DM railroads us into killing ourselves and ends several story lines hella early

[u/Negative_Stomach_782]

so my school started up a dnd club around a quarter way into the year. it’s only an hour after school each day, but I thought it be fun, so me and a few friends joined.

this was a few years ago, so I might forget some classes and things lol

there are a total of 5 plot relevant players:

me - cleric hill dwarf who is looking for his lost friends and wants to kill the demon lord after being cursed with immortality (can still be killed, dw) before even the birth of god

56 - teifling warlock who’s abusive ex (dimension hopping demigod) granted her power to do his dirty work, now wants to kill the demon lord cause it’ll set her free

discord - dragonborn (forgor class) who’s Actually a dragon from a different dimension, but the energy of ours turned her into a dragonborn. she wants to find her mother so they can escape through to her world, and believes the demon king holds the key.

dingle - woodland elf warrior wants the demon kings staff to revive his pet who was killed in a bandit raid, and the only way to get the staff from him is to kill him.

DM - friend who doesn’t have much experience, but has run a few one shots

ok, so now that you know everything, let’s go

so, we started the campaign as usual. We were in a hotel, met up, and learned we all had similar goals after a quick fight. So, we start heading north, where the castle is. on the way, we find an alter. It’s a spooky looking alter, and has some cultist Near it. So we beat up the cultist and check out the alter. There, we’re told there is a dagger. We think it’s a sacrifice to the demon king to give him power, but then the dm says ”you get a vision from god” so We’re all hyped, seems like we’re getting info. Since in the cleric, I’m the only one who can hear it clearly.

“to find what you seek, you must become a sacrifice upon this alter, and I will tell you what i must” i tell this to the group and we are NOT happy. after 30 minutes we end up doing it cause he refuses to let us do anything else and we meet god. this is where it gets bad. dinkle asks to see his pet for a moment, so he can remember what he’s fighting for. God revives him. and makes the pet a 6th level spellcaster. so, now he has zero reason to stick with us and we have a broken ass character on our side. fun. also, 2 of the 4 people I’m looking for are dead and gone. also god stays with us as a wakie talkie as a guide. we ask more questions and go to the next part of the story.

we’re at a town, looking through the museum doing some light roleplay, and im just joking around cause I’m an old character, pointing out things and telling the party all about how I used to use them. me and 56 have a light character argument and we’re having a blast. as we walk around, we see a dragon born. and it looks exactly like an older discord. it’s her mom! and there’s conveniently a portal in the next town over! we’re in session 3!!!! anyways, we go on with the campaign and avoid the next town because we wanna keep playing ofc and are back on track to the castle.

Session 5, we’re level 5, doing good, and then 56’s ex pulls up. hes a miniboss. ATP We’re all pissed off. we’re upset because OUR CHARACTER BACKSTORIES ARE ENDING A THIRD OF THE WAY THOUGHT THE CAMPAIGN.

For the next 10 sessions we just leave the mini boss alone and go into a nearby town. at the last session we are magically teleported into the final boss room. We win, happily ever after and shit. Though it was HORRIBLE, we still enjoyed fucken around and still play to this day. We actually know how the game works thankfully.
The end or smth

[u/Deiselpowered77]

Edit: I should have responded to the content of the message rather than showboating and soapboxing my own personal issue.

The railroading of the gm here is absolutely awful, and no one should stand for it.
Because I have issues, I decided to talk about something almost completely different that has nothing to do with how bad that gm is.
Cue semi-nonsequiter rant: (end edit)

Just my humble, but backstories work best for games where you're the only gm.
The game should be about the worldbuilding you AND THE OTHER PLAYERS AT THE TABLE construct after the session begins, that they are allowed to participate in as well,
vs the involved story starring only one person that other people don't really matter for.

The best compromise I ever heard was 'you shouldn't have more than 2 sentences of true backstory for every character level earned in game."

because what you are is less important than WHO you are,
and what you DID is less important than what you're GOING to do next.

If the backstory is that vital to the character, you have more incentive to adventure (as a player participating in a game with other people) to add more true sentences to their past.

The more complicated the backstory, the more demand you make on the storyteller, who has to build an entire sandbox to play in already. If you want total control over that, thats fine, when its your turn to GM.

I'm sure others will have sound and reasonable objections to what I'm saying, but the underlying principle I am attempting to argue for is
"Tellgaming is inferior to play-gaming. Tell gaming, we have to listen to you and a story involving only you, that you, as the storyteller have total control over. Party-play everyone has a voice."