How badly have past DMs screwed up your current Players?

[Odhanan]

I've seen friends have particularly bad experiences with bad GMs, but they were generally smart enough to realize these were not problems with GMs in general, but rather problems with the particular people GMing at the time. Therefore, I've never had some problem from someone else running a game carry over into my own game. The players at my table know they can trust me, and though there is a little bit of competitive teasing going on between the two sides of the GM screen, it's all in good spirit, for the fun of it.

tl;dr version: it's not a problem of GMing, it's a problem of people.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The other consequence has been players who refuse to provide any kind of story for their PC so the DM has nothing to "use against them." This one bothers me the most because I prefer to get the players to feel like their PCs are really part of the world. Sometimes it is a note or package from Mom, other times it is a family connection that opens doors while investigating a quest, and yes, sometimes it is bad news that become a new adventure hook. Unfortunately, if the players give you nothing, then they are just PCs who suddenly appear in the world with no connections to anything, and often they will continue to be that way because they don't want any possible weakness that the DM can exploit.

I got burned by this once, but not for the reason one would think. We were playing knights in a GURPS fantasy game and I wrote an 11 page story for my character. He had a living family that he would visit on the holidays, and several interesting family members just waiting to become adventure hooks.


..........and the GM lost interest in the campaign after about 3 sessions.

No more character stories for me. Nope.

 

[kimble]

Much harder to explain to a recalcitrant player that "roleplaying your character" does not mean "refusing to go along with a perfectly reasonable plot hook, which is entirely in keeping with your character's stated alignment and objectives, out of pure contrariness."

I believe i have a player with that problem right now. Any sugestions? I tried to talk already. And I don´t wanna lose him because, most of the time, he´s a good player. It´s just some nights that he goes 'lets f*** things up'.

 

[Slander]

Nothing with D&D, but apparently every player in any group I've played in (past and present) must have shared the same bad DM. All of them universally, and decicively shoot me down anytime I suggest playing a a "supers" game. All relate eerily similar horror stories of woe, brokeness, and out of control ego-gratification. Makes me a sad panda whenever a new M&M edition released cuz I know I'll never get to play (so "No", I haven't been able to untrain them).

 

[jmucchiello]

I believe i have a player with that problem right now. Any sugestions? I tried to talk already. And I don´t wanna lose him because, most of the time, he´s a good player. It´s just some nights that he goes 'lets f*** things up'.

Ask him politely not to just decide some nights to be a jerk. If that doesn't work, boot him. If following alignment strictly is insufficient reason for being a jerk then certainly failing to follow alignment is even less of a reason for being a jerk. IOW, being a jerk is never valid.

 

[jmucchiello]

Nothing with D&D, but apparently every player in any group I've played in (past and present) must have shared the same bad DM. All of them universally, and decicively shoot me down anytime I suggest playing a a "supers" game. All relate eerily similar horror stories of woe, brokeness, and out of control ego-gratification. Makes me a sad panda whenever a new M&M edition released cuz I know I'll never get to play (so "No", I haven't been able to untrain them).

Not even a one-shot? Have you tried begging?

Are you the only DM? Hold gaming hostage until you get your one-shot.

All this assumes you can run the one-shot in a non-out of contro, ego-gratifying way, of course.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I got burned by this once, but not for the reason one would think. We were playing knights in a GURPS fantasy game and I wrote an 11 page story for my character. He had a living family that he would visit on the holidays, and several interesting family members just waiting to become adventure hooks.


..........and the GM lost interest in the campaign after about 3 sessions.

No more character stories for me. Nope.

11 pages! While I'm sure it was great stuff loaded with possibilities, that just seems extreme to me, and if every player sent me that much - well, I should remember to be careful what I wish for.

There is a happy place somewhere between getting nothing at all, and getting an 11 page memoir.

 

[korjik]

I don't think I've seen players "screwed up" that badly. Mostly what I've seen are cases of "Murphy's Gamers." These are players who have come to expect that whatever could be the worst possible outcome of something, that is what will happen.

One consequence of this has been games that move at a snails pace from players who have to analyze every option for problems, check every section of floor for traps etc.

The other consequence has been players who refuse to provide any kind of story for their PC so the DM has nothing to "use against them." This one bothers me the most because I prefer to get the players to feel like their PCs are really part of the world. Sometimes it is a note or package from Mom, other times it is a family connection that opens doors while investigating a quest, and yes, sometimes it is bad news that become a new adventure hook. Unfortunately, if the players give you nothing, then they are just PCs who suddenly appear in the world with no connections to anything, and often they will continue to be that way because they don't want any possible weakness that the DM can exploit.

It is interesting that players will not want a backstory that they have created, cause the DM may use it against them, but are perfectly willing to let the DM use greed, sloth, envy and bloodlust against them all the time

 

[Oryan77]

I think most of the screwed up players are screwed up because they are crappy players. They seem to like to blame it on their past DMs.

All I've really seen are players that think I'm going to cheat in order to railroad them. Like, fudge NPC stats or equipment so the NPC can't be beaten. The players just have a hard time trusting that I'm going to be fair.

But I still think it is more about them being crappy players on their own and it not being so much the DMs fault. If someone calls me a crappy DM, can I blame it on having bad players in the past?

 

[Corathon]

"Broken" is a bit too strong, but I have seen players who had expectations of how a DM operates that were radically different from my way of running a game.

For example, a group of characters has found the "back door" to the lair of a red dragon. They are preparing to climb down an old lava tube on a rope, when I have them roll to notice that the rope as they have rigged it will be pressed against a sharp edge when they start climbing down. Someone did.

At this point they decided (to my surprise) not to go that way and instead to go in the front door.

After the TPK, one of the players explained that he thought that the I was giving them a hint that they shouldn't go that way.