Monty Haul games...a virus that players seem to catch

[Animus]

D&D is an arms race waged in several battles of attrition in pursuit of the war of character development. The current rules even presume that a certain level of stuff is had by each character. Sometimes, what a character has defines the character more than what the character does (or can do). I've played in recent games with veteran gamers who suffer the loss of a character's possesions worse than the death of the character. I find it a real downer.

I tend to agree with you. While having cool stuff brings enjoyment to me, I feel that there is a limit to how much your equipment should matter. The fact is the higher you level, the more your stuff matters; just look at the wealth by level chart in the DMG and you'll see what I mean. This fact can contribute to acquiring the Monty Haul virus, IMHO.

 

[Shemeska]

It's like using a cheat program to deck out your character in a video game. After that point it's not as much fun to play a regular, not tricked out character, and you stay with the cheating all the way through and it tempts you in subsequent games to do the same.

 

[yennico]

It's like using a cheat program to deck out your character in a video game. After that point it's not as much fun to play a regular, not tricked out character, and you stay with the cheating all the way through and it tempts you in subsequent games to do the same.

That is true.

 

[Li Shenron]

at second level we were able to purchase a deck of many things for 1000 gp...with no bad cards

I was about to leave the thread as soon as I read this horror to the power of 3

I got to the point whereI hated playing, it was boring. Every challenge we walked though, even higher CR games were no contest.

...

So why are monty haul games so addicting to players...sure it maybe fun at the start...but it gets boring. Have you found this in your groups? Or did I just get a bad group?

Exactly the point of gaming is to have a challenge. If there's no challenge, there's no fun, like in sport. But lots of people don't have fun in challenges, they rather have their own fun in easily "winning" like they were omnipotent. Where does this need of theirs comes from, I don't know, but it's very common (and not just in gaming, it has some resemblance with the attitude of bullies at school, who always pick on the weak and not the strong).

Some of my friends are addicted to computer gaming in the same way. The are powerplayer for a while, then as soon as they find out how, they start using cheats. They wack through the entire game in a few nights, telling us the next day how cool it was... Finally they move to the next game and do the same, like they are in a frenzy. Only one of them has played RPG with us: one is too few to make a conclusion anyway, but he was definitely the monty haul type, he even complained that the DM didn't let him use Diplomacy or Intimidate to lower the market prices. He got tired of D&D very soon anyway.

 

[Hussar]

To be fair, diplomacy is supposed to be able to be used to lower market prices. I guess it would depend on how much.

I think anyone who has played DnD for any length of time has gone through the Monty Haul phase. I know I certainly did. My first experiences with the game were entirely first edition modules. Gack! Those things were just FULL of treasure. It was ridiculous. I remember the ungodly amount of loot we were toting around (of course we didn't care about encumberance - hey, we were 12 years old, sue us ) ) after completing the Against the Giants series. Blarg. You know you have a problem in the campaign when you stop collecting the platinum pieces because they just take up too much room that could be better used for your gems.

Needless to say, we've toned it WAY back.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Monty Haul needs to be addressed early on. The characters in my current campaign are all around 5th level and the best anyone has (aside from a few potions and scrolls) are a +1 weapon and maybe +1 armor. By the time they hit 8th level they will have a few more things but they seem to enjoy the little trinkets they find now and again.

I admit that in the next session or two I am going to introduce a very powerful magic item that they can have but it is more of a plot device that is fairly minor at first but it grows more powerful as the character has it. Therefore it kind of advanced as the character does.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

mounty haul games for me, can be great fun but not becasue they are mounty Haul. I feel the players break or make a group no matter what the style is. I've had great mounty haul games with fun players that really enjoyed it. But I've never seen players that got "addicted" to it. When we were ready to move on and try something else, no one complained and it went smoothly.

Crothian, I realize that Mounty Haul was a typo, but I just gave in to the urge to add a RCMP NPC to my steampunk game named Hall... Thank you.

And sometimes a Monty Hall game can be fun, but I would not want it as a steady diet, neither to run nor to play.

The Auld Grump

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The idea is that the party should still face opponents who can defeat them, problems that require thought and roleplaying to overcome, and interesting characters and situations. A good GM with good players can have fun with either style of play.

This is how the game I play in now is. Each PC has one item that is stupendously powerful. A good thing, too, or we'd die even more often than we already do.