Munchkinism vs. RP

[Darth Canoli]

I don't ropleplay while reading books either, do you ?

 

[Kaivokz]

The scale is inadequate; 50 could mean you go full munchkin sometimes and full RP other times, or it could mean you’re always somewhere in-between.

A three pronged scale would be more accurate.

0-100 munchkin disposition
0-100 RP disposition
0-100 time spent doing each, eg 0 being always RP, 100 being always munchkin

In my bi-weekly pathfinder game we have sessions that involve no combat and a few key skill checks, but lots of discussion and debate about what to do, lots of roleplaying in terms of playing politics with various states and countries (we’be established our own small city-state), our dwarf’s involvement in the dwarven military, etc. (a lot of that has to do with our characters being near the bottom of the totem pole in power compared to, well—gods and other powerful actors who are pursuing their own ends—so pure munchkin “power game and kill everything” strategies will only end in TPK). But some sessions are good ol’ dungeon crawls where RP takes a back seat to combat—where all of our players but one are mega-munchkins in terms of character building.

I’d say I’m something like 80-60-?? last one depending on the campaign and what I’m doing. I very much enjoy either, though my natural inclination is more toward munchkin than RP.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Middle ground. The problem with munchkinism is that it ruins immersion and experimentation. The game becomes like a job you need to beat. When you need to "look under the hood" to figure how everything works in an optimal manner you master the game too fast. cRPGs are not supposed to be about competition and scores.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

How is building an effective character somehow mutually exclusive with roleplaying? Seems like some retarded tabletop mentality where they get mad at people who think about their build and put a bit of effort in.

There is a big difference between making an effective character and an overpowered (optimal) character.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

if taking an overpowered char isnt favourable coz it ruins your fun then overpower char isnt optimal geez dont use words you dont understand

It is optimal in a pure mechanical sense, i.e., it does more stuff with less resources, etc.

 

[JarlFrank]

Character creation choices are so depressing, most of the time, powergaming is the only fun thing to do.

Spoiler

It's even worse with recent "AAA" cRPg where everything is balanced, nothing overpowered, nothing underpowered, everyone has the same cooldown shit and the same exact number of skills and most of them do the same thing.

Yes. The fewer real options a game gives you, the less interesting role-playing is as an approach. What's the point in role-playing if there are no actual roles to play? Unless the game offers you the right tools, and reacts to your choices, you might as well just fire up Oblivion and pretend.

 

[Melcar]

I try to keep RP to the minimum. When playing, I'm more interested in how effective my characters are in combat and how well they use their passive skills. However, I tend to avoid obvious game breaking mechanics and exploitation.

 

[Mojobeard]

Silly question. cRPGs are for making the munchkin characters you can't in PnP.
And as has been said, a sub-optimal character isn't roleplaying, it's poor playing. Metagaming is expected and almost always required. And there aren't (usually) enough approaches to get even close to how the character in your mind would act.

 

[anvi]

99

 

[Cael]

If I have a concept for a type of character I want to play, say some kind of martial character in Kingmaker modeled after a Khornate Chaos warrior, I'll go with some sub-optimal picks to make him a reality like going armored hulk barbarian for his class because it fits the best even though it is a sub-optimal class. But within that concept I'll try to make the most powerful character possible.

I am pretty sure that these dramafags wouldn't be able to make a viable Wolverine or Thor in 3.5 even if they wanted to, but an optimiser/powergamer would be able to do so with his eyes closed. Dramafags can't RP worth shit, and as a result, they try to drag everyone else down to their sewer.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I have heavy bias toward spellcasting classes, so I generally not need to engage in the kind of shenanigan builds that would never plausibly occur in a setting. Even still I do optimize. Rarely, if ever, does that conflict with my character concepts or actions.

 

[Citizen]

146