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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Archmage_Cowl on April 13, 2010, 02:56:10 AM

Title: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: Archmage_Cowl on April 13, 2010, 02:56:10 AM
okay so me and my group started playing last week and we've been playing alot since then(we are majorly addicted). Well some of our stuff sorta got out of hand and basicly we have characters pretty early on that are well frankly alot stronger than many of the more common characters in the story. My question is do you guys think it would be better to tone the power level down a little bit(which would probably get some angry responses) or should i just up the power level of most of the characters in our world as needed?

I know that doing something like this might not be nessacary but its the first campaign and i dont want them to get ridiculously powerful, that quickly at least, so i figured if i up the ambient power it will make their greater power less... well great. Thoughts?
Title: Re: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: iago on April 13, 2010, 03:00:23 AM
Can you get into the mechanical details of what happened here? What base refresh level did you start your game at, and did you award additional refresh rapidly or something?
Title: Re: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: Mal_Luck on April 13, 2010, 03:03:38 AM
I too am interested in what happened.

Personally I'd talk with them about the first sessions were a good test run and that now they should run new characters(could be the same characters, just powered down) and start the real campaign.
Title: Re: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: iago on April 13, 2010, 03:29:02 AM
Here's another trick: Nothing motivates players to really go for broke quite like knowing their characters are not going to survive the night. Consider the possibility of saying "hey, I want this and the next couple sessions to be a practice run, then I'd like to reboot the game. How about we decide that the characters are going to die in a spectacular fight against impossible odds at the end of session three, and use that as a backdrop for the 'real' campaign that follows? That way we can keep the city and everything we put together, as well as lay down some ideas for what the aftermath is that our next characters will be dealing with."
Title: Re: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: Archmage_Cowl on April 13, 2010, 08:13:23 PM
basicly the part where they are over powered is their skills, they have about 14 refresh which isnt alot but they have like 50 some skill points and have some skill at fantastic plus we are playing with a full group(6) and lots of ally's(1 each) so its kinda hard to challenge them. I was wondering what you guys would recommend for something like that.
I've been thinking some and i was contemplating doing something like making their ally's vanish for a while and drawing back the power level some.
Title: Re: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: iago on April 13, 2010, 08:18:16 PM
14 refresh is a big deal, actually -- that's like Death Masks era Harry. Those skill point are nuts, though. There's a reason we start you way below that even in a high power game.

That said, if you're in a gonzo high power game, embrace that and start throwing some opponents at them with some real chops. Like gods.
Title: Re: Question about power levels(for all the characters)
Post by: Archmage_Cowl on April 13, 2010, 08:21:17 PM
yeah a run in or two with someone like odin would probably teach them a lesson lol. I actually thought they were getting out of hand power wise so i tossed in mab to make the story more interesting and cow them into a little bit of a "Oh im not unstoppable?" but they sorta turned it on me and now one of them wants to be the winter knight, AND because of that one of the others wants to play the summer knight. Gosh these players are gonna kill me as a gm.