New Group Experiences Thread/Dm Fuckery Thread

New Group Experiences Thread/Dm Fuckery Thread
I'll start.

>haven't played dnd in years
>get new job.
>meet the staff
>one plays tabletop games
>the persons partner runs a game
>invites me to game
sure why not
>arrive
>he hands me a thick binder. it is the rules of his home-made system.
ok sure ill try it
>I decide to make a goblin pyromancer.
Its beyond complicated and the rules are fairly arbitrary (e.g. Dwarves are called Dark Elves, Elves are called something else, there are three types of damage that require three different types of magic spell to heal. Spell power is a mana based system is determined through multiple calculations. There are rolls to cast and rolls to hit with all spells. The rules don't give a lot of guidance. Do my best anyway and send the dm a back story and some ideas for spells before first session with new group. I mostly focus on fire and lightening spells.

first session
>meet other players. Party is a troll fighter, elf wizard (coworker), human priest, goblin thief, and a dwarf fighter and me. The goblin thief and dwarf fighter are a married couple. I get introduced to the party at the inn. We decide to check out a nearby tower after getting paid to rescue some lich's soul gem by some noble.

Goblin thief decides to start hitting on me in character. Have to tell her I am not interested in character before she would stop. Coworker bosses everyone around. Troll fighter messes with coworker because he thinks it funny. Dwarf and human play on their phones. We make it to the tower and get immediately blown up by fireball turrets. I get critted, pass out, and get rez'd by the priest. Somehow make it inside the tower to be accosted by large bugs that were *immune to fire.* Session ends before the battle.

pic is mfw

to be continued.

>Dwarf and human play on their phones.
I don't understand why shit like this is ever allowed. It's common courtesy not to do this shit, and is in no way objectionable to ask people to stop.

Next session

>Fight firebugs. After we spend a few rounds fighting firebugs, lightening bugs show up too. Every single one of them explodes in lightening or fire when killed. They pour in from the ceiling. My character spends most the battle hiding and casting smoke spells to try and make the bugs fly lower or suffocate. Amazingly, it works. We take tons of damage in the battle and use a lot of mana.

Find treasure trove on a nearby corpse. Rest of party leaps on it and fights over items. Coworker takes everything remotely magical or valuable.

>Bugs defeated, the party explores the tower and deduces the location of the central stair case that leads to the basement. Our party previously learned that to get to the basement, and the lich's gem, we would need to go to the top of the tower to locate the entrance to the only entrance to the basement stairs. We locate a thin stone wall on the first floor that, if breached, leads to the staircase. Troll fighter has a pick and a hammer. We begin to excavate and the dm has the troll make a fortitude save. The troll rolls high. Turns out the walls are trapped with save or die spells.

mfw

>While exploring, we also find a room with 8 wights. The party starts making jokes using real world racial slurs for in game races. Coworker insists that we fight the wights now since its her philosophy to leave no foe un-fought. I say we are outnumbered and should probably rest and heal. I decide to explore the rest of the tower, figuring the worst thing that can happen is that I die and no longer have to play the game. Rest of the party decides to stay behind.

Find an iron golem. The dm informs me that my magic probably wont hurt it. Coworker says we should leave since we outmatched. I try talking to it. Luckily it seems neutral and only activates if you steal something.

I find a treasure room. I say that I decide to take everything for myself. Coworker complains.

3/3

They appear to be candy of some sort. Party is terrified to try it, thinking it is poison.

>Iwish.jpg

I try one. It heals a good portion of my mana. Coworker demands I share. I throw coworker a bone and share the items, but I insist on sharing with the priest too. She reluctantly agrees.

We find a trapped door. Coworker is a lvl 6 wizard, so decently powerful. She blows all of her mana trying to dispel the magic on the trapped door. She rolls high and still fails. She eats all of her candy and tries to dispel it again. Still fails.

She demands the rest of the candy. I tell her to chill and that we should rest to regain all of our mana. She gets pissy.

We find a decent room to rest in. I suggest to the party we hang out in it for a few hours. Coworker says we should just give her all the magic candy and keep going. Rest of the party begins to stand up for themselves and say their characters need rest too. She backs down after dm informs her she will have all of her mana back after four hours.

DM ends session for the night and I go home.

I am not sure I want to go back desu.

>Playing with coworkers you just met
Your first and most lethal mistake. Almost no way this can go right.

A female coworker married to the GM at that. OP dun goofed.

>he hands me a thick binder. it is the rules of his home-made system.

For what purpose

>Be about 13-14 years ago.
>Been gaming a couple of years at this point, WoD, 3.5, Rifts, Shadowrun.
>Run into a local gamer on the White Wolf Forums.
>Get to talking, both of us are in the SCA, both of us dig Arthurian Legend.
>Am offered a seat in the upcoming Pendragon game he's starting.
>mydickcanonlygetharder.jpeg
>Been dreaming about that game forever.
>Get loaned a copy of the books, told we're going to be Knights, full on Round Table status.
>sweetbabyjesusdeusfuckingvult.gif
>Get to game, everyone has rolled Picts and Vikings. GM decided to change the game idea an hour after I last saw him.
>Fuck.
>Game goes horribly as I for some reason not allowed to reroll into a new guy that fits.
>GM's wife is functionally retarded, most of the crew present is Shortbus status.
>GM has collected morons to feed his ego.
>Suffer through the game as the GM had made some fucking baller Carnitas.
>Game is horrid, rape and murder rampant everywhere.
>Opt to not return.

I would have left at the binder of home-made system. Nothing good could come from that.

Really? I find it kind of impressive he managed to write up enough rules to nearly fill an entire binder and the fact he spruces up the original races is a bonus for me.

>be forever GM
>Friend says he has an open spot in a new group
>Why not
>Roll fairly standard fare
>Party is me, my friend and a new guy
>A third one never shows up
>Game starts
>We are in a monastery and there's been a murder
>For some reason we must investigate even if we are complete outsiders
>Durdle around with no real lead for two sessions
>GM is clearly making shit up on the fly
>Does shitty accents for all NPCs
>Third game
>new guy has two friends who tag along for the evening
>GM gives them town guard NPCs so they don't get bored
>Half an hour in they arrest us for asking questions
>We are accused and executed
>Bad end
>GM later admits he had no clue how to end the mystery

I miss sitting in the players chair but every single pick up game I got into has been utter shit.

Homebrew systems, especially when they reach that critical mass, are really comprehensible only by the GM and the group they were written for. With hundreds of good games existing in PDF form there is no reason to endure such things.

>finally get a chance to play Pendragon
>it turns into such a shitfest

Crap man, I didn't have it happen to me, but I feel you.

Party is a troll fighter, elf wizard (coworker), human priest, goblin thief, and a dwarf fighter

>Goblin thief decides to start hitting on me
>Have to tell her I am not interested
>Coworker insists that we fight the wights now
>since its her philosophy to leave no foe un-fought.
>I insist on sharing with the priest too.
>She reluctantly agrees.

What the fuck it's all grills in your party where do you live

If the carnitas were that good I probably would have came back. Carnitas are proof of a benevolent God.

Being both a player and a GM, i reached the conclusion that all games where i don't GM are complete nonsensical shit.

What does this tell of me, Veeky Forums?

That you should make a Forever GM support group and play only in their games.

>he hands me a thick binder. it is the rules of his home-made system.

Alright

Is this a thing that happens often?

I've been playing tabletop games for around 17+ years, and only recently decided to put some work into creating an RPG system
That's been working almost too well, but that aside,
Thick houserules binder? I've got maybe 50 pages tops, mostly due to formatting, and it's all on documents. Hell, most players don't need more than 4-5 pages right now.
Nothing special, easy to understand, I don't try to reinvent the wheel.

What is it that possesses so many people to try and make their own houserules, beyond simple alterations to an already known ruleset? Autism?
How many of these home brews even have playtesting outside of their group?
Are changes even made to the system, or is the creator to stubborn to "change his vision?"

Seriously. I see this too much it seems.
Is it because of 3.5? Pathfinder? 4th e? 5th?
Because someone played one of those, then played another RPG system and swore up and down it was the best ever, if a few changes were made?

Someone explain this shit. We should see more RPG systems moving the market, instead it seems like its all basement clad internet trolls incapable of abandoning their foul creation.

I think you are mostly right. Most people only play three or four games, usually not that different from one another, and get the idea that they know enough, usually trying to Port into the game some weird simulation attempts. If you look at the pattern, it's always to make a game "realistic", to add "details" to the weapon system, to make magic "feel more believable". It's the Dunning-Kruger effect applied to game design.

Oh, and the worst thing is, nowadays the can easily get the game published. "Fantasy heartbreaker" was the discussion point a few years ago.

>Dwarves are called Dark Elves, Elves are called something else
You are now aware that dwarves and elves were the same thing before Tolkien made them distinct.