What was your worst DM ever? This thread is impervious - roll to disbelieve!

[TeChameleon]

*snippage*

I'd tend to agree with the other posters so far- it sounds like a crummy situation.

Honestly, if I were in your position, I'd be quite tempted to do a 'rocks fall, everyone dies' scenario. Or possibly 'sun explodes, planet dies' scenario >.>

If you feel that there's anything left worth salvaging, what I'd do is simply finalize the campaign- have the players perform a final quest to fade into myth, ascend into godhood, whatever. And then that's it. Those characters are no longer under their control, and a new campaign begins.

Alternatively, you could start up an Exalted or Nobilis campaign, or something to that effect. All the crazy-insane powerlevels they want in a game that's designed to handle them :/

[cobaltstarfire]

The worst GM I ever had was really fond of screwing everyone over via fiat.

For me most of the time it was making my hits miss because "Because you are a small character you miss anyway"

I don't think I ever actually hit anything the entire 2-3 nights I had played because any time I rolled high enough to hit it was decided I actually didn't hit anything at all.

Another player (our cleric) also had his character become unable to communicate with us, because the gm decided to give him some mysterious disease that made it so he basically talked in tongues. (and he would die if we couldn't figure it out and get him cured or something).

I left eventually because I felt left out and useless, I'm told by the other players after the fact that the DM was more unfair to me than even I realized (I'm a doormat by nature so I don't tend to notice), and really irritated the cleric too with the mystery disease so they all just stopped playing.


Well there's also the one I just never ended playing with, I had been interested in playing some sort of star wars, and also just making some friends in college. I wanted to play a gungan because they are a pretty cool species. But all the GM could say is "No gungans jarjar is stupid", and basically just ranted about that. I decided that if a GM is going to get that caught up on something like that and unwilling to discuss anything I didn't really want to see how he ran a game.

[Sidmen]

Well there's also the one I just never ended playing with, I had been interested in playing some sort of star wars, and also just making some friends in college. I wanted to play a gungan because they are a pretty cool species. But all the GM could say is "No gungans jarjar is stupid", and basically just ranted about that. I decided that if a GM is going to get that caught up on something like that and unwilling to discuss anything I didn't really want to see how he ran a game.

To be fair, in Star Wars circles the Gungans have the same reputation as Kender do in Dragonlance circles. I.E. they're little more than comic relief characters that are detrimental to a serious game. You'll find few Star Wars DMs who don't at least give you a cocked eyebrow when you say you want to play one. Whether its a deserved reputation or not is up to that DM's personal experiences and animosity toward the species. I know that I discouraged people from playing Jawas, Ewoks, and Gungans when I last ran a Star Wars game (I never outright ban things).

On Topic:
I'm my own worst DM. I constantly seem to kill off my PCs after less than a month of in a particular campaign. I also lack a story to tell, but constantly leave little crumbly bits that might be plot points scattered around like cups after a kegger. I know my players lack ability to play sandboxes but constantly run them... Not sure why they put up with me...

[comicshorse]

This guy wasn't actually GM'ing for me but still...
At my university Roleplaying club and I wander in to see a Cyberpunk game in progress. The P.C.s have just been ambushed by 3 Arasaka goons.
G.M. declares the goons are all going full auto, a burst of 30 bullets. He starts with goon one, rolls damage for first bullet. Works out that's 30 damage which penetrates the P.C.s armour jacket (doing it a point of damage) and their armour vest (ditto) but not the P.C.s skinweave. P.C. still takes a automatic point of damage.
There is a pause as the P.C. adjusts his armour ratings and health.
The G.M. then starts rolling the damage for the second bullet.
I leave, go have a leisurely lunch, chat with friends, come back two hours later and they are still running the same combat ! (though by this point the P.C.s were getting to shoot back)

[cobaltstarfire]

To be fair, in Star Wars circles the Gungans have the same reputation as Kender do in Dragonlance circles. I.E. they're little more than comic relief characters that are detrimental to a serious game. You'll find few Star Wars DMs who don't at least give you a cocked eyebrow when you say you want to play one. Whether its a deserved reputation or not is up to that DM's personal experiences and animosity toward the species. I know that I discouraged people from playing Jawas, Ewoks, and Gungans when I last ran a Star Wars game (I never outright ban things).

On Topic:
I'm my own worst DM. I constantly seem to kill off my PCs after less than a month of in a particular campaign. I also lack a story to tell, but constantly leave little crumbly bits that might be plot points scattered around like cups after a kegger. I know my players lack ability to play sandboxes but constantly run them... Not sure why they put up with me...

I don't really care about the "reputation" of a race, if a GM can't give me a good reason for why a race is disallowed other than "I don't think you'll play a serious character" I don't really want to have anything to do with that GM.

[Visivicous]

I don't really have any 'worst DM' stories. The closest involves a fantastic Story Teller (oWoD) that did a few things which really disappointed me. Even so, he's still the best ST/DM/GM/whatever I've ever had the pleasure of playing with.

I was playing a Native American Salubri-Antitribu in this ST's Vampire the Masquerade game. I chose a Merit which would give me a 'Spirit Mentor', the form house-ruled as a snow owl (ST let me choose). I had a great deal of fun, and RP'd a lot with my owl mentor (bonus: we were some fairly dense players, so the ST would use my mentor to gift us clues). We'd been playing several months, and I was really trying to play-up my character's spiritual side (important note: I played this character as very loyal to his friends), when the ST dragged us into some kind of hell dimension. A wicked looking wraith one shots my mentor, killing it forever, and then offered to become my new 'mentor'. I was enraged, and attacked this wraith-thing, rolling some epic damage using Vengeance of Samiel... hacking off the smallest claw the thing possessed. I was then eviscerated on the things first turn. No one could figure out why I would attack such a powerful enemy (ST gave its description extra detail, and really drove home that this thing was a badass), and figured I'd killed off my character intentionally so I could roll a new one. At the time, I thought if I showed my character's loyalty, even unto death, then I would get my mentor back. I thought it was a test of sorts (I played a fairly 'human' vampire, and viewed the wraith's offer as a lure to the 'dark side'). That was very disappointing.

Same game, I rolled up a Tremere, focusing in Path of Levinbolt (lightning magic!) and Technomancy (cyber magic!). Again, I went on many adventures, and had a heck of a good time. Several months of play later, we wind up on our home turf for some down time. I decided to use that time to craft a robot companion, using (I think) homunculus rules, and some blueprints I had stumbled across on one of our adventures. The ST had some very demanding rolls to make this happen, and it took some time (several in game months). Near the end of the campaign, I finally succeeded in creating my robot (a cybernetic looking spider thing). Had it for all of one session, in which our characters were hunted down, and slaughtered (I died outside of a dinner, and my robot companion with me - or so I thought). Disappointing, after all the time, resources, and rolls invested.

All new campaign, same players, same ST. This time I played a Gangrel, with a German Shepherd animal companion, which was also a Ghoul. ST thought this was awesome, and encouraged the theme. After just the first few sessions, I come home to my condemned/abandoned house (I lived in the secret basement), to find my faithful German Shepherd torn to little bits. Hair and viscera strewn everywhere, and this strange metal contraption sitting in the middle of a pile of organs, wearing my dog's skin as a coat. It was the freaking robot my previous character had built! It claimed to have 'absorbed the essence' of my dog, and wished to serve as my new companion.

I came to the conclusion that, while the ST could spin some incredible stories and bring a whole lot of entertainment, he loathed companion NPCs. Duly noted for the next time I play with this guy (which I hope does happen).

[squiggit]

Well there was that one time when we all came to the DM's house to play...

"Um, guys, I actually didn't prepare anything."

"But DM, why?"

"Eh. Too hard."

And this was after he promised us a cool story and asked questions on the roles of our characters. Suffice to say, he never DMed again.

I've had that happen to me before. We entered a supposedly mystical cave where our group's Paladin found his enlightenment and all that. Throughout the entire cavern he had the paladin's player describing the scenery. I understand wanting input from the player who's connected to the area, but having him describe the whole thing? It got worse when I found out after the scene ended that he'd had another player (who couldn't make that week) stat up all the encounters for that session too. Come to think of it, the plot was just whatever any other player wrote into their character's backstory. And he tended to be the sort of GM who thought "open world campaign" meant dumping you in an empty field and giving you nothing to do.


Other bad GM experience came from a guy who thought D&D was a video game. It was a very railroady campaign, but we went along with it. Second session we run into the big bad (some sort of blackguardy zombie) who shows up and taunts us. He then proceeds to murder a friendly NPC innkeeper who was sort of our guide for this session. So then...

Me: How far away is the knight?
DM: Uh.. about 40 feet away
Me: Ok that's in range. I draw my shortbow and
DM: This is a cutscene
Me: Huh?
DM: Yeah you can't do anything during a cutscene
Me: I don't understand what you mean.
DM: Ok look, he turns (no initiative roll), fires a black ray at you (no attack roll) and kills you (no damage roll or save).
Me: What? I haven't even done anything yet.
DM: Ok. You're out of the game. I can't have someone constantly questioning me.

There wasn't a third session. Which we ended up being kind of glad about, since we discovered (when he was trying to taunt us about what we were missing out on) that we were going to find a noble prince and beseech him for help because he was the only one who was strong enough to slay the knight. It was described to us as "getting the chance to help a badass prince save the kingdom". With, of course, the final fight being a one on one duel between the prince and the villain. While we would have gotten to fight off skeletons.

[Winter_Wolf]

My worst GM killed a campaign then without warning reneged on his promise to GM a game next week. Two games, one pissy fit. I left the country three weeks later so it didn't really matter, but he was still a punk for doing that.

runner up goes to the GM whose campaign got killed, but at least he tried to keep things moving. Right up until the godlike DMPC who went around offering the players draws from a deck of many things. Two people were actually dumb enough to do it, including the campaign serial killer. I suspect that was the catalyst for a long drawn out pissy fit. He was wound pretty tight pretty much all the time though, so it's probably for the best he never actually took the helm.

[SamaelOfChaos]

At least you guys even got to play at all in the "Worst GM scenario". I didn't have that luxury, even though the guy was DMing me, for several hours!

He was telling this loooooong story of some zombified city and one guy running away (one of the players). A lost car, am I in it? No, not yet, wait for your turn. A horde of zombies and someone crying for help, am I that person? No, wait for your turn.

After, around 4 hours, NONE other player got to do ANYTHING because he wasn't in the game AT ALL.

There was no second session of that game. Although that wasn't the only game under that wonderful GM I had. The game with the zombies was one where he "thought everything out this time and is going to make up for his past mistakes" while DMing for our group.

Like the part where he was always one of the players while DMing... the most OP one, too, even if the character build sucked, he managed to do something to make him OP and make us suck, every single time.

It got to the point where we were going through a swamp and the team incredibly intelligent troll berserker walked behind my mage with his axe and just used my character as a swamp detector. Any time I almost fell into a swamp and died he would just gleefully fish me out and we proceeded onwards where he one shot some boss without us as much as anyone else hitting once, and afterwards, proceeded to tell us OOC how difficult he would have been and how he was supposed to transform into some huge monstriosity and slaughter us all in some epic battle.
One that never happened, because the most epic moments happened OOC... they always happened OOC. Or in the near future.

For example he once told us about this epic quest for evil sorcerer he had planned, got us actually hyped, then tossed the whole session into the bin and decided we're not doing it at all.

Sad part? To this day I can't even have a game with anyone else due to either time constrains or the fact I can't find a fun and decent DM, so that's my WHOLE exp. with PnP T_T

PS. Sorry for the rant, kinda spilling out my frustration about the matter here.

[Hazuki]

I've got a fairly long one. I'll try to condense it as much as possible, though.

Interested in applying for a game, so I offer the GM my character concept. He insults me. No explanation, not even an answer to my question, just an insult. I ask him to give me an answer, and he gives me an explanation...that ends with another insult. Followed by a sexist comment. Okay, move on, I go with a different concept. I post my sheet, asking for thoughts...he never looks at it. I ask for help with making my character, as I was new to the mechanics, and he ignores it. Luckily, another player was around to help me out. Then the GM starts making snide comments about how our characters are too experienced, that they should have less stuff in their backgrounds...they consisted of A) A servant who got lost and ended up with some barbarians. B) A guy from a farm who has a job. And C) A former slave who recently escaped their captors. Then he proceeds to make casual comments about rape, like "Imagine, it's happening right now.", while a rape victim is present as a player (And he was aware of the fact).

Then, it's revealed that Mages have a special ability in his game. I'm the only Mage, so I'm the only one it affects. I ask him how it works, he doesn't answer besides "It detects demons". Except it doesn't just tell me about any demons nearby; it just means he gives me a line of garbled words that don't mean anything and I have to puzzle out what they mean. Over the course of the game, I would use the ability, he would do that, I would ask for a clear answer, and he would bitch about me not playing along. More on this later.

The game begins. It goes smoothly, for the most part. We go to town, attend dinner, and then we find out that some of the lore of the established (As in, by a company that sold the books) setting has been changed. I ask to know more about it, and he refuses to explain what he's changed. It's at this point that he changes the ability that he never explained, to include detecting magic in general. Okay, it's not come up in play yet, so I go along with it. So we follow this character, then my character asks why she's acting suspiciously when she's doing such shady things. The woman then calls the guards on us for asking questions, and the GM acts like it's all part of his ingenious plan. When I mention that the NPC is crazy, he tells me to stop making fun of his NPCs and that I just don't understand them.

It's at this point that his changes to the mechanics of the system come up. When we attempt to discuss it with him, he gives half-answers, or even answers completely unrelated to the question, then calls us idiots when we don't understand. Whenever I tried to bring up an issue I had with the system, he would dismiss it with another insult. After enough complaining, he relents and agrees to go back to the original system that he modified.

Then, the next in-game day rolls around and he starts complaining that we're not doing enough or following his hooks, which he then lists. Most of the hooks are things the party don't know about, or literally can't intervene in. So we do our best by trying to follow up on one of the hooks; a character's backstory. We go to a town in search of people from the character's past, and we find absolutely nothing, so we head back to the tavern and a mysterious NPC suddenly pops up. He knows everything about our character's pasts, despite us effectively being peasants, insults us, threatens us, and then the GM then insults me for having my character walk away from it.

Some time later, the characters who stayed come back and reveal that one of them is actually magical. The GM tells me to activate my magic sense (Remember that?), so I do and apparently, one of the other PCs has been magical the entire time my PC has known her, and, in all the times she's used her magic sense, she's never noticed it. Nothing happened to the character to cause this change, and when I ask him why, he says "You didn't specifically look at her before", despite it being an AoE ability. So I ask him to please explain the mechanics of the ability to me, so I'll know how to use it in the future, and make sure that I'm not unwittingly making more stupid mistakes because how my own ability works has never been explained to me. He insults me for asking and says "Deal with it."

Without a doubt, the worst GM I've ever had to deal with.

[detritus]

I don't have any GM stories, but I got some fresh player stories I'll talk about in brief.

Now its gotten to the point they make fun of me outside of the game for how much "mistakes" and "nerfing" I do. Not in a fun I'm in on the joke way, but a ha ha this guy sucks way.

I've been this groups GM for 9+ years. It's only recently something has changed and they have decided to start treating me differently. I don't know why. Hell I buy them pizza, I sometimes cover gas if they are in need, and do a lot of other support stuff. I offer food I cook ect. I put up with them when they do break something by accident.
So... opinions? Thoughts? If I do just cut ties with the bulk of the problem players that's 3 or even 4 of my players. Group killing potential.

My opinion? Kick out the players who cause trouble - they are exploiting you completely. You feed them, buy petrol for them, ignore their damaging stuff, run a long game for them despite their attitude - and all they do is take advantage and insult you. Why on earth are you even contemplating putting up with this? Tell them they aren't welcome any more and nothing more to do with them.

[aberratio ictus]

*snip*

Your patience never ceases to amaze me. Personally, I decided that that Fereldan play isn't worth my time the moment the GM shot down your first idea for a character.

[detritus]

I've got a fairly long one. I'll try to condense it as much as possible, though.

{edited} He insults me. {edited}

Without a doubt, the worst GM I've ever had to deal with.

A few questions:

Did nobody else in the room notice what an idiot the guy was?
Why didn't the lot of you walk away after the first 5 minutes?
Why does the Gm have any teeth left?

[aberratio ictus]

A few questions:

Did nobody else in the room notice what an idiot the guy was?
Why didn't the lot of you walk away after the first 5 minutes?
Why does the Gm have any teeth left?

You can find the play (and the discussions) here in the PbP section.

My personal favourite: "You want to play a priestess? Don't you think it is unfair towards the other players to play a spotlight queen?"

[Spacebatsy]

Reading the old threads, I don’t have any horror stories, just something that became a source of frustration for me and had effect on my feelings towards certain games.

My GM had a bit of the-game-is-always-greener-on-the-other side problem. Around two sessions in he would start to hint at another game that he rather be GMing. It’s not always a big problem, if we like it we can usually drag him along for a couple of more sessions, but to my knowing he has never “finished” a campaign. The problem for me is that I like to invest in a game, emotionally and time wise, I even wrote journals for the first ones before I realized this trend. I have no issues with making new characters, but I want to be able to commit to a campaign.

However the real issue is with a Swedish game called Eon. I get edgy every time someone even mentions it. Not because he GMed it bad, but because he never actually GMed it.
Eon is a fantasy game that strives to make the effects of combat and living in the world as realistic as possible. It is famously known for the amount of time it takes to create a character, one really needs to set aside at least a day just making a character with a clear concept in mind. I have made these for so many campaigns, but never gotten further than to the introduction game wise.
The final straw was not that he had us make new characters three times in a row because he changed his mind about the setting, but his attitude towards us when doing it. This sort of smugness as if it all was a clever joke that got funnier the more frustrated we got.
I think it is his way of dealing with conflict because I’ve noticed that the harsher something is criticized the more he acts as if it’s something he intended all along to mess with us. I dont think I would have been offended if it was not for this.
On the topic: at the announcement that we should make a third character, right after the first hort session, I took him aside and complained that there was more to life than spending days rolling characters. To which he answered:

- You think you have it tough, think of [shy player], he could only take one day from [studying for an exam] so now we had to make his characters in the evenings instead.
- …He gave you a day of his study time to make a character that he had to remake?
*isn’t-it-hilarious? look* - Yes
- When he has an exam coming up? And now he has to devote his evenings to do yet another one? Can’t he use one of the old ones?
- No, it won’t fit the setting, and besides I’ve already erased them
- Wow… That’s really disrespectful…
*Even broader smile* - What’s he gonna do?

When in that mode, arguing has no effect. Even so we still got to the introductions of the first setting, and he quickly started dropping hints about how fun it would be to play Rogue Trader, and that he had this great idea. At the break I asked him:

- You’re not going to run this game are you?
- Probably not, I want to run Rogue Trader first, and then I’ll start an Eon campaign.
- Okay. You know what? I don’t think Eon is a game for me, I’ll sit that one out
- But you haven’t even played it yet!

I moved half a year later, but I’m still reluctant to Eon in particular and fantasy games in general. Yeah, I know, I’m a bit of a wimp. But I can’t stop myself thinking it will be a waste of time

[Hazuki]

Your patience never ceases to amaze me. Personally, I decided that that Fereldan play isn't worth my time the moment the GM shot down your first idea for a character.

You're my new favorite person. And far wiser than I. I know that I wouldn't be around if it weren't for the fact that I enjoy the other players.

If it weren't for the dearth of Dragon Age games, I'd have left after the second insult.

A few questions:

Did nobody else in the room notice what an idiot the guy was?
Why didn't the lot of you walk away after the first 5 minutes?
Why does the Gm have any teeth left?

Apparently they did, but they don't seem to care as much. I have trouble not pointing out idiocy when I see it (Though it's hard to remain civil when he flings insults no matter how nice you try to be), which means I get the brunt of the insults, which makes it snowball for me while the other players are relatively unaffected.

Unfortunately, it's PbP. If it were physically possible, he wouldn't.

You can find the play (and the discussions) here in the PbP section.

My personal favourite: "You want to play a priestess? Don't you think it is unfair towards the other players to play a spotlight queen?"

Now you're my double-favorite.

[Kalmageddon]

You can find the play (and the discussions) here in the PbP section.

My personal favourite: "You want to play a priestess? Don't you think it is unfair towards the other players to play a spotlight queen?"

Link please, have to see it with my own eyes, although I suspect I will regret this.

[Hazuki]

Link please, have to see it with my own eyes, although I suspect I will regret this.

Here you go.

[aberratio ictus]

You probably will regret it, though it is quite similar to a very spectacular accident on the highway. (Not that I'll admit I'm one of those who stop and look, because, I'm not. I look and keep on driving simultaneously.)

I'm quite lucky I happen to be alone in the house right now, because I'm audibly groaning at almost every single one of that GM's posts, looking over the OOC right now. Also, be prepared to have a laughing fit once he claims "I feel like there's some good lessons in conflict resolution here."

[Kalmageddon]

To be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought.
I've read some pages of the threads and skimmed most of the rest and I mostly agree with Hazuki's and abberratio's side of things but this seems more like a case of incompatiblity between Hazuki and the GM than outright unforgivable GMing. The OOC tension is absolutely cringeworthy and I can't begin to imagine why you both decided to keep playing together.

Edit: this story inspired me to start a discussion about delicate subjects and their role in rpgs and storytelling. Coming right up.

Edit 2: on second thought, let's not start anything. Not on this forum. I know better.

[Hazuki]

I'd say the real GM'ing failure is his utter inability to be a leader. A good GM should be able to try to please their players, explain their points of view, serve as effective arbiters, and be able to get everybody to work together as a cohesive whole. He displays none of these qualities. He wants control and respect without earning it.

[aberratio ictus]

I'd say with all that insensitive talk about rape, quoting (and linking) of a horribly bad sexist poem, linking to an insulting elitist article in response to a reasonable (and unrelated) question and an overall condescending and overly smug attitude - that's pretty much incompatiblity to everybody who doesn't manage to outright ignore him most of the time, what is what the other players seem to be doing. That is social incompetence on a scale that essentially is unforgivable GMing in my book.

[Kalmageddon]

I'd say the real GM'ing failure is his utter inability to be a leader. A good GM should be able to try to please their players, explain their points of view, serve as effective arbiters, and be able to get everybody to work together as a cohesive whole. He displays none of these qualities. He wants control and respect without earning it.

Had written a long answer, if you want me to elaborate my PM box is open, but, basically, it all comes down to this: if you didn't like him why keep playing with him? Abrasive and passive-aggressive behaviour benefits no-one. Regardless of who was right and who was wrong, roleplaying is a group activity which should be enjoyed together, not despite each other, don't you think?

I'd say with all that insensitive talk about rape, quoting (and linking) of a horribly bad sexist poem, linking to an insulting elitist article in response to a reasonable (and unrelated) question and an overall condescending and overly smug attitude - that's pretty much incompatiblity to everybody who doesn't manage to outright ignore him most of the time, what is what the other players seem to be doing. That is social incompetence on a scale that essentially is unforgivable GMing in my book.

As I said, I havent read the whole thing, that would be something like 20+ pages. But from what I've seen he frequently apologized for saying something that offended somebody and tried his best to make things work.
This doesn't mean that he isn't a bad GM or that he wasn't horribly offensive and dickish. It just means that, at least, he wasn't being malicious. Intent is an important factor.

Everyone has flaws, some might be big enough to make them incompatible with a lot of people. But then again, nobody is forcing you to play with them, right? So, as I said, just leave them be. Nobody is saying you should like them, or put up with them, or help them, or pretend like everything is ok. But don't become part of the problem.

I just don't think this GM is a bad person, I think he's just misguided and not very good at communicating.
I'm not trying to play devil's advocate, I just don't like public stonings and shaming.

[Hazuki]

Being able to ignore something doesn't make criticism of it invalid. Thank you for the recommendation, but my choices are my own, and my criticism stands no matter what choice I make.

[Alberic Strein]

I left this morning looking at a clean thread, wondering what I could post there and how my players could have SO MUCH more to say about me than I could ever say about another DM.

I come back and... Rape? Sexism? Elitism? What in the BLAZES happened?!

It's not even about being a sorry excuse for a DM anymore...

Which does seem to be a recurrent point concerning horrible DMs.

Anyway, personal "wtf" moment excepted, and my terrible, terrible impulse to answer Hazuki that the ability to reconsider and discuss one own's choices is important, and that closing oneself to discussion is sorta weird on a forum, I'll try and think up a few examples to tell you guys.

"Yeah, I was supposed to DM today... Sorry, I got nothing."
"Yeah, the game was supposed to be at my place today... Sorry, didn't clean up."
"Yeah, the one way to kill that monster was to use that particular ability and nothing else."
"Yeah, you just got strongarmed into working for that guy with no hope of breaking free as the introduction to the campaign."

Sidenote: Do we get to talk about our worst player experiences too? Coz' I got A LOT of these.

"No really, zombies that keep moving as parts are fine, I just need you to warn me beforehand and explain everything."
"No really, how were we supposed to think of using all the wood in the room and the oil on us to make torches against the slimes that animate skeletons?"
"No really, you REALLY won't allow for a spiderman way of crossing a blockade thanks to our mundane non-rotored grappling hooks?" (not that it would have done much good anyway, where in the blazes did they get the idea there were skyscrappers to hang from?!)
"No really, that horrendously powerful NPC that kept a war going almost by himself against overwhelmingly powerful forces, who also happens to be plot-critical, and that we are supposed to manipulate into helping us, or negociate or stuff, nah, we're killing him. It's him or us."
"No really, it's very important for me to play a rape survivor who still has an abusive relationship with her absurdly powerful master which is going to have a pretty damn big impact on the game." (worse in hindsight, I, for some unfathomable reason had called my spell which allowed me to enter someone's memories without consent "mind rape". So, when her master tampered with her memories and it was my job to get inside her mind to see what had been changed... The embarassment was real. Except for the DM, who found the whole thing HILARIOUS)
"No really, my character just met yours, but she is devising ways to kill him as we speak."
"No really, this new character of mine is completely different from the last... She still wants to kill you though."
"No really, my character got K.O'd because you got manipulated/didn't protect me well enough, so let me sulk for three hours straight."

[comicshorse]

I've had that happen to me before. We entered a supposedly mystical cave where our group's Paladin found his enlightenment and all that. Throughout the entire cavern he had the paladin's player describing the scenery. I understand wanting input from the player who's connected to the area, but having him describe the whole thing? It got worse when I found out after the scene ended that he'd had another player (who couldn't make that week) stat up all the encounters for that session too. Come to think of it, the plot was just whatever any other player wrote into their character's backstory. And he tended to be the sort of GM who thought "open world campaign" meant dumping you in an empty field and giving you nothing to do.

Y'know I not sure if that counts as a bad DM, cause I'm not sure if he was actually DM'ing that game

[BRC]

Y'know I not sure if that counts as a bad DM, cause I'm not sure if he was actually DM'ing that game

...I once opened a game by sitting back and doing nothing.

Okay, so one of the PC's (An assassin type) was hired under false pretenses to kill the rest of the party. I statted up some NPC thugs for him to control and sat back and watched the carnage, and everybody knew what was supposed to happen (Once he learned that they were NOT in fact trying to summon a demon, he would help them find his employers). I wouldn't do it with every group, but it was fun.

[Hazuki]

Anyway, personal "wtf" moment excepted, and my terrible, terrible impulse to answer Hazuki that the ability to reconsider and discuss one own's choices is important, and that closing oneself to discussion is sorta weird on a forum, I'll try and think up a few examples to tell you guys.

I definitely didn't mean to close myself to discussion. ^^ In fact, me and Kalmageddon moved our discussion to PMs. I do think it would be best to do any further discussion about my experience in PMs, just so this doesn't become Hazuki's Soapbox.

[thematgreen]

I had a DM that would just "DM" the story and ignore rolls. For example, if we wanted to intimidate someone, rolled intimidate, and won, we would still lose because "The DM said so".

I'm sorry, if my spikey armored, skull necklace wearing, giant (Literally, it was a frost giant weapon) axe wielding, half orc screams in a non magically compelled, non controlled, non mind controlled, low level minions face, he SHOULD get a reaction, not a "The man yawns in your face and turns away with a smirk".

I doubt it, my character just ate your friends eye as an offering to Grummsh and your just going to be amused?

I rarely argue with the DM but we had it out over that.

And that kind of thing was a common occurence.

[Macros]

Well, to be fair, I had seen the reverse of this situations : players deciding to be a bit more proactive about their lack of skills in Intimidation.

"I don't have ranks in that skill, true... I chop off his finger. Does he talk?"

Anyway, reading this topic makes me glade that the worse I had to deal with was people having trouble balancing an encounter. And one who's perhaps overly fond of pointless details, but it usually comes back on tracks after a couple of minutes.