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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 8708986" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>Indeed. My (limited) experience of Monty Haul was much as you describe it, and as Jim Ward described it in his story of Gary coining the term. DMs who enjoyed magic items and liked seeing the players win and use powerful toys.</p><p></p><p>DM favoritism was a separate issue, though certainly some such bad DMs expressed favoritism by excessive generosity only to their favorites.</p><p></p><p>IME, though, by the time I was getting seriously into AD&D in the late 80s, Monty Haul games seemed to be pretty infrequently encountered, as Gary's inveighing against them in the 1E DMG had been taken to heart by a lot of gamers. Perhaps this is why Ruin Explorer's recollection is so different? That he's remembering a later period when the only excessive generosity from DMs in his circles was by DMs playing favorites?</p><p></p><p>I remember attending an epic double session high level game at Dragonflight (a convention at University of Washington, in Seattle) in '91 or '92, which IIRC was for characters of levels 15 and up. Neither my brother or I had a character that high level, so we created them for the occasion. The DM remarked on how little magic and equipment they had, because we really didn't know what was appropriate, and erred on the side of caution.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 8708986, member: 7026594"] Indeed. My (limited) experience of Monty Haul was much as you describe it, and as Jim Ward described it in his story of Gary coining the term. DMs who enjoyed magic items and liked seeing the players win and use powerful toys. DM favoritism was a separate issue, though certainly some such bad DMs expressed favoritism by excessive generosity only to their favorites. IME, though, by the time I was getting seriously into AD&D in the late 80s, Monty Haul games seemed to be pretty infrequently encountered, as Gary's inveighing against them in the 1E DMG had been taken to heart by a lot of gamers. Perhaps this is why Ruin Explorer's recollection is so different? That he's remembering a later period when the only excessive generosity from DMs in his circles was by DMs playing favorites? I remember attending an epic double session high level game at Dragonflight (a convention at University of Washington, in Seattle) in '91 or '92, which IIRC was for characters of levels 15 and up. Neither my brother or I had a character that high level, so we created them for the occasion. The DM remarked on how little magic and equipment they had, because we really didn't know what was appropriate, and erred on the side of caution. [/QUOTE]
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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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