Horrible DM or Me- crazy idiot?[DnD]

[Xerath]

Hey guys.

I feel like i have to share my yesterdays(not only) experience with someone. I feel like this session was unfair but i might be wrong so i would like to ask you question if DM was ok.

I am not follower of rule "DM is god and whatever he says is true and right", DnD is tabletop game and it is supposed to give fun to everyone - DM and players, not only DM. If DM makes some bad decisions i think it's fair to point them out and discuss them. If player makes bad decision it's fair to punish him in proper way which matches up with scale of mistake. I will give you little background.


DM

I know him, i know how his scenarios and sessions look. He likes pretty "epic" stories with huge danger and some horrible crap happening to world. There is always something big going on behind pretty casual things like undeads. It's not like there is one necromancer reviving corpses. It's more like huge plague that will eventually destroy the world if someone will not take an action. I'm ok with that, i am not huge fan of scenarios of this type but sometimes i just like to do some badass things and become someone important in world.

Usually he is ok and fair until(though sometimes he goes totally crazy)... his gf(who is totally useless) joins session(what as you might guess happened yesterday). Then he becomes this DM who wants to prove how badass he is, how he will not forgive any mistake and eventually will kill someone just to show how cool and unforgivable he is. It results in total confusion, he is unpredictable and suddenly things he allowed during last few sessions can cause your death(at this point you can guess he killed me).

Set up, previous scenarios(he scerwed me then too)

I was invited for our fourth session. It turned out all players who used to play with me left game(dunno why) so we found 3 new players + DMs girlfriend.

I was playing as 3 lvl warrior. I was 30 years old, went through alot of stuff i was fighting for Cormyr(where scenario takes place) on few wars risking my life for people of these lands. I had incredibly good rolls so i was pretty intelligent(15). In our first scenario i found out about weird stuff going on in east. Orcs started to migrate to west. We found out there is some wierd plague that is killing delicate plants and reviving people. Our group was choosen by ruler to investigate whole thing. We found tons of informations, we were only people who knew about it that much. In fourth session only clerics knew that there is plague and that was only information they had.

We had nice group but there was one NPC(dunno how to call it in english other than that) who joined us. He was friendly wizard, pretty misterious. And then in our third scenario after going through dungeons full of undeads and expecting necromancers in forests(searching for them) we(me and NPC wizard) have found camp with some people. DM said these people are probably villagers. My first concern was - why there are villagers in center of huge forest 20 miles away from nearest village, where we found tons of undeads - there was no reason. I went to camp with drawn bow pointing at one of them, said to not say a word or you are dead(didn't want him to cast a spell if he was under cover) i was looking for some hidden clothes while pointing my bow at him. Then this mofo started to say some crap i didn't understand so i immediately shot him right in the head.

And then crap goes down. Rest starts to run away, but wizard stops me from chasing. Then this mofo idiot NPC wizard turns "super paladin good my little pony love much doge" mode on and immediately shots huge 8d6 fireball right in my face cos i killed some guy who didn't listen, who was extremly suspicious and could be a threat. I know i killed someone but ffs it turnes out our little wizard is actually lvl 8 with fireball who could easily help us in other very dangerous sitiuations, but no he suddenly becomes powerful when DM wants to kill me in one shot, not even epic fight or anything, just b00m for stupid reason. Other players noticed light of fireball and found my body fried around -8 and saved me. However due to my permament scars i got -2 charisma. I asked DM what the fluff is going on? Other players had "wtf face". Well it pissed me off but it's ok i can play. Wizard ran away and we couldn't find him after.

Imo it was extremly unnecessary, what do you think?


Yesterdays session

DM introduced new players, cool guys, nice characters. Since i was alone cos my previous players quit, DM explained they died in some way while we were going back to Arabel to share our informations. Now it's part where you might get a little bit confused cos it's pretty crazy but still...

I've found destroyed caravan with dead bodies with signs of being infected by plague, i cut off their heads to be sure they wont come to life. However i(like an idiot) forgot about horses. They came to life, two big undead horses with red eyes and stuff. I got critical hit so killed one in one shot and then craziness starts. I was exhausted, really tired and didn't know if i can survive this fight. I thought to myself - why not to try something totally crazy and unexpected? Yes... i tried to tame it. And it would be ok if i die cos that is stupid decision but still... I rolled 20. Well i wouldn't mind if DM said i failed and died or i have to fight. But he looked at dice and said ok, it's your mount now. I was like "rly??? it's so cool!". That was actually first rewarding thing through last 4 sessions and i felt like whole crap i went through was worth it. I wanted to take this horse to Arabel to give it to clerics so they could investigate it's blood or whatever and find cause of plague and maybe even cure. Then i met my new companions(other players), explained how i got it, however i didn't share informations about plague since i don't know if i was allowed to.

Ok so let's skip some story and go straight to Arabel. Weather is horrible, like sign of plague. We go to gates. I rolled 16 to see if anything is on walls, apparently there was nothing. Then we see like three or four people at gates. As it turns out they are all Helm clerics in shiny full plate armors with powerful weapons(yea not town guards or anything). I was like "oh rly". Before i even said a word they said to shut the fk up(oh how kind) or we are dead. They searched us, looked at my horse(which was hidden under cape) and suddenly pointed at me and said "he is a necromancer, capture these scrubs". Didn't even ask for my name or why i am here, they pulled their weapons. I said i they wont disarm me that easily and let me speak a word. One of them started to cast a spell and DM gave me chance to react. I threw my huge axe at him.

Well i don't have any throwing traits, i didn't want to kill him i wanted to distract him and just run away. I didn't know what is going on, they didn't explain anything and didn't let me explain what we are doing, they just wanted to catch us so i felt like something wrong is going on. I could buy helm emblem too and just stick it to my armor and act like i am guard + i didn't see anything at walls - i thought it's strange. My axe got him and our all powerful full plate cleric died in 1 second. I'm asking...really? is he damn dog or something to die that quickly? Then suddenly 15 guard archers(on walls) show up out of nowhere and shoot at us.

Ofcourse i got massive amount of damage and woke up in jail. They pulled me to another room where there was zone of thruth cast by one of clerics. DM didn't give me chance to roll will saves(dunno why). I explained everything. Explained i didn't want to kill this cleric, explained i have news about plague, sitiuation with horse, that i am only person who have that much information and that ruler gave me this mission, i am not necromancer, i am veteran that was fighting for Cormyr, i explained that sitiuation was suspicious and i want to cooperate. Ofcourse i lied one time cos i forgot that there were two horses not one(which isn't lie when you forget but duh...DM knows better) and then celrics went crazy and said i am liar - cos of some stupid information that doesn't even matter. They didn't give a **** about anything but that and they sentenced me to death by the burning at the stake. I was so FREAKING angry. I whispered with other players, they said they will try to save me since they let them free(i was like really? necromancers companions? random people from east?). But no, DM said no they can't so bye bye i am dead. Then everyone said "it's bull**** man". There was a little fight between us, i was pissed off so i told him all my problems with whole scenario and what i didn't like. Then game ended for all of us since everyone(even his gf)) except DM said they won't play anymore today.

Yes i am pissed off even now when i think about that but i want to see the other side of this situation so i wrote alot of little details and would like to ask YOU guys if in this situation DM is just ahole or it's me who is guilty for destroying this session.

PS:Sorry for my english :(((

[Mr Beer]

As described, the DM is the problem.

[Bulhakov]

To answer the question in the topic - both!

On one hand, the DM's role is to ensure everyone at the table has fun, not to prove that he's "a badass". On the other hand, you (your character) acted extremely "trigger-happy stupid" in both situations.

Another theory might be that in the described situations the DM was not planning any combat and your move to violence ruined his plans somehow. Some DMs can improvise well around this, others have a very wrong reflex to punish the character too severely (awkwardly trying to teach the lesson "this is what happens when you jump to violence when you were not supposed to!").

[Rainman3769]

I think there is about an 70/30 split in Fail here. 70% your DM, 30% you.

In the first scenario, yes it does seem weird for there to be a settlement way out in the middle of nowhere, but hey, its a game, anything is possible. I think you made a mistake when you shot and killed the villager, seemed rather heavy handed to me and to anyone with any sort of "Good" in their aligntment, it would not go over well to say the least. Your DM's reaction in having the suddenly high powered wizard NPC straight up one-shot your character was bull****-tacular though, he could have gotten the point across in ALOT of better ways.

In the second scenario, I think the sudden appearance of those clerics was pretty stupid. I feel your DM should have given you a legit chance to try and explain yourself. Your problem in this instance though was throwing your axe at someone like that cleric or a city watchman, no matter what your reasons or intentions were. That sort of thing can realistically only end one way, getting swarmed and killed or captured by the guards. Your interrogation and execution was **** though, that was railroaded steamrolling on your DMs part hands down. Overall, yes your DM and his need to try and impress his lady is a big problem here, but take your own actions into account as well because I think you could have acted differently in both situations.

[Sartharina]

I'd say one of the problems is that you're a hypocrite for the first two parts of the situation, but the DM fumbled worse. I'm wondering if you've excluded information that probably would help your case.

First one is all on you. Guy suddenly kills an innocent man in one shot. Is surprised when someone objects by also killing him in one shot! Derpdeath.

Second - Hmm, a city is on-edge because of a zombie infestation, with Paladins/Clerics of Torm on-edge and standing at the gate. Suddenly, a mysterious guy on an inexplicably-concealed horse (That probably pings and smells of Undead Zombiness rides up). They're almost as on-edge as your first PC was, which is understandable given the circumstances. Fortunately, they gave you the benefit of the doubt by not murdering you on sight - but rather than comply with an arrest (Because you come riding up on an undead horse - which would say "I'm a necromancer!". Covering it with a sheet says "I'm on an undead horse but I don't want you to know that - there are no honest reasons to cover a horse with a sheet - that said, blinders may have worked), you went even more belligerent than that one NPC to your first PC.

There is one point where the DM screwed up, though - the Zone of Truth. The spell would have let them know you were telling the truth about everything prior to the horses - and you shouldn't have been able to lie in the first place! The spell doesn't let anyone know you lied - it stops you from telling that lie in the first place.

[comicshorse]

I think there is about an 70/30 split in Fail here. 70% your DM, 30% you.


That sounds about right.
In the first scenario you're character murdered a villager for talking. The stuff with the wizard was a bit random, particularly him just running away, but there really was no way (short of the villagers all being secret werewolves) that this was going to work out well after you'd killed the villager.
Second one's more balanced. In a country where a undead plague is ravaging the land, riding around on an undead horse is never going to get you a happy reception and attacking the Helm guys rather than explaining what happened added fuel to the fire. That said from what you said everything after that is the DM being pissed at you.


and then celrics went crazy and said i am liar - cos of some stupid information that doesn't even matte

I can't help being curious what this information actually was

[Xerath]

Ty for response everyone :)

@Sartharina

I have never claimed we play good characters. We usually play evil characters. Don't get me wrong - we don't burn villages . Also Mr powerful 8 lvl wizard(vs me lvl 2) didn't have much problem doing evil stuff few hours before turning fluffy good mode on and throwing huge ball of fire into my face cos i killed(from our point of view) some guy who didn't listen.

If characters are so twisted and unpredictable this game should be single player + DM not group of people. Also what's the point of throwing someone like this in our team without any apparent reason. I guess it's killing your players in one shot giving them no chance to do anything.


Second scenario - i had no idea clerics knew about plague since it was pretty much secret and only me and rulers knew about it. If ruler told clerics about plague it would be pretty reasonable to also tell them he hired group to investigate this case, tell them our names and how we look. If clerics figured out it for themselves it would be reasonable to tell about that to ruler which would result in telling them our names and how we look... in his scenario everything seems just so disconnected.

I understand whole thing with undead horse but what happened after that - telling them who i am, what i know and that my informations could help alot of people and save their lifes was completely ignored. People who they protected suddenly don't matter and they will kill one guy who survived east expedition. This decision will kill way more than this one cleric who probably will be resurrected tomorrow. Also they sentenced me after like 20 minutes, not talking with ruler, not giving any chance of negotiations and destroying "save mission" of my fellow players. If this is how judgement system works in dnd nowadays i must say it just sucks.

As a light evil character i always keep something to protect my ass - that's partially why i didn't share any info about plague with anyone else.

@Rainman3769
We are not playing good characters for like 3 years now so it was perfectly clear how this will go. Also wizard guy was evil too and didn't have much problem doing evil stuff before accident and now suddenly he becomes hero of villagers and kills me.


@up they didn't let us explain, said pretty clear shut the **** up or death.

Information was - there were 2 horses and not one. I forgot about one i killed before taming my undead pony so i said there was only one horse at this caravan. Then DM went crazy called me an idiot and liar cos there were 2 horses. I mean wtf :D


Also when we were level 1 he threw at us at 1 level of a dungeon - ub3r pr0 b4d4ss vampire, who casts shadows, throws reflections, looks completely normal, can pull weapons out of his ass even tho he was disarmed, can turn into fog and go through little holes in dungeons to pass walls, has insta perma stealth and attacks 3 times in one round almost killing whole team, sunlight does not affect him in any way, he is leader of underground and can't be shot or attacked with anything. That's kind of bull**** we are dealing with but at least in encounter with this guy we didn't die cos we played it smart.

[Delwugor]

I noticed a rotating cast of players, I've ran into it before and it's a clear sign something is wrong. If many players are leaving there is probably a good reason. If I had to make a guess based upon your post, it would be the GM is inconsistent and poor at improvising. The wizard attacking your character was not a good thing, but the situation with the clerics sounds about right.

I also notice that your character is acting alone in both scenarios and the rest of the party has to catch up and attempt to save him. Players going maverick and using unnecessary violence can easily lead to disaster, as it did for you.

I see it as your maverick actions are playing against his poor ability to adjust and improvise from your actions.

[Jay R]

First scenario: You threatened somebody who was not hurting anyone, and then killed him while he was helpless, just because he didn't speak your language. Your fault.

Second scenario: Complete nonsense. DM's fault.

I don't think you're likely to find a fun game here

[Sartharina]

-snip-Okay, that explains a lot more. The DM's not very good at his job.

[jedipotter]

It is both of you.

This is a great example of a really bad DM. And a great example of some not great choices by a player.

Town from Nowhere Ok, assuming the town was all strange and all....why did you bother walking into town? Ok..the town is strange...move on. But lets say you needed to find something out about the town......well that is when you sneak in at night. You don't walk down main street with a drawn arrow.

But ok, say you walk into town arrow ready. And someone looks at you cross eyed. You do not have to kill them! You could, for example, just leave town. The ''someone looked at me so I must be an insane murderhobo'' is just not a good way to play. I know it sounds good as a player to say ''my character kills like a mad dog'', but just stop and think if that is really the best way to do things...

NPC Buddy Ok, if you ever have a NPC buddy around...don't trust them. Now if your a ''good character'' you have to pretend to be good, so you can't do much. But if your evil...there is no limit. So beat up and interrogate any NPC buddy. Make sure you know what the NPC can do. And never, ever do anything ''evil'' in front of the PC. And always betray the NPC first. When you cause evil in town and you walk back over to NPC buddy...just shoot him with the arrow first. Don't even let him say something.

Undead Horse you really tried to ride an undead horse into town? Why? Sure, you might think a plague undead horse or whatever is the greatest thing ever....but the DM is thinking ''AH, now he is a target''. Never be a target.

The good(ish) clerics Don't attack the good(ish) clerics. And if your evil...Do Not Go To Town like a normal good person. Sneak into town. The way bad guys do.

[Curbstomp]

I hate to say it, but in this context jedipotter is quite correct. Other than the NPC buddy thing. That's a bit more DM-dependent. In my games 1/3 of NPC's are trustworthy, 1/3 are ambiguous, and 1/3 are out to get you.

[Xerath]

@jedipotter

The town we arrived to was not random. It was Arabel capital city of Cormyr where ruler was waiting for our expedition team so i assumed clerics know who we are. Also we didn't ride on horses to gate, we left them behind us around 200 meters from gates. It is freaking strange to not see anyone on walls of capital city. And as i said i wanted to give undead horse to clerics so they could find out what whole plague thing is about. They didn't let me speak. Also it's worth to mention my characters family was nobility of this town. DM ignored lots of stuff that could certainly help me - for example if they would even allow me to say my name, they would already know i am part of towns nobility and would not treat me like some random guy. Thats why i was going to town through gates and not like some rat through underground. It's worth to mention that DM himself told me that i can make character who is part of Arabels nobility. I thought it's nice to have this little background to save my ass sometimes, apparently i was damn wrong.




Yesterday i met with DM and we talked about that scenario a little bit. We both agreed both of us ****ed up and i pointed out what i think was wrong in his other scenarios, he pointed out what was wrong with my character and we are all good now. It's always some kind of lesson even if session goes as bad as it went last time :D

[Jay R]

Perfect. The system worked.