Player Revolt

[Age of Fable]

I've accidentally started, not just a revolt against my DM, but a religious schism.

My character was a cleric, and the DM asked what god I wanted to be a cleric of. I said Hestia (ancient Greek goddess of the hearth), because the character was a hobbit and it seemed like a hobbity kind of goddess. No, you can't, it's not in the sourcebook. Halflings worship such and such Earth Mother goddess. Ah, that sounds basically the same, maybe my culture calls that goddess Hestia? No, there's no such culture in the sourcebook. Maybe I call her Hestia for some reason? Maybe she calls herself Hestia to me? There's no reason you'd call her Hestia. There's no reason she'd do that.

In the end, the problem is that I just don't get what the DM would do if he were playing.

 

[Jhaelen]

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

What I want to know:

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

Twice, both times I participated as a player and both times the DM was obviously out of his depth which triggered the 'revolution'.

One incident was a Rolemaster session where one player tried to slit the throad of a sleeping enemy and the DM decided to roll on the normal damage tables resulting in a cut to the enemy's foot. Things got pretty hilarious for us players after that and we simply found ourselves unable to take anything seriously anymore. The DM eventually decided to 'roll-back' the game to the point before the incident. I never played another Rolemaster session with that DM afterwards.

The second incident was in a Midgard game (though that didn't have much impact on the problem) where one of the players decided that the stats he had rolled for his character were just too bad to allow him to survive his first batte but the DM didn't want to allow him to reroll. Said player then tried to let his character commit suicide which the DM wasn't inclined to allow. So things got worse and the attempts at suicide became increasingly elaborate with the DMs attempts to thwart them becoming ever more implausible.
Eventually, the other players joined in the fun and tried to kill off their characters, as well. Naturally, the DM gave up on the session after a while and after another session gone bad on the campaign, as well.

I did feel a bit bad after that second incident but looking back it's probably been for the better.

 

[SavageRobby]

I don't think I've ever been party or witness to a player revolt. I have quit a few games that I wasn't enjoying that others were, and I've had people quit my games.

Well, check that. I might have had a revolt some 15 years ago playing Vampire when it first came out (when I was in the early stages of learning to DM ... and sucked really badly). Does having all your players quit the game at once count as a revolt?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I don't think I've ever been party or witness to a player revolt. I have quit a few games that I wasn't enjoying that others were, and I've had people quit my games.

Well, check that. I might have had a revolt some 15 years ago playing Vampire when it first came out (when I was in the early stages of learning to DM ... and sucked really badly). Does having all your players quit the game at once count as a revolt?

Unless all the players were quitting because they were moving away then yes, I think it might count.

 

[S. Baldrick]

I almost had a player revolt when I ran "Night Below". That happened the better part of a decade ago so I can't really remember the details but I do recall that the players were challenging every thing I said and did all night long. I didn't think that MOST of my calls were questionable but at the same time, they didn't think that the party was capable of taking damage from area effect spells. By the end of the evening, I was sick of it and actually pretty p***ed off about it as well. I told the group if that if this was going to be the norm, I was going to find something else to do on the weekends and that they would be looking for a new DM. It never happened again and the campaign eventually came to a conclusion that was satisfying for everyone involved. I still game with most of the people in the group years later.

Another time, I was a player in group that rebelled against the DM. I was far more an observer rather than a active participant. Two of the players got angry at the DM for two different reasons. One player didn't like the way the DM was handling experience points. The truth be told, I didn't get that at all since that DM was the most liberal DM when it came to handing out experience points that I ever played with. I think that the issues between the player and DM were rooted in something else and the player was just looking for an excuse to lash out at the DM. When the opportunity came up, that is exactly what she did and then she promptly left the house.

The other player got upset when his character, who was immune to weapons of less then +2 enchantment, took damage from being shot by non magical crossbows. The DM used some twisted reasoning that he since the character wasn't moving because he was in narrow tunnel, he would still take the damage. (For the record, I think that the player was in the right). Anyway, an argument ensued and the end result was the player picking up his stuff and leaving. The next scheduled playing session, I was the only player that showed up and it was 4 months before the group got back together.

Long term result, I have seen any of these folks in years, which is too bad since there were some great campaigns run with that group.

 

[fusangite]

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?

Once -- this year no less. We told our DM we couldn't stand his new D20 Traveller game.

1) What triggered the Revolt

The campaign sucked; we went from a really engaging campaign to a directionless, incoherent, uninteresting pile of excrement -- run by the same guy.

2) What form did the Revolt take

I caucused with the other players about me quitting but they convinced me to just confront the GM about the problems.

3) What was the fallout

The GM took a day to think about it and then, after careful consideration, agreed that the game did suck and that he wasn't enjoying it either. He went on to launch an only marginally better replacement. There is talk brewing of another revolt but it's not my turn to lead it this time.

 

[wingsandsword]

The Revolt that happened to me:

1. What triggered the revolt?
The first RPG I ever actually participated in was a d6 Star Wars campaign I began in the Fall of 1997 (Before that, I was interested in gaming, and even bought books, but had nobody to game with). I ended up getting a group of 7 players together that wanted to play Star Wars and I was a big Star Wars junkie at the time. The game ran weekly for a year and a half (roughly September 1997 to April 1999) and I was generous with giving out Character Points. The PC's had fought their way through several big plot arcs, across several years of Star Wars timeline (including participating in the Battle of Sluis Van), and were becoming as powerful as the main characters, and just as indestructable as PC's were powerful and I was a novice GM and was afraid to kill characters off.

2. What form did the revolt take?
The game was run at the apartment I was sharing with one of the players in the game. I was coming home from class one afternoon (with the weekly meeting of the game due in a few hours) to find all my players sitting there creating new characters and discussing new backgrounds. They told me in no uncertain terms as a whole that they were sick of the old campaign, that their characters were becoming so powerful that it was almost farcical (old Star Wars d6 did tend to break down pretty badly at high power levels), and they still wanted to play Star Wars and wanted me to run it, but they really wanted a new campaign.

3. The Fallout?

Short term result: A new campaign, as the PC's had created new characters, refusing to play their old ones, and I tried to create a new campaign for them to satisfy them.

Long term result: The campaign collapsed after a couple of months and the gaming group fell apart, as my heart just wasn't in running a whole new campaign and I was burned out from running weekly Star Wars for two years straight and wanted a change of pace.

 

[Phlebas]

The revolt i remember most was in a university game, me as DM, AD&D

after an adventure in a dungeon which had beat up the PC's fairly bad (they were ~6th level i think, it was towards the end of the first year), and they had missed two treasure rooms so weren't in the best of moods, they dived on a pile of sticks (which was debris from a room that the ogre they killed a while before had redecorated) they insisted on searching through the debris so i started ad-libing what they found including an intricately carved stick (i was thinking of part of a chair back)

one person studied it for a while before concluding it wasn't interesting and went to break it in half. another player who wasn't paying attention suddenly shouted - "Stop, its a wand". the rest of the players suddenly started clamouring that they were jumping at the player to stop him, or diving out of trouble. The PC snapping it decided he wasn't going to stop (he was the thug warrior_ and so everybody spontaneously started rolling saving throws to get out of the way (While another player started reading out the damage you received from snapping a wand - i forget what it was but it was enough most players were worried)

I started asking everybody in turn what they were doing - and if they said '"Diving out of the way", asked for their saving throw result

one person attempted to grab the "Wand" but rolled a 2 on an attack roll. One person rolled a 1 on the saving throw and everyone was dreading the damage roll.

I described the scene as they dove for cover, the unwitting snappee was getting stick from all the players, and then i yelled "Snap" at the top of my voice.

Silence

One player (who rolled the 1 on the save) had already ripped his character sheet in half. evryone turned and looked at me.

"What happened"
"Snap"
"What do you mean snap"
"The stick breaks with a loud snap, you've all just dived for cover. Thats what happened"
At this stage i think i chuckled - next thing I know i was being pelted by dice and leapt on by unfreindly players

Short term result: Session ended, some players didn't see the funny side until the next session when several apologised, some blamed me and i think one congratulated me on the tension i'd built up.

Long term result: Group continued for three years (with several DM's taking turns as well as me).
Bone chip in my left thumb, which i can still feel, from a viciously hurled d4.
Realisation that some people get far too attached to their characters to appreciate DM practical jokes...

Ok not a traditional revolt, but still one of my 'finest moments' as a DM (Not)

 

[Howndawg]

Back in my 1e days, I decided to run an adventure based on a movie I saw the week before. It starred Burt Reynolds, Jon Voigt, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox. (And no, I'm not the inspiration for Nitro Fergusson, at least I don't think I am). The revolt hit the moment the players saw the canoes. I was voted out as DM two weeks later.

 

[megamania]

What I want to know:

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


END COMMUNICATION

I have been a part of or witness to several revolts. Most of which were stupid players.

A. Players playing out of Character
1. Player A had issues with player B
2. Player A' PC "accidently" caused damage to player B's PC by rushing forward on a cliff knocking him off the short cliff.
3. Players / Party split in half on what was fair and what was not including if the DM should have had the one PC "get in the way". two players left the group.


B. Bad Host / Bad DMing
1. Host and DM smoked (and I don't mean Camels) and came up with funky solutions including "whatever....I'm taking a nap".
2. Spent two entire game sessions argueing over how to remove a cursed ring.
3. On my part- a carefully worded Wish and then quit the group. Three of the five quit the next week. Dm and Host didn't play anymore.... only smoked more.

C. Easy DM / External issues with players
1. I, the DM, was to easy on the group and at level 15 could easily defeat some level 20 encounters. I upped the ante and gave out fewer rewards.
2. Players cried foul then started to not show up due to .... drug use and forgetting in general.
3. Group has broken up. Half the players left in May, I disbanded the rest when smoking non-camels became snorting non-sugar.


These are the ones my various groups have dealt with.