D&D 5E What DM flaw has caused you to actually leave a game?

[Maxperson]

Sounds like a lot of book-keeping (and house rules to remember) for something that is fundamentally farcical (see my post above about how I'm a terrible swordsman, and never dropped my sword by accident in dozens of bouts) and not even very fun in game. First time: "Ha ha you dropped your sword". Several sessions later: "Ha ha you dropped your sword... again... as all of us often do". If it happened as often as this, people would simply wear lanyards around their wrists.

"Fumbles" seem to be a thing that people put in thinking it will be cool (because more dice-rolling has to be fun, right?) when they're actually a bit rubbish.

It's actually virtually no bookkeeping since there's no need to remember anything other than the rule for the level you are at. The party uses one rule for levels 1-5, then ignores that rule when the next one kicks in. You only have to remember one rule, and you don't write anything do, so no bookkeeping to do.

It's also not just dropping swords. More things go wrong in the fog of war, or do you think people never slipped in battle. Things never broke or were never damaged. And with the dex check, it really didn't happen all that often, even at low levels, and became even rarer after that.

 

[Satyrn]

Sadly, your DM is not unique in this. I quit a game for similar reasons - if you rolled a 1 you dropped your weapon, potentially broke it, hurt yourself or an ally. Trying to play a high level fighter with multiple attacks was just annoying. Your PC is a pinnacle of expertise but they constantly lose hold of their weapon? No thanks.

In a world where a natural one means humiliation and death, the Halfling is King.

 

[Grainger]

It's actually virtually no bookkeeping since there's no need to remember anything other than the rule for the level you are at. The party uses one rule for levels 1-5, then ignores that rule when the next one kicks in. You only have to remember one rule, and you don't write anything do, so no bookkeeping to do.

It's also not just dropping swords. More things go wrong in the fog of war, or do you think people never slipped in battle. Things never broke or were never damaged. And with the dex check, it really didn't happen all that often, even at low levels, and became even rarer after that.

Fair point about falling over. I took part in dozens, possibly hundreds, of bouts, plus multi-person melees and never fell, and I must have seen multiple hundreds of bouts, and probably only saw one accidental fall in all that time. However, to be fair, we were in flat gymnasium-style halls, not outdoors in rough terrain or in tunnels. What I would say is that if it's happening all the time in game, it will have a chilling effect on players trying cool stuff (and the game becomes a comedy of errors), and if it happens hardly ever (due to saves), then it becomes a waste of time rolling for it. Getting the right level has to be key (if you enjoy that sort of thing; I'd still prefer to let my players be awesome, but if you enjoy it then fair enough).

 

[Satyrn]

Sounds like a lot of book-keeping (and house rules to remember) for something that is fundamentally farcical (see my post above about how I'm a terrible swordsman, and never dropped my sword by accident in dozens of bouts) and not even very fun in game. First time: "Ha ha you dropped your sword". Several sessions later: "Ha ha you dropped your sword... again... as all of us often do". If it happened as often as this, people would simply wear lanyards around their wrists.

"Fumbles" seem to be a thing that people put in thinking it will be cool (because more dice-rolling has to be fun, right?) when they're actually a bit rubbish.

Yeah, I tried introducing critical fumbles once through Paizo's deck of terrible outcomes. I scrapped the idea almost immediately because, happily, my players didn't hide the fact they thought the results were ridiculous.

The results were truly ridiculous.

 

[Grainger]

In a world where a natural one means humiliation and death, the Halfling is King.

Sadly, my DM was counting natural rolls of 1-4 as critical failures, so you may re-roll ones, but you'd be three times as likely to roll 2-4, so being a Halfling wouldn't protect you much, alas.

 

[Satyrn]

Sadly, my DM was counting natural rolls of 1-4 as critical failures, so you may re-roll ones, but you'd be three times as likely to roll 2-4, so being a Halfling wouldn't protect you much, alas.

That's . . . horrific.

 

[Grainger]

That's . . . horrific.

Yes, and it was on all D20 rolls, too (except, I think, Initiative). So you had a high chance of falling over if, say, you tried to jump onto a table in a fight (Acrobatics check), tried to sneak, tried to persuade an NPC... Basically, several times a session, something slapstick or otherwise disastrous happened. Also, it didn't matter what the modifier was to the roll for the purposes of critical fails - you roll 4 but have +8? Still counts as 4, so you still fall over.

The outcomes were pretty funny at first, but ultimately terrible for player agency (as I noted upthread, one player joked that he was scared to open a water bottle, because he might die from a cut).

 

[Maxperson]

Fair point about falling over. I took part in dozens, possibly hundreds, of bouts, plus multi-person melees and never fell, and I must have seen multiple hundreds of bouts, and probably only saw one accidental fall in all that time. However, to be fair, we were in flat gymnasium-style halls, not outdoors in rough terrain or in tunnels. What I would say is that if it's happening all the time in game, it will have a chilling effect on players trying cool stuff (and the game becomes a comedy of errors), and if it happens hardly ever (due to saves), then it becomes a waste of time rolling for it. Getting the right level has to be key (if you enjoy that sort of thing; I'd still prefer to let my players be awesome, but if you enjoy it then fair enough).

There's also more to it than even that. In a real combat, you are fighting for your life, and often against multiple foes along with multiple allies. There's a lot of chaos, as well as blood and such. More more chance of a little something going wrong.

Some of us like to try and represent that, others don't. It's all good.

 

[Grainger]

Another general thought on fumbles (not specific to the game I described above)... They mean that the more attacks you get per turn, the more chance you have to fail - so a 20th level Fighter actually drops his weapons (or falls over) far more often than a 1st-level one.

 

[Maxperson]

Sadly, my DM was counting natural rolls of 1-4 as critical failures, so you may re-roll ones, but you'd be three times as likely to roll 2-4, so being a Halfling wouldn't protect you much, alas.

That's crazy. I've been in games with fumbles, and game without them, but never have I been in a game where anything other than a 1 was a critical fail. I feel for you man.