Re: [HOE] Would you allow this man his character?

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>Dusarat@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a recent character creation session, a friend of mine drew the aces 
>of
> > spades, hearts, and Diamonds AS WELL AS the Red joker with a suit of
> > spades....
> >
> >     Now, if you knew that this man, had, say, purchased a book of card 
>tricks
> > last week and had spent the week practicing them, would you say I made 
>the
> > right call in making him re-draw for the character?
>
>Aww, whadja go an' do that fer?
>
>Try this: tell the PC that it's an amazing draw, let him keep it and
>GRIN EVILLY. Throw in a maniacle cackle or two. Let him make whatever
>Ubercharacter he wants.
>
>Now. Make the character harrowed. There's just NO WAY a manitou is going
>to pass up a body that good. Make it a GREATER Manitou with a kick-ass
>Spirit. Give him a 5-point hindrance that gives the manitou a +5 to all
>dominion rolls.
>
>You see where this is going yet? When the other PCs aren't expecting it,
>cash in a blue chip and GO TO TOWN. Munchkinism works both ways, boys
>and girls... what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
>
>

I guess I'd disagree with the above, just because there's a difference 
between munchkinism and cheating.

After all, if the person is cheating and you take the route above, the 
now-Harrowed character isn't going to be commiting suicide when his manitou 
takes over.  He'll be shooting at...well, the other PCs (or at the very 
least, getting them into trouble when our manitou-possessed Harrowed starts 
shooting at other people).  Why should _their_ players get penalized for the 
initial person's cheating?  Or have to deal with the repercussions of it?

Besides, Harrowed are kinda tough.  Even if they want or have to take him 
out, one or more of their PCs might get killed doing it.  Again, why should 
they lose a PC because somebody else cheated?

As far as munchkinism...if the draw was truly random and sheer luck, why 
penalize the player for that?  That's how Pinnacle built the system, where 
attributes are (mostly) randomly determined from a pretty broad range.  
That's not munchkinism (i.e., min-maxing) as I understood the term.  What's 
the player supposed to do if he honestly gets such a draw?  Say, "Gee, I 
guess I'll just downgrade those Aces down to Jacks, because otherwise my 
Marshal is going to screw me over."  That seems to assume your average 
player is a bit more...altruistic than most I've ever seen. ;)

*shrug* If you're positive the guy's cheating, just kick his ass out.  Or, 
if you are sure he is cheating and want to give a first warning, toss out 
the card draw as originally mentioned, shuffle and deal 12 cards to him for 
his new character.

If you're not very, VERY sure he's cheating, then I'd leave it stand.  I'd 
watch their die-rolling in future, though...  :)  If you take the approach 
suggested above, then any time any player gets a honest, lucky and good 
draw, they're going to be wondering if the Marshal is going to screw them 
over because of it.

---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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