Worst DM Quotes at Gencon

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hey, the Original Ghost Tower was a classic, if a very typical 1E tournament dungeon (which meant most of it made very little sense as a whole). One of the guys in my gaming group played the Return adventure at GenCon and it didn't sound like much had been changed from the original.

 

[Tewligan]

8x8 room, 2 gargoyles, every 5 foot step there was approximately a 50% chance that you took 1 point of damage from a cause minor wounds spell...

Unless that room changed significantly from the original module, it's set up like a chessboard. If you moved from square to square in the same pattern as a chess piece starting on the square you entered the room from, you take no damage.

 

[Creamsteak]

Unless that room changed significantly from the original module, it's set up like a chessboard. If you moved from square to square in the same pattern as a chess piece starting on the square you entered the room from, you take no damage.

The color patterns and where we started threw my group off. And the Dm rolling dice (definitely a good move on his part) had us convinced that by the time our third theory of how to get around the room failed... it was just probability.

I was a bishop, but the others that spawned on my space were a knight and a king... At first we assumed that our starting space determined what piece we were, but rather... the DM was to roll a d4 instead.

 

[Piratecat]

Over the last 12 years, I've played about 175 RPGA games (and run about another 160 or so). In general, I find that out of six games, I'll have one bad judge, one incredible one, and four good-to-decent ones. I live for that incredible DM, and try to remember who they are so I can keep in touch with them. I've made a lot of good friends that way.

We have a theory that says that a really good game has three components: the judge, the module, and the tables. It requires two out of three of these things to make the game good (a good judge and players beats a sucky module, for instance), but that the judge trumps. A good judge can enliven both tired players and a poor module, and a bad judge running a great module can make things tough even for fantastic players.

That's why I tend to run games at cons; it's all selfishness. When I run a game, I know that at the very least I'll amuse myself (and hopefully the players!), thus guaranteeing my own fun. Because of this I seldom have a "bad" con; I just enjoy the challenge of running an unfamiliar adventure for strangers, and I'm seldom disappointed. Even better, I blatantly yoink DMing and playing tricks from my players that I think are cool. The RPGA (hi, Adso!) is solely responsible for any DMing ability that I might have.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

I played in 4 RPGs at Gen Con this year, and I would rank three of the judges as good, and one as very good. Most of the events were RPGA events. A very enjoyable experience.

 

[Storm Raven]

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

Not stupid. Moronic.

Just have the PCs divide the treasure based upon its monetary value and all of the problems you cite are solved.

The RPGA is silly for not being able to come up with a better solution than the moronic one it uses.

 

[Uruk]

Not to be positive, but this was my 1st time at Gencon and my 1st time playing RPGA events and all my games ranged from good to great. Even better (and maybe odder yet) all my RPGA DMs were from Indy so I'll get to play in some more games here.

 

[Pielorinho]

:::shakes head::: Sorry. The only saving grace is that you benefited from DM error rather than died from it. Still, I am sorry to hear that an RPGA DM didn’t know about armor check penalties and the taking off armor rules. Thanks for the feedback, though. Stuff to take with me when we start doing GM mentoring at Winter Fantasy 2004.

Adso, do you have any say-so over whether RPGA judges receive feedback forms from their players on how well they judged the game?

I've played in RPGA games before and gotten to rate my Judge's performance -- and this seemed a good thing, both for me (because I got to rave about a good GM, or vent about a lousy one) and for the Judge (because if they cared, they'd get some feedback that would help them improve their judging).

This GenCon was the first time I've judged for RPGA, however, and I was disappointed that I didn't get feedback from my players. Is this a permanent change? Can it be retracted? I really like the idea of getting such feedback.

Daniel

 

[KenM]

5) "Can I borrow a DMG, PHB, and Monster Manual from anyone?"

***What a sense of forbooding I had when I heard this.***

Well if that was at a major con like Gencon, He could have forgotten to pack his books, or the airline could have lost his luggage with his game stuff, ect. .
I have been to a few local cons run by gaming friends that I know, I go there to play. The second I walk into the do, one of them asked "want to DM in half an hour? Here is the adventure". That DM might have gotten suckered like that, too.

 

[buzzard]

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."

:

Well the DM was right actually. Reactions to getting shot are a function of the person taking damage and have nothing to do with momentum transfer. A zombie, not being likely to react to being shot would only feel the imparted momentum. Since momentum is conserved, the force pushing the zombie back would be no more than that felt by the shooter. I've shot plenty of shotguns in my time, and I've yet to have one tip me over.

buzzard