I cheated last game session

[Elf Witch]

I have had some really good advice on this thread and as hard as it was for me to do. I asked to take a break from both games.

Right now I don't feel as if the games are fun and I don't know how to fix them we have talked with each other and there are some hurt feelings all around.

This is the first time in ten years that I will not have a regular game. That just blows my mind. It is so hard down here finding a game.

Maybe I will check out DnD online.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

you sound like a really good player that can role (pun) well with the punches. Its a shame that it sounds as if you have a poor dm, that takes advantage of your good nature. I wish you dident live so far away ('im in california) Becuse i would invite you to our game. I hope you find a group worth playing with. One that gets your creative blood flowing. Maybe you can ask to be a dm for awhile, and show this railroader what an adventure with choice is all about, eh?

 

[SpiralBound]

Elf Witch, I honestly think that you're making the right choice. It looks like things were going from bad to worse. You'll be lucky if all of this doesn't impact your non-gaming friendship with him.

As for finding it hard to find a gaming group. There are a *lot* of people here on En World, surely if you poke around a bit you'll find someone who lives in Florida who is in a game that you can join. Isn't there even a "players finding players" forum here? Look through that, post in it that you're looking to join / start a group. If all of that doesn't work, then check out some local gaming / comic stores. See if they have a bulletion board with notices on it. Ask around, ask the staff. I'm sure with some poking around, you'll be able to get some face-to-face players to game with.

Oh, and keep in contact with the remaining players. Now that you're gone, I'm willing to bet that the GM will target someone else to be the railroad puppy of the group. There very well may be more people abandoning that sinking ship before long...

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I have had some really good advice on this thread and as hard as it was for me to do. I asked to take a break from both games.

Only sensible thing to do. I know I could never play with that DM. Badly messing up the rules to the player's disfavour and not making up for it? Step down and take some more time learning how to play before you try again.

Forcing people to make rolls to remember tying their shoes? You're a disgrace to DMs everywhere and should have your license revoked!

Isn't there another player who wants to try DMing?

This is the first time in ten years that I will not have a regular game. That just blows my mind.

I know how it is, having been forced to leave games because of issues, or booting players because of issues. I really hope that you find a new group. Why not ask around here? Maybe there's a perfectly fine gaming group practically next door, with people posting here, and you don't know it.

 

[Flyspeck23]

But one thing we disagree on and we have talked a lot via email last night was that sometimes he feels that he needs to mantipulate the PCs to get the plot going he needs us to do something or he needs to show us something.

Ah, he's writing a novel. Good for him.

 

[froggie]

all people cheat?

Nope, not me. I have in the past, but never in the last 20 years. As a DM or a player, I roll every dice roll on the table in front of everyone. I ask (insist if I am the DM) everyone else to do the same. No one can roll until I (or the DM) ask them too either, or they have to reroll (eliminates players cheating by the "reroll method".

I am a firm believer in "letting the dice fall where they may!" to quote Mr. Felton.

I would not fess up though...if the guy is a good shadowrun GM, he has the potential to be a good DM too. It sounds to me like he simply either:

a) does not know or understand the rules
b) cannot handle his plot being disrupted when you get lucky

My solution would be to ask everyone to roll in front of everyone else. Maybe you have to really push this w/ the DM, but tell him the demon prince Tsathogga came to you in a dream and suggested it. If everyone does it, then no harm, no foul on the last session.

Keep in mind though, that DMs usually cheat (in my experience), to keep PCs alive. I subscribe to no such silly conventions of course. When I encounter folks who try to cheat (extremely difficult in my game), they usually get what is coming to them eventually, if the other players don't "get a rope" before anything happens.

btw---if I had a 10+ level mage assassin....you would all be grease spots at 2-3rd level.

 

[KenM]

What you really did wrong was not slitting the guy's throat, dragging him down to the sewer, snd chopping bits and pieces of him off as you went along for the (regular) rats to munch on.

The DM or the NPC? IMO you did not cheat, you adapted and you overcame.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Nope, not me.

I think I did it once, against a paralysing gaze or something. I didn't feel like waiting this fight out at all. That was a one-time thing, though. In the end, it's no fun if you cheat.

I am a firm believer in "letting the dice fall where they may!"

I'm a firm disbeliever in that method. It does work if players are incredibly stupid and deserve to be smoked.

But sometimes, the DM miscalculates. Happens to me every now and then, and happened to me especially at the beginning of my current campaign. I really thought they could take on that dragon, it wasn't that old, after all.

If the DM puts something against his players that turns out to be too much of a challenge, and the option of running away isn't, it's only fair that he fudges the rolls, so he won't slaughter the players.

In the other direction, I occasionally give monsters/villains better results, or some extra HP, so the fight isn't too easy (and thus, boring) for the characters.


The important part is that you don't overdo it, and that you don't make it obvious.

I had a DM who wouldn't even pretend to roll - the other guy got away from us even though one of us had a blade to this throat and another had a drawn bow trained on him. No roll for init or anything.

I would not fess up though...if the guy is a good shadowrun GM, he has the potential to be a good DM too.

Have you read those posts? He lets people drive on the wrong side of the road, much to fast, without noticing. He lets them forget to put on important equipment (even if you'd assume they'd never put it off in the first place). If that stuff is considered good GMing in Shadowrun, then that's a very weird game and I hope I'll never play it properly.

It sounds to me like he simply either:

a) does not know or understand the rules
b) cannot handle his plot being disrupted when you get lucky

I think it's a, with sort of b: He can't handle his plot being disrupted when the players do anything except what he wants them to do.

Keep in mind though, that DMs usually cheat (in my experience), to keep PCs alive.

It didn't sound like that in this case. Not at all. It seems he was doing his level best to put them between a rock and a hard place.

btw---if I had a 10+ level mage assassin....you would all be grease spots at 2-3rd level.

And that makes you proud? It's not like it's not what is the normal thing to happen.

By the way, I don't think that guy was that high-level. It just sounded like the DM didn't know jack about the rules and did lots of stuff that the character coudln't do on his level. Or on 10th. Or on 20th.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Good for you on dropping out. Bad D&D is worse than no D&D at all.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Have you read those posts? He lets people drive on the wrong side of the road, much to fast, without noticing. He lets them forget to put on important equipment (even if you'd assume they'd never put it off in the first place). If that stuff is considered good GMing in Shadowrun, then that's a very weird game and I hope I'll never play it properly.

Heh, don't worry - if that is what EW is experiencing then that is not Shadowrun being run properly. Heck, that is not even Storyteller being run properly. (A comment aimed at a Year of the Reckoning adventure which was the essential railroad... the PCs not even being allowed to abandon the storyline. )

Sounds like she just has a bad GM all around, not just D&D.

The Auld Grump