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Bad DM'GM'ing
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<blockquote data-quote="N0Man" data-source="post: 5058639" data-attributes="member: 64066"><p>Picking an experience with a bad DM is easy...</p><p></p><p>My first campaign set in Eberron, first game in 3.5 after years of of not playing... It was described to me as a setting with pretty common magic, urban settings, politics, and so forth...</p><p></p><p>My character concept was a detective type character, strong in social and investigative situations, weak in combat, with some utility, with some sneakiness, bluffing, and being a bit of a trickster. I had so much trouble making it, and he was absolutely inflexible in allowing me to houserule very minor things that were NOT overpowered at all. I considered a character with levels in Wizard (Specialist: Diviner) , but that opposes Illusion and I wanted to be a trickster. He flat out refused to allow me to choose to oppose other schools instead (I offered giving up both Evocation and Necromancy), but no luck. I think he wanted me to give up 3 schools in exchange for it (which by the rules, Diviners usually only give up 1, I offered 2, and it's already the weakest specialization already)></p><p></p><p>I suggested building it as a bard, but there were a few specific spells I really wanted, and again, he was unwilling to allow me to give up anything (even more powerful options) to allow me to use those spells as a bard just because I wanted them to fit the concept better. So, I gave up trying that, but asked him if I could at least trade one of my normal skills (I offered a list of the ones I'd be willing to drop) to have Search as non-Cross Class. He outright refused, unless I gave up both Use Magic Item and another skill that wasn't on my list, that was part of the concept...</p><p></p><p>So eventually, I started a character, with only a slight resemblance towards my concept, maxed out for urban and social encounters as much as I could make it.</p><p></p><p>Then, after all this going back and forth, as he tried to make me even weaker in non-urban settings than I already was... our first session had him railroad us within 20 minutes out of the biggest city on the planet, to a frontier continent with little population, bumbling around in the jungle...</p><p></p><p>And when I commented about he just completely screwed me in all this... he just laughed... he laughed very hard.</p><p></p><p>He was within the rules, within his rights, but it was knowingly making a character give up all the things that make him useful outside an urban setting, then taking him out of an urban setting so he's dead weight for the rest of the campaign... and gloating over it... </p><p></p><p>And... it gets worse, much worse...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="N0Man, post: 5058639, member: 64066"] Picking an experience with a bad DM is easy... My first campaign set in Eberron, first game in 3.5 after years of of not playing... It was described to me as a setting with pretty common magic, urban settings, politics, and so forth... My character concept was a detective type character, strong in social and investigative situations, weak in combat, with some utility, with some sneakiness, bluffing, and being a bit of a trickster. I had so much trouble making it, and he was absolutely inflexible in allowing me to houserule very minor things that were NOT overpowered at all. I considered a character with levels in Wizard (Specialist: Diviner) , but that opposes Illusion and I wanted to be a trickster. He flat out refused to allow me to choose to oppose other schools instead (I offered giving up both Evocation and Necromancy), but no luck. I think he wanted me to give up 3 schools in exchange for it (which by the rules, Diviners usually only give up 1, I offered 2, and it's already the weakest specialization already)> I suggested building it as a bard, but there were a few specific spells I really wanted, and again, he was unwilling to allow me to give up anything (even more powerful options) to allow me to use those spells as a bard just because I wanted them to fit the concept better. So, I gave up trying that, but asked him if I could at least trade one of my normal skills (I offered a list of the ones I'd be willing to drop) to have Search as non-Cross Class. He outright refused, unless I gave up both Use Magic Item and another skill that wasn't on my list, that was part of the concept... So eventually, I started a character, with only a slight resemblance towards my concept, maxed out for urban and social encounters as much as I could make it. Then, after all this going back and forth, as he tried to make me even weaker in non-urban settings than I already was... our first session had him railroad us within 20 minutes out of the biggest city on the planet, to a frontier continent with little population, bumbling around in the jungle... And when I commented about he just completely screwed me in all this... he just laughed... he laughed very hard. He was within the rules, within his rights, but it was knowingly making a character give up all the things that make him useful outside an urban setting, then taking him out of an urban setting so he's dead weight for the rest of the campaign... and gloating over it... And... it gets worse, much worse... [/QUOTE]
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