Fatal (for PC) communications misunderstanding

[AlanSmithee]

Yes, I know it's only a game, and my PC did get resurrected, but it's still pretty stupid.

Here's what happened at my game yesterday:
GM: As you get closer to the cabin, approaching from the rear, you see it has an open window with a bag of gems in it.
Me, the rogue: <gestures the other PC's to halt> I carefully move closer and look through the window.
GM: Make a Reflex save DC 22.
Me, with a 4 Reflex save: Failed.
GM, to the other PCs: You see Dusty's head fall off.
Others: What happened? Is there an invisible enemy nearby? Help! I don't know what to do!

Now, quick informal poll for all you GM's out there:
When a player says "I look through the window" do you
a) think they mean "what can I see inside?"
b) assume the paranoid rogue is physically sticking his head through the window and into the cabin
c) ask for clarification

Turns out that while I thought, as did the other players, that I was asking what I could see inside, the GM decided that this would be a great opportunity for the guillotine in the window, designed to chop off my hand as I took the bag, to actually decapitate me. (On which note, isn't level 7 a bit low for a save or die effect?)

I didn't argue at the time, I think the other players were more upset about losing their most experienced player and the only party mage and I didn't want to slow the game down. But I'm still a little upset and annoyed, because this is the second time in three weeks this has happened - the first time, I said "I approach the door, checking for traps". In retrospect, I should have said "I approach the door, checking for traps all around, on the floor as I get closer, on the door, ceilings and walls". The GM didn't give me a save against the pit trap in front of the door because he thought I meant I was only checking the door for traps.

I guess basically I feel like my intelligence and my PC's intelligence are being insulted. And also, the other players are relatively new, while I've been playing for years and years - I think if it had been one of the others he would have said "Are you sure you want to put your head through the window?" Is it fair for him to be harder on me?

Now, the GM is, in many ways, an excellent GM, by far the best I've played with (which isn't too many, but still). I'm not doing this to b*tch behind his back. He is very imaginative and original with his plots, an accomplished actor for the NPCs and has a lot of experience. But he is a killer GM, and I've spoken to him before about it. He feels that it is important for things to be difficult, so when we manage to complete one of his campaigns it is a real acheivement. I feel the story is more important and it is very unsatisfying to, as has happened in the past, die in a random encounter and never resolve the storylines.

So I don't think speaking to him about this would do much good. Maybe I should just be grateful that I got raised, but I'd like to hear any suggestions, please! how to prevent this happening again. The only thing I can think of is to be as pedantic and explicit as I can be in describing what I'm doing, but this would be a) boring and b) slow the game down. And I play to relax, I don't want to have to be constantly alert for putting one foot wrong. I don't want to not show up if I'm feeling tired or distracted and unable to give my full attention. Maybe I could summon a monster and use divinations all the time, that will soon get old. But how else can I avoid being exposed to cheap shots like this?

*breathe* Relax. It's only a game...

 

[ceratitis]

what you describe is 100% the DMs fault. he is indeed insulting your inteligence. however you claim he is an excelent dm so i take it you dont want to replace him and you cant talk to him. what can i say man?
maybe play it his way and check for traps all the time, every inch. at some point he will have to see how this bogs down the game and maybe then you could talk to him about it.
Z

 

[FireLance]

Seriously, you should point out to him that his style of DMing is encouraging the players to be, as you said, as pedantic and explicit as they can be in describing what they are doing, and then ask him whether this is how he wants to run his games. And if he really wants to run Semantics and Split Hairs instead of Dungeons and Dragons, I think you'd be better off finding another DM regardless of how talented he is in other respects. One thing I like about the 3.5e wish is that DMs are no longer encouraged to turn it into a monkey's paw or to pervert the intent of the wish while fulfilling the letter. A DM who wants to do that with every single statement made by the player would be too tiring, stressful and un-fun to game with, in my view.

 

[Bagpuss]

To me it implies (a) since I rarely stick my head through (even an open) window to look through it.

And yes save or die seems very harsh. I hope the other players disassembled the trap to get the vorpal blade. Since if it was a normal blade it would just do damage rather than decapitate.

 

[GQuail]

I had a similar problem once. As a NG Cleric I was part of a group exploring a wrecked hut, whose former occupant we had assumed was now the werewolf tormenting the area. Amongst other things we clocked was a Mace, mounted to the wall ornately. Finding this incongruous, I said "I pick up the mace." The DM then told me I had lost my clerical powers and needed to atone because "a voice in your head says, "stealing is wrong"".

Now, he's right: a cleric of good randomly stealing things from dead people is a faux pas. But I didn't exactly mean "I take the dead guys stuff and bolt": I meant "I pick up the mace Indiana Jones-style, because it's the only thing untrashed in this hut, and I think that might mean it's important, so let's see if it's trqapped, magic or summut." BUt I didn't say that, so he read into it what he did from my admittedlly vague sentence, which since it knacked my spellcasting I felt was a bit unfair on his part.

The problem for a DM, of course, is that once he says what the effect of an action is, and the effect is very negative, how seriously can he take claims of "I didn't mean that"? Once it's clear what actually happens if you stick your head in the window, or pick up the mace, or what have you, even the nicest of players might say outloud, "Hey, come on, when did I say I...." And if you're purposefully put a situation into place (like the trapped window) part of you is always thinking about how to use it, or you're wary to say "How do you look into the3 window?" lest you give away it's important.

I think that any time a PC is about to snuff it or in some way be majorly inconvenienced, you'd better make sure there's no doubt on the events: random is one thing, but accusations of DM errors can knacker a game. In your case you say you feel the DM is treating you differently, handholind the begginers more and leaving you to the wolves: and if the DM knows his game is killer and isn't going to change there seems to be little you can do, except play uber-cautiously or bow out because it's not your idea of a fun game.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, that's just completely wrong in several ways (having your character stick his head through the window (just because there happens to be a trap - I'm almost sure, if sticking your head through the window was for some reason the only way to avoid the trap, then you wouldn't have done it); a weapon automatically killing with a failed Reflex save, etc).

But one other thing... you play a rogue... you are 7th level... and your Reflex save is +4!?

Do you have an 8 Dex!?

Or did you roll a 4 on the d20?

Bye
Thanee

 

[AlanSmithee]

I'm the party mage Just doing a critical with a longsword damage would probably have killed me, never mind instant death!

The group is quite small and there are no other suckers foolish enough to be the trap-bait, so I've taken a couple of levels of rogue. Maybe things will get safer if I go Arcane Trickster and get ranged legerdemain?

Maybe instead of being really specific and pedantic I should try going more generic? I mean, if I start saying "I check everything for traps and hidden enemies" then he might allow a little more flexibility...

 

[Piratecat]

Yeah, this is a DM mistake... and I know, because I've done the same thing. No one looks through a window by sticking their head through it. When I made the same sort of error, I chalked up my Incredibly Cool Trap (tm) as a total loss and reversed time to save the PC. It was the only fair thing to do.

 

[wedgeski]

What you describe is a perfect example of a DM who suddenly thinks he has had a bright idea and sledgehammers it through into the game. "Tee-hee, wouldn't it be funny if..." etc. A guillotine-trapped window with conspicuous loot is a good little trap - for a few points of damage and a critical embarrassment hit on the Rogue, not and insta-death!

Bad call on his part.

The later point made by GQuail about DM's drawing attention to traps by asking pointed questions of the PC's is a good one and hard to get around. Once your PC's settle into a routine it's a little unfair to punish them for not specifically saying they poke every trap with a stick or examine the window WITHOUT PUTTING MY HEAD THROUGH (or whatever). In those cases, the only thing I have found which works is to tell them in advance that, for the next hour or two, they need to be very specific with their actions.

 

[frankthedm]

Bad call on assuming you put your head through the window.

Good call on lopping off body parts put in harms way, at least IF they were put there in the first place.

The player admits the character had low HP. The decap-ing could have just came from the trap doing enough damage. Hell treating a person with the thier head in a guiatine trap as a "critical threat" situation sounds semi resonable.