Rant -- GM Control, Taking it Too Far?

[JRRNeiklot]

Because no one called a bird Tweety --or something similar that remarked on the sound the animal makes-- until Warner Brother came around?

If it was a parakeet or some such, I'd be fine with Tweety. A giant eagle? Not gonna fly.

 

[Agamon]

Animals with silly names? How inappropriate! If it was a PC with a silly name, yeah, a line needs to be drawn, but animals get named something silly as often as not in the real world, so why not.

The coolest ever familiar in a game I ran was a raven named Mr. Nevermoore. He had an english accent and a chip on his shoulder, lotsa fun playing him.

 

[S'mon]

Oh, I wouldn't have kicked him out. I would have had him run over and killed by a cart carrying manure. Painted red. Killed by a red wagon.

Well, as you might guess it was the culmination of various issues. I was not enjoying GMing for him.

 

[Obryn]

...Lastly, he said he would not compromise, and, the part that really stuck in my throat, was when he said, "if I'm going to spend hours upon hours preparing a game so I can DM it for other people, my enjoyment needs to come before theirs." This, I don't get. I'm not just some pawn in his world, there to play for his pleasure. We are all in this together. Doesn't it need to be fun for everyone?

I'll be honest - I generally associate this attitude with general dickishness.

I've been DMing for over 20 years, and haven't found that extreme authoritarianism does anything but feed my ego. It doesn't make the game more fun for my players, and if it doesn't make it fun for them, it's not fun for me, either. I mean, I'm not just running games for me - I'm running it for them, too, and if they're not having a good time, then my time really has been wasted. I'd be just as well off writing a novel.

I DM because I enjoy DMing. I may put more work into the game - but I think that's a great privilege, and I love doing it. I can't imagine loving DMing so little, or seeing it as such a burden, or wanting such rigid control of the game, that a somewhat silly pet name would make me not-love doing it. I dunno, it just doesn't seem like a healthy attitude... It's not my game, it's our game.

-O

 

[maddman75]

I think the DM is way out of line and you are more than justified in walking. Maybe I'm biased because I think a Druid with Marshmallow the bear is awesome. If he sticks around, or better yet saves the party's bacon, then so much the better. Marshmallow will be a trusted companion and friend.

D&D isn't high literature, I mean one of the canon monsters is the gelatinous cube. Its genetically adapted to graph paper. Embrace the wacky if the players want to bring it. A DM cannot sit down and say "I'm going to run a campaign that has *this* kind of tone". You can nudge things here and there, but so much is on the players.

And its not just the name. The micromanagement, the sexism, the blatent rudeness. From his response I'd wager he doesn't paticularly want you in his game. I can't imagine responding to any of my players that way. I'm forking this as well to talk about the "I put in all the work" line.

Move to Central Illinois, and I'll let you rock out with Marshmallow the bear all you want. I love that idea.

 

[Obryn]

Move to Central Illinois, and I'll let you rock out with Marshmallow the bear all you want. I love that idea.

Heck yeah.

Or, next time my work sends me out to San Jose, I can bring my D&D books along. (I wish they'd send me now... I'm sick of this ice & snow!)

-O

 

[Brennin Magalus]

I had a player recently who subsequent to the death of his PC, informed me that his PC was unkillable, because his background "which I had approved" said he was cursed to be killed by a red dragon, ergo he could not be killed by anything except a red dragon. I kicked him out right away.

Did you, at least, have his character eaten by a red dragon first?

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Rather than level the "dick" accusation at the DM, let's look at it differently. I suspect that the DM here may be a highly creative type. They tend to be rather sensitive to things and have a strong vision. (I know. I was this way for years.) The bit about him trying to change your cleric background idea - I can see that as trying to make everything fit into his world concept instead of picking on you.

What is really going on here is a minor clash in playstyle. If you have the guts (realizing that it could lead to conflict) how about pointing your DM to this thread? He can read it while hopefully not getting to high blood pressure, and learn from it. Perhaps he'll understand your perspective better.

The word here is compromise. The creation of the world belongs to the DM. Yes, we invest tons of time into it. However, when you incorporate player ideas (that aren't radically out there), the world grows. It increases the ownership because now the player feels part of it too.

 

[S'mon]

Did you, at least, have his character eaten by a red dragon first?

His PC had just been killed by a hobgoblin (critical hit with longspear). He apparently then stayed up all night working out why his PC wasn't really dead.

Ironically, if we had not ended that adventure early there was a red dragon at the end of it that could have eaten him.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

His PC had just been killed by a hobgoblin (critical hit with longspear). He apparently then stayed up all night working out why his PC wasn't really dead.

Ironically, if we had not ended that adventure early there was a red dragon at the end of it that could have eaten him.

You should have told him the hobgoblin was a polymorphed red dragon.