DM Schticks That Grind Your Gears

[Numion]

So let me get this straight....From your post, you don't put any work into character background, or try to make your character have any fluff or extra cool things about it. You also don't mind if, while having a fun or challenging campaign, that your character dies and the DM tells you, sorry bud, don't bother showing up the next three weeks cause the campaign is going to end. You also don't mind if the DM throws traps or challenges that shouldn't be life threatening, but more a challenge, and if things go wrong, like a bunch of 1's rolled by a PC or a bunch of 20's rolled by the DM, then the DM shouldn't fudge things, to ensure that YOU have a fun time.

Whoah, why would anyone miss three sessions because of a death? Just hand out an empty character sheet and roll the dice! It's not a NASA-trick

For me surviving is a big enjoyment in D&D. I don't know if I'm good at it, but at least I'm better at it than rest of the group. I would feel cheated if all my "lewt skillz" as a player were for naught and the DM was picking up slack for the other players.

Obviously I meant surviving because of my own choices, and not surviving because the "DM sez so".

 

[jester47]

So let me get this straight....From your post, you don't put any work into character background, or try to make your character have any fluff or extra cool things about it. You also don't mind if, while having a fun or challenging campaign, that your character dies and the DM tells you, sorry bud, don't bother showing up the next three weeks cause the campaign is going to end. You also don't mind if the DM throws traps or challenges that shouldn't be life threatening, but more a challenge, and if things go wrong, like a bunch of 1's rolled by a PC or a bunch of 20's rolled by the DM, then the DM shouldn't fudge things, to ensure that YOU have a fun time.

Like I said....the players make the story. As a DM, its my job to make sure they get to do that. If halfway through they all die, so be it. But I won't screw over a player by letting dice fall where they may. If the player screws up and asks for death, thinking they are invincible, then yeah, they die. Otherwise, I make sure my players have fun. Which is all its about at the end of the day. I guess we must agree to disagree how this is achieved.

Response:
Paragraph 1: I would rather have my character die.
Paragraph 2: My fun and your fun are apparently different.

Also, your assumptions are loaded. Only a DM with a carefully crafted story will not let you back in with a new character after yours has died. I know I let my players back in with a new character after the previous one died no matter how muny sessions are left in the campaign, mainly because my campaigns don't really end as they are not pre plotted stories. Stuff just happens.

 

[Hussar]

A power-tripping player, IMX, is one who doesn't recognize, disputes, or ignores everything you just set forth.

Hussar, I don't mean to give offense, but I'm wrestling with a way to put this diplomatically: when you complain about all those bad game masters in your past, I have to wonder if they were really the problem...?

I believe you are reading more into this than perhaps you should. "All those bad GM's" actually aren't that many. Two, perhaps three. However, ONE is more than enough really.

However, it comes down to semantics. I wouldn't call that a power-tripping player, just a jerk. That's certainly not limited to either side of the screen.

But, the idea that I'm supposed to sit back and take whatever the DM has to be peddling is something that is going to grind my gears. The idea that I cannot even disagree with the DM, that I have to passively accept each and ever decree spouted off from the mountaintop just because this wingnut happens to be sitting on the other side of the screen is not going to fly with me anymore. The "infallible" DM whose ideas are all pure gold, who distributes fun in parcels of juicy goodness is pure .

Yes, there are good DM's out there. I hope to be one someday. I know that I've played with a few. But, that doesn't mean that as soon as you take up the DMing reins that you are somehow touched by the Spirit of Gaming and can do no wrong.

 

[Agent Oracle]

The preceding text has been removed as a coutresy to the staff, and reader sanity as a whole.

Oh, and you all level, heck, you level twice.

The GM abhores letting players know about their experience points. It's just so much simpler to toss them a freaking level whenever he feels like they are getting antsy.

Well, Jim called and said he won't be here tonight. oops! he's dead.

How rude of Jim, thinking a vacation/wedding/funeral/hospital stay is more important than his weekly game session! I know! I'll just have his character do something suicidal and reckless so that he dies. So what if I don't have his character sheet, his AC is low, right? The Titan hits...

Now, if you had gone the other way...

This GM just can't resist telling players what loot they missed / what secrets they didn't get when they left somethign alone. This is especially true of GM's that like to seed their pathways with High DC obsticals (like vampires, undetectable traps, and nigh-impossible skill checks.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Then there is a TPK. Why is this a problem?

Hey, that's twice in as many days that we've agreed on something. Keep it up!

 

[Raven Crowking]

As you say, the fun is in facing the challenge - if the challenge isn't real (that is, lacks meaningful consequences), then the fun is significantly lessened.

Quoted for truth.

 

[Storm Raven]

As an aside, to me a mainstream player is someone who would be upset after spending 2+hours making a character, then painting a mini, or finding a pic, or some other cool character fluff, only to see his character die in the first encounter on the first d20 roll.

I would call that a whiny player, not a mainstream player. Adventuring is dangerous.

 

[Storm Raven]

So let me get this straight....From your post, you don't put any work into character background, or try to make your character have any fluff or extra cool things about it.

I don't see anything like that in his post. Where do you get this idea?

Or is it just foreign to you that someone could come up with a character background, fluff, and extra cool things, but not get all bent out of shape if that character is also short-lived?

You also don't mind if, while having a fun or challenging campaign, that your character dies and the DM tells you, sorry bud, don't bother showing up the next three weeks cause the campaign is going to end.

No, I don't mind if the character dies. But I don't see why this would mean that you don't bother showing up for the next three sessions. You have no NPCs in the campaign that can be promoted to PCs? You have no way to introduce new PCs to the campaign?

You also don't mind if the DM throws traps or challenges that shouldn't be life threatening, but more a challenge, and if things go wrong, like a bunch of 1's rolled by a PC or a bunch of 20's rolled by the DM, then the DM shouldn't fudge things, to ensure that YOU have a fun time.

No, I don't mind. If the trap or challenege is potentially deadly, then there should be a chance of actually dying when you deal with it. Unless there is that chance, it shouldn't be there to begin with, otherwise there is no real point to having it there.

Like I said....the players make the story. As a DM, its my job to make sure they get to do that. If halfway through they all die, so be it. But I won't screw over a player by letting dice fall where they may. If the player screws up and asks for death, thinking they are invincible, then yeah, they die. Otherwise, I make sure my players have fun. Which is all its about at the end of the day. I guess we must agree to disagree how this is achieved.

It sounds like it is you, as the DM who is making the story, not the PCs. And in my experience, that makes for a terrible campaign.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

Less then minimal monster description

DMs giving you a minimal description of the monsters, that leads you to identify the creature as a harmless creature. Ex: while the DM had a drawing of the monster he was throwing at us (he showed it to us afterward), he said we suddenly saw a "triangle, upside-down, with arms". We said "cool, it's a modron", then we tried to talk to it. But it threw a mean fireball at us. It wasn't a modron, it was the fiend from netheril (FR) whose name eludes me now...

 

[Joël of the FoS]

Oh ... I don't know about that. I find it rather amusing.

-Samir

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