Lost faith in my DM

[Riveneye]

I think I've lost all faith in my DM now. My character, which I've crafted for over a year now, is utterly FUBAR. I can't play her anymore, and after this long, I certainly don't feel like starting a new character. This is the only group I know, so it looks like I won't even be able to play at all anymore.

(Read the attached file for logs of what I'm talking about. My character is Silastriaqui and the DM is MilkChocolateMousje).

I've put up with my DM's vague answers before, but when it leads to a death like this, I just have to put my foot down. First of all, he leads me to believe that I will never be able to reach the Scrying DC for the mirror, second of all, he never really tells me I'm out of haste on my boots, he just assumes I'll instantly know this when he says "nothing happens" in a previous battle. For all I know, there could have been an antimagic field there. Thirdly, he doesn't even let me go back to town, even though I (indirectly) said I would be going back.

Now, I'm not the most knowledgable D&D player around. I'm not a complete n00b, but I certainly don't know as much as my DM, and he knows this. He should never have assumed thing like that. Also, he just happens to introduce a new 5000xp penalty o true resurrection the game before I died, which completley nerfs the spell, IMO.

So here I am, resurrected with no items. The party agree to help me get them back. We spend 2 games doing so, and what happens? I get diddly squat. All but 4 of my items are apparently dissolved in digestive juices. These 4 items aren't even good items.

Just have a look at what I lost... and this is only the major objects too. It's not limited to this list.
-----------------
Boots of Springing and Striding and Speed
Pearl of the Sirines
Bracers of Archery
Ring of Protection +1
Cloak of Resistance +1
Gloves of Dexterity +6
Buckler +3
Mighty Composite Longbow +2 (+3)
Studded Leather +1
Flaming Falchion +1
Keen Throwing Returning Falchion +1
Mighty Composite Longbow (+2)
Staff of Fire (lvl 8)
~5000gp in coins
-----------------
Approx. value: 196320


The only good thing is that I am getting my armour and bow enchanted at the moment, so they were't eaten. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if I find out the enchanters had run off with them. If that's the case, add another 100000gp to the above figure. Sjeez, a newly created lvl 18 (which is what I am now) character would get more to spend that that. They get 440000 and I'm getting ~100000 - more than 4 times less.

*sigh*

 

[Riveneye]

Forgot to attach the logs...

 

[Drawmack]

Well, IMC you would only be given the information the that the character had. It's not like there is a neon sign that lights up and says you're out of charges. sorry you wouldn't get that info from me either.

Secondly, if you're items were eaten then deal with it. So you're getting less then a new character guess you'll have to do some epic level questing to get the stuff back.

The only valid point I see is the res thing instituted the game before.

 

[Piratecat]

Yes, I hate to say it when you sound so depressed, but it sounds legitimate to me. Think of it this way; it's a great opportunity to kill more creatures and take their cool stuff!

 

[Angelsboi]

I understand how you feel but i agree.

Imagine this:

We are playing Oathbound with our Oriental Adventure characters. We have an assassin in our group and have no clue. We have a monk who plays my boyfriend, i have a Air Shugenja focused on becoming a Void Discipile and a Shaman.

Long story short, i did somehting that got the Asassin killed. Well, we brought her back and my character realized a deadly mistake. OA doesnt have true res or anything. So what does my character do?

Her life for mine. I had to set the balance straight. So my character committed sepeku (Asian version of honorable suicide).

Everyone loved Folken and it brought tears to my eyes when i had to kill him. I htought i wouldnt find another character i loved to play but now i have.

So whats this story have to deal with your character? Easy. You have a new character Just make it better than the last one. How was your last character so great? Was it items? Well maybe this time you will find better items. Was it storyline? Talk to the DM.

We've all been through this before and a i said, Im sorry this happened.

 

[med stud]

It doesnt seem extremely unfair to me... I think accepting this is the only way to deal with the situation. If the DM would change his mind now, it will be very bad for his authority.

Look at it from the good side; the loss you felt now will raise the suspense you feel in the next dangerous situation. If you know you cant loss, the game will be less exciting then playing Diablo. This will also make a good base for some role playing experiences, as your PC copes with the loss etc etc. It wont be a full compensation for your loss, though :-/

 

[shouit]

At least the idea wasn't given to him by another player. We had that ALL the time in one of my previous groups. One of the guys would say, "Wouldn't it be cool if the monster did this..." and the DM's eyes would like up and it would happened. Sucked. I lost, this being in 2E, 8 magic items and I was 12th level when that happened.

Hence forth, we made the bad idea ball. Which was a soft stress ball in the shape of a light bulb that said "you suck" on it. When someone would give the DM an idea that hosed over another character, the person with the idea would get hit with the lightbulb from the player of the other character. Worked great.
Still use it now...

 

[Dark Dragon]

On not functioning items because they've been used up to their daily limits, I'm with Drawmack. Mostly, there's no counter or something like that on a charged item (of course, one could invent that ).

For the loss of items, well, sh*t happens. My druid has lost nearly all equipment in a hard battle because he was wildshaped and failed his save against a Disintegrate. He was brought back as a centaur by True Reincarnate. His remaining self-made Ioun Stone was destroyed a few sessions later by a wizard casting a shout spell... First, I was a bit dissapointed about what happened to him, but it turned out as an opportunity to change the druid's behaviour (and my gaming style).

Being forced to give up a long-played char is always hard (that happened to me, too, and I REALLY liked my cleric/wizard as I now REALLY like my druid), but I'm quite sure, that a new char will make as much fun as an old one. It could take some time, of course.
Give it a chance and try it out.

 

[Sixchan]

I think I'm more inclined to go with Riveneye here. Mainly because they spent 2 sessions trying to get back the character's items, and got diddleysquat (more or less).

Considering that Riveneye was questing for his stuff that amounted to less than he would have got had he drawn up a new character, that shows some dedication to the character. I know almost all of my players would say "Nah, don't ressurect me, I'll get more money if I roll up a new character."

Also, Drawmack, I assume that your players are aware of this situation with only IC info and you've made it clear to them? It would appear that Riveneye didn't know that this was how the DM ran his/her game, and was penalised for it. If the DM didn't explicitly state this when Riveneye started playing, I think the blame lies on the DM here.

 

[Pielorinho]

I'll side somewhat with you here, Riveneye. Although there's no counter on the boots, I do think it's reasonable for teh DM to remind you that you're out of charges: this is one of the little bits of bookkeeping that a PC might keep track of, whereas a player won't. If the DM knows this, it's not unreasonable to tell the player before the PC wastes an action. And I can't see how it increases anyone's fun not to tell the player, unless the DM is being a sadist.

Furthermore, from reading the logs, I think Riveneye didn't have a good mental picture of what was happening, and was trying to establish that mental picture even while the action started happening. I've played in an online game where that occurred, and it was frustrating.

I'm guessing you're not so upset about the fact that your PC died, Riveneye, as you are about the manner in which it happened -- that you were trying to visualize the scene, and mid-visualization, the monster killed you. Granted, you did declare an action (activating the boots and firing an arrow), and that may have made the DM think you were okay with the scene. But the whole thing does sound frustrating.

This might be a good one to talk with the DM about. Tell the DM how unhappy you are, and how if you continue in the game, you'll need better descriptions of what's happening. Start asking more questions, and don't declare an action until you're clear on what's going on. If that holds up the game, tough -- it's a consequence of the DM's running a vague-but-lethalgame. If the DM wants things to flow more smoothly, he needs to start granting players the benefit of the doubt in such situations, instead of granting it to the monsters.

Then, when the nasties kill your character off next, you won't mind so much, right?

Daniel