We made the DM cry...

[Raven Crowking]

Wow.

You guys take this GAME way too seriously.

Keyword being GAME.

Lighten up.

Actually, it is not the GAME that I am taking seriously. What I am taking seriously is intentionally causing harm to someone else. The fact that the DM puts in a lot of hard work to set up a game is relevant, but I would feel the same regardless of the activity. If you knew I was looking forward to Friday's Enterprise, so you did whatever was in your power to disrupt my viewing pleasure, they you would be in the wrong. It has nothing to do with the game. It has to do with socially acceptable adult behavior.


RC

 

[Felon]

Line directly before the one you quoted:

"Mind probing" ala Detect Thoughts might be invasive, but it is a tactic that few PCs think is unethical when they are doing it.​

I've known good or lawfully-aligned PC's who wouldn't use Detect Thoughts on someone casually, even knowing they would probably get away with it. Heck, I've played one. I don't know how you can say with certainty that such players represent the minority.

Of course, these freaks don't guys don't sound particularly good or lawful, in which case the "do unto others..." philosophy you are expressing doesn't really doesn't stop them from being outraged. "Who cares what I do to others? You don't do that me!"

But regardless, PC's probably do realize that if they're caught probing someone's mind it won't be viewed in a good light, and they'd have little justification for their actions. There's not only an ethical reason to not break into people's houses and rifle through their belongings; there's a pragmatic reason as well.

The thing is, what exactly do 1st level characters have that a powerful wizard would want to steal?

I dunno. Adventurers find stuff. That's what they do. Once in a while it's something that an affluent guy sitting around in his keep wants. It happens.

EDIT: Just so that we are clear, I am suggesting that perhaps the "mind probing" and "stealing" occurred as an attempt by the DM to make the game work by discouraging certain actions. Not a sophisticated attempt, mind you, but if we are talking about someone who has never (or almost never) DMed before, this is a plausible scenario. I am suggesting that the attempts to disrupt the game began with character creation and, while culminating in death threats and chair-burning, are probably not restricted to the first and last things that happened that day.

Oh, I do suspect Anthro and his chums really did bring a lot of this on themselves. You don't play evil characters for a newb DM, for one thing.

 

[Kalendraf]

I think, if my players actually suggested these characters, I would have cried too....What ever happened to playing normal characters?

I entirely concur. Not a single one of those PCs would even have Snilloc's Snowball's chance in the 9th plane of Hell of existing in my campaign.

 

[HeavyG]

a party of a stone golem monk, a yuan-ti pureblood ranger, a thri-keen barbarian and my character, a human warlock,

Wow. If you guys entered a bar, I would expect a punch line.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Wow.

You guys take this GAME way too seriously.

Keyword being GAME.

Lighten up.

Agreed. This thread is thick with pedants.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Actually, it is not the GAME that I am taking seriously. What I am taking seriously is intentionally causing harm to someone else. The fact that the DM puts in a lot of hard work to set up a game is relevant, but I would feel the same regardless of the activity. If you knew I was looking forward to Friday's Enterprise, so you did whatever was in your power to disrupt my viewing pleasure, they you would be in the wrong. It has nothing to do with the game. It has to do with socially acceptable adult behavior.


RC

VERY well said!

DM

 

[reanjr]

I DM for this group. I've gotten that look, too. I consider it a learning experience. Obviously something went wrong, and it helps to analyse exactly what. This thread is supposed to be about times when your DM, or you as DM lost control.

I never get that look. I always make my players think that whatever they just ruined was intended to be destroyed or at least inconsequential to the scheme of things. Then I go to the bathroom or call for a smoke break. By the time we're back to gaming, things are back under control and I've entirely reimagined the plot elements so that the players didn't really accomplish anything important. Man, if I planned things ahead of time, I'd be run ragged with the crap they pull. That must suck.

 

[Felon]

Here's how it would go for me:
<sits down around table>
"OK, freaks, yur in my town now, and if you don't want to get run out or run through by the royal guard you'll do as I say. I'm your boss now...anybody have a problem with that?"

"Stick it in your, ear, gramps!"

"Yeah, kiss your favorite chair b'bye!"

FWOOSH!!!

If yes, they get a sound beating. If no, then we are partners.

"OK, when I wake up I blow up his favorite ottoman as well. Then I swear to kill his family."

I think the real issue is that your players didn't realize that they were not in control of the situation...they didn't feel like they had to play along.

That statement takes a lot for granted...namely, the players. Fact is, the players are pretty handily in control of the situation once they realize they don't have to play along. They never do really, as it's just a matter of how badly they want you to keep DM'ing. And few people game just to have some NPC walking them on a leash.

Not that I don't see your point, just saying it's more of a balancing act than you make it out to be. Obviously, the players have to feel they have some control over their fate.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

A DM... crying...? I thought that only happens to B.A. Felton in Knights of the Dinner Table...

 

[Raven Crowking]

I've known good or lawfully-aligned PC's who wouldn't use Detect Thoughts on someone casually, even knowing they would probably get away with it. Heck, I've played one. I don't know how you can say with certainty that such players represent the minority.

I have DMed or played since December 1979, fairly continuously, with hundreds of different people in over a dozen States of the Union and in Canada. I can only go by my experience, and by my experience the word "few" was being generous.



RC