How do I bow out of the game gracefully?

[Tewligan]

Pawsplay saved me some effort by typing pretty much exactly what my advice would be.

 

[blargney the second]

Personally, I'd present them with the problems that you're facing and appeal for help in finding solutions.

 

[Asmor]

I'm going to reiterate what everyone else has said...

Try to fix the problem instead of running from it. Sit down with them all, have a talk. At the very least, if they decide not to change anything, they'll understand why you want to quit the group. And with any luck at all, you'll actually get things to change and everyone will have more fun. It's a win-win.

 

[Monkey Boy]

Thank you for the advice so far.

I've edited the OP to clarify the commute time. It's 2 hours total travel time and a weeknight game. We are all married, some of us with kids. I live the furthest away and moving the game to another house wouldn't help with the travel time.

The game is a sand-box style set-up. We can wander where ever we want. It's just that nothing is fleshed out, the NPC's we encounter are as two-dimensional as they come, what roleplaying we do is entirely PC driven. Fights seem very ad-hoc with monsters plucked at random from the monster manual. The game world is populated by epic level characters and based on a computer game MMO world. Because the DM has nothing prepared he pads the game out so that I wind up with 20 minutes of fun in 3 hours of game.

Here's an isolated adventure to give you an idea on why I'm not enjoying things. 3 sessions ago we played through an adventure based around the TV show 'Gladiator' and the Aus show 'it's a Knock-out.' The DM loves these programs and you could tell he really enjoyed running the game. I didn't have the heart to spoil his fun by pointing out our characters should be adventuring rather than hitting lvl 20 Barbarians off greased poles with pillows, or running the gladiator 'Gauntlett'. Most adventures are not like this but they are close.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How do I bow out of the game gracefully?

Start hitting on one of the other players.

 

[blargney the second]

Talk with them. If they're friends, you'll work it out.

 

[der_kluge]

Personally, I'd rather do almost anything else than sit through 4 hours of crappy D&D.

To me, I'd rather not play D&D at all than suffer than a bad session of it.

I'm with some of the others. Ditch them. Find something else to do with your time. Life is too short for crappy games.

 

[sniffles]

Here's an isolated adventure to give you an idea on why I'm not enjoying things. 3 sessions ago we played through an adventure based around the TV show 'Gladiator' and the Aus show 'it's a Knock-out.' The DM loves these programs and you could tell he really enjoyed running the game. I didn't have the heart to spoil his fun by pointing out our characters should be adventuring rather than hitting lvl 20 Barbarians off greased poles with pillows, or running the gladiator 'Gauntlett'. Most adventures are not like this but they are close.

Ouch. Sounds like the GM has forgotten the game is supposed to be fun for the players, too.
Maybe someone needs to remind him.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Tell them that you're leaving and why but give them some lead time to try and find another player.

 

[BSF]

The DM doesn't have/isn't taking time to dedicate to game prep and the sessions suffer for it. Can somebody else DM? Can you play another game? Get Descent (From Fantasy Flight Games) or buy a copy of DungeonBash (from The Other Game Company) and run through a session where everybody gets to be the player and you get to go kick some butt. If necessary explain that the lack of a campaign, storyline, NPCs with any real character, etc is sucking the life out of the roleplaying aspect of the game.

120 minutes of commute time for a 20 minute kernel of fun in a 180 minute package. Anybody can understand that math. The only risk for you is that the DM will take it hard.

Thank you for the advice so far.

I've edited the OP to clarify the commute time. It's 2 hours total travel time and a weeknight game. We are all married, some of us with kids. I live the furthest away and moving the game to another house wouldn't help with the travel time.

The game is a sand-box style set-up. We can wander where ever we want. It's just that nothing is fleshed out, the NPC's we encounter are as two-dimensional as they come, what roleplaying we do is entirely PC driven. Fights seem very ad-hoc with monsters plucked at random from the monster manual. The game world is populated by epic level characters and based on a computer game MMO world. Because the DM has nothing prepared he pads the game out so that I wind up with 20 minutes of fun in 3 hours of game.

Here's an isolated adventure to give you an idea on why I'm not enjoying things. 3 sessions ago we played through an adventure based around the TV show 'Gladiator' and the Aus show 'it's a Knock-out.' The DM loves these programs and you could tell he really enjoyed running the game. I didn't have the heart to spoil his fun by pointing out our characters should be adventuring rather than hitting lvl 20 Barbarians off greased poles with pillows, or running the gladiator 'Gauntlett'. Most adventures are not like this but they are close.