Dealing with an "oldschool" DM

[Hjorimir]

All old school DMs should be treated the same way:

1) Get ahold of the Pathfinder rpg. That m----rf---er weighs like 4 lbs.
2) Say "Get with it, granddad!"
3) Using the aforementioned exciting new rpg system, strike the old school DM firmly between the legs.

Hope this helps!

Sorry, Doug, no disrespect intended, but I don't think Pathfinder is a "new rpg system" at all, but I'd agree there is some excited fans there.

 

[Turtlejay]

It is sad, because if you are sure that the DM is on your side a lot of those things don't matter.

For example, I'm not sure that the OP would like playing in the campaign I am currently in. It is low magic, so even at 7th level there is 1 magic item in the group. One person has one, the rest of us have what we started with. We don't get xp, we level at the rate set by our DM. And today, my beautiful, nice, friendly Gnome Illusionist died. Of a disease. A disease he contracted on a week I was not present.

So I could have turned all of those negatives into a big rant about how I think My DM Is Garbage, but since I am friends with him, and I *know* that he knows what is gonna be fun for the party (and have had a lot of fun with these adventures so far), it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I think this may not answer your question, since it sounds like your DM can be. . .adversarial at times. This is too bad. I think that might be the worst problem, not the issue with rules, or magic items, or XP's.

Jay

 

[S'mon]

His changes to RAW seem trivial, and well within what WOTC would regard as normal GMing protocol. Me, I'm far "worse". I say don't worry about it.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Run the game you wish you could play.

Cheers, -- N

This is the best advice.

Nearly 30 years ago one of my friends in high school introduced me to D&D and he subsequently DMed. He was one of the worst DMs ever: while he could be incredibly creative in so many ways, he hated learning rules or for players to shine (or for players to learn rules and seek to apply them!).

In many ways he sounds like the DM you have here. My guy, with whom I remain friends to this day, didn't believe in recovering spells when you were in a dungeon ("there is no way you could concentrate"), owning the DMG ("I've got the screen"), a successful saving throw necessarily equal a successful saving throw ("no, because you rolled the number required the poison just paralyses you instead of killing you"), wizards memorising/preparing their preferred spells (he rolled randomly for the spells a PC wizard had!) etc.... His other DMing peccadilloes were similar to those you're describing here.

So, I learnt to DM. Simple as that.

Your guy also sounds like my guy in that he is mired in a particular style which probably reflects parts of his personality that simply will never change. Why fight it? Run your own games!

 

[aboyd]

Actually, the DM described in the OP doesn't sound too bad to me. I'd play in his game. And before you say, "Well, then YOU go do that!" I would note that this is precisely my advice. That is, if the game sucks for you, get out of the way so other people who like that style can fill in the chairs at the table.

Your DM isn't that bad. You're just frustrated because you know the rules and you want to force him to follow them. He's the DM -- in my view, he can run his game as he wishes. He can be independent of you. You can't micromanage him. I view that as a good thing.

Welcome to the world where you have to let the person running the game run the game. It's not so bad.

 

[Melan]

Having read this thread through, I feel more strongly that the Neutral Evil response to this DM is the appropriate one.

You'll never win a vote with the DM's girlfriend, sister, and sister's SO. Open communication only leads to you being on the outside here. So, you need to start assuming that there are no rules.
...
If your DM breaks the social contract, you're a sucker if you keep the social contract while he breaks it when it comes to rules, rewards, tactics, encounter design and adventure design.

You're playing a new game, "guess what I'm thinking" and there's only one way to play that game... steal his notes.

This... this was sarcasm, right? Right?!

 

[SkidAce]

/dodges incoming book

/sticks out tongue at Doug

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Call me bizarro, but I've never seen myself or others get angry at a DM for witholding exp or items.

Or maybe call me old fashioned? Doing such is just what the DM does. You aren't in charge of your EXP growth, the guy running the game is. Likewise with the magic items and gold. Hell, I've never once even asked a DM how he came to the EXP numbers he gave me. He could give completely random numbers and I wouldn't care.

Plus, most my games these days don't even use EXP unless someone is crafting. It's "Ok, you go back to town, and you go up a level."

I can understand some of the other complaints, but those two just struck me as being...well, entitled, I guess?

 

[wayne62682]

It's the fact that he's not scaling the encounters down AND witholding XP that gets me.

I guess I must be "entitled" to expect a game with rules to... you know, have those rules followed. But I utterly despise the "DM is God" mentality, and wish it was thrown away.

 

[Noumenon]

I actually think reading the module could be very helpful for a player like me. I would use it like roguerouge says, to tell me where the adventure was going so I could play better. For example, I could react to the Dread Marauders of Keld encounter with more appropriate terror if I read the module's official buildup of them than if I had to go by the DM's tossed-off description. I could find a reason why my character might want to talk instead of fight if I knew it wouldn't be a waste of everyone's time.

I just don't think it's right for the OP because he is the kind who would say "In the module it says we find treasure X in this encounter. I want it." Well, he wouldn't say it, but he would get even more frustrated knowing how it was supposed to run. His problem already is that the DM doesn't run like he's "supposed to."