From:	Bryan Prince <prince%xray.dnet@******.ROC.WAYNE.EDU>
Subject:	On Munchkinism...
Date:	Sat, 9 Sep 1995 12:18:15 -0400

Having watched the thread about all of us possibly being munchkins
at heart, I would like to add the following. First of all, Marc made
some excellent points about the difference between maximizing a character
(combat monster, drek-hot decker, ect) and the RATIONALE behind the
creation of said character. Is the character well built- and chummers,
that includes a well thought out background- or just a series of high
numbers on a page? I rarely see anyone post (no accusations here) a
character type that utilizes the concentration/specialization bonuses
for skills-yet when a character is developed with a firearms skill of
4 (6/8) (pistols/ares predII), I see people jumping and yelling Munchkin.
Why? I see this in two ways.
First, your players will adapt to your gaming style, GM's. If you stress
combat (or out/numbering/classing your PC's) on a regular basis, you will
generate combat monster type PC's who are just trying to maximize their
ability to survive in your game world. I remember Ivy's descriptions of
her characters and the games she had been involved in last summer- I don't
think my best character would have survived very long, but I bet it would
have been excellent to play in. Why do I say this? Only to point out that
we as GM's will dictate the type of players we attract by the style of game
we run. This does not hold true for experienced GM's and newbie players,
however, because said newbie is probably coming from a system that rewards
munchkinism, or at the least maximum firepower.
Second, the PC's are rarely encouraged to expand their horizons skillwise.
Most PC's only worry about racking up enough Karma to get 8/10/12 dice in
what they consider to be necessary for survival- and there is no provision
for losing dice in a skill that is only rarely used (although the GM can
set modifiers to compensate). One of the few PC's I encountered had what
I considered to be the wierdest "recreational" skill I have ever seen.
A female techie/ adrenaline junkie, with a oralse* skill of 11!- no lie,
11 dice. Now I never set up a situation that required her to use that
skill, but a situation came up (no pun intended) during game play
in one of my GM sessions. She seduced a UCAS fighter jock to give her a
ride in his EFA variant and she gained a contact and a friend. (no sexist
flames here ok? the PC initiated the idea and we glossed over the seamier
details to continue the plot-but the friendship between the PC and NPC is
real and not based on se*)

What I am trying to say here is that skills in history, art, music
(for non-rocker archetypes), architechture (sp?), ect.,
don't get used very often in a roleplaying situation. But they could be,
and if you have read Fields of Fire and Atzlan, you'll see in the
shadowtalk sections that those skill types are going to become more
necessary in the future.

Just my 0.02=Y= worth
Bryan (Shadowmaster)