"Times when your RPG heart was crushed" General

sounds like a shit DM.

Sounds like another shit DM. Should of only had the one guy have to fight everyone else if you put that much effort in only for him to fuck up.

Where do murderhobos come from?

Video games.

>drift into Veeky Forums from Veeky Forums
>get hooked
>literally nobody I know in irl real life is interested in playing tabletops with me
>rolld20 feels too artificial
My heart hurts. I just want to seek glory with my friends while the cake is in the oven. Is that too much to ask for?

>Veeky Forums finally releases an early ruleset for CATastrophe
>find my way into a group that's going to playtest it
>get my character set up and ready to go
>I am excite
>looks like everyone's set up and good to start, all the characters are done and the GM has an idea of what he wants to do
>a full month goes by with literally no posts in the forum we were using
>abandon ship

>be playing tabletop games since college
>really enjoy them
>have work friends that I know would really love these games
>one of them out of the blue says that her roommate is going to run a D&D campaign and asks if I'd join because she knows I play
>get super excited
>we start playing
>the DM is fucking horrible
>there's no backstory to the world, nothing to do, every encounter is rolled randomly with no explanation
>I'm even trying to help the DM because he's new by suggesting when people could make rolls for things
>no matter what I do, he is just really no engaging at all
>one player falls asleep mid game
>the other one knits the whole time

fuck Veeky Forums I just want them to love the game, and they're going to think it's shit, but never know that it's because the DM is shit.

This.
I GM Pathfinder and we're nearly approaching the session's 2nd anniversary, but thanks to people surprise cancelling or failing to show up we've only met up like eight times. Last session (a month ago) I looked at some character sheets. Of the four players, the paladin forgot to level up half a year ago and never increased any of his skills the time before that. He was fucking first level in a third level group. Also his skills say "paladin stuff".
The rogue had listed no skills or feats, and just guessed his AC when I asked for it. He was five points under.
>tfw you're a shit gm and you can't improve because nobody wants to play your shit games
We should kill ourselves together on livestream.

Have you tried not GMing Pathfinder?

Wow, no I never thought of that...

In all seriousness, try a more rules-light system. Maybe your players enjoy the roleplaying aspects of the game, but don't like navigating through rules or working with numbers.

Hell, in a game like Fate, having a character sheet that says "paladin stuff" can be totally normal.

What is this system, anyway?

>In a videogame comunity
>People like to play boardgames/tabletop once in a while
>Seperate discord for all things PnP
>Join up in the hopes of getting a group together.

>Join one guys new pathfinder group, it only goes into 2 sessions with everyone telling the DM he's doing things wrong.
>The attempts of me trying to get people together for new groups get met with silence.
>Only one actuall group going on at a time with no actuall RP from what I've heard.
>Eventually leave.

>Later on find a few people scattered through said community that are interested in shadowrun.
>May or may not finaly get people together for something new for them.

Why are players this retarded? I mean, character sheets aren't hard, even in fucking GURPS.

>one player falls asleep mid game
>the other one knits the whole time

You should DM yourself.

A lot of players just want to play without doing any of the work first. Two separate play by post games I've tried to run using Labyrinth Lord, a system where character creation is picking a class and equipment, never got off the ground because only one person had posted a character after two months. I know play by post is slow but that's a little ridiculous.

These threads make me appreciate my players, plenty of fun.

But I do wish I could save the people in these threads, plenty of you seem great and I love being an eternity gm.

Godbound.

It's more disappointment than broken heartedness.
>Playing in a rpg association, VtM game is launching, I sign up for it.
>Lovingly create a character sheet for a concept I had in mind in a long time.
>First session, turns out there are nine players.
>It's impossible to do anything since there's always someone who needs to have a word in private with the GM.
>Get bored to death and drop out on the third session.
>Didn't even get to do anything else than introduce my character to the group. We'd been stalling from the start and nobody except the "I-conspire-against-everyone-else" characters got to do anything.
>Farewell to my flapper vampire.
Don't get me wrong, I like it when characters have agendas, but the DM shouldn't have accepted so many people from the start.

>Only other WoD experience : a mixed-team NWoD paranormal investigation.
>We're playing as pre-made characters, I get a werewolf teen, the others are two mages and a geist. Sure, why not.
>Was supposed to be a one-shot but we're already two sessions in and the murder plot thickens.
>Gets all tense at the end of the second session when we discover why the murders are taking place. Now, to find the culprit!
>And then the GM disappears completely and we never get to know how the story ends.

>CATastrophe
Sounds exactly like the yaoi comic of the same name, are you sure you weren't just playing out the lack of sex scenes like in the source material?

I remember a time when I could hang out with friends for a few hours every couple of days and make stories we retell to this day.

But that was years ago wasn't it.

>act exclusively through puppet clones while his real body is hidden in a sealed bunker underground, totally inaccessible
>thanks to magic doesn't need food, water, sleep, nor air
>owns half the city because he's a rich oil monopolist
>game fizzles because none of the other teams show up

yeah man i wonder why it sure sounds like a fun challenge thou i can't imagine

That's par on the course for a powerful magus within the setting. They could have figured something out

idk senpai all I recall were teenage kids and lolis, not bootleg bond villains compensating for something with their ''completely inaccessible bunker''.

Oh fuck off.

Now im just remembering when that proffessor in fate/zero had his entire fucking building blown the fuck up. That was pretty great

They went overboard but this does sound like stuff that happened in zero. Or at least it's enough like it that it's just a challenge and not unbeatable.

>13 players

That should've been enuough red flag.

It reminds me of Touko Aozaki (of Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners), she uses puppet bodies. Or Heaven's Feel true end. The bunker thing is a little like Fast Wheel's Hotel of Magical Hell that Kerry blew up in Zero, I guess.

Hm, alright I'll take this chance.
If you promise to be my slut, I'll learn the system for you and run a nice solo campaign for you
What do you say?

To be fair, this happened a while ago, but it still stings a bit.

>Be switchoff GM in group.
>Usually GM when other guy is planning out his next campaign, and vice versa.
>Other GM is amazing, absolute genius. I think I'm a pretty good GM myself, but I'm not on this guy's level.
>Players would ask why can't my games be more like Ian's, because he's fucking awesome.

Deal.

What sort of character would you play?

Godbound's some good shit, nigga. I'm sorry to hear you got stuck with that crap, and I hope you have better luck soon.

Its taught. Bad DMs that do nothing but snuff your backstory and ruin anything you dare to try and do are the number 1 source of murderhobos.

Look, man, the 5th Grail War was a total fuckfest. Do NOT take it as standard at all.

Ilya's a heartless bitch

Oh, don't say that, its rude.

We have proof she HAD a heart, after all.

DM sounds like a massive fag

>implying any of the Grail Wars was ever a 'standard' outside of theoretical speculation on how one would go without all the possible shit that can go wrong going wrong.

This one just happened, it kind of stings.

>join college D&D for the first time a year ago
>The DM is god-tier, made a whole homebrew world and helps people build characters from the world
>Get hooked and become really good at it
>Meanwhile, still in contact with some friends from high school
>When we all graduated I cut ties with the douchebag head of the group, spent the whole of high school putting people down and obsessively trying to become the "alpha" of a group of nerds
>Most of them went with me, agreed that the guy was a douche, but a few of my best friends stayed with the douchebag
>We stay in touch through skype, discord, ect
>Pitch the idea of a D&D campaign to my friends
>They love the idea
>Old friends who stayed with douchebag hear about it, beg to join
>I let them, hoping we can repair the friendship
>Spend hours helping them learn how the game works, help build their characters
>First session comes, goes well at first, falters in the end but people like it
>They keep asking me about the rules and how to play
>I help them out
>Second session, things are finally starting to play out well
>They all like it
>Everything seems great
>Next week
>Only one player shows up
>The one player that was already still friends who didn't show up was sick, the other two ghosted
>They apologize, say they'll show up next time
>Next week
>Setting up for the session, the friend who couldn't show up last time comes
>Tells me that the other two guys abandoned the game and they aren't going to come
>Tells me they used everything I taught them to set up a campaign with the douchebag and ghosted once they learned enough
>Tried contacting the players to see if it was true, one won't talk to me at all and the other said they left because of college
>Friend shows me the douchebag's discord server, they're both setting up for a campaign with character sheets and notes
>tfw you thought you got friends back, but they were using you the whole time

1 and 2 were ok. 3 was....

...hm. Look, the von Einzberns done fucked up bad there.

4 was mostly ok, it only really got fucky at the end.

5th was a fuckfest from start to end. There was not a single part of that War that wasn't fucked.

>Love pic-related.
>Had a group who ran and played it damn near perfectly.
>Have to stop playing due to work schedule.
>Eventually have to move away and never see them again.
>Manage to get another group interested.
>They're all edgelords.

>want to play a gunslinger for a while
>finally have a chance to
>develop an interesting backstory
>even roll on a randomized appearance chart as per DM's rule
>get 3 sessions in
>DM has a plot and seems to be going places with it
>players do something creative and unexpected
>DM is terrible at thinking on his feet and one PC feels it harder than others
>DM lacks will and charisma to hold game together

Every time with that gm.

I feel for that GM, completely me worryingly often.

I just keep winding up in situations where either I'm GMing to the best of my (shit) ability, or the game everyone's so excited for doesn't happen.

>Find a Star Wars game
>GM lets us start with some cool stuff
>Want to play a cyborg
>Come up with lengthy backstory
>Game happens for a few sessions, things went well
>Game goes on hiatus for a few months
>A month ago, GM starts preparing to reboot the campaign due to some people dropping out during the hiatus.
>Excited to plat again
>Get told "Everyone is now force sensitive for plot reasons."
>Fine with this, but still would like to be a cyborg. Planned on using bare minimum amounts of the Force, just as a slight benefit rather than basing the entire character off of it.
>One week before the next session, get told ideas of what I should be playing instead
>Cyborg idea won't work anymore with this group, have to leave because I can't come up with a character that I'm interested in within a week.
>Ultimately have to leave

It's one of those moments when I want to just stop playing tabletop games. Moments where I work so hard on a character idea and it turns out to be pure garbage.

let a lesson be learned by everyone here, if a 'friend' sides with douchebag, I'm guessing everyone here had to learn that lesson at some point.

The only time you can get them back is when douchebag does something that makes them fuck off.

Had a friend like this a long time ago. New kid, made friends with the douchebags first, told him what they are like, thought he wouldn't be a friend after that interaction. Week goes by and he finds out I was right and douche fucked him over. a decent friend for the 4 years I knew him. dude had a shit living situation, wouldn't shock me if he is dead because of his stepparent/ actual parent either killing him or pushing him to be kill himself...

They can't post right now but if you want to reach them then search for "abugoflight" on Skype or "Earth Seraph Edna#1648" on Discord.

Oh, man, that was 2hu? Shit, I feel all the worse for the guy. I really hope that works out for'm.

Welcome to my world. Try it when you are a GM for fucking WoD.

If you promise cake I promise you you can get your friends to give it a go.

>dat pic

I chuckled.

I second this. Show them how it's done, and you've just created a new group.

I've had this happen to me multiple times. It's why I rarely trust people other than myself to GM anymore.

>plays PnP in real life
>gets shit-tier people

WHO IS SURPRISED BY THIS? WHO????/

JUST USE GAMEFINDER YOU DUMB FUCKSSSSSSS

Obligatory "very long-running game slowly reduces in frequency, players, and prominence due to our mutual development of real lives" post.

Aside from that
>Have been a perma-GM for a solid decade
>Join a game outside my usual tight-knit group, with strangers
>Do this solely so I can be in a game I'm not GMing
>It actually works pretty well, great setting, motivated players, etc
>GM is okay but not fantastic at actually GMing
>Goes on long enough to get attached, a few people drop but it distills us into the actually dedicated part of the group, which is fine
>GM starts to fall apart due to, too busy to do the work necessary, sessions get delayed, a few sessions skipped, etc
>offer my help with some of the 'grunt work'
>GM explains the long-term ideas and planning so I can work on things
>not too many ideas, but what he does have is frankly not that good and would probably drive the game to death
>he's open to discussing concerns which is good
>end up running a couple sessions that he would've missed
>players enjoy my sessions better than the GMs
>they effectively revolt and insist I run sessions while the GM is more of an 'idea man'
>fast forward a little bit
>I'm just GMing the damned game now.
Fuck.

I mean I love the game and the players. But, fuck.

I'd rather gamble with not meeting new people first. Everyone knows their friends will almost certainly be asshat players but you gotta hope you're that rare lucky group.

I hope the ex-gm was okay with it. I'd hate that to be a case of gm-cucking from his perspective.

Because your players probably only have him to compare you to. You just happen to be the slightly lesser of the two they experience regularly. They're fucking idiots though. I love Filet Mignon, but I won't refuse a NY Strip steak because it isn't the same level of quality. The important thing should be that you're still eating steak, and it could always be worse.

I'm genuinely sad reading your story. Sounds like those guys are fucking douchebags too. Fuck 'em. You're better off without them.

>Roll20 not even once
I had to go through 4 shitty groups before I found a core of people that are fun to play with. Look for the slightly more obscure game systems.

>MFW I switchover GM with some other guy
>MFW my name is Ian
>MFW this post might be talking about me.

Please stroke my ego user and tell me you're talking about me.

>Find some new people to play game with
>We all hit it off really well
>8 months pass by we move onto a new campaign as interest of the premade AP dwindled into nothingness
>Miss one day because emergency happened
>Get a text saying to never bother showing up again while in ER
It's okay I still have my main group but still man, ridiculous.

I kept quiet about questionable rulings and played my character out fully, we all had good laughs at some of the quirks of said character as well as the other player's characters, so it still makes me a bit sad to this day.

>Pro tip ; never let a tranny DM.

you're better off without them, user

Why do so many shit tabletop players gravitate towards being the DM? It's an epidemic.

Because they think DMing is being some kind of super-player.

>spend six months world building a pirate-town setting while rpg group grinds through a friend's campaign
>create over 100 unique households with storylines and quests for players to invest in and an overarching plot
>create player avatar NPCs for the players to interact with in game (they would eventually become antagonists)
>make a spreadsheet so players can waifu/husbando NPCs and gain unique abilities for living with them
>make a level-up system from scratch based on IRL events players do so avatars get stronger if players do things like reading/writing/lifting/running/going out with friends/etc
>create prequel sessions so players can gain insights on the enemy and learn the rules

played through prequel sessions with everyone but then the group sort of fell apart.

Kill me.

Please end my suffering.

You fell into the over-preperation trap! Ha! Ha!

I learned that one early on too. Do prepare ahead, just not by that much. Use things like the illusion of choice to help you help your players.

>doing anything but pulling the first few sessions out of your ass to make sure everyone actually wants to play before you invest in it

I mean fuck it I like pirate towns.

Got any notes or something we can read through? It won't be the same as playing a session, but it'd probably be nice to let people see what you did.

>GM and us players agree to do an experiment between two long campaigns.
>everyone searches for setting and gameplay ideas, looks at theory of rpgs, and so on, so we can try thingns and see what we should keep for the true campaigns.
>as a result everyone knows the rules perfectly and is super involved.

>since it will only rune for 2-3 sessions, we go experimental with our characters too. Munchkin plays a young officer full of doubt, I play a creepy miner girl, everyone is out of his comfort zone... And each PC has the most detailled backstory and psychological background we've ever done in our career.
>play bad guys in a sci-fi setting, because why not?
>GM gives us nice, well-ordered files with setting info
>we experiment with group character creation and have amazing party cohesion as a result.
>debriefing between each session to improve things.
>flashbacks at every session to refine the backgrounds.
>investigation, social interactions, all the submodules we've never dared to try before.
>it's a complete blast.
>most fun I've had in years.
>same for the other players.
>GM ends the third session with a TPK because he always wanted to experiment that.
I've seen three adult people ready to punch an old friend in the face over a ttrpg. And I wasn't that far off myself.

seconding this. give it, user. plz

That's a huge misconception though, it's not rare or lucky to get a decent group.

Maybe because they can't find/get kicked out of groups that let them play?

>tfw getting the new reprint of SLAI
>probably never going to get to play or run
>probably going to fuck it all up if I do

Goddamn user. I've been in almost this *exact* situation. There were 12 players, but it was also an in-person game, not roll20. I was the only cleric, in a party full of rogues. Three people never played before, two or three of the players were edgelords, and I too got killed because for some reason I got singled out while the party was too busy touching themselves to be of any use.

Pic far too related. The edgelords ended up infecting the newbies. DM gave me a pity rez with a local temple of my god pulling my corpse out of the street, but by that time the "party" had already started to burn half the town and declare themselves lords of the local castle. By that point, I was just fucking out. Not worth it.

A long term gaming buddy of mine killed himself thursday.

Does this count?

That really sucks, user.

Any stories of him you wanna share?

Mostly him just being able to pull off crazy shit. I'm not good at greentexting. but he was always one of the most creative players at the table. Loved to paint minis, ran small/short games often. I knew he was depressed and we talked about it often. Always tried to be there for him. last talked last saturday about a rogue trader game he was wanting to run. And was trying to get him to watch an anime I thought he'd really enjoy.

I'll just repost the last game related story he told me from another of his games.

>There's myself, Oren the Seeker, the Bard Rhiannon, the Lady Evaine (apparently a paladin that doesn't know she's a paladin), the priest of a dead god named Eliador, the red wizard Memnon and his familiar Lockheed, and the ranger Hogan. Good party
>We're travelling through the country when we find ourselves trapped in a mansion, somehow, surrounded by murder mist
>So we start investigating the house
>I end up dying (nuuu), then get ressurrected by a Dragon (causing me to lose 5 hp because my Constitution goes down) (even bigger nuuuu)
>We then find a room full of statues, some of us poke the statues and Rhiannon of us gets horns, then loses her horns
>I got myself a perfect diamond
>We keep looking around, Hogan gets wings from a weird dream
>I end up nearly setting a demon free (my character is a deep dwarf, so I don't know a lot about the world)
>We end up getting half the party blinded
>Half the party recovers
>We find a large throne room full of skeletons

>Eliador gets possessed and we're like "Oh noes!" because he turns Hogan into a frog.
And we end up finding a path back to the (gold) dragon, who says "There is a price"
>I immediately say "I'll do it."
>Because in my character's eyes, there's only one thing more important to him than his friends (getting some relics back that were stolen from his homeland)
>So before, I had a Charisma of 8 (about average for a dwarf really) and a Strength of 17, and being Lawful Neutral.
>Because of my act of pure selflessness for my friend
>My strength went down to 16 and my Charisma is now 16 (maximum for a dwarf)
>And I'm now Lawful Good
>My change in strength means I don't have a bonus to hit any more
>So I've just got +1 damage, not +1 hit and damage

It's probably not greatly formatted but whatever. It's the last time we talked directly about gaming matters outside of potential games down the line.

>when 2e came out
>when skills and powers came out
>when GURPS came out
>when 3.0 came out
>when Gygax made a homebrew with dual class tracks and it blew donkey dick
>when 3.5 came out
>when white wolf pansified the most badass monsters of all into anne rice pandery, paving the way for stephanie whatshercunt's anal cumshot into the hobby
>when OGL came out and everyone filled the marketplace with trash
>when Pathfinder promised to make things right
>when 4.0 came out
>when 5.0 repackaged all the above and then had the temerity to charge a ridiculous sum for it
>when the current crop of trash came out reusing every bad mechanic there has ever been but pasting moronic brooding teleportsbehindyou anime tripe over top of it
>when people laud all of the above because they don't know anything better. you were supposed to have the best.

>My small circle of close friends all want to play rpgs
>Nobody trusts themselves to DM well

That's fucking nothing. Ever had the other players kill your fucking familiar for XP points before? I'm still pissed the GM allowed it.

>baww everything is terrible
What a baby. Pick a game and play it.

Consider that out of 5 Holy Grail Wars that have happened yet, a whopping 3 were "total fuckfests" AND NOT A SINGLE ONE HAS ACTUALLY ENDED (nobody ever got the Holy Grail) meaning that one way or another, they ALL broke down. There were barely any "standard" ones by which to measure.

>Join a game with some friends
>4 players, +DM
>Goes okay, bit of a killer DM, but I know this guy and expected it.
>Two weeks later, a new player joins, a friend of the DM, we help him make a character and teach him how to play, everything's okay.
>Two more weeks later, another new player joins, help her out and stuff.
>Another two weeks, another new player
>And then another
>And another
>AND ANOTHER
>We ended up with 9 players, with over half being clueless roleplayers that completely destroy the tone of the game and slow down combat so much it takes an entire session to kill a few goblins.
>One of the original player's character dies, so he decides to leave the game
>Next session another leaves after their character dies
>Because that guy left, and their characters had a very tied together backstory, he retires his character, and says it will take a few weeks to make a new one.
>Game, thankfully, crumbles after that because the LOLSORANDUMB can't hold the plot together.

This was early in the year, and I'm actually going to play again with that DM again soon, and he actually promised he wouldn't just keep saying yes to people joining.

>Players going into unknown swamp to hunt creatures.
>Know there's a ranger who protects the trail thru it.
>They find his house, go to visit for directions & rest.
>Find an impostor doppelganger who's taken his place. They kill him in a fight.
>Real ranger is up in a hidden room where he fled when injured.

>Players find secret room, ranger inside doesn't know they're not enemies, says "Don't come in! I'm armed!"
>Player kicks in the door.
>Gets shot
>"Fuck this guy, I hate him."
>They lock him in the room and burn his house down around him.

....kill me.

>>Been playing since AD&D days
>>Get invited to a PF game from a college buddy
>>Group has been playing together consistently for about two years apparently
>>The DM tells me to feel free and create a strong character when he hears how long ive been playing and says we will be 10th level
>>Alright time to flex that optimization muscle
>>Spend a week crafting a nice tier two Summoner thats not tier zero OP but still solid as hell and with a great backstory
>>Its one of my best paces of work and im excited to try this character out in a long term game
>>Game time and I find out they started RPGs two years beforehand
>>With 4th edition
>>Most of the PCs have no names or names like "Oracle" and "Monk"
>>The DM drops me in a dungeon with them that consists of small floors full of bashable monsters that need to be killed before the next floor opens
>>Its a fucking video game
>>Apparently all their games are like this so my backstory will never see any real use either
>>The party is weak and inept since nobody can do basic math to know things like "Monks suck"
>>My Eidolon does more damage than the entire party combined in a game where damage dealing isnt a huge priority
>>The DM is also completely out of his league and asks me to tone it down since my "Turns take so long with all those options"

Its mot all bad the Vanara Monk hits it off with my Monkey Eidolon and the group thought the character was pretty cool even if they werent used to stuff like that

None of the people I play with can RP worth a damn, and my GM is shitty.

I don't understand, how is it hard to RP? HOW IS IT HARD TO RP EVEN TO A BASIC LEVEL? I DON'T UNDERSTAND

God fucking damnit

So just today our roll20 pathfinder campaign ended, and heres why.

(I am sorry please bear with me)

>start new campaign with 5 friends almost a year ago now, most are new to PF in general with only me and a friend (we'll call him John) having experience in RPGs, John played with our DM before
>write a detailed backstory for our game, spend around two weeks making an 8 page backstory for my character as well as his sheet
>play for a few months, eventually DMs brother joins as another drops because of his job schedule
>all of us are friends up until his brother joins as a relative stranger to most, John tells me in private that our DM has previously had a tendency to ruin games by subconsciously "playing against the players", and contemplates leaving out of fear of the DM's brother joining
>he ends up leaving a few weeks later after seeing troubled waters ahead because of past sessions
>I didnt fucking listen of course
>first character the brother makes is a NE sorc whom he kills off purposefully because the party doesn't really flow with him well, is powergamed to hell and back.
>he re-rolls a TN sacred geo wizard and powergames the shit out of him, probably should have just quit here but eh, at least he works well with us now and goes out of his way to be helpful
>GM down the line kills our newbie party magus and gunslinger as they had metagamed and admits to having been mad at that, one rerolls while the other leaves, promises to lighten up after that incident and does in fact for awhile (was probably the worst red flag, I am sorry Veeky Forums)
>wizard absolutely shits on encounters, it becomes evident to me that the rest of the party is sorely underpowered and unoptimized as time goes on