What are Some Signs of a BAD DM?

Are you a BAD DM? Well, probably not, but these people certainly are. Grab a chair and learn about what makes a BAD DUNGEON MASTER!
Welcome to the Twisted Pint Tavern! Come on in, hang your cloak up by the fire, and grab a pint as you listen to today's tale! If you have a similar D&D or RPG story, feel free to share it in the comments, and we might feature it in a future video!
Thread(s) these stories came from:
🏹 / dnd_players_what_are_s...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timestamps:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Twisted Pint Tavern is a warm and fun place where all weary adventurers are welcome to gather for a drink and a story! Come hear fantastic stories and tidbits from various fantasy TTRPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons (D&D / DnD), Pathfinder, and more!.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All graphics and sounds are sourced and used with due permissions or are free of copyright. All stories are sourced either directly from viewers or from public D&D and Fantasy forums/threads online. If you believe anything is being used in these videos incorrectly, please reach out immediately so that we can remedy the situation!
Background video provided by Unreal Soundscapes and Free Backgrounds on KZbin, thank you so much!

[@twistedpinttavern]

What makes a BAD DM? It's hard to be labeled as a "bad DM", but there are some ways it can happen...

[@plasmyth5501]

The biggest thing in my opinion is just putting any kind of story or idea you had and putting it above the player’s creativity and enjoyment. You ultimate goal is not to make a nartive, it should be to let the characters feel either, powerful, a part of the world, loved, or just let them feel cool and loved given they have properly earned a significant amount of any of that by the way they have been trying to act in your games. For example: if a player got high sleight of hand and frequently enjoys pick pocketing people in universe, don’t judge his actions and try to make him feel guilty out of game. Or if a character plays like a smart character with good intelligence, don’t get annoyed if they are frequently asking you if they know about this specific knowledge related thing, because if you get SUPER annoyed by that overtime it’s clear it’s because you didn’t put a lot of thought in this significant room they are currently in or the lord of the temple they are exploring.

[@mrosskne]

>story >plot >theme >arc

[@supernintendosp]

I realized about two weeks ago I was a writer and not a DM. I finally accepted that this week. I'll let others take over since I am good at role playing a neutral good dragon.

[@twistedpinttavern]

Honestly there's nothing wrong with that, some people have so much story in their head that there just isn't room for the dice or player shenanigans. As long as you can keep having fun playing, you're still nailing it, and I'm sure you can revisit DMing soon!

[@supernintendosp]

@@twistedpinttavern It will take some time, but my guy, Aerobrine the gentle storm dragon, had become the god of space and time. I want to pull off a Chrono Trigger style campaign where the party must figure out how to stop his dark side that has gained a terrifying body from bringing forth a ruined future. That, and Aerobrine links all of our campaigns together with his shenanigans and curiosity.

[@mrosskne]

"good"

[@arh9068]

Player 1: can I check the bodies for anything of interest? Gm: yes, you find nothing. Player 2: can I check this body (that has already been checked)? Gm: yes, you find a wonderous item.

[@JoeSmith-st9lc]

One mistake one of my friends (a long term DM) fell into, and I feel myself falling into more and more as I continue to DM, is that we can sometimes overthink and overplan our sessions to the point where it drains our time and energy, thinking that our players will appreciate every last detail we write into the game, only to later be disappointed that most of our players don't really care. They just want to play the game. It's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that the vast majority of the little details I work so hard on for my sessions will eventually fall on deaf ears. I hope it doesn't drive me crazy to the point where I one day quit DMing, and I wish the same to all of you DMs out there.

[@mrosskne]

Why are you planning everything? That doesn't make any sense. If your players can make decisions, planning is pointless.

[@Tw0point0h]

I think you could probably bring those ideas back around. I agree with the comment above me. You shouldn't have it so detailed just have a general idea and then go off of what your players are doing. You can still bring your old ideas back you just gotta be flexible

[@krinkrin5982]

I feel the DMPC is more a sign of a person who really wants to play in the game they are GMing. Of course it could be just a power fantasy, or both at the same time.

[@twistedpinttavern]

I fully agree, usually it's probably just someone who really wants to play and not just run the game. And I fully get that, hence why I'm not too hard on DMPCs, so long as they're done well. I still don't recommend them, but it's USUALLY a sign of someone who just wants to get in on the fun and isn't getting that just by DMing.

[@starielyt]

In one of the campaigns i play in we have 3 (maybe soon 4) dmpcs however its mainly because our party is 2 players and we all try to take on the rolls of the dmpcs so that its not just self rp. (context on the 2 players is that this campaign is just my 2 siblings and i as we all wanted to play more dnd and scheduling rarely worked out in our main games therefore we made this one XD. Only issue is since we are siblings we do often struggling with bringing out of game conflict into game however other than that its a win. :)

[@kittikats]

I'm new to DMing and thinking of having a DMPC - solely to fill the role of healer and battlefield controller. Party is going to be: warlock, Ranger, Monk and fighter. So I'm thinking of having a divine soul sorcerer join them. Their entire purpose is to support the party and not take the spotlight. I don't expect them to Mary sue the problems or guide them to solutions. Just be the missing skills that they need to do their best

[@krinkrin5982]

@@kittikats With unbalanced parties there are generally two schools of though: 1. Create an NPC that tags along and fulfills the missing role, or 2. Let the PCs work around their deficiencies. The difference between a DMPC and a regular NPC I feel is the amount of agency they have. An NPC does not offer solutions, but might push the players in the right direction. A DMPC will solve the problem at hand by themselves, or direct the party in a way where they are the de-facto leader.

[@mrosskne]

Players should decide who they ally with, if anyone.

[@BlackPenzo]

My worst DM had solo sessions with his irl girlfriend who was in our party and she got to keep the xp and loot. She was level 12 while we were level 4 and he allowed her to use charm person on me to give her my loot too.

[@twistedpinttavern]

Yeeeaaahhhh I'm on the train of "solo sessions don't give xp", unless it's a solo session used to catch up to the rest of the party story and xp wise. I hate when characters get to higher levels just because "we could squeeze a mini sesh in..."

[@BlackPenzo]

@@twistedpinttavern I mean that group was just a huge mountain of red flags for me. Her being more powerful is one thing but to me her being able to charm me to give her my loot just made me feel like an NPC.

[@mrosskne]

should have been hotter than her then. skill issue

[@QuillStroke]

When they ask you if you're comfortable with something, or what would a previous character you played do in a situation and then ignore what you tell them because they are the DM and fuck what your character would do.

[@lovethepandainyou]

Had that happened to me once. Literally got the DM telling me: "No. Your character wouldn't do that because of my alignment (or because of what he thought my character's personality was)". Well, 1) there is a reason why I don't use alignments in my games. 2) I wasn't being evil or anything dramatic. I maybe wanted to bluff or intimidate someone or be sneaky. I was a barbarian for god's sake, not a paladin or a cleric. I kind of forgot what the action was (this was 7 years ago or so), but I KNOW it was absolutely benign AND absolutely in-character from the way I thought about, invented and played my character up to that point. But he literally vetoed me off from that action. I left that game soon after. That character-stealing moment, plus a DMPC (that, tbf, was more of a training wheel character than his own desire to play a NPC) and the actual, overt impossibility for us to die because "we are heroes"... Those were three major things that turned me off personally. The DM wasn't exactly bad per say, but damn, his game was not meant for me whatsoever.

[@mrosskne]

>alignment D&D is shit

[@lovethepandainyou]

@@mrosskne Again with your apparently abysmal reading comprehension skills. Why you talking about D&D??? Do you just like to be off-topic, edgy or both? Or you are just high? I'm starting to be honestly confused, man...

[@eukelard]

Worst thing is when it’s obvious the DM is trying to “win” or “beat” the players.

[@lovethepandainyou]

I mean, fair. But let's not act like some players don't also try to beat the game by cheating or min-maxing to infinity and beyond. Ultimately, as long as it remains within the rules of the system and makes sense, I tend to think that can one way to play the game. Heck, it used to be more prevalent back then. It's not to my liking, but I know some people who wouldn't mind it either. That's a bit of a Dark Souls kind of feeling when you actually survive on the third or fourth go-at-it.

[@DecoyZ]

My group always plays with the rules "no unnecessary deaths" we dont care about what the dice "say" we want to have fun and play characters were invested in If a character im emotionally invested in dies to a few evil minions im just leaving that DM Character death feels special in our games because they happen at the right moments when it makes sense Its so unsatisfying to see someone die to a few bad dice rolls Unless you just whip up characters to do funny voices with ZERO care i cant see why people are happy to die to misfortune We tried that in our campaign and the new PC could NEVER join the party because everyone was so traumatised by the death of their friend they were silent canonically for weeks and multiple sessions

[@lovethepandainyou]

Glad it is working for your table. I can attest that this kind of play would ruin my table and my players would just leave. Partly because they basically told me that themselves many times lmao. If they feel death happens only at the right moments when it makes sense, they will know it is manufactured and our campaign has become more cooperative storytelling than an actual game. They like facing the odds, KNOWING they could die. It is quite a tense challenge and often-times bring them closer to their characters because they don't know when they will be gone. This is the thrill of the adventure. No training wheels. With actual risks and rewards. We respect the dice whatever comes our way. Otherwise, there is no reason for us to roll it. That's also why people really enjoy doing Honour runs on BG3. Tactical, tense, resourceful and cutthroat. But it is not for everybody either. I'm just sharing you the other side that works well for me and my friends. I am not trying to kill their characters, but I am also not pulling my punches. Resurection is a thing, too, and can lead to great moments. I am following CR's resurection system so it doesn't feel vapid either.

[@honkeykong4049]

I was in a game of Pathfinder 2E a few years ago now. The group of us were Level 7. DM let his friend bring his Level 20 character to the game and cast Dominate on PCs to control what they did. I left and didn't return. Was in that game for over a year.

[@honkeykong4049]

"Alright, well how long is my character dominated for?" "24 hours." "Here is my sheet. Take care."

[@twistedpinttavern]

That's just bad. Like, obvious, horrible, bad decision making. You don't do that kind of thing if you want a group to stay together.

[@lovethepandainyou]

OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD!!! As a forever DM who HAS made some missteps along the way(often times, rookie mistakes like splitting the party on my first game lmao, but other times, just failing to anticipate my players point-of-view on traps, puzzles and in-game lies), that is absolutely insane. Especially if the guy had been running that game for a year. That's basically pushing the self-delete button on the campaign. And showing a complete disregard for your experience as players. Maybe he thought that it could a fun experiment for you as well? But even with good intentions, that was off by a mile.

[@jak2266]

One thing I have seen be very prevalent is the "DM says" rule. I fully understands why it needs to be there, but I have had more DMS abuse it than not. If a player takes a certain action, or casts a certain spell, or passes certain skill checks without prior announcement of rule changes, then there is an expectation that it will work RAW. DM having authority does not mean they get to selectively enforce rules and not let the players know about it.

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

For my own contribution, I recently had a DM who was always in a rush. 'You guys are RPing with the quest-giver and each other? Hurry up and stop that so we can get to my next action scene. What do you mean describe it? You just teleport there.' Then, later, 'you won, you find the thing, you return to the quest-giver who tells you good job, and you return home to rest. RP amongst yourselves I guess while I write this next part.' At first, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, figuring that they just preferred putting most of their effort into combat so it would balance out but uh... no. No, it did not. Most of the fights were over by 1-2 rounds and the biggest fight we had was a boss with only 3 rounds. Usually, the moment the tide of the battle was in our favor, you could tell the DM was ready to get things over with and one time he straight up asked us half-way through our first round if we just wanted to say we won and skip the formalities. Like... c'mon. He would then cancel the campaign about a week later due to 'burnout.' 😅

[@twistedpinttavern]

Yeah it sounds like they just couldn't get what they wanted out of D&D and tried to "skip cutscene" their way through it

[@lovethepandainyou]

To be fair, it seems the guy was maybe out of his depths and found out how much of a "struggle" and a balancing act DMing can be. I am not defending him because I would have probably not come back for a second game anyway. DMing is more simple than just "I'll do it"... even if my own personal best advice for DMing is "just do it" XD

[@mrosskne]

It isn't a struggle or a balancing act. You just haven't experienced good systems.

[@lovethepandainyou]

@@mrosskne why are you talking about good systems? Rn, I'm just assuming you likely don't have good comprehension skills. Lmao, bro. Get out of here with your silly ass comment XD

[@ParaDyce]

So, I wanted to share this and hear people's thoughts. I'm a new DM, having run games for about 4 months now, with two sessions a week. Both feature homebrewed worlds, factions, a deity, demons, and more. Everyone's had a blast, but it's been a lot of work. My advice to new DMs is simply to start with a short, one-off campaign, keeping it small. It'll make story-building much easier. I love homebrewing and crafting my own worlds, but starting small is key. It's not just about ease it's about depth. Invest time in a small area to bring it to life. Even if players miss details, it enriches the world far more when you focus on one area rather than working on a whole world.

[@Azchamberlain83]

I love watching dnd stories. I personally haven’t played any dnd just yet but I’d like to get started sometime. This is some fun content and you’ve earned yourself a subscriber!

[@twistedpinttavern]

Thank you! I wish you luck in finding a D&D group!

[@edackley8595]

"Hobby Nightmares" is a whole KZbin genre.

[@lexcentrique2554]

You also got that Bad DM "subclass" that I never really got the chance of seeing anywhere besides horror stories which I crave: DMs who just put this road of rails just to make you fall into a situation where they'd force their fetishes onto your character. Yeah it sucks and almost feels imaginary.

[@twistedpinttavern]

Yeeaaahhh, if you go check out the last story in my "wtf moments" video, I had a DM who tried that... I did not return for session 2...

[@Amadmaniac1]

Having more NPC character sheets in a campaign than there are players. Using your Players and punching bags in combat. Fudging dice rolls and not even giving players a saving throw against something that RAW has a saving throw. Reward players that figure out traps by damaging them to near death. Immediately killing off a player at the end of combat for saving another player from a deadly encounter. Telling a player that their character, that they worked really hard on, was worthless and won't work. Changing the Rules Mid-Campaign so your PC is basically nerfed to a Level 1 Character, at Level 20.

[@twistedpinttavern]

What are player characters if not punching bags? (jokes) No legit I hate when DMs just kill characters off because they want to. I fully understand dramatic moments and "rise from the dead" stories, but you're not writing a book, you're butchering someone else's experience. I once introduced a Cthulu-like eldritch entity for just a brief moment so my party could see the danger that was looming later on in the campaign. By a fluke of dice, one PC ended up being in the radius of it's Terror ability that can kill you if you fail a roll by enough, and he got a nat 1 on the save. I felt AWFUL because he, by the rules I'd laid out at the table, was dead instantly. I had a nearby ally cast revivify on him immediately, so he came back, but I felt so bad. He told me not to worry about it, because it was a super cinematic moment and his character now has a reason to fear/hate this monster.

[@krisredmond1840]

I am a BAD DM, fear me! My players force me to run the game because they all hate DMing. I am like the BAD MOVIE and they come for the failing.

[@twistedpinttavern]

At least you wear it with pride!

[@oniminikui]

Any DM that allows players or they themselves do something for the sole purpose of "fOr ThE mEmEs". I'm surprised I haven't pulled a muscle over the amount of eyerolls that I consist of during session.

[@Arlesmon]

Well, doing something for the memes is not necesarily bad if it's something silly and doesn't affect the game in general, some people just want to have dumb fun. The thing is if it does affect an important moment or if it breaks the serious tone

[@kidneykid]

Bad DMs spend to much time "Balancing," instead of properly sign posting for danger. Bad DMs seem to always fudge dice and baby sit their players instead of allowing them to make mistakes in a dangerous world. Also my players would never need to lie to me to suicide their characters all they would have to do is walk into a dungeon without enough torches.

[@twistedpinttavern]

For real, there's no clearer way to say "I want to play a new character" than just playing them like they're dumb and have a death wish lol

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

1:35 I've only seen the opposite. DMs who I felt were WAY too into homebrew. Two recent pre-session 0 conversations with each of those DMs involved a lot of me pitching my character followed by 1-3 homebrews this reminded them of and heavy-handed recommendations to use that instead of anything remotely official lol

[@twistedpinttavern]

I mean I like homebrew, but it can definitely go too far lol

[@plasmyth5501]

From personal experience* One of the many signs of a bad DM is that they forget the name of the town they were in, what they were doing, AND why they were doing it. Each one of these things happening individually once in a while is of course fine and natural, but it’s clear that if this happens SESSION AFTER SESSION and it’s the PLAYERS who have to remind THE DM what the campaign is about, I feel they aren’t caring enough, and are really just doing a bad job. Other signs from previous experiences including taking 5 minutes to figure out what your going to say for every 7 minutes of the campaign or what your going to have a character say for a pre thought out adventure, not letting me have my 1d6 scimitar be a 1d8 scimitar instead, never letting anyone take a feat, having a constant and never ending stutter stretching simple things like a 2 sentence phrase into 3 minutes.

[@twistedpinttavern]

I agree on not having things prepped or remembered. It's bound to happen here and there, but yeah, if the DM asks the players every session what they're supposed to be doing, they're not spending much time planning. The scimitar damage thing I think I'd need more info about, because damage dice are important, however some people just tend to say "no, and because I said so" on things that make perfect sense, and that's definitely touchy

[@plasmyth5501]

@@twistedpinttavern I wont wont get too much into it but basically I just wanted To have a scimitar to match the thematic of my Aladdin inspired fighter, but I still wanted a stronger weapon than 1d6, and he said no.

[@twistedpinttavern]

@@plasmyth5501 Yeah, honestly the actual "weapon" you use is pretty much all for flavor. There are some occasions where you want to be picky about weapon type, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. You can buy a 1d8 weapon just as easily as a 1d6 weapon, so as long as you use the 1d8 weapon's stats and such, there shouldn't be any issue with saying it looks like something else.

[@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112]

The only negative GM characteristic is not accommodating player feedback. That’s also the only valid critique that a player can levy. If a player doesn’t clearly express their needs, they’re the person to blame if they do not get met.

[@twistedpinttavern]

I agree with this about 99% of the way. Honestly, when I have issues with a game or GM, I'm more likely to say "this just isn't the table for me" than blame the rest of the group. Everyone plays their own way, and finding that group/GM you click with can be hard. There are some things people do as game masters that are just abhorrent, though, particularly out-of-game things. While they rarely happen, I've heard some horror stories...

[@hodgepodgesyntaxia2112]

@@twistedpinttavern oh that’s 100% true. People can be creeps, but that’s not being a bad GM. That’s being a bad person.

[@spaceangelmewtwo9074]

When the DM TPKs your party so often that you feel it necessary to bring multiple backup characters to every single session and you stop caring about character backstory because it feels like there's no point in getting invested in your character when you know they're going to die next week. A little bit of character death is not a bad thing, but when it gets to this point, your campaign is too hard for your players. It's important to pay attention to the skill level of your players and adjust accordingly. It's hard to get invested in the game or care about roleplaying when you don't want to get attached to your character. Also, the rules lawyer DM. I mean, at an excessive level that is, to the point where it doesn't allow for fun and kills player creativity. Things like "No, you can't use Thorn Whip to swing from this tree branch because the book doesn't explicitly say you can do that." Personally, I'd give that player Inspiration for thinking outside of the box, because that totally sounds like something you could reasonably pull off with that cantrip. I'd ask for an Atheletics check of course, but I'd allow it. Just because it's not written in the book doesn't mean you have to let the book restrict your players' creative thinking.

[@edackley8595]

Worst D&D experience I ever had was DM that was constantly going back and forth with an edge lord evil thief. Arguing was plentiful while party cooperation and loot was low. Played two sessions and simply moved on.

[@theuncalledfor]

If a player no longer wants to play a character, and wishes to play a new one, kindly suggest to them that they _retire_ the character instead of killing them off. If the player deems that the character is unlikeable and should die, or that the character would never retire and has to die because that's the only way to get rid of them, they can go ahead. Otherwise, let them retire the character nonlethally.

[@GamblingJester]

Bad dm traits I came across during my player experience: - 2 session long cutscene where the whole party was unable to even move due to"magic stuff" -ignoring the party's agency and force a surprise round despite all the precautions they took to be prepared for danger just because"it sounded cool" -add an homebrew rule last minute and never telling us until the enemy crits, he then reveals that a crit would double the damage that was already rolled, then changes said rule that if an enemy does a nat 20 on a saving throw it gives your own damage back to you istead of taking it(he still thinks it was funny) -baiting players into danger by lying about stuff ooc(or omitting stuff that is in plain sight) -blocking a totally reasonable action behind automatic failure because"that is how I wrote that scene" In all sincerity, if anyone reads this and fits into it, do your players a favor and write a book, because chances are that they're not enjoying it

[@BunnyWitchcraft]

I've only played with one, and it was pretty rough. Joined a friend's game, had a map of the region and maybe one or two paragraphs of lore. No hook, no mention of the type of game it was. We jump in for session 1 and he hit all of us with the game opening during a town meeting. A council of like 6 dudes are going back and forth dropping heavy lore names of characters and places back and forth. Very deep stuff, no "goblins are causing trouble". After half an hour of this, the floor is opened up to players. We had no idea what to do or say after that. I really felt like my 8 intelligence kobold ranger in that moment. So we just sorta all got into shenanigans for the rest of the session. Me and my husband were dreading going back afterwards so we just bowed out. Expectations are important to settle was something I learned that day.

[@twistedpinttavern]

If you want to ruin a political intrigue game, that's fine, but you should definitely make sure the players are aware of it lol. That really goes for most game types, I feel like most DMs are worried about giving away too much, but you really need to make sure the players can build their characters to fit into the game, even a little bit, because otherwise they could just end up hating what they're playing. Plus, if someone really doesn't like that type of game, it's best for them to know early and not go through the hassle of getting ready just to leave after session one...

[@BunnyWitchcraft]

@@twistedpinttavern Hit the nail on the head. I'm not too into political games! Would prefer they got players that would enjoy their story.

[@hrino94]

ironically, the "sleep lasts 2 turns" is what Baldur's Gate 3 uses for most save or suck spells that last 10 turns.

[@joc9389]

First time dm here Actually even first time player ...yet I went directly to DM and created a world With the story asked for help from the players while picking their race All of them are elves except one is a Goliath and he was a slave to an elf I read all three back stories and created it into the world so that everytime they stumble upon something it is something they know I had a bad guy face them early and they turned him into dmpc because of good role play and story and they even ask me to make him have some more spot light I made the mistake of giving some of them so much over powered bullshit but he uses his negative one intelligence wisely in RP so he is not the spot all the time he is experienced player and I really hope they are enjoying this as much as I do It have been 4 or 5 months since we had started

[@twistedpinttavern]

It sounds like you're doing the DMPC thing well. Letting your players keep the spotlight is essential. I always advise phasing out DMPCs as soon as possible, just to keep yourself in a position of "story teller" as opposed to making too many party decisions, however sometimes a DMPC can run to the end of a game just fine. Keep up the great work, and we as a community thank you for tackling the beast of DMing as your first experience!

[@lovethepandainyou]

Giving players overpower bs is a stepping stone for ALL new DMs (well, maybe 90% of them). Don't worry about it. Be careful with the DMPC, but if they are asking him to stay around, that is a good sign they are locked in your campaign at least a little bit. Congrats and keeping going, man!

[@geeketteqc9898]

When the ''experienced'' the DM simply read the module and don't know/care about anything about the PC's characters. Got one that, to him, our characters were their race and class and he actually didn't care about anything else and would literally just be reading the module in a monotone voice.

[@twistedpinttavern]

I understand a new DM having a hard time tracking player details and not being as involved in the module's story and presentation, but an experienced DM doing that just feels lazy. Some people aren't very confident in role play or presenting, and that's okay, but ignoring the players and just not caring about their characters is just lazy.

[@mr.crumblycookie5203]

My dm has the cheapest tavern be 8 gold (it was 6 before I made an out of character joke) this is in his words "a very poor town, very ruined" the second cheapest option was a coffin for 2 gold (which i wasent going to pay for even if i could afford it) or hanging my character for 1 gold. Theres also almost no gold on any enemy, or in any chests. He also has "the iron claw discount" which is a price raise if you have a member ship to the thing you start with a memeber ship to (its impossible to get without having the membership)

[@annageorge8406]

I just gave up (and the rest of my group [4 other players] on today's session after waiting an hour and a half for the DM to show up.

[@FlyJonat]

The dm who fudge rolls against players and ignores players's ac to make the game harder. They also buff the encounters of a module (curse of strahd in my case) only because they think the players are too strong until they reach a tpk at level 3 because the dm put 10 ennemies on the map.

[@paulmacdonald5135]

You can always have a bad player bottle

[@jasonrustmann7535]

The balance thing, about not being completely DM or player driven, i balance my game out by letting my players do or at least try anything, but I use a ton of random charts, and dice rolls to determine how things go. I can explain better if anyone's curious, but I'll keep it short for now lol

[@Arlesmon]

Im interested in knowing how it works

[@jasonrustmann7535]

@@Arlesmon okay, so for example, say your players are engaging in some activities in the town, that guards might not look to kindly upon. I don't just have guards show up out of nowhere to ruin things for them, I'll make a roll, or in most cases, flip a coin a player gave me years ago that says "hell yes" on one side and "hell no" on the other (that coin has made more decisions then any one else at my table lol) and if I get a no, then they'll get a little more time with their task, and try again, if I keep getting "no" I'll eventually just be like "guess there's no guards on patrol right now over here", but if I get a "yes, guards are coming" I'll roll to see how many rounds until they're upon the party, then have players roll to see if they hear or notice someone coming, and if all else fails, and guards show up, I'll flip the coin to see how if they're corrupt or not, if they can be paid to look the other way, stuff like that. I typically run open world games, I don't usually have any stories or plot hooks going, until after players get the ball rolling, and even then, I give players full agency on what they do. If they want to be a bunch of heroes, the opportunities will be there, if they want to be a bunch of psychotic douchebags, they can do that too. I'll just use similar reasoning to develop what happens to them, to create their challenges. Heros taking out a goblin threat? Well let's see how smart/well put together they are. I've had goblins using shield walls and hit and run tactics before (they were being trained by a hobgoblin for him to use as a proper fighting force) then players either deal with the problem, or go "eff this!" And bail. So now I got a group of militarized goblins, growing in numbers and power. Got a group of murderous psycho players, threatening and robbing everyone they come across? Let's roll up a group of rival adventures, who's job is to deal with the threat to the town and it's people. and I encourage players to ask questions, about everything, I let them know I have rough existences for the major towns/cities, like local government, things of that sort, but for shops, taverns/inns/craftsman/pawn shops, and the like, they don't really exist, until they want to go there, at which point I start using random generators to get the specifics of said location. This is kinda rambly, and only a bit of how I do things, but I'm coming off of a 13 hour double shift, and I'm now looking after my grandpa who's mind is shot. But I'm all to happy to keep answering questions and clarify things further lol hope some of this helps you in your future endeavors 🙂

[@Froschemints]

I used DMPCs on two occasions. First: The Players were all new and didn´t knew combat. I gave them a Paladin as a trainer. Just the basic stuff. Most at the time he trained with them in the wilds, stood aside and gave them advice on positioning, teamwork, and I tried to tell them how their spells worked ingame. He only sprinkeld in some healing or tanked so hits. They liked him and helped him even persuit a personal goal. Second: the players all had squishy characters and they decided to hire two mercenaries for frontliners. They even called one of them meat shield (barbarian) and vhaldrian (forest herb guy in my language). I wasn´t even mad. Without them knowing the characters backstory, the names fitted better than what I called him. So it became name/ nick names. I let them control the mercenaries in combat and I voice them.

[@eve-of-halloween]

The worst DMs i think of the many good and bad ive had over the years all share these things in common -belittle a player and humiliate them until they shutdown or cry infront of the entire party over the player asking a minor thing privately like "if its not too much trouble can we have more rp sessions in the campaign?" -take on Roleplay heavy players but force them into a high combat low rp campaign but lie and promise that its high rp low combat. -play favorites and their favorite gets the cool emotional moments, sick ass gear, or is given other special treatment like lesser punishment for their character. -gloat about how awful or difficult they made an encounter then have a fit if the players were miserable and didnt enjoy it or have shut down entirely as a result. And often those encounters are railroaded and forced onto the players when the players did not make any choice with their own angecy that would have lead them to that encounter. (Ex: forcing 5 players of lvl 6 to fight 25 lycanthropes, 15 goons with 2 spellcasters slinging 7th level spells.) And yes counterspelling healing magic. -blame the players if the players arent having fun.

[@lovethepandainyou]

Those are crazy bad. I'll just add my worst ones, which are relatively tame: - DM decides to change item rules on 5e halfway through the campaign. Suddenly, you get extra attunement slots equivalent to your Int modifier. Not a completely stupid take, until you realize that the whole party had negative or neutral int modifiers except for the wizard who has 20 Int... Oh. And the wizard was the DM's wife... Can you believe it! XD - Another DM made the most realistic fights (that is to his credit 100%), but made them too tough every other fight so a DMPC had to save us all the time because, well, we couldn't die. That was his rule. PCs just couldn't die. But he overtuned half the fights. It just ended up being such an unpleasant contrast, man.

[@ajerqureshi6411]

Once as a DM I made a mistake where I pretty much ended up ignoring one of my player characters and not bothered making any interactions with him compared to others. This resulted in said player having a blowout expressing his frustration, which admittedly is not a cool move a player should do (definitely a problem player in hindsight), and that blow out made it too awkward for me to even continue the campaign. In my defense I was juggling multiple players and multiple NPC's and any attempts I did try to get NPC's or other characters to interact with him didn't really go well because the player made his character really unapproachable (basically, he was playing this creepy ghost like character, but unlike CR's Laudna, he wasn't the fun-scary kind that liked to socialize...he was cold and completely closed himself from any character that tried to interact with him).

[@twistedpinttavern]

It happens sometimes where a certain person doesn't get engaged with as much because of certain things happening, but if you're trying to involve them and they just refuse to take any RP or actual opportunity further, it's on them. You can lead a player to RP, but you can't force them to dance.

[@darkpaul1uxgaming269]

To me, this sounds like both a player's and your problem. First of all, what did the player expect in the first place? If the player plays a typical **lone wolf edge lord** and is cold, of course, NPCs won't interact with them. But if they meet new NPCs and he doesn't give out right this dark uneasy aura, then yeah, that's a mistake on your part. Additionally, even if he has an uneasy aura, looking creepy, scary, or otherwise would discourage Npcs from interacting. There are always different NPCs you can use, scumbag bandits, brave mercenaries, other edge lords, cheerful oblivious people, manipulative people that want to use others, and other types of characters that you can push to interact with these types of players to prevent them being left behind. Genuinely speaking, DMS should focus on the story and players, making sure that everyone is happy, but the player also shouldn't just sit and expect dm to be all-knowing God and realize that they are upset, both must talk.

[@ajerqureshi6411]

@@darkpaul1uxgaming269 In hindsight, I probably should have had interactions set with him with a ghostly spirit...and I would have continued the campaign with that acknowledged. The problem was still the player's angry and bitter outburst towards not only me but to the other players as well. I saw kind of too late that he was a bit of a problem player...but I also feel I should have made more effort on my part.

[@darkpaul1uxgaming269]

@@ajerqureshi6411 Wow, so that guy seriously got jealous and attacked others? How did you handle that player? Have you kicked him, have you tried to talk with him?

[@ajerqureshi6411]

@@darkpaul1uxgaming269 Not exactly much. After lashing out, he just left. We could have continued on...but the resulting blowout made it too awkward among us we just stopped.

[@rougeofda21stcentury]

I am currently prepping for a session in 2 hours in my homebrew world. My characters pointed out that our next quest is essentially Lord of the Rings. Do I feel bad about it, a little. Is it gonna be fun either way, I hope it is for them.

[@twistedpinttavern]

Homebrew honestly is one of the best ways to play, imo. Yeah, it can get messy, but no other games come close to that table feel of a custom world.

[@darkpaul1uxgaming269]

It's not a bad thing, Lord of the rings can serve as a simple gimmick, an idea to work on. Just make sure you add some unique aspects obviously, to not make the whole campaign a straight-up copy and you won't need to feel bad.

[@ThornDevl]

When they send you to go find something and don’t tell you when you can see it right in front of you!

[@dragonxswords114]

So.....that long list at 0:30 seconds......I started using that like a checklist for an old DM I had, to see how many things they were doing wrong....... I kid you not......I marked......EVERY SINGLE ONE.....he did all of them ALL OF THEM

[@twistedpinttavern]

That's... That's rough lol

[@nabra97]

May be a hot take, but the "It's not my task to make the game fun" quote is a bit of a yellow flag for me... I mean, "It's not *only* my task to make the game fun, everyone is a player at this table including the GM, and everyone should bring fun" is completely valid, and "I don't want players to get fun, I want to give them some sort of psychological or spiritual experience" is OK (as long as everyone involved is mentally stable and isn't uncomfortable beyond their limit), just isn't my cup of tea. But it also may be the "I don't care if players like the game or not, and I'm not accepting any feedback" situation, which I did face with.

[@twistedpinttavern]

I do think it's on everyone to make the game fun, but if the DM just takes a back seat and doesn't care if the players are enjoying themselves or not, that's a problem. The way you said it "it's not *only* my task to make the game fun" is a good way to put it!

[@cyanideytcuriousseadoggo]

Allowing pvp without good reason. One case would be a rouge keeps trying to steal from a player and they’ve said in the game they’ve had enough. Wooden weapons and just training A PC is being controlled against the players choices by something

[@shawnwolvin9200]

When a DM constantly makes assumptions about what the players are doing in ways that only hurt those players. For example, I was playing a very high strength character once and decided to push a 15 foot long object through a hallway because I was certain there were traps and I wanted to trigger them before stepping on the target square. Except I used the word "ram through" instead of "push through" so my DM assumed I was carrying the 200 lbs. object (perfectly level in the air from the long end) even though I never said anything about lifting it, then the traps went off only when I stepped on the pressure plates myself. I asked the DM why the object didn't trigger any traps and they said I should have been more clear about not lifting it. Jokes on them though because now every time my character touches anything I take as much time as I can to explain to the DM every possible thing that I'm not doing with it, to his immeasurable dissatisfaction. :)

[@totallynotalpharius2283]

Worst thing my DM has done is not accept my open bribe .. no he kicks ass

[@twistedpinttavern]

Did you try buying pizza for the table? That usually succeeds the bribe check...

[@totallynotalpharius2283]

@@twistedpinttavern we have pizza one Sunday a month. I’ve tried everything! Cash money , in game money , bringing a lawsuit against him! Good GMs man smh

[@captainamazing8825]

Any DM who gets upset when safety tools are mentioned.

[@broke_af_games9661]

Not a bad DM, but a thing they do that I consider their biggest fault. What I hate is a DM that over empowers characters, but especially so when they do it in their vision with no input from the player. Your character is also going to get this cleric domain and this other class feature ... Me:" but like, that doesn't suit what I have developed" Or You pick that subclass? Well I'm going to give you this subclass also because that one is too weak. .... not to be ungrateful but, if I wanted that subclass I would have picked it.

[@kurtoguile4374]

So if the DMPC is only in the story for plot setting purposes and it leaves after 2 sessions is that bad? I do this sometimes…

[@chaozgaming8565]

DM: *Session 1* "you're on death's door and appear in a new world-" Me: *Leaves because I, as a character, have absolutely no connections to this Isekai world whatsoever.* Isekai styled games suck man... There's a reason why a character sheet has this thing called "Bonds." It's what ties your character in the world they're adventuring in. Sometimes they can be fine, but more often than not, it completely detaches character motivation to adventure in the world unless the DM forces it on you. "You're adventuring because the BBEG had completely destroyed your spirit, and antagonized you directly, as with the rest of the party." I've known this guy for 5 minutes...

[@Arlesmon]

Of they're gonna go for an isekai adventure. They should be upfront about it in session 0

[@saraphys5555]

1:41 As a former D&D DM, and now a GM for other games... May I just say, this also applies to much of WotC's own official releases... unbalanced, player power fantasy, bullshite... I recommend to any 5E DM, that they only allow the Core 3 books (DMG, PHB, MM), and then get the rest of their resources from Kobold Press... Tome of Heroes, Tome of Beasts 1/2/3, Creature Codex, Midguard worldbook, etc... all of these things are balanced to the core books of 5E... and frankly, better. Iv had my ToB 1 since it came out, and the binding and quality of that print is still good... my DMG? eehhh...falling apart. And be assured, I use the ToB more then the DMG!

[@lovethepandainyou]

My PHB lasted four months, until I bounded it with a spiral. Which looked like a dog had eaten it because it was so flimsy. My friend's PHB lasted for 6 months, but basically, all the pages deglued themselves in bunches. So he had basically 5-6 stacks of pages still glued together forming, as a whole, the PHB. That was so ridiculous. He kept using it for years XD That was like a bunch of small books within a books.

[@Zazmax]

For me, I don't know if it that bad or things like that but me and other friends chose to do a DnD with our other friend doing the dm, the most part of the thing are in his computer except the sheets, a little thing too we chose our classes and races before we rolled the dice for our stats (I am an artificer with 6 intelligence and 6 dexterity). But the worst thing was he chosen to make my character fight when I didn't kill one small goblin and put us against 2 hobgoblins captains while riding a big dawg (his description of the mount) I did like fire bolt and the hobgoblin just cut it in half like it was nothing and passed through a ring of fire without any damage why he did that? ''to show you how insignificant you are''.

[@devinspencer1678]

#1 sign: He is me

[@gmanbo]

5:17 mat covil is has good spelled out system for this in strong holds and followers. He also has a vid talking about how to bring in npc retainers + followers Or the side kick system Or several others im not remembering. These characters are not hero's they can be aids to the party but follow there lead. Need to be prompted. Can give small bits lf advice about the world but doesn't have complete information. You could have guides but its focused not expansive. They are the guide for here. This defined location. If you want to give the players a protector for lvls 1 or 2 fine but they are in the back and not involved in the decision making unless the party is really going wrong. Works great with the idea that the first lvl or 2 is the last test before your party goes independent. Basically the players drive the story forward by making impactful decisions. The dm sets this up by setting up Situations where the party members can make decisions like this. Scale should go up or down depending stakes. However npc's in the party should not be makes these choices. They should follow the players lead in basically everything except there own backstory. Even then they should seek the players advice/ aid. Dmpc's should be npc's that assist the party in being awesome. Not the party assisting an npc in there adventure. Now there is a place i think for a 1 or 2 session adventure with a high lvl npc who needs assistance with something. However this is contained. + Is heavily plot related. ++ Gives the players the chance to influence events. Like the high lvl npc turning into a villain, a rift in reality opening or closing, the finnial breath of a great villian that forshadows new geopolitical changes. The players can choose no to go on these assisting adventure they forgo. Possibly accurate information + interactions with major regional changes + rewards. However the story goes on. These are side quests. Not main events. If your characters end up needing high lvl assistance. There will end up being restrictions or the npc will act as the powerful guide. "This is your battle, I will aid where needful + counter what you can not but besides this the fight is yours"

[@Darkwintre]

Until you meet the one who chooses to be an arsehole for no other reason that he clearly has a beef with you.

[@Dragonmoon98]

What's the point in playing D&D if all you are is effectively a DMPC's personal cheerleader?

[@TheBeastCH]

I watched this video in order to find out what I did wrong in my campaign that abruptly ended about two years ago. I was a first time DM, and a new player to boot. I did struggle to divide the spotlight evenly between my players, but I tried what I could, and no one complained about being boxed out or favoritism. Once a player complained about me having an NPC they came up with do something they wouldn't do, and got really pissed about it. Was I supposed to ask for a full character sheet with backstory and everything for every NPC they mention in their backstory? I know it sounds sarcastic, but it's a serious question. When one player left, appearently because of scheduling conflicts, I had no idea how to justify him being just... gone.

[@CatoftheCanals]

Really depends, but I think at least a little run down of players background story NPC's would be helpful if you're going to use them in the game. It really aggravated me when my DM killed off my whole family and then turned my childhood friend evil and forced us to kill him even though several times I had made it clear that my childhood friend was good alignment and for once didn't want to play an orphan in a TTRPG.

[@jewabeus]

LOL Yep, I'm watching this "just to see if I'm a bad DM." 🤣 My PCs are all family & I feel are scared to tell me. 🙈🙉🙊 However, after watching the video, I feel a lot better about myself. 😉

[@twistedpinttavern]

Most DMs are great, honestly, there's only a few rough ones out there in contrast! I'm sure you're doing great lol

[@jewabeus]

@@twistedpinttavern Thanks. Much appreciated.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

A bad DM: punishes you for missing a session (XP penalty, no loot), doesn't know the rules (and argues with you when you do), isn't prepared and can't wing it, doesn't control the game (settle disputes, share the spotlight, keep the game on track, etc.), never lets your character shine, saves party dues ex machina (pointless combats), makes smart characters dumb (same with wis and cha) because the player isn't smart, and doesn't take a break when needed (quits). I think that covers most of mine that are game related.

[@twistedpinttavern]

On the note of missing a session, I never got why dms don't usually do mini sessions with the player(s) that missed the session to make up for xp and loot if they're so worried about imbalance. Some of my favorite sessions have been with just one or two players to make up for missed story

[@lovethepandainyou]

@@twistedpinttavern As someone who has made mini-sessions sometimes, the easy answer is: preparation and time. I would love to do mini-sessions for all my players, it's just impossible at some point. I do think maybe my next campaign will start with a bunch of individual mini-sessions to get a deeper backstory from my players. I'm kinda thinking the backstories at level 1 are often times unreal because they are written as if the characters are level 10 and barely fended off an adult dragon by themselves. Yet, it doesn't make sense with their character's skils. Also, writing a backstory is not engaging in it. It often just becomes notes to remember as you start off the campaign. I'm thinking maybe if instead of writing it all, playing it instead would be a much cooler idea. But it would restrict their freedom to control 100% their backstory.

[@100dfrost]

I almost always let my players try just about anything they want to. If it's too overbalanced they usually get bored with it and want to forget about "that character" and come more in line. My dmpc's, if I give any, are usually way overpowered, although my players usually don't know. My dmpc's exist if I'm unsure of my players needing help or not, not to take the play away from them. If we had fun it went well, if not we talk about it and make adjustments. Nice video, thanks.

[@twistedpinttavern]

Honestly you can do a ton of things people would consider "bad" as long as you talk and make adjustments like you said. DMPCs, for example, are 100% fine so long as they don't steal the spotlight from the players, and are more there to help them than to lead them, so it sounds like you've got that down pretty well!

[@VestedUTuber]

Here's a couple: 1. Using alignment to coerce players into doing stupid things. 2. Making the campaign a "Magical Realm", or in other words, blatantly inserting their fetish(es) into the game without player consent. 3. This one specifically applies to DMs setting their campaigns in the Forgotten Realms... treating the Wall of the Faithless as anything other than either a horrific abomination or non-existent. Ok, I'll admit this one's more of a pet peeve, but my issue with it is that the Wall of the Faithless is, or at least was, an official part of the lore that outright reduces player agency by basically saying "pick a god or your character is screwed after death regardless of how they lived". So using it without making destroying it a campaign objective kinda falls under the whole "reducing player agency" thing.

[@twistedpinttavern]

Unfortunately, #2 pops up way more than it should...

[@DaDunge]

7:15 Big disagree there. I wouldnt play in the forgotten realms in my DnD dependent on it. Sounds like this player just want to be able to use their meta knowledge. 8:00 I'd walk away from a table that tried to have us play in Faerun.

[@supersimon4922]

Me

[@twistedpinttavern]

That's rough, buddy. (JK I'm sure you're a fantastic DM)