DM Schticks That Grind Your Gears
- Thread starter Montague68
- Start date
Ridley's Cohort
First Post
Elf Witch said:
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
First Post
Dagger75 said:
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
First Post
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.Dagger75 said:
Someone
Adventurer
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"
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
Legend
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.
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
First Post
Sejs said:
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
First Post
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.
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.
Last edited:
(Psi)SeveredHead
Adventurer
pogre said:
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....
Drowbane said:
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
First Post
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
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
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