DM Hazing

[RandomPrecision]

Look, I know that there are good DM's and bad DM's, as well as good and bad players, but who made you the authority on what is good and what is bad? Who made you the DM police?

Who made me the DM police? As a player, I've been the DM police. There isn't someone watching our game, or a number to call if I dislike something about the campaign.

Did it ever occur to anyone to talk to the DM and tell him your feelings about his DM'ing, then work with him to improve?

I believe we told him we didn't care about elves (in and out of character). When we were supposed to help them, since our characters disliked elves (several of us had even noted that in our character descriptions), when we were supposed to aid them, and they made demands of us, we refused, which led to combat. We followed this hostile thread, and while it was not what the DM had originally planned, we completed an adventure, and the DM later developed plots that didn't require us to be shining exemplars of a good that we were not. It worked pretty well, despite what you might think. The campaign improved drastically after we were able to role-play our characters, instead of role-playing what he expected our characters to do to fit with a module.

The whole "we made him a better DM" line smacks of self-importance. Good thing he had you guys as players, or he would have had to "wallow in his bad-DM-ness" all the days of his life.

Well, if you like the lead-by-the-nose campaign style, there's nothing I can say to dissuade you from that, but many people prefer different forms of play.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Well, if you like the lead-by-the-nose campaign style, there's nothing I can say to dissuade you from that, but many people prefer different forms of play.

Sure, but they don't:

turns from a primarily NG/LN group to the scourge of the west coast, unleashing hordes of demons into the wilderness; worsening relations between two nations and starting a war between two others; disabling scores of miles of roadways through the use of magic; enticing dragons to take up residence on and off the coast, then marshalling a fleet of 4 pirate ships to lock down the harbor of the small port town where we were supposed to aid the local alchemist.

Just because they don't like the current plot hook. Especially in order to "help" the DM. Then as soon as its convenient for them stop being Evil. Metagaming is bad mmmkay?

On that note, I don't see why

Then we enstated the 5-word rule.

Didn't kill you all quickly.

 

[RandomPrecision]

Well, sure, by quoting a bunch of different examples, you can construct an argument that while invalid, isn't something that anyone has made until this point.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Who made me the DM police? As a player, I've been the DM police. There isn't someone watching our game, or a number to call if I dislike something about the campaign.[/yQUOTE]

There is a number to call... open the yellow pages, look up your LGS and ask about for another game.

DM

 

[Doug McCrae]

When my DM does something I don't like I just give him a slap. Seems to work out great!

 

[DarrenGMiller]

When my DM does something I don't like I just give him a slap. Seems to work out great!

The best thing about this method is that it works on recalcitrant players too.

DM

 

[Angel Tarragon]

When my DM does something I don't like I just give him a slap. Seems to work out great!

You actually slap him? I hope you are kidding. That's be the quickest way out of my group.

 

[Hammerhead]

Of COURSE he's kidding.

 

[RandomPrecision]

There is a number to call... open the yellow pages, look up your LGS and ask about for another game.

Okay, you're right. I should have abandoned my friend and found an anonymous person to play with instead of role-playing my character, quitting the campaign cold-turkey. I bow to your obvious correctness. I regret that we kept playing, and that the campaign planned by the DM works perfectly for our group.[/sarcasm]

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[Rel]

Okay, you're right. I should have abandoned my friend and found an anonymous person to play with instead of role-playing my character, quitting the campaign cold-turkey. I bow to your obvious correctness. I regret that we kept playing, and that the campaign planned by the DM works perfectly for our group.[/sarcasm]

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Dude, you're getting way too defensive here. If your group works then that's fine. If your DM has a thick enough skin that he doesn't mind the "hazing" that's fine too.

But just because things work that way in your group doesn't mean that it works that way in most others or even a few others. You started this thread basically saying, "When our DM ran the game in a way that we didn't like, we screwed the whole thing up and he became a better DM because of it."

That's dandy and all but a lot of other people posting in this thread would rather not operate that way. Many would deem it disrespectful and I think most would consider it to be a waste of time. Nobody is saying that you should have abandoned the DM and nobody is saying that you shouldn't help him try and improve his game. I think we're mostly just saying that if you've got a problem with how somebody runs the game then the most efficient way of addressing it is to halt the game and state your problems, discuss them, work out a solution and then take the necessary actions. The whole, "let's jerk him around a bit to show him the error of his ways" routine is considered by many in this thread to be unnecessary.

As such, the responses that you've gotten have largely been along the lines of "if my players treated me that way then one of us would be headed toward the door". If you can't handle those sorts of responses then perhaps you aren't as thick skinned as you expect your DM to be.