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2013-05-25, 04:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
Showing players that their characters are powerful
PCs usually go up against things that challenge them in most games. Every now and again, they get a group of mooks and they can really mow them down, of course. Players usually appreciate these moments.
So aside from the occasional mook horror show, how to give the players that feeling? That yes, there are bigger folks around than they are, but though most NPCs may not realize it, the PCs are badasses/movers and shakers/pretty in the land/whatever it is they're building their characters to be.My D&D 5th ed. Druid Handbook
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2013-05-25, 04:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
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- Poland
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Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Have a cocky minor bad guy taunt the PCs, then snap like a twig when combat actually starts.
And on the opposite side, nothing makes you feel powerful like fighting against an enemy that was constantly referred to as being ridiculosly strong, and winning.
Siela Tempo by the talented Kasanip. Tengu by myself.
Spoiler
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2013-05-25, 04:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Challenge them in ways that aren't about numbers, while letting them mow down enemies.
Play a game where there's no need for all the numbers to inflate. In older D&D editions, unless you let ACs inflate, 9th-level PCs can be in danger fighting orcs and ogres, if they're fighting far, far more of them at once - easily 20-30 instead of 6-8.
Let them accumulate real power in the world, not just personal combat prowess. BECMI and ACKS domain management do this, as do some other games.D&D retroclones:
SpoilerAdventurer Conqueror King
Basic Fantasy (free)
Dark Dungeons (free)
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Labyrinth Lord (free)
Lamentations of the Flame Princess (free)
Mazes & Minotaurs (free)
Myth & Magic (free)
OSRIC (free)
Swords & Wizardry (free)
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2013-05-25, 10:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Elsewhere
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Have NPCs suck up to them. Seriously, it sounds cheesy but it works.
If the PCs come back to a town they saved three adventures ago, describe the kids running around in the streets playing "Adventurer" and using the character's names. Have pretty young barmaids flirt with them and ask for an autograph. Have a feast in their honor.
Have a messenger of the king give them a commendation - and an invitation to stay at the palace next time they are in the Capitol.Honor guard at the funeral in the Miko Fan Club.
Those who are too stupid to run, I salute you.
Human Male, age 35
"Have you come to lecture me on my evil ways?"
"Actually, I brought you some supper. But if you'd prefer a lecture, I've a few very catchy ones prepped; sin and hellfire... one has lepers."
- Inara and Book, Firefly
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2013-05-25, 12:02 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
These have occurred in games, either ones in which I've played, or ones I ran:
- Clotheslining a god
- Making attacking bandits start worshipping you
- Demanding a god show himself, and having him do so.
- Throwing someone's horse into a tree.
- Flipping the bird to titans and ghost-kings.
- Destabilizing an entire kingdom as a byproduct of your goals.
- Getting into a fistfight with incoming traffic and winning.
- Punching one's way out of a metal sarcophagus.
- Surviving vivisection.
- Jumping off a cliff because it's faster than climbing down.
- Turning ragtag followers into space marines in less than a year.
- Throwing someone twenty miles.
- Finding out that one has had metaphysical ownership of a thousands-year-old giant mecha, and it's still in perfect condition and ready to be used.
Last edited by TheCountAlucard; 2013-05-25 at 12:04 PM.
It is inevitable, of course, that persons of epicurean refinement will in the course of eternity engage in dealings with those of... unsavory character. Record well any transactions made, and repay all favors promptly.. (Thanks to Gnomish Wanderer for the Toreador avatar! )
Wanna see what all this Exalted stuff is about? Here's a primer!
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2013-05-25, 12:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2012
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Let them win. Easy enough.
A good way to let them win is to play a monster/villain/foe like a cartoon character. Sure the lich has 100 awesome necromancy spells, traps and tricks...but just have them walk in to melee and try to claw the characters to death.
Also let the players plan work. Most games, players will often come up with some crazy plan. And most often a DM will look over the plan and never ever let it work. And example: The gnome group came up with the idea to fill a bucket with stones and have it drop outside a giants cave. The idea was that the giant would be ''so distracted'' by the stones that the group would get all surprise attacks....even though the giant knew they were there as this was the fourth 'attempted surprise attack'. But I rolled the faithfull d20 and got a 20 and said: ''the bucket falls on the giants head, blocking it's sight''. They pounced and killed the giant and were quite happy.
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2013-05-25, 12:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2012
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Let them have a round or two against the same enemies that they struggled against five levels ago.
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2013-05-25, 01:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Minor villain NPC recognize the PCs by name and surrender after realizing that victory is impossible?
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2013-05-25, 10:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Rather than sucking up to the characters by giving them name recognition or relatively weak enemies to mop the floor with, give them a standard to compare themselves to. If your level 18 characters are visiting a town, have an appearance of the local "Archmage" get the town in a fluster, and have the "Archmage" be a sorcerer of excellent showmanship capable of casting 6th level spells. Think about it- he's able to turn into a dragon, conjure walls of stone and lift them into the air, turn any building into a nearly impenetrable fortress, raise and lower the tide, and be able to divine almost any fact. To their eyes, he's a minor god.
And let the PCs smile, nod, and then show him what real power is.
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2013-05-25, 10:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2005
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
One of my favorite tricks, which admittedly I don't use very often because it gets cheapened through repetition, is just to every once in a while not even bother rolling out a fight.
The players say, "Alright, we're going to attack the thugs."
I say, "Cool, you flatten them. Anyone mind if we don't bother rolling it out? It's a foregone conclusion."
And a little light shines in their eyes as they contemplate the fact that they're skilled enough for a combat encounter to just be a waste of time.
(Note that this works best in systems where resources return quickly or instantly after fights. In a D&D system, it might end up mattering that the wizard used a single spell in that earlier fight.)If you like my thoughts, you'll love my writing. Visit me at www.mishahandman.com.
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2013-05-25, 11:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2008
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Mythender actually riffs on this, since characters are literally gathering mythic power about them. When you speak to mortals, you tend to kill them, simply because you're filled with godly mythic power.
That's obviously a bit extreme, but it's a good reminder: passive effects (even when characters aren't trying to do something) are a great way to enforce that.
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2013-05-25, 11:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2010
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
This one requires a bit of setup, and a rather long running campaign, but should be effective.
Simply put, have them encounter an enemy so powerful that the party runs away. Perhaps have it be a recurring threat, attacking and destroying towns and the sounds of its battle against entire armies resounding in the background while the party grows stronger. The area grows more and more dangerous as the local government fails to defeat the threat. And then, years after their first encounter, the party ends up fighting the threat again. Maybe they win, maybe not, but they have confronted an enemy that, once, was able to trigger the evacuation of entire cities by appearing on the horizon, and proven themselves to be on the same level.
Then...they grow stronger still. They become able to defeat threats that would be the doom of nations...or, if they are so inclined, they have become such a power themselves. And they can see it, as they defeat the elder wyrms and forgotten daemons and behind them the nations of the world expand.Status: Recovering. ETA: 3 days
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2013-05-26, 12:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
"I LEFT MY! THU'UM ON!
"HOW DO YOU! TURN THIS OFF!"
Incidentally, Glorantha (RuneQuest/HeroQuest) does this sort of thing. Great Heroes can fly by exhaling and riding their breath (which can take the shape of an invisible ram, lynx, or a cloud, for instance, or just a wind). Some of them lose the ability to speak mortal languages, or refuse to, or gain a geas against it. Geasa are a cool way to make someone feel like a hero, if they know anything about Irish mythology: it may seem counter-intuitive, because it's a limitation rather than a power or an ability, but it's still heroic by definition. In Glorantha, geasa are often accompanied by powers, though; you may have a geas against retreating from battle, but you're pretty damn sure to have some impressive combat prowess or magic to go with it.
Gloranthan Heroes can also get a bit otherworldly. Having constant winds blowing around you is standard. (They may be bound air elementals.) Heroes have a "Hero light" (well, technically, anyone with real combat magic does) that others can perceive, especially when they're magically prepared for combat.
And, of course, it helps when you have abilities that are actually seriously powerful. In the Gloranthan novel King of Sartar, Harrek the Berserk deflects offensive sun magic aimed at his company back on the priests casting it, blinding a hundred of them; only his boon companions survive unscathed, though, and the rest of the warriors hit are burnt and have their gear melted. Later, Harrek and Jar-Eel the Razoress fight a duel where they deal each other wounds that can never heal, and Jar-Eel is killed but comes back to life later on.
In a game like D&D 3.X or 4E, especially just going by-the-book, I can see how even 20th-level PCs (at least/especially non-casters) just wouldn't feel very powerful. Mostly, they just have very high numbers.D&D retroclones:
SpoilerAdventurer Conqueror King
Basic Fantasy (free)
Dark Dungeons (free)
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Labyrinth Lord (free)
Lamentations of the Flame Princess (free)
Mazes & Minotaurs (free)
Myth & Magic (free)
OSRIC (free)
Swords & Wizardry (free)
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2013-05-27, 12:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Sometimes, though, those high numbers can be enough. Such times include uprooted trees as impromptu weapons, stealing someone's pants off them while in conversation with them without them noticing, and being able to terrify armies with your very presence.
However, it is true that level-based resources, like Maneuvers, Spells, and Vestige levels, tend to be better at showing players that their characters have really become powerful, instead of just static buffs.
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2013-05-27, 01:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
- Location
- Material Plane
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
I guess one thing GMs can do is to let players have their strengths.
Not get all "+2 to hit? That's insane! And that's for damage and hit points too? OP!", everytime barbarian uses his Rage.
Roleplaying games are most often of heroic scale and the PCs are the heroes of that story. Let them do amazing stuff.
Some GMs (and players too, mind you) seem to get jumpy if anyone fights better than a basic, out-of-the-box Bard... even if they are supposed to be better fighters or mages than the Bard.Signatures are so 90's.
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2013-05-27, 01:28 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2008
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- Sweden
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Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
The next town they arrive in is throwing a parade in their honor, because they are world celebrities for their deeds and are called "legendary heroes".
When they walk into a bar they hear bards singing songs written about them specifically.Black text is for sarcasm, also sincerity. You'll just have to read between the lines and infer from context like an animal
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2013-05-27, 01:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2010
- Location
- London, EU
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Especially if one of them is a bit of an unlikely hero.
π = 4
Consider a 5' radius blast: this affects 4 squares which have a circumference of 40' — Actually it's worse than that.
Completely Dysfunctional Handbook
Warped Druid Handbook
Avatar by Caravaggio
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2013-05-27, 02:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Switzerland
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
Depends quite a bit on the setting, but: the media.
In a modern setting, have a magazine run articles about their past exploits. Either as "Mysterious series of art theft/industrial espionage/vigilantism" or "Decorated War Hero and Royal Marine Jack McPower, Archaeologist Lora Craft, Rockstar Jeff Superchord and Inventor Siegfried Machiavelli team up to stop Terrorist Attack in Los Angeles".
In a Cyberpunk setting, have some nerd program virtual reality game replaying their last exploits in a comedially overexaggerated fashion.
In a medieval or earlier setting, have the country's most famous bard compose a hymn to them.Resident Vancian Apologist
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2013-05-27, 08:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Location
- Dallas, TX
- Gender
Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
In Champions games (superheroes), I will often introduce the villain's plot by having the heroes bump into a gang of his minions robbing a bank of something, which they can stop trivially. This also has the advantage of having a fight scene in which the use their powers in the first minute of the game.
(This is common in comics too.)
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2013-05-27, 08:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2004
- Location
- In eternity.
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Re: Showing players that their characters are powerful
What Friv describes is the Earthbound auto-win-by-touching-an-enemy. I couldn't find a good video of it on YouTube. And there are spoilers if you try looking!