If a character lives long enough it is inevitable that his or her abilities will reach a level so high that a gamemaster has to dramatically up the stats of every NPC confronting them lest the NPCs get their butts kicked back and forth across the Awakened World. In theory this is a semi-good idea; it creates a greater physical and skill related challenge for the PCs and proves to them that, no matter how high their numbers get, the GM can always do them one better.

Unfortunately there are numerous flaws to this tactic as well. First off, any PCs with statistics and overall power amounting to less than the more built up and experienced characters will fall in a hail of magic and bullets they cannot possibly withstand. Creating NPCs specifically designed to counter PCs of varying power will work every once in a while, but there is still the high possibility that a weaker PC will somehow enter the "line of fire" between two hot shots. Another problem with the tactic of raising NPC stats is that you end up playing a numbers game as opposed to a roleplaying game. It is too easy to become preoccupied with the frantic process of balancing numbers, an action which takes your attention away from the true nature of the game, i.e. roleplaying.

So I present to you gamemasters whose PCs seem to be on the verge of "running the show" some more creative, and perhaps devious, ways to humble the hotshots, as well as ways these hotshots can make life a little bit easier for their poor, wretched GM.

We Have To Do What?

One thing a gamemaster has to remember as he watches his NPCs getting cut down like blades of grass under a rotary lawn mower is that, hey, he put the NPCs there in the first place and put the PCs in a situation wherein they had to fight them. Eventually the GM should realize that, if his NPCs are going to get wasted in a normal fire fight, don't put them in a normal fire fight. What you have to do is change tactics. Lets say the most powerful member of a shadowrunning team is a heavy weapon wielding troll. This troll makes life hell for other PCs as well as NPCs because, as I mentioned above, if the GM sends in a force powerful enough to take on the troll, the weaker PCs get blasted. But lets say the next run took place inside, oh, I don't know: A NITRO-GLYCERINE FACTORY. The troll's gunboat tactics will be useless lest he blow up a large section of Seattle with a single HMG round. This tactic also works on PCs who have, had, or are developing the high and mighty attitude which accompanies high level stats. Put Mr/Ms. I Am God in a situation wherein he or she has to delicately negotiate with an Elven prince who's throne room happens to have a nifty array of very large, and very visible sentry guns trained on them. Be sure (through crafty roleplaying) to let the PC know of the inevitability of death should they decide to be a jerk. If they still act unruly, read last week's article.

I Don't Know How To Do That

Odds are, even if the PCs have progressed to the point where they are masters in respect to their archetype, there are a few skills none of them are too good at, or even possess at all. Take a good look at their character sheets, figure out what these skills are, and then develop a run that requires them if the runners are to succeed. For instance: You notice that none of the PCs have even a half way decent electronics skill so you write up a run during which the PCs run into a bunch of complex electronic boxes they must manipulate if they are to succeed in the mission. In other words, create a shadowrun in which the PCs will outright FAIL if they do not possess the required skill. A run where a firearms of 22 wouldn't do them any good because THERE'S NOTHING TO SHOOT AT. It's best to begin utilizing this technique by slowly introducing it into runs in a way that, yeah, the runners won't get their butts kicked if they don't have the skill, but the run will be noticeably more difficult. Hopefully they will perceive this as a hint sent special delivery from the GM. A hint that, in future runs, they won't get the fifty grand upon completion, or even get out alive, if they don't have the skill.

Another benefit of this method is that, instead of raising their firearms from a 10 to an 11, the PCs will have to divert the karma into other skill areas. It may actually be a good idea to begin introducing the need for a more diverse group of skills BEFORE the runners begin to really kick ass in the interest of slowing their "progress".

Blasts From The Past

When a PC begins to approach a certain degree of skill they may also acquire an aura of smugness and complacency as a result of their success, if they weren't like this already. They just keep cruising along, getting good runs, kicking various NPC's around, and, sooner and later, become somewhat comfortable with the idea that nobody can touch them. This is an excellent time for the GM to have Renreku show up at their front door, inquiring with attack choppers and machine guns as to what the runners did with the data they stole about a year back.

What I'm saying is: Make the PC's the prey for once. Now it may seem like such an action requires that the runners simply fight off the invading force, which they could do if they were good, and then get on with their lives. Not quite so. Do you think Renreku isn't going to try again, this time with bigger guns and bigger people and, perhaps, a nice missile targeted at the runner's dwelling? The idea is to make things so rough on the runners that they're forced to flee underground, abandon some of their equipment, and divert energies which would have previously been used to make themselves level 12 firearms experts and owners of various MP Laser systems into the act of simply staying alive.

Rule Manipulations

In my own games I've introduced a few actual rule adjustments designed to keep a PC's development from getting too out of control and, admittedly, none of them were spectacularly popular with the players.

The first is a revision of the requirements for raising the karma pool. In my game the amount of karma you must acquire before the pool can increase is equal to the current value x 5. In other words: If the current level is a 2, then it you need 10 to raise it to a 3. If it's a 5, then the cost is 25 to raise it to a 6, and so on. My reasoning behind this arises from my extreme dislike of the pool itself. The karma pool, in my mind, is around to get the PCs ass out of a jam when they encounter an adverse situation as the result of, simply, bad luck. They missed a single die roll, or something else rather insignificant. Unfortunately many players use it as an excuse to do really stupid things. When the pool gets high enough they realize that they could stand in front of a Panther round, get hit, and then buy their way out of death. This is bad.

I also altered the cost for raising Attributes, making it identical to that of skills, namely: double the original level. I think it's ridiculous that a normal human can reach their Body's racial maximum from an original level of 3 for the price of 12 measly points of karma. He must have one hell of an exercise machine.

Mentoring

Mentoring is when a powerful PC takes under their wing a fledgling character of similar archetype and assists them in advancing their new character and, most of all, helps them survive. This may involve the donation of cash but, if I ever used it, would also involve the transfer of karma. Now this is a bit more complicated then simply saying "Hey, kid, here's two points." What it represents is an amount of time during which the powerful PC trained his underling in whatever skill the karma is to be used for. The older PC doesn't advance his skill because he's simply showing the newer PC what he already knows. The catch is that the skill being taught to the lower level PC can't be more than two thirds that of the better PC. In other words, a PC with a Electronics skill of 6 can only train somebody until their level reaches a 4. Mentoring doesn't necessarily have to take place between really good and less skilled PCs. Two more advanced PCs are more than welcome to do the same thing.

Retirement

Yes, it's the dreaded "R Word". C'mon people, there does come a point at which the game, despite whatever tricks the GM pulls trying to make life difficult, is simply too much of a breeze. Now if you want to go out in a nuclear blast, or get hit by a laser from space, or fall to whatever drastic measures the GM is going to have to use to put your character of a year and a half in a grave then more power to you. If not, consider retirement.

The best time to retire a character is when the number of new and less powerful PCs starts to out number the veterans. If anything, seeing a majority of his long time colleagues fall to the shadows should serve as a sobering reminder to an ageing PC that every runner is going to die. The only way to prevent this is to stop being a runner. Now there's nothing dishonorable or weak about retiring. Many Shadowrun sourcebooks contain examples of those who have retired and have become near legends in their own time. Pretty much everybody else, though, is dead.

Does this mean you'll never see your beloved Samurai or Mage or Rigger or Decker again? Hell, no. You'll be meeting up with some old gaming friends in a year or two and you'll each pull out your fading, wrinkled, retired PCs and decide to send them on one more, for old times sakes. And the gamemaster, seeing such a glorious array of highly skilled, heavily armed and nearly invincible PCs, will get a nostalgic tear in his eye, and proceed to toss his NPCs directly into the garbage.