Author Topic: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)  (Read 24483 times)

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« on: May 28, 2009, 04:33:21 PM »
~~I have been the GM in our group for a good number of years. It's a role and art that I'm proud to have as a hobby, however I'm not so full of myself to deny someone else a turn at the head of the table. In fact I welcome it. If there's one thing I love, it's being one-upped. I've found that the best way to cure an inflated ego, such as mine became over time, is to have someone do me one better, to inspire me to perfect my own craft.
But this topic isn't about me and my delusions of gaming grandeur as a GM...This is about my friend~We'll call her Frustrated Gamer Chick, or FGC. FGC has been my sister in all but blood since my second year in college~A little firebrand of a dame who clicks with me in a manner that we both love women, and can make filthy jokes to one another without social akwardness. She is also the munchkin in our group~I said she was a firebrand, and for a reason. She hated to lose on any level. She also had a hard-on for anti-hero character templates, and was extremely fond of the old "Triple-Cross", always opting to try and join the Enemy faction so as to destroy them from within at the apex of the campaign.
So when she asked me if she could try her hand beind the GM screen, I was a little surprised, but as I said, I'm always willing to see if someone can put me in my place at the craft. Her weapon of choice was the same as mine- Star Wars Saga Edition. I had wet my teeth and honed my abilities on the Revised Core Rule edition years before, and we were only both truly understanding the new system~ From the available library at the time, she chose the Knights of the Old Republic campaign guide~ And this is where it began a gradual decent into medicority.
We rolled our characters...A Miralukan Jedi, a human Jedi, An Aleena Soldier, a Human Noble, and myself, a Khil Noble named Cthulhu.
The trouble became obvious after the first few sessions~ We were a band of individuals after the Dark Wars aiming to find and rescue the remaining Jedi Masters in a bid to rebuild the Jedi Order under the leadership of Revan~ FGC had gone according to accepted canon that Revan was a good guy, but the Exile had gone Dark Side, however they now worked side by side for the same endeavor. The rest of the NPC supporting cast featured an array of KOTOR characters from the video games, who all had legally changed their names to "Mary Sue", and all behaved in a similar "don't question my authorita" fashion. We weren't even allowed to fly the ship ourselves.
Being a Noble, I was not entirely built as a Combat class, but quickly was pigeonholed by the NPC's and the situations at hand into a combat role~ Leading to Cthulhu laying face first in the dirt many a combat session, only escaping death thanks to Saga Editions Force Point expenditures.
Sessions often went as follows~
-Congregate before the all powerful Revan and his entourage to recieve their next mission.
-Go to planet related to missions (spending way too much time on inside jokes during the hyperspace journey)
-Go to a cantina~ Apparently former Jedi Masters take to the bottle real easy (The Ram Khota Corralary)
-Return to ship for our pre-boarding bad guy ambush.

Once that particular story arc was finished, it only degraded from there...I stuck around just to see how deep this would go before it imploded on itself like Malachor 5 after the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator.

I gave up Cthulhu for another character~ Lenny, the Kel Dor ex-sith infantryman, trying to see the campaign through fresh eyes. The next story bit was a Dead Space homage~~However, the dear girl felt that if you're going to do a homage, that means you need to do it exactly the same as the source material. So she supplied us in-game with the same weapons as Dead Space, however she didn't bother writing out their stats, and hand-writing the monsters stats herself in such a way that only a Destiny Point spend or a critical dice roll would suffice.

Finally, it arrived at our current stand-point~~A slow grind to level 20 to prepare for the final battle with the BBG and his cronies. We are currently at level 12. Most sessions follow what I call the "Meet and Beat". We set out on Sandwich Runs (see below), doing little trivial matters until eventually, one of the BBG's makes a cameo appearance to kick our teeth in (again, only a critical or Desiny Point will suffice at our level) before strolling off whisteling while we scour the ground trying to find where our kidneys had dropped.
Then I learned the real source of the issues: The bland and sudden combat, the lame plot hooks, etc~ FGC didn't actually read the campaign guides she had amassed. In fact the only time she opened them was to find equipment and enemy stat blocks. All the information she had was what she had gleamed from the KOTOR video games...We weren't played Star Wars tabletop, we were playing a pantomined version of the Video Game.

So I came before this community to try and seek assistance so that I may try and take this poor, misguided soul under my...no...OUR wing, and teach her the true merits of the Gamemasters art. I don't want her to stop GMing~ I want her to learn. Where do we begin?
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Tadanori Oyama

  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *******
  • Posts: 3897
  • The Full Time GM
    • View Profile
    • Full Time GM
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2009, 04:56:05 PM »
Probably by telling the GM you don't like the game. If she explodes, it shouldn't be saved and you should move on. If she agrees to hear you out, than be honest about your problems with the game and work it out.

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2009, 05:04:16 PM »
^ Decent answer~~however expect a mushroom cloud over Arizona.

And before I forget...
Sandwich Run: Verb. A task or action that has no obvious benefit to the campaign.
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Tadanori Oyama

  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *******
  • Posts: 3897
  • The Full Time GM
    • View Profile
    • Full Time GM
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2009, 05:12:28 PM »
If your GM is gonna explode over people not liking the game than they probably aren't ready to run the session. Petty GMs make for funny jokes and satire but when it actually happens in your game, it needs to be stopped.

Maybe I'm just numbed from the constant bile and acid a certain player of mine heeps upon my works and efforts but a GM should be willing to accept people don't like their ideas. I often look back and realize how something I used to do wasn't a great idea, it's something every GM needs to do so they can move onwards.

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2009, 05:17:51 PM »
Oh I totally agree~ It turns out she has very little self confidence in her own creative ability. She's currently working on her second campaign, since her first was jsut to try it out~ She always complains that she has no ideas. I very much want to walk her over to that nice fat stack of books she has...about $200 or so dollars worth of material, and very roughly apply her forehead to them repeatedly. But I want to be patient. I want her to succeed~ Formost, I feel that she needs to step away from the KOTOR Era and remove the KOTOR games as a source.

I think one issue she has also is this determination not to rip-off anything anymore, and deliver what she thinks is an original product. I hate to be the one to tell her, but the RPG concept is birthed from an array of tropes and cliche's~ Without them, the craft would die.
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Tadanori Oyama

  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *******
  • Posts: 3897
  • The Full Time GM
    • View Profile
    • Full Time GM
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2009, 05:28:50 PM »
Oh, she's in the backlash stage eh? Trying to rebound into total originality. Been there. Well, getting her to read the source books would be an excellent start.

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2009, 05:30:22 PM »
Totally, totally...especially the chapter one Jedi~~Tom read one of my missives online once that mentioned her Jedi would cut down a man in cold blood. I forget which episode.
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Phelanar

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 84
  • Stop nuzzling the instrument of my vengeance
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2009, 11:46:03 PM »
Heh, my Star Wars game is currently making me hate everything Star Wars because of my own GM. I can't watch the movies, play the video games, read the books/comics, or whatever because I immediately feel the connection to the frustrating tabletop sessions and get ticked off. I'm a huge huge Star Wars fan and just can't stand it right now.

Hell, half of my Shadowrun game sessions (which is made up of players, but not the GM, of the Star Wars game) the last couple of weeks have turned into bitch sessions about the Star Wars game. The game has gotten just that bad. I hope you can get everything worked out with your game. Or at least put it down like Ol' Yeller and move on to something else.
A great ninja move is like great jazz. Nobody is aware of it and anyone who saw it live is now dead.

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2009, 12:05:48 AM »
Well~ last night may have been the nail in the coffin for me...

3 1/2 hours of combat in a gauntlet against the same group of enemies...Not the exact same enemies~~She was throwing the same types of enemies...Two Sith Assassins, One Blackguard, two mages, and two apprentices~~Apparently in some sort of bid to accumulate enough CL to get us to 20 in a single night. We stopped after the third round, and she said there were many more until the end of the scenario~~So you are meaning to tell me~ That we have to fight the same group of enemies up to five or so times~~
This is just bad game design...It's not a star wars game anymore, it's like in a video game RPG where you run around in circles to do random battles for XP. It's that pathetic. By the third battle, I think I was half asleep and tossing my dice.
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Maze

  • Global Moderator
  • Oregon Trail 13 Superstar
  • *****
  • Posts: 665
  • Azathoth Janitorial Services
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2009, 01:59:59 AM »
Heh. It's interesting how some GM don't seem to understand the importance of letting the players have their win and their fun. Then again, it's also interesting how dumb people start posts with "heh." So what do I know.

Why don't you suggest to her to let you run a game so she can see from the player's standpoint. Then just run a more roleplay-focus gamed, or let the players more freedom at least. Then just call her out for being a "nazi" in front of the group. (=I'm not serious about the last sentence.)

Tadanori Oyama

  • Extreme XP CEO
  • *******
  • Posts: 3897
  • The Full Time GM
    • View Profile
    • Full Time GM
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #10 on: May 31, 2009, 10:48:17 AM »
Level grinding in a table top game. That's really quite painful to think hear about. I mean, if she needs you guys at level 20 she could just make you level 20.

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2009, 01:57:27 AM »
Heh. It's interesting how some GM don't seem to understand the importance of letting the players have their win and their fun. Then again, it's also interesting how dumb people start posts with "heh." So what do I know.

Why don't you suggest to her to let you run a game so she can see from the player's standpoint. Then just run a more roleplay-focus gamed, or let the players more freedom at least. Then just call her out for being a "nazi" in front of the group. (=I'm not serious about the last sentence.)

I'm actually the regular GM~
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Maze

  • Global Moderator
  • Oregon Trail 13 Superstar
  • *****
  • Posts: 665
  • Azathoth Janitorial Services
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2009, 03:11:55 PM »
Is she running games here and there, or she's been running them one after the other?

doctorscraps

  • Zombie Apocalypse Survivor
  • **
  • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #13 on: June 03, 2009, 12:30:18 AM »
She has her own campaign~~if in fact a campaign it can be called.
When the GM can't roll higher than a ten on the D20, he see's his plot points flash before his eyes.

Maze

  • Global Moderator
  • Oregon Trail 13 Superstar
  • *****
  • Posts: 665
  • Azathoth Janitorial Services
    • View Profile
Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)
« Reply #14 on: June 03, 2009, 01:57:16 AM »
Then it's what I originally understood, maybe you could go over her process of planning games and actually plan out the next game. Subtly give her pointers to make the game better.