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I believe the Supreme Court's definition of indecency applies: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"

“If I had a clone, I’d make out with myself.” (SNL 10/12/02 - S28 E2)

Many, but not all. I believe there are a fair number of DMs who get married to the concept of their world or the NPCs they create or the plot they created or the setting details and forget that the game isn't (just) for their (the DM's) amusement. I tend to find the Original Sin of bad DMs is...

I cannot fathom hard locking most D&D worlds. Part of the enjoyment of the game is discovering new species and monsters. I would hate to shackle my world to "Only the stuff in the core rulebooks exist. Nothing else" for example. (And I realize most DMs have far less of a problem introducing new...

My rule of thumb when I DM is to ask myself "would I want to play under me if I was a player?" I find that focus guides me out of a lot of pitfalls and it steels my spine when it needs it. To me, a DM should always keep their players in mind when designing. To many DMs are married to the concept...

Yoink!

I have only run premade for a while now. I gave up on homebrew. It was a lot of extra work do develop a bunch of info no player ever remembered or used. The things that made my games special were characters and stories, and that is what I focus on. So my last few games have alternated between...

Except for when your DM says "I'm going to run Shadow of the Dragon Queen" and you have to have to sit at home for months or even years until the DM finishes and picks a game that "fits".

Same crap DM mentioned above. This one i wasn't there for. One of the players was saying he heard it from another player. Grain of salt. DM had an NPC mage who wasn't supposed to die who did. That NPC had his spellbook in his lair and the PC mage grabbed it. I don't know what spell was in it...

You have two years until the sequel drops

Depends where you went to college! I heard a lot about this guy second hand. The vampire story was real though. Someone asked if they could play their PC (a half-elf mage/thief) in his game. Rather than say no or even say "yes, but with changes" he tossed the PC into a dungeon run by a vampire...

I Honestly don't care how any DM plays except for the ones I play with. I DO care how the game is presented in the rulebooks and nothing more. I have found as the game has aged, it has grown more to my preferred style so outside of some occasional disagreement, I have felt the game as a whole is...

Never is a strong term, but IMHO the less restraints you place, the better. Highly curated campaigns (like Dark Sun or Dragonlance) burn out quickly because you have so few options. For example, in Dragonlance, every wizard is a part of giant fraternal order of mages regardless of alignment or...

Yes and no. We switched from 2e to 3e, and 3e's more precise rules made it harder for him to use the DM is Always Right to fuzzy away things he didn't like. At the very least, we could use RAW to shield us from some of his impulses. Put another way: if you know someone could be harmful to...

I've not had a lot of bad DMs, but I did have some very bad experiences with a few DMs. The guy I mentioned wasn't very long lasting, I dipped out after a few sessions. But I did have a DM who I felt was a close friend for a long time and who ended up being emotionally manipulative (in all areas...

This guy (played briefly in college with him) claimed he was a very old school DM. One of his favorite tricks was to cripple a PC if they got too powerful. And by powerful, it usually meant they could stand up to his amazing NPCs who were supposed to be awesome and powerful. He targeted...

Spellbooks are the #1 reason I prefer sorcerers to wizards. I've had bad experiences with DMs intentionally targeting spellbooks. I literally saw one DM in 3e ban sorcerer because he thought they were too powerful because he couldn't destroy their spellbook/take away their spells. (You can also...

Wizards laugh until they encounter bookworms and watch their spellbook end up pulp. (Although, most of the time it was failed fireball saves or sudden dunks in water that caused spellbook ruination.)

How so? "This weapon is your life." isn't just a D&D sentiment. I would hate to lose my father's sword regardless of whether it was a regular longsword or Excalibur. People become attached to their stuff, be it the character OR the sword the character uses. Ditto for those sweet named items...