# Bad DM stories



## Moe Ronalds (Mar 9, 2002)

Ever had a bad DM? A DM so bad that all you could do was complain about him? If so, tell us about it here. You may also want to include how you got rid of them too. This thread is in no way meant to show disrespect towards DMs. Except, of course, for the ones mentioned in this thread. 
I once had a DM who had never read the books. He had played before though.... when he was six. He didn't know about movement, he didn't know about CRs, he didn't know about what was unbalancing. He didn't care if your character was human or even if it were capable of independent thought. And somehow, he wormed his way into every single campaign I was ever in. He killed them. He killed all of them. He wasn't a being... He was a disease... A virus spreading from game to game, killing them all. When he was the player, he'd threaten DMs. He'd throw tantrums. He had to be stopped. 
Remedy? 
Simple really. 
He made friends with the in crowd. 
D&D, star wars, all our common interests were suddenly too geeky. Sad.... but a relief.


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## The Oracle (Mar 10, 2002)

This thread is probably Noober-bait, but what the hell.

I once had a DM who had his won rule for ranged attacks, archers in his world got 1 arrow shot at you per square moved. We were ambushed, and all of us died from arrow fire as we ran towards the enemy only 40 feet away. Then, when it was all over, he said it had been a dream, and that we were okay. Needless to say, he never DM'd for us again...


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## Pielorinho (Mar 10, 2002)

My worst DM story is from a LARP.

This was back when LARPs were really rare, when there were no official rules for them, when they were all one-shots, when whoever ran the LARP basically pulled rules for them out of their butt.

Qualities varied.

The two that I helped to run were (I think) highly-regarded:  the character sheets had a lot of information on them, and each character had several goals to accomplish throughout the night, and each character had four or five contacts with other characters, with a couple sentences of description ("Conner:  he's the security guard at the bank whom you've befriended over the last month.  He thinks highly of you and wants to be your friend; use that.")

The game in question was different.

Each character was no more than a sheet of paper with stats on it, as well as a few racial traits.  Nothing more at all.  My friends and I formed a group, since we had similar racial traits -- and within two minutes, we encountered our racial enemies (imagine in D&D playing a group of elves, and within two minutes, your group runs into a group of orcs).  Big fight; lots of us died.

Over the course of the night, I died four times.  Normally in LARPs, death is pretty rare.  My last death was when I led the other players in a mass uprising against the GM:  we all used the game's paltry rules to attack him, threw down our character sheets, and left.

It was wretched.

Daniel


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## DerianCypher (Mar 10, 2002)

*Hrm...*

Well, this DM was a new DM and played a LOT and I do mean a LOT of Console RPG so I forgave him.. We're still good friends  Well, this campaign just ended about a week ago. The party included 5 of my closest friends. OK, so that reason the game was so bad... Well.. have you ever heard the saying "Watch what you wish for"? Oh god did this come back to bite us in the rear. 

Before the bad campaign we had played an average power level campaign (our first!). When it was over we wished that we had all gotten a bit higher level (only reached level 12) and had a bit more money (I think we were a bit below the DMG suggestion for GP value in stuff.. but probably not by much). 

So, in this campaign we leveled 3 or 4 levels a session until we hit about level 14 then we inched our way forward. We had INSANE amounts of money. At level 5 we had artifacts (DM had a house rule that if he rolled a 100 on a medium or major magic item chart that we'd get an artifact). Did I mention that we were allowed to be ANY monster race? Oh sure, there was a bit of debuffing but not much. Not enough for ya?

Well, like I said our DM played a lot of console RPG games and so he instituted a "class change" thing. Basically, at level 4 and 12 we gained the ability to choose between 2 additional classes per class change. These changes gave the characters stat bonuses and special attacks/abilities. 

Well, by the end of the campaign (which had a weak plot line that didn't really go anywhere and we were completely railroaded through) one of the paladins of the group was able to do a MINIMUM of 1200 or so points of damage on his special attack.

Can we so power/cash level Overdose?

Needless to say it was fun... for maybe 3 sessions. Never the less I'll continue to game with him.. just not when he's DM  

Boy am I glad it's over.

PS- The DM also had the HORRIBLE habit of instituting new rules in the middle of combats. I.E. creatures having the ability to roll a save v what you rolled to hit them to "phase out" and negate your hit. Oh well, I need to stop venting.. ok, it's over now. It's over...


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## pat_b (Mar 10, 2002)

Ahh my worst DM.

This guy was priceless in his badness.  We were playing in high school, sitting around an old card table, and he was running some homebrew stuf.  Basically random encounters and stuff.

I was a CN Dwarven thief under second edition rules, he had an axe and would backstab quite nicely thank you.

Then the DM from hell struck.  He pointed at me and ordered me to roll a D20.

I rolled a 19, he frowned consulted his notes and then went out for a soda.


I had purchased the last coke classic and he was not happy.

My character underwent a religous conversion to Islam and my character went from level 4 thief to level 1 fighter in the blink of an eye... no more backstab, no more thieves tools or skills.

I set down my sheet and walked away never looked back.


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## rounser (Mar 10, 2002)

> I had purchased the last coke classic and he was not happy.
> 
> My character underwent a religous conversion to Islam...




LOL   

If ever I need a DM smackdown, some PC's going to spontaneously convert to Buddhism.


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## Belgarath (Mar 10, 2002)

*oh, hoh! bad DM!*

I played a few sessions with a DM that had his gf/wife playing as well. This was supposed to be 1e D&D, but he was using using Palladium stats and combat rules. Every character was a mutant with Heroes Unlimited superpowers in addition to being classed.

    The SO, lets call her Nora, was a elven fighter/cleric. The god she worshipped gave her the full spellcasting abilities of a mage of equal level. Not only that, but she was technically considered to be a demi-god RCC from Rifts and recieved Psionicist abilities of equal level as well. That 4 full classes for the experience cost of 2!

     This would not have been so bad if he applied these rules to eveyone, but he did not. Any other player had only a 1% chance of being a god's child, but 4 out of the 6 characters that I know she played were demi-gods RCC.

   We had a party of seven. I was playing a single classed bard (acutally the gypsy bard kit - one of the few 2e classes he would allow), but never seems to caught up with her in experience in the six game sessions I played with them. I found out later that the two would roleplay (and she would get experience) while the two were alone together. I can see it now, "I will give you 2000 experience for a BJ."


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## Darklone (Mar 10, 2002)

*Bad DMs?*

Ask me about LARPs. I got a LARP character with about 300days playtime and I NPCed a lot... as well as DMed them. 

German LARPs usually were very bad. DMs just didn't catch the difference to tabletop. We killed the big baddy one day too early... DM came running, screaming: You can't do that! Go back into the castle! Nothing has happened here.

This didn't happen only once. Rather about 50 times. Or more often. 

About BJs and DMs.... No need to comment on a 35 year old DM who turns red and stutters and suddenly the new female player in the group wins everything and kills everything and the others simply screw... 

Worst DM: You are in a 15*20ft room. Two doors from your point of view. A wooden one and a stone one. - We try to open the stone one. - DM: You can't, I didn't read yet what's behind it.


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## JacktheRabbit (Mar 10, 2002)

Heck that is nothing. If I want to be evil I will grant your characters 10 levels of your choice while at the same time converting your character to devout AMISH. 




			
				rounser said:
			
		

> *
> 
> LOL
> 
> If ever I need a DM smackdown, some PC's going to spontaneously convert to Buddhism.  *


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## Hatchling Dragon (Mar 10, 2002)

DocMoriartty said:
			
		

> *Heck that is nothing. If I want to be evil I will grant your characters 10 levels of your choice while at the same time converting your character to devout AMISH.  *





Amish is a religion?  I thought it was a way of life, eschewing all technology as 'evil' or some-such.

Now, if Amish people just hated 'the high tech' of the world they were in, what on earth would they do if thrust into a DnD type setting?  Hate Magic?  They already see that as the tool of satan or some-such, don't they?  Would they live like cavemen?  "Darned fancy satan's tool-making Blacksmiths!"

Hatchling Dragon


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## Pielorinho (Mar 10, 2002)

Hatchling Dragon said:
			
		

> *
> 
> 
> Amish is a religion?  I thought it was a way of life, eschewing all technology as 'evil' or some-such. *




[hijack]Definitely a religion.  I can't find my appropriate textbook, but the Amish are devout Christians, offshoots of some Dutch(?) heresy from a few hundred years ago.  They practice absolute nonviolence toward other people, believing their reward awaits them in the afterlife.  They don't hate technology (many Amish carry cell phones with them into the fields), but they believe that unnecessary technology is vanity and contributes to moral decay (thus the cell phones can only be used in cases of emergency, their buggies cannot be equipped with pneumatic tires, and they're absolutely forbidden from getting premium channels in their cable package).

Amish kids, incidentally, are given some free rein:  until they officially join the community around the age of eighteen, they can do quite a bit of wild experimenting.  Once they reach majority, however, they either have to join the society or break off most ties with their family and friends.

In a fantasy world, I'd play an Amish-inspired religion as immensely mistrustful of most magic, including any divine magic other than healing spells.  And they'd be absolutely nonviolent, therefore poor adventuring stock (although an ex-Amish character could be fun)[/hijack]

(Hoping that my linking this discussion back to fantasy keeps it from being forbidden religious discussion)
Daniel


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## Methinkus (Mar 10, 2002)

*It was me!  OH goodness, it was me!*

I almost never have any problems with unfair or harsh or sexually frustrated DMs, but once a player in my group had a huge problem with me as an inexperienced DM.

It was a few years ago and we had just started getting into the hobby, I was running a group of three through an old module in 2e when near the end they fought some Slaad (sp?)  Anyway, they were big frog monsters from the Abyss who plant eggs in a character when they hit with a claw attack, one character became infected and I wrote it down for later on.

Well I forgot about it completely until 10 minutes from the end of the next week’s session.  So I simply asked the player to roll a save vs. death, he passed it and placed a puzzled look on his face.  I told him not to think about it and an hour later (game time) I asked him to roll again, this time he failed so I frowned a bit and announced that he was dead.  Everyone else in the party sees a huge Abyssal Frog jump out of his head.  Would you like to roll for initiative?

Everyone started laughing uncontrollably while the dead PC’s player was yelling, “You’re the worst DM ever!” again and again between laughs.


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## Sir Osis of Liver (Mar 10, 2002)

> I played a few sessions with a DM that had his gf/wife playing as well. This was supposed to be 1e D&D, but he was using using Palladium stats and combat rules. Every character was a mutant with Heroes Unlimited superpowers in addition to being classed.




I've thank fully never run in to the mix match mega powere rules problem before but i'm all to familiar with the dm's girlfriend problem!



> The SO, lets call her Nora, was a elven fighter/cleric. The god she worshipped gave her the full spellcasting abilities of a mage of equal level. Not only that, but she was technically considered to be a demi-god RCC from Rifts and recieved Psionicist abilities of equal level as well. That 4 full classes for the experience cost of 2!




Agian it has come to this extreme but she does play a whole family of characters, mothers, aunts, children, ect. She thought a real good charaacter concept was having every character you ever play be related to or be an alternate dimension clone of another character. Whcih won much praise for in genios roleplay from the dm. Oh yea this "family" also rules, in one way or another every major kingdom in the reagion we campaign and then some.



> This would not have been so bad if he applied these rules to eveyone, but he did not. Any other player had only a 1% chance of being a god's child, but 4 out of the 6 characters that I know she played were demi-gods RCC




Again this is exterem in conparision to my problem, but the same principle applys, no matter what we do our pc's never have any lasting impact on the gaming world, but hers rule it.



> We had a party of seven. I was playing a single classed bard (acutally the gypsy bard kit - one of the few 2e classes he would allow), but never seems to caught up with her in experience in the six game sessions I played with them. I found out later that the two would roleplay (and she would get experience) while the two were alone together. I can see it now, "I will give you 2000 experience for a BJ."




They also play a lot when we're not there, not sure if he gives her xp, but he does have her listen to all his plot ideas for constructive crititsisum. The main problem there being she would know the differance between player knowledge and charater knowledge if it took a plop on her head.


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## Zhure (Mar 10, 2002)

Ahhhh, so many bad stories.

On one occasion, the DM ran an "across the continent" quest for 1st level characters. He mapped out EVERY SINGLE DAY, whether there were any encounters. The only roleplaying was amongst the PCs, as we rarely interacted with NPCs. So non-encounter days were just boring. Each "day" sometimes took an hour to go through.

Now most DMs will just gloss over that sort of detail after awhile. "We make camp, the usual way," is usually sufficient to answer the questions of what the characters are doing during boring intervals. His method involved hours of meticulous, "and then what?"

Most annoying of all, it rained every single day. I am not kidding. The first 41 days of the campaign it rained. A lot. Constantly. All kinds of rain. It was like that scene in Forest Gump.

And eventually, my Cleric made 3rd level and memorized Call Lightning and it never stormed again. It was worth it to waste a spell slot to stop the rain.

Greg


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## Corbert (Sep 25, 2005)

I played in a Birthright game a few years ago.  The DM was a clsoe friend of mine, or so I thought.  We were all supposed to be human, one character was a half-elf.  No one was to be of evil alignment, one character was.  Everyone started off by _somehow _losing all wealth; within a few turns several characters had found a huge treasue trove, and the only challenge they faced was a rat.  

Ok, the characters listed above then started get more attention and role-playing time from the DM, and consequently they got *a lot* more XP.  It was so bad, that I would get to the DMs house and sit there for 2 hours or more just waiting for them to come out.  

When conflict finally broke out and my character was killed the character that did it was three levels higher than mine just from the role-playing XP.  Also, the thing that initiated the fight was a PC getting injured nearly to death by an NPC action, and a Paladin PC (who associated with the above PCs) stabbing the unconscious royal PC in the heart, commiting Bloodtheft.  

Now, get this, after all the fighting was over and several PC characters were dead, the Paladin PC was put on trial and found not guilty.  Those of us who reacted to the murder and Bloodtheft of a noble friend and died in battle were creamated so no one could cast Raise Dead on us.  

I have never been back to that DMs game again, and I refuse to play in any game that she even plays in.


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## HeapThaumaturgist (Sep 25, 2005)

Sometimes I'm glad I GM and seldom get a chance to play.

I've only had one "bad" GM ... but mostly he just didn't have any time to prep (0, at all) and played the game about 2/3 2nd Ed.  Eventually he bowed out as GM and somebody else stepped up.  It wasn't great, but I had some fun.

I had some crap sessions back in high school that I ran.  Hrmmm.  Lemmie think of a good stinker.

I had one game where my players all wanted to use the 2nd ed Player's Options books and whatnot, and one guy who was utterly obsessed with using theoretical OOC knowledge IC.  I.E. he found the recipie for gunpowder in a book and decided that his character would suddenly make it because it was POSSIBLE to make gunpowder.  And put it into clay pots to light and throw as grenades.  Y'know, juvenile crap.  After THAT conversation started a huge outbreak of:  "Dude, I want to make gunpowder, lets kill these merchants and steal all their stuff so we can make more to kill the badguys."  So, eventually, after they tried to burn the city down and I was tired I rebooted everything with the good ole':  "So you wake up strapped to a table in the lab of the mad illusionist you had been hunting for weeks ..." bit.

And things actually improved from there, after the boos died down.

--fje


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## twofalls (Sep 25, 2005)

"You enter the tower through a doorway at the base of the castle wall. The stones have cracked with age and weather, and the floor of the tower is covered with loose leaves and other windborne debris. Have the player with the highest intelligence make a perception test... Oh, wait... Um, I mean what do you do?"

Then, not five minutes later:

"The top floor of the tower is dimly lit by holes in the dilapidated ceiling. Motes of dust dance in the sunbeams that stab downward to the dirty floor. The air is hot and carries with it an odd musty scent of decay. There is a 50% chance that the tower Gargoyle is inside the room hiding from the brightness of the sun. Its treasure is hidden... oh, no never mind that part. Okay so what do you do now?" (rolls dice)

I can't say that he did this through the entire adventure, because I couldn't make myself sit at the table for that long. After waiting a couple of times at each new doorway for him to read the next room (presumably so that he wouldn't keep reading to us the DM's portion of the descriptions) I suddenly "remembered" that my wife needed something from a pharmacy... on the other side of town.


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## Nomad4life (Sep 25, 2005)

Players complain about “railroading” all the time, but my WDME (Worst DM Ever) nomination goes to this girl I knew in college.  She was a great person, and a great player…  Just a lousy DM.  

Why?  Because all of her adventures were way too painfully “open-ended.”  They weren’t even adventures, really.  More like sessions of “what-does-your-character-do-now?”  In other words, she ran the game more like a simulation than anything resembling an adventure.  Her first adventure “ended” when all the characters became farmers and the players left the game out of boredom.  We let her know that “open-endedness” is good up to a point, but gamers also expect some kind of overall plot to engage in.  

She was given another chance to DM a week later.  After 30 minutes of more what-does-your-character-do, every player suddenly remembered a more pressing engagement elsewhere.


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## Mystery Man (Sep 25, 2005)

Pielorinho said:
			
		

> My worst DM story is from a LARP.
> 
> This was back when LARPs were really rare, when there were no official rules for them, when they were all one-shots, when whoever ran the LARP basically pulled rules for them out of their butt.




So it was a bunch of guys dressed in bad Ren gear running around looking like morons only more so?


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## humble minion (Sep 25, 2005)

Well, compared to a lot of these stories this one is pretty minor, but it will be told anyway...

I'm not sure if this was more a 'bad GM' story, or a 'merely mediocre GM trying to run an appalling prewritten adventure' story.

It was at a con a few years back, and we were trying out a Living Death module.  We'd told the GM that it was our first time gaming in the campaign (or the RPGA for that matter), but we still have to solve an obscure wordplay puzzle requiring the players be campaign afficionadoes to even get the mission briefing.

After that, well, it all fell apart a bit.  The GM thought that the 'take 20' rule allowed you to roll your skill check as normal _and then add 20 to the result_, but when I gently suggested he might want to check the rulebook on that he threatened to expel me from the game for 'troublemaking'.  So I shrugged, and needless to say the PCs took 20 a LOT for the rest of the ill-starred game.

Anyway, we asked all the really obvious questions about the mysterious murder, and then decided (there were a considerable number of other clues written into the module, but you needed spells and skill modifiers about 4 levels higher than ours to find them) on that something fishy was going on in the cemetary.  How right we were.  Our four 1st-level characters run into six revolver-armed cultists (I think they were 3rd-level commoners, or something similar), an imp, and a 9th-level cleric/voodoo priestess with her buff spells already cast.  The imp has DR, and the cleric has a protection from arrows/bullets going, so there's pretty much no way we can hurt them (no dispel magic, no magic weapon, no see invisibility...)  We mostly die (I know my poor British sailor-boy did), though one PC managed to run away.  While packing up our dice and shaking our heads in disgusted bemusement, we ask the GM what we did wrong.  He said that we should of used a number of spells (that were unavailable to us) in the investigation, but there was pretty much no way to finish the module successfully without winning that (vastly lopsided) combat.  This didn't seem to bother him a hell of a lot, or in fact at all.   

Blech.  I had a couple of passably enjoyable Living Greyhawk games later on in the con, but that one pretty much soured me on the RPGA for good...


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## devilbat (Sep 25, 2005)

I guess I've been lucky when it comes to bad GMs.  Almost all of my past game masters have been pretty good, with the exception of the odd convention game.

The worst DM I had wasn't all that bad, he just didn't understand the flow of a game, when there was a need to give a hint, add an NPC, or kill a storyline.


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## Wormwood (Sep 25, 2005)

During a game of Amber, the DM roleplayed out a twenty minute conversation between four NPCs. Twenty minutes of talking to himself.

Every time a player (and there were NINE of us sitting there) said anything in character, the DM would nod and mutter "Okay", then continue reading from his script as if nothing had happened. 

It goes without saying that we weren't just railroaded...we were bullet-trained.


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## VirgilCaine (Sep 25, 2005)

There's a DM in my univerisity group that is about the opposite of everything I like about D&D.

He runs a custom world. With lots of custom races. And apparently the entirety of Unearthed Arcana. 
He uses generic classes. And allows a huge ability score limit of 75. And you can decrease your scores to as low as 3. 3 charisma for example. No in-game consequences for this, of course.

He requires training for level-up, training to get spells, AND training for skill levels.


There's 9 players or so. Three have weird races--a half-dragon, an air/fire elemental and a Naga (custom snake person). Three are multiclassed spellcaster/meleers.

The world has 8 different "Monk" schools. A PC must be a member of one of them. These schools have PrCs that are overpowered compared to others, so the PCs would take them.

All PCs have the Vow of Poverty. They (apparently) think that this means they can only have weapons and ammuntion, not light sources or rope or similar equipment. 

They have very few magic items. 

They are 15th level (on average) at last count. 

The party is not balanced. There is one full spellcaster, and the rest of the party is straight melee focused, excepting one archer character. 

The campaign is a mix of the two biggest cliches--"evil is invading the world" and "escort the artifact."

There are three known Monk school full spellcasters above third level. Two of them are in the party and are ~15th level. 

If an encounter is not equal to the PCs level, it is dead in about two rounds. If it is equal to their level, half the party is neutralized or rendered unconscious until the other half neutralizes the threat.

My little brother played for a while and the other PCs couldn't understand the idea of "stay out of the wizards way"--they frequently moved forward into melee and made it hard for him to use his nifty area spells.

Edit: 

And they are bloodthirsty. When my little brother (playing the "wizard") was trying to figure a way to transport a non-teleportable magic-sucking (~5' radius) personality suppressing artifact held by a party member without having to go by water (fire elemental PC) or go underground through this "Underpass" underround highway thinghy, one player got really antsy...couldn't wait for five minutes for him to think for a bit.

And none of them brought light sources. When they knew they were going underground for an extended session. Never mind half of them have darkvision.


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## Wormwood (Sep 25, 2005)

VirgilCaine said:
			
		

> There's a DM in my univerisity group that is about the opposite of everything I like about D&D.




After reading your post, I died a little inside.


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## TheEvil (Sep 25, 2005)

Well, there was this one guy who was running a homebrew.  He made up his own adventures and ran us through them.  He was constantly reading out the hidden monsters or treasure in the room!  He also had everyone start off as close friends.  On one adventure, we were to deliver a package to the much beloved aunt of one of the characters that we all had fond memories of.  While looking for her in the large mansion she called home, some of the players kept trying to wander off with valuables.  The GM would say nothing and I would ask them (in character) what they thought they were doing and they would put things back.  Ultimately, we had to leave in a hurry with the place burning down around us right after finding the aunts body.  After it was over, the GM went on and on about all the treasure we had missed.  I felt the need to remind him that HE told us we were in the house of someone we cared about and that one doesn't usually ransack such places, at least until AFTER we find them dead.  That shut him up pretty quick.  I didn't stay in that game past a few sessions.


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## Rackhir (Sep 25, 2005)

There was one DM I had who would harshly penalize you if you didn't run YOUR character according to how she thought you should be running it. We had captured some prisoners and during the night one of them had somehow managed to escape, with out any of us noticing. Wishing to forstall any more escapes my Chaotic Neutral Bard hamstrung the remaining prisoner. This some how offended my character's True Neutral God (Oghma from the Celtic Mythos) so much, that I was struck by a lightning bolt from the blue. I'm still trying to figure that one out.


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## BluWolf (Sep 25, 2005)

Many years ago, my buddy and I were in a desperate search for a new group after our's had fallen apart. We tried a local gaming group that had an actual permanent club (physical location) and membership dues. It seemed on its surface a very nice set up.

we asked if we could sit in on a session (or just observe) before we decided to become dues paying members. They were totally ok with this approach.

So we showed up that Saturday night with no less than 17 people sitting around a huge U shaped table and 1 (count it), 1 DM.

We skeptically took our seats. As we were joing a campaign already in progress, we each brought in a 4th lvl PC, 1st edition, one level below the majority of the party. Our PCs were wisked into the dungeon the party had already been exploring. I guess when you are a group of 17 PCs (and henchman), two 4th level random PCs showing up just doesn't stretch reality much.

So after playing for about an hour and half (more like sitting and listening people travel a grand total of 200' in an hour and half) we find out selves in a huge chamerb with a two story statue of a dragon or Behir or something along those lines.....don't recall.

Well the inevitable train runs right smack into the frickin' obvious train and the statue animates with the whole legion in the room. The group, in true hero fashion, drops everything and runs for the nearest egress. 

The DM ( I forgot he was there) gives everyone a free shot at grabbing something from the piles of treasure strewn about (forgot those were there too).

My PC grabs and runs in quiet orderly fashion.

When we get out of the room (because everyone knows giant dragon statue thingys dont chase PCs out fo the room), the GM beigns telling everyone what they grabbed.

When I was informed that my 4th lvl half-evlen ftr/thief just picked up a +4 defender bastard sword my buddy and I decided to call it a night.

Monty Haul is one thing. Monty Haul Mob style is just rediculous.


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## EdL (Sep 25, 2005)

My worst GM (well, not the GM actually) was at a small town gaming con. The flyer for the adventure said this was a return to the Caves of Chaos (1e) as the "Official D&D Adventure". Ok, it specifically said our characters had been there before at low levels and now we were high-mid level. So we took our old maps with us. The GM thought this was cool, the adventure's writer didn't. We started the adventure (with the maps) and before long someone wanted to cast a spell. That's when we were told about the super mana point system we were using for this 'official' adventure! After some grumbling, we went along with it. As we went as a group, and the guys I usually play with are pretty savvy, it wasn't too long til we figured out how to tweek the system in our favor. Now, the actual GM was ok, but the adventure writer kept barging in to try to roadblock us. (Once haveing a flying, sci-fi armored character who was not in the written adventure [the GM so informed us later] attack the party. Someone cast a Knock spell [is that the one?] on him. Once we read the spell description to him [unlocks and unfastens all locks, closures, etc.] he plummeted to his death.) Shortly thereafter we cast some death-dealing cloud spell, followed by an Earthquake spell, followed by Teleportation out of the vally. We then waited until we got our mana points back and did it again. and again, and again, and again. End of adventure.  

Amazingly, I guess, we then found ourselves asked to play another of this writer's adventures for the title of best role playing group at the con. We turned down the invitation.


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## Chimera (Sep 25, 2005)

I've played with a lot of different GMs over the years, covering the entire range of potential GMs.  I'd say approximately 15 GMs locally over the last 28 years, including friends.

The worst three;

*Old Friend*:  Railroader with no sense of reasonability.
a>  Party is harried by a Wizard named "Synch O'Phant".  Yes, it was that bad.  Guy used to pop in at random, blast the party and make his escape.  Over and over without any apparent reason.  Always some kind of _Deux Ex Machina_ escape, even from a grapple, even when we "killed" him.
b>  Kingdom of 1300 people.  Capital city of 1000, small farming town of 300 located several hundred miles away.  Nothing else anywhere around.  Then we encounter a "patrol" of 100 soldiers.  Then we find several hundred guards and soldiers in the capital city.
c>  We decide to leave this dusty, useless port (the above capital).  No ship will transport us for any price.  We cannot buy a ship.  We attempt to steal one.  The entire crew is on deck, armed to the teeth, at the end of the first round. *In the middle of the night*   Entire galleys of soldiers are making their way across the harbor and boarding us in a single round.  The ship starts on fire.  We're down to a handful of hitpoints, but it's obvious that the GM WILL NOT KILL US.  So we keep fighting.  GM says "The ship has burned to the water line and is about to sink.  What do you do?"  We wad up character sheets, throw them at him and scream "we drown!".  End of game.  For years afterward he cannot understand why people keep making excuses not to play in his next game.

*Random Kid*:  At a FLGS many years past.  Something like 18 players in the next game over, this kid struggling to get any players.  Me and one other guy agree to play.  His "world" consists of ONE city, ONE road and ONE dungeon.  We are attacked left and right, cannot even get past the first encounter at the dungeon, so we retreat to the city.  Everyone, and I mean *everyone* including the guards themselves, are harassing us and attempting to rob us.  We go to the ONE Inn.  Innkeeper demands a fortune for a crappy, filthy room, threatens to kill us if we don't pay.  Other player wisely decides he has other things to do and walks away.  I stay for more of this abuse for another hour, trying to talk to the boy about his crappy, abusive world and why anyone would want to play with him.  He doesn't get it.  I quit and walk away, causing him to very nearly break down and cry.  The next week he's right there again trying to recruit new players and getting upset that I and a good half-dozen other people intercede anytime he hooks a new victim.

*My rules, my way*"  Very recently, I responded to a players wanted ad for a local game.  The GM seemed happy, initially anyways, for me to join.  Was a bit tricky on getting me the address, which was my first clue.  When I show up, he seems surprised and says "I didn't think you would show up".  Three times in the first half hour.  Then goes on to tell me how much of a stickler for the rules he is, telling me he's very firm on the Frostburn rules for extreme cold and he's going to watch my Wizard's material components like a hawk.  He tells me a tale of a past player who kept casting a minor spell that required a component that could not be obtained in the cold lands he was playing in, so he never let that player cast that spell again.  Ok, so I take _Eschew Materials_.  His angry glare could have melted the arctic icepack.  Next we're running a 4 player 1st level party (Cleric, Rogue, Monk and Wizard) through an adventure WAY TOO TOUGH for our group.  When I start figuring things out, he accuses me of having read the adventure.  Then Mr. I-Own-every-rulebook-in-existence-and-will-keep-you-to-it makes a silly mistake on a Tumble check.  Then he kills my character and very nearly TPKs the entire group until pulling a Deux Ex Machina save out of his ass.  Later on, I e-mail him a new character and point out the tumble error.  Mr. IOERIEAWKYTI angrily responds that I am a "rules lawyer" and that he prefers to play under more loose rules.  Which makes no sense given how he so adamantly lectured me at the beginning of play about how much of a stickler for the rules he is.  GOOD RIDDANCE.


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## Tewligan (Sep 25, 2005)

Pielorinho said:
			
		

> In a fantasy world, I'd play an Amish-inspired religion as immensely mistrustful of most magic, including any divine magic other than healing spells.  And they'd be absolutely nonviolent, therefore poor adventuring stock (although an ex-Amish character could be fun)[/hijack]
> 
> (Hoping that my linking this discussion back to fantasy keeps it from being forbidden religious discussion)



Of course, I think the Amish are possibly the least likely group to be online, let alone reading this particular website to be offended by it, so I think it's okay...


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## pntbllr (Sep 25, 2005)

Belgarath said:
			
		

> I found out later that the two would roleplay (and she would get experience) while the two were alone together. I can see it now, "I will give you 2000 experience for a BJ."





Hmmm......just had my wife join the game I'm running, this gives me evil thoughts.


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## MadMaxim (Sep 26, 2005)

I had a DM who recently ran a Dragonlance campaign. We were 3 players: A minotaur barbarian/fighter, a human fighter and a human warlock (me). Everything starts nicely with us walking around in Solamnia which is currently taken over by the Knights of Nerakha (sp?) and we walk around getting different jobs (the characters haven't met each other yet). Everything goes nicely, until the two fighters end up in rebellion against the Knights of Nerakha and are storming the city together with some thousand soldiers. They don't get any chance to fight, not a single attack roll the entire session. I was the only one fighting and I was fighting some bugbears in a cave, because I had been struck unconcisous while protecting a caravan to a city west of Solamnia. I woke up before they attacked, but a bugbear still strikes me and I'm out cold, even though I still had hit points left to keep fighting.

The worst came when we traveled to the minotaur's island. We've finally teamed up and are looking for creatures who've been infused with some of the gods' powers. Good enough so far, but when we get into some arena battles, I end up fighting a harpy. She attacks and the DM tells me to make a Reflex save to avoid her (!?) Then she lifts me up in the air and drops me 40 ft. I survive and zap her with an eldritch blast and wonder how the heck she was able to carry me (Medium-sized creature with not nearly enough Strength to carry me).

This leads to an out-of-game discussion of my DM's skills which I seriously starts questioning due to those incidents listed earlier. He thinks that D&D's rules system is too heavy and obviously angry with me because I've got a better grasp of the rules. He refuses to see the errors he made and I decide to drop out of the game because I think his rulings don't make sense. Now, he's making up his own rules system which is better to cater to his sense of realism which he claims that D&D is devoid of... Good for him... I'm not looking back...


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## Dark Jezter (Sep 26, 2005)

Tewligan said:
			
		

> Of course, I think the Amish are possibly the least likely group to be online, let alone reading this particular website to be offended by it, so I think it's okay...



 Don't bet on it.  There are _plenty_ of people online who are more than willing to take offense even when what's being said does not concern them.


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## lgburton (Sep 26, 2005)

i once had a DM who used some form of accelerated forwards or backwards time travel in EVERY session.

it got really really old, really really fast (pun intended).


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## chitzk0i (Sep 26, 2005)

Wormwood said:
			
		

> After reading your post, I died a little inside.




After each session, I died a little, too.

(<--- was the one in the campaign)


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## DarrenGMiller (Sep 26, 2005)

I have probably posted mine here before, so I will do the short versions:

1.) The reason I almost ALWAYS DM:  I was only about 11 or 12 years old and learning to DM.  I had recently run my first session and one of my 2 players was DM'ing a few days later.  He was an experienced DM and about 2 or 3 years older.  The other player was also in high school.  During the session, the 2 PC's were separated and my PC was transported to the Abyss to face a demon lord (Demogorgon, IIRC).  He captured my PC and bartered me off to another sinister being.  At that point the other player moved to block the door and I was told that to teach me a lesson for the rules I had interpreted incorrectly during my DM'ing session a few days earlier, as well as those in character creation for this guy's game, I would have to complete some "tasks" for this being.  They included holding the other player's hand while singing a love song to him (in RL, not in game), etc.  I was called all sorts of things and my exit was blocked by these two older kids.  They left the room, locking the door, to get some things for their scheme and I climbed out the window before they came back.

2.) Due to the above, as I said, I almost always DM, I allowed myself to be talked out from behind the screen about 3 or 4 years ago.  The game started with the PC's (there were 4 of us) naked in a ceremonial chamber with the village elders around us.  There was a fire burning in the center of the room and we were all ritually scarred with a "soul knife" that drained our Con and took a bit of our soul (as a rite of passage).  We were then given a backpack full of rocks and sent out unarmed and unequipped to survive a month in the wilderness.  The party got split up and I and another player had our PC's at the edge of the valley, in the mountains.  We saw a sheltered ledge and tried to climb.  We both fell (remember, our Con scores are drained permanently) and my PC is down to 2 HP.  The other PC is unconscious and dying.  Then, we are attacked by a pair of wolves.  I have no weapons and if I run, the dying PC is dog chow.  We both handed our character sheets to the DM and planned my next game.  That DM was very unfamiliar with the rules of 3.x, having mostly run Storyteller games.

DM


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## Mithran (Sep 26, 2005)

MadMaxim said:
			
		

> I survive and zap her with an eldritch blast and wonder how the heck she was able to carry me (Medium-sized creature with not nearly enough Strength to carry me).




Steroids, man. Steroids. Harpys don't have much in the way of morals.


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