DM Schticks That Grind Your Gears

shilsen said:

On that note, I'm curious whether the following would grind your gears. Anyone else please feel free to answer too.

IMC, I don't award XP based on CR or any other in-game challenges. Instead, I just provide a flat XP award per session (usually about 1000 XP) to keep PCs advancing at a speed I'm comfortable with. That works out to about as many sessions to make the next level as your current level. PCs get the XP if the entire session was spent without a single die being rolled, if they had three fights or killed a huge dragon, if the player was absent from the game and I NPCed him, etc. Hence, I don't usually tell players how much XP their PCs have, though I do have a running total at all times, so I can let them know if asked. I generally just say, "Okay, you guys level up," and we go with that, and sometimes let them know a couple sessions in advance. It's worked very well for the group and I frankly don't think I'll ever use any other method of progression. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I have people crafting items and doing other things that cost XP in the game, I would have dropped XP altogether.

So, how much would that bug you?

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For me not at all.

I'd love to adopt a similar rule for my games but I run them on pbp and in a yahoo group online for the most part so "one session" is not so easy to use as a measurement.

I gave up xp costs for crafting and turned xp into gp components for xp spells with no problems. Consider it if you want to ditch xp alltogether.

LordBOB said:

AHHH it makes me scream! You would think that with 4 Monster Manuels the DM could find some new FUC**** monsters to throw at us.

IM TIRED OF THE UNDEAD...... GIVE US SOMETHING ELSE!!!!

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I'll cut a DM some slack on this one. Mindless Undead and Constructs fill a nice little niche as guardians of lost/forgotten ruins. When a DM creates said ruins he has to worry about creating a believable ecology in the ruins and the motivations of the monsters unless he/she uses Undead or Constructs. For example, if I put a Troll in an abandoned ruin I'd have to think of the following...
1) Trolls are described as always hungry... why would they hang out in an abandoned ruin without a ready and plentiful food supply.
2) Trolls are semi intelligent and thus can also get bored... why would they hang around if nothing ever happens.

As a DM I'll use Undead due to those situations because neither apply to mindless undead. There are also Undead that are relatively easy for low level adventuring parties to fight whereas I am not aware of any golems or constructs that would be suitable for a 1st level party to fight.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

DMPCs. If the party needs a short-duration NPC to assist the party, or as a story hook, fine -- but not a permanent NPC who gains experience alongside the party and is run by the DM as a PC (especially when said PC becomes omniscient and more capable than the party). Either play or DM, but don't try to do both at the same time.

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I don't mind this one so much... but then in my "home campaign" it's me and a married couple, so three people including the DM, and we all have a very nearly identical vision of what we want out of the game so those factors I think tend to mitigate that difficulty. The DM's character, and we do rotate occassionally although the husband of the couple has done most of it historically and the DMPCs never seem to be anything more or less then ours - we're all characters exploring the story together.

What annoys me about DMs that I've run into gaming away from my home group, which I've done a lot since joining the military, are things that are not generally a huge problem but annoying things that wear on one after having them constantly used to the point where you can predict something of the sort will happen - once in a while would be OK and interesting, constant is annoying, not fun, and makes me feel like a pawn. Basically it's a DM who wants "real party character interaction" and "good roleplaying" - as defined as intraparty conflict - so much that if it doesn't occur, or occur enough, on it's own they will manipulted characters and/or players into creating such situations. One particular, and rather cynical, DM I played with liked to do this by having powerful forces interact regularly with the party in such a way that the characters were regularly backed into corners where the only solution was some sort of faustian bargain which ended up putting them at odds with the rest of the group, to the point where it seemed, and I may have actually heard him say it as such at one point, that the game was not so much with the characters and plotline and dice but the players and how long they could resist "selling out". Like I said - not a bad plotline once in a while, kind of fun and interesting, but when it becomes a constant predictable thing and you always feel manipulated when you play their game - if only because any interaction you have you never know if it's innocent or another manipulation - it becomes very annoying and tiresome.

Calico_Jack73 said:

I'll cut a DM some slack on this one. Mindless Undead and Constructs fill a nice little niche as guardians of lost/forgotten ruins. When a DM creates said ruins he has to worry about creating a believable ecology in the ruins and the motivations of the monsters unless he/she uses Undead or Constructs. For example, if I put a Troll in an abandoned ruin I'd have to think of the following...
1) Trolls are described as always hungry... why would they hang out in an abandoned ruin without a ready and plentiful food supply.
2) Trolls are semi intelligent and thus can also get bored... why would they hang around if nothing ever happens.

As a DM I'll use Undead due to those situations because neither apply to mindless undead. There are also Undead that are relatively easy for low level adventuring parties to fight whereas I am not aware of any golems or constructs that would be suitable for a 1st level party to fight.

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My players have accused me often of this: to the point where a player specifically took a anti-Undead PrC and another took the chance of a new PC to make a Dread Necromancer, since they figured Undead come up enough that it was a safe bet. However, my reasons for using them are much as you say: they're just relatively innocuous to insert into any dungeon, and don't require the logistics that a Troll, Kobold, Manticore or whatever needs to exist in the cave system/abandoned ruins/etc in question. The skeletons, ghouls or whatever can just be there: and best of all, there's rarely an ethical quandary. "Oh, no, we can't hit the mummies without talking to them, they're only USUALLY lawful evil" is rarely heard. ;-)

As you get higher in level, though, other monsters become open to fill this slot. Constructs are one, and some outsiders, oozes and elementals don't require too much thought either. But as long as you're doing a relatively small dungeon crawl or something which has genuinely been untouched for a long time, Undead are just so much easier. ;-)

Warlord Ralts said:

I occassionally run battles that will last 2-3 gaming sessions.

The Siege of Vak Cinter is such an example.

During the game, 2 sessions in, while the PC's side had managed to take the first two hundred meters of beach, one of the PC's was killed. Yes, this was temporary, as the PC's had access to ressurection, but it's not exactly viable on a battlefield where aireal mounts are duking it out, infantry is slugging it out against prepared positions, uphill, and into magical artillery and mundane artillery.

So, the player took control of an equivelant level character. A unit commander leading his fresh troops off of one of the troop transport creatures and onto the beach. She had to not only keep this character alive, but lead the troops to obtaining thier objective, which was climbing the cliff walls to knock out the catapults. While not a PC, this "promoted NPC" was critical to making successful landfall for the ships, which were getting pounded by the artillery.

Not completely unfeasable.

And bad GMing on my part?

Hell no. Bad GMing on my part would be telling her: "Sorry, but you just get to sit this out and watch everyone. You don't get to take part and be a hero."

Even if it's taking over Generic NPC Fighter #352, the player deserves to be in on the action, even if (s)he only gets to play Summoned Cannon Fodder #197, they still deserve to be part of the fight.

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Agreed completely. What can also be entertaining, in fights where there are no NPC allies and one of the PCs is taken out of the fight (through death or otherwise), is to have the player run one of the enemy NPCs or at least roll the dice for their attacks.

I've had situations like that, e.g. where 2 out of a group of 4 PCs got involved in a gladiatoral combat against 2 enemies. I had the players whose PCs were cheering from the sidelines rolling for the NPCs. First time I had players going, "Please, God! Let me roll a 1!" and then swearing and apologizing profusely to the other player when she rolled a crit on her PC. Not only is it a good way to keep other players involved in the game but it also means that for once, I'm not being the one told "You bastard!"

GQuail said:

My players have accused me often of this: to the point where a player specifically took a anti-Undead PrC and another took the chance of a new PC to make a Dread Necromancer, since they figured Undead come up enough that it was a safe bet. However, my reasons for using them are much as you say: they're just relatively innocuous to insert into any dungeon, and don't require the logistics that a Troll, Kobold, Manticore or whatever needs to exist in the cave system/abandoned ruins/etc in question. The skeletons, ghouls or whatever can just be there: and best of all, there's rarely an ethical quandary. "Oh, no, we can't hit the mummies without talking to them, they're only USUALLY lawful evil" is rarely heard. ;-)

As you get higher in level, though, other monsters become open to fill this slot. Constructs are one, and some outsiders, oozes and elementals don't require too much thought either. But as long as you're doing a relatively small dungeon crawl or something which has genuinely been untouched for a long time, Undead are just so much easier. ;-)

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That's all well and good, but you need to think about the effects that'll have on party mechanics. Rogues get the shaft, level drains are just a failed save away, etc. Plus, well, a steady diet of any one type of monster can get pretty darn dull!

-The Gneech

The_Gneech said:

That's all well and good, but you need to think about the effects that'll have on party mechanics. Rogues get the shaft, level drains are just a failed save away, etc. Plus, well, a steady diet of any one type of monster can get pretty darn dull!

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The last point, more than the game balance reason, is why I gave them a city-based crime fighting interlude. Frankly, endless necromantic hordes will get boring, just like Mind Flayer #12 or the fifteenth Drow cult in a row will drive many players to distraction.

However, they are back in a dungeon after a month or two absence, and the Rogue has kept himself busy disarming traps whilst the half-dragon gained two negative levels fighting a spectre. ;-)

Agent Oracle said:

Yeah, but Undead should be kept within reason. I mean, Zombies don't just wander the countryside aimlessly. Now, if there was a Necromancer who was assembling a patrol of zombies in the area around a unholy altar... that I could understand! Double points of the encounters aren't just random, and the players begin noticing ones they put down last time are in the fray again...

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Agreed, I avoid random undead, unless there is a SL (storyline, not Scarred Lands ) reason for them.

Thread, I ressurect thee from the Dark Abyss!!!!

Seriously, interesting stuff here. As a DM myself, this thread gives me a lot of things to watch out for. Not that I agree with it all, mind you, but just being conscious of what your typical "tricks" are as a DM and making sure that you don't overuse anything makes you a better DM in the end...

Rystil Arden said:

Why is this bad? I actually have several PbP games that all take place in a shared setting, and so there are a decent number of NPCs that were encountered in two or even three games. I find it adds verisimilitude.

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I totally agree, I have three PBEM games two of which are basically running on the same planet and around the same time, while the other is in the near future and I've had one NPC appear in all three games, the first as a cameo appearance (she was in the city at the time and it was highly appropriate), the second she is a major NPC (being the commanding officer of the maintenance group assigned to the PCs squadron), and the Captain of the starship that the player's started from (they stole a starship and her personal mecha, just to screw with her).

When used in the right way, this adds versa...verisum...verses...whatever Rystil said