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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site topaz.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!topaz!trudel
From: trudel@topaz.ARPA (Jon Trudel)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: UltraSpells
Message-ID: <1852@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 20:54:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.1852
Posted: Tue Apr 30 20:54:42 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 1-May-85 04:44:11 EDT
References: <1478@aecom.UUCP>
Reply-To: trudel@topaz.UUCP (Jon Trudel)
Distribution: net
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 48
Summary: Why fleece PC's

<Oh, mighty line-eater, accept this meager offering>

Hello, 

	This is my first posting to this group, but I'd like to add my
two cp's worth to the discussion.  I used to DM a group of people who were 
quite affluent when in came to D&D (4 or them were also DM's), and I was a DM 
who was quite liberal in awarding magic, experience, and the like.  I too 
resorted to the sort of traps that were instant kill, ie. 'you open the door, 
but you failed to see the trap that is now killing you.'  I never liked doing 
this, because the players were extremely annoyed about losing characters that
they had played with for months.  This type of play never sat well with me, 
and I eventually stopped DMming.  

	Now, let me say that I have no qualms about having characters that
are godlike.  I just have an aversion to the idea of wasting a PC simply for
that fact.  If a DM is going to let the characters be so powerful, s/he
should use that fact, and expand on them.  What I mean is,

	1)  Get the characters involved with NPC's who are just as
	competant and just as powerful as they are, but of an 	
	opposing alignment.  The idea of a nemesis has always been a
	favorite of mine, and the DM can be really crafty in
	creating them.  I'm not suggesting anti-PC's that are evil(good?)
	clones of the PC's, but NPC's of equal, if not greater strength.

	2)  I know this one is a real hassle for a DM, but wars are a real
	test of character :-)  Simply put, get the PC's entangled in
	'interstate intreague'  Have some political crisis emerge around the
	players where they are forced to join the fray.  Real benefits from
	this are the emergence of tactics beyond the usual cast, charge, and
	attack.  If the DM handles this well, large conflicts can really
	put a character's own skills to the test, and not his or her magic.


Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I prefer a game that has
difficulty.  I never appreciated playing frp games where everything was
practically a giveaway.  Maybe I'm being too picky (and you can quote me),
but I like a nice balance of losses and gains, with more emphasis on the
gains bit.  (oh, oh, here I go, up on my Tenser's disk) Life is supposed to
be like that.  

					Salt Salt, Twist and Bake,
					Jon Trudel


ps-flames about what frp gaming is supposed to be will gladly be accepted by
me, so send them to me, and not the net, unless I touched a nerve...