1001 Worst DMs/GMs You Can Have Running a Game

[veekie]

Random Number Generator
The DM who decides everything based on rolls of the dice. Usually a relic of older editions and a big fan of massive random encounter tables. Will you find the next town in the forest, a hungry red dragon, or will a meteor randomly fall on your head? It's all up to the dice, and the entire game is a gamble. Especially polarizing if he enjoys random checks to see if the players trip and critical fumble tables that can result in players decapitating themselves.

Come to think of it, this could be handy for GMs badly pressed for time.
A random dungeon generator that will generate a dungeon room by room at random!
Or a computer tool that does the same for battlemaps tile by tile! Never lack for variety again!

[RobbyPants]

Come to think of it, this could be handy for GMs badly pressed for time.
A random dungeon generator that will generate a dungeon room by room at random!
Or a computer tool that does the same for battlemaps tile by tile! Never lack for variety again!

Go WarhammerQuest!

[Sinfire Titan]

Come to think of it, this could be handy for GMs badly pressed for time.
A random dungeon generator that will generate a dungeon room by room at random!
Or a computer tool that does the same for battlemaps tile by tile! Never lack for variety again!

Go WarhammerQuest!

Seconded!

[veekie]

Lets see now, you separate a dungeon into a large cubic grid(10ftx10ftx10ft), and then from a predefined entrance, you roll for each of the 5 sides to see if they are connected to something. For each adjacent connected cube, feed it(divided into a 5x5x5 grid) into a table of features, with wall sections, trap sections, open sections, and 'interesting terrain' sections, each section going into a table with exact type of section obtained and allowing for overlaps. Then roll to see if a connector is wide open(merging the rooms into a larger room), a door(roll for type of door), or a destructible barrier. Repeat until desired dungeon size is obtained.

Then you do it again with encounter tables....I'm putting way too much thought into this aren't I?

[Prime32]

First hit on Google for "random dungeon generator"

[kevin_video]

First hit on Google for "random dungeon generator"

lol The love how the default is the Prison of Bloody Evil. That just about covers it.

[Pteryx]

The Amateur Psychologist

This guy is enamoured with the idea that players could learn about themselves through the game.  He'll insist that players play themselves and then put them through hardships that hit close to home -- or worse, he'll have NPC villains based on the players and create adventures that stem from your character flaws.  But it's wholesome self-discovery, he'll insist!

[kevin_video]

The Amateur Psychologist

This guy is enamoured with the idea that players could learn about themselves through the game.  He'll insist that players play themselves and then put them through hardships that hit close to home -- or worse, he'll have NPC villains based on the players and create adventures that stem from your character flaws.  But it's wholesome self-discovery, he'll insist!

I think I'd kill the guy.

[kevin_video]

Creepy

This is not necessarily a DM who runs a horror game, though some of those can take it too far, but this DM loves thrusting players into creepy or awkward situations, overlaps with the puppeteer, railroader DMs who think of players as actors in their (as in the DM's) story. Loves to send players on bizarre erotic adventures that are not to be discussed amongst mixed company.

Mr *fapfapfap*

This guy loves a certain setting (usually nicked off a video game )and wants everyone to do the same. The trouble is, he's too busy jerking off to it to make the game interesting for the players, and then he wonders why they now despise that particular setting.

This is also characterized by vapid NPCs and unkillable returning villains, who are often characters from aforementioned video games making a cameo so that the GM can stick the characters back on the failtrain to oblivion.

[McPoyo]

Mr *fapfapfap*

This guy loves a certain setting (usually nicked off a video game )and wants everyone to do the same. The trouble is, he's too busy jerking off to it to make the game interesting for the players, and then he wonders why they now despise that particular setting.

This is also characterized by vapid NPCs and unkillable returning villains, who are often characters from aforementioned video games making a cameo so that the GM can stick the characters back on the failtrain to oblivion.

Could also be former characters of his own making the cameo, instead of coming from the aformentioned video game.

[woodenbandman]

That can work if not overdone; I've heard a friend tell me of a session wherein he was brutally killed by a 13th level drow character at level 4 because he was an asshole. That drow was a cameo of another character of yore, and they were sent after the party for some... reason. The party had been arrested and put into jail, probably arbitrarily, and were interrogated by 13th level characters. And killed.

[Vinom]

That can work if not overdone; I've heard a friend tell me of a session wherein he was brutally killed by a 13th level drow character at level 4 because he was an asshole. That drow was a cameo of another character of yore, and they were sent after the party for some... reason. The party had been arrested and put into jail, probably arbitrarily, and were interrogated by 13th level characters. And killed.

I like it if it's a tip of the hat and not a overpowered love affair that the players are being forced to watch


In a campain not to long ago, the PC evacuated a town, because a orc warhorde were attacking (original, I know).
But one of the NPCs refused to leaave, the barber, Todd.
Turns out he was a 6th level Bard/Rogue gestalt who happened to have maxed out profession (Barber).
The was a lovely tribute to Sweeny Todd, and it helped us do to the face our rogue was stuck in his own bag of holding (don't ask).

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Random Number Generator
The DM who decides everything based on rolls of the dice. Usually a relic of older editions and a big fan of massive random encounter tables. Will you find the next town in the forest, a hungry red dragon, or will a meteor randomly fall on your head? It's all up to the dice, and the entire game is a gamble. Especially polarizing if he enjoys random checks to see if the players trip and critical fumble tables that can result in players decapitating themselves.

Come to think of it, this could be handy for GMs badly pressed for time.
A random dungeon generator that will generate a dungeon room by room at random!
Or a computer tool that does the same for battlemaps tile by tile! Never lack for variety again!

You mean like the back of the AD&D DMG?

[BowenSilverclaw]

[dither]

Had a DM who was like the "swears up and down about how 4e is the best, but plays using 3.5 rules," except he was that way towards THIRD EDITION, and was using SECOND EDITION rules. Being a recovering Rules Lawyer, I was calling the guy out CONSTANTLY when he was trying to correct me on how my OWN character's abilities worked.

I finally walked from that game. As I understand it, that group's just playing World of Warcraft now.

[Generic_PC]

When You Wish Upon A Card
Eagerly tempts the party with wishes and/or the deck of many things as an excuse to reem your character.

Hehe. I had a DM like this whose idea backfired. He ended up with a party who had like 15 times more gold than they should have, and something like 15 bonus stats and a couple wishes.

[dither]

Oh, had a DM who started a game. We played as though things were all well and good, obviously missed his little plot hook or something, and our characters got arrested for something our "evil twins" did. We were fighting our way out of the prison when the DM stopped the game and told us that we were so horribly off-track that there was nothing more for us to do. I tried to give him a pep-talk, but he flatly refused to run for us anymore.

This after spending the first two hours of the game session describing (in detail) his game world, and how he wanted our help developing it because he wanted to make a computer game based on our adventure. Apparently ... we weren't linear and boring enough for him. He refused to run for us after that, even though I spent the next 20-30 minutes solid walking him through all the possible adventures he could run for us now (I'd been DMing regularly for two years at that point, and was full to bursting with ideas). He was "The Little DM Who Wouldn't." It was really sad.

Not sure if that's in the list. I eventually gave up reading when there was like ... 4 posts full.

[RobbyPants]

This after spending the first two hours of the game session describing (in detail) his game world, and how he wanted our help developing it because he wanted to make a computer game based on our adventure. Apparently ... we weren't linear and boring enough for him.

Why doesn't he just write a story and base a video game off of that?  It would yield the same result and he wouldn't get pissed at his friends.

That scenario is like the whole "does this article of clothing make me look fat?" question.  He's gambling on whether he'll get the result he wants when he doesn't need to leave it to chance in the first place.  Ugh.

[dither]

Why doesn't he just write a story and base a video game off of that?  It would yield the same result and he wouldn't get pissed at his friends.

That scenario is like the whole "does this article of clothing make me look fat?" question.  He's gambling on whether he'll get the result he wants when he doesn't need to leave it to chance in the first place.  Ugh.

Don't I know it.  Incidentally, whenever my roommate asks me if I think she looks fat, I say yes. Because she looks fat. I try and mix it up every now and then by attaching a snarky comment to my reply. She really ought to have learned by now...

Anyway, I've had a similar idea, in the vein of using software like RPGMaker to create a game based on a game, but the thing is that I write out my adventure and the hooks, and maybe two or three auxiliary adventures, and then let the players break it. Because they're going to be curious about characters who I haven't created and places I haven't considered. I already know how the adventure is supposed to go, and the players are there to show me what I don't know about the setting.

[McPoyo]

I've had some of the most memorable sessions for my players doing that, Dither. It works amazingly well, doesn't it?