Brendan
2010-01-24, 09:42 AM
So, before I do anything else, I would like to ask all of you NOT to suggest I get rid of the player. He is my best friend of thirteen years and I don't want to have this be a problem.
However, there are some big problems which need help. each one of the people in my group are preparing a campaign, and so each player is a PC and a DM. my friend has some problems when he does either. I made a mostly complete list of each.
problems with his DMing
1: railroading (recently he had an ettin with class levels, an imp wit at least 11 sorceror levels and a mid-high level satyr bard appear out of nowhere to capture us with a homebrewed spell that both steals all of our magic items and teleports unwilling people without a line of sight and with no save. We appeared inside of a jail, naked, having lost 20,000 gp flying boots, a 5,000 gp cloak of elvenkind, a wand of web, a scroll of fireball, all mundane cloths, a couple hundred GP, a masterwork quarterstaff, and a few other fun items we got when looting corpses.)
2: overpowered DMPCs (at the start of the game, the DMpCs were an aasimar druid who got the aasimar species free w/o LA and a wizard of higher level who got the drow species without LA. the PCs are a monk and a ranger.)
3: splitting the party (after the ranger died, he was ressurected for no reason and a new player joined in as well (it was a third level game at that point) and were in some far off place. We started the session with me and the rogue being sent away for 20 minutes, and the two ressurectees being sent away for an hour and a half. the reason? "It's their fault for dying." Yeah, a seventh level rogue and a minotaur barbarian tends to cause death in third level PCs.)
4: encouraging PvP fighting ( recently, the DMPC wizard tried to kill a PC for not letting her steal from the rest of the party. we were forced to take sides. the DMPC then tried to kill herself.)
5: constant random battles with minimal chances to roleplay. (the reason? "I gave you a chance, but you found a nonviolent way to defeat the enemy that didn't involve negotiation.)
thats all I can think of for DMing. when he plays as a PC, he tends to back seat DM, believe that "being bloody annoying is an interesting character trait", attacking other PCs to be "in character" as a 60 year old elf. In an evil campaign he effectively mindraped a new player for fun.
although all of this together is a lot, I want to reemphasize that he is my best friend and when he does not do these things, he is a very good DM. He just does these things occasionally.
what should I do?
However, there are some big problems which need help. each one of the people in my group are preparing a campaign, and so each player is a PC and a DM. my friend has some problems when he does either. I made a mostly complete list of each.
problems with his DMing
1: railroading (recently he had an ettin with class levels, an imp wit at least 11 sorceror levels and a mid-high level satyr bard appear out of nowhere to capture us with a homebrewed spell that both steals all of our magic items and teleports unwilling people without a line of sight and with no save. We appeared inside of a jail, naked, having lost 20,000 gp flying boots, a 5,000 gp cloak of elvenkind, a wand of web, a scroll of fireball, all mundane cloths, a couple hundred GP, a masterwork quarterstaff, and a few other fun items we got when looting corpses.)
2: overpowered DMPCs (at the start of the game, the DMpCs were an aasimar druid who got the aasimar species free w/o LA and a wizard of higher level who got the drow species without LA. the PCs are a monk and a ranger.)
3: splitting the party (after the ranger died, he was ressurected for no reason and a new player joined in as well (it was a third level game at that point) and were in some far off place. We started the session with me and the rogue being sent away for 20 minutes, and the two ressurectees being sent away for an hour and a half. the reason? "It's their fault for dying." Yeah, a seventh level rogue and a minotaur barbarian tends to cause death in third level PCs.)
4: encouraging PvP fighting ( recently, the DMPC wizard tried to kill a PC for not letting her steal from the rest of the party. we were forced to take sides. the DMPC then tried to kill herself.)
5: constant random battles with minimal chances to roleplay. (the reason? "I gave you a chance, but you found a nonviolent way to defeat the enemy that didn't involve negotiation.)
thats all I can think of for DMing. when he plays as a PC, he tends to back seat DM, believe that "being bloody annoying is an interesting character trait", attacking other PCs to be "in character" as a 60 year old elf. In an evil campaign he effectively mindraped a new player for fun.
although all of this together is a lot, I want to reemphasize that he is my best friend and when he does not do these things, he is a very good DM. He just does these things occasionally.
what should I do?