Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site tilt.FUN Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!princeton!tilt!chenr From: chenr@tilt.FUN (The 1200 baud hacker) Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Re: Killing off characters Message-ID: <187@tilt.FUN> Date: Fri, 19-Oct-84 20:00:33 EDT Article-I.D.: tilt.187 Posted: Fri Oct 19 20:00:33 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 21-Oct-84 14:06:25 EDT References: <3905@decwrl.UUCP> <1662@ucla-cs.ARPA> Organization: Princeton University EECS Dept Lines: 61 > I think magical items of the sort posted are perfectly legitimate for many > reasons: > > (1) If you've got powerful characters, it is probably because you handed out > a lot of nice magic. This gives characters instant death potential > against their opponents. It is only fair that some of the items they > find have instant death potential against them. I agree that nasty magic items have their place. However, a DM shouldn't need nasty items to control a campaign, or even an obnoxious character. Too many people have bought E. Gary Gygax's claim that high- level D&D is un-balanced, unchallenging D&D. Nothing could be further from the truth. High-level D&D, when done right, can be not only just as challenging, but also more exciting than low-level D&D. The key, of course, is realizing that power is relative. A person, upon entering the campaign I play in, was ranting about, "How can you have world that's full of 20th-level characters? If I'm 20th level, I could go destroy a city..." The following conversation then took place. DM: "Before you go off destroying any cities, think first. How many 20th level characters are there living in that city?" PC: "Ummm." DM: "And what will they do once they find out you trashed the city they live in?" PC: "Ummm. Hunt me down and kill me?" DM: "Riiiggggghhhhtt." The trick is to not let the player-characters get too powerful relative to the campaign. The lazy way out is to keep PCs from getting powerful at all. The creative way out is to make up a world that is more powerful than the PCs in it, and to juggle the balance of power to make sure that no one gets the upper hand. After all, a world dominated by Algathroth the Magnificent, even if he is an NPC, is going get really boring. With regards to a battle, there's no reason to punish PCs for possesing items that have "instant death" capability, just give NPCs items with the same capabilities, or be intelligent and creative enough to allow for the possiblity of defences against such items and give them to some of the NPCs. It is true that high-level battles tend to be shorter, but as a rule, this is a result of a "time-compression" due to the fact that high-level PCs can *do* much more in a round than low-level PCs. The amount of subjective time remains about the same, you're just fighting with fractions of rounds being important and not just rounds. Nasty magic items have their place: the normal risk of life. There have been lots of good arguments explaining why a nasty magic item might be created, so I won't repeat them. But don't use them as "control" devices. You can control PCs very well without them. ---- The preceding message was brought to you by -- Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr