The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Warpiglet-7]

10 foot pole? More like 4 feet.
-Morgan Ironwolf

Morgan, it’s not the size of the pole that matters but how you poke the dungeon floor with it!

 

[overgeeked]

So much distrust of DMs.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So much distrust of DMs.

Normally there's a reason behind that.

 

[prabe]

So much distrust of players, with probably about as much reason.

 

[overgeeked]

So much player hate...

Normally there's a reason behind that.

Right back at ya.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Right back at ya.

Distrusting DMs and hating players are very, very different things.

 

[overgeeked]

So much distrust of players, with probably about as much reason.

I don’t buy that.

 

[Mad_Jack]

If you're not carrying a ten-foot pole, six torches, and a flask of oil, are you even playing Dungeons & Dragons?

Back in the day, there was one session where the party didn't have a 10-ft pole, so one of the other players made a comment that we did have a 6-ft Irishman, whereupon several members of the party picked up my character and heaved him into the area we thought might be trapped.

 

[prabe]

I don’t buy that.

There's about as much reason to distrust players as there is to distrust GMs, seems to me. I don't entirely disbelieve every horror story I see about either--bad players and bad GMs both exist.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There's about as much reason to distrust players as there is to distrust GMs, seems to me. I don't entirely disbelieve every horror story I see about either--bad players and bad GMs both exist.

And bad DMs have more power at a table to abuse than bad players do. So your bad DM horror stories tend to be more egregious than bad player horror stories, from my personal experience and from accounts I've seen online.

 

[prabe]

And bad DMs have more power at a table to abuse than bad players do. So your bad DM horror stories tend to be more egregious than bad player horror stories, from my personal experience and from accounts I've seen online.

Also one bad GM can affect more players than one bad player can GMs--though of course the bad player is plausibly making things bad for the other players, as well.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Also one bad GM can affect more players than one bad player can GMs--though of course the bad player is plausibly making things bad for the other players, as well.

Yep. I personally see more bad player stories than bad DM ones (because players outnumber DMs by a lot), but the bad DM stories are normally worse.

It's hard for a single player to ruin the entire game for everyone at the table. It's easy for a DM to do that.

 

[Cadence]

I don't think I've ever been as annoyed by a bad pizza chef or group of annoying pizzeria customers as much as I have been by the overly melodramatic yelpers who go on about them ad nauseum instead of just enjoying the latest pizza place they found. Especially when they could be complaining about Bards and Ardlings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Back in the day, there was one session where the party didn't have a 10-ft pole, so one of the other players made a comment that we did have a 6-ft Irishman, whereupon several members of the party picked up my character and heaved him into the area we thought might be trapped.

My wife's first D&D experience included my brother's player character dragging around a goblin corpse and tossing it everywhere he thought there might be a pressure trap.

That, interestingly, is what sold her on the game. (She had come from CRPGs and MMOs, where that kind of freedom to do your own thing is much more limited, by necessity.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's about as much reason to distrust players as there is to distrust GMs, seems to me.

This all reads to me that more people should be playing online, where you have access to a theoretically infinite pool of players and DMs to match your preferred play style.

 

[prabe]

This all reads to me that more people should be playing online, where you have access to a theoretically infinite pool of players and DMs to match your preferred play style.

You might think so.

You might also think that gaming online would be a way for a few bad players and/or DMs to spread their crap far and wide.

The truth is probably both, or neither, depending on how you look at it.

 

[trappedslider]

So much distrust of DMs.

So much distrust of players, with probably about as much reason.

I only trust friend computer.

 

[prabe]

I only trust friend computer.

Well, not trusting Friend Computer will result in your being used as reactor shielding.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You might think so.

You might also think that gaming online would be a way for a few bad players and/or DMs to spread their crap far and wide.

I didn't say that it was without a potential downside.

But all the people who post here who appear miserable in their games have very little to lose by trying it.

 

[prabe]

I didn't say that it was without a potential downside.

But all the people who post here who appear miserable in their games have very little to lose by trying it.

On the one hand, this is true. On the other hand, I suspect at least most of the people who seem so miserable could do with a good look in the mirror before trying it. As the saying goes, The only thing all our dysfunctional relationships have in common is you.