The DM Hall of Shame

[demiurge1138]

Every DM has done things they regret. Bad judgement calls, stupid plots and other things that you have to ask yourself "why?"

For example, I once had my party fighting a fairly powerful demon as their final battle in a campaign. The beast dropped like a stone. I was confused, until I realized I had forgotten its damage reduction.

Or, for less of a simple error and more of a compound stupidity, I once used, as a plot device, Jet and Spike from Cowboy Bebop. Yes, I was young and inexperienced. But that's no excuse.

What things have you done to qualify for a mention in the DM Hall of Shame?

Demiurge out.

 

[Squire James]

The adventure I played in that involved Khelbun Blackstaff and an artifact that controlled red dragons was pretty lame. It was probably better than the movie, but still...

 

[kingamy]

I was running a published adventure with maps provided, and looked over one of the maps (of a manor house) and saw no spoilers, so I handed it to the players.

They went exploring, and happened upon a sleeping figure.

Which they impaled with a wooden stake.

Which they knew to do, because the title of the adventure, including the word "vampire," was written on the bottom of the map. Which I hadn't noticed.

I gave them full XP.

kingamy

 

[Wombat]

Pretty much my whole first year of GMing sucked dirty swamp water...

Back then, I was the proverbial Monty Hall (or Haul) and handing out XP like peanuts at a bar.

My only excuse was that I was the first guy in the area to have such a game and I had no one else to compare myself to; still, it was pretty wretched.

I've gotten much better since then...

 

[fba827]

My "I wish I could take it back" moments are usually the results of hurriedly trying to make an NPCs reaction .. only to think a couple _seconds_ later, crud, it would have been better if the NPC reacted this other way instead... (am talking about little things like comments to major things like character defining active responses)

 

[Telperion]

Personally I have done some stupid things during the last 12 years of DM'ing. One of the lamest things I ever came up with was a war between centaurs and giants that was never actually witnessed. I didn't specify the giants and the characters never saw a single battle.

I didn't want the hassle of a full blown battle, so one time when the characters wanted to go battle some giants they chased an army for about a week. Whenever they tried to catch up with the battle they just saw cold camps, lots of hasty graves (from both sides) and looted battlefields with nothing of importance on them. After a while they just gave up, let the battle be and allowed me to railroad them to the actual adventuring...

This must be the single most humiliating point in my "career" as a Dungeon Master.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I've handed out a couple of cursed items in my time, and then forgotten that they were supposed to be cursed!

 

[Turanil]

As I have been the DM so many times, mistakes and stupidities are many. Off the top of my head:

--Long ago: A player's character was an evil assassin in disguise pretending to be another class. First thing I told during that session, after 10 minutes of play: "So you're making your assassination attempt?"

--Recently: I had decided before the game that a doppleganger was among the party masquerading as a poor, innocuous goblin NPC. Everybody was used to him, and I planned to use it in the end to steal a magical item from the PCs. THEN, a player made wild hypothesis about some demon wanting to steal that item (long story shortened). So, I thought that instead of a doppelganger, I would go on the fly, that the goblin was in fact a polymorphed demon. So, in the end of the adventure, the goblin asks if he can just caress the item, and suddenly teleports with it. I explain the players that they were right: it was a demon. BUT my players say: "During nearly all the session I had a Protection from Evil, and the goblin was on my back, impossible he is a demon!!" ME THEN: "Aaaah... okay... well, that's not a demon right... mmmh... that was a doppelganger in disguise with a potion of invisibility." That was the worst DMing of the year 2004!!

 

[Sir Elton]

Being born as a human being with the capacity to make mistakes? Actually, you guys should love your mistakes and learn from them. Mistakes are good.

 

[Zappo]

Lots of small mistakes... stuff like "you enter a 10x15 room; there's a dirty table, some chairs around it, a door in the opposite wall, and a secret trapdoor... uhm. Which isn't very well concealed and which you can almost immediately spot, dammit". Few big mistakes, though.

Being born as a human being with the capacity to make mistakes? Actually, you guys should love your mistakes and learn from them. Mistakes are good.

True.