Just how Bad R DMs?

[Thornir Alekeg]

I have a tendency towards #4. It took me a while to realize that the players while they enjoyed never being disappointed, also never felt very invested in my games. I think I'm better about it now.

Now I'll add another:

The Punisher You killed my charcter in the game you were running, don't expect your character to last the day.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

I love carrots so here we go!

1) I am God and everything I do or say is Law and how the game should work.
I do that only on certain things. After all its my game setting, and if I want my PC's to die at -15 instead of -10 its my rule!

2) I am a Storyteller. And everything the PCs do should contribute to the story. If it doesn't, I will railroad the PCs so they do.
I am this to a point, my story goes along smoothly with or without the PC's acting on it. If a plot is rolling along smoothly and the PC's want to fight it or jump of its track thats fine with me, the story changes based on the PC's.

3) I am a Player in the campaign also. And my NPC is the main character in the story. He knows all. And has all powers. But isn't sharing with the other PCs until they are almost dead. He always saves the day. Nope, Never did this.

4) I am wishy washy. I want the players to like me. So I will not kill their PCs. And I will give them kewl Powz and things so they think i'm kewl. Only when I first started with 2ed.

5) I am not really paying attention. I have to dig thru my notes and scrap papers to find a clue about what just happened in game. Only when I have drop games.

6) I am bored. And it would make my day to kill the PCs just b/c I can in really cool ways. HEHE, this I do admit to doing to one of my buddies because I can. He always wants to play something new that has no place in my world so we find new ways to kill his characters. Some of the PC's have made it a running gag to do this to him too. We have fun with it, plus he has started building harder and tougher characters based on his experiance, now its tougher to do without me cheating him.

7) I don't really like this game and want to play another. So I will make this one suck. Thus making the players want to play another one. Even tho, I will be the GM of that one too. I won't play a game I don't like. Thats why I don't run Modern anymore, although my players want me to so badly.

8) I am above you. And I will tell you every opportunity I can how you should play your character better.
LOL, this is not me by a longshot.

 

[Horoku]

Aw, nerts. I fall under the category of the non-descript, procrastinating GM sometimes. I guess it really depends on the game...
I'm okay at describing locations and environments and monsters and stuff. I have this tendency to sieze up in combat, though, and my descriptions end up being kind of sub-par. I'm thinking I might try some experiments without the Hexmat, and if I do use the Hexmat, it'll be blank except for major barriers, and I'll just let the action dictate what the furnishings are like...
Woo, let's hear it for gradual self-improvement!

 

[Kormydigar]

1) I am God and everything I do or say is Law and how the game should work.

This brings back some funny memories of a game I played in a little over 16 years ago :
[Direct quote from the DM] " This is MY campaign and you will do EXACTLY as I say!!!!"

All of the players got up and left the table at that point, never to return to that campaign. A few months after that campaign ended suddenly, we found some of the DM's notes lying around at a local gamers club meeting. ( This is where we originally met this DM) and noticed his neatly typed campaign "script" An excerpt(from memory):

..........The characters will descend the stairs in single file. At the bottom of the stairs waiting are 4 orcs (statblock). On round 1, orc # 4 will hit character # 2 for 4 points of damage, orc # 3 will miss, orc # 2 will hit character # 1 for 5 points of damage.................................ect.

Several of us looked at that script and laughed till our bellies hurt. The DM in question is still a very good friend of ours to this day. He has improved tremendously and still games with us. We still occasionally give him crap about that script and he laughs with the rest of us about it now.

 

[Glyfair]

I think this thread is about avoiding extremes. Sure, I do some of the things listed here as "bad" qualities, but I hope not to such an extent that it detracts from the player's enjoyment of the game.

Indeed, some of the things listed can be good things for a DM, if done in moderation. The key to some of these is that these examples did them to extremes.

 

[barsoomcore]

There's another one, too... not sure exactly how to describe it...

The Lazy DM: This one WANTS to be DM, possibly because they think being DM is cool, or because they desire the adulation and hot chicks that come with the position, or something. But they don't really want to do all the work involved. So they come up with a few ideas, announce their new campaign, get people making characters, and then... they don't really want to do anything more. So nothing happens in the campaign and the PCs flounder around trying to figure out what the story is, and never getting anywhere because the DM doesn't know what the story is and isn't willing to put in enough effort to figure it out...

It's weird. And incredibly frustrating.

 

[Lord Judas]

I used to be somewhat of the Tax Auiditor, cause I thought tracking food would create a sense of danger when trapped in unusual places. However, no one likes to have their hero killed by something as mundane as starvation.

The absolute worst though, was I had a DM that forced all 8 players to role-play buying every piece of start up equipment. Can you say 'Brutally Boring?' But the icing on the cake... (Level 1 characters) "A giant crab jumps from the water..<rolls>...your surprised...<rolls>....he critically hits you and kills you outright." I said..."Ok...im outta here.". The DM said "You can roll up a new character!" and I replied: "Um...no thanks...gonna play some Command & Conquere. Cya!"

 

[Pants]

Heh... I've done some of this... I try not to but sometimes it just happens...

Here's another:
The '10x10 room there's an orc and a frost giant in the room, they attack, repeat ad-nauseum' DM: Basically, the dungeoncrawler DM without any story behind the dungeon or any reason for why we are at the dungeon other than 'just cuz.' It's not bad, as a nice dungeon crawl can be fun, especially if the dungeon is pretty well laid out with traps, puzzles, and a bit of story to it. But it's boring when there's none of that stuff.

 

[shadow]

The Dark and Moody Dramatist-Closely related to the Storyteller. Is more concerned with "realism" and "art" than fun. Campaigns consist of PCs vastly underpowered. Woe to the PC who wants to slay orcs, or find treasure! Characters are likely to die of disease before they have a chance to fight any monsters.

 

[der_kluge]

My friend as DM in college -> I don't have enough imagination to actually create my own games, nor do I have any intention of running anything to completion because of my rampant ADD so that I'll actually finish anything I start, so instead I'll just run a different game every week, which will require completely brand new characters, and I'll run them in purchased modules, and I'll be sure to explicitly read all the bland boxed text, even though I am monotone, and despite having a journalism degree, I am not good at oratory, so I will bore you to death.