RE: Accusations of DM Favortism and "Railroading" Plots
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Folks, sometimes as a DM here on City of Arabel, you log into the DM chat room and hear about three DMs all say roughly the same thing, “I stopped DMing here for a few months and then as always, I came back and now I remember why I quit last time.” To cut right to the heart of the matter, here on CoA, our DMs log in to have fun with other people and tell amazing stories about adventurers and their plots for fame and fortune.
What this means is that we tend to shower rewards and interaction on those players who are also here to do what we do. Invariably, this leads to some people (almost always in chat rooms we don’t regulate or voice chat connections where they are free to say whatever they want without encountering the truth) to claim we DMs play favorites and the only people who play amazing characters get there because we basically coddle them the whole way.
This is simple sour grapes, but also has the unfortunate problem of discouraging people who may otherwise one day discover lots of DM attention from even bothering to try, thinking if you’re not in the right clique, you don’t get in.My case in point, and reason for typing this today is Kraegus Thune played by Jaded. Some people claim the DMs set him up for victory, lauded him with attention and rewards that were not deserved. Either because we’re simply bad DMs who were using him to railroad a storyline, or we’re nasty DMs who shower love and affection on certain players and ignore or actively try to hold back the rest, especially those we've somehow 'black listed' and will never reward at all.
So with Jaded’s permission, I thought I’d share you some comments we DMs made for our “favorite” player.
These made after the player asked to have a character application approved.
@DM:
Its a no for me, the player doesnt seem able to roll with the punches if something doesn't go the way they want they whine about it. And then complained when they died on a quest tonight and started going on about the same thing, how much RP builds suck.
@DM:
I talked to them and they are going to work on their ooc attitude. And those complaints are horrid. I've seen quite a few "Gimped" or "RP Builds" function wonderfully, hell even I did one, and it was an absolute blast to play (I died a bit more than others, but hey, look where it got me, right?)
These after the player left for a few months and then returned.
@DM:
This player is back. Didn’t we ban him/her?
@DM:
No, you’re thinking of XXXX. This guy is probably worse though. He’s looking to join the MG.
@DM:
So should we do something in-game to make sure they can’t?
@DM:
If we don't want him OOCly then we should tell him that OOCly.
@DM:
Guess “DM Two” just volunteered to talk to him.
@DM:
Why would we ban him from a faction? I don't think that's exactly necessary–but if anyone thinks it is--an OOC talk with him first should happen to see if he understands the problems and will fix them.
That’s right, a player some of us thought we’d banned. Who many of us didn’t want in any DM faction at all. We still gave them a fair shake though and eventually that player worked his way into the Sheriffs with Thune after they talked through some of these issues with us.
He then did all the cool things. He adventured. He created intrigue. He involved many other players in what he was doing.
DMs would drop him plot hooks and hints, and rather than follow up on them himself, he often sent other players to do it as he hit higher levels. Sure he stayed involved, often because he took more initiative than those who he shared the plot hooks with. When his character died or bad things happened, he rolled with it as well as could be expected (not perfectly mind you, but well).
When he felt DMs had overplayed something, were heavy handed, or unfair—he very politely told us so and listened to our responses. It didn’t feel antagonistical, but like a fun guy talking to other fun guys about something that hadn’t played out in a fun way and needed to be talked over.
It is very insulting to a player who spent 30+ hours a week playing a character, creating fun for everyone, leading events that resulted in the return of Cormyr, the effects of which will last for years in Arabel (assuming the game lasts that long) (And those of you thinking DMs were just railroading a storyline, this is really funny, since you probably accused us of railroading the Civil War initially just to get rid of Cormyr and refuse to accept we just let players determine outcomes).
I will also say, many DMs were very disappointed in how this character was ended, killed in a PvP event by a far less interesting and involved character, though one with a legitimate reason to PK (but arguably one who had not earned the privilege of ending another’s story, no offense is intended to that player who handled most of the build up to this quite well I should add, this is just how the entire DM team feels about it). Yes, there will be in-character repercussions because there is a huge difference between having the mechanical/technical PvP combat skills that some have—and actually having the roleplaying skills to build NPC alliances and creating amazing and fun stories on CoA will always be rewarded over amassing impressive potion collections.
Our point here, is to remind people that we still reward fun. Even if for some reason the DM team doesn’t enjoy interacting with a player (many of us didn’t with Jaded) we still strive to treat you fairly. Jaded still thinks some of his previous characters weren’t given a fair go by the DMs (we disagree, but all of us disagree in an agreeable manner).
If you do awesome fun things. We will reward you for them. Truth is, we do have favorites—but favorites are picked for the fun they create for the server, not because DMs just “like someone and dislike someone else”. It is as easy to become a DM favorite as it probably is to stop being one (usually by joining the jaded collection of people who are happier spreading rumors about how awful CoA is than they are to actually talk it over publicly, where their rumors are going to be either dispelled or actual problems that do exist corrected and thereby take away their chance to bitch about how unfair things are.)
Jaded told me that Thune was his most successful character in ten years of playing on CoA. From my perspective, it took him a long time to just relax and enjoy telling stories and stop looking at the “DM Team” as an enemy trying to get in his way of having fun, and realize we’re all here for the same reason. I’m posting this to encourage the people spreading mistruths, lies, and their own fears in back channels and help show anyone who buys what these folks are selling, that actual truth.
DMs like fun people. We support and reward fun people.
Want to talk some of this over? Click here, or post on Ask a DM if you have a specific question and want a direct answer.
