Venting About Shitty Railroad GM
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2017 5:02 am
Alright I'll try to keep this succinct:
The campaign starts with a couple small adventures around a small coastal village and the looming threat of some great apocalypse. Party successfully passes the adventures, but the apocalypse happens anyway. GM admits this outcome would have been inevitable no matter what the party did.
Ok. Maybe one time it's fine just to set the stakes of the campaign. Still, that's strike one.
Strike 2: Annoying GM PC. This character is the type who pushes the big red button that says "Do Not Push". This would be forgivable if it was just a PC who likes to instigate, but this is a character controlled by the GM who is well aware of what the consequences will be in advance. In essence, he exists to make sure that the party does not miss out on all of the bull shit gotcha crap that the GM had planned. Successfully sneaks past an encounter? GMPC loudly taunts enemies to get their attention. Decided not to interact with the thing that was obviously foreshadowed as being dangerous? GMPC pokes it with a stick. Circumvent a trap-filled room? GMPC sets of all the traps. Tell GMPC to leave the group because they are a liability? GMPC says "naw".
Strike 3: According to the GM, theirs is a living world with a number of large-scale threats brewing. When the party confronts one threat, there is another happening elsewhere that we won't be there to stop. This is fine and good. However, in one adventure the party encounters a situation teetering precariously on the brink of cataclysm, and all we have to do to avoid it is not fuck with the THING. Combat encounter ensues, but the challenge is perfectly manageable. GM keeps subtlely prodding one PC into a specific course of action, which sets off a sequence of events wherein the THING gets fucked with and apocalypse #2 happens.
So that's two apocalypses which were going to happen regardless of the party's intervention because they are part of the GM's metaplot. So really our presence does not determine the outcome of the situation, only the cut scene that we get to watch.
Now typically I would have fucked off by now, but my wife is also playing in this game with two of her best friends and it's important to her that I am there, and it is important to me not to let my wife down so I'm pretty much stuck. One thing's for certain though: I'm going to murder that GMPC first chance I get.
The campaign starts with a couple small adventures around a small coastal village and the looming threat of some great apocalypse. Party successfully passes the adventures, but the apocalypse happens anyway. GM admits this outcome would have been inevitable no matter what the party did.
Ok. Maybe one time it's fine just to set the stakes of the campaign. Still, that's strike one.
Strike 2: Annoying GM PC. This character is the type who pushes the big red button that says "Do Not Push". This would be forgivable if it was just a PC who likes to instigate, but this is a character controlled by the GM who is well aware of what the consequences will be in advance. In essence, he exists to make sure that the party does not miss out on all of the bull shit gotcha crap that the GM had planned. Successfully sneaks past an encounter? GMPC loudly taunts enemies to get their attention. Decided not to interact with the thing that was obviously foreshadowed as being dangerous? GMPC pokes it with a stick. Circumvent a trap-filled room? GMPC sets of all the traps. Tell GMPC to leave the group because they are a liability? GMPC says "naw".
Strike 3: According to the GM, theirs is a living world with a number of large-scale threats brewing. When the party confronts one threat, there is another happening elsewhere that we won't be there to stop. This is fine and good. However, in one adventure the party encounters a situation teetering precariously on the brink of cataclysm, and all we have to do to avoid it is not fuck with the THING. Combat encounter ensues, but the challenge is perfectly manageable. GM keeps subtlely prodding one PC into a specific course of action, which sets off a sequence of events wherein the THING gets fucked with and apocalypse #2 happens.
So that's two apocalypses which were going to happen regardless of the party's intervention because they are part of the GM's metaplot. So really our presence does not determine the outcome of the situation, only the cut scene that we get to watch.
Now typically I would have fucked off by now, but my wife is also playing in this game with two of her best friends and it's important to her that I am there, and it is important to me not to let my wife down so I'm pretty much stuck. One thing's for certain though: I'm going to murder that GMPC first chance I get.