[TML] Munchkinism

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007, MJ Dougherty wrote:

> All rules sets can be exploited. Big holes you'd be stupid not
> to drive a truck through are bad design, but most players will
> choose characters that have skills or whatnot that they think
> will be of benefit. At what point does 'I want to play a
> competent character who can take care of himself' end and
> munchkinism begin? That tends to be a gut call on the part of
> the GM.

In my opinion, munchkinism begins when you insist on being the
star of every adventure, don't care whether anyone else has
anything to do or not, don't give a $#*+ about the worldbuilding
and are just out to become more powerful, break stuff and amass
bling.

Someone out there said that he didn't care about players who just
wanted to shoot everything up--that was when he dragged them in
before the authorities and ran Adventure 8.

But see, other people may have had plans for their characters
that didn't involve being dragged off to prison because they were
travelling with an idiot, and some referees (like me) put a lot
of effort into creating worlds and NPCs that are not just there
for players to kill--we don't just run, or rarely run, any
adventure right out of the book.

I don't find that it is that hard to find players who want to
actually RP once I make it clear that the door is that way for
people who just want to shoot things.

> Munchkinism isn't confined to character generation of course.
> Munchkins tend to ne holisitc in their approach - mangle the
> character to get the big advantage, then exploit it to dominate
> the game. Oh, and whine when a SWAT sniper puts a round through
> your head without warning because you were carrying a gauss
> machinegun down the street and just shot the cops who asked you
> not to.

Yep.  They want to be the star and they have a relatively low
level of subtlety.  Even their "good" characters, in games with
moral alignment, are psychopathic to some degree.

> In the end, all a rules set can do is be as logical and
> big-hole-free as possible. After that the GM is responsible for
> what sort of conduct is appropriate in a game he runs.

I firmly agree.

There is no reason a ref has to accept any and all players that
she gets on her doorstep, unless she's running a convention game.

I do not put up with people who are just there to kill, kill,
kill and win, win, win.  If you want to win at everyone else's
expense, go play poker!

Most of my games don't interest these people anyway; they're high
on intrigue and interpersonal roleplaying and fairly low on
combat.  The thing I'm currently running is on Live Journal and
doesn't even use dice, but I ran tabletop games (including
Traveller :) ) for years and consistently ran off every munchkin
but one, who got pounded a lot till he learned.

~malfoy :)

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Fry