DM Hazing

[diaglo]

...and the DM said, "the boat sinks, putting out the fire" at which point they jumped up and cheered, "THEN WE DROWN!" .

that would be from a player in Quasqueton's campaign i believe.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I have had DMs at GenCon that were so bad that I (quietly) committed "PCtricide" and left the game. (Most recently was at GenCon '04, during the single worst Star Wars D20 game I've ever been involved in (and since Star Wars D20 sucks ass, that's sayin' something).)

Actually, again at GenCon, a friend of mine and I once made a contest out of whose PC could get killed first, the trick being that the death had to be plausible. I honestly can't remember who "won."

 

[diaglo]

Angelsboi had to be the single worst DM i EVAR met.

but luckily he was a great guy.

so after the players mutinied we formed a new group.

you can read about the new campaign in the story hour in my sig. it is still going.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'd like to hop up on my moral high horse and say I've never done anything like this. But I'd be lying.

We had a Deadlands GM a while ago who got into some really bad habbits. No hope of advancement, weird rules calls against players, weird rules calls favouring NPCs, uber NPCs, colossal railroading, even a 'no PC dying' campaign. It didn't happen all at once, he kind of built up to it. To make it worse, he was basically a really good GM - NPC conversations and descriptive stuff were excellent.

He'd never listen to any player 'whining' that they wern't enjoying themselves. We stuck at it because he'd run some great campaigns in the past.

After (yet another!) TPK from a random encounter, we decided to surrender. Our next characters had no useful skills or abilities - in or out of combat. He realised this after about half an hour of DMing.

After that, we all sat down and had a proper discussion about our problems with the game. We stopped playing for a few weeks - still met, played cards, watched films, etc. After a break, we switched systems and he started a new campaign - quite a few style adjustments made and it was fun all round.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Just seems like a huge waste of time to me. You're wasting your time because the campaign has elementsy ou don't like and wasting the GM's time by screwing with him.

I'd rather find a game I enjoyed or a group that enjoys the game I run.

 

[Rel]

I don't think that this is all that productive a way to handle the problems in a group. That said, I think that an occasional "prank" against the GM is ok. The best one I ever pulled was this:

We were up against this cult of shapeshifters and our party of 3 (my halfling rogue, a human barbarian and elven cleric) were in this underground passageway about to sneak into one of their hideouts. Suddenly I say, "I think I've got this all figured out." and I Sneak Attack the barbarian. I do great damage and then win initiative whereupon I Sneak Attack him again, killing him (we were low level so not a lot of HP's). The GM is looking at me like I'm totally insane and so is the cleric's player. The barbarian's player is flat out pissed.

I'm saying, "Don't you see! HE's one of THEM! Watch, he'll shift back to his normal form now that he's dead!" We watched the barb's body. "Nothing" says the GM.

"Did it take a while for them to shift back to normal form after we killed the other shapeshifters?"

"Nope."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"Well, I think that there's one thing that you're not considering."

"What's that," says the GM. You can read the anguish on his face about how I've derailed the campaign.

"It's April first."

Me and the barbarian's player burst out laughing since we'd engineered the whole thing. The GM and the other player both breathed a big sigh of relief and we retconned back to the start of the session. Everybody agreed that, in retrospect, it was one of the best 15 minutes we'd ever wasted in a game.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I gotta agree with the majority and say this sounds awfully mean. Less like razing and more like just being jerks. I have, fortunately, already DMed enough that I can't fall prety to first time dm shenanigans. However, if my gaming group decided to give me a hard time the first time i ran a game for them, I think I could be a good sport about it as long as it didn't last long. After that, it'd be "ok, folks, lets settle down." After that, the Hand of God descends, and the Rat Bastard comes out of its hole.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I wouldn't put up with that. I'd expect that type of behaviour from people still in high school, but not from adults. If the DM isn't living up to your expecations, tell him so and/or don't play in the game. It sounds like a whole 'lotta time is being wasted on all sides. Better to find a gaming group that meshes well together and is on the same page.

 

[diaglo]

I wouldn't put up with that. I'd expect that type of behaviour from people still in high school, but not from adults. If the DM isn't living up to your expecations, tell him so and/or don't play in the game. It sounds like a whole 'lotta time is being wasted on all sides. Better to find a gaming group that meshes well together and is on the same page.

you don't know many adults, do you?

kids are the ones who are brutually honest. they tell you straight up cuz they haven't learned to repress their words to not hurt others feelings.

adults on the other hand try every which way from sunday not to tell you. they want you to connect the dots yourself.

edit: and then we regress again when we get old. we are too old for this crap. and tell people straight up again.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Just seems like a huge waste of time to me. You're wasting your time because the campaign has elementsy ou don't like and wasting the GM's time by screwing with him.

I'd rather find a game I enjoyed or a group that enjoys the game I run.

W0rd.