Bad DM stories

Moe Ronalds · Mar 9, 2002

Ever had a bad DM? A DM so bad that all you could do was complain about him? If so, tell us about it here. You may also want to include how you got rid of them too. This thread is in no way meant to show disrespect towards DMs. Except, of course, for the ones mentioned in this thread.
I once had a DM who had never read the books. He had played before though.... when he was six. He didn't know about movement, he didn't know about CRs, he didn't know about what was unbalancing. He didn't care if your character was human or even if it were capable of independent thought. And somehow, he wormed his way into every single campaign I was ever in. He killed them. He killed all of them. He wasn't a being... He was a disease... A virus spreading from game to game, killing them all. When he was the player, he'd threaten DMs. He'd throw tantrums. He had to be stopped.
Remedy?
Simple really.
He made friends with the in crowd.
D&D, star wars, all our common interests were suddenly too geeky. Sad.... but a relief.

The Oracle · Mar 10, 2002

This thread is probably Noober-bait, but what the hell.

I once had a DM who had his won rule for ranged attacks, archers in his world got 1 arrow shot at you per square moved. We were ambushed, and all of us died from arrow fire as we ran towards the enemy only 40 feet away. Then, when it was all over, he said it had been a dream, and that we were okay. Needless to say, he never DM'd for us again...

Pielorinho · Mar 10, 2002

My worst DM story is from a LARP.

This was back when LARPs were really rare, when there were no official rules for them, when they were all one-shots, when whoever ran the LARP basically pulled rules for them out of their butt.

Qualities varied.

The two that I helped to run were (I think) highly-regarded: the character sheets had a lot of information on them, and each character had several goals to accomplish throughout the night, and each character had four or five contacts with other characters, with a couple sentences of description ("Conner: he's the security guard at the bank whom you've befriended over the last month. He thinks highly of you and wants to be your friend; use that.")

The game in question was different.

Each character was no more than a sheet of paper with stats on it, as well as a few racial traits. Nothing more at all. My friends and I formed a group, since we had similar racial traits -- and within two minutes, we encountered our racial enemies (imagine in D&D playing a group of elves, and within two minutes, your group runs into a group of orcs). Big fight; lots of us died.

Over the course of the night, I died four times. Normally in LARPs, death is pretty rare. My last death was when I led the other players in a mass uprising against the GM: we all used the game's paltry rules to attack him, threw down our character sheets, and left.

It was wretched.

Daniel

DerianCypher · Mar 10, 2002

Hrm...

Well, this DM was a new DM and played a LOT and I do mean a LOT of Console RPG so I forgave him.. We're still good friends

Well, this campaign just ended about a week ago. The party included 5 of my closest friends. OK, so that reason the game was so bad... Well.. have you ever heard the saying "Watch what you wish for"? Oh god did this come back to bite us in the rear.

Before the bad campaign we had played an average power level campaign (our first!). When it was over we wished that we had all gotten a bit higher level (only reached level 12) and had a bit more money (I think we were a bit below the DMG suggestion for GP value in stuff.. but probably not by much).

So, in this campaign we leveled 3 or 4 levels a session until we hit about level 14 then we inched our way forward. We had INSANE amounts of money. At level 5 we had artifacts (DM had a house rule that if he rolled a 100 on a medium or major magic item chart that we'd get an artifact). Did I mention that we were allowed to be ANY monster race? Oh sure, there was a bit of debuffing but not much. Not enough for ya?

Well, like I said our DM played a lot of console RPG games and so he instituted a "class change" thing. Basically, at level 4 and 12 we gained the ability to choose between 2 additional classes per class change. These changes gave the characters stat bonuses and special attacks/abilities.

Well, by the end of the campaign (which had a weak plot line that didn't really go anywhere and we were completely railroaded through) one of the paladins of the group was able to do a MINIMUM of 1200 or so points of damage on his special attack.

Can we so power/cash level Overdose?

Needless to say it was fun... for maybe 3 sessions. Never the less I'll continue to game with him.. just not when he's DM

Boy am I glad it's over.

PS- The DM also had the HORRIBLE habit of instituting new rules in the middle of combats. I.E. creatures having the ability to roll a save v what you rolled to hit them to "phase out" and negate your hit. Oh well, I need to stop venting.. ok, it's over now. It's over...

pat_b · Mar 10, 2002

Ahh my worst DM.

This guy was priceless in his badness. We were playing in high school, sitting around an old card table, and he was running some homebrew stuf. Basically random encounters and stuff.

I was a CN Dwarven thief under second edition rules, he had an axe and would backstab quite nicely thank you.

Then the DM from hell struck. He pointed at me and ordered me to roll a D20.

I rolled a 19, he frowned consulted his notes and then went out for a soda.

I had purchased the last coke classic and he was not happy.

My character underwent a religous conversion to Islam and my character went from level 4 thief to level 1 fighter in the blink of an eye... no more backstab, no more thieves tools or skills.

I set down my sheet and walked away never looked back.

rounser · Mar 10, 2002

I had purchased the last coke classic and he was not happy.

My character underwent a religous conversion to Islam...

LOL

If ever I need a DM smackdown, some PC's going to spontaneously convert to Buddhism.

Belgarath · Mar 10, 2002

oh, hoh! bad DM!

I played a few sessions with a DM that had his gf/wife playing as well. This was supposed to be 1e D&D, but he was using using Palladium stats and combat rules. Every character was a mutant with Heroes Unlimited superpowers in addition to being classed.

The SO, lets call her Nora, was a elven fighter/cleric. The god she worshipped gave her the full spellcasting abilities of a mage of equal level. Not only that, but she was technically considered to be a demi-god RCC from Rifts and recieved Psionicist abilities of equal level as well. That 4 full classes for the experience cost of 2!

This would not have been so bad if he applied these rules to eveyone, but he did not. Any other player had only a 1% chance of being a god's child, but 4 out of the 6 characters that I know she played were demi-gods RCC.

We had a party of seven. I was playing a single classed bard (acutally the gypsy bard kit - one of the few 2e classes he would allow), but never seems to caught up with her in experience in the six game sessions I played with them. I found out later that the two would roleplay (and she would get experience) while the two were alone together. I can see it now, "I will give you 2000 experience for a BJ."

Darklone · Mar 10, 2002

Bad DMs?

Ask me about LARPs. I got a LARP character with about 300days playtime and I NPCed a lot... as well as DMed them.

German LARPs usually were very bad. DMs just didn't catch the difference to tabletop. We killed the big baddy one day too early... DM came running, screaming: You can't do that! Go back into the castle! Nothing has happened here.

This didn't happen only once. Rather about 50 times. Or more often.

About BJs and DMs.... No need to comment on a 35 year old DM who turns red and stutters and suddenly the new female player in the group wins everything and kills everything and the others simply screw...

Worst DM: You are in a 15*20ft room. Two doors from your point of view. A wooden one and a stone one. - We try to open the stone one. - DM: You can't, I didn't read yet what's behind it.

JacktheRabbit · Mar 10, 2002

Heck that is nothing. If I want to be evil I will grant your characters 10 levels of your choice while at the same time converting your character to devout AMISH.

rounser said:
LOL

If ever I need a DM smackdown, some PC's going to spontaneously convert to Buddhism.

Hatchling Dragon · Mar 10, 2002

DocMoriartty said:
Heck that is nothing. If I want to be evil I will grant your characters 10 levels of your choice while at the same time converting your character to devout AMISH.

Amish is a religion? I thought it was a way of life, eschewing all technology as 'evil' or some-such.

Now, if Amish people just hated 'the high tech' of the world they were in, what on earth would they do if thrust into a DnD type setting? Hate Magic? They already see that as the tool of satan or some-such, don't they? Would they live like cavemen? "Darned fancy satan's tool-making Blacksmiths!"

Hatchling Dragon