DnD? What could possibly go wrong?
So, yeah. Yesterday, we had a bit of a DnD fiasco. The 4th Edition group was meeting, after not meeting for SO long, so that was awesome (I play a Ranger that's going to switch to beastmaster at the next level, because it came out after i had made my character and the DM said I could). We just get out of beating a dungeon that wasn't too hard, and got the amulet to return to the kobold leader so he would stop harassing the passing merchants. Unfortunately, there were some dragonborn who had already turned up and killed most of the kobolds. Not that great, yeah? And one of them was in Paragon tier already, and we were still third level. Fortunately, he was very plot oriented, and said some lines and left his 3 soldiers to do his dirty work. Which they weren't doing so great at, as we kinda kicked their asses. Until a young blue dragon (level 6 solo encounter) finished teleporting in from out of the blue. We had a little trouble dealing with that, our kobold fighter almost died, but in the end of the fight it was all good. So we went out to the next big city, the group split up for a bit cuz the chaotic evil wizard wanted to go blow stuff up back at the other town, which we let him do, and the good kobold fighter joined him to make sure he didn't do anything too bad. The rest of us went to the next city, and on the way we went through a smaller passage that was really really dark (oh yeah, I should mention that the campaign setting takes place underground where everything is in a series of caves, most of which are lit up by glowing fungus). There we fought some swarm lizard drake things that almost killed me at first. But it was ok for a while, I got behind our gnoll swordmage and did some serious damage. It was going fine until our warforged barbarian (using the playtest rules) decided to pressing strike to shift behind the last three swarms that still had plenty of health. On his next action, he used blade sweep to hit one swarm and nick the rest for 5 damage, his con mod. Here was the beginning of the end for this meet, unfortunately. The DM says that they only take 2 damage from it because swarms take half damage from melee and ranged attacks. Ruin, the barbarian (I use character names for privacy purposes) says that it's not melee, it's close burst because it hits everyone around him. They get into a little fight, so the DM decides to go up to the computer and look up what the attack does. I go with him to look up some other attacks for people. When we get back, it turns out that Ike (gnoll swordmage) had started insulting Ruin for no reason, and he decided to quit the game for the night because he was so pissed that people were yelling at him for no reason. Oh, and the DMs ruling, not that it mattered, was that since Blade Sweep says it's a melee attack, he's saying that the rest of the damage is also a melee attack (as though he's sweeping his blade through the enemies, hence the name, Blade Sweep), so they take 2 damage, and that's the final ruling.
Now then, in case Ruin and Ike decide to read this, I feel I should say something to each of them.
Ruin; you shouldn't have to make the DM look up rules. Now, this time he definitely chose to because he didn't feel sure about his ruling, but you don't get to argue with the DM. It's just how it is. When you were DMing we didn't argue with you (well, I didn't, and neither did most of the other people (Meat Product did, but, then, that's her deal. She's a jerk anyways)). Even if his ruling is completely wrong, and you find out after the meet is over for reals, then now you know for the next time. And also, you should know that that's just how Ike is. She can be a total douchebag sometimes, and I personally think you did the right thing not lowering yourself to her level, but you should remember to take everything she says with a grain of salt.
Ike; just because someone is confused about their powers and doesn't think the DM is right is definitely no cause to insult them enough to cause them to leave the game. I mean, talk about a dick move. Especially after you killed his last character and his new one only just got to join us (yeah yeah i know you used your own stupid logic to justify that, but you damn well know that it was Ruin's character and still killed him). You can say "Hey, bro, don't argue with the DM, that's not how it is," and you don't need to yell at anyone. And also, I know that you and Ruin dislike each other for no good reason as far as I can figure, but hey, DnD is a time for a lot of people to get together and have a lot of fun, not for a lot of people to get together and have no fun because two of them insist on bitching each other out. So leave petty arguments outside the table, and criticize peoples' playing after the monsters are dead.
There are good DnD meets, and there are bad DnD meets. It just happens. Last meet was a bad meet. The one before that was great. With any kind of luck we can just move on and learn from our mistakes. Of course, they could both take this completely the wrong way and bitch me out about it, but then I guess that's just how some people do things. Hopefully the next meet will be something better to write about.
Now then, in case Ruin and Ike decide to read this, I feel I should say something to each of them.
Ruin; you shouldn't have to make the DM look up rules. Now, this time he definitely chose to because he didn't feel sure about his ruling, but you don't get to argue with the DM. It's just how it is. When you were DMing we didn't argue with you (well, I didn't, and neither did most of the other people (Meat Product did, but, then, that's her deal. She's a jerk anyways)). Even if his ruling is completely wrong, and you find out after the meet is over for reals, then now you know for the next time. And also, you should know that that's just how Ike is. She can be a total douchebag sometimes, and I personally think you did the right thing not lowering yourself to her level, but you should remember to take everything she says with a grain of salt.
Ike; just because someone is confused about their powers and doesn't think the DM is right is definitely no cause to insult them enough to cause them to leave the game. I mean, talk about a dick move. Especially after you killed his last character and his new one only just got to join us (yeah yeah i know you used your own stupid logic to justify that, but you damn well know that it was Ruin's character and still killed him). You can say "Hey, bro, don't argue with the DM, that's not how it is," and you don't need to yell at anyone. And also, I know that you and Ruin dislike each other for no good reason as far as I can figure, but hey, DnD is a time for a lot of people to get together and have a lot of fun, not for a lot of people to get together and have no fun because two of them insist on bitching each other out. So leave petty arguments outside the table, and criticize peoples' playing after the monsters are dead.
There are good DnD meets, and there are bad DnD meets. It just happens. Last meet was a bad meet. The one before that was great. With any kind of luck we can just move on and learn from our mistakes. Of course, they could both take this completely the wrong way and bitch me out about it, but then I guess that's just how some people do things. Hopefully the next meet will be something better to write about.