Quote from: Gabriel2;756875I've been the suck GM on many occasions.  Railroads, GM PC Theater, arbitrary calls against players.  I've done all the mainstream sins.

Most of the time, I was just trying to present something fun to my players.  I wasn't trying to be a suck GM.  I was trying to do something entertaining and doing it badly.

However, a few times I've just flat out been an ass.  They're not particularly interesting stories.

One time there was a player named Roger in our group who most of us had issues with.  So one game session he was making a routine pilot check and failed it by one.  I was in a bad mood that day, so I declared that his failed pilot check caused hs variable fighter to fall apart in the sky.  I told him he successfully ejected, but was going to have to sit out the adventure and wait for rescue, and that if he left before his character was rescued, then his character would die.   I then made him sit there for six hours doing nothing. It was purely a dick move.  No one else thought it was anything less than what he deserved, but it was still a dick move.

Another time I was running a game and doing a plotline where a PC had been possessed, but the player was still playing the character.  I told the player the little voice inside his head was instructing him to capture my GM PC and kill him.  So, the player did, quite eagerly I might add.  He never tried to struggle against this instruction even once.  I wonder why?  Anyway, it became clear the player was going to be successful in killing my GM-PC, so I paniced and arbitrarily pulled some crap out so I could kill his character before he killed mine.  Yeah, dick move, because I intentionally set him up to just declare his character dead.  Everyone was rightfully pissed with me for that one.

However, the funniest one is another Roger story.

Some backstory, I had this strange double pronged knife.  It was something I had found.  It was probably from the forties or something.  It was pretty wicked looking, and it had some rust on it to make it look especially nasty, because the rust was on it in just such a way that made it look like it was still stained with blood from a recent murder.

Anyway, we were having game night as usual.  As usual, Roger was being himself.  I forget what was happening in the game.  I think Roger said something about demonic sacrifice.  Whatever he said, it was the trigger for what we did next.

I told everyone else in the group "it is time."  We hadn't planned any of this beforehand.  It was purely spontaneous.  It's kind of scary how coordinated we were.  They grabbed Roger and hurled him down to the floor, holding him down while he screamed in confusion.  I turned and brought the evil looking knife out of it's hidey hole.

As I turned around I held my arms out and chanted stuff like "almighty satan, we do give this virgin sacrifice unto you..." blah, blah, blah.  This scared Roger even more, and he was screaming bloody murder and struggling for his life.  But everyone else managed to keep him held down while I kept chanting.  Then, I said something like "Amen Satan" and looked down at him as crazily as I could.  He was yelling, "Oh god, oh god, please don't kill me." or some shit like that.  I acted like I was going to stab him, and he let out a blood curdling girly scream worthy of a slasher movie.

That was finally what did it for me.  I started laughing and couldn't stop.  Neither could anyone else as they let go of Roger.  Roger was paralyzed for a moment, still recovering from fear.  He said something like "You guys are assholes" and fled.  We probably kept laughing about it for at least an hour.

I guess it wasn't quite bad enough a gaming experience, because Roger was back to play next week.

Er... wow. I enjoy a bit of a headfuck occasionally, but that sounds... special.

I've mostly GMed, so I just hope I'm not someone's "full of suck" GM because while I do think I'm at least usually good and seem to have experiences and feedback that back that up, I've certainly had my off days.  :-)

That said, I have still had chances to play here and there (more when I was younger).  One of the worst games I recall was run by a GM I had actually had good experiences with on several other occasions (in different systems), but it was so gods-awful it's still in the running for worst.

This particular adventure had:
Utter railroad. despite claiming it was sandbox (and this guy usually did sandbox, so he knew what that meant).
Almost literally linear dungeon (though it had switchbacks, it looked like he went from left to right and bottom to top back and forth with the vast majority of doors only being from one room to another.
Invulnerable walls/floors/ceiling so no skipping by way of property destruction.
Dungeon was visible from major city (so we could go back and forth to resupply I guess).
No way to leave major city because "everything is full or broken" and any attempts to do anything in city either total cakewalk (like 5 minutes) or impossible (guards show up and say you must leave...).
Beloved GM(N)PC who was the only person who could open up new lengths of the dungeon by...
...requiring a "voluntary" child sacrifice, despite myself (father of small children) and a mother (of different small children) player trying to explain to them that small children can't volunteer for shit because it's impossible for a child to consent to such a thing.
...and that's pretty much where it ended, because me and the other parent pretty much said "fuck this, it's stupid" when we weren't allowed to attack the GM(N)PC.

To this day, I have NO idea what that GM was thinking at the time.  The GM moved away shortly afterward and we haven't heard from them since, so I still have no idea, even though we were otherwise friendly and they had been a good GM before this.

Quote from: Ladybird;756878Er... wow. I enjoy a bit of a headfuck occasionally, but that sounds... special.

I never sacrificed anyone to satan I didn't like.  100% true statement.

Freak.

For the three or four of you who haven't read this. It is the most hilarious takedown of an awful GM ever... In about 100 posts

http://irolledazero.blogspot.com/p/properly-ordered-posts.html?m=1

Seems appropriate.

Quote from: Opaopajr;756828Yeah, I feel there's a "I prepped too hard to throw all of this away!" and "talk? move stuff? but why?" (which might actually be 'how?') connection. I wonder if there's material out there to advise how to unclench and roll with the punches.

I suppose something like that could be done.  I've had heavy prep work blown out of the water any number of times by the players, glanced at the sheets I'd spent three nights preparing, shrug, and shove them unused into my "Old Adventures Folder," to be recycled five, ten, twenty years down the line.

But that's not the key element.  That's the willingness to unclench and roll with the punches in the first place.  You have to feel like doing, to allow the players to go in directions you hadn't predicted, to allow them to solve your scenario many hours (or many sessions) earlier than you'd planned, to allow them to slap down your Big Bad far easier than you'd hoped.

There are a lot of how-tos, and I bet most of you could come up with some that never would've occurred to me.  That just has to come after that initial decision to be the kind of GM who's willing to let go.

Quote from: Gabriel2;756875I've been the suck GM on many occasions.

After reading your account, I certainly agree with you.

I'm having a hard time thinking of a campaign where I played with a truly awful, and unimaginative GM. Nothing's really coming to mind. Maybe I've been lucky.

I've played with some ruthless GMs - one guy who ignored CR in a 3.5 campaign, and just brutalized the party. Near-TPK; one PC standing.

And I've played with some really odd players, who have freaked the hell out of me, and whom I didn't play with again, after that one session. But, no truly awful GMs.

Quote from: Doughdee222;7568642. I've mentioned this before, at conventions in Florida there's a group of overweight bearded guys who run a game called "Second American Revolution", a right-wing fantasy where the American government goes Communist and gun toting patriots fight for freedom "Red Dawn" style. Okay, fine, I can swallow that turd. So out of a 4 hour session one hour is spent explaining the concept and rules, a second hour or more on blah character generation and equipping (backpack, boots, rifle, knife, grenades, that's all you need) and one hour of play. My guy was a sniper type who fired two shots then got in close and threw one grenade which blew up a barracks killing 30 sleeping soldiers at once. Yeah, sure, thanks for wasting my valuable convention time. This was back in the 90's and these guys really thought their concept was soon to happen. Sigh.

Oh, you've been to HMGS-South's RECON or HURRICON? hee hee

Quote from: Ravenswing;756718I've been a long-term participant in several LARPs.  In not a single one of them was there so much as a single incident where someone drew a real weapon on another participant who wasn't banned for life, and a couple of those incidents had the eventholders call the cops.  Over fourteen years, and quite literally hundreds of events with thousands of participants, to the best of my recollection, there were four such.

Some of the European LARPs are alot less "safe" that the US ones. Theres a couple of combat sims in the US too that pass themselves off as LARPs but are just fighting. I was briefly in one here in MI and there was zero LARP to it.

But thats a matter for a different thread.

GM's and Players showing off BADLY with props or replicas or the real thing is nothing new. Luckily it seems to be pretty rare.

Ive used my 120 lb pull crossbow as an example of what they are like to players. Not loaded though.

Best to know how someone runs games first before being a player in one.

Quote from: Ravenswing;756718I've been a long-term participant in several LARPs.  In not a single one of them was there so much as a single incident where someone drew a real weapon on another participant who wasn't banned for life, and a couple of those incidents had the eventholders call the cops.  Over fourteen years, and quite literally hundreds of events with thousands of participants, to the best of my recollection, there were four such.

My experience as well, all of the LARP chapters I participated in took safety very seriously.

I am involved in Scouting right now because of my youngest son. I attended a leadership training and they were talking about tool safety. There was a part where they were talking about policing what the kids bring in. It seemed rather haphazard to me. So I explained how we did it at the boffer larps, (all combat gear needs to past inspection before an event) It was like a revelation to them. I figure Scouting would of thought of that before a bunch of LARPers.

Quote from: estar;757193My experience as well, all of the LARP chapters I participated in took safety very seriously.

I am involved in Scouting right now because of my youngest son. I attended a leadership training and they were talking about tool safety. There was a part where they were talking about policing what the kids bring in. It seemed rather haphazard to me. So I explained how we did it at the boffer larps, (all combat gear needs to past inspection before an event) It was like a revelation to them. I figure Scouting would of thought of that before a bunch of LARPers.

What does the 1st edition Scout Handbook say?

We did the Satan thing once.  Our friend Darren was new to the group and after several sessions we took him out to a bonfire and basically ripped off that comic.  "It's time you learned the real D&D, muwahaha."  No knife though...

As for railroading,  it's a tool in the toolbox that I am proud to use when needed. I know I am probably the only one here who will admit the sin, but c'est la vie.

Example:  3rd level Party runs across a randomly rolled Owlbear.  Kills it, but just barely.  Successfully tracks it to its lair - without having stopped to rest up.  Finds several more in the lair, females and young.  Over-enthusiastic-Cavalier says "I charge."  Bob the 'suck GM' says "No you don't, because this is a fight you know you can't win.  The party will almost certainly die if you pick this fight.  Plus you can tell from here that this cave isn't big enough to be the place you are seeking.  Let's not get distracted..."

So I was all sandboxy until the player failed to realize that the entire world wasn't there just to be XP, then I railroaded the party back to what it was doing before they found the lair.  They didn't seem to mind and we didn't spend the rest of the session rolling up new characters.

More on the topic, though, I did once play in a game where powerful NPCs would appear at odd times and insist that Steve's PC dance for them or die.  And in fact Colin made Steve himself dance to display the quality of the dancing.  It was pretty funny, as running gags go, but certainly a high school thing to do.

Quote from: mcbobbo;757199I know I am probably the only one here who will admit the sin, but c'est la vie.

I think we should re-label railroads that are used for good.  I like the term rollercoaster.