Did I overreact or is my DM a moron? RANT

[Kapalen]

WARNING: This is a serious rant, I may skew "off-topic" several times. This will be a fairly lengthy post. The title refers to a certain situation but I'm gonna point out a lot of flaws my DM has, becasue I can.

First, the group: The DM(let's call him Dim, causse he's not that bright), it's his first experience DMing so we all give him a hard time asking questions about everything. Not because we hate him, but so he gets used to it and he can always have an answer ready. The pally and druid question EVERYTHING he syas though, and I usually have to take up for him.

Bob The Paladin: Bob IS the main character. Dim has said so on several occasions. "Bob, you're the main character Im not going to kill you." Bob wants to play an evil paladin (of slaughter) but Dim won't let him, causing much tension.

Shroom the druid: An aasimar with the celestial bloodline. Atleast I think he's an aasimar there's apparently going to be some plot twist and I can infer that when it happens the druid is going to get major stat boosts and magic abilities. ok....

Mohodabiksfhdaoihfi(or something like that) the wizard: This guy's the vet. The rest of us are 16-19 and this guy is about 40. He's been playing since the 80's. Most importantly, he ALL about the roleplaying, going to the point he won't use a mini unless it matches his character. Refuses to tell his alignment but if you want to have a philisophical discussion he's all for it (very cool way of playing). I find it incredibly unfair the guy who wants to roleplay the most is forced to sit in the back and cast magic missle while the druid is a min-maxer.

Me, (the former) fighter: I could care less about being the main character. In D&D, I'm all about the builds. Some might call me a rules lawyer, but I don't think that really fits. I know all the rules but don't bend them and exploit loopholes. I just love trying different builds, be they benefitial or just cool. I'm definetly not above killing my character to play a new one.

Anyway, the situation in question is this: Bob was kidnapped, before we can save him, someone else does. This someone s Marth(cool, marth is a guy important to another campaign we all play in, but now he's the dreaded DMPC, only one thing angers me more than DMPCs. well get to that). We meet up, somehow, wuth Marth and Bob in the woods, not to mention Marth's 7 buddies, yeah 7. These guys are headed in the same direction as us, so we decide to get a lift. Lo and behold we're attacked by demons. 12 demons, go figure, anyway 1 is a balor and one is also a CR 20 (we're all lvl 5 except Marth and crew) plus baubaus and some other kinda demon. We're surrounded, but we can't see wehre they are. Being the crazy guy I am I run into the woods to find them. I can't see any of them (despite some of them being flaming demon thingies). Then Marth shoots one all of 15 feet from me, how I didn't see it is beyond me. So 2 NPCs engage the balor and other CR 20 guys and take them down in two rounds(This pissed me off so bad I had to step back from the table while we played or I was gonna punch Dim). I'm fighting my demon when all the sudden the psion kills him. THIS is what pisses me off mroe than anything. DO NOT STEAL MY KILL! DIm knew this but I dismissed it as wheels(the psion is in a wheel chair(real original) so I call h im wheels. This made wheels very mad because he was parylyzed when his house collapsed on him and killed his family when he first "discovered" his psionic powers. The wizard even brought up that he could use a regeneration spell. He said it was his penantce for killing his family. As a neutral character I totally agreed with that. That jsut pissed him off that I didn't fell sorry for him. So he isn't going to feel sorry for himself but if someone else doesn't he gets pissed. What the heck?) didn't know any better. So I pick another demon and get busy. The psion steals my target AGAIN. Despite there being a demont hat noone touched and the pally's sword jsut disentigrated, he takes MY target. I told Dim I was going to stab wheels in the face. He said if I itried wheels would kill me. I didn't care, but decided better of it after I figured I couldn't move that far. So I instead coup de graced myself, failed my fort, and died. SO then i got up and left. Now Dim thinks I did oit jsut to play a new character, next session I'll end that rumor.
So, to anyone who managed to read all that, is what I did justifiable or was I rash? Whatever the answer, I'm willing to dismiss this as bad dming and go with it. I get the idea he won't be that willing. Thank you good night.

 

[painandgreed]

Sounds like you just need to talk about it OOC , first with the other players and then with the DM. Having characters preform suicidal actions when the DM is railroading them is a pretty standard resort because it's about the only thing one can do. What's really frustrating is trying to kill yourself and failing. If the other players are as upset as you are, it's well past time to talk with the DM or choose another one.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

So, to anyone who managed to read all that, is what I did justifiable or was I rash?

In short, I think your character's behaviour was rash and was more a product of how you were feeling rather than how your character was feeling. Suiciding while attacking an assortment of demons is understandable given certain specific conditions, I just didn't see the conditions you provided as justifiable at all.

However, everyone plays the game differently so if its what you wanted to do, that's fine although it does not seem like you were enjoying yourself. As for the DMing... difficult to comment, aside from saying I don't think I'd enjoy playing in that game either.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[billd91]

In answer to the question: yes. The DMing isn't going to win awards and you did overreact.

Clearly, the DM is a newbie, so you could cut him a little slack. Many first campaigns go horribly wrong due to DMPC-itis, poor knowledge of the rules, too much of a desire to "tell a kewl story" rather than referee a game and spin a plot with impartiality and letting the PCs have control of what they do.

Ranting about another character stealing your kill, on the other hand, is pretty silly. It's a game. It doesn't matter. It won't make a difference in the normal XP awarding rules.

I would suggest drafting the experienced player into running for a while so you can all start to learn what this game can be about with role-playing and plot development, figure out what you want to get out of playing, and decide on what style of game you really want to play.

 

[Emirikol]

Yes and yes.

Here's what went wrong:

1. New DM running anything above 1st level adventures
2. You, expecting more out of a DM who cannot give it to you.
3. DM and probably the whole party, with the exception oft he 40 year old guy have probably never played a really well DMed game in their life (not intending offense here, but my guess is that it is true).

Solutions:
1. Talk to the guy who ran the game and say, "Let's forget about that last game. OK?"
2. Go play an RPGA Living Greyhawk gameday at one of your local game stores or at a Convention. Learn how to balance role playing interaction with combat with a rigid storyline. It will help whoever is your DM as well as the players learn to play more evenly and will give you some really cool ideas on what can be done in terms of balance.

You'll do fine, but seriously, playing a game under an experience DM in a rigid system makes all the diference in the world.

 

[Kapalen]

In answer to the question: yes. The DMing isn't going to win awards and you did overreact.

Clearly, the DM is a newbie, so you could cut him a little slack. Many first campaigns go horribly wrong due to DMPC-itis, poor knowledge of the rules, too much of a desire to "tell a kewl story" rather than referee a game and spin a plot with impartiality and letting the PCs have control of what they do.

Ranting about another character stealing your kill, on the other hand, is pretty silly. It's a game. It doesn't matter. It won't make a difference in the normal XP awarding rules.

I would suggest drafting the experienced player into running for a while so you can all start to learn what this game can be about with role-playing and plot development, figure out what you want to get out of playing, and decide on what style of game you really want to play.

Yes he is new, but claims he knows the rules good. He's the one who got us to switch to 3.5 from 2e. He's definetly infatuated with telling his cool story he stole from coheed. As for the kill stealing, that's an IC and OOC thing for me. It's not about the xp. The experienced player was the Dm, but he broke his arm and used that as an excuse(not really an excuse cause I can't blame him but I can't think of a better word) to start playing instead of DMing, and he's certainly entitled.

 

[IcyCool]

It certainly seems like the DM's game wasn't all that fun for you.

That said, you overreacted. Also, it seems like you have anger issues. You should get that looked at by a professional.

 

[Kapalen]

Sorry about double posting.

Yes and yes.

Here's what went wrong:

1. New DM running anything above 1st level adventures
2. You, expecting more out of a DM who cannot give it to you.
3. DM and probably the whole party, with the exception oft he 40 year old guy have probably never played a really well DMed game in their life (not intending offense here, but my guess is that it is true).

Solutions:
1. Talk to the guy who ran the game and say, "Let's forget about that last game. OK?"
2. Go play an RPGA Living Greyhawk gameday at one of your local game stores or at a Convention. Learn how to balance role playing interaction with combat with a rigid storyline. It will help whoever is your DM as well as the players learn to play more evenly and will give you some really cool ideas on what can be done in terms of balance.

You'll do fine, but seriously, playing a game under an experience DM in a rigid system makes all the diference in the world.

1. I told DIm this, but he hated the thought of DMing a first level adventure and tried to get everyone to level asap.
2. Quite probably true.
3. AS I said, Old guy was Dm, and a very awesome one at that.
Solutions:
1. That's the pan.
2. Probably not gonna happen cause we live in the middle of nowehre, but would all love to.

Thanks guys, you've all been a lot of help.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Sounds like you have several different people playing the same game for very very different reasons ... and that's going to cause problems.

Usually the worst possible action in any game-table problem is "solving" things "in character". Killing your character, somebody else's character, GMs "showing them who is boss", etc etc. It all ends up being A Very Bad Idea.

Just talk. Jeeeeez. Why can people just not talk to eachother?

Here's a tip ... if you can't actually talk like human beings to the people you're playing with ... don't play with them!

--fje

 

[der_kluge]

My question is, what's a 40 year old dude doing playing with teenagers?