What are Some Signs of a BAD DM?

welcome to the Twisted paint Tavern today we're visiting our slash DED to answer d d players of Reddit what are some signs of a bad DM I'll go first my DM nerfed my decks and the reason was I'm the DM well I'm the DM works for a lot of things but why would you just randomly Nerf someone's decks if it seems they really want Spectators rather than players uh XP to level 3 has a very good uh concept on this it's called you should have written a book favoring certain players over others overrides player agency of PCS changes rules mid game without informing players like moving the goal posts you lose they win for new reasons Etc they're antagonistic to questions and criticism they use the game to punish players due to IRL issues they use scripts instead of plots they alter insert or rewrite player backstory motivation without permission from the player and they utilize an NPC to overshadow or take control of the party AKA a dmpc this is this seems like a little a little sensitive of a subject you got a few points here maybe a few two good points not me reading through these just to make sure I don't fit any of them yeah that was me at first too if you're watching this to find out if you're a bad DM one I'm sure you're not and two let me know in the comments what does make a bad DM when they do what they want at the expense of the players quote because this is my campaign they post on Reddit to try and prove their players wrong I love those I love seeing those posts when it's like man my player did this doesn't that suck and everyone's like dude no inverse leads to being too strict a bad DM also allows an overzealous amount of unvetted Homebrew into their game bouncing a game is a very tedious thing that the DM has to do you can't let your players be anything they find on DND Wiki Absa freaking lutely Homebrew upon review that's always the policy Homebrew upon review lack of consent regarding the wishes of their players in fact a good DM during a session zero should ask their players what they want out of the game so it's the best designed Adventures for everybody also a DM that just does what players want and isn't as excited to play or really develop their their world remember the DM is playing too and the world is kind of their character they should be just as excited to share and interact with all the other players this is kind of like two ends of the coin here so you have the DM who doesn't care about what the players want and just run their game and then you have the DM that doesn't care about their game and they just do what the players want you need to balance that you need to be right in the middle because you should be invested as well but the story still heavily involves the players I saw this on an ad for a game on roll 20. this must be your only campaign I am God and I say you can't play any other DND games my most horrible GM wouldn't let a player change their character if the player wished to also the GM would Nerf damage regularly so that a character could never die just being knocked into negatives D 3.0 so I eventually had to lie to Suicide him let me explain the GM would regularly ask how many hit points a character had before they announced the damage they'd taken it became clear that the characters were constantly knocked unconscious below zero but were never killed below negative 10. so I lied about how many hit points I had left she asked and I responded 22. she looks at her dice behind the screen and announces 24 points of damage oh darn my handwriting sucks I had 12 hit points not 22. my ones look like twos I'm actually dead yeah you read that right I lied to a GM in order to Suicide my character so I could bring in a different character that didn't suck quite so badly jams if someone doesn't like the character they're playing let them bring in a new one stories can be Rewritten you can face someone out and face a new person in it's not that hard just don't make them suicide their character so that they can play someone else if they really want to there are many but the ones that immediately come to mind a home brewed Mega powerful dmpc this woman was the tankiest character in the party a huge strength Beefcake who was always at the Forefront of social interactions with a chunky Charisma stat plus evocation spells on top Mary Sue to the extreme she talked down to the rest of the party and had major plot ties to every upcoming area we were Side characters in her quests and we absolutely could not get her to leave features just not working for whatever reason if it derailed the intended experience in any way no Firebolts can't be used in the forest what if it misses and burns the whole place down sleepwears off after two hours instead of lasting a minute because I say so present agitation basically always failed or wasn't allowed Jesus our poor Rogue her disguise kit never fooled a single person she couldn't stealth in the forest at night time and sneak attack was nerfed for being too powerful plus she was thrown into combat at level 2 against a monster immune to non-magical damage without a magic weapon and no real Stakes dice rolls are extremely obviously fudged to make sure things stay on the rails you are constantly being asked what your hit points are and if you get low suddenly everything will start missing combat felt pointless because we could make extremely dumb decisions and come out fine and being blatant about it this guy misses because if he hit you die alright starting at the top dmpc is usually not the play look I've had the NPCs before but usually I do it when it's like a bunch of new players and they just need someone like a cleric to heal them up so they don't just tpk on encounter one and then I phase the dmpc out to me that's how you can do a dmpc usually if it's a campaign-long thing doesn't work well as for the other stuff like things just not working or you not hitting the players because you don't want them to die man that's what the game's about things happen sometimes spells are too powerful because of the unintended effects and sometimes you kill a character outright without realizing it it's it's the game think of the worst teachers you had in school they all share the same bad characteristics of a bad DM demanding I'm always right and when I'm wrong I'll never acknowledge an attitude I'm the authority I'm the one in charge I'm the alpha and the Omega no Freedom or creativity allowed everything must be done my way or else it is the wrong way anger comes through more often than not the inability to see something isn't working and blaming the players instead of blaming the activity ignoring what players are good at and expecting them to change in five minutes yeah that's a good way of putting it if they're like your least favorite teachers they're probably a bad DM definitely one who willfully disregards your choices and agency as in decides for you what your character does in the game in all its shapes and forms yeah the only time I ever narrate what a player character does without the player saying so is either if they're Charmed and controlled in some way or if they're not at the table and I just need to cardboard cut out them that's pretty much it DM this happens what do you want to do PC I want to do this DM you do this are you sure you don't want to do that instead you just do this you sure not even for Dangerous stupid actions for very innocuous role play scenarios it's happened three sessions in a row you won't let the table move on unless we do the option he wants us to so when you look him dead in the face and you say yes I do this I step on the glyph of warding with Fireball I do that intentionally try not to think of it in terms of good DMS and bad DMS try to think of it in terms of good decisions and bad decisions DMS are just amateur storytellers not they're doing their best I hear you and you are 100 rights that this is a good way to look at it however there are some people that are just bad DMs like when you've tried a dozen times and you're always doing these things you're you're just a bad DM dude when they are a new DM and advertise a Homebrew World sounds exciting right reality is more often than not this game will always be poor unbalanced and lacking in depth people think home brewing a world is easy it's really not I agree it's really not easy home brewing a world but do not take a dig at DMS who are trying to run a Homebrew world because it's a big step and it might be their first time so maybe help them build the world up instead of saying that it's a problem because it's lacking in so many areas that everyone starts with their first Homebrew world at some point all right that one was a bit of a beefy one uh if you guys enjoy enjoyed then make sure to let me know in the comments and tell me what you think are signs of a bad DM and what you would walk away from a table from if you saw it happening if you enjoyed the video make sure to leave a like And subscribe and I hope to see you guys in the next one oh and uh speaking of bad DMs I think the people at that table over there are using loaded dice I'll be right back

Channel: Twisted Pint Tavern

Views: 10,865

Keywords: dungeons and dragons, d&d, dnd, d n d, fantasy, redit, reddit, funny, funniest, story, tale, tavern, best, moment, read, wotc, wizards of the coast, 5e, 5th edition, 3.5, 3rd edition, 4th edition, pathfinder, ttrpg, rpg, dungeons & dragons, how to play dungeons and dragons, good dm, bad dm, dm, dungeon master, gm, game master, good gm, bad gm, best dungeon master, best dm, dnd best dm, best d&d dm, how to dm, how to gm, how to be a good dm, how to be a good gm

Id: ZaEyeEDX8fk

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 17 2023