From:	Marc A Renouf <jormung@*****.UMICH.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Everyone(almost) who plays Shadowrun is a Munchkin!
Date:	Fri, 8 Sep 1995 21:22:35 -0400

On Fri, 8 Sep 1995, Kelly Martin wrote:

> by this argument, the cop who wears a bulletproof vest is a munchkin.
> the soldier who wears body armor and carries an assault rifle is a
> munchkin. the doctor who wears rubber gloves to protect himself from
> infection is a munchkin. all because they took steps to promote their
> own survival.
>
> that's not munchkinism. that's common sense.
>
> munchkinism is when _all_ the player does is promote their character's
> _stats_. having good stats, and carefully crafting a character for a
> purpose (which might very well be survivability) is not, in and of
> itself, munchkinism.

I agree totally. You can have a character that's totally
optimized for combat/magic/decking/whatever. Does that make that
character a munchkin character? No. It's the *player* I'm concerned
with. When I as a GM say, "tell me about your character," and the first
thing out of the player's mouth is, "Well, he has an initiative score of
17+4D6!" or "She has a strength of 12 and a quickness of 10," then odds
are good that the player is thinking in munchkin mode.
When stats make up the character, the point behind role-playing
is seriously diminished. I will allow characters in my campaign that
others would consider munchkinous, but I mandate that they be
*characters* rather than conglomerations of numbers that the player rolls
without thought.
So before you go saying "we're all munchkins at heart" think
about what it means to be a munchkin.

Marc