When Reason Fails (CSC)

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If a set of rules could be written to cover every situation possibly it would reseemble a law library with stack after stack of volumes documenting important scenarios and the "correct" interpretation for each occurrence. The DM would become, in fact, what some games refer to him as—a judge. Unfortunately, DMs might also need to charge professional fees for their time.
Instead, much is left to the judgment skills of the DM. If the rules don't exactly cover a situation, he and his players must resolve the dispute via a mutual agreement (or a definitive declaration by the DM). The hints and tips that have been presented so far have been provided to help the DM deal with any ambiguities or difficulties that develop between his campaign and the "official" game rules. So long as everyone is satisfied with the decision (or at least not intensely grumpy about it), the game can continue without incident. Given the vast creativity of the players and DMs in this world, 99.9% of the problems that arise can be solved in this mutually agreeable manner.
Still, that little 0.1% remains and, of course, these are the ones that cause DMs to go prematurely gray or question why they ever gave up their hobby of collecting 01d shoe boxes for all this. For some situations, no interpretation of the rules seems to apply. In fact some of them are directly related to interpreting the rules.
Worse yet, problems are going to arise that have nothing to do with the game, but involve the people playing the game. The DM will rapid1y find that people who enjoy playing the AD&D® game often have "interesting" personalities. Strong personalities seem to inevitably clash. So, along with running the game, the DM may find himself moderating "discussions" between players.
With this in mind, a number of potential problems, sticky situations, unpleasant scenarios and dire dilemmas have been provided, along with possible ways for the DM to handle the situation and the people involved. Whenever possible, the solution "kick the player out of the game" has been avoided.
==Basic Presumptions==
For the DM to enforce his judgements during difficult game play sessions, he must set a few ground rules for later disputes with the players. Call these the rules for arguments:
First, the DM must declare that his word is the final authority in things pertaining to the game. He will listen to arguments to the contrary, but the players must accept that his word is law and if he declares a thing to be so in his world, then it is so!
Second, let the players know that if the DM makes a decision which everyone agrees is bad, he is more than willing to discuss it and possibly even call back the decision. The guideline for calling back such a decision is not whether or not the result is bad for a character, or even the entire group, but whether or not it was fair. The same holds true for interpretations of rules. Everyone, including the DM, must agree on an interpretation that differs from the one held by the DM.
Third, make sure the players are aware of any major rules variants being used. The best way to do this is in writing, so that everyone has a copy of the rules on hand.
Fourth, any major deviations from the group's accepted rules (including any variants currently in use) must be approved by the group and must take effect after the situation that brought about their creation.
==Escaping from Monty Haul==
: ''After Daniella slays all J 2 of the kobolds with her multi-barrel wand of megadeath the rest of the party finds about J 00, 000 gold pieces, 33 potions, about 243 gems, 900 pieces of jewelry, a sword that glows almost as brightly as Daring Dirk's frost brand, a suit of well-maintained power armor with markings of the old Imperium and two mounted projectile throwers on it, about four cases-full of short range rockets, a rod of lordly might, and a shadow box hanging on the wall that contains about 20 different figurines of wondrous power."
: "Oh boy, we grab all the magical loot and stick it in our portable holes. The wizards begin setting up the transmat box that teleports all the gold back to Castle Pardo."
: "Well, as you do that} the south wall glows and a humongous bat-winged creature steps through, oozing pink goo from huge warts and dragging a huge bag of treasure."
The television game show has become an integral part of our culture. With little or no personal risk (other than that of public humiliation on nation-wide television), regular folks can try for hoards of valuable prizes. The winners walk out with all those things our materialistic souls crave and even the losers get consolation prizes.
Some gamers play adventure games in the same way. In just about every case, The DM is responsible for this. Too quickly~ the game goes from the "Awe and Wonder" stage in which the game itself seems magical to the "Glory and Thunder" level where the players aren't happy unless their actions are punctuated by wrath-of-heaven style special effects.
Monty Haul can begin innocently enough. Sometimes the DM wants to try out some new magical items and so he makes them available at the first opportunity. Maybe he feels guilty about not providing enough magical items for everybody. Possibly he wants to accelerate the player characters through experience levels. Whatever the reason, the end result is that the player characters, like game show contestants~ get used to obtaining vast amounts of treasure without risk while their experience levels ratchet upward like miles on an odometer.
From that point on, the PCs' problem changes from "do we have the magical resources to tackle this problem?" to "how are we going to carry all this stutf?" Instead of simulating a fantasy novel, the game begins to resemble a mail order catalog. The DM may notice that he has an increasingly difficult time setting up scenarios that the players cannot easily blast their way out of or bypass by using magical devices.
The best way out of a Monty Haul situation is not to get in it. When placing magical items, consider whether or not the risk encountered to obtain it is balanced by the benefit the character who finds it will gain. Then consider what the possession of a particular magical item will do to the campaign itself Foiling the effects of a magical device which is too powerful for the campaign can consume much time.
Unfortunately, most players don't realize that they are victims of Monty Haul until it's too late. For the DM who finds he has worked himself and his players into a Monty Haul campaign, there are several possible ways out. Unfortunately, most of them require the DM to act in a manipulative, heavy-handed Inanner.
The DM can terminate the campaign and start over. This has the most immediate effec~ but neither the DM nor the players may desire this heavy-handed solution.
Taking away the characters' magical toys still involves a heavy handed approach, but it can be done. Have the characters captured by incredibly powerful monsters and relieved of their magical goodies.
While still in the manipulative mode, the DM could save his game by afflicting all magical items with power loss. Reversing the effect requires an adventure, but only partial power is returned (maybe the players are given a limited amount of power to reinvest in magical items).
Although it's a silly solution, have all the magical items possessed by the party suddenly fly together and form an ultra-monster, a golemlike creature who must be defeated without magical firepower. Of course, destroying the thing ruins most of the magical items.
Once the cure is implemented, put the party on a magic-free diet (also trimming out heavy things, like gold and gems) for an adventure or two and then slowly work neat treasure back into the game. The DM might find that the players have a new appreciation for what treasure he does give them.
==Super Characters==
: Both ancient dragons rear back and spew fire at Clarissa the Mighty. That's 192 points qffiery megadeath. "
: "Well, with her cloak of displacement and ring of fire resistance, Clarissa automatically makes her saving roll. Between the ring of fire resistance, the potion of fire resistance and her special ability to make her body immune to heat, that reduces the damage down to 18 points, only a slight singeing. Clarissa slurps down a potion of extra healing and then blasts both dragons into Hinders with the photon cannon wand she found in the metallic ruins."
A common by-product of Monty Haul gaming is the super character. The DM may know the type by now, faster than a speeding arrow, more powerful than a loco hill giant, able to leap tall dungeons in a single bound. Most of their attributes appear to have been rolled on d100's. They have more magical gizmos than a college of wizardry and their hit point totals resemble a modest lotto jackpot. In most senses of the word, they are unbeatable—and they are the DM's fault. He made them what they are and he now must deal with them.
Getting rid of super characters requires more than a visit from an exterminator, but that is generally the best solution. Toning them down (i.e., taking away some of their power) is a bit more difficult.
If a character has no chance of failure, adventuring becomes a simple exercise in treasure gathering-sort of like an all-expense- paid visit to the local shopping mall. Considering this, even the player may actually want to find a convenient reason to get rid of his super liability.
Offer the character a chance to retire. Maybe he is promoted to demigod and has to worry about balancing yin and yang in the universe, not just whacking monsters for profit. On a lower key, give him a barony or kingdom to run, whatever seems reasonable. Have the character put his arsenal to good use, defending peasants from marauders.
If that fails, feel free to set up situations that either take the super characters down a few pegs, even to kill them outright Need examples?· An immortal hunter seeks prey, ignoring small-fry in favor of real challenges.
* Create situations where a character's super weapons are turned into super slag.
* Convince the other players that a super character threatens their own well being.
* Use life-draining undead liberally.
* Set deadly traps in the form of puzzles or devices that can only be triggered by those with high enough power or skills to operate them.
* Arrange for the character's quality of life to decline. Maybe an injury, illness or curse lowers or prevents full use of his attributes and abilities. Maybe he's imprisoned forever by the powers that be.
* Have the character's final treasure acquisition be an artifact that messes him up physically and mentally. Make sure the player is aware of his fate at some point and once again make the offer of retirement.
==Changing Reality==
: "OK, before we get going, I want to let you know that I've given some thought to how Jenny IS fighter used her ring of invisibility last week and I've decided to modify the way we play invisibility from now on. When a character is invisible, anybody near him gets a chance to sense his presence, regardless of monster level."
: "What? Oh just great! My character bought an invisibility scroll last game and now it's basically worthless."
Game worlds, like living creatures, are constantly changing. Most of these changes are minor, but every so oft~ the DM decides to make a major change, either to his world itself or to the rules used to run the game. Sometimes these changes will affect the way that the players make decisions about their characters and their actions.
If the DM decides to add a new continent to his world, the after effects are usually minor. However, if the DM chooses to reduce the purchasing power of gold, change the way a particularly irritating spell works, or require wizards to wear pointy hats, his players may object.
Unless all the players disagree with the change, go ahead with it. However, give the players a chance to alter recent decisions or actions that they would have made differently had they known the change was coming.