Terrible Encounters Session

[OnlineDM]

Well, you know better than I do, but one minute of Googling at least revealed this place near Chapel Hill: Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games Homepage

I don't see Encounters on their calendar, but I do see Living Forgotten Realms (so they support 4th Edition to some degree) as well as Pathfinder Society. I'd consider that to be an encouraging sign.

Edit: I saw it was on Chapel Hill Road; I missed that it was actually in Durham. Still, that's very close by.

 

[Dannager]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this (EDIT: Nevermind, multiple people mentioned it in +rep comments to the OP), but you really ought to alert the Encounters organizer at the FLGS you played at to your DM's behavior. As far as I know, altering an encounter to increase its difficulty is explicitly against the rules of the program. Your organizer should be informed of this (because it is really, really egregiously poor behavior from a DM) and at the least should speak with the DM in question and ensure that she shapes up. In fact, if she was made aware of the rules beforehand and willingly violated them, she should be removed and replaced with another DM.

If the Encounters organizer does not take any action, you could threaten to report these violations to WotC. They don't like their official organized play programs being twisted in such a way that the play experience is no longer enjoyable, and reports of these kinds of incidents could jeopardize that store's future participation (something the store owner undoubtedly wants to avoid).

 

[twinkle toes]

I'm new to D&D, and have been playing in my FLGS's weekly Encounters session for about 7+ months, but I think I've got a good handle on a good DM vs. a poor DM. Usually Encounters night fills about 3 tables, and fortunately there are 3 excellent DM available to run the game. One DM does take things fairly seriously, and will in fact pump up the monsters a bit mostly because we tend to get some serious power players that relish characters optimized for maximum attack/damage. I'm all for an exciting game and a challenge, but when you have a single player that is wiping the board, it's not so fun for the rest of the participants. My only complaint is the whole party seems to burn through all our surges by the 3rd week after an extended rest. I think this particular DM treats the Encounters game as a mini's battle, rather than a shared adventure with a story. Either way I'm enjoying it very much, it's a great way to learn how to play the game.

 

[Locutus Zero]

Well, you know better than I do, but one minute of Googling at least revealed this place near Chapel Hill: Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games Homepage

I don't see Encounters on their calendar, but I do see Living Forgotten Realms (so they support 4th Edition to some degree) as well as Pathfinder Society. I'd consider that to be an encouraging sign.

Edit: I saw it was on Chapel Hill Road; I missed that it was actually in Durham. Still, that's very close by.

Yeah, 20 minutes isn't too bad. Once I get moved in I'll probably go up there and check it out. Funny enough, the store shows up on Wizards' site for Magic but not for any DnD events.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this (EDIT: Nevermind, multiple people mentioned it in +rep comments to the OP), but you really ought to alert the Encounters organizer at the FLGS you played at to your DM's behavior. As far as I know, altering an encounter to increase its difficulty is explicitly against the rules of the program. Your organizer should be informed of this (because it is really, really egregiously poor behavior from a DM) and at the least should speak with the DM in question and ensure that she shapes up. In fact, if she was made aware of the rules beforehand and willingly violated them, she should be removed and replaced with another DM.

If the Encounters organizer does not take any action, you could threaten to report these violations to WotC. They don't like their official organized play programs being twisted in such a way that the play experience is no longer enjoyable, and reports of these kinds of incidents could jeopardize that store's future participation (something the store owner undoubtedly wants to avoid).

I ended up giving a short version of the story to the owner of the store in a Facebook PM. She seemed to side with the DM, sort of apologizing for me not having a good time and saying that she was a good DM typically. I don't think I'm going to take it further than that. I don't want any bad blood with the owner and I figure I did my part by letting her know.

 

[Dannager]

I ended up giving a short version of the story to the owner of the store in a Facebook PM. She seemed to side with the DM, sort of apologizing for me not having a good time and saying that she was a good DM typically. I don't think I'm going to take it further than that. I don't want any bad blood with the owner and I figure I did my part by letting her know.

I honestly don't think this is taking it far enough. Unless you have good reason to believe that the DM's behavior was atypical and temporary, I'm concerned that this same issue might crop up again. Behavior tends to go unchanged if it isn't called into question. By letting it slide, there's a good chance you're allowing this DM to subject more, potentially new players to the same awful experience you went through.

 

[Mirtek]

By letting it slide, there's a good chance you're allowing this DM to subject more, potentially new players to the same awful experience you went through.

Which brings the age old question of whether it's better to provide a bad experience or sending the potentially new players home since you have not enough DMs, which is also a bad experience and just as likely to cause the potential player to not come back. Which is worse is not as clears as both proponents of either side say it is.

Since it's Encounters one might be able to alert WotC for the off-chance they'll intervene, however getting space set aside for encounters usually takes convincing the store owner that it's worth it. It's unfortunate but the CCG crowd and the wargaming crowd usually leave much more money at the store than the D&D crowd. If a store owner has the choice between providing 3 tables on Wednesday evening for encounters or have the same three tables used by the Pokemon players it may take some effort to convince him that it's worth to give D&D a chance. So the threat of not being able to offer future encounter sessions might not even be much of a threat at all (and in any case the shop could switch to LFR over which WotC has no means of control anymore anyway)

 

[Saracenus]

Which brings the age old question of whether it's better to provide a bad experience or sending the potentially new players home since you have not enough DMs, which is also a bad experience and just as likely to cause the potential player to not come back. Which is worse is not as clears as both proponents of either side say it is.

Speaking as a DDE coordinator, ex-convention, ex-avid living campaign player and DM... I would rather disapoint someone with not enough spots at the table but the promise of having more seats the next session than provide them with a subpar experience at the table.

I have the seen the effects of packing a table with more than 6 players in a loud, time constrained location and it is miserable for everyone.

OTOH, I usually have several folks who are playing at my DDE tables that have DMed for me in the past and will usually step up and run a last minute table for me. I trust them to run D&D Encounters sessions cold and we will get the DMs who have prepped together with them before we start to bring them up to speed.

But this is because I have actively nurtured a very deep DM pool here in Portland, OR. I have been running player and DM resources here for years. I make sure that my DMs take breaks so they don't burn out. Fact is many of my DMs (and players) go on to DM at other game stores around the city.

I know that I am lucky to have a very good game store that supports organized play of all stripes but without the sweat of people like me and my DMs Portland would not have a remotely strong program.

As for approaching a store owner about a problem DM, here is my advice. Don't just go there with the problem, go there with a solution.

If you tell a store owner that Suzy DM sucks and makes your table curdle but Suzy DM is one of the few folks that consistently shows up to DM, you are going to hit a brickwall without a substitute for her. This is doubly so if Suzy DM is a friend or long term patron.

One reason I have pull with my FLGS owner is I have consistently taken the burden of running a program off her lap and delivered. If someone is not up to snuff and not playing fair with the other players, she will back my play if I remove them from the DM slot. I have the owner's trust.

My two coppers,