Does anyone do non-overpowered anymore?

[Tsyr]

Actually, the "All aspects of the economy are everywhere" mentality can be fun to mess with...

Not long after they started to play in my game, the following took place...

Me: Alright, after 7 days overland travel you have reached the village of Pine Reach. You arive near midday, and the small village is full of people going about their lives. The village seems to consist of perhaps a dozen main buildings in a square, and a number of smaller residences surrounding the square, plus the farms you've past on the way in, and whatever is beyond the village.

Player 1: Whew. I'm gonna go to the tavern and get some elven wine!

Player 2: I'll follow him and get some dwarven spirits.

The players go into the inn and order.

Me: After a few moments, the innkeeper returns with a couple tankards of some frothy liquid. It appears to be the same liquid. He plops them down in front of you with a splash, and says in a backwoods drawl, "I don't know how ya figured I was gonna get yer fancy stuff. We're a months travel by horse from the Stonewall (Nearest area with dwarves), and if ya figure we could even afford any elf drink, yer daft. 'Round here we got ale I make, some wine I make now and then, and brandy from the failed wine. That's it."

Later, one of them said "I'm gonna find the armorsmith and buy me some new barding for my horse..."

Me: "Well, you see a blacksmith... But all you see in his shop is horseshoes and hammer and stuff."

 

[Psion]

Yes, the books give detailed rules and guidelines for pricing items with all sorts of funky powers. No, this does not imply that such items are readily available for sale in a supermarket-like environment.

Word.

As the tagline goes, as the DM, you control the vertical...

I figure that it is sensible if someone has an item and someone else has a means to pay for it, then they should be able to come to an exchange; based on this I find it nigh preposterous that most people suggest that magic items should never be for sale. That said, a particular magic item being available to you is another matter entirely. There is no mass production of magic items.

When players ask about the magic items in a city, first I make them search out mages, churches, adventurers, and collectors who might have such items for sale. Then, I randomly roll items (much like treasure) that are on the market.

 

[hong]

Word.

As the tagline goes, as the DM, you control the vertical...

I figure that it is sensible if someone has an item and someone else has a means to pay for it, then they should be able to come to an exchange; based on this I find it nigh preposterous that most people suggest that magic items should never be for sale. That said, a particular magic item being available to you is another matter entirely. There is no mass production of magic items.

When players ask about the magic items in a city, first I make them search out mages, churches, adventurers, and collectors who might have such items for sale. Then, I randomly roll items (much like treasure) that are on the market.

I've treated magic item purchasing both as background "off-hours" activity, and as a part of actual adventuring. Usually when the PCs want to get items, and they're in a suitably big city, I'll assume they can find someone willing to make what they want. N days and N,000 gp later, they have their shiny new stuff. Recently though, the knight wanted his sword reforged into Britannian steel, and I saw an opportunity to use it as a plot hook to draw the group into an adventure. Basically the only person who knew how to do this was a renowned smith, who would do it if they solved a certain problem about a plague of icky disease and fish-men appearing from the sewers. A nice confluence of events.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Does anybody do non-overpowered gaming anymore? I'm working on a campaign where the Fighter is a Prestige class. The core classes are all comparable to the Warrior or the Noble in the DMG. There is power to be had in this world, but the PCs don't automatically get a fast-track to the biggest and baddest character classes. Is this so unusual that I might as well pack up and move to the center star of Orion's belt?

So you have to be a Warrior to start? No feats, few skills, and a D8 for hitpoints. Gee sounds like we have returned to the boredom of First Edition melee combat where a fighter existed merely to be a hitpoint sponge.

I know what you are trying to do but I think you are going about it wrong. You want characters to be less straight combat power oriented? Then make sure there are tangible benefits for having non-combat skills and feats. Also make sure there are penalties if someone has no non-combat skills or feats.

If the party fighter has a Charisma of 8 and not a single non-combat feat or skill then don't let him get good deals from the merchant. Most people (DM's) who complain that the characters are overpowered seem to say so for one of two reasons.

1. Too much treasure and or too loose with bringing in 3rd party rules.

or

2. Not giving benefits to players for having non-combat skills and feats.


Make your campaign so that every problem cannot be solved with the sharp end of the sword and your players will take the skills that help in those other situations. But if every challenge must be met and killed then of course every player is going to do nothing but maximize his characters firepower.

 

[Desdichado]

Without trying to get into the 'which is better' argument:

C'mon! Where's your sense of fun?

 

[Shazman]

This thread got me started thinking about something that's been bothering me for a while. Looking through these threads one would tink the point of D&D is A) Making sure each PC is balanced with other PC's and the world at large B) Making sure PC's don't get too powerful , or C) Smacking down PC's. All of these are wrong. It's a game. The point is to have fun. Why can't most of you grasp this simple conept?
The reason most people don't play underpowered campaigns is that it's more fun to have your 10th level fighter get through an encounter with some fire giants with 2hp that have your 10th level commoner and his friends get smacked down by the same group of low-level goblin warriors for the 10th time. I hope your players know about your plans in advace. If a DM told me we had to start with NPC classes, I would start looking for a different DM.

 

[Hardhead]

In FR, magic shops are very specifically mentioned. Thay has opened several recently, for instance.

 

[diaglo]

This thread got me started thinking about something that's been bothering me for a while.

try looking at it like this:

a party of adventurers visits town A from levels 1 to 10. they make a name for themselves from the start. everyone knows them.

they are laden with magic junk.

then they tangle with BBEG. who is level 12 or so. no one has ever heard of him. and he has even more junk...

monty haul here i come. poor planning DMs do this all the time.

that is what bothers some gamers. the point is to have fun. it isn't fun to game in a poorly planned campaign.

 

[Shazman]

I'm not saying that keeping a handle on PC power, paying attention to game balance, and rules-lawyering are bad things. They can add to the enjoyment of a game if done consistantly and in moderation. They are not, however, the ultimate goal of the game. I actually prefer a somewhat lower than average amount of magic items in a campaign, but it seems many DM's on these boards are missing the forest for the trees.

 

[Numion]

In FR, magic shops are very specifically mentioned. Thay has opened several recently, for instance.

One should remember though that they don't sell items 'harmful to the public', or any items worth more than, what, 2000 gp in price. Not exactly your Munchkins'R'Us.