D&D General Is Your DM Out to Get You? [Humor]

[Mad_Jack]

I am the worst referee in history because I have caused my 5E players to rage quit my games by:

Your players are clearly snowflakes - are you sure they didn't just melt?

I once got grief from a group who begged me to run a game for them (after I got tired of them turning every adventure into Dumb & Dumber meets Monty Python & the Holy Grail) and promised to keep it serious this time...
And then got mad because I vetoed their idea of trying to blow open a castle gate with several hundred pounds of dragon poop.
(Their rationale for the plan was the binary-chemical explanation given for how dragons breathed fire in the film Reign of Fire, and the extrapolation that dragon poop was therefore explosive because they would naturally be swallowing some of it.)

On the other hand, once when I was a player, I had a DM who straight-out told us he considered the game a chess match between him and his players and would have probably had us roll to avoid getting killed by falling branches while walking through the forest if I hadn't preemptively mentioned that I walked through the entire forest with my shield held over my head to avoid being killed by falling branches because I knew he'd probably try it, lol.

 

[overgeeked]

Your players are clearly snowflakes - are you sure they didn't just melt?

Yeah, it was such an overwhelmingly constant problem I just stopped running or playing 5E. Never had anything close to that drumbeat of constant problem players with any other game.

I once got grief from a group who begged me to run a game for them (after I got tired of them turning every adventure into Dumb & Dumber meets Monty Python & the Holy Grail) and promised to keep it serious this time...
And then got mad because I vetoed their idea of trying to blow open a castle gate with several hundred pounds of dragon poop.
(Their rationale for the plan was the binary-chemical explanation given for how dragons breathed fire in the film Reign of Fire, and the extrapolation that dragon poop was therefore explosive because they would naturally be swallowing some of it.)

Huh. Never seen it. What a weird thing to assume then get mad about.

On the other hand, once when I was a player, I had a DM who straight-out told us he considered the game a chess match between him and his players and would have probably had us roll to avoid getting killed by falling branches while walking through the forest if I hadn't preemptively mentioned that I walked through the entire forest with my shield held over my head to avoid being killed by falling branches because I knew he'd probably try it, lol.

That’s a terrible referee right there.

 

[Stormonu]

Did your DM say no to your completely reasonable homebrew character class?
Are you trapped in a dungeon and unable to take a long rest?
Have you experienced being hit by a critical attack?

You may be entitled to compensation.

Remember DMs, you don't have to pay up if the character and everyone in their backstory is dead...

 

[Deset Gled]

Wouldn't necessarily have to be parody, as I've had a player that was "out to get me." He considered his job as a player to ruin the DM's plans for the campaign. Ruining the story was his fun, regardless of how it impacted others. Thankfully I no longer have to game with $^^@#$% like that anymore and love my current group.

This hits painfully close to home, as a group recently broke up for the same reason. We had a long-time DM who wanted to take a break from DMing, and someone who was willing to take up the mantle. Unfortunately, the ex-DM also effectively refused to play the game by intentionally undermining any plots and premises that were presented. When I eventually got fed up and confronted him about it, it did not end well.

 

[Guest 7037866]

Of course the DM is out to get you... isn't that the point of the game???

 

[aco175]

You may be entitled to compensation.

We can help.

 

[Gorg]

Quite possibly. Not ME , specifically, but he get's requests like " Can I play a plasmoid??" all the time. And he's gotten himself into the deep doo doo, by never putting his foot down, or disallowing anything- while playing with casuals, munchkins, etc. (or the old standard, we NEED this extra player, so I HAVE to bribe them by letting them <insert really irritating game breaking thing, or annoying character that destroys suspension of disbelief here> or they won't play/ let us play here.) He's had to DM for a LOT of dumbbutts over the years...

Plus, he appears to have internalized every bad take, "EVERYBODY thinks x" internet thing, DnD Shorts' videos, etc about 5e-without actually playing it himself. It's like listening to every angry rant ever posted about modern DnD, whenever the subject is broached, lol.

TBF, he got his books prior to the new MM coming out, but AFTER the 2024 PHB and DMG were out, so there's that. Add in a small collection of the more controversial/broken expansions, like Tasha's, and I can well imagine what's going thru his head, lol.

I personally decided, that rather than fight with players about what to include, builds, etc- I'd run a system like C&C, which simply doesn't HAVE all that stuff. Just the essential, classic races and classes. And without a billion options for making character builds THE game. The play is the thing!