An unfortunate encounter

Learning some DMs and Players just dont pair well..


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A little back story which will explain a few things down the line. I was pretty new to DnD at this point having only played one game prior to the campaign where the “incident” happened. I played a one off with my sister and her friends who I had met for the first time. They all seemed pretty chill for the most part and the campaign was a lot of fun. I even got an inspiration point from the DM for coming with a clever trick using several gold coins which I had carved unique symbols and giving each one to each player. I took note as to whom had what symbol. When one member got seperated I used locate object to locate their presence. I was told it was a pretty good idea and use of the spell and that, that is the sort of creativity they like in players. Sometime has passed and I got word from the DM he wants to throw a campaign together where we would meet once every other week. I told him I was so down to play. Having brushed up on DnD knowledge and watched several episodes of Critical Role. He asked what kind of character I wanted to play. I sort of had an idea, I wanted to be a Human Ranger, I told him about all these cool ideas for combos and the kind of damage I could do, The DM told me, (and I have not forgotten this and keep it in mind when building characters today) “DnD isn’t all about combat, there are many ways to overcome situations that don’t require combat. In some cases combat can be ignored with clever planning.” I had not considered that and really gave extra thought to my character, this comes into play later on. I had also requested if I could somehow be a werewolf and if I could use the Revised Ranger rules, but not be too broken with the werewolf.. He was uncertain of my request as the rules for Lycanthropy are vague at best. However the Shifter race had just been announced and he offered that as an option. Looking into it, i figured it was the way to go. A little backstory about my character. Being a ranger he hunted and was very familiar with the wilderness only killing out of necessity of survival. He came from a clan of Nordic like people who hunted werewolves as they had become a huge plague on the lands. Getting bit by one had awoken my characters Shifter genetics not showing any signs at first. First session of the campaign went well, but this is where I got my first glimpse that something may not go well in the future. The world the DM created was open and a sandbox, so we could basically go wherever we wanted or do what we wanted. We took turns going around the table basically acting out what our characters would do. My character Arrived on a boat that left from his homeland. He was tracking the werewolf that bit him and murdered his father. The DM told me to just do what my character would do, and to him that would be to find out where and who the werewolf was. My kind of people were uncommon in these parts, think of Norsemen in asia. Mostly other races like dwarves, orcs, elves etc… So it was fairly easy to get a bit of a lead. After talking to a guard at the gate I could confirm that the werewolf I was after had left. So I told the DM… I want to leave the gate and continue tracking the werewolf. It was this moment I knew something was wrong with this campaign. The DM just looked at me and said… “ok, you leave town and we will see you in 2 weeks.” This sparked a bit of an arguement between the DM and myself my sister and the other friends just looking on quietly.. He basically told me I am supposed to work my way to grouping up with the others. And my arguement was, how is that possible when I was given full freedom, told to do what my character would do, and this being my first real game. Alas, I reverted my decision and decided to do as he said, basically subtly meta gaming so we could all end up at the same Pub.. a few sessions later, are group had a job to recover something for the innkeeper… probably booze, but I am not sure. We found ourselves wondering into the jungle, oh did I mention this continet is Sub Tropic/ Jungle? Because of my Ranger I made it easy for the party to move in the difficult terrain of the jungle. I also used Primeval Awareness to check for threatening beasts in the area in conjunction to weave around anything threatening. After a bit, a Panther leaped down onto the Goliath in our party biting her. I argued that I should have had some idea of the Panthers presence, but I was overruled and we rolled initiative. The struggle forced the Goliath and Panther down a small hill. They were about 40 feet from the rest of us. The rest of my party saw this beast as a threat. But to my Ranger, he saw an animal hunting to survive. And 6 against 1 it was not a threat.. the half orc barb in the group got up to it and leg swept it knocking it prone while the Kenku rogue took shots at it from atop the hill. I moved and used my action to cast Animal Friendship, the DM looked at me with a smirk and said, “you can’t tame it”. I replied “I know, but I dont see it as a threat, so why fight it?” The DM told me since it already suffered damage, it will get advantage on the saving throw.. which is not how the spell works.. I was getting a bit upset at this point, because it felt like he was playing against me not allowing me to have a moment. The spell failed to no surprise and my turn ended. The other members rolled low on their attacks giving me a chance to move in again The panther still lying prone, I flung myself over it to protect it and I shouted “Don’t kill it, its not a threat.” The Kenku ignoring my shout fired the final shot that ended combat… and the life of the Panther I tried to save. I was shaking at this point as I know my character would be too. And the anger bleed into my character as he shouted at the party. “This is this creatures home! We walked in here and killed it! 6 of us versus this one creature! If you can’t respect nature and her creatures, then you have no need of my knowledge in this wilderness!” As my ranger stormed off in the direction of the quest objective… I had it in my mind that the rest of the party would struggle getting through the rest of the Jungle. And maybe the may learn a thing or too. That wasn’t the case.. The session ended with some combat with bandits, I getting the jump on them initially and the group catching up several turns later.. I was told a day later I made one of the players very uncomfortable with my outburst. I have an idea of who it was, but I could care less, I was asked not to come back because this player was scared.. my sister didn’t even come to my defense.. I let it go, but truely deep down it still upsets me to this day that something so silly like that could really show you whether a campaign is meant for you or not.. Remember when I said the DM told me DnD isnt all about combat..? yeah so much for that… and to add salt to the wound, this campaigned used milestone experience.. so there really was no justification for killing the Panther.


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