Player Revolt

[Lord Zardoz]

Bit of a tangent from another thread, but now I am wondering.

How often have you (either as a DM or a Player) been party to a Player Revolt?

By Player Revolt, I mean anything that the DM did in game that he thought a good idea that the players simply refused to accept. This can be anything from a particular plot twist, the use of a DMPC, or an attempt to nerf a spell / item / feat / class.

What I want to know:

1) What triggered the Revolt
2) What form did the Revolt take
3) What was the fallout

The closest I have come to an outright player revolt is in a 2nd edition game where the players ended up chasing me out a window upon discovering that they had just been beaten up by an illusion, and that the guy they thought they had just killed was not only alive, but he was going to go at it again, but this time have his small army come in on his side. (The players entered the encampment of a brutal Orog Warlord on the premise of an Honorable 4vs1 Duel.)

It was not much of a revolt since the game resumed shortly afterwards with the players kicking themselves when I pointed out how stupid their plan of action had been.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I can think of one time I was part of a player revolt.

We had just resumed played after a fairly long hiatus. We were all jazzed about playing our characters again when the DM transports us into a Ravenloft adventure where our PCs found themselves in the bodies of wooden marionnettes (sp?). None of us has our own abilities, equipment or powers. We played along for a while, but the adventure was not turning out fun for any of us. One PC died because he continued to play his marionnette character similar to his "real" one (much stronger, more HP, better AC) saying that mentally he isn't any different, so he would act the same. Between sessions we told the DM we were not enjoying ourselves, but he insisted that we finish the adventure. Next session we pretty much did everything we could to derail the adventure. He eventually gave up and let our PCs return to their own bodies and play out more standard adventures.

Short-term fallout: some distrust and feelings of resentment between players and DM.
Long-term fallout: DM stopped running games and I took over.

 

[Obrysii]

The only time I really experienced a true player revolt was when one of our good friends joined the game for a one-time thing and I gave that PC a powerful suit of armor. I was naive, and did not expect the backlash to having a guest be the 'star' of a single session.

Short-term results: Very unhappy players and a confused DM
Long-term results: The campaign ended shortly thereafter.

 

[Vurt]

I was playing in Shackled City, when at the end of the chapter "Test of the Smoking Eye", my character acquired a template that, in addition to providing no apparent real tangible benefit, also added a +1 Level Adjustment. It felt like I was being penalized for successfully completing the adventure. I wasn't particularly happy to begin with, as the chapter was one long railroad (almost literally, a good portion of it requires you to follow a very specific path), and so I simply quit that game in frustration.

 

[Turanil]

1) What triggered the Revolt
2) What form did the Revolt take
3) What was the fallout

I had finished running a months long campaign (3.0), and another player wanted to be the DM for a new campaign. I was glad to become a player but was quickly disappointed. It appeared that the player-turned-DM didn't bother to learn the rules and prepare his adventures. He was simply extremely bad. First gaming session; I argued several times about rules, but to no avail; then, two hours later I couldn't stand it anymore. I said "stop, I cannot continue like that." There was a lengthy discussion, and I was upset. It thereafter appeared that the other two players did agree with me, but were unwilling to be rude to the DM so said nothing. However, it was too much for me to endure. The new campaign aborted there; it was out of question I would have continued paying int it.

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Long ago, I was running an outer-planar campaign (2e). There was a dispute when some of my players revolted. These players were of evil alignment, and as such believed that the NE daemon lords involved in the adventure would be fair/kind with them, just because they shared the same alignment. I found this view completely ridiculous. Daemons being what they were supposed to be (utter evil, treachery, etc.), they tricked the PCs, without concern for the PCs alignment of course. And the evil PCs' players were surprised and upset: "How something like this may occur??!, we are evil like them after all!". However, there were other players wo agreed with me (the neutral ones by the way). In any case the gaming session ended there and I didn't run again for those players (the rebellious ones).

 

[FunkBGR]

Had to chime in -

Shackled City - Smoking Eye Template - it's actually really good. Really good.

I almost had a revolt in my Night Below game.

The players were investigating the appearance of this new marsh near some town to the south. Detailed descriptions of trudging around in swamp-water, with NOTHING happening was just a bit too much for them.

We kept playing though.

 

[cougent]

I had a party get hopelessly lost once and despite ever more increasingly detailed directions to get them straightened out, the 2 co-leaders just were not getting it. In frustration on their part one of them (a fighter) "prayed" for divine guidance, and in frustration on my part I replied "A 40' tall neon billboard springs up out of the ground and starts flashing Turn around and go 2 miles the other way, dumbass!, not my finest moment but after 3 hours of them going the wrong way and being all but told they were going the wrong way I was just as PO'd as they were. It got very quiet for about 10 minutes and then they went the right direction.

Short term results: The rest of that session was pretty tense
Long term results: The other 3 players (who some had known they were going the wrong direction but had gotten yelled at for saying so) did not let these 2 do any more navigation in the wild.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I had some events happening in the campaign that the players didn't like. Specifically, a humanoid invasion that was big enough to be called a full-blown war. I had several adventures in various stages of preparation, all tying into this, but the PCs just weren't interested in getting caught up in a war. They bought a ship and sailed away, deciding to become pirates, instead.

I was a bit stunned and annoyed, at first, but it turned out great. (They ended up on the Isle of Dread, eventually.) At the time, I was beginning to drift into the "plan a story for the PCs" school of DMing, and this was a wake-up call for me. In the years since then, I've moved firmly into the school of DMing which views the players as creating and driving the story; as DM, I just present the backdrop and see what they do with it.

The only other time I had a player revolt was right after 2E came out. I recently moved, so I was building a new group. I planned to run 1E, as I found the 2E books not to my taste. However, no one wanted to play 1E. This is the only time I ever ran into the 'we don't want to play that system' problem in 20 years of gaming, and I think it was largely due to the influence of one particular player. Anyway, I suggested Basic/Expert, instead (the BECMI boxed sets were still in print), and that was accepted and became one of my most successful and longest-running D&D campaigns, ever.

 

[JDJblatherings]

I vaguely recall lots of screaming, flying wads of paper and half empty drink bottles, upturned tables and chairs all over the place. Gee I hope I wasn't DMing that session...

 

[mhensley]

Well, the players in my group are always revolting...

A few months ago I tried to get them to try C&C and they revolted on me. They played but proceeded to trash the adventure by attacking innocent npc's and burning down a house. That night ended with not one but two TPK's. I learned not to try to run anything but d20 for them and they learned that I will ruthlessly kill them if they piss me off.