why PCs shouldn't get attached to things

[ed]

years ago, i played in a V&V game. my PC was essentially the human torch as played by will smith. he was a lot of fun to play.

in that GM's house rules, he employed a set of advantages/disadvantages and i selected 2 that fit well: celebrity and wealth. he had merchandising deals, etc.

he was from that game world's NY and moved to its LA. once there, he and his agent decided that it would be cool to build a nightclub. i discussed this w/ the GM and he thought it perfectly reasonable: a good venue for scenes, etc.

the construction took several sessions, as you might imagine. in the third or fourth session into construction, the GM asked if i wanted to build in any special security measures, being a celebrity and superhero, etc.

i was about to reply "yes: i want it armored up!" when another player quickly interjected "don't do it."

everyone looked at him quizzically, and he added, "look: if the GM really wants the NPCs to get in, he will. the more difficult you make it for him to do that, the uglier it's gonna be."

i meditated upon this wisdom for about three seconds, turned to the GM, and said "nope. no special measures at all."

do you guys find this generally to be true in your games, too?

ed

[SD Anderson]

Less a matter of getting tougher with the facility, than applying the rule of 'Careful what you wish for' to the situation.

Once, playing Bear's Bif Bam Pow game, we had a character who opted to live in the warehouse his company owned and immediately spent his wealth armoring it up into a deathtrap.

It only took ONE city building inspector to make his secret identity a fugitive from justice.

He wound up living at the base for the rest of the campaign. ;) A fact that tripped up Bear when he later joined that campaign and took over as GM.

I think he's written about it onece or twice. :D

[carmachu]

never build anything myself. You cant screwup what you dont have....

[Haze]

Not been in a position to build things but generally speaking the greater the power the PCs have, the bad guys have the same but with all the bells and whistles too.

[Parzival]

Make it mobile, and protected from locate and scry supernatural abilities.

<grin> I had a MU that didn't like slavers in a big way.
It was a bit difficult to get the 2e D&D magic item creation rules applied to something the size of a ship, but oh so very worth it.

[Whimsical]

In a champions game I was in, one of the players created a very detailed plan for our home base mansion. Which was cool until his supertech PC was possesed by a demon spirit and it turned him against the party. What the GM expected was that he would attack his teammates right at the scene. But what happened instead was that the player left his team during the combat without notice, which frustrated the GM until he realized that the player went back to the base and set the security systems against his teammates. So we had to spend an entire session just getting from the front gates, into the house, then finally confront the PC in his lab. That was a fun session.

[JasonStarfire]

If I were running a game, low level mooks that couldn't get in would just pop up elsewhere. BBEGs are going to get in one way or another, so the player in question did have a point.

Even so, I'd still go with security.

[Hitcher]

It's so easy to go overboard. Too much security can attract attention. Misdirection and sometimes obvious things work just as well.

A private room isn't so hard to imagine. Putting secret storage places in your club office would work too. Maybe a panic room. A private way out.

Renting a safe deposit box makes for a great cache.

Keeping a second car in a private garage or a plane in a private hanger.

A safe house, such as a townhouse or apartment. Or a lakeside or mountain cabin.