Have you ever had a particularly bad case of DM favoritism in one of your games? Like where the DM treated his best friend of a girlfriend much better than the rest of the party? Is such a thing inevitable in most games?
Also, stories of excessive DM favoritism
I've had a GM who would do one on one sessions with players between our weekly session that sometimes undermined shit we did without telling the rest of us about it. I think that he was just kind of lonely and looking for something to do more than a case of favoritism though
My longtime friend/dm I feel tends to show me a little bit of favoritism compared to the rest of our group. I think everyone knows it, but nobody else seems to have a problem because I do so much for the group. Ingame I'm generally the party face, do the most roleplaying and get into character more than anyone else, manage loot, look stuff up, and more, and additionally I host our sessions in my apartment and often times provide food and transportation and let people crash on my couch if sessions run too late. Nobody but me generally wants to show much initiative or ambition in or out of character so I like to think of the favoritism as my reward for being the only one who will.
One player reading game modules then passing them to the DM to run and that's only a mild example of this DM licking the ass off of this one player.
>Forever DM, and I finally get to play after three years
>Temporary DM says his wife is going to start playing with us
I'd continue but I dont think theres any need.
My GM is usually pretty good, but recently we were forced into a PVP situation and he gave clear favouritism to the other player to the point of giving me a -5 to my to-hit rolls because my opponent was 'in good form'. I was livid.
>need
There's that word again. You wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't want to tell the story. Don't gotta lie to kick it, faggot; we're all fags here.
I favor the stronger players.
I'm always hard on my girlfriend because I'm tired of her playing pyromaniac gnome druids.
>artsy guy stands in for regular neckbeard DM
>his roommate/gay lover minmaxes a blaster character
>more powerful than any and possibly all of us via splatbook
>We pass through a room with a pool of water.
>Rest of the party wants to go on, I examine the pool
>DM gets look in his eyes as he tries to entice me to mess with the pool
>It has running water, I see a fish in it, there looks like treasure at the bottom
>I touch the water using a weapon, allow a single drop to fall on my tongue
>DM demands a saving throw, I fail
>orders me to roll immediate 1d12 damage, a high roll is enough to kill
>I survive with 3 hp left, heal myself as I am a cleric
>dump vials of holy water and bottle contact poison poolwater
>hand it to golden boy to poison his arrows
>DM forced to admit favoritism or grant his buttbuddy 5/2 * 1d10+3+1d12poison damage per round
>he grants it, dungeon becomes a loot romp
That sounds so bad I hope is made up
>girlfriend
Fake
>local gaming club meets once a week
>haven't been in a while - moved, busy with work, being a fag, etc.
>have a day off, decided to check things out again
>see That DM
>we were friends once
>once
>he's running a game he just picked up
>happens to be my favorite system at the time
>haven't played an rpg in months
>fuckwhynot.png
>"okay user, we're going to do chargen together since we are just starting"
>"also have you met my housemate [REDACTED]?"
>know the system, take fifteen minutes working character out
>help out someone else while DM and his buttbuddy talk in the corner
>everyone else done, hand book off to housemate
>"so, i'm going to be playing a jedi" he announces
>tires screech. pain in gut. teeth gritted.
>o-oh okay, at least he can't-
>DM announces since he's jedi, and CLEARLY above us in status he should get some extra experience
>"force powers are expensive, goy!"
>hands out half of the EXTRA xp to the rest of us after moderate complaint from the group
>"he still is in command of the group, since he's special."
it immediately spiraled out of control when the game began. it did not help that the GM knew jack and shit about how the game functioned since he had just picked it up.
I've been accused of favoritism by players who weren't paying attention to my descriptions.
I'm the DMs favorite because I roleplay every fucking thing I can, never ask for any special shit like magic items or specific plots for my character, settle interparty disputes in and out of character for him and otherwise just love what he provides.
We've been friends for a while now and he has always been a legit dude. So there's no favoritism in terms of the game but he's always hitting me up to thank me for a laugh or for sorting a mess out. I think it's because the rest of the party is a rollplayer, a full on sperg rules lawyer, and massive edge lord who only plays the same characters every time and a new guy rocking a rogue, who is by far the most effective PC overall.
you know this post is made up because the words "rogue" and "most effective PC" were used in conjunction
Years ago I played a Vampire the Requiem game where the ST was not even trying to hide that he wanted to dive in the one female player's vagina. Problem is that the best way he found to express this was by making the game an absolute chore for the rest of us.
>all players start solo
>normal player scenes last for 10-15 minutes where little happens
>her scenes go on for 30 minutes to an hour
>every single question she asks is answered in infodump monologues
>everything she does succeeds automatically or someone comes and fixes it for her
>her Sire is the only one that isn't acting like a creep and/or idiot
>one time get railroaded into splitting her from the party
>next session is 30 minutes focusing on the party and 2 hours throwing massive infodumps at her character
Unsurprisingly, we decided that we had enough and ditched his kraut ass.
My girlfriend tends to play favorites towards me in her games. I'm not fond of it.
Have you talked to her about it?
he just meant he's doing good rolls when throwing the dice user
I resemble that remark, fuckbucket. Not my fault if nobody else thinks about shit like "flanking" or "using the environment" or "convincing somebody to let you pass instead of putting an axe through his face".
The first time I played L5R, it was Terrible.
>just moved, so I am on the market for a game
>make some posts on Roll20, Veeky Forums and Rpol
>am approached by a guy through private message on Roll20
>he's in a group for L5R and they're looking for a last guy
>game is about emerald magistrates upholding the law and serving the emperor
>guy who invited me is playing a Doji Magistrate
>second guy is playing an Isawa Shugenja
>That girl is playing a Bayushi Courtier. With Dangerous Beauty, because of course, why not!
Now would probably be a good point to point out that the Doji Magistrate was not the Emerald Magistrate: he was just a henchman for the Emerald Magistrate, the Bayushi woman.
>Decide to make a Kakita Bushi to tie my background with the Doji
>we figure we can make a good cop, bad cop routine
(cont.)
First session
>after closing our most recent case, me and Doji are called by the Daimyo we serve
>we meet the rest of the party
>haughty Bayushi and indifferent Isawa
>our Lord tells us to help and protect the Bayushi from now on, handing us over to her
>off we go, to find the enemies of the emperor
>our first stop is in Lion lands, where all the peasants bow and scrape and are awed and head-over-heels for our boss-lady
>they don't miss any opportunity to tell us how lucky we are to serve her, yadda yadda
>when GF has to roll, we don't see the results on screen because they play together and so on and so forth
>anything she does, she succeeds at it brilliantly
>roll spot check to notice a bandit ambush as we leave Lion lands (after the more lowly samurai kept kissing GF character's ass and the lords told her what an honor it was to meet her and that they had heard so much about her and so on)
>Doji notices the bandits
>Bayushi does too and she even knows how many are hiding and where
>combat starts
>Isawa, who hasn't said much for this entire time, starts chanting
>Doji tells me to kill the bandits, he will guard the Isawa
>go and tear the bandits a new one
(cont.)
>of the eight guys that attacked us, I wounded five and killed two of them
>the Bayushi keeps firing her arrows and does so for incredible damage, the average being 30
>finishes off 5 on her own
>Isawa buffs us and burns a few bandits, killing one
>last bandit is like "You, I recognize you.." to the Bayushi
>sings the praises of the scorpion woman before he eventually dies of blood loss
>continue on to unicorn lands where we have to find a traitor tied into the backstory of the Bayushi
>our journey continues, with people being well disposed toward us as a proxy to the Bayushi
>it takes us three sessions to get to the unicorn lands, but during that time more red flags are raised
>the Bayushi kills some peasants for stealing food to survive
>when the Doji was calming down a peasant girl who had accidentally killed another peasant by dropping a heavy object, Bayushi kills her too in spite of Doji's protests
>somehow, none of the peasants witnessing the executions thought any less of the Bayushi for doing this
>we were still treated lukewarm/well by being henchmen to the bloodthirsty little shit
>one time, a samurai bumps into the Bayushi and doesn't apologize
>the next night he is found dead, stabbed in the back while no one saw anything
>the last session is when I lost my patience with the game
(cont.)
You resemble an autist.
>resemble
>phoneposter
opinion discarded
>we are invited to a unicorn guy whose horse is much more impressive than our Bayushi's pony
>so, during our stay there we're told to roll perception
>I roll openly, in front of everyone else and with void expenditure, a result of 84
>GM tells me that I see the Bayushi slip something in the tea of our host
>as the host is about to drink the tea, I stop him and tell him to let his servant taste it first
>long story short, the peasant falls very ill and I challenge the Bayushi to a duel to the death after accusing her of attempted murder
>of course, the GM being a dick gives his girlfriend a high IR Utaku champion
>Duel at twilight, under the cherry blossoms
>GM announces that the Utaku beats my results by a large amount
>didn't roll openly, so I call him out on his cheating
>other players chime in behind me, they seem to be sick of this shit too
>force him to roll openly
>Kakita bullshit ensues and I easily beat the champion in all three stages
>promptly slaughter her during the strike phase and enter skirmish
>use all my void points to bring the bitch down
>GF is fuming and screaming in the meantime
>GM panics and just leaves the conversation with GF
I like to think that, after slaughtering the Utaku, the rest of the group witnessed the execution of the Bayushi and the Doji assisted my Kakita in his seppuku, before committing it himself with the help of the Moto-bro we were at. The Isawa survived the shenanigans by virtue of being a Shugenja and much too valuable to kill himself because of other people being pricks.
And that's how I crashed a game with no survivors.
Well if the other characters are not trying too much, there's nobody to blame. They're okay with their 'lazy' solution, you're striving for the solution that requires effort, your DM is rewarding effort.
What system?
Why is every story about role playing depressing as fuck ?
this is properly hilarious ahahaha "in good form" i'm going to remember that
why do people play with shitarded GM's? Just like say no, nigger.
>>GM announces that the Utaku beats my results by a large amount
>>didn't roll openly, so I call him out on his cheating
>>other players chime in behind me, they seem to be sick of this shit too
>>force him to roll openly
>>Kakita bullshit ensues and I easily beat the champion in all three stages
>>promptly slaughter her during the strike phase and enter skirmish
>>use all my void points to bring the bitch down
>>GF is fuming and screaming in the meantime
Delicious
I don't know if it's favoritism, but the DM's best friend gets away with way too much. She's got...I don't know, some brain problem and is constantly having meltdowns that bring the game to a grinding halt and the she[the GM] just goes with it .
How does infodumps help a GM get any, that's what I wanna know.
>has never played 70s D&D
I know GMs who do shit like that.
I got into the hobby of roleplaying by going into online forums that were freeform and conflict/combat between players was resolved by having two players and a "referee" aka another player who had applied to the mods to become the role of referee who would declare whose actions would succeed and whose would fail in virtue of which player was most descriptive.
AMA
No, I don't play those anymore.
why would you put up with that for any reason for any length of time? I would be too embarassed to admit I know them
Rewarding effort is hardly showing favoritism.
How many times did the opposite happen, just because referee and player were friends?
It happens. I know I can't control it. I always target people in combat that I like much more often.
I have never seen one of the referees fuck over their friend, as far as I remember. That's mostly because, being online, their friendship was over long distances too and they weren't the friends that occasionally tease you and play pranks on you. They were just a ciclejerk trying to make their weeb characters look good.
Can't say I remember any blatant favoritism happening in games I've played.
Simple really: They don't. She was just happy that her character was in the limelight and actually did shit she wanted to do instead of getting set on a mission nobody cared about, so she didn't say anything.
Being the fucking retard that he is, he probably thought he was going somewhere with her and pushed on.
She also left about a week after the rest of us did
Happens all the time if there's a female player.
Even worse, even other beta players are going to support the GMs favouritism.
My Saturday DM tends to give a lot of broken weapons and abilities to his kids. So when I DM a session I have to throw away my ideas in favor of finding something that can offer them even a modest challenge.
The stronger players are also always hard on your girlfriend
Fucking slain
I'm pretty sure my players think I am, but that's 'cause out of all of them, only one of them is consistently active in doing things. It's basically become "One guy does everything while the rest of the party wait around for him to fix the current problem"
That doesn't sound like fun
Well, now we're playing Mutants & Masterminds, and I'm pretty much the only DM for a while since he doesn't know the system, so I'll be able to manage the bullshit well.
The worst is when I manage to get a storyline going and building up to something, and we switch games because he's "bored with the setting now".
I mean, the worst instance I've seen was when our DM was trying desperately to impress this one girl
>DM was a high school friend who went to a different college than us
>I'd go home every weekend back then to get free food from parents so I was invited to play a new game with him
>Quickly turns out that this game is directly being set up to revolve around this girl he met in college
>A blatant example of this was during the first game when (even though we were level 5) the DM made it explicitly clear that no overpowered magical items would be tolerated since we could buy what we wanted
>Girl somehow has a talking magical bow that can turn into a sword but it's ok since it's part of her backstory
>We find out pretty quickly that DM is an enormous beta and basically just talks to this girl about her D&D character all day even though she doesn't really play D&D
>After a few games I stop showing up because I'm essentially a glorified NPC
I guess luckily (?) for the DM he actually got to date and fuck said girl, though she dumped him after a couple of weeks and got back with her ex-boyfriend who she ended up marrying.
Really just a fail all around.
why is a bow that turns into a sword overpowered? I'm not seeing it.
That wasn't the broken part, I just didn't really get into it in the story. Basically since it talked (with the voice of her soul-trapped husband, long story) it gave her a bunch of skill bonuses and even some ranger spells. That and the weapon started out as a +2 and then got even more powerful as the adventure went along. Oh right and once when one of us tried to pick it up we found out that nobody but her could touch it without getting injured.
It was also an excuse for her to walk off to the side with the DM as they roleplayed with each other, usually for a half hour or more right after some big drama or fight scene. Since she could literally roleplay with her weapon and all.
To be clear this didn't completely RUIN the game or anything and she was actually a really nice girl but still it was very clear at times that this was her game and we were just background characters. I just didn't want to keep playing in a game like that, that's all.
gotcha. +2 without other effects is more than enough to be "strong".
I don't understand, how is some bullshit-tier hazard a form of favoritism? What were you hoping the DM's reaction would be?
I'm actually currently in a game where my roommate is the DM and he does the opposite
>Playing a rogue/fighter
>All locks are arcane and cause paralysis if attempted to open
>Rules that Darkvision/Blindsense/Tremorsense, etc overrule hiding and stealth rolls so they auto see me
>No chance to set up ambushes
>Several of the dungeons have puzzles that can only be solved by "killing" one of the players, but only a specific one
>Examples include being assaulted by clones of ourselves that mimic our movements perfectly so we take damage if we damage them, the trick was I had to actually kill myself
>A frozen statue of my character on a pedestal and another room with a pedestal that freezes me when I stand on it, revealing a passage deeper into the dungeon
Both times I didn't really die. My clone became the real me and the original frozen statue broke open to reveal me. Shit was weird.
That can be kind of cool, though, if everyone gets a turn as the weeks go by. See how many plans go according to keikaku.
Yeah but when this occurs it's almost never balanced. It's usually the one or two people who hang out with the DM the most getting extra roleplaying sessions. But I agree if done right it could be pretty neat.