When the magic starts to fade

[sniffles]

Okay, I'm just sort of mildly venting here. There is no real solution for my problem, and it's not a serious problem anyway. :\

I've been roleplaying for about 10 years with a particular GM/player. He runs more games for our group than anyone else, primarily because it's his only social activity and if he didn't GM there wouldn't be a game every weekend. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his games, but not as much as I used to. When I was new to gaming I would play just about anything and didn't care if it was little more than hack-n-slash. But these days I want a little more roleplaying out of my roleplaying, and that's just not his forte'. His games are pretty much "mission of the week" stories, with combat required every session.

My biggest gripe is getting to be that he doesn't believe in character death. Ever. He will bend over backward to keep PCs alive. So I have no opportunity of playing something new in his games. He also doesn't like to just swap out a PC for a new one. I just asked him if I could as I'm finding my current PC in his Greyhawk game to be getting a bit stale. He said no.

He did recently allow another player to change PCs, but it was after a long-drawn-out struggle between what the player wanted to do with his character and what the GM wanted. The player ended up retiring his original PC for reasons he was very unhappy about, but the GM wouldn't bend on allowing him to temporarily retire the character, so the player was forced to permanently retire the character and make a new one. Then the GM nixed a feat the player really wanted for the new character, so the player had to make another new one. This is partly the player's problem, I realize (he could have made the PC anyway without that feat), but the only reason the GM banned the feat was because it didn't come from the PHB or Complete books - a requirement he had not previously expressed to the group. In fact the player's old character had a feat from the FR setting book, so it didn't make sense to arbitrarily say no to this feat.

Complaining to this GM is really not an option. He doesn't have a thorough understanding of the way other people think so it would be like speaking Chinese to him. We don't really want to stop gaming with him because no one is miserable in his games. We're just vaguely dissatisfied.

Okay, enough venting.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Kill him and take his stuff.


In the case of DMs who are stubborn I tend to reccomend mega-modules. That way you can get a year of gaming where at least you know that the ideas and concepts have been vetted by at least one other person. This dude sounds more like he has to be in control. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, he just sounds like he has a vision that he's sticking to.

 

[Hjorimir]

Well, if the other players share your feelings concerning the desire for deeper role-playing experiences and character death, the best course of action is to have an honest, open conversation with the DM.

Really.

 

[Talmun]

I confess to a complete lack of understanding when it comes to GMs who act this way. Not letting players swap out "stale" PCs for something new, disallowing feats (or anything else) by enforcing char-gen rules that were unknown up to that point, not being open to reasonable criticism...it all baffles me.

Don't these DM's realize it's their responsibility to see that everyone at the table is having fun? If the actual, written rules should bow to that, how much more so for house-rules and other DM fiats.

If it were me, I would attempt to talk to this GM in spite of his seeming social short-comings, because the other options - to keep on the way things are going, or to leave - aren't much fun either...

I realize that you really didn't ask for advice, but this type of thing really bugs me.

 

[The_Gneech]

I feel your pain. I'm currently pretty much "done" with my current character and ready to move on ... but the GM has more or less built major parts of the game around him and makes unhappy noises whenever I bring up the possibility of retirement.

I'm thinking that in the future, I may just have to not mention how low his hitpoints are until "Oops, I'm dead."

-The Gneech

 

[sniffles]

Kill him and take his stuff.


In the case of DMs who are stubborn I tend to reccomend mega-modules. That way you can get a year of gaming where at least you know that the ideas and concepts have been vetted by at least one other person. This dude sounds more like he has to be in control. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, he just sounds like he has a vision that he's sticking to.

Are you psychic? That is totally a perfect description of this GM. He's a control freak. However, I've never really known him to run a module. He adapts all his adventures from books, comics, tv shows and movies.

The player I described who was forced to change characters has just reminded me of the irony of this situation. He didn't *want* to change characters but couldn't get the GM to go along with a temporary retirement, whereas those of us who do want a change can't persuade the GM to allow that!

 

[Rel]

My philosophy is this:

If I'm generally having fun but have a few minor complaints, I try and consider if these complaints are part of an overall compromise in order for everyone to have fun (not just me). In your example, maybe some of the other players really hate having a PC die but maybe they like combat a lot too. In that event, I try and focus on my fun when I'm doing the part of the game that I enjoy most. And when one of those other parts comes up, I try to enjoy the fact that one of my friends is really getting a charge out of it. This is what compromising to play with other styles of gaming is all about.

If, on the other hand, I've gone past the point of minor complaints to "unfun" then I will express my problem and quit the game immediately. There is no point at all in continuing in a game that you don't enjoy.

 

[Sammael]

I used to dislike killing player characters as well, fudging rolls left and right to make sure they lived through every encounter, no matter how stupid their actions were. And then I came to realization that my game was not a challenge anymore. I convinced myself that I needed therapy.

First, I killed a player character with a randomly encountered catoblepas. Next, assassins killed another PC. Finally, a very annoying elven archer-ranger ticked off the wrong people for the last time, and died to their arrows as well. I was feeling much better, but it seemed as if my game was now too lethal. Now what?

I introduced Fate Points to the game. They are rare, and players have to earn them the hard way (no automatic-fate-points-per-level crap), but they can potentially alter the outcome of very bad situations through careful use. Now I roll all my rolls in the open and don't pull any punches, and my players can determine their own fate through judicial use of Fate Points.

Talk to your DM. Your DM apparently hasn't realized that you aren't having fun anymore, but, if you don't have an honest and open conversation with him, he may never come to that realization on his own. Ask that he rolls his dice in front of you. If he refuses, suggest to him that he could use a Fate Point mechanic, like I did. It'll make him feel better if he kills your characters - and he obviously needs to do that every once in a while. That's what raise dead and resurrection are in the game for - n'est ce-pas?

EDIT: Oh, and buy him a copy of the DMG2. It covers your situation and his control-freak methods perfectly. The only problem is getting him to realize that he is a control freak, but the "top 10 ways to destroy your game" checklist ought to do the job.

 

[tonym]

...My biggest gripe is getting to be that he doesn't believe in character death. Ever...

No character death, ever?
That is the worse houserule for a D&D game I have ever heard.
It rules out the possibility of your PC sacrificing her life for a noble cause, or a friend.

Tony M

 

[ptolemy18]

His games are pretty much "mission of the week" stories, with combat required every session....My biggest gripe is getting to be that he doesn't believe in character death. Ever. He will bend over backward to keep PCs alive. So I have no opportunity of playing something new in his games. He also doesn't like to just swap out a PC for a new one. I just asked him if I could as I'm finding my current PC in his Greyhawk game to be getting a bit stale. He said no.

This DM sucks. (No offense if you like him as a person. :/ ) It's one thing to run a role-playing-heavy campaign where no one ever dies, but A COMBAT-CENTRIC GAME WITHOUT CHARACTER DEATH IS THE STUPIDEST WASTE OF TIME EVER.

The best DM I ever played with was very combat-centric, and in the course of 5 years playing with him, I played about 7 characters.

Also, personally speaking, I get *BORED* with my characters sometime. I *like* to swap out new characters so I can try out new races and classes and prestige classes and builds.

So, in short -- your DM sucks and I would appreciate it if you would send him a link to this thread so he can see how much I think he sucks and in what way. Thanks.

That's *my* venting for the day...

Jason