[net.games.frp] Fleecing PCs

jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (05/02/85)

[...]

I'm a bit of an outsider to D&D and its variants because I've only
played a few times, but there seem to be some odd opinions being
expressed in this whole "fleecing" business.  If I may make a few
suggestions to reduce the need for fleecing...

When a character is too powerful, it seems to be mostly related to
possessions.  The party has too many gross magic items.  Surely this
can have so many interesting campaign side effects that they'll go
crazy trying to deal with them all.  Thieves will attack them every
other night.  Powerful sorcerors will try to plunder them.  Their
respective religions will demand their services...or possibly their
baubles.  (This is an interesting one -- the head of a cleric's
religion demands that he/she deliver the powerful magic artifacts of
the party to the religion's temple.  After all, doesn't the god deserve
as much as possible?  The cleric must then choose whether to disobey and
earn disfavour from his god and his fellows, or to steal the artifacts or
get them some other way...plenty of material there.)

Furthermore, having grossly powerful artifacts is an enormous liability
if someone grabs them from you.  A very simple scenario: a second rate
sorceror with lots of minions (zombies, orcs, whatever) sends them after
the party with one goal: to take as much stuff as possible.  Sure you
may be able to stomp 30 zombies for breakfast and your armour class is
high enough that their claws don't make a dent; but how hard is it for
30 of them to grab your MUs wands...or to rip off a backpack and run...or
to hold down a thief and pull off his/her rings?  And if an enemy manages
to plunder your gross magic items, all of a sudden you're just a normal
6th level fighter (or whatever) against an enemy who's very well equipped.
THAT's interesting.

I also think that a good scenario can challenge players in other ways.
They may be combat powerhouses, but there is more to an FRP than combat.
Puzzles, for example.  Tasks where sheer physical (or magical) force is
not enough.  (The first example I can think of for such a task is some
kind of hostage-taking incident.  You do not save the princess from the
evil sorceror's clutches by going in and killing every opponent you come
to -- at the first sound of trouble, the sorceror will either slit her
throat or move her somewhere else.)

Or put some sort of constraint on combat from time to time.  Too much
FRP combat takes place in the monster's home territory where destruction
is irrelevant.  GMs should consider setting some scenarios in "civilized
areas".  Suppose, for example, some local noble hires the players to
protect his castle from strange things that seem to show up inside from
time to time.  First, this gives the players a chance to do some real
role-playing without combat as they try to find the source of the things
that go bump in the night.  Second, it really restricts their scope of
action.  Can they cast a fireball inside their patron's art gallery?
Can they blithely enter any room they choose?  Can they grab an NPC
and force out information?  As soon as players find themselves operating
in friendly territory (instead of enemy territory), all those wonderful
combat advantages are irrelevant.

The thing to remember is that most D&D-type role-playing takes place in
a very restricted region of the Fantasy genre: basically the "heroic clash".
By spreading out into a wider part of Fantasy, you can find plenty of ways
to get around sheer power.  These include well thought out plans by
enemies, "dirty tricks" (like grabbing magic items in battle), coping
with political pressure from superiors, restricted fields of action, and
so on.

Other notes: if it becomes obvious that players are having it too easy,
talk to them.  Presumably, they're bright people and will realize the
danger of being bored to death.  Maybe you can work something out.  For
example, they may decide to give away some trinkets in some way that makes
sense within the campaign -- a gift to a local noble; a donation to a
church; something put in trust for one's children; etc.  They may decide
to retire a character who is too powerful, or put that character in
semi-retirement while they work up someone new.  In the Champions games
that I GM, I have found my players very co-operative in such matters.

Remember, GMs, that you are enormously valuable assets to your players.
You put in huge amounts of work to see that they are entertained on a
regular basis.  If you are losing interest in a game because the balance
is shot, your players will likely be willing to make concessions to keep
you keen.

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo

euren@ttds.UUCP (Leif Euren) (05/17/85)

<14214@watmath.UUCP> jagardner (Jim Gardner):

>For example, they may decide to give away some trinkets in some way that
>makes sense within the campaign -- a gift to a local noble; a donation to a
>church;

There is nothing so pleasing for a player as a little Ego-Boo, even if
it only is his character recieving is. Giving away a lot of treasure
and goodies to the town officials and getting a full parade, with
banners and music and crowds and everything when they enters town
afgian after a travel, is pleasing my players much more than winning
every encounter.

And then, the encounters have become thrilling, too, now that they are not
certainly won.

					Leif Euren