(6) Red Flags of a Bad Game

[Aikuchi]

Okay recently,
Not about getting laid, but having female minatours (PC) swoon and drool over a village farmhand named flaxen haired Chad (Randomly named NPC) as they tie him up for bait for shadow mastiff hunts is ... well, very .... very unnecessary.

 

[Agent Oracle]

1. "There's a Paladin! Quick, kill his horse!" (alternately: "Horses? there's no steenking horses here!"):

- having a mount/animal companion/familiar is a burden and an advantage at the same time; if a player wants one, he should be prepared to (1) know the rules about how to use it and (2) expect some minimal realism (an animal isn't going to behave as a human, unless it has an extraordinary intelligence); many times players assume that just because they have the rights of getting an animal as a class feature, it should work in every environment and it should behave exactly as their character

As I pointed out later in my post, my campaign GM's have gone out of their way by an extrordinary measure to despose of any and all horses in their campaigns (including the paladin's mount). This should be a red flag. The Tyrannosaurus, for example, was the first and only dinosaur we saw in the entire campaign, and it existed solely for the purposes of eating the camels we had bought, when we were a mile outside of our destination. When the Mind flayer latches on to the skull of a horse and extracts the brain... instead of, say, any of the other adventurers in the party, despite being in the thick of things... there is something bizzare.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The T. rex encounter sounded interesting, actually. I'm amazed it won, though. Camels are tough!

The mind flayer encounter just sounds stupid, though.

 

[Imruphel]

I would like to know what number 6 was before you edited it out.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Okay, okay, geeze. the original number 6 was...

6. "You walk into the room, and immediately set off a trap...." "Wait, i'm a rogue, I get a search check, and you didn't roll anything..." "(sigh) Fine, Search." "Allright, I check the room for traps... ooh! natural 20 on the search check, so 35." "Every single floorspace in this room appears to be trapped." "Okay, i'll just use my potion of spider climb to go up to the celing." "... Uhh, the walls are all greased. you slide down to one of them and onto the floor, taking 18 points of damage from being sliced to bits by the wall-scythe trap keyed to that space." "No saving throw? Well dang... Okay, I move back to the safe space, and drink my potion of flight... I should be flying for the next few rounds, so I'll fly across the chamber without touching anything." "... You hit a wall of force midway across the room...". I can appreciate a well-designed trap. But putting that much bunk in the way of a player is just cruel.

it's not really that big of a red flag. i'm sure that had I, you know, done something different (cough, exactly what the GM wanted me to do cough) then i could have gotten past the trap no problem.

 

[Quasqueton]

I can appreciate a well-designed trap. But putting that much bunk in the way of a player is just cruel.

You should read White Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors, and others from the AD&D1 era.

Quasqueton

 

[PK]

How about a DM that wants you to play in a new game in a system no one has ever used, makes all of the PC characters himself for you to choose, and tells you that you don't need to understand the mechanics, he'll tell you what to roll and if you succeed.

Keep in mind this DM has a history of railroading.

 

[Huw]

You should read White Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors, and others from the AD&D1 era.

Or some Grimtooth. The Invisible Wall Blocking Jumping/Flying is such a cliche. A good cliche - which is why it keeps getting used. Just remember your supply of coloured pebbles.

 

[Agent Oracle]

You should read White Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors, and others from the AD&D1 era.

Heh, I probably should, but i just think the wall of force / greased walls / every space is trapped combo was overdoing it. How was the person who designed the trapped room supposed to get to the treasure chest on the other side?

 

[Odhanan]

5. "Welcome to the Group! Create a 10th level character, with 2,000 gp worth of equipment." "uhh, isn't that, like, fourty-some-thousand GP short of how a 10th level character should be equipped?" "It's how we do things."
I was fine with having 2k worth of equipment in a starting campaign, until I discovered that everyone else was playing a legacy character, who had all the magical gear from their 9 previous adventuring levels.

Sigh. Bad DMing...