GM Whining thread

I have a friend that loves to GM but likes endless pandering and shit systems. He tries to run Palladium and Rifts every time he gets the chance over ANYTHING else, and he adds in 'cameos' of things he likes, from movies but especially from anime.

In our Star Wars game, he added in Drow with Power Armor as a 'random encounter' that we just sort of run into. That's the last straw for me, personally.

>First time GM
>First session goes okay
>Second session goes okay
>HEY LOOK THERE'S A NEAT NEW SETTING I'LL GM IT

>some time later, GM again
>First session goes okay
>Second session goes okay
>HEY GUYS I JUST BOUGHT BATTLETECH LET'S PLAY THAT INSTEAD

Am I that bad?

Sounds more like your friends have a bad case of the "Oooh Shiny" to me

Does anyone else feel personally insulted when a player is late for a game?

This, I have a buddy who is chronically two hours late to everything. 12 years its been going on. I figured out early on to tell him the time was now 4pm instead of 6pm, and so he shows up at 6pm just after everyone else does. We havent told him for ten years and it works great.

Not insulted. Just disgusted. No one is punctual. No one honors appointments.

A minor thing, but I made a burma shave joke and nobody in my group got it, and I had to spend the next 10 minutes explaining it.

None of my players know the religions of my homebrew setting. One player decided to make his own religion that his village all followed and were 100% ignorant of all others, one decided to be a priest of "fire" with no explanation on what that is (turned out they're just a pyro), and one has no religion and doesn't get what any of the NPCs are talking about when they give a blessing or anything.

It's not a huge thing, but religion is important, and nobody cares in the slightest

>players don't do anything on their own
>DM pushes players into an adventure because of this problem
>railroading
I mean, I guess it's railroading? But like what choice does he have?

Sometimes, it's the players who do the railroading.

yeah, he needs to find a new group then if he's not having fun, but otherwise there's nothing wrong with that group

it rustles me so hard. for some reason my players don't think that a schedule means anything. LIKE I DON'T HAVE OTHER SHIT TO DO IF YOU'RE GONNA BE LATE HOLY SHIT

what do you mean?

stop playing with them maybe

Save yourself some grief user, boot them next time.
If they can't be respectful enough to try and collaborate on the game you spent hours developing then they're clearly not worth playing with. I mean, let them know that they're being obnoxious, but if they don't care or don't change boot them. Don't tolerate this shit, it's only going to make your life harder and more annoying.

Seriously. Even if you mostly improvise, GMing is still a lot of effort. When players are so fucking flippant about schedules and start times, it just makes me not want to fucking bother.

I could be playing a video game or watching a show or doing something else instead of waiting for this tardy shithead to show up for a game he's clearly not enthusiastic about, but instead I'm sitting here in uncomfortable silence with the rest of the players.

And then, when he shows up late, he inevitably gets mad that we started without him. I hate to quote one of my asshole college professors, but show up on time or don't show up at all (or at least have a good excuse).

Wrong group for you friend. I'm sure they're fine and I'm sure you're a good DM. Some types of players just don't mix with certain DMs well.

Some people can't handle the freedom of a pen and paper RPG. They take "can do anything" to mean "don't have to do anything I don't want to" and fuck the whole thing up. Players that treat the DM like a content ATM.

At least that's what I think he meant.

>Create a deep set of politics and intrigue as a backdrop to the world
>Players don't give a shit
>None of their characters have good long-term goals to strive for
>Campaign has become an aimless mess as I fail to entice PCs with any plot hook

> player makes a templar of a religion that believes matter is evil
> point out that's probably going to be problematic given everyone in the setting is made from it
> player insists this will be fine
> point out the logical endpoint for "matter is evil" + "i destroy evil" is his character trying to blow up the entire universe, which would make him the bad guy
> player insists this will be fine
> point out that his character probably shouldn't even be alive given his religion believes life is a mistake and death is preferable
> player insists this will be fine

>>> none of the above becomes a problem because the player gets himself blown up in the first combat of the game

he stood next to barrels full of gunpowder while people were shooting at him with fire arrows.

I guess in the end none of it really... mattered.

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

I'm calling the police

If he's just a few minutes late, or he lets me know he'll be late, it's fine. If he shows up a couple hours into the session and acts like nothing's happened, he can get fucked.

...

...

>player requests that I run Mutants and Masterminds because he wants to be a superhero
>I get all the books and spend a few days practicing making characters and learning the rules
>organize a group of people who also want to be superheros
>sit down with him and help him make his character before session zero
>first combat 'I don't really like this game, can't we just play DnD'

> miss GMing terribly
> friends also would like me to run something
> every time we discuss starting something, conversation moves to this one really good game that happened in 2009
> every time, that segues into discussing an aborted sequel arc to it that caused a bunch of IRL drama
> every single time, i end up crying and/or curled up on the floor
> player who keeps bringing the bad game up is my long term boyfriend
> i think he's doing it to toughen me up

halp.

>only person in group that will DM because nobody else can be bothered
>want them to actually consider their actions so I try to write minor twists for every noteworthy NPC or quest
>very rarely is it a major thing, just want them to have an 'oh shit maybe we should have done something different' moment
>they don't really pick up on this and continue to just act immediately
>they start to complain about stuff not always having happy or good endings

None of them keep notes. None of them remember half the shit I tell them. I've tried railroading, I've done more open worlds just giving them a map and letting them explore, half of them only care about talking to other characters and the other half just want to fight. I've lost interest in it desu, just want somebody else to DM.

Oh god, this. I'm looking forward to my next campaign, but I know this will be an issue with one player.

I honestly don't expect her to make it to the character creation.

And if she does I know she will just sleep away the game day and still demand to be part of the campaign even after missing more than half of it.

>halp.
Have you considered toughening up?

Nah, sometimes it takes a few tries for a good campaign to stick. Took me near a dozen times of one to two sessions until my big one started, but now we've been playing for two years as one campaign and it's great

Have you tried not being a homosexual?

Christ, how fucking bad was it that the very mention wrecks you? Your BF seems to going at this the wrong way, but I'm getting the vibe that you do in fact need to toughen up at least a bit. That's approaching "cannot function in society" levels of thin-skinned.

>I'm going to spend all my time designing irrelevant bullshit my players have no reason to care about
>why don't my players care about my irrelevant bullshit!?
Shit DMing in a nutshell.

>get absorbed into preexisting friend group to play D&D
>like everyone except 1 guy
>DM burns out, wants to play
>I offer to DM
>1 guy complains about every little setting thing or home rule
>won't put his fucking phone away
>refuses to really participate, bitches constantly
>2 years of dealing with this crap, he says something stupid
>tell him I'm sick of his shit, get out of my house, he's out of the game
>we play two more sessions and everybody stops showing up

stop being a stupid fucking asshole and just build a game and invite players

THIIIIIIIIIIIIS.

I keep reminding my players to keep notes but they never do.

>best friend finally get into DnD
>we start talking about it and arrange to play
>due to many cancelation and him livng far away we never get to play
>one day he moves back down
>we can play DnD as much as we want
>he turns out to be the worst DnD player I've seen period
>he is extreamly ignorant of what people did and didn't have or what is an effective stratergy or what he is able to do

>people are fighting displacer beast
>he runs off to find a crate to throw at it
>despite being a 20 dex with a ranged weapon

>everyone is staying at a expensive inn
>he doesn't want to waste gold
>he sleeps in the lobby
>he gets woken up
>chimps out
>gets critted
>chimps out further and destroys the lobby
>escapes into the night
>complains when the guards hunt him down on sight and recognise him despite him being a duergar

>gets stabbed in his sleep
>looks around room
>tell him he can't see anyone
>he says he goes back to sleep
>another player has to watch over him because he is too retarded to find out who stabbed him and assumed they were just invisible and there was nothing he could do about them and gave up.

>make big open world
>players are just friends meeting up after a long time away from each other
>no campaign plot just exploration and roleplay
>players decide to take up a mission
>they get an escort to help them
>guy gets upset that the mission is taking long and wants to drop it
>escort insists they stay to finish it

WOW WERE BEING RAILROADED I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN.

who taught everyone this meme phrase?

So this is a common theme I see a whole lot of, both here and other places where people discuss RPGs.

GMs expect players to be intimidated by tough NPCs and threats of violence. The fact of the matter is that violence is bread and butter for players. A faction of NPCs telling them to "get off their turf" will be interpreted as an overture for a fight, first and foremost, not an opportunity to engage in an intricate game of diplomacy.

and these players deserve to be killed off over and over until they learn their lesson or quit.

What's burma shave?

>how can I teach my players not to solve all their problems with violence?
>I know!
>I'll have my npcs solve all their problems with violence!

I've had this come up as well; my two cents is that a lot of players are in a game as a kind of wish-fulfillment and power-fantasy. Without an overt conversation about the kind of game you're running and expectations therein, you're bound to run into trouble.

For my part, having that talk actually solved the problem-- they trusted me to give them empowering moments next to disempowering ones.

I know that feel. Once on a roll20 game we were waiting for 1 player to log in and we were trying to reach him through phone and social media. After bombarding him with phone calls we got a very cranky 'wtf do you want?' followed by 'Oh its Friday? I forgot what day it is. Nah bros I'm too tired to game, I'll see you next week'. Click.

This was coming from a guy who was unemployed and it was 10:30 on a Friday night.

Have you tried making it simple and personal? Throw a bad guy in who's a mocking asshole, and make him chop off a player's limb or something permanent like that (naturally open up avenues for getting a magical replacement fairly quickly, but make sure it has at least a lasting cosmetic impact).

Your players will take it personally and go after that character. A hook is worthless without bait.

Literal dimensional rifts have appeared and caused the players distress as a result of a mad conjuror's attempts to transcend existence itself by becoming an extraplanar god. They have not pursued this.

>distress

Not enough, man. Most players only engage with the world outside their character sheet when they're forced to, or when it's interfering with it. You have a character land a permanent effect on a player, even if it's all fluff, and throw in an insult or two to injury, and the players are gonna be pissed and get involved.

If that doesn't work, you truly have bad players.

Have some swole asshole who works for the big bad beat them up, call them cucks, and leave. No theft, no imprisonment, no offers. Just humiliation.

They'll go ballistic.

kinda weird to me that everyone responding to this has assumed the irl drama couldn't possibly be that bad
instead of thinking hey, maybe it was, or this user wouldn't be so beat up about it

i mean i've read stories of people getting actually stabbed at the game table so at this point anything's possible

you should probably tell your boyfriend to stop doing that though. it's clearly not helping.

that last story is incredible

especially if you're playing something like DND where the fighting is... largely the reason they're even playing it. or any other system with particularly in-depth combat mechanics, for that matter. they've read the rules, they know every character option is designed to be good at fights, of course they're going to want to fight stuff.

there's plenty of systems out there that discourage (or even ban) murder as a problem-solving tool.

maybe he's roleplaying as a enemy from a stealth oriented video game.

>takes an arrow/bullet/dart to the neck
>"what was that?!"
>looks around the room for a while
>"eh. probably not my problem.

If you end up crying curled on the floor over drama, then you are not a functional adult.

>Muh railroading

Thank you contrarian Veeky Forums. Now go have the opposite opinion of everyone somewhere else.

Garbage murder hobo detected

must be nice to be so sheltered you can't imagine the kind of human conflict that would put someone in such a state

Drama can be used to describe lots of things, for all we know this person was assaulted or worse. You piss off someone you thought was your friend at the game table then the next few months they try to actively ruin your life. If they are proficient that sounds like enough to reduce someone to tears.
Honestly regardless of what happened since it causes you so much anguish you should talk to your boyfriend about it and possibly seek counselling. Most schools have counselors for free if you're a student.

>neutral good barbarian kills random citizen "for his meat"

>group needs to find out the bbeg plan and find the last 3 books he'd been reading
>read the titles but not the book's

>Have problem with characters who refuse to cooperate and end up leaving the party.
>This happens 3 times in 2 successive games.
>I've had enough.
>Tell people that I'm not going to going to waste time following somebody who leaves the party.
>You leave the party; you make a new character. It's as simple as that.
>One of the PCs won't cooperate with the others and leaves the party.
>Tell him to make a new character.
>He does, but the game falls apart because people aren't into it without the character who left the party.
>[screams internally]

>tired at 10:30 Friday night
What the fuck

> miss GMing terribly
> friends also would like me to run something
> every time we discuss starting something, conversation moves to this one really good game that happened in 2009
Great. You miss GMing, your friends want you to run something, and they're really fond of the 2009 game. Just build on that.

> every time, that segues into discussing an aborted sequel arc to it that caused a bunch of IRL drama
"I don't want to dwell on bad shit like that. It upsets me and keeps me from wanting to do something new. Can we focus on this idea I had for a new campaign instead?"

I realize it isn't always that easy, but it seems like that's the correct path to take. Assert yourself, but instead of being solely negative ("I don't want to talk about it"), try to shift the focus to something else. At a certain, though, if people are completely ignoring what you're saying, you should probably make one last impassioned plea to move on, then walk out if people continue to ignore you. You've gotta stand up for yourself.

>players have me create a literal list of different things they can do like a quest log

how should I feel about this

It's weird that every user in this thread assumed you aren't getting treatment and/or therapy for what sounds like legitimate panic attacks. (And if human brains got worried for justifiable reasons we would know by now.)

If your BF is doing this shit accidentally then he really needs to listen to your words on the matter and drop the topic.
If he's doing it *on purpose* drop his ass immediately, people who don't care about basic boundary shit like that are very, very bad news.

Sit at the table for four hours or so waiting for them to make a move. Maybe the players didn't want to play tabletop and just wanted to hang out?

Depends. If they let me know they are going to be late, shoot happens and scheduling can be hard.

If they just don't show up for two hours then
Reeeeeeeeeeeer

If they did it repeatedly, I would prompt then a few times, then just start packing up. If they don't want to play the don't have to.

Yeah, I'm talking about the latter.

If a player tells me beforehand, or shows up and apologizes, or tells me what happened, then we're cool. Plus, I have a strict "real life comes first" policy with my games.

If he just plain doesn't show up or doesn't say why, then fuck 'em.

>>every single time, i end up crying and/or curled up on the floor

...

Are you from tumblr, by any chance?

What's Google?

>player makes a cowardly wizard
>in concept sounds fine, in practice he just flees from most battles
>player then sits there browsing memes and interrupting the session to show them
>whines when he falls behind on XP for missing chunks of adventure
>I occasionally send an enemy or two to keep him in the game
>whines that he has to deal with enemies on his own

I know at this point I should just ask him to make a new character, but I keep foolishly waiting for him to propose a reason for his character to stop journeying with the party he despises on adventures he's not cut out for.

Just outright kill the cunt.

>set up a party inventory box for all the treasures and magic items and useful devices
>leave the list up and tell players they can edit it and take whatever they want because it's all unclaimed stuff
>NOBODY TOUCHES IT FOR THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN

>maybe I'm just fucked up in the head from DMing for 8 years
you are like little babby... get on my level: 28yrs of forever DM

make them have consequences. if you arent legitimately railroading people and its truly
>no campaign plot just exploration and roleplay
then they can go fuck themselves. Dont explain to them in game why youre taking the actions you are. I hate to say it but punish them if they dont stay on the task at hand like they said they would. Outside of the game table, fine, tell them why you did what you did
>you said youd do it
>you didnt
>dudes pissed
it literally boils down to that exactly.

>Must've been the wind

>sandboxy campaign
>things happen pretty regularly
>things are all interconnected and are building up into something big
>PCs wait at home for a thing happening to effect them
>they go investigate thing that drew them out, uncover something new, find some new leads
>discuss the new leads and what they mean but never follow up on them
>return home and wait for something else to happen

TAKE THE INITIATIVE REEEE

>Players work for government of small nation.
>Get access to a magical research center. Are told repeatedly and explicitly that resources are VERY limited and that they'll probably only be able to make one high class magical item, be SURE they want the item they're commissioning.
>Players, of course, ignore this completely and demand a magic item keyed against the first major badguy they come across, whom they later win over to their side without any actual combat.
>Two of the people working in this facility die in the process of building this item.
>Players, of course, get mad that they were 'gypped' out of the ultra item they deserve and that they can't get a new one.

I'm seriously considering ditching my group over this latest burst of idiocy.

What did they make?

>make realistic events that don't necessarily affect the characters
>complain when the characters have a realistic response

>Players are meeting the wizard king.
>Informed before their audience that only the king and his court magicians are permitted to cast within the throne room.
>During introductions, the party wizard says he casts Detect Magic.
>His fellow players tell him not to, he says "It's a harmless spell, they won't care"
>Court magician counters the spell with a readied Greater Dispel. Wizard gets salty.
>Player is upset I didn't let him do it, accusations of railroading are made.
>Court guards begin to remove the wizard from the room as the other characters chastise him to try and save face.
>Wizard tries to cast Black Tentacles on the approaching guards.
>Other court magician hits him with a readied Flesh to Stone.
>Apparently the Wizard was turned to salt.

I then revealed my notes detailing that the magicians are constantly readying actions to cast certain spells depending on the kings audience. I was not, as the salt wizard put it, "Making shit up to shut him down"

What part of "No casting in this area" did he not understand?

A set of amulets that would render them impervious to certain types of magical attacks, and make them more resistant to fire in general, because the mage that they thought they would have to bust in and murderfuck was known for using fire magic in general.

I don't actually mind. We're all having fun and they'll figure it out sooner or later, but sometimes it's frustrating seeing them SO CLOSE to unraveling everything just to discard it and go home.

>Need one more player for an Only War game
>One of my players pulls in their friend
>He gets his sheet done fast, rolls well and gets some really good items
>Time for session rolls around
>Is late
>He shows up two hours in and apologizes
>Makes two posts and stops responding
>MyPatienceWearsThin.jpg
>Next week rolls around
>He's fucking unresponsive.
>Get told after the game "He was in bed and sleeping"
>It's 2am on saturday
>Next week
>Get a respons
>"I don't want to get out of bed."
>The next day he finally leaves

I swear to God I was going to murder him.

Did you tell the first story recently? It sounds familiar.

not op but its a common thing people who play barbarians do. you might be thinking of the story from a few days ago that had a food merchant wizard.

>Does anyone else feel personally insulted when a player is late for a game?
Jesus fucking christ don't get me started
>three different people bail on the 3 sessions in a row
>second of those sessions doesn't happen at all because they "didn't feel like it"
>everyone suddenly angry when I tell them to figure out a fucking schedule or fuck off
>I just found a different group to play with

Give them the ol' "so this is a big world with a whole lot going on, but it's up to you to decide what to do. If you do nothing, you can totally do nothing but it'll probably be boring."
Follow up with "you wake up in the middle of ADVENTURE!" and you're good.

Reminds me of a group I'm playing in. One player is always complaining about getting up early to play it (9 or 10 in the morning, his time). The token girl leaves early half the time because she feels "sick" or "anxious".

Either start playing or stop taking up a time slot when I could play a game.

See the weird thing with my group is, is that I still hang out and play vidya with them
It was just tabletop shit that made them impossible to work with
Then again 2 of the 3 problem players weren't from the "core" part of the group, and third guy is just an asshole, so I guess shit explains itself
Oh well, I have a better group now, and so far there was no problems at all, which makes me hopeful

>Player decides to leave main group and gallivant across the country
>Split party situation, just run two games at once and assume lone player will die
>Random encounters roll in lone player's favour. By the end of the session he's reached a port town
>"What do you want to find out there?"
>"I just want to see the rest of the world!"
>"Oh well I haven't really got anything prepped in that direction. If you want to go that way I'd prefer it if the whole party went together"
>Player clearly disappointed

This is somehow making me feel CRIPPLINGLY BAD at running dnd even though it's obviously not an issue at all.