Walking away from a game...

[Weregrognard]

I've only walked out on a game once, it was an AD&D 2E campaign:

- It allowed all of the Player's Option books...ALL of them, whether you wanted to use them or not.

- Incidentally, the DM provided the players with a detailed (read: convoluted), multi-page cheat sheet to "ease" character creation. You had to use the (also multi-paged) character sheets provided by him. If you had any questions, his answer was an unhelpful "read the cheat sheet" in a mocking tone.

- The campaign world was a strange mashing of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. These two great tastes did not go well together, in my opinion.

- The DM had a draconian "you're always in character when you speak" rule that made standard, in-game socializing difficult...and landed my character in some ridiculous, but ultimately unfun situations.

It's a shame. The DM was a nice guy, but I had to flat out let him know I was not enjoying myself and politely bowed out of further game sessions.

 

[Festivus]

Happened last week. One player said something (apparently an insult, I didn't hear it so I have no idea), and the other player called him out on it. I asked them to take the argument away from the table, but the person refused. When I tried to explain that we were here to play a game, I was cut off and the argument continued. So I said "Let me know when you are finished with your argument, I'll be outside" and I walked away.

I'd rather everyone get along, but when I could not reason with someone it was time to remove myself from the situation. I came back about 15 minutes later when things cooled off (and the guy who was offended by the other left). I have no idea if he's coming back but I do hope they worked things out.

 

[Corathon]

I played Shadowrun a few times, but didn't like the system or the world.

Eventually my PC was being attacked through a spell lock by an astral foe (hopefully I have the terminology right; its been 10 or 15 years) and got badly damaged. The GM asked me why I hadn't disengaged the spell lock. When I thought about it, I realized that I was subconsciously hoping that my PC would die, so that I wouldn't have to play anymore. At that point I stopped playing even though the character survived; its pointless to play a game that you don't enjoy, and unfair to the other players to boot.

 

[Aeolius]

...when I asked him why he liked sharks so much "Dude, I am a shark."

At which point you were supposed to jump over him.

...all we need now is someone with a mermaid fixation - and I'm betting there's one out there.

but they're cuuuuute:

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

While in the Navy and temporarily stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station awaiting transfer to training, I found a game group and joined in for a session.

The DM informed me that he was running "true D&D, as it was meant to be played and originally played." Uh, ok.

So, I roll up a 3rd edition (this was in 2002) blind monk. The blind part being for flavor and an interesting background quirk.

Also at the table were a Rifts character, an AD&D 2nd Edition character and several other things that I think I've blocked from my mind.

Apparently rules were something that didn't exist in "D&D as it was meant to be played" as the DM completely ignored anything on anyone's character sheet that resembled a number and any die rolls were completely arbitrary.

The DM goes into a lengthy back story about the world and various animal based knightly orders who've brought our characters together for an epic quest, promising great rewards if we succeed. At least the story background was relatively interesting.

The knights say that they will restore my character's sight.

I tell the DM, "My character doesn't want his sight."

DM says, "Yes, he does."

And that was that.

 

[Zhaleskra]

A game I eventually walked out of: short-term friend had no knack for introducing new characters, they were just "teleported" to where the existing characters were and had to come up with background and name and such on the spot. Worse than that though, was the fight with some creature I didn't have a hope in hell of hitting, and its grapple attacks that my character couldn't wriggle out of.

 

[shadzar]

I don't know about that. Dying seems awfully rude to me. At least give us a heads up that you'll be getting hit by a car.

Anyway, the chances of "death" being the case are probably close to 0.

The last guy that bailed on us without even emailing me back to say he didn't want to play showed up right outside my office building 2 weeks ago (I work on a campus). We walked past each other and just nodded (I recognized him but didn't realize it was the guy that played one session with us at first). He wasn't dead, so I guess he was rude.

Maybe just being polite and didn't come up in your face and say he didn't like you or your group.

"If you can't say something nice, then don't say nuffin at all."

 

[wingsandsword]

I had a New World of Darkness game I'd bolted from.

I told the story years ago as it was unfolding, after each game, here on ENWorld.

Basically, I wanted to try WoD, and had the daughter of a friend of mine want to run a game. I was expecting a basic, standard WoD game to get a baseline for the system and setting.

I created a character, and watched as the went from being a normal WoD game to being a weird mix of a Laurell K. Hamilton novel and the Cube movie series, with her creating a vast amount of house-rules (completely re-writing a good chunk of the system, for example all NPC"s resolved all action by rolling percent and her making a fiat call), letting her boyfriend play a Mary-Sue super-NPC, and making us RP out hour-long cab rides or morning breakfast as in-depth acting with a random NPC, and visits to a kinky Amsterdam sex club (complete with very elaborate services and price list). . .all with her taking detailed notes because she has a fantasy of writing a novel series based on her game.

I stuck with it for a while because I liked the people I was gaming with, and the GM was actually a very good bartender and would serve good drinks after the game, but in the end I couldn't justify going back for that game.

 

[JoeGKushner]

When 4e just rolled out, I joined a game where the GM customized it by putting it into the Black Setting. More of a mood and theme thing than actually changing the rules, which was perfect for me.

Several weeks in, GM decides to stop and let someone else run Star Wars. While I like Star Wars, I wanted to keep playing D&D so left that group and went to another.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I've walked out on a few games over the years, though not usually mid-session.

Twice I had a games I was running end in a fistfight between two feuding brothers. Two different sets of brothers.

My wife had a player walk out, upset that he had his DM chair usurped by her and nobody cared enough to see him back in it.

Previously, I'd bailed and decided to boycott the games run by that DM. One can only take so much in-game favouritism, railroady plots, endless dragonwars, and other nonsense. I actually took a gaming hiatus during this time, because it was basically the only game in town.

I ran a one shot which I pulled the plug on when one of the players began torturing orcs via genital mutilation in explicit, graphic detail.

I bailed on a game where one of the players started to monopolize ALL my free time. He was constantly calling, talking about gaming, wanting to get another game going, etc. He was lonely and directionless, but he needed a counsellor more than a friend, I'd say.

There were probably others, but these stand out in my mind.