What Would/Has Made You Quit The Game?

[zook1shoe]

@Nanshork: thanks! i had so much fun with that character, and was sorry to see him go.

[sirpercival]

I'm lucky and have had pretty good experiences with DMs across the board... though I began DMing at an early age and never really looked back.

Here are three (relatively mild) stories.

~There's a DM who's tried to rope me into her ongoing 1E campaign a few times... I always end up sidling away after a session or two, because her world is so rife with important NPCs (who are as or more important than the party) that most game sessions devolve into her talking to herself.

~One time a DM who is in general excellent (but can occasionally get bogged down with pacing) offered to run a quickie one-shot for a few hours one night.  He spent 3 of the four hours IC roleplaying with one of the PCs, trying to convince her that she wanted to go on this expedition.  The rest of us sat around fidgeting, wondering how long it would take for him to say "OK, if you don't want to come, don't come."  It took 3 freaking hours.  We never even finished the first combat.

~My other bad experience has been during a PbP.  It was a PbP I joined over on GitP while the old boards were down, and I was jonesin'.  This was the DM's first time behind the screen after alleged years as a player.  He requested tier 2-4, so I decided to run with a Wizard/Druid/Arcane Heirophant, going for a kind of party buffer + SuperFamiliar build, as something fun and not overpowered.  He approved my choice; he said no early entry into AH, but that wasn't too big a deal.

The problem was when we started out on our first mission.  He had originally said in his chargen guidelines that all WotC sources were allowed; when we discovered we were heading to a desert, I mentioned casually in the OOC thread that I would go pillage Sandstorm for some druid spells to help out.  "No," he replied, "you can't use that book."  Why not?  "Because you can't get any spells from non-core sources that will help you deal with the environment."

Then, a little ways in, he told me that I couldn't have unlimited spells in my spellbook, since "a wizard can know every spell and that makes him overpowered."  I'd be limited to twice the number of daily spell slots I'd have.  Also, I wouldn't get any spells automatically from leveling, I'd have to report back to my mentor at the guild to add any spells to my spellbook.  Which meant that if I leveled up on the mission and took my 3rd level of wizard, I was SOL for 2nd-level spells.

At that point, I was debating whether or not to leave the game.  If you're going to nerf full casters, fine -- but don't approve a build and then nerf it after the fact.  As it turned out, Skyrim came out and the DM disappeared, so the game died.  I never had to choose to leave.

[RedWarlock]

~There's a DM who's tried to rope me into her ongoing 1E campaign a few times... I always end up sidling away after a session or two, because her world is so rife with important NPCs (who are as or more important than the party) that most game sessions devolve into her talking to herself.

This. Dear god this. (I'm probably extrapolating, but I know enough of her players have come and gone for me to wonder if we're talking about the same DM..)

I was part of a long-running game (which has tried to evolve through editions and never really succeeded), where our PCs were second-string to the DM's own favored characters. Now, the (typo-ridden) fiction handouts detailing character goings-on and major events, I can get behind, but even in that actual sessions, our characters mattered less than the NPCs, and we often merely acted as facilitators, IE, 'here's the problem, now figure out which NPC to run to to have them fix it.'

None of the NPCs were actually flawed, either, even the 'evil' ones, who were socially acceptable(they all coexist in a big arcane college!) and just 'wicked' in a bad-boy sense, in that 'oh and I might randomly kill you' kind of way.

3e was the game's heydey, in my opinion. I missed when they tried to half-convert to 4e (I was away at college) but by the time I got back, they had merged back to this psuedo-3e majorly-houseruled conglomeration that really didn't work in a mechanical sense. (She is not a games-mechanically-inclined person.) This on top of the custom mana-point system, and the non-gridded and initiative combat systems that are just kinda wacky, and have apparently lasted several decades through the good humor of her more established players (and some subtle rules-bending to make it functional).

I left back in the spring, taking another often-abused player with me, and we have not really looked back. I still consider her a good friend, but I do not want to go near that game again. We still hear the tales, from other players who either divide time with my current game, or we talk to socially, and that's enough.

[Nytemare3701]

I think the worst one I had was a DM that said "Since we are short a player, everyone is going to be allowed to multiclass" I asked what he meant (assuming he meant gestalt to up the power level).

Nope. He meant that he doesn't normally allow multiclassing at all. I take it in stride and start thinking of a character. One guy goes for Fighter/Rogue and gets shut down for having sneak attack on a fighter. Another guy goes Cleric/Fighter and is sneered at for getting the bonus feat. I see this happening and think...What's the most harmless caster I can make? Truenamer came to mind, so I went with it. (I didn't optimize it heavily, sticking to the core+Tome of Magic.) I was the only single-classed player in the group.

In the end, I got thrown out of the group for being able to heal via Word of Nurturing over multiple turns. They likened me to the TF2 Medic. T-T

[brujon]

I think the worst one I had was a DM that said "Since we are short a player, everyone is going to be allowed to multiclass" I asked what he meant (assuming he meant gestalt to up the power level).

Nope. He meant that he doesn't normally allow multiclassing at all. I take it in stride and start thinking of a character. One guy goes for Fighter/Rogue and gets shut down for having sneak attack on a fighter. Another guy goes Cleric/Fighter and is sneered at for getting the bonus feat. I see this happening and think...What's the most harmless caster I can make? Truenamer came to mind, so I went with it. (I didn't optimize it heavily, sticking to the core+Tome of Magic.) I was the only single-classed player in the group.

In the end, I got thrown out of the group for being able to heal via Word of Nurturing over multiple turns. They likened me to the TF2 Medic. T-T

First time i ever hear someone get kicked out as overpowered while playing a TRUENAMER

[Halinn]

I'd just have gone for a singleclassed core-only druid, in that case.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Does leaving a group before actually playing counts? Because last year at my old university I happened to find a group of players in the garden, since at that time I didn't have a gaming group at that moment, I asked what they were playing hoping I could join the group. They answered D&D. So I ask what edition... they told me it was their own version which incorporated elements from AD&D and OWoD.... then one player started bragging how he killed a Dragon with his Dwarf's junk. Needless to say that I didn't join that group.

[zook1shoe]

i'd say that counts

[dipolartech]

Well if it was a dwarf Monk..... just remember any part of the Monk's body counts for unarmed strikes.....

[Dusk Eclipse]

The point is that I expect that kind of immaturity of teenagers, not people who are way on their way out of college and that while I can enjoy the occasional silliness and "hurdurr-he-said-penis" stuff, the way they talked and bragged about it implied that it was something common. Not the kind of gaming group I want to be part of. 

[Nickname Jr.]

When I saw that Invoke Magic didn't let you cast teleport or plane shift to actually escape the antimagic zone you're trapped in, which is of course the main thing you'd want from your one spellcasting opportunity, but instead Invoke only made possible a silly 4th level spell or lower, that's when I said Screw This, I'm outta here! and slammed down my pink lemonade on the table so hard that I split my pants and since that day I've never really returned to actually following the rules as written. 

[sirpercival]

Dimension Door?  AMF is short range.

[veekie]

Though for most antimagic effects...you're in walking distance of a spot outside the effect right?

[Nickname Jr.]

Well that wouldn't be a well constructed trap if you could walk out of the field.   The mage who came up with such a snare couldn't rightly be described as a master trapster.

[Pimpforged]

The most recent game I had to quit was because the DM had a very long list of houserules that dramatically unbalanced the game.

A sample:
He declared that full attacks could be taken as a standard action. Okay, whatever, that's not too bad.
Then he declared that since you can normally take 1 standard action and 1 move action or 2 move actions you should also have the option of taking 2 standard actions.
 

The worst part was that he completely failed to understand the effect this had on the game.

[Halinn]

I'm not even sure that would break the game. It wouldn't add much to the power of the full casters, but it would add a lot to mundanes.

[Pimpforged]

It gives them an extra spell every round. Because, you know, casters need that.

My biggest problem with it was that it made rocket tag virtually unavoidable.

[zugschef]

I'm not even sure that would break the game. It wouldn't add much to the power of the full casters, but it would add a lot to mundanes.

lol?

[LordBlades]

I'm not even sure that would break the game. It wouldn't add much to the power of the full casters, but it would add a lot to mundanes.

lol?

+1. Doubling the amount of spells you can cast in a given timeframe is easily the biggest buff you can give to a caster (and the reason Belt of Battle, Celerity and Arcane Spellsurge are so well regarded).

[Halinn]

So now they can cast two spells that each end the encounter per round, rather than just the one needed?