Post date: Oct 29, 2009 7:43:5 PM
Characters are a collection of stats, skills, backgrounds and personalities...oh, and gear.
Of these a game master can steer players in certain directions (you are all from the same town/vault, a shooty person should probably have a good agility, etc.) , but the rest is up to the players. Except in gear. Gear is the one thing the GM has total control over, but sometimes even the GM can get that wrong.
Recently I allowed the party to find some pretty good armor, combat armor, which is pretty sturdy stuff and aside from Power Armor, is the best armor in the game. I just didn't realize how good it was until after an evenings of adventuring, a whole slew of minor encounters (radroaches and molerats) suddenly became just meaningless as the foes could not get through the armor despite ganging up and trying to make headshots because they could not get past the armor. So in good fashion I quickly made all such planned encounters flavor text of them beating the bugs and beasties senseless with baseball bats and police batons. Of course there were tougher foes so I was not worried, and I did have them shaking in their boots for a little bit before everyone started busting out the bennies to survive.
Still now that the party has this tank, I have to consider how to approach this nuclear escalation. So I reached back into my closet of magazines and found some interesting stuff. I don't want to repeat the whole article here as it mostly pertains to 3.5ed D&D but I think all the points are valid.
1) Look in the Mirror: Acknowledge that this situation is the fault of the GM, you gave them the treasure, So plead ignorance. Tell the player you didn't understand the power of the item and he shouldn't have been able to make or buy an item like that -- you're sorry, but it has to go away. Give the player options for buying or building other items within the appropriate guidelines, and convey your sincere apologies for having given out the item. Through all of that, be firm that the item must go.
2) Challenge Players in Ways Other Than Combat. This is the simplest answer to your problem. If they are combat gods, make them do something other than fight. There are lots of kinds of encounters -- talking encounters combining player roleplay along with Charisma-type skills, resource or information gathering, puzzles and obstacles that require player thought and application of skills to overcome, and so on. This is a cop-out, though, an armchair quarterback's answer, because it ignores the fact that any Game will eventually end up in combat. Using non-combat encounters is a great idea and you should do it, but honestly, it is only a delaying tactic. Sooner or later, the steel is coming out, and you need to know what to do to challenge your players when it does.
3) Don't Play to the Characters' Strengths. Use tactics (gang-up, disarm, insults/intimidation) , if your foes are smart, combine things like double tap (+1 to hit and damage) with Aim +2 to hit and shoot for small targets (like head or vitals -4 to hit but +4 damage) for a total of -1 to hit but +5 damage. If they players are melee monsters attack from range, falling back. If your players are shooters, attack from ambush to get into melee.
4) Use foes with Advantages, not stuff. Fight with monsters that have better edges not better stuff, that way the escalation of better gear stalls out.
5) Whatever You Do, DON'T Throw High-Powered NPCs at Them. This is the worst possible idea, which is probably why the player often times suggest it. All that means is that once they polish off those juicy NPCs, who still won't match up to the PCs even if they have good equipment, the PCs will scoop up even more loot! That way lies madness.
So how to fix it:
Method 1. Simple and Direct
It's the GM's fault that the campaign is out of balance, so you call a character audit and do the math, showing how far out of balance it is. Then you recalibrate. You could boost the characters' levels so they're commensurate with the stuff, or you can divest the characters of their loot. No in-game rationale is needed. You, the DM, caused a problem in the game by bad management of the game mechanics, so you are adjusting the game mechanics to put the game back into balance. You set a new maximum value on wealth (and wealth equivalents such as wishes bought to boost ability scores) and a maximum value on individual items (no, 200,000 gp of wealth does not mean one 200,000 gp item). Then you let players recalibrate their items to meet the new standard, subject to final approval by you. This approach is likely to generate some backlash from disappointed players who've grown attached to their treasure, so use it only if you're prepared to take the heat and stand up to their complaints.
Method 2. The Battle of Attrition
You stated that gradual equilibration would never happen, but have you stopped giving out significant treasure? Of course a gradual approach won't work if you keep giving out level-appropriate loot, but remember that you already gave out too much loot before. Now you are balancing the scales of luck (since random chance isn't doing the job for you) by giving out too little. Gaining lots of xp isn't a problem. It is the mechanism of solving your problem. More xp in this situation is a good thing. The loot they have won't seem nearly so outrageous when they are higher level. Ramp up the xp and cut back the gp, and your problem goes away.
Method 3. Get Ready to Rumble
The column mentioned above offers numerous examples of how to deal in-game with overpowered (especially over-equipped) characters. Your problem is harder, because you can't just play 'keep-away' from one character and their particular strengths. Your entire party is overpowered, so your tactical solutions need to deal with all of them. Still, one-at-a-time solutions can work as you whittle away the party's base of equipment. Rogues can steal, enemy warriors can sunder, spells can be targeted at items (use dispel magic or greater dispel magic to make items non-functional, or disintegrate or a rod of cancellation to make them nonexistent). Heck, one well-placed Mordenkainen's disjunction could solve a lot of problems. Maybe you need to be more creative and ruthless in wiping out the party's cache of goodies. Look through your monster books and bring the pain … to their stuff!
So back to my situation, I review the armor, and possible foes. Combat armor grants: Armor: +3/+4 vs Bullets AND Negates 4 AP Covers: Torso, Arms, Legs. This grants your average PC with Vigor d6 a Toughness of 8/9. Meaning unless the monster is doing at least 2d6, it is not going to hurt often, if at all.
So first I look at the rules: I find I have been doing two things wrong, very wrong. First, I have not been allowing my attack rolls for Extra/Minions to ace (or explode). Second, prior to this campaign my exposure to Savage Worlds had been predominately Pulp adventures from Triple Ace Games, and as such there is a pulp-setting rule that says Extra's damage does not Ace (or explode), but in general SW rules, extra's damage can ace. After realizing these two mistakes, I am actually ok with the armor I issued.
Still I want to see if there is some balance. First, I look at the world setting, yes rad-roaches and mole rats are annoying but with combat armor they are simply nuisances and should probably be treated as the same, still if they gang up they can whittle down a player.
Second, most long guns do 2d8 damage so average rolls are 9, which combat armor is designed to protect against somewhat, and with pistols doing 2d6 with average of 7 the combat armor holds it own against such things.
So after much deliberation and consideration, I consider my choices and decide to leave the gear in play and just fix my mistakes of how extras are handled as that is most transparent to players. I also consider a weapon I gave the players last session, a plasma pistol, (Range: 12/24/48 Damage: 2d8+1 ROF: 1 Shots: 16 Weight: 3 Min Str: - Notes: AP 2, Semi-Auto) and while solid, I think the solution for that is to simply not provide any more ammo for it for a while.