ITT: GM habits that piss you off.
Doesn't have to be a ThatGM, just anything minor that pisses you off. System specific / rules-related shit welcome as well as general habits.
I'll start:
> roll initiative separately for each monster
"It's in the book, so I'll allow it."
Oh God, if I had a nickel for every time something retarded happened because of this.
>>46142379
I usually roll by groups. If every bad guy rolls poorly and ends up going last then many encounters end during the player's surprise round
>>46142447
That's generally fine, then you just end up with Side Initiative which has been a part of DnD since the start. Individual initiative is relatively recent.
Own GMing peeve:
>player starts describing long elaborate plan they're pulling out their ass or saw in a TV show
>GM actually nods, makes us all play it out, instead of fast-forwarding to the end with a roll or two
>>46142419
>Oh God, if I had a nickel for every time something retarded happened because of this.
Share some of these nickels.
>>46142505
>That's generally fine,
Not in a combat with 8 to 10 guys
I am not making this up, he did this.
> okay now its orc #8's turn... shit which one is orc #8?
>>46142618
>reading comprehension
>>46142505
I tend to love that. One of my dreams is to play a game that's basically a heist movie.
>>46142505
Since when is a third of a century "relatively recent"
>>46142600
"I should get a bonus for being lower down, because I can hit his legs more easily."
Suddenly everyone is fighting from defensive pits and castles are built exclusively inside chasms.
"I Bluff the air is full of poison gas! He'll hold his breath and then pass out!"
For God's sake, a -20 penalty does not cover it.
"He can't hold me at knifepoint, it does like d4 damage."
A classic, but all the more annoying for being so classic.
"I'm going to take a level in Wizard. I'll just figure it out from that spellbook we found."
We're in the middle of nowhere! This is SO stupid.
And on and on and on.
>>46142379
Sending the party to other planes when we're level 5.
I'm not fucking joking D, we will fucking break into your house when you sleep and throw you in a pit of d4s if we have to sit through one more game of "Using your knowledge, you know this place to be not of your original plane...." while not even being able to cast Fly.
Like FUCKS SAKE man
>>46142785
Jesus christ.
>>46142640
I was just elaborating since I didn't elaborate in the OP.
>>46142939
To add on to this, I hate it when DM's for Dungeons and dragons just ignore outright what level your party is.
I love me some games where the world doesn't revolve around us and sometimes things are too much to handle. BUT I hate it when the DM specifically plans out entire adventures as if we were five or ten levels higher. Goddamn read the rulebook or let someone else DM without throwing a hissie fit.
>>46142939
Which plane was it?
>>46143081
Inability to cast fly would suck in the Plane of Air the most.
>>46143081
First time it wasn't too bad, just a little place calledThe Concordant Domain of the Outlands.
>>46143081
Acid.
>Pulling enemy stats out of your ass in a staT-heavy system
>>46143105
>not wanting to endless skydive.
>>46142379
> roll initiative separately for each monster
That's a bit of a pet pevee of mine too.
The only thing I thinkI really hated my gm is using GMFait to say a bad guy got away with the mcguffin. I like I know it was so the story could continue but still left me a bit salty.
Also kinda with more people would just surrender or even run away when they're clearly beaten
>>46142785
>Suddenly everyone is fighting from defensive pits and castles are built exclusively inside chasms.
This sounds fantastic but probably because it didn't happen to me.
>>46143105
You fall forever though.
>>46143124
Ah. Yeah that would suck.
Low-level planar travel should be Ysgard and that's pretty much it.
I'm considering my level 10 party going to another plane soon.
>>46143243
>The only thing I thinkI really hated my gm is using GMFait to say a bad guy got away with the mcguffin. I like I know it was so the story could continue but still left me a bit salty.
I have a story about this.
The group had captured the evil halfling leading the goblins and was holding him from the ramparts threatening to drop him if the goblins didn't surrender.
Goblins sneak up into bushes near wall and get nat 20s on hide rolls. Then get 20s on their dex rolls to catch him when they do drop him. Battle commences, and the PCs were hella pissed when the halfling showed up again three adventures later.
Admittedly I was 13 at the time and railroaded quite a bit so they forgave me. 8 years later that campaign is still going, I hope to get to play it tonight.
>>46143181
3.5?
You really needed stats for "common NPCs" to run 3.5. A commoner, an expert, and a few warriors of different levels, and some wizards and clerics. Once you had that, though, you were usually okay.
>>46143251
I did head that one off, finding that the book says it's +1 for higher ground, and the +2 for any favourable-seeming circumstance doesn't make any sense for the reverse condition.
Also it didn't make any sense anyway.
>>46143475
8 Year long campaign? Did you sacrifice something to some god to make this happen?
>roll a 1
>looks like your bowstring snapped again, did you remember to pack spares?
>Wrestling a gun off a mook like in da movies
>Obeying the clusterfuck that is grapple rules
>Slowly force it to mooks head while he struggles against my strongman ways
>press it against mook temple
>pull trigger
>*clattering of dice*
>"OK, it did X damage, he's still struggling"
Same GM made everyone roll for damage when doing otherwise "instakill" things like slitting the throats of sleeping people.
What ever happened to the rule of drama?
>>46143497
No. Random stats for a boss encounter in a equivalent level complexity system.
>>46142379
One of our regular GMs is a bit of a forever GM, so I cut him some slack because he really wants to be a player but:
> Your character knows X
>Your character remembers X
>You pass out form being set on fire by a dragon
He hates killing characters and he has no patience for characters not being able to solve things. His games are difficult to lose, tot he extent that it is rare we bring our A games.
>>46144258
What system?
>>46144401Dark Heresyor one of its variants, can't remember which right now.
>you are stunned because of the striking looks of the fea, no matter the type and your resistances
>DC 35 saves when we are below level 10
>stripping the party of gear when they forget what they gave out three games ago
>suddenly, plane hopping campaign for every damn game
>character restrictions for those in the beginning of the game, none for those that missed the introduction session
>>46144258
Ouch.
you still play with him anon?
>>46144112
This. 5% chance to stab yourself in the leg is a fucking joke. If you're going to buy into the "critical failure" bullshit, at least require a roll to confirm.
>>46144535
Yeah but he don't really GM no mo. He's a lot better as a player thankfully.
>>46144478
YOur gm must not have read,
Helpless Targets- Weapon Skill Tests made to hit a sleeping, unconscious or otherwise helpless target automatically succeed. When rolling Damage against such a target roll two dice and add the results. If either die rolled comes up as a 10, you have a chance at
Righteous Fury. If both dice come up as 10, you automatically gain Righteous Fury, and roll Damage again.
By RAW, you deal double damage and either dice can trigger righteous fury, the systems version of a critical hit. Also, if you are attacking an unaware target, you would probably want to go for semi or full auto weapons because you will get the +30 for unaware opponents, a chance to aim for +20 full round and no dodge attempt because of them being unaware.
"You can't do that because i didn't prepare for it" he said as the players didn't want to listen to the BBEG's rant while at a rifle shot distance.
>>46144258
Players are just as guilty of this except a lot more butt hurt when it's turned on them.
>>46144615
"Well, you obviously need some more time to prepare so we can use this session to either run ALT GM's game or make characters for the one OTHER ALT GM wanted to run."
I am not too proud of it, but I did this to one of our groups dms in the past. I had become so pissed at his game and it only got worse once we realized he was running us through a book he was writing in his down time.
>>46144691
...was the book any good?
>>46144784
How much are you into human supremacy, all evil being caused by female mages and all world exploration replaced with fade to black scenes where you were teleported to another plane where you were so hideously below everything there all you could do was listen to exposition?
>Brand new campaign
>Started off in prison with no memory of the past few weeks
>Escape the city, party decides to make for my homeland where I'm kind of important
>Two days out, a random patrol comes across us and somehow recognizes our descriptions
>I'd like to tell them that we mean them no harm and we're in the process of leaving the country forever.
>"No."
>What?
>"Fine, roll diplomacy."
>Sweet, 28.
>"You fail to convince them. Roll initiative."
>Really?
>"Stop being a spoilsport anon, we're here to kill baddies."
>Two hours later we finally kill them without taking more than a couple of scratches and find no useful loot
I'm sure glad we rolled dice for two hours with no reward instead of storytelling. That sure was fun.
>>46144849
So it's one of THOSE books where most of the characters are an expy for real life people, including the write himself, and readers are expected to know things before hand even though it's the first time they are mentioned?
>>46144950
Pretty much.
All of his campaigns become this and I get called a jack ass if I point it out to the other players, who bitch behind his back. I am slowly coming to the point I am going to give the group up and move to online play.
>Having NPCs beat on PCs to 'assert dominance', then getting mad at the players when their PCs hit back.
My GM did this a few days ago, pissed me right off.
>>46143906
Ability to play any other game, perhaps.
>>46145250
Just leave him anon. You don't have to take this shit from him.
>>46145024
Start DMing.
>>46145504
I'm just going to annihilate the NPC once we're done with this plotline. Knowing my character, it's either that or go to his house, fuck his wife, record it and drop the video off before leaving the planet.
>>46144921
To some people, the act of combat is the whole point of their RPG experience. I have a guy like that in my group. he'd be happy with your outcome.
>>46142379
Roll for nearly every fucking action.
I mean from fucking basic questions to climbing down a stepstool.
>>46145616
Already do.
>>46145675
>I'm just going to annihilate the NPC once we're done with this plotline
He's the DM. This isn't going to end the way you want it to.
I read these threads for two reasons: To find out if I'm doing something wrong and to feel good about not having any of these problems
>>46145816
He'll stop caring about the NPCs continued survival once he is no longer important. In other words, once we're done with this quest. Then I'll just surprise-kill him in a way that doesn't alert the whole building and leave.
Giving vague descriptions, no background, and no hard numbers for anything.
Examples include finding 'a handful of rings and whatever' combined from searching all the crew/passenger quarters of a ghost ship we boarded. Copper? Silver? Gold? Electrum? 'Uhh, normal rings'.
This happens with everything BUT weapons. If it causes damage it'll be stated out to the nth degree. If it's anything else including locations, NPC's, treasure, macguffins, vehicles, it'll be glossed over like blood in your average action movie.
The worst part is, is that the campaign is not combat orientated. The combat parts of the game are ran nicely, but everything else is a dead trout shoved down your pants. Cold, lifeless, and uncomfortable feeling. :(
>>46145702
It's very common, sadly. I've even seen it in games that generally encourage a lot of non-combat elements. I once played three sessions with a Shadowrun group who only wanted to get cybered up and go on kill fests. One guy actually wouldn't even play the non-combat parts and had another player handle his character for that.
Needless to say I made my excuses and quit.
>>46142379
Making arbitrary exceptions like "you can't break down the cell door, it's indestructible" just to keep their game on the rails.
Not doing character voices. Worse, not even improvising - just reading out flat, prepared dialogue in a droning monotone.
Not being in control. I hate terrible GMs who wordlessly tolerate bad etiquette, cheating, time wasting, or worst of all let themselves be browbeaten and dominated by a player. A GM needs some authority. That does require a bit of charisma, social skill and people management ability. If you don't have those then I'm afraid you can't cut it as a GM.
Expecting us to ignore our character traits and act like we're in a video game.
One example: we wandered around a castle and found nothing of interest except for a pot of strange-smelling goo. It later emerged that the GM expected us to drink said goo, which was a potion that teleported us to the dungeon. Bear in mind that we were playing a group of mundane soldiers in a low-magic setting with no prior knowledge or experience of the arcane. Ingesting alien cum from a basement in hostile territory would have been completely out-of-character, and even out-of-character we had no indication that it wasn't poison. So we recovered a sample of the goo and tried to leave the castle. At this point the GM got pissed and threw enemies at us until one of us died and the rest of the party escaped, ending the session. Fun.
>>46144112
I was ok with this since it happened to the enemies too.
So many drow with broken crossbows I tell you 'hwat
>>46145724
I was once asked to roll to extinguish a small campfire. I failed the check and the GM set my character on fire.
>>46142618
I had a GM eun a combat with 2 PCs and about a hundred NPCs. Took from 10pm till 7am. Six rounds. I kid you not.
>>46144258
I'd prefer it the GM's way. Introduce insta-kill stuff and that means anyone can do it
>>46142379
>roll initiative separately for each monster
I'm almost guilty of this. I bunch similar monsters into groups of three to five and roll once for each group. It makes my players less likely to get ganked by every foe in the first turn, or vice versa.
>>46143906
It's called playing with family.
>>46145271
No I've played in loads of other campaigns. RPGs are a priority in my life, which can lead to some pretty easy assumptions about other things in my life.
>>46145675
>Knowing my character, it's either that or go to his house, fuck his wife, record it and drop the video off before leaving the planet.
I'm too lazy to go find the picture, so
nowthatswhaticalledgy.jpg
>>46147105
Even if it was a low magic setting, why the fuck did he expect anyone to drink some random goo they found in a castle? At least disguise it as water or something else reasonable
>>46147386
the bodybuilder curse
if we ask "what does he look like?" for a npc the gm didn't plan to describe it end up being a "tall, muscular guy with brown eyes and dark hair" even if it's a stable boy ,the village elder or a halfling cook ...
>>46147386
I should have specified that I don't mean rape.
I mean just being that gosh darn handsome.
>>46144112
I did that once to a player, because he rolled double 1s on disadvantage.
>>46147579
You sound small-cocked.
>>46147698
I'm sorry if I gave you NTR-flashbacks, anon.
>>46142379
Had a GM that actively encouraged my character to eat shiny golden alien looking fruits. I kept saying no and ended up feeding it to some bandit leader who was try to rob me of valuables. He turned into a fucking mindless gelatinous cube and tried to eat everyone. I was only level one so I couldn't really fight it off, so another player and I had to kite it around into these weird magical fences and shit.
This DM still tried to get me to eat these fruit, even after this happened.
>>46147550
That should be a plot hook or something.
>>46147245
Holy shit.
I did a game where the PCs fougth about 200 orcs over the course of about 15 rounds. Took 2 hours.
Fucking insane. You need to be a good GM to do that shit I guess.
>diplomacy never works when it's useful or convenient
No matter how hard our over 20 charisma party face roleplays, rolls, or both if the DM is adamant on keeping the NPC hostile, unhelpful, or preocuppied by fear because it's how he wants the current scenario to play out then they will swiftly brush the bard off as if he rolled low.
GM can badmouth and bitch about people but acts like a punk and shitfits when people talk back.
GM acts passive aggressive and makes you feel like a villain for playing/creating your character.
GM goes on a spiel about munchkins and badwrongfun happening because you have high dice pools (16+), etc. If you even disagree they throw a shit fit and have the cult close ranks on you.
GM has a GMPC that is the epitome of munchkin that throws 20+ for most skills. It isn't played sarcastically or to make a point. They act like brats because only they can play the superheroes and you must be in awe of their character's amazing feats.
Granted this was because I was poor and stupid enough to play Shadowrun on Runnerhub (Reddit to the Max). Stay away if you don't want to slowly start hating Shadowrun as a whole.
>>46144921
>>46151252
I'll never understand why DMs don't plan for simple interaction. It's like they have a "speak when spoken to" rule for their players, and panic at the very thought of unsanctioned conversations.
where do you guys find these gms? why do you play with them
>>46147175
That's awful, but honestly, if the DM was purposely being super nitpicky in a fun, silly kind of way, I think I'd enjoy that level of analness for a single campaign.
>>46142419
That's not so bad.
Worse is:
>The book says nothing against it so I allow it
>Proceed backstabbing with a ballista
>>46150341
>everyone in town has been cursed with sick gains
>>46151724
>the townsfolk are cursed with gaining muscle until their heart gives out
>extreme muscle townies beg for your group's help
We magical realm now.
>>46151724
>There is an underground cult devoted to the lost godZyzz
>>46142379
>> roll initiative separately for each monster
Do players roll as a group? Why not? You do know monsters have their own different initiative values right?
So it's okay for the GM to roll a 20 once, and all monsters gang up on the party before they attack?
When a GM describes absolutely nothing about your surroundings or the scene.
Like nothing at all.
"You walk into town, where do you go?"
I don't fucking know, or care, I am so bored because nothing in this world has any character.
>>46151724
>a cure must be found for the townspeople's addiction to whey and supplements before they all wither and die
>>46147617
that makes sense though not
>well you rolled a 1 on a normal attack roll and dropped your maul on your foot
>roll for damage
>>46151724
>this is put in place by a rival country to destroy the kingdom's fighting force for when they invade
>soldiers drop dead the second they're sent out to the front
>you must find out how to prevent the enemy from exploiting the weakness they have bestowed upon the kingdom:cardio kills gains
>>46146978
I'm not very good at voices as a DM, but at least I try to keep my tone changing as I speak in a character's voice. All of my dialogue is improvised and the only things ever prepared are literary quotes from old stories and idioms in the world.
Not doing voices hasn't really been a big deal to any of my players, and I rarely meet DMs who do voices for characters. It makes me cringe when a DM insists on trying to feign a voice for a character outside of his vocal range instead of just narrating what the character's voice might sound like before delivering his or her speech.
>>46152314
He's being a jackass. Do whatever works for you and for the game.
>>46142379
>Strictly enforcing encumbrance rules
>I.e. examining everyone's character sheets a few times a session to make sure we have all the equipment and its weight written down.
And we're not even playing a system like DnD where there's easy carry items, bags of holding and the like. If we want to increase load capacity, it's "get a mule", and then he autistically has every monster and it's brother either try to steal, shoot, or eat the said pack animals.
If the guy wasn't a fucking amazing worldbuilder I'd have dropped him years ago.
>>46150341
It's a Ravenloft domain, the dreadlord was cursed to be physically weak and everyone else was made strong.
>>46144305
>> Your character knows X
>>Your character remembers X
Don't really see a problem with that.
I mean sure, I usually disguise it with a Knowledge chek, but in essence it's this because you won't fail.
>>46142379
They're afraid of taking charge.
Big examples include: Not starting the group together, and when the group clearly isn't going to team up, they wont change anything.
>>46143243
when i'm dming i always have enemies try and escape or give up when they are clearly going to die
hostage info is a great way to advance the plot
>>46147371
Yeah that's gonna end in like, 2~3 years. Enjoy it while it lasts.
>>46142686
Never played shadow run?
>>46144112
I typically run with something like. "Your knee/elbow cop slipped under your upper" -2 to DC or attack rolls till you use an attack action to yank it back.
Some shit like that. Nothing damaging or super clumsy. And I know how easily armour can get awkward if it doesn't fit you 100%.
>>46147245
Fuck. Play warhammer at that point.
>>46152807
>ok DManon I roll knowledge
>shit, i rolled a 1
your move
>>46153132
>"You don't know anything except <thing I wanted you to know.>"
>>46153132
"Nat 1 and 20 on skills don't mean anything special. Thankfully your character is not as retarded as you are, so that plus int mod is enough to recall hearing the following little bit of information"
>>46142379
>living and immersive world the GM put obvious time and effort into
>GM throws more plothooks than we can handle about this, that, and the other at us
>pick the ones that hook the best for RP, circumstantial, or just sound-fun reasons
>pursue them
>all other plothooks fester like a canker, because nobody else in the whole world is capable of solving anything
>we complete things at the pace necessitated by RP, the plot, and the GM
>and are constantly belabored over the head by all the things we've neglected, passed over, and how the world is worse for us having done so
Never? Bad.
Sometimes? Great! Lively, immersive, and builds continuity!
Frequently? Cool. I guess we're big and important people, and our actions are necessary and important.
Constantly? I swear to fuck, if we dropped dead, the world would follow in one month.
>>46151707
>I do triple damage when I attack from behind!
BLOOD, DEATH, AND VENGEANCE!!!!
>>46152879
That'd still be 10-11 years in total so you know, pretty flippin good for him.
>>46147579
>Get bullied by GM
>Plan top exact 'revenge' on NPC
You sure showed him you handsome devil you.
>>46142785
>"I'm going to take a level in Wizard. I'll just figure it out from that spellbook we found."
>We're in the middle of nowhere! This is SO stupid.
While this is doubtlessy stupid, it's also perfectly within the rules of most games.
>>46143105
Fucking idiot that's not how the Plane of Air works. Lrn2InnerPlanes
>>46151724
>swole townsfolk implore the party to find the source before they suffer heart failure.
>Initial attempts to make them do cardio workouts fail.
>Party eventually traces the Gains Curse to a local witch on top of a mountain.
>Battle through her evil defenses, including the OverSwole, former townsfolk that have succumbed and become nothing more than pure muscle.
>At the end of it the witch admits she just wanted to look at hot guys from up on her mountain peak.
>Party subscribes her to an interplanar dating service to fill that need, convincing her to lift the curse.
>GM gives a level one oc a giant ruby worth over 1000 gold because she showed cleavage to a character in game
>GM allows said pc to steal a robe of sages or some high level gear at level 3
meanwhile as a rogue I go to the shady parts of town to look for some work, and the only hook I'm thrown is to assassinate a neutral good governor (I wasn't playing an evil rogue so this was an issue)
>>46147550
It's the same thing as in Hotline Miami. These guys are the same guy. It's all a setup. Wake up.
>>46154024
kek'd
>>46151551
...this is incredibly ironic, given that I had a GM with legitimate autism who actually had the whole "PC walks up to random guy in the street and talks at them, wat do?" situation down pretty well.
>>46142379
>"Hey, I spiced up this encounter by throwing unreasonable amounts of monsters with healing gear! Hope you had fun with this hardcore feeling encounter! Dying is fun right? :D:D"
"i have this really sweet story based on your characters backstory anon" (we are only 2 players)
TPK on first random encounter that was 1 level below our CR
The other player got 4 characters killed in 4 sessions.
I just don't het high lethality systems if the gm forces combat. Every character dies before he reaches the interesting story bits. And that was after trying to diplomacy our way out of that
>>46155664
Did the GM not get the fact that book's CR is for a full party rather than 2man?
(not that it's very accurate even in ideal case either)
>>46155421
>>46155664
Fucking scale your combat exiting, challenging and fun, don't forcefully rape your players
>>46142379
Losing intrest 3 sessions in, plots melts away and is replaced by randomly rolled encounters and top 10 overused riddles.
>>46142379
>rolling initiative once for several enemies
>blatantly violating the rules i.e. considering a 1 a critical failure even on skill checks
>gamist mindset
>narrativist mindset
>arbitrary, completely unsympathetic cartoon villains
>NPCs that don't follow the same restrictions as player characters
>terrible naming sense, especially if anachronistic
Just off the top of my head.
>>46142379
mentions gender when it doesn't matter
>you encounter 4 bandits, 2 male, 2 female
GM keeps changing his systems more often than his underwear. I swear i have played 7 systems in less than 10 months with that guy. His stories are fucking amazing RP heavy with maybe 1 fight every 3 sessions or so with good characters and complex story and RP but i wish we could just stay in one setting fir a while to get really invested.
>>46155874
>upset at more detail in a scene
Why don't you go play a video game or something instead?
>>46144258
what system? wod?
the hilarious part is that you could have also done 0 damage with wods stupid ass combat system
>the bullet bounces off the mooks head
My DM hides his rolls even when he rolls on separate table no one can fucking see.
Compared to what I am reading here, and I have nothing to complain about.
>>46155930
I said that wrong. It's more that he treats being female as noteworthy, as in 'druid' and 'female druid'.
For those particular bandits, nothing else was mentioned initially, just the gender ratio and what they were doing.
He should just blend gender with the description, not call attention to it. I'd tell him but I have a way of getting people mad at me and nothing having changed, so I'm just waiting till he gets pass this phase.
>>46147245
The last session I ran, the PC's were defending a town from an assault by an orc warband. Six PC's and five NPC guards, about sixty orcs, a warchief and two eyes of gruumsh, and a half-dozen orogs with a pair of catapults.
Took about fifteen rounds, over three hours.
>Roll enemy Initiative in groups
>Always know what the monsters want to be doing. You're the DM, you have hours in advance to make sure you know what the bad guys will be doing in this combat. It shouldn't take five minutes each turn just for the DM to figure out what his bad guys are doing, before any dice are rolled.
>Keep things dynamic to keep the players invested and interested. Three solid hours of rolling to hit will wear anyone down. Save the villagers, save the ale from the pub as it gets catapulted, mount up and charge round the flanks at said catapults, improvise magical killing fields, challenge the warchief to single combat, etc etc
>Make sure your players know what their characters can do. Make/buy spell cards if it helps them keep track, give them quick reference sheets for combat actions and rules.
>Use a map. Theatre of the mind, in my experience, doesn't hold up that well in mass-combat scenarios - there's too many things to keep track off and everyone forgets something. Doesn't have to be anything impressive - I use A4 graph paper in plastic sleeves so we can draw and erase in marker.
>>46142379
Game devolves into roll-play, with entire sessions focused around that one encounter he's meticulously planned over the past week.
Also:
Roll for literally everything.
I'm not a great GM but I value roleplay over roll-play and I go by the improv rule of "yes, and." Player wants to make an action in a trained skill and they're not being attacked: sure, take an extended action and complete it because a thief trained in detecting and disarming traps not noticing raised cobbles and arrow-sized holes in the walls is retarded.
If the barbarian without history training wants to recall the name of the consort of a king that lived five centuries ago, he's gonna have to roll basically a luck roll to see whether he heard of such a thing in his travels.
Rolling only comes into play if the plays either 1) Are in an aggressive encounter, which are like 2 a month at most, or 2) Making a charisma check for a social encounter which I don't think they suitably roleplayed. You're not inspiring a hall full of strangers to take action by repeating "Come on guys, don't you want to see change?"
>>46155957
oWoD, sure. nWoD is actually sane, either your successes are your damage dealt or they're added to a weapon's damage rating for how badly they fuck a guy up.
>>46156001
I'm still not seeing a problem.
>>46156121
didn't nWoDs combat work like this?
>add DEX + Firearms + Weapon damage and use that amount as dice to roll
even with 8 dice (3 dex, 3 firearms, 2 weapon damage) there's a pretty good chance of rolling 0 successes
or is it actually supposed to be DEX + Firearms as dice, and then with weapon damage added to the total if it there's a success?
>>46151707
If you actually manage to sneak up behind someone and sneak attack them in the back with a ballista, they deserve the bonus hit modifier and damage die.
>>46156170
Depends on the GM.
>8 dice
>pretty good chance of rolling 0 successes
Fucking what? With 8 dice you're nearly guaranteed to get at least one success. The devs even went so far as to say 3-4 dice may as well be a free success.
>>46156170
>>46156216
what's the TN in newod, 8? That's 5% of 0 successes on 8 dice. Same as crit miss with d20s, amusingly enough.
>>46156267
Just an FYI, 1s don't eat successes either. So the odds of doing something with that many dice are pretty heavily in your favour.
I houseruled the TN for dice was 7 in my games, though.
>>46156285
I didn't count 1s, I just did basic 0.7 (odds of no success) to 8th degree.
>>46156216
>Fucking what? With 8 dice you're nearly guaranteed to get at least one success
not in my experience
>"ok i want to throw a rope at the tree to escape"
>"sure, roll to try to spot a stable branch"
>6 dice, 0 successes
>"uhh ok i'll try again with willpower"
>9 dice, 1 success
>"ok you spot a branch up there somewhere"
>"i'll roll to throw the rope"
>7 dice, 0 successes
>"again"
>6 dice, 0 successes
>"fuck this, i'll use another willpower"
>10 dice, 2 successes
>"ok you throw the rope, now try climbing"
>7 dice, 0 successes
>"the branch breaks anon, roll to spot another branch"
>>46156342
Your dice blatantly hate you or you "roll" them by tipping them out of your hands and onto the table.
>>46156342
Wow.
Well in your shoes, I'd go buy new dice/different dicebot. These are real damn weighted to shit.
>>46156342
>>46156391
Ohyeah, the GM is also a liiil bit autistic with the amount of rolls demanded.
>>46142379
My DM's insistence on adding homebrew to every campaign he's run.
Now normally I wouldn't mind this, I even did this as a DM a few timesuseing the dragon template on mundane creatures is hilariousbut he's always:
>Adding lore/supernatural abilities from a book he once read, down to the over-the-top BBEG and stupidly broken abilities because they were never balanced nor existed.
>Shoehorns said abilities onto PCs without prior consent or at least warning.
>Refuses to make stats for homebrew enemies, to the point where -he rolls- to see what the DC is to resist a save-or-die ability (or other SLA), -every time- the enemy uses it.
>>46156379
>>46156391
me and the GM were laughing our asses off at the rolls. it was just plain old bad RNG. but that's my problem with wod, the RNG is so all over the place
immediately afterwards i did like a memory check and succeeded like 6 times with 3 dice
>>46156404
it was during a combat situation, so i think the number rolls needed was fine. it's not exactly easy to climb a rope with wildebeasts biting at ur dick
>>46156133
Unsubtle inclusiveness just makes me roll my eyes internally. He has clearly been influenced by folks pushing inclusiveness in the last few months, which isn't bad, he just does it awkwardly.
Instead of "This is Anna, a female druid"-
it should be "This is Anna, she's a druid".
It conveys all the same information but makes it seem more natural, just like how Andrew the druid doesn't need his gender mentioned.
Well, that's how I think it should be anyway, I'm sure the group would just roll their eyes back at me if I brought it up.
>>46156543
well if you brought that up, then you would be the one being very unsubtle about inclusiveness
everyone's on their toes over PC stuff anyway. it won't be long until someone loses their job because their d&d campaign doesn't have enough minorities
A bad habit I have as GM, and I'm trying desperately to train away, is being rather bad at describing how bad an enemy is hit, as long as they are still alive.
>dm throws to many plot hooks
>can't do them all at once
>some of them are person quests
So anon do you wanna stop the evil witch or find your long lost father?
>>46147105
My Gm did something like this, we found some strange looking food during a trek through the desert.
The Gm started describing how WE felt about it, that it was a huge relief to finally find food, even though we got a shitload of food together before going through the desert, so he just said "Oh you lost it all"
We still didn't eat a random foreign substance so he just got pissy with us until we did, turns out it was poisonous, Choo Choo
>dm can be a bit over a dick over a rule very rarely
>is amazing as fuck the rest of the time
I don't really fit into this thread.
Mfw I know a gm that has a strong passion for HEMA and European medieval stuff
Mfw that gm won't allow any katanas, samurai, ninjas, kitsunes and firearms in his pathfinder games.
Mfw monks that are basically kung-fu fighting are totally ok for himmfw i am that gm
>>46157043
You have no face? I pity you.
>>46157043
the wandering ronin cliche is really fun though. like a character that owns nothing but the clothes he wears and an old samurai sword
Not enforcing material components for spells as written in 3.5, and ensuring that casting characters have to procure them IC.
You want to cast polymorph? Well, better hope the apothecary actually HAS an empty cocoon, or that your Ranger buddy passes his Survival check well enough next time you're innawoods to find one. Other than that, tough fucking luck.
Boom. Everyone's bitchfits about caster/martial balance invalidated.
>obviously favoring one player over the others
>letting his emotions/state of mind/feeling about a player affect his gming
>games have a tendency to go to higher levels of society REALLY quickly, all of them
>allows players to get away with shit we really shouldn't
This is more of a group wide thing but
>running a billion different games, each one lasting 4 sessions top
I love my group, but everyone has their things that I don't jive with. Whatever, all else is good.
>>46157261
I should also mention.
Eschew Materials has a limit on the value of the materials you can cast spells without. You should know that. So good luck finding, you know, more than one black opal worth at least 10,000gp in your character's lifetime.
>>46144478
>Not taking every chance to use those crit tables.
Your DM is a shit
>>46157393
Different anon. I'm actually in the middle of reworking the DH crit tables for D&D. Because they're too good to waste.
>>46142379
>DM asks what I thought of the session
>tell them it was kinda lackluster
>they get flustered and say they weren't asking for a critique of their DMing ability and ask if I want to run a session instead
>>46142379
The big one
>doesnt allow any expansions but the core
Seriously. Its like saying "no fun allowed".
>>46147550
Shit, I've heard that before. Someone else here a few years ago said he did that when he thought none of the players were paying attention. I bet your gm saw that post (was it screencapped? I forget honestly) and misused it horribly.
>>46157516
that really depends on the system. A lot of systems have splat books that pretty much break the game.
As a DM I have sometimes locked off books due to not wanting the players using broken shit or just because I have neither the time or will to read through the 11 splat books to make sure I can keep things balanced.
>>46157593
Like what, anon?
A handful of things in the AD&D kits out of dozens.
Can't be talking about 3e D&D because core is busted first and foremost.
4e D&D just got better on the whole.
WoD, outside of Profession, or something like Secrets of the Black Hand.
>>46156133
Sounds like his problem is a lack of description wgere all he sees is their gender. Not their race, weapons or armor.
>>46157687
I'm going to assume you where responding to
>>46157645
I was thinking more of systems like Shadowrun, all the 40k games and a few others.
For example if you have the Lathe Worlds book for DH you can pretty much have a party of nothing but tech priests.
In shadowrun you can do some horribly broken shit with the just the armoury, then again that is half the fun of that game. Just look up the Squirt Gun Wars.
I usually let the players use the core and the one Armoury style book most systems have with things from other books allowed only with my express permission.
I have played DnD but never ran it so can't comment on the books for that.
>>46157687
???
I'm saying I've seen someone here say they describe characters the same any time the players stop paying attention until someone questions it.
>>46152879
>Yeah that's gonna end in like, 2~3 years
Yeah it is. Hopefully.... I plan to wrap up the main plotline within 2 years. Then we'll put the campaign on the shelf and focus on our other campaigns. If we want to go back to it someday we will. But the characters have their own house / village they will inherit leadership of, a nice cozy mountaintop hamlet, so it'll be a nice ending if they don't get killed by the far realm invaders first.
Mine is less a GM habit, but a Group habit, although said GM was the source of this.
Basically, when I was a young gamer, I was in a group of older gamers and we'd play small, 3-5 session stories, each with a different game.
The thing I hated is that whenever they'd pitch me a game, they had some sort of houserule'd, head-cannon fluff that they'd pitch it to me with, instead of giving my an accurate view of a setting.
My view of some games is still screwed up because of that.
My regular GM says he's going to get a game going, never does, and gets extremely pissy when someone else steps in to try and run something. If we do get something else running he refuses to join then gets angry when we don't invite him.
>>46157874
how can he be your regular GM if he never runs a game?
I recently left a group with the absolute worst DM and player I have ever seen, it was Shadowrun and he never knew the fucking rules. Another player and I noticed and I commented you could probably get away with anything if you make it sound believable. This culminated in him killing a rigger with a commlink with an attack dongle.
Made us roll for the most inane shit like making a roll to make a call on your commlink.
All NPCs are fucking retards who also have chronic backstab syndrome. I called up one of my contacts and he was having sex with a dog or some shit for no reason.
He is incapable of planning ahead or for any kind of alternate plan in Shadowrun. When we showed up early to a meeting IN SHADOWRUN he was surprised and had not planned for that. As a result we got railroaded through more shit but because we always refused to follow his plans he decided to just mind control us for four hours because the ritual was not ready. When we all edge our rolls to resist the spell he just starts the ritual anyway.
Describes things so badly our wall running adept could not find a fucking wall in an underground cathedral.
This guy was so unorganized and could not keep track of shit. All NPCs have 1 HP
>They are all just mooks
He tries to be clever with traps but they are painfully obvious, in the first five seconds of meeting another runner team on a job I had a gun on the guy who was planning to betray us.
Because he can never track shit, refuses to read or even look at a map, and treats everything as generic he blew up Prague because two of us had been there and were using knowledge of the city in ways he did not plan for.
When we get to Hong Kong all he knows about it he got from the Shadowrun games.
The greatest SIN of his is that he is so boring that in four sessions I fell asleep twice.
>>46157901
He's the original GM who brought the group together, and of the rest of us he's run the most games, though they all tend to get abandoned after a session or two.
>>46147357
I personally also roll for each enemy separately but I do so before hand so the players just roll initiative and get added to their proper place in the list. tends to work pretty well in my experience
>>46157918
running a game without knowing the rules.
why would anyone do this
>>46158812
I guess some people figure they can just wing it. I usually only learn the rules for combat and anything that directly relates to that. If I need to know another rule or answer a specific question I just look it up when I need it.
Although I do know some one that reads the Rulebooks cover to cover for fun.
>>46158928
I'm one of those people who reads rulebooks for fun so the idea of not at least having a general grasp of the rules before running a game severely triggers my autism.
>>46152821
If the group doesn't want to team up, the players are cunts and the DM should find new ones.
Running an adventure without reading it first.
Not just skimming, I mean actually reading, gathering information knowing enough of the insides and outs to NOT halt the adventure when 'oh wait, I missed something.'
Makes me want to tear my hair out.
>>46158812
Shadowrun is very rules heavy so it would be excusable if he did not know some stuff but would check the rules but he did not even know how weapon damage worked and never checked the rules. Instead he would proclaim he was right and you were wrong all the time.
I actually left because he was always so sure he was right. In Discord chat when I was GMing he muted or kicked everyone who disagreed with him so I just left unable to deal with so much autism.
>>46143243
I can't believe that the counter argument wasn't simply, "yeah, and he can still defend his lower body limiting access to the torso and head, and can hit your torso and head as easily or easier than you can hit his legs."
>>46159512
I run PF adventure paths, since I'm not really interested in homebrewing. So, I deal with a lot of people who run them too, since it's where I get the discussion from.
If I had a dollar for everyone who did this every single time, holy fuck. Take the Curse of Strahd release. EVERYONE is like "Yes! Just got my Strahd book, we're starting tomorrow!"
Nigga, what? You need to actually fucking read the book first, understand how it works, and what you want to change. This is why EVERYONE who runs published campaigns butchers them. You might as well not bother, you're giving the worst possible experience.
>>46157261
>being this anal
No one wants to track all that shit. You realize that spell component pouches are a thing, right?
>>46151884
God this.
I once joined a game 2 sessions in after hearing how fleshed out the GM had made the setting, he sounded like he put a lot of work into making a unique world.
session begins, he says to me
"You're in the market, what do you do?" and nothing else.
>>46142379
>rolling for absolutely everything
Me: is the shop open?
DM: hmmm... *rolls dice*... *thinks for 30 seconds*... Unfortunately the shop is closed today
First of all, why in the flipping fuck are you rolling if you are just going to choose the outcome anyways?
Secondly, what could that roll have been for?
>>46158812
Some GMs just assume that the players are so stupid they can make up the rules on the fly and no one will notice.
>>46159702
Endurance check to see if the shopkeeper had finished fucking his mistress yet
>>46142379
>Critical Fumbles.
As if mundane classes were not underpowered enough...
>>46159650
Then why do the rules for them exist in the first place?
>>46159904
For systems where you roll to cast spells, magical fumbles are a source of fun.
>>46159944
>A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses needed for spellcasting, except for those components that have a specific cost...
>ALL
Yeah, no need to track those things. Also, Eschew Materials is a thing.
>>46156065
>Make sure your players know what their characters can do. Make/buy spell cards if it helps them keep track, give them quick reference sheets for combat actions and rules.
What the fuck? The GM is not a babysitter. Players should learn how to play the god damn game, that is their job.
>>46154024
10/10 campaign
>>46142379
>Brings in critical failures out of nowhere
I don't hate critical failures, but you can just start using them after a game is already started.
Everyone would have made less serious characters if we knew they were going to fumble their weapons more as they leveled up.
>>46154024
>OverSwole
>>46160115
Having extra reference material is always good, though I agree the gm is not the only person who should be doing it.
Spell cards are probly the most useful of these, depending on your system
>>46152478
Did it ever occur to you that maybe your DM wants you to have encumbrance as a thing in your games, and as such isn't just going to handwave it away?
>>46157043
Firearms are totally HEMA. Look at these hot techniques.
>>46160457
What the fuck is going on in No. 9?
>>46160396
First of all, it would cause severe slow-down for the game if everyone had to worry about each pound of stuff they're carrying to dungeon X.
Second, depending on the system, encumbrance may either be a severely janky afterthought in design or just plain tightly restrictive.
Either way, it's going to limit player creativity and make players be keep weight logs, a very non-fun activity.
I don't think anon is unaware of the GM's intent, it's just that the intent a shit.
This complaint is a weird one to have, because the opposite is the usual problem groups have. My GM is too permissive - he gives the group tons of wealth, allies, and lets them learn new spells and abilities all the time. It's gotten to the point where even he realizes that the party is overpowered, but he's told me himself that he has no idea how to fix things.
On a related tangent, half the players in my group are That Guys who try to wrangle every single tiny bonus or edge they can get in every situation they're placed in. Like, in most games players are supposed to just declare what they plan to do, then the GM tells them what dice to roll and/or modifiers to add, the player rolls, and the action is resolved. In my game That Guy asks what dice they'd roll and modifiers they'd add if they wanted to do an action, the GM tells them, and they they go through three or four more options until they find the one with the best modifiers. It drives me insane, and it wouldn't be a problem if the GM wasn't such a softie.
>>46151807
I like to break monsters into 2 or 3 groups and roll their initiative together, that way its much more unlikely that they'll smash the PCs with lucky rolls in one round at initiative 20.
>>46160532
No it fucking wouldn't you fuckwit
if you could manage to keep track of your own shit and not be a deceitful, power gaming asshat then the dm wouldn't have to look over your shoulder
It takes two fucking seconds to add or subtract weight if your not buying stuff en masse at which case that should be handled during downtime
I don't even like realistic games but you shouldn't be allowed to just carry whatever you want
>>46160495
He's looting the body of course. This is /tg/ after all.
>>46160716
Well I think the problem is a lot of games have rules for encumbrance but then don't mention how much things weigh. Then assuming there's rules for how much weight you can carry there's so many workarounds there's little point in bothering with individuals weights.
I have done/seen the simple "how much bulkshit are you carry right now?"
-everything the own and everything money can buy-
" yeah leave some of that shit at home or something good lord"
>>46160532
The intent is fine, what you described is all execution and details.
>>46160088
So one of the balancing features of casters is rendered moot for the entire campaign as long as he can keep a bag on him? Nah man, you gonna have to work for your spells. The fighter has his to-hit rolls to use his thing and you have your find-ingredients quest to cast your fireball. Otherwise we are playing mutants and masterminds.
>>46158928
>>46159450
I'm another one of those, I've actually read some rulebooks cover to cover more than once, once you know the system there's some nice stuff that goes over your head the first time you read it.
Also, some GM books have nifty tips for the trade.
>>46160782
I have quite literally never seen a game which had rules for encumbrance but don't mention how much stuff weighs. Can you name a few?
>>46159730
I've found I don't need to worry about that sort of thing, since my players all know the rules and will inform me of the relevant stuff if it comes up. As long as I've got a basic handle on the mechanics, I can trust the players to run their end of things.
>>46161587
M8 the spell component pouch is literally right there in the core book, nonexpensive material components were never intended as a balancing feature in 3.x.
>>46160088
Read Eschew Materials. it has a limit on cost.
Why would you want to miss out on the flavour and verisimilitude of actually having to procure the arcane reagents of the mystical forces your character commands?
Oh wait, because you want to be an invisible, flying, planar-gating, meteor-dropping demigod with absolutely no drawbacks.
>>46161660
Shadowrun, there's rules for how much a character can lift and for carrying too much weight too long but items never have listed weight.
Mind you the SR devs are trash at editing rules properly
>>46160115
>>46160230
The players should take the initiative and get their own reference materials and such, but most of the time that's not going to matter (depending on system).
If they don't bother normally, and the DM thinks it'll be needed for some session, it seems fair to provide them (even if it's just so that they don't have extra warning that something big is coming).
>>46161660
Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
You count up how many items you're carrying (with things like pouches of bullets only being a single item). This is your encumbrance value: if its 5 or less, you're not weighed down at all, if it's 6-10, you're slightly weighed down, if it's 11-15 your a bit more weighed down, etc etc. Some particularly bulky things, like plate armour or treasure chest, aren't counted, and instead just bump you up to the next category, and very light items like candles are assumed not to weigh anything significant and aren't counted at all.
It's really quick and simple.
>>46161587
Some spells, mainly the more powerful ones that can break the game (like Raise Dead) have expensive material components to limit their usage. Also, comparing attack rolls for fighters and using trivial, non-costly components for wizards is a false comparison, they are nothing alike.
>>46161701
Some people will enjoy having their wizard travel to a cave in the woods to procure bat guano for their fireballs. Some people also enjoy examining their character's armour for tiny dents, or describing what particular stretches their character does before entering a dungeon. Many other people don't think that such actions are important to the game, and they just want to get on with the adventure.
Whether you like roleplaying minutia is up to you, but not doing so is not bad/wrong fun. Don't act like your way of playing is best.
>>46157261
That doesn't necessarily fix any imbalance, it just reduces the imbalance a random amount (could be "you have everything you need for all the spells you care about" or "you have no spell components, at all" or somewhere in the middle).
>>46159944
Holdovers from previous editions (the work has already been done, might as well keep it around). Also flavor.
>>46161587
If you want to houserule spell component pouches and the like out of your game, go for it. We're not the fun police. That said, having non-asshole players who know what they're doing will do more to fix caster imbalance than that.
>>46157492
>weren't asking for a critique of their DMing ability
I get that he was just fishing for a compliment and got upset when one wasn't provided, but what could he be asking about that doesn't lead back to himself, dice rolls, and/or other players?
>>46157687
>Can't be talking about 3e D&D because core is busted first and foremost.
And yet there are a lot of people who think that the core 3.X books are the most balanced out of the bunch.
Something about them being the core books, so obviously tons of thought and effort went into making them balanced, whereas splatbooks didn't get as much and weren't necessarily tested against each other.
>>46161939
Why have martials at all then if wizards get free spells, no components limiting spell casting, no weak spells, no roll to hit the target with the spell, and no chance of spell failure? Martials have to do all that just to swing a fucking sword.
>>46159944
Flavor. It's the idea of sympathetic magic - an idea from real-world shamanism - where by manipulating the likeness of something, you manipulate that thing. Other spell components are literally a joke - fireball requiring bat guano and sulfur to make an explosion, lightning bolts requiring a rod and some fur to make electricity - the idea being that the mage is mcguyvering his magical effects.
>>46162175
Welcome to 3.5/PF.
>>46153579
>I do triple damage when I attack from behind!
O-Oh, my
>>46162175
This discussion has been had countless times. The correct answer is to either accept that 3.5 is meant to be played with a party of casters, or play a different game.
>>46162175
A better question is, why does anyone play martials? Even after all these decades, there are still people who insist they're PC classes. They're not. Just accept that you're playing a game about spellcasters.
>>46155829
>NPC that don't follow the same rules as PC
Fucking this. How am I supposed to plan or play a character when he essentially exists in his own universe that touches on the alien realm the rest of these characters inhabit?
>>46162257
Because playing a wizard is basically saying "Okay guys, I'll be playing this game easy mode now. Just tell me when you want me to end the current challenge in a single standard action."
>>46162246
In AD&D that was a thing for level 3 or 4 thieves.
>>46162257
Because even though D&D is sort of about winning, a lot of people don't think winning per se is the most important thing and happen to be playing D&D.
>>46161701
Not that guy, but some people don't want to set aside game time for one player doing something by himself, and if you allow a handwave like "I go into the woods and look for a cave to gather some bat guano" that's defeating a lot of the point of having people actually gather their components.
In most games I run, and most games I've played in, the DM just handwaved away all the trivial little components (the ones the system lets you handwave with Eschew Materials or Spell Component Pouches), and then the bigger, more expensive ones were carefully controlled and typically required a ~30 minute (IRL) sidequest to get.
>>46162257
because some of us aren't idiots like you, anonfag.
>>46162257
God forbid people expect a generic fantasy game to adhere to its own supposed influences and the wider fantasy genre.
>>46162257
>*in 3.x
>>46151707
>>Proceed backstabbing with a ballista
I remember that story.
>>46162447
>Okay guys I'm out of bat poop. I'll just run off into the nearby cave and get some.
>GM: There is one cave, but upon entering you find the bones of a large cattle, freshly chewed on. You sure you still want to go in alone?
>Nah, I'll head back to the village and buy some bat poop from the general store.
>GM: Why would the general store, a store the villagers use for their daily needs, stock literal shit? There is no bat poop in town.
>Fine. Guess I'll get the party to fight whatever is in the cave so I can get bat poop.
>Other players: Let's do X quest first
>Wizard goes without casting fireball for a full session because he can't have bat shit.
Balance!
>>46160716
If people actively keep on top of encumbrance and weight limits, sure.
That said, it can often take away from the flow of the game (especially if people aren't used to it), and the DM also needs to be on top of things so he can tell the players how much any given thing weighs promptly (otherwise it either comes to stopping the game to pull out the relevant book and look it up or leaving the weight blank on a few items and guessing when you're going to be at capacity).
Probably the main problem (at least with how my group does things) is that it would increase planning times exponentially. Without tracking weight, you just buy some shit you think you'll need and head out, but with tracking weight you need to figure out how much you can carry, how much you need, how quickly things will run out, etc and that adds time.
I know a lot of people are complaining about it here but I for one really like the 'book keeping' stuff like weight, components, tracking circumstances bonus. It juts comes naturally to me and I find it oddly relaxing to manage such things.
I often volunteer to manage peoples character sheets and packs between sessions. They get to have their combat games and I get to keep the wheels of the game turning by ensuring that everyone is usually running at their best. That is satisfying to me.
>>46162612
Sounds like you just don't like casters/ had bad experiences with them,and are very inflexible when it comes to changing rules that(in my experience and from tales of my gm) many GMs just hand wave.
>>46162175
First, Wizards don't get "free spells." They still have all their actual limitations, like spells per day and having to guess at the beginning of the day which spells they'll need.
Second, 3.X is inherently very imbalanced between casters and noncasters. This can be mitigated pretty significantly by having non-asshole players who know how to optimize, or only optimize to some particular degree, and when to optimize how much.
>>46162796
Shhh it's ok, he's just been bad touched by a wizard, there's no point in arguing, your not gonna change his mind.
>>46162612
Except that's not balance at all, actually.
In fact, you are making MORE of an issue, since now, more of the game than ever is about the wizard, since unless the party wants a useless member, they need to cater to his needs.
Unless your intent is just to drive away wizard players, in which case you are swine, a cunt, and certainly not mah nigga, and I shall show up to your campaign with the most minmaxed druid possible.
>>46162832
>minmaxed Druid
Well that certainly is a way to make a gm with this mindset cry himself to sleep, that's for sure.
>>46162612
The problem there is that it will require game time for all players in the group in order to go get that bat guano (whenever they get around to it).
Not everyone wants to take time away from the main quest (or whatever else they could be doing) for what is essentially upkeep.
Or, to put it a different way, making it a hassle for Wizards to break the game world isn't "balancing" them, it's just making things less convenient to play a Wizard.
Non-asshole players will typically still help the group to have fun (with or without getting their components), but non-asshole players will avoid breaking the game even if they can so the point is moot.
>>46162257
This sounds pretty baity anon
On another unrelated note this thread taught me some things about how to not be a dick to my players.
>>46142379
>roll initiative separately for each monster
Huh, I honestly didn't know that could bother players. If it's a large encounter I'll make monsters share initiative, but if it's say like six goblins against four PCs I do give each goblin its own initiative. In my opinion it lets the monsters position themselves and attack in a less predictable manner.
>>46163056
Personally, I'm fine with it (as a player and as a DM), up to around 5-6 enemies.
It really comes down to how fast combats are in that system with that group.
"Well, the entire world isn't gonna be at your CR, dumbass"
Ok, that's all fine and well, but when we arrive in town and the ONLY direction you give us is "dragon in cave bothering the locals", I think it was right of the group it assume it would be a young dragon we could handle. Not a ancient who one or two shot everyone in the group after all attempt at diplomacy were rendered us less by you...even the nat 20 diplomacy rolled by the groups bard.
>>46163145
[insert response telling you to leave here]
>>46163250
[angry refutation]
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>>46142618
It's not super hard to coordinate without confusion if you're competent though. I've done encounters with 8 dudes where rolling initiative for them took like 15 seconds and I never confused them. or close enough.
Basically you just queue up 8 d20s on a dice rolling website and roll them, go down each dude writing his initiative In the order it comes up, there shouldn't be more than 2-3 different bonuses and you'll have them all memorized.
Bam. then ask the players to list their rolls and pencil them on. the whole process should take a fair bit less than a minute, maybe a little over depending on how retarded your players are.
keeping track of them shouldn't really be too hard, I haven't ever used any special tricks and never had any problems. If you really need the help though, use a battle map and rip off numbered pieces of paper for the fuckers. Doesnt have to be the order they go in, as long as you match initiative rolls to numbers, then write home totals to the right of initiative.
unless you're getting into really extreme numbers like 20+ dudes, big battles down have to be a painful slog. Not if the DM is willing to prep and knows what they are doing.
I've even done a pretty action packed 2 vs 30 encounter, you just have to be quick on your feet and be willing to hand wave and bullshit a little bit.
>>46163250
>>46163304
[chiding commentary about belaying arguments until you have entered your bedroom, you homosexuals]
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>>46163384
Irl games are a bit more of a pain to do, however.
>>46147175
Did it follow with laughter? If so that sounds like a good game.
>>46162740
I'm sorry but isn't that the definition of autism?
>>46142379
> Going to third campaign with Forever DM
> DM's normally an amazing guy
> Navy Corpsman, godlike worldbuilder
> Fucker has 5 notebooks for his own custom made world, and has a page for every knowledge check imaginable
> Wants to start a new campaign in his original world, after a years hiatus
I decide.. Fuck it, why not? I joined the campaign with about 8 other people.
> He says it's going to have lots of "Mature Themes". and that "No topic is too much to explore".
> Expected him to throw the monstergirl brothel at the party on the first day, because running jokes.
> End up tracking down a paedophile rapist on the first session, as the whole party WTFs through the description of the scene where we finally find him
> Paladin gets roofied and preggers on the second session. Party WTFs through how it's all handwaved away for the whole day.
> Rogue kills himself three times in a row in the third session, acts like he's the main character of a video game(IE, a retard with no roleplaying at all). DM doesn't kick him.
> Third session rolls around, half the party has already quit, party encounters 1HP skeletons with AC19, which annoys the shit out of everyone except the fighters and wizard.
> Later encounter a JerkGenie who offers 3 "unlimited" wishes to the Paladin. Paladin wishes for the ability to defeat all the evil in the land. Genie makes her pregnant with a new royal heir.
I don't remember the DM ever being this awful 2 years ago. He's somehow changed quite drastically in that time..
>>46163590
Maybe. It's not like I dislike the other aspects of the game. I just enjoy those parts more then other people. I guess I view it a bit like some people view crossword puzzles. There is an answer here to the problem of being (Over burdened, poor rolls, not enough gold, missing XP, ect) and I can sit down and solve it. Except instead only having the satisfaction of solving a crossword puzzle, I have the satisfaction of helping other people enjoy their hobby just a little bit more.
>>46151551
It's actually difficult to improvise dialogue well
