DM Angst & Munchkinism

For the past couple of years, I’ve been occasionally perusing the Wotc forums. This started right before 4e was announced, so I had the joy of witnessing the written cacophony that was the so called “Edition Wars.” A few months ago, when Wotc started a new social networking site and incorporated their forums therein, I signed back up and became a bit more active, posting in discussions, making some friends and after a month or so, I started a blog on the site. Fortunately, someone pointed out a clause in the Wotc Community Tos which I had overlooked (I probably just glossed over it; when I signed back up, I was only looking for access to the Forums). Said clause gives them pretty much carte blanche to do whatever they damned well please with anything you post to any part of their site. Not only that, it reads like they don’t even have to credit the original author.  So, I promptly removed the blog I had started and opened up shop here on Blogger.

I’m glad I did. I’ve met some nice people here as well and I had no idea that there was this great, creative, treasure-chest of sites, filled with the work and ideas of so many talented people.

While reading and participating in the Wotc forums, I kept noticing an anti-DM sentiment popping up in discussion after discussion. Thread after thread would turn in that direction, to the point that I began asking myself what in the world was going on?

There were constant complaints about bad DM’s, constant bitching about DM fiat, calls to throw “Rule 0” out of the game, and serious discussions about getting rid of DM’s completely. Getting rid of DM’s…

Some of the complaints are legitimate. A lot of DM’s who post their campaign ideas describe Railroads, from beginning, to middle, to end. It’s usually an “Epic” story, with a BBEG, and enough related stuff in the middle to get the Players to the “Final Confrontation.” With game designers from major companies pushing this  approach and setting this kind of example with their products, it’s no surprise that many DM’s use the Railroad as a template for their games.

A recent discussion on the Wotc forums concerning DMPC’s comes to mind. I always thought a DMPC was when a DM ran his own PC with the group, a practice usually frowned upon by experienced gamers. Also, I connect the term with “Pet NPC’s,” pretty much the same idea and used by DM’s who want to control their players or are under the delusion that the PC’s need an uber-powerful authority figure to order them around, rescue them when necessary, and steal the spotlight at every opportunity.

An NPC party member is a completely different animal. They get half xp, never outshine the party, and, in my games, often wear a red shirt, though ,sometimes it’s hidden under their armor. I dislike running them myself, but have on occasion, usually when no one would play a Cleric. Not always a problem, but often enough that I started using the Healer NPC Class published in Dragon Magazine, to send along with PC’s. I’ve never regarded such a NPC as being different from any other NPC the players might run into.

In the discussion I mentioned above, the participants made no distinction between DMPC’s and NPC’s. I tried to make the distinction, and was ignored. They’re ALL DMPC’s they’re ALL bad, they’re ALL DM’s srewing the players. Always! 

My gaming circles have been pretty insular over the decades. Back in the day, we knew what a munchkin was, though we didn’t have a name for them. We did, on occasion, see examples of Railroading in other gaming groups we encountered. No one had to tell us that it was a shitty way to DM. Of course, no one had to tell us how to treat each other with consideration, behave like the friends we were, and not try to “win” the game, either.

So, are there just That Many bad DM’s out there, ruining the game for players who can’t find anyone else to run a game and are so dead set against doing it themselves?

Or, is this some weird, extreme form of Munchkinism? Are some people just mad that the DM is “more powerful,” and do they think they should be able to “beat the DM?”