|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:21 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:30 pm
 |
|
|
|
Bad DMs -- A Journey
Each new DM will have the first sentence bolded to make things a bit easier to read.
This first DM is a curious creature -- one of misplaced affection. He would fudge rolls so that the girl he had a crush on would never miss and always do max to near-max damage. She'd roll tens and below and do crit damage while the other players would roll 15+ and miss almost every time. If she was DPS, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but she was a utility character and was doing more damage than both DPS combined. Even she was bothered by this.
Funny thing is, after a few sessions of this, he asked her out. She wasn't surprised, and very nicely let him know that she would not date him as she was in a relationship. He knew this, and to this day we have no idea what he was expecting. Her to leave her boyfriend for him? Who knows. After that, she began missing a whole lot more. If one of her skills was to be used in a game, he would set the DC incredibly high. Since when do basic locked chests have a DC 10 one second, but change to a DC 20 when a certain character attempts to unlock them? What about rotting doors with an easy lock? Should that be a DC 25 at level 1? Especially when it is incredibly important to get through said door; the only way to advance the plot.
Another group had a DM who would straight up ignore players. One player was on the verge of tears in said campaign, when the DM told her she was useless and none of her ideas would ever work because her character (that he made with her) was terrible. The DMs best friend (who coincidentally had the spotlight) agreed and urged her to quit. She was actually very creative (and very excited for the campaign), and I would have used her ideas in my campaigns (if I was DMing at the time). The DM and his friend continued to play almost as if no one else was there, only using the other characters for better rolls and nothing else.
Another DM had more on his plate than he could handle. We ended up having a 15 player game. He decided that his game was so important and so fun that more and more people needed to be able to see it's greatness. The way he handled this? He split the party in half (we didn't really want to do this, and he chose who went where even though there wasn't a tactical advantage to it or any kind of reason).
There was also a few games played before the official game began, so there were two or three characters who were higher level than everyone else they were not spread out. He'd spend 45 minutes with one group, then switch to the other group. All the while, we would be sitting there, at the table, waiting for our turn. The 45 minutes was slow either way and you would get one -- maybe two -- turns in.
In our first game, where none of us had played before, he made sure to put us in environments where our powers would be ineffective. AOE based characters would be in places where their magic would hit teammates at twice their damage, melee characters would have divides between them and their enemies. The people who succeeded? The ones who had played before.
All of that wasn't a big deal, though. The worst offense was to another player. He is a good player, and made sure everything was approved by the DM before he went through with it. This was good because none of us had ever played the game before and the mechanics were foreign to us. He had the design and the stat distribution approved. The DM ok'd every aspect of this character. Apparently that wasn't enough.
The character was a mecha pilot. It was balanced, and the player (by recommendation of the DM) put most of his points into the suit and not his character. It worked, though. Well, sort of. The game started as normal. Our team was issued a ship which would be our base of operations. Then, the DM drops a bomb: the mech that he had told the player to put all his points in? Yeah, the ship is too small to carry it. The mecha will be unused for the entirety of the campaign. Oh, and by the way, you can't restart or remake your character. What's done is done.
One DM saw power gamers where there were none. There was this rouge who did more damage than the other party members (To which I will say, duh. He wasn’t all that overpowered. Not in a way that isn’t easy to deal with). Instead of just asking him to re-roll his character, he went a "stereotypical GM" way. He dropped an enchanted item called the “dagger of backstab.” Sounds cool, right? Wrong. It is a dagger that does more damage to the user than the user does to their target. The worst part about it is that, for reasons never explained, he was not allowed to drop the weapon. Nor was he allowed to use anything other than that weapon or dual-wield. He was so proud of his decision, every chance he got he would brag about how he took down the mean ‘ol power gamer. You know, instead of creating a fun and challenging environment for his players.
Yet another DM decided that inviting someone and having them make a character does not mean they get to play. He set up his campaign as a kind of “agency” where players would get a job and then hire the other players. It sounded like a good idea, until the players he invited decided they didn’t really want to play nice.
One person came in a session too late (he was invited then). Normally he would be added in just fine, but in this context, the other players decided they did not trust his character. So, for the first session, he didn’t play. He just sat there. Then the second came around, and he still sat there. Then the third, then the forth. He would literally show up and play his psp for four or five hours on the off chance they would decide to let him play. The DM didn’t do anything about it, either. There are countless incentives to get people to add a character: Make combat or story or a challenge require what the character is based on. OR JUST TELL THEM TO SUCK IT UP AND LET HIM ******** PLAY. It’s really strange, because they were all friends. And they all wanted to play together. I don’t get it. :/
To top it all off, there were some major power gamers in the game. It isn't a big deal if the DM can deal with it, or perhaps if everyone is power gaming. But if you have a room full of enemies and plan to have a long battle, one player should not be able to step in and kill them all in one attack. At least, that's not what I plan for when I create encounters.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:32 pm
|
|
|
 |
Last but not least, is the DM who apparently is fine with character rape. It was my first Table Top game in months. I had just moved to Colorado and had not yet made friends. In my Gender in the Economy class, I started talking to this guy. He was nice and cute in an awkward way and very nice to talk to. I brought DnD books to class one day and he told me his friends from high school were about to start a World of Darkness campaign. I had never played the system but had always wanted to. It is sort of right up my alley. Of course I agreed to play! He checked with the DM and told me to bring a friend as well.
We had never met these people. That one game was a chance to not only have a group to play, but also a group of friends. I was excited. They all seemed nice, save once person. It was odd, but he literally thought he was a god on earth. A real god. Him. Skinny white guy playing tabletop games. That was my first red flag, but the prospect of friends was too appealing and I let it slide. Besides, he wasn’t the DM. The DM was well-adjusted and quite nice.
I got my character approved by the DM, concept and all. She was a nun possessed by the spirit of a hooker. She was not overtly sexual, and I played her very, very classy. She is someone I would like to play again if I ever get the chance. She was a great character.
The game itself was a “Zombie Apocalypse” theme. We were all trapped in a mansion and we had to fight the undead while forging alliances and possibly making enemies… Sounds fun, right? Well, turns out, we wouldn’t even get to the “zombie” part of the game. That concept was left forgotten like an old toy on the top shelf of a grown child’s room.
Turns out that player had other intentions for the night. As two women in the home of a bunch of guys we had just met, we were cautious, but comfortable. When we began playing the game, though, it no longer felt quite as safe. The player I mentioned before, the guy who thought he was a god, had quite an interesting plan for his character. By interesting, I mean vastly inappropriate and quite wrong. He was a vampire. He had statted his character with points in mostly mental abilities. We thought nothing of it but he most certainly had a reason for it.
As we all began to explore the mansion for equipment and holds for survival, he began to search the mansion for us. He found the two mortals who had already found each other in the mansion and put his plan into action. He used a mind control ability he had given himself and took over the mind of the male character. The DM was fine with this, and allowed it to happen with a win of an opposing roll. Then, he gave his command: Rape the girl.
We all look at the DM. He does not even think, and says, “Well, he won the roll.”
The game became a frantic mess at that point, with us becoming more and more uncomfortable around these men who were apparently very okay with rape. It disintegrated around us, with us horrified at the results of what we had joined. We left.
I got a text the very next day from the DM, informing me that I had been morally ambiguous in the game (my character concept that he approved. I was not able to interact with any characters or do hardly anything before the situation happened. I didn’t even play, except one turn to walk around and another to find a shotgun.) and the simulated rape of my friend’s character was indeed my fault. Even though I had said it was unacceptable that this was allowed and orchestrated our leave. He informed me that they had morals, and that I did not.
I told him where he could take his “morals” and shove them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:33 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:34 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:23 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gracious Conversationalist
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:37 pm
|
|
|
|
As a DM, I do not play anything other than True Open Worlds. There are quests open, but I normally HAVE 100% OPEN. If you are going to do something, by all means do it.
I don't know, maybe I have been bless to never have a garbage DM, I have had DM's that home brew entire rulebooks. The worst DM I ever had would NEVER fudge and made us use a Dicebot that was s**t.
DISCUSSION POINT
Personally, I would have allowed the Rape. Go for it. Morals should not matter here. It is your Character, and If your character is a Rapist so be it, But I am god, and I am not a kind and just being. As far as PC to PC rape, I agree, dice are the law. s**t sucks, but if a PC is going to Attack a PC its going to play out by the dice.
That DM was right. Your a guiding force in the world, not a PC.
However, its creepy. And it was really ******** up that it would happen, or that they would think it is okay to do with a new group. but again this is all PC based. I would have also added a DON"T BE A d**k STEVE rule of "Should a suggested mind control would go DRASTICALLY against someone's own Alignment, then it would be a DC 0 for the PC to beat it. but then again, on a roll of a 1, you get raped.
Then again, as the rape was starting, I would have had the party attacked, and then the rest of the PC's could just kill him. But CE is a real s**t show, and that is a very real, and ******** thing, to allow him to call.
As a DM I would have said you should get on killing this guy. That is a matter of being in a bad or a just unnatural fitting group for you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:15 pm
|
|
|
|
Roilvn Whiro As a DM, I do not play anything other than True Open Worlds. There are quests open, but I normally HAVE 100% OPEN. If you are going to do something, by all means do it. I don't know, maybe I have been bless to never have a garbage DM, I have had DM's that home brew entire rulebooks. The worst DM I ever had would NEVER fudge and made us use a Dicebot that was s**t. DISCUSSION POINT Personally, I would have allowed the Rape. Go for it. Morals should not matter here. It is your Character, and If your character is a Rapist so be it, But I am god, and I am not a kind and just being. As far as PC to PC rape, I agree, dice are the law. s**t sucks, but if a PC is going to Attack a PC its going to play out by the dice. That DM was right. Your a guiding force in the world, not a PC. However, its creepy. And it was really ******** up that it would happen, or that they would think it is okay to do with a new group. but again this is all PC based. I would have also added a DON"T BE A d**k STEVE rule of "Should a suggested mind control would go DRASTICALLY against someone's own Alignment, then it would be a DC 0 for the PC to beat it. but then again, on a roll of a 1, you get raped. Then again, as the rape was starting, I would have had the party attacked, and then the rest of the PC's could just kill him. But CE is a real s**t show, and that is a very real, and ******** thing, to allow him to call. As a DM I would have said you should get on killing this guy. That is a matter of being in a bad or a just unnatural fitting group for you.
I think doing nothing is the sign of a bad DM. Honestly, as a DM, you should be able to look at the people playing: if EVERYONE is against a morally ambiguous action in any context, it should be stopped.
As a quick note, I have gone through an real experience of rape in my life. Any depiction of forced rape is triggering to me. I don't give a s**t if the person rolls natural 20 to rape anyone, PC or not, I would not let it happen. And you don't know who feels this way and has been affected by something like this. So I would never let that happen in a game that should be enjoyable for everyone.
The DMs job is not to stand back and be impartial all the time (some of the time, yes. Part of the job is knowing when and where.). The DM should be able to step in for the good of the game and the enjoyment of the players. If one person want to do something, and it horrifies and possibly triggers other people in the group, it should not happen. At this point, again, dice don't mean s**t.
In the end, a DM is not doing his job when their players are not having fun. When someone leaves in the middle of the game because they are offended, you have failed. And no player should be afraid to go into a friendly table top game for fear of being triggered like that.
If the gamers agreed ahead of time that such things were okay, then it is okay. But I should not have to worry about being triggered because some a*****e wants to play god. And no one should have to deal with that kind of thing without having notice before hand. That is not something that just gets to happen sans consent from everyone. If I knew that would happen, I never would have played. I just needed to know that it would happen, so I wouldn't have wasted my time remembering something like that.
ANYWAY.
An open world is fun sometimes, but my players in particular like quest lines. Though my campaign is full of espionage and layers upon layers of intrigue, and has somewhat of an open-world theme to it, there is still some control. I've tried it many ways, and this is what everyone likes best. Every action has a consequence, so my players think twice about doing anything.
I've had enough s**t DMs to know how to be a fairly decent one. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gracious Conversationalist
|
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:25 pm
|
|
|
|
TheAnneh I think doing nothing is the sign of a bad DM. Honestly, as a DM, you should be able to look at the people playing: if EVERYONE is against a morally ambiguous action in any context, it should be stopped. As a quick note, I have gone through an real experience of rape in my life. Any depiction of forced rape is triggering to me. I don't give a s**t if the person rolls natural 20 to rape anyone, PC or not, I would not let it happen. And you don't know who feels this way and has been affected by something like this. So I would never let that happen in a game that should be enjoyable for everyone. The DMs job is not to stand back and be impartial all the time (some of the time, yes. Part of the job is knowing when and where.). The DM should be able to step in for the good of the game and the enjoyment of the players. If one person want to do something, and it horrifies and possibly triggers other people in the group, it should not happen. At this point, again, dice don't mean s**t. In the end, a DM is not doing his job when their players are not having fun. When someone leaves in the middle of the game because they are offended, you have failed. And no player should be afraid to go into a friendly table top game for fear of being triggered like that. If the gamers agreed ahead of time that such things were okay, then it is okay. But I should not have to worry about being triggered because some a*****e wants to play god. And no one should have to deal with that kind of thing without having notice before hand. That is not something that just gets to happen sans consent from everyone. If I knew that would happen, I never would have played. I just needed to know that it would happen, so I wouldn't have wasted my time remembering something like that. ANYWAY. An open world is fun sometimes, but my players in particular like quest lines. Though my campaign is full of espionage and layers upon layers of intrigue, and has somewhat of an open-world theme to it, there is still some control. I've tried it many ways, and this is what everyone likes best. Every action has a consequence, so my players think twice about doing anything. I've had enough s**t DMs to know how to be a fairly decent one.
The World is an ugly place, and they are the ugly people in it. Also, I do not allow graphic sexual in my RP's. Not because I mind people having sex, but because I don't care to know what you like. All sexual Interactions are forced time skips IMO.
Also, I do not have the house reaction and everything. My timing would be based on that, and we cannot talk about that. But no subject should be tabboo in game.
In the same fashion you do not want to have your world controlled, I feel that it is my world. Every world that has love and good will also have rape and evil.
As a DM, We make your world. Every brick, every NPC, every leaf and every tree is ours. Every NPC that you kill was a character that I made and gave a backstory. And violent act in my world is a violent act against me.
And fun fact, there is no truly open world, everyone has the illusion of choice. And every action should have a reaction. That is the law of nature.
However yes. You should have been notified and warned. Again, It may not be as much of a bad DM this as a Bad enviorment thing. But again was not there, so why would it matter, just another voice mindlessly screaming its own thoughts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 9:48 pm
|
|
|
|
You have phenomenally bad luck at finding GMs. I have a different kind of issue with GMs and GMing. If it is in person, live action, and that kind of thing, I am absolutely terrible most of the time. So far, I've had none of those kinds of issues within the forum setup. And I'm having a blast.
I've only ever had a single roleplaying group, and we've been together for the last 9 years. We all know each other. We're all comfortable with each other. But we're mostly bad at really roleplaying in front of each other. So we lose interest a lot of the time. It's not necessarily a bad thing. We've hopped around to countless different games, and it's given me a lot of experience with a lot of different systems. We've all had a hand at GMing, but the ones who do it most often are one guy in particular and then me. We've just kind of grown accustomed to games dying for no specific reason. I know we're both a little frustrated about it sometimes, but that's just how we roll.
Now that I'm GMing in the forum, I'm glad I finally get the chance to roleplay the way I know I good at it. So I can happily get my fix on that aspect as well as being able to game hop so often in my irl sessions.
As for that rape thing, if I'd been GMing that, creepo guy would've gotten a backhand. "Are you nuts? We finally have fresh players. Are you trying to scare them off?" Not even mentioning the 'cute girl' aspect of the new players within our sausage fest of a game night. :/ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 10:13 pm
|
|
|
|
WhimsicalXellos You have phenomenally bad luck at finding GMs. I have a different kind of issue with GMs and GMing. If it is in person, live action, and that kind of thing, I am absolutely terrible most of the time. So far, I've had none of those kinds of issues within the forum setup. And I'm having a blast. I've only ever had a single roleplaying group, and we've been together for the last 9 years. We all know each other. We're all comfortable with each other. But we're mostly bad at really roleplaying in front of each other. So we lose interest a lot of the time. It's not necessarily a bad thing. We've hopped around to countless different games, and it's given me a lot of experience with a lot of different systems. We've all had a hand at GMing, but the ones who do it most often are one guy in particular and then me. We've just kind of grown accustomed to games dying for no specific reason. I know we're both a little frustrated about it sometimes, but that's just how we roll. Now that I'm GMing in the forum, I'm glad I finally get the chance to roleplay the way I know I good at it. So I can happily get my fix on that aspect as well as being able to game hop so often in my irl sessions. As for that rape thing, if I'd been GMing that, creepo guy would've gotten a backhand. "Are you nuts? We finally have fresh players. Are you trying to scare them off?" Not even mentioning the 'cute girl' aspect of the new players within our sausage fest of a game night. :/
I understand that all too well @_@;; Most of my games are in person.
The thing is, the fact that I had so many shitty DMs helped me find my place as one. I was like, s**t, I can do it better than these people. And I can and do. People come to me for DMing advice and my players all tell my I'm the best DM. Now, some of that may be because I'm still their DM, but we talk about our campaign even when we're not playing and they move around their schedules so we can play more often (and not at my request, at theirs!).
I cannot even fathom anyone who would even allow that to happen. Just because one a*****e in a group says he wants to do something and rolls his dice does not mean that it is something he can do. I cannot believe people would think otherwise (this is in a setting in which it has not been discussed and/or approved by all members. If you were playing a game where everyone was okay with it, like FATAL or something, whatever. I'm talking about a friendly table top game here). Any DM who would allow it is failing their job as DM. It more than pisses me off that not only did it happen, but apparently other people would also allow it *points up several posts.*
Haha, I'm not cute or anything (the other girl is), but we certainly were their first new player... ever. They could have given us a little respect. Maybe. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 10:29 pm
|
|
|
|
WhimsicalXellos Yeah, I had to blink about that. The dice can say whatever they want. But not in my house, son. I can't imagine what any of them were thinking outside of, "Oh god, we've been infiltrated! Quick, what's the quickest way to get rid of them!" But then, he invited you. Not the other way around. And I didn't intend to imply the cute status of any girl in specific. That was meant to still be "in character." =P
Yeah, seriously. Like I said, the DMs job is to facilitate fun. All else is second. Yup, we were invited. I never asked or anything. They needed players, we said sure. We made sure to come together because we didn't know them all that well and were (rightfully) worried about the environment.
Oh okay~ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 10:44 pm
|
|
|
|
You've never had the Killer DM, have you? It is with reservation that I share this story, and so, I will stick to several fake names when I get the chance. And so, this is the tale of Munchkin, the Killer DM. There's another story before this of Munchkin the Godmodder, but we'll start here. It was after my first ever game of Wasted West broke up (I really sucked back then, and succumbed to the "too many people in game" trap). Munchkin offered to DM a game of Weird West Deadlands, and since everyone was hungry for a game, we joined in. Almost immediately, we started running into encounters far beyond our power level. Not so much physical encounters, but...there would be a virus in our food, and we'd have to make checks that were far beyond our level (for those of you who know Deadlands, we were supposed to make Incredible (11) checks-that's a DC 30 for those of you who aren't familiar.). We would also run into encounters that made no sense, and we would argue the illogical encounters to no avail. He ran several games of Deadlands, all of which made people unhappy and eventually resulted in one player tearing his sheet apart, something which had never happened before and never has happened since. Perhaps I should tell the tale of Munchkin the Godmodder as well, but yeah-this guy loved killing characters. We don't know why. We theorize that Munchkin was "competing" with us-which you'll notice the DM books say to NEVER do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
