| From: | John E Pederson <lobo1@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Define "munchkin" |
| Date: | Thu, 17 Jul 1997 12:14:38 EDT |
characters he/she plays is to have the biggest, nastiest most powerful
character that can possibly be created, whether it fits within the game
or not. This is the kind of person who would favor toxic vampiric
were-dragon Insect shaman/ED Adepts as starting characters, and wouldn't
see the problem with it:) Rules are meant to be broken or ignored and the
more rules the munchy can ignore because they don't apply to his
character (in his mind, anyway), the happier he'll be. The munchy is the
guy who automatically assumes something without asking the GM, simply
because 'it's in the book', but he'll do that only so long as it is
advantageous for his character. He'll automatically try and pass off
over-powerful gear from the net (like a Stonewall MBT I recall seeing
stats for at one point) as being stuff he can get his munchy little paws
on and is never happier than when his character (which has as little
background as possible*) is blowing stuff up, killing people, expending
mass quantities of ammunition/explosives/etc on random targets, etc. He
takes only items and skills which will be useful (no social skills, no
knowledge skills he can't use, etc), and the more damage he can inflict
with them, the more likely he is to take them (Firearms and Armed Combat
are a must for him, Gunnery is also a favorite).
Note that this doesn't mean that every character with Firearms, Armed
Combat and Gunnery are munchkins, or even necessarily power gamers. It's
the ones that have those, plus every other possible skill that can
inflict mass destruction (like 'Nuclear Bomb B/R" :) at 6, all attributes
at 6, and downright abuses the rules, ignores the GM's rulings, and
mostly does his damndest to create a character that, legal or otherwise,
is impossible to kill while being an absolute combat monster. Troll
samurai are favorites, but a munchkin character can be any archetype.
*Munchkin backgrounds tend to exist of as little as possible, often
contradicting itself. Logic is not the munchkin's strong point.
"Where was your character born?"
"Uhh...he grew up in a Middle Class neighborhood."
"Who are/were his family?"
"They're all dead, and nobody knows who they are."
Other favorite answers include that he runs the shadows for the thrill,
hobbies include blowing things up and killing people, because said
character is also a psychopath. <sigh>
The easiest way to deal with a munchkin is to stop gaming with them. It's
better to try to reform them, but this takes longer and is ultimately
harder. And it only gets worse when a reforming munchy winds up playing a
game or three under a munchy GM sometime when you're gone, because they
have a bad tendency to regress (note: _reforming_ munch, not a reformed
one:) And if you have players who cannot be reformed influencing ones
that can, it's best to kick out the one that won't reform, because it'll
be really difficult ot reform a bunch of munchkins if there's an
unreformable munchkin raping the rules all around them.
Sorry for the essay, didn't mean to get so far off:)
--
-Canthros, the one and only (?) shapeshifter-mage, and munchkin on the
mend:)
I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud
and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
--Francis Bacon
http://members.aol.com/canthros1
