Worst G.M.

[Dog_O_War]

A buddy of mine recited a story I think was posted here about a GM that had Cyborg Pope John-Paul IV (or which ever J-P number he is) riding the SDF-1 over germany killing gargoyles. I think this guy will forever qualify as "worst G.M."

As for GM's Ive had; well there isn't really a "worst" one in the context of this thread. Just a scale of "not as good", which having one's storyline and running style the least favorable (re: cheap on the loot), he still wasn't that bad.

He did however spite me for taunting the other players. I was in a party that consisted of a Mystic, a mage of some sort (I think he was a battle magus), a Cyber-Knight, a Cyborg, a 10th level Operator (GMPC), and an Ancient Master. I was playing a Head-Hunter (and being fairly new to the game at the time had the least amount of MDC and "powers").

Through a series of events we ended up in a hot, badlands type area. It was described as stifling and exhausting just to be in. This is where I began taunting the "powered" peoples; "with all your crazy super-powers, you deadbeats are dying of the heat?! I figured you wizards and psychics woulda seen this coming. Turns out you bunch aren't so smart after all. Man I'm kinda cold; I think I should turn down the cooling system on my EBA here. HAHA!" Or something to that effect. As we walked along, I porceeded to jokingly offer to take my helmet off and turn the AC up so that the "smart people" could gather close and catch a bit of the breeze coming from my suit.
Later we got into a fight with some dinosaurs, and even though we won they had "damaged my suit enough that the cooling system stopped working".

Bad GM.....

[Rockwolf66]

The worst GM I have had so far was Metagameing a personal vendetta. I'm not going to publically give the details but lets just say that they have admitted to was amounts to blatant favoritism and they don't care that their actions ruined the fun for several people.

[Kryzbyn]

Had a GM who placed our starting group in a bar.
One of the PCs was a dragon, not even a hatchling.
Another was a psychic cat who was once a wizard's apprentice and had been in his current form for a thousand plus years.
Two Jedi were playing pool at a table in the corner, one of which was a player character.
I was a human vagabond, and it was my first game.

Jedi, for godsakes.

I played a Jedi once. Then I made an Achilles neo Human. THAT's a jedi.
Without all the light side/good side crap.

But I digress...
Worst Gm i ever had was actually a DM.
He was of the mind that he didnt have to think of ways around a charcter's abilites to forward his story, he would just take them away.
I was playing a halfling monk (DND 3.0) and the party was at a ball, where the DM wanted the party kidnapped by folks throwing poisoned darts and making us fall unconscious. He told me my character had been hit, i said no, I'm gonna roll to deflect it, then go kick his ass. DM said, no you cant do that, just let it happen, trust me. I don;t want you to fight it will ruin what i have planned. He took away a core ability of the calss I was playing to further a story...lazy bastage.
He ran other stuff really well, which why it was a shocker.

[Dog_O_War]

Actually, I think the worst GM I've ever seen was most likely me. At least early on I was. I did a lot of cheesy, stuff that I thought sounded cool at the time but turned out, in retrospect, to be horrible. I have been lucky enough to play with a couple of really fantastic GMs and I learned a lot from them, and I'm happy to say, I've become quite good at it. My understanding of how to run a good story only enhances my understanding of how really, really bad my first games were.

Elaborate. It's always fun to hear stories of people starting out.

[dark brandon]

Actually, I think the worst GM I've ever seen was most likely me. At least early on I was. I did a lot of cheesy, stuff that I thought sounded cool at the time but turned out, in retrospect, to be horrible. I have been lucky enough to play with a couple of really fantastic GMs and I learned a lot from them, and I'm happy to say, I've become quite good at it. My understanding of how to run a good story only enhances my understanding of how really, really bad my first games were.

I concider myself the worst gm i've gamed with as well.

I can actually run a pretty good game, but I can get frustrated, and i'm not quick enough on the gun to 'out-wit' players. I'm so bad, i sometimes outwit myself.

Elaborate. It's always fun to hear stories of people starting out.

Well, this happend a year or so ago. I had created an entire gameing campaign that centered around atlantis. The PC's had to get to atlantis and find one of the PC's children who had been sold into slavery. They were going to find a way into atlantis so went to talk with an old dragon who was going to teleport them there. They ended up finding where the child was (splynn) and were going to sneak in and get him. In a Dur moment, while the dragon was saying what could move around safly in atlantis, one of the things that blurted out were dragons are pretty save. He then (Me) blurted out "hey, why not just pay me 1 million credits and i'll go get him for you"...The words I uttered after i said this cannot be typed here...but needless to say I screwed up majorly.

[Rockwolf66]

I concider myself the worst gm i've gamed with as well.

I can actually run a pretty good game, but I can get frustrated, and i'm not quick enough on the gun to 'out-wit' players. I'm so bad, i sometimes outwit myself.

From what you've said Brandon your not a bad GM. Bad GM's do things that anger players and don't take critisism of their game at all. From what you're saying you have messed up like we all do but you have learned from those mistakes.

Heck I'll admit that I can't run a PBP to save my life. Tabletop or play by chat yes but play by post....

[Sureshot]

In my gaming group we have a gamer that only wants to run PB games. I have to vote him as the worst gm. One time I player rolled a natural 20 to hit one of his major npcs. He pretty much ignored the result as it did not suit his campaign.

One of the players in his group wanted to take a break from playing PB and went into someone else game. He was a Hardware type character in HU. When the player got back all of his equipment had been destroyed. All he had left was an SDC version of a Samas suit. He was pretty angry but was willing to give the GM a chance. What doe he do he sends a Glitterboy after him that somehow managed to sneak up on us.

Finally the same GM has a habit of putting the party into fights that are almost impossible to survive and he always has a major NPC comes to save the day. Let's just say that while he maybe invited as a player to our games we do not joinany of his games anymore.

[Rockwolf66]

dang,
That sounds about as much fun as being G's Girlfriend in a D&D game. The creep claimed to have once introduced a GF to D&D only to have her gangr#ped because her character was wearing fantasy type armor or some other such BS. I don't know why but G has somehow managed to get banned from the local gameing store. I will admit that when he's just playing with the guys he was a pretty good GM. It's just the fact that the man was a scumbag IRL.

[Library Ogre]

Worst GM's...Yeah, I got one for yah.

Game : Marvel FASERIP
GM: Jason G.
Time: 15 years ago.

Is it bad that I instantly knew how Jason could've overcome that in FASERIP? I mean, really, how hard is it to check what level he has "Immunity to Power Negation" at and then declare that Wipeout's power negation ability overcame it, because it was higher-level?

[Library Ogre]

Is it bad that I instantly knew how Jason could've overcome that in FASERIP? I mean, really, how hard is it to check what level he has "Immunity to Power Negation" at and then declare that Wipeout's power negation ability overcame it, because it was higher-level?

Apperantly, it was to hard for him! Like I said, bad GM. And I knowing this, wasn't about to tell him

I mean, come on, Jay had the stats fer the guy right in front of him, and still didn't notice this glaring fact...So why should I tell him if hes being a mondo turd about it.
FYI-I think eric only has 40 (Incredible). What lvl did Wipeout have?

Not a clue... but if it wasn't Amazing or better, how would you know?

(And, IIRC, a power that only works on Mutants, like Wipeout's, gets set to Amazing or even higher; I was looking at it last night)

[SkyeFyre]

I had one GM who, ugh... we've given him a lot of chances but he never seems to get things right dispite our feedback and his actual willingness to improve.

He was running a Rifts game where we were in this city full of zombies. Well these zombies were as slow as they get. Actual dialogue from the game goes like this:

GM: Ok, the nearest zombie is about 5 feet away from you and getting ready to bite you.
Me: I just stand there.
GM: Um, ok... the zombie is now right in front of you getting ready to bite you.
Me: Ok, I just stand there
GM: He's leaning over now to bite you
Me: I just stand there, oh, and maybe check how much ammo I've got left
GM: He puts his hand on your shoulder
Me: I blush a little and turn my safety off.
GM: ...and then?
Me: I just stand there.
GM: Ok, now his mouth is getting closer to you.
Me: Ugh! I can't take it anymore. I lift my fourty-five to it's face and pull the trigger.
*GM rolls dice*
GM: The shot goes through it's head and through the pack of zombies behind it... you kill 59 zombies.
The group: What The ****?!
So we stood our ground, used up all of our ammo and explosives, then whipped out our knives, and after a fair amount of time we had killed the entire city full of zombies.
Conclusion: He made things TOO easy.

Same GM here...
We started off on some beach, in some unknown dimension. We travelled through some forest, and then into a mountain, where we found a submarine, and when we got into the submarine there was another door to a water filled passage, and then we went through there, and then came out in the middle of the volcano, and then walked around to the other side where there was this door, and then we were in some grassy field with no way back to where we came from (All this taking three hours... three freaking hours! Of just wandering,) We finally pipe up about how boring it was, so he figures he'll give us some excitement. So a rift opens up and out steps a Great Horned Dragon Hatchling with a Boom Gun. Well even though he made it a threat that looked like guaranteed death for us, I was a line walker... I cast CoA behind it, it fired, got knocked on it's butt by the recoil. Got stuck, and we all just shot it till it died, because it kept failing it's teleport. Then he decides he's going to throw another threat at us. Basically, I CoA it and the other players start beating on it. At this point my character pulls out her fourty-five and commits suicide. The other players see this, nod their heads and all pull the pins on their grenades. We were free at last.

[Big Red]

One of the first Palladium games I played in was a Robotech game run by some guy at the comic book store I worked at back in high school. When we rolled up our characters, I saw the Mac II and figured that was the coolest mecha in the book, so I picked that. The GM tried to disuade me, but I had my mind set on it. Everyone else chose Veritechs. Early into the game, we got into our first battle. Some big ship pulled up next to ours so we couldn't use the big cannon (note my indepth familiarity with all things Robotech, especially the proper names). The GM's intent was for everyone to fly over to the other ship to discover the dreaded, vast evil that was to be the point of the whole campaign (he should have insisted on Veritechs), but I just stood on the deck blasting away. Everyone else circled the ship trying to think of a way to get me over there. They were getting blasted apart by the ship's close-range weapons and ignored the glaringly obvious opening in the one cargo bay because they were too focused on not leaving me behind. When the GM started making it more and more obvious that we really should go into the bay, I suggested to everyone that they get out of the range of the short range weapons and open up with their missiles. The other ship either wasn't terribly big, or too well armored (I think our had been damaged and had no guns on the one side, which played into the campaign), and I was starting to do substantial damage with my cannons. Everyone finally returned to the deck of our ship and unleashed their full payload of missiles while I opened fire with every barrel available. When the enemy ship blew up, taking the mysterious evil that we'd never actually encounter with it, the GM threw such a fit that he actually started crying. To this day, remebering how he looked while wiping his eyes with his Robotech ball cap makes me giggle uncontrollably. He was a former employee of the store, and still a regular customer, and he told me later that day that he was going wipe out my character in the next session (he went into detail, but I don't recall what it was, other than that this was in the pre-Rifts days, so I don't think any of what he was proposing was anywhere near book-legal; may have been some Star Trek stuff thrown in, not sure), so I decided that my days of gaming with that group were over.

As far as metagaming personal vendettas, I'll admit to doing that twice. The first time was when my best friend, while playing Marvel FASERIP, instead of actually figuring anything out would just roll the dice and say, "Look, got a red intelligence roll! I figured it out!" I had one session where the actual solution was pretty simple, but I established that, for the sake of the game, it was a Shift-Z problem (maybe CL1000, the point was that I wanted him to think on his own for a change). He wasn't able to figure it out, mainly thanks to the beer, but kept yelling about rolling a red intelligence roll. He started to get a little out of hand, so I finally told him that he'd figured it out. It was really annoying and anti-climactic, and we didn't play for a couple weeks after that. When we finally picked up again, I had him subdued by a band of evil wizards, and he was turned into a 3 foot tall dragon with normal intelligence. Aside from being petty and vindictive, it actually was the set-up for a really cool campaign. Unfortunately, he refused to ever play FASERIP again after that, so they never got to experience the final payoff. We started playing Rifts a couple weeks later.

While playing Rifts, one of the players started down the path that would take him from being a good guy and trusted friend, to being the world's biggest ****-wad. His character was a headhunter, and one of the longest surviving characters in the group. He had done a couple things that infuriated me, alienated one friend, and caused two coworkers who were also pretty good friends to quit their jobs (we all worked at the same place). In the game, he picked a fight in a bar while trying to find some info about the quest they had just started on. The guy he was fighting said he'd take him on, but only if it was one-on-one. The fight dragged on longer than it should have, considering the guy's abilities. The vagabond-looking character gradually seemed to grow stronger as the fight dragged on. He eventualy punched the PC, sending him flying through the wall of the bar. He followed him outside, and the PC finally pulled out a weapon. The vagabond, who was actually an ancient dragon, finally revealed his true form and unloaded with his flame breath, leaving nothing but a scorched patch of earth and a few bits and scraps of what were once cybernetics. Again, a bit petty, but I don't particularly regret that one.

[Jason Richards]

I have had spurts of not being a very good convention GM. I was disappointed by some of my Open House games last year; I just didn't set it up quite well enough and it wasn't as driven as it should have been.

Apparently someone once did think that I would be terrible, though. I had advertised that I would be playtesting some stuff for publication (Arzno stuff) at the great AggieCon. I had two guys walk in, look at me, and say "You're the author?" and then never come back. I guess a 23 year old college student wasn't what they expected.

[Novastar]

I have had spurts of not being a very good convention GM. I was disappointed by some of my Open House games last year; I just didn't set it up quite well enough and it wasn't as driven as it should have been.

All of us have our moments.
My last HU demo ended with the players singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" (all of them, in real life, at the table! ), to lure the Big/Dumb/Strong supervillian to sleep (ala Young Frankenstein). It was awesome, and also a "huh?!?" moment, all at once.

Apparently someone once did think that I would be terrible, though. I had advertised that I would be playtesting some stuff for publication (Arzno stuff) at the great AggieCon. I had two guys walk in, look at me, and say "You're the author?" and then never come back. I guess a 23 year old college student wasn't what they expected.

Where as, now-a-days, everyone at the table would be wearing "We are all Jason Richards" t-shirts!

*****

Let's see, absolute worst?
What comes to mind is the Macross 2 campaign we were playing. It actually ran a pretty good length, and the GM definitely knew the tropes of the genre, so I was actually rather enjoying it. Till...

He switched enemies. Gone are the 50' tall robots that make the genre. Suddenly, dropships full of cyborgs land on Earth, after completely decimating the overhead fleet. Now, I'm an ace pilot in my Metal Siren, with a reputation as billy-bad-***. One of these cyborgs rounds a corner, and I unload my gunpod (1d6x10 MD). He brushes it off, and fires a chest beam at me, for a whopping 1d8x10 MD, and knocking my 50' mecha to the ground! From a 8' cyborg!

I honestly sat there, mouth agape, for several seconds. I then point blank asked him if he was tired of the campaign, and looking for a TPK, to start something new...

[NMI]

Innappropriate comments removed.
Warnings issued.

[LostOne]

My worst GM(s) ever...I haven't played with this group in ~8 years, and one of the other survivors and I still shudder at the memories.

The GMs (married couple trading off) were totally obsessed with a recent theatrical release (Mortal Kombat) and all of their NPCs were characters from that movie. They weren't just like the movie though, they were deities at war with each other. Our group were their minions, we were expected to blindly follow orders, even ones that should be suicidal (but usually weren't because I was a devious and evasive bastard), because the deities on our side were the "good" ones and so we were supposed to throw our lives away for the light.

Basically we were railroaded around dealing with the grunts and minions of the other side. Also, all the NPC deities were extremely horny and sexual (probably the GMs living vicariously, as they were both morbidly obese), and they tried to get us to graphically describe any encounter, the characters were basically raped, although they were supposed to be honored by sleeping with their deity.

The one time anyone in the group encountered an enemy MK deity (Scorpion or Subzero, I no longer remember/care who it was) they engaged us in casual conversation, we clearly weren't a threat to him, but no reason he wasn't going to try to pump us for information. The second I showed some backbone though (I believe I said something like "I won't reveal my master's plans"), whoever it was killed the entire party, one-hit-kills. Game over, no saving throws, not even the natural 20 someone rolled was a successful dodge. Lame.

That was the game that nearly turned me off of Rifts (if I hadn't already had years of good memories under my belt, I would have quit and never looked back), fortunately there were a couple pissed off players in that group and they joined me elsewhere and we recruited another couple players and made our own group and much wackiness ensued.

[Captain Shiva]

Maybe that " No Conversions" policy is a good thing after all.

[Vrykolas2k]

I've had two...
One, for AD&D, let his wife play a drow female who had better stats than any of the deities and of course never drew anything bad from her Deck of Many Things... my mind blocks the rest of that game to protect me.
The other... well, if you had a mount, pet, family, follower, henchman, weapon or other persoanl item you were attached to something bad would happen. Pets died for no reason, mounts were eaten by the locals, equipment was stolen, family members and so on were raped, murdered and/ or kidnapped... the list goes on and on and on. If another member of the group started a game, and he took over, he'd change everything that had gone on to suit himself; hell, even as a player, he'd remove things from other players he didn't think they should have.
Why I tolerated that treatment for so long (about a year) I'll never know, but between the two of them, they made me the rules lawyer I am today.

[Kryzbyn]

My worst GM(s) ever...I haven't played with this group in ~8 years, and one of the other survivors and I still shudder at the memories.

The GMs (married couple trading off) were totally obsessed with a recent theatrical release (Mortal Kombat) and all of their NPCs were characters from that movie. They weren't just like the movie though, they were deities at war with each other. Our group were their minions, we were expected to blindly follow orders, even ones that should be suicidal (but usually weren't because I was a devious and evasive bastard), because the deities on our side were the "good" ones and so we were supposed to throw our lives away for the light.

Basically we were railroaded around dealing with the grunts and minions of the other side. Also, all the NPC deities were extremely horny and sexual (probably the GMs living vicariously, as they were both morbidly obese), and they tried to get us to graphically describe any encounter, the characters were basically raped, although they were supposed to be honored by sleeping with their deity.

The one time anyone in the group encountered an enemy MK deity (Scorpion or Subzero, I no longer remember/care who it was) they engaged us in casual conversation, we clearly weren't a threat to him, but no reason he wasn't going to try to pump us for information. The second I showed some backbone though (I believe I said something like "I won't reveal my master's plans"), whoever it was killed the entire party, one-hit-kills. Game over, no saving throws, not even the natural 20 someone rolled was a successful dodge. Lame.

That was the game that nearly turned me off of Rifts (if I hadn't already had years of good memories under my belt, I would have quit and never looked back), fortunately there were a couple pissed off players in that group and they joined me elsewhere and we recruited another couple players and made our own group and much wackiness ensued.

I made Shang Tsung as a character an was allowed to play him...
Whenever he got in trouble, I morphed into Raiden, which was made using the godling rules...he was fun and quickly retired

[Kryzbyn]

I won't say who , I won't say when, but the GM had seen overfiend WAY too many times. Every single time we got outflanked, outsmarted and outgunned by demons.... I actually had my character commit suicide.

Ouch.

[Big Red]

This is actually more a "worst group" than "worst GM" (the GM was a close friend at a time, really good at it, and had a blast with what ensued). I was playing D&D with a group at the comic shop I worked at. It started out on a rough note because one guy had a Brownie companion that had all sorts of non-standard powers and no way to explain how the creature had come by them. The GM insisted that the guy not use the Brownie, and a big argument ensued. The GM finally relented, and as soon as we came to the cave leading to the dungeon we were set to explore, a massive Gold Dragon appeared, ate the Brownie, then flew off without even noticing the rest of the group. The player actually cried, bawling for a few minutes, tears streaming for nearly 30, and the occasional sniffle and minor outburst for another 45 minutes or so after that (he embodied every negative role-player stereotype there is, and turned me off role-playing for a few months after that).

When we finally got the adventure underway, the group was about as timid and indecisive as a group can get. The first set of doors we came to led to ten minutes of checking and re-checking for traps, and another 15 minutes of arguing over which door to pick (neither were rigged). We came across a small group of kobolds or something (whatever the minor, entry-level humanoid beasties from D&D were). We outnumbered and severely outgunned them, so naturally the group decided to...run the other way. By the time they agreed to this, though, I'd already killed 2 of the 4 kobolds. I was a tough little dwarf with a battle axe and some high-rolling dice, and basically walked away without a scratch.

We eventually reached an undefended room with some treasure in it. It was a couple of big chests, and everyone assumed they were booby-trapped. I went and played some videogames while the team argued about who was going to check for traps. My quarters eventually ran out, and they had nearly decied who was going to check for traps, and were now arguing over which chest to open first. My dwarf took his axe, walked over to the nearest chest and smashed it open. The ensuing explosion injured everyone in the group--not critically, but some on the serious side. I told them the remaining gold was mine (the potions and scrolls were destroyed in the blast). I was tough enough to take another explosion, and told them to make up their minds quick about who was going to open it, otherwise I was going to do the same to the other box. They still couldn't decide, so walked to the other box, axe in hand, and the more seriously injured folks ran. I smashed it open, causing another explosion. Thanks to some "friendly" rolls from the GM, I took the least amount of damage and was still in pretty good shape. I told them I was taking my gold back to the tavern we'd started at, and getting good and liquored up.

By this time, we'd been playing for nearly 4 hours. In that time, we'd seen a dragon eat a Brownie, argued over doors and passageways, ran from some some kobolds (2 of which were dead, and one was injured), argued over more rooms, ran from some even more insignificant "threats," and had actually explored a total of one room, getting all of 100-150 feet into a miles long dungeon filled with dozens of rooms. I was pretty fed up with the whole experience, and knew that we were about to quit for the day. I figured that, should we play again, it would logically take all of 5 minutes at the most to get back to where we were, so I was getting us to a good breaking point. The rest of the group was quite upset with me, though. They didn't want me to take the money for myself, and didn't like the fact that I'd nearly killed them all. They started arguing again over how to handle me. Some wanted to real-life either fight me or kick me out of the group (my buddy, the GM, said he wouldn't allow either). Others felt they should either attack me or kick me out of the group in-game. After about ten minutes of this, I realized we wouldn't be playing again, so there was no point to keeping in their good graces. I figured I may as well make up their minds for them. I charged Mr. Brownie and buried the hatchet, so to speak (I think he was a cleric or something). I took out the Elf, who was the next most annoying player, with my throwing knives. I charged the remaining PC's, but they took me down before I could cause much more damage. They continued to shoot me with arrows and hack away at my lifeless body to make sure I was dead, then took my gold. The GM, who'd been laughing uncontrollably while I went on my rampage, wrapped up the session by telling the three still-living PC's that, thanks to all the commotion, they were now surrounded by 3-4 dozen zombies or something (I forget the actual monster, but they were essentially screwed).

I'm sure the others in the group would consider the GM to be one of the worst ever, but he was one of the few highlights from that game.

[Library Ogre]

This is actually more a "worst group" than "worst GM" (the GM was a close friend at a time, really good at it, and had a blast with what ensued). I was playing D&D with a group at the comic shop I worked at.

That was hilarious. I can't stand useless dithering.

[Captain Shiva]

I agree. I can't stand a bunch of crybabies. It's bad enough to be a coward and a wuss in real life, but the point of gaming is to be something you're not. I've seen that happen a few times, being too chicken to take action, and then getting mad at someone who does. Click on the link in my first post in this thread to see an example. Having said that, I do believe the GM should have been more firm, as in NO BROWNIE. Period. If you insist on having a brownie, go home and bake some.

[Library Ogre]

I agree. I can't stand a bunch of crybabies. It's bad enough to be a coward and a wuss in real life, but the point of gaming is to be something you're not. I've seen that happen a few times, being too chicken to take action, and then getting mad at someone who does. Click on the link in my first post in this thread to see an example. Having said that, I do believe the GM should have been more firm, as in NO BROWNIE. Period. If you insist on having a brownie, go home and bake some.

So you take bribes of food?

[Damian Magecraft]

A buddy of mine recited a story I think was posted here about a GM that had Cyborg Pope John-Paul IV (or which ever J-P number he is) riding the SDF-1 over germany killing gargoyles. I think this guy will forever qualify as "worst G.M."

As for GM's Ive had; well there isn't really a "worst" one in the context of this thread. Just a scale of "not as good", which having one's storyline and running style the least favorable (re: cheap on the loot), he still wasn't that bad.

He did however spite me for taunting the other players. I was in a party that consisted of a Mystic, a mage of some sort (I think he was a battle magus), a Cyber-Knight, a Cyborg, a 10th level Operator (GMPC), and an Ancient Master. I was playing a Head-Hunter (and being fairly new to the game at the time had the least amount of MDC and "powers").

Through a series of events we ended up in a hot, badlands type area. It was described as stifling and exhausting just to be in. This is where I began taunting the "powered" peoples; "with all your crazy super-powers, you deadbeats are dying of the heat?! I figured you wizards and psychics woulda seen this coming. Turns out you bunch aren't so smart after all. Man I'm kinda cold; I think I should turn down the cooling system on my EBA here. HAHA!" Or something to that effect. As we walked along, I porceeded to jokingly offer to take my helmet off and turn the AC up so that the "smart people" could gather close and catch a bit of the breeze coming from my suit.
Later we got into a fight with some dinosaurs, and even though we won they had "damaged my suit enough that the cooling system stopped working".

Bad GM.....

ok i can see why you think he was a bad GM...
I think he was bad cause he missed the timeing...I would have had the AC falter/fail/act up (what have you) right after the last overly snarky comment (but thats cause i have a twisted sense of humor). it would have been repairable but it would have kicked in at just the "wrong" moment.

[Captain Shiva]

So you take bribes of food?
Yes, I expect players to sacrifice a bullock to me, one cheeseburger at a time.

[Library Ogre]

That was hilarious. I can't stand useless dithering.

Definitely. I used to game with a group that, while not as bad as Big Red's group for decisions, would get off on tangents about irrelevant stuff and it was a bear to keep them on task. It was especially difficult because the GM was part of the problem. We started running through the Gersidi tombs in PFRPG, and after ~12 hours broken up over 3 gaming sessions, we'd only cleared out of a couple of rooms. One session, the only thing we literally accomplished is we opened a door and moved into the next room. It was after that night that I quit playing with them because I just couldn't stand it anymore.

See, off-topic stuff doesn't bother me, in moderation. It happens. Dithering... sitting there for hours, trying to decide which door to take when there's no apparent difference between them (or what clothes to wear)... that drives me nuts.

[LostOne]

It started out on a rough note because one guy had a Brownie companion that had all sorts of non-standard powers and no way to explain how the creature had come by them. The GM insisted that the guy not use the Brownie, and a big argument ensued. The GM finally relented, and as soon as we came to the cave leading to the dungeon we were set to explore, a massive Gold Dragon appeared, ate the Brownie, then flew off without even noticing the rest of the group. The player actually cried, bawling for a few minutes, tears streaming for nearly 30, and the occasional sniffle and minor outburst for another 45 minutes or so after that

Oh...my...god...that player would not be allowed back into our game. When the GM says no, the players in my groups would just go "ok, then, how about..." and suggest something else.

And we would not have done a dungeon crawl without a rogue. Dungeons always have traps and locks.

[Big Red]

It started out on a rough note because one guy had a Brownie companion that had all sorts of non-standard powers and no way to explain how the creature had come by them. The GM insisted that the guy not use the Brownie, and a big argument ensued. The GM finally relented, and as soon as we came to the cave leading to the dungeon we were set to explore, a massive Gold Dragon appeared, ate the Brownie, then flew off without even noticing the rest of the group. The player actually cried, bawling for a few minutes, tears streaming for nearly 30, and the occasional sniffle and minor outburst for another 45 minutes or so after that

Oh...my...god...that player would not be allowed back into our game. When the GM says no, the players in my groups would just go "ok, then, how about..." and suggest something else.

And we would not have done a dungeon crawl without a rogue. Dungeons always have traps and locks.

The GM & I both worked at the comic shop where we were playing and Mr. Brownie was a former employee, so I think there was a bit of semi-loyalty there. Neither of us actually liked the guy, but the GM didn't want to make waves over it.

IIRC, we had two Rogues, or at the very least, two characters with the skills to deal with traps (that was the last time I ever played D&D, so I don't recall a heck of a lot about the rules). They just didn't want to deal with any potential damage that may have come from screwing up disarming the trap. Hence the protracted arguments.

[dark brandon]

This is actually more a "worst group" than "worst GM" (the GM was a close friend at a time, really good at it, and had a blast with what ensued). I was playing D&D with a group at the comic shop I worked at. It started out on a rough note because one guy had a Brownie companion that had all sorts of non-standard powers and no way to explain how the creature had come by them. The GM insisted that the guy not use the Brownie, and a big argument ensued. The GM finally relented, and as soon as we came to the cave leading to the dungeon we were set to explore, a massive Gold Dragon appeared, ate the Brownie, then flew off without even noticing the rest of the group. The player actually cried, bawling for a few minutes, tears streaming for nearly 30, and the occasional sniffle and minor outburst for another 45 minutes or so after that (he embodied every negative role-player stereotype there is, and turned me off role-playing for a few months after that).

How old was the player?

[LostOne]

One of our GMs drank like a frat boy every session, but then, he was an alcoholic and had the tolerance for it. He ran his games like anyone else who was stone cold sober.

The one time we let our lightweight GM drink on the job, he had lots of stuff to clean up the next session. Basically, we wanted to teach him a lesson so when he was good and truly drunk we went and befriended a black market crime lord and bought all sorts of contraband for nearly free, because the crime lord was drunk and saying things like "I love you guys, you're the best." Everyone had a greatest rune weapon (some custom, some not).

The GB pilot had major custom work on his GB with a second boomgun (could fire both as a single attack), super-reinforced pylons and an anti-grav system instead of thrusters, force field from a starship, I think it had 5 digits of MDC in that forcefield.

The juicer had some kind of alien symbiote attached that let him live forever and doubled as an organic version of a juicer harness even producing its own drugs.

The wizard (some kind of Magus from FoM) had an artifact spellbook that had every spell in it ever created.

It took the GM several sessions to undo his damage, he never drank at a game again.

[Tags]

Hmm one of my friends thinks he can GM he once said "I'm a better GM, then I am a player." Last time he played he would burn all his I.S.P. then sit there and whine saying "I'm useless now." He ignored the fact that he all kinds of other abilities. Sooo then he tries GM'ing... Well every situation, and I mean every situation becomes a puzzle you have to solve. Took an hour to set up a camp... And of course anytime someone failed a roll he would make any jokes he could at the persons expense... Oh yes, and he had a habit of trying to play your character for you.

[Tags]

Hmm one of my friends thinks he can GM he once said "I'm a better GM, then I am a player." Last time he played he would burn all his I.S.P. then sit there and whine saying "I'm useless now." He ignored the fact that he all kinds of other abilities. Sooo then he tries GM'ing... Well every situation, and I mean every situation becomes a puzzle you have to solve. Took an hour to set up a camp... And of course anytime someone failed a roll he would make any jokes he could at the persons expense... Oh yes, and he had a habit of trying to play your character for you.

THAT TOO! ARRRGGGHHH!! i thought i was the only one ! thank you for saying that!

Worst part is, he dosen't realize how bad he is! And he keeps trying to get to play his game. ; /

[LostOne]

Sounds like he needs a wakeup call. Get the group to confront him, or GM for him the same way he GMs for you, or something. Or make him hate you so he leaves you alone.

[Tags]

Sounds like he needs a wakeup call. Get the group to confront him, or GM for him the same way he GMs for you, or something. Or make him hate you so he leaves you alone.

we just stopped inviting him to play, easier that way...

[Rockwolf66]

ok im my game we are all adults..that being said..we sometimes have adult beverages. When a Gm doesnt know his/her limit...that really burns me. this has happened more than once and we do not game with him/her anymore. like me wife has said..."when did this turn in to a frat party?"

One rule of GM'ing that most of the Gm's I know follow.

DO NOT GM WHILE DRUNK, HIGH, DEAD TIRED, OR IN ANY OTHER ALTERED STATE.

the results of not following that rule can be as benign as the PC's sneaking a Main Battle Tank up the fire escape and onto the roof. to as embarrasing as having one of the PC's showing you an electronic game log of you doing your best to star in "Gm's gone wild".

I guess that's why I always play sober when I game.

[Sun Phoenix]

Three Words: Mach Ten InvisiCopters.....

[Captain Shiva]

What I like are the guys who try to tell the GM how to run the game, and tell other players how to run their characters. Most of them couldn't GM if their lives depended on it. And in a game, when called upon for character action, have no idea what is going on half the time, since they have been talking all through the sesssion. Then they want to borrow other people's dice and sourcebooks, since they are too lazy to bring their own.

[Big Red]

This is actually more a "worst group" than "worst GM" (the GM was a close friend at a time, really good at it, and had a blast with what ensued). I was playing D&D with a group at the comic shop I worked at. It started out on a rough note because one guy had a Brownie companion that had all sorts of non-standard powers and no way to explain how the creature had come by them. The GM insisted that the guy not use the Brownie, and a big argument ensued. The GM finally relented, and as soon as we came to the cave leading to the dungeon we were set to explore, a massive Gold Dragon appeared, ate the Brownie, then flew off without even noticing the rest of the group. The player actually cried, bawling for a few minutes, tears streaming for nearly 30, and the occasional sniffle and minor outburst for another 45 minutes or so after that (he embodied every negative role-player stereotype there is, and turned me off role-playing for a few months after that).

How old was the player?

Anywhere from 19-21. He looked younger than he really was, but I know he was older than my buddy who was GM'ing, so the youngest he could have been was 19.

[livewire]

as far as worst gm i would have to say me lol even though i am told i am a good gm i always think my story lines are to contrived and i have a bad habit of miss judging my groups power and resourcefulness and either make my games too easy or too hard which means either the group sails through it or i have to scramble to find some way to prevent a complete massacre of the party. my other problem is i don't particularly like being the gm i prefer to play and while i come up with cool ideas for games to run i would almost always rather play in them then run them lol. oh well no world is perfect

[Captain Shiva]

Welcome aboard, Darthanimal. While I agree with you to a certain extent, if the GM or another player is doing something that blatantly violates or ignores the rules, I will bring it up. If the GM says that he is houseruling to the contrary, then I will say no more. If I object strongly enough, I always have the option of leaving the game. But when I play or GM, I try to stay reasonably close to the published rules, unless I find something that hinders play or makes no sense. As GM, if I make a change in the published rules, I notify the players in advance. Now, if a player brings something to my attention that I have previously overlooked, that is one thing.I can be wrong.But the universal credit stops here. Nobody tries to tell me how to run my game. If they can't act right, they can leave.

[Levi]

I’ve had some pretty bad GMs over the years. Here’s short session we had. It was the only time we let this member of the group GM.

Our group was about eight strong with a good mix of combat characters, mages, and psychics. I was playing a cyber-knight. The GM was picking up my game and we had been struggling with Mechaniods. Of course our first encounter a few minutes into the game is with some Mechaniod robots, which we dispatch easily.

Apparently he felt this was a strike against his ego. Shortly after getting our convoy back underway we encounter another group of Mechaniods. This time it is a large group including Brutes, Runners, and robots. We know we are out classed, we decide to try to run.

Our group is mostly on hover cycles and one large but faster APC. (I don’t remember what model anymore). So we start enquiring more about the terrain. We thought we were in a ravine, but it turns out it is more like a super narrow Grand Canyon. We find out it is narrow because our APC can’t turn around in it. Worse yet, when we ask how tall the walls are, hey hover cycles have good altitude really, we are told they are “too high” to fly over.

The GM decides we are taking too long and starts declaring attacks from the Mechaniods. And they all have crazy bonuses and start tearing us apart. My character being a hero decides to charge ahead in the APC while everyone else makes a run for it on the hover cycles.

To try and get the Mechaniods attention I lunch a large volley of missiles at the Runner I think is leading the assault. And wouldn’t you know it, he is so powerful that he grabs the volley with TK and directs it right back at the APC. The missiles just about destroy the vehicle so I eject, which only lead me to being shredded by volley of missiles from the Brutes.

At this point the whole group decides they have already had enough of being railroaded in killed and they quit.

[csbioborg]

I had a DM that loved the Dark Sword trilogy (good series mind you) well they came out with Darksword Adventures that set up a RPG for the world and had conversions from other games to Dark Sword. The minute he picked this up he asked whether we wanted to drop our game of 4 years and play it. When we all refused he set up a scenario were we were dimensionally transported thier. No save NO anything. We show up and are the only nonmagic users in the game due to the nature of that world. Mind you this was the second time he'd done that sending us to Dragonlance kyrn when (he was a big fan of Margret Weis). I guess it was a good thing since that was 8th grade and it got me become disillusioned with RPGs and I spent high school normal. Didn't get back into them until bivouced in the middle of 29 palms years later.

[Damian Magecraft]

our worst gm was this guy who only played DROW, had a high level DROW character who had eaten every part of the dragon conceivable to make his attributes really high, and wielded 2 ARTIFACT maces one in each hand. and of course was a god. he took us to his characters world where the character ruled as a god, and our characters ended up toiling through the whole night doing menial labor to buy back their equipment that was taken from them upon entering the #*$&(#( UP place, and at the end was told...you have enough to buy back a dagger. he totally pucked out characters, gave them no chance of success or retrieving their equipment or their pride for that matter until HIS character came in for the pitty save YAYYYYYY! then a tthe end of the second game night he borrowed a few of a players in the groups books...and never came back..........

but there was another JUST AS BAD I cant let escape notice caus his punk @#$ is probably out there reading this right now caus deep down inside he knows he belongs on this thread and will not be able to help himself from reading it..... this guy and his GF one of my good friends brought in to our first rifts group from a con. this guy claimed to have been a play tester for RIFTS, had GMd several games for kevin S himself, and was the best rifts gm not currently working for them. we were young but I couldent believe my friend had bought into this hippy/vagabond looking dudes story....he had no books all his NPCs were in his head, his GF got to play an adult great horned dragon, but were were HEAVILY restricted on what we played, the game had rifts atlantis robotech and a whole lot of no making any sense...ie lack of plot coherency, but it did have direction...us going and doing what he wanted or dying fast and mercilessly. by the middle of the game Robotech stuff was being used in our escape from atlantis guided by one of his uber NPCS whom a the end of the game we found out from his wife was one of his characters, and the robotech stuff was doing stuff...t coulen't do, alot of things were wrong, in initiative and combat and mecha capability.I was the groups regular rifts GM..i knew he was full of it on sooo meny levels and didnt know what the frack he was doing. the game sucked, then the dude wanted to run another for us....I believe in second chances and was burnt out on the running 5-6 games a week thing during summer so i was ok with it atleast i was getting ep for a character I never got to play...then he asked to borrow a few books to prep for next game!!!! recalling the above person from a few years ago...I politely declined telling him maybe when i know him better(no way!) well one of my trusting friends....and younger friend was asked to....I took that friend aside knowing how trusting the kid was and told him dont do it, we dont know the guy and he is full of it.....he didnt listen.....after I had left he lent dude 7 of his rifts books! next day...no dude, his phone number was the number to the hotel he and his GF were staying at..... WOST GM EVER.

and this is why I say never ever loan your books to someone if you dont know them for a very long time.

[The Beast]

and this is why I say never ever loan your books to someone if you dont know them for a very long time.

Heh, I lucked out. I found someone LFP for a PFRPG game back in '03. We played a few games and got along well, then he asked to borrow my copy of CB2. I let him, and then got busy with my guard unit for a couple weeks (we were helping DAFB with thier security at the time). Once it got less busy, I called him to get together, and he said he had some family issues going on at the time, and he'll need a few weeks to deal with them. I soon forgot about him until I got my apartment and moved my books over to it (about a year later). I realized I was missing a book and then remembered where it was. I went back to the local game shop where I first met him, and luckily he still had a LFP flyer up. I called him and he told me to meet him next weekend. That weekend came, I show up at his house, and he's there offering me a new CB2 because he accidently got a food stain on mine.

[Rockwolf66]

FUN FACT

People who are useing a gameing group seem to exhibit the same sorts of traits and reasons for cheating as people who are unfaithful to a spouse. Most specifically people who cheat to boost their ego.

They also tend to attack the person who calls them on their cheating.

The proceding has been some observations that I have made while studying infidelity among intimates. Does anyone care to try and confirm or denigh these observations?

[LostOne]

FUN FACT
...
seem to exhibit
...
The proceding has been some observations that I have made while studying infidelity among intimates.

While I think there is likely a correlation between cheating spouses and cheating gamers, I take issue with you presenting it as a fact when you've likely only observed a small representative group that happens to fit both criteria. You're also not presenting it like you have confidence in your statement.

Not all gamers cheat.
Not all spouses cheat.
Not all married gamers who cheat in the game are guaranteed to also cheat on their spouses.

It's a big step from cheating in a game to cheating on a spouse.

[Library Ogre]

I have not been back to the Serenity game since and I have no intentions of returning.

Which is good, because you get little enough time to kill my characters as-is.

[runebeo]

My GM was mad that I didn't drive him home one night because I was too tired and when we played the next session he put a 400,000 credit CS bounty on my character head and its been there over four years. Later that month he had my NPC pregnant wife beaten, raped and killed by a CS SAMAS squad. It worked out good in the story, but he did it to kill my character off for good. Well he still don't get a ride home every time.

[Dog_O_War]

A buddy of mine recited a story I think was posted here about a GM that had Cyborg Pope John-Paul IV (or which ever J-P number he is) riding the SDF-1 over germany killing gargoyles. I think this guy will forever qualify as "worst G.M."

HAHAHA! Cyborg Pope in the SDF-1!!! Thats so rediculous it's great! Was he serious about it or was it just a joke?

I read the story my buddy directed me to over a year ago; the GM running that piece of trash was serious. The guy telling that story was really funny with a dry sarcastic wit; they attempted to kill themselves multiple times once Cb-J-P showed up on the SDF-1, only to make the GM mad that he had to raise them from the dead in an attempt to keep them playing out his insane storyline.

I still wish I could find that thread again.