Xath said:
My biggest regret was not being able to play in any pick-up games, because I had signed up for registered games. That was a big mistake, because my registered game was really crappy, and I hear nothing but good things about the pick-ups. I've learned my lesson.
Yep. My one registered game was, I thought, going to be an introduction to Eberron. Nothing in the registration material told me I needed to show up with a character. But I get there, and they ask me where my character is, and on telling them I don't have one, they make me pay an extra buck to get one. It's a kobold wizard. Yay!
So we start the game: we're looking to rescue a sister of a noble, or something. The GM reads the boxed text, and when we start trying to ask questions of the noble, says, "No questions! She shoos you out of the room." We insist that at least we need to know what she looks like, and he rolls his eyes and says, "Fine, she gives you a description. There's nothing in the adventure about what she looks like." We are allowed no further questions to aid us in our investigation.
We are allowed to make no further decisions until we reach the scene of the first fight. Once there, the DM reads the boxed text for the first fight (against thugs in the slums). He manages to kill off one of the PCs during this fight, and then refuses to let the player bring another PC into the game. Other PCs are unable to gather any equipment off the body of the fallen PC. It doesn't disappear; they're just not allowed to do it.
A few NPCs are watching us fight for their entertainment, and leer at the death of the PC, so we decide to try to intimidate them, maybe get some money or information from their sorry butts. Apparently they didn't have stats, so we were completely unable either to intimidate them or stop them from walking off--it was like they had the non-combatant tag on, so we couldn't even roll initiative.
At this point, I'd had more than enough. The guy whose PC was dead was sitting dejectedly at the table, so I asked him if he wanted to play my kobold wizard. He said yes, and I said See ya, Suckers! Within ten minutes, I was sitting at the Round Robin table, having a fantastic time without any boxed text at all.
I don't know what the etiquette is of leaving a lousy game. In this case, I think I did all right: my departure didn't hurt the group, since my PC stayed on, and it helped this guy. But if you find yourself in an atrocious game, what do y'all think the etiquette is? On the one hand, leaving the table can really hurt the group; on the other hand, are you obligated to spend 4 hours of valuable con time in a game you hate?
Daniel
Hopefully I'll get a chance to meet you all in the next year or two. I really want to go to GenCon, dammit!!!
