Yfw you out-smart the DM and he gets mad

>yfw you out-smart the DM and he gets mad

I'll be perfectly honest, I really enjoy when a player figures a way out of a seemingly unwinnable situation. It shows that they're invested in the game.
Unless you're one of those painfully smug people (given your post, I'd say yes), in which case you eventually trip over your own ego and break your metaphorical nose.

>yfw the DM ignores your clever response and railroads

If you think you are clever, I assure you that you are not.

...

Every GM I've ever had has enjoyed how paranoid and how balls to the wall I play in terms of risk taking. I'm luckily blessed with an even temper that loves suffering and risk taking, and I end up the main mover & shaker in most games I play.

The best feeling is when you place your bets on a plan and what things begin to play out, even better when you know the GM won't just let you win. The paranoia, horror, and reeling at failure are delicious.

>TFW your player's "smart" solution to a problem relies on bullshit mis-interpreted rules-lawyering, real-world logic in a fantasy game, or no logic at all and only serves to shit on the game and it's story instead of making it better for anyone.
>TFW the player refuses to see any problem with this and acts like they're the victim and complains about it to strangers on the internet with a totally one-sided account heavily favoring themselves.

>>yfw you out-smart the DM and he gets mad

My group once had a gm that had a gm vs players mind set. If one of us out smarted him next session had new rules. After about 4 sessions of that nonsense we quit.

We showed up at the shop we played in, he announced a few new rules one of which was that armor and weapons had to be described in order to benefit from them. This was to allow attacks to bypass armor. He would not allow us to use it against enemies. The sole purpose was to negate our weapons and armor at his whim. There were two fights with enemies that had armor that reduced our damage to minimum and effectively had touch attack weapons all of which turned to dust at the end of the fight. This was in a D&D 3.5 game.

After that I said I was done and going to get food. The other two joined me. As we were walking out the door he asked us to bring him something back. I told him I was not coming back. He threw his arms up and grunted. He messaged me a few weeks later saying that I ruined his reputation and no one would play any game with him anymore.

>TFW your players solve everything the way you intended and don't go off course once

...

>>TFW your players solve everything the way you intended

Going off course is fine, exciting even.

Making the peasant-railgun is fucking stupid and the players have no right to complain when the GM shuts them down for being retarded.

Sounds pretty boring

Doubt that. Paranoid people are risk averse.

/thread

giving yourself an aversion response in a safe and controlled setting can be fun.

>tfw your GM is smart but extremely smug about it
>tfw it really motivates you to try and figure out a way off his fucking rails but he always has a back up plan or can just think fast enough on his feet to put you right back on them
>tfw he always makes you feel like an idiot for never being able to get ahead of his villains or even the """good""" NPCs

one of these days we're gonna fucking get one up on him and he'll admit it

>always behind the NPCs

why do you tolerate that?

If you're actually enjoying the challenge, he's probably also having a fun time setting things up.

Which is about as ideal a scenario you can get for a tabletop game. Keeps everyone's brains active.

>tfw half the party barely cares and the other half gets really invested and interested
>former half feels bored, complains GM isn't paying attention to them enough
>GM is actually dragging things down to pay attention to them, but they aren't taking any hooks

Why people do this? RPGs are an interactive medium, players need to put some effort in too or the game never takes off.

Not that guy, I have but I have no idea. All I know is that if I don't make the decisions, no other PC will make the decisions.
spoiler]I just want to be a comfy side character for once[/spoiler]

>GM makes a setting and gives us advance warning on what the main quest is going to be about
>Players get invested and make characters with an interest in completing the main quest
>DM also prepares a lot of sidequests and options for worldbuilding
>Except most of our characters were made to be more interested in the main story
>Some backstories are even tied to it
>Both players and DM are suddenly bending over backwards to find in character reasons to sidequest or make the optional content necessary

We accidentally tied ourselves to the rails and the DM is doing everything in his power to throw us off. I'm sorry, man. It's what my character would do.

Batfags are literally the worst

>effort

There's your problem.

This why I don't want to DM anymore. I DM for 3 friends and one of them is really invested, the second is also fairly invested in the game, but doesn't want to put any effort into it (rather someone else do it for him), and the third just doesn't give a shit and is just here for the ride.

I love these dudes and they show interest in the game so I feel like it has to be something I'm doing wrong.

>TFW they think the adventure is in one single place and has to be solved in order to get to the next.

I've been trying to get the BBEG to make things even harder the more they aimlessly dick around. Now they think they can't leave town. Even if they did, they don't know where the fuck to go so every session I showed an NPC with a map. A clear, large map right in front of their faces.

Nobody. Not a single one asks: "Hey, can we see that map?" No one gives a single shit.

>a villain using Batman's contingency plans takes down the entire Justice League, leaving Batman the only hope

t. DC Comics

Yeah my favorite part of the game is when Pcs take a option i never expected, it impresses me and even if its not the most mechanically sound idea i'll usually let it work if its creative/clever enough

Honestly, a bit of rail roading might be necessary if you want a campaign with that many players going anywhere.

>my face when we got off the rails after the NPC that was guiding us got killed and now we have to depend on the groups Evil necromancer (His character may as well be the doctor from Frankenstein's Army) who is the only one with the power to pull us back on track by getting info from the dead guide
>he's more interested in horrible experiments and amassing power by siding with the BBEG.
We're so boned. Even the "good" members of the party have for some reason taken up the quest to find the parts to some spell which does something we don't understand, which in our last test made the sun flicker and drew the attention of beings gnawing at reality from the elder plane. The Dwarves we were traveling with have clearly had it with us as we ruined their ship when it was coated in blood from things that should not be during that spell. The only reason the party is still together is because we're all harassed by terrible demons and they'll probably kill us if we don't stay together. I want back on the comfy rails: I just wanted to stop the Orc invasions and save my people.

The mindset that "because we can do it, it must be important to the main quest" is going to kill us.

I would find that boring, I think. The fun in GMing comes largely from the unexpected, at least for me.
I once pit my players up against a boss they were supposed to lose to to progress the story, but the players found a way to beat it that I hadn't expected, and I allowed them to, taking the game in a completely unexpected direction.

Had a GM do this by simply cockblocking and ignoring us. Fucking killed the mood entirely, kept saying it was for a 'cutscene' he wanted to play out with his DMPC and didn't want us interfering. Literally bullshit all of our characters being to physically tired to get up and help.

>One player wouldn't know something in character
>"well i don't know that so im going to do the exact opposite lol"

This. Railroading isn't inherently a bad thing, it's if you rely on it too much that it gets out of hand. Every once in a while, you need to give them a push in the direction of the plot/adventure, otherwise they'll have nothing to do and will just sit around with their thumbs up their asses.

>He messaged me a few weeks later saying that I ruined his reputation and no one would play any game with him anymore.
Yay.

>and he'll admit it
Nope.
Ain't happening.
New obstacles materialize out of thin air.

Saber a cute. A CUTE!

>even the "good" npcs

I always worry about this. I usually include one or two npcs to generally hang around the pcs or be with them on missions etc and worry that they will overshadow them or something. I try not do this and usually just use the npc as backup or to help give the story a nudge if they drag their heels too much or get stuck about what to do next

>play with a group that rotates games and gms regularly
>recently got a friends older brother to join us
> he runs exalted and dresden files
>he's refreshing as fuck with his attitude

He pretty much has a "if you aren't interested then don't play" and is pretty no nonsense about it. He also vocalizes his annoyance when other members aren't paying attention.

While this all sounds dickish he does it in a way that's not and it doesn't help any that it's almost always justified as we get distracted as FUCK really easily

Batman fan boys who somehow get writing jobs are the worst.

I fucking love batman but I hate the comics like this.
Oh noes suddenly the entire justice League is fucking retarded except for batman!

No seriously I hate this so much. In team comics batman should be a tool not the fucking toolbox

...

>I invent gunpowder

>an old and venerate wizard named Pha Kyoo develops a level 1 spell that makes the target immune to gunshots for 10 hours.

>venerate
*venerated

If you're outsmarting your GM something is wrong with your game.

Roleplaying games are a collaborative exercise. When a player of mine has a cool idea, I expect them to share it with me so I can work with them on it. I enjoy players coming up with cool ideas because it can add extra flavour to a scene and make things more interesting.

I know where this kind of thinking comes from, antagonistic GMs where players feel the need to hide their ideas from them until the last minute for fear the GM will screw them out of it, but in a good game there should be mutual trust between the players and the GM. There is nobody to outsmart because you don't have an opponent. You're all working together to create a fun experience for the group.

>Ruh-Railroad!

This. I love when players come up with ideas and run them by me. Yes; of course you can grapple that Orc that's a size bigger than you and try to drag him into the middle of the foundry. That's exactly why I put a GIANT PIT OF LAVA in the middle of the room.
Yes, that IS the important NPC that was in the backstory I was explaining, thank you for noticing!

>YFW in the process of trying to enact their perfect solution, your players torpedo the main quest and make the campaign unwinnable

And yes, that is the NPC in your backstory.
And yes, you can totally call in your contact NPC that I forgot about after I used him to advance the plot because technically he does owe the party a favor!

It does sound dickish user, but I agree with the idea. I feel like I need to be a bit more forceful or something.

Things aren't that bad though since one of my players (the one who's actually interested in the sessions) is planning to run some stuff of his own. I actually get to play for once!

This does also require some flexibility on the GMs part, though.

When I frame a scene I usually have a vague plan for it, but I always remain open to player input. If a player asks a question I hadn't considered, rather than defaulting to 'no' I often consider whether I can justify saying 'yes', despite not having planned it in advance.

It makes players feel smart and makes you seem insightful when really you're just making use of the ideas they throw your way.

A map isn't much help if you don't know where you want to go in the first place. Unless this is a magical map that says shit like 'BBEG here', 'people in need here' and 'nefarious deeds being done here'. You need to give them a nice trail of bread crumbs, like next time they are at the tavern have them hear some npcs loudly discussing rumors trouble over trouble over at X or sightings of the BBEG over at Y.

Somebody was so butthurt about Superman actually killing Batman in the comic where Supes dies anyway that they edited it to say it was a "decoy".

this is fine sometimes

I had a recent session where I played a Roman Centurion transported to London during the blitz, he spent a dangerous amount of time examining this weird metal cylinder sticking out of the road before moving on and starting a bar fight when he told some soldiers he was from Rome

>TFW your player's "smart" solution to a problem relies on bullshit mis-interpreted rules-lawyering, real-world logic in a fantasy game, or no logic at all
>or
>not all three at once
Lucky you.

I thought I was just remembering it wrong, that it had always said that. jesus christ, that's some real goddamn autism right there.

Batman is just bullshit, even in the source material is able to do illogic and stuff that goes against physics like redirecting plasma with a toilet mirror

I like to work with players but sharing the scenario seems kinda lame, i'm open to doing non rule book stuff at the table and overarching character stuff away from the table (like a player wanted to have a split personality thing so i asked him if he wanted to multiclass) but sharing the plan for what will happen kinda ruins the antcipation and fun for players, yet again i've never played.

Not mad, but speechless and he retconned the scene.

>Tfw you outsmart the gm and hes glad.

You have a good DM.

Let's hear it.

I am kinda worried this is me.
My game im running im going to focus on making my villain more cloak and dagger all about cleaning evidence and infiltrating the players while still raxing to the goal.

Im worried im gonna have to make some bullshit up to keep it alive.

Fqlseflagging bruh. Never had a gm who ive perticularily outsmarted.

But Ive given ideas how to challange the players and make the enemy more interesting once. That got a chuckle out of him.

>bat-sun

This pleases me

That's not falseflagging. That's just making shit up.

Falseflagging means you pretend to be part of an opposing group to discredit them.

It's more the reverse, that players should always share thoughts or ideas with the GM rather than keeping them secret to try and 'outsmart' the GM.

At this point that would only make me uncomfortable and suspicious.

Oh this one is easy.

>Frame batman for being evil and use batman's anti-batman plan to kill batman then kill everyone else with his other plans.

It's because these writers are retarded, and the only way they can write a fucking character as "smart" is to make everyone else so stupid they could be replaced with a slime mold.

DON'T MAKE ME SUCK YOUR DICK!

>tfw players can't grasp how idiotic their ideas are.
>Tfw they get mad when I point out things like how kidnapping the merchant's daughter isn't likely to make the mysterious figures ambushing his caravans come after them instead.

>mfw a player thinks avoiding plot hooks is him "outsmarting me and my obvious writing"

>tfw you don't have specific solutions to problems in mind and are happy to see the players figure things out on their own

>tfw players think you're mad as the GM because they dodged your storyline and went to follow that one rumor they heard in town 2 sessions ago
>tfw they think they "outsmarted" you
>like the GM isn't the one who controls the character who told them the rumor

Players are hilarious.

I was GMing a Mass Effect campaign. A spy was being picked up by two heavily armed guards. The spy was down one arm and needed immediate evac. One of the players, a Krogan, looked me straight in the eyes and said "I piledrive the skycar"

fucker rolled a near perfect success. I flipped my book. One of my best sessions.

> tfw playing uncultured barbarian having to move through civilized society
> tfw use implicit threats of violence, honor-bound politeness, and deliberately keeping all these civilized folk who view me as nothing more than a lump of muscle off balance in the place of actual political skill
> tfw GM gets frustrated and complains about chaotic honorable barbarian being hard to run for and seems super put upon by me
> tfw just want to work worth him to try and make this less unpleasant, but he won't talk to me about it
> tfw seems to view any actual collaboration with players as in violation of his sacred GM duties
> tfw really enjoy game and don't want GM to be frustrated, upset or drained

;-;

If you're playing in a game where technology is 13th century+ except gunpowder is conveniently missing you deserve to be laughed at.

>tfw all your players are really invested in your game
>almost too invested
>but when in-character drama happens, it causes real world tensions because the players are taking in-game events deathly seriously OOC
>tfw I can't run a game for this group anymore because I can't handle people freaking out IRL over things that happen in-game

And yeah, it happened pretty much every time there was less-than-perfectly-friendly character interaction.

Have you thought about adding an opening and closing ceremony to your games?
Like telling your players at the start that the curtain to the fantastical world is being lifted, and finishing every session with telling them how the curtain comes down again, to leave the reality of the game behind the veil?
Some people may be able to cope better that way.

Holy fuck, been there. During a Middle Earth campaign, the hobbit thief's player literally sucker-punched the human cleric's player over an in-character disagreement. It's unbelievably retarded.

A base calumny! Slime molds are in no way as dumb as Batman writers!

>mfw my GM rolls for random encounters on caravan travels
>within two days, we had a blizzard drop 6 feet of snow and then a nearby mountain became krakatoa

Hey, looks like you guys can read!

>is to make everyone else so stupid they could be replaced with a slime mold.
I don't think Batman writers could optimize logistical routing.

Sounds like an interesting idea. I may try that if I ever get another opportunity to. Unfortunately two of the players causing most of the issues are sisters who are at their worst when they're together, and who both get stupid jealous if they get left out of anything, one of the other players is the boyfriend of one of the sisters, and one guy is unapologetically roleplaying an actual murderous sociopath, so I'd be better off with a whole different group.

Yeah no that's fine, the situation I'm talking about is more like

>the party decides to escort a goblin back to its home
>ranger strikes up an alliance with the goblins
>fighter who's in another room: "oh well I don't know we're making an alliance so i'm going to kill them all lol"
>kills two for no reason before anyone can stop them

>tfw the DM's own DMPC sargent outsmarts him by staying alive when he was supposed to die as a plot point
>tfw the DM keeps throwing more and more shit at us to kill the unkillable DMPC and all it does is kill us instead
>DM gets to the point where he's saying "I have to kill him in a fair way, if I hand wave him dying it won't count, he'll still win."
>DMPc is so stupidly lucky he's passed pretty much every skill in the game untrained
>We begin to follow the guy around unquestioningly as he can apparently do no wrong.
>DM desperately tries to get us to hate the DMPC but he keeps saving all our lives and we all owe the invincible SOB. As we're highborn with a code of chivalry, we're pretty much honorbound to the life debt, meaning we have to intervene with every trick the DM comes up with to kill him.

Sargent Merrick you are a god among men and you had no business passing a check to reset your own fucking ribs without medicae training.

Also breaking into a Slaneeshi game show to save my ass (technically he broke in to save his comrade) was nuts and how you didn't get caught is a mystery.

>mfw when I'm pretty sure my GM's weather table only has two possibilities
>mfw when those two possibilities are hurricane and HURRICANE

...go on.