DM Pragmatics: The Big Mistakes

[Necrosnoop110]

Any words on the biggest mistakes a DMs can make that are sure to destroy a quality gaming experience or least harm it? What things should a DM avoid as rules of thumb? What are the big mistakes of DMing that all would care to take heed.

Thanks,
Necro

[AndyJames]

1. Rail-frakking-roading.

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2. DMs who don't know the system, but insist they do. For example:

Psionics are borken!!!! (spelling deliberate) One power (energy ray, energy ball, etc.) is the same as FIVE spells on the Wizard list!!! And they get to manifest virtually unlimited level 9 powers!!!! And they can do 343d6 damage a shot in a 20ft radius burst... BORKEN!!!!! (yep, they missed the bit about the manifester level cap on power points expended...)

Mystic Theurge is borken because at level 20, you get a level 15 cleric and a level 15 wizard, when normally you need to be level 30 to get!!!!

Warlock is borken!!!! Look at all the at-will stuff they can do all day!!!!


3. Biased DMs. Let's not go there.


Anything else is pretty minor and forgivable. DMs are only human, so if they make mistakes, that's practically part of the job description. One DM will never be the equal of four players in terms of logically covering all bases. But the above 3? Game enders for me. Either someone else takes over as DM or I am walking from the group until someone else does.

[veekie]

1 and 2 are not so bad as they seem. 3 tends to be fatal though.

[AndyJames]

1 and 2 are not so bad as they seem. 3 tends to be fatal though.

I guess I have a very low threshold of tolerance to people who think they know everything but are complete idiots. It is like watching a guy pick Burning Hands, Melf's Acid Arrow, Fireball, Ice Storm, Cone of Cold, Freezing Sphere, Delayed Blast Fireball, Polar Ray and Meteor Swarm and calling himself the bestest bad-ass sorcerer EVAH!!! at every opportunity.

And no, those geniuses still believe that I played my wizard wrong because I did NOT have Fireball on my list... They believe my god-style wizard was useless because he rarely killed anything. They are over 30 years old. I see no hope for them. And I pity their children. Talk about born to be stupid...

[veekie]

If they're having fun, and their group concur, it's alright.

I think the DMs who think a good game is a literally by the book monster mash might be worse. No plot at all, just fight, next fight, next fight, next fight, rest, ambush, fight.

[Kajhera]

Encouraging your players to make choices that depress both of you as people into giving up on a campaign.
It's ... sad.

[RobbyPants]

Any words on the biggest mistakes a DMs can make that are sure to destroy a quality gaming experience or least harm it? What things should a DM avoid as rules of thumb? What are the big mistakes of DMing that all would care to take heed.

Big mistakes in general include:

• Allowing something unbalanced into the game and doing nothing about it.
• Allowing something unbalanced into the game and removing it in a very unsatisfying way, where the player feels screwed.
• Denying the PCs their chance to use their cool abilities (sometimes this is cool to mix things up, but don't make it the norm).
• Refusing to listen to the players.
• Making the NPCs in the game more important than the PCs.
• Not letting the PCs have a lasting effect on the game world.
• Not letting PC choices matter (pretty much railroading).
• Deus Ex Mechina-fixing problems for the PCs.
• Stifling creative solutions that otherwise bust the adventure path off the rails.
• Introducing subject matter others at the table find creepy or inappropriate (this varies heavily group to group).

Other than that, it depends on the group. 

Some groups want hack-n-slash.  If they aren't stabbing green dudes in the face, they're not having fun, and they'll accept the most thin plots as an excuse to do some good ol' face-stabbin.  If the MC is getting in the way of stabbing faces with boring stuff, he's ruining the game.

Some groups are huge into immersion, to the point where they want the only thing to be coming out of players mouths to either be in-character statements or direct questions to the MC.  With a group like that, the MC can't kill immersion.

So, aside from the general advice above, the MC has to know his audience.

[Midnight_v]

Agreeing with Robbypants ftw.

 I also have to give a not do the biased dm thing and veekies statment about ... "if it works for them".
One thing that I think of as a general rule of thumb is this "know your audience". Its good to be able to determine what works for the group hopefully w/out the exclusion of one player over the other. I find a lot of whining from both camps frankly. The biggest split is the peope who are mechanically  advanced vs groups that don't fully understand the mechanics. . . leads to all kinds of nonsense. So managing mixed parties is important.

[InnaBinder]

To me, the phrase that is the biggest mistake a DM can make in general is:

"No, you can't do that."

It creates a more antagonistic relationship between DM and players, feels like railroading, and discourages creativity.  You're much better off, most of the time, with allowing the action, then having the players deal with the consequences.  Heck, even allowing an action and saying "nothing happens" is a superior choice, since it doesn't shoot down the player for being creative.

[Sunic_Flames]

Any words on the biggest mistakes a DMs can make that are sure to destroy a quality gaming experience or least harm it? What things should a DM avoid as rules of thumb? What are the big mistakes of DMing that all would care to take heed.

Thanks,
Necro

Unbalancing his game in terms of mechanics/fluff, by overemphasizing one or the other. Worse if the DM believes there is an active conflict between the two.
Railroading.
Powertripping.
Lying.
Not having a clue, and being unwilling to get one.
"His favorite edition was 2nd edition."

[veekie]

To me, the phrase that is the biggest mistake a DM can make is general is:

"No, you can't do that."

Yeah, the correct phrase should be.
"You can't do that but..."

[RobbyPants]

To me, the phrase that is the biggest mistake a DM can make is general is:

"No, you can't do that."

Yeah, that's another good one.

"His favorite edition was 2nd edition."

But my favorite edition was second edition...  before 3E came out.

[Havok4]

I will have to agree that a "You can't do that" response is one of the worst things you can say in a table top game.
The best part of tabletop games is the freedom and ability to choose interesting ways to resolve problems. If your players find a way to circumvent your obstacles for the day let them do it, recycle some of the encounters later if you are lazy but do not try just make that attempt fail. Some of my best experiences as a player are when I could use my characters abilities to do something really interesting, like buy off a dragon with my illusionist's skill as an interior decorator.

[Prime32]

"His favorite edition was 2nd edition."

I once encountered a guy who ranted about how 3e sucked because it was possible for wizards to gain armour proficiency.

[veekie]

2E did do some things right.
Unfortunately few of those were in mechanics.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

1) Ruining perfectly good in-game dramatic scenes

Let's say the party encounters a robot construct thing.  It's all-but invincible to their normal attacks because of DR 15/-- and the party being level 3.  The warlock is the only one who can scratch it, since his damage is untyped.  The robot also has a laser cannon thing, which deals a not-insignificant amount of damage.

The dread necromancer, her summons, and the rest of the party manage to grapple the thing to the ground collectively, and try to kill the robot with its own laser (which is certainly a light weapon in all sense of the word).  Nope.  Doesn't fly for no good reason.

Alrighty.  The party has pitons and a lot of rope, they'll nail the bastard down if they have to. A set of use-rope checks later, and the thing isn't going anywhere. 

So naturally this is the perfect time for the wizard who created it to suddenly take direct mental control, and have it self-destruct.  What a cop-out.

[RelentlessImp]

1) Ruining perfectly good in-game dramatic scenes

Let's say the party encounters a robot construct thing.  It's all-but invincible to their normal attacks because of DR 15/-- and the party being level 3.  The warlock is the only one who can scratch it, since his damage is untyped.  The robot also has a laser cannon thing, which deals a not-insignificant amount of damage.

The dread necromancer, her summons, and the rest of the party manage to grapple the thing to the ground collectively, and try to kill the robot with its own laser (which is certainly a light weapon in all sense of the word).  Nope.  Doesn't fly for no good reason.

Alrighty.  The party has pitons and a lot of rope, they'll nail the bastard down if they have to. A set of use-rope checks later, and the thing isn't going anywhere. 

So naturally this is the perfect time for the wizard who created it to suddenly take direct mental control, and have it self-destruct.  What a cop-out.

I see what you did there.

[dna1]

The biggest mistake is favoring one player over another.

Afew mistakes that a DM who I play under does: insufficient treasure/encounters/RPing/storyline.  
1. Uninteresting story. Something about a corrupt church?
2. Plot hook only a paladin would love.  (dumb magic portal opens in a mirror in our village and a dumb elf maiden asks for help. we go, and the entire country treats us like garbage for being shou expatriots. and none of us are even sure what we are doing but for some reason we are being hunted. by what i assume is a racist??)
3. Way under powered encounters. (Seriously all 5 of us were 2nd or 3rd level and we fought 3 kobolds.)
4. No items because our way o/p characters would only get more o/p. (i was a fighter 1/ranger 1/ swordsage 1- knife thrower)
5. Every RP encounter consists of all of our ideas or plans going to shit and I end up burning down a random building while we flee. Keep in mind we are here to help??

1+2/3/4/5= I want to kill my self. 

[Necrosnoop110]

Unbalancing his game in terms of mechanics/fluff, by overemphasizing one or the other. Worse if the DM believes there is an active conflict between the two.

Can you give more about that one.

Thanks,
Necro

[RobbyPants]

He's probably talking about MC not letting fluff be mutable.  So long as a player's weird vision of his character doesn't get in the way of the mechanics, he should be free to flavor it however he wants.  Perhaps his barbarian rage is a result of:

• his affinity with wild spirits of nature
• a demon that cursed him (with awesome!)
• a result of some mad wizard's experiement
• that time of the month (all month!)
• it's not actually rage, but a deep inward focused meditation (that makes him stronger and tougher)
• whatever the fuck

The point is, he can rage, just like the PHB says and he gets the same mechanical benefits, but it's flavored differently.

At least I'm assuming that's what Sunic is getting at.