Munchkinism is dead?

[thebitterguy]

Saw this on RPG.net:

I think this reflects a significant cultural shift in the hobby. My impression is that, back in the day, if what the text says a class is good at and what the mechanics mean a class is good at were out of whack, it wasn't a big deal - you were expected to play to the former, and exploiting the latter was decried as "power-

Comments

[dan_the_tax_man]

My thought with D&D, AD&D, and AD&D 2nd Ed., was that you played the former (what the text said the class should do) and exploited the latter (what the mechanics allowed a class to do) in such a way that you didn't get labelled as a meta-gamer, power-gamer, or munchkin (e.g., don't over do it). I've tried 3rd ed. and skimmed through 4th ed., and it seems to me that the focus is more on a table-top miniatures style of play that relies on the exploitation of minutiae within the rules (i.e. Advanced Classes and Prestige Classes which require specific skill trees to attain and lead to very little in the way of character development).

Find a system that works, be it d10 InterLock (R. Talsorian), d20 Dynamic (Third Eye), Chaosium's Percentile, Old School D&D, d20 (WoTC), d6 (Westend Games), or Savage Worlds. Every system can be exploited in some way, but so long as everyone at the table is having fun, no play style should be wholly discouraged...except, as you have pointed out, when when it interferes with the enjoyment of the other

[thebitterguy]

What's odd is that with my current play group, the least fun I had was in a Mage game where another player manipulated the rules to step pretty heavily on my PC's role.

[wisenboi]

Interesting analysis. That disparity between the style and the mechanical implementation was something I didn't think about for D20 as a whole. I think rules "abuse" will depend on how the game system is designed and if it's meant for that or not, so spot-on for the standard play style reminder.

[thebitterguy]

Yeah, I've never played a game and gone "while the PC is good at this, he's supposed to do this".

Perhaps Toreador Martial Artists are the biggest example I can think of.