Most nonsensical ban you've played under

[satcharna]

The DM from my old group forbade fighters because they were "too boring" and ninjas because his pet DMPC was the only one allowed to be one.
He then proceeded to make Magic Missile miss the big bad, when he was sitting on his throne delivering a monologue.

[Fax Celestis]

That actually was 2e. It was very early on for me RPing, about 20 years ago. At the time I just thought the concept of a tabletop RPG was awesome so I had a blast despite all the restrictions put on me. Lots of great memories from those days.

Oh, well, that's not a ban then. That's an actual rule from 2e.

[Owl Prowler]

The DM from my old group forbade fighters because they were "too boring" and ninjas because his pet DMPC was the only one allowed to be one.

To be honest, banning the Fighter I understand. Banning Ninja might also not be so bad an idea, but only because they're so terrible.

He then proceeded to make Magic Missile miss the big bad, when he was sitting on his throne delivering a monologue.

He missed out on some prime hilarity when he did that.

"Foolish heroes! Soon I shall rupture the delicate fabric between- OW! Hey, stop that!- as I was saying, rupture the- AHH- stop that- balance between- OWW!! Seriously?

You guys suck."

[bjoern]

Oh, well, that's not a ban then. That's an actual rule from 2e.

Back then I never had my nose in the books. The DM was the only one who knew the rules. We were all just along for the ride. I remember stuff like drow being broken because they would just levitate you up causing you to disengage and getting back stabs from the thieves. And then dropping you for falling damage.
No clue if that's how it was supposed to work but that's what we did.

[nedz]

He then proceeded to make Magic Missile miss the big bad, when he was sitting on his throne delivering a monologue.

Shield spell or a Broach of Shielding would do that — as would a Globe of Invulnerability.

[Milodiah]

I think the word "miss" is the operative word here, rather than "was stopped by [X]".

Except technically it was stopped by plot armor, so...

[nedz]

I think the word "miss" is the operative word here, rather than "was stopped by [X]".

Well possibly, but "miss" could just be fluff for "was stopped by [X]" — though a Spellcraft roll would be a nice touch here.

Except technically it was stopped by plot armor, so...

Also possible, and it's certainly the impression given — but it might not be the case.

[Tvtyrant]

I am not allowed to give NPCs J names anymore. Jeeves the vampire butler and his associate Jenkins ruined it for me.

[bekeleven]

I don't get DM's bannng all magic/ magic items, then having enemys use magic.
Confuses the fudge out of me. do they just want their players to die?

Ever read Galahad the Pure's Nerfiest Campaign?

[Sith_Happens]

Ever read Galahad the Pure's Nerfiest Campaign?

I have now, and the "Your Worst DM Ever" and "Your Worst Session Ever" threads are both about to get a new story.

[Stone Heart]

He missed out on some prime hilarity when he did that.

"Foolish heroes! Soon I shall rupture the delicate fabric between- OW! Hey, stop that!- as I was saying, rupture the- AHH- stop that- balance between- OWW!! Seriously?

You guys suck."

We had a similar situation happen with that. The bad guy was with Winter Wolf and he had cast windwall so he could monologue and our bows wouldn't work, but the dm didn't know that the party druid had prepared some lightning spell in all of his slots that he could that day (Dude just wanted to shoot some lightning) and we almost killed the big bad on that first encounter because of it.

[KillianHawkeye]

Not you singular. You plural. As in the entire group involved in the conversation. Stupid English with its lack of making those meanings completely separate words. Spanish is a much less annoying language. Still has its quirks, but not as many.

If you meant more than one person, maybe you should have quoted more than one person. Just saying.

[The Insanity]

Playing different gender.

It was a PbP.

[Qwertystop]

Playing different gender.

It was a PbP.

You don't even have your gender marked, though?

[Gnaeus]

Another strange ban was on the warmage, because "it was op". Clearly this DM did not read the warmage, although I do think it can be made better, but not op.

I can see that one, actually. If you are in a game that considers blasting to be a good thing for a caster to do, and you realize that warmage is a more versatile blaster with more spells and hp than a sorcerer who blasts better (since you never read wings of flurry) and gets to wear armor, that does seem pretty OP. I mean I've played in a game with a sorcerer who took all fire blasty spells, and in comparison a warmage would have been awesomesauce.

[The Insanity]

You don't even have your gender marked, though?

It wasn't on this forum. And it's not even relevant, because whatever gender is marked doesn't have to be true, thus making the houserule pointless. The houserule wouldn't make much sense even at an actual table. In PbP it's just stupid.

[AMFV]

It wasn't on this forum. And it's not even relevant, because whatever gender is marked doesn't have to be true, thus making the houserule pointless. The houserule wouldn't make much sense even at an actual table. In PbP it's just stupid.

Well it could be intended to stop a specific player who often depicts the other gender poorly (edit: or offensively) from doing so without naming them. Although if it was entirely selected from strangers I agree that it doesn't make much sense.

[Knaight]

Well it could be intended to stop a specific player who often depicts the other gender poorly (edit: or offensively) from doing so without naming them. Although if it was entirely selected from strangers I agree that it doesn't make much sense.

It could be. I prefer just naming them though, some variety of "Bjorn doesn't get to play women anymore after the lesbian nymphomaniac caricature" is a lot fairer to the rest of the players.

[atemu1234]

It could be. I prefer just naming them though, some variety of "Bjorn doesn't get to play women anymore after the lesbian nymphomaniac caricature" is a lot fairer to the rest of the players.

Yeah. I tend to be fairly lenient, but I prefer the players to play characters their own gender.

[AMFV]

It could be. I prefer just naming them though, some variety of "Bjorn doesn't get to play women anymore after the lesbian nymphomaniac caricature" is a lot fairer to the rest of the players.

It's less fair, actually. Fairness is having the same rules for everybody. Yes, Bjorn is the one who ruined it, but it's ruined for everybody past that point, at least if you want to be fair to everybody. Now it's fine to just ban Bjorn, but it isn't fair, the word you're looking for is just, it would be just to punish Bjorn and not everybody, but it's fair to have the same rules apply to everybody.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Back in high school I played with a DM who never used orcs - and banned any sort of orc/half-orc race - on the grounds that

Orcs are made-up fantasy creatures.

All of his games were played in his own particular homebrew world, which had some good ideas and concepts. Among those good concepts was not included his blanket ban on Monks, save for his DMPC, and the True Neutral alignment, save for his DMPC.

[Zombulian]

Back in high school I played with a DM who never used orcs - and banned any sort of orc/half-orc race - on the grounds that


All of his games were played in his own particular homebrew world, which had some good ideas and concepts. Among those good concepts was not included his blanket ban on Monks, save for his DMPC, and the True Neutral alignment, save for his DMPC.

Spoiler: Fantasy Creatures in a Fantasy RPG? Nonsense

Show

[Knaight]

It's less fair, actually. Fairness is having the same rules for everybody. Yes, Bjorn is the one who ruined it, but it's ruined for everybody past that point, at least if you want to be fair to everybody. Now it's fine to just ban Bjorn, but it isn't fair, the word you're looking for is just, it would be just to punish Bjorn and not everybody, but it's fair to have the same rules apply to everybody.

The same rules do apply to everybody. It's just that the rules are more complicated than a blanket ban, it's a conditional ban applied to everyone who meets a condition. Now, if somebody else also played the same character and the ban wasn't applied to them, then there's a case for unfairness.

[ArqArturo]

Well, according to Wikipedia...

Spoiler: Orcs

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The modern use of the English term orc to denote a race of evil, humanoid creatures has its inception with J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien's earliest Elvish dictionaries include the entry Ork (orq-) 'monster', 'ogre', 'demon', together with orqindi 'ogresse'. Tolkien sometimes used the plural form orqui in his early texts.

Tolkien sometimes, particularly in The Hobbit, used the word goblin instead of orc to describe the same type of creature. He notes that 'orc' is 'usually translated' as 'goblin'. In The Lord of the Rings, 'goblin' is also used as an alternative to 'orc', particularly in chapters describing events from a hobbit's perspective. Thus, the Uruk-hai of Isengard and the Mordor orc-captain Grishnakh are described as both 'orcs' and 'goblins' in The Lord of the Rings. Later in his life, Tolkien expressed an intention to change the spelling to ork, but the only place where that spelling occurred in his lifetime was in the published version of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, in the poem Bombadil Goes Boating: "I'll call the orks on you: that'll send you running!" In The Silmarillion, published posthumously, 'orcs' was retained.

However, it goes even deeper in the Old English:

Old English glossaries record the word OE orc corresponding with Latin Orcus (deity of the Underworld), and synonymous with thyrs "ogre" (cognate of Old Norse: þurs), as well as "hell devil".

The Latin: Orcus is glossed as "Old English: Orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol"[a] as given in the first Cleopatra Glossary (10th century), and on this entry Thomas Wright wrote, "Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglos-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin."

Probably the lone literary example is from Beowulf, and its poet found use of the orc- stem in orcneas, one of the tribes of creatures named alongside elves and ettins (giants) that have been condemned by God.

[Hazrond]

Well, according to Wikipedia...

Spoiler: Orcs

Show

The modern use of the English term orc to denote a race of evil, humanoid creatures has its inception with J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien's earliest Elvish dictionaries include the entry Ork (orq-) 'monster', 'ogre', 'demon', together with orqindi 'ogresse'. Tolkien sometimes used the plural form orqui in his early texts.

Tolkien sometimes, particularly in The Hobbit, used the word goblin instead of orc to describe the same type of creature. He notes that 'orc' is 'usually translated' as 'goblin'. In The Lord of the Rings, 'goblin' is also used as an alternative to 'orc', particularly in chapters describing events from a hobbit's perspective. Thus, the Uruk-hai of Isengard and the Mordor orc-captain Grishnakh are described as both 'orcs' and 'goblins' in The Lord of the Rings. Later in his life, Tolkien expressed an intention to change the spelling to ork, but the only place where that spelling occurred in his lifetime was in the published version of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, in the poem Bombadil Goes Boating: "I'll call the orks on you: that'll send you running!" In The Silmarillion, published posthumously, 'orcs' was retained.

However, it goes even deeper in the Old English:

Old English glossaries record the word OE orc corresponding with Latin Orcus (deity of the Underworld), and synonymous with thyrs "ogre" (cognate of Old Norse: þurs), as well as "hell devil".

The Latin: Orcus is glossed as "Old English: Orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol"[a] as given in the first Cleopatra Glossary (10th century), and on this entry Thomas Wright wrote, "Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglos-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin."

Probably the lone literary example is from Beowulf, and its poet found use of the orc- stem in orcneas, one of the tribes of creatures named alongside elves and ettins (giants) that have been condemned by God.

Wait a minute...

Orcus... god of the infernal regions...

Spoiler: WAIT STOP BEFOR-

Show

[...]

My DM banned TN and CN, as well as the evil alignments.

[Ilorin Lorati]

I can see CN and the evil alignments, but why TN? Afraid the players would 'meh' all over everything?

[atemu1234]

I can see CN and the evil alignments, but why TN? Afraid the players would 'meh' all over everything?

I've had TN players try and pass it off as "do whatever I want". Also, neutralism is a difficult philosophy to roleplay accurately, especially for new players.

[...]

I can see CN and the evil alignments, but why TN? Afraid the players would 'meh' all over everything?

Actually, I'm still not sure whether or not LE is banned...

[Svata]

Not me, but I was showing a friend of mine this thread and hesaid he had a DM ban the CG and LE alignments from his entire setting because "If you don't follow the law, you can't be good, and if you do, you can't be evil. It just isn't possible," So yeah.