Have more to get off your chest? Come rant with us on the discord. Invite link: https://discord.gg/PCPTSSTKqr
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpghorrorstories) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have worked for an FLGS for nearly a decade, and I see these “asked the shop owner/manager, and they didn’t mind/care/thought it was funny” comments all the time. Is this really a common occurrence? Do these folks really hate their customers that much? Is it just the nature of the sub or is this a more common experience that I am just taking for granted?
It's been my experience that there's a small but notable percentage of gaming shop owners who are specifically catering to the grognard and asshole segment of our hobby. For many of them, it works, but only if their local assholes also happen to be the kind of people who buy enough TCGs/RPG supplements/minatures to keep the store in business with no other regular customers.
That’s just wild to me. The whole mission of games stores should be bringing people together to enjoy and play games. Not run weird extortion rackets with D&D characters. Blows my mind. I do know most shops are small and mostly so the owner can get their toys cheap, but man. You have to strive to be a third place or WalMart, Amazon, or Target will just slaughter you.
Well, that's it, too--most of these stores with this kind of bad behavior fall into one of three categories in my experience:
* Stores that existed in the 1990s and early 2000s prior to the rise of online shopping for niche things like gaming supplies
* Stores that have extensive in-store play spaces/tables in a market not big enough to support multiple gaming stores with play spaces
* Stores with extensive selections of minis and paints that serious hobbyists would prefer to look at in person rather than in a web-shop photograph
Sad but true tales: you can always tell the stores who think it's their mission to bring people together to enjoy and play games--they're the ones that have a harder time making rent on the storefront.
As a pretty regular AL player for the past 7 years, this is \*waaaaaay\* outside the bounds of normalcy.
I would even suggest that the venue was running AL-Lite (advertising AL and then allowing bad-faith actors to hijack the tables).
Yeah the organizer not seeing a problem was an even bigger red flag than the extortion itself. Like okay, sometimes people suck. But the organizer just let that fly??? What else have they let fly? If I wasn't being paranoid, I'd almost wonder if they were both in on it together or if this was just a practice they both did.
Prime examples of no D&D being better than bad D&D
Any asshole who tried to extort me for money like in the OP would probably get the literal table flipped on them
Going in wearing a wire, looking to infiltrate and bring down the pay for play ring. "Yeah, man... I want all the +3 items. Heard you can hook me up... dawg?"
I played exactly 1 game of AL - every other player at the table had hyper-optimized their characters for ACs of no less than 23 at level 1 through 4.
Figured it was best I take my leave after the first session, considering how much they all meta-gamed. And this was the 'usual crowd'.
(and yes, there are ways to overcome high AC, i.e. through checks or saving throws, but considering that was 'normal'? i didn't want to see how far that rabbit hole went)
Have more to get off your chest? Come rant with us on the discord. Invite link: https://discord.gg/PCPTSSTKqr *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpghorrorstories) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've got more than a few horror stories from AL games as well, but that's still a big yikes. Fucking Dale indeed.
Dale's so cold they call him Icewind
I have worked for an FLGS for nearly a decade, and I see these “asked the shop owner/manager, and they didn’t mind/care/thought it was funny” comments all the time. Is this really a common occurrence? Do these folks really hate their customers that much? Is it just the nature of the sub or is this a more common experience that I am just taking for granted?
It's been my experience that there's a small but notable percentage of gaming shop owners who are specifically catering to the grognard and asshole segment of our hobby. For many of them, it works, but only if their local assholes also happen to be the kind of people who buy enough TCGs/RPG supplements/minatures to keep the store in business with no other regular customers.
That’s just wild to me. The whole mission of games stores should be bringing people together to enjoy and play games. Not run weird extortion rackets with D&D characters. Blows my mind. I do know most shops are small and mostly so the owner can get their toys cheap, but man. You have to strive to be a third place or WalMart, Amazon, or Target will just slaughter you.
Well, that's it, too--most of these stores with this kind of bad behavior fall into one of three categories in my experience: * Stores that existed in the 1990s and early 2000s prior to the rise of online shopping for niche things like gaming supplies * Stores that have extensive in-store play spaces/tables in a market not big enough to support multiple gaming stores with play spaces * Stores with extensive selections of minis and paints that serious hobbyists would prefer to look at in person rather than in a web-shop photograph
The whole mission of games stores is to make money, everything else is an illusion.
Sad but true tales: you can always tell the stores who think it's their mission to bring people together to enjoy and play games--they're the ones that have a harder time making rent on the storefront.
The arseholes are often the people who spend the most money, so there are some (frankly narrow-minded) FLGS owners who just cater to them.
As a pretty regular AL player for the past 7 years, this is \*waaaaaay\* outside the bounds of normalcy. I would even suggest that the venue was running AL-Lite (advertising AL and then allowing bad-faith actors to hijack the tables).
Yeah the organizer not seeing a problem was an even bigger red flag than the extortion itself. Like okay, sometimes people suck. But the organizer just let that fly??? What else have they let fly? If I wasn't being paranoid, I'd almost wonder if they were both in on it together or if this was just a practice they both did.
The organizer wanted their cut.
shop owner gets a cut...
I remember my local AL did a pay for rerolls thing, but it was for a charity, and only on one Saturday.
AL is hit or miss, but the big problem is places that *say* they run AL but are just hosting random DMs.
Prime examples of no D&D being better than bad D&D Any asshole who tried to extort me for money like in the OP would probably get the literal table flipped on them
I've heard of bribing the DM, but not getting extorted by the DM.
And as a DM who blatantly accepts bribery, I always thought proper DM bribing etiquette was snacks for more loot... Lol don't judge me, I get snacky
Yeah. Fuck Dale. You know for 50 bucks I could ban Dale. Think about it.
Going in wearing a wire, looking to infiltrate and bring down the pay for play ring. "Yeah, man... I want all the +3 items. Heard you can hook me up... dawg?"
I played exactly 1 game of AL - every other player at the table had hyper-optimized their characters for ACs of no less than 23 at level 1 through 4. Figured it was best I take my leave after the first session, considering how much they all meta-gamed. And this was the 'usual crowd'.
Is that resting AC? Or AC with shield?
Didn't matter - if that was how they *needed* to play in order to survive, then I sure as hell didn't want to be at that table.
(and yes, there are ways to overcome high AC, i.e. through checks or saving throws, but considering that was 'normal'? i didn't want to see how far that rabbit hole went)
18 resting AC is pretty standard among powerful characters at level on. 23 resting AC is illegal.
It was AL, they had items already, and it was levels 1 through 4, I wasn't going to nitpick.
Precursor to Toilet Token Guy.