Wise Turtle Publishing

I've GMed a couple of OVA games, and I've had some trouble with limiting characters. It's not just the power gamers, so maybe "limiting" isn't the best way to put it.... It seems like when I use a rule like Ground Zero or Power Ceiling, the characters' power levels are just all over the place. One or two guys are really strong (like, three rounds and that superboss is dead strong) and one or two are just really weak (like, "Man, that minion with almost no skills was really challenging!" weak.) The Combat Effectiveness rule helps a bit with the former, but not with the latter.

So, I was reading through the Game Master's Section while creating some NPCs/bad guys/henchmen/monsters and it occurred to me... Threat Value is used to determine the strength of NPCs, why not PCs too?

Has anyone else tried limiting PCs to a certain TV during character creation, rather than (or in addition to) using other forms of character limitation?

I figured I'd ask my players to keep their characters around a TV of 15. I hate to make them do math, but I don't think it'll be a problem. At least half of my group also plays Rolemaster, I think they can handle it. XD

So... bad idea? D:

Sorry Star Raven! I got logged out (which happens from time to time) and when I checked the forums, I did not see the icon for a new message. Many apologies, but let's get to your actual thoughts here...

This is actually a good idea. I may have to address the concept of "threat value" in the rules proper instead of its location buried in the GM's section.

I think the main reason I haven't before is I really want to encourage players NOT to focus on combat and balancing each other's bad-assery. But it's inevitable that people will, I guess.

Thanks for posting.

Oh, not at all! ^_^ You and the rest of this board do such a wonderful job responding to everything that when I saw it had no replies at all after a week, I wondered if I'd made some kind of faux pas....

Yeah, I really wish it had a section of its own! It took me a while to work out how exactly it worked.

Having a relatively quick method to judge each character's power level in relation to the other characters actually stops me from having to worry about it, honestly. Knowing that everyone is around the same TV means that I can feel free to throw a giant monster at the group and not worry that one player will feel completely useless in the situation, or another will completely obliterate it before anyone else has a chance for an action. That's important to me because my game is a little... combat intensive. (1-2 battles per game session....)