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Message no. 1
From: "Terry L. Amburgey" <xanth@********.uky.edu>
Subject: cross cultural gaming
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:22:42 -0400
Helge wrote:
>Crapola :) When people I game with start out on getting POWERPOWERPOWER,
>I begin thinking of better things to do. The reasons I still play is for
>roleplay and the edge thing.

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming experience?
The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry

Terry L. Amburgey Email: xanth@***.uky.edu
Associate Professor Phone: (606) 257-7726
College of Business and Economics Fax: (606) 257-3577
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0034
Message no. 2
From: "John R. Wicker II" <jrwick00@********.uky.edu>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:29:36 -0400 (EDT)
At 03:22 PM 7/15/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming experience?
>The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
>gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry

Yes, there are European munchkins, but their phenotypic expression often
results in their being called "halflings".

John Wicker
Message no. 3
From: dbuehrer@****.org (David Buehrer)
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 13:49:08 -0600 (MDT)
Terry L. Amburgey wrote:
|
|Helge wrote:
|>Crapola :) When people I game with start out on getting POWERPOWERPOWER,
|>I begin thinking of better things to do. The reasons I still play is for
|>roleplay and the edge thing.
|
|Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming experience?
|The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
|gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry

I once gamed with a guy from Texas. Appropriately enough
he was the most munchkinous munchkin that I have ever met.
And Texas is a seperate country from the US, just ask a
Texan ;)

Okay, now someone can give a serious answer.

-David

/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
~~~~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm~~~~~~~
Message no. 4
From: dbuehrer@****.org (David Buehrer)
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 13:52:18 -0600 (MDT)
John R. Wicker II wrote:
|
|At 03:22 PM 7/15/96 -0400, you wrote:
|>Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming
experience?
|>The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
|>gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry
|
|Yes, there are European munchkins, but their phenotypic expression often
|results in their being called "halflings".

Are you serious, or is that a halfling joke. And I do want
to know the answer. I've got a friend who plays halflings
almost exclusively and I would love to bug him some more
about it.

-David

/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
~~~~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm~~~~~~~
Message no. 5
From: RAY MACEY <r.macey@*******.qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 11:27:37 +1000 (EST)
On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Terry L. Amburgey wrote:

> Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming
experience?
> The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
> gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry

There's plenty of them in Australia.

Ray.

> Terry L. Amburgey Email: xanth@***.uky.edu
> Associate Professor Phone: (606) 257-7726
> College of Business and Economics Fax: (606) 257-3577
> University of Kentucky
> Lexington, KY 40506-0034
>
>
Message no. 6
From: Marc Lipshitz <MLIPSHIT@****.CO.ZA>
Subject: cross cultural gaming -Reply
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 08:10:11 +0200
>>> Terry L. Amburgey <xanth@********.uky.edu> 15/July/1996 09:22pm
>>>
Helge wrote:
>Crapola :) When people I game with start out on getting
POWERPOWERPOWER, >I begin thinking of better things to do. The
reasons I still play is for >roleplay and the edge thing.

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming
experience?
The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do
munchkin gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the
USA? Terry
*************************************


I'm afraid so. I have had the unfortunate eperience of munchkin gamers
here in South Africa. The worst part is the only group which runs regular
tournaments around here is run by them, the tournament adventures are
so bad I don't bother even going to them.

Marc Lipshitz
Message no. 7
From: "Paolo Marcucci" <paolo@*********.it>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 09:30:58 +0200
At 15.22 15/07/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming experience?
>The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
>gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry

I've never had any "cross-cultural" experience. All of my pains were
straight italians... and yes, munchkins are a transnational party :)

Paolo
____________________________________________________________
Paolo Marcucci paolo@*********.it
InterWare Service Provider Trieste, Italy
http://www.interware.it/ Tel. +39-40-411400
The Shadowrun Archive - http://www.interware.it/shadowrun/
Message no. 8
From: Helge Diernaes <ecocide@***.econ.cbs.dk>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 10:51:55 +0200 (METDST)
On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Terry L. Amburgey wrote:

> Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming
experience?
> The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
> gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA?

What is the US munchkin percentage? I'm afraid the Danes achive the
not-too-flattering score of about 80%, if not higher. There is hope,
though, that because many of the munchkin gamers are teenagers and people
with like minds, they'll mature to some degree when growing up - but
ofcourse, once a munchkin, always a munchkin :D

--
R,

Silhouette

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fae doer,
fraende doer,
selv doer jeg engang.
En ting ved jeg aldrig doer.
Dommen over doed mand.

- Havamaal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helge Diernaes | ecocide@***.econ.cbs.dk
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 9
From: Stephen Delear <shadow@***.com>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:51:52 -0500 (CDT)
On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, David Buehrer wrote:

> Terry L. Amburgey wrote:
> |
> |Helge wrote:
> |>Crapola :) When people I game with start out on getting POWERPOWERPOWER,
> |>I begin thinking of better things to do. The reasons I still play is for
> |>roleplay and the edge thing.
> |
> |Just out of curiousity, does anyone have "cross-cultural" gaming
experience?
> |The post from Helge suggests that there are Danish munchkins; do munchkin
> |gamers show up at the same rate elsewhere as they do in the USA? Terry
>
> I once gamed with a guy from Texas. Appropriately enough
> he was the most munchkinous munchkin that I have ever met.
> And Texas is a seperate country from the US, just ask a
> Texan ;)

Damn Yanks :)

Stephen
Austin, TX
>
> Okay, now someone can give a serious answer.
>
> -David
>
> /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
> "His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
> underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
> ~~~~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm~~~~~~~
>
Message no. 10
From: RAY MACEY <r.macey@*******.qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1996 13:47:22 +1000 (EST)
On Tue, 16 Jul 1996, Helge Diernaes wrote:


> not-too-flattering score of about 80%, if not higher. There is hope,
> though, that because many of the munchkin gamers are teenagers and people
> with like minds, they'll mature to some degree when growing up - but
> ofcourse, once a munchkin, always a munchkin :D

How do you figure that? Nearly every gamer starts off wanting nothing
more than to have their characters the best they can be on the character
sheet. Nearly everyone grows out of it when 'powerplaying' becomes
boring. As far as I can see, most of us start out as munchkins or near
munchkins and then mature.

Ray.
Message no. 11
From: Helge Diernaes <ecocide@***.econ.cbs.dk>
Subject: Re: cross cultural gaming
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1996 11:14:03 +0200 (METDST)
On Thu, 18 Jul 1996, RAY MACEY wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Jul 1996, Helge Diernaes wrote:
>
> > not-too-flattering score of about 80%, if not higher. There is hope,
> > though, that because many of the munchkin gamers are teenagers and people
> > with like minds, they'll mature to some degree when growing up - but
> > ofcourse, once a munchkin, always a munchkin :D
>
> How do you figure that? Nearly every gamer starts off wanting nothing
> more than to have their characters the best they can be on the character
> sheet. Nearly everyone grows out of it when 'powerplaying' becomes
> boring. As far as I can see, most of us start out as munchkins or near
> munchkins and then mature.

You're not wrong, actaully our points converge quite nicely. The
inspiring remark from my side ws the "once a munchkin, always a
munchking", wasn't it?
This was partly in jest, partly serious, as notified by my smiley.
I've seen quite a lot of DK rollplayers growing from throwing dice and
letting their PC's killing indiscriminately, to roleplay with a strong
tendency to letting their PC's killing indiscriminately.
IOW, grown from ultimate munchkins to partly munchkins - and thats quite
an advancement.
Apart from that, the first 5 sessions generally goes with learning rules
of combat, rules in general and how one is _not_ immortal. All are
generelly munchkins in this period, as you say. But the differences tend
in my experience to manifest quite swiftly.
There will then be those who tries to think and be smart, and there will
be those who just barrel through and continue on refusing to raise their
roleplay over the given minimum. In my experience, the latter part
amounts to the said 80%. Improvements are possible, certainly, but
expectations have to be bridled.

My first char in SR (after having played Rolemaster in 3 years) was a
street sam, created almost entirely on the basis of finding out the
mechanisms of the game. I chose a secure jack (had this okay armor rating
and seemed fitting for a sam who was basically just a highlevel ganger),
a katana (used it once, it was mostly taken to look tough) and twin
uziIII's (blast the f****** away!!!).
My GM was a pupil of mine and thus a bastard. We learned the deviousness
of the SR world pretty quick and learned in particular to take advantage
of it :Q
Otherwise, we died. He just loved asshole execs and sec chiefs who used
trap-bombs, trap-nerve gases, trap-monoFwire.
These things learn people to think.

--
R,

Silhouette

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fae doer,
fraende doer,
selv doer jeg engang.
En ting ved jeg aldrig doer.
Dommen over doed mand.

- Havamaal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helge Diernaes | ecocide@***.econ.cbs.dk
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Further Reading

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