Aldarc
Legend
Sometimes there are fates worse than death for a character to experience.
D&D General Biggest DM regret
- Thread starter Nevvur
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jasper
Rotten DM
Yes Average damage is allowed. On a Crit I do average damage, then roll the extra damage. This can be a bit swingy. 7(2d6) could be 9 to 19 of damage. Recently to speed game play I started doing on outgoing spells average damage, and on a crit doubling the avg. (7 becomes 14). I only had one person complain about doubling of the avg because it wasn't fair. But me and him don't agree on some off topic stuff and he the type to push the dm due to personality conflicts. The next week in the facebook announcement I mentioned how I was doing damage to the pcs. He kept quiet about it.
I'm just not in the mood to buy in the Americas, though stomping through my old LA and Maui stomping grounds sounds nice.
Nebulous
Legend
Lol emergency blood transfusion? They were really desperate not to die huh? To be fair though, stirges are stupid dangerous, I killed a 2nd level PC at Firefinger, and it would have been a TPK from the stirges if the weretiger NPC hadn't gone all kitty crazy on them.
Maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but isn't there some kind of mercy rule in AL, where you get auto-ressed at the end of the game?
My biggest DM regret... well, since the year 2004 I keep a journal of all my games (both as a DM and as a player) online. But I've been playing since 1990, and I played so many games I've literally forgotten about them. I would really love to have kept journals of those games... ç_ç
My biggest DM regret... well, since the year 2004 I keep a journal of all my games (both as a DM and as a player) online. But I've been playing since 1990, and I played so many games I've literally forgotten about them. I would really love to have kept journals of those games... ç_ç
jasper
Rotten DM
Yes Preseason 8 your pc paid 1,000 gp to get a raise dead. Even if your body was left in the stomach of a black dragon. The AL body rescue team always brought your body back.
Season 8 they change to Advancement points (think xp but only about 4 xp to level) equal to TP (treasure points). With Treasure points you can spend them to buy a scroll of raise dead. Some one did the math and the change the rule. A True resurrection scroll could be bought for 16 tp (16 hours of play basically) even when you normally could not buy that high of a magic item to level 11.
Pretty much. This was back in Season 1. Free, unlimited raise dead til level 5, but you weren't eligible for any XP or loot during that adventure if you died and accept it. If you died and had enough gold to pay for Raise Dead, you could keep the XP and loot, with the group able to pitch into the cost. Not sure how they handle it now.
It's another little facet of the story I'd let slip from memory. Reflecting on it now, my 'biggest regret' feels that much smaller. PC death in AL at that level is a speed bump, shouldn't have been a game breaker.
Tony Vargas
Legend
Like Mordenkainen's Disjunction, for instance.Sometimes there are fates worse than death for a character to experience.
Stormonu
Legend
My biggest regret was back in 1E/2E. We had a new player (from another game) visit and I had spent some time pre-game helping him make the character (A fighter 6/wizard 6/Rogue 6). I was looking for a good and feasible point to drop him into the groups lap, but before I knew it, the entire game session had passed and I hadn’t brought in his character. I apologized profusely and the player claimed they still had a good time listening to our session (and gave some insightful suggestions how to drop him in next game), but I’ve ever after made an effort to drop a new player in at the start of the session, no matter how strange the appearance might be.
innerdude
Legend
Only if you buy in to the proposition that PCs should always have some level of plot protection at all times. One of the things I love about Savage Worlds is that it very, very quickly disabuses players of this notion. In most cases the players do have several layers of both in-game and metagame control over how hurt their character gets, but if their character dies in combat, there's never any sense of "That should NOT have happened!" because they know that it only takes one good damage roll that "explodes" to take them out.
Players quickly develop a greater sense of ownership over what they do in-game.
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Hmm... well, this was over 25 years ago and back in high school. I was DMing and at times slightly viscous. One time, when a player really pissed me off about his character dying, I grabbed his character sheet from in front of him, stood up and tore it to pieces right then and there in front of him and everyone else! Wow, that was a crazy moment... The shock, the horror, the utter power of playing god, etc. I then handed him a blank character sheet and told him to start rolling. 
not-so-newguy
Hero
not-so-newguy
Hero
Creating a poisonous liquid called “orange goo” many, many years (2nd edition iirc, perhaps 3.0)
Orange goo properties: At 0 degree Celsius or below orange goo is a liquid. Any warmer than that, then orange goo turns to orange gas. Ingested or inhaled, orange goo is an “instant death” poison (no save).
Anyway, I had a small rivulet of this orange goo flowing through the rooms of a dungeon. If the party followed the rivulet, then they would eventually reach the treasure room (after facing off with the BBEG).
As the party entered the dungeon, I describe the first room: It’s freezing, ice crystals have formed on the walls, patches of frozen water dot the floor, a rivulet of orange liquid flows through the middle of the room and leads to the exit. Of course, the party gathers around to inspect the rivulet
Fighter: I take my torch and put it in the liquid.
Me (just realizing the huge mistake I have made in designing the poison): The torch hits the orange goo and forms a small cloud.
…and that’s how I got my one and only TPK as a DM
Orange goo properties: At 0 degree Celsius or below orange goo is a liquid. Any warmer than that, then orange goo turns to orange gas. Ingested or inhaled, orange goo is an “instant death” poison (no save).
Anyway, I had a small rivulet of this orange goo flowing through the rooms of a dungeon. If the party followed the rivulet, then they would eventually reach the treasure room (after facing off with the BBEG).
As the party entered the dungeon, I describe the first room: It’s freezing, ice crystals have formed on the walls, patches of frozen water dot the floor, a rivulet of orange liquid flows through the middle of the room and leads to the exit. Of course, the party gathers around to inspect the rivulet
Fighter: I take my torch and put it in the liquid.
Me (just realizing the huge mistake I have made in designing the poison): The torch hits the orange goo and forms a small cloud.
…and that’s how I got my one and only TPK as a DM
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doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Not pushing for player improvisation, and players knowing the improvisation rules rather than relying earlier on me to call it out, in my time running 4e. The DMG page 42 guidelines should have been in the PHB. Every class section should have had notes on what sorts of improvised actions might flow naturally from the abilities found in the class, skill section should have had notes on how skills could be used to create improvised actions in combat, etc.
but it because I waited so long to really lean into it, it was more work than it should have been to get my players into the spirit of it.
but it because I waited so long to really lean into it, it was more work than it should have been to get my players into the spirit of it.
Oh yeah, I had a similar thing ca 6 years ago - playing BX D&D RAW, PC M-U with 2 hp died to the first goblin arrow, and the player rolled up a PC then rather than tell me to bring him in, sat there looking unhappy, waiting for me to take the initiative - which I failed to do for the rest of the session. So he was even more furious.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
G
Guest 6801328
Guest
My biggest regret is the amount of time I've spent reading about D&D on the internet, rather than running games...
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Biggest DM regret. Okay, I'm not going to reach back to when dinosaurs still covered the earth and I was a newbie DM, let me go for something that I should have known better.
I was running a long-running campaign in 3.0. (Total was about 5 years). I was light on giving out permanent magic items, and for some reason the high-Charisma sorcerer (who loved them in-character) ended up with the vast majority of them. Other players (but not characters) knew, and had no complaints.
Anyway, that player needed to take a several month break (birth of first child?) so with his permission I wrote him out. He ended up being captured, and rescuing him would end up going against a bunch of NPCs armed with all the magic items he collected to rescue him prior to his return - and would also have a bunch of additional ones so it would be a windfall for him and the party.
But unexpectedly in the middle of his break he was able to return for two sessions and then would be back out. So I worked up that who he was playing wasn't really him, it was an unknowing clone of him (that made sense in the plot but I don't remember why) that would break down soon. So his character returned - without any of magic items. So it looked like I just took them all away.
My regret was not bringing the player in on it and both (a) doing something cooler with the fact he was back and (b) leaving him thinking I took away all of his toys permanently. Instead I trying to keep the player firmer on the player side of the DM screen and missed out on making more fun and letting a player know it's all good.
I now try to run with player narrative a lot more, and invite them to conspire with me. Definitely leveled up my games.
I was running a long-running campaign in 3.0. (Total was about 5 years). I was light on giving out permanent magic items, and for some reason the high-Charisma sorcerer (who loved them in-character) ended up with the vast majority of them. Other players (but not characters) knew, and had no complaints.
Anyway, that player needed to take a several month break (birth of first child?) so with his permission I wrote him out. He ended up being captured, and rescuing him would end up going against a bunch of NPCs armed with all the magic items he collected to rescue him prior to his return - and would also have a bunch of additional ones so it would be a windfall for him and the party.
But unexpectedly in the middle of his break he was able to return for two sessions and then would be back out. So I worked up that who he was playing wasn't really him, it was an unknowing clone of him (that made sense in the plot but I don't remember why) that would break down soon. So his character returned - without any of magic items. So it looked like I just took them all away.
My regret was not bringing the player in on it and both (a) doing something cooler with the fact he was back and (b) leaving him thinking I took away all of his toys permanently. Instead I trying to keep the player firmer on the player side of the DM screen and missed out on making more fun and letting a player know it's all good.
I now try to run with player narrative a lot more, and invite them to conspire with me. Definitely leveled up my games.
pogre
Legend
My biggest regret of the last several years was ending a campaign that had some life left in it. I ran a weekly campaign from November to August. We had a great time, it was a crazy group, and I was really enjoying it. Back then I always had to take a work-related hiatus from gaming from August to November.
So, I restarted the campaign the following November, and then in December I had three players (out of five) call off for a session. In a fairly immature move I sent out an email saying that I was ending the campaign. I said the campaign had lost its energy and I was done. All of the players asked me to continue, but I did not. Looking back, it was pretty much pouting on my part. I was polite and nice about it, but it was a knee-jerk reaction.
So, I restarted the campaign the following November, and then in December I had three players (out of five) call off for a session. In a fairly immature move I sent out an email saying that I was ending the campaign. I said the campaign had lost its energy and I was done. All of the players asked me to continue, but I did not. Looking back, it was pretty much pouting on my part. I was polite and nice about it, but it was a knee-jerk reaction.
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