Honestly, the player's request seems completely unreasonable. Spiders are a classic part of the game. So is trying to elicit some glimmer of emotion (e.g. fear) towards the monsters rather than treating them as just an excuse to roll dice. So is facing things you wouldn't dare face in real life - and thereby becoming braver even in real life. I think you all owe that DM a giant apology.
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The monster you fear most
- Thread starter SnowleopardVK
- Start date
Honestly, the player's request seems completely unreasonable. Spiders are a classic part of the game. So is trying to elicit some glimmer of emotion (e.g. fear) towards the monsters rather than treating them as just an excuse to roll dice. So is facing things you wouldn't dare face in real life - and thereby becoming braver even in real life. I think you all owe that DM a giant apology.
wingsandsword
Legend
On the other hand, I think the DM was being a jerk and should have apoligized to the player.
I've never seen giant spiders be a big part of the game, yeah, they are in the monster manuals, but I've never used them (closest I came is a drider), and I've rarely seen them in games I've played in, just occasionally used as one of various low-level dungeon monsters.
I guess they are common in some campaigns, because they are ubiquitous in Dungeons and Dragons Online as a relatively low-level but annoying dungeon monster.
If a player says they are seriously arachnophobic and the DM throws giant spiders at them right afterwards, he's being openly disrespectful of that player. If the player had some other phobia or mental trauma would the DM be in the right to confront that too? Many people play D&D for fun, not to confront and get amateur psychotherapy for phobias.
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
My third adventure in my published Curse of the Golden Spear intro mini-arc (feudal Japan-inspired horror setting), is filled to the brim with encounters based on phobias, including: closed in spaces, the dark, spiders, snakes, dead things, and the unknown.
I think playing on phobias is a great tool for working horror into your games.
Besides, there's been giant spiders in just about every adventure we've ever played over 30+ years playing D&D. Only 1 drider encounter in all that time, too.
Of course, if the player asked the GM not to use spiders, and then he immediately did - I'd agree, that's a dickhead move on the part of that GM.
I think playing on phobias is a great tool for working horror into your games.
Besides, there's been giant spiders in just about every adventure we've ever played over 30+ years playing D&D. Only 1 drider encounter in all that time, too.
Of course, if the player asked the GM not to use spiders, and then he immediately did - I'd agree, that's a dickhead move on the part of that GM.
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RainOfSteel
Explorer
1 -- Tarrasque
2 -- Rust Monsters
3 -- Catoblepas (Death with no chance of saving throw.)
4 -- Most of the monsters in the Epic Level Handbook. Force and Prismatic Dragons... </shudder>
2 -- Rust Monsters
3 -- Catoblepas (Death with no chance of saving throw.)
4 -- Most of the monsters in the Epic Level Handbook. Force and Prismatic Dragons... </shudder>
SnowleopardVK
First Post
Wasn't her request, another player told the DM of her phobia and asked him to not include spiders for her sake.
Then he did what he did. It made her pass out. He thought it was funny and refused to apologize. Nobody who was there is planning on forgiving him.
Given the circumstances which were NOT included in the original post - namely the passing out, then the thinking that was funny - it does sound like he was being a jerk.
However, the general principle remains: Objects of fear are not to be avoided in-game. Doing so would cripple the game, because it's a game about being a hero and confronting the bad and scary. If you're too afraid to even let your character do so in an imaginary, safe for you situation, then it's not the game for you I would have to say.
You may not want amateur therapy, but if it's that much of an issue, you NEED to get professional help before daring to game because you are NOT able to function normally in society as you are. Spiders are part of the real world AND part of any imaginary world that is based on an Earth-like environment, and you WILL encounter them at some point.
The DM should not have described the encounter in such detail, it sounds like. Given her fixation, her imagination would easily have filled in, so it was overkill. And he should have started small - a literal small spider on the ceiling, perhaps, or perhaps merely a drow brooch with the design of a spider on it found as part of a hoard. And then give her time to get used to it. Unless it was an Underdark campaign, that may have been enough.
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Considering I'm designing a horror game, nothing is more 'unfun' than players who aren't scared at all playing a horror game. If you can't evoke horror in the game, why play?
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