Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6498205" data-attributes="member: 6669384">The DM will always win an arms race.The question is, should he/she?&lt;slight tangent&gt;I used to run a super hero game where mundane weapons weren't considered as &quot;powers&quot;.&nbsp; Players fellin love with high powered handguns with AP ammo, and head shots.&nbsp; Dead mooks everywhere, in a setting where &quot;dead mooks&quot; was supposed to be a no-no.&nbsp; On one (and only one) occasion they faced a super powered foe who had brought a L.A.W. rocket to breach an armored bunker.&nbsp; One player had designed his PC in such a way that he had different defenses on different parts of the body, forcing me to use the optional &quot;hit locations&quot; rules any time anyone shot at him.&nbsp; (Royal pain in the tuckus, let me tell you.)&quot;Heros&quot; charge the bad guy, he turns the AP weapon on them.&nbsp; Random roll to see who he targets, and it's mr. &quot;spot armor&quot;.&nbsp; Critical hit is rolled, again right out in front of everyone.&nbsp; Location is rolled, right on the table in front of everyone.&nbsp; Head Shot!The PC took an AP Rocket to the head, on a critical hit, and not only wasn't killed, he was still conscious and functional.&nbsp; Yet the players screamed that this had been a plan on my part to kill off the PC.&nbsp; And of course, their next ambition was to gain access to L.A.W. rockets as personal side arms.&lt;/tangent&gt;When you defeat a munchkin by out-munchkining them (and a city-destroying bomb in D&amp;D is definitely Lollipop Guild worthy), you don't teach them that munchkinry is a problem.&nbsp; In their minds the problem was that they didn't munchkin enough.&nbsp; If only they had made their character even more god-like, they would have survived...Far better to just say &quot;No&quot;, loudly and repeatedly, when the players start looking for that yellow brick road.In our current case, however, it's far too late.&nbsp; It's been allowed and short of a DMs-ex-machina there's no way to undo that.Want a solution?&nbsp; One that really does justice to the situation?&nbsp; Declare that the players have &quot;Won&quot; at D&amp;D.&nbsp; What would they like to play next?If they protest, saying that they still want to play D&amp;D, tell them their old characters are now NPCs, hated and feared by the whole world because they destroyed not only a castle of enemies but the entire &quot;large city&quot; around it, full of innocent people.&nbsp; They should make new characters and start over.&nbsp; The long term goal?&nbsp; To bring down the &quot;Dark Lords&quot;, of course.&nbsp; First adventure?&nbsp; To explore the ruins of a blasted city, to prevent anyone else from ever learning the secret of the dark weaponry used to raze it.Oh, and when they decide to munchkin again?&nbsp; Say no, early and often.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 6498205, member: 6669384"] The DM will always win an arms race. The question is, should he/she? <slight tangent> I used to run a super hero game where mundane weapons weren't considered as "powers". Players fellin love with high powered handguns with AP ammo, and head shots. Dead mooks everywhere, in a setting where "dead mooks" was supposed to be a no-no. On one (and only one) occasion they faced a super powered foe who had brought a L.A.W. rocket to breach an armored bunker. One player had designed his PC in such a way that he had different defenses on different parts of the body, forcing me to use the optional "hit locations" rules any time anyone shot at him. (Royal pain in the tuckus, let me tell you.) "Heros" charge the bad guy, he turns the AP weapon on them. Random roll to see who he targets, and it's mr. "spot armor". Critical hit is rolled, again right out in front of everyone. Location is rolled, right on the table in front of everyone. Head Shot! The PC took an AP [I]Rocket[/I] to the head, on a critical hit, and not only wasn't killed, he was still conscious and functional. Yet the players screamed that this had been a plan on my part to kill off the PC. And of course, their next ambition was to gain access to L.A.W. rockets as personal side arms. </tangent> When you defeat a munchkin by out-munchkining them (and a city-destroying bomb in D&D is definitely Lollipop Guild worthy), you don't teach them that munchkinry is a problem. In their minds the problem was that they didn't munchkin [I]enough[/I]. If only they had made their character even more god-like, they would have survived... Far better to just say "No", loudly and repeatedly, when the players start looking for that yellow brick road. In our current case, however, it's far too late. It's been allowed and short of a DMs-ex-machina there's no way to undo that. Want a solution? One that really does justice to the situation? Declare that the players have "Won" at D&D. What would they like to play next? If they protest, saying that they still want to play D&D, tell them their old characters are now NPCs, hated and feared by the whole world because they destroyed not only a castle of enemies but the entire "large city" around it, full of innocent people. They should make new characters and start over. The long term goal? To bring down the "Dark Lords", of course. First adventure? To explore the ruins of a blasted city, to prevent anyone else from ever learning the secret of the dark weaponry used to raze it. Oh, and when they decide to munchkin again? Say no, early and often. [/QUOTE]

Verification