Worlds of Design: The Case of the Accidental Artifact

At a recent “GMs meeting” someone posed this question: What do you do if you’ve allowed a player to acquire something that way overbalances the campaign?

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

First I have to say, I have not done this (or if I did I’ve repressed something that happened long ago, and it worked itself out). Second, this reminds me of the GMs who say their players’ characters are so tough they cannot be killed. What? There are innumerable ways to kill a character, right down to a meteor in the head! But for GMs who'd rather be a little more subtle in dealing with an overpowered character, here's some tips to address the problem.

Reason with the Player(s)

My #1 recommendation: take the player aside and talk with him/her about it. Offer some compensation for the removal of the item or ability. For example, offer a couple other limited use items.

Another possibility is to point out how the character will be a “marked man (or woman)” if they’re known to have this item that “everyone” will want, and there are ALWAYS tougher people than you around. So get rid of it before it gets you killed! If that doesn’t work, then you could actually pursue that “marked for death” scenario.

A long time ago I founded a campaign where everyone was encouraged to learn to GM and where everyone had a pool of characters that he/she could use with any of the group GMs. One time we had a freshman GM who wanted everyone to be happy and gave away far too much treasure, including the dreaded Deck of Many Things. There's nothing inherently wrong with artifacts like this, but they can drastically alter a campaign and shouldn't be used lightly. Another grad student and I (yes, we’d both been players) stepped outside, talked for a while, went back in and waved away many of the treasures to help keep the joint campaign in balance. That worked well.

Theft

Why not have some NPC (or more likely a group of them) steal whatever causes the imbalance? It needn’t be characters as tough as the player characters, if the item is left on its own somewhere.

On the other hand, there’s an unspoken pact in many RPG campaigns that the characters can leave stuff behind when adventuring and it won’t be stolen. (This doesn’t prevent me from devising schemes to protect my characters’ stuff in this situation.) The problem with this approach is that the player might feel unfairly treated because his item is stolen, but no one else’s.

What about storing the item in a “bank”? This has the same problem as “magic shops”: it’s a big target for big-time thieves (who may be of any character class, but are a lot tougher than the PC in question). After all, why risk your life in a dungeon when you can carefully plan a foray against a bank or magic shop? (“Why do you rob banks? Answer: ‘Cause that’s where the money is.”)

If It Isn’t an Item?

Some things can’t be stolen. For example, it might be some power or capability the character has acquired that is simply part of him and is now inherent. That makes a GM's task much harder.

Perhaps someone hits the character with a spell that nullifies the power, or the character is captured and the power is removed by some ritual. But then, why isn’t the character killed? Some weird cult that guards against whatever the power is?

It might be worth establishing a rule for your GMing, “don’t let characters permanently acquire overpowered capabilities.”

Retirement

Another approach might be to work with the player to retire the PC by turning them into an NPC. There are plenty of reasons for why the character may leave the campaign. For example the character is recruited to join the bodyguards of his/her god. Nope, no adventures here, bubba. Retired.

I'm sure you can come up with other possibilities.

Corollary

What if you accept a character from another campaign who has something overpowered? The easy answer is to not let that item into the game. But if you already have, you’re in the same boat, except that the player might be annoyed that you let the item into the campaign with the item then changed your mind.

From a game design perspective, magic items would ideally be balanced enough so that these sorts of situations don't happen. But in a world of high fantasy or advanced science, this is no easy task.

The challenge in addressing power imbalances in your campaign is making adjustments without upsetting your player so much that they don't want to play. But the best way is to not let it happen in the first place!

Your turn: What are your clever (diabolical?) ways to solve this problem?

 

[Variss]

Games that you run/design are the rare instances where your control is absolute. The GM is not beholden entirely to the rule set because of narrative power. If you find that you've underestimated the impact of a given item/power/influence, unlike the real world, you have the ability to alter the underlying universe to fit. You aren't only left with the "Take it away, Nerf It, Beg for the Character to abandon it, Beg for the Character to Retire."

You can establish consequences. There are NPCs who would easily resent McGuffin affecting their world. Some of those are divine powers. But it doesn't even need to be divine - the classic "No Man Can Kill Me!" power refuted by "I Am No Man."

Living Worlds react to the players, or at least they should. They are not stuck to the original ink they were written in. Yes, while very experienced GM's may be able to foresee the consequences of an item/power, all GM's should be able to work through how their world reacts.

Does it potentially diverge from your planned narrative? Yes. Maybe it is no longer the story you wanted to tell, but that is a good thing. That interaction is why we play with groups and not just write a story. So Arthur got a hold of Excalibur? Maybe it's time for his half-sister to seduce him and have a bastard who'll lead to his death.

 

[DWChancellor]

Ah, the epic item that "overbalances the campaign" =)

Sword of Mean Hitpoints.
Wand of Median Saves
Chest of Normally Distributed Loot
Necklace of Level Appropriate Fireballs

Also, there's another option: give everyone something equally ridiculous and amp up the entire game. That's often the best answer in video games, why not in D&D (no one enjoys a nerf)? Admittedly now you'll be playing with fire, so contrive a whole plot around the downsides of the item that are discovered in play and interestingly severe.

 

[GMMichael]

I don't know. A Broken item might make for a decent MacGuffin. I used to get a little nervous about a character having a magical-kill-em-all weapon that would ruin combat for other players, and then I realized that most of the game shouldn't be combat.

You could go the Game of Thrones (TV) route, and just give the dragonglass to all the PCs...

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

My favorite solution, and one used often in fantasy fiction: the drawback.

Usually in D&D this takes the form of a blatant penalty to one's abilities, but there's no need to make it that obvious. It can be more fun - and a great adventure hook - to make the drawback less mechanical.

For instance - say you've let a PC get their hands on an overpowered weapon... what if, every time they kill a living creature, someone they have befriended/cared about/loved dies?

It starts with them hearing about childhood acquaintances in their hometown dropping dead mysteriously. Maybe they think nothing of it, or maybe they go home to investigate. As their own deaths rack up, they start getting closer to home... friends and contacts back at the home base, close family, lovers... eventually, if they don't realize what's happening, the other PCs themselves could be threatened.

Talk about a situation for drama and moral dilemmas! It sounds like something straight out of Moorcock or eve Tolkien!

A lot more fun than just nerfing their stats, right?

If your players are murderhobos who see tabletop RP as simply an analog World of Warcraft, this might not work so well. But if you're in a RP heavy campaign, this approach can be a good balancer if you see things going off the rails. Heck, I often throw in quirks, connections to upcoming adventures and mysterious special abilities to player items "just because"- no vanilla +1 longswords at my table!

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

I'm usually good about this as a GM, but I've been in campaigns where the GM wasn't---one in particular seems to fall for this quite often---and it can definitely do some damage by making the other PCs feel irrelevant. In general I think the right method is to prevent it in the first place, but assuming it's happened, I think it's best to talk to the player. Same goes with problem builds of other kinds.

However, I do think it's important for the GM to consider whether the reason why a player seems to be owning your opposition could be induced by the fact that your own personal "game" isn't good enough. I've seen that happen, too, where a much more tactically savvy player joins a group.

 

[VengerSatanis]

Oh snap!

 

[Manchurian]

Games that you run/design are the rare instances where your control is absolute. The GM is not beholden entirely to the rule set because of narrative power. If you find that you've underestimated the impact of a given item/power/influence, unlike the real world, you have the ability to alter the underlying universe to fit. You aren't only left with the "Take it away, Nerf It, Beg for the Character to abandon it, Beg for the Character to Retire."

You can establish consequences. There are NPCs who would easily resent McGuffin affecting their world. Some of those are divine powers. But it doesn't even need to be divine - the classic "No Man Can Kill Me!" power refuted by "I Am No Man."

Living Worlds react to the players, or at least they should. They are not stuck to the original ink they were written in. Yes, while very experienced GM's may be able to foresee the consequences of an item/power, all GM's should be able to work through how their world reacts.

Does it potentially diverge from your planned narrative? Yes. Maybe it is no longer the story you wanted to tell, but that is a good thing. That interaction is why we play with groups and not just write a story. So Arthur got a hold of Excalibur? Maybe it's time for his half-sister to seduce him and have a bastard who'll lead to his death.

Me Myself Would Allow it.....There is No accident Circumstance with this.... And Always Remember Evil and Sometimes Good Characters are Going to or may want that artifact as well.....so this limits the players using it all the time in fear of someone maybe recognizing it and wanting the item for themselves or telling a bigger car about the item.....But Your Problem is Solved Make it to the point they only use it if they have to ....But like all high treasures it's owners might come calling for it or a Villian may want it to use or keep out the hands of others and vice versa.....Real World Fantasy Is What this Called And Even If The adventure divulges you can be as creative to the background world and past heroes or past characters..... It's Really A Plus....Can't Go Wrong And Players Can make there own decisions.....Massive hooks always can lead back to the original adventure planned ....I have sometimes characters that to make extra gold pieces they can go back in previous lands they been an hunt creatures....with there henchman or vassal....even the characters may visit old lands.....Just remember when one Villian defeated another move in......now the fun starts.Even the dm may have a favored Npc of low level. ..Run it as if you the player but the PC's Have Ultimate last say or not.....this widened spectrum solves all those problems....ALSO HOW TO SPEND ALL THAT GOLD....INVEST IN CASTLE'S....BUY AND PAY ARMY....FLYING CASTLES.....EVEN SPELLJAMMERS IF YOU PLAY THE SETTING AND CHARACTERS ARE FRIN A SPACE FAIRING NATION.... REMEMBER GROUNDLINGS REALLY DONT KNOW ABOUT JAMNING AND EVERY VILLIAN WOULD TRY TO TAKE SHIP ...SO PLANET FALL MUST BE MINIMUM