What do you do?

[SkyeFyre]

I agree that multiple opponents are better than just upping the MDC of the opponent, as well as adding conditions to the battleground.

When I deal with munchkins (Or just high powered characters; y'know... the unruly kind) there's a few options I take.

Stick them in a box: Basically, put them in a situation that all their fighting skill and weapons won't help them with. Give them puzzles. If this isn't their cup of tea, move on to...

Hordes of enemies: Just have multiple enemies attack them. Maybe two for every player, or if they're REALLY that strong, three. As stated before, this route chews up their actions which prevents them from really dealing a lot of damage.

Special Enemies: Enemies that may be resistant or immune to the type of damage they are dealing out. Maybe a Zavor (sp?) for the guy with the magical blade, have a couple of Psi-Ghosts play with the power armor pilot.

If all else fails (and my personal favorite : Mechanoids. They will pretty much blow the crap out of anything the players can throw at them. There is only one enemy that my players fear (and they've encountered adult dragons, greater demons, all sorts of crap) and it's the Mechanoids. Puts tough guys in their place real quick

[Natasha]

Dehydration, magic, disease, fuel, spare parts, and the bull with bigger horns than either of them come immediately to mind.

[Killer Cyborg]

What do you do when monsters that you have set to fight your PC's are not strong enough. If I roll up the monsters I want they tend to only have between 100 and 200 MDC and my PC's are killing them way to easily, what do you guys do. Do you tack on an appropriate amount of additional MDC, have them fight more. What are you suggestions for this.

It's a Rifts world game, the PC's started out in North America, ended up in England and are now in Ireland about to be transported to another place.

PC 1 is a 9th level Bounty Hunter with an uber suit of a armor with an AI and Combat computer and 110 mdc for main body plus a 180 md force field.

PC 2 is a 2nd Level Mystic Knight with 65 mdc, with a battle fury blade that adds 100mdc when activated. FOM states the Battle fury blade is 1d6x10 and the BOM said it's 2d4x10. I originally told him to go with what was in the BOM, I've since decided to change it to what it is in FOM.

If he activates Battle fury in two hits the monster is dead. Most of the critters I'm using only have attacks that do 2d6 so they aren't doing much damage, not including PC 2 is immune to all energy and fire. It makes for a boring game when my monsters are getting owned in two hits

Sounds like you've let your PCs have too much power.
Best thing you could do is start a new campaign and have them roll up reasonable characters with reasonable gear.

Barring that, chuck more monsters at them. Swarm them a bit and gauge how long it takes them to deal with larger numbers.
Then toss a lone (or few) more powerful monsters at them here and there, and gauge how quickly the PCs take those out.
Then mix and match; swarm of lesser monsters, with a couple more powerful monsters.
The main thing it sounds like you need is practice and patience.

[SkyeFyre]

Lets hear it.

I still say that swarms of wasps would fix everything

[The Beast]

I still say that swarms of wasps would fix everything

Either that or ninja assassins.

[Danger]

Glitterboys at long range think Bounty Hunters are delicious.

[SkyeFyre]

Ok, yeah it sounds like buddy's character was just given too much power. Whenever I run my game I like to have a copy of everyone's character sheet so that I might look it over and approve of it. This guy here... I wouldn't have approved. But since he's already in the game how to deal with this?

About the Befuddle question. I can't recall exactly, but I'm pretty sure if he's wearing any sort of EBA that the spell will not affect him. However it has nothing to do with a targeting computer and all that crap because if he's befuddled... he's going to have a hard time using his computer, or reacting off of it.

This player sounds like a little whiner that is used to laying waste to everything without any resistance. A munchkin.

I would ask him why his character is even going along with this if he's not interested in the bounty. If his answer doesn't meet your standards, then honestly he has no reason to be there. It sounds like all he's interested in doing is running around, killing everything in sight. If he wants to do that, go play Diablo or something.

Shifter, that could be more managable. If he wants to play that he would have to remember that he can only open a rift to somewhere he has already been. This would also cost him a nice at least 75PPE if he plans on bringing his buddy. If he wants to teleport somewhere he's never been before, he'd need to open a link to that location, and that'd need to be done on a leyline... and there's always nasty things on leylines. So with each teleport he would drain away a good portion of his magical energy... leaving him a bit more... vulnerable.

As far as the plot goes, it's a good idea, just it seems a little confusing. Like, the majority of the game is a dungeon romp. Now those are fine, but I'm just wondering... what are all of these creatures doing in the dungeon? There's some good tips on running dungeon games in the Rifts Adventure Guide.

I don't know if you just left out some of the story points explaining all of this (Because you did say this was basically an overview) but I'm having a hard time finding any direction. It seems that they're randomly moving from one dungeon to another. But like I said, I'm not there, so I don't know exactly what the story is. Don't take this as a "Dungeons are bad" post. I love them myself.

[bigbobsr6000]

I've had PCs go into an area that they were trapped in. Only way out is to fight their exact duplicate. They cannot aid the others, only fight themselves. I had copy character sheets that became my NPCs.

I have used Phase Weapons that by pass all armor and do direct damage to the soft creamy center.

I have used a little girl needing help that really was an ancient dragon or a god like Loki or other nastier one. She would kick their collective @$$es.

I have used Ley Line storms.

I have used power drain zones where nothing that uses power works at all.

I have used meterite shower, fire storms.

I have used alien abduction. The aliens are way more powerful than any PC could hope to be.

I have used after they sleep, they wake up naked and all equipment gone.

These are just some of the tricks I have used against PCs. And I tell each player whatever their PC has, my NPCs can have as well or worse.

Just some thoughts for you guys and gals.

[Gallahan]

Firstly... As a GM, you should not let your imagination be limited by game mechanics. Your imagination contains all manner of options and situations that can trap your PCs. If you are short on ideas, then: READ READ READ READ READ.

[bigbobsr6000]

Firstly... As a GM, you should not let your imagination be limited by game mechanics. Your imagination contains all manner of options and situations that can trap your PCs. If you are short on ideas, then: READ READ READ READ READ.

Couldn't agree more . "Knowledge is power."

[LostOne]

Changeup the enemies some. Is there a reason they're always fighting monsters? Where is the Coalition or other intelligent antagonists?

Throw them up against a CS S&D squad, or a group of Juicer mercs. Do they have any actual enemies? If not, introduce some (have a minor fight, the guy they killed? His father is a major mafia boss or other organization leader). If they have enemies, use them. Have the enemies send minions, hire assassins, put up a big bounty on the players.

Have them get stuck in the middle of a bad situation. Maybe they come into possession of something (they find it in a treasure, or some wounded guy runs in and gets shot in front of them, and they grab it because he was clearly guarding it), and it turns out that both the CS and Fed of Magic desperately want it (the CS wants to keep the FoM from using it, the FoM believes it to be a powerful weapon against the CS).

Start a rumor that these guys are sitting on technology or have a magic spell that will double or triple a Juicer's lifespan. Juicers will flock to these guys and when the players "refuse to help" as the Juicers see it, the Juicers will get hostile.

Do they owe anyone money? Time to collect, with interest, or else.

In the case where one player is overshadowing the other, I prefer to handle it out of character so there is a mature understanding and agreement. But if the player is being an ******, don't hesitate to knock him down a few pegs. Have a GB take a chunk out of his armor, an operator cripple the AI in his armor, or the AI decides it doesn't like him or gets a glitch and refuses to function, etc. Repairs are expensive, make him repair enough and he'll need to sell some things off or opt to use armor that is cheaper to repair, or borrow money from someone, see the above comment about time to collect. There are ways of dealing with it in game, but it sounds like this player wont' take that well. If worse comes to worse, sometimes it's better to find another player.

[Shorty Lickens]

We already have plenty of good replies, but I feel the overwhelming urge to share my disgusting opinion.


This isnt Dungeons & Dragons and this isnt Final Fantasy.
Players should not be squaring off against random monster and duking it out: http://www.gamehacked.com/images/final-fantasy-1.png


You should be constructing encounters, not rolling them up.
And even if you did use nameless monsters as potential antagonists, it doesnt make sense that one of them would just jump out and try to bite a PC with everyone standing around.
Wolves dont do that, tigers dont do that. Why would a zognard do that?

If predators were going to attack some potential food like the PC's, they would wait until the softest looking one was alone and then strike quitely.

But the concept of masses of weak monsters randomly attacking our intrepid heroes is flawed anyway.
Thats like you walking to the grocery store with an AK-47 and getting jumped at every single intersection by a wild animal. Not only is it silly but wouldnt be very interesting after the 2nd or 3rd time it happened.

I agree with the above suggestions that your encounters need to have meaning and depth behind them, and group of equally capable NPC's always makes for the best challenge against your team.

[KillWatch]

Random encounter are fair. However if they are selfish creatures they encounter they aren't going to fight to the death or even if they aren't and the characters aren't soemthing they desperately hate and want to kill aright then and there.

Also, jump them, wear them down. Sure they can handle one enmy two or even one for one of the entire party, but there are plenty of one hit monsters that when multiplied become terribly dangerous

Let's just take 20, 10 MDC creatures with 3 attacks each
That is in essence a 30 MDC beastie with 60 attacks and if they each do 1d4 MD that CAN be up to 240 MD per melee. Fine you kill one but you still have 19 left

And what about smart beasties who set traps for the characters or other passerbys?

But aside from all of this, if the players are whoopin beastie butt honestly then let them. If they have in the past used good judgement and turned tail when they were not ready for a conflict, if they hav eused their skills to get them out of jams if they have in general honestly got to the level they are to the point of being able to walk through baddies with little sweat then let them. It's nice to be the big man in the forest for a little bit.

But there is always something bigger and badder, And all of the small encounters can wear down the weapons and armor and ammo. Disease and hunger are good sources for torment. And they have to go to the bathroom at some point, or else some damage tot he armor effects their enviromental systems and begins to malfunction affecting the oxygen so they either have to move on without their helmet or without it secured leaving the head a good possible target. And powered armor? If that gets damage the pilot or wearer might have to fight the armor just to move if a servo gets damaged keeping track of what gets hit for how much can benefit you. Sure you only did 30 MD to an arm but it probably won't work right anymore. And even if it moves up and down, maybe the fine motorskills aren't the best and it happens to be the gun arm and so it either fires randomly or not at all.

[LostOne]

If they have in the past used good judgement and turned tail when they were not ready for a conflict, if they hav eused their skills to get them out of jams if they have in general honestly got to the level they are to the point of being able to walk through baddies with little sweat then let them. It's nice to be the big man in the forest for a little bit.

I used to GM for a group that never showed good judgment. If it was a fight, it always ended in group victory or total party kill.

However if it wasn't a straight up fight and it was something like a volcano erupting under their feet, they usually ran. But when it was someone shooting at them or slashing a sword at them, they fought to the death.



It took me stepping down as GM and playing a PC who ran away when the going got tough for the group to make the connection. Talking to them as a GM didn't get it through their heads.

Unfortunately, the were the only players around, so I didn't have any other options.