A Rant at GMs, Aint pulling punches Options

[Kremlin KOA]

Okay I am seeing a lot of GMs making threads here that basically complain that their players are out of control

Why?

Unlimited power not all it is cracked up to be?

Remember GMs you are god!

I need to emphasize this, You are GOD! You can use your godly power to affect your world with almost no limitations

The only limit is you can't go so far that the players leave.

People here whine that their players try and get ahead of the game, or are more powerful, or are too skilled. So?

To put it simply, players want to advance, they don't want anything to be static. You can use this to make the game the way you want it.

Let me give a few examples just using only ONE of your godly powers. Your control of Karma

There are two ways to advance in SR, Karma and Loot.

Your players loot too much? 2 karma bonus at the end of a run where that player did not loot excessively, an additional 2 each if nobody loots excessively.

tired of PCs killing everyone, +1 karma for any run completed without any death... +2 if no shots are fired

want less skills at 6. skill at 6 costs double

the possibilities are endless

[UndeadPoet]

[Oracle]

And what about Swordfish Mustardball?

The mouse totem isn't overpowered. Where is the problem?

[Kremlin KOA]

Poet, I used that one because some Gms whine about loot

[UndeadPoet]

Ah, I see. Sorry, then. The players of those GMs do not even know of totems and such, possibly. :spin:

[Voran]

Mecha-Shiva!

[UndeadPoet]

That's something neither my ape- nor my sister's mouse-shaman would loot.

[nezumi]

It's important to remember that the line you shouldn't cross isn't making your players leave, it's making the game not fun for your players. That is much more difficult, ESPECIALLY when your players have different views of fun. I remember distinctly, when I was running the Other Game, I had two die-hard munchkins, two die-hard roleplayers, and two 'lead me by the nose' players.

The munchkins weren't having fun if they weren't getting uber. They spent waaayyy too much time thinking about that too. Which meant I could penalize them (which takes away their fun), reward everyone else (which makes it feel like favoritism), or just live with the headaches of having an unbalanced party. The roleplayers got frustrated because the party was unbalanced, but didn't want to do the work to catch up. The 'lead me by the nose' players I NEVER knew if they were having fun. I assume they were, they came back every week, but nothing I could do would elicit obvious pleasure (however forcing them to roleplay did elicit obvious frustration).

I DID come up with an ingenious solution. Namely, I let the munchkins have high powered, high-risk things (like a wand that had about a 20-30% chance of seriously harming the user). And the munchkins enjoyed roleplaying too, so I pushed more of that. But looking back on it, there is little more I could have done to marry such different goals. It's like asking a group of people where they want to go to dinner.

[Azralon]

[Backgammon]

That's an over simplification, Kremlin. As was pointed out, the GM has the power to simply say "you can't do that", or penalize an action so much that it's not worth doing it.

We all know that.

People come to the forums to ask others ways to smoothly solve problems, preferably using existing rules or SR-consistent logic. It is far more bearable for a player to be told "you can't carry a PAC around cause Lone Star is gonna get you" then "You can't carry that around, munchie, cause you're gonna kill my NPCs too easily"

[Azralon]

[Backgammon]

[mdynna]

I think every player of an RPG should have a turn at GM'ing. It's a tough job, no bones about it. It's his/her job to make sure everyone has fun and that can be very difficult. Especially when there can be incredibly conflicting goals. Some players want to be challenged, while others just want their characters to march through blasting everything. It is a rare and special thing when you can get a group of players together that all have the same play style.

[Teulisch]

the first step where a GM needs to step in, is in character creation. when you review characters, look for potential problems, and point those out to the player. work with them to make a better character. If they really want to play something broken, then its improper to go out of your way to hit em with that- once a game is enough usualy, a reminder that they have this issue they have to deal with.

now, part of the problem may be that what a player feels is 'skilled professional, able to do this job', a GM sees as 'munckin, rules-abuse'. The latter happens when you get a bunch of stats, with no personality and no moral code. some people want a brutal killer, or a ninja-like assasin, even when told that such a character wont fit in the setting. People who want to play wolverine can break a game, because they do stupid things 'for fun', get themselves and the rest of the team killed, and then make a carbon copy without caring. the problem is not the character, its the attitude of the player.

but if all that is happening, is that a couple runners are very efficient at what they do? give them more dangerous jobs. add in more plot twists, or side plots, that complicate a run.

[SL James]

[James McMurray]

Yes, a GM is GOD in his game world, but the game runs smoother, funner, and better if he doesn't have to rely on using his godlike powers, which only happens whent he players and GMs can all come to an agreement about the power level they want to have in the campaign.

For your two examples, there are better ways to go about it IMO.

Loot: looting takes time. If "too much" looting is going on, do something to push the action forward. Sirens in the distance can do that much faster and realistically than altering karma awards.

Killing: murderers get hunted much harder than thieves. If you break into a compound and steal stuff the corp and/or the Star may come looking. If you kill every gaurd in sight you also add in the coworkers, friends, and spouses to the possible pool of vengeance seekers.

[Dragonscript]

As a GM i tend to change the way i run the game by how the payers acts. If they start looting too much? Just make the situation change so either they can't loot, it is pretty hard to look during a gang-bike gun battle while being chased by the cops, or make it so they have to use all that loot more often, i throw more low powered NPCs at them to soak up all the bullets and since they have crappy guns the PCs don't tend to loot them.

[GrinderTheTroll]

[ronin3338]

It seems like so much of what we discuss here, can be remedied by playing the game, rather than the rules.

I work with my players at chargen, and we come up with a background and the skills/cyber/resources all fit with that background.

In game, they know that I won't pull a GM fiat "just because" (I've lost some "level bosses" that way :( )and I know that they'll listen to my reasoning when I override a RAW or interpret something differently than them.

GMs don't have ultimate power, because a god without any faithful has no power. It's a cooperative effort.
And like mdynna says, let them GM a while. Even gods need a break ;)

[Kremlin KOA]

[nezumi]

[James McMurray]

[Shrike30]

Hey, if you're not ruining anyone's fun, who cares if the characters die?

[James McMurray]

True, but it's a rare occassion to have a character death not detract from the player's fun. Possible, but pretty uncommon and almost impossible to cause as a GM.

[Azralon]