What should I do?
3 and a half years back I was running A 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay with 2 brothers, their sister and 2 of their female and 1 of their male cousins, for reasons they won't yet me reveal we stopped playing but now we plan to start again once when Carona's over, but that's not the problem
The problem is that in The last session we did Fire in The Mountains, The Pcs destroyed The Bloodshedge and were lucky enough, in ways that's good to The Characters but likely to be troublesome for me, The Bloodshedge contained a giant treasure hoard
Even worse is that it included several magical goodies, prior to doing Fire In The Mountains they were only half-way through Death on The Reik and that several of these magical goodies are powerful enough to make a large part of the campaign very easy for characters with stuff this powerful. What should I do?. Here's the treasure hoard
The actual treasure was 100 Gold Coins, 9 regular and 1 magical bits of armor and/or shields, 5 regular and 1 magical hand weapons, 3 Magic Items and 2 regular and 1 magical bits of Jewelery that are all worth 70 Gold Coins
Rolls on tables that A friend of mine made show that The 9 regular bits of armor and/or shields consisted of 3 Sleeved Mail Coif, 2 Shields, 2 Leather Jerkins, 1 Sleeveless Mail Coif and 1 Platemail Breastplate and other rolls on other tables the friend made show that due to the quality, quantity and rarity of the materials they are made from they are all worth 9 times what they are normally worth
Rolls on tables that my friend made show that The 5 regular hand weapons consisted of 1 Sword, 1 Spear, 1 Mace, 1 Spear and 1 Axe and other rolls on other tables the friend made show that due to the quality, quantity and rarity of the materials they are made from they are all worth 6 times what they are normally worth
More rolls on tables my friend made shows that the bit of Magic Armour was A type of Armour she'd made and it was A suit of +3 Full Chainmail Armour, that means it that gives 6 AP on all 8 body locations and another roll on another Table my friend shows that it has a very powerful unique Power which is that despite it giving 6 AP on all 8 body locations if it is worn by A Spellcaster it only increases The Magic Points Cost of his or her or its Spells by +13 Magic Points per Spell
More rolls on tables my friend made shows that The Magical Bit of Jewelery is A Spell Ring that contains The 2nd Level Battle Spell Lightning Bolt and it holds 18MP, which means it can be used to create a total of 9 Lightning Bolts but it can only create a maximum of 4 per turn
More rolls on Tables my friend made show that The 3 Regular(?) Magic Items were 1 8 foot long Enchanted Rope, 1 3-dose bottle of Potion of Healing and 1 multiple Spell Jewel that holds The 4th level Element Spell Summon Elemental Horde and The 1st level Battle Spells Cause Animosity and Cure Light Wounds
Even worse better is that The magical Sword had 4 powers and they were +4 damage type extra damage, Bane Weapon VS Goblinoids, Warping and 1D6 or 4 Runes that ended up as 1 Rune of Flight, 1 Spell Rune that held The 3rd level Element Spell Breathe Fire, 1 Spell Rune that held The 4th level Battle Spell Cure Serious Wounds and 1 Minor Death Rune that works against All Spellcasters
As well as which their are a lot of Goblinoid Foes in the campaign and with The magical Swords Chosen User having A S of 7, the minimum roll on 1D6 being A 1 and its powers of +4 damage type extra damage, Bane Weapon VS Goblinoids and Warping if its hits most foes will take at least 12 damage, Goblinoids will take at least 24 damage and the thing ignores all none magical armor
I also think that its worth mentioning that the reason that The magical Swords Chosen User has A S of 7 is because she had A Initial S of 4, she was lucky enough to start with The Very Strong Skill and she is A Duelist that was A Noble and has increased her S by +2
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Comments
Hi @jmisthe08
It does seem that the weapons and item hoard is somewhat overpowered for what I assume is a fairly low level party. Am I also right in thinking that the players are kids or youngsters? You may wish to "trim" some of the potent stuff away, particularly if it will diminish the fun and challenge of the rest of the campaign. But I would be very careful how you do this.
No player likes to have their precious items taken away, so you should find some way that this can be done in the adventure. Perhaps the potent items are divine and belonging to the Gods. The group could be visited by a messenger deity who takes them to the "forbidden realm" where they are informed that they are being rewarded with a "special power" each but that the items belong to the Gods and must stay in the "forbidden realm". They are welcome to stay in the "forbidden realm" if they wish, but there is NO ADVENTURING in that place. Otherwise, they can return to their homeworld as honoured heroes, each with a new power and possibly another gift.
That is, of course, just one example. You could also have some of the weapons stolen, destroyed by rust monsters, etc. But the important thing to remember is that there will have to be a very good "IN GAME" reason for the players having to lose their stuff. However, I think, if you work out a good enough reason, and offer some reward in exchange, your players will forgive you. You might also think of some way of returning the gear at a time when it is no longer crucial to the completion of the campaign.
I hope some of that advice may be of use to you.
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
In on of my high level campaigns years ago, our group was tasked with infiltrating the horde of an ancient red wyrm dragon and recovering an artifact. It had a very "Aladdin" feel to it where we were instructed not to take on of the rest of the horde because it would set of a magical alarm that would alert the dragon to our presence. Little did we know until we were at the "entrance" was that the horde was located on a demiplane created by the dragon; the only way to gain entrance to the horde was to pass through a special portal. Entrance through the portal was only possible by sacrificing a high value magic item that would become a permanent part of the horde. With that being our only means of gaining entrance, we all reluctantly trimmed away a valuable piece of our inventory. This mechanism wasn't purposefully done to strip us of our gear (we received more powerful items after finishing the quest), but it was successful in doing so without leaving us bitter and thinking that the DM was being mean.
TL;DR: Design a mechanism where the PLAYER has to make a choice and sacrifice gear in order to overcome an obstacle. By putting the decision in the player's hands and rewarding them with accomplishing a goal by doing so, it takes the sting out of the gear loss. As an added bonus, if the sacrifice happens shortly after the acquisition, the players are less likely to have become attached to the loot and will see it more as "this overpowered loot was graciously provided by the DM in order to fulfill this sacrifice without cutting into our REAL gear".