Following are some examples of bad events KORG members have run into over the years. It's fully possible that other people enjoyed the very things we hated - if so, then bully for the people that had fun! But we've tried to use these experiences to learn how to make our events better. (Lest we seem like negative Nellies, here is a page of events we've enjoyed).

• Ravenloft, the Novel: One of the worst events I've ever played in was a Ravenloft adventure, run at Gen Con right after the Ravenloft campaign setting was released. In this event the GM spent most of his time reading long passages out loud to us. The idea was, I'm sure, to give us a sense of mood. Instead we got a sense of boredom - we had few opportunities to do much of anything other than listen. The absolute low point was a passage the GM read aloud describing how our NPC friend was fighting a duel with some mysterious enemy. Despite the fact that the duel took several rounds (judging by the long winded description of each parry, thrust, and jab) we had no opportunity to intervene. Repeated calls for an initiative roll (hey, I wanted to help my friend out) were ignored, and when the soliloquy was finished (and our friend dead) I was told it was too late to do anything. There was also something about a Painting of Doom (I kid you not) but I frankly quit paying attention after an hour or so.

• I Traveled 1000 Miles To Role Play With My Neighbor: A lot of times you'll find yourself playing in a game with people who are members of the GM's normal gaming group. That's fine, but sometimes can lead to ugly examples of favoritism when it comes to matters of which characters get to advance to subsequent rounds of play. Several KORG members report trouble when the girlfriend, wife, or best friend of the GM is in a position of direct competition with someone the GM doesn't know for advancement. In too many cases the stranger finds themself on the outside looking in. If you're going to let your friends and loved ones play in an event you're running you need to bend over backwards to make sure other folks don't feel like you're favoring the people you know. (We at KORG are always having to remind ourselves of this, given that some people have played in our events for years and have become friends as well as players).

• How Much Damage Was That? During an otherwise entertaining team tournament several members of KORG played in our party ran across a dragon headed humanoid. A fight ensued, and the dragon-man spit a glob of acid on one of our number. The GM rolled 1d12, coming up with a 12. Not too bad, since the character in question had 30 or so hit points. But wait! The d12 was merely to determine how many d6 the GM would roll. 12d6 points of damage later our character was dead. This is a classic example of a designer not being careful about dice rolls. One die roll (the d12) basically determined if a character lived or died, since there was no way to survive 12d6 worth of damage without an amazingly unlikely number of low rolls. To add insult to injury, the dead character was our only cleric, and this happened about ten minutes into the event.

• Zen and the Art of AD&D: One KORG member reports that possibly his least favorite adventure was one in which there were no dice involved. Instead, your chance to hit was based entirely on your state of mind at the time. If you were enraged, angered, or generally aggressive about the attack you'd usually hit. This was a huge advantage for the KORG member who was playing, since his general state of mind during this stinker was "totally pissed".

• The RPGA Effect in Action: One of the most unpleasant examples of role playing at the expense of story came in an RPGA event that a couple of KORG members played in at DragonCon. The party was a team of elves and halflings trying to save their forest home from destruction. The problem was that some of the party members (one of the halflings especially) had personality quirks that worked against the overall goal. In particular, the halflings constantly performed pranks that kept the party from being able to concentrate on their goal. The event eventually degenerated into role playing breakfast for over half an hour (you haven't lived until you've spent ten minutes trying to figure out who's going to use their Firebuilding skill, who's going to do the cooking, and who'll clean up). Not surprisingly, the party never got close to finishing their mission. I guess the elven forest got burned down or something.

• Who Needs Players? Perhaps the worst example of in-jokes taking over an event occurred for some KORG members who played in the annual ZEF/FEZ event run by NASCRAG at Gen Con. (This is an ongoing series of adventures featuring more or less the same characters year after year). There were four players and, surprisingly, an equal number of GMs. Unfortunately the GMs spent most of their time amusing themselves with a series of in-jokes about the characters and the adventure. The GMs seemed to be having a great time, judging by the amount of laughter and giggling on their part; the players were mostly confused about what they were supposed to be doing and annoyed that they didn't really seem to be very integral to the game.

• Melvinquest, Shmelvinquest: One KORG member reported this about the "Melvinquest" series (a continuing series of AD&D events run at Gen Cons over the past several years): "The English language does not carry an invective with enough venom to describe this totally deplorable wastehole. Totally centered around Melvin, there is little for the rest of the group to do except watch him do his thing. The other players had played in one of these stinkbombs before, and thus greatly enjoyed the many in-jokes to which I was not party. Your time is better spent giving free pedicures to rabid beavers than suffering through one of these events." (But how do you really feel?)

• What's in a Name?: At one KORG member's first ever Gen Con he chose to play a character named "Samfast the Archer". The only problem was that this was a three foot tall halfling cleric with no bow whatsoever. When asked about the name, the GM responded "Well, you used to have a long bow". A three foot tall halfling with a five or six foot tall range weapon? One can see why he might have given that up. The still begs the question of why you'd name yourself after a weapon you no longer used, but why split hairs?

• The Amazing Quarreling Party: In an event that makes you question whether the GM was a sadist one KORG member found that the entire event was structured to get the party to fight one another (despite the fact that the introduction said the party members were all old friends who had adventured together for years). After two encounters the event dissolved into a massive inter-party fight, and soon everyone was dead. The whole thing took 90 minutes. The GM said that party made it further than anyone else he ran.

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