay, and say they probably won't play that night.

Today I see a couple of my friends, and they tell me how they got a prelude to the campaign last night. They got draws from the deck of many things too. 2 of them drew the card that gives you 50,000 xp and a medium wonderous item. They also fought an adult dragon, and overcame it without losing a single HP (they also fought other things, but I didn't care to hear details).

Now, this is ridiculous... We have a party of 2 level 8 PCs, and 2 level 15 PCs. Now, the players who have the level 15 PCs are pissed off because I refuse to play in a group in which half the party is twice as many levels as I am. Not only would they get little HP for an encounter that would be suited to me, but I would be killed in an encounter suited for them. PEOPLE ARE STUPID!

I should have expected this out of a first time DM. Gah.

*whew* Done ranting now.

 

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Numion

First Post

• Jun 17, 2002

• #2

You know, you can make up for the missing 7 levels with

some good roleplaying!.

Yeah, right.

 

Dr. Zoom

First Post

• Jun 17, 2002

• #3

Yeah, that sucks.

Also, your new DM apparently does not have the DMG errata. The Sun card in the Deck of Many Things was errata'd from 50,000 XP to 20,000 XP. So those 8th level characters would go to 10th level, not 13th level.

 

B

Bozo

First Post

• Jun 17, 2002

• #4

why bother

well I guess they should have started at 18th level...sounds like hack/slash and power up...not my style

 

adndgamer

First Post

• Jun 18, 2002

• #5

Dr. Zoom said:

Yeah, that sucks.

Also, your new DM apparently does not have the DMG errata. The Sun card in the Deck of Many Things was errata'd from 50,000 XP to 20,000 XP. So those 8th level characters would go to 10th level, not 13th level.

Click to expand...

Huh. Thanks for pointing that out

 

W

Weeble

First Post

• Jun 18, 2002

• #6

have him read the DMG, front to back, every word

 

H

Humanophile

First Post

• Jun 18, 2002

• #7

Weeble said:

have him read the DMG, front to back, every word

Click to expand...

Naw. Most DM's of that style will just skim over everything except for Prestige Classes and Magic Items. Thankfully, their games are rife with cheating, so never roll anything below an 18 and give yourself an extra 50-100% boost to EXP, nobody'll be any the wiser.

Of course, selfsame DM's do tend to encourage me to break out the "Bad Structure" commandments, which even mediocre DM's should at least be aware are bad things.

 

Ulrick

First Post

• Jun 18, 2002

• #8

If you're that upset with a gaming group, just leave.

Its not worth the frustration. I usually DM but I'm always looking for a group to be a regular player. Yet in the last year I've left two gaming groups simply because their gaming style is different from my own.

1. In one group the DM kept railroading the adventure and kept saving the group from certain death with "helpers." So really our characters were almost observers.

2. The last one the vast majority of the players viewed the game as another place to socialize. Every 5 minutes a joke would slow the game down.

So I left. I'm happier because of it.

Ulrick

 

W

Weeble

First Post

• Jun 18, 2002

• #9

Humanophile said:

Naw. Most DM's of that style will just skim over everything except for Prestige Classes and Magic Items. Thankfully, their games are rife with cheating, so never roll anything below an 18 and give yourself an extra 50-100% boost to EXP, nobody'll be any the wiser.

Of course, selfsame DM's do tend to encourage me to break out the "Bad Structure" commandments, which even mediocre DM's should at least be aware are bad things.

Click to expand...

I would rather skim over the PrCs and Magic Items. They can be checked out when they come up. The Rules are nice to read up on though.

 

H

Humanophile

First Post

• Jun 18, 2002

• #10

Well Webble, you're not the type to just hand out Decks of Many Things to small, 8th level parties and then let them kill adult dragons. At least I hope you're not. There's something about that style of play that slides right past Beer&Pretzels and goes straight to Bad.

And if you don't know the type of DM I'm talking about, you're really lucky. Imagine everything in the "bad design" section of page 100, add a habit for handing out powerful items, gold, and XP like there's no tomorrow, and you'll either have a 12 year old who just got his hands on the books or else a DM who just has a fetish for big explosions and pyrotechnics in preference to good taste, game balance, and quality.

The people who actually want to look at the suggestions for campaign shaping and running the game, ironically, tend not to be the ones who need to be strapped to a chair and forced to.