Re: (TFT) On experience

[J&S <strngcrgonyc@earthlink.net>]

*SILAS RESPONDS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE*
silas wrote---
ALL CONSULT THE HOLY BOOK OF ITL---Page 3, column 1, para 3, last
sentence. "The gm is the final arbiter; he should strive to be FAIR
(emphasis added), but his word is law. IT IS HIS TASK TO KEEP BALANCE IN
THE GAME....."
 JOE WROTE------
> Silas has hit the nail on the head here.  After playing Melee/Wizard and some Microquests, I had the chance to play D&D with some folks who had some characters that had been around awhile.  It was amazingly unbalanced. My beginning character had problems with a couple of guards, while these guys breezed in, walked on hot lava, slew giants with a toothpick, levitated the treasure out of its hiding place, and killed all enemies within two miles by crossing their eyes.  (OK, I'm exaggerating a bit.)
 It's the Master's role to keep things balanced.  ITL says that it's
*hard* to become a superman - but it's not impossible.
> 
> The point is that the MicroQuests and adventures like Tollenkar's Lair
> assume a basic level of character - maybe some experience, but not Ahnuld S. Having Ahnuld as a character takes the challenge out of the game.  I'd rather play a game with a Master where my character might get killed, but the Master pulls a deus ex machina and saves his sorry hide so that the game continues, but the battle was lost.  It's a lot more interesting than going in with Ahnuld, killing everything and winning the game without breaking a sweat.  That's not playing - that's going through motions, and to me that's boring.

SILAS RESPONDS---
Perhaps when a character becomes that powerful, they should become DEMI
GODS, or something along those lines. New campaigns based on players
assuming the status of near gods would be a new level of GMing. And it
would present the characters with new VERY LETHAL CHALLENGES. Who cares
if you'v got 18dx, when the guy your hitting has ST-2000!!!! Granted it
probably have to be on a diferent plane o existence than Cidri, but not
necesarily.
 Short of something like that, the MNOREN could always pay a call in the
night and genetically "STEAL" a characters advances away, or merely do
away with the unbalancing influence that those characters had on THEIR
world. Heavy handed, but always an option.
Again though, these are options when as Gm, someone has been a little to
liberal with EXP.
 The last and final option is for the player to realize that his
character can go no further, and that its time for BJORN GNARLFOOT to
retire to the great halls of legend. There are after all more Gnarlfoots
around if he's been that successful.
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"