Best Munchkin Stories
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com
I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
can avoid the same mistakes.
And while I don't think all "munchkinism" is terrible (after playing a
character a few years, it's kinda fun to have one become really truly
heroic and super-human), it's no fun to go way overboard...
Here's my favorite DM Munchkin story:
The DM was running us through an adventure which had just started. It
didn't take him long to completely lose control. One of the players
was a real ass. He ran this wild and crazy fighter. While we were
supposed to be getting information in a castle, he goes nuts and
decides he wants the castle. He attacks everyone in it.
The DM was so flustered at losing control, and wanted to get everyone
back on track he says, and I'm not kidding, "Okay.....well, you'll
kill eveyone in the castle anyway, so I won't bother rolling
anything!"
I was shocked. We killed like 250 people without a single roll.
Needless to say, he didn't DM again after that night.....
Bill Mullen
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com writes:
>
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with
a
>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>can avoid the same mistakes.
Back in my Navy days, I played a campaign with a truly munchkin DM.
I started out with a Kensai, from Oriental Adventures, but then he
pulls out this 30 sided die and started rolling. Next thing I knew, I
was a Kensai/Druid/Ninja, with epilepsy, a fear of heights, and an
occasional compulsion to strip naked and try to fly.
BUT... since it was the only game on the ship at the time, I went
with it. Later, we're traversing the arctic plains, when we're
accosted by a White Dragon! I get scared and go into automatic,
turning invisible and Flying into the sky. The others ask themselves
if anyone can speak White Dragon ("Uh... no, but I speak BLACK
Dragon... Well, YOU try talking to it then" :))!
While debating, the Dragon breathed and killed all but one of them.
I flew behind it and killed the Dragon with one blow (I was a
Kensai/Druid/Ninja, after all :))
Later, I ended up dying. I was the only survivor of an ambush 36
die Chain Lightning Bolt (hid behind Wall of Force). I proceed to hunt
down the assassin, but get caught in a ForceCage. I whipped out a
blowgun, and miraculously rolled a 20, then a 30 on the 30 sided crit
chart. Killed him dead, right through the eye :) Then I was freed by
the other survivor, who was off scouting at the time of the Chain
Lightning. She offered to heal me, but when I voluntarily failed my
save, she Polymorphed me into a slug then crushed me between two rocks.
She was a little annoyed that I'd killed her Father and Mother (King
and Queen of some country) a while back (don't know how she knew, it
was a clean hit) in exchange for a Ring of Air Elemental Command. Some
people... :)
I quit the game, and started my own, less munchkin game.
Peace.
Bill
maxpot46
"There is nothing noble in being superior to another. True nobility
arises from being superior to one's past self."
XENO
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>can avoid the same mistakes.
> And while I don't think all "munchkinism" is terrible (after playing a
>character a few years, it's kinda fun to have one become really truly
>heroic and super-human), it's no fun to go way overboard...
Well I have no truly Munchkinist story to tell, I know of one character
of a college friend of mine's. He showed me this index card, and said, here
are the spells the character DOESN'T know. The spells were easily written
on the card, with a lot of white space. Now I don't remember the
approximate level of this character, but what level would he have to be to
have all but, say, ten to fifteen??? And even then, his entire character
was written on a 4x6 card, so it couldn't have been that high.
The little man who thinks big thoughts,
*XENO* (a.k.a. Matthew Shelton)
EMAIL ADDRESS: mlsh...@cc.memphis.edu
WEBPAGE URL: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~mlsheltn
Creator of the NETBOOK OF HERETIC and the PURITAN class
Those who cannot understand their opponents'
arguments do not completely understand their own.
Daniel Llewellyn
On Sun, 16 Feb 1997 21:32:56 GMT, rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
>
>
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>can avoid the same mistakes.
>
Back when I was in high school (more years ago than I care to
remember) I started to play a game with a new DM. On the first night
my first level character approached a loan shark looking for a loan
(the DM had indicated that many adventurers initially got the money
needed to buy adventuring equipment from this person). As I walk into
his building some alarms start to go off and lights start to flash.
The loan shark informs me that I am his 1 millionth customer and that
I have won 1 million gold pieces. He then has his associate take me
to the magic store next door where I can use the money to buy any
magic I want. After I had outfitted myself with +5 plate mail of
etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other goodies the DM informs
me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
Needless to say I didn't bother returning for the next weeks
session.
Daniel Llewellyn | Only the good die young
Programmer/Analyst II | The bad prefer it that way
dlle...@dimensional.com | - Ancient Goblin Proverb
christoph...@boeing.com
Bill Mullen wrote:
>
> rel...@cbus.mindspring.com writes:
> >
>
> > I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with
> a
> >great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
> >some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
> >can avoid the same mistakes.
>
My most powerful character ever was one 14th lvl cleric of St.
Cuthbert., created 2/92 and still alive today(though retired). The
power level he reached was incredible. I have provided his statistics
for the enjoyment of other players with Monty Haul DM's.
Gliftus (The Protector)Stromworth AL:LG Age:35(actual 54)
STR : 22 (Torc of the Gods, STR : 22)
DEX : 17
CON : 16
INT : 19 (Gem of Insight, Boon of St. Cuthbert)
WIS : 22 (Gem of Insight, Pearl of Wisdom, Boon of St. Cuthbert)
CHA : 19 (Natural 18, Boon of St. Cuthbert)
AC : -10 (Plate+3, Shield+5, Torc of the Gods(+2 AC), Boots of Speed)
Note : Modified AC is actually -13, but -10 is max
HP : 89
Magic Items:
Scrolls(about 40, some at levels as high as 22nd)
Mace of Disruption +2 (Note only +1 in DMG).
Mace+4, Int:14, Generates illusions, talks like a smartass.
Potions, many types(super-healing(3d10), Keoghtum's oint, Undead
Control(vampires, Incense of Meditation)
Talisman of Pure Good(never used)
Innate Abilities:
ESP 1/day
Charm Person 1/day
Many immunities due to high intelligence and wisdom.
Gliftus the Protector has an incredible array of primarily defensive
powers. Although humble by nature, his personality suffered at the
hands of a sickeningly generous DM. He began as a simple acolyte,
merely trying to make his way in the world and help those that he could.
Little did he know that accepting too many magic items and special
powers would cause him to be the most sought after priest in the land.
Though his ability to help others with mundane tasks is virtually
limitless(he can find literally anything lost with his powers of
divining and personal relationship with St. Cuthbert), he if called upon
time and time again to put himself in harm's way(though what can hurt
him, I wonder? He has so many powers of defense and uses them so
effectively that even the most creative DM has a hard time challenging
him.
Don't let this happen to your characters!
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com
dlle...@dimensional.com (Daniel Llewellyn) wrote:
>
>The loan shark informs me that I am his 1 millionth customer and that
>I have won 1 million gold pieces. He then has his associate take me
>to the magic store next door where I can use the money to buy any
>magic I want. After I had outfitted myself with +5 plate mail of
>etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other goodies the DM informs
>me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
>milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
>bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
Now that is sick...really really sick!
stephenJ
Daniel Llewellyn wrote:
>
> On Sun, 16 Feb 1997 21:32:56 GMT, rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
> >some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
> >can avoid the same mistakes.
> >
>
> remember) I started to play a game with a new DM. On the first night
> my first level character approached a loan shark looking for a loan
> (the DM had indicated that many adventurers initially got the money
> needed to buy adventuring equipment from this person). As I walk into
> his building some alarms start to go off and lights start to flash.
> I have won 1 million gold pieces. He then has his associate take me
> to the magic store next door where I can use the money to buy any
> magic I want. After I had outfitted myself with +5 plate mail of
> etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other goodies the DM informs
> me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
> milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
> bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
> session.
>
Although this thread contains some worthy competitors, This one takes
the cake for "best munchkin story"....
september
Once upon a time, rel...@cbus.mindspring.com decided to write this:
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>can avoid the same mistakes.
I was a normal 12th level thief with a ring of invisibility and a
cloak and boots of elvenkind... <ahem> In fights and in general, I
was more often invisible than visible. But, I accepted that since I
had no other magic items. What upset me was...
During one desperate fight, the high level mage used a scroll that
permanently polymorphed me into a silver dragon. The DM said 'your
alignment is now CG instead of CN'. During the next two fights that
followed, I would lead the charge as a dragon then use my natural
shapechanging abilities to go back to being a elf. Then I would pick
the locks on the chests we would find.
I didn't stick around for the next fight. I just got tired of being
this party's personal army.
jenn
Hermes
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
>
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
> great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
> some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
> can avoid the same mistakes.
> character a few years, it's kinda fun to have one become really truly
> heroic and super-human), it's no fun to go way overboard...
>
As a young and inexperienced DM, I invited some people that I didn't
know really well to play in a game. As I didn't know them well, and I
didn't understand the idea of DM approval, I let them bring in their
mighty munchkins (only back then we simply called them gods).
Two things stick out in my mind from that campaign. 1) The high level
fighter/magic-user who was true neutral ("which means I can do anything
I want")
who had, get this, a slave entourage of 20 12th level sorceresses. Oh,
he was fun. (Actually, this character found the gateway to limbo in this
campaign, and walked in retiring his character. After the campaign was
basically over, though.)
2) The Paladin who was chaotic neutral ("Oh, I don't believe in that
alignment restriction") and owned a plethgora of very powerful items.
Of course, I didn't help things much when I kept giving them magic items
to keep them happy.
Things are different now. Ask the surviving members of my current
campaign :)
-Hermes
Lawrence R. Mead
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
: dlle...@dimensional.com (Daniel Llewellyn) wrote:
: >
: >The loan shark informs me that I am his 1 millionth customer and that
: >I have won 1 million gold pieces. He then has his associate take me
: >to the magic store next door where I can use the money to buy any
: >magic I want. After I had outfitted myself with +5 plate mail of
: >etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other goodies the DM informs
: >me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
: >milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
: >bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
: Now that is sick...really really sick!
And of course it would not work anyway. Even in 1st edition, having
a chest of gold handed to you *without challenge* gains you exactly
zero experience.
DMGorgon
--
Lawrence R. Mead (lrm...@whale.st.usm.edu)
ESCHEW OBFUSCATION ! ESPOUSE ELUCIDATION !
http://www-dept.usm.edu/~scitech/phy/mead.html
bonstein
je...@voicenet.com (september) writes:
q
XC
>Once upon a time, rel...@cbus.mindspring.com decided to write this:
>> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
>>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>>can avoid the same mistakes.
> I was a normal 12th level thief with a ring of invisibility and a
Robert Moore
Daniel Llewellyn wrote:
>
> On Sun, 16 Feb 1997 21:32:56 GMT, rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
> >some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
> >can avoid the same mistakes.
> >
>
> remember) I started to play a game with a new DM. On the first night
> my first level character approached a loan shark looking for a loan
> his building some alarms start to go off and lights start to flash.
+5 plate mail of etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other
goodies the DM informs
> me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
> milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
> bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
Sounds like an experience I had once. I was bringing a character from
another campaign into a one or two shot adventure while home over the
summer holidays. Now this character was already pretty tough: He was
8th level, with 18/70 or so strength, a +3 shield, and a few other
things. The DM took me through a series of silly events that ended up
giving him 19 str, making his +3 sword +5, and boosting his shield to +5
or +6. Not to mention boosting him up a level or two.
We never did make it past that first night (thank god) and when I went
back to school, I just pretended that stuff never happened...
Rob M
Stephen Diamond
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
> One of the players
> was a real ass. He ran this wild and crazy fighter. While we were
> supposed to be getting information in a castle, he goes nuts and
> decides he wants the castle. He attacks everyone in it.
I had a similar thing happen while I was DMing one of my first
campaigns. Inexperience lead me to giving them too much power too
quickly. At one point they arrived at a small village and promptly
decided to slaughter the inhabitants. I let them do this(don't know why)
and they played out the scenario of sneaking into each ouse and killing
all the inhabitants.
I managed to get control however after it was over. All of their
alignments became evil immediately. Also a sole survivor of the attack
managed to flee to a nearby castle with a description of the PC's.
Within a week a small army hunted down the players and killed them to
the last. For over a year after this I never let PC's become evil.
As to my favorite munchkin story. I was playing with a VERY
inexperienced DM. I was in a malicious mood so began playing a dwarven
ranger (he hadn't even read the players handbook). By the end of the
first adventure I had lterally dozens of magical items, over 30
wishes(yes 30) and was the ruler of the dwarven kingdoms. Also I bossed
the gods around until they did what I want. It was nuts. In my defence,
the new DM made sure to pay much more attetion to the players and has
become a rather good DM. And it was all done for a laugh.
--
"the onus of genocide, rightfully, falls on me, on Hamanu."
Hamanu Lion of Urik
Year of Mountain's Defiance, 190th King's Age
Chris Kern
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>can avoid the same mistakes.
I had a DM who gave our 3rd level characters 1,000,000(1 million) xp
for killing our fellow players, who were instantly revived.
I had a character gain five levels in one night, find five
stat-raising books, a deck of many things, seventeen potions, an
intellegent long sword, and three other magical items. And this was
what my character got AFTER diving the treasure up EVENLY between
three characters. (That's right, there were 3 DoMT, 15 stat-gain
books....)
-Chris
Remove "junkmail" in my return address to reply.
Tuan Nguyen
rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
>
> I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
> great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
> some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
> can avoid the same mistakes.
This doesn't involve me, but it involves when I got my friends into
D&D. My friend was DMing for the first time in a few months (sorry, I'm
not a good DM. I'm too spur-of-the-moment and gags run rampant in the
campaigns I run. It's fun, but it gets nowhere) and he made an NPC who
could, by the means of some sort of ritual, fuse magical swords
together. A friend ended up with something like a
+7/+9 vs. undead/+8 vs. Dragons Flame Tongue, Ice Brand, Dancing Red
Dragon Slayer and Defender .
Then, the DM, realizing his great folly, had the next adventure involve
losing the sword to an active volcano (where it probably still is
intact).
Tom Craver
Daniel Llewellyn wrote:
> As I walk into
> his building some alarms start to go off and lights start to flash.
> The loan shark informs me that I am his 1 millionth customer and that
> I have won 1 million gold pieces.
This reminds me of a group I joined after moving into a new area. The
GM had his own set of rules and his own "special buddies". A couple of
them (easily) convinced him to let them set up a bar, which he allowed
to instantly become highly profitable. Now this was on an extremely
populous world - I think the city we were in had a population up in the
millions...or was it billions? So the GM allowed the players to create
a franchise of their bar and to establish a huge chain of bars. With
little or no effort on the part of these players, they soon had billions
of gold pieces of income.
Of course, this was the GM that allowed characters to specialize as many
times as they wished in punching at first level. The mightiest damage
you've ever seen was done by a player with nothing but gauntlets, doing
multiple punch attacks (with huge strength and magic bonuses of course)
every round...
Tom Craver
David L. O. Ehren
Though munchkinism is not rampant in my group, sometimes it's fun to do a
munchkin 1-shot. The best method is to use the random dungeon generator
in the back of the first edition DMG. Among the escapades:
- five psionic monks and their (controlled) pet grey oozes defeat Asmodeus
in a psionic fight, take over the world, and give away all but 10%
- a 12th level ranger switches to monk, forsaking all his powers as a
ranger for a while. his 100+ HP allow him to win the hand-to-hand combat
for higher levels easily
- as the previous poster mentioned, using something (a Wish in our case)
to fuse swords and rings, so a high level ranger/monk has rings of giant
slaying which affect his punch.
you get the idea...
Unknown
>In article <330BA1...@ix.netcom.com>, ngu...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>
>> rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
>> >
>> > I've been watching this curious phenomenon of "Munchkinism" with a
>>great deal of interest (call me sick, I'm sorry). I'd like to hear
>>some of your best munchkin stories (keep them short please) so others
>>can avoid the same mistakes.
>
>Though munchkinism is not rampant in my group, sometimes it's fun to do a
>munchkin 1-shot. The best method is to use the random dungeon generator
>in the back of the first edition DMG. Among the escapades:
>- five psionic monks and their (controlled) pet grey oozes defeat Asmodeus
>in a psionic fight, take over the world, and give away all but 10%
>- a 12th level ranger switches to monk, forsaking all his powers as a
>ranger for a while. his 100+ HP allow him to win the hand-to-hand combat
>for higher levels easily
>- as the previous poster mentioned, using something (a Wish in our case)
>to fuse swords and rings, so a high level ranger/monk has rings of giant
>slaying which affect his punch.
>you get the idea...
>
Ooo this is a good thread!
When I first started, back in junior high a couple of decades ago(smirk), our
gaming style was not particularly munchkin though we were close. When a
couple of us joined the D&D club we quickly realized that our characters
didn't stand a chance. The characters were 50th+ level and these two in
particular were 100 something level. They gave experience equivalent to
the gold they recieved wether it was from an adventure or not. So these guys
started a fishing business and eventually owned a large fleet of ships that brought
fish in for them. I don't even know if they went on one adventure( I guess this
might be on the border of monty haul). So we went home that night and made up
some new characters. Mine was a mage/fighter/assassin/cleric levels
30/30/15/30, he had four arms two wielding phenomenal +10 blades that I
couldn't even come close to listing the powers for in one day and two +10
sheilds. He had about 70% of the magic items in the book(the amazing thing
here is that I actually took the time to write them all down, I was just picking
out the ones I liked) plus a few of his own. He had a 100 yard long ship made
of adamatite that could go ethereal(to travel across the land) and was armed
with death ray cannons(imported from Gamma World). I remember his army
consisted of 1000 Bullettes and 500 Catabules(sp) and a bunch of other things.
I still have the character somewhere and bring him out for a good laugh once in
a while. The incredible thing is that he still wasn't very powerful compared to
the other characters but was able to hold his own.
As far as fusing items together, we have an artifact in our campaign that does
just that. You put multiple items in and one comes out. The "Mirror of Fusion"
is somewhat unpredictable though and has been known to create cursed items
or to swollow both with no result. The more power that is placed infront of the
mirror the more upredictable the results. Commonly known fusions our +1 to
+3 long swords with a scroll of Strength spell creating a magical sword with
Strength once or twice a day. The mirror is currently the property of the Elves
of Evermeet and they arn't in the habit of letting everybody use it. Our party
got to use it because he helped recover it from ... something(I can't remember)
so as a reward we got to use it. It's more of a neat/custmizeing kind of thing.
Samuel Greenland
On 18 Feb 1997, Lawrence R. Mead wrote:
> rel...@cbus.mindspring.com wrote:
> : dlle...@dimensional.com (Daniel Llewellyn) wrote:
> : >
> : >The loan shark informs me that I am his 1 millionth customer and that
> : >I have won 1 million gold pieces. He then has his associate take me
> : >to the magic store next door where I can use the money to buy any
> : >magic I want. After I had outfitted myself with +5 plate mail of
> : >etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other goodies the DM informs
> : >me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
> : >milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
> : >bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
> :
> : Now that is sick...really really sick!
>
> And of course it would not work anyway. Even in 1st edition, having
> a chest of gold handed to you *without challenge* gains you exactly
> zero experience.
>
Not to mention that in the original versions, you can only gain 1 level
per adventure - all of the excess XPs are lost, leaving you 1 short of
the limit for the next level...
What a waste!
Sam
Dave Brohman
Daniel Llewellyn (dlle...@dimensional.com) wrote:
> Back when I was in high school (more years ago than I care to
> remember) I started to play a game with a new DM. On the first night
> my first level character approached a loan shark looking for a loan
> (the DM had indicated that many adventurers initially got the money
> needed to buy adventuring equipment from this person). As I walk into
> his building some alarms start to go off and lights start to flash.
> The loan shark informs me that I am his 1 millionth customer and that
> I have won 1 million gold pieces. He then has his associate take me
> to the magic store next door where I can use the money to buy any
> magic I want. After I had outfitted myself with +5 plate mail of
> etherealness, a +5 vorpal sword and many other goodies the DM informs
> me that due to all the experience I had gained from acquiring the
> milliion gold pieces and the experience from the magic items I had
> bought (this was 1st edition AD&D) that I was now 18th level.
> Needless to say I didn't bother returning for the next weeks
> session.
I would have, just to show him what an absolutely stupid thing he did in
giving out all that free gear and experience. It is amazing what a
munchkin can do when he is bored :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Brohman E-Mail : dbro...@chat.carleton.ca
Carleton University
Featuring Alexi Sayle as the Balowski Family.
----------------------------------------------------------------------