Volomon
2015-12-23, 01:02 PM
I need advise I can't tell if I'm over stepping my bounds.
My background is AD&D, 3.5 and 5th. With a quick look at 4th before retiring that immediately. I have always DMed.
I come to a session as a player. The DM introduces himself as experienced. Including me there is a total of 3 experienced players and two first timers. We all start noticing odd things and I'm quick to give plot holes cover. He's rusty I think, give him time.
An example is overly elaborate descriptions of background NPCs that do nothing. Conversing yields nothing both RP or roll. Laughing guards (enjoying their free time not madness) in a town besieged by blight, raids, isolation, and a curse.
So ok, whats more odd is it quickly becomes apparent that this is going to be linear, aka a railroad campaign. We've humored him by not sidetracking. Talk to a go to b youre trapped you have to go to c.
I've never seen a game so linear in all my life. Including video games. For instance in session 3 (where one should lose their rust) we're in a tower going past the 3rd floor brings you to floor 1. He fought us on going down, I'm not sure why. So I think I'm going to bust out this glass. Too thick. Not, "its magically warded" it's just too thick. I was going to look out get my bearings and maybe rope up. Skip forward through some content. We've been forced to go through a portal or be forced to stay in this magical stair loop aka die. We appear in a room with no exit only a fire place and a "boss". Yup you got it, I fiugred this out in 2 seconds, fireplace is the exit. Guess where it leads a single path to a single hole in the ground a 220ft drop. Well you can guess at this point how it's going. I tell you what it cuts down on map design.
Now that was just to give you an idea. Here's what I actually have issue with.
- "Experienced" doesn't know that friendlies can walk through each other. Clear sign of never having played OR ignores all rules for "story" which he's stated. Though I think theres a major difference between never reading them and ignoring them.
- There is no story there is a background plot thats had zero fleshing out from minute one to hour 9. Most of this has been combat/encounters. Yet he doesn't know the basic rules.
-Metagaming DM. I say this because the window, npcs avoiding following for our traps, things keep happening for "story". He's not even aware hes meta gaming but it appears to be his lack of understanding of the rules, that make things occur that should not.
Major example: Remember that portal well it was opened by a cambion (we're a party of three level three in this session) who was customized but still had Fiendish Charm, there were originally two we killed one captured the other. He's extremely afraid of this hag we meet earlier demands to be set free so he can open a portal. Hag bursts in while portal is forming, she jedi forces us into the wall (made up power). She jumps, we only have one way out we follow. The extremely fearful cambion jumps in following the hag. Ok. For some reason our late arrival rogue treats the cambion as bambie. Regardless of that. We kill hag. We decide to long rest with cambion watching us breath. Anyone see an issue with this? We just murdered this things wife. He has the power to take someone over. He regains life from rest as well. He could have slit someones throat. Except this NPC is out of place and is more an object at that point. His lack of rules understanding lead him to believe he was bleedingto death and fearful. A long rest is 8 hours. This guy has a lot of blood....
Not knowing the rules has lead to numerous inconsistency through out.
I point this out cause he asks for feedback and I'm not the only one noticing strange things. One guy down right doesn't feel like playing any more.
Giving him feedback has resulted in "the rules are just a guide not the law, its for story purposes" which I can give him a pass on. Like my friend said there is no story.
I donno maybe I should give up trying to help him with feedback and keep playing to see if it just gets better. Am I just old? Is this the way they play it now all loose and linear?
My background is AD&D, 3.5 and 5th. With a quick look at 4th before retiring that immediately. I have always DMed.
I come to a session as a player. The DM introduces himself as experienced. Including me there is a total of 3 experienced players and two first timers. We all start noticing odd things and I'm quick to give plot holes cover. He's rusty I think, give him time.
An example is overly elaborate descriptions of background NPCs that do nothing. Conversing yields nothing both RP or roll. Laughing guards (enjoying their free time not madness) in a town besieged by blight, raids, isolation, and a curse.
So ok, whats more odd is it quickly becomes apparent that this is going to be linear, aka a railroad campaign. We've humored him by not sidetracking. Talk to a go to b youre trapped you have to go to c.
I've never seen a game so linear in all my life. Including video games. For instance in session 3 (where one should lose their rust) we're in a tower going past the 3rd floor brings you to floor 1. He fought us on going down, I'm not sure why. So I think I'm going to bust out this glass. Too thick. Not, "its magically warded" it's just too thick. I was going to look out get my bearings and maybe rope up. Skip forward through some content. We've been forced to go through a portal or be forced to stay in this magical stair loop aka die. We appear in a room with no exit only a fire place and a "boss". Yup you got it, I fiugred this out in 2 seconds, fireplace is the exit. Guess where it leads a single path to a single hole in the ground a 220ft drop. Well you can guess at this point how it's going. I tell you what it cuts down on map design.
Now that was just to give you an idea. Here's what I actually have issue with.
- "Experienced" doesn't know that friendlies can walk through each other. Clear sign of never having played OR ignores all rules for "story" which he's stated. Though I think theres a major difference between never reading them and ignoring them.
- There is no story there is a background plot thats had zero fleshing out from minute one to hour 9. Most of this has been combat/encounters. Yet he doesn't know the basic rules.
-Metagaming DM. I say this because the window, npcs avoiding following for our traps, things keep happening for "story". He's not even aware hes meta gaming but it appears to be his lack of understanding of the rules, that make things occur that should not.
Major example: Remember that portal well it was opened by a cambion (we're a party of three level three in this session) who was customized but still had Fiendish Charm, there were originally two we killed one captured the other. He's extremely afraid of this hag we meet earlier demands to be set free so he can open a portal. Hag bursts in while portal is forming, she jedi forces us into the wall (made up power). She jumps, we only have one way out we follow. The extremely fearful cambion jumps in following the hag. Ok. For some reason our late arrival rogue treats the cambion as bambie. Regardless of that. We kill hag. We decide to long rest with cambion watching us breath. Anyone see an issue with this? We just murdered this things wife. He has the power to take someone over. He regains life from rest as well. He could have slit someones throat. Except this NPC is out of place and is more an object at that point. His lack of rules understanding lead him to believe he was bleedingto death and fearful. A long rest is 8 hours. This guy has a lot of blood....
Not knowing the rules has lead to numerous inconsistency through out.
I point this out cause he asks for feedback and I'm not the only one noticing strange things. One guy down right doesn't feel like playing any more.
Giving him feedback has resulted in "the rules are just a guide not the law, its for story purposes" which I can give him a pass on. Like my friend said there is no story.
I donno maybe I should give up trying to help him with feedback and keep playing to see if it just gets better. Am I just old? Is this the way they play it now all loose and linear?