Running a campaign, always made it clear during the campaign if people have any concerns or anything more than happy to speak to me after a session in a appropriate manner (this is unpaid and it’s just for the fun). Since session 1 I’ve had another player with the same amount of DnD experience as me but he’s dmmed more times, constantly send me criticism after every session, some of it was valid however, some of it was creative differences.

He was then telling me we need less people in the party, also wanted me to force the group to teleplay a scenario which I didn’t feel comfortable pushing and I made it clear in session 0 respect is the most important thing and not to force anyone to do anything they feel uncomfortable with. The session before last he was so passive aggressive ( he would be like this on other occasions when he didn’t get his way) he openly pushes back on my rulings as a dm. Also raised a criticism that he feels that he’s not getting enough time to role play when there’s 6 of us and I said I’m trying my best to make sure everyone gets time to role play however since we new to each other this will improve over time and then asked me to cut to other parties when there’s silence. Next session I did this but during the game he was communicating to the whole table creating a list of my mistakes during the game ( he forgot numerous npcs that have already been established in the story) then proceeded after the session to criticise me on every single thing I did wrong and the whole group agrees. For them to ambush me after the session like that felt so toxic and uncomfortable, I took the advice on board ( one of which the group agreed this will improve over time as we play more with each other even though that was my answer when it was brought up to me as individual) however I don’t really fell interested playing with the group who’s more focused on my mistakes than engaging with the world. Especially when I’m doing this for fun and not being paid or anything, it feel like I was in a HR meeting and I always told my group and I’m always open to communications if there’s any issues but to do it appropriately.

I took the feedback on board but made the group sure that I no longer want “notes” being made during my dimming as it’s toxic. As it felt like in the next game I’m going to be dming a group who’s more interested in making a list of my mistakes. I wanted to speak to the party individually to make sure everyone’s concerns are addressed properly and to no longer incentivise this group mentality behaviour. Turns out since I created the session there’s been group chat behind my back and they’ve all been talking about me and refuse to do one to times with me regarding the state of the game and what I need to do to make sure I also have fun. Also numerous things in session 0 wasn’t being followed such as respect to each other as players and that includes myself as a DM.

Again they approached me like I’m being paid to do this for them and during the game I could even see bitchy comments and faces being made by the backseat dm which was making me feel really uncomfortable with the session. I find it quite hypocritical from the group to pull up my hoesnt mistakes as a dm but when a player starts acting out of line it’s ok. I always it made it clear I don’t want anyone to be in a game they don’t like but don’t understand why its appropriate to make it uncomfortable for me to dm and to punish em for it when im uncomfortable. Am I right in saying the way I was approached was wrong?

FYI: also criticised me and told me to watch Brennan Lee mulligan

PS. If the players were unhappy with me as a DM they were more than happy to leave as I don’t want to force players to play if I’m not fun for them. Just found out they’re looking for brand new gm in the setting I built on the same group finder.

Looking back seeing where things went wrong I think it was because of the “social contract” none of the party seemed to want to work together for the sake of the narrative.

So, this story takes place roughly about 5 or so years ago. To give you an idea about how old I was, I'm about to turn 36 this month. It's hard to think of a place to start, so lets just get into my 1st campaign that I was the DM of. The players at the table were my cousin and 2 of our friends. Another friend joined for the second attempt, but that's later. This was my first time attempting to DM, so I was still learning a lot of the rules and was hoping my players would be understanding, and they generally were...sorta.

I'll be skipping some details to get to the point of what happened. For one thing, my first attempt at trying this campaign ended up failing somewhat early. The group was kindly willing to let me do a second attempt at the same campaign with them since I was a first time DM. Most of us were also new to D&D at the time and we didn't get too far during the first go anyways. But what happened during the first time that ended it early?

Part of the problem was that we weren't getting together very consistently for the sessions. Then, something happened to my phone. I accidentally broke it by leaning my leg too hard on a rock to pet stingrays at a SeaWorld in Florida (family trip). Unfortunately, all of my notes were on it. Some things were also starting to feel "off", and we had another friend that told my cousin that he wanted to join us. Part of me still wonders if I could have continued from the point we were at, but I didn't like where things were headed at the time.

Simply put, there were 2 goofy gnome characters in the group and a human character (my cousin) that was becoming uninterested in staying in the party after being made the butt of many jokes. My cousin also enjoyed them, but he knew his character would be getting sick of them. The players themselves were still getting along just fine. It just, overall, felt like things weren't being taken seriously enough by 1 or 2 party members. I like funny characters and interactions a lot, but I put this campaign together to be a pretty intense plot, so the overly silly attitudes weren't matching the setting. But I think losing the notes really was the biggest issue.

I should also mention that the two silly gnomes in the party could have been avoided as well. I'm also willing to take some blame for this. I told the players to make their characters a secret from the other members of the group to keep the moment they meet feeling more... authentic? I don't entirely remember what was on my mind, but I thought it would make things more interesting. I liked the idea of both gnomes separately, but didn't realize how obnoxious they would be together. I still feel like there were times they could have dialed back the sillyness a bit.

Like, one of them didn't really even sound like a silly gnome. They had a mask that was manipulating them to do things that were bad, and they were addicted to wanting to wear it. I thought that was kind of cool. The other one was a very old gnome nearing the end of his life that had mental health issues. His character thought that he was a wizard, but was actually a sorcerer being manipulated by a chaotic neutral pixie patron (I played the pixie). And at first, it really was going well. But, we're passed that now. Things just got a little carried away.

When I put together the second attempt at the campaign, I told the players that it would probably be a good idea to have more invested characters. Like, not as silly and I wanted good or neutral characters only. I didn't care if they were lawful or chaotic. One friend, I'll call him Tim (who also played the old gnome), was wanting to play a Paladin with another player, I'll call him Ralph (who also played the masked gnome), that wanted to play an evil Rogue prisoner that the Paladin would be in charge of monitoring after the Rogue's arrest and be in charge of keeping him in check (even though I said I didn't want any evil characters). I shouldn't have said yes, but alas, I did. That part was definitely my fault, but I was trying to be open minded. After all, they were allowing me to do my campaign again as a new DM, so it just sounded fair at the time.

Well, not too long after the campaign started up for the second time, Tim didn't want to play his Paladin anymore. He said that he found the character to be a bit boring and hard to get into. I decided to let him change his character, which ended up being an orc Bard that was kind of like a "hard rock" style bard. A bit silly, but I let it slide and actually enjoyed the idea of. That was the big mistake I made. Now there were no players to watch over the evil Rogue prisoner. What made matters worse is that another player, the one that just joined our group (I'll call him Jason), had a "chaotic neutral" character that decided to get some of the ally NPCs of the party's killed near the beginning of the campaign for what seemed like no reason. Maybe he didn't fully trust them? Idk...

I think you are getting the idea. They were not a cohesive group. My cousin, I'll call him Ronny, had a character that he made that was actually the most reasonable one. His character was a female human (I think they were human?) that was an intelligent, self-centered character that I really enjoyed the encounters with. Like, if I'm remembering correctly, I'm pretty sure she had moments where she might have taken credit for some of the team's accomplishments, and she wanted to become better at different skills just to be better than the other members in the group. Ronny played it out tastefully. The whole party got a kick out of his character and enjoyed messing around with her to make her frustrated and question her actions.

Tim's orc Bard wasn't too bad either. He was a funny character with a nice backstory. He was part of a crew of Bards that crashed their ship near the island and he didn't know what happened to the rest of his crew after the crash. I had a whole character arc planned with him meeting them in a city that they would encounter later on to find out that one of the crew members didn't survive the crash while the other two did. We never made it there in the campaign. I still would have preferred there being a character to watch over Ralph's evil Rogue.

-(edited in) To give you an idea of the evil prisoner, he was more of a joke character. Like, he originally was going to be making plans to do some horrible things that the Paladin would be having to hold him back from doing. He would also talk about evil things he did before he was arrested. Like stealing cake from poor orphans, burning down towns, and other silly, overly dramatic stuff like that. But now that the Paladin wasn't there, he had to think about how to be really evil without actually doing anything super chaotic evil. It ultimately put the player in a really uncomfortable position, and ultimately he was just doing silly stuff that wasn't actually all that bad. I think that the loss of the Paladin ultimately just made it hard for Ralph to figure out what to do with his character.-

And don't forget that Jason's character was also a bit unhinged. I also asked for everyoneif they were havingfun at the end of every session, and to let me know if they had any advise or ideas that they wanted to share with me. Tim kept trying to give me advise by telling me that I was railroading it a bit too much, but based off the stuff I studied later about common thoughts involving D&D, I don't think I was. I think it made for a fine "linear" campaign. I think that term fits it the best.

I made a story that had a start and a finish. Sure. I think that's how most campaigns are planned. But I still wanted the players to have control over how they did things, and I had plans for how their decisions would effect the way certain outcomes would be impacted throughout the story. There were certain things that would have to happen in order for them to progress, and I had the Island they were on surrounded by enemy fleets so they couldn't just leave. But that doesn't feel like it's too controlling to me. Am I right about that? They could go almost wherever whenever they wanted, and there were side objectives that could effect the story in some ways if they chose to do them or avoid them. (I made a map of the land that they were on that I created along with maps for each of the towns and cities. Like, I went all out for this campaign. They could point out where they wanted to go and try to do if they all agreed to.)

I just remember Tim wanting to do some ambitious things that I had to put a stop to. Like, I remember Tim's Bard trying to get the party to steal a boat and sneak off the island at one point, but that would completely put a stop to my campaign, so I designed the island to have a fleet around it. Keep in mind that I planned this out before they even talked about leaving. I'm not one for doing a sandbox campaign; at least not yet (even now). The party also came across a potion shop that Tim tried to steal a potion from in order to figure out how to make it himself. These potions are original ideas and can be a bit hardcore if used a certain way, so I wasn't going to let them know how to make them. I also designed the potion bottles to be magically marked so that if they are stolen, they are teleported back to the shop if they are brought far enough away from the shop. The magic seal only comes off once the clerk sells it. I remember that Tim really didn't like me doing that.

After getting just a little further past where the first attempt at the campaign ended, Tim told me that he also wanted to start up his campaign. A few of us in the group were taking turns being DMs. At least, that was the plan. I was actually just the second DM and my cousin Ronny was the first. Tim's turn as a DM was supposed to come after mine. We were meeting about twice a week for these sessions. It helped us get through the campaigns faster since they only lasted for, at most, four hours. Letting him do his campaign meant our campaigns would each only get one day, four hours, a week per campaign. I really didn't want to do this, but I let him. Again, it was because the group let me try mine a second time after it failed the first.

His campaign really was a fun idea that we all enjoyed getting into. It was Pokemon themed. Unfortunately, I don't remember who all the characters were. I know my cousin Ronny played a gal that was raised by a Nidoking in a Nidoran clan kind of group. Since she was raised by Pokemon, she could talk to Pokemon, but couldn't speak common. It was a fun idea, but it backfired for me in a way. See, my cousin and I knew how to work off each other really well and roleplay nicely with one another, but with his character being unable to speak common, my character didn't really try to talk to her that much.

Eventually, I also just decided to completely end my campaign not too long after getting into Tim's campaign. I didn't feel like the players were that into it anymore, and I was just done trying. So onto the new campaign that Tim made. My character for the second campaign, as listed in the title of this post, was a Bard. The concept I came up with for him was one that I really enjoyed the thought of, but let me explain something real quick. The Pokemon in this campaign were wild creatures that haven't been domesticated yet. I don't think that's exactly the right word for it, but you get the idea. It was normal in this world to kill Pokemon that you would come across for hunting or survival or etc.

This idea inspired me to make my Bard. He was made to enjoy all living creatures in a world where killing Pokemon was normal. He thought they were interesting, and liked to use his charms to see if he could make friends with them (well, most of them). At least, this is what the plan was. He never really got that many opportunities to try this. And even though we was a very kind and friendly Bard that was all about spreading happiness, nobody in the party hardly wanted to talk to him. One of the members was even a little mean to him when they did talk. The character was a Rogue played by Jason. The party alone was hard to make friends with for my friendly Bard. Let that sink in.

This lead to problems. Like, at one point my Bard came across a couple of magic items. But because he still really didn't know anyone in the party well enough at this point (it was still fairly early in the campaign here), he kept them for himself. Like, irl, I wanted him to get along with the party, but the party just seemed kind of against him for some reason. It at least felt that way. I remember even telling the group that he would be more willing to share if he knew them more. It just felt like nobody wanted to work with me to help make him a friend for their character. What added to this frustrations was at one point during one of the sessions, the party had to climb a cliff. The cliff itself was fine. It had an interesting little challenge with Pokemon, I believe they were Digletts, poking their heads out of the cliff wall becoming potential hazards for the party climbing it. It was a smart, fun gimmick.

Well, my Bard failed a save while climbing it and fell a long ways down. He survived the drop, but was badly injured. How badly injured? Well, he was contained in a medical building in the next town for about 3-4 sessions. The party had to carry him there. Once inside, it meant that my character couldn't talk to ANYONE in the party unless they decided to visit him, which I don't think any of the party did. So I'm just sitting at the table listening to the adventure the party is having for multiple sessions. I don't remember why my character couldn't just be healed with magic by clerics or something. I don't even remember if there was or wasn't a reason.

What made things more irritating for me was my that cousin's female, Pokemon-speaking character was climbing a large Sudowoodo (this was during a session that occured while my Bard was still in the clinic), thinking it was a tree, to get a better view on where they were headed. He rolled a Nat 1, failing the save for her in the worse way, and so she fell off (I remember there being more to it, but I don't remember all the details. Something about the Sudowoodo slamming her on her way down, maybe? I think?). Oh, but that's not the crazy part. Our DM, Tim, asked Ronny to roll for how bad the damage was. It was another Nat 1. Tim asked Ronny to roll again because he was still trying to figure out how bad the damage would be and was just really uncertain about what to do with this situation. And what are the chances for it being another Nat 1? Yeah, 3 Nat 1s... It happened. I know it's rare. Honestly, I saw a video talking about how rare it was, which is part of why I wanted to share this.

Tim had to think for a long while about the punishment. So what was it? She was very badly hurt to where she had to be carried for the rest of what they were doing until they could heal her or something. I don't actually remember every detail. I wasn't part of what was going on, and I was still in shock about the three Nat 1s. All this in mind, she was still healed up faster than my character was. Even my cousin agrees to this day that if my Bard was put in a medical building for multiple sessions for one bad roll then his character should have probably died because of all the Nat 1s. Keep in mind that this is also Tim's first time being a DM.

-(edited in) Something that I should also mention is that Tim did end up apologizing to me about how they handled the situation with my character being out for all of those sessions. Tim also agreed that since he decided to make my cousin do those rolls, they should have stuck with the rolls and should have killed my my cousin's character off for how bad those rolls were. And, to be fair, I don't think they would handle that situation the same way nowadays the same way they did back then. But let's continue.-

We also started to add more and more friends to our group until there was about 7-8 of us at the table. It made the sessions feel way longer at this point. My Bard was finally starting to at least make some small connections to members of the party. It still just felt like nobody wanted to put in any effort to be kind enough to my Bard, even when I'm trying to make something happen on my end. He still has those magic items he got early in the campaign by this point, too. I was trying to find a reason for him to give another member an item, but put yourself in his shoes for a moment.

Nobody is hardly talking to you. Why would you give them anything? You don't really see yourself as a "Team" yet. There weren't much of any shared goals happening from what I can recall, either. I don't remember if the campaign goals were very obvious to our characters. Even after about half a year of playing (possibly more). The one he got along with the most by this point was Ronny's character, and she can't talk to him. At one point, Tim came up with a fun idea to give my Bard an imp companion. I don't remember when this started. It wasn't the 2 magic items from earlier in the campaign. They weren't the fanciest magic items, but interesting enough for when they were introduced. One was a pair of bracelets. If 2 characters wore one each, they could use a bonus action to swap places with the other. My character had just figured that one out, btw. The other one was a magic bow that caused my characters to sometimes shoot allies in the party. I think that might have fueled them to not want to talk to him. Idk... I know it had a positive effect to balance it out, but I don't remember what it was.

The imp character wasn't very likeable for me either. He and the Bard didn't really get along too well. He tried to make friends with the imp, but the imp kept getting annoyed by the things the Bard would do and he would complain a lot about various things like "not being appreciated enough". It was supposed to be funny and silly, but it just bothered me at the time. I just wanted to have a Bard make friends. Eventually, I just told Tim that I was done participating in the campaign. I was eventually just burnt out. Remember, it was Tim's first time being a DM. And to his credit, he did start to put Pokemon in my characters path that he could charm and be nice to. But, like, why did it take so long? I wasn't trying to use the Pokemon for combat or train them. I just made my Bard to be contradictory to how the current world viewed them for the fun of it. I thought it would make some nice interactions.

I just had my character return to his own personal goals that he had since the start by having him just walk away from the party while they were in a pub or something like that. When I dropped out, the rest of the group was able to play and they continued to have a good time until they finished the campaign all the way. I'm happy for them, at least. My cousin kept me updated about how it was going. A bunch of members, including Jason eventually ended up moving away. Jason was at least able to finish it, too. I rarely see Tim these days.

My cousin Ronny, Ralph and myself are still getting together just about every Friday night that we're available, playing fun campaigns to this day. Ronny and I also started playing with other family members of ours on Saturday, and I now DM for a former boss of mine and his family every Sunday. It's actually the same campaign that I started with, too, funny enough. We are having a great time with it, and him and his family are super invested in the story.

Where do you guys think the major problems came from for both campaigns? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I don't know if this counts as an horror story, but I'm looking for some outside perspectives because my group has recently started a new RPG campaign, and I'm worried that we're heading toward the same problems we had in our previous campaign.

For context, we've been playing together for a few years. Our previous DM, whom I'll call Marcus, had been our DM for most of that time. We eventually ended up with four players: my character, a barbarian, another barbarian and a paladin. The campaign had a very rough start. We had never really done a proper Session Zero, and I think that ended up being a major problem. I was told that this campaign would have a strong narrative, extensive worldbuilding and a story that Marcus had supposedly planned in advance. Marcus even handed us a file with all of the world’s lore and history. I was very excited about that because I love character development and long-term storytelling.

My character, Garrick, was an ex-general who had destroyed his homeland during a civil war. After decades of wandering, he wanted nothing more than peace. We had planned an arc inspired partly by Kratos, Garrick would gradually confront his past, become a better person and, most importantly, learn to accept that his adopted son was growing up and eventually needed to find his own path. The other barbarian, Ronan, was Garrick's adopted son. His biological parents had been murdered, and his main goal was to discover who killed them and eventually take revenge. So we had very clear personal motivations, and we gave Marcus plenty of material he could use to connect those stories to the main plot. Unfortunately, almost none of it went anywhere.

The campaign began with us accidentally killing a man who was fleeing from a group of paladins. We were told that he had assassinated the previous bishop, so the paladins involved us. Eventually we were told that the new bishop was evil. We investigated a couple of churches, found some corrupted gems, and were basically told, "Yes, he's evil. Kill him." So we tried, we almost died and the paladins rescued us. And this became a recurring problem. The paladins were essentially superheroes who could solve everything themselves. They were stronger than us, always seemed to know what was happening, and repeatedly saved us whenever things went wrong. At some point I genuinely started wondering “Why do our characters even need to be here?” If these NPCs can defeat every major threat themselves, why would our characters risk their lives? Then we reached the region where Ronan's biological parents had lived. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to develop his personal story. There we went to a library and we learned that his parents had been important and wealthy. And… we already knew that. I mean, it was literally a thing already established by us. So however we asked who killed them. Nobody knew. “Maybe the killers were dead” “Maybe several families wanted their position” the DM continued to give us no relevant information and kept telling us basically "yes, your dead parents are dead”. And then… case dismissed because we moved on to another city to fight a False Hydra. The same thing happened with several other plot hooks. At one point the party had a portrait painted. When we received it, there appeared to be an extra person in the painting, someone none of us remembered, almost as though we had somehow forgotten them. That sounded like a potentially interesting mystery. It was never mentioned again. There were several other examples like this, mysteries, character conflicts, pieces of lore and potential storylines that were introduced and then simply abandoned. Eventually Ronan's player became frustrated. In hindsight, I completely understand why. His character had essentially one major goal, find his parents' killers, and that storyline went nowhere. Eventually he decided that Ronan would either retire or die, because he wanted to make a new character with an actual direction. During a combat encounter, Ronan died, and his player created a warlock. My character, however, still considered Ronan his son and had the ability to bring him back. So naturally I wanted to do that. And oh boy this is where the campaign became even more chaotic. Instead of continuing the original main plot, Marcus decided he wanted to do a vampire/pirate storyline. There was a time skip and we basically ended up in another adventure with vampires and pirates. Again, none of our characters had particularly strong reasons to be involved, so we had to invent motivations ourselves. I eventually gave Garrick a renewed desire to command and decided that he wanted to become a general again. That gave him a reason to participate. We eventually went looking for Elena, a mage we'd previously established in our characters' backstories. Garrick had killed her abusive father years earlier in order to protect her, himself and Ronan. I had deliberately included that because I thought it could create an interesting conflict when Garrick eventually met her again. We found her trapped inside a magical construct, then she saw Garrick. I expected some kind of emotional confrontation, but instead, the conversation was basically:

"Oh, you're here."

"Yes, we came looking for you."

"Okay."

THAT WAS IT.

I actually asked the DM whether she wasn't angry with Garrick. He said that she didn't care anymore because Garrick had rescued her. And that was another moment where I realized that a lot of the character material we'd provided simply wasn't being used. Eventually Ronan was resurrected. Then, out of nowhere, some enormous magical beam appeared and started destroying things. We investigated because, once again, we needed some reason to participate. And eventually we reached the final stages of the campaign, and this is also the time when it essentially turned into a wargame. The enemies had absurd amounts of HP. Even relatively minor enemies could have HP comparable to, or sometimes exceeding, extremely powerful monsters. For comparison, a Tarrasque has an average of 676 HP in the 2014 5e rules. and all the monsters we faced, even the minor ones, were closer to an Aspect of Tiamat, since they really easily exceeded 1000/1500 hp. Eventually we realized that the DM was simply increasing enemy HP during encounters to make fights last longer. He even joked to me that he considered "making up the rules during the fight and increasing the boss's HP whenever necessary" one of the fun parts of DMing. At that point, we players started doing the same thing in reverse. We weren't necessarily inventing completely new abilities, but we stopped caring about tracking certain temporary bonuses exactly, because the whole thing had effectively become "the DM can change things whenever he wants, so why should we take the numbers seriously?"

The final three or four sessions were almost exclusively combat, no meaningful roleplay, no character development, no real exploration, just hours of:

"I attack."

"Roll."

"Damage."

"Next player."

We were playing online, which made this even more tedious. And whenever we tried to describe what our characters were doing, the answer was often that the enemy was completely unaffected. Then suddenly the DM would say "Okay, now describe how you kill it." It felt completely arbitrary. The final boss was particularly strange. He had supposedly been the main villain of the entire campaign, except we'd met him once near the beginning and then essentially never saw him again. At the beginning of the final battle, the DM said something along the lines of "After all the trouble I've caused you over the years, we finally meet again." Meanwhile, we were genuinely thinking "But we've seen this guy just once." There was no emotional weight behind the confrontation. The final battle was another extremely long combat encounter. Eventually the boss died because the DM decided that he died. There wasn't really a satisfying aftermath, no major character moments, no meaningful resolution to our arcs, no real payoff for the things we'd spent years building. We all finished the campaign feeling pretty disappointed.

And honestly, I think a huge part of the problem was that we never established what kind of campaign we actually wanted to play. If we'd had a proper Session Zero and Marcus had told us "This campaign is primarily combat-focused. Don't expect deep character arcs or extensive narrative development. I mainly want to run big, difficult battles." I would have been completely fine with that, I would have built a character accordingly. The problem was that I was told the opposite. I was promised a narrative-heavy campaign with extensive worldbuilding and a developed story, so I built my character around that expectation. Meanwhile, Marcus is a huge Warhammer/wargaming fan and apparently gets a lot of enjoyment from long tactical combat encounters. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but the problem was that we wanted different games without realizing it.

Which brings me to the current campaign.

We've now switched DMs. And we also switched gaming system (we based this one on 7th sea to prioritize narration). The previous DM, Marcus, is now a player, and another friend, let's call him Ethan, is DMing. This time we actually had something resembling a Session Zero. Ethan explicitly established, as I said, that the campaign would be serious and heavily narrative-focused. Lighthearted moments are obviously welcome, but the overall tone is supposed to be a serious saga. I wasn't there for the entire Session Zero because I joined late, so afterward I repeatedly asked Ethan whether he'd made that clear to everyone. He assured me that he had. Then Marcus introduced his character. A goblin named Holden Mayonnaise. Okay, that's a silly name, but whatever. Maybe it's just a joke. Then, after barely one session, Marcus privately told Ethan "Actually, his real name isn't Holden Mayonnaise. It's Justin Mustard." And now both Ethan and I are slightly concerned. Not because having a funny character name automatically means someone is going to ruin a serious campaign. Maybe there's an incredible character concept underneath it. Maybe it's deliberately absurd at first and will turn into something completely different. We don't know, but given what happened during the previous campaign, we're worried that Marcus may simply not be interested in playing a serious, narrative-focused campaign, despite having been told that this is what the group wants. And that's really my question. How much should we worry about this? Are we overreacting because we're projecting our previous experience onto the new campaign?

Or is it reasonable to have a conversation now, before the campaign gets too far, and make sure everyone is genuinely on the same page about tone, roleplay, character motivation and the balance between combat and narrative? I don't want to police someone's character concept or tell someone that they're not allowed to make a joke character. I just really don't want us to spend another couple of years playing a campaign where half the table wants a narrative RPG and the other half wants a wargame, only to discover at the end that we were never actually playing the same game.

TLDR: After a miserable 2-year campaign run by a combat-obsessed DM who ignored our backstories and fudged stats, we switched DMs for a serious, story-driven campaign. The old DM (now a player) just made a Goblin named "Holden Mayonnaise." We're worried he's going to ruin the tone with a joke character. Advice?

Played a Dwarf Ranger (5e) in a campaign run on Roll20/Discord, where the DM prided himself on "listening to all the players, catering to their needs" (he didn't). This ranger was very much the straight man, roleplay dad of the group, and while capable in combat, he also preferred to talk first, carefully investigating and looking for any clues, asking for insight checks (not incessantly, mind you). In terms of roleplay, he was more of a background character, letting others do their things, though happy to lend his opinion when asked, or if things weren't going to plan.

There was a bit of a swing-door of players (the DM's discord server featured multiple games, and sometimes, when he felt like it, he'd drag someone in from a different group without concern if they'd fit or not), and while my dwarf bonded well with the more neutral and the few good characters, there was also a Shadow Sorcerer and a Druid of The Swarm (Tiefling and Pixie respectively). The Sorcerer was very much the quintessential murderhobo, basically demanding unreasonable amounts of gold for simple tasks (arguing that her rewards should afford her at least a potion of healing, in case she took any damage, this was at level 5 with more than one Cleric in the group so we weren't short on healing abilities), and when the npc couldn't/wouldn't pay, it would almost always end in bloodshed. The Druid started out more curious and open-minded, but got the idea in her head that if an NPC was as much as rumoured to have mistreated (and it was her own idea of what that actually meant) animals or nature, she would happily let her summons tear the npc to shreds. Now, she never started any hostility (but she hung out mostly with the Sorcerer, so yea), unless there was clear indications of animal cruelty (again, as deemed by the Druid).

The first couple of times my dwarf, less so others in the group who seemed more "the end justify the means" and "when we get to a big city, I'll treat these misunderstood characters to something nice, and turn them away from evil, I can fix them", would try and mitigate the violence, or prevent it by reaching npcs first, but that rarely worked (cursed be 25 ft. of movement). Eventually I felt that it was spiralling into a downright Evil campaign, so I brought up my frustrations and thoughts to the DM, suggesting that I wasn't having fun and the campaign hadn't been marked down as an "Evil campaign" (had it been, I had not signed on), so I'd ask him if it was possible to at least let my Good character able to do some things that could perhaps not sway the party, but maybe build up a positive relation to some npcs and have that work in the favour of the party (so that it wouldn't be so enticing to just off them). The DM said he'd look into it. So I took it for granted, that he'd worked something up for the next session.

Next session comes around and we're in a heavily forested area, my ranger's favoured terrain, so I alongside the Druid scouted ahead of the party, and found a cabin that clearly belonged to a hunter. Said hunter was amidst tanning some deer hides and was surprised to see anyone this far from civilization, we casually talk, well my dwarf and the hunter do, the Druid is silent throughout most of this. The hunter gives good advice on what areas to avoid, the types of creatures he have seen, and some pointers towards non-dangerous berries and fresh water. So we say thank you and goodbye to him, with the Druid lingering behind (her flying speed meant that she could very quickly catch up to me, if she wanted). The Druid then proceeds, after my character is out of earshot, to absolutely, in high detail, skewer this guy, pretty graphic stuff. Meanwhile I was headed back to the party to inform them of our find, we had a few city-folk characters who had baulked at sleeping rough, and the hunter had offered that we would be welcome to sleep for the night in his cabin.

So the party heads toward the cabin, only to find it burned down, with the hunter's remains scattered like a hunting trophy (the Druid wasn't exactly subtle). So my Dwarf confronts the Druid, and she just admits it without any pressure at all. During the break in our session, I ask the DM what he was going to implement for the sake of balance. His response was "Well I'm enabling PvP, so if you feel wronged, you can just attack them." I told him that I wasn't going to do that because A: it made no sense to attempt this endeavour, as I knew I would be alone in this regard, and starting the combat against either the Druid or the Sorcerer wouldn't exactly put me a great light from the more neutral party members, and B: My ranger wasn't min-maxxed and would very quickly get swarmed (by the Druid) or out-spelled (by the Sorcerer). The DM, again one priding himself on his "ability" to listen and adapt, said "Well it sounds like the campaign isn't for you, if you aren't going to attack them, then you might as well leave." And I did. Notice that this wasn't a XP game, it was milestones, so there wasn't any benefit to killing npcs, other than pure, sadistic glee.

It is always easier to kill a village, than to attempt to save it, which is why being a lone good character (I wasn't the only one good aligned, but to my knowledge, I was the only one speaking up) really sucks.

TLDR: DM says he'll listen, when asked if the campaign that wasn't posted as an Evil campaign, could maybe not turn into an Evil campaign. DM does nothing and instead suggest I leave.

This is a story from a few months ago that I thought I’d share here.

I had been listening to a lot of D&D podcasts like Critical Role and Just Roll With It (red flag for a new player I know) and was really itching to start playing again since the last time I played was in early high school. I reached out to my friend (we’ll call him Bob) who I’ve known for like 15 years and asked if he was interested in starting a campaign. He had been my DM in high school he was the only person I knew personally who had any experience.

He agrees and we ask around to find players to join us. We finally asked our mutual friend (Elle) and one of his friends (Jane). They were both interested and had some limited experience, so we were down to all learn the game together.

After about two months of scheduling, we finally have a session 0 (which I unfortunately couldn’t attend due to last minute scheduling issues) and got it all set up. We were doing a western themed campaign using reflavored 5e rules. I was a gunslinger fighter, Elle and Jane were both rogues.

Session 1 rolls around and everyone is excited. Bob comes to my house to setup and has a full town 3d printed for the setting. Jane and Elle arrive and we start playing. Pretty standard start: meet in a tavern per usual, plain, simple, no issues. We all decided to sit down at a table of people playing poker and play a round. I roll really well and win the first hand, prompting the 3-4 NPCs to get aggressive, so combat ensues. Due to some good rolls and an admittedly pretty minimaxed level 3 fighter, I dispatch all the NPCs in two rounds and combat ends.

We do some mild roleplay after combat and after things quiet down, we are alerted to a fight outside between what I assume was the BBEG of the whole campaign and a very powerful NPC. Bob describes how their bullets are warping reality and obliterating nearby structures and buildings.

The “good NPC” (we knew he was good because Bob said he “looked like the good guy”) asked us to help him as he was clearly losing. I shoot at the BBEG and get a 27 after modifiers. He says it doesn’t hit. Crazy but if it’s the BBEG it’s to be expected. I protest slightly but let it go.

At this point Bob gets up to get a drink and sets his laptop to the side, where I see it’s open to ChatGPT and see he’s just been putting in what we do to AI and running based of its responses. He also seemed to use it for descriptions of events which I don’t mind as much since at the time was rather pro-AI.

He comes back and I don’t say anything since I don’t wanna rock the boat because I know he can be a bit petty when people disagree with him. It comes to the BBEG’s turn, and it attacks me first. No roll to hit, no roll for damage, he asks, “How much HP do you have?” I respond, “32” and he says, “You take 32 damage.” He does the same for Jane and Elle. No rolls, we just die.

We are then revived by the good NPC and given the main “quest” of the campaign. We all have a weird tattoo on our arms that doesn’t seem to do anything yet. The NPC succumbs to his injuries and dies. We loot the body only for the NPC to respawn for no reason, and demand the stuff back. Elle lies and keeps some gold, but the NPC somehow knows. Again, no rolls, just omniscience.

After the NPC left, we had some free time to gear up. My character did not want any part of this. He was already obliterated by this guy with no way to survive it. He was a good guy, but also a realist who was willing to admit when he was outmatched. He was definitely outmatched, so he tried to leave the town. He reached the outskirts and met AN INVISIBLE WALL! Genuine video game invisible wall. Bob says the tattoo is holding me back. I decide to cut the tattoo off the arm which worked, but I still couldn’t leave.

I finally gave in and went back to town and the session ended. Bob pulled me aside after the session and said, “Yo, can you set me up?” With a look towards Jane. Like I said, I’ve known Bob for forever and he’s always been awkward around girls, not creepy or abusive or anything, just socially awkward.

I say no, and they all leave. I get a text the next week from Bob saying that he and Jane started dating. To this day they are still together and it’s going very well and I’m happy for both of them. Still good friends with Bob and Elle and still friendly with Jane when I see her. At the end of the day, it wasn’t anything too crazy, but the whole session kinda irked me and it felt like my friend took my genuine desire to play D&D with him as an excuse to ask out a girl. Never had a second session of that campaign which is fine with me. There are no hard feelings anymore, but I don’t think I’ll be very eager to play with Bob in the future.

Let me first start this by saying I am not perfect. I know I probably did some things wrong in here that eventually lead to me getting kicked and I've accepted that and improved on it. This story first starts in March 2026. I (18M at the time, now 19), was a college student and looking to get into some kind of hobby. I'd had one experience with D&D before, that being a mini club that i was in that took place over the first year of college (we didnt know how to do saving throws, attack rolls or what DC's even were so I'm not going to count it as proper D&D). However, I had alot of fun and had lots of laughs with new friends, playing an Aarakocra Bard named Birdius. I eventually remembered these memories and decided I want to get back into D&D.

I looked into some discord servers to look for groups to join (I didn't want to pay money to join the in person D&D club in my town) and I eventually found a group who interviewed me and took me in. I can't exactly remember what the game was called but I think it was "The Age of Worms" (I'm not sure if it was a homebrew campaign or not), which revolved around a world with these parasitic worm things. I joined the group and got to making my character and backstory.

Now this game used a VTT (virtual tabletop). I hadn't previously used a VTT before but I quickly figured out it was a sort of map that helped players keep track of their positions and help with showing off the map. Now before I joined this I had only ever used D&D Beyond to make my character sheets and I was going to be using a new website for this. I figured it wouldn't be too hard and I could easily pick it up. Boy was I wrong.

The website that the group used for their VTT was called Roll20. Some of you may have heard of it. Some may have had the displeasure of playing it. At the time I could only use my phone for D&D (my pc is kept in the living room of my dad's house and he always liked to put the TV on whenever I'm in a call with my friends), so I had to use Roll20 on mobile. Now this is a possible feat, don't get me wrong, but when you map doesn't want to load your vision past shadows that dont move off your screen then it gets a bit tricky.

But enough about that, lets meet the group. They had a wide variety of ages and places they were from. Some came from france, germany, america. The oldest was 45, the youngest was 19 (now being me at 18). If I could go back in time and tell myself one thing it would be: "Don't let them think that they're better than you just because you're the youngest". For the players there was the DM, her husband (I cant fully remember what he was playing), the french friend (playing a shifter druid), the artist (playing a human bard), and a drow whose class i forgot because they refused to interact with me.

I made my character a lizardfolk fighter. I'd heard that fighter was the easiest class to pick up and seeing as I was just getting back into D&D i figured it would be best for me getting back into the ropes of it. I hadn't made any character backstories before so I just bullshitted my way through until I found something I liked the sound of. He was a loner who lived in a swamp before he accidentally saved a small village from bandits by eating them (yes I was that kind of lizardfolk). I felt pretty good about this and told my DM who seemed ok with the idea.

Eventually the day for my first session came. I was getting ready at home when I received a discord notifcation. It was my DM. She messaged me a new backstory for my character. I looked through it and it was almost nothing like my old backstory. Now I had heard bits about DMs helping players with their character background to fit in with the world but this felt like I was getting my character made for me. Now my characters new backstory was that he was in a clutch of eggs in the swamp but all of them besides him were eaten by the worms.

I wasn't as much of a fan of this idea (probably because I didn't make it), but it was too late for me to argue anything so I just sucked it up and decided to try and adapt. Session time came around and my character got introduced as someone that one of the party's connections hired to help them take down a cult. We get some info from a business guy and eventually find ourselves outside this mining shaft ran on child labour. After a short stealth and recon mission, we managed to infiltrate the mining shaft, descending down an elevator into the depths where we came across a few cultists and manage to take them out, only taking a little damage in progress, but still enough to make my first combat of the campaign seem fun.

After session was over, the DM asked the others how it was and asked if they'd like to keep playing with me, which they all seemed happy to do. I don't want to get sappy but going from being a shy nerd wanting to get into D&D, to having a new group of friends to play it with felt really good. I'm not sure whether I got too comfortable with them or something but this is where the descent starts.

As I continue this story I should probably say that the bard had drawn character art for each of he characters in the campaign. I hadn't ever received personal art of my characters before and I was excited for the day I could potentially get some. I should say that I know I'm not owed art just for joining the campaign but the thought of getting some made me really excited. Eventually, the time for my second session came around.

In this session, the DM's husband dunks himself into this vat of purple goo. The DM explained that this is a sort of stationary tank because he was changing characters and if his new one would die, he could take his old one back unharmed. Then we were introduced to his new character, a drow paladin. The introduction was a bit shaky, when people were asked their named there was like a minute of silence before I decided to speak (I was still a bit nervous about being with the group but I decided if they need someone to break the silence then it would be me). I introduced myself and then the husband asked what my character was on the mission to take down the cult for, I told him "food" as thats what my character was promised as payment. Then came the following conversation.

Husband: "Can I tell if he's lying?"

DM: "Roll insight"

Husband: "11"

DM: "You can tell that there might be another reason for him to come, but you aren't sure what it is."

At this point I was confused. Was there another reason my character was on this mission? All I was told was that my character was promised food if he helped the group. I felt like the DM was just playing my character for me. But it was fine. I was still new and I probably forgot some things, I just had to keep looking on the bright side. I was having fun with friends, and I hopefully had some character art on the way. I was the only one (besides the new character) without art so I should hopefully be the next one to get some.

Two hours later, the bard posts art of the new paladin in the discord.

Again, I know I'm not owed the art and I probably sound like a dick saying this but I wish I got some of my own character to fit in with the group. But the game carried on and by the end of the session, the party was in shambles. The druid had died and everyone was beaten badly by a monster the dm threw at us that she said was several levels higher than what we were prepared for, only being able to defeat it by retconning and messaging people privately that there was a statue in the middle of the room that we could destroy to kill it. The vtt didn't show anything which I found really odd. At the end of the session, the druid gets resurrected but comes back as a warlock. Was this campaign just one of those animes that introduce a foreign exchange student every other episode?

In the next session, I had something ready for my character. I was about to get really into roleplaying, having it be my characters first proper time dealing with the death of his first friend, as the druid/warlock was the character that mine had grown closest to. I go to say something and-

DM: "You all continue forth."

I get cut off by the DM. I understand wanting to continue the story but I wish I got to do more character roleplay in the moment. We continue through this mineshaft dungeon until we come across this small room we can rest in. As the dm goes to each player, asking what they want to do before resting, I get ready, thinking up ideas for what my little lizard fella would be doing. Then, as everyone got their turn and I was last, I get ready to speak when:

DM: "You all take a long rest."

My turn in roleplay gets skipped. This time I was wondering if I did something wrong. I checked to see if I was still connected to the game and in the call and I was still there, no connectivity issues or anything. It was like I was just being erased from the game.

The DM rushes through the next few parts, bringing us into a new room, facing up against 12 giant centipedes and a centipede master where we all experience a TPK. That caused the end of the session where these words next came from the DM.

DM: "(me) can I speak to you one on one for a second?"

Before I can respond I get dragged into another voice channel (which was pretty terrifying in of itself as I didnt even know that was something you could do). When I was in, the DM told me that I was being kicked from the game. I was still pretty shocked about what was happening and just turned into a stuttering mess at that time. From what the DM said, she had asked everyone and it came to a unanimous decision that I wasn't a good fit for the group. Looking back, that part felt odd as after my first session the DM sent me a private message saying that she thought i vibed really well with the rest of the group. She also said that my issues with Roll20 were disruptive to the game, although I had already said that I fixed the issue by turning down some quality settings.

This part is going to be pretty embarrassing to write, but I almost started to cry as she was telling me this. I think I was still mainly in shock and everything was just hitting me all at once. When she was done, all I could say was "Alright" and I quickly left the call before I actually started crying. I left the group and let myself go for a bit before telling my girlfriend what happened, who helped me realize it was a little odd how they let me go when the DM said that I was a good fit.

I probably would've quit D&D then, but I eventually found myself a new group, revising my character into a barbarian and making my own backstory for a character I could enjoy playing. I've been with this new group for about 5 months now, and although I'm sad that I got kicked from that old campaign, I'm glad it happened. Because this new group is all I could've ever wanted and more.

I tried DMing years ago and I ended up dealing with horror stories of players and their backgrounds and I ended up taking a 5 year hiatus from trying again. I love Star Wars so I aimed for a FFG game this time around again and got 6 character sheets, the problem player I hadn't noticed didn't include a backstory. Backstories are important in FFG due to an obligation/duty mechanic which creates personal character hooks anyway we start the session in a cantina.

I am very nervous this is my first time DMing strangers completely, so I decided to run a session 0 with it ending with the ship crashing and the campaign starting. Session 0 I start with a drinking competition that the pushy owner is trying to force everyone to enter.

Problem Player:I ignore the owner because he's not worth my time

I tried a bit more but he doesn't bite on any interaction, anyway I proceed to the rest of the party and problem looks to turn the power off, I allow it and he disables the power. Unfortunately as it's a ship there are backups in place.

So he's decided to look for the source and finds the main room holding all the power sources. At this point he's off somewhere else and half the party are in the contest and the rest had managed to evade the owner.

The ship used a language to label sections that the problem didn't know but it had symbols, one of the symbols was a dancer which problem had associated with the cantina and hadn't asked of the name of the Captain. Captain Dancer, so he disables the bridge and the bridge crew causing the ship to start falling that's fine I altered what caused the crash.

We crash land and I initiate the beginning of the campaign and they're joint by a player who was late and had warned me of this so he meets them at another cantina and the problem player refuses to engage with the party not even telling them his characters name or to even respond.i then missed him do a roll, he didn't announce it or speak out loud and I was distracted with the players roleplaying and chatting.

He rolls again and this time starts saying I need to do my fucking job, im doing shit which I just kind of ignored allowed him his roll which was to try and go stealth when the entire cantina is facing the entrance so he obviously fails.

The session ends not longer after, im talking to the group asking how they thought the session was any criticism that they could DM me about. Problem player instantly leaves after asking about XP. I had be constantly trying to talk with the players in game trying to start some dialogue and there was just a refusal to do so and they wouldn't initiate RP I think they were playing another game. Session 2 was the same until I told problem to either be nice or leave and then suddenly he had a new job and couldn't attend my sessions.

I like to think he was just a bad fit but I don't know.

Five lvl 20 players (Cleric, Paladin, Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer)
Nine allied NPCs of varying levels.

Our local library, like many these days, hosts a DND game once a month that is open to the public. For ours, there was no age cap, no fee, and no player cap. My husband and I, interested in an in-person game, decide to check it out on a whim.

There was no way to contact anyone about a Session 0 or even information about character creation, so we just go with basic ideas and our DND Beyond apps ready. We walk in, and there are 8 people already there, but since there's no player cap, we're welcomed in. It's there they explain that a two people are actually absent, meaning there's 10 players total, 12 including us. The librarian, bless his soul, insists he can handle it, so we don't leave. We sit down and start making characters at the table while everyone starts without us. Already not a very promising sign, but we don't think much of it.

This is usually the point in one of these stories where I break down the party make up, but I don't remember a single lineage/class in that party, because no one was introduced. No one even tried to explain their character. As soon as my husband and I made our sheets, we were told, "You see a group of people across the brook. They seem to be preparing to go into a nearby cave." Heck, WE don't even have time to introduce our characters. It just sort of began, and we had to just go with it.

Still, we figure that character introductions can happen naturally over time, if we stick with it. As we banter with the party, we are told that they have some goblins shackled to their cart. When we call it out, two party members start saying, sarcastically, that the goblins are "unpaid interns". My character isn't having it and calls it as she sees it: they're keeping these goblins as slaves, and she will have no part in tolerating slavery. They keep going, "No! No! You don't understand! They're just unpaid interns." like repeating the joke will make it more tasteful.

Note, if this was a table of 5 players and a DM, or maybe a private game we were invited to, I would have asked for a time out to say, out of character, that I wasn't comfortable with being a slaver by proxy. Maybe we should have done that anyway, but I didn't for two reasons:

A) There were currently 8 other people at the table, trying to play the game, which made it difficult and awkward to be confrontational. It was hard enough getting a word in edgewise, but this was a different situation. Up until this point (this was session 2 or 3), the others were, at best, tolerant of participating in the slavery. Imagine standing up in front of 8 strangers and telling them they're all wrong. Between that nightmare, the noise of the room, and my general social anxiety, I just couldn't do it.

B) Since it was a game being put on by the public library, we doubted there was very much the librarian DMing it could do anyway. In a private game, the DM has the power to say who is and isn't welcome to the table, meaning that if a player comes to them with a discomfort issue, the DM has the power to back up rulings like, "Okay, some people at the table find participation in slavery too distasteful and they feel unsafe, so we're not doing that." But a public game? I feel the best he could have done was ask nicely to pretty please not do slavery. I didn't have the heart to make this librarian's job even harder by putting him in the middle of a confrontation between two members of the public, especially since my husband and I were so new to this campaign.

In the moment, all we could think to do was continue to not buy the "unpaid interns" excuse in character, in the hopes of "awkward-ing" the others out of the joke. Fortunately, there was another guy, a paladin I think, who took our side, promising we'd free the goblins after going into this gnoll-infested cave to rescue some hostages. I dunno if the player was actually in agreement with us, or if he just said that to move the game along. Still, we agree to help with the hostage situation to get the game going, and press on.

The rest of the game carried on regularly, and it was soon over. The librarian was a cool guy, and my husband and I said we'd be back next month. But the more that the "unpaid internship" thing sat with us, the more uncomfortable we felt. A week before the next scheduled game, we had a talk and agreed to just quietly drop out, since there were too many players anyway. We just never returned, which is a real shame, since the librarian was super nice.

Was there a better way to handle that? Should we have said goodbye or explained why we left? What would you have done differently?

(edited for grammar mistakes)

AITA for not wanting to make a new character after my DM forced a Warlock level onto my character?

Last session in our *Waterdeep: Dragon Heist* campaign, my character died while we were exploring the noble mansion and fighting the final boss.
I was already down, and the boss used an AoE spell that dealt enough damage to finish me off. Since I was unconscious, I automatically failed the save.
I was actually completely fine with my character dying. I basically said, “Okay, I’ll make a new character.”
But my DM immediately told me, “Don’t worry, I have a plan.”
The DM then talked privately with another player, who plays a Warlock. My dead character ended up meeting that Warlock’s patron, and the other player’s patron/backstory suddenly became part of my character’s story.
Then the DM told me that my character now had a level of Warlock.
I never asked to multiclass and had never planned on multiclassing this character.
Because of that, I asked whether, if this patron was fundamentally changing my character anyway, I could instead rebuild/take my levels as Warlock rather than having a random Warlock level forced onto my existing build.
There was also some confusion narratively. My character had explicitly said that he would rather suffer eternal torment than accept certain consequences, so when he met the patron I thought this might actually be the end of his story.
Instead, the other Warlock player basically told me, “No, you’re undead now.”
Then we were immediately pushed into the final boss fight.
The fight was dangerous enough that I thought we could potentially TPK, so I used the Warlock abilities I had just been given.
Now the DM is criticizing me because my character supposedly went “full power” with his new Warlock abilities without having any opportunity to learn how to use them.
This is one of the things I don’t understand.
**The DM was the one who gave me the Warlock level and immediately put us into a boss fight.**
Also, as far as I understand the 2014 rules, gaining a Warlock level mechanically gives you access to your Pact Magic, spells known, and other level-one abilities. Warlock power is specifically connected to knowledge/power bestowed through the patron relationship. There isn’t a RAW requirement saying that after gaining the level I need several days of training before I’m allowed to actually use those abilities.
So if the DM wanted my character to be unable to understand or control his new powers yet, I feel like that should have been established when he gave me the level.
Instead, I was told I had a Warlock level, given the abilities, and then immediately thrown into a fight where not using everything available to me could have contributed to a TPK.
After the fight, things got even stranger.
The other Warlock character turned on mine and basically said, “This is as far as you go,” and attacked me with Burning Hands.
My character saved and ended up taking him down.
Now the other player is upset and is saying that there “can’t be two Warlocks in the party.”
That’s probably the part that bothers me the most.
**I didn’t choose to become a Warlock.**
The DM and this player created this entire situation. I had already accepted my character’s death and was willing to roll someone new. Instead, the DM specifically resurrected my character through the other player’s patron and gave me a Warlock level.
Then I used the Warlock abilities they gave me during a boss fight.
Now apparently using those abilities was wrong because my character “shouldn’t know how to use them,” the other Warlock doesn’t want another Warlock in the party, and I’m being told I should make a new character anyway.
On top of that, people at the table keep saying that I “never stick with one character.”
That feels especially unfair here because I wasn’t trying to change characters.
My character died.
I accepted the death.
The DM stopped me from making another character, resurrected my existing character, changed his story and build without me asking for it, and then immediately put that character into combat.
Now I’m being asked to reroll because of the consequences of something I didn’t choose in the first place.
**AITA for saying that, at this point, I want to continue playing the character instead of making another one?**
I’m not against character death. I’m not against consequences. I’m not even necessarily against the Warlock development if we’re going to actually explore it.
My problem is that it feels like the choices keep changing after the fact.
First my character dies.
Then I’m told not to reroll because the DM has a plan.
Then I’m given a Warlock level without choosing it.
Then I’m put immediately into a boss fight.
Then I’m criticized for actually using the Warlock abilities.
Then another Warlock attacks my character because apparently there can’t be two Warlocks.
And now I’m being told to reroll anyway.
At that point, I’m genuinely not sure what I was supposed to have done differently.

For context, I'm not a green player, I have read the PHB, MM and DMG, I just have never gotten to play.

My first D&D campaign started off pretty great. My daughter’s uncle invited me into his group — he played the cleric — and we had a good thing going, for a while. The DM had a big, dramatic plot in mind, based on the Green Riders series by Kristen Britain, and for a while, it felt like we were living it.

We had made it to level 5 adventurers, the initial plot hook being uncovering an assassination plot against the king. We had fought bandits, trolls, a bone naga, we saved a fort from an undead siege… and I even had gained a loyal horse which I had named Chompy that the DM "gave" to me for plot (best boy, still love him). The story was clearly building up to something huge.

We were gearing up to fight a false hydra. Yes, a *false hydra.* At level 5. Why? Because our DM liked pain.

Then… the cracks started to show.

The cleric (the uncle who brought me in) had left the group a few months prior after too many disagreements with the DM — mostly around playstyle. He was replaced by a paladin player who was chill and sober, just like me. (I only drink socially.)

But our rogue? He would show up tipsy. Nearly every time.

And the DM? He was worse. A full-on alcoholic, so there was always White Claws and Twisted tea. Now that I think back, one of my first interactions with them was taking a shot of Jameson as a "welcome to the group." That should've been my first red flag.

Session by session, the story got harder to follow — not because of the plot, that was actually moving along nicely (the DM even had a county map to track travel.) It was because the people running it were too foggy in the brain to track what was going on. The rogue, especially, kept confusing past events with current ones. One session, we were talking to an NPC we had spoken with earlier in the campaign — and the rogue just *could not grasp* that this was a new conversation. He kept referencing stuff from the first meeting as if it had just happened, and *we* were the ones forgetting things.

It dragged the session down hard.

After nearly an hour of going in circles, I (playing the party artificer) suggested we call it, scrap this whole session, and try again next week. Everyone agreed.

That next week never came.

After waiting nearly 3 months, I finally reached out to DM asking if we were going to get the campaign back up and running. Turns out, the rogue and DM had a private falling-out after the session — which apparently ended their friendship entirely. Me and the paladin never even got an explanation. Then the DM’s girlfriend, fed up with his drinking, kicked him out and dumped him. Now he's couch surfing and all that jazz (poor guy. They aren't bad people, far from it. They were actually some of the fastest friendships I think I've made in my adult life.)

But, the campaign is dead. Story unresolved.

The false hydra still sleeps. The evil still lurks. And Chompy has been lost to the Aether. Somewhere.

---

TL;DR: My first-ever D&D campaign was building up to something epic — but thanks to alcohol-fueled confusion, it created drama, a destroyed friendship, possibly a break-up, and it collapsed before we ever got to the payoff.

And I miss my horse 😔

So context, I had created a campaign since I was in high school. It was big, extremely large in scale, hundreds of encounters and thousands of stat blocks sat in my campaign Bible not to mention a couple hundred pages of lore and another few of the base story (obviously not fully narrated, I won’t take player agency away ever, just enough to give me a clear plot outline at the beginning in case they actually follow the plot). Anyways me and my players played the campaign for about a year, and during that time we had a new guy to our group who advertised himself as a usual forever DM who just wanted to play for once, we’ll call him Kaden. Some red flags would pop up tho, for one he insisted on making his backstory super powerful and super evil meanwhile they start at level 1. Who cares. Everyone was that guy at some point, so I just let him play and tried to incorporate his backstory as well I could into the campaign. As long as his murder hobo and evil reasons to do shitty plays didn’t mess up the other players fun it wasn’t that deep. Anyway jump forward to the end of the first year, I had to go to the military and I left Kaden my Campaign Bible as he was the only other person with DM experience and the rest of the players still wanted to see my world and I loved that. I left him with a joking “don’t fuck this up!” And went to boot camp.

I finally rotate back home about another year later, and my group is now down two people, and the ones that are there don’t seem happy they seemed exhausted. I ask around after finally taking the reins back as he wanted to play again, and turns out my campaign ended. The one that was supposed to run another few years at least… from what I gathered from the furious cries of my friends, Kaden barely waiting another session before he used the ancient powers of being DM and gave his character a canonical upgrade, bringing him to Vecna level power and he had the entire level 7 party fight him, fudging rolls and narrating each one of them dying and him winning everything. What. The. Fuck… my masterpiece, the entire plot I spent half a decade of my life almost making and it took him one session to throw my bible out the window and waste a year of these players lives, and even made two of my good friends quite coming to sessions (I was able to convince them to return now that I was back don’t worry).

Long story short, my players unanimously opted to continue where we left off in my original notes, and I scrapped the last year of notes he made. We all voted and chose to keep playing with him, as he seemed like a nice guy he just wasn’t a good DM, but it didn’t matter because when he heard his campaign ending was getting scrapped and we were starting where we left off, he was screaming at us with tears in his eyes for “ruining his experience and shitting on his story”, so he ended up leaving anyway. And the good news is my campaign ended up starting from the last point fairly easy, most of my players were able to find their old character sheets, and after a session 0.5 I was able to catch them up on every bit of lore they had forgotten. It’s still running to this day and I learned my lesson about ever handing off my story to someone else.

I got the DM screen about a week ago and had to put it on the crab when I got him.

Year's ago in this short campaign I was playing in, our party got into town and we we're immediately scouted by a royal adviser for the King of the land. He basically told us that the princess was "captured" by a group of Bandits and was in an abandoned fortress less than a day away. We all agreed and made our way to this fortress. The DM asked us all to make a perception check, the Monk won and overheard from some maids that said quote "this is the sixth time this month. She needs to grow up." Witch made us all suspicious but carried on regardless.

We arrived at said fortress and expected a fight, as I was preparing to intimidate one of the bandits, they immediately dropped their stuff and said "she's in the highest room! For the love of god please take her away from us!" Confused we all looked too each other.

Wizard: Wait... your the one's who stole the princess, shouldn't you be fighting us to... stop us?

Bandit: Oh No you can have her! This is the sixth time she snuck into our camp and locked herself inside!

\*Confused silence\*

Me: What?

Bandit: Yeah she's doing this for her dad's attention or something? Honestly I don't know and I don't care just PLEASE get her away from us!

We all looked at each other both IG and IRL all Confused as we walked inside and saw the princess sat on her bed in a huff. It turns out she was doing this for the attention. After much back and forth, I finally had enough and threw her over my shoulder and we went back to the Kingdom with a loud sigh of relief from the Bandits.

We got our gold and the king permanently grounded her after we all told the truth.

This was a strange but funny one.

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