History Main / MontyHaul

* ''Franchise/DeusEx'':

->The greatest danger Gabriel's characters are likely to face is literally drowning in their platinum wealth.
-->--'''''Webcomic/PennyArcade''''', "[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/29/ DM 101]]"

* A lot of user-created modules or modifications for ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' and VideoGame/NeverwinterNights are simple dispensers of XP and loot. Many of them who have actual plot can also fall into this due to being made by non-professionals.
** Particularly during the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]] era, it was common for story/quest mods to bombard you with unasked for artifacts, powers, companions, player houses or even titles of nobility (sometimes complete with one's own ''fiefdom''). If you downloaded and played several big quest mods in succession, you would quickly notice how ridiculous this got.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* The biggest perpetrator of this has been ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', mostly because it's [[SmallReferencePools the only game that new players have heard of]] and because [[SturgeonsLaw most new Game Masters have no idea what it takes to run a fun and balanced game]]. That being said, this trope is frequently and incorrectly invoked when a player of an older edition encounters a newer edition (the complaint running along the lines that the new edition is all Monty Haul [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks compared to the good old days]]). This fails to take into account several things:
** Each edition is its own game, balanced around its own set of expectations.
** This trope cannot be described in absolute terms, but is entirely relative to the expectations of the game.
** While each advancing edition has objectively made magical items more and more common, they have also become increasingly required in order to function at the expected level. Any magical items at all were only a bonus in early (A)D&D, while third edition at the latest made a steady treadmill of ever-more-powerful weapons, armors, and other gear a mandatory part of not dying horribly (especially for [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards non-spellcasters trying to keep up]]). Trying to apply e.g. a fourth edition approach to ''AD&D'' would likely indeed result in Monty Haul gameplay, but someone taking the ''AD&D'' approach to fourth edition would instead be a Killer GM.
*** The major dividing line was between Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Third Edition. In second edition, they actually had a section in the Dungeon Master Guide discussing the "Monty Haul campaign," likely being the TropeCodifier for the name. In third edition, magic items were wholly necessary for non-casters to be even remotely useful due to the way scaling worked, and everyone was expected to have a certain amount of magic items at a given level. Fourth edition then further regularized it, ensuring that characters of a given level had an appropriate magic weapon, armor, and neck slot item at least, which were necessary for to-hit and damage scaling, as well as for defensive scaling.
*** It should be noted that 5th Edition, the most recent, has made strides towards reducing or even eliminating this dependency. Ability scores for ordinary mortals (such as player races) are capped at 20, and the overall hard cap (which not even a god can exceed) is 30, compared to strong monsters and deities having scores in excess of 50 in previous editions (particularly 3.5). Similarly, the maximum base attack bonus (i.e without ability score, magical, or item bonuses) used to go up to 20 for some 3.5 classes (and beyond with epic level bonuses), and is now the character's proficiency modifier, a maximum of 6. As such, almost all numbers used are far lower at relative levels than in previous editions, and the character's natural scaling is enough to keep them within these boundaries without requiring magical weapons and armour to ramp up their armour class and attack bonus. As such, magical items are no longer necessarily a requirement, but an excellent (and useful) bonus.
* The ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'''s magic item rules are specifically designed to prevent this - the progression is the same regardless of the DM's inclinations.
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** This is invoked in-game with the [=MJ12=] Underground Base level. Having been [[spoiler:caught and imprisoned underneath UNATCO]], your main objective is to escape. Most friendly characters encountered in the base will either give you codes to important places or sell you needed items. There's an armory you can sneak into that has [[BagOfSpilling all your gear]], along with a ton of ammunition, additional weapons and a rare Plasma Rifle, long before you start finding them on enemies. And then, when you get up to [[spoiler:UNATCO itself, Sam Carter ''orders you'' to take as much gear as you can carry, while Shannon (one of the employees) offers to sell you expensive and rare scramble grenades]]. The only question is not how much you take, but how much you can store in your inventory (barring a [[GoodBadBug glitch that allows you to stack items on top of each other in the menu screen).

** In ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'', the Palisade Bank is made of this. You can access it anytime after leaving Adam's apartment at the beginning of the game. Though it's tough to sneak around effectively, digging enough reveals a boatload of secrets, including additional Praxis Kits, credits and various items -- and that's ''before'' you get the keycards to the bank vaults, which have even '''more''' gear like a unique Combat RIfle, more Praxis Kits and a literal stack of hacking software. Overencumbered doesn't even begin to describe it.

** Particularly during the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]] era, it was common for mods, even among the semi-professional ones, to bombard you with unasked for artifacts, powers, companions, player houses or even ''titles of nobility'' (sometimes complete with a fiefdom). If you downloaded and played several big quest mods in succession, you would quickly notice how ridiculous this got.

** Particularly during the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]] era, it was common for mods, even among the semi-professional ones, to bombard you with unasked for artifacts, powers, companions, player houses or even ''titles of nobility''. If you downloaded and played several big quest mods in succession, you would quickly notice how ridiculous this got.

Monty Hall (note the lack of a "U") was the host on the game show ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', which was cancelled [[MostTropersAreYoungNerds before some of you were born]]. The show could give away massive amounts of prizes to the lucky (or cunning or destined-to-win or however they pick winners on game shows).

Naturally, [[BlatantLies no troper here ever descended so low]].

->'''Mode: Monty Haul.''' Any campaign where the gamemaster doles out huge amounts of experience/treasure/power/other rewards. Usually becomes [[InvincibleHero stupefyingly pointless after the player characters become the most wealthy/powerful beings in the universe]].

** Many Fallout players consider ''Fallout 3'' to be a Monty Haul campaign in general, especially compared to previous installments and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''.

** The ''Old World Blues'' DLC can be seen as a rather specific form of this. It's short and relatively easy, but adds all sorts of perks that seem specifically designed for dealing with [[DemonicSpiders Cazadores]]. In comparison, most of the perks added with the other DLC are specifically made for use in the new areas - good for dealing a little extra damage to the new enemies and maybe some new dialogue, then is of no use whatsoever once you head back to the Mojave.

-->'''Jason Sartin''', ''[[http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue7/rpgcliche1.html RPG Cliches]]''

-->'''''Webcomic/PennyArcade''''', "[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/29/ DM 101]]"

* The ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'''s magic item rules are specifically designed to prevent this - the progression is the same regardless of the DM's inclinations.

* The ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'''s magic item rules are specifically designed to prevent this - the progression is the same regardless of the DM's inclinations.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fable|I}}'', while in itself the game isn't a MontyHaul, if you spend an hour or two doing a job to afford some real estate, the returns on the investment are used to buy more real estate (which pays you every five minutes) eventually become so huge that you have so much money you have no idea what to do with it all.

** Many Fallout players consider Fallout 3 to be a MontyHaul campaign in general, especially compared to previous installments and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''.

* Arguably averted by Creator/MattMercer, the DM for ''WebVideo/CriticalRole''. He ''is'' very generous with his items - by level 10, almost everybody has a magic weapons or weapons with magical effects, and the party has a magic carpet, a bag of holding, an immovable rod, and numerous other fun things as well as a ''lot'' of platinum and gold - but it's balanced out by the fact that his fights are ''hard.''

* Dee Dee from ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', after taking over DM-ship of Dexter's game. Considering that Dexter is a Killer GM, the players are much happier with the change. Even funnier is the treasures she hands out: the Archer gets a stronghold (basically the most awesome tree fort ever), the Knight gets a "[[CoolBike noble steed]]", and the Magician gets a LovelyAssistant and a lifetime of sold-out shows in LasVegas. Dexter's character asks for the chalice they were questing to obtain, and is upset that all it does is "you can drink from it and it'll never spill."

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** The treasure at the end of the Dead Money DLC is 37f gold bars worth 10,000 caps each (though each weight 35 lbs. and there's a time limit before your collar self-destructs). However, ''that'' is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]: not only are you expected to leave the vast majority of them there, they are also worth less (per pound) than many other items. This in turn sets up a DoubleSubversion: while the gold haul is probably a bit less awesome than the player was hoping for, the real prizes are the Sierra Madre Chips that can be used in the Sierra Madre's [[MatterReplicator Matter Replicators]] to buy various useful and valuable items, among them Stimpaks and Weapon Repair Kits, two items you can never have enough of. After completing the campaign, you get your own vending machine, and a fresh supply of chips every three days.
*** Dead Money itself however is practically a video game adaptation of TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors, so calling it a MontyHaul campaign doesn't really do it justice...

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, starting from Black and White and progressing as it goes on. In the [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY first pair of Kalos titles]], as a mandatory part of the story, you can choose to take on a Pokémon that will completely wreck the rest of the game singlehandedly, about a quarter of the way in. This is not getting into the numerous useful, initially rare items random {{NPC}}s will throw at you for no effort on your part other than talking to them.

* The [[LevelEditor Architect Entertainment]] buildings in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' were created to allow players to write their own story arcs for other players to enjoy. Among most of the community, however, it's better known for its "farm" missions, as they're called. It's gotten to the point where some farms have earned "Hall of Fame" status for having so many favorable ratings among players. The earliest farms would take advantage of exploits to allow characters to go [[GameBreaker from creation to level cap in a single day]] of beating up [[PinataEnemy defenseless enemies for disproportionately high XP]]. Naturally, the devs did not take kindly to this, and closed such loopholes whenever they find them, even banning the most {{egregious}} exploiters of them. Newer farms aren't quite as efficient, and are not cracked down upon as forcefully, however.

* The Franchise/{{Pokemon}} games, starting from Black and White and progressing as it goes on. In the [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY first pair of Kalos titles]], as a mandatory part of the story, you can choose to take on a Pokémon that will completely wreck the rest of the game singlehandedly, about a quarter of the way in. This is not getting into the numerous useful, initially rare items random {{NPC}}s will throw at you for no effort on your part other than talking to them.