Worst DM judgement calls

[Terraism]

Well, a half-dozen years ago, just after I'd started playing (2nd edition), I was dragooned into DMing by two of my friends - they'd both been playing much longer than me, and were actually to two who got me started on the hobby. Anyway, I thought the idea was really cool, so went all out on this epic adventure - filled with all the mistakes a new DM can make... you know, godlike NPC's that save the party time and time again, "you can only go one way" corridors, that kind of thing. Not too bad, though, considering the ending, when they faced off against a "So Old There's No Numbers For It" dragon. (Yeah, it's an, um... unique, age catergory.) They're 2nd level, and killed it by taping one certain sounding stone in the room that made the entire cavern collapse. Of course, I then made the greater mistake of allowing them to estimate how much XP the beast should've been worth... somehow, even though the PH only went up to 20th level, they ended up at 87th after that...

[I'd like to say, in my defense, that I've gotten much better since then. Much better.]

 

[BryonD]

My DM: The Dragon opens its mouth and a stream of swords come shooting at you.

Me: What????

DM: It says right here, "Breath Weapon"

We were young.

 

[Dave Blewer]

If we are all going to spill our own mistakes - heres mine.

Back when I first started (20 *cough* years ago) I was young and foolish and decided that I couldn't be bothered with exp points and declared that as long as a PC completed a scenario then he could go up a level...

My two players thought that this was an excellent idea and offered to DM for the first time for me... They just needed to look over my books to work out some of the rules. I stiupidly lent them my stash of books...

Two weeks passes

It seems that after dozens of extremely short scenarios they both have 45th level Cleric/Fighter/Mages and my Dieties and Demigods book is returned with a very neat pencil written note informing me that Ra has lost his right arm

I have got a lot better since then...

 

[Felon]

My DM: The Dragon opens its mouth and a stream of swords come shooting at you.
Me: What????
DM: It says right here, "Breath Weapon"
We were young.

Heh heh...you know, that's pretty f***in' cool!

 

[Sir Whiskers]

The guys who taught me to play (a long time ago) thought that the limit of wizard spells per day meant the 1st-level wizard could only cast one spell per day, but he could cast that one spell as often as he liked.

(also a long time ago) The first dungeon I ran a player through, he killed some orcs. He found several thousand gold pieces and a rod of lordly might (or was it a helm of brilliance?) - because that's what I rolled on the random treasure chart. Of course, some of my current players might wish I still made that mistake occasionally...

 

[incognito]

Forrester: the tentacle passes upwards through this threatened area (5' above ground, then 10')

- WRT the staff think your DM's being a l-u-s-e-r. I'd demand to use a great sword, since life on the road is dangerous, and a truly effective weapon is called for.

..and it can be weilded one handed by a Stone giant...

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

The worst mistake i have made in 3E came shortly after the game was released. Not realizing how powerful some of the weapon special abillities were I foolishly allowed the lawful good fighter to gain access to a +3 lawful holy greatsword at around 9th level. Needless to say disaster ensued. I found myslef having to throw bigger and meaner monsters at the party just to challenge one player. Ugh, scrapped the whole campaign.

I have learned the error of my ways, and I am now very careful with weapon abilities that do extra damage.

Dirge

 

[Forrester]

AHA!

Sir Whisker's post reminds me of a complete and total screw-the-player ruling I made awhile ago . . . a LONG while ago, as it was my very first "campaign" (though I am loathe to call it that). I think I was maybe 13 years old, if that.

This was Basic D&D. A guy created a 1st level wizard, and as best I can recall, I concluded that:

1) He got to cast one 1st level spell a day
2) He needed to cast Read Magic to read his spellbook
3) Thus, he had to memorize Read Magic every day. As his only spell.

Yeah, that was the best . He was quickly nicknamed "Read Magic" by the characters . . . "Hey, 'Read Magic', what are you doing hiding back there", and so on.

Of course, because he didn't do anything but cower in the back, he survived where other characters did not, and eventually made it to 5th level. I think I killed him the last session with a white dragon, just to be fair to the other characters I'd killed.

Yeah, those were the days . I'm a little better now . . .

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

Forgive me, for I have sinned.

I ruled that the cleric's summoned elemental was affected by a sleep spell.

I claim insanity due to stupidity.

 

[kingpaul]

I can only think of one time were the DM was patently wrong, but wouldn't change his mind, since there were no black-and-white rules.

The party's paladin was stripped of all abilities.

What for, you ask? Why, the bad paladin picked up a known evil sword and destroyed it. The DM ruled that touching a known evil weapon was acting against the paladin code. Refused to listen to our arguments that destroying a known evil weapon was within the tenets of the code.