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'''This has a variety of uses in game design, but the gamer is concerned with caps in only a handful of instances:'''
# '''Damage caps'''. Many [[Role-Playing Game|RPG]]s cap the amount of damage that can be done by a single attack. Even if the character is strong enough that his attacks would do more based on the game's damage calculation system, any damage past the cap is not dealt. This one is most likely to be set with game balance in mind, but usually only succeeds in making [[Death of a Thousand Cuts|weaker multi-hit attacks]] better than single strong attacks.
# '''Statistic caps'''. The point at which a character's statistics can go no higher. In some games, characters' stats cap only at unfeasibly high levels, but in others (notably the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series) the caps are reachable at normal levels and thus are a big deal. Levels themselves often have a cap as well, which may or may not come before reaching other stat caps.
# '''Inventory caps'''. The maximum amount of a single item you're allowed to carry. Combined with the [[Hyperspace Arsenal]], this can create weird situations, such as the ability to carry 99 Potions and 99 Hi-Potions, but not 100 Potions and 0 Hi-Potions. Also applies to [[1-Up|extra lives]] and money.
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See also [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]], [[Scratch Damage]], and [[Pinball Scoring]]. Overflows can easily be [[Good Bad Bugs]].
Not to be confused with a [[Nice Hat]], or a certain [[Captain America|hero from World War II who's still around thanks to a good icing]].
{{examples}}
==
* Many [[Game Show]]s put limits on how much contestants can win and/or how long they can stay champion before retiring. See [[Game Show Winnings Cap]].▼
* ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' ran into this when they got a contestant who won more than $100 000 (this was when winners got to come back). Only the last 5 digits fit on the electronic board, prompting the production team to draw a "1" on a piece of paper and hand it to Sajak so he could hold it up next to the other digits.▼
* ''[[Press Your Luck]]'' gives a similar example that may qualify as an [[Averted Trope|aversion]]. The score displays for the contestants could only fit six characters: one for the dollar sign and five for the digits. When Michael Larson broke the $100,000 barrier in his infamous performance, the score display just showed the number without the dollar sign, i.e., "110237" instead of "$110237".▼
* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' also had a cap on the display board for the one bid games. There was only enough room for a dollar sign and 4 digits, which wasn't a problem until some contestants wanted to gain attention by making bids in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions. When the display boards were upgraded to run with more current technology, contestants that make ridiculous bids can have their bids fit on the board.▼
* The [[Tabletop Game]] RPG based off of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series even has a damage cap (of 999), simulating the cap of the console games.▼
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''▼
** The Rules Cyclopedia caps the damage that high level magic-users can deal with their attack spells at twenty dice.▼
** The same cap is used for fall damage, 1d6 per 3m fallen to a maximum of 20d6. This gets hilarious around
*** Hence ''[[Spelljammer]]'' rule on reentry - after that, every round of falling adds 1d4 ''heat'' damage, doubling each next round, and the maximum-force impact itself falls under "massive damage" rule (save or die).▼
*** What's really fun is the epic spell ''Nailed to the Sky'' (from a much later edition), which puts the target in orbit.▼
** Though there is technically no cap on level in D&D, the rules balance tends to erode after level 20. The [[Epic Level Handbook]] extends this to about level 40.▼
*** And all of this is ''highly'' dependent on the edition you're playing and, in some editions, your character class and race as well. (Feats did not exist until 3rd Edition, the "colored box" version capped level at 36 for humans and somewhere around 10 for demihumans, etc.)▼
*** 4th Edition caps the levels at 30. ''Sort of.'' The mathematics in 4e is linear, so you can actually extend it all indefinitely and everything remains relatively well balanced, there are even enemies that are over level 30, although they're all gods or god-like beings. PCs who hit 30 get to finish whatever it is they are doing and then are consumed by their Epic Destiny which, more often than not, results in ascension to godhood.▼
**** They do, however, run out of powers and such. Insert auto-power generation programs!▼
* There were periods where the Camarilla, White Wolf Publishing's official fan-club for ''[[Old World of Darkness|World of Darkness]]'' live-action games, put damage caps on PCs in sanctioned [[LARP]]s. This was one of many fixes attempted to make the tabletop rules work in live-action, although in practice mid-powered characters hit cap very easily and high-powered characters were basically unaffected by any penalties.▼
=== Action-Adventure Games ===
* The later ''Zelda'' games tie your money cap to the size of your wallet. Collecting a bigger one will allow you to carry more money...[[Money for Nothing|not that you'll need it]], generally.
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=== Game Creation System ===
* In ''[[ZZT]]'', your health, score, gems, ammunition, and torches are all limited to 32767. Although the <
* ''[[OHRRPGCE]]'' has a bunch of built-in caps, although most of them can be decreased in the editor (although not increased). Inventory items are capped at 99 although it can be changed for individual items; if you collect more, they fill up another inventory slot if one is available.
▲* Many [[Game Show]]s put limits on how much contestants can win and/or how long they can stay champion before retiring. See [[Game Show Winnings Cap]].
▲* ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' ran into this when they got a contestant who won more than $100 000 (this was when winners got to come back). Only the last 5 digits fit on the electronic board, prompting the production team to draw a "1" on a piece of paper and hand it to Sajak so he could hold it up next to the other digits.
▲* ''[[Press Your Luck]]'' gives a similar example that may qualify as an [[Averted Trope|aversion]]. The score displays for the contestants could only fit six characters: one for the dollar sign and five for the digits. When Michael Larson broke the $100,000 barrier in his infamous performance, the score display just showed the number without the dollar sign, i.e., "110237" instead of "$110237".
▲* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' also had a cap on the display board for the one bid games. There was only enough room for a dollar sign and 4 digits, which wasn't a problem until some contestants wanted to gain attention by making bids in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions. When the display boards were upgraded to run with more current technology, contestants that make ridiculous bids can have their bids fit on the board.
▲=== Tabletop Games ===
▲* The [[Tabletop Game]] RPG based off of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series even has a damage cap (of 999), simulating the cap of the console games.
▲* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
▲** The Rules Cyclopedia caps the damage that high level magic-users can deal with their attack spells at twenty dice.
▲** The same cap is used for fall damage, 1d6 per 3m fallen to a maximum of 20d6. This gets hilarious around lvl 10, when characters could fall from any height and live with a strict rule interpretation.
▲*** Hence ''[[Spelljammer]]'' rule on reentry - after that, every round of falling adds 1d4 ''heat'' damage, doubling each next round, and the maximum-force impact itself falls under "massive damage" rule (save or die).
▲*** What's really fun is the epic spell ''Nailed to the Sky'' (from a much later edition), which puts the target in orbit.
▲** Though there is technically no cap on level in D&D, the rules balance tends to erode after level 20. The [[Epic Level Handbook]] extends this to about level 40.
▲*** And all of this is ''highly'' dependent on the edition you're playing and, in some editions, your character class and race as well. (Feats did not exist until 3rd Edition, the "colored box" version capped level at 36 for humans and somewhere around 10 for demihumans, etc.)
▲*** 4th Edition caps the levels at 30. ''Sort of.'' The mathematics in 4e is linear, so you can actually extend it all indefinitely and everything remains relatively well balanced, there are even enemies that are over level 30, although they're all gods or god-like beings. PCs who hit 30 get to finish whatever it is they are doing and then are consumed by their Epic Destiny which, more often than not, results in ascension to godhood.
▲**** They do, however, run out of powers and such. Insert auto-power generation programs!
▲* There were periods where the Camarilla, White Wolf Publishing's official fan-club for ''[[Old World of Darkness|World of Darkness]]'' live-action games, put damage caps on PCs in sanctioned [[LARP]]s. This was one of many fixes attempted to make the tabletop rules work in live-action, although in practice mid-powered characters hit cap very easily and high-powered characters were basically unaffected by any penalties.
▲=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* ''[[Kid Radd]]'' plays with this trope, making sloppy programming of damage cap calculation a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090920002148/http://home.att.net/~miller.daniel.r/comic335.htm p1 major plot point].
* In a weird case of parodying, ''[[Adventurers!]]'' features (mostly in the final battle sequences) a cap of 9999, with better attacks basing themselves on doing more hits than just 1. The interesting part is that two characters actually break this cap: a deity turned into a summon (99,999) and a powered-up Spybot, who had been never really been known for his combat skills.
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** When she scans him after the lampshade, he's short of his maximum health by [[Shown Their Work|that exact amount]].
== [[Real Life]] ==
▲=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Many laws of chemistry, physics, and biology define caps such as the speed of light ("Nothing can go faster than light"), terminal velocity ("A given object can't fall faster than this speed in a given substance at a given density"), and carrying capacity ("An ecosystem cannot support more than this number of organisms"). There are also things like the low limit of reaction speed (at some point kinetic effects define what's going on less than quantum effects) - which is the main reason why long-term [[Human Popsicle|cryogenic anabiosis]] is left to the realm of moderately-hard SF.
* 32-bit time variables on Unix-like systems will roll over in a few decades unless they are changed to 64-bit variables. They store the current date and time as seconds since January 1, 1970 at midnight. The number of seconds will go over [[Powers of Two Minus One|2^31-1]] on January 19, 2038.
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