Rookie Mistakes as DM

>>51795088

Way, way back.

>Give McGuffin silver golem companion to players because I was like 12 or 13 and woefully unoriginal and was copying Karn in all but name
>Copy the pacifism, but dress it up in a different story for less easy identification, but still won't fight.
>Kept that because mechanically, he's a 65 strength beast, and can crush most things heads in if I didn't make him absolutely nonviolent.
>Has this thing about how as a created being, he believes he's automatically inferior to all living beings, and how he cannot take a life, or judge living beings.
>Party adventures around with him.
>I forget exactly why, but they were clearing out this vampire nest
>Hey DM, isn't his reasoning about how he won't take a life? And Undead wouldn't count?
>Uhm, lemme think. Damn, yeah, I guess. But of course, you'd still have his invulnerability to most weapons.
>Isn't he a silver golem? Shouldn't his punches count as silvered weapons, which a vampire is vulnerable to?


Most undead sharply disappeared after that session.

>trying to improvise a murder mystery
Still don't know what I was thinking.

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>>51796185
>improvise a murder mystery

Why?

>>51795088
I fail to see the issue here.

>>51796185
>try to run murder mystery
>cleric has speak with dead

>>51796306
>Dead guy only speaks Abyssal

>>51796306

>Dead guy doesn't' know who did it.
>But does have a small, vital clue that is otherwise unobtainable.

>>51796306
Well, that doesn't necessarily mean he would know who killed him, especially if he was poisoned, or killed from behind.

>>51795161
I know you said it was years ago, but dude, you should have used that.

Make the golem have an epiphany, give him a story ar. The players tell him he can fight undead, he agrees, and sees himself as better able to help the living he admires by using his natural anti-undead abilities to protect towns or have him leave the party and go on missions to squash liches instead of just saying "oh fuck, I accidentally made an vampire destroying demigod, better never use undead ever again."

Would've been way cooler that way.

>>51795161
I don't really see what the problem is with this unless you wanted a difficult undead encounter. Your players found a cool loophole that made sense lore-wise. It seems like they were plenty invested in your game.

> grant gauntlets of ogre power and belt of storm giant strength in trove
> party comes to a corridor
> thief spots suspicious holes in the wall but doesn't know if they are a trap or not.
> fighter looks at wall, DM says it is a few inches thick
> fighter attempts to break through dungeon wall like Kool Aid Man
> OH YEAH.jpg
> starts pushing down all the dungeon walls one at a time
> avoids all the traps and ambushes
> DM panics, says "all the walls have suddenly become 10' thick, even the walls that you passed up earlier"
> game completely derailed at this point

>>51795088

Sounds ideal to me. Character motivation writes itself. The characters have effective tools to deal with the problems you'll provide for them, so you never have to pull punches. They'll occasionally stomp out lesser threats and be big god damn heroes, which is great for player morale.

>>51796388
>I don't really see what the problem is with this unless you wanted a difficult undead encounter


This, precisely.


>>51796371


The problem was that he was necessary for certain other endeavors that the players wanted to get up to, and having him wander off on some undead destroying crusade would have left them in a bit of a lurch.

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>rewarding the players too much too early
I'm still trying to fix that mess.

>>51796937
Have them get captured.

>>51795088
Having a player use the Multiple Minions modifier for any Summon build in MnM whatsoever.

>>51796306
>Organization that killed dead guy has enough resources to banish his ghost as well. Or has reincarnated him into another body
>Dead man is spiteful bastard, blames someone else because he hates them

>>51796937
Resources easily gained are easily lost.
Obviously, don't just pull the full carpet out from them, but there's ways to do it.

I often end up giving my players too much money, but that means merchants they encounter just try that much harder to rip them off. Makes it a fun challenge each time to try and hold onto their fat stacks.

In terms of good equipment I'm still learning to deal with that without it feeling unfair to the party, but typically enemies will have a way to deal with anything accidentally broken I give them.

>>51795088
How is this a problem?

>>51797172
How can I be subtle about it? I've thought of nuking the place they're in, but since they've been doing so well in their efforts to protect it, it'd feel like a dickish low blow.

>>51795088
Is the joke that they were the demons?

>>51797594
Imagine you're going to a boxing match. Then, your buddy tells you before-hand that they don't check your gloves. So, you go ahead slip some lead breaks into them.

That's akin to what those players did after the DM told them.

>>51797568
Get a call to a nearby village.

Village has vampire and spawn waiting.

Sit back as your party wastes massive resources trying to survive the night or escape a previously sealed crypt they are now stuck in. Drains excess funds and makes them feel like they did something to protect themselves later.

>>51797568
Subtlety only matters if the PCs are being subtle with their wealth
See related tangent in another thread: >>51797799

>>51797767
So what should the players have done? Completely ignored what the GM told them about the game and made something ill-suited to fighting demons?

Are you saying that if the GM tells you they want to run a political intrigue game you should show up with stabby mckill butcher the lowborn murderhobo, because showing up with a socialite would be cheating?

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>>51796306
I've played enough Phoenix Wright to see a way around that.

>>51797868
No, it was the DM's fault, which is probably why the title of the thread is "rookie mistakes as DM"

>>51797868
He is saying that players should have read his mind, made level 1 warriors so they could get crushed three minutes in and begin sucking his cock.

>>51797977
>made level 1 warriors

Wait...You can make new characters higher than level 1?

>>51798026
Yeah, if the DM wants to run adventures involving experienced characters without doing the whole zero-to-hero thing first.

>Give player a magical device that can open any door or gate for a limited amount of uses.
>Forget about it.
>Few sessions later, there is a problem.
>The adventure is starting to stall because the players don't want to go into the dungeon because they nova'd eailer.
>They finally enter but almost immediately try to leave.
>This dungeon was the linchpin of today's session, I don't have much prepared for them if they just leave.
>I try to trap them inside by having the entrance gate lock up.
>Player with the magical item calls me a bitch and uses the item.
>The session is nearly ruined because they escape and fuck around in the woods for almost the entire rest of the night.

Never forget the magic items you give out, and always have some quantum ogres on standby.

Not really my fuck up, nor a rookie gm mistake but I ended up ruining the campaign.

The gm, for thematic reasons for his campaign gave me

>wizard spell gaining but cast like a sorcerer
>casting of 1/2 my wizard level as a sorcerer
>no need for verbal, somatic, foci or components for spells
>+2 spell dc
>clerical domain of choice
>bardic music ability
>ignore xp cost and 1/2 gp on crafting, 1 week on time on anything more than a week

I to this day have no clue why I got all this shit. I tried to tell him I was going to be way too powerful. I kept asking if he was going to let me do things and he kept allowing me. He rage quit when he gave us down time before a siege we knew was coming in like a year and I made golems and made an army of undead after diverting a river.

>>51798210
How was that not him fucking up?

>>51798135
Player agency a shit.

As DM you can literally always pull anything out of your hat in a completely justified manner.

One thing you could've done was say that as your player uses the magical item, they receive a firm shock. It's then discovered that the gate has runes inscribed onto it which counter any magical effect used on them.

>>51797130

>hating someone else so fucking much you would rather see them suffer than the person who killed you

this is so great I want to DM a game now just so I can use it

>>51796422
What I would have done in this weird case as DM, after the walls had suddenly become 10' thick or whatever, I'd try to give clues that the dungeon was adapting to the things they were doing, try to lead them to the conclusion that the dungeon they were inside was a living creature adapting to them.

>>51797767
>Playing legal classes well suited for an adventure setting is the same thing as cheating in boxing.
You're a fucking idiot.

>>51796422
>An omnious rumble rises all around you
>Stones start to fall from the ceiling

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Not getting enough sleep

>>51798530
kys

>>51798530
>>51798135
>not a cave-in blocking the way out
???

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>>51796185
Did it end with the players forcing you to resign as game master because you logic'd yourself into a corner?

>>51802083
10/10

>>51802329
>not a cave that has ad-block installed

>>51796306
>murderer anticipated this and killed his faithful buddy with the promise of resurrecting him later (a lie) so that he could pose as the victim from beyond the grave
>end up being misled by an imposter throughout the whole investigation, s/he frames some other guy

>>51795088
>session 2
>probably a 15 session story arch
>reveal the juicy twist early for no reason
>people don't really give a shit about the campaign any more

This happened for years before I learned to control myself.

>>51795088
First time I ran a campaign I was really concerned my players would be muderhobos, like I was as a player, so I made several people in the small starting village really high level. The local bar was run by a level 7 gladiator and level 9 bounty hunter for example. The players ended up being alot better than I expected and they never did murderhobo much, but looking back on it I still think my preparations were really silly.

>>51796185
>that feel when I did this and succeeded
>never even occurred to me what a stupid this idea was until now
Everything just went perfectly.

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>>51797126
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

AHAHHAHAHA


AHAHAH

haha

ha.......

>>51806486
>I actually typed the words "that feel when"
Holy hell am I tired: I'm turning into a retard or something. Nap time.

Not my fuckup, but a rookie mistake by the DM nonetheless:

>level 3, outside some baddies' cave base. the doors are like 10ft high and wide
>ask if I can just Acid Splash the lock away since we don't have anyone with lockpicking skills
>"uhh no, the doors are adamantine!"
>work out the value, burn all my spell slots on various acid spells to etch out the hinges from the rock
>steal doors, sell doors for obscene amounts of money

I think we ended up with something like 25k per person even after the wholesale discount. DM just sorta called the game a couple sessions later because everyone was too well equipped for him to cope.

>First session as DM
>Players decide to pour oil on a bad guy and set it on fire
>Have no idea how much damage to do
>uhhh 2d6 with a 15' radius?
>Wiped out an entire battle in 2 rounds
>Molotov cocktails become the party's new modus operandi
>Start giving enemies a Dex Save vs half damage, but my encounters are still getting slaughtered quickly if not instantly
>Party goes back to town to stock up
>Tell them the town's general goods store only has 2 vials of oil left
>They go to the temple
>Uhh 2 more vials. Nothing else in town.
>"That's okay, we'll just travel to the big city and stock up."
>ohgodwhathaveidone.jpeg

Fuckin molotov's probably inflicted 75% of all damage that campaign. I had no idea how to deal with it.

>>51795088
>everyone picks clerics and paladins
>"I fucking told you guys you were supposed to play demons!"

>GM plans one last hurrah campaign before he has to move away
>For the first time the party is going to include GM's Dad, who's been playing since Chainmail was new.
>The town is being attacked by aggravated dead who keep rising from the local cemetery
>Turns out a pissed off Lich raised an army of the town's brightest and best heroes/nobles of old and pressganged them into doing his bidding
>We have to spelunk a 30-floor mausoleum and defeat them so they can be at rest
>Five minutes into the first encounter
>GMDad: "Wait, I'm a Cleric, I cast Remove Curse"
>GM: .... *rolls behind screen* "The King's Son who died of plague stops trying to fight you, thanking you for stopping his awful servitude."
>Two in game weeks later and the party is sleeping on piles of gold, wenches, and ale while the town's bards are writing epics in our name because of all the tragically lost heroes we are returning to life or releasing to asgard, while the GM frustratedly attempts to give the curses progressively higher Will Checks.

>>51796306
Actually, the father of the victim had already gotten a priest to cast SWD on the body. That's how they know she was killed by a werewolf.

>>51802656
Thankfully, It was late enough to call the session right before I reached that point.

I think I'll give up trying to make the initial investigation difficult and then focus on finding the one who afflicted the killer with lycanthropy in the first place. He never got bitten, so the other possibilities include poisoning with werewolf blood or a good old-fashioned malediction.

>>51806486
I did a similar thing, with a bombing campaign (explosive runes in D&D by anonymous letter).

It worked because I kept the PCs literally running from scene to scene catching up, they had no time to really overthink things.

Speed is key to high-improv games.

>>51796306
"I don't know who killed me, I only heard a teleportation sound and someone whispering in my ear :"Pssh, nothing personnel, kid""

>>51795088
Agreeing to DM

>>51797568
have them fall into debt and repo there stuff then have a adventure of them getting there debt clear to get there stuff back

>Playing Pathfinder on roll20
>Game dies in two sessions since nobody fucking shows up.

>>51797767
More like
>Imagine you're going to a boxing match. Then, you buddy tells you before-hand that your opponent has a killer left hook. So, you practise whatever it is you'd do to mitigate or avoid a left hook which I don't know because I don't know a fucking thing about boxing

>>51808695
Or,
>"Hey we're going to have the party on the beach tomorrow at noon."
So you bring board shorts, flip flops and sunscreen with you instead of a heavy snow parka.

>>51809222
Yeah I like yours better.

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>>51797568
>>51808445
If you do this please provide greentext afterwards. I'm building a one shot where the PCs play as any core non-caster class as repomen. Most will have a meaningful emotional choice which sidesteps combat so I don't kill off the party because lel no caster. I'd love to make this an encounter for fun, no story, just straight up rival party combat.

This is one of the PCs, feel free to use it as a repoman and if you want the rest just ask.

>>51807048
The town is under attack by fire giants when the players arrive. Angry at the human apathy towards the great gift of fire they decided to make humans respect their gift by burning their towns to the ground. This town also happens to be a major pitch producer in the region and the central store is lit on fire in the battle.

Molotovs will not work on fire giants, but a fire giant would crush them regardless if 2d6 damage is a problem. I'd suggest having guardsmen deal with the fire giants and hook the PCs in to sneaky breekiness by planting the idea that the town is lost but you can still save the babies from burning buildings. Side quest, eliminate the fire giant threat. Fire giants are a recurring enemy throughout the campaign and oil is in short supply until they are eliminated.

Alternatively just wait it out. 2d6 fire damage is not a big deal at level 3.

>>51798026

There is a list in the DMG that explains how to deal with different levels for starting games broken down into three levels of how magical the setting is (5 level and on in a high magical setting allows you an uncommon magical item).

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>>51795088
>Okay, so your enemies planned an ambush for you in the forest, but in case you survived, most of them retreated to a farm house to the south.
>As you approach, you see they've heavily fortified the north side of the property.
>Can we go around to the other side and attack from the south?
>Well, yeah, you could, but the property is really big and that would take a really long time.
>So? We have no reason to hurry.
>Oh. Yeah.

Also pic related from the same session

>>51808060
I just throw a combat encounter at them whenever I feel like I'm mentally swamped and need to figure shit out.

>>51795088
The fix would be the demons belong to an evil trickster god and the party has to deal with a shit load of traps.
If a pc dies at the end of a session they will make a rogue for the next one. Then have the demons try and fuck with the rogue just enough that the clerics and paladins will have to stay vigilant in protecting their incredibly value skill monkey

>Second sessions of first ever campaign I thought up myself
>Think it would be cool and intimidating to have party fight a big bunch of guys
>PCs chasing bankrobbers
>Lure them into an ambush in the basement of a pub where 20 guys are waiting for them
>Occasional misses included, it takes the party like 15 turns of one-shotting mooks
>I'm losing track of innitiative allover

My friends are nice and say they didnt mind it but I consider it a lesson learned.

>>51811461

DMPT of the day: have all your mooks of one type move on the same initiative roll so instead of 20 values you have 3. When moving mooks always start from one side of the board to the other, and always the same sides so it's fair to players. When you move a mook mark it so you know it moved and continue with the leftmost unmarked mook.

Also you could break it up in to waves, which are still powerful but really keep the in game rolls manageable. Allows for interesting tactics too like having waves move to encircle the party and taking AoOs on them when they get too close.

This also adds huge tactical choices on your part allowing you to balance the encounter. Is the rabble chiefly a peasant mob? Well they don't get AoOs, they don't always see the best position to block off in a battle, they don't use any wave tactics and just rush in wave after wave giving the PCs time to heal between waves. Then a really well trained special ops ranger seals praetorian guard unit might have a wave step in to engage the front, dragging the martials in front of the caster, then they step out with a withdraw action and the other side comes in with a charge action to mow down the caster. In a straight up fight the elite guys would do things like fight down to 70%, step out and let another wave come in while they heal up and so on.

Don't ever make your PCs fight 2 waves at once though. It sounds interesting but unless you have solid choke points their buffer is going to die.

>>51795088
Missing out on arcane magics* and a traps expert is a bit foolish, but why the hell WOULDN'T an organised group of divine servants be sent to deal with some big demonic shit popping up?

*mythic theurge would be good.

>>51796793
>The problem was that he was necessary for certain other endeavors that the players wanted to get up to, and having him wander off on some undead destroying crusade would have left them in a bit of a lurch.
They are still his friends and he's willing to stick to the plans they've made together.

And really all you'd need is rather than "no undead appear anywhere" you should've went "oh there's some more undead, we can timeskip while Silvers squashes them" - the amount of effort is about equal on your part, but it lets the players actions have impact.

>>51795088
Depending on your style this may not be as bad as you seem to think. If you didn't tell them, as soon as one of them died and had to reroll he'd probably become a Cleric or Paladin and then one player would be noticeably better off in most fights. As is, they're all at an advantage, so just up the difficulty of the fights a little.

>>51796306

I've got a better one for you.

>try to run a murder mystery
>cleric revives the victim
>party disguises him as a hot cougar to toss his murderer off the trail

There went my night of serious murder mystery-ing...

>>51798135
Look mate it's either
>the dungeon is time-sensitive and they can't have time to take a rest
>it isn't and you should just fucking let them

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>>51795088
>tell everyone we're gonna be running a political intrigue campaign
>everyone picks characters who are good at diplomacy

>>51814205
What's wrong with this?

This is when you make your session into Game of Thrones and have the PCs start stabbing eachother in the back.

>>51795088
My personal hell.

>Group of inexperienced roleplayers
>Only game they ever played was a fairly hardcore PF game
>Core only, low Magic item occurrence, lowest point buy, slowest exp track, etc.
>Breaks up after a dozen sessions or so
>Horizon broadening time!
>Try to talk them into anything but 3.PF if they want me to be their new forever DM
>Hard no. They want PF and they want it EPIC
>After months of craving any pnp at all, come up with a devious plan.
>FINE! Have everything you want and see how fucking lame it is.
>PF, Epic Point Buy, all Paizo anything allowed, write your own edgy king shit of fuck hill backstory, whatevs.
>They're basically various flavors of Superman but crazy animal races
>Steamroll creatures twice their CR, roll their way out of any and all actual RP, "I roll int to solve the puzzle, LETS GET MOVING"
>They love it. Hard.
>They think PF is gods dick with peanut butter cum.
>I suggest something more Sci-Fi next, the response is "Dude! There's some AMAZING spaceship conversions for PF! It can do anything!

And now for the punchline: Their my friends and family, so fucking leaving is a no go.

On the upside, my Noose Tying and Wrist Razor Smithing skills are coming along nicely.

>>51811621
Yes, I actually plan to give the PCs a bunch of mooks to fight with them as they're gonna do whats basically a police riot and I had already planned to do a lot of what you talked about.

>>51796185
>Throw about random clues
>Take inspiration from the guesses the party makes
>When their conclusion is interesting enough make it "canon"

They felt so smart I couldn't bring myself to tell them it wasn't premeditated.

>>51814659
On the one hand, at least you can run a game where all your players are having a blast...

On the other, I know all too well what it's like to have players who disappoint you on every level and I only have to put up with one or two of them in a group that's otherwise kinda okay!

>>51807048
Are fire-resistant/fire-loving monsters not a part of your setting? Have them run into a nest of Salamanders, see how much use their molotovs are then.

>>51795088
>Tells players that we're going to be crusading. Going full Deus Vult!
>2 of the 5 players make a holy class, the others don't really care.
>Going up against an empire of demons
>Start having moral conundrums whenever I show a bit of nuance.
>have to throw in an irredeemable artifact of slaughter to get them focused

I just don't know..

>>51821067
you did the right thing, morally grey gets boring, most players love having straight up bad guys.

>>51795088
What's wrong with that?

>>51802083
Good shit would read again

>>51814251
This

>>51810341
That fucking filename, wtf

telling players the DC on accident
letting players run wild, with no consiquences
poorly built encounters
over powered magic items
reoccurring villains that arent actually that intelligent because the group is better at the game than you.

>want to force my fetish in a subtle way
>players find out and beat me up

Fuck.

>>51795088

> Be 3.5
> My first time as DM
> Yeah I'm gunna run an evil capaign
> Yeah you can play any level adjusted race

>>51795088

> Play Traveller
> They ask if their chargen retirement armor can be that 10DR armor against lasers
> SureWhyNot?.jpg
> Read the rules on stacking armor
> Laser weaponry is absent the entire game

>>51796185
I have a story about this:
>GMing a homebrew SciFi campaign in GURPS
>Around the year 211x EU and China are the two superpowers of the world
>The four players are all sent from different branches of the corrupt EU government. The branches doesn't always get along.
>They have been given control over the first FTL ship ever created and have gotten the mission to explore nearby star systems
>The first part of the campaign is all about getting to the edge of the solar system, and there are several adventures on different human colonies
>On the last adventure they left a doomed colony just in time to survive. On this adventure they had used an untrustworthy contact.
>This contact doesn't know about the nature of the mission or the ship. But he does know that the colony is doomed and that the players will probably be the last people leaving. So naturally he sneaks on.
>For several reasons the players realise that this is the last time they could actually land, so placing the contact on another colony is out of the question. After a heated discussion they decide to leave him on, but only allow him in certain rooms and not let him in on what the mission is about.
>Since it's time for the first test of the Warp Drive they shelf it as a problem to deal with in the future.
>Now I try to encourage improvisation and world building from the players while we're playing and they hit a skill check failure when using the FTL drives the first time. This prompts a short discussion about what should happen.
>One player comes up with the idea that the characters blacks out during the journey. So while the Warp travel takes a few hours, they don't experience it at all, just suddenly waking up where they ended up at the end of the journey.
>We decide that this is a side effect of the primitive Warp Drive, and something they'll have to deal with in the future too.

>>51823363
>Now I've been playing the contact during this time. He didn't really notice the first jump, but he has been doing his best to gain some leverage.
>He managed to dig up some shit on the ships technician and promptly sends an email to him, telling him about what the contact knows and asking questions about the mission, the ship and the crew as well as wanting to get dropped off.
>The Technician is a character that the rest of the crew doesn't really trust (for several reasons, but that's another story)
>The player leans back in his chair and zones out for a few minutes, working on his master plan
>The rest of the players do their shit, prepping for another "jump" that evening. The Technician isn't really in on this, occupied with thinking.
>The player playing the Technician wants to talk to me one to one, so we go to another room and he goes to talk to the contact.
>After a bit the Technician walks down to the contact and tells him the "truth" (rolling well on bluff). After that the Technician tells him a bit of a sob story of how the rest of the party can't know about the compromising information and that he can't just let the contact of the ship for no reason.
>So he presents his plan: They are to pass by Mars this night (Another successful bluff roll) and together they will sneak to the hangar. The Technician will give the contact a shuttle which he can drive down to Mars and they'll split for good.
>The Technician also plants a sleep gas grenade in the shuttle.
>Now the game continues for a bit with the other players doing their shit. When they're about to jump everyone is on the bridge except for the Technician who is in the engine room. The rest of the crew activates the FTL without warning the Technician.

>>51823376
>So with a huge shit eating grin I look at my players and say "So you wake back up on the bridge. You can quickly read of the monitors that the journey has taken a few days."
>The Technician says "Oh shit" and pulls me out again to tell me all parts of the master plan.
>Turns out he would've dropped the gas grenade in his own room before the contact came over. Using a hidden gas mask to fake out. If this didn't work he would've taken him down to the shuttle and tried again. If this didn't work he would've shot. He didn't really want to lose one of their two shuttles.
>I write that shit down and rolled maybe 8 or 10 dice rolls to decide what happened during these day. The first plan failed and the contact turned violent, prompting the Technician to shoot him. When the rest of the characters came down to investigate the Technician managed to convice them he was innocent and together they carried the corps to a decomposer.
>The players knew nothing of this and woke up to some blood on some clothes, causing alarm. The non-Technician crew were especially alarmed.
>When they climbed down they saw a trail of blood from someone dragging a body.
>A few rolls and investigation of the ship taught them that: The contact had been all but decomposed, he was killed with a bullet to the head in the Technicians quarters, at least two people would've had to pull the body and some other shit I don't remember.
>This turns into a huge drama between the characters with the Doctor wanting the Technician to be arrested, the Technician wanting the same the Doctor (Since his plan didn't go at all as planned and the body was decomposing in the medlabs decomposer).
>The Doctor and the Technician is getting more and more heated while the Captain tries to meddle. Meanwhile the scientist, who is the only one not having any evidence pointing her way has locked herself on the bridge "Until things calm down".

>>51823387
>After slowly putting together piece by piece of what happened, learning exactly how the murder happened and that the Technician probably did it they finally get the idea to check the cameras.
>After yet another long discussion they finally get to the conclusion that the Technician should not be executed or put in the brig (Much to the dismay of the doctor).
>They see exactly what happened. The Doctor is a bit pissed, thinking that he would never have acted like that. (Funnily he was mostly upset that they didn't use the incinerator).
>He reasoned that the blackout must be acting intoxicating.
>And that's how my players came to always tie themselves down before using the Warp Drive.

>>51796185
I did that with a ghost island and a lich lady, I jumped on accidental foreshadowing when they were reading the stockpile and found only dusty arrows and empty containers. Despite it being a supposed trade stop.

>>51823363
>>51823376
>>51823387
>>51823407
That sounds like a fairly epic game.

>>51814205
Nice metagaming there, faggotron.

Be less of a shitty DM please.

>>51823407
Is there more to this?

>>51823989
>metagaming
That word does not mean what you think it means.

>it's been 8 sessions of goblins, worgs and bugbears
Should I change the mobs? I feel like I've been dragging this goblin hunting campaign for too long, but I can't just drop it.

>>51795088
solution: bigger demons

>>51802038
>players punch through all the walls
>rocks fall suddenly becomes plausible scenario

>>51811461
>fight a big bunch of guys
>lesson learned
>next time a bunch of big guys

>>51825500
Reminds me of my last session running through Storm King's Thunder where a bunch of goblins was easily wiped by the party but one of the two hill giants that came afterwards instagibbed the party halfling (who was at full health) with the most painful crit I've ever seen and probably would have caused a TPK if the calvary didn't show up.
The worst (or best) part was that the rest of the party debated fleeing, but the halfling was sure the party could take them.

>Start of the game
>Party is split

>>51814659
Sorry they're having fun.

>>51796306
My players did that once. Turned the mystery from a whodunnit to a howdunnit, because the fact that you know who the killer is doesn't mean you can prove it.

>>51795088
A big, and very common rookie mistake is thinking that there is only one way any problem can be resolved. even if they don't go the illegal route there can still be countless ways to resolve any dilemma.

An experienced GM learns to roll with what the players are doing and be able to fill-in as they go. And don't worry, in all likelihood they will still end up at or near the end-game scenario either way.

>>51807543
Remove Curse doesn't break the control a necromancer has over their undead, and the spell description specifically says some special curses aren't just instantly broken by casting it. E.g., you can't remove a geas unless the caster's level is at least two levels higher than the person who laid the geas.

>>51825905
DM doesn't count in the "It's about everyone at the table having fun" mantra that's chanted on /tg/?

I see it as mostly a First One Wins issue. Not having played anything else they're still certain nothing in the universe could possibly be worth learning.

Also just found out the "Maybe try something new?" vote is up to 2 for and 3 against at this point.

Just. One. More.

>>51795088
A friend did this unintentionally in 3.PF. He made a game "about undead". We got 4 flavors of cleric, an alchemist, and a lunar Oracle with a badass tiger companion.

We trounced everything he threw at us and he kept upping the CRs.

Then he threw a werebat at us and we almost TPKed.

He was all "why was that fight so hard?!"
"Because we're only good at killing undead, Dan, and that wasn't undead. It would have been a different story if it was an undead werebat".

>>51795088


To be fair, it was more of a sin of omission, letting things get out of control without reining them in.

>Run game of DnD, 3E
>Have one player who wants to be the edgy token evil rogue guy.
>Allow this, as he assures me he can be effective and function within the party.
>Player doesn't steal or kill from the party, but he's rude to people that the party needs, steals and kills from NPC without regard to any sort of consequence, and generally gets them into trouble.
>I do nothing, (mistake). Other players implore him to cut out his act, but of course he doesn't. It's what his character would do, after all.
>Eventually, get fed up with him to the point that when a magic belt gets identified as a girdle of gender change, they tell him it's a belt of dex boosting, and he grabs it and puts it on.
>Turns him into a woman.
>Complains about it, demands that they cast Remove Curse, but the rest of the party won't.
>They steal his money when he tries to get enough together to pay an NPC cleric to cast the spell.
>Huffs for a bit, and that session ends, and I figure it'll calm down and be back to normal next one, someone will cast remove curse.
>Instead, That Guy has decided that his now female character will be the ultraslut, and tries to sleep with literally anything male and has a pulse.
>Other players get disgusted and finally kill his character.


Yeah. Not my best course of action.

>>51824426

Perhaps the goblins in the area have attracted other predators. Ogres for instance might quite like to munch on large quantities of goblins, or perhaps another group of adventurers (cleric, rogue, pally, wizard always) are seeking the reward for the hunt.

>>51795088
How to salvage:
>Make them pick rockety deities with conflicting views an interests in the Blood War
derp.
>>51796422
>Doesn't cause slimes and other wall living organisms to show up
>Doesn't know how the Tomb of horrors works with this applied
>Dungeon doesn't collapse or become structurally unsound

>>51795088
>Players are dungeon-crawling and come up to a room with a dragon statue
>This being one of the first sessions, pay much more attention to if they trigger the trap (statue spews flame) than how I describe the statue
>The party cleric gets roasted, yet survives
>Suddenly I notice the greedy glint in the player's eyes
>A horrid realization dawns upon me that I just used the words "solid" and "gold" when talking about the dragon statue
>Latter half of the session is spent by the party breaking the statue into pieces for easier transportation and calculating how much their wagon can hold
>Golden statues, never again

>>51829795
I had a GM describe solid gold statues and 2 ft thick 10 foot tall doors.

As you might imagine, the dungeon was not nearly as interesting as the literal tons of gold we hauled back to town and had minted into coins, bankrolling the rest of our adventures

>allowed the runners to sell off the cybernetic heart possessed by a latent blood spirit off for millions of nuyen

>>51829795
Yeah, never do anything made of solid precious metal unless there's a reason they can't chop it up for the raw materials. Hollow is fine, plated is fine, but solid needs to be cheap or unbreakable and too big to fit through the similarly-unbreakable front door.

>>51808060
I think I saw your post on reddit. Did u make the real letter prop. Great idea by the way.

>>51826757
I'm a fan of giving "that guy" a lesson via other players and not the DM.
Should make him feel like a fucking dick instead of you playing God.

*though you can have Gods fuck him up lmao*

>>51829795
*turns out it was fools' gold and the designers of the dungeon were cheap bastards who hired a dick alchemist*

>>51826757
>>Instead, That Guy has decided that his now female character will be the ultraslut, and tries to sleep with literally anything male and has a pulse.
>>Other players get disgusted and finally kill his character.

That escalated quickly.

>>51807048
Honestly, at that point I think it's acceptable to go "Sorry guys, I fucked up and made molotovs too powerful. I'm nerfing them."

Alternatively...
http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/49882/how-to-deal-with-player-macgyver-ism
I keep this bookmarked just in case my players ever pull shit like this.

>>51814251
Pretty sure anon was just mocking OP.

Run MAID RPG. Forget that each player has a bunch of favors and I allowed all the rules..

"Random". Where the game pretty much ends when favor rolls, and a random event appears...allowed all 6 players to do random at the same time.

RIP campaign.

>>51807048
Reduce the radius of the molotov to 5 feet and the damage to 1d8 and you should be fine.

>>51814659
If your friends and family care about you they should understand when you say "I know you guys are having fun, but I'm not having fun".

>>51824426
As long as you vary the terrain and enemy tactics, it shouldn't be an issue. Do it like old video games, after you've introduced the base level "building bricks" it's just about setting them up in new, challenging ways.

>>51823363
>>51823376
>>51823387
>>51823407
I don't care if they aren't failures, I want more of this game.

>>51814659

Well....have you tried making PF's version of a Grey Knight?

In Black Crusade, where everyone is practically a god and the rules get thrown out the window...Incorporating some ascended PCs like Grey Knights who pretty much stop Psykers and Daemons in their tracks is hilarious...

You could also create enemies that key upon the weaknesses of the party. Or even your own broken Enemies that you had to PC create..

Hell, my group ran into Necrons and almost died since they kept on phasing into and out of existence lol.

>>51808232
You forgot the unsheathing of a katana.

>Have a side session with 3/6 of my players just to deal with their shopping habit
>They're at a small port town so there's nothing of any real value
>Thought that might be boring, so I gave them a slot machine with a 1d100 of minor relatively pointless magical items
>One of the players asks how much it costs to use the machine
>"Uh... I'd say about 1GP per useless item"
>I knew immediately that I had fucked up
>Cut to all three adventurers lining up to shove money into this machine
>When I tried to limit them, they turned to one of the NPCs travelling with them and asked them to also throw some money in
>By the end of the day they had returned to the rest of the party with one member a completely different gender, another member missing their arm and the last one hauling back a 300lbs wooden log

On the bright side, it was an entertaining session and it hasn't bit me in the ass so far. The players had fun and in total it was about twenty weak and/or cursed items to spread among the group. It was still definitely a point where I had realized I might be giving out too much shit to the players for free.

>>51805116
I actually have a DM who struggles with this because he loves talking about writing and it's only when he has a twist coming up in a game he's running that he suddenly can't for a change, and then he's basically like a kid that needs to pee.

It's good writing, too, he just gets excited.

>>51822452
It's not your fault, not everyone can appreciate a good ol' fashioned piss forest.

>>51796306
FYI if anyone is wondering how to get around this a bit, there's a Pathfinder campaign where the bad guys all have "cyanide pill" type suicide thingamaspells which explode their jaws, preventing Speak with Dead from working on them.

I wouldn't suggest using it all the time, but a little judicious bodily destruction can be used to make the PCs' life a little more difficult.

>>51795088
>PCs: Hey what are these Gestalt things?
>Me: I don't know. How about you guys make gestalt characters? We'll start at level 8/8

File: anime dragon rollercoaster.png (369KB, 396x410px) Image search: [Google]

369KB, 396x410px

>>51795088
>Run a crossover oWoD game
>Allow all books to be used

I learned how to hate that day.

>>51834993

Text of Speak with Dead.

You grant the semblance of life to a corpse, allowing it to answer questions. You may ask one question per two caster levels. The corpse's knowledge is limited to what it knew during life, including the languages it spoke. Answers are brief, cryptic, or repetitive, especially if the creature would have opposed you in life.

If the dead creature's alignment was different from yours, the corpse gets a Will save to resist the spell as if it were alive. If successful, the corpse can refuse to answer your questions or attempt to deceive you, using Bluff. The soul can only speak about what it knew in life. It cannot answer any questions that pertain to events that occurred after its death.

If the corpse has been subject to speak with dead within the past week, the new spell fails. You can cast this spell on a corpse that has been deceased for any amount of time, but the body must be mostly intact to be able to respond. A damaged corpse may be able to give partial answers or partially correct answers, but it must at least have a mouth in order to speak at all. This spell does not affect a corpse that has been turned into an undead creature.

---

If my PCs tried this they would get a brief, cryptic foreshadowing of the end of the act they were in. No information that could actually be used to help unless they came up with a perfectly worded question I couldn't work my way out of. Even then the corpse might give lesser information, like if they managed to get a name out of me for the murderer I'd do some bullshit like "he called himself the butcher" and just have the killer's self given nickname be the butcher.

Or you could give the dead guy a massive will save and make his alignment neutral, hell you could even say dead are evil by default.

>>51839701
Oh god, how edgy did it turn out?

>>51798135
>>"Hey guys, its fine if you don't want to do the dungeon, but I had sort of planned tonight's session around you guys going that way. We might have to cut things a bit short or get a little free-form if you choose a different path"

Too hard to say or something? Being upfront with my players generally goes just fine.