Worst DM Quotes at Gencon

[Adso]

And yes, in Living Greyhawk, it is stupid that you can't loot the badguys and keep their stuff in later adventures. You're free to use the stuff in the current adventure, but if you want to keep any of the magic items, you have to buy them with your money. So the 1st level PCs I had, which managed to all bull rush and grapple an 8th level sorcerer at one point, weren't able to keep any of his magic items when they took him down. Ah well.

Different than what you are used to? Yes. Stupid? No.

On first glean this is commonly the reaction, but Living Greyhawk and other Living campaigns are not home games. You don’t always play with the same group of people. So when you defeat an enemy and take there stuff, you usually have few arguments about treasure division. Things typically fall into natural categories of division. Wizards get wizard stuff, fighters get fighter stuff, rogue gets rogue stuff and so on. And even if two characters covet the same item, it’s usually okay, because to some extent it’s in the party treasury. Both can use it in times of need.

On the other hand, Living campaign group dramatic change with adventure to adventure: you may have more rogues than you know what to do with in this session, not a cleric to be found in that, and a well-balanced party in the next. With this the home-play natural dynamics of treasure distribution go out the window. Arguments escalate as many people feel that they should walk away with the “one cool item,” and strong-willed players (and I mean players, not characters with high Will saves ) typically walk away with more of the “one cool items” making their character magic strong. And like in real life, trickle-down economics is no more than wishful thinking by those who have.

That and the fact that in LG you have characters in the campaign, and even the same table sometimes, that are between 1st and 13th-level. Having a 1st-level character taking that “one-cool item” suited for an 8th-level character creates a strange campaign dynamic that those familiar with online RPGs and the old Living City campaign will understand.

So while it seems to “suck” that you can’t just take the item, giving out an equal share of the treasure actually limits the “sucktatude” of the campaign in general. A Living campaign is not a home campaign, and like any play style that is different, you have to make adjustments. While we try to make a campaign fit into "natural play paterns," the realities of the fomat resist this from time to time, and we adjust. My only advice is that if you want it to act like a home campaign 100% of the time, it's never going to make you happy. The issues are tens of thousands of time more complex than that, because no home campaign has tens of thousands of players.

I am glad you had a good time running Endgame. It sounds like you gave your group some good challenges, and that your group gave you some good experiences to talk about. That’s fantastic! Thanks for DMing for us at Gen Con.

 

[BryonD]

It is amazing how one ill-conceived political comment can destroy the perception of an entire post.

 

[Sixchan]

[snip stuff about cool game]

Off hand, I can't think of a game that sounded more enjoyable than this. I have this image of a cartoon version of D&D with amazingly inept characters.

I wish I had been there to witness a game this unusual.

 

[Vocenoctum]

And the dumbest thing EVER said by myself when DMing...
"You hear Karl the Baker chuckle from the shadows as he moves slowly.... D'OH!"-I was running a Ravenloft Game at a convention at Evergreen Convention, a 3 day straight game involving a twisted murder mystery that was MA only. I'd just blown who really committed the murders. Thankfully, the players were excellent, and we worked it out. Still....

I've DMed for groups that still wouldn't have known who the murderer was.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Not meaning this as a defense of terrible DM's or GM's (of which I've experienced many), but one thing I would like to point out is that, while you and your home GM might all be fantastically good roleplayers and intimately familiar with the rules, not everyone you play with at a con will be.

For example, in the cases where the DM didn't know the rules for charging, or didn't know how Armor Check penalty worked, these are the mistakes of a novice DM, not a bad DM. Personally, I don't think that GenCon or any other convention should limit the games to "professional" DM's only. If a novice wants to DM at a convention, why shouldn't he be able to? He needs to learn just like a novice player does, and good, experienced roleplayers like you often find at these conventions can help him learn how to be a better DM. I don't think it is a good idea to chastise people for ignorance of smaller rules (now, if he didn't know how skills worked or something, that'd be different...)

I'm not making excuses for people that just have no idea how to run a good game, but I just don't think the attitude that novice DMs = bad DMs is very productive, nor does it encourage those people to DM again in the future. Be a little more supportive of the newbies, eh?

 

[Anthraxus]

The last couple years that I had played games at Gencon(I could not make it this year), I would say the Bad to Good DM ratio was about even.

In the many, smaller -Living Grehawk only- (or LG focused) Cons that I have been to... I'd say the good DM's far outnumbered the bad ones.

I have also gotten into a good, local, gaming group that plays LG, and I would say that I am blessed by all the great players and DMs that we have.

Oh yeah, this was about DM quotes at Gencon, wasn't it?

DM: "I'm not real familiar with this system..."
<players glance around nervously>

We managed to have fun, in spite of the DM.

-Anthraxus
Former ruler of the Wasting Tower

 

[S'mon]

At a GenCon a few years back I heard one of my all-time favorites. The setup: we're playing Call of Cthulhu, and fighting some sort of undead in a large house. One of the investigators blasts a zombie -- who was currently standing at the top of the stairs -- with his shotgun. When asked why the zombie didn't get knocked back down the stairs, the GM replied:

"Blowback is a myth."



He was a pretty lousy GM all around, but this one really took the cake for us -- particularly as it came towards the end of a poorly-run session. This line comes up anytime someone mentions bad GMing, and it's been a running joke for years.

Well, AFAIK he's right that the shotgun pellets aren't going to physically pick up the zombie and push him down the stairs, anymore than the gun recoil would send the firer shooting backwards Will-Smith like. One force equals another, and all that. A human might be knocked off balance (if not killed) and fall back down the stairs, but presumably a zombie might well not react the same way.

 

[TroyXavier]

This wasn't at Gen Con, but it was just so bad.

We're playing Return to the Temple Of Elemental Evil. Due to game circumstances, one player is now a werewolf. (As well as being a cleric). We're being attacked in several places by ghouls.

Werewolf Player: Can I make a spot check
DM: No, they're hidden
WP: Well I should be able to smell them.
DM: No, you don't. Now they get surprise on you cause you can't see them, hear them or smell them.

We just quit that game, because we were being dragged along by a DM who couldn't adapt from the book.

 

[Silver Moon]

DM: "I'm not real familiar with this system..."<players glance around nervously>

His mistake was telling you that. A few years ago, not long after 3rd Edition came out, a freind of mine was RPGA coordinator at a local con and fell short on judges. Just a day or two before the con he convinced me to stop by and DM a few slots for him, despite the fact that I was totally unfamiliar with the new rules. I must have faked it rather well, as I got very high scores from the players for the "Rules knowledge" category despite the fact that I had run it as a slightly modified 2nd Edition game.

 

[Tewligan]

"Superman breaks your arms, then gouges out your eyes"...(Champions)

Heh, I think the GM may have lifted that from a depressingly hilarious (or hilariously depressing) comic called (I think) "Jimmy Corrigan, The World's Smartest Boy". In one issue, a Superman-like character - I think they actually call him Superman, in fact - lands on a desert island, where he finds a group of kids looking at pornography. One of the kids gasps "Oh no - Superman!" At that point, Superman rushes into the group, gouging out their eyes with his thumbs. He then enjoys the pornography himself. A fine comic.