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Message: <blockquote data-quote="touc" data-source="post: 7501801" data-attributes="member: 19270">I've DM'd for the past 20+ years now, and it hasn't always been perfect on my end. I learned a few things because either I had cool players who talked to me, or I found out the hard way, and I've played on occasion and walked out (once literally).1. Railroading into MY story, not the PLAYER's story. If players in advance agree to a setup (e.g. we all agree the slavers kidnap us and that's how the campaign starts), that's one thing, but twice I've pissed off players by forcing them into a (very obvious) battle they couldn't win solely to either capture them or take an item. LESSON LEARNED: don't. You might as well say "the god Zeus comes down and takes your weapons away. You're now prisoners in a maze." Players should be consulted in advance on being part of a particular story, such as Curse of Strahd. They aren't going to Barovia to open up a tavern and delve into dungeons for loot. Fortunately, my players were cool enough to talk and give me an ultimatum of "be a better DM or we walk!" And I'm glad they said something, because I wasn't seeing it.2. Telling my players what they should have done. Players had a bad battle and I (in my own world) thought it'd be best to share with them what they could have done differently by using the rules to their advantage and using class abilities. WRONG!  Wrong to ever tell a player how to play their character. If players falter, don't compound it by sharing with them your superior knowledge of how you would have played their characters properly. Campaign ended, lesson learned.3. NPC is the DM in disguise. A friend wanted to run a game and very quickly became clear the major NPC that he'd statted out and had fighting our battles for us was simply a proxy for him. Sounds like something out of a Knights of the Dinner Table comic strip, but yeah, it happens and it wasn't fun. He went back to playing, campaign ended.4. Being a DM is about creating a story with the players. Moved to a new town and tried to find gamers by randomly sitting at tables where DMs were trying to find groups. Walked out twice. (1) First DM said we're in an arena, pulled out the Monster Manual, and announced the king was having us fight his monsters alphabetically. No story. Left before the first battle. (2) Another DM had a story but we never got to it as we had 3 random encounters a day getting to the starting point that all began with "you hear something in the bushes." Then a pointless battle. Wasted hours with no story.</blockquote>

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