Dungeon Masters Documentary

I watched a documentary on Hulu last night called The Dungeon Masters.  It pissed me off.  They found three totally cliche' DMs, and only focused on all their dysfunctions instead of the game, what they do, and why they love it.

There is a female that dresses as a drow, and they only focused on her problems with her love life.

One guy is a deadbeat that doesn't work, and has a frustrated wife, and instead of getting a job, he focuses on doing a cable access show and writing a book.  

The second guy.... his story is blah... but... this part of it. OMG...

So he had a group that he had played with for SEVEN years in one campaign.  One guy said he was only 5th level.  After 7 years, how in the fuck are you only 5th level?????  Anyway... So the group is at the end of an encounter, and worried about getting the gold out.  He gets angry at them, because he said they are "being greedy".  There are several doors, and they do all kinds of spells to try to find out which one they should try to exit from.  None of the spells work, so they just choose a door.  One guy walks through, and the DM asks everyone else what they do.  They say they follow him.  He said to them "Okay. Give me all of your character sheets."  They were like "Why?"  They all died!!!!!!  There was  a sphere of annihilation behind the door!  He said they all handed in their sheets, walked out, and never played again.

I was like... HOLY SHIT!

Anyway... I don't know if I would recommend watching it for gaming purposes, but it is a train wreck, and you know, it is hard to look away from a train wreck.

Holy SHIT! 7 years and only 5th level! Sounds like the crap that Lem or I would do! Lmao. But to be fair I don't think i have never held a group back like that. I have killed off my fair share, or let them kill off each other, but never denied them like that. I even give 10% for good role playing. I even drained a level or in Moose's case two but they always had a way of getting it back. (If they were willing to pay for it.)

Toepoker wrote:Holy SHIT!  7 years and only 5th level!  Sounds like the crap that Lem or I would do!  Lmao.  But to be fair I don't think i have never held a group back like that.  I have killed off my fair share, or let them kill off each other, but never denied them like that.  I even give 10% for good role playing.  I even drained a level or in Moose's case two but they always had a way of getting it back.  (If they were willing to pay for it.)

Bullshit Holds me back all the time...

I thought that was outrageous as well. What is worse is that, from the way he talked about it, they played quite a bit. It wasn't like a once every few months type thing.

The guy had tried to play the exact same campaign three times, and complained that no group ever completed it. He complained about that, and then in this dramatic moment he writes a letter to his current group basically breaking up with them for "being greedy" and arguing with him too much. It was amazingly terrible.

Leetin, if you ever see this... the guy reminded me of Jaime.

Well we have left a lot of campaigns UN finished but that was mostly because we never could get enough of the players to coordinate the dates or times of when we could all play. Plus the place to play because we're a loud group and a lot of us and I like to walk around the table. So space is an issue.

The best place we ever played was Devry. Second best was my Queens apartment. Plenty of room, good food, and we could be as loud as we want.

At my apartment we would also listen to epic music while we played... Lord of the Rings or Conan the Barbarian soundtracks.

Lol yeah we did the music thing also but its mainly for epic moments. We had a guy cry once because we were playing Conan and he was having a seriously Epic moment. It was great.

It definitely makes encounters a lot more exciting!

Cambria wrote:So he had a group that he had played with for SEVEN years in one campaign.  One guy said he was only 5th level.  After 7 years, how in the fuck are you only 5th level?????  Anyway... So the group is at the end of an encounter, and worried about getting the gold out.  He gets angry at them, because he said they are "being greedy".  There are several doors, and they do all kinds of spells to try to find out which one they should try to exit from.  None of the spells work, so they just choose a door.  One guy walks through, and the DM asks everyone else what they do.  They say they follow him.  He said to them "Okay. Give me all of your character sheets."  They were like "Why?"  They all died!!!!!!  There was  a sphere of annihilation behind the door!  He said they all handed in their sheets, walked out, and never played again.

I was like... HOLY SHIT!

I once read an article by Gary Gygax about being at a convention in D&D's early days and how annoyed he was to see so many players with high level characters. He believed in a slow progression but with that said I can't see how his players could play for seven years and only make 5th level. Even if they only played twice a month that is still 182 sessions, wtf is too light of a phrase. That kind of GMing is what has made me leave multiple games. The GM isn't worth his salt and his poor players...

Eve if he's doing a module, how could his players play three times. Terrible.

I have never lost player due to lack of interest and when character progression was too slow they've mentioned their discontent and we found a middle ground. It is the GM's game but the players have gain a bit of ownership when they sign on. A bad GM shouldn't have players for long.

I think DeVry was great as far as space. James' place was best for atmosphere. Nessa had a great spot and the game might have been one of the most epic(plus there was the KFC, lol).

The Serpent wrote:I think DeVry was great as far as space.  James' place was best for atmosphere.  Nessa had a great spot and the game might have been one of the most epic(plus there was the KFC, lol).

And we all know how much you love that KFC.


As a refresher... Lem almost refused to go to KFC, because he didn't want to seem like a stereo typical black person. I believe he refused to eat watermelon, as well...

My Bronx apartment was amazing, but it was way too far away from yall. Khourie and Shaun used to spend entire weekends with me. Some of the best times were had...

"James' apartment", which was actually my apartment as well..... was the most comfortable. Especially when I'd bake or cook for yall. Spoiled brats.

Cambria wrote:My Bronx apartment was amazing, but it was way too far away from yall.  Khourie and Shaun used to spend entire weekends with me.  Some of the best times were had...

Good times. You three were so... interesting.  lol, naughty.

Cambria wrote:"James' apartment", which was actually my apartment as well..... was the most comfortable.  Especially when I'd bake or cook for yall.  Spoiled brats.  

You know it.  Your cooking and the 7-11 downstairs kept us well fed and fueled for hours of roleplaying.  I count that as some of my best times roleplaying.  I miss it.

Cambria wrote:

The Serpent wrote:I think DeVry was great as far as space.  James' place was best for atmosphere.  Nessa had a great spot and the game might have been one of the most epic(plus there was the KFC, lol).

And we all know how much you love that KFC.


As a refresher...  Lem almost refused to go to KFC, because he didn't want to seem like a stereo typical black person.  I believe he refused to eat watermelon, as well...

You just have to have standards. Seriously.

The Serpent wrote:Good times. You three were so... interesting.  lol, naughty.

HAHA! WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had that bombass Italian place down the block too. That apartment was perfectly located for food and snacks. ha!

I always thought it was SO weird that Adam liked to drink milk with his Italian food.

That was some of our best times and biggest laughs, and was our best group.

Cambria wrote:We had that bombass Italian place down the block too.  That apartment was perfectly located for food and snacks. ha!

I always thought it was SO weird that Adam liked to drink milk with his Italian food.

That was some of our best times and biggest laughs, and was our best group.

I'll agree with all of those observations. I've never played with another group as strong and never ran a game for a group that was even close. the kind of awesome story I would run... oh, the time we could have.