That One Time

[RealAlHazred]

This was more a misunderstanding than actual malice, but it still sticks in my memory. I was running games at a convention at the dawn of 4E D&D, and at one point I had to fill in a table for another DM (tables had to have a minimum of 4 players for Organized Play purposes, IIRC). It wasn't a module I was familiar with, so I thought it would be a fair game. Early in the scenario, the PCs heard a commotion in the stables of the building they were staying at, so they went out there to check. It turned out to have a bunch of undead in it. So, okay, no problem, right?

The fight ended up taking the entire 4-hour slot. Afterwards, the DM chided us for not being very combat-capable. Since I was also DMing that convention, I picked up a copy of the module to see what had happened, because it was an incredibly irritating battle. The DM had made two key errors that I think came from the fact that 4E was a brand new system.

• The enemies were supposed to be one "boss monster" and six "minions." In 4E, minion monsters have only a single hit point, and go down from any successful hit, or if they fail a saving throw against any damaging spell. The DM must have assumed that was a typo, because each of the 7 creatures had the full complement of the boss' hit points.
• The boss monster had the ability to "raise" one of his downed minions, once during the fight. The DM must have misread this, because so long as any one creature was still up at the end of the round, the downed creatures would all stand back up at the beginning of the next round. He let this slip during one of the many rounds of the fight, that we had to down all of them in one round for the fight to end, but because he gave each of them the hit points of the boss, that was just not going to happen.

To my mind, the most egregious error he made was not moving the module ahead so the table could finish on-time. This fight was only the first encounter in the scenario, and the bad guys were only supposed to be there to kill the horses so nobody could outrun the Boss' forces if they fled. Even if the encounter had been designed to be that one-sided, if I was DMing I would have had the creatures withdraw once their mission was done.

When I took over as director of the program a few years later, that DM was not asked back to DM 5E. He was one of the OSR track guys, and I understand he did a fine job there.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In a home brew setting shared by 3 player/DMs, one of the DMs designed this creepy, dangerous pathway to the lowest level that couldn’t be circumnavigated by teleports or inter dimensional travel. It completely flummoxed the party, and we wretreated before wrapping up for the night.

As we were packing up to go to our respective homes, the DM asked why we hadn’t used a particular spell. We pointed out that his wizard- who did not share spells at all- was the only one in the campaign that knew it.

 

[RealAlHazred]

We looked at the DM, aghast. I don't remember who found their voice first, but someone said "but the Dracolich was immune to fire?".

"Oh it wasn't, you guys didn't even ask."

"IT WAS SWIMMING IN A LAKE OF MAGMA!!!!"

To be fair, I've run with tables who were so pedantic that "being able to swim in lava" and "being immune to fire damage" were different things, and you couldn't necessarily assume one from the other.

 

[James Gasik]

Great stories, guys. I do think a lot of these problems comes from the game having a history of not wanting to be transparent to players- DM's don't like sharing stat blocks or giving information at all, thinking it takes the challenge away from encounters- but then not realizing how bad a "gotcha" monster can be.

The story that actually provoked this thread was an encounter in Adventurer League for 5e- during Storm King's Thunder, I had acquired a rune that let me use Greater Restoration, once. As I was a Fighter/Rogue, I thought this was really sweet, and I put it in my back pocket for a rainy day.

We were fighting some kind of Cyclopes, as I recall, and one of them turned the Cleric to stone! I carefully plotted out my turn so I could Action Surge and get to the Cleric, and slap them with the rune.

Everything worked without a hitch, but the DM was like "sorry man, it doesn't work". And he refused to elaborate as to why. So at the end of the encounter, he tells me the monster specifically says "this petrification cannot be reversed as long as the monster is alive". Not only do I find that ability to be a pile of Minotaur dung, it just goes to show how terribly unfair gotcha moments can be.

 

[Retreater]

Back in 3.x, my druid had shape-changed into a bird to do some reconnaissance, but I got captured by the villains. So instead of just killing my character or letting me play an NPC (or heck, even telling me to not come to the sessions), the DM had me sit there for more than two 5-hour sessions doing absolutely nothing. And to keep from knowing what was going on with my character (or for my character with them), I had to sit in another room by myself.

 

[James Gasik]

Oh man, there is nothing worse than when the GM takes some players into another room for hours on end. I have NO good gaming stories about that.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yup, 15 minutes in and I'm done with that nonsense. Text me when something matters and I'll come back if it's convenient.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I saw that happen to two people at a con game of Shadowrun. Which meant they paid to sit there at the table doing nothing while everyone else went on the adventure.

That was one of the last straws that made me give up on Shadowrun's organized play.

 

[Retreater]

I saw that happen to two people at a con game of Shadowrun. Which meant they paid to sit there at the table doing nothing while everyone else went on the adventure.

That was one of the last straws that made me give up on Shadowrun's organized play.

Any time I go to a bad con game, I have a code phrase I use. If I go with a group of friends to play together, this is specifically helpful to gauge if they're having fun.
"Did Jeremiah have a key to the room?"
If they're willing to give it a bit more time, they will say "I don't think so - but we should be back before he is."
But if it's clear that I'm done, I'll say, "Jeremiah has locked himself out of the room." And if they want to leave they'll say, "I'll have to give you a ride."
Last GenCon, there was a game so bad that I got up, reading my phone, "Oh sh*t! Jeremiah was hit by a car. I'm going to have to go to the hospital."
And of course, our friend Jeremiah actually had locked himself out of the room once. And yes, we still use this code even if he's sitting at the table with us.

 

[RealAlHazred]

One of the biggest of the problems with Organized Play modules (and there are many, many problems, if for no other reason than because the program is so large) is poor writing. Currently they are paid authors, but back in the day anybody could submit a module and the campaigns were usually so starved for content to "feed the beast" that they accepted a lot of what I like to think of as "failed short stories" (or "failed novel chapters.") Writing a good scenario is a very, very different skill set from writing a good novel. I will heartily recommend any Organized Play scenarios written by some authors who know what they're doing; for example, even if Will Doyle wrote a bad module (I haven't read all of his, maybe he did, I don't know) I think it would still be very playable. His convention specials are really, really well done and if the DM has chops they are entertaining for the whole table.

Any time I go to a bad con game, I have a code phrase I use. If I go with a group of friends to play together, this is specifically helpful to gauge if they're having fun.
"Did Jeremiah have a key to the room?"
If they're willing to give it a bit more time, they will say "I don't think so - but we should be back before he is."
But if it's clear that I'm done, I'll say, "Jeremiah has locked himself out of the room." And if they want to leave they'll say, "I'll have to give you a ride."
Last GenCon, there was a game so bad that I got up, reading my phone, "Oh sh*t! Jeremiah was hit by a car. I'm going to have to go to the hospital."
And of course, our friend Jeremiah actually had locked himself out of the room once. And yes, we still use this code even if he's sitting at the table with us.

That is a fantastic idea that I will be stealing after the Plague has been conquered and we once again feel free to Roam the Land.