How do you determine a "Real Bad Dungeon Master"

[palleomortis]

It seems like the idea vary's from person to person, what do you guys consider a RBDM

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Anyone who ever pulls a way for his favourite (or "necessary") NPCs to survive out of his or her rear end.

 

[fafhrd]

I think you're bound to hear some calls for distinction between Rat Bastard DMs(some consider this laudable) and DMs that just plain suck.

 

[wingsandsword]

When you regularly don't have fun at their games, they're bad.

When you actively avoid their games because you know you'll not enjoy it and could have a better time just watching TV or engaging in other idle pursuits, they're really bad.

 

[Turanil]

I agree with the above poster.

In any case I met a real bad DM once: he didn't know the rules (just extremely superficially) and ran anything based on DM's fiat. I say: anything! Also, he had no adventure and was improvising without coherence.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

So many different ways for a DM to suck...

DMs who try to control everything. (Welcome to the D&D Railroad... All Aboard!)

DMs who cannot subtly guide a game (either losing control, or being blatant about it).

DMs who get stoned halfway through the session, lose track of what was going on, but think that being stoned helps them run the game...

DMs who run nothing but a dungeon crawl.

DMs who do not know the rules well enough.

DMs who play favorites.

And sometimes a DM can suck multiple ways at the same time...

The Auld Grump

 

[palleomortis]

Well, that sucks.

 

[ThirdWizard]

DMs who think of it as "their" game and that they're doing the players a favor letting them experience their wonderful "vision."

Any DM who will seriously refer to themself as a god.

DMs who always games the system to the PCs' weaknesses.

DMs who change the rules mid-game to make the PCs weaker.



Luckily, I'm throwing out things I've never actually seen.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I find the worst dm is the one that almost has a good game going except for a terrible flaw that cannot be tolerated. If I am to get realy theoretical, a truly dreadful dm would know what they are doing wrong & try to fix it but fail.

 

[The Shaman]

I think railroading GMs are the worst - they take the game out of the players' hands, rendering the players unable to make meaningful decisions for their characters and removing the element of chance that marks the difference between playing a game and listening to someone tell a story.