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Message: <blockquote data-quote="utopia27" data-source="post: 5106932" data-attributes="member: 26707">co-evolutionIn combat in general, there is a never-ending evolution of techniques.  If someone's being very successful with a particular technique, word gets around.  Then everyone and their brother wants to hunt the big dog and take them down a peg - demonstrate how their patented kung fu unbeatable trick is better than the existing kung fu unbeatable trick.  Does that apply to beasties and monsters?  well...  mostly in the sense that there'll also be LOTS of wannabees and imitators that'll be trying the unbeatable trick on all the monsters they encounter.  Just wait till the dragon scoffs and says, "why yes, the last three chain-weilding tripping specialist barbarians that came around must not have been the real deal.  You do it better.  Glad I got the practice in."  <munch>In Earthdawn, character advancement is measured by characters' fame and renown - it builds their connection to the archetypal patterns of the universe - and bends those patterns to the likeness of the characters.  If it doesn't make a good story, it doesn't contribute to your fame.  Slaying 378,000 wild boars will NOT get you to 40th level (though South Park teaches us that WoW likes that approach).  There's a bit of a story there - but not enough to win the fame and renown of REAL heroes.  As a result of this philosophy, one-shot-wonders (or the masters of the unbeatable trick) simply become boring and uninteresting, and their exploits fail to enlighten them or link them to any universal truths.  READ: dock 'em XPs for an other-than-creative response to plot complications.  Oh - and have NPCs start making fun of them and their one-and-done trick.Magical one-twos/unbeatables are a bit more difficult.  My favorite approach was from Mage the Ascension.  The magical philosophy in the system is that magic is a violation of the proper order of the universe.  If you do it and no one notices, not so bad.  If you do it tricky and clever, you can get away with it.  But if you're blatant about violating the rules of the universe, or you repeatedly reuse the same bit of clever trickery.... well...  the universe gets annoyed with you.  <munch>  The balancing point for the GM being that if players go back to the same well of "it worked before" too frequently, it uses up some quintessential element of uniqueness and adventure from the universe.  That can result in adapted monsters (usually the less stupid kind), adapted competitors, reduced fame and celebrity (what, the light-the-grease-spell guy _again_?), docked XPs, and reduced 'oomph' from over-drawn-account magics.  Remember also that many character abilities are essentially "magical" in character.Keep at it - remind the players that "vivid" sells.  The (imagined) audience that you're building theater for does not respond well to repitition.  Remind them that "didn't THAT look great on screen" gets 'em an extra DC or couple damage dice and stuff.  And same-old-same-old is a bit travel-worn and dingy - drops a couple dice of damage, or maybe a DC or three.  Engage the players in building an interesting story together.</blockquote>

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