| From: | TopCat <topcat@******.net> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: My take on Munchkinism |
| Date: | Thu, 16 May 1996 00:22:35 -0500 |
>your characters. Fine. However, I hope all the other players in your group
>are as good as you, because otherwise it'll be boring for them. If they
>can, fine, it's "powergaming", and that's acceptable, mostly (though I
>personally think this particular behaviour will amount to an armaments
>race that no-one benefits from, but that's just me). As long as
>powergaming characters have a reasonably epic opposition, it's okay.
I explained that earlier, I thought. TopCat was powergamed from creation,
then fleshed out when I decided that wasn't the way to go (Champions still
flows through my veins). The other characters really didn't take the time
to understand the game and the GM more or less made their characters around
their ideas, which was okay. I ended up far above them in power and detail
within oh...one group gaming session. TopCat ended up missing a few runs
and eventually retiring so the game would remain fun for everyone (I got a
kick out of just watching the game in the moments when I wasn't playing).
TopCat was my first character and the only one that I hideously powergamed
at creation.
> However, you mention that you not only min/maxed your char, but
>also had the GM make a lot of solo runs for you, to "explore the
>character", and you were surprised to see that this just furthered the gap
>between you and the others. I hope you won't hate me extremely much, but
>from my point of view, both you and your GM acted munchkinously. You
>decided to make your character the best of your group, not at all
>considering the other gamers' situation because of this. And your GM, on
>his part, failed to restrict your character and play up the others to get
>balance.
I decided to flesh out my character and the GM and I hung out a lot
together. Other players also did solo runs, so I wasn't alone in this. The
karma I earned from solo stuff allowed me to add skills that fit the
character but had no effect on combat. Most of them I don't ever remember
rolling dice once for, combat or not. TopCat was a pretty good Chinese
cook. The last run TopCat ever did netted him (literally) millions of nuyen
(ever wonder how much a shipment of the latest simsense would be worth?).
After that I changed his 'ware and retired him.
> Another thing. You all blah a lot about magic and technology,
>about buing and learning, and I think it all amounts to the same. As
>TopCat himself said, FASA has tried to make every aspect of Shadowrun
>balanced (there's that word again... ). However, from my POV, tech has by
>far a greater *potential* for munchkinism than magic. I base this argument
>on the fact that there are rules for making spells which keep munchkinism
>at bay - perhaps you can bend the rules here too, I'm no spell construct
>major, but the point here is that the rules *exist*.
I am a number cruncher and I've looked over every aspect of Shadowrun
available to me. The most munchable basic archetypes in the Shadowrun game
are mages and deckers. I love samurai, probably because they aren't in that
category and end up having karma lying around that can go to fleshing-out
skills. Many people also confuse speed in combat with munchkinous. If the
character is rolling 7 dice for initiative because he's got +3D6 from a
spell and +3D6 from wired 2, then he's munchkin. If he gets 6 dice for MBW4
and a SynAcc1, then he's within the rules. The GM had to let the character
get that way and I'd assume the rest of the characters are also along those
lines, so it's just a powerful campaign. If the character has no defining
traits aside from "firearms skill of 6, specialized in AK-98" or "has a
force 6 hellblast" then it's powergaming.
> On the other hand, no real cybertech/bioware/weapon-construct
>rules are alailable. When making new gadgets you're always forced to
>common sense, and then it's easy to tweak things around. You just invent
>the new bio-thingie that increases the eyes's image renewal cycle and say
>it increases Q with 4 and R with 8, costing .1 Body Index. It's no big
>thing. Look at the 'net-books out there. Lots and lots of cyber, bio and
>weapons/gadgets for 'sams. Few "ultra-munchkin"-spells (in fact, few
>spells at all) of the type that often are cited to exist.
I never saw a need to create munchkinous bioware/cyberware as
Cybertechnology has pretty much covered a lot of the bases that the SSC,
SRII, and Shadowtech left open. Spells of munchkinous proportions are out
there, Edge Runners contains numerous examples.
> Note that I don't say sams are better than mages, or anything
>other along these lines. Sams just have more potentiol for rule-tweaking.
Far from. Take a long look at the numbers available to mages, there's more
out there and they can be defined in more numerous ways. Which is all it
takes for a hideous amounts of tweaking. Cyberware is cyberware, it can't
be tweaked to provide more for less, there's always at least one downside
and usually there's two (essence, price, or power, pick one to keep low,
raise the rest). This isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. Magic,
however, faces no such limitations. Which is a bad thing, IMNSHO.
> Finally, about long character bios. It's a nice thing and all, but
>in the end, too long a bio will always bog down your gaming. You'll have
>difficulty to keep everything in mind at once, and find yourself leafing
>through the bio to find a reference to how the char will react in the
>present situation, instead of ad libbing it. If you know how to do it,
>then fine. I just don't think it's such a good idea at most times. A
>couple of pages with history, quirks and brief personality does it for me.
I never have to leaf through a bio to figure out anything about my
characters. I know the characters nearly as well as I know me if I've done
anything right at all. I couldn't imagine ever having to leaf through a bio
to figure out what a character would do, I wrote the bio, I know the
character, I know what he'll do in any given situation. If you didn't write
it, then I could see problems. Never once has a well-developed character
bogged down a session due to having to look through his bio in my entire
lifetime of gaming. I could be an exception, though. Am I?
-------------------------------------
"I was thinking of the immortal words
of Socrates, who said: I drank what?"
-- Real Genius
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TopCat at the bottom...
