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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Chris Walsh <ChrisWalsh@***.COM>
Subject: Munchkins ! Can we Stop !!!
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 17:32:56 -0500
G'Koth of the Narn Empire (by the way, nice name !!) , I think the problem
is people have power gamers and munchkins blurred together.

I can see your point and I agree with you. My group has 2 power player mages
and 2 low-level street samurai (low level as in each players view on
character development and not maximizing themselves but rather buying things
that fit into the character!). I have no problem GMing a group like this. MY
group is more magic intensive but that's not a problem. The average karma
that each character in my group has under their belt is between 350 and 400.
All of it came from ME !! And they earned every bit of it !!

I have only seen 3 PC actually die in my game (2 were accidental, one was me
punishing a very stupid player). I try to make the game enjoyable for them.
If it is fun for them then it is fun for me! I push them to the edge in ever
y gaming session. And they feed off of it and love it ! It is up to each
GM how they handle their group. I do think some people are jealous about
some of the things that you and others in your group have as characters. I
think that your GM MUST have made you work for every bit of karma so it is
just a part of character development for everything you have and these people
need to overcome their problems.

Don't take the munchkin stuff personally. I don't think it applyies to you
at all !! Better cataegory, Shadowrunner !

Keep up the good work so far dude !!

Can we please get off the topic of munchkins ?? It is getting rather old !!!



I do beleive that we belabored this munchkin point to death and it should
stop soon !! It is waisting bandwidth is nothing else !!
Message no. 2
From: Andy Butcher <Fiend@*********.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Munchkins ! Can we Stop !!!
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 10:40:21 GMT
Chris Walsh wrote:

>
>Can we please get off the topic of munchkins ?? It is getting rather old !!!
>
>I do beleive that we belabored this munchkin point to death and it should
>stop soon !! It is waisting bandwidth is nothing else !!
>

I agree. As a recent subscriber to this list, I'm getting a bit tired of
recieving 10-100 posts a day about munchkins. If people want to play with
powerful characters, fin. If you don't, fine. The point of the game, IMHO,
is to have fun, and how you do that is up to you and your group.

Accusing others of being munchkins is pointless and boring - it won't change
how they play, nor should it. Trying to define muchkinism is even more
tedious, and even less useful. Can we please get back to talking about
ShadowRun, not individual tastes?

Sorry about that, but I had to get it off my chest.

BTW, I'm climbing into my asbestos suit right now... ;)

Andy Butcher | "Whether you think you will succeed or not,
PC Gamer Magazine | you are right."
Fiend@*********.co.uk | Henry Ford
Message no. 3
From: "Jordan, Dave" <dave_jordan@******.COM>
Subject: Re: Munchkins! Can We Stop??
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 14:33:41 PST
On March 1, 1995, Andy Butcher wrote:

>Chris Walsh wrote:

>>
>>Can we please get off the topic of munchkins ?? It is getting
>>rather old !!!
>>I do beleive that we belabored this munchkin point to death and it
>>should stop soon !! It is waisting bandwidth is nothing else !!
>
>
>I agree. As a recent subscriber to this list, I'm getting a bit tired
>of recieving 10-100 posts a day about munchkins. If people want to
>play with powerful characters, fin. If you don't, fine. The point of
>the game, IMHO, is to have fun, and how you do that is up to you and
>your group.
>
>Accusing others of being munchkins is pointless and boring - it won't
>change how they play, nor should it. Trying to define muchkinism is
>even more tedious, and even less useful. Can we please get back to
>talking about ShadowRun, not individual tastes?

>Sorry about that, but I had to get it off my chest.

>BTW, I'm climbing into my asbestos suit right now... ;)


I wholeheartedly agree. It seems that certain people on this list
consider themselves to be the only ones who have the right to come up
with new ideas or play with different rules than the book lists. I
have and still do play what you call "ReaverRun" for a period of about
3 years now, every week, at the same time every week. Scott (Delvian)
is extremely enjoyable to game with, as he always has new ideas that
the group must debate. He's imaginitive and REALLY knows what he's
doing. I've read just about every book there is to read for this
game, and he knows a hell of a lot more than me. When he brings his
ideas in for us to mull over, we talk and consider pro's and con's.
We DON'T jump up and start calling him a Munchkin... I mean, that
would be childish, wouldn't it guys?

Now, maybe I don't agree with the way Eric (Whistler) posted on the
list. But his frustration and his words have echoed what a lot of
people think of the one's throwing the term "munchkin" around (You
know who you are.) Why do you think that your way is right and our
way is wrong? Are you the omnipotent source of all Shadowrun
Knowledge? I may come into your game and not like it because of what
I'm used to. Will I call you a "munchkin"? No. But trust me, I'm
very hard pressed not to start calling you SOMETHING for your posts
over the last week (once again, you know who you are).

And, to put a new stitch into the discussion, most of us have
virtually retired our hugely powerful characters in favor of newer and
less developed ones. We realize that the fear of dying makes the game
more exciting, and we've started over. Most of us played our
characters for about 2 1/2 years before we started over, and they
survived many, many close calls to get where they were.

And one last thought to close on: Who's the munchkin? The guy who
uses every last possible option to make himself more powerful, faster,
stronger, and generally more survivable? Or the guy who decides that
being powerful is munchkiny and creates a character with a Ceska and
armor clothing, only to be killed by a ganger in Redmond? In a world
like the one we play the game in, the munchkin is the guy who doesn't
use all his options. Take that to the bank.

D.J.

P.S. Sorry to bring it up again to all of you that are getting tired
of the discussion.

Further Reading

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Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!