#baddm

[satan-is-a-furry]

This is by far one the worst things I have ever made

[netherilageofmagic]

A Taste of Netheril, Age of Magic. A place where the DM team feels DMs can’t be questioned and are above reproach, where DMs don’t do their own due diligence and let players get harassed for weeks on end because they wanted conflict, then permaed multiple characters, and decided none of it was their fault but wanted to through the blame on others who caused drama.

[michaelmounts]

RT @The_BadDM: Getting closer... hopefully will be able to finish #BeholderClaus on Christmas! #dnd #miniaturepainting #rpg #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons https://t.co/eKYMbM6Xli

Getting closer... hopefully will be able to finish #BeholderClaus on Christmas!#dnd #miniaturepainting #rpg #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons pic.twitter.com/eKYMbM6Xli

— The BadDM (@The_BadDM) December 25, 2018

from Twitter https://twitter.com/etherassassin

[gwerthdaro]

So i have now realized that i have been playing dnd with a bad dm, and have decided that i am going to talk with them, (along with another player who feels the same way) and either try and make it fun for me and the other player again, or were both gonna walk and play a game of our own.

The funny thing is, that this is the first bad gaming experience in now six years of playing role playing games, which has left me with that familiar hollow feeling inside. So yeah, fun feelings all ‘round.

[baddm]

Fanmail isn't an option apparently ;p But I did have a story. I won't say every detail, but long story short. My best bud and I completed our 4e game and the dm wants to do a sequel with different characters. But apparently my Bard and my bud's Paladin belong to the DM now. He decides the paladin has two kids and he names them and he forces my bard to be part of their lives and he essentially is claiming that because we aren't playing those characters now, that the DM owns them for his purposes

Part 2. Also my bard had a sister. An innocent and harmless piece of my backstory. I just wanted him to have one, that’s all. Apparently our DM thought it was ok to make her get captured and possessed by the villain. And at the end of the game she died and I had 0 chance to save her. Basically he tore my backstory apart to make me mad and he has admitted it. I want to know if that’s cool. Can you just destroy my backstory because you think it’s fun?

You can use the submission option if you ever have another story to submit. :3 But asks are fine too.

I think character background is a great thing to have as a DM because it always gives you something to work with and players love to have things that explore their character more in depth. Essentially, all non-player characters fall under the DMs jurisdiction. So, I do think it is a DM’s right to use these characters if you bring them up. But this right can definitely be abused. 

I feel your pain on the sister slaying story, because I once had a DM who created a situation in which there was only one response my character could have possibly had. The result of this was him being indirectly the cause of his parents eating each other alive. He still lived with his parents. He came home to discover this gorey scene. 

Now, Boomy is still to this day one of my favorite characters because the DM wanted the world to be very dark, so he just threw horrific event after horrific event at my warmage. He killed most of the people he knew or met, other party members rotated like a revolving door, but he just wasn’t able to take Boomy down. Somehow he remained comparatively stable and even became the leader.

On the DM side of this, I have had characters with family - lots of children, wives, family history, close followers from leadership feat, pets, you name it - and I often co-control them rather than take over all of them entirely. When I do fully control them, I also like to ask a player’s opinion on things that don’t need to be kept secret. Not only is collaborating on background characters a good way to get input on the relationship between that character and the player character, but it also sparks ideas and takes some of the workload off of you.

As far as owning PCs after a game is ended goes, I have seen a DM reuse old PCs in a world that he’s using again, but usually it’s when the Players of those characters are no longer around. I think when both the PCs and their original players are involved a collaborative approach would be preferable as well. But that’s my answer to a lot of Player-DM situations. I mean, D&D is a collaborative story-telling game after all.

Work together friends! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ 

[netherilageofmagic]

A Taste of Netheril, Age of Magic. A place where the DM team feels DMs can’t be questioned and are above reproach, where DMs don’t do their own due diligence and let players get harassed for weeks on end because they wanted conflict, then permaed multiple characters, and decided none of it was their fault but wanted to through the blame on others who caused drama.

[netherilageofmagic]

A Taste of Netheril, Age of Magic. A place where the DM team feels DMs can’t be questioned and are above reproach, where DMs don’t do their own due diligence and let players get harassed for weeks on end because they wanted conflict, then permaed multiple characters, and decided none of it was their fault but wanted to through the blame on others who caused drama.

[netherilageofmagic]

A Taste of Netheril, Age of Magic. A place where the DM team feels DMs can’t be questioned and are above reproach, where DMs don’t do their own due diligence and let players get harassed for weeks on end because they wanted conflict, then permaed multiple characters, and decided none of it was their fault but wanted to through the blame on others who caused drama.

[netherilageofmagic]

A Taste of Netheril, Age of Magic. A place where the DM team feels DMs can’t be questioned and are above reproach, where DMs don’t do their own due diligence and let players get harassed for weeks on end because they wanted conflict, then permaed multiple characters, and decided none of it was their fault but wanted to through the blame on others who caused drama.

[baddm]

HELP! i am going to be a dungeon master for the first time and I'm afraid of being terrible DM what should I do? does anyone have any tips?

I hope this hasn’t been sitting in the inbox too long. I didn’t get an alert to its existence.

Don’t worry about being super amazing awesome your first time. No one is. You’re gonna make some mistakes because everyone does. Even experienced DMs who’ve been at it for years. Something good to keep in mind is that people are unpredictable. You can’t plan for everything that your players will do. You can plan for a lot, and I suggest you do, but everyone has different perspectives. Your players will definitely see things from a different point of view and come up with some crazy ideas. Knowing your players on a personal level will make guessing what they might do a lot easier, but they’ll still surprise you.

Being able to wing it is an important skill as a DM that will develop more over time. Leave wiggle room for changing things. Have multiple options you can turn to in case things don’t go the way you plan. There have been instances wherein a player will do something that completely destroys everything you have planned for the night. If you plan for multiple separate adventures, the ones not used can always be brought back later in the game with tweaks for level differences or plot changes.

If you want to stream line things, making some notes on monsters will save some time from rolling random encounters - even if it’s just page numbers so you don’t have to flip through the manual as much. Some DMs also like to roll up treasure beforehand as well. This one will depend on you and your players. Some players are more excited by the rolling while others might see it as a waste of time.

The first game you run is like putting out feelers for the sort of atmosphere your players are interested in. If you plan a very serious, dark plot but your players only want to joke around, you’re gonna have a bad time on both sides. So, the first game doesn’t necessarily need to have any plot or any connection to a plot you may have later. Use generiventures at the start to get a feel for what your players want out of the game before you start bringing in more complex villains and plot elements.

If anyone else has some tips for omgthomashanna, please do chime in!