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<blockquote data-quote="N0Man" data-source="post: 4287424" data-attributes="member: 64066">From a recent game I played in, I'll list some bad mistakes, and some examples of the mistakes in action... all from one play campaign.Being railroaded into stories with no ability to change what is going. &nbsp; - In my game, we were jumped by a small army in a forest, but yet nobody was allowed to see them coming.&nbsp; When we did see them, I said I wanted to attempt to try to persuade the leader to hear us out, and the DM responded with a club to my head that knocked me unconscious instantly, with no Save or anything.Don't play favorites - In this same scenario, the DM's best friend wanted to put up a fight.&nbsp; While everyone else was knocked unconscious, this guy at least got a chance to fight back before being taken prisoner.Don't arbitrarily render your players powerless and impotent - When our party awoke, we were in a dungeon.&nbsp; My social-skilled, smooth takling, acting, disguising investigative bard who had a voice related performance skill had his lips sewed shut.&nbsp; The fast monk had his achilles heel cut.&nbsp; The extremely charismatic and beautiful moonelf bard awoke with a gash across her face and one removed.Don't create a BBEG with ridiculous combinations of powers that make him totally unthwartable - So our party manages an escape attempt.&nbsp; The the use of disguise magic, the bluff skill, my acting ability, action point spent and exceptionally lucky rolls, I impersonate the BBEG to the captain of the guards.&nbsp; The guard asks where our party was, and I respond something like, &quot;How should I know?&nbsp;&nbsp; It's your job to capture them!&nbsp; Stop wasting my time and get to it!&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Suddenly the whole moment was ruined, because the Guard knew something that the party didn't...&nbsp; The BBEG, in addition to being half-drow and half-giant, was also a psionicist, and would have ESP-like knowledge of where we were.&nbsp; They instantly disbelieved the illusion.Let the players tell you what they are doing, don't force decisions on them. - Despite that setback, we manage to get free.&nbsp; We made our escape through a network of tunnels and caves.&nbsp; As we made our way through them, the DM says, &quot;you enter a chamber filled with a green bubbling smoking liquid on the floor.&nbsp; You continue to run through the liquid and it burns.&nbsp; You realize it's acid.&quot;&nbsp; &nbsp; A player exclaims, &quot;Wait!&nbsp; No, I would NOT run through that!&quot;Here are just a few examples of bad DM'ing</blockquote>

[QUOTE="N0Man, post: 4287424, member: 64066"] From a recent game I played in, I'll list some bad mistakes, and some examples of the mistakes in action... all from one play campaign. [B]Being railroaded into stories with no ability to change what is going. [/B] - In my game, we were jumped by a small army in a forest, but yet nobody was allowed to see them coming. When we did see them, I said I wanted to attempt to try to persuade the leader to hear us out, and the DM responded with a club to my head that knocked me unconscious instantly, with no Save or anything. [B]Don't play favorites[/B] - In this same scenario, the DM's best friend wanted to put up a fight. While everyone else was knocked unconscious, this guy at least got a chance to fight back before being taken prisoner. [B]Don't arbitrarily render your players powerless and impotent[/B] - When our party awoke, we were in a dungeon. My social-skilled, smooth takling, acting, disguising investigative bard who had a voice related performance skill had his lips sewed shut. The fast monk had his achilles heel cut. The extremely charismatic and beautiful moonelf bard awoke with a gash across her face and one removed. [B]Don't create a BBEG with ridiculous combinations of powers that make him totally unthwartable[/B] - So our party manages an escape attempt. The the use of disguise magic, the bluff skill, my acting ability, action point spent and exceptionally lucky rolls, I impersonate the BBEG to the captain of the guards. The guard asks where our party was, and I respond something like, "How should I know? It's your job to capture them! Stop wasting my time and get to it!". Suddenly the whole moment was ruined, because the Guard knew something that the party didn't... The BBEG, in addition to being half-drow and half-giant, was also a psionicist, and would have ESP-like knowledge of where we were. They instantly disbelieved the illusion. [B]Let the players tell you what they are doing, don't force decisions on them.[/B] - Despite that setback, we manage to get free. We made our escape through a network of tunnels and caves. As we made our way through them, the DM says, "you enter a chamber filled with a green bubbling smoking liquid on the floor. You continue to run through the liquid and it burns. You realize it's acid." A player exclaims, "Wait! No, I would NOT run through that!" Here are just a few examples of bad DM'ing [/QUOTE]

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