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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tsyr" data-source="post: 288581" data-attributes="member: 354">As some of you know, I recently posted on a problem I had had with a DM I play under. Well, it's gotten worse, and not just for me. Other people are starting to complain.The strange thing is, he used to be a very good GM... when he did Rifts, or White Wolf games, he was very good. Now, though, I'm not so enthused with him.This is basicly the summarized points our group had against him when we were talking after the last game, could people out there read them and then give me some advice, please?----1) He acts like he is one side, the players are the other, and there has to be a "winner". He's downright nasty at times about it. He grins like a maniac when we fail to detect a trap, shouts "yes!" when a monster critical hits a player, etc. This is one of the biggest problem we have. As a friend say, "It's not the substance of his games so much, it's the style he presents the substance in."2) He has been adding "realism" as he calls it to the game left and right. Things that blow exiting tactics out of the water. Some examples include making attack rolls to see if a mage can hit the target with a fireball (Misses invariably hit one of the mage's body guards, roasting the entire party), requiring the clerics to make touch attacks with penalties due to us moving in order to heal us in combat (Making in-combat healing a fickle thing at best), having the cleric make INT checks to see if the cleric even knows we need healing in combat, etc. 2b) Despite this, when he sticks to the CR system as it was wrote. In fact, he generaly pits our 3-person-and-one-npc party (all 5th level) up against multiple CR-6 or greater threats. Then can't understand why we do so poorly.3) He always has to include a DM-PC character in the party. This is a pratice I usualy can't stand just on generaly principle (I know one DM, and I'm not included in that number, who can pull it off well)... his characters are almost always quirky, almost always "well known" in his world, and almost always "better" than the rest of the party, despite being obstensibly of the same level. 4) Any NPC in his world could qualify for MENSA, challenge Nostradamus at a fotune-telling contest (and win), and seem to have "detect thoughts" up at all times. From the lowest band of goblins or mercenaries on up, his NPC tactics are always infallible, they NPCs seem so co-ordinated that you would think they were linked to the borg collective, can never seem to be bluffed or fooled, and seem to have spys following you around at all times, because they always seem to know as much about you as you yourself do. 5) He never starts us off at first level. This isn't a problem per say, I don't either as a general rule (I prefer third as a starting level). But he always gives us a couple magic items. But not according to any method... he rolls them randomly out of the book. So my shortsword and light-armour using fighter gets a magical scimitar and enchanted platemail, the platemail wearing fighter gets boots of elven kind, etc. He could just give us the money and let us buy them, but no... Granted, with a little work, we can generaly swap some items around, but that seems silly... I mean, IC, we just walk up to each other in a bar out of the blue and say "Hey, I know you have magic breastplate that you can't use... gimmie it." "Ok, here ya go stranger!". And we are normaly still left with several items that have no use (the magic scimitar, for example).6) Paladins in his world seem to cast detect alignment on general principle whenever they meet someone. We saved a paladin from evil cultists attempting to sacrifice her to their god, took her back to her temple... but she wouldn't let me come inside, or pay me any of the reward, or heal me. Why? Because my character was lawful evil.7) Kinda related to 1... sometimes he uses old Player Characters of his as villans... including one character that we always seem to run into... They are generaly FAR above the level the party should fight, and are decked out with numerous magical items (Belt of Haste, Wand of Slay Living, etc etc). If we do manage to kill them through some stroke of luck, instead of running away, he gets pissed. A day later we run into yet another uber-npc, even more powerfull than the last. If we somehow defeat THAT one, it just keeps repeating until we are properly shown our place.----There was more, but thats the gist of it.Now, you may ask, why do I play with this guy, if I have so many problems with him? He's been a friend for a long time. And as I said, he used to be a damn good DM, one of the best in the area as a matter of fact. He used to run almost exclusivly white wolf or Rifts, but it was GOOD whitewolf or rifts. None of the above problems did he have (except for a bit of 7, and a case of "DM's Girlfriend syndom when his girlfriend used to play) back then.Then he went away to college last year. Found a gaming "club" there of some sort. When he came back, this is how he was. I still value him as a friend. But as a DM, I'm basicly worn out. I don't intend to keep doing to his sessions after this adventure we are in is concluded, to be honest, unless he... I dunno, goes back to the way he was or something.Does the collective wisdom on this board have any advice for dealing with any of these problems, or any clue WHY he might have changed this much, and how he did?*sigh*</blockquote>

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