The ability of DFRPG PCs to "break" the world

Michael Thayne · 08-12-2022, 06:43 PM

Many RPGs suffer from the problem that they unintentionally make it relatively easy for PCs to "break" the world—that is, they can thoroughly upend a key aspect of the world's status quo, be it economic, political, military, or something else (though often once you've upended things in one arena, it's often just a short step to upending things in other arenas). In D&D, and some superhero games, it can be because even supposedly "mid-tier" PCs are just that powerful. In sci-fi games, it can be because nobody is using the world's handwavium particularly intelligently, creating room for intelligent PCs to conquer the galaxy, or at least the sector. This can be sort of embarrassing for the GM, or whoever designed the setting—if the status quo is so easily swept away, how the heck did it even become the status quo in the first place?

However... and this seems so surprising to me I never seriously considered it until now... might DFRPG avoid this problem? It tries very hard to omit the potentially world-breaking spells from GURPS Magic. For all its embrace of silly TTRPG tropes, avoids suggesting that the PCs can roll up on Ye Olde Magic Item Shoppe and buy whatever world-shaking magic item they please if they have enough gold. And unlike in D&D, no PC has an order of magnitude more hit points than the average soldier.

Can this really be true? Or am I overlooking something important?

08-12-2022, 06:43 PM	#1
Michael Thayne Join Date: May 2010	The ability of DFRPG PCs to "break" the world Many RPGs suffer from the problem that they unintentionally make it relatively easy for PCs to "break" the world—that is, they can thoroughly upend a key aspect of the world's status quo, be it economic, political, military, or something else (though often once you've upended things in one arena, it's often just a short step to upending things in other arenas). In D&D, and some superhero games, it can be because even supposedly "mid-tier" PCs are just that powerful. In sci-fi games, it can be because nobody is using the world's handwavium particularly intelligently, creating room for intelligent PCs to conquer the galaxy, or at least the sector. This can be sort of embarrassing for the GM, or whoever designed the setting—if the status quo is so easily swept away, how the heck did it even become the status quo in the first place? However... and this seems so surprising to me I never seriously considered it until now... might DFRPG avoid this problem? It tries very hard to omit the potentially world-breaking spells from *GURPS Magic. For all its embrace of silly TTRPG tropes, avoids suggesting that the PCs can roll up on Ye Olde Magic Item Shoppe and buy whatever world-shaking magic item they please if they have enough gold. And unlike in D&D, no PC has an order of magnitude more hit points than the average soldier. Can this really be true? Or am I overlooking something important? __________________ Handle is a character from the StarDrive setting (a.k.a. d20 Future), not my real name.