What was your worst DM ever? This thread is impervious - roll to disbelieve!

[Inevitability]

The original thread has been lying around in the archieves for quite some time now, but I think there are far more stories that should've been in it. So, to quote Brawny:

GIANTITP, what was your worst dm ever?

Mine was DM'ing a PbP game. The premise was simple. All the players start without gear on a technological advanced 'space' ship. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well, it was.

Spoiler: The terrific tales of That One Game

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1. The baddies are Githyanki working for a Mind Flayer. Yes, from all the evil masterminds the DM could pick, he chose the only one Githyanki are opposed to with an unnatural hatred. A few players brought this up, to which the DM replied: "If your character doesn't have Knowledge (the planes), you shouldn't worry about it. And maybe the Githyanki aren't even working for the Illithid."

Yeah.

2. The DM had bad grammar. While DM'ing a PbP game. I once had to ask another player what his cryptic ramblings meant because I couldn't figure it out myself.

3. The DM didn't follow Rules As Written if it suited him/his plot. He'd often replace rules, forget about them, or downright deny people to do things they should be allowed to do by the rules. All without saying it beforehand.

For example, one player disabled the cell doors (some kind of magical barrier) with a Knock spell. A barrier of pure arcane energy. With a spell designed to open mundane doors.

4. The DM railroaded. Like, a lot. For example, when that Knock-player was escaping and set some more people free, everything seemed to go well. Then, suddenly, the DM posted:

"A flash of blinding white light suddenly comes from all directions. You pass out and wake up in your cells."

Sure, why not let someone break out through improper use of the rules and then throw a no-save effect at the players to stop them from breaking out?

5. I am playing a warlock with Summon Swarm as an invocation. So I summon a swarm of spiders to attack a guard. Guess what? The guard has a defensive field of lightning that automatically deals heavy damage to my swarm. No save, no attack roll, nothing.

6. Seeing my swarms barely can do anything, I try to break out by dealing enough acid damage (My bite attack deals acid damage) to the walls. Everyone knows acid damages walls regardless of hardness, right? Turns out the DM doesn't.

7. Even though I am not dealing any damage, apparently the Githyanki need to send some kind of drone towards my cell. Said drone is also capable of attacking through the barrier keeping me from escaping, but I can't attack it back. So I am basically forced to eat two shockwaves (automatic hit, of course) for heavy electrical damage. While Hiding in Plain Sight. With a +40 hide modifier. And the darkstalker feat.

8. At that point, I finally call the DM OOC out for it. I politely ask to know, if only OOC, why things that should work RAW aren't working and other things that shouldn't do. He plainly responds:

"I'm not telling you how the genetically engineered Githyanki, the hardened Dragonstone and the super-advanced drones work. I used to game with someone like you, who keeps asking how things work. Just use your abilities to break out. Sorry if there is no site for you to go to and preread the adventure from. Stop causing trouble and stop whining."

So now I am a metagamer and a whiner? At that point, I was bascially fuming. Under protest, I decided to stay in the game, although I was looking for an excuse to leave.

9. The game ended soon thereafter when the DM mentioned that he 'didn't enjoy DM'ing this way' and 'was going back to WoW for now'. Ugh.

10. He did, however, tell us what the plot was going to be. Apparently a group of cybernetic elves working together with warforged would be attacking the ship, who would bring us to a planet in a distant world. He talked about the campaign setting (full of quasi-religious elements I can't mention here) as if he'd planned it all out. The problem being, that despite living in said campaign setting, none of our characters had ever heard anything of what he told us. At all.

11. The worst part? He told us the Elves' attacking would be determined by 'a random dice roll for epic style encounter', as he phrased it. Short of not understanding what that's supposed to mean, I can't understand why someone would make the start of his campaign. 'sit in your cage until I randomly roll to let you out'.

I spend that whole campaign in the same 10 x 10 x 10 cell where each action would either have no effect or result in me being punished with the attack having no effect.

TL;DR: The DM railroaded everyone towards a certain conclusion, didn't follow the rules if it suited him, implied I was a metagamer and whiner when I asked him about this, and left the most important of his plot points depending on the dice.

(Also, if you have a catchy title, feel free to share it. I can't think of anything.)

[Cronocke]

Your worst one is set in a prison, and ends before you're let out?

There may be a theme here, then, as I'm going to talk about...

Spoiler: The Day I Discovered a New Special Material

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Finally, I had thought, I was going to have fun in D&D. I had been accepted for a PbP game using gestalt rules. I could play something without spells (though the Tome of Battle's maneuvers are admittedly similar to them) and still have fun with the game. It's the sort of carrot that I couldn't (at the time) resist.

So the campaign starts up and we're all stuck in a prison cell together. Joy of joys. Oh well, this at least provides us some time to get to know our characters.

But then we're still in the prison cell. And some powerful wizard guy comes to threaten us that we have to work for him or... something.

We collectively tell him to shove off, and my character, having had enough of this nonsense, charges shoulder-first at the door of the cell to try to bust through it.

He bounces off of the door with no effect, and gets a bruise (though luckily no HP damage) for his efforts.

Two seconds later, the wizard/whatever casts an acid splash at the door. Once again, the door ignores your feeble attempts to pass it.

Oh, but make a Will save to disbelieve.

Wait, I think to myself. Ramming it wasn't enough to try to disbelieve, but casting acid splash was?

I don't say anything in the game, but in the OOC thread, someone else questions it.

A round of Will saves later, and...

... nothing. The GM vanishes off of the face of the Earth. It seems that he was the illusion all along!

... and so, this aborted game attempt spawned my favorite mystical material of all. Illusory Impenetrium! Completely impervious to all wear and tear, it's the perfect material for fashioning railroad tracks! Come take a trip on a Scripted Travel Lines train, and enjoy a safe, reliable journey on an Illusory Impenetrium track today!

(Caution: Under no circumstances should you think about Illusory Impenetrium. Thinking about Illusory Impenetrium may have the disastrous effect of derailing the train. Scripted Travel Lines bears no liability for any incidents caused by failure to believe in Illusory Impenetrium.)

Incidentally, my selfish suggestion for thread title would be something along the lines of "This thread is impervious - roll to disbelieve!" or "Don't think too hard about the railroad you're on!"

[Inevitability]

I am kind of sad only one person has posted yet...

Surely the playground has some stories about bad DM's?

[Kesnit]

This wasn't in a D&D game, but this is the general RP forum, so...

My then-fiancee (now wife) and I joined a nWoD Mage game. We had played with the ST before (in a game my wife was running), and he is an enthusiastic player, but a bit of a rules-lawyer who doesn't know all the rules.

The first quest arc dealt with the Spirit Realm. My wife's PC was the only one who had Spirit Arcana, but the rest of us found a way to contribute. We solved the problem and all was well. At this point, I was cool with the game, and thought each quest arc would focus on a different Arcana. (That way, everyone would have their moment in the sun, since we had all focused on different Arcana as our highest.)

The next quest arc not only dealt with the Spirit Realm again, it specifically involved my wife's PC's backstory. About this same time, my wife and I notice that the ST is giving her a lot of attention - and not the ST-to-player kind. Needless to say, we were both creeped out, but let it slide, thinking we were imagining things. However, the attention continued until neither of us could ignore it.

Since we weren't enjoying the game anyway, we both dropped out. Since she and I were his most regular players, the game died.

[Tridax]

Well there was that one time when we all came to the DM's house to play...

"Um, guys, I actually didn't prepare anything."

"But DM, why?"

"Eh. Too hard."

And this was after he promised us a cool story and asked questions on the roles of our characters. Suffice to say, he never DMed again.

[Inevitability]

Well there was that one time when we all came to the DM's house to play...

"Um, guys, I actually didn't prepare anything."

"But DM, why?"

"Eh. Too hard."

And this was after he promised us a cool story and asked questions on the roles of our characters. Suffice to say, he never DMed again.

That's... that's just horrible. I feel sorry for you.

[Sartharina]

I am kind of sad only one person has posted yet...

Surely the playground has some stories about bad DM's?

We do. We did...

... I can't believe it's been well over a year since we were shocked by the worst DM ever, though. I can't even find the threads anymore!

[Tengu_temp]

Most people who had terrible DM stories told them already in the first thread, and didn't have anything new that beat it since then. At least I know that's the case for me. If you want to read my worst DM story, you can find it there.

Instead, let's nitpick.

3. The DM didn't follow Rules As Written if it suited him/his plot. He'd often replace rules, forget about them, or downright deny people to do things they should be allowed to do by the rules. All without saying it beforehand.

For example, one player disabled the cell doors (some kind of magical barrier) with a Knock spell. A barrier of pure arcane energy. With a spell designed to open mundane doors.

I see nothing wrong with this. The DM is not a slave to RAW, and story is more important than rules. Telling a player "no, your ability doesn't work because I say so" is annoying, but letting them knock a magical barrier with a Knock spell? I don't have a problem with that.

5. I am playing a warlock with Summon Swarm as an invocation. So I summon a swarm of spiders to attack a guard. Guess what? The guard has a defensive field of lightning that automatically deals heavy damage to my swarm. No save, no attack roll, nothing.

If that ability was just pulled out of the blue, then it kinda sucks. But if the guard had it all along, then I see nothing wrong with it.

6. Seeing my swarms barely can do anything, I try to break out by dealing enough acid damage (My bite attack deals acid damage) to the walls. Everyone knows acid damages walls regardless of hardness, right? Turns out the DM doesn't.

I wouldn't allow this either. Trying to break out from a cell by biting the walls is one of those things that are possible by RAW but are just implausible by logic, acid or not.

[Sith_Happens]

A round of Will saves later, and...

... nothing. The GM vanishes off of the face of the Earth. It seems that he was the illusion all along!

... I can't believe it's been well over a year since we were shocked by the worst DM ever, though. I can't even find the threads anymore!

Thread 1
Thread 2
Thread 3 (Past necro limit, do not post)
The Blog (Use the "Blog Archive" sidebar, BlogSpot displays entries in reverse-chronological order)

[Diachronos]

There's one friend I went to college with who had a habit of designing his campaigns after book he's read, right down to the plot. Meaning our characters would end up essentially derping around and struggling to resolve anything when the actual hero from the book would swoop in with the one thing that could actually defeat whatever monster we were fighting.
Stepford-esque cult of girls? They'd survive things like decapitation if a player did it, but once the Catholic Church's SWAT team came in they started dropping like flies.
Powerful demon disguising himself at Dragon-Con? Couldn't touch him, and we ended up needing an NPC with a magic sword to attack him.

Looking back, the first boss monster was extremely satisfying to defeat. The DM pitted us up against a cult that was feeding locals to an ancient Babylonian river god, and of course said river god would have to be immune to anything our party had access to with our powers (only fire could hurt him). DM's plan was to have backup from the organization we worked for show up with flamethrowers, but fortunately some of the party members had become good friends with the local hillbillies and got their hands on some extremely strong - and flammable - moonshine. Most of us got captured earlier, but the ones that had the moonshine were able to blow up the river god with the barrels of booze. The local sheriff who'd also been captured didn't survive, but the worst casualty the party suffered was one character's hair and eyebrows.

He also had a habit of not planning for us to do something off his predetermined path. In another campaign we came across a giant hole in the wall while exploring a ruined mansion, and spiders came out to attack us. He had to cut the session short because he hadn't planned on any of us actually going into the tunnel.

[Inevitability]

Most people who had terrible DM stories told them already in the first thread, and didn't have anything new that beat it since then. At least I know that's the case for me. If you want to read my worst DM story, you can find it there.

Instead, let's nitpick.

I see nothing wrong with this. The DM is not a slave to RAW, and story is more important than rules. Telling a player "no, your ability doesn't work because I say so" is annoying, but letting them knock a magical barrier with a Knock spell? I don't have a problem with that.

If that ability was just pulled out of the blue, then it kinda sucks. But if the guard had it all along, then I see nothing wrong with it.

I wouldn't allow this either. Trying to break out from a cell by biting the walls is one of those things that are possible by RAW but are just implausible by logic, acid or not.

Yeah, I don't know about the electrical field but the point is that most of his houserules were unexpected. The DM already had a list of houserules, so I was assuming that the game would follow RAW for the other part. Then it turned out the DM was throwing out houserules all the way through, except he never acknowledged them as so. And my point wasn't really the improper use of knock, it was the incredible railroaded way he stopped the following escape.

And that bite attack wasn't my only source of acid. I had a 1/minute acid ray (using the bite attack while it cooled down) which also didn't get through. Bite attacks not getting through might still be understandable, but a friggin' high-pressure acid ray?

[arclance]

The DM already had a list of houserules, so I was assuming that the game would follow RAW for the other part. Then it turned out the DM was throwing out houserules all the way through

I played with a DM like that before, it was not fun.
He never could give us a full writeup of his houserules no matter how many times we asked.
I know at least 6 people that don't play in his games anymore because we don't know if a build we make will function in his game.

[Socksy]

Incidentally, my selfish suggestion for thread title would be something along the lines of "This thread is impervious - roll to disbelieve!" or "Don't think too hard about the railroad you're on!"

I love the first one of those, +1 for that.

/goes back to lurking

[jedipotter]

Dave! The Taco Bell DM. He worked closing at Taco Bell, and as soon as he was done, he'd run a game. So from 1am to 5am he'd run a D&D game in the dinning area of Taco Bell.

Dave would have a vague dungeon or place or wilderness, some circles and squares and lines. Then the group would go from spot to spot. Each spot had a letter. So each time they group got to a spot, Dave would open the Monster Manual to that letter and pick a monster. There was not much role play, as the main goal was ''to kill a monster of each letter''.

Dave was very lacking in encounters. He is the type of DM that says ''the adult red dragon walks over and does one claw attack for it's action this round''. Worse he is ''the beholder uses it's telekinitic eye stalk to pick up a roack and throw it at you for 1-4 damage''.

And there was the famous time.....The group had found a room with a trapped floor. The theif wanted to climb walls across the room and not touch the floor. Dave said this was impossible. And to ''prove'' that someone could not climb up a wall and move sideways...he leapped up and ran over and into the wall with a very loud ''thud''. And wiggled his arms and legs for a couple seconds. And proved that...er...well he could not climb a wall at Taco Bell at 3 am.........

[Zaydos]

The DM that decided shooting someone on a hill should give you a -4 penalty to hit (because long bows can't shoot up) and that shooting from behind cover should give you a -10 penalty because his best friend was playing a barbarian and every combat could only be solved by him. That was the single worst (also demanded page+ backstories and then didn't let us do anything but a railroad of combats).

[Sith_Happens]

(because long bows can't shoot up)

[Inevitability]

I love the first one of those, +1 for that.

/goes back to lurking

I now feel bad. I didn't notice that paragraph before you quoted it.

But hey, at least something good came of it, we now have a title!

[golentan]

I once had a DM who claimed that because we didn't specify getting rid of rotting corpses when we said we prepared the area and made camp we basically put our bedrolls out on top of them, and didn't give us any sort of warning of this interpretation before hitting us with a horrible constitution draining illness, at which point it was "too late to retcon," killing off my character without any sort of action taken (since finding the outpost with the dead bodies was the first thing we did and afterwards I was too sick to take part in adventuring).

[Zombimode]

[URL="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?329243-What-was-your-worst-DM-ever"]The baddies are Githyanki working for a Mind Flayer. Yes, from all the evil masterminds the DM could pick, he chose the only one Githyanki are opposed to with an unnatural hatred. A few players brought this up, to which the DM replied: "If your character doesn't have Knowledge (the planes), you shouldn't worry about it. And maybe the Githyanki aren't even working for the Illithid."

Yeah.

Now, while the rest of your list really sounds kinda bad, this first point the DM is in the right. First, if your character doesn't have the knowledge of the history of two planar species, which correctly falls under Knowledge (The Planes), then your character has no reason to wonder about it.

Second, while Gith would not work for an Illithid under most circumstances, saying that they would no work for an Illithid period is quite narrowminded. Sure, it is unusual, but the correct response from you, the player, to something unusual should be "Wow, this is strange. I want to learn more about it!"
Not to mention the possibility that the situation actually isn't the way it presented itself to you.

Really, the possibilities are endless. Even in the short time in which I have written this posting I came up with about 10 different setups that would fit this scenario.

[comicshorse]

My worst DM ever was usually a good GM, it's just he always insisted on having a DMPC accompany us and every now and then they would move from being a large part of the game to being the focus of the game
When they got like that you just knew it was time to stop trying and just let it all wash over you, cause you weren't going to be making a difference to anything for a bit
The example that immediately springs to mind was in a Dark Ages Vampire game, I'm playing a Toreador knight and had put a lot of XP into combat skills and disciplines. One session, for reasons far to complicated to go into, we were in Iceland and get attacked by two Gargoyles. One swoops towards my Vampire and I decide to put everything into one blow, the Gargoyle completely dodges my attack and then (with a dice pool split by dodging and attacking) scores a huge hit on me with his spear which punches straight through my characters chain and Fortitude and wipes him out in one blow.
This didn't bother me too much (hey even NPC's get lucky, right) its when next round the DMPC's ghoul (Ghouls are humans who have feed on Vampire blood and so get very minor Disciplines) maid/cook takes out the Gargoyle with one swipe of her meat cleaver that I released it wasn't going to be my session

[Gamgee]

I don't have any GM stories, but I got some fresh player stories I'll talk about in brief.

I talked to the group about nerfing things, as well as using things from the Only War rpg instead of Deathwatch since its so hard to challenge them anymore in combat. Needing ridiculous levels of units and amounts. Even moving to the Only War system one of the players is strong enough to solo kill a Deamon Prince in two hits. This ongoing nerf to bring down the power level and make the game so there is some challenge has been going on for about a year culminating in "the big switch" the Only War set of rules. I am using some house rules to supplement some things that don't convert perfectly like psychic powers. So every single player was affected over the course of this, and I have explained in as much detail as I can muster as to why it needs to be done.

However they are beginning to complain every time we play. To the point I can't have new players try and join since its embarrassing with them doing their best to drag me into 1+ hour long "debates" that are getting perilously close to shouting matches. Average arguments lasting 20+ minutes. Long ones going for an hour or so. They complain that the game is going to slow, so I implement a policy of me making a ruling on the spot and they can look it up later.

However they have started to complain about me "out to get them" since I won't listen to anything they say for more than a minute or so before making a ruling. Player S in particular has rampant paranoia I changed to the new rules just to screw him over out of petty revenge. Despite the fact that his psychic powers were so strong they were one hit killing boss level enemies and making the game pointless. Not to mention on the table top that particular power isn't anywhere near that potent. Finally in the new versions the power got nerfed anyways. But he still won't stop bitching endlessly about it. Every time I see him he makes snide comments about my ability to nerf anything and everything.

Now S has gotten many of the other players joining him and making snide remarks at me. Also I'm only human when I do make an exception to look up a rule because its critical I am sometimes wrong and they are right ect. This is rare though composing no less than about.... 18% or so I am wrong. Which is fairly minimal considering I GM four games and three different systems. And multiple version of the 40k rpg. However S is using this as "proof" I am inept and every single time I say a rule works in x, y, or z way he or now other players stop me. Say no and look it up. Then usually I'm right. They don't apologize for wasting everyone's time at all or treating me like an *******. Only gloating when I am wrong the tiny amount of times. Now its gotten to the point they make fun of me outside of the game for how much "mistakes" and "nerfing" I do. Not in a fun I'm in on the joke way, but a ha ha this guy sucks way.

I've been this groups GM for 9+ years. It's only recently something has changed and they have decided to start treating me differently. I don't know why. Hell I buy them pizza, I sometimes cover gas if they are in need, and do a lot of other support stuff. I offer food I cook ect. I put up with them when they do break something by accident.

Now all they do is complain about my inability as a GM. Despite the fact that every single time one of them tried to run a game it blew up in their faces spectacularly.

S and another player M are starting a lot of this stuff. Finally after I GM and I'm done for the evening after a long night I'm tired. Yet player M will stop me from resting and bombard me with questions and arguments for 30+ minutes before finally leaving. I sometimes have to go to great lengths to insist he leave me alone after a game since I'm so tired after. I'm so tired because they never stop arguing. It's feeling like an arduous chore and I'm gming for a group of spoiled children. Granted two of them are immature teenagers. M being one of them. S though is a "grown" adult.

I feel this is the end to this group or at least several players. There are two good players who aren't a pain in the ****ing ass to handle. However everyone else it feels like the end. If I tell a joke they never get it or maybe they do and don't want to laugh. They've gone from treating me like a friend to more like a servant. TO the point they even try and argue with me when I tell a joke about how I am not factually right...??? What the hell does that even mean. It's a joke.... they used to laugh at them.

So... opinions? Thoughts? If I do just cut ties with the bulk of the problem players that's 3 or even 4 of my players. Group killing potential.

Edit
I consider myself an iron willed individual and have been said to have the patience of a saint. However my patience is finally at an end now that they are starting to not even treat me with some basic respect.

Edit2
If I explain the reason why I do these things they don't believe me. They think the real reason I want to do all of these things is to kill them for personal slights.... I may get annoyed with my friends like anyone, but I can't think of any slight I remember with a burning vengeance. This situation though... this is a problem. So even if I try and explain myself no answer is good enough. They don't trust anything I say. I could tell them the time of day is 4pm and they wouldn't believe me. It's getting to that cartoonish level of paranoia.

[Engine]

Bad DMing on the way!

- Playing a Witch in a PF game, the DM wasn't familiar with the class so I explained to him how hexes work. He nodded and we started playing. And...then he started asking me how many times I could use my hexes, I again explained how they work. The next session...again he asked me why I could use Sleep so many times, then I repeated that it was an hex, I could use it how many times I wanted but only once on a target. Long story short, in five session he asked me every time how hexes work and every time he seemed unconviced. After the fifth session he contacted me and said I was out of the game because he thought I was cheating. After the sixth the group disbanded.

- Again a PF game with a different DM, the characters were accompanied by an NPC who carried a mysterious wand and had a resemblance with a popular sci-fi character of a british TV serial. During the adventure, whenever the characters encountered any difficulty, the "Doctor" (the NPC asked the characters to call him so) used the mysterious wand to go on. Locked doors? Wand. Monsters? Wand. Puzzles? Wand. Anything? Wand. Me leaving the group as fast as I can? Nope, no wand for you this time.

[DigoDragon]

"Um, guys, I actually didn't prepare anything."

I had a player in my group who would keep buying a lot of vintage or obscure gaming systems (like Space 1889) that seemed interesting to try out. He kept telling us about his ideas on adventures he'd run and we were all for giving it a try. Not once in the 9 years he was with the group did he bother to try. And it wasn't a lack of GMing experience. He was just too lazy to do the work. We ended up stealing some of his ideas now and then when he was absent for several sessions at a time.

Another former player (who I still keep in touch) has grandiose plans for a military campaign where the PCs are members of a large unit in a war. However, we're all playing enlisted soldiers in a group of about 30 NPCs. And there's only 3 PCs so far he's recruited for this idea. I have no idea how he plans on running 30 NPC simultaneously on the battle field. He too has GM experience and the one d20 Modern campaign he ran was very good. Not sure what happened.

[Kalmageddon]

I once took part to a D&D game where the session, which lasted 3 hours, consisted exclusively of the half-orc of the group being served raw boar testicles. Every step of the meal was described in extreme detail because the GM found it hilarious and couldn't get enough of it. He was in tears because of all the laughter, we were in tears becasue of how ungodly boring and disgusting the game was.

I never played with him again.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

GM: "Behind the door there's a 60ft x 60ft room. In the room there's a pile of treasure - gems and coins and magic items."

Player: "Cool! I loot the treaure pile!"

GM: "The dragon attacks you." *rolls dice*

Players (all): "What dragon?"

GM: "There's a dragon in the room. It's his treasure. He's hit you for XYZ damage."

Player: "Was it invisible? Hiding?"

GM: "No, you just didn't ask."

[aberratio ictus]

*snip*

Look, there's always a time you'll just have to end the campaign. Characters being so powerful it is hard to challenge them anymore is a quite solid sign that time has come for you and your players.

My advice is - let them have a spectacular finale, let them shine, narrate an entertaining epilogue and lay their sheets down to rest.

Then simply start a new campaign with new characters, if you are so inclined.

[Socksy]

Player: "Was it invisible? Hiding?"

GM: "No, you just didn't ask."

My father does that while DMing. Alongside his NPCs (We can expect any dwarf to be Moradin in disguise and any elf to be a 'Deltan' - (think Twilight vampires times five for speed and strength, and they look like regular grey elves, and they have like +16 to everything, and they're functionally immortal, and they're also technically dragons) - and a level 15 ranger at lowest), alongside the horribly slow plots and campaign ideas we specifically say we don't want to play, that's the reason my brother makes me DM solo campaigns for him instead of asking dad to DM for both of us.

[Kid Jake]

My father does that while DMing. Alongside his NPCs (We can expect any dwarf to be Moradin in disguise and any elf to be a 'Deltan' - (think Twilight vampires times five for speed and strength, and they look like regular grey elves, and they have like +16 to everything, and they're functionally immortal, and they're also technically dragons) - and a level 15 ranger at lowest), alongside the horribly slow plots and campaign ideas we specifically say we don't want to play, that's the reason my brother makes me DM solo campaigns for him instead of asking dad to DM for both of us.

That makes me glad I'm a first generation nerd; if I'd learned the game like that I might've done something regrettable...like getting into NASCAR.

[Sith_Happens]

That makes me glad I'm a first generation nerd; if I'd learned the game like that I might've done something regrettable...like getting into NASCAR.

[icefractal]

Stuff

Wow, that sounds like a terrible situation. I think at this point, it may be beyond salvaging; you might just have to drop the toxic players and look for new ones.

In future, I'd advise that if the characters get powerful beyond the ability of setting to challenge them, it's better to retire that campaign and start a new one than try to rebalance. For most players, once they'd been riding the lightning and smashing apart armies, they don't want to go back to a more modest level with those characters. Heck, I wouldn't, actually - better to just retire those with their badass status intact and start afresh.

Although that said, the players in question still sound like huge jerks in how they responded to it.