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Failed DM Experiements
- Thread starter Pyske
- Start date
Pants
First Post
I wonder if getting your player's frustrated is really a bad thing?Ao the Overkitty said:
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil Spoilers
The party just attacked the Main Gate to the Crater Ridge Mines last weekend which resulted in a battle that lasted 4 hours! They tore through the Howler, the Ogre, Mereclar and the human guards, but most of their time was spent fighting Terrengyit the Trog Priest. They just couldn't hit him, he had an AC of 29, the Dwarven Paladin Tank had been blinded and it eventually turned into a wrestling match between the Trog and the Monk. However, throughout the course of the battle, everyone was low on Hit Points and the battle definitely frustrated the players. However, when they finally took the Troglodyte down, everyone was happy. So I think it was a frustrated in a good way kind of thing.
Some of my failed DMing experiments:
My First Quest - I tried to do some political intrigue along with a pair of stupid NPC's including, the Fat King who instantly became a 10th level Wizard whenever one of the PC's thought about attacking him, the Halfling Fighter named 'Tiny,' and the Human female Cleric who was well endowed with 'large tracts of land.' I also tried to introduce mystery, behind the scenes plots, and politics. Include a static Dungeon environment and you're set for the lamest quest ever. And it all happened in one quest.
My Long Running Villain Idea - This started out rather well, but since I had the villains planned ever since day 1, it eventually turned into a Rail Road-athon. I have vowed since then to plan campaigns in 'plot arcs,' ie the players will play through varied stories throughout the campaign and depending upon the outcome, I'll introduce another plot hook. These maybe related or may not, but I don't think I can handle a long term villain from level 1 to level 20.
The Magic Item Grab Bag Idea - Humorous, but nothing more. Helped to introduce more problems into my rail roading campaign. Ugh.
Building a Low Magic World - I tried, I really tried. I wanted to run a low magic world where the players would cherish their magic items, that their +1 longsword would be a trusty companion for many moons. I did that for a while, but I just can't seem to properly manage a low magic world, so it turned into a semi-above average magic world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm still running the game now and I'm having a blast.
The My First 3e Game
PC: "Does the Strength bonus on these Gloves and this Belt stack?"
DM (me): "I don't see why not..."
pogre
Legend
I just ended a six-month campaign experiment and concluded ultimately that my house rules were a failure.
I have a problem with normal D&D magic rules - D&D requires me to suspend disbelief and logic. A society with that much magic would not look like medieval Europe - yet that is the setting I enjoy. Anyway this objection led to my experiment:
All Arcane spells had the possibility of failure and strength drain - an idea I took from Grim Tales.
There were no item creation feats save potions and scrolls.
Divine magic was less restricted, but offensive divine magic also carried the possibility of drain.
The result was a 5th level party without a whole lot of magic.
I did adjust the CRs to match the reduced magic, but the PCs just could not deliver the punch required. I came to the realization that D&D requires the PCs to deliver more and more damage and the main way they do this is with magic stuff. Stripping created magic items and arcane magic is too much and the PCs became disadvantaged.
The result was a TPK last night.
Next campaign: pure core rules with no reduction in magic.
I have a problem with normal D&D magic rules - D&D requires me to suspend disbelief and logic. A society with that much magic would not look like medieval Europe - yet that is the setting I enjoy. Anyway this objection led to my experiment:
All Arcane spells had the possibility of failure and strength drain - an idea I took from Grim Tales.
There were no item creation feats save potions and scrolls.
Divine magic was less restricted, but offensive divine magic also carried the possibility of drain.
The result was a 5th level party without a whole lot of magic.
I did adjust the CRs to match the reduced magic, but the PCs just could not deliver the punch required. I came to the realization that D&D requires the PCs to deliver more and more damage and the main way they do this is with magic stuff. Stripping created magic items and arcane magic is too much and the PCs became disadvantaged.
The result was a TPK last night.
Next campaign: pure core rules with no reduction in magic.
Sir Whiskers
First Post
Pyske said:
In a long-ago campaign, I warned the players that the world was dangerous and they could run into anything (not just challenges artificially tied to their level). The first encounter was with a couple wandering hill giants (the party was 2nd level). They tried to hide, but failed. One giant found them, ate one of their mules, and almost killed the npc illusionist by dropping him from 10' up. Result: frustrated players, dead campaign.
Also, I once gave a player's character a deck of many things - does that count?
shilsen
Adventurer
Sir Whiskers said:
I think the deck of many things counts in a list of failed experiments 9 times out of 10
I haven't had any plot issues that really blew up in my face (which probably means that I haven't been DM-ing long enough), but a recent house rule that ended up being totally useless was ruling that medium and heavy armors provided some amount of DR. I don't think there was a single combat where we remembered the DR issue until the end of the fight, so I dropped it.
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
Sir Whiskers said:
Ah yes. That effectively lead to the downfall of the last game I co-DM'd.
One player drew Talon (lose all magic items) then drew the Skull (fight death or die). Since you need a magic item to fight death, she was done for (none of the other players thought to help her out or thought they COULD help her).
Another went lawful evil from Balance, which took him out of the game (one of the rules set by the DMs was no evil PCs).
Another got 50,000 XP from Jester (and was effectively taken out for being too powerful for the group).
Definately a failed experiment.
ciaran00
Explorer
I tried a "I want my 2e and have my 3e too" experiment as far as rules go but it kept being awkward (ie, house-ruled to death). I realised that what I really wanted was simpler rules... which works a lot better now.
Arguments in games with players sometimes are the result of DM failure. I remember having a character death argument where things were not made clear on a map... that always sucks.
ciaran
Arguments in games with players sometimes are the result of DM failure. I remember having a character death argument where things were not made clear on a map... that always sucks.
ciaran
SylverFlame
First Post
Hmm, where to start, where to start? Well, two good ones come to mind, though there are PLENTY more.
First, we had a 2e game and I had just picked up the psionics handbook (cringe with me, please). At the time, I did not like play-testing a new element with an NPC so one player volunteered to take the reigns. First trial showed Power Points to be bloody annoying, so the group (not one, but ALL the PC's) said to nix them and try again. Well, shortly after getting a uses per day along the lines of a present edition sorcerer we were well on our way to dooms day. The Psion nuked siege engines like they were going out of style (pitched battle to see survivability). After the group picked their jaws up off the floor the Psionic book went into the "needs house ruling" pile. Never did get those psions right and every experiment ended with new character sheets being printed off.
The other experiment was going very well, until trouble hit. The players were in a cave and had just managed to trounce some upped bugbears. The minotaur warrior (homebrew race for the campaign) was unconcious, the halfling cleric decided it needed the healing potions more than anyone, and the thief was busily packing items into the bag of holding. Sitting in the cave, the thief needed to get an item from the bag (he thought he had a heal scroll in there). It was at this point they learned the bag was not a bag of holding but a bag of devouring. SInce the PC's had put everything into it (gold, weapons, a few animals [testing if there was air inside]) they decided that it wasn't worth the hassle to keep the characters. It was at this time that I made up what happens when a bag of devouring is turned inside out. For those interested, a part of another plane replaced the material world and a MAJOR demon (worked into a later campaign thank you) was unleashed. Fun for all, in other words.
As a side note, I am probably the only DM who has NOT had a deck of many things blow up in my face. Mind you, I've only ever employed two. They're just dang scary.
First, we had a 2e game and I had just picked up the psionics handbook (cringe with me, please). At the time, I did not like play-testing a new element with an NPC so one player volunteered to take the reigns. First trial showed Power Points to be bloody annoying, so the group (not one, but ALL the PC's) said to nix them and try again. Well, shortly after getting a uses per day along the lines of a present edition sorcerer we were well on our way to dooms day. The Psion nuked siege engines like they were going out of style (pitched battle to see survivability). After the group picked their jaws up off the floor the Psionic book went into the "needs house ruling" pile. Never did get those psions right and every experiment ended with new character sheets being printed off.
The other experiment was going very well, until trouble hit. The players were in a cave and had just managed to trounce some upped bugbears. The minotaur warrior (homebrew race for the campaign) was unconcious, the halfling cleric decided it needed the healing potions more than anyone, and the thief was busily packing items into the bag of holding. Sitting in the cave, the thief needed to get an item from the bag (he thought he had a heal scroll in there). It was at this point they learned the bag was not a bag of holding but a bag of devouring. SInce the PC's had put everything into it (gold, weapons, a few animals [testing if there was air inside]) they decided that it wasn't worth the hassle to keep the characters. It was at this time that I made up what happens when a bag of devouring is turned inside out. For those interested, a part of another plane replaced the material world and a MAJOR demon (worked into a later campaign thank you) was unleashed. Fun for all, in other words.
As a side note, I am probably the only DM who has NOT had a deck of many things blow up in my face. Mind you, I've only ever employed two. They're just dang scary.
Silver Moon
Adventurer
Three come immediatley to mind, all thankfully only one-night games:
The first was built around the playing characters finding themselves as pieces in a giant chess game. The problem was that I didn't realize that only one of the nine players knew how to play chess!
The second dismal failure involved the characters interacting with an adventuring team from an alternate reality. The module that created this other reality was great, but this sequel was overkill and fell flat.
The most recent failure was an attempt to combine D&D with the game Paranoia. The less said about that game the better.
The first was built around the playing characters finding themselves as pieces in a giant chess game. The problem was that I didn't realize that only one of the nine players knew how to play chess!
The second dismal failure involved the characters interacting with an adventuring team from an alternate reality. The module that created this other reality was great, but this sequel was overkill and fell flat.
The most recent failure was an attempt to combine D&D with the game Paranoia. The less said about that game the better.
Duncan Haldane
Explorer
Well, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I was trying to run my first (1st ed) AD&D game.
But, I decided that character creation with the players would take too long, since there was too much new stuff for players who had only played Basic to understand.
So, I created a bunch of characters myself. One for each class. Then I put the names in a jar, and had the players reach in and take one.
We started the session. A few minutes in, in the first corridor of the scenario, the paladin, who was towards the back (or at the back - this was about 20 years ago, so my memory is a bit rusty), did a detect evil.
The campaign ended soon after the paladin detected the assassin....
Duncan
But, I decided that character creation with the players would take too long, since there was too much new stuff for players who had only played Basic to understand.
So, I created a bunch of characters myself. One for each class. Then I put the names in a jar, and had the players reach in and take one.
We started the session. A few minutes in, in the first corridor of the scenario, the paladin, who was towards the back (or at the back - this was about 20 years ago, so my memory is a bit rusty), did a detect evil.
The campaign ended soon after the paladin detected the assassin....
Duncan
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