Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Rapier Ape]

The DM is supposed to be fairly liberal with magic items. And if you use the alternate XP rules, magic-users should be leveling up from finding arcane knowledge and artifacts.

I know in old TSR D&D a lot of people got completely hung up on the whole "Monty Haul " warning. They also somehow blocked out the instruction line of Place Treasure as Desired.
For some reason just stocking with the random tables. Which turned most games mudcore as hell.
They got so wrapped up in not wanting to Monty Haul it that they ended up over correcting it to the extreme.
I was guilty of this one myself way back in the day. It took looking through a lot of published modules and stuff from Dungeon Magezine to realize I was way off. Then factoring in that XP growth is around 75% tied to treasure acquired.
The players are getting double fucked over.

Solution: Make everyone a caster. Play Ars Magica.

I've been running Dragonquest 3e. I need to source the older editions at some point to see what's in there.
But everyone can pick up magic.
Oddly enough I have one player in particular who doesn't want to touch magic period and has pretty much just leveled up his character to be a massive hulking beefcake.
He solves his problems with a big axe. 2 little axes or a spear.

 

[LovisXVI]

I know in old TSR D&D a lot of people got completely hung up on the whole "Monty Haul " warning. They also somehow blocked out the instruction line of Place Treasure as Desired.
For some reason just stocking with the random tables. Which turned most games mudcore as hell.
They got so wrapped up in not wanting to Monty Haul it that they ended up over correcting it to the extreme.
I was guilty of this one myself way back in the day. It took looking through a lot of published modules and stuff from Dungeon Magezine to realize I was way off. Then factoring in that XP growth is around 75% tied to treasure acquired.
The players are getting double fucked over.

As someone who has a tendency to be a little too stingy, I find that it is easier to overcome giving too much than to little by giving them something to spend their treasure on if you feel they are too comfortable. OD&D you would have towers and castles and followers and whatnot, but every system has something to be a money sink. Traveller has the best: the ship. They are ungodly expensive and even the richest groups with incredible liquidity is unlikely to afford even a modest Far Trader. So if they have too much cash, nothing to spend it on? Nudge them to a very expensive ship at an appropriate discount from a quest you give them. They still have to buy the thing and pay off what they couldn't buy outright over time, but now they are back to square one. This principle can be applied to a lot of games, give them a good deal on something outside reasonable campaign wealth limits so it merely takes almost everything but the shirts off their backs, then you have succesfully made a money pit. Players, when given something of their own, will find ways to waste money on it, in my own experience I have spent money getting better furniture for my fort, no mechanical bonus, but it looks nicer.

 

[Rapier Ape]

As someone who has a tendency to be a little too stingy, I find that it is easier to overcome giving too much than to little by giving them something to spend their treasure on if you feel they are too comfortable. OD&D you would have towers and castles and followers and whatnot, but every system has something to be a money sink. Traveller has the best: the ship. They are ungodly expensive and even the richest groups with incredible liquidity is unlikely to afford even a modest Far Trader. So if they have too much cash, nothing to spend it on? Nudge them to a very expensive ship at an appropriate discount from a quest you give them. They still have to buy the thing and pay off what they couldn't buy outright over time, but now they are back to square one. This principle can be applied to a lot of games, give them a good deal on something outside reasonable campaign wealth limits so it merely takes almost everything but the shirts off their backs, then you have succesfully made a money pit. Players, when given something of their own, will find ways to waste money on it, in my own experience I have spent money getting better furniture for my fort, no mechanical bonus, but it looks nicer.

The whole money pit thing is present in Becmi. You have your weapon specializations (cost a good bit to train) Then there's a lot of optional rules from the Gazateers. The Principalities of Glantri gaz has its magic research + item creation system. That's a gold sink for magic users and Elves. You can even toss clerics into the mix using the formula.
The Rockholm gaz covers Dwarven magic item forging. Halflings have their own thing too.
The numbers bolt onto 1e and 2e seamlessly.
It keeps casters burning gold to fill spell books + making/recharging items.

Oddly enough my DQ group hasn't bothered with item creation. That's a blessing on my end I think. I could see things getting pretty bonkers.

 

[Judge Dredd]

They got so wrapped up in not wanting to Monty Haul it that they ended up over correcting it to the extreme.

Another "Dredd has shitty opinion" rants, but as someone who is both stingy and generous, I've never seen a "monty haul" DM fuck up a campaign, ever. The stories I've heard online of breaking campaigns is by giving obviously dumb shit PCs shouldn't have.

ie. Giving players a +5 vorpal sword or a deck of many things at level 3, and then acting surprised when it derails the plot.

The Deck of Many Things is a plot derail/chaos device. You don't give that to your players and expect them to play a linear plot campaign. It would be like giving the characters in a Cthulhu by Gaslight a battle mech and then wondering why the fuck they aren't taking the social intrigue seriously.

 

[AnOminous]

I know in old TSR D&D a lot of people got completely hung up on the whole "Monty Haul " warning. They also somehow blocked out the instruction line of Place Treasure as Desired.

I definitely ruined one campaign with Monty Haul. You know you've gone too far when you're throwing things from Deities & Demigods at them. It was just a matter of multiple way too powerful artifacts and the XP from getting them. (We agreed to an apocalyptic end of the world with ludicrous fights until everything was destroyed as a way to make it fun.)

I never went to the opposite extreme, though. I'd be generous with loot but also jack up the difficulty accordingly.

 

[Tom Bombodildo]

I like just making up powerful items that are custom to the characters and not even bothering to try and calculate how much it should be worth because my players know that selling some shit I designed especially for them would piss me off. Yeah sure, you have a shoulder slot item that gives you a fly speed and sting attack. Here's a rapier made of magic oil that ignores armor bonus. Sure, that car hood ornament you stole can become a max level magic foci.

Spoiler: Something money related from my current game

In my superhero campaign, one of the guys decided to be absurdly wealthy for no reason; he has strong superpowers and almost never uses his wealth mechanically, but he's got like, multi-national CEO kinda money. In our most recent session, they fought DMT machine elves which turned his Rolls-Royce into a robot to punch him in the face. After that fight, one of the players said to make sure we got the car out of there and asked rich guy to have it sent to a specialty hero shop to turn the insides hydraulic-powered so that another team member whose superpower is turning into water (Hydro-man / Wonder Twins style) could use it as a battle mech. I had him make a difficult wealth roll and they had to spend a lot of Karma but they succeeded and I have to say I'm excited about it, this is gonna be cool as fuck.

 

[Manly_Brony]

Nishruu, Gauths and Disenchanters can destroy/drain magic items.

 

[Adamska]

I've been finding that giving the monsters reagents and materials do a decent replacement for wealth like gold (I tend to be stingy with gold since I give magical items and neat bits of flash instead). I've also found a decent way to modulate wealth explosions is that you factor in a rough market pacing; my players still have about 2/3s to 3/5s of a big monster skeleton they are struggling to break up because the adamantine skeleton if sold all at once would crash the metals market and make them earn below value heavily.

 

[AnOminous]

Disenchanters

I hate those things so fucking much.

 

[Tactical Wizard]

In my superhero campaign, one of the guys decided to be absurdly wealthy for no reason; he has strong superpowers and almost never uses his wealth mechanically, but he's got like, multi-national CEO kinda money. In our most recent session, they fought DMT machine elves which turned his Rolls-Royce into a robot to punch him in the face. After that fight, one of the players said to make sure we got the car out of there and asked rich guy to have it sent to a specialty hero shop to turn the insides hydraulic-powered so that another team member whose superpower is turning into water (Hydro-man / Wonder Twins style) could use it as a battle mech. I had him make a difficult wealth roll and they had to spend a lot of Karma but they succeeded and I have to say I'm excited about it, this is gonna be cool as fuck.

This rules so fucking hard.

 

[GGSurvivor]

Is Warhammer worth getting into or is it just another IP that's fallen to troons?

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

I hate those things so fucking much.

It's one of those monsters where you can do cool things with but has a high chance of just ruining a session.

Is Warhammer worth getting into or is it just another IP that's fallen to troons?

...I was about to immediately recommend the Warhammer thread but whenever someone mentions the slow but still hostile takeover of Warhammer it causes a sperg fest. Understandably people are tired of talking about it, inevitable as it is, but some just want to shut it down immediately because it might harm their own beliefs.
That being said, this question has been asked there plenty of times, if you have money to spare, go ahead. Lore, models, the wargame, you'll find no shortage of things to engage with that aren't horrifically corrupted by Chaos looney troons, just find the right group of people and don't be too much of a sperg and you're golden (would still avoid the usual cesspits like Plebbit).
Ultimately, just check the dedicated thread and try not to mention culture war stuff unless you want a flame war or it's recent news, I'm sure many questions you might have have been answered as well.
Welcome to the Farms too. You're here forever.

In my superhero campaign, one of the guys decided to be absurdly wealthy for no reason; he has strong superpowers and almost never uses his wealth mechanically, but he's got like, multi-national CEO kinda money. In our most recent session, they fought DMT machine elves which turned his Rolls-Royce into a robot to punch him in the face. After that fight, one of the players said to make sure we got the car out of there and asked rich guy to have it sent to a specialty hero shop to turn the insides hydraulic-powered so that another team member whose superpower is turning into water (Hydro-man / Wonder Twins style) could use it as a battle mech. I had him make a difficult wealth roll and they had to spend a lot of Karma but they succeeded and I have to say I'm excited about it, this is gonna be cool as fuck.

What does the battle mech look like? Bulky war machines like Battletech or sleek like Gundam?

 

[GGSurvivor]

...I was about to immediately recommend the Warhammer thread but whenever someone mentions the slow but still hostile takeover of Warhammer it causes a sperg fest. Understandably people are tired of talking about it, inevitable as it is, but some just want to shut it down immediately because it might harm their own beliefs.
That being said, this question has been asked there plenty of times, if you have money to spare, go ahead. Lore, models, the wargame, you'll find no shortage of things to engage with that aren't horrifically corrupted by Chaos looney troons, just find the right group of people and don't be too much of a sperg and you're golden (would still avoid the usual cesspits like Plebbit).
Ultimately, just check the dedicated thread and try not to mention culture war stuff unless you want a flame war or it's recent news, I'm sure many questions you might have have been answered as well.
Welcome to the Farms too. You're here forever.

Thanks, I've been a lurker on KF since 2019 (I think), but now I've decided to finally post. Combing through the WH thread but still getting the hang of the search function on the site.

On an unrelated note: Always tried to get into D&D and just wasn't ever able to. I used to roleplay on WoW so I thought it'd be similar, but I get stunlocked with the math/other people playing tiefling rogues and wanting to have sex with everything.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

Thanks, I've been a lurker on KF since 2019 (I think), but now I've decided to finally post. Combing through the WH thread but still getting the hang of the search function on the site.

On an unrelated note: Always tried to get into D&D and just wasn't ever able to. I used to roleplay on WoW so I thought it'd be similar, but I get stunlocked with the math/other people playing tiefling rogues and wanting to have sex with everything.

You used to roleplay on WoW and people wanting to have sex with everything surprise you?

 

[Tom Bombodildo]

What does the battle mech look like? Bulky war machines like Battletech or sleek like Gundam?

It is literally a car reconfigured into a human-shaped robot with the use of telepathic machine control. Which is also how the machine elves piloted it. At the time I told them it was the same size as the boxing robot from the movie Real Steel, and looked roughly like that, except obviously made from car parts because it had been a Rolls-Royce moments before.

 

[Manly_Brony]

Is Warhammer worth getting into or is it just another IP that's fallen to troons?

I think 40K is still doing good. Fantasy sadly rolled over because 4th edition and The Old World have the current year diverse human art and women's lib. I didn't see any Black Elves or Dwarfs yet but stick to 2nd edition if you want to play it. That's when it peaked.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

but I get stunlocked with the math/other people playing tiefling rogues and wanting to have sex with everything.

Well, don't play 5e then! The math on the other hand, if that's not your thing (though I will say it's not complicated depending on what you're trying to do) there's probably a bunch out there. Unless your brain is mentally incompatible with math (can feel that), you'll have to learn for most games.

 

[Allied-Mastercomputer]

Is Warhammer worth getting into or is it just another IP that's fallen to troons?

The cool part about Warhammer is you’ve got like 40 years of good shit to look into before you start brushing up against “current year” bullshit. Hell, you can find old novels and rulebooks for free somewhere. The Old World slapped before GW nuked it. Find something you like bro.

 

[Tactical Wizard]

The cool part about Warhammer is you’ve got like 40 years of good shit to look into before you start brushing up against “current year” bullshit. Hell, you can find old novels and rulebooks for free somewhere. The Old World slapped before GW nuked it. Find something you like bro.

Is Warhammer worth getting into or is it just another IP that's fallen to troons?

I think 40K is still doing good. Fantasy sadly rolled over because 4th edition and The Old World have the current year diverse human art and women's lib. I didn't see any Black Elves or Dwarfs yet but stick to 2nd edition if you want to play it. That's when it peaked.

I'm gonna state the counter position and say that The Old World is totally worth your time. Having played through the fuckery that was eighth edition with it's horde rules and OP magic where some games boiled down to "Who can get off Purple Sun first." It's absolutely fine and it's a good ruleset that serves perfectly well as a cleaned up ninth edition of the game that looks back upon the glory days of sixth edition. ToW was "Cavalryhammer" when it came up but the errata dropped and heavy infantry are now a more viable choice. I don't know what these people are talking about, I haven't seen any wokeslop in the game.

 

[Adamska]

I will always suggest Fantasy Flight's 40k RPGs and Cubicle 7's Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2e. Both are really good lines. I'm not as positive on Old World, but that's due to the Grudge that End Times was and how a prequel hyperfocusing and changing stuff around Asavar Kul's wild ride does not fix it. For all it's nice they're trying to do the damn thing right, I will forever know that a vampire has an ugly crash-out that leads to the world turning into Shitmar, the Planescape bootleg I don't care about.

Also if you are a rat appreciator-enjoyer-degenerate, then get fuck-fucked since they're too busy-distracted making themselves dead-dead in a riot-revolution.