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 DM mistakes 
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Post DM mistakes
the real boners of your DMing. post em here. I'll start with what I did last week and have to clean up this week (and i know how already).
*Victorian era campaign, just before popularization of black powder weapons, i accidentally gave the PCs over a dozen flintlock pistols.

mistakes in past:
*under the old gurps (3rd ed) rules, a character used will to resist mental compulsions and phobias, and will was cheaper than phobias and compulsions, and i let a character with a multiply-broken head buy strong will. and a dex of 16. (needless to say, even with the new, more balanced rules, my new campaign is limited to 13 or less for stats)

*i once assumed, when faced with over a dozen armed police officers and my own agent smith knockoff (complete with cronies), that my players would RUN. i'm not sure if my mistake was making the assumption, or letting them live when they proved me horribly, horribly wrong.

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Wed Dec 01, 2004 3:16 am
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Chibi-Czar

Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2004 12:58 pm
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Post Re: DM mistakes
players rarely run. I've learned this the hard way.

I was running a Mage The Ascension game and the group was investigating rumors of dark creatures in Scotland. they managed to locate what they thought was the source of local chaos and what they had was an entrance to a maze of underground tunnles dug out by a tribe of mutated and insane werewolves called the black spiral dancers. now, they had just rescued an imprisioned albino girl (future crazy werewolf) and suddenly the caves start bubbling up like the last 30 minutes of We Were Solders.

it took nearly half an hour of combat to realize they were taking too much damage and they began to retreat.

I dont like to kill characters if it can be helped, but letting a couple of party memebers die might teach the players that they dont ALWAYS have to stand their ground and fight.

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Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:52 pm
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Post Re: DM mistakes
Hotwire wrote:
players rarely run.


Universal problem. Even if playing self-insert, the big problem I've seen is the "My will can overcome" confidence, even VS "average damage VS their hitpoints" per round.

Tread carefully. Make sure that if the players don't run, they KNOW they should have, and KNOW they could only do so much...not just fade to cut-scene.

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Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:49 am
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Chibi-Czar
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Post Re: DM mistakes
Yeah, I've had some limited experience with that. Personally, I'm not the GM type, I prefer to play and let others take care of the details. But on occasion I find myself drawn to help the GM explain the dangers that I /know/ are coming.

For instance, a couple of years ago, I was hanging around the comic store and noticed a bunch of guys in the back playing DnD. So I watched them for a bit. Predictably, they came to a magical bridge that was being set up as something for later in the campaign. Naturally, the players wanted to cross the bridge.

So the GM is explaining that, no, you don't want to cross this bridge. And the players are arguing that they do.

So I mosey on over, pull out a chair and start talking.

"Look, folks. It's a bridge guarded by a mysterious cloaked figure who tells you you cannot cross. This is a DnD game, and your GM has the Book of Monsters sitting right there. You don't want to cross the bridge right now."

Naturally, they rebuff me even as the GM tries to get them to listen. So I pull the GM over, ask him a couple things, and make a mention of something. He nods and smiles.

Like the tremendously munchynoob players they are, they have no sense of impending doom from the GM smiling.


Anyways, what I asked the GM was simple.

"Which one is their cleric?"


So cue the "Are you sure you want to cross this bridge which I've told you will kill you"

followed by the predictable "lulz, I've got +giantnumber to some random save that will save me blah blah"

"Okay, so you cross the bridge. As you're edging along, the mysterious cloaked figure transforms into a giant dragon the size of Mount Everest and EATS your cleric whole, no save. He's looking mighty angry, and looking at the rest of you with a gleam in his eyes."

"I roll to attack!"

"He steps on you, you're dead. No save."

"But I have giant magical artifact that grants me autosaves to giant dragon stepping on me blah blah blah"

"fine, roll."

"Hey, natural twenty. What's his value?"

"Hmm... Let me think. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000."


Yeah, it was fun. Eventually, the munchy characters backed off and had some greater priest that they ran into later revive their dead. I ran into them the next saturday and they were all running lower leveled characters, being significantly less munchy, and all glared at me when I peaked in on them. Except for the GM.



Because honestly, I don't like killing characters at all, but sometimes you run into stubborn ass munchy guys who refuse to back down.

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Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:02 am
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Post Re: DM mistakes
Hahaha!

Yeah, some players just DON'T get the hint that retreat is an option. Of course, if the DM constantly gives you the "I wouldn't do that if I were you" warnings, but the players do it, survive and have fun...then really, it's the DM's fault for not enforcing the campaign's cinematic unbeatable moments.

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Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:25 pm
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Chibi-Czar
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Post Re: DM mistakes
Then, of course, there are those characters so paranoid about their character coming to harm, that they will do nothing beneficial in a fight, even if they happen tob be the brawler of the group. Ngg.

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Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:13 pm
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Chibi-Czar
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Post Re: DM mistakes
The time I finished reading the Illuminatus! trilogy.

Less said about that the better, I think.


Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:03 am
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Cherub

Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 2:17 pm
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Post Re: DM mistakes
Apparently, I cannot make a boss worth their salt.

Ever.

I made this one guy, supposedly as one TOUGH bastard. Supposed to be able to take on the entire party and beg for more.

One PC splattered him with a crit. (BESM Tristat 3rd Ed, Critical Strike Technique, triple damage, and his shot's BASIC damage was 71)

It's practically a running joke with me. The last boss got solo-ed by that same PC. The next boss almost took that one PC down, until she got hit by a shot from another one and started running.

I do have one note of pride, though.

Suffice to say, that with a little bit of twisting, and some conveniently misfired magical artifacts, I managed to adjust Harry Potter slightly.

Image

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Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:12 am
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Post Re: DM mistakes
Oy...I can testify to that. Making Bosses is a lot more difficult than it seems, especially if your players are not noobs. The worst part is I can't blame them because they'll usually defeat the boss in such an amazing, interesting, unique way that I can't help but enjoy it as well.

Lesson one in reoccurring master bosses: They run away when they're in the shit.

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Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:15 pm
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