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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jason Kain" data-source="post: 3977765" data-attributes="member: 46949">Hello all. I'm in a rough spot with my DM, and I'm looking for some advice. I currently hold the record for most characters killed by him, for two reasons: First, I don't build for the sake of being optimal, I try to build to be interesting to me. Second, I lose interest in the character I'm playing fairly quickly.I finally realized why for both reasons today: I can't find any bit of "heroic" in the heroic fantasy game. I can summarize the last three campaigns I've played with him as DM with one plotline. There's a big evil about to take over the world, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Once we were involved in "battling" pit fiends and balors at level three. Then we were placed against a full on army at level five in the next campaign. Finally, the latest has us "fighting" vampires. We're level one. The reason for the quotations is that we never actually do any fighting. We're expected to run away, and are told as much. The fighting we do is never actually connected to the big evil in the world, we're just reminded of how inferior we are whenever they show up.The thing is, it's not because he's trying to make us feel inferior mechanically. He does everything he can to boost us mechanically...in his own way. He feels giving us trinket abilities makes up for it...whether we want them or not. This was the second campaign in a row where I went in with a character concept he knew about and liked beforehand, but the trinket ability he rolled was completely opposed to...and I was supposed to accept the roll and play my character as such.Finally, the big part of no heroism: Nothing we do works. Ever. If we try something he didn't plan for, we're told no. NPCs serve no purpose other than to be kidnapped and killed while we watch. Today, I had the chance to save 2 NPCs from the clutches of death. Do you know what happened? The first I rescued, and brought to the doctor. The doctor declares him to have an incurable disease and decapitates him. The second I didn't even get the chance to try and save. I run out, distract the two monsters using her as bait, and four more monsters drop down from the roofs and, I quote, "rip her to shreds before you can even move." That character died...basically by suicide. Vampires invaded the streets, and he didn't take shelter, he decided to take as many out as he could. The last character in the previous campaign? Died because there was no way around three consecutive traps in a hallway. The previous character in that campaign? Died in battle because he refused to retreat. The previous character? Eaten by two monsters in his third round of being alive, first of being attacked.Don't get me wrong, he's a great storyteller and a great friend, but I just have a hard time stomaching this brand of D&D. Is there something wrong with me? Am I not seeing something I should be? I admit tragedy can be a powerful tool, but when the first five minutes of the campaign can be summarized into "Doom is coming and there's nothing you can do about it", is it wrong to feel no attachment to the pile of numbers that's about to be replaced? Is it wrong to feel no investment in a world with no hope?Is it even heroic fantasy anymore?</blockquote>

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