The "bitch about your GM" thread

My entire group is scattered to the four winds right now. Both for my game and my friend's game. Though I can't see them complaining about how I'm not G Ming right now. Its a collective problem. They may be complaining about the mortality rate, though.

On his end of things, though, poor χ (my monk) is stuck on that train, unable to deflect bullets for some arbitrary reason.

edited 19th Dec '13 4:50:31 PM by zeromaeus

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

@Exelixi, back in my hometown we had a two consecutive game rule, two consecutive missed game nights then your character was dead. If the GM missed two nights in a row, the game was declared dead. Made things a lot cleaner and easier.

That's a bit harsh I have to say.

Well, railroading complaint here: Near the middle of this current arc of our campaign, after fighting a boss in an ominous space station in an implausible orbit (which, given that it had just been summoned from another dimension with a magical ritual), we go into cutscene mode, and he opens a portal, and tosses the Artifact of Doom into a portal that opened up several miles above the ground back on Earth. I then say I jump into the portal after the artifact and try to stop it from hitting the ground, but the GM ignores me, and goes on describing it falling and hitting the ground.

IMHO, you should only flat out veto an action like that when it's impossible for them to actually do it, or blatantly out of character to do so. Given that my character is (relatively) good aligned and was at the time equipped with a fully fueled jetpack and the portal clearly lead back down to Earth, it wasn't obviously suicidal in any way, and while nobody had good enough lore rolls to know what would happen when it hit the ground, I'd think common sense would be enough to realize it would be nothing good. While I'd buy the portal shutting before my character had time to jump in after the artifact, even fast enough for there to be no roll for it, what really gets me about this is the part about him describing us standing there and watching it fall.

Other than this and some cases where the GM didn't take kindly to characters attempting to pull Shut Up, Hannibal! moments by opening fire on enemies mid monologue though, my GM has avoided railroading, and has done a pretty good job overall, so don't take this as 'bitching" so much as a bit of constructive criticism if you're reading this. (I know he definitely reads tvtropes)

This is a signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Sigh.

It's not about realism, it's about tiers of effectiveness.

That being said, I guess you're right; in my 4E games, I'd expect Deflect Arrows (there a power rather than a feat) to be effective against rifles, because they're still "ranged weapon attacks."

My main concern is that deflecting an arrow is a 1 on the scale of tiers of awesomeness, whereas deflecting a bullet is a 5 or a 6. You don't do 5 or 6 levels of awesomeness and justify them by saying you can do tier 1 awesome acts. That's like saying that because a wizard can cast Burning Hands, they should be able to set an entire forest on fire because "Hey, it's all fire!"

edited 19th Dec '13 10:28:06 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

I'd argue that it isn't about narrative effectiveness, it's about mechanical effectiveness. Saying "you can't block boolet" makes perfect sense, realistically and narratively.

It also arbitrarily fucks over an already weak class with no real reason. If you don't want bitches catching bullets, don't let them play a monk in a setting with guns. Simple. If they are playing a monk in a setting with guns, they can catch bullets.

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

That's a ridiculous argument.

It depends on what "tier" of offensive capability guns are. If guns are "just another form of bow" you're totally right, it makes no sense to be unable to deflect bullets. But if guns are to bows what rays are to bows, then guns should function similarly to rays.

Well, first off, we're in a setting where the only creatures that use bows are travelers and goblins. The, primarily human, locals are either non-combat or they use guns. Its a kind of wild west with worms kinda thing. That's pretty much the only reason I care, because in a normal campaign you normally don't run into guns often enough for them to be a problem. And if I did, the one or two gunslingers would be on the ground before bullets would be a real issue. Because monk.

How are guns to bows what rays are to bows? Guns aren't magic. Rays are magic. Guns are to bows what guns are to bows.

I have an (un-used) character whose gun was a ray... because it was a ray-gun. It didn't shoot solid projectiles. It shot energy.

edited 20th Dec '13 1:05:03 PM by zeromaeus

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

It's really simple.

When someone wields a gun do you go "Holy shit, make sure you defeat them before they get a turn or you DIE HORRIBLY" or do you go "Oh look, 1d12+2 damage. Yawn."

It's about impact. Are guns supposed to be "Exceptional." It sounds like in the context of the setting they're not, so you're right-monks should be able to deflect bullets. But, for instance, if you were playing a monk in a campaign where the P Cs are generally in a medieval era and the invading imperial army is the "mecha army" and guns are "big bad scary things unlike what you have access to," I would argue that the ability to deflect bullets is something that should be an acquired skill either through a select feat that expands the deflect arrows feat, or through a magical item or boon.

It's about impact. Bullets being made out of matter doesn't mean there's not an exceptional impact on them.

Guns aren't that big of a deal in our campaigns. Even when guns are uncommon, they're just treated like any other unknown. The characters figure it out. Once the monk knows that bullets come out of guns and can get a judgement on how quickly they move or some such, I'd say they should be able to deflect them. It would just be the matter of figuring it out. That's how I, as a GM, would handle it, at least. I also don't restrict classes, so there's usually a gunslinger in the party to shed light on the subject. People just love their boom sticks. I imagine I'll have some swashbucklers to deal with, too, once the Pathfinder Advanced Class Guide comes out.

Plus I have the words in the book saying I can. That's always a plus.

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

Oh this is pathfinder?

Didn't realize Pathfinder had explicit rules for guns.

Carry on.

It does. They're in Ultimate Combat. The same book that introduced the Gunslinger.
I have to say, despite all this, I'm really enjoying Pathfinder. After the update to 4.0, I just couldn't get into D&D anymore. I'm glad to have that back.

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

Well yeah. I mean, if the rules explicitly say monks are allowed to deflect arrows, then it's pretty derpy of the DM to rule against you.

The Mythic version of Deflect Arrows allows you to deflect rays. Also, ANYONE can take the feat, not just monks.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

It does? Damn. I wish we were playing Mythic. That would be badass.
Be all deflecting Disintegrate spells with my deft movement. My positronic brain is just too fast for that.
Oh yeah, my monk is an android. I really like that part.

edited 20th Dec '13 4:07:52 PM by zeromaeus

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

It costs mythic power to do so. I just like the 'add your tier to the number of reflected attacks per round' part.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Note to self: Don't include guns in combat unless I'm ready to deal with this topic.

Read my stories!

My GM is incapable of running a game for more than three adventures, and equally incapable of keeping any kind of schedule. Months have gone by without him running a single session. By now I've given up and pretty much taken over all G Ming duties myself.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."

Can't really blame the GM for this, but he has to win an award for bad timing. He had an NPC commit suicide... literally right as the Robin Williams news was breaking on the TV. Dude. Not. Cool.

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

Holy shit, Robin Williams died? :(

This probably bums me out moreso than usual, since I recently saw a youtube video talking about the top 10 video game commercials, which included the Robin Williams Ocarina of Time one. He kind of looked like my father in that one (what with the beard and all).

edited 11th Aug '14 5:37:38 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Sounds like really unlucky timing, that's all.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

We're currently playing an ASOIAF RPG. Currently, like, just as I write this. The only reason I'm writing this is because my dumbass GM just fucking killed off my character. We've recently suffered a change in GM, and the current moron doesn't even understand the basics of the craft. He doesn't understand that you're supposed to present scenarios. He literally just started our first session of the game system with "So, what do you want to do?" Then we just sat there in silence for like 5 minutes before he worked out what he was supposed to be fucking doing. So we've boredly stumbled along for 5 sessions now, and out of the blue, he just fucking maimed my character in his sleep. He doesn't seem to understand it's supposed to be a fucking game. It's supposed o have exciting scenarios, and un should take precedence over fucking canonical realism. The problem also is that he's just so fucking set in his ways. He seems to think that we must be doing something wrong, despite the fact that we've had numerous G Ms with NO problem! He seems to think that eve time he doesn't present a scenario, a story, a location, it's our fucking fault for not guessing what's in his fucking mind. He' my brother though, and we've got to see this adventure out... Hopefully he gets a bit more fucking competent.

EDIT: You know how it changed from killed to maimed half way through the post? That was because he literally just five minutes later, just offhand, said, "No, sorry, you're not killed, you're maimed." So now I have to keep this fucking useless maimed character.

Thank you TV Tropes for indulging this rant.

edited 2nd Sep '14 11:34:46 PM by CardsOfWar

"I thought Djent was just a band" -Physical Stamina

So, This is a bitch about your GM thread

Let me begin.

• GMPC as Main Protagonist,
• GM PC that should have died but was beloved by the players enough to be brought back.
  • as a half undead fey zombie.
• Grey aliens with Blue-and-Orange Morality
  • In a high fantasy RP
  • Low Fantasy if you factor in the poor Mundane human P Cs
• Full DND troll
  • Facing a party of very twitchy P Cs who are all equivalent to level 1 (With elements of level 0 see mundane humans) and are R Ping reasonably (That is, Screaming bloody murder when getting with 10 feet of the goddamn thing instead of sneaking away)
  • -Fair and Balanced Combat-
• GM getting in relationship with another PC
  • This actually prevented her PC from suiciding several times because being a half undead fey zombie really fucking sucks from an IC perspective.
  • alternatively this dragged out what was supposed to be a depressing arc about how you can't fix things so far broken, Let It go.
  • Ironically the message still applied, just to broken hearts and how love is a bitch
• Response to lucky criticals is to give monsters with bigger numbers
• Thinks +8 to hit/damage is funny
  • Not the G Ms fault but above damage was even funnier when rolled on a crit. at max. on Level one PC.
  • Frankly, only the OHKO house rule saved that PC that, and one hell of a healing potion
• Thought running two adventures in a 24 hour period with no sleep between was a good idea.
  • Two adventures that were of extreme complexity on the G Ms end, lots of descriptions dialogue and feels
  • This is the beginning of what can only be described as some of the most bipolar mood swings I ever saw. GM got really bad after this
• Accused players of actively ruining story
  • For things they can't possibly have predicted, like how apparently Cold steel, typically used for removing magic, actually causes extreme pain to those enchanted in certain ways
  • Remember the above mentioned fell in love? Well yeah that came to bite all players in the ass when OOC ERP was translated poorly. Miscommunication kills. Hell hath no fury like a GM scorned
  • Also ruining things like having one of the expositors suddenly pitch a hissy fit and attack the players in rage because one of them did something inadvertently offensive
    • This also drags the things out
• Instant kill riddles
  • Their defense was that the players didn't have to do it, and it wasn't really originally an option.
• To make a long story short, some people like to mix ponies and Grimdark, some people don't DONT MIX THOSE PEOPLE.
• Also please for the love of god, don't misinform your players just to get more edge. please, who the fuck makes a puzzle and then replace half of the puzzle pieces with antimatter puzzle pieces.

edited 3rd Sep '14 4:43:49 AM by stevebat

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

I've seen it done (in fiction, anyway). What's wrong with Fallout Equestria?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

I have no problem with those ideas either, but if they don't interest/put off anyone in the group, then the GM should surely consider doing something else. The game is supposed to be fun for everyone, not an exact representation of the GM's artistic vision.

"I thought Djent was just a band" -Physical Stamina

While it's true the game needs to be "fun for everyone" I've personally found that if a game sacrifices the GM's artistic vision too much, the GM will become despondent and abandon the campaign.

GM's don't want to be self-absorbed prats, but players need to realize that the GM is a player too; they're the most invested in the campaign, and if they're not, then they probably shouldn't be running it.