Rat bastard DM or just the norm? Share your stories.

[tenkar]

My further 2 cents... If you post with the name EvilGM, and take obvious relish in killing off 1st level PCs and their henchmen/cohorts you aren't going to be changing your gamesmastering style anytime soon.

Its not the type of campaign I'd be interested in playing in. To each their own. DM-Rocco: best of luck

 

[Michael Morris]

A rat bastard DM is one who keeps entertaining players by scaring the living out of them. Last session I put the pack of 6 characters levels 5-6 against a Dire Bear (CR 7). Party was completely fresh, but boy did they ever get the crap knocked out of them (they survived though). Three players were sitting at low enough hit points that another attack routine from the bear would have been fatal at the end. Players lept from their chairs when the bear went down. Now if I had focused the bear's attacks on one character that character would have died, but where's the fun in that?

 

[sniffles]

The title of the thread asks us to share our stories, so I won't get into arguing over whether the OP's GM is a rat-bastard or just a jerk.

Based on Hypersmurf's definition: "The Rat Bastard DM may do horrible things to your characters - or more likely, set up situations where you do horrible things to them yourselves - but in such a way that you end up loving the experience."

So here's my Rat Bastard GM story:
Our group ran a campaign in which the PCs were all magic-using mercenaries. We were hired by a master swordsmith to gather 'ingredients' for his magnum opus, a runesword. In the process we learned that a group of god-like beings known as Reavers were making their reappearance in the world after a millenium-long absence. The Reavers were battling against the gods (who were actually another faction of Reavers, we discovered) and their fight threatened to destroy the world, or at least wipe out or enslave all the sentient beings in it.

Our merc company began trying to recruit other mercs and other races to stand against the Reavers and tell them to get out of our world. But we had to keep working for the swordsmith while we were at it, as the result of a poorly written (for us) contract. As a part of this contract we had to recruit a master swordsman to work for the smith. This swordsman and my character made a connection, which might have become romantic if my character hadn't been serving as an avatar of the sun god at the time.

At last we reached the denouement of that part of the saga - the forging of the runesword. We had already determined that our employer was amoral and had no interest in serving one side or the other in the Reaver conflict. We decided to do what we could to control the ingredients going into the sword to turn it to good, hoping that it could be used as a weapon for our cause in the conflict. We all gathered at an ancient long-abandoned dwarven forge to witness the forging of the sword. We already knew that one of the smith's ancestors had been so obsessed with forging his own runesword that he'd become a lich and was sacrificing people for their blood, but what happened next still came as a horrible surprise.

As he completed the sword, the smith turned to the swordmaster standing beside him - and plunged the white-hot blade right through the man.

Naturally this was rather upsetting to all of our PCs, especially mine. But it got worse. The sword was now sentient and hovering in the air. It threatened anyone who approached it - except my character. She'd just watched a man she might have grown to love die by this blade, and now she was the only one who could wield it.

Rat-bastard GM? Definitely. I'll never forget that moment.

Now the same GM is running another campaign that borrows some concepts from his previous one. He'd better be careful, though - his wife is running the PC who most closely resembles my old character. If he does something like that to her he'd better expect to be sleeping on the couch.

 

[DM-Rocco]

The title of the thread asks us to share our stories, so I won't get into arguing over whether the OP's GM is a rat-bastard or just a jerk.

Based on Hypersmurf's definition: "The Rat Bastard DM may do horrible things to your characters - or more likely, set up situations where you do horrible things to them yourselves - but in such a way that you end up loving the experience."

So here's my Rat Bastard GM story:
Our group ran a campaign in which the PCs were all magic-using mercenaries. We were hired by a master swordsmith to gather 'ingredients' for his magnum opus, a runesword. In the process we learned that a group of god-like beings known as Reavers were making their reappearance in the world after a millenium-long absence. The Reavers were battling against the gods (who were actually another faction of Reavers, we discovered) and their fight threatened to destroy the world, or at least wipe out or enslave all the sentient beings in it.

Our merc company began trying to recruit other mercs and other races to stand against the Reavers and tell them to get out of our world. But we had to keep working for the swordsmith while we were at it, as the result of a poorly written (for us) contract. As a part of this contract we had to recruit a master swordsman to work for the smith. This swordsman and my character made a connection, which might have become romantic if my character hadn't been serving as an avatar of the sun god at the time.

At last we reached the denouement of that part of the saga - the forging of the runesword. We had already determined that our employer was amoral and had no interest in serving one side or the other in the Reaver conflict. We decided to do what we could to control the ingredients going into the sword to turn it to good, hoping that it could be used as a weapon for our cause in the conflict. We all gathered at an ancient long-abandoned dwarven forge to witness the forging of the sword. We already knew that one of the smith's ancestors had been so obsessed with forging his own runesword that he'd become a lich and was sacrificing people for their blood, but what happened next still came as a horrible surprise.

As he completed the sword, the smith turned to the swordmaster standing beside him - and plunged the white-hot blade right through the man.

Naturally this was rather upsetting to all of our PCs, especially mine. But it got worse. The sword was now sentient and hovering in the air. It threatened anyone who approached it - except my character. She'd just watched a man she might have grown to love die by this blade, and now she was the only one who could wield it.

Rat-bastard GM? Definitely. I'll never forget that moment.

Now the same GM is running another campaign that borrows some concepts from his previous one. He'd better be careful, though - his wife is running the PC who most closely resembles my old character. If he does something like that to her he'd better expect to be sleeping on the couch.

Thanks for sharing you tale. I orignally posted regarding my DM cause he said if I thought he was being unfair I should post on ENWorld, so I did. However, I always loved reading the threads where people share past experience, so I included share your experience as well.

Thanks for your tale

 

[DM-Rocco]

My further 2 cents... If you post with the name EvilGM, and take obvious relish in killing off 1st level PCs and their henchmen/cohorts you aren't going to be changing your gamesmastering style anytime soon.

Its not the type of campaign I'd be interested in playing in. To each their own. DM-Rocco: best of luck

I was going to tough it out and see how it went, but after the sum of all your comments, I am thinking of not going to to play anymore.

I am not one to shy away from a challenge and I certainly am not one to leave something unfinished. I even suffered through the remake of The Pool of Raidiance and Ice Wind Dale II PC games, from beginning to end, and they both completely blew in terms of entertainment.

I guess after some reflection I love the game, but no one I know is playing a normal D&D game with normal rules. I play in one Grim & Gritty game, it is hard, but the story line is rich and I have fun, in spite of almost dieing every session (if you know G&G you know what I mean ) and from time to time I dabble in a friends extremely deadly Epic level game. Normal rules, but he is stuck in 3.0, which is completely broken, like I needed to say that. I of course DM my own game, mostly by the rules, a few needed house rules so the game doesn't over balance, but nothing drastic. Although I did have them sense motive on a door once, don't get me started

I thought that this would be a nice break from both extremes; a normal campiagn with normal rules, in spite of the Gestalt characters. However, the more I think about it the more I think it is the wrong game for me. I know him, while he can be fair, he is more stubborn then a Gully Dwarf gaurding his mud. I am 99% certain he will not back down on throwing CR encounters beyond our level. He has an encounter table with challeneges for every level and if you draw the Great Red Wyrm, then that is what you fight; even if you are first level.

If I had a chance to prepare before being teleported by the DM into the wilds, I could have got the disease healed, bought a few more mounts and some other well needed gear. In that case, a hill giant would have been able to have been avoided by simply mounting on combat trained mounts and fleeing.

Anyway, between the high CR encounters, the lack of responsability of a DM in allowing a hand wave teleport without a chance to prepare and the DM constantly trying to trip me, and others, up on my words I think, while he is a good frend, that I am going to have to decline further play.

I guess the only thing worse would have been if, before I was teleported, I would have seen a short dwarf like creature in bright red mage robes, with long white hair and bald on top who makes everyone he sees call him Dungeon Master.

(reference to the old 80's D&D cartoon, if you didn't know )

 

[Tatsukun]

Wait, your gestalt PC couldn’t recover from Filth fever? The DC is 12, right?

So you wait two days and get taken care of. The guy with the heal skill takes ten and (we hope) generates more than a 12. If he doesn’t have a +2 modifier, have someone assist him. There you go.

It delays the party for two days, but if your big plans are to wander until uber monsters kill you, why not take two days off?

-Tatsu

P.S> About being outclassed, I give fighters "Fighter lore". It works exactly like Bardic lore, but can only be used to get information about monsters (anything not in the Monster Manual isn't knowable). That gives players at least one very tiny reason to stick with fighter to higher levels.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

That name is wrong. It should not be EvilDM, but BadDM.

My vote is for idiot player(s).

My vote is for you being warned off for calling people idiots.

there's no excuse for one character to not have it maximized, and another two capable of aiding another.

Of course there is. The excuse is that he never learned it, or not that much. There's no such thing as "required skill ranks".

It has been some time since I encountered a character with ranks in Heal.

I didn't read all of his comments or your replies, but not ever monster encountered has to be level apropriate because it dosn't have fought.

Calling people idiots and then making spelling errors like that is pretty ironic, but back to the topic at hand:

They encountered a CR 7 hill giant. That hill giant is as fast as your average player character in light armour, and faster than a character in medium or heavy armour. So it's hard to flee from him if he wants to fight. It sounded like he saw them a second time and decided to kill them. And if you run, you'll get a rock in the back, which deals more than enough damage to kill most 1st-level characters.

Wait, your gestalt PC couldn’t recover from Filth fever? The DC is 12, right?

So you wait two days and get taken care of.

You assume that they know the DC of filth fewer. You assume that he had two days time to have it taken care of. It didn't sound like that. He was just zipped into the deep wilderness.

I guess the disease wasn't even the worst (though it sounded as if the DM used his fast forward power and gave him his first damage from the disease way too early.). The putting characters in a hostile area where they can't survive is the main part. They're not responsible for what the other characters were doing. If one party goes to get itself killed, without the other party being able to do anything about it, you don't hex that party over to the first into their death trap.


Rocco: I think it would be for the best to ditch that DM.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Wait, your gestalt PC couldn’t recover from Filth fever? The DC is 12, right?

So you wait two days and get taken care of. The guy with the heal skill takes ten and (we hope) generates more than a 12. If he doesn’t have a +2 modifier, have someone assist him. There you go.

It delays the party for two days, but if your big plans are to wander until uber monsters kill you, why not take two days off?

-Tatsu

Not so easy, when I found out I had the filth fever and the DM didn't let me cure it before the adventure started, we were in a deadly wild land. Taking two days to do so would require several random encounters on his stupid overly matched deadly encounter table, that includes a hill giant and a red dragon. As it was, it was a weeks march to the nearest town. I have better things to do with my time than try to avoid dieing with slim or no chance of survival.

P.S> About being outclassed, I give fighters "Fighter lore". It works exactly like Bardic lore, but can only be used to get information about monsters (anything not in the Monster Manual isn't knowable). That gives players at least one very tiny reason to stick with fighter to higher levels.

I too have a simuliar thing in my game called knowledge beast. This DM doesn't do that. This character has at least 1 rank in all knowledge skills, which cover a great deal of things, including a chance to figure out informatiuon about every monster, just need to make the right roll. The problem is, he won't tell you, the player, which roll you need to make and won't give you the books for the world, or let you look in the PHB, to figure out which roll you need. After guessing on which knowledge rolls you need, after a while he says you spent too much time on that action and have to attack, or as he eloquently puts it, "sh*t or get off the pot."

He is making the game harder and more complicated than it needs to be. I don't need to play in a game where I get tripped up on word games and needless rule memorizing. It took some comments from you guys to figure it out, but I guess I knew that is what I wanted and just didn't like the idea of wasting a character that I spent so much time creating.

Oh well, live and learn.

 

[DM-Rocco]

You assume that they know the DC of filth fewer. You assume that he had two days time to have it taken care of. It didn't sound like that. He was just zipped into the deep wilderness.

Nope, he doesn't give out DCs, which might be partly my fault, cause I don't give them out, or try not to, when I DM. So, even though the DM reasured us it was the lowest DC for a disease ever, we couldn't just go around taking 10 and hoping we had enough ranks to cover the DC.

Rocco: I think it would be for the best to ditch that DM.

I haven't told him yet, but if looked back on this thread since his last post, he knows, I am out. Too bad really, I was proud of the character.

Oh well.

 

[Montague68]

So you wait two days and get taken care of. The guy with the heal skill takes ten and (we hope) generates more than a 12. If he doesn’t have a +2 modifier, have someone assist him. There you go.

And hope the DM doesn't teleport them to the Tomb of Horrors in the meantime...