Why to RPG players say these things...

[Riverwolf]

You sound like a terrible DM, given that your idea of 'countering overpowered characters' is "Hit them with no-save InstantDeath!"

Relax, I was being somewhat facetious. (Though, yes, I am still a pretty poor DM, but for different reasons generally stemming from lack of practice).

I'm actually the type of DM to fudge the rules in favor of the players, since I want them to succeed. One of the games I was joint-running with my girlfriend (and by the way, some free advice for those looking to DM, don't joint-run a game if you also both have your own characters in that game; it just gets confusing) was a Monster Hunter-type game in Pathfinder where players would have to use cunning and careful planning to overpower monsters several levels above their own. Once when trying to take down a Giant Condor, the plan they used was quite solid and they landed all their intended hits; while the total damage they did would not have strictly killed the beast, I fudged it so they did because I wanted to reward their intelligent and careful planning.

In a real situation, I wouldn't kill an overpowered player at all (once it gets to that, I think it's better to just kick the player out); I'd probably hit them with some kind of disease, which is not only a way to help get across the fact that they're not invincible, it's also a great adventure hook (since this disease is beyond the local clerics' skill to heal, and requires the skill of the Shaman Of The Blue Mountain... and yes I just made that up now, everyone can feel free to use it).

A dagger in the throat at night is more appropriate for the heavily-armored melee juggernaut who no man or beast can kill in combat when he's awake, not for the squishy archer who has to be able to take enemies down before they reach him (At which point its game over). Someone great at dishing out massive amounts of damage? Try a phalanx of Hobgoblins, instead of Monster of 9000 HP. "Yeah, it's great you can deal 500 points of damage in a single attack. Too bad no monster has more than 200 HP. While you're overkilling single targets, his friends are murdering yours."

And my inexperience is revealed; that is much better. ^_^

If someone makes a maximum-power character, don't hit them in the weakspots unless you intend to allow them to respec, and don't hit them head on, either. Side blows are more satisfying for everyone involved. Yes, players are proud of their characters - they should be, though, because that's all they've got. As a DM, you've got dozens of monsters and tons of dungeons.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Some players have a hard time understanding that the game doesn't have to have sides and that it's not a matter of GM vs Players.

That being said, I've made it fairly well known that if my players want to make it a me vs them thing I'll gladly play along.

I had a similar player who just took such a thrill in finding the perfect combination of class skills, background buffs to make his characters invincible, usually at the cost of making a cohesive character.

Sometimes it was simpe to get around.
"I hope your "guaranteed to crit" Barbarian blood warrior is prepared for the thrill of 3 solid weeks of imperial court politics."

Other times it required a bit more finesse.

"Your mastery of the holy healing arts has seen you through the assassins attack. Unfortunately it attracted the attention of the inquisitorial guard who are rapidly approaching to have a little chat about your blasphemous devotion to your heathen god."

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Trolling a DM is like sticking a hand in the fire. You'll never see it coming if the DM is good enough and one does not have to kill a PC to give some karmatic justice.

 

[Salokin]

Players like that are kinda why I stopped playing Tabletop RPGs. I still love them to death, and wish I could play them, but all my friends I could play with are hardcore powergamers, who's only goal is to make a character that's as powerful as possible on paper and win the game, then throw fits anytime I try to pull out the 'DM says no' card.

 

[Azahul]

My players are kept in a constant state of terror due to my dice rolls, so I don't really need to worry about that kind of attitude. I don't want to kill players, but it's happened twice due to good luck on my part and bad luck on the player's. It's an established fact that I need to throw them against monsters that would generally be considered too weak to put up a fight for their characters, because otherwise we'll have a TPK on our hands just because of my damned dice.

It also helps that we mostly play games like the World of Darkness, Savage Worlds, and Unhallowed Metropolis. Death comes quick and fast in those games. I'm really looking forward to running Mummy: The Curse, one of the later World of Darkness games, precisely because the players can never die permanently.

 

[shootthebandit]

I dont know much about this stuff but its all very intriguing. Thanks to my buddy @tippy2k2 I now know a little about this stuff.

Isnt the DM supposed to be like a referee? If im watching a game of football or rugby I dont see the referee tackling a player who hasnt followed the rules. perhaps the DM could use a similar tactic to a rugby referee and "sin bin" (I guess you could call it the cage of solitude) a player for a certain amount of time. If the player wants out early they can forfeit some of their stats/abilities or they simply miss a round

sorry if I seem ignorant

 

[thedoclc]

Bring them in to a Hunter game and show them exactly how horrible it can be when you botch your gratuitous Firearms roll, shoot a kid, and now have state and local cops relentlessly hunting you.

Just never let them take a combination of Resources 4+ and contacts 3+... that silver nitrate scud missile they got... yeeeeeeaaahhhhhhh.... I was n00b GM, they'd been playing for years.

Uh...dude, you really let them walk all over you. At least in the OWoD, Resources 4 is roughly 200k USD a year, which is not unobtainable at all. Resources 5 is in the single-digit millions with roughly 30k of income per month. Contacts 5 doesn't mean you have magical access which no private citizen has. A ballistic missile? Impossible. I'd have laughed. Resources 5 and Contacts 5 are insanely useful, but they don't mean you have the kind of power which small nation-states have.

But, fair enough, new ST. Don't fear people taking those backgrounds. Just don't let them use them for things that are insane. The CFO of a mid-cap firm might have Resources 5, Contacts 5, but (s)he can't just go around sending Apaches.

 

[Rellik San]

Bring them in to a Hunter game and show them exactly how horrible it can be when you botch your gratuitous Firearms roll, shoot a kid, and now have state and local cops relentlessly hunting you.

Just never let them take a combination of Resources 4+ and contacts 3+... that silver nitrate scud missile they got... yeeeeeeaaahhhhhhh.... I was n00b GM, they'd been playing for years.

Uh...dude, you really let them walk all over you. At least in the OWoD, Resources 4 is roughly 200k USD a year, which is not unobtainable at all. Resources 5 is in the single-digit millions with roughly 30k of income per month. Contacts 5 doesn't mean you have magical access which no private citizen has. A ballistic missile? Impossible. I'd have laughed. Resources 5 and Contacts 5 are insanely useful, but they don't mean you have the kind of power which small nation-states have.

But, fair enough, new ST. Don't fear people taking those backgrounds. Just don't let them use them for things that are insane. The CFO of a mid-cap firm might have Resources 5, Contacts 5, but (s)he can't just go around sending Apaches.

Here's the thing, they basically built it from scratch, I didn't just hand it too them. But I soon had karmic justice happen when the two characters bit the dust when the Silverfangs came to reclaim their stolen Dai-Klaive (down too bad rolls on their parts and inopportune gun jamming and a failed demolitions role).

When I started GMing, I always said to my players if they can justify it, if it's within their characters limitations they could build... and that's exactly what they did, resources and contacts was just for sourcing the parts.

But as you say, new ST and some things you chalk up to experience.

 

[Ikasury]

i just wanna giggle cause all the GMs i've had fun with their basic strategy WAS trying to find evil-creative ways to kill us... course we house-ruled most stuff and if you 'died' you ended up having a 'fun' journey with death... also crazy potions may have been involved that resulted in random 'improvements' that became permanent... like smacking the warhammer-mage and he'd light up like a firefly :3

but also that i agree with you one the story-telling bit, telling a fun story always seems more important to me, and those guys that wanted to make PCs just to 'compete' with the GM have always been relatively annoying... but my GM typically had 'fun' with screwing with them in ways that made their 'upgrades' moot... so i usually only made characters i thought were interesting to give the GM a hand in fleshing out some kind of story, because yea, you guys can ALWAYS find a way to screw with the PCs, and i rather enjoy giving you the fire-power... makes for fun games XD

 

[persephone]

I've never had any overconfident players, but I think that's purely because I've always run combat-light, story-heavy games, and I always try to choose my players carefully so that they'll fit the tone I'm going for. I do have experience with the sort of thing you describe though -- because my dad IS the kind of GM who's just out to murder the players and "win." Even when he claims he's running a non-combat-heavy game, all he runs are essentially glorified combat simulators. It's why I stopped playing in his games years ago, and it's GMs like him who generate players like the ones you describe. (As well as GMs like me who try NOT to do what he does!)