scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/3i9sbt.md

[Q][MK] I want to munchkin a tabletop RPG with an extremely flexible magic system but I'm struggling with ideas.

• Author: u/rineSample *

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3i9sbt/qmk_i_want_to_munchkin_a_tabletop_rpg_with_an/

• Score: 13

• Created: 2015-08-25T00:32:14

Post:

Sorry, but how would you munchkin Magical burst?

• How exactly the magic system works is vague at best, not rationally or cohesively constructed at all, and allows for a large amount of creative input on the part of the PCs, but is loosely keyed to the character's "theme" (i.e., "corruption" would entail an ability to make things decay, whereas another person in my campaign has a "confectionery" theme, with the ability to summon cakes. I picked "gravity," and it's worked with moderate success, but the only things I can really seem to do is pin enemies down to the ground and create wormholes. I play a level 1 intelligent character (clarification: the Yudkowskian kind. She has more than 1 intelligence). What else can I do?
• The enemies are, unfortunately, not only Immune to Bullets but also to large-scale weapons. However, "magically-infused bullets" seem to work, albeit very little, and my DM hasn't taken kindly to me trying to find ingredients to make chemical weapons "and infusing them with magic," although this was probably DM fiat.
• It largely copies Madoka Magica in that there's emotionless magic animal mascot contractors, wish stones, hard-to-kill magic monsters hiding in labyrinth dimensions, fallout for magic use (although this system takes it in a different direction), and competition between magic users for the scarce resources. I am trying to emotionally influence the contractor (this one has emotions) but I don't think that'll lead anywhere.

I'm sorry if you've answered something like this before.

Comments:

u/davidmanheim [+14] (25 minutes later)

If there is a DM with a lot of discretion, they aren't gonna let you munchkin too much.

u/Uncaffeinated [+13] (2 hours later)

One tip for munchkinning past a DM is to find ways to contribute that are much less visible.

This is why focusing on battlefield control and buffs as a Wizard is so potent in D&D. Inexperienced players and DMs will think that doing 30 damage in a round is OP while not batting an eye when you drop a Haste or Stinking Cloud.

Of course, that's harder to do in a rules lite system.

u/Vebeltast [+6] You should have expected the bayesian inquisition! (2 hours later)

Conversely, if you have a DM with a lot of discretion, they'll let you run with it as long as it's thematic, cool, and balanced.

u/Transfuturist [+3] Carthago delenda est. (4 hours later)

Munchkins are the literal antithesis of balance.

u/Chronophilia [+4] sci-fi ≠ futurology (12 hours later)

True, but a good player can have fun looking for useful applications and edge-cases of their abilities, without verging into powergamer territory.

u/herokocho [+3] (17 hours later)

Munchkins are the literal antithesis of balance

Unless you have the mythical Sufficiently Cruel GM. Then all you've done is give the SCGM an excuse.

u/derefr [+1] (22 hours later)

I'm not sure whether this is technically still "munchkining", but you could power everyone up (yourself, your allies, and your enemies) in a way that only you know how to take proper strategic advantage of. So everything looks balanced, right up until the end, when you win.

u/eaglejarl [+12] (2 hours later)

You control gravity to the extent that you can create wormholes? Wow. You're golden. Here's some stuff you can do:

All the standard portal tricks:

• Open wormhole in front of your gun, put the other end immediately behind enemy's head
• Use wormholes to look through walls
• Open wormhole, toss grenade through, close wormhole
• Open wormhole inside an object -- portal cut?
• Need a flashlight but don't have one? Open a portal outside in the sunlight with the other end pointed where you want light.
• Wormhole with vertically aligned ends -- infinite fall distance. Useful for making an enemy go splat, or for generating electricity by dropping a steel bar through a magnetic field. Use that electricity for something.
• Change the direction of your momentum by having the wormhole entrance and exit facing in different directions. For example, jump off a building, drop into the wormhole entrance going down, come out the entrance going sideways so you can dropkick someone.
• Another version of the above: if you're falling a dangerous distance, drop into a wormhole and come out going up. Your fall will slow down; just as you hit zero speed, portal yourself to the ground and land softly.

Various gravity tricks:

• Make it pull from the side to yank someone's aim off
• Slam someone into the ceiling, then into the floor, then into the ceiling...
• Create two point-sources of gravity on opposite sides of something. Tear it apart.
• Switch it from floor to ceiling rapidly so that a metal bar keeps falling up and down through a magnetic field. Gain electricity.

That's what comes to mind first; I'm sure there's a lot more you can do with it. Good luck!

u/adad64 [+7] Chaos Legion (16 hours later)

Now you're thinking with portals!

u/eaglejarl [+2] (17 hours later)

laugh

u/General_Urist [+1] (3 days later)

Yeah. Portals are infamously exploitable.

u/darkflagrance [+10] (44 minutes later)

You should be able to fly and exert "super-strength" by decreasing gravitational pull. You might also be able to kill living creatures by pushing them into the air, then pulling them back to the ground. You might be able to use the wormholes to become super-rich through mundane commerce (you need to explore the symbolic implications of being able to generate wormholes through "gravity", because this implies that you have powers over a related domain with regard to general space-time manipulation, allowing you to do things like become invisible, generate radiation, alter relative time-flow, generate vacuums, isolate pocket dimensions, create light-based computers, etc).

You're best off bleeding your powers slowly into related domains (such as light-manipulation through the use of gravity) and getting the DM to accept incremental expansions on your power, gaining the consent to make bigger conquests. You will want to take advantage of the DM's goal to make sure the game is cool, creative, and fun for the players; if the DM does not share these goals, munchkining will be harder.

u/rineSample [+2] (50 minutes later)

Thank you very much!

u/Vebeltast [+7] You should have expected the bayesian inquisition! (2 hours later)

Well, first of all, if you're holding people down with their own body weight to the point where they can't lift their arms, then you're also holding their blood down enough that they can't get any to their heads. So everybody you pin that way should black out in seconds.

Second, if you can wormhole but not much else, there's some conceptual stuff going on with the amount of curvature you can create. So lean on that. Conceptually speaking, gravity can:

• Defend yourself from projectiles/beams/bolts/bullets/spells. Everything curves in a gravity well - you just need enough curvature in the right place. Even light curves.
• Tear things in half.
• Tear things in half.
• ...Tear things in half?
• Float giant chunks of metal in the air around you for shielding
• Macro-scale linear accelerator! Not quite a railgun, but you should still be able to fling rocks at people pretty well.

u/Charlie___ [+4] (55 minutes later)

Win the Randi prize.

u/Chronophilia [+1] sci-fi ≠ futurology (12 hours later)

In a world with superpowers and magical creatures, it's a safe bet somebody else has gotten there first.

u/alexanderwales [+3] Time flies like an arrow (15 hours later)

Or that Randi never created the Prize in the first place.

u/GeeJo [+1] Custom Flair (2 days later)

I choose to believe that in this universe, Archwizard Randi has offered a prize to anyone who can demonstrate that his particular brand of arcane power follows established laws of physics, allowing for mundane exploitation and replication.

u/kaukamieli [+4] (6 hours later)

Inside a building? Drop the roof over someone.

You can control the gravity? You can probably change the direction too, so throwing anything is lethal. Also always hits if you change the point of gravity to be the target. (and it's not next to a wall or objects so the shot can circle around it a bit.)

The again, just make their heads implode.

Put a wormhole next to enemy, wait until he is halfway gone and close the thing.

You can fly.

u/Igigigif [+3] IT Foxgirl (2 hours later)

A couple of ideas:

• Time dilation (turns per turn multiplier, Grey Boy-ish singularties, defensive buffs)
• Pusdo-neutron star materials

u/clawclawbite [+3] (17 hours later)

Every object attracts every other object. By sending that, you have massive sensory powers.

If you do have a magic bullet weapon, increase the gravity between your munition and target for improved aim and more impact.

Ignore gravity to jump over your target, fire down at it, then attract your munition to the ground.

u/None [+3] (a day later)

I think you might have made a mistake by making your domain too powerful intrinsically. If you had gone for something seemingly harmless like "dust", "chalk", or similar, the GM would be much happier to let you munchkin.

u/mcherm [+2] (16 hours later)

Why pin enemies to the ground? Aim that gravity upward and it leaves them a lot more vulnerable.

Find a heavy object, balance it out to zero weight, and carry it around with you. An anvil or cannonball is simple and traditional; a spoonful of neutron star matter (held together by your gravity) is the most extreme.

Building wormholes is many times more exploitable than mere gravity control. For starters, create two tiny wormholes with one end anchored right in front of your eyes... instant clairvoyance.

One observation: for best results, be sure to align with the GM. If the GM wants to prevent munchkins you will be stopped. If the GM says doing a munchkin is unfair to other players consider whether maybe she is right about it. You can also offer the GM to slowly develop your character's powers while also slowly becoming less "good"; culminating eventually in becoming a big-bad-evil-opposition of the campaign and handing the character over to the GM to run.

u/puesyomero [+2] The Culture (19 hours later)

how far the wormholes reach? can they be opened inside something/someone?

the average depth for lava is 20 miles and is under tremendous pressure, can you say "lava pressure cutter"? do the same with deep (like mariana's trench deep)water and you can slice, dice and pulp without a fire hazard.

open a portal into orbit and watch the same effect in reverse as the wormhole vacuums your troubles and drops them a couple miles.

the ideal gas law is pV = nRT where the letters denote pressure, volume, amount (in moles), ideal gas constant, and temperature of the gas, respectively. if you can create small scale singularities or just compress really fast any significant volume of gas you get a drastic increase in temperature, boom! flash cooking enemies! create an outward pushing spherical field and not only create a vacuum but cool the stuff inside too, laugh as their blood sublimates and freezes in their veins.

u/Frommerman [+2] (3 days later)

Harry Dresden's gravity hammer. You temporarily turn off gravity in a wide area, then redirect it all in a point at the center of a group of foes. Crushing ensues. For a very low-effort weapon, stopping gravity from affecting a charging foe will cause them to lose all traction, and then a simple dodge will send them going in whatever direction they were originally going.

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