ghost-angel Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Okie, here's a bit of a weird caveat of mine, but .. I dislike it when GMs forget that characters have lives outside of the crimefighting motif (for superheroic games) and never ever manages to fit Real Life into game time. Especially when some players have "Secret IDs" and the like. Or jobs. they gotta pay the bills you know, not every group is "officially sanctioned" and on some gov't payroll. Sometimes, you gotta remember they have downtime that doesn't involve stopping bank robbers! just, ack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormraven Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Originally posted by ghost-angel Okie, here's a bit of a weird caveat of mine, but .. I dislike it when GMs forget that characters have lives outside of the crimefighting motif (for superheroic games) and never ever manages to fit Real Life into game time. Especially when some players have "Secret IDs" and the like. Or jobs. they gotta pay the bills you know, not every group is "officially sanctioned" and on some gov't payroll. Sometimes, you gotta remember they have downtime that doesn't involve stopping bank robbers! just, ack. In the same vein is the GM who approves a character with 'Poor' as a disad, then in the first few games, makes that disad completely moot by putting the character on a stipend or government salary. If you don't want your PCs to be poor, don't approve the disad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animemun001 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 or how about monsters that take hits from gatling guns grenades and a jeep. But his npc martial artist can break it in half with a single blow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 What's even more infuriating is a cyborg killer that can take an entire clip of 30 5.56mm rounds to the back of the head, fired at a distance of around four feet, and barely feel it -- but another PC's heavy pistol shot from across the basement knocks it flat on its ass. And said other PC is the DM's friend, and you're the new guy. Now that's an infuriating GM habit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animemun001 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Originally posted by Chuckg What's even more infuriating is a cyborg killer that can take an entire clip of 30 5.56mm rounds to the back of the head, fired at a distance of around four feet, and barely feel it -- but another PC's heavy pistol shot from across the basement knocks it flat on its ass. And said other PC is the DM's friend, and you're the new guy. Now that's an infuriating GM habit. more annoying when your game master asks you to create characters he takes them and changes them into villians and gives you premade characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhereg Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Originally posted by animemun001 more annoying when your game master asks you to create characters he takes them and changes them into villians and gives you premade characters. That is the greatest idea I have ever heard!!! Your GM was a genius. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animemun001 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 yes, it was, but I suggest not using it. my players didn't think it was so hot when I did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 most irritating game I ever played in was when a GM based his story on william tell he wouldnt let me use any idea other than the scenario he had already worked out. but quiet frankly what he thought woudl happen didn't make any sense and would have just got us killed. mind you this is the same guy who as a player decided to load a canon with rotten cabbages in an attempt to kill a giant(don't ask). or who ruined a perfectly good dragon hide by shooting the already decapitated beast with a cannon full of rusty nails, mid you hes still better than my killer GM who in a vampire game sent our camarilla newbies into the heart of sabbat controlled new york and then had us walk into a death trap sewer whilst trying to escape a gropup of 40 special ops soldiers all armed with vampire killing weapons. nothing like losing 4 charecters in 5 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animemun001 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Originally posted by freakboy6117 mid you hes still better than my killer GM who in a vampire game sent our camarilla newbies into the heart of sabbat controlled new york and then had us walk into a death trap sewer whilst trying to escape a gropup of 40 special ops soldiers all armed with vampire killing weapons. nothing like losing 4 charecters in 5 weeks. vampire ah that was a fun game. I scared every larp gm I ever knew by playing HAPPY vampires Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhereg Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Originally posted by animemun001 yes, it was, but I suggest not using it. my players didn't think it was so hot when I did it. Actually, as long as it was short-term, my players would love it. They actually enjoy getting screwed over in the name of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animemun001 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Originally posted by Jhereg Actually, as long as it was short-term, my players would love it. They actually enjoy getting screwed over in the name of fun. true i can see that. And the only player I had that didn't like was the team worrier, he did that quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocMan Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? More annoying habit I've seen from GMs: Giving more experience to a character who does nothing. Was in a campaign once where one of the players a) never paid attention, never bothered to find out what his character could do, c) didn't contribute to the adventure, d) was a pain in the butt when he DID pay attention (spent the entire campaign trying to be a prostititue). In spite of all these failings, this players character consistantly got more experience than EVERYONE ELSE at the table, including the chronicler who was getting a bonus 10% for writing everything down. When we called the GM on it, he said "Well he must have done something." After that, the GM started giving the same experience to everyone. Giving bennies to one character because of out of game relationship with the character's player. Not knowing what happened last session, or where the action is going this session. Letting unruly players interrupt you. If the GM needs it, he should bring a megaphone to make sure that he can say what he needs to. Letting players get away with not declaring their actions. Not having a suffienct grasp of either the STORY or the RULES. One would do. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? Actually' date=' as long as it was short-term, my players would love it. They actually enjoy getting screwed over in the name of fun.[/quote'] Wow, I'm jealous. -AA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? Actually' date=' as long as it was short-term, my players would love it. They actually enjoy getting screwed over in the name of fun.[/quote'] I have a player who moved away several years ago that I run a solo e-mail game for. He is the biggest gaming masochist on the planet. I can't screw him over enough - and the more I do it the more he likes it. Weird but true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tesuji Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? The GM who basically has one tool, the sledgehammer named fiat, and that is his only tool. In a game several years ago, one of the PCs was a barbarian type suddenly thruts into the unknown location with streange people. The first words out of the player's mouth were "She puts her back to the wall." This was repeated so often we thought about calling her that. She evidence absolutely that she would not allow people she did not trust, and at this point that meant everybody, behind her. Short time later, the gang chases a culprit to a building and finds a dea body as the local militia show up and go "so why did you kill her?" and start to arrest the gang. OK, a blind turnip could have forseen the barbarian was NOT going to go quietly, even if the other players characters could try and talk her down. So of course she draws her sword ready to fight. The Gm looks around the room vacanbatlty for a few seconds, expecting us to tell the player to not do so. One of the characters starts to say "whoa whoa..." but obviously this is not going to work. We all knew this was going south fast, cuz she would end up killing a guard before going down. So the Gm rolls a die and tells her "one of the seputies whacks you over the back of the head and knocks you out". A couple of people said something about "she never lets..." but the Gm interrupts with "thats what happened. What do the rest of you do?" Uh huh... she nearly quit the campaign the next day. ************8 In a similar story, many many years ago a friend tried to start a scifi game, i think using universe or space opera. My engineer started out looking for some stuff, i think some normal weapons, because we had this bounty thing to go do. So i just tried to locate a local gun store... using the phone book... when the Gm asked me to make a roll to use the phone book. I, of course, failed. Then i went outside to talk to people and ask around. I failed. After 30 minutes of niggling getting nowhere, my guy went back to the ship and told him my character would just do maintanence on the engines. 10 minutes later, three NPCs showed up wanting us to take a job for them and as payment they were prepared to offer us weapons... of course, this did not pan out. After taking the assignment and getting ready, the pc capt told the Gm he was taking off and heading for the other planet for the mission. At which point we were surrounded as we tried to leave orbit and arrested because "you did not say you had filed a flight plan or gotten clearance to take off from the tower." Surprisingly, i heard from others no one except his girlfriend showed for the second session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhereg Posted March 26, 2004 Report Share Posted March 26, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? Wow, I'm jealous. -AA Yes. In that respect, I'm quite lucky... and entertained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted March 27, 2004 Report Share Posted March 27, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? GMs that stress thinking your way out of situations rather than fighting your way out, but when you do so, give you fewer XPs for the session because there wasn't a fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koshka Posted March 27, 2004 Report Share Posted March 27, 2004 Re: What are the most annoying GM habits? In one online game, I went over a year without getting any XP -- because if you weren't still logged on at 2 AM when the GM wrapped up the session, you didn't get any XP. Wish I'd known that before joining the group. No one ever mentioned XP during the part of the game before I had to log off (I had to work the next day), so I assumed he was just really slow about e-mailing totals to people. He had a few other annoying habits, most notably the GM-PC built on double the points of the other PCs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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