So, for a few months now I've been trying to find a game as a player because for a long time I've been working on DMing and I didn't think I was a good DM. Well, after a few games I realized a few things that make a bad DM.
My current game has a DM with his own PC that is unnaturally strong, basic bandits with the ability to wipe the group because they have 20+ AC with +15 modifiers on attacks and saving throws, and blatant favoritism, and ignoring the players.
I join the game because the DM claimed to "Be fair, and not railroad" yet any attempts to do our own thing is met with "If you don't do this, we'll attack and kill you". by NPC's that are unnaturally powerful and perfectly prepared to play to the party's weaknesses.
Despite how well made the world is, it feels like a power kick for the DM to see how much pressure he can put on and how powerful he can make his own party PC that railroads the hell out of us. So now I know how to be a better DM, but I don't know how to leave the game because the DM can't see his own faults and it will paint me as a villain because I don't want to be in a game that favors a certain player, that railroads, and that is unnaturally powerful. Not every NPC should be a boss.
What about you guys? What type of horror DM have you guys ran into that makes you regret searching for one? What was the worst DM you guys ever got and what made them so bad?
Wow, I've never had anything that bad! That sounds awful. I would definitely leave the game if I were you -- you don't need to tell the DM why if you don't feel comfortable doing that, or think that the DM will make it into a large issue. You can just leave.
Every horror story stems from a lack of communication between players and/or DM. I've seen my fair share, but talking it out helps every time. Worst comes to worst, you voice your concerns and nothing changes, they'll know why you leave. Best case scenario, everybody becomes best friends and has an epic 2 year long campaign. Communication is key
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
These days I really enjoy AL play for this reason. After my core group of pen and paper RPGers moved away I looked for a home game I could join. Every single one was filled with that exact type of DM. Homebrew power creed into oblivion. A local game store has a good group of gamers that I can join whenever and they always have a couple of tables playing different modules. If you have to scratch that PC itch I would recommend looking at AL play. I've had just as good narrative experience with quality DM's and fun players.
I'm not trying to preach AL, but if you have a hard time finding a group AL can be a great alternative to awkwardly breaking into a house game.
In my most recent game, the DM literally bullied the party into basically anti-magic bondage mittens and Suicide Squad collars, and then killed my paladin for refusing to go murder a rival thieves guild. I have never been so angry during a game before.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. -Charles Addams
I'm probably guilty of a few of these things mentioned. I have railroaded players. I like to think that the difference is that I told my players about the railroad and we talked about it out of game and why it was needed. They understood and we moved on.
Communication is the key to everything that we do in life. It's even more important in rpg table top games.
The DM sounds atrocious by having no win scenarios in the game. I bump up the ac and saving throws for the enemies as well but not like that.
Favoritism and ignoring players have no place in a decent DMs mind or game. So I'd leave if after talking to the DM doesn't work.
My biggest horror story probably goes back to the last one-shot I DM'd almost a month ago. Our normal group gets together every Friday and two people had to cancel for Black Friday. So, I took the reigns and opted to put together a one shot on a campaign storyline I've been working on. So, two hours before we were to meet up two more players opted out due to last minute family gatherings or couldn't make it back from out of town soon enough. I went through and adjusted encounters, fixed the power plays that the three final BBEGs had and it was cleared to go. Except for one thing...the final boss fight. I never decreased his overall health from 750 hp! And, honestly, I was having so much fun with this one shot and the players were so into it I didn't even realize this until one of the players stops the momentum and says...you've been saying he's hurting for a while and we've unloaded a lot of damage...how much damage have we done?! At that point they had already done over 550 points of damage and weren't too bad on health. So, I decided to keep going with it even though that's probably the point I should have let the Big Baddy die...after that, everyone had horrible. Horrible rolls. Three players came to single digit health and one came to 2 hp. This was a home-brewed adaptation and 0 hp equated to absolute death for a character. The main save they had was a last ditch suicide risk by throwing a bunch of explosives and everyone miraculously managed a DC 18 dex saving throw! The Big Bad Evil Guy died and the lair started caving in. They ran out of there and though some damage was taken along the way out, nobody died. I was amazed. It was a horror story for me in that this ONE battle took over three hours, possibly four, to accomplish in real time. It became a slow grind until the last ditch effort on behalf of the players. But, it worked out and I've learned of this nifty encounter builder that I've been planning future encounters with now. lol! Double checks I'm making everything fair and is so quick and easy I can adjust stuff on the fly if needed.
On the plus side, the players involved still mention occurrences and we have our inside jokes going into other campaigns we play through the week.
As I was learning to DM, I was a DM horror story, because my first DM was, so that's what I learned D&D was.
Example of my first DM being a terrible DM:
This was my first time doing D&D, I played as a premade Elf Wizard from the D&D 5e starter set (though we weren't playing the LMoP), named Theren Liadon. I had a list of spells, mage hand, magic missile, burning hands, so on. We were starting captured by some gnolls, tied up to stakes about to be burned. We tried to free ourselves, 2 succeeded, 2 failed, including me, who rolled a natural one, and the halfling rogue, who couldn't make the athletics check. Since I rolled a natural one, the DM said I could never try to free myself again. The party continued to fight the gnolls and tribal warriors until they killed all the enemies. I tried to cast spells, but couldn't, because some reason the DM made up (ropes absorbed my power or some nonsense like that, I'd understand if it was somatic components not letting me do anything, but that wasn't his excuse) I had to stay the whole battle observing the others fight.
After they killed the gnolls and tribal warriors, they freed me, and we went searching for a town to rest at. We came across a tribal warrior, who said he was going to guide us to a village to stay at. I asked him if I could roll for Insight, and he said sure. I rolled an 18, the DM said he was trustworthy (he didn't even roll for deception). I said that I had a bad feeling about this guy, and the halfling rogue agreed, so I said that I did Magic Missile on the tribal warrior, and the DM said "no, you don't" and didn't give any explanation why I couldn't.
The tribal warrior took us to a gnoll village, with a gnoll king who would kill us if we tried to run away. They captured us, enslaved us, and took away all our weapons, and sent us on a hunt with one of their princes to kill a lion. We found a lion, and I got to go first. Excited, I cast Burning Hands, and asked what it did, and he said "You jump on top of the lion and your hands light on fire. Roll 2d4 fire damage) I rolled a 1 and a 3. He said, "You do 4 fire damage to the lion. You are on top of the lion and catch on fire from your own spell. Take 10 fire damage." That was more damage than I had hit points, and I was dying.
My DM didn't know the rules or how spells worked at all. In a later game when I tried doing magic missile he thought it was one bolt that did 1d4+3 force damage, and I'd always barely do any damage, and felt completely useless because the DM wouldn't let me do anything I wanted and would railroad us all the time.
Example of me being a bad DM because of my previous experiences with D&D:
I had the characters start in a dungeon and had to work their way up from the bottom layer to the top with the help of a solar, 2 genies, a mammoth, a water elemental, a wererat bandit, a dwarf cleric, and a deck of many things to help them. I didn't understand that XP was divided among the party at the end of combat, I thought you gave them all the XP the monster was worth each, (so killing a mind flayer with 4 characters, each character would get 2900 XP), I also thought it was okay to give 5 legendary magic items to level 3 characters was okay, and so on. I was a bad DM, there's no denying it, I just hope I'm better now than before.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Yeah, I had a story kinda like that. So, without further ado, here's How We Had To Endure Two DMs That Acted Like Man-Childs (in the same campaign)
So, it started like this, it was summer and me and my friends wanted to do another D&D campaign (I don't really call it D&D because we didn't use the rulebooks. We just rolled inactive and used a D20 for damage and accuracy) after we finished my D&D game that I DMed. And, one of my friends (we'll call him Jojo because he LOVES JJBA) stepped up as DM. Last game, he played a REALLY annoying character named Julius. He was a half-drow rouge who killed everyone he encountered (even a 12-year-old boy who did nothing wrong). This character had been annoying me. However, I just took it as me not being a good DM.
Anyway, we all made characters (I played a earth Ginassi Druid with -2 cha). So, it started with us on a battle-field (I guess he didn't remember that my character was a pacifist who hated war and that the rest of us had no affiliation with the army/knights of this kingdom). We just massacred the enemy army and a Ork came up to us, ready for battle.
He asked us what we wanted to do. I said that I would like to take wild-shape and turn into a wolf. I rolled and he told me: "oh, no, I will role for you guys.".
Ok..wierd. But nothing inherently bad. So, I brushed it off and got ready to hear what happened.
"you rolled a one. You don't do anything and the Ork comes up to you."
"shit." I thought "oh, well then. Just a bad roll, I guess."
"the ork rolled a 20" He respond "you feel a pain in your leg and you look down to find that your leg has been ripped off."
The rest of that session was just like that. Us rolling ones and twos and his monsters rolling nat20s and 18s.
I ended up letting my character die because, at this point, he was useless. So, I made a new character.
We got a new player (we'll call him Grok. Based off of his characters name). Well, Grok hated our DM (based off stupid drama). Grok kept complaining about how he "wasn't playing real D&D" and wouldn't stop *****ing about it. Well, sessions were hell from then on. It was basically just, us failing/DM's monster rolling nat20s. One time, his shoulder hurt too much so he had me roll for everyone. My one friend wanted to kill a huge bat. Jojo tolled me to roll for him.
He rolled a 20.
Jojo tolled the player that he failed and later died.
The DM had enough with Grok and tolled him to be DM because he was done with Grok's shit. Grok was a decent DM. He used all of our backstorys and we thought that we were finally going to have some fun.
Well, that didn't happen.
One day, Grok started ghosting us and we kept calling him and asking if he wanted to play. One day, he texted us and told us to "go f@ck yourself.". We asked him what's wrong and he just kept saying "cool".
So, we told him that he was being a jerk and that we would start our own game without him.
Well, we finally got a good game as one of my good friends started DMing us. Now, we play D&D close to every day and I'm having a blast!
Yeah, I had a story kinda like that. So, without further ado, here's How We Had To Endure Two DMs That Acted Like Man-Childs (in the same campaign)
So, it started like this, it was summer and me and my friends wanted to do another D&D campaign (I don't really call it D&D because we didn't use the rulebooks. We just rolled inactive and used a D20 for damage and accuracy) after we finished my D&D game that I DMed. And, one of my friends (we'll call him Jojo because he LOVES JJBA) stepped up as DM. Last game, he played a REALLY annoying character named Julius. He was a half-drow rouge who killed everyone he encountered (even a 12-year-old boy who did nothing wrong). This character had been annoying me. However, I just took it as me not being a good DM.
Anyway, we all made characters (I played a earth Ginassi Druid with -2 cha). So, it started with us on a battle-field (I guess he didn't remember that my character was a pacifist who hated war and that the rest of us had no affiliation with the army/knights of this kingdom). We just massacred the enemy army and a Ork came up to us, ready for battle.
He asked us what we wanted to do. I said that I would like to take wild-shape and turn into a wolf. I rolled and he told me: "oh, no, I will role for you guys.".
Ok..wierd. But nothing inherently bad. So, I brushed it off and got ready to hear what happened.
"you rolled a one. You don't do anything and the Ork comes up to you."
"shit." I thought "oh, well then. Just a bad roll, I guess."
"the ork rolled a 20" He respond "you feel a pain in your leg and you look down to find that your leg has been ripped off."
The rest of that session was just like that. Us rolling ones and twos and his monsters rolling nat20s and 18s.
I ended up letting my character die because, at this point, he was useless. So, I made a new character.
We got a new player (we'll call him Grok. Based off of his characters name). Well, Grok hated our DM (based off stupid drama). Grok kept complaining about how he "wasn't playing real D&D" and wouldn't stop *****ing about it. Well, sessions were hell from then on. It was basically just, us failing/DM's monster rolling nat20s. One time, his shoulder hurt too much so he had me roll for everyone. My one friend wanted to kill a huge bat. Jojo tolled me to roll for him.
He rolled a 20.
Jojo tolled the player that he failed and later died.
The DM had enough with Grok and tolled him to be DM because he was done with Grok's shit. Grok was a decent DM. He used all of our backstorys and we thought that we were finally going to have some fun.
Well, that didn't happen.
One day, Grok started ghosting us and we kept calling him and asking if he wanted to play. One day, he texted us and told us to "go f@ck yourself.". We asked him what's wrong and he just kept saying "cool".
So, we told him that he was being a jerk and that we would start our own game without him.
Well, we finally got a good game as one of my good friends started DMing us. Now, we play D&D close to every day and I'm having a blast!
ps. I'm still friends with Jojo but, I don't think we will play D&D together anymore. And, yes, I now play actual D&D.
I once played a half elf bard in a roll20 game i was exited to join the group for session 1, the session started like normal, we joined a tavern to get a job and we completed the quest earned some money and everything was ok until the dm said he wanted to have his friend joined and we were ok with it he made a gipsy female bout 17 years old that was a spellcasters i think a warlock. on the first session he wanted us to sign a contract or he would not join our party we said no and he said he was leaving we were ok with it then i was able to convince to work with her for now and check the contract thing later we went for drink i got drunk and the dm friend she robed me of all my money in the first session, then when we went on a quest and she decided to go somewhere else spend my money and then go to a field to find goblins to kill and the last goblin she had her way with him. we were all shocked like wtf dude.
Not much of a DM horror story but a I play in this one group and the DM has this npc who keeps appearing who i hate. The npc is called "the golden haired man" and he is basically an all powerful being who controls everything. The golden haired man usually sends us on our quests which i was fine with until the dm said "the golden haired man hires villains for adventurers to fight" and then laughed like saying everything our characters does is worthless is just hilarious. The dm also implies that the golden haired man could erase all evil in the world if he wanted to but juSt dOeSn't. I hate this npc because his very existence makes me feel like our character's have no actual effect on the world.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
my name is not Bryce
Actor
Certified Dark Sun enjoyer
usually on forum games and not contributing to conversations ¯\_ (ツ)_/
For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
Not much of a DM horror story but a I play in this one group and the DM has this npc who keeps appearing who i hate. The npc is called "the golden haired man" and he is basically an all powerful being who controls everything. The golden haired man usually sends us on our quests which i was fine with until the dm said "the golden haired man hires villains for adventurers to fight" and then laughed like saying everything our characters does is worthless is just hilarious. The dm also implies that the golden haired man could erase all evil in the world if he wanted to but juSt dOeSn't. I hate this npc because his very existence makes me feel like our character's have no actual effect on the world.
I played in a game where we got to meet Elminster and were supposed to be sent on a quest by him. At first we were awed, but the DM misplayed it and made Elminster sound like a pompous, condescending ass, so we declined the task. DM looked horrified, cause that was THE adventure. He backpeddled quickly and asked us to reconsider, saying he had misrepresented the NPC. We agreed to go on the task.
Maybe suggest something like that to your DM, who may not realize how his RPing "the golden haired man" is ruining the game for you?
Not much of a DM horror story but a I play in this one group and the DM has this npc who keeps appearing who i hate. The npc is called "the golden haired man" and he is basically an all powerful being who controls everything. The golden haired man usually sends us on our quests which i was fine with until the dm said "the golden haired man hires villains for adventurers to fight" and then laughed like saying everything our characters does is worthless is just hilarious. The dm also implies that the golden haired man could erase all evil in the world if he wanted to but juSt dOeSn't. I hate this npc because his very existence makes me feel like our character's have no actual effect on the world.
You know I wouldn't be surprised if the 'Golden Haired Man" ends up being the BBEG or a god tier con artist with way too much money who isn't actually hiring the villains but places fake evidence all over that makes him looking like he is. Or he could just be an annoying npc like you said.
A session zero, back in the distant past before they were called session zeros:
Me: OK, I have my magic-user rolled up and ready to go
DM: Cool, let's figure out your backstory. OK, you've been shanghaied onto a ship and are a slave
Me: Umm, OK. I look for a way to escape
DM: There isn't one. Suddenly the ship is attacked by pirates. It's sinking
Me: Uhh, OK, I try to make my way onto the pirate ship
DM: Nope, you're stuck down with the oars and can't get out before the ship goes under
Me: ...
DM: You're not dead though. You come to and are floating on a board in the middle of the ocean
Me: Is there land or anything nearby?
DM: Make a roll
Me: (rolls d20, gets a middling roll)
DM: You don't see any land or ships
Me: Uhh... I guess I keep floating?
DM: Sure. You float around in the ocean, and after a few days you die of starvation and exposure
Me: (stares incredulously)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I believe all DMs are in horror stories (you have to find the perfect encounter that entertains players, keep track of initiative, passive perceptions, monsters and their hp, let alone problem players and time management).
That being said, the worst possible DM is one that isn't invested in the game and the players. I've had DMs that have overlooked players that ganged up and bullied me throughout whole sessions, and I've had DMs that encouraged bad, inappropriate behavior from players - but I have to say, the worst DM I've encountered spent a whole session using a random roll table that just granted mechanical boons - no other real quest or descriptors, just opening magical books for pets and for healing. Nothing else happened. The DM encouraged a whole heap of metagaming, min-maxing and just plain stupidity from the players, all due to a lack of involvement in the game itself.
That session ended for me with an Intellect devourer leaping from a book and taking my character's brain (my character didn't resist).
@Yamana_Eaji Yeah that definitely sounds terrible (especially the part about DMs who tolerated bullying, really sorry you had to deal with that), though "magic books that have random monsters pop out of them" could actually be interesting in the hands of a good DM lol.
I'm still pretty new to the DM hobby and have a lot to learn, so I've more than likely been the subject of a few players' horror stories. My sense of narrative flow in particular is atrocious and combat for me tends to move at a glacial pace because I get bogged down by all the rules. I've also occasionally been guilty of railroading players who made choices that threw me for a loop. Probably the worst part is I've created PCs just in order to fill out parties that don't have enough players, which I've come to realize doesn't help much. As with most things in life, I hope it's something I'll get better at with practice.
@Yamana_Eaji Yeah that definitely sounds terrible (especially the part about DMs who tolerated bullying, really sorry you had to deal with that), though "magic books that have random monsters pop out of them" could actually be interesting in the hands of a good DM lol.
I'm still pretty new to the DM hobby and have a lot to learn, so I've more than likely been the subject of a few players' horror stories. My sense of narrative flow in particular is atrocious and combat for me tends to move at a glacial pace because I get bogged down by all the rules. I've also occasionally been guilty of railroading players who made choices that threw me for a loop. Probably the worst part is I've created PCs just in order to fill out parties that don't have enough players, which I've come to realize doesn't help much. As with most things in life, I hope it's something I'll get better at with practice.
My very first session, in the very first game I played in, was way back in high school, playing First Edition AD&D. I made a Ranger. I like my character pretty much, and I was all set to play. The DM had decided that rather than start out all together somewhere, each of us would come from whatever homeland our races mandated. Not all of us were Human, and even the Humans were from different nations, so we were spread all over the world, and the first gaming session was about us trying to get to the same place.
I got passage on a ship and tried to sail to the city we were to meet in. It was attacked by Sahuagin, and there were lots of them. The sailors were dying in droves and I decided to ask one of the people in the room (not one of the other players) for advice. They told me I should hide below decks. I did so. Everyone else died, and I couldn't sail the ship without them. So I took a rowboat and barely made it to shore. My next encounter was with a 6 foot in diameter thing with a huge eye on the front side and a set of 10 little stalks on the top of it's head in a circle. I had no idea what it was. I didn't know a thing about the rules at that point. So I figured "Hey, I'm an archer, I've got a bow and arrows, and that thing has a great big eye on the front. I bet I can kill it if I shoot that eye out." Then I see the thing use a beam from it's eye to levitate a deer into it's mouth and eat it in one bite.
I decide to hide from it. Nope. It sees me. I try to run. Nope. I get the levitate beam. I'm floating along helplessly so I try to shoot it in the eye after all. I hit. It blinks at me and I get eaten.
It's a wonder I kept on playing the game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
<Insert clever signature here>
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So, for a few months now I've been trying to find a game as a player because for a long time I've been working on DMing and I didn't think I was a good DM. Well, after a few games I realized a few things that make a bad DM.
My current game has a DM with his own PC that is unnaturally strong, basic bandits with the ability to wipe the group because they have 20+ AC with +15 modifiers on attacks and saving throws, and blatant favoritism, and ignoring the players.
I join the game because the DM claimed to "Be fair, and not railroad" yet any attempts to do our own thing is met with "If you don't do this, we'll attack and kill you". by NPC's that are unnaturally powerful and perfectly prepared to play to the party's weaknesses.
Despite how well made the world is, it feels like a power kick for the DM to see how much pressure he can put on and how powerful he can make his own party PC that railroads the hell out of us. So now I know how to be a better DM, but I don't know how to leave the game because the DM can't see his own faults and it will paint me as a villain because I don't want to be in a game that favors a certain player, that railroads, and that is unnaturally powerful. Not every NPC should be a boss.
What about you guys? What type of horror DM have you guys ran into that makes you regret searching for one? What was the worst DM you guys ever got and what made them so bad?
Wow, I've never had anything that bad! That sounds awful. I would definitely leave the game if I were you -- you don't need to tell the DM why if you don't feel comfortable doing that, or think that the DM will make it into a large issue. You can just leave.
Every horror story stems from a lack of communication between players and/or DM. I've seen my fair share, but talking it out helps every time. Worst comes to worst, you voice your concerns and nothing changes, they'll know why you leave. Best case scenario, everybody becomes best friends and has an epic 2 year long campaign. Communication is key
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
These days I really enjoy AL play for this reason. After my core group of pen and paper RPGers moved away I looked for a home game I could join. Every single one was filled with that exact type of DM. Homebrew power creed into oblivion. A local game store has a good group of gamers that I can join whenever and they always have a couple of tables playing different modules. If you have to scratch that PC itch I would recommend looking at AL play. I've had just as good narrative experience with quality DM's and fun players.
I'm not trying to preach AL, but if you have a hard time finding a group AL can be a great alternative to awkwardly breaking into a house game.
In my most recent game, the DM literally bullied the party into basically anti-magic bondage mittens and Suicide Squad collars, and then killed my paladin for refusing to go murder a rival thieves guild. I have never been so angry during a game before.
Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.
-Charles Addams
I'm probably guilty of a few of these things mentioned. I have railroaded players. I like to think that the difference is that I told my players about the railroad and we talked about it out of game and why it was needed. They understood and we moved on.
Communication is the key to everything that we do in life. It's even more important in rpg table top games.
The DM sounds atrocious by having no win scenarios in the game. I bump up the ac and saving throws for the enemies as well but not like that.
Favoritism and ignoring players have no place in a decent DMs mind or game. So I'd leave if after talking to the DM doesn't work.
My biggest horror story probably goes back to the last one-shot I DM'd almost a month ago. Our normal group gets together every Friday and two people had to cancel for Black Friday. So, I took the reigns and opted to put together a one shot on a campaign storyline I've been working on. So, two hours before we were to meet up two more players opted out due to last minute family gatherings or couldn't make it back from out of town soon enough. I went through and adjusted encounters, fixed the power plays that the three final BBEGs had and it was cleared to go. Except for one thing...the final boss fight. I never decreased his overall health from 750 hp! And, honestly, I was having so much fun with this one shot and the players were so into it I didn't even realize this until one of the players stops the momentum and says...you've been saying he's hurting for a while and we've unloaded a lot of damage...how much damage have we done?! At that point they had already done over 550 points of damage and weren't too bad on health. So, I decided to keep going with it even though that's probably the point I should have let the Big Baddy die...after that, everyone had horrible. Horrible rolls. Three players came to single digit health and one came to 2 hp. This was a home-brewed adaptation and 0 hp equated to absolute death for a character. The main save they had was a last ditch suicide risk by throwing a bunch of explosives and everyone miraculously managed a DC 18 dex saving throw! The Big Bad Evil Guy died and the lair started caving in. They ran out of there and though some damage was taken along the way out, nobody died. I was amazed. It was a horror story for me in that this ONE battle took over three hours, possibly four, to accomplish in real time. It became a slow grind until the last ditch effort on behalf of the players. But, it worked out and I've learned of this nifty encounter builder that I've been planning future encounters with now. lol! Double checks I'm making everything fair and is so quick and easy I can adjust stuff on the fly if needed.
On the plus side, the players involved still mention occurrences and we have our inside jokes going into other campaigns we play through the week.
As I was learning to DM, I was a DM horror story, because my first DM was, so that's what I learned D&D was.
Example of my first DM being a terrible DM:
This was my first time doing D&D, I played as a premade Elf Wizard from the D&D 5e starter set (though we weren't playing the LMoP), named Theren Liadon. I had a list of spells, mage hand, magic missile, burning hands, so on. We were starting captured by some gnolls, tied up to stakes about to be burned. We tried to free ourselves, 2 succeeded, 2 failed, including me, who rolled a natural one, and the halfling rogue, who couldn't make the athletics check. Since I rolled a natural one, the DM said I could never try to free myself again. The party continued to fight the gnolls and tribal warriors until they killed all the enemies. I tried to cast spells, but couldn't, because some reason the DM made up (ropes absorbed my power or some nonsense like that, I'd understand if it was somatic components not letting me do anything, but that wasn't his excuse) I had to stay the whole battle observing the others fight.
After they killed the gnolls and tribal warriors, they freed me, and we went searching for a town to rest at. We came across a tribal warrior, who said he was going to guide us to a village to stay at. I asked him if I could roll for Insight, and he said sure. I rolled an 18, the DM said he was trustworthy (he didn't even roll for deception). I said that I had a bad feeling about this guy, and the halfling rogue agreed, so I said that I did Magic Missile on the tribal warrior, and the DM said "no, you don't" and didn't give any explanation why I couldn't.
The tribal warrior took us to a gnoll village, with a gnoll king who would kill us if we tried to run away. They captured us, enslaved us, and took away all our weapons, and sent us on a hunt with one of their princes to kill a lion. We found a lion, and I got to go first. Excited, I cast Burning Hands, and asked what it did, and he said "You jump on top of the lion and your hands light on fire. Roll 2d4 fire damage) I rolled a 1 and a 3. He said, "You do 4 fire damage to the lion. You are on top of the lion and catch on fire from your own spell. Take 10 fire damage." That was more damage than I had hit points, and I was dying.
My DM didn't know the rules or how spells worked at all. In a later game when I tried doing magic missile he thought it was one bolt that did 1d4+3 force damage, and I'd always barely do any damage, and felt completely useless because the DM wouldn't let me do anything I wanted and would railroad us all the time.
Example of me being a bad DM because of my previous experiences with D&D:
I had the characters start in a dungeon and had to work their way up from the bottom layer to the top with the help of a solar, 2 genies, a mammoth, a water elemental, a wererat bandit, a dwarf cleric, and a deck of many things to help them. I didn't understand that XP was divided among the party at the end of combat, I thought you gave them all the XP the monster was worth each, (so killing a mind flayer with 4 characters, each character would get 2900 XP), I also thought it was okay to give 5 legendary magic items to level 3 characters was okay, and so on. I was a bad DM, there's no denying it, I just hope I'm better now than before.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Yeah, I had a story kinda like that. So, without further ado, here's How We Had To Endure Two DMs That Acted Like Man-Childs (in the same campaign)
So, it started like this, it was summer and me and my friends wanted to do another D&D campaign (I don't really call it D&D because we didn't use the rulebooks. We just rolled inactive and used a D20 for damage and accuracy) after we finished my D&D game that I DMed. And, one of my friends (we'll call him Jojo because he LOVES JJBA) stepped up as DM. Last game, he played a REALLY annoying character named Julius. He was a half-drow rouge who killed everyone he encountered (even a 12-year-old boy who did nothing wrong). This character had been annoying me. However, I just took it as me not being a good DM.
Anyway, we all made characters (I played a earth Ginassi Druid with -2 cha). So, it started with us on a battle-field (I guess he didn't remember that my character was a pacifist who hated war and that the rest of us had no affiliation with the army/knights of this kingdom). We just massacred the enemy army and a Ork came up to us, ready for battle.
He asked us what we wanted to do. I said that I would like to take wild-shape and turn into a wolf. I rolled and he told me: "oh, no, I will role for you guys.".
Ok..wierd. But nothing inherently bad. So, I brushed it off and got ready to hear what happened.
"you rolled a one. You don't do anything and the Ork comes up to you."
"shit." I thought "oh, well then. Just a bad roll, I guess."
"the ork rolled a 20" He respond "you feel a pain in your leg and you look down to find that your leg has been ripped off."
The rest of that session was just like that. Us rolling ones and twos and his monsters rolling nat20s and 18s.
I ended up letting my character die because, at this point, he was useless. So, I made a new character.
We got a new player (we'll call him Grok. Based off of his characters name). Well, Grok hated our DM (based off stupid drama). Grok kept complaining about how he "wasn't playing real D&D" and wouldn't stop *****ing about it. Well, sessions were hell from then on. It was basically just, us failing/DM's monster rolling nat20s. One time, his shoulder hurt too much so he had me roll for everyone. My one friend wanted to kill a huge bat. Jojo tolled me to roll for him.
He rolled a 20.
Jojo tolled the player that he failed and later died.
The DM had enough with Grok and tolled him to be DM because he was done with Grok's shit. Grok was a decent DM. He used all of our backstorys and we thought that we were finally going to have some fun.
Well, that didn't happen.
One day, Grok started ghosting us and we kept calling him and asking if he wanted to play. One day, he texted us and told us to "go f@ck yourself.". We asked him what's wrong and he just kept saying "cool".
So, we told him that he was being a jerk and that we would start our own game without him.
Well, we finally got a good game as one of my good friends started DMing us. Now, we play D&D close to every day and I'm having a blast!
Yeah, I had a story kinda like that. So, without further ado, here's How We Had To Endure Two DMs That Acted Like Man-Childs (in the same campaign)
So, it started like this, it was summer and me and my friends wanted to do another D&D campaign (I don't really call it D&D because we didn't use the rulebooks. We just rolled inactive and used a D20 for damage and accuracy) after we finished my D&D game that I DMed. And, one of my friends (we'll call him Jojo because he LOVES JJBA) stepped up as DM. Last game, he played a REALLY annoying character named Julius. He was a half-drow rouge who killed everyone he encountered (even a 12-year-old boy who did nothing wrong). This character had been annoying me. However, I just took it as me not being a good DM.
Anyway, we all made characters (I played a earth Ginassi Druid with -2 cha). So, it started with us on a battle-field (I guess he didn't remember that my character was a pacifist who hated war and that the rest of us had no affiliation with the army/knights of this kingdom). We just massacred the enemy army and a Ork came up to us, ready for battle.
He asked us what we wanted to do. I said that I would like to take wild-shape and turn into a wolf. I rolled and he told me: "oh, no, I will role for you guys.".
Ok..wierd. But nothing inherently bad. So, I brushed it off and got ready to hear what happened.
"you rolled a one. You don't do anything and the Ork comes up to you."
"shit." I thought "oh, well then. Just a bad roll, I guess."
"the ork rolled a 20" He respond "you feel a pain in your leg and you look down to find that your leg has been ripped off."
The rest of that session was just like that. Us rolling ones and twos and his monsters rolling nat20s and 18s.
I ended up letting my character die because, at this point, he was useless. So, I made a new character.
We got a new player (we'll call him Grok. Based off of his characters name). Well, Grok hated our DM (based off stupid drama). Grok kept complaining about how he "wasn't playing real D&D" and wouldn't stop *****ing about it. Well, sessions were hell from then on. It was basically just, us failing/DM's monster rolling nat20s. One time, his shoulder hurt too much so he had me roll for everyone. My one friend wanted to kill a huge bat. Jojo tolled me to roll for him.
He rolled a 20.
Jojo tolled the player that he failed and later died.
The DM had enough with Grok and tolled him to be DM because he was done with Grok's shit. Grok was a decent DM. He used all of our backstorys and we thought that we were finally going to have some fun.
Well, that didn't happen.
One day, Grok started ghosting us and we kept calling him and asking if he wanted to play. One day, he texted us and told us to "go f@ck yourself.". We asked him what's wrong and he just kept saying "cool".
So, we told him that he was being a jerk and that we would start our own game without him.
Well, we finally got a good game as one of my good friends started DMing us. Now, we play D&D close to every day and I'm having a blast!
ps. I'm still friends with Jojo but, I don't think we will play D&D together anymore. And, yes, I now play actual D&D.
I once played a half elf bard in a roll20 game i was exited to join the group for session 1, the session started like normal, we joined a tavern to get a job and we completed the quest earned some money and everything was ok until the dm said he wanted to have his friend joined and we were ok with it he made a gipsy female bout 17 years old that was a spellcasters i think a warlock. on the first session he wanted us to sign a contract or he would not join our party we said no and he said he was leaving we were ok with it then i was able to convince to work with her for now and check the contract thing later we went for drink i got drunk and the dm friend she robed me of all my money in the first session, then when we went on a quest and she decided to go somewhere else spend my money and then go to a field to find goblins to kill and the last goblin she had her way with him. we were all shocked like wtf dude.
I think that PC would have to sleep some time... then would either wake up with no items, or not wake up...
Not much of a DM horror story but a I play in this one group and the DM has this npc who keeps appearing who i hate. The npc is called "the golden haired man" and he is basically an all powerful being who controls everything. The golden haired man usually sends us on our quests which i was fine with until the dm said "the golden haired man hires villains for adventurers to fight" and then laughed like saying everything our characters does is worthless is just hilarious. The dm also implies that the golden haired man could erase all evil in the world if he wanted to but juSt dOeSn't. I hate this npc because his very existence makes me feel like our character's have no actual effect on the world.
my name is not Bryce
Actor
Certified Dark Sun enjoyer
usually on forum games and not contributing to conversations ¯\_ (ツ)_/
For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
I played in a game where we got to meet Elminster and were supposed to be sent on a quest by him. At first we were awed, but the DM misplayed it and made Elminster sound like a pompous, condescending ass, so we declined the task. DM looked horrified, cause that was THE adventure. He backpeddled quickly and asked us to reconsider, saying he had misrepresented the NPC. We agreed to go on the task.
Maybe suggest something like that to your DM, who may not realize how his RPing "the golden haired man" is ruining the game for you?
You know I wouldn't be surprised if the 'Golden Haired Man" ends up being the BBEG or a god tier con artist with way too much money who isn't actually hiring the villains but places fake evidence all over that makes him looking like he is. Or he could just be an annoying npc like you said.
A session zero, back in the distant past before they were called session zeros:
Me: OK, I have my magic-user rolled up and ready to go
DM: Cool, let's figure out your backstory. OK, you've been shanghaied onto a ship and are a slave
Me: Umm, OK. I look for a way to escape
DM: There isn't one. Suddenly the ship is attacked by pirates. It's sinking
Me: Uhh, OK, I try to make my way onto the pirate ship
DM: Nope, you're stuck down with the oars and can't get out before the ship goes under
Me: ...
DM: You're not dead though. You come to and are floating on a board in the middle of the ocean
Me: Is there land or anything nearby?
DM: Make a roll
Me: (rolls d20, gets a middling roll)
DM: You don't see any land or ships
Me: Uhh... I guess I keep floating?
DM: Sure. You float around in the ocean, and after a few days you die of starvation and exposure
Me: (stares incredulously)
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I believe all DMs are in horror stories (you have to find the perfect encounter that entertains players, keep track of initiative, passive perceptions, monsters and their hp, let alone problem players and time management).
That being said, the worst possible DM is one that isn't invested in the game and the players. I've had DMs that have overlooked players that ganged up and bullied me throughout whole sessions, and I've had DMs that encouraged bad, inappropriate behavior from players - but I have to say, the worst DM I've encountered spent a whole session using a random roll table that just granted mechanical boons - no other real quest or descriptors, just opening magical books for pets and for healing. Nothing else happened. The DM encouraged a whole heap of metagaming, min-maxing and just plain stupidity from the players, all due to a lack of involvement in the game itself.
That session ended for me with an Intellect devourer leaping from a book and taking my character's brain (my character didn't resist).
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
@Yamana_Eaji Yeah that definitely sounds terrible (especially the part about DMs who tolerated bullying, really sorry you had to deal with that), though "magic books that have random monsters pop out of them" could actually be interesting in the hands of a good DM lol.
I'm still pretty new to the DM hobby and have a lot to learn, so I've more than likely been the subject of a few players' horror stories. My sense of narrative flow in particular is atrocious and combat for me tends to move at a glacial pace because I get bogged down by all the rules. I've also occasionally been guilty of railroading players who made choices that threw me for a loop. Probably the worst part is I've created PCs just in order to fill out parties that don't have enough players, which I've come to realize doesn't help much. As with most things in life, I hope it's something I'll get better at with practice.
I have all these problems. It's likely normal.
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
My very first session, in the very first game I played in, was way back in high school, playing First Edition AD&D. I made a Ranger. I like my character pretty much, and I was all set to play. The DM had decided that rather than start out all together somewhere, each of us would come from whatever homeland our races mandated. Not all of us were Human, and even the Humans were from different nations, so we were spread all over the world, and the first gaming session was about us trying to get to the same place.
I got passage on a ship and tried to sail to the city we were to meet in. It was attacked by Sahuagin, and there were lots of them. The sailors were dying in droves and I decided to ask one of the people in the room (not one of the other players) for advice. They told me I should hide below decks. I did so. Everyone else died, and I couldn't sail the ship without them. So I took a rowboat and barely made it to shore. My next encounter was with a 6 foot in diameter thing with a huge eye on the front side and a set of 10 little stalks on the top of it's head in a circle. I had no idea what it was. I didn't know a thing about the rules at that point. So I figured "Hey, I'm an archer, I've got a bow and arrows, and that thing has a great big eye on the front. I bet I can kill it if I shoot that eye out." Then I see the thing use a beam from it's eye to levitate a deer into it's mouth and eat it in one bite.
I decide to hide from it. Nope. It sees me. I try to run. Nope. I get the levitate beam. I'm floating along helplessly so I try to shoot it in the eye after all. I hit. It blinks at me and I get eaten.
It's a wonder I kept on playing the game.
<Insert clever signature here>