Did I overreact to this DnD Experience? /u/jessew1987 DnD: Roll for Initiative!

This happened last year. We were new players about 5 or 6 sessions deep. My character was pretty generic “All I want is money and I don’t like authority because I spent time in jail.” I made sure to play him very cooperatively with the other players. He was a bit snarky and untrusting of NPC authority figures.

So we are going through some puzzles in a dungeon. The first one is a normal escape room type. The second gets weird. I’m standing at a console of sorts and there’s a large stone that I’m told will crush one of two things; a pile of money, or another player’s character. I’m not gonna kill off another character so I choose the money. He tells me that this destroys my character’s interest in money completely. I’m kinda baffled this point. The second choice is between my father and another PC. I chose the PC. My “father” had already died when I was a young boy. Turns out, that entire backstory is just “erased”. I have no memory of my family or where I come from. Meanwhile, my backstory hadn’t even come up in the campaign, so the other players were just confused. The third one, I lost all my belongings.

For the third puzzle, I was strung up by wrists and ankles off the ground in the middle of the room as if I were to be torn apart. The other PCs were at stations with wheels and were taking damage of some kind. If they turned the wheel one way, they would stop taking damage, but it would pull one of my ropes. The other way, they took more damage and loosened my ropes.

After that, we were put in a combat situation where I had no weapons (other PCs did) against an insanely strong enemy. It’s clear from the start that we’re all meant to die here in some kind of dreamlike reenactment of a fight that had been mentioned. The fight drags on and on. The DM stops using his strongest moves while we can barely get a hit in. Eventually, we all died, and it was all a dream. The offer is made to only me; serve this God (of the dream) and gain power, or go back to living my life. My character hates authority and would never bend the knee, so I say no. The DM describes how I sail off into the sunset, on to other adventures.

“Wait, so my character just leaves”

“Yup, you’ll have to make a new character.”

I’m not that experienced, but that session made me uncomfortable. I let the group know that I wouldn’t return with another character, and the campaign didn’t continue. Did I overreact here? I’m DMing a new game and didn’t invite him because of that experience.

Edit: I found the text he sent me right after the session “Gyro awakens back on the main land having forgotten all about the adventure he just took. He will live out the rest of his days peacefully.”

This happened last year. We were new players about 5 or 6 sessions deep. My character was pretty generic “All I want is money and I don’t like authority because I spent time in jail.” I made sure to play him very cooperatively with the other players. He was a bit snarky and untrusting of NPC authority figures.

So we are going through some puzzles in a dungeon. The first one is a normal escape room type. The second gets weird. I’m standing at a console of sorts and there’s a large stone that I’m told will crush one of two things; a pile of money, or another player’s character. I’m not gonna kill off another character so I choose the money. He tells me that this destroys my character’s interest in money completely. I’m kinda baffled this point. The second choice is between my father and another PC. I chose the PC. My “father” had already died when I was a young boy. Turns out, that entire backstory is just “erased”. I have no memory of my family or where I come from. Meanwhile, my backstory hadn’t even come up in the campaign, so the other players were just confused. The third one, I lost all my belongings.

For the third puzzle, I was strung up by wrists and ankles off the ground in the middle of the room as if I were to be torn apart. The other PCs were at stations with wheels and were taking damage of some kind. If they turned the wheel one way, they would stop taking damage, but it would pull one of my ropes. The other way, they took more damage and loosened my ropes.

After that, we were put in a combat situation where I had no weapons (other PCs did) against an insanely strong enemy. It’s clear from the start that we’re all meant to die here in some kind of dreamlike reenactment of a fight that had been mentioned. The fight drags on and on. The DM stops using his strongest moves while we can barely get a hit in. Eventually, we all died, and it was all a dream. The offer is made to only me; serve this God (of the dream) and gain power, or go back to living my life. My character hates authority and would never bend the knee, so I say no. The DM describes how I sail off into the sunset, on to other adventures.

“Wait, so my character just leaves”

“Yup, you’ll have to make a new character.”

I’m not that experienced, but that session made me uncomfortable. I let the group know that I wouldn’t return with another character, and the campaign didn’t continue. Did I overreact here? I’m DMing a new game and didn’t invite him because of that experience.

Edit: I found the text he sent me right after the session “Gyro awakens back on the main land having forgotten all about the adventure he just took. He will live out the rest of his days peacefully.”