TTRPGs: broken mechanics vs. abusive players

[The Shadow]

There's a lot of resistance however to giving non-casters abilities like this, however. There are people who want their Fighters to be "ordinary people in extraordinary situations".

The trouble with being an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation is that one has a disturbing tendency to die an extraordinary death...

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't know if it matters to the point you're making, but 10,000 pennies is $100USD, not $10.

I'm old and shouldn't post late at night.

Though as you suggest, I'm not sure 1000 is actually better, especially given current costs.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm old and shouldn't post late at night.

Though as you suggest, I'm not sure 1000 is actually better, especially given current costs.

I know right?

I went through something like this with my players a while ago. They considered anything that wasn't worth carrying to be scenery or set-dressing, not really treasure...and what was and wasn't considered "not worth carrying" varied greatly. Copper pieces, for example, were frequently mentioned as not being worth the effort to haul out of the dungeon. One player in particular would get unreasonably angry about it, to the point of rage-quitting one gaming session and sending me angry emails for a week.

Not kidding.

A penny weighs 2.5 grams, so 10,000 of them is worth $100 and weighs 25kg--about 55 pounds. So if cp = pennies and gp = $, copper coins are worth 0.55gp per pound. My players considered this to be unworthy of effort, and would leave it behind. (And that one player in partuclar would take it further, accusing me of "robbing" them of treasure by giving out trash. "We've told you over and over again, we're not gonna haul that (expletive) around! So just forget it! Every time you say 100 copper, I'm going to write down 1 gold!"

Never mind the fact that they would loot every single weapon, shield, and fragment of armor that they found. In one adventure, they had collected over 30 scimitars from some skeletons, and they refused to leave them behind, even after I told them that they were battered and rusted and worth only 1gp each. These busted, 1gp scimitars weighed 3 pounds apiece...less value per pound than copper...and they were going to carry every last one of them into town, come hell or high water. "Each one of these is a gold coin!" I was told. "We're not leaving them behind!"

So I kinda stopped listening to their complaining from that point on. It was pretty clear that the problem wasn't the copper coins--the problem was they knew other, more valuable coins existed in the game, and they were trying to press me into using them instead. They genuinely felt that if I didn't convert everything into gems or platinum, I was somehow punishing them for dumping their Strength scores.

In the end, they got their wish: no more copper or silver coins. Instead, I converted all non-platinum coins that the monsters were carrying into an equivalent value of (much heavier) mundane armor and weapons. The encounter key says there are 100sp in that chest? Not anymore, now there's a shield. To this day they still think they won that fight, and I've never corrected them.

 

[Lanefan]

I know right?

I went through something like this with my players a while ago. They considered anything that wasn't worth carrying to be scenery or set-dressing, not really treasure...and what was and wasn't considered "not worth carrying" varied greatly. Copper pieces, for example, were frequently mentioned as not being worth the effort to haul out of the dungeon. One player in particular would get unreasonably angry about it, to the point of rage-quitting one gaming session and sending me angry emails for a week.

Not kidding.

A penny weighs 2.5 grams, so 10,000 of them is worth $100 and weighs 25kg--about 55 pounds. So if cp = pennies and gp = $, copper coins are worth 0.55gp per pound. My players considered this to be unworthy of effort, and would leave it behind. (And that one player in partuclar would take it further, accusing me of "robbing" them of treasure by giving out trash. "We've told you over and over again, we're not gonna haul that (expletive) around! So just forget it! Every time you say 100 copper, I'm going to write down 1 gold!"

Never mind the fact that they would loot every single weapon, shield, and fragment of armor that they found. In one adventure, they had collected over 30 scimitars from some skeletons, and they refused to leave them behind, even after I told them that they were battered and rusted and worth only 1gp each. These busted, 1gp scimitars weighed 3 pounds apiece...less value per pound than copper...and they were going to carry every last one of them into town, come hell or high water. "Each one of these is a gold coin!" I was told. "We're not leaving them behind!"

So I kinda stopped listening to their complaining from that point on. It was pretty clear that the problem wasn't the copper coins--the problem was they knew other, more valuable coins existed in the game, and they were trying to press me into using them instead. They genuinely felt that if I didn't convert everything into gems or platinum, I was somehow punishing them for dumping their Strength scores.

In the end, they got their wish: no more copper or silver coins. Instead, I converted all non-platinum coins that the monsters were carrying into an equivalent value of mundane armor and weapons. The encounter key says there are 100sp in that chest? Not anymore, now there's a shield. To this day, they still think they won that fight and I've never corrected them.

Funny - the backstory of the Thief character I'm playing tonight is that she's a scavenger who goes to dungeons after parties have supposedly cleaned them out and scoops up all what they missed. It's a good-paying gig. Sounds like it'd be an even better-paying gig in your world!

 

[CleverNickName]

Funny - the backstory of the Thief character I'm playing tonight is that she's a scavenger who goes to dungeons after parties have supposedly cleaned them out and scoops up all what they missed. It's a good-paying gig. Sounds like it'd be an even better-paying gig in your world!

You really would! The dungeons are practically littered with copper coins that have been angrily cast aside in favor of all those "valuable" goblin spears.

If you really want to mess with them, tell them that the carrion crawler they just killed is prized for its alchemical properties, and that there's a guy in town who will pay them two whole platinum pieces if they bring its intact body back to town.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I know right?

I went through something like this with my players a while ago. They considered anything that wasn't worth carrying to be scenery or set-dressing, not really treasure...and what was and wasn't considered "not worth carrying" varied greatly. Copper pieces, for example, were frequently mentioned as not being worth the effort to haul out of the dungeon. One player in particular would get unreasonably angry about it, to the point of rage-quitting one gaming session and sending me angry emails for a week.

Not kidding.

A penny weighs 2.5 grams, so 10,000 of them is worth $100 and weighs 25kg--about 55 pounds. So if cp = pennies and gp = $, copper coins are worth 0.55gp per pound. My players considered this to be unworthy of effort, and would leave it behind. (And that one player in partuclar would take it further, accusing me of "robbing" them of treasure by giving out trash. "We've told you over and over again, we're not gonna haul that (expletive) around! So just forget it! Every time you say 100 copper, I'm going to write down 1 gold!"

Never mind the fact that they would loot every single weapon, shield, and fragment of armor that they found. In one adventure, they had collected over 30 scimitars from some skeletons, and they refused to leave them behind, even after I told them that they were battered and rusted and worth only 1gp each. These busted, 1gp scimitars weighed 3 pounds apiece...less value per pound than copper...and they were going to carry every last one of them into town, come hell or high water. "Each one of these is a gold coin!" I was told. "We're not leaving them behind!"

So I kinda stopped listening to their complaining from that point on. It was pretty clear that the problem wasn't the copper coins--the problem was they knew other, more valuable coins existed in the game, and they were trying to press me into using them instead. They genuinely felt that if I didn't convert everything into gems or platinum, I was somehow punishing them for dumping their Strength scores.

In the end, they got their wish: no more copper or silver coins. Instead, I converted all non-platinum coins that the monsters were carrying into an equivalent value of mundane armor and weapons. The encounter key says there are 100sp in that chest? Not anymore, now there's a shield. To this day, they still think they won that fight and I've never corrected them.

Well, honestly, except at the very bottom of the character startup, I wouldn't consider conventional weapons worth hauling around either (depending on how expensive things were and their resale value).

Notably, I did not have this attitude in games with the silver standard (at least when treasure was still any sort of motivator at all). Because in those, ten copper pieces would actually get you something you cared about.

(Though I have to say the person throwing a tizzy about it was over the top, but after the first couple times I'd been tempted to go "You do get I don't really care about the amount of value I'd get about hauling around that amount of copper, right?" But being angry about it? No, the worst you'd get is some eye-rolling.)

 

[ThorinTeague]

I know right?

I went through something like this with my players a while ago. They considered anything that wasn't worth carrying to be scenery or set-dressing, not really treasure...and what was and wasn't considered "not worth carrying" varied greatly. Copper pieces, for example, were frequently mentioned as not being worth the effort to haul out of the dungeon. One player in particular would get unreasonably angry about it, to the point of rage-quitting one gaming session and sending me angry emails for a week.

Not kidding.

I've had players make the joke in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, and we all have a cheeky laugh and move on, with or without the copper.

What you've described sounds like players I would not want to GM for. Although admittedly I know nothing else of these players.

 

[MichaelSomething]

 

[The Shadow]

Amusing, but I'm not sure it's worth it. The solution to thoroughly obnoxious players is not to game with them, not to design around them. That said, time spent making rules clear and simple is never wasted!

 

[MichaelSomething]

I wonder if RPGs should have a chapter on how to identify and exclude jerks?

Amusing, but I'm not sure it's worth it. The solution to thoroughly obnoxious players is not to game with them, not to design around them. That said, time spent making rules clear and simple is never wasted!