DM Murder

[jester47]

I think I might be going through this with some players. Thankfully the rest of them are excited about playing. But these two never reply to my emails. I think there is more to this, but they just are not talking. I would prefer if they had a problem, that they would tell me what it is. But since I have sent out two emails, and gotten no responce from them and if I don't hear from them soon I am going to be forced to have a giant frog eat one and the other meet an end in a far off forest.

I wish they would tell me if they really are not interested.

Aaron.

 

[Chingerspy]

BH - Sounds like your DM was being an arse or was just incapable of changing his ways. Did any of you tell him you orchestrated the TPK and why afterwards? Or will any of you ever?

A DM that doesn't suit a players / groups styles is a bad thing and is probably better handled in an honest way. I.e. rather than sneaking off to play with another DM tell the current one "Hey look; you don't change, we won't play. No point in wasting everyones time and effort on something we cannot hope to enjoy if changes are not made." Maybe the DM will get the message that he will no longer have a group and start to change his ways. Or he will agree that he cannot provide an environment where everyone is happy.

Also out of interest have any of the group been DM themselves? It sounds like they haven't.

 

[physicscarp]

Polite conversation was going nowhere in our case. This guy literally refused to hear us. We had a big pregame meeting, and discussed that we werent really having fun, and could we make some changes. he agreed, said thanks for the feedback, then went right back to the same habits and performances, in the SAME session.

Happened to me a few years ago, but as a player. None of the players were having any fun, and in fact, most were going home rather frustrated with the adventures. We did exactly what BH outlines above. We took the time to talk to the DM as a friend and told him what we weren't enjoying about the game and offered some suggestions that would make it more enjoyable for us. Our DM listened to everything we said and agreed to incorporate some of the ideas we mentioned.

We decided to scrap our fantasy game and change to a modern one, but the he went right back to the same habits as before. It was very frustrating, and in the end, we disbanded the group, though a few of us formed a new one and continue to play. I'm wondering if the DM actually self destructed the campaign, knowing that we wouldn't stick around.

 

[Sejs]

"Hey there, <DM's name>. Just a quick heads-up before we get things rolling for tonight. The guys and I've been talking, and well... honesty being the best policy and all, it's fallen to being my duty to tell you this: you suck as a DM. Nothing personal, mind you, we're just not having any fun. So, that being said, we're going to start up another campaign and you're welcome to join us as a fellow player."

 

[fanboy2000]

...while our bad DM rewrote his campaign to accommodate the tpk into the storyline.

I can't help but ask: was railroading a problem?

Sabotaging a game is never the solution. Ever. If, after telling the DM point blank what's up, he still causes problems, simply stop playing with him.

I actually think their solution was better than simply not playing with the DM. I provides closure to the game and provides a good excuse to start a new game with a new setting and DM. If they had said, after a session, "you didn't listen to our complaints and so we're not playing in this campaign anymore, Bob's going to DM Dragonlance now," that might have caused alot more anger and hurt feelings. This way they get out their anger and solve their problem.

 

[Umbra]

The problem in talking to him is that he lacks some fundamental ability to interact on an emotional level with other people. He doesn't get polite comments. He makes statements in a bold, declarative voice that don't really relate to the situation at all. He's not rude -- he's actually a genuinely nice guy -- but there's some kind of social-cue circuit that most of us have, and he ain't got it.

He sounds like someone I know who has mild Asperger's Syndrome which is the mildest form of Autism. He has a very poor perception of emotions and cannot recognise or understand them well especially in others. As with many people with this condition, he can act/react intellectually with people and has compensated in an intellectual fashion when dealing with the emotions of others. He isn't rude and IS a really nice guy but he can come across as cold, distant, unfeeling or oblivious.

"Adults with Asperger's have trouble with empathy and modulation of social interaction - the disorder follows a continuous course and is usually lifelong."

 

[shilsen]

And the other other bit was his railroading. I was shocked to hear from other people that Speaker is one of the least railroady modules out there. When we realized that none of us had the right material to hurt a certain bad guy, we went looking for a magic shop -- and were informed that it was closed. We knocked. No answer. We pounded. No answer. We prepared to break in (we were saving the town, after all), and were informed that the magic shop owner had gone home and taken the entirety of his stock with him. Later, when we tried to get into a specific house, we were told that we couldn't break down the portcullis... despite the dwarf with the magical weaponry, Power Attack, and the wand of Silence to hide the racket. In fact, the DM held up his hand and said, "This is the hand of plot, telling you that you can't go in there until you go to this other place first." Then we went to the other place, and did the end battle FIRST because he, the DM, forgot to draw the side-rooms we'd specifically asked about on the map we had to use.

Wow! I would have simply quit at that point. Hand of plot, forsooth!

 

[takyris]

Umbra: That's my guess -- my day job involves some kids who have autism, and I'd wondered if Aspergers might be involved... but it's not the kind of thing one usually just brings up.

Shilsen: To be fair, he did say that he didn't have the time to create an adventure, so he wanted to run a module... and in his mind, that apparently meant "Must follow module exactly," despite the fact that Speaker is apparently supposed to be rather open-ended.

In fact, there was another scene, in the temple, where we captured a cleric with my time-honored minmax method (after my first well-thought-out, thoughtfully played character died horribly, I made a dwarven fighter4/cleric2 with Weapon Focus and Specialization in Armor Spikes and Grapple, as well as Improved Grapple, and I also gave him a wand of Silence... he pretty much shpinged himself with silence and latched onto enemy spellcasters). We thought, "Hey, got one alive! Let's interrogate him!" It went like this:

Us: Who do you work for?

Him: The Speaker in Dreams.

Us: And what does this dude look like?

Him: You'll find out.

Us: Okay, you know we've got you captured, right?

Him: ...

Us: Is the Speaker in Dreams in _____ (building name)?

Him: Don't you know? Bwahaha.

Us: Is the Speaker in Dreams a spellcaster? Does he wear armor? What race is he?

Him: Don't you know? Bwahaha.

Us: Er, do you know anything?

Him: You'll find out.

Party Archer: Hey, I'll bet you 5 gold I can put an arrow through his eye.

Us: Really, tell us something useful.

Him: Don't you know? Bwahaha.

Party Cleric: You're on.

(twang)

DM: Well, that's a relief. That guy knew nothing. He had no useful information. He knew so little that the module didn't even describe what information he knew!

Us: Well... see... you could have... um... reasonably interpreted... something...

DM: And now you should go into this room!

 

[JoeGKushner]

Have any of you been in situation where the DM had to be unseated, and polite conversation wasnt working? The players in our group just let our characters get slaughtered, then swept in and put a new Dm on the job, under the guise of taking a break from the "good stuff."
Are there any other tales of DM sabotage, or are we just really bad people?
In our defense, the guy is nice enough, but his game was absolutely horrible.
L.

Uh, actually, you are weasles. "Under the guise of taking a break"? Where you afraid of this person? Didn't want to hurt their feelings? I mean come on, it's roleplaying. It's not like being an elite member of a golf club or something and getting invited to a more elite club and lying about it. It's D&D, it's a game. If the DM was your friend, you are a super weasle. If the DM was a casual acquantice, why bother lying?

If I'm misreading your post here, I apologize, but it sounds sniviling at best.

 

[Crothian]

Hey, if you'll insist on running Thieves' World...

-Hyp.

It was actually with a group that liked Thieves World, though that was not what we were playing.