DM's word is final... and illogical?

[Nifft]

Rule 0 ho!

Apropos of nothing, my highschool nickname was "Rule 0 Ho". (Yes, I ran a one-shot for the whole football team, but at least nobody filmed it.)

---

Anyway, it sounds like the DM under discussion is planning something mysterious, using the space the player gave him (amnesia == "please write my past for me"). The player is unhappy that the mystery doesn't make sense to him, but that's just the nature of mysteries: if you did understand it, it wouldn't be mysterious at all.

Your options are to roll with it and trust the DM to entertain you with a past that you asked him to write, or to walk away from the game because you didn't immediately understand a mystery which wouldn't be entertaining if you did understand it.

The latter sounds a bit petulant, but whatever. Follow your heart.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Zesty Gordita]

Ok, somehow, there still seem to be misunderstandings. Even though I explained everything.

I did not ask him to write my background for me. He said, "Your character has amnesia, fill in his background where I allow you, and you'll find out the rest later."

I have already in game found out my background and who my parents were. That kinda says to me that I would know if I'm Half-dragon or not, regardless of making or not making a knowledge check. And the amnesia is all gone now.

Again, dragons have NO innate spellcasting nor can they take character classes. The DM's explanation for how he polymorphed was that "The Gold Dragon (referring to my totem dragon who is also in the Xorvintaal game) has such great powers." ...?

There is so much DM homebrew in this game, that I dunno what's up, what's down, and whether what I just ate was an apple or some kinda goblin head that was shaped like an apple.

Once again, I couldn't care less if I get mechanical gain or not. I just want him to tell me if my blood means anything or not. Not tell my character, tell me. Because (OOC) I, as the player of the character, should have the right to know what is going on with my character at this point in the game. Not future plans, just right now. I would be fine if he told me "Don't worry, it'll all be handled later on." But he hasn't told me anything.

My father dying in one blow could be explained away, but that would really only work if he had rolled any dice. It was more like:
DM "Do you have any more questions?"
Me "Uhm... lemme think for a sec..."
DM "A blade juts out through your father's neck and he dies."
Me "Wait... what?"

Suspend belief?? I have been doing nothing but suspending disbelief! I suspended disbelief when my character (who is immune to paralysis) was paralyzed (DM, who told me I was paralyzed, said later my character was just standing there like an idiot because he forgot he was immune to paralysis). I suspended disbelief during many other examples in my previous posts. So please, don't tell me I'm unwilling to suspend disbelief.

I think that when the DM accepts the rules when given from one player, but he ignores them when they come from me, and he straight out screams at another player when they come from him, the DM is being unfair.
Wait, DMs have to be fair?? They should, seeing as how, although the DM is the "God" of the world, the game is, in essence, for the enjoyment of the players.

I am not "mechanically" nor "logically" nor any other "ally", human. Not when 3/4s of my blood is dragon. Not when I am the DIRECT descendant of a Black Dragon. If I am human, then how in the world do half-dragons come into being? There should be a book on that... oh wait... there is. It's called Races of the Dragon.

Anyway, after a long argument with the DM (OMG, I argued with the DM! How dare I!), he accepted that he "Did the math wrong." and that my character should in fact be Half-Black Dragon. However, he then went on to say I lose my Human benefits... which doesn't make sense because that would mean Human isn't my base race, which means that I have no base race, which, I don't care what kind of homebrew stuff you run, I have to have. There has to be a base race for a creature that has a template. There always is. So does that mean my base race is a Half-dragon or a Draconic Human? Who knows. I don't personally care anymore. His game is full of "made up on the spot" crap rules that have no depth nor explanation to them. So I'm just gonna go along with it and see what happens.

And, once again, I am not saying all DMs are like this. I am currently in two other campaigns in which I enjoy the DMs very much. Their descriptions are good, their setups are enjoyable, and so far everything seems consistent. It is just that this DM needs to get his act together and figure out what is going on in his world because frankly, I don't think he even knows.

 

[Empirate]

To be fair to Zesty Gordita, it also sounds as if his DM is at the very least bad at DM-player-communication, and maybe also not that good at making his own expectations of the game chime with the players'.

 

[JamesonCourage]

The rule is clear in 3.5, dragons who polymorph (or have the alter form ability) into a human form still produce half-dragon offspring and only if the mother stays in a human-form for the child's birth will the child be a human.

Read the very first line of what you quoted from me again.

 

[JamesonCourage]

My father dying in one blow could be explained away, but that would really only work if he had rolled any dice. It was more like:
DM "Do you have any more questions?"
Me "Uhm... lemme think for a sec..."
DM "A blade juts out through your father's neck and he dies."
Me "Wait... what?"

There is nothing wrong with this. He is GMing from the narrative style. It's widely accepted, and it is encouraged by many other gaming systems. Story before mechanics is a very old rule for most RPGs. Now, it doesn't sound like it matches up with what you want in your game, but it's completely valid, and continuing to buck against it like you are likely won't change his style.

Do you know which games are easiest to GM with a narrative style? Heavily homebrewed games, where the GM overlooks what's not inconvenient, and where he doesn't roll a thousand dice during a battle to decide the winner "because it makes more sense mechanically."

 

[Dandu]

If a DM wants to kill off an NPC without rolling, that's fine. If it were your character, it'd be a different story.

 

[Nomnath]

Zesty, forcing you a background sucks a bit.

dragons can take character levels, all monsters can take char levels as far as i can tell, some won't make sense (no 20 lvl wizard squirrels) but it's doable. Bahamut has a keckton of non dragon levels and a dragon of the great game literally has great powers that do things, the entry is purposefully vague on how far they can go, just that they trade innate spell like abilities (which normal dragons do have) for more physical strength.

I would say that you are a half dragon, but since you've been playing as a human then you'd be an exceptionally weak half dragon with underdeveloped claws and flame sac, virtually indifferent from a human.

As for the paralysis, spells can specifically mention that they effect creatures that are normally otherwise immune, it could be homebrew i guess, no real answer unless you knowledge arcana on it while it's being cast. They way i like to justify spells like that would be that it's a mind compulsion effect that makes you think that you can't move anymore ie you forget that you can move and just stand around like an idiot. But that should come with a will save.

Using that much homebrew is kinda a dickish move.

As for daddy's death. He was obviously hit by a critical sneak attack with so much bonus damage, that it became a massive blow that he failed the fort save on.

NPC-NPC intercation can be preplanned and don't require rolls. Also the DM doesn't have to let players see rolls, hence the dm screen and several rolls are supposed to be done in secret too.

I do agree with you that they DM has communication issues, so you should have talks with him that are civil and calm. Be prepared, and do it when he is free. If he can't communicate, you being a bad communicator just makes it worse. Also, rules discussions should be left outside the game, at the table, the DM has to improvise and keeping the game moving takes priority over wasting time on the process of ride checks. If there is someone that the DM takes criticism well from, then the DM prolly has trust in that person's experience, and any corrections that you may have, you should prolly try to channel through that person.

 

[the Jester]

all monsters can take char levels as far as i can tell, some won't make sense (no 20 lvl wizard squirrels) but it's doable.

You are dead to me.

 

[Nomnath]

what? you have a build that has squirrel mages with 20 lvls in wizard that aren't sentient (ie int still lower than 2), I can sorta see lvl 20 cleric squirrels, but... wizard... int...

Ok i guess i was working under the preconception that int 2 was needed for squirrels, i guess you could make it get sentience.. oh my.

 

[Empirate]

Zesty, forcing you a background sucks a bit.

dragons can take character levels, all monsters can take char levels as far as i can tell, some won't make sense (no 20 lvl wizard squirrels) but it's doable. Bahamut has a keckton of non dragon levels and a dragon of the great game literally has great powers that do things, the entry is purposefully vague on how far they can go, just that they trade innate spell like abilities (which normal dragons do have) for more physical strength.

I would say that you are a half dragon, but since you've been playing as a human then you'd be an exceptionally weak half dragon with underdeveloped claws and flame sac, virtually indifferent from a human.

As for the paralysis, spells can specifically mention that they effect creatures that are normally otherwise immune, it could be homebrew i guess, no real answer unless you knowledge arcana on it while it's being cast. They way i like to justify spells like that would be that it's a mind compulsion effect that makes you think that you can't move anymore ie you forget that you can move and just stand around like an idiot. But that should come with a will save.

Using that much homebrew is kinda a dickish move.

As for daddy's death. He was obviously hit by a critical sneak attack with so much bonus damage, that it became a massive blow that he failed the fort save on.

NPC-NPC intercation can be preplanned and don't require rolls. Also the DM doesn't have to let players see rolls, hence the dm screen and several rolls are supposed to be done in secret too.

I do agree with you that they DM has communication issues, so you should have talks with him that are civil and calm. Be prepared, and do it when he is free. If he can't communicate, you being a bad communicator just makes it worse. Also, rules discussions should be left outside the game, at the table, the DM has to improvise and keeping the game moving takes priority over wasting time on the process of ride checks. If there is someone that the DM takes criticism well from, then the DM prolly has trust in that person's experience, and any corrections that you may have, you should prolly try to channel through that person.

As much as it pains me to say so, but I believe this post to be wrong in every single way.

'Forcing' something on a player can only happen if the player lets it. DMs don't have inherent power, they only wield power by consensus - the consensus to play a game in which one guy must have a certain amount of say on what happens. You don't like a DM's way of handling things, there are methods to mend the situation (walking out being the most extreme of these).

Dragons cannot take character levels or use magic in Zesty's game according to what the DM told the players. So that's pretty much an absolute. And a fine example that DM fiat >> rules (which is generally as intended by the game, but can cause issues in individual cases).

Using howevermuch homebrew is never a dickish move. If it's good.

Nothing is obvious about daddy's death. It just happened. Has anybody in-game even tried to find out how? Until they do, just assume that there was some reason to it, it really doesn't matter what it was specifically.

What you roll for and what you handwave is really a DM's prerogative to decide. There are no rules for that. Rolling for something just provides the DM a little more perceived legitimacy in whatever he declares happens. But since the DM can set most NPC stats, DCs etc. arbitrarily, rolling for something or not doesn't really make a practical difference. Except for the players' perceptions of the legitimacy of his actions.

Zesty already had lots of civil and calm talks with his DM. They didn't change a thing. I really believe that at this point, Zesty's and his DM's expectations of the game and their understanding of how it should work are quite irreconcilable. Which doesn't even matter as long as Zesty decides the game is still worth playing!