DM Schticks That Grind Your Gears

[Dagger75]

NPC's from one game keep popping up in other games. "Didn't this wizard hire in the last game you ran?"

I am actually guilty of this and have tried to stop.

I actually very tolerant of other DM's when I get to play.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

One of my gripes is DMs who play all the monsters as smart combat savy navy seals even if even all they are is a horde of rats.

LOL!

Yes, that would be gripe, too.

Sometimes monsters are clever. Sometimes they are big dumb strong things that are used to beating up anything smaller than themselves. Mix it up.

 

[Just_Hal]

NPC's from one game keep popping up in other games. "Didn't this wizard hire in the last game you ran?"

I am actually guilty of this and have tried to stop.

I actually very tolerant of other DM's when I get to play.

You tolerant-----farsnickety doodle dee on you. LOL
Just kidding, my last few DM's have been opposites, one who has notes and a map on a napkin and lets us freeform and assist in making the adventure by our own moves/decisions and one who is a stickler for rules and organization and will make us wait out the game until we "figure" out the clue we are missing.

Thinking the freeform may fit me better overall at this time.

 

[Rystil Arden]

NPC's from one game keep popping up in other games. "Didn't this wizard hire in the last game you ran?"

I am actually guilty of this and have tried to stop.

I actually very tolerant of other DM's when I get to play.

Why is this bad? I actually have several PbP games that all take place in a shared setting, and so there are a decent number of NPCs that were encountered in two or even three games. I find it adds verisimilitude.

 

[Someone]

Roll and roll and roll and roll and roll and roll again

The DM presents tasks that can only be solved spending literally hours rolling. for example, a 100 foot cliff: making a climb check makes you climb 5 feet forward, but failing it makes you fall 5 feet. Of course if you fall badly you lose grip and fall like a stone.

Or, if the travel lasts 15 days, he´ll roll 12 random encounters a day, and play every single of them. That makes potentially 180 encounters. Yes, travelling is a marvelous "experience"

 

[pogre]

The Puzzle or Trap Dead End

The PCs must overcome a trap or puzzle to move on in the adventure. "The puzzle is soooo easy!" the DM states with a stupid half-smirk. A complete WASTE of my gaming time. I do not mind a few puzzles, but spending hours on a mensa word problem is not my idea of quality gaming.

A close cousin to this is the super secret door that you must find to complete the adventure.

 

[Terwox]

Somewhat related:


Just Handing Him Ammo.
Your backstory serves one, and only one, purpose: to give the badguys more way to get you. Come from a town? It'll be razed. Have a sibling? They'll be attacked, kidnapped, turned into undead, or similar. Mentor? Killed before your very eyes, or turned evil. So on and so forth. Anyone you care about will be used against you in some way. If you have noone, you're fine, but you have people in your life they are tragedy waiting to happen.

aha, someone posted my pet peeve! I have a DM who does this ALL THE TIME. He gets annoyed when people start developing characters that have no strong relationships with anyone else... and denies he targets them.

My pet peeve is very similar -- enemies of the party will target people the party likes, instead of simply targetting the party. Sure, this fits SOME enemies... but not EVERYONE thinks this way.

Ah well, all DMs have personality slants for their PCs I guess.

 

[Drowbane]

The Moral of the Story - Back during my 2e days one of our DMs (who mainly ran Shadowrun) would go out of his way to PUNISH characters for doing something the DM thought was not-so-nice. One member of our Shadowrun team was a AWoL spec-ops guy (or somesuch) who focused on Sniping. This particular Ork would on occasion tag innocents on purpose to heighten chaos during Runs. Naturally this DM thought it appropriate to haunt the characters with "Ghosts of the Past". (Note, the player of the Ork normally played Paladin types to a T)

Another example. This was during 2e, my PC had a katana from the Fighter's Handbook... which of course was the Uber weapon of the day. This DM felt the need to destroy it with an unexplained psionic detonation (no, we never did run into any psionicist villain ) just because he thought the sword was borken (fool had no concept that the broadsword with its 2d4 was just slightly weaker.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The PCs must overcome a trap or puzzle to move on in the adventure. "The puzzle is soooo easy!" the DM states with a stupid half-smirk. A complete WASTE of my gaming time. I do not mind a few puzzles, but spending hours on a mensa word problem is not my idea of quality gaming.

A close cousin to this is the super secret door that you must find to complete the adventure.

I agree with this one. In one campaign, the DM gave us a logic puzzle to figure out. We could only get through the adventure by solving it. (He got the sudden idea that we should "think", ignoring the fact that we were thinking through all the social and combat situations we had been through. Sometimes DMs just don't know what thinking means.) Anyway, it seems he playtested it beforehand with other DnD players, and they solved it (individually) in less than 30 rounds. So if it took us more than 30 rounds to solve it, something very nasty would happen.

It took us nearly 60 rounds to solve it. Grr....

One member of our Shadowrun team was a AWoL spec-ops guy (or somesuch) who focused on Sniping. This particular Ork would on occasion tag innocents on purpose to heighten chaos during Runs. Naturally this DM thought it appropriate to haunt the characters with "Ghosts of the Past". (Note, the player of the Ork normally played Paladin types to a T)

No problems here. I don't know about haunting, but catching the character with powerful cops and throwing him in jail is quite appropriate.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Hi there. I DM about 90-95% of the time I sit down to game, so my perspective on complaining about DMs may be skewed.

I roll initiative every round, using a d10. I've found that, especially with larger groups, the 3.X combat system takes a long time to resolve. Even a single character's action might take a long time to resolve. I've found that rolling, and counting down, initiative each round helps the players to focus on what's happening, even when it is not their turn.

A lot of the problems mentioned here seem to be what I would call "texture" problems. Most players like the idea of clear leads, being able to go where they want, and hooks being drawn from their backstories. They like mysteries, tough opponents who really challenge them, and world travel. Of course, the "texture" part of this is -- how much?

If PCs retire to open bars, it is sensible to assume that some of those NPC bartenders might be former adventurers. If you're low-level, travelling in troll country, you might be happy that your horse provides more meat than you. You might feel fine helping your sister out when her husband is captured by goblins, if it isn't a weekly occurance. But if this stuff happens constantly, all you learn is to eschew family and backstory, never waste your money on a horse, and open your own inn as quickly as possible.

BTW, I have run games in which PCs have successfully robbed the inn, but the reality is that most prosperous businessmen aren't stupid. It shouldn't come as a great surprise that an attempt to sneak the cashbox out of a crowded taproom comes to a disasterous end....that the bartender has seen or heard of common tricks....or that reprisals are grisly.

Good gaming!

RC