DM husband-and-wife duo cancels a 6-year D&D campaign because nobody wanted to play R.E.P.O. with them
About a year ago, I joined an ongoing online D&D campaign that had already been running for six years, playing through the Rise of Tiamat campaign. The session was hosted by a husband-and-wife duo named Jack and Jill, with Jack serving as the DM and Jill as a player.
Jill and I go back about 10 years, when we worked retail together and were even part of the same friend group. We've been in and out of contact over the years, but we reconnected when Jill asked if I'd join her husband's campaign. I'm the forever DM of my own friend group, and we'd just wrapped up Curse of Strahd, so I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to be a player for once.
Our first session went smoothly, and we introduced my character to the group. Besides Jill and me, there were seven players total, all of whom were friends of Jack's. The most prominent were Ben and Bob. Ben was a random player they had met through Reddit, while Bob was Jack's best friend and someone Jill considered a brother.
As we played, I noticed that Jack, Ben, and Bob had a very sweaty way of playing the game. Every word they said and every action they took seemed designed to maximize the effectiveness of each turn. Initially, I was impressed.
However, whenever it was Jill's turn, Jack's attitude would change. Jill would ask questions, and Jack would either give an exasperated answer or not answer at all. When Jill would take an action, Jack would suggest a "better one" instead. This would understandably frustrate Jill, and the two would bicker constantly. Even worse, Bob would also jump into their arguments, often taking Jack's side. This would leave Jill almost in tears, at which point I'd step in and mediate. Jill would often reach out to me through DMs afterward and thank me for stepping in.
This happened repeatedly throughout our sessions, which would often drag on as a result. Jack said sessions would usually last three to four hours, but they would sometimes stretch to six or even 12 hours because of the amount of back-and-forth between the three of them.
With a group of seven players, scheduling conflicts were inevitable. When that happened, Jack, Jill, and Bob would play a multiplayer game on Steam, with R.E.P.O. being the most popular. I would play too, and to my surprise, Jack and Bob brought the same sweaty attitude to R.E.P.O., often berating Jill for her lack of in-game awareness. Again, I'd speak up for Jill, especially since R.E.P.O. is a game designed to mess around with your friends.
Jack would also get upset when other players, like Ben, who expected to play D&D instead of R.E.P.O., would sometimes drop out and do their own thing. Jack would often talk about these players behind their backs, saying things like, "They already had free time to play D&D! They don't have free time to play R.E.P.O.?" and, "They're only in it for D&D!"
I'd often respond, "Yes? Their time isn't obligated to you just because the D&D session was canceled for the day."
This would upset him further, and he'd often log off early, followed shortly afterward by Bob.
This left Jill and me alone in the voice call, which allowed us to actually be ourselves. We'd talk about our old jobs and our old friend group, many of whom I was still in contact with. I asked if she'd talked to any of them recently, and she said she hadn't because they had distanced themselves from her after she married Jack.
Several months later, we still hadn't started the final fight against Tiamat because Jack was dragging out the campaign much longer than expected. He would cancel sessions due to "preparations for the final fight" or "not feeling well" and offer R.E.P.O. as an alternative instead. Ben and the other players started asking questions, which frustrated Jack, and Jill would berate us in his defense.
More and more players started calling out whenever D&D was canceled in favor of R.E.P.O. This eventually resulted in Jack regularly stalking everyone's Steam profiles to see when we were online and sending us game invites for R.E.P.O. Ben, who had had enough, eventually asked to leave the campaign.
In retaliation, Jack canceled the campaign entirely. Within an hour, everyone left, leaving only Jack, Jill, Bob, and me. I was also preparing to leave, but Jill asked me to stay for old times' sake. Although I agreed to stick around, I made it clear that I wouldn't be playing R.E.P.O. anymore.
Sometime later, both Jack and Bob were fired from their jobs. Surprisingly, we worked in similar industries, and because I felt bad for Jill, I decided I'd connect Jack, and possibly Bob, with people I knew who might be able to help them.
Instead, I ended up listening to Jack, Jill, and Bob complain about Black people in Louisiana protesting against gerrymandering, as well as Helen of Troy in the then-upcoming Odyssey movie being played by "some ugly Black chick."
This shocked me, so I called them out immediately. The three of them became upset and responded with, "Not all Black women are ugly. I think Zendaya and Rihanna are hot!"
It surprised me to hear Jill, who had such a diverse friend group, agree with something so vile.
After that, I finally left the group and blocked all three of them across social media.