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Tanuki Tales
2016-09-10, 06:44 PM
Be it from a player or a GM, as a player or as a GM, what are the worst sessions or campaigns that you've found yourselves blighted with?

In recent memory for myself, it would have been this 5th edition pick up game I was in. One of the players, who was a self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi who chain smoked, was shaven bald and wore a massive black trench coat, was the source for my woe. He bellied up to the table with a human fighter named "Sir Patrick Stewart"; that should have been the first warning flag, but I didn't see it. He acted completely normal when in town, but as soon as we got into combat outside of it..well...

Instead of using his longsword, he made use of his vividly described, massive tortoise-esque "equipment". Through that entire session, he would bludgeon, choke or impale our goblin foes to death and then proceed to dismember and desecrate each corpse. The rest of the table found this hilarious and continuously egged him on, while my dwarf barbarian kept her axe sharp.

I did not return for a second session.

The Bandicoot
2016-09-10, 08:13 PM
I ran a game a number of years back at a (now ex)friend's house. Said friend thought it would be completely socially acceptable to bring a friend who was a prostitute and a drug addict to the game. A game, might I add, that had two players under the age of 18.

Besides that I had to ban alcohol at my games because three of the six people there could not drink alcohol. Out of the remaining three, one did not drink alcohol and two could not drink alcohol without drinking enough to get drunk.
Tends to ruin the game when 1/3 of the party is hammered and doing stupid ****.

IntelectPaladin
2016-09-10, 09:58 PM
The worst occasions of my DnD career was really...something.
A real pain in the...everywhere. Everything. Not my fondest memories.
Basically, my entire DnD career is speckled with incidents.
I've been through, (And survived,)
Being tossed off of a cliff with an explosion,
Being punched so hard that a bystander behind me was killed,
throwing up in a sealed helmet,
Being hit by a clockwork gnomish train,
Having an iron golem land on me from two floors up,
Having to flying tackle every prisoner we take,
Being mauled by kobolds,
A shipwreck on a ghost ship from the underworld,
An escape from a drow prison,
Dueling an unholy roc,
Being turned into a graveknight,
Convincing my party to spare our enemies,
Repaying a loan from a gnomish bank with my soul still my own,
An attempt on my life by another PC,
my best attempts to literally stitch back together the fabric of existence on a tiny demi-plane,
And so on!
I earnestly believe that our D.M. was out to kill me.
I even heard one of the players tell him to not use tarrasques!
I've been through quite a bit, and typing this list has been rather cathartic.
For anyone splitting hairs, this was all with the same character. My namesake.
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!

NecroDancer
2016-09-11, 12:18 AM
The worst occasions of my DnD career was really...something.
A real pain in the...everywhere. Everything. Not my fondest memories.
Basically, my entire DnD career is speckled with incidents.
I've been through, (And survived,)
Being tossed off of a cliff with an explosion,
Being punched so hard that a bystander behind me was killed,
throwing up in a sealed helmet,
Being hit by a clockwork gnomish train,
Having an iron golem land on me from two floors up,
Having to flying tackle every prisoner we take,
Being mauled by kobolds,
A shipwreck on a ghost ship from the underworld,
An escape from a drow prison,
Dueling an unholy roc,
Being turned into a graveknight,
Convincing my party to spare our enemies,
Repaying a loan from a gnomish bank with my soul still my own,
An attempt on my life by another PC,
my best attempts to literally stitch back together the fabric of existence on a tiny demi-plane,
And so on!
I earnestly believe that our D.M. was out to kill me.
I even heard one of the players tell him to not use tarrasques!
I've been through quite a bit, and typing this list has been rather cathartic.
For anyone splitting hairs, this was all with the same character. My namesake.
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!

Be honest, was your character Deadpool?

RazorChain
2016-09-11, 01:08 AM
I'm going to tell about the most boring one.


Call of Cthulhu: 8 hour session where we investigated everything, talked to everybody and nothing happened. I was so bored that I didn't show up for subsequent sessions, the funny thing is the GM was called Joey Cthulhu because he was supposed to be such a good referee, but I was sorely disappointed. I later skimmed through the module at a gaming store and found out that the GM had forgotten THE CLUE at the beginning of the adventure.

Silus
2016-09-11, 06:53 AM
Oooooh boy I got a few.

-lvl 20 Psion/Rogue vs lvl 6's
A long story so I'll cut to the meat of it. DM had a lvl 20 Elf Psion/Rogue fight our party of like...5-6 lvl 6 characters in 3.5 'cause the idiot Chaotic Neutral Dwarf decided to take a swing at her with his axe. She proceeded to take the party apart. I got my vengeance later by way of stacking a Deck of Many Things in my favor ~22 times in a row.

-Skippy Rotten
Second game I DMed, I make the mistake of okaying a character by the name of Skippy Rotten, a Quickling Speed Metal Bard. Crapped in people's shoes, tattooed penises on people's faces as they slept, and the player basically took advantage of the fact that I was a new DM. Needless to say I don't trust the player about anything any more.

-The cursed sword
Holy hell this story. Okay so short of it, Palladium game and my character ended up getting a cursed sword. Little did I know (and only found out much later) the curse was transferred simply by accepting the sword. Not using it or drawing it or anything, just willingly accepting it. Caused your armor and clothes to deteriorate to rags, which was an issue for me to say the least. So I went off and tried to pawn it off to someone else, thinking I broke the curse. Well nope, the curse was still there. I later (MUCH later, like after I retired the character later) found out that the reason I was still cursed was because the guy that had played Skippy Rotten above had used magic to implant memories of my giving the sword away, where in reality they had taken the sword from me, sold it, and bought supplies from the cash. Everyone was in on it except me. I still hold a grudge about that BS and am always on the lookout to exact said revenge.

-Rapey-mind-control
Vampire game, player (different from those above) drops an ability on my vampire (Majesty or something like Dominate-Lite) and coaxes her into bed. OOC I am shocked and kinda horrified that my character essentially got raped and it was kinda played for lulz. I call the player on it, he insists that "she wanted it", to which I argue that my character was mentally compelled to do so and that it was, in fact, rape. The party generally agreed with me on this but the offending player still maintains his stance. He's first on my revenge list for WoD let me tell ya.

-Party Cohesion is Important
Star Wars D6 game, same group as above. One player (Skippy Rotten) takes offense at my character (a former soldier) threatening HIS character when Skippy's character tries to swindle him out of basically all his money to essentially join the group. Such offense was taken that Skippy hired two other players (the raper and another player) to straight up kill my character, which almost happened.

-Leaving the Dwarf Behind
Rolemaster, playing a Dwarf fighter in heavy armor. Not keen at all with getting on a boat due to disastrous lack of swimming skills. So two of the party members knock my guy out, which I'm okay with. Then they go off and leave me unconscious in an alley. They come back and I'm stripped down to my skivvies then yell at me when I make a fuss 'cause I didn't get on the boat with the rest of the party.

IntelectPaladin
2016-09-11, 09:49 AM
Be honest, was your character Deadpool?

Actually, no.
I went with the name "Intellect paladin",
because I managed to think of something that would get me out of or past each situation alive.
(I know, I know, I couldn't get it all in there. Also, I had to stay a graveknight. I got by.
For example: I survived the explosion-cliff incident by putting my bedroll behind me, letting me die at a
slow enough rate that I was rescued by a search party.
It still would've been minutes, so the G.M. allowed it. Lucky break.
I survived being hit THAT hard by leaping up a moment before it landed,
with the bystander having been an enemy.
The GM was a bit caught up in the moment, that time.
And I've survived being hit by a (clockwork) train because, being a paladin,
I started healing myself before and during impact. That little stunt kept me conscious enough to use my
shield as a rather large penny, so to speak.
It wouldn't have been allowed, but everyone else was cheering me on that time.
So I hope that answers your question,
and I'll take it as a compliment.
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!
{-EDIT-}
Oooooh boy I got a few.
{-Wow, Silus. You have my sympathies, and condolences.
Since they hired eachother, would you like to hire me?
Just one copper, not even that, and I'd gladly help you end them-}

Silus
2016-09-11, 01:00 PM
{-EDIT-}
{-Wow, Silus. You have my sympathies, and condolences.
Since they hired eachother, would you like to hire me?
Just one copper, not even that, and I'd gladly help you end them-}

No no, a World of Darkness game is coming up that I have...plans for. Also I may or may not be DMing a game somewhere down the line and I have pretty much all the Grimtooth Traps books on PDF and plan to use them EXTENSIVELY. After encouraging heavy character creation. "Oh that's a nice five page backstory there. Well you trip a trap that drops a stone slab on the stairs and pushes you down into a newly opened spiked lava pit, impaling, burning, and crushing you. New character."

ClockShock
2016-09-11, 03:14 PM
No no, a World of Darkness game is coming up that I have...plans for. Also I may or may not be DMing a game somewhere down the line and I have pretty much all the Grimtooth Traps books on PDF and plan to use them EXTENSIVELY. After encouraging heavy character creation. "Oh that's a nice five page backstory there. Well you trip a trap that drops a stone slab on the stairs and pushes you down into a newly opened spiked lava pit, impaling, burning, and crushing you. New character."

And thus the cycle continues.

Arbane
2016-09-12, 12:39 AM
No no, a World of Darkness game is coming up that I have...plans for. Also I may or may not be DMing a game somewhere down the line and I have pretty much all the Grimtooth Traps books on PDF and plan to use them EXTENSIVELY. After encouraging heavy character creation. "Oh that's a nice five page backstory there. Well you trip a trap that drops a stone slab on the stairs and pushes you down into a newly opened spiked lava pit, impaling, burning, and crushing you. New character."

Get it out of your system, but it's probably better in the long run if you just don't play with jerks, because the only way to 'beat' them is to sink to their level.

RyumaruMG
2016-09-12, 02:41 AM
He bellied up to the table with a human fighter named "Sir Patrick Stewart"; that should have been the first warning flag, but I didn't see it.

And the "self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi" thing didn't raise a red flag? I'd have just walked at that.

ComaVision
2016-09-12, 11:11 AM
I took a break from DMing for a handful of months so one of my regular players decided he'd try his hand at it. He has Rise of the Runelords (Pathfinder Adventure Path) and he wanted to do that. Sounds good to me.

He didn't read ahead in the book so he was woefully unprepared. He flat out disallowed anything the AP hadn't prepared for. He'd read the boxed text in monotone, bored voice that was barely intelligible. He has a poor grasp on the system so he was frequently misunderstanding attack bonuses, traps, items, etc. He'd read aloud stuff we weren't supposed to know like what the key was to when we got a mysterious key. It was a trainwreck.

TFW forever DM

Silus
2016-09-12, 11:54 AM
Get it out of your system, but it's probably better in the long run if you just don't play with jerks, because the only way to 'beat' them is to sink to their level.

I'll probably just default to reactive disproportionate retribution pertinent to the game itself. Obliterating a character's capital/property/status in WoD if they try to manipulate me and I find out about it for example.

GungHo
2016-09-12, 01:41 PM
And the "self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi" thing didn't raise a red flag? I'd have just walked at that.

Yeah, we don't got a lot of rules at my table, but if someone says in a smoky, Foghorn Leghorn voice "I say... I proclaim that I am a neonatzi" that's a deal breaker. I'd actually be ok with the Patrick Stewart schwanz of power part... mostly because there's always a squad of vorpal sword-wielding githyanki waiting along with some special dice that I have hidden in a pocket.

tensai_oni
2016-09-12, 02:15 PM
Obviously what happened is that OP thought the game was 5e, but it was actually FATAL. Explains both the characters and the players.

TheFurith
2016-09-12, 03:05 PM
No no, a World of Darkness game is coming up that I have...plans for. Also I may or may not be DMing a game somewhere down the line and I have pretty much all the Grimtooth Traps books on PDF and plan to use them EXTENSIVELY. After encouraging heavy character creation. "Oh that's a nice five page backstory there. Well you trip a trap that drops a stone slab on the stairs and pushes you down into a newly opened spiked lava pit, impaling, burning, and crushing you. New character."

That's totally not going to lead to them doing something right back. Nope. Not at all....

Draconium
2016-09-12, 03:25 PM
While I haven't had as bad of experiences as some of you, I remember when one of our old DMs decided to add several NPCs to "help" the party. I believe there were seven of them total, including some sort of Celestial(-blooded?), and most of them had several levels on any of us. The game ended up devolving into what was basically us watching the NPCs save the day. Yeah...

The same DM also killed off my friend's Paladin in that campaign. Which wouldn't have been so bad... except the player in question hadn't been able to attend the session, and as such was unable to actually do anything to prevent it. And the other two players who would've tried the hardest to rescue him (his girlfriend and myself) were also conveniently unable to attend that day. :smallannoyed:

We don't play with that particular DM anymore.

ComaVision
2016-09-12, 03:29 PM
We don't play with that particular DM anymore.

Sounds like he'll do just fine anyway. If all the players leave, there's still seven people in the party!

Draconium
2016-09-12, 03:36 PM
Sounds like he'll do just fine anyway. If all the players leave, there's still seven people in the party!

Funny enough, that isn't the reason we stopped playing with them. No, we don't play with them anymore after they got in a rules argument, while they were playing g under the current DM (we all switch between DMing and playing often) about how another player's poison would interact with an enemy. The DM said the enemy was immune to poison, got called out on it (the enemies usually weren't, but the DM actually had a solid reason for why they now were), and the problem player basically ragequit.

Quertus
2016-09-12, 05:18 PM
Funny enough, that isn't the reason we stopped playing with them. No, we don't play with them anymore after they got in a rules argument, while they were playing g under the current DM (we all switch between DMing and playing often) about how another player's poison would interact with an enemy. The DM said the enemy was immune to poison, got called out on it (the enemies usually weren't, but the DM actually had a solid reason for why they now were), and the problem player basically ragequit.

Wait - DMs having reasons for the things they do is grounds for a rage quit? That... says a lot.

chaoschronicler
2016-09-12, 06:27 PM
Funny enough I got one that happened this past Saturday. To be fair though before we get into it the players did tell me they had a very good time.

So my LGS owner was looking for someone to run a 5th ed game for some new players and seeing as I've always wanted to DM a game I volunteered. Problem was at the time I've only read the basics of 5th ed thanks to the starter set and online pdf's. My bank account took a hit from buying the DM and monster manual. Sadly I'm strapped for cash to buy the players handbook.

So after getting that stuff I told the owner that I can start on Saturdays. In less then 45 minutes all seats had been taken. Never again will I underestimate Facebook. One of the players was in the store when that happened and came to me saying that he'd been playing all editions and was looking forward to my game. Sinking low in my seat I thought to myself that I bit more than I could chew.

Before any of that I started to skim the Lost Mines of Phandelver; only really reading part one which was the goblins encounter. Along with this I'm writing a homebrew campaign. I've asked advice from my friend who've been DM for years only for him saying "No matter how well you plan things when it comes to role players it goes out the door".

When the day came I looked at everything again, went over my goals for the evening, and set things up. The first player to arrived was an older gentleman which I assumed had also played for a very long time like the one before. Turns out he was getting back into RPG's saying he hadn't played since 92. Being the idiot I was I told him that was the year I was born. Thinking I've probably offended him he just laughed at it. Dude was cool with having a green horn DM since it would get a chance for both of us to learn.

After that the older gentleman from the other day joined us. Again a very nice guy he was cool with just starting out with the starter set as I told him I was expecting all new comers to tabletop RPG's. He took the halfling rogue pre-gen and really made something more from it.

The next people that came by was a couple that I've seen from high school. My heart stopped as I prayed to whatever god or goddess out there that would listen that they don't recognize me. See I wasn't obviously a popular guy; infact I was everyone's punching bag. The girl was friends with some of those people that how we say emotionally torturer me. That was an awkward moment when it clicked with her. Need less to say she didn't talked much during the game even when I was encouraging her.

After that fiasco a person came up to me and asked if he could watch. This guy was also new to everything and wanted to get in on the game. Turns out he was a minute shy of getting a seat. I handed him the starter rules telling him if none of the others showed up he can play. The guy was ecstatic over this seeing as the other couple hadn't shown just yet and it was three minutes till game time. That would bite me in the bum later.

So when the time came I explained that for the next couple of sessions we would be playing the starter module as I was expecting people who are new to the game; myself included. Everyone was cool with it as I passed out the other pre-gens. As we sorted that out I also asked them what they want for a campaign. Consensus was a mix of heavy roleplaying and combat. With all that settled we began the game.

First mistake I made was reading the opening background. Apparently the characters don't know the full history of what happened so unintentional player knowledge right off the bat. Second was never assume someone won't show up.

The couple that reserved two seat finally showed after being half an hour late which prompted the last minute edition to our group to panic a bit. Luckily they came with character they made, one human paladin and one tiefling warlock. On the spot I said that everyone was welcomed to the table including the extra edition. So instead of six I'm DMing seven.

Catching everyone up again we finally started. Combat was interesting to say the least. The girl from high school chose the wizard which I didn't expect to do too much damage. She outright killed a goblin and exceeded damage so much so that she "district 9" the guy right in front of the fighter covering him with gib. Before that he was next to another goblin that had it's head exploded from a nat 20 bow shot. The whole group worked together and mopped the floor with the goblins only for one to escape due me rolling high stealth.

After all the fighting during combat they found the path. At the edge of my seat I hoped they would take the hook. Nope they want to go to town. Que internal screaming. So that was fun both frantically reading stuff and improving things. For a good hour they looked at some of the major things before taking a long rest (and OOC break) and went back to the trail.

When they got to the hide out I wasn't again expecting them to just wonder to the cave. heck the party paladin even shouted that everything was cleared before taking a surprise round of combat. When we rolled for initiative I made a major mistake with our two fighters being both next to each other in the order than having the one fighter be last (rolled very low). But just kept on going.

We stopped after they got to area four and failing to see a guard. I was a nervous wreck at this point as my anxiety kept on saying I goofed very very badly. Low and behold everyone was happy saying this was very fun.

So yeah to me this was my worst gaming experience on account of not being fully prepared. However from what I could tell this was the best gaming experience for my players.

Tanuki Tales
2016-09-12, 06:58 PM
And the "self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi" thing didn't raise a red flag? I'd have just walked at that.
That bit came out after the session was in swing and the guy was otherwise affable. Didn't know if he was serious or just enjoyed black humor.

Arbane
2016-09-13, 06:07 PM
So yeah to me this was my worst gaming experience on account of not being fully prepared. However from what I could tell this was the best gaming experience for my players.

Sounds like it went pretty well, despite all your nerve-wracking worries. Going to do it again?

chaoschronicler
2016-09-13, 09:44 PM
Sounds like it went pretty well, despite all your nerve-wracking worries. Going to do it again?

Considering I'm running this game for the store yes.