We Represent The Lollipop
Guild...
(...and we would like to
welcome you to Munchkinland.)
Go
ahead, admit it. In the very back of
your gaming binder, in some dark corner of your closet, there hides a character
sheet for a half-drow, half-dragon demilich fighter/mage/assassin who keeps the
Tarrasque as a lap dog. Or if you're a
WoD player, don't think you can just pretend no one ever saw that 5th-gen Awakened
Cappadocian Abomination whose driving goal was to diablerize Caine. (And just so you know...I've still got a Heroes
Unlimited psionicist with an ME of 46 who at 4th level was capable of killing people
with a thought, so I am by no means excluding myself from these
generalizations!) There's no use hiding
the fact that you were once a power gamer.
It's kind of like the chicken pox--we all get the munchkinism disease at
some point in childhood, but after that we're immune.
However,
people with any claim to sanity don't look down their nose at people who have
the chicken pox the way we Real Roleplayers disdain munchkinism. Sit around a table with any gamers from any
system and you're going to hear the word "munchkin" thrown around in
any number of derogatory ways. Joe
Gamer is the world's biggest munchkin.
Only munchkins play in the Council of Wyrms setting. Protean is a munchkin Discipline. But when I listen to some of the things my
fellow gamers revile as "munchkin," it makes me wonder if maybe we
haven't taken the war against munchkinism a little too far.
Before
we proceed, it would be a good idea to define what munchkinism really is. To me, a munchkin is a gamer whose primary
goal is to gain levels and "kewl powerz," not to tell a good story or
develop their character. To accomplish
this, quite often they will cheat, through fudging dice rolls or character
creation processes or using player knowledge.
They are frequently neonate players who know all the rules inside and
out and try to argue the DM and the other players into submission. It's all well and good that people are
cracking down on dedicated rules lawyers and metagamers who only game so they
can make Cthulhu grovel at their feet. But
unfortunately, many of the secondary characteristics of munchkins have taken on
such a negative connotation that any player who displays them is automatically
labeled a power gamer, no matter what.
I
first had this thought when I realized that in some circles, "munchkin"
has been taken to mean any character who is physically powerful and good in
combat. Have a stat or two that's
at 16 or even (gasp!) 17? You're a
munchkin. Took physical attributes as
your primary category? You're such a munchkin
it's not even funny. Decked out with
cyberware, particularly bone lacing, wired reflexes, or skillwires? You, my friend, are a munchkin. (You'll find this in too many places and
shapes to list; poke around the Net and keep your ears open around fellow
gamers, and I think you'll be surprised.)
It's true that most munchkins are absurdly good at combat; however,
this does not mean that any player with a character built for combat is automatically
a munchkin.
Any
way you slice it, combat is a part of gaming.
In most campaigns there's going to be some point where the characters
have to resort to violence, and when that happens you're just going to hope you
have a fighter or two backing you up. Saying
that all combat-oriented characters are automatically munchkinesque is like
saying any campaign that has a battle is overpowered. In a good game, there should be a place for "lovers and
fighters" alike, and they should all have equally well-developed
personalities. Take my Mage: The
Ascension character, Kaitlen
Mallory. Yes, she has high
dexterity and melee skills, and yes, combat is her primary field by a long
shot. She also has an extensive
background (the full version runs a good 12 pages, typed and single-spaced), a
personality, and motivations that go far beyond "hack, slash,
kill." I dare anyone to tell me
that this makes me a munchkin. It's
only when a character focuses so much on fightin' and killin' that the player
forgets to give her an interesting back story that things start to go downhill.
The
most dangerous assumption of all, though, is that all powerful characters are munchkinesque. Once again, it's true that munchkin characters are ridiculously
overpowered. But there's a difference
between illegitimately obtained munchkin power and the kind of skill that comes
from experience and good roleplaying. I've
heard of Real Roleplayer GMs getting angry at players for using experience to raise
their skills to very high levels. I've
even heard people say that XP should be done away with because good roleplaying
is its own reward. But if that happens,
doesn't roleplaying lose a bit of its charm?
I always get a cool little thrill out of finally getting enough XP to go
up another level or buy that really cool Gift, and I don't understand why
people would want that to take that away.
Characters shouldn't stay 1st-level forever; they're constantly changing
and growing, and their primary skills should improve as a result. People who play intelligently over a long
period of time should have access to "kewl powerz" as an extra perk,
in addition to the satisfaction they'll get from good gaming. Because let's face it, playing powerful
characters is a lot more fun than being stuck as a wussy little newbie for all
time, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to improve.
If
this has been at all interesting to you, you might want to check out Dru
Pagliasotti's article "In
Defense Of Munchkinism," which deals with many similar themes. Well...I don't know if I'd go so far as to defend
it, but this raises some interesting points anyway! I hope this column has shown you that there's a difference between
munchkinism and enjoying a powerful, long-standing character with a reason to
be that way. So the next time you find
yourself looking down your nose at a so-called "munchkin," think back
on your own little bouts with this relatively harmless disease and try to
decide whether it's really life- or campaign-threatening. If not, sit back, enjoy the show, and hope
the Munchkin Who's Not will pull you out of trouble every now and then. It has definite advantages, believe you
me! (c:
Copyright (c)
2000 by Beth Kinderman. This is my
original work, so please respect it.