D&D 5E DM purposely gimping my Warlock

[MoonSong]

KaiiLurker, the solution to the problems you present is incredibly simple: Don't play with dick DMs.

Seriously. I see this get trotted out often, that these horrible selfish tyrannical DMs are just ruining the game for everyone. Why do you keep playing with them? At some point you gotta stop blaming the DM for being a jerk, and start blaming the player for continuing to play with them. The whole "fool me once" thing. No one needs a certification or license to be a DM. DM your own game the way you want.

There. Done.

Of course that it goes without saying, don't play with Jerk DMs is one of my personal rules....now. But things aren't as clear cut, how do you know when a DM is a narcissist jerk? the only way to know for sure is to play with them first. Most of the time we get as little information on a DM as the OP mentioned, or even less. And it isn't always like that, while I don't doubt some egocentric DMs jumped to the net after running out of friends, many DMs become like that in a peer-pressure-free environment. I had played with some DMs and found them very good, but over time they grew more and more controlling and reactive and games that used to be good turned into nightmare. And this is the problem, how do you detect Jerk DMs before it is too late?. And -at least in my case- one as a player grows less into "fool me once", and more into "once bitten, twice shy", how can you trust that this DM won't be a bad one? how can you trust this good DM not to grow into a narcissistic monster? I personally have found some pointers that work for me, but I have some experience with it (and I'm an empathic psychic who can see the future), a first time player won't know how to handle it and is more likely to leave the hobby.

Also there is a problem with "run your own game the way you want", yes it solves problems when I DM, but not when I play, it doesn't matter if you are the perfect DM if when you want to play you can only find bad DMs. And I suscribe to the notion that a game is not the DM's, it is all the player's. Why should my players suffer because I don't like a determinate class? or not know the rules well enough? we all should work together to get a fun experience.

Edit: And one more thing, many players feel trapped thinking that a bad game is better than no game at all. Even I sometimes feel tempted to go back to certain DMs, just because they have room and I'm itching to play, and maybe they have changed? perhaps if I'm nicer and settle for something duller he won't choose to pick on me?

 

[Elf Witch]

Maybe you need to read a little more carefully. I'm not going to waste my time going back to quote it for you, but the DM did try to stop him from using two of his abilities. In the same session. And the other players had to step in and point out that the DM didn't know what he was talking about.


Yes, I said bad, draconian, and incompetent, and I'll say it again. I'll also point out again that I'm not talking about a real person here because for all I know this whole story is made up. So it simply does not matter what we say about him because his reputation is not actually at stake.

What we are discussing (what I am, anyway) is a set of circumstances that might have happened -- maybe they did and maybe they didn't, in this particular case. But I can tell you for certain that things like this do happen all the time with power-hungry amateur DMs who are far more interested in shoving their precious narrative down players' throats than participating in an entertaining game based on mutual respect. Maybe you disagree; maybe you think the DM's absolute control over every aspect of the game is more important than respect or fun or even having the courtesy to understand the very game you are trying to run. You're entitled to that opinion, I suppose, but I wouldn't ever want to get caught at the same table as you if that's the case.

I did reread it and it said he tried to challenge how the spell worked but another player stepped in and helped explained how it worked it to the DM so in the end it was not taken away. So that does not seem like a draconian DM thing to me but a DM who may not understand how the brand spanking new game works completely.

Bull you are talking about a real DM the OP posted a series of conversations with the DM and other players and told the DM it was being discussed here. So that is a real person who gets if he chooses to come to Enworld and read how he is bad DM those judgments being passed without ever hearing his side of it.

And you know what also happens whiny entitled players making DM and other players lives miserable jerks can be jerks regardless of which side of the screen they are on.

I can tell you right now that after reading the sheer BS of your last paragraph about me especially since you have never met me tells me a lot about how you judge people.

 

[Ahrimon]

KaiiLurker, the solution to the problems you present is incredibly simple: Don't play with dick DMs.

Seriously. I see this get trotted out often, that these horrible selfish tyrannical DMs are just ruining the game for everyone. Why do you keep playing with them? At some point you gotta stop blaming the DM for being a jerk, and start blaming the player for continuing to play with them. The whole "fool me once" thing. No one needs a certification or license to be a DM. DM your own game the way you want.

There. Done.

Battered player syndrome? lol.

Personally, I've never seen this mythical horrid DM. I think it's nothing more than a boogie man that gets trotted out to try and justify an argument. Because remember, it's always us vs them and if your not us your them. It doesn't matter what side us or them are, it just has to be us vs them.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Battered player syndrome? lol.

Personally, I've never seen this mythical horrid DM. I think it's nothing more than a boogie man that gets trotted out to try and justify an argument. Because remember, it's always us vs them and if your not us your them. It doesn't matter what side us or them are, it just has to be us vs them.

This is largely my assessment as well. It's always someone else's fault, it seems.

 

[MoonSong]

Battered player syndrome? lol.

Personally, I've never seen this mythical horrid DM. I think it's nothing more than a boogie man that gets trotted out to try and justify an argument. Because remember, it's always us vs them and if your not us your them. It doesn't matter what side us or them are, it just has to be us vs them.

But it happened to me, I changed specific details (like the edition) so this doesn't go back to the DM, and I will never tell names nor more details. But just because this hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Will you find a terrible DM on your local friendly group? no you won't, peer pressure keeps us sane and well-behaved. Will you find one in an internet forum where people feel free to be that ugly "Darker me" and the effect of peer pressure is negligible? of course, spend one year in Rpol playing with random strangers and you will find one, if you are unlucky enough.

 

[Kaychsea]

I haven't seen a DM like that, but I have seen an entire group.

 

[Mort]

Battered player syndrome? lol.

Personally, I've never seen this mythical horrid DM. I think it's nothing more than a boogie man that gets trotted out to try and justify an argument. Because remember, it's always us vs them and if your not us your them. It doesn't matter what side us or them are, it just has to be us vs them.

Horrid DMs certainly exist.

I've gamed with 2 that would definitely qualify.

The first was horrid because the players didn't matter in the least to his campaign. They were merely spectators that he expected his "brilliance." Looking back, the only reason players stayed in was because we were young and didn't know any better.

The second DM was worse. He misled me as to the nature of the campaign (said low powered, so I made a low powered character, I was the only character that wasn't super magic or super powered). I don't have a problem playing low powered among high powered as long as I'm useful and it's fun, but why mislead?

He followed this by not letting my character do his shtick (I had made a tracker, but no matter how high I rolled he never actually let me track anything - despite or perhaps because being able to track the villain would have been extremely useful). Fortunately, I was older by this point. I gave the game two sessions and bailed.

Both of these people thought they were God's gift to DMing.

But I suppose there was an upside, I learned much of what NOT TO DO from these experiences and certainly believe my own DMing benefited as a result.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

there are a lot of bad DMs out there,

ones that change rules mid play and sometimes back again... (In my game there is no stone skin, well this NPC researched his own spell like stoen skin, no you can't make up your own stone skin)

ones that throw BS monsters (Yes it needs a +2 or higher magic weapon to hurt, and no one even has a +1 yet)

ones that pretend taking a left was a bad call worth rerolling half the party (open door, wail of banshee everyone save or die... well if you hadden't opned THAT door)

ones that limit choises for no reason (only 3 races and 4 classes in MY game)

ones that make stupid random rolls (well my archer is up I will roll 1d6 to see what PC he targets... ok 5 is you... "But I'm not in the fight I stayed in the last room because I only had 3hp left... too bad random roll said target you, rapid shot 5 arrows coming your way)

ones that fudge just to kill PCs because it's funny (we killed a mantacore in the air... it fell on me and killed my first PC, 3 games later same campaign the black dragon was down to single hp so he breathed on a wall and brought down the whole room killing itself and 3 of 5 PC including me)

so yea, not just an internet thing.. bad GMs are for reals...

 

[Ahrimon]

I'm truly sorry that you guys had a bad experience, but I still think that you are talking about the outlying cases here. Yes there will always be bad DMs out there, but in the classic internet way of things, it comes off as they're everywhere and we have to guard against them and protect the precious players. I don't subscribe to that personally. If someone is a bad DM, walk away. You'd be amazed how often it only takes one person to say something before the others realize that they have a voice too. I would rather let 10 bad DM's rampage through the player base than shackle 1000 DMs to protect the players. Just like I'd rather let 10 murderers go free than sacrifice the freedoms of 1000 people. But I find myself more and more in the old school category in the game of society. /shrug.

 

[Astrosicebear]

The best advice to give an unhappy player who can't work things out with their DM is to simply find another game.

Which is exactly the advise given on the first page of this thread. Where I took offense was people blaming the player.