>Roll badly
>Forces you to play a lower tier character
>Not only that he also "removes" the defining class feature from your PC
>Improves already good classes but leaves yours untouched
>Literally useless in every sense of the word
>GM "Guys, I started watching Legends of Tomorrow, but you know what? It doesn't make any sense, how Firestorm and Atom aren't beating all baddies forever? next to them White Canary and Hawkgirl are literally useless, I don't like that in the show, removes any suspension of disbelief"
>Doesn't get the irony of his words
Fuck this shit
Any one else wants to share?
>>46999768
>That Guy who wants to design his own RPG.
>That Guy who never learned any existing RPG but D&D 3.5
>That Guy who refuses to do so because he "doesn't have time", not buying it when you tell him damn near every other system is faster to learn than 3.5
>Oh, but That Guy has time to create an endless series of fantasy heartbreakers to 3/4s completion, none of which veer as far away from core 3.5 as even Etherscope or Arcana Unearthed do
>and That Guy wants you to playtest them.
The whole group eventually got real sick of that bullshit. Anytime he floats the idea of running his latest back-alley abortion of a rules set everyone present just simultaneously yells "FIRST RUN A GAME OF [Savage Worlds/ORE/Call of Cthulhu/whatever game Steve heard of this week]!", a different command per person. We might actually playtest another of his games if he fulfilled any given one of them.
It would be rather nice if he broadened his horizons. Fuck, if he at least joined us in a non-D&D campaign, that would be an improvement.
>Joining a game
>DM conversing with another player
>"It just makes sense for the guy with magic to be better than some guy who just swings a stick."
>They both enthusiastically agree that it only makes sense that magic users are just better
>"Oh, and I only allow one magic user in my group. And you get to start with spells while everyone else has to start as a commoner."
Guess which player got to be a spell caster. And then never showed up to a session again. I ended up leaving because I wasn't having fun anyway. DM then yelled at me for ruining his story/plot.
>>47000288
>DM then yelled at me for ruining his story/plot.
God DAMN this shit pisses me off. My response to that is always "if you don't want players 'ruining' your precious story, go write a fucking novel."
When I GM, I fully expect the PCs to ruin everything I thought I had planned because that's part of the fun. I want the players to turn the mentioned-in-passing set piece into a major thing, mess with important NPCs in creatively fucked up ways, and make an incredible mess of events. Otherwise I'm just rolling to randomly generate a book with my friends providing color commentary.
>>47000382
I'm paranoid about ruining the GM's setting, so I usually end up doing the safest thing I can think of or doing nothing. How would you handle someone like me?
>player is doing stupid shit
>The shop keeper calls your a moron an-
"I kill the shopkeeper"
>But-
"I kill the shopkeeper
Nigga killed three people based on this premise before I learned I can't lightly insult my players. Oh and also
>Can't make towns with many houses because my players literally treat houses like loot boxes and will rob every single one regardless of alignment no matter how long it takes
>>47000873
This is when you rig your whole house to explode and, as players enter, blow the whole thing to heavens.
Your noble sacrifice would not be forgotten, anon.
>>47000420
By yelling at you for ruining his story/plot.
>>47000873
Does the town lack militia, guards or army?
Once a player behaved like that and I threw the whole guard on him after he killed 5 shopkeepers in the square market in front of everybody, sure, he was a PC and killed many guards, eventually he died though.
The best thing? the rest of the party didn't help him and he ragequit like a retard.
>>47000382
I will never. Ever. For the life of me understand why/how some people arrive at the conclusion that writing an underlying plot that's rigid enough to not collapse when faced with players is mutually exclusive to building scenarios that have enough flow and compartmentalization to cope with off-the-wall player decisions.
The GM in question is assuredly THAT GUY for yelling at a dude about plot, and the spellcaster thing, but there is such a thing as a happy medium between too much plot and "Diablo TTRPG".
>That guy who is constantly on his laptop
>makes a warlock with 18 strength
>always does some randumb wacky thing whenever it's his turn
>character interaction usually revolves him making some Whedon-esque metagame quip or "accidentally" attacking an NPC
>drains all our resources by running into traps because he gets bored when we proceed with caution
>my only satisfaction is when he gets fucking destroyed in combat because he just runs up to enemies and tries to T-bag them or other goofs
>"Everyone starts the game with a minor magic item that has some personal connection to them."
Get hyped, roll a dwarven warlock (3.5) who acts as a diviner of sorts. Start with crystal ball. Totally not optimizing, just making a chill dude.
Rest of the team...
Fighter with magic shield
Bard with magic whip
Cleric with prayer beads
>"All the items have a bonus effect, but you'll have to discover them as you play."
Sounds good, getting excited. Party arrives to town in a caravan after hearing about a band of thieves that took over local keep.
>No villager speaks Common.
>Middle of the desert.
Good setting so far, actually? A little tough to make headway with the language barrier, but we manage. The bard and fighter go off to hit the streets while the cleric visits the local church. I watch over all of them with my crystal ball from a rented apartment.
>"Fighter, bard, you are attacked by thieves."
>"Bard, your whip turns into spiders that bite you and poison you."
>"Fighter, your shield bends in half and bites your arm off."
Fighter and bard are captured and I realize that our items are more than likely cursed. Meanwhile...
>"Cleric, your prayer beads tighten around your neck and you suffocate. Your body is desecrated for worshiping a 'false god.'"
No time to warn anyone, I fail a Will save as the crystal ball controls me to strip off my clothes and walk naked into the desert where I die.
>"Man, you guys suck at D&D."
>>47000873
This is fairly easy to fix.
Take the party to a new town and make sure that other NPCs make a big deal about how ruthlessly competent the militia is. Some people complain about Big Brother, others feel safe in the security that the militia provides.
Turns out the captain of the militia is like a level 15 cleric or paladin with powers to divine when and where crimes are taking place and has assembled a squad of thought police.
>>47001209
>"Everyone starts the game with a minor magic item that has some personal connection to them."
How the fuck could you have a personal connection to those items if they fucking murder anything which touches them?
>>47001260
It wasn't. I lied to the players.
This is why you never trust the GM. He's always out to kill you.
Scrubs.
>>47001260
The number one complaint of the night: "But we've had these for years, right?" "Yeah, but the curses activated now."
>>47001332
>>47001342
Sounds like the pinnacle of fucked up gm.
>>47001209
That's some meta-level bullshit right there, because he's pretty much betraying the players' trust in him just to prove how 'bad' they are.
How the fuck do people like this get anywhere in life, let alone become a DM?
>>47000873
That's when you change everyone's alignment to CE and send a party of high level adventurers to murder them.
>>47001422
>let alone become a DM?
GMing requires confidence, and in TTRPG circles, you have two main camps when it comes to confidence/self-esteem: "I won't try because I'd just mess up worse than anyone else" and "I CAN LITERALLY DO NO WRONG, ANYONE THAT DISAGREES CAN FUCK OFF." Occasionally you see people with healthy levels of confidence or someone from camp #1 that stepped up to the plate and learned that GMing isn't impossible, but by and large you've got a playerbase that's terrified of GMing and ego-bloated autists being the only people willing to GM.
>>47001617
I wouldn't say this is its completely accurate that this is the standard but it sure does happen way too often.
Seriously though guys it's not impossible, I was 100% 1st camp. I'm still bad at it and generally run boring campaigns or modules, but nobody comes away from my table posting in 'that DM' threads. And they keep showing up so that's a good sign. If my NEET tier autismo self can do it, you 100% can.
Holy fuck this thread full of limp-wristed faggots an "muh agency!" retards.
Look, we know players are shit human beings who ruin everything. That doesn't mean that they're supposed to go OUT OF THEIR WAY to ruin everything. If they do, DROP THEM AND FIND NEW PLAYERS. There's always, always more players.
And the second they start going murderhobo, the second they kill a shopkeeper for calling them faggots, the second they say "lol fuck this shit were pirates now!", you walk away. You don't owe them shit.
>>47001828
What if the players discuss with the GM before the campaign is planned and state that they want to play in a pirating campaign of some sort, and if the GM says yes, they make reasonable characters who belong in a pirating crew? Is that an okay way to get a swashbuckling adventure going instead of spur of the moment bullshit?
>>47001209
Never Happened: The Postening
>>47001155
I hate that shit. I honestly don't understand what the point is in turning every game into a stupid Monty Python/Avengers/Wil Wheaton mixtape full of "random" and "quirky" quips, desperate attempts at getting others to laugh with you and price to yourself how social you are.
It's not that I don't have a sense of humor, but if you're not here to explore a freer world or make a story together, why are you here? If you just want to make shitty "jokes" just hang out or go bowling or whatever. If you just want to roll dice (the only thing that momentarily stopped the quips in my 3.PF games), go play a fucking video game where you can shit all over enemies without slowing down everything else.
Slowing the game down so much is probably the worst sin of it, too, because even if the other players are insipid enough to enjoy your "humor" it's still taking three hours to get through one combat because you just have to rattle of your stupid shitty quips.
>>46999768
>Forgotten Realms
>everyone is super invested, we come up with some sweet character arcs and personal quests, everything comes together beautifully
>our party consists of a dreadmaster, assassin, berserker twins, and a necromancer; neutral and evil alignments only
>DM hates the idea, saying he doesn't want to deal with a bunch of edgelords, refuses to start the session for about an hour
>he eventually agrees, though we can tell he's still super pissed
>we begin in a tavern, minding our business, no one acts like an autist
>suddenly everyone in the tavern (including illiterate peasants) starts harassing our party, spitting at us, and forcing us into an actual fight; it's 5vs20 people + the tavern owner is an overleveled, retired paladin
>somehow we manage to run out of the building only to meet the city guard outside - a patrol of high level warriors and 2 clerics, they attack us immediately because we're “evil”
>the people from the tavern rejoin the fight, we die almost immediately
>DM smiles smugly, tells us that this city is under the protection of good deities and no evil is allowed to exist within
>we're angry, but some people came a long way to be there and really wanted to play, so we change our characters to good-aligned Mary Sues
>”see, it wasn't that hard, was it?”
>we play the most generic campaign this world has ever seen, no one is having fun except the gloating DM
>one guy gets into an argument with the DM, the game is basically over
>we leave 2h earlier that normal, the group falls apart and we never play in the same group again
fuck you Nathan, that was my best group
>>47001867
Course it is, that's the way it should be done. The GM and players should always talk about expectations from the game before the fucking game.
>>47001867
...if that's the point of the campaign and what the players and the DM decided on beforehand, then obviously them going and doing it isn't breaking anything or being intentionally disruptive or dickish.
You know what IS being a fucking dick? When you decide with your players that the campaign is going to be able them being pirates and shit, and before the story even gets around to the part where they get to do that, they decide to do it on their own, not for a narrative reason or because they have a goal or impetus, but because "lol we got bored of waiting so we just did it".
Here's the thing: Everyone always talks about "Oh a DM is so shitty if he has a planned plot, he should just react to what we do! Improv is always the best!", but that's literally never true.
If you don't trust the DM to deliver you a fucking campaign, and all you want is a sandbox to run around and throw your shit in, don't fucking play. If you can't be bothered to put any sort of trust in the DM to deliver an experience, you don't deserve a DM.
>>47000382
>>47000420
I used to be this guy unfortunately.
I used to put together big stories that I had plans for and the players end up just working them over in a way I couldn't predict.
Most of the time this involves them killing someone I didn't think they would or would be able to kill, and even at this stage I wasn't going to pull some bullshit deus ex machina crap.
This didn't work out well to say the least, sometimes entire plots would just fall completely apart because the players killed the wrong person or they killed the RIGHT person but way too early.
I'm not sure if the point that broke this for me was the tine my players dropped an entire cave complex on the BBEG's god boss (not the BBEG, the guy the BBEG was getting his powers from) or if it was the time my players showed up to a super hero game playing nothing but Adult Swim characters (specifically Awesome X, Early Cuyler, Pee Wee Herman, Captain Hazel Murphy, and the Warden) that I realized I should probably not take this hobby TOO seriously
So now I just kind of roll the best I can. I make stories and I plan for them to get fucked up. I make things I don't think the party can overcome then consider what the fuck I'll do when the party overcomes it. I have "mobile" encounters which can be encountered in multiple different places, either logically (someone's chasing the party) or behind the scenes (well you guys didn't go into or even discover the crypt like I thought you would so I guess this cave system has an undead problem)
>>47001945
I ask again what the deal is with everyone thinking the sandbox/plot thing is a mutually exclusive dichotomy? Without a plot the sandbox won't exist. Placenames, geography, local personalities, all need to be present to be #rekt. Conversely, without enough degrees of freedom, there's no point in running players through if the start, end, and waypoints are all predetermined.
It's like everyone chose to wake up one morning and take the factionalist memeing here and elsewhere to heart, and decided that having a plot means no player agency, and having a sandbox means no plot. It's fuckin' doofy and I cannot comprehend how so many GMs get by these days with that sort of weird quasi-religious dualism going on.
Question: if a major part of the campaign setting involves the PCs dying, exploring the spirit world and coming back to life, is it a dick move to kill them via impossible situations? Say they find themselves against an army, or lost in the wilderness. How soon is too soon? Should I warn them when the campaign starts that death is not the end here?
>>47002103
>I ask again what the deal is with everyone thinking the sandbox/plot thing is a mutually exclusive dichotomy?
They are. Saying "Da big bad lich gonna take over the world when ur level 20. Tell me how you save it" and then having the players fumble their way through a dungeon-of-the-week until they're high enough level to fight the BBEG isn't a story.
And don't give me that "The DM creates a map and the players go places and story happens to them" schtick, because the result will ALWAYS be a jumbled mess of nonsensical movements that half-assedly come together to explain how the players get to the BBEG at the end.
>Conversely, without enough degrees of freedom, there's no point in running players through if the start, end, and waypoints are all predetermined.
How exactly in your mind does this make sense? Please, explain.
Because last I checked, the PLAYERS DON'T KNOW THE STORY, THEREFORE THE REASON TO RUN THROUGH IT IS SO THEY CAN FUCKING EXPERIENCE IT.
There is a reason published adventures exist, you know? And why Kingmaker is the shittiest of them all.
>>47002150
Let me start by saying that it's not creative, it's not interesting, and it's a shit plot.
That said, you still likely think it's the most creative and unique story ever told, so I have to inform you that yes, if you don't explicitly inform players that there is a scene where they are supposed to die to further the story, they're going to do everything in their power to not fucking die. There is a reason everyone and their mother hates fights you're meant to lose in video games. It's a shit narrative mechanic.
>>47002150
Perhaps start the game with the PCs already dead, unless that messes with what you're planning (like the players meeting someone important before they die)
It's very hard to PLAN on players losing something without things getting illogical. I've seen players defeat "impossible" encounters or at the very least run away very effectively. And if something flubs up and 3 members of the party die but 2 escape then what is going to happen? Will the other 2 have to make afterlife characters or will they die choking on their "mourning the loss of their friends" beer?
>>47002200
>Let me start by saying that it's not creative, it's not interesting, and it's a shit plot.
Everything is a watered down adaptation of 7 original stories. Go fuck yourself.
>>47001922
>GM sees party is making neutral/evil characters
>GM sees the party REALLY wants to play them
>GM sees they don't act like complete edgelords
>puts them in a "Good city" and an impossible situation instead of putting them in a situation where they can explore their character arcs
>proceeds to aggravate the characters specifically to prove they are evil in said "Good city"
>when characters die is smug about it
This is a living nightmare.
>>47002200
>Let me start by saying that it's not creative, it's not interesting, and it's a shit plot. That said, you still likely think it's the most creative and unique story ever told
Why so hostile? Did you have a bad experience in the past? You can share it with us here if that would help you feel better.
I don't really care if it's the most original thing as long as I can make it fun or interesting for the players. They seem to like the setting so far, and I thought they might want to explore its mythic side and move into more of a demigod power level like a classic Greek hero.
>>47002285
Alright, so you're the crying, defensive type. I get it.
>as long as I can make it fun or interesting for the players.
You can't. It's going to fail miserably.
Now you're gonna get all angry and try it just to spite me, aren't you? Come tell me how that works out for you, faggot.
>>47002173
>And don't give me that "The DM creates a map and the players go places and story happens to them" schtick, because the result will ALWAYS be a jumbled mess of nonsensical movements that half-assedly come together to explain how the players get to the BBEG at the end.
Or it's a game about a group of people exploring said sandbox, or are marooned, or are forging their own kingdom. You don't always have to go on a direct path to a BBEG, you sound like a one trick pony kind of guy.
>There is a reason published adventures exist, you know?
Because people are busy and it's easy?
>>47000209
Or how about you run a fucking game anon? Less cry like a cunt and more do it your fucking self would go a long way.
>>47002173
>They are. Saying "Da big bad lich gonna take over the world when ur level 20. Tell me how you save it" and then having the players fumble their way through a dungeon-of-the-week until they're high enough level to fight the BBEG isn't a story.
>And don't give me that "The DM creates a map and the players go places and story happens to them" schtick, because the result will ALWAYS be a jumbled mess of nonsensical movements that half-assedly come together to explain how the players get to the BBEG at the end.
There are, actually, more than two styles of RPG play that exist.
>Because last I checked, the PLAYERS DON'T KNOW THE STORY, THEREFORE THE REASON TO RUN THROUGH IT IS SO THEY CAN FUCKING EXPERIENCE IT.
But some players don't wanna experience YOUR story, they wanna experience THEIRS. All I'm getting at is that writing up a couple paragraphs, max, of unifying plot between places and events is not, inherently, going to lead to a clusterfuck anymore than saying "open map, do whatever, man", and that people have been playing shades between the extremes for as long as the hobby's been a thing. Hell, I wasn't even aware this was a thing people got conceptually frustrated about until a couple years back, it seems like a newer development to me.
I dunno, maybe my experiences have been different from others, I got no horse in this race.
>>47002322
>Or it's a game about a group of people exploring said sandbox, or are marooned, or are forging their own kingdom.
Yeah, and these are objectively always shit. I know, I know, you have anecdotal evidence about how you did it and your group totally loved it, and I'm sure you're not exaggerating any details at all.
>Because people are busy and it's easy?
You really think running an AP is easier than just improving a different dungeon each week? Are you seriously the kind of person who cracks open a module and tries to run it as you read it page by page, and then when you mess up something or don't understand what's going on because you didn't read the book first, you say "This is so shit I don't know why anyone does this"?
>>47001332
The GM, as the GM should never, ever lie to the players.
Unreliable NPCs? Fair game.
Telling the player that his character thinks something is a certain way when it isn't? Fair game.
Telling the party about rumors in the lands? Fair game.
Passing fiction to the party and outright telling them that the fiction is facts? Unfair.
You cannot lie to the party about how long their character has had an item. You can't put the party in a deathtrap with no way out and expect them to get out. It's not fair and it's not fun to play.
>>47002281
>>47001922
While I agree the GM was an asshat the way he handled it, you guys are not entitled for him to run a game for you if it doesn't sound like fun for him, just as you aren't entitled to play in a game that isn't fun for you.
>>47002336
>But some players don't wanna experience YOUR story, they wanna experience THEIRS.
Remember what we said about fucking having a little faith in the DM? THIS is why most players are shit. Because apparently, in your fucked-up little brain, if the story is not created SPECIFICALLY for you and your special-snowflake characters, and you're not CERTAIN that your shitty backstory is the central thesis of the world and plot (wait, I mean lack of plot), it's somehow "the DM's story, not mine". How do you even think of this shit?
>>47002315
Holy shit dude. Why are you so defeatist?
>>47002435
...I don't think you know what that means.
I'm telling you your idea is bad and it's not going to work the way you want it to work.
Do it better.
Or, you know, get defensive and spiteful and do it the shit way just to try and prove me wrong, I guess?
>>47002434
Jesus Christ you are projecting a lot aren't you?
>>47002453
What this guy is trying to do? I'm a bit retarded and can't navigate on my shitty phone.
>>47002453
>it's not going to work the way you want it to work.
not that guy but it could, simply because some players like shitty clichéd stories
>>47002402
I don't disagree with that, but we lived in a really small town, and tabletop players were scarce. It was basically this or nothing at all. We did what the DM wanted 90% of the time, but always playing the good guys got boring, so we wanted to try something else. Sadly, every "something else" finished the same way as the FR campaign
>>47002492
He wants his dumb-ass players to go into the spirit world and do some stupid shit, so he wants to have them die in battle or some retarded way they can't prevent.
>>47002434
>if the story is not created SPECIFICALLY for you and your special-snowflake characters
Wait, what? I ask, collaborate, and have a few lines of fluff as a guidepost for what the party wants to do. In what realm is this fucked up thinking, thinking a couple personality traits makes NPCs snowflakes, or that guide is treated as the central thesis of of the world?
Am I taking bait here or something?
>>46999768
>First time playing D&D 3.5
>Party is trying to escape this dungeon/arena combo
>I'm the only one who didn't pick a glass cannon class(I'm a fighter)
>As such I've taken a lot of hits, most monsters are CR 5 or higher and we're an unbalanced group of level 3s
>Dropped into another arena, with a giant mutant tentacle monster in it
>We can't fight it, it's got ridiculous AC and HP
>No way out of the arena
>"Oh no, yes there is" says the GM
>The monster grabs my character with a tentacle grab attack
>Fucking throws me into a nearby wall, smashing me clean through it
>10d6 bludgeoning damage
>I was already low, now I'm at -13
>Party escapes through the wall
>"Are you coming, Anon?"
>No, I'm fucking dead
>Dead in the first dungeon of the campaign
>mfw the only way to leave the dungeon was to kill the tank
That's not all, stay tuned for part two!
>>46999768
I have a that GM.
Pic related
>>47002525
Spirit world isn't so bad, but off screen killing people is lowest form of shit and railroading. Seriously, I played only a few sessions in my entire live and sit on /TG/ to read about stories and read other cool shit as this is one of best boards.
And even I know it is bad as fuck.
>>47002387
>Objectively
You don't know what the word means.
>You really think running an AP is easier than just improving a different dungeon each week?
No, I think that running a pre-made adventure is easier than either making multiple points on a map filled with ideas so that when players go there the have something to do/see. I'm saying that running and a pre-made adventure is also easier than making your own narrative, which I never said was bad, I was saying both styles of games are valid.
>But reading adventures is HARD so you must just be reading it on the spot
Reading is not hard. In fact, reading is fun. Maybe you should try more than just stumbling through pre-made adventures and work on just reading comprehension? Then maybe you would understand more 4chan posts.
>>47001869
>>47002581
> I was saying both styles of games are valid.
I like you.
>>47002523
Protip - Someone else can GM. If he becomes a shit broody player because you're playing a different style of game tell him to chill out an hope he acts like an adult.
>>47002573
that's why it tends to work best if they start already dead.
>>47002656
Oh, we tried that and it was real hell. The DM got really crazy, almost violent, when we told him that perhaps someone else should give it a try. We dropped the subject, afraid of what he might have done otherwise.
We could have just played without him, but outside of the game he was a really cool guy to hang out with so we just decided to keep rolling with it until that fateful day
>>47000873
Kill them. If they're going to act like bandits then the local guards should treat them appropriately.
>>47002543
>Roll up a new character
>We still need a tank, so I make another fighter
>The party meets me outside the dungeon after they escape
>We're gonna beautiful grassy hill, and we make our introductions
>We are interrupted by rustling in the grass
>A large, 4-legged bug with big hairy feelers emerges
>Again, first time playing D&D, so I charge it not knowing what it is
>Fucking Rust Monster destroys my armor, sword, axe, AND shield before we manage to kill it
>I'm now a tank with normal clothes and a wooden club
>There are no places to get new gear, other party members don't want donate any of theirs
>Spend the next five sessions with 11 AC and a wooden club as a weapon
Long story short, I was completely fucked over by the GM on multiple occasions without any way to come back from it. This continued into encounters with vampire monks who would specifically target me, or Constitution-draining bugs that would target the character with the highest HP, aka me.
>>47002749
>The DM got really crazy, almost violent, when we told him that perhaps someone else should give it a try
>but outside of the game he was a really cool guy to hang out with
This sound like conflicting statements, but I guess I don't know everyone. Did you ever ask why he got to upset at the idea?
>>47000873
So did you just let them "kill" them or actually roll for it? Because i imagine the shop keep would stop insulting people the second the weapons come out.
>>47002150
You could lead them up to a gate to the spirit world, a place where they can enter willfully rather than being forced into the spirit world the way everyone else is.
They can make their preparations and set off as living beings rather than spirits, giving them assurance that they'll be able to exit the spirit realm should they find another exit or return to the one they entered via.
I've got that stowed away as my own idea right now, though since they're living creatures I'd give them some qualifiers, like having to wear painted wooden masks to disguise themselves as spirits (because the living can attract some bad juju in the spirit realm) and possibly having to pay a ferryman a coin each for passage.
>>47002728
I would like that if he would do some interesting change for ghost world mechanics. Strength would be useless.
>>47002794
Rust monster and con-draining (if you mean con damage) are pretty standard old-school style DnD, rest of that sounds like DM treating you like his bitch. When did you stop playing?
>>47002749
>Oh, we tried that and it was real hell. The DM got really crazy, almost violent, when we told him that perhaps someone else should give it a try. We dropped the subject, afraid of what he might have done otherwise.
Yeah, this never happened.
That, or you're the most spineless faggots in the universe and everyone should be laughing at you.
>>47002830
That seems neat but also a bit much, kind of just chopping the balls off of any martial type character (which if this is 3.pf is a little overkill)
Maybe while their ghosts or whatever vessel they inhabit no longer has muscles, the imprint of "physical strength" still lingers on in their spirit, so they have a spirit that can wrestle other spirits even though neither side has muscles. A particularly old, savvy, or experienced spirit could probably manipulate this willingly, being exactly as strong as they want to be, but the player characters being fresh to this dead or death like world can't quite muster it yet.
I do agree that some rule changes could help to be fun, I just think ones that invalidate significant portions of a players character are a bit far.
>>47002805
He really enjoyed being the DM and he always played that role. I guess he wasn't comfortable as a player instead, plus he was anti-change of any kind and always had to be in charge. All in all, he wasn't a bad guy, just a control freak
>>47002315
This is b8.
>>47002924
I actually like idea of using player strength as power, I don't know, during possessing objects, if his ghost world would be placed on ours, just Astral one.
>>47001209
I had a GM who did something very similar. We all started out with magic item, but they came with serious consequences. For example, I got to start with a +2 double bladed sword, but it was immediately taken from me and I was kicked out of the city for possessing it.
>>47002899
If you knew him personally, your opinion would be different. We were in his house, completely alone, and we were in shock. He had never acted like this before. He had his quirks, yes, but they were just that - harmless quirks. The threat was so out of character for him that we just weren't sure how to react and none of us wanted a fight
>>47002387
>>47002434
>>47002453
This is either b8 or some absurdly bitter neckbeard spraying his monitor with spittle in a frothing rage as he complains about people playing games in ways he doesn't like.
>>47003044
Dude stop. We know it's a fake story.
I don't care if "hurrrr hes mai frend outside of game so we cant kick him!"
Either you can function like a normal human being and gather your friends together to play a fucking game without that one autistic kid ruining or for you, OR you can keep complaining about how he's That Guy and ruins things with his tempertantrums and you can't get rid of him because apparently outside of those spastic fits of retardation, he's somehow a great person that is fun to be around.
The only real retard is you.
>>47002881
The second time I died. The party left me for dead as bait for a sand elemental and were fighting over my belongings as it was ripping me apart.
I left after that session, and I heard through the grapevine that the party survived one more session without me before destroying the world with a series of horrible choices in under an hour.
>>47002315
>>47002453
>>47002525
If you'd like to talk, anon, I'm here. Just let it all out.
>>47003125
>they destroy the world in under an hour.
Adventures wuz here. Jpg
That GM has:
> fudged his dice rolls
His tell for fudging dice rolls was a long pause before announcing the result. Even when we implemented an 'open roll' for everyone, he would roll and immediately snatch the dice up and announce the result
> Change modifiers and AC in the middle of a fight
With the open roll policy and the fact that we (except That DM) had basic math literacy we would figure out what the AC was on the enemies. But Suddenly! Our 15+ weren't hitting anymore, we needed 18+.
> Dictate what our characters said
So if we rolled poorly on a skill check That DM would 'force' our characters to do something stupid. "Alright Anon, you failed your persuasion check because you can't keep your eyes off her breasts. She notices and slaps you in the face"
> Guards are immune to social checks
An alarming amount of guards are immune to intimidation, bribery, and persuasion.
> Merchants haggled over everything
Every merchant haggled over everything, even mundane shit. We ended up going broke doing bulk buying and loading up wagons and bags of holding just so we wouldn't have to buy anything for weeks.
> Doesn't know the system
More like he refuses to learn the system so he can claim ignorance. After questioning him one time we found out the DC for his warlock spellcaster was higher than what it was and his excuse was that he thought the DC settings were the same as 3.5
>>46999768
> four-people group and two newcomers, D&D 5e
> our usual DM says he wants to play this time, one of the new ones asks if it's okay if she takes over since she had some experience as a DM
> we say it's fine
> everyone creates their characters, nothing jarring
> we're almost done with the introductions, only the new guy remaining
> he says he changed his mind and wants to make a different character
> we're slightly annoyed since we were ready to play but whatever, let him redo it
> we have to wait for 45 mins for him
> he comes up with an herma lesbian tiefling from a demon/dragonborn union and 19 charisma
> one guy laughs, thinking it's a joke
> it wasn't
> the new DM got offended, asks him if he has a problem with the LGBT community and begins spouting some bullshit no one cares about, another 30 mins pass
> she calms down and begin, it's a regular town with some kind of important festival going on
> she says the streets and houses are decorated with pink ribbons and other frilly shit
> apparently the only temple around is dedicated to a goddess of love and all of her faithful are basically gay since they're the chosen ones
> the table goes full WTF
> she explains that homo love is better and stronger than hetero since they have to face the hardships of close-minded fools
> our tiefling is over the moon with joy and takes the lead
> it goes to the temple and offers our services to the goddess, mentioning that the rest of the party is not as enthusiastic as they should be
> damn fuckin right we aren't
> we get summoned to the temple, decide to go there so as not to anger any locals since they seemed to be pretty invested in that religion
> the head priestess threatenes us, says we have to convert or else we'll be tortured
> that's not very love-like
cont.
>>47002387
I've run a sandbox style game for my group and we all agreed it was some of the best times we've had gaming. You know shit
>>47003749
> we refuse and suddenly the entire town shows up in the temple with weapons at the ready
> we're forced to convert and the ritual is basically ERP with another party member or NPC of the same gender as yourself
> at this point our former DM asked for a break, we all agreed not to play this shit
> come back and tell her how it is
> she spergs out, talking about discrimination, feminism and what fuckin backwater shitheads we are
> says people like us are the reason our society is shit, flips her chair and runs out crying
> her friend follows her
> we never invite them again
I don't know where these people come from
>>47003645
>So if we rolled poorly on a skill check That DM would 'force' our characters to do something stupid. "Alright Anon, you failed your persuasion check because you can't keep your eyes off her breasts. She notices and slaps you in the face"
That's...completely normal though? I mean, if you roll shitty on a persuasion check, you don't get to deliver your cool, suave speech and have it turn out well you fucking idiot. If he's saying "Yeah, you fucked up, this is why", THAT'S THE DM'S JOB.
>An alarming amount of guards are immune to intimidation, bribery, and persuasion.
That's their fucking job.
>Every merchant haggled over everything
That's their fucking job.
>>47003750
Thank you for that anecdotal evidence about how you did it and your group totally loved it, and I'm sure you're not exaggerating any details at all.
>>47003842
How are you any better? You didn't post anything but anecdotal evidence in the first place.
>>47003842
Hard to exaggerate details when there aren't any. You still know shit. If you can't run a good amount of a game off improv then you just need to get better.
>>47003842
Party wanted to play a game, was still working on the world and lore but said fuck it, I'll run it anyway. A lot of the story were more personal character arcs and I didn't run any super bbeg shit because if they didn't wanna follow that direction then they didn't fucking wanna follow that direction. It's not hard to adapt and play with what you're players wanna do.
>>47003749
>>47003789
...Please tell me this is made up.
>Want to play a Neutral Evil halfling who, realizing most people just ignore halflings, just takes whatever he wants from anyone, but is willing to stay in line due to friendship with party Paladin.
>DM throws a shitfit because "all halflings have to be lawful good"
>Okay, fine, I'll be a human
>NO EVIL CHARACTERS ALLOWED
>He then proceeds to make a DMPC drow ranger girl that everyone loves unconditionally
>>47003789
>I don't know where these people come from
tumblr
>>47003749
>>47003789
I hate how much of a bad rap these people give to the rest of us.
>>47000382
>When I GM, I fully expect the PCs to ruin everything I thought I had planned because that's part of the fun. I want the players to turn the mentioned-in-passing set piece into a major thing, mess with important NPCs in creatively fucked up ways, and make an incredible mess of events. Otherwise I'm just rolling to randomly generate a book with my friends providing color commentary.
Fucking this.
If my players one shotted my BBEG, I'd giggle like a windowlicker spotting the ice cream truck.
Because "Oh shit! That was so cool! I wonder what's going to happen next!" moments are so rare for a GM.
>>47001072
>there is such a thing as a happy medium between too much plot and "Diablo TTRPG".
This is true, too.
But sometimes the PCs avoid or navigate around huge chunks of the plot by doing something you didn't expect.
The plot (the conflict, the characters and factions, the overarching theme) is still there, but all your plans just got crushed.
Like because the PCs permanently banished Tom RIddle's diary instead of destroying it, thus they unknowingly ensured Voldemort can never be killed and undid the entire horcrux hunt you had planned.mfw "winsowlicker passed the 4chan spell checker.
>>47000420
>I'm paranoid about ruining the GM's setting, so I usually end up doing the safest thing I can think of or doing nothing. How would you handle someone like me?
Not that anon, but I have an answer.
Kobayashi Maru, a version anyway.
I put you in a situation where there is literally no safe option and doing nothing is the worst possible choice.
Then I fudge/skew the DC so that the braver and more daring your action is, the better the outcome.
I reward your success at attempting to overcome your paranoia.
But I only arrange this occasionally or it just becomes messing with your PC.
Have some required reading, pic related
>>47002315
we all know this dude is an ass right?
>>47002315
we all know this dude is an ass right?>>47002387
>>47002434
>>47002453
>>47000288
>>47000382
>tfw want to GM
>tfw I don't know where to start because if I write a plot it will be ruined
>tfw if I just make a sandbox I will have to juggle a mountain of Npc sheets, monster statblocks, dialogue scripts and predrawn combat grids/dungeons
Sooner die tbqh lads
>>46999768
I had a DM that wouldn't let us use fire in any way to deal with an enemy encampment despite being outnumbered by hundreds.
>>47004401
If the rest of your party is good, or there is a myriad of alignments, it WILL END BADLY.
And not in the fun way
>>47005056
It's not so hard desu. You need to start with a setting, a map, and locations. Start by getting a starting location for your party, what kind of a place it is, what kind of a culture the people live in, what is the starting quest sort of thing they get, and the immediate vicinity of the starting location, and have a few encounters prepared.
No need to even have the BBEG created yet, he can make his debut much later by burning the starting town or the largest city of the realm or something which makes it clear that he's a threat and shit.
Or, if you and your party are into it, you could ditch the whole BBEG-must-be-stopped thing completely and just have the party of adventurers be a party of explorers in a brave new world, charting the lands and learning about the cultures there. This approach requires you to be able to come up with more interesting locations and people than the traditional story-like gameplay, though, and you need to be good at improvising.
>>47005106
As in fire didn't work or he just said "no"?
Because he could have made a scene of a volley of fire arrows falling onto tents only to hit non-flammable hide tents and the bare dirt. And then they know you're there.
>>47002543
How can anyone think that killing a player character is a good way to progress the story?
>>47004281
>>47004406
>>47004564
Sadly, it wasn't made up, but we managed to make the best of it - we decided to roll with the setup, going all JoJo on our characters and fighting against the love cultists, eventually turning the town into a bastion of manliness and freedom. It was a good game
>>47005385
Nearly everyone in my party was neutral.
The thing about being the evil guy is that it's entirely possible to be a self-serving jackass without compromising the integrity of a group. Simply being a character lacking in compassion doesn't mean that I'm going to slaughter civilians and backstab the party.
>>47007072
Oh, right. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you have the ability to make such a distinction - the general feeling I get is that most players are too stupid to do the same.
>>47007182
Nah, I know exactly how it is. The same group had one guy who turned against the party twice as a Chaotic Neutral guy because he was a jerk, and literally no other reason.
I've seen Chaotic Evil played in a good party before, so I know that it's possible, but still.
>>47002543
>Arenas
I hate those, never good came from them
Not a "that guy" situation but a "that guys" one
>Captured and sold as slaves
>End in Arena
>Paladin (LG) decides to enter in any "kill unarmed people" spectacle because he thinks he has low exp (actually my character was the lowest)
>Group ends fighting in a Group vs Group
>Fighter and Paladin tell me (the rogue): "ok, we three deal with the 2 ogres, and you wizard deal with that human ranger, ok?"
>Roll higher Ini, go against ogres, attack one, deal enough damage
>Paladin's turn, he moves to the archer
>Me: What?
>Fighter's turn, he moves to the archer
>Me: Dudes, you left me alone with two ogres!
>They: Lol, enjoy
>They kill the archer, the lowest CR enemy by far, literally like 2 levels below us between the 3 of them
>I get brutally raped by 2 ogres
>inb4 well at least the wizard seams ok
He was an edgy faggot, I left the group after that dick move
There was a girl at my game that fucked nearly everyone and would constantly threaten to leave the group if we didn't let her have her way (and sadly, never left the group)...
That GM story
>Using Runequest 6 to run a Roman campaign
>Only one restriction
>Absolutely
>No
>Magic
>Whatsoever
>No exceptions, no substitutes and no whining allowed said the GM, because this is a 100% realistic campaign, he saidAnd, this is about him breaking his own rule
>We make our characters: Retired centurion, sleazy merchant with a stabbing fetish, former slave now a free man and a "turncoat" Gaul
>Our goal is to return to the capital with information about the corruption of several governors and their plans to fuck over the emperor
>We move along the coast region hoping to catch a ship, but they are moored for sometime because of massive storms, so we have to walk
>We have to go through a rebelling tribe's territory because we can't waste time
>Come across an ambush and the natives get restless
>We get ready for a quick retreat when suddenly we get pelted by fire arrows from the guys who quite clearly are not using fire arrows
>Followed by our wagon being glued to the road
>Turns out that they have druids chanting spells in the bushes that make their arrows burst into flame and other druids chanting spells to glue our wagon to the ground and waiting to do the same with our sandals and the wagon
>Confronting the GM about this he says something along the lines of "I changed my mind for reasons" and "For you guys only, NPCs can use magic because you guys never fight them and this is only way for them to do anything to you before you just turn tail and run every time"
>"It's realistic, we are four people with 2 of us with any combat experience, of course we will run from 12+ man ambushes full of soldiers"
>"Man up" he says
>At this point he forcible turned into a player and one of us became the GM in his stead because aside from that we liked the campaign
>He kept grumbling during the game that we were let off easily when the combat situation became actually manageable
>We still finished the campaign with the grumpy ass in tow and liked it
>>47008082
This is always the worst thing. If you're going to do low-magic, you have to be consistent about it.
Even if you don't want the PCs to have magic, be up-front about it, and have your NPCs use magic more for utility instead of just making it so their side has magical artillery and the PCs don't.
>>47008082
>because this is a 100% realistic campaign
You should have already leave
>>47003645
I think the first two are fine.
Sometimes you want to make an encounter challenging, and sometimes it's too challenging and you have to fudge the numbers.
There's nothing wrong with that unless you're taking a hard encounter and only making it harder because they got some lucky rolls in.
>>47002200
respect the dubs, but that's a shit, toxic opinion and you should feel bad for it
>>47004908
yes
>>47004948
no
>>47006983
death isnt the end anon, only a transition
>>47001714
I feel you bro, keep fighting the good fight.
>>47002327
...I do. Everyone else in the group does. Whenever we run something that's not 3.5, he begs off because "learning the rules would take too long"
That's what I meant to convey when I said
>if he at least joined us in a non-D&D campaign,
Although I admit I worded that poorly.
>Guy who never GMd before
>Decides to GM
Ok
>Picks 5e and a precon campaign
Sounds like a good start and I already wanted to try 5e so good
>Doesn't even read half the PHB or the precon game
>Changes rules on a whim
>Gives exp on a whim, and always way less than the actual exp
>Gives monsters and NPCs bullshit and broken abilities
>Players don't have a grasp even in the most simple cause/effect actions
>Gets mad when we don't take this seriously anymore
>Gets mad when we leave this awful game
Why? why you try to add homerules when you don't even read the manual? also why your fucking rules change ever 5 minutes to completely paranoia non-sense tier?
>>46999768
Not sure if I posted this before but here goes
>Me, some other guys, and This Guy are players
>That Guy is another player
>minmaxes like crazy
>Cares more about being center of attention, and the rest of us do nothing
>This Guy likes to play city builders and resource management games.
>Hoards gold to buy inn. Uses profits from that to buy/build inns in every town we pass by.
>tl;dr we eventually stop playing GM's original game because That Guy is essentially running it all by himself.
>Instead we become part of This Guy's rapidly expanding Hotel Chain Empire.
>This Guy essentially is Fantasy Donald Trump pre-presidency
I often read this threads to amuse myself with some quality schadenfreude. But this one almost has more bait than actual posts. No seriously, its like a bunch of really bored people are just sitting in here and spouting such outlandish bullshit that I can't even take them seriously.
> I totally killed my players! Be angry at me ! HAHAHA!
> Sandboxes are shit, all sandboxes everywhere. And you are defensive shit for thinking otherwise. HAHAHAHA!
FFS, dear shitposters, can you at least try?
>just find a new group
I'm still pretty new to table top RPGs but it kind of sounds like you guys don't really know the people you play with. is that accurate? it sounds like you guys are playing pick up games of basketball. I've only played with a close group of friends and we've all known each other for years and all have the same expectations of the game. like if someone just started killing the townsfolk, I imagine someone would just be "dude, what the fuck? knock that shit off." like how do you guys find other groups to join?
>>46999768
This happened today at the local MTG standard and spoilers :I was the that guy
>get back into magic
>by an intro deck from So I (red/white one)
>play the game.
>first guy real bro.
>tells me doing good even with a vanilla deck.
>still lose.
>2nd round.
>guy with a white/blue control deck.
>start getting frustrated that I can't do shit, and just keep getting smacked in the ass and creatures getting exiled.
>guy helps me alittle, but is not saying much.
>lose, guy says "better luck next time" and leaves to do other stuff.
>get knocked out and frustrated, tell my friend in a that low bit still audible way. "Golly gee, it sure would be nice if I could fucking do something."
>leave.
>realize I'mThat "sore loser" guy.
>feel like shit now, have to appoligies to my friend.
Gonna try again sometime when I get a better set of cards, but I still feel like a piece of shit.guy with parody FNAF play mate, let me appoligies for my behavior if you are a fa/tg/uy.but fuck control decks.
>>47011526
I moved across the country where I grew up so I can only play with people online or pick ups from LGS. That being said I don't have a group at the moment, my first son was recently born and it threw off my whole schedule.
>>47007062
what, after the DM and her friend ran out never to be seen again?
so you're telling me the former DM stood up and continued running her shitty setting, she devised only as an SJW crusade?
more likely you're just fucking lying
>>47003645
> Dictate what our characters said
fucking hate it when gms do that, one time I rolled pretty badly on a stealth check and I was a tank and my character decides to yell to grab the enemies attention
>>47011608
This is kind of my problem with TCGs in general. It's not fun to be in a situation where no amount of strategy or decision making can change the fact that a control deck has you locked down. The only way to counter a control meta is to go in with an anti-control deck and at that point the metagame becomes so polarizing that it's not fun to stay on top of it. Sore loser or not, if it's not fun then you were right to stop playing.
>>47001617
This is why foreverGM's are the best. No one else wants to gm so they're usually from the first camp and got pushed into it.We thank you for your sacrifice
>>47001714
Just remember that the game looks different from the other side of the table. All the combats that I do as GM look like they would be hella boring from the player's side, but they all tell me they enjoy the combat. I guess it's because as a GM i'm always doing something, and it seems like it would be boring to only be doing something 1/4th of the time.
>>47014124
what made it worse is that it was just a vanilla deck, i always was under the impression that good TCG's work when the basic deck, out of box can be pretty good, and in my first game i almost beat the guy with very little changes to the original deck.
Mill decks and control decks where one of the main reasons why I fucking stopped in the first place, because when a players main strat. was
milling and you had a monster that said "once this character died, all cards return from graveyard return to your library." It becomes me sitting on my ass all game, not even top-decking, and taking 1 life per tern, for 2. HOURS.
like I said I did apologies to my friend for my behavior.
>>47002434
You sound like a fucking terrible DM who just wants to force fanfics down your players' throats. Nobody gives a shit about your story. People are playing a game. Jesus Christ.
>>47014584
>It becomes me sitting on my ass all game, not even top-decking, and taking 1 life per tern, for 2. HOURS.
>>47005056
I'd suggest just running a series of short adventures, sort of like how most TV shows will have 1- or 2-episode story arcs all the time. Make sure the players know that's what you'll be doing, and that there won't be much of an overarching plot (if any) for a while (and there may not ever be one, depending on how you feel about it after a while).
That said, running a premade campaign is also a good plan so long as your players are nice enough to stay in the vicinity of the rails. The biggest problem I had with that sort of thing, when I started DMing, was the fact that my players were much better at optimizing than the module's writers intended and so after a while I just said fuck it and started adding levels to everything on the fly.
3.X definitely has some issues, but at the same time it has some fairly nice modules designed to stretch an extended period of time (the Pathfinder adventure paths, the stuff Paiso did back when they still had Dungeon magazine, World's Largest Dungeon, etc).
>>46999768
>Bad GM
>Watches literal trash
Why am I not surprised
>>47011280
The concept would be good if you were all interested. Being mythical Donald Trumps sounds like an interesting campaign.
>>47014996
Well, it wasn't really two hours, bit it sure felt like it.
What he would do was look at the top card of my deck, say" nope" put it in the graveyard, left the land, took out everything else and just plinked me to death.
Thinking about what happened today, what bothers me more is his very emotionless feeling about it. I mean the first guy congratulate me for doing good.
This guy would be the guy who would smash children players and not give a shit.and like my post said, he had a paradoy FNAF1 playmate with planes walkers on it.
But again, I feel really bad about how I reacted agterwords.
I'm a recovering That GM.
>thought the game is GM vs Players
>would veto cool things the players wanted to do because muh realism
>would veto cool things the players wanted to do because muh balance
Luckily I've learned, and I'm getting better. The trick is to find the right balance between crazy awesome and balance/realism. I was just too far on one side.
>>47000873
this is why I like older rpgs, most of them have a page at least specifically telling you how to kill your PCs in this event.
>>47015575
It is indeed all about balance, don't be cool dad GM either, they suck even harder
>>47005056
>tfw if I just make a sandbox I will have to juggle a mountain of Npc sheets, monster statblocks, dialogue scripts and predrawn combat grids/dungeons
Yeah, you don't need to do any of that.
>NPCs usually fit immediately recognizable archetypes that can be created on the fly, though some prep may be required for more important ones, personality trait and name generators are you friend here
>if you own any monster manual you have almost every monster you could imagine with some minor modification. I once made up a really fucking long weird wolf-shark monster thing with like 12 legs, but I used the stats for a gargantuan centipede. Blogs are a good source too
>Dialogue scripts are really never a thing you need, at most you might have a few dot points of what the BBEG's convoluted plan actually is, but if the players can't figure it out during play then it was probably too complicated to begin with. You are not a company writer creating a published adventure, you do not need scripts.
>combat grids/dungeons
Buy a wet erase flip mat, they're probably the best thing pazio sells. There are fucking billions of dungeon maps already made, just steal them and change what the numbers mean.
You add that sort of stuff as you need it. If you take an hour before a session to make one or two pieces of useful as in ACTUALLY USEFUL prep material you should have a pretty good sandbox before the players actually need to start expanding their horizons beyond the starting town and the immediate surrounding areas.
To fill in any gaps that might arise have a slush pile of places, NPCs, monsters, items, etc. you think would be cool to include in the game. When you're on the bus or taking a shit think about fantasy stuff and take note of it. The trick is to render the idea down to a basic form. Taking inspiration from the movies, TV shows, anime, documentaries, comics, etc. you watch is a good idea, because your ideas are ultimately going to come from those anyway.
>>46999768
>>Roll badly
>>Forces you to play a lower tier character
I don't understand this part. Do you roll for starting xp or something? What the point of different power levels for different characters?
>>47015949
It could be their playing Tunnels and Trolls, where if you roll realy well in you classes base state, you start at a higher level.
But if they where playing Tunnels and Trolls, I have no pity for them.
>>47002065
>Early Cuyler
Please storytime
>>47002200
Then explain why everyone loves Halo: Reach's "Objective: Survive" ending. Why it's universally praised, and there's been endless conversations about people giving it their all and hanging on until the end. I've seen countless threads of people claiming to "give them splitjaws whatfor" and even getting emotional at the end. I personally teared up watching the lovingly customized helmet being unceremoniously ripped off of Noble Six and left in the ground. Sometimes it works.
>>47015949
3.5
My max modifier was a +4 (15, 13, 12, 10, 10, 10) then the next player had a +10 (18, 16, 16, 12, 11, 9) and there were two other players with even better rolls
Pretty much forced me to play ranged scout because the group "needed it", they didn't specially not with my stats and the posterior nerfs I got and boosts they got (not many classes allowed btw)
Then give every other class more ranks for skills and other stuff so my "skillmonkery" became useless
Then made every monster ever be immune to precision damage so made my utility in combat drop to zero
I was literally meaningless, I only stayed 3 sessions and only because I expected some helping hand from the GM once he realized what he did, but nothing came
>>46999768
>Roll badly
>Forces you to play a lower tier character
Luck of the dice. It happens once in a while. Stats should not be too important, anyways.
>Not only that he also "removes" the defining class feature from your PC
Unforgiveable.
>homebrew-ish game, mostly Pathfinder
>corruption is a major theme, destruction of the world and the like
>One session, party treks through a spaceship on behalf of a local group that might as well be Nazis
>discover this alien tech, lots of cool/interesting shit
>discover the captain, heavily corrupted
>party decides to keep it discreet, she'll hide the ship and act like it self destructed
>That Guy keeps some of the tech, unbeknownst to most of us
>Later session, gladiator combat
>Attract a corrupted dragon
>We drive it off
>Leader of the basically nazis decides to commend us
>Calls us out for losing the ship and the tech
>That Guy decides to show off that he kept some of it
>Almost instantly gets set on by the nazis, cause they want to know where the ship is and aren't exactly friendly at all about it
>He's just sold out himself, the party, and the captain in one move
>We get a bit of time to plan out an escape because the DM is pretty nice like that
>All the while, That Guy is screaming about how it's bullshit because he was just trying to help, and telling the DM that psionics don't work like that
>was a rules lawyer, but didn't know how any of his own spells worked
>Rest of the party ends up pulling off an escape
>That Guy gets a free revive despite protests
>Knock him the fuck out after he gets brought back
>End session
He would later deny that any of the events happened and that he never betrayed the party at all. This in conflict with the fucking DM. And the party STILL wasn't in the clear after escaping, they had just gotten away 'for the time being.'
>>47020137
>My eventual proper revenge on him involved turning him into a rat with Baleful Polymorph and eating him
>>47020152
This made me smile
>>47017850
I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and say once you dropped he asked you why, right?
>>47023075
He did, like I told, I don't think he got the irony of his words, I think he really believed nothing was wrong with one player just standing there doing nothing.
>>47023307
That just seems like a product of playing/dming 3rd edition or 3.pf, because they just don't know how to deal with things as well, because "if it's not write., it's not a possible in game." Which really defeats the purpose of gaming.
But, like it has been said before in this thread, if it's not fun, it's not fun, and if people don't learn what happened and what to change (referring to the DM, not you) then you failed as a DM.
>>47002543
saucenao gives me nothing.
>>47000873
Had a player try this before.
The POTION SELLAH wasn't immediately killed in the first round, so he shouted for help as soon as he realized he was being attacked.
He killed the shopkeeper, and was summarily executed right in the shop by the guards, who arrived in time to block the entrance.
Red flags for TTRPGS:
>makes less than 40k a year
>lives with parents
>owns a gaming console
>owns a smartphone
>watches capeshit/reads comics
>no postsecondary education
>has ever used tobacco, alcohol, or drugs
>is single
>under the age of 25
>overweight in any capacity
>takes medication for "depression" or """anxiety"""
>reads genre fiction
>doesn't own a home
>is an ""artist"" (doubly true if it's posted to a blog or tumblr)
>any use of MRA or SJW terms
>fedora tipper or christfag
>serial monogamy or promiscuity
>""dietary restrictions""
>refuses to bring/share food
>facial hair
>plays "narrative" ""games""
If any of the above apply to you, don't even bother applying to my games. Particularly sick of all these hilarious poorfags who never stepped in a classroom after high school that think they're 'intelligent' because they skimmed a wiki page or mass market paperback about a subject.
My That GM story.
>That Guy player says he wants to GM, and we let him, because he's a better story-teller than he is a player.
>He really likes Dwarves.
>He only likes Dwarves.
>Campaign involves a massive amount of dwarf-wank.
>Despite the fact that none of the PC's are dwarves, most of the sessions involve dwarves, and find some new way to showcase how interesting and awesome they are.
>Even in human cities, where >95% of the population is human, the plots all revolve around or involve dwarves.
>Non-dwarves get no time dedicated to them.
>If you are not a Dwarf, then your race has basically never done anything interesting and will receive no attention beyond a mention.
>GM hates elves.
>He really hates elves.
>Deliberately punishes me (an Elf PC) for picking an elf, by denying me the opportunities to increase in power relative to the other PC's. (i.e. they're practically tripping over dwarves willing to make them fancy gear, while I can't find a single person willing to sell me a masterwork sword).
>Eventually I let my Elf character die and re-roll as a Tiefling.
>Dwarf-wank continues.
>>47024110
I know that is bait, but I honestly wonder right now:
How much of the TTRPG community would be left after all of these criteria? I guess less than 1/10000
>>47024110
>>47024264
Well, to be fair, it's not our fault the hobby attracts large fractions of low-class scum.
>>47024264
Well the person would...
>Need to have a stable job
>Own his own home
>PC master race
>Own a regular cell
>Not read any visual media
>Must be a college graduate
>Must be straight edge
>Married
>Approaching middle-age
>Skinny
>Not on medication
>Must only read the fine works of Tolstoy
>Own his own home, again
>Not do art
>Not use SJW terms
>Not be an Atheist or Christian
>Must be faithful to his wife
>Not be Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim...
>Must be able to cook
>Must be shaven
>Must play actual games.
Clearly he wants to play with elderly Japanese businessmen on the verge of retirement.
>>47024110
Some of those are good points, but c'mon...
>>47024200
Sounds exactly like one of my old GMs
>>47023971http://exhentai.org/g/910157/c99ad8c07b/
>>47024110
>7 hits
Yowza. Well I wouldn't want to play with someone who spends their time bating on 4chan.
>>47002571
>Failing a con check gets you knocked up
This is the most illogical thing about pregnancy since Minecraft chickens.
>>47024352
>25 years old
>approaching middle age
>>47024352
>must be straight edge
must have been straight edge HIS ENTIRE LIFE
>>47024110
>owns a smartphone
>has ever used tobacco, alcohol, or drugs
>is single
>doesn't own a home
>facial hair
I feel like just these five would rule out not just everyone in the hobby, but ~75% of all people. If you added "has kids" to that list, there wouldn't be a single person you could play with.
>>47024273
>>47024110
Company-issued smartphone used only for business reasons doesn't count, right?
>>47014517You're welcomeI fucking hate all of you
>>47024591
don't worry anon, we hate you too
>>47024566
>>owns a smartphone
some people are leaning towards dumbphone + tablet instead
>>doesn't own a home
not sure about murrica, but in Europe mortgages are quite affordable lately, and it usually comes out better than paying rent in the long run
>>47024623
can I be a player soon?
>>47024582
How much does the job pay?
>>47024655
Aprox. 150% of national average wage.
>>47024110
>>owns a smartphone
There goes 60% of the population before any of the other requirements.
>>47024348
> screaming about "low-class scum"
> on an anonymous messageboard
Canon HD LED projecting.
>>47003749
So, if homosexual love is better because it has to overcome hardships, does that mean that in an environment where homosexual love is considered completely normal (like that area) it's no longer better?
And, furthermore, it sounds like most people there look down on heterosexual love in that area, so wouldn't that mean that it becomes better than homosexual love (since it has to overcome similar hardships)?
Of course she's not going to get that, and would probably call you a moron for asking, but that sounds like the reasonable conclusion that non-retarded people would come to with that premise.
>>47025182
Wouldn't it also be retarded since the birth rate there is probable in the shitters.
>new group
>full of normies and a DM who doesn't know what passive wisdom is
>choose Monk
>from the lands of the Far East, a lonely Monk Sailor travelling the world back and forth from his island temple to find his path and learn about the world-
>DM "HURRY UPPPPPP"
>write "knows everything about the religions of the Far East and most of religions of the world in general"
>DM "HAHAHAHAHA YOUR RELIGION IS ZERO RETARD YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT RELIGION"
>whole group starts laughing
>okay this is going to be annoying
>erase that part, RESPECTABLY DISAGREE
>write "travelled the world and knows a few things"
>DM "YOUR HISTORY IS ZERO DUMBASS HAHAHAHAHA YOUR CHARACTER DOESN'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT THE WORLD"
>normies in golden face tears while I sit there getting a bit irritated
>erase, 2x RESPECTABLY DISAGREE
>DM "HURRY UPPP"
>done
>DM starts this railroaded AS FUCK adventure I could see it miles away
>world is bland and boring as fuck basically Game of Thrones with Elves thrown in
>normies acting out of character while I'm the only one acting like my character
>I say fuck this shit and leave while the normies stare
Fucking retarded DM trying to destroy creativity and roleplaying, never again I fucking swear if I ever come across a DM like that I'm quitting DnD. If only my old DM was still alive I could get my DnD fix. And the fucking normies plauging DnD groups? That stupid GURRLL with a special snowflake Ranger called Alaska who pretends like she's that bitch from Hunger Games with a dumb romance subplot involving Paladin Chad designed especially for her by the white knight DM? That's another story altogether.
>make a moon druid (5e)
>have ridiculous amount of HP due to how class works
>DM realizes he cant kill me in the first encounter
>all future encounters are way higher in CR "to deal with the druid"
>everyone else is knocked unconscious in one hit and I can't do much to help them
>later on, rogue gets a couple of ridiculously overpowered items
>now all enemies have doubled health "to survive against the rogue"
>everyone else's damage barely matters anymore
>Playing D&D
>At the beginning of the campaign we were level 1, under equipped, and nearly died every encounter.
>Right now we are level 8, under equipped, and everyone is on their third or fourth character by now since we nearly die every encounter
I fucking hate this. What's the point of leveling up when suddenly everything else on the planet suddenly increases +1 CR or +2 DC, making your progression to appear nonexistent.
>>47025511
>rogue is OP, mostly on accident
>nobody else matters
>vow to myself to matter
>others do the same
>grow in power
>eclipse rogue in damage, but rogue is still untouchable
>GM finds it impossible to challenge our massively OP party
>even bosses 10 times our level are BTFO
>there are only four people in the party
>such is life.jpg
>>47025728
>5e
>that level of power
Impossible
>>47025728
guy you quoted here. funny enough, we had the same thing happen. DMG wasn't out yet so we tried to port magical items in based on their earlier edition versions. Eventually everyone was as OP as the rogue. When the MM came out we did a test combat against the highest CR thing in it and won easily, at level 10.
>>47024110
Sorry, mate, but every last one of those applies to you. So get out of our hobby.
>>47000873
>Player: I kill the shopkeeper
>DM: Okay, that's simple enough. He's much weaker that you.
>Player:" Fuck yeah, I'm so kewl. taught that imaginary guy a lesson about my big penis."
>DM:'The guards kill you.'
>Player: 'what?! how?! I have a really big penis tho'
>DM: 'it's pretty simple, you are much weaker than them.'
>Players are exploring a tech-dungeon
>Automated turrets force them to hide in a stairwell and take potshots
>one player wants to determine if they're motion tracking or not
>"I throw this package of junk food"
"OK, roll throwing"
>"I don't have that. Rolling with a penalty... fail"
"The package smacks wetly into the doorframe, and falls to the ground"
>Immediately starts a shitfit about how that shouldn't be a difficult thing
(No one ever through to pick it up and try again)
>>47027803
So wait
>they are on one side of the door frame
>they throw a package
>it lands on the same side as they are
>they don't pick it up
did you tell them it was the same side?
>>47027895
Admittedly, I did not explicitly say "The package is still in the staircase"
It was more "You throw the package, it splats against the door frame, and falls to your feet"
>>47024110
>>""dietary restrictions""
Can confirm. One of our players was a vegetarian with a peanut allergy, so we kicked his ass out after sneaking some bacon and peanut butter into his sandwich. You should've seen the look on his insufferable face!
Anyways, the funeral's next week.
>>47027933
thing is, they might have thought it is at the other side of the door, which may still be near, but visible to the turrets. In that case they would have lost it since retrieving it might not be possible since they'd have to lean out of the door
>>47024200
Sounds like your GM plays Dwarf Fortress in his free time.
>>47028105
Fair point. The main shitfit was more about how she failed the roll, though.
They eventually rushed the turrets, destroyed them, and then used the wreckage as cover to shoot the next ones.
>>47028433
>she
Found the actual problem.
>>47028370
Maybe. I think it's because he is the most dwarf-like of any of us.
>Shortest member of the group (about 5'4 - 5'5)
>Drinks
>Smokes
>Dirty hands
>Dirty hair
>Rarely washes
>Smells a bit
>Works in the manufacturing sector
>Pic sort-of related.
>>47028492
...
Yeah, she's kind of a cunty player... (no pun intended)
>>47025969
Homebrew, son. A homebrew that's being fixed because dexterity is ridiculously OP.
>>47026256
I ended up taking over GMing and making my PC the next BBEG.
>>47028662
>Dex
>OP
How? I deal way more damage with a Str based character than with a Dex based one
>>47025724
I agree. It really makes the players smile after a grueling military campaign against ungodly horrors they stumble upon the army of an enemy nation and the martial a proceed to greater cleave hundreds to death.
>>47028662
As you level up, you gain stat points. Therefore, there's a lot more variance in stats. Dexterity controls dodging. A rogue with high enough DEX literally cannot be touched. It doesn't matter how little damage the rogue does, he'll chip you to death because you can't hit him.
We toned that down a bit by using a different method to calculate dodge chance, but DEX is still pretty OP.
>>47025724
Maybe you just need togit gud
>>47028994
Doesn't the amount of points you can add into any given stat via level up cap at 20 in 5e?
My GM didn't show up today.
He didn't message us.
He didn't warn us.
Everyone just went and watched anime together.
Worst GM I ever had was in Shadowrun, he wiped a city off the map because the city had a river and teleported us to Hong Kong removing all our equipment and breaking all our cyberware. This meant those of us who are mundane had no money or gear.
>>47029712
He dead?
>>47030268
After having just waited 6 hours with a group of antsy, bored, college students, I sincerely hope he is at least inconvenienced.
>>47028619
That may well be, but why did they have to roll to through a packet of junk food through a doorway? Justify this retarded nonsense.
>ITT: that guys pissed for being called out by proxy
>>47003645
almost every single one of these things are things that most/all GM's do. sometimes you're winning a fight too easily or are struggling too much, so fudging rolls and changing stats to suit a situation happens. when you try to make a check for something and fail horribly, then your character will make a mistake and say/do something unintentional or without thought. guards are designed to not take bribes frequently or ever, merchants are designed to haggle over pricing.
the GM could be doing every single one of these things and be a great GM. most of them should be used in moderation, but all of them are things that have to happen sometimes if your GM wants to keep the story rolling smoothly. if your GM is doing these things with the intention of preventing story from happening rather than enabling the story to happen, it can become a problem, but doing each of those things on their own is completely fine and often necessary to GM'ing well.
not knowing the system is definitely not cool though, and you should talk to your GM about that specifically and point out examples if you just want the game to run better
>>47022185
The amount of bullshit that this dude pulled was staggering and the DM was just too nice about so much of it.
Like, eating him was the complete IC thing for me to do. Especially in the situation.
But I decide to be nice. I break character and I say that I just keep the dude as a rat in a cage. Keep his shit in a chest and when I wanna turn him back, I'll do it. Then slap his shit and tell him 'dun be a fucking dick'
Then, I find out he's supposedly dropping that character. That's the story that several people in the group have heard.
Dude was in a lot of sessions and I suspect he sucked cock (metaphorically) and had a lot of magic swag. I distribute this out to the group.
I find out he's, in fact, NOT dropping the character. Suspect that was done to cause drama. What's more, he's suddenly not a rat anymore without me having any input on the matter. And there was one item that he absolutely was not getting back. It was a MacGuffin.
He describes having it. I say whoa-whoa-whoa-no, because fuck that. Dude got away with getting his shit packed in too many times.
Throws a hissy fit. Eventually starts asking the DM what happens if he reports me for what I did.
The DM says he doesn't want to deal with all that interparty conflict and basically resets the campaign.
>since it doesn't matter, I chose to go with what was ic
>always fucking kill That Guy when you can
>>47024110
Man you must be a fucking joy at parties.
>>47030434
Call the local hospitals to see if he's in there, or if they have any open beds.
I think you get where I'm going with this.
>>47003842
You don't even have anecdotal evidence. You just have 'it stands to reason'. THEIR EVIDENCE IS STRONGER THAN YOURS!
>>47001155
>That guy who is constantly on his laptop
My current group has one, but it's even more pathetic because it's a tablet.
We constantly give him shit for it, including grabbing it out of his hands and playing keep-away. I wonder how much it's going to take to get him to put it away for good.
>>47002571
If it was black I'd abort it. Orc or goblin or even ogre would be better
>>47011280
I like This Guy. I think I'll have to give my players a chance to buy property, or maybe give them an inn or some other business as a reward for a quest...
I'm on here for five fucking minutes and I already have plots, fuck me.
>>47025282
>That stupid GURRLL with a special snowflake Ranger called Alaska who pretends like she's that bitch from Hunger Games with a dumb romance subplot involving Paladin Chad designed especially for her by the white knight DM? That's another story altogether.
>special snowflake Ranger called Alaska
>naming your character after a state
>>47011608
It happens. You go up against a counter deck, you rage. Everyone's been there, no dedicated player holds it against a newbie who loses his temper when he's up against blue. You made the effort to apologize for your behavior, you're an upstanding dude.
I watch a lot of Brian Kibler (famous Magic player) on Twitch, he does Hearthstone, and has a tendency to laugh when things go crazy, ESPECIALLY when he's on the receiving end. He's put videos of games up on his Youtube channel where he LOSES, simply because his opponent was so awesome he just had to give them the love they deserved. Look up "This Guy's Shadow Priest deck is crazy!" for a good one-he actually friended that guy after the match, it was pretty cool.
>>47002387
>you have anecdotal evidence...and I'm sure you're not exaggerating at all
Because you have hard, qualitative evidence that sandbox settings are always awful.
I guess I should be happy.
>GM is nice, down to earth, knows how to keep balance. Only bad thing is sometimes group gets loud and off course and she can't stop them without having someone say it for her.
>majority of group is good, one likes to show up late, leaves early, gets offtrack a lot
>THAT GUY: needs to emphasize that his character has to do the diplomacy check because he has 1 CHA mod higher than the rogue, constantly telling people they cant do the fun thing (we do it anyway), argues with DM saying that her rules are dumb, nobody wants him there
worst part is, he DMed once and nobody had fun, since then, if the normal DM wasnt able to DM, everyone would find some reason that he couldnt DM because he would always be first to volunteer.
>>47020137
>Knock him the fuck out after he gets brought back
The only proper response to That Guy.
>>47024455
It's totally logical. I mean, all those women in poor health are always getting knocked up, right? Can't stop 'em poppin' out babbies!
(This entire fucking post is sarcasm if you couldn't tell)
>>47025227
And the immigration rate is probably close to nil as well, since no one wants to live there.
>>46999768
You sound soooo assblasted.
>>47000873
Find a better group. You don't have to stay in that shitty relationship.
>>47027657
>DM: "Oh and there's like 30 of them versus one of you.
>>47028096
I would press F but that's another board.
>>47030789
It might be one of those DC "Don't Crit Fail" rolls. Since you do have turrets shooting at you and you're probably a little stressed from being shot at, maybe it was more of a 'make sure you can aim properly in this situation' roll?
>>47001828
>Look, we know players are shit human beings who ruin everything. That doesn't mean that they're supposed to go OUT OF THEIR WAY to ruin everything. If they do, DROP THEM AND FIND NEW PLAYERS. There's always, always more players.
>>47001922
>waaaahhhh let us be edgy waaaahhh pls pls
>>47002573
>/TG/
>>47028433
Isn't rolling meant for instances where failure have actual consequences? I can kinda see where the players are coming from but I wasn't there so I won't speculate.
>>47003749
> she explains that homo love is better and stronger than hetero since they have to face the hardships of close-minded fools
>>47002794
>plays tank
>upset when enemies target him
>>47001869
4EDGEY8ME
>>47003821
You're fucking dumb. He can still talk normally his speech just doesn't work.
>"B-BUT HE ROLLED LOW"
>>47007569
>min/maxing this fucking hard
I am physically disgusted.
>>47011456
I've never seen someone use reverse psychology bait before. Are we evolving with shit posting?
>>47024110
>>47000209
>That Guy who wants to design his own RPG
Why are there so many of these? I know at least two friends who have played D&D and then want to build their own system from scratch!
Just shut up and let me be forever GM you muggles.
>>47000873
Players that are 100% big dick swinging I'M IMPORTANT DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? asshole mode are the worst.
>>47024110
If I shaved then could I join your group, Anon?
>>47034873
Don't forget the players who massively underestimate the importance, authority, and power of npc's.
Watching a bunch of level 2's threatening a warrior-priest who will tpk them in three rounds is maddening because of the sheer level of autism required for them to not realise they should shut up.
>"I've just spent thirty seconds detailing to you that this man is a total badass who can wipe the floor with the entire party, and who has been nothing but polite to you... why in the name of god almighty are you disrespecting and threatening him?!"
Sometimes I wish I didn't have an aversion to tpk's, or I'd just have them roll initiative, and then laugh as my prediction comes true.
>>47016057
>>47002065
Yes pls
>>47000873
Is this your party?
>>47033117
>implying he even goes to parties.
it's bait anon, by the way.
>>47024110
>makes less than 40k a year
>has ever used tobacco, alcohol, or drugs
>is single
>reads genre fiction
>facial hair
And, technically:
>owns a gaming consoleI have an original X-Box in my closet somewhere.
>watches capeshit/reads comicsI'm not particularly disposed to it and don't really seek it out, but capeshit is pretty unavoidable these days, and I don't detest it.
So that's somewhere between 5 and 7, depending on what you count.
>>47024110
I know this is just a bait for (You)s but
>has never used tobacco, alcohol, or drugs
>Alcohol
Are you telling me there are actually people who play these games sober?
>>47033478
>I wonder how much it's going to take to get him to put it away for good.
Have you triedtalking to him like an adult?
>>47035089
their are people who play RPG's at dry campuses in colleges, yes.though people drank before getting there
>>47025282
While most of that is pretty shitty, if you're going to say your character has some skill or another in his backstory you should probably put a few points into that skill.
It sucks in D&D and it's derivatives because Monks get shit skills and have little reason to pick up Int, but do something to represent it mechanically. That is, assuming this is a game that has a relevant skill.
>>47025282
>Paladin Chad
>Chad
Go back to /r9k/.
>>47028994
That's a bad idea.
