when I play munchkin I have to admit one thing. I recognize everything from our early games. We really used to play like that some 15+ years ago.
Nowadays when I introduce New players to the hobby it is all within the sober confines of the Paizo AP.
I still play in some purely homebrew games, but they never seem to get quite as outrageous as before.
Is everything done more sensibly nowadays? Or do people still have these wild games with things like on the munchkin cards happening?
I`m just a little worried that the new players I GM for will never love the game like I do because I'm not about to let the game I gm for get all munchkiny.
Munchkinism is a double edged sword. It's both awesome and horrible. I would never be without that phase, but i'm not willing to go back to it. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Every few years I like to scratch that itch. We usually play two AP's at a time, one in the winter and one during the rest of the year. When they both end at the same time (about every three years or so) we take a few months and play a level 20 game. It lets everyone play their favorite characters at a high level, or build something outrageous. It is something we all look forward to, but are happy to leave behind and get back to some level one's afterward.
the word Munchkin, i see as Derogatory
there are a series of tiers i go by for power
"I optimize a Concept", these guys play any concept within reason, but they optimize the resources available to them. to them, concept overrides mechanics. this is the most reasonable
"I pick the best concept i can." these guys, only pick a concept when it's crunch is proven to be effective, such as weapon cord using pistoleros with twin double barreled pistols. they follow every handbook update, and tend to get bored when they aren't effective. to them, power limits their concepts, but they still roleplay
"Screw Concept, i pick the best rules legal options." AKA the power gamer, these guys focus exclusively on rules legal numbers, and maximizing the numbers to the highest extent within the rules, these guys look up power builds such as Jack B. Nimble or Shou Iaijutsu Swashmaster. Archer Fighters, Switch Hitter Rangers, and teleportation conjurers are especially popular amongst them.
"Screw the Rules, i seek power." these guys are so obscessed with being the best, that they will cheat, they will fudge rolls to be better,they will minmax stats, get special races homebrewed to empower themselves, beg to play a drow noble, to them, power is everything. these guys won't stop at pun-pun. they are the guys who want 6 scores of 30+ at level 1, the guys who want epic spells off the bat, the guy whom at first level, has a +50 artifact supersword for no reason but because it's a family heirloom.
This is one reason I like the forums. This is a space where I can flex system mastery and theorycraft to my hearts delight. 72d6 pounce at level 12? Sure... totally doable!!
But oddly I never actually play this sort of ultra optimized character. I get that an abuse of system mastery would make my party members feel worse in actual use and would frustrate my GM.
I like theorycrafting because making builds and looking at options can actually give me great RP concepts. Sometimes mechanics come first. I am playing a druid right now purely because i never have in the past. Usually the setting is my muse.. but yeah I almost always just build characters to be roleplayed.
After all.. for me playing a character is about their personality not dice rolls. And I think that I could reconcile just about any concept at this point.
|
I think it's like watching certain movies. As long as everyone is aware that your watching a movie where cavemen fly around on pteradactyls with eyepatches defeating space aliens wielding laser beams & sock puppets, then everyone is going to have a good time. If one of the people thought they were in for a retelling of Tolstoy, then there might be some issues.
My first encounter with RPG's was definitely on the more imaginative side, where rules & dice rolls didn't matter so much. I love playing Pathfinder now, but I'd agree with the OP that every oncein awhile it's fun to stretch the rules & just have a super fun time.
i got introduced to roleplaying in 1997 when i was around 8, playing freeform Forum style Diceless Rules Free RP on Colored Pencil and Lined Paper
Freeform RP typically has restrictions based on the universe it features, much like the tabletop, but characters tend not to be bound by statistics, dice or numbers, but rather, a player's tactical and strategic skill, the quantity of powers they possess, the number of get out of death free cards they possess, their excess of defensive advantages, long lived races that outlive true dragons without much physical change, and such common subversions as the loli fairy with eternal youth you wouldn't expect to be an assassin because she looks like a little girl. but turns out to be one.
a common thing with freeform is
if a creature looks the least likely to possess a specific set of skills, it will have a nearly guaranteed chance of possessing those skills, no matter how complicated
for example, see a big hulking dude in heavy adamantium armor? there is an 85% chance he might be a martially trained wizard instead of a proper knight and a 99% chance he is a giant of some kind, an orc, or a demon
see a tiny little girl in a minidress with a pair of visible hosiery and a sabre? there is an 85% chance she not only hits like a truck and can tank like a boss, but an 85% chance she moves fast enough to break the sound barrier and a 99% chance she is either a fey, outsider, or undead of some kind
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
'The Munchkin Phase" sounds like one of those books you bring to the beach.
"The Omega Incident"
"The Alpha Conspiracy"
"The Munchkin Phase"
Anyone want to write it?
I'm still in that phase, bro.
I have been playing games since the 1980's. Back then I remember playing a name out of a book "If of the Unpronouceable Name" He was a very high level character and had all sorts of high level gear. The other players were like that to the point that the GM made his own thing to put the characters in their place like the 'Kill-o-zap' gun and the Hairy Lightning Bolt that did "just enough" damage.
We also played a game called Zen and the Art of Mayhem. This was a game that satisfied people's urges to create munchkin characters. (It's not in print during the time we were play testing it) I had a character named Billy-Bob-Jon-Joe-Jim-Hatfield-McKoy. He was a Hillbilly Assassin. He had a bag full of random weapons and he had to use what ever he pulled out.
But the one game that really got the Munchkins out was Champions and its sister ship Fuzion. One player created a superhero called Democratic Man. The idea behind it was that each cell had a power. The problem was that going by the name they all had to VOTE. So he was rarely used. There was another character named Quantus. I never got to really know that one but I got to know the reputation and I only heard groans from other players when ever the name was mentioned.
One time we had a group of Munchkin/Powergamers (and me) and they were told to create two of there best characters for the next game. When that game came up they were told to hand over one of the sheets and told that THAT one was the enemy. Those players were shocked because here they had made these power characters. The game was short for me but long for them. :)
As for D&D I guess we are used to Munchkins/powergamers. We know how to deal with how they play. There is one guy that would not play in our Pathfinder game unless we started off at high level (we were doing an AP, so no. if we were doing 3.5 that goes up to 40th level, who knows if he would have joined)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
kill the monster, steal the treasure, stab your buddy << you know, Candyland!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Obviously, almost nobody got what the OP meant. Especialy Umbriere. He didn't mean munchkin as in people who abuse loopholes in the rules to "win" the game. He meant does the party still do wacky hijinks like those on the munchkin cards.
There is a TCG called munchkin. From steve jackson games.
I'm pretty sure everyone got it. The game munchkin is named that for a reason, it's a collective power-grab. The more damage you can inflict on the fellow player the better off you are, the more outrageous you are the more likely you win, oh, and you "win" the game.
I'm pretty sure everyone in on board with what is going on here.
Well I can't say I have ever went through anything like a "munchkin" phase. I did go through an ultra narrativist phase if that helps? You know a time when I was SO focused on my character's personal story that I forgot about the game's story or my fellow player characters. We each go through phases when our play styles change. It doesn't mean the old way we played was wrong, just that our tastes have matured and settled into something new.