What type of game do you hate?

[Creamsteak]

I throw my lot in with all extremes, railroading, deep immersion storytelling, dungeon crawling... all are bad when taken too far.

I also must point out how incredibly annoying games get when all the players have their own private interests that overide EVERYTHING else they can do. You probably know the type, players that seperate from the party constantly and draw the Dm to them for every detail...

 

[Khorod]

Extremes are bad.

Deep PC background required which the DM ignores, then assumes you will jump into the dangerous dungeon for no personally important reason- bad.

Over-caution in roleplaying- bad, particularly in characters with high wisdom's who should know better.

DM who gets his laughs by making you think every creature is the compound could easily kill you, but each one is a moron- bad. (And this happened more than once).

 

[arwink]

Any game which is going on for some purpose other than having fun. Primarily, this has been the major flaw of most world of darkness games I've been part of - too many people seem to think the game is there to either give them some insight into their personality, or as a complex form of psychologocial warfare against their friends.

 

[nsruf]

Re: Chugga-Chugga-Chugga.

Railroading. I really hate railroading.

Amen!

Railroading is really the only thing I do not like, independent of other aspects. Dungeon crawl alone gets boring after a while, but so does mystery/intrigue with little or no action. A good mix of different plot types and paces with no railroading is the ideal campaign for me.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I hate games where anyone is playing with the purpose of finding out how close he can come to playing an evil character without getting kicked out. I hate games where players are sitting down and trying to create the wierdest and most unpleasant concept (usually in some kind of abstract comment on "several elements of modern society).

I hate games where the characters are a bunch of depraved mercenaries (or psychopaths) hopping from one whorehouse to another (and insisting on "roleplaying" their interactions in the brothel/bar).

And I hate games where the party shares no goal or cohesion--where the only reason I can think of that my character doesn't either kill his party members (usually when someone decides that their goal is to raise an army of undead and stomp out all life on the planet, murder everyone of my character's race and eat them, or steal everything that isn't nailed down--including the swords at other characters' belts) or get up and walk away from them never looking back is that I dislike the out of game conflict that inevitably results from it.

I also dislike adventures that are supposed to be solved with some kind of logic that defies real logic (ie. the builders of this crypt put traps in to keep everyone out but then they left a bunch of cryptic riddles and number theory problems and let in anybody who can solve them. Is that really what they wanted to do--if they only wanted a certain kind of person (usually a hero) to be able to enter, why on earth didn't they set up tests of heroism? If they wanted a member of their organization or alignment, why didn't they test that?)

 

[Sarellion]

I don´t like games where one part of the players want to behave like greedy psychopathic combat machines whose only goal in life is to get their hands on more power. They kill everyone who has better artifacts, even people in their own group or people who should be off limits. One of our characters was a air elementalist and the tower where the chosen of the elemental lord resides was attacked by a necromancer. Later I heard that some players planned to kill both of the combatants and get the tower (not that they got some valuables for our help from the chosen).

2. I had a valuable powerful artifact. One time I got in a clash with our main greedy one who always tried to get the other spellcaster to expend their magic power so that he didn´t has to use his spells. He wanted a duel, I said ok, but the winner doesn´t loot the body of the loser, answer was "Forget it".

3. Or one anecdote about our fight with a pirateship with some powerful enemies. After one of the enemies went down, the guy went down to retrieve the loot. The problem was that other characters were still fighting!

4. It´s not that the player weren´t only greedy but they were morons, too. Saying out loud that you won´t defend and don´t care about the elven slaves you are rescuing while you are on the elven rescue ship isn´t a good idea. Asking the angry patron of the group who just punished a character if you can learn new magics while your moron comrade tries to get the rings of the corpse of the punished character isn´t a good idea either.

So I don´t like playing with moronic greedy powergamers.

Or with DMs who talk with one part of the group the whole time and with the other half only 5 minutes in an hour. But everyone gets special powers, followers and a forgotten city for the group with portalsto every gaming world. Yawn...
I have to remark that these were different groups. The above mentioned players weren´t part of the DMs group mentioned here.

 

[muhcashin]

characters not staying together

I hate games where PCs do anything they want, spend too much time on personnal stuff such as creating magical items and making money. Especially when they dont stay together. One wants to go to Waterdeep, others Halruaa and others stay in the Dalelands. I end up with four "1 player-DM games".

 

[Reprisal]

As a DM/GM...

... I find this thread very interesting, and vital to my responsibilies.

I have to agree with most, if not all, of the people who have already posted.

Personally, I really dislike it when I'm presented with no opportunity to show some of my abilities to play an interesting character who's about more than simple combat. I'm glad that my few outings as a player were accompanied by a DM able to recognize my desire for more than a rail and a sword.

I know, not much to add, but I just thought I'd add my voice to one of the many,

- Rep.

 

[Psion]

Your right, few people do that. And the few that do, won't do it every week. you can't keep doing the same thing everyweek, you need a little variety.

I do that (create "dungeon with reasons") a lot! I think of that as an essential DM skill and am almost aghast that you all find it so rare.

But I would agree I don't do it all the time. Sometimes, I just am not inspired enough and I can tell that the players aren't in the mood for a lot of deep storytelling and investigation, or a lot of players are missing and I don't feel right pushing along my story arc without them, so I just "make something up."

So sometimes a straight-up dungeon crawl with a singular plausible reason is sufficient. For example, a while back I only had 2 of my regular players, so I pulled an idea off of the "100 adventure ideas" table -- a paladin on a quest to free a dragon gets trapped. So I had one of the paladin's friends approach the party and explain that the paladin in question went on a vision quest to free a noble beast and had not returned. So I filled a keep with hobgoblins that had trapped the gold dragon and the paladin in the dungeon. After that, it was simply a matter of ploughing through the hobgoblins, but at least there was a REASON for it.

I use Undermountain in my world (don't ask me why... I just love it), and the primary reason people go there is for fame and forture. I also use Rappan Athuk, and I use it on off nights... the player's goal there is usually to "beat the dungeon", as well as fame & fortune.

Beyond that, there is almost always a reason for my dungeons, even if I make it up off the cuff, though such games usally don't have a storyline beyond that.

 

[Trepelano]

Railroading games where the DM basically neuters players of their chance to do anything pro-active. Its even worse if its combined with a hack-n-slash fest/dungeoncrawl.

Actually its worse when its not. Imagine being railroaded in an all-night role-playing session. Here's an example:


DM:Here is some information about something really bad that could happen.

Player: Ok, then here is what I do

DM: you wouldn't do that

Player: Ok, then I'll do this

DM: you couldn't do that

Player: OK....Then I'll do this

DM: you shouldn't do that

Player: Look.. what should I do?

DM: Its your character you can do whatever you like.

Player: Fine, then I'll do this

DM: Oh, that won't work, either.

Player: (sigh) It seems like there is nothing I can do.

DM: Well, You didn't ask me if you could do this.

Player: FINE, I'll do that then!

DM: Your character would NEVER to that!

Player: (pulling out fist-fulls of hair)I've got to do SOMETHING!

DM: Not neseccarily, this could be useless information.

Player: GAH! .

(now imagine an entire evening of this)