EVERYONE: Munchkins and Mythology (Summer one shot contest)

[LightningTopaz]

Here's my entry for the contest, which explores what happens when Gary joins Ash and the gang for a night of tabletop roleplaying, but ends up getting on Brock's nerves when he ends up making the wrong kind of character for the campaign Brock is attempting to run...


Ash opened the door and smiled when he saw Gary on the stoop. "You made it! Come on inside--you can make your character while we wait on the food to get here."

"How could I not say no to takeout and roleplaying?" Gary replied. "After giving the System Ref document the once over, it sounded like fun."

"Well, Brock is a very good dungeon master." Ash explained as he watched Brock pull down a projection screen, then confirm a few settings on a sleek silver laptop. "But if you have any questions, just ask me or Brock."

----------

In the rec room, Gary--now with a white towel tied on his back like a cape--gave Brock his finished character sheet. "Okay..I hope I did this right..."

Brock looked over Gary's character sheet. "Looks good for a Lightsworn paladin...welcome to the game, Merlion Whitelight."

"Thanks." Gary smiled. "Let's go raid a dungeon!"

"I do have a dungeon for you to raid and fabulous treasure for you to find..." Brock explained. "But keep in mind that the point of 'Chambers and Charizards' is not to win--it's about telling stories of brave heroes."

"So if we're gonna emerge victorious, we need to be a team, okay?" Ash agreed as he readjusted the red mage's hat with an elegant white plume he now wore.

With that, Brock cued some royal city ambiance. "Rumors of war have the royal city on edge. A few weeks ago, an orc warchief threatened to invade the city if the royal family did not give him one of their many treasures--specifically the ten Gems of Magic. To make matters worse, many of the noble houses are all fighting over who should meet the orcs in battle. Time is running out--a royal spy has found the orcs plan to invade in two weeks..."

"Blah blah blah...just get to the quest already!" Gary mutters, snapping Brock from reading the script.

Brock's first thought is to scold Gary, but reconsiders when he sees how long the backstory script is. Come to think of it, I don't think I need to perform all of this...

He finds the section of the script with the quest, then continues reading. "The king wants you to lead a small band of warriors in an initial skirmish to weaken the orcs. But with the noble houses squabbling over which of them will lead the charge, you're left with the rogues, the misfits, and the layabouts who only made it into a noble's service by sheer luck. It's a wonder any of them can wield a weapon properly!"

He intones "It doesn't help that the orcs have somehow managed to tame a black dragon."

"Oh, boy! A dragon fight!" Gary smiles, excited.

Brock thumbs through the adventure book. If Gary wants a dragon fight, I can cut the warring factions and orcs out, and just run this as a dragon slayer quest. No rivals, no political intrigue...just a pure and simple dragonslaying quest. Or, I could switch adventures to a pure dragon slayer quest...

Serena seems to share Brock's unease about the adventure and Gary's excitement about slaying a dragon. "Can we skip all the rivals and backstabbing and just kill a dragon for once?"

"Or just raid a dungeon--dragons optional?" Misty agrees.

"Okay...let me find a good dragon slaying adventure or campaign..." With that, Brock digs through his box of adventures and campaign books...

---------

"'The Dragons of Rainbow Cave' okay?" Brock asks as he shows the large book to the group.

"That'll do just perfectly!" Gary smiles, excited at the prospect of slaying a dragon. Ash nods in agreement.

"Believe me, you'll get to slay plenty of dragons and find plenty of treasure on this epic adventure." Brock smiles. "This was why I rolled up new high level versions of your characters for you."

He locates the adventure's introductory script. "Since time immemorial, colored dragons have caused trouble to the peoples of the world--so much so the jeweled dragons, the guardians of the world, have had enough. Their leader, the great diamond dragon Meldira, has summoned you to her glittering crystal abode to discuss what to do about the colored dragon leaders that threaten the world."

He cues some ethereal crystal cave ambiance. "Meldira's cave is just as beautiful to look at as its resident. Diamonds glitter on the shimmering walls, creating an aurora like effect on the crystal floors--never mind you are too far south to see the northern lights."

Awed chatter goes up as Brock projects a picture of the beautiful white dragon in her cave for the group to see. "Meldira awaits you here. Her glittering diamond scales ripple with divine strength and power. There is a very good reason mortals and Lightsworn alike revere the diamond dragon--it will not harm the good and the pure, and will fight tooth and nail to protect the free peoples of the world from any threat."

Inspired, Gary bows on one knee before the picture. "Ye have called, O Guardian of light, and I have come with worthy companions. Name what you wish us to do, and we will do it--even if we have to go to the very ends of the world."

Brock smiles before getting into character as Meldira. "Welcome, Sir Merlion...a grave situation is upon us. No doubt you and your companions have heard the mortals groan under the oppression of the Chromatic Dragons. I have brought you here so you can slay their leaders, and end their menace once and for all."

"Sounds easy enough...where do we start?" Gary asks.

"The leaders of the chromatic dragons are aware that their judgement is at hand." Brock explains as Meldira. "They have all taken shelter in a massive cave complex appropriately called Rainbow Cave. If you attempt to enter the cave, you will find one of them for every ten levels you go down. When you reach the bottom, you will engage the leader of the colored dragons, the red dragon Rostras. Defeat him, and the world will be safe again."

Ash nods. "We'll do it!"

---------

Brock cues some foreboding dark cave ambiance. "The light in here is just dim enough for you to notice that the way forward into Rainbow Cave involves crossing a large chasm. But you also know that things aren't always what they seem to be, especially with powerful dragon magic involved."

"Christine uses Lumiere d'epee." Serena reports.

"That means 'light of the sword'". Ash explains to Gary. "Basically, the runeblade's rapier becomes a light source the runeblade can control. So unlike a torch, it won't go out unless Serena wants it to go out." Gary nods to show he understands.

"So you now have a choice..." Brock explains to the group. "Do you cross the shaky old bridge over the chasm? Or do you find another way around?"

Gary balks at the picture of the chasm Brock has shown the group. "You couldn't PAY me enough gold to cross a rickety old bridge! It'll just break when we're halfway across, like in the movies!"

He asks Brock "Is there another way around?"

"Yes, there is another, safer way into the cave--but you'll have to use your own magical abilities to find it." Brock replies.

"Aldaron uses Revealing Light to attempt to find a safer way in." Ash reports.

"Take 10." Brock replies--his signal that the spell doesn't technically require a check, so he assumes the player rolled a 10. "Your spell reveals a second pathway leading further underground, bypassing the rickety bridge entirely."

"Good thinking, Ashy-boy!" Gary smiles, mostly relieved he doesn't have to relive an adventure movie cliche. "Fingers crossed we can get in the cave in one piece."

Brock assures Gary "First rule of being the dungeon master--your goal is not to destroy the players, but work with them to tell the best story possible. This sometimes means working around or flat out rewriting the rules if it would benefit the story."

---------

A few encounters later, Brock cues the battle music as a gaggle of kobolds appears on the screen. "As you make your way inside Rainbow Cave, a band of kobolds ambushes you!"

"Merlion uses Divine Shock." Gary smirks. Kobolds are just cannon fodder for a Lightsworn...

Brock gasps in surprise, but decides to roll with Gary's one hit kill. "The divine light engulfs the kobolds, allowing them to meet their judgement. But since they were in the service of a dragon, they were carrying some valuable stuff."

Ash coldly eyes Gary. Way to break the encounter...

"Are there any drops?" Gary asks, oblivious to the angry looks on the others' faces.

Brock tries to hide his displeasure as he checks the stat blocks for the drops. "Among the treasure you find, there is an Exalted Hat, a bottle of Elemental Balm, and a Runed Pin. There is also a Living Harp here--its strings give off a comforting rainbow glow as it awaits instruction."

"Ooh, an adventure hook for the next part of the campaign!" Misty smiles, now in a better mood. "Let's put that in the vault for now."

In character, she tells the beautiful picture of a fantasy harp "We're not ready to use your song just yet--will you wait for us until we need you?"

"It is my pleasure." Brock replies in a regal female voice for the harp. "I await your triumphant return."

"See, if we find something none of us can use or doesn't want, Brock puts it in the vault." Ash explains. "You can ask to put something in the vault, see what's currently in the vault, or take something out of the vault at any time." Gary nods to show he understands.

Brock, meanwhile, shows the group a picture of the next room, complete with the holy ambiance that signals the room is a safe zone. "You emerge into a room that was once a sacred space, with a beautiful angel statue overlooking a pedestal. A Divine Saints' Bow sits on the pedestal, it's jewel studded white limbs creating a comforting glow in the room."

"Is that a Legendary normal bow, a magebow, or a divine bow for a Lightsworn?" Ash asks.

Brock checks the bow's statbox. "It is a Legendary magebow--do you want it?"

"Yeah...I could use an upgrade." Ash smiles as he writes the new bow on his character sheet. "I'll put my old one in the vault, while I'm at it."

Gary sighs as he looks down on his own character sheet. Why did Ashy-boy get the first legendary item of the game, and not me?

He watches Ash and Brock negotiate for a moment, then smiles at the divine sword his character is currently wielding. That's okay, though--a divine sword has nothin' on a Legendary bow!

Brock, meanwhile, continues setting the scene for the encounter. "As you take the beautiful bow from the pedestal, a comforting feeling washes over you. It almost feels like a Lightsworn is telling you 'Peace--I am watching over you'."

"It's not cursed, is it?" Misty isn't so sure about the description Brock is reading. For all she knows, Ash is about to meet some terrifying fate because of a cursed item.

"As a holy item, it can't be cursed." Brock assures the group. "You'll need it to reach the innermost parts of this place."

"But why would a divine item be here in a massive dragon lair?" Serena wonders.

"Maybe it was once part of a massive horde of treasure?" Gary suggests.

"We'll go with that, then." Serena smiles as she watches Brock create the next encounter...

---------

"This area is a dead end, thanks to a cave in." Brock reads as he adds some water and divine aura noise into his cave mix. "Yet this place feels like a holy place."

"Merlion uses Sense Aura to ID just which deity is hanging out here." Gary reports.

"Take ten." Brock replies. "You sense the spirit of the earth goddess Gaia here--earth and nature abilities are more effective in this area."

"So is Gaia here, or are we only sensing her aura?" Ash wonders.

"Gaia is not physically here--you only sense her aura." Brock clarifies. "This still means any earth and nature abilities get a boost here."

He next adds a picture of Greninja into the image of the dead end. "You see a Greninja here hiding behind a rock. You can't tell if it's hiding from a monster, or lying in wait to ambush something."

"Merlion charges to attack!" Gary reports, expecting Brock to cue the battle music.

Brock, however, has other ideas. "As you charge in an attempt to engage the Greninja, it manages to strike first with an Ice Beam, freezing you solid!"

Gary gasps. "What gives?"

"Not everything is out to kill you." Brock sternly reminds Gary. "This Greninja actually wants to help you guys...if you do attempt attacking her, she will automatically freeze you solid."

"The point of the game is to tell an epic adventure story--not kick down the doors, kill all the monsters, and take all the rare and powerful stuff!" Misty agrees. "Now, will you try to make meaningful contributions, and not kill everything in sight?"

"While there is rare and valuable stuff to find, it's not fair to everyone else if you horde it all for yourself." Brock continues. "There's a word in the tabletop gaming community for someone doing what you're doing right now--munchkin. So, can we try to share the wealth and the glory with the others? Otherwise, I'll have to take more drastic measures."

Gary swallows hard as he imagines what "drastic measures" could entail. "Okay! Okay! I'll be good from here on out!"

"Okay...this is your only warning." Brock warns. "If you do something munchkin-like again, I'll take drastic measures--up to and including killing off your character if I have to."

He finds his place in the script for the encounter as Gary shudders in fear. "Now, we'll rewind the encounter to the beginning, and assume Gary's action never happened." he explains to the group as he removes the FRZ icon from Gary's character.

He then starts the encounter over. "You see a Greninja here hiding behind a rock. You can't tell if it's hiding from a monster, or lying in wait to ambush something."

"Merlion uses Speak to Pokemon." Gary reports. "He asks the Greninja what it's doing."

Brock smiles, pleased that Gary used a reasonable action. "You learn that the Greninja is named Mizuna." he explains to Gary. "She tells you that the cave Squirtles in the cave are being hunted by a Gyarados, and she is going to slay said Gyarados once and for all so none of the cave Squirtles are eaten."

"We'll be happy to help you out." Gary replies in character.

"Yeah, even the Pokemon deserve peace." Ash agrees. Maybe there's hope for Gary being a good Chambers player after all!

THE END

 

[System Error]

And then there were two, and so there will be two.

- Oh jeez we're going full-on LARP here. Do find it a bit off who's present isn't described right away, and that Misty/Serena don't have their outfits described
- Only two periods in the first ellipsis.
- "the point's not to win" / "we want to emerge victorious" Okay then. And given how dysfunctional my 5e party is yet still successful, never knew working together (or even classical heroism) was a requirement.
- Red mage? I don't think that's a D&D class, though Cleric may as well be one.
- I've heard of incompetent nobles before, but fighting over who gets to fight the invaders?
- Projects a picture? I guess he just happened to have a projector handy, and the lights were off too so they couldn't see what was on the papers, and...okay. I don't know about that.
- This quest certainly seems game-y, rather than logic-y. Why wouldn't the dragons all band together and attack as a team?
- Brock sure likes to cue ambiance, and you describing it as cueing ambiance. Or cueing music in general.
- I take it there's no races with darkvision in this fictional setting? But hey, light swords. Those are certainly a thing.
- Well if the spell doesn't need a check, it doesn't need a roll either. So saying that he's taking 10 here is kind of just a way to show off more tabletop terminology when it doesn't make sense in context to those who do know it.
- Ha, shoutouts to Ashy-boy.
- I dunno about that being the first rule, Brock. I've heard of plenty of dungeon masters whose goal it is to destroy the players. Then again, those tend to be the bad ones, so.
- Surprised that was an OOC reaction and not an IC one from Ash and the others. I imagine there would be some pretty great ones from excessive force like that.
- The vault is certainly a different mechanic. I assume it's just a glorified bag of holding.
- Getting a funny mental image of Gary smiling over his inventory.
- Pokemon in with fictional dragons, huh? Nice.
- Man, not even a roll? What kind of system is this? For that matter, there aren't even any initiative rolls for combat and such. That could've prevented things.
- I actually have to side with Gary on this one. The others are coming across as prudes who think there's only one way to play things, even the DM - as pure epic heroes. A good DM would adapt based around this.
- How is he hording everything to himself??? He respected the drops and didn't balk at the treasure he'd gotten from the kobolds!
- And Gary just caves likes a threatened child, bleh. It's pretty fast even in the narrative.
- And then ending. Okay then.

Gotta be honest, while I loved the concept of a player with a completely different style of play bringing chaos to the tabletop, the direction this one went in kind of ruined this for me. A munchkin is someone who min-maxes and powergames to win, as well as possible godmodding.

Let's look at Gary's actions. He wanted to play a different campaign. People agreed with him, so evidently no foul. He crushed a group of Kobolds in no time flat. That's perfectly reasonable for certain paladins. But everyone gets pissed at him for using his class' abilities for some reason. You know, playing the game. Then they find treasure, and he internally grovels - not outwardly - about not getting a legendary item. Maybe a bit immature, but he manages. Then he jumps into combat again, and everybody flips out on him, and HE gets godmodded on. Like, what the hell? As far as I see it, he didn't do anything but not play the way they wanted to.

Moreover, I can see justification for Gary's characters actions too. His was coming across as a paranoid cautious veteran who attacks first and asks questions later, and shows no mercy to his enemies. Of course, he's going to cause some problems and get lolepicowned sometimes, but it wasn't portrayed that way. For a game based around telling stories, there was startlingly little IC interaction to tell that story. As-is, it comes across as them being more inflexible than him, no matter how Gary is trying to play.

Like my dysfunctional 5e party. There's been at least one moment where one of us has gotten up to ANTICS that astonished most if not all the others, some of us more than others (usually our Nyarlathotep cultist warlock or the professor with no social etiquette/standards). But it's all kept IC aside from some mild cursing out - no matter how bad it gets, our characters are at the end of the day friends who can get the job done, and we're there to have fun. The GM and us are flexible like that. Like there was a notable incident recently where the professor tried to go on a campaign to expose a town's dragon skull tourist attraction for being a fake, causing even the lawful evil Warlock to act out. We were sidetracked by part of the actual quest where it pretty much went unmentioned, but by the end it was too late to stop him. In the end...he cast magic mouth on the skull and made them admit it was fake, but hey it's a talking skull! The warlock and our ranger (one of the straight men along with my barbarian) were dumbfounded. All kept IC, even though it was basically one of the party against all the others for a moment. We didn't get mad at the guy himself for doing it, though his character may not live it down.

So yeah. A good premise, but the execution was off-putting to me. Hate to say it. It's kind of hard for me personally to take Brock and co's side, when they aren't even making an effort to adjust or doing anything IC to address it first (or anything IC at all). Just going "you're playing this wrong, last warning" from the get go. It's not even framed as Gary prioritizing success over having fun, which could've helped a bit. Again, it was just shown as not playing exactly how they expect him to.

All in all, I figure this is something that could've been longer, especially exploring the IC side of things a lot more. That would have done a lot to make less ambiguous that Gary's in the wrong, particularly if his character had no character. That said, on a meta level for the contest's theme? It hits it pretty much perfectly. Gary wants to play one way (at least how they see it), they all want to play another. So, to end on something positive, excellent job working it in.

 

[kintsugi]

Hey LT! Popping in for the contest oneshots; I liked this take on the theme! DnD murderhobos vs DnD for the roleplay is a cool vector for right character/wrong genre, and the premise here is a lot of fun. I think you captured the disparate nature of party dynamics pretty well, and how everyone's off doing their own things/has different ideas of what a good game could be. It's a fun premise and a solid idea to convey in a oneshot!

(Seconding SE's comments on the take 10/skill check thing haha. Felt like unnecessary gameplay nods when some of the more core elements of gameplay, such as combat rolls, got nixed entirely).

I did struggle a bit trying to figure out who you actually wanted to be wrong here. My gut instinct is that the moral of the story is that Gary's playing the wrong kind of genre, and his friends are showing him that there's deeper things to RP than just murdering things--but I felt bad for the guy! He does seem genuinely interested in reading all the reference material given to him, he does roleplay earnestly to Meldira, and he listens to the DM and the rest of the table (while they all just gripe at him under their breaths). Plus like:

Brock assures Gary "First rule of being the dungeon master--your goal is not to destroy the players, but work with them to tell the best story possible. This sometimes means working around or flat out rewriting the rules if it would benefit the story."

"Not everything is out to kill you." Brock sternly reminds Gary. "This Greninja actually wants to help you guys...if you do attempt attacking her, she will automatically freeze you solid."

It doesn't really seem like the DM is giving them many options to craft their own story despite Brock saying that that's the role of the DM. "If you don't do what I want it'll auto-freeze you solid" doesn't really jive with the above idea of "my goal is to work with the players to tell the best story possible"--if players attack a friendly NPC, then there are consequences later, such as the NPC not helping them in future fights, not vouching for them in negotiations, not healing/repairing/offering them cool items. But just saying "you HAVE to befriend this NPC or I won't let you progress" is kind of a limiting move for a DM to demand of his table. I thought that maybe the twist was the Gary's a genuinely excited DnD player (right character) and Brock's going to refuse to adapt to his players but instead force his story through (creating the wrong genre), but the ending sort of treats it like Brock is doing nothing wrong and the onus was all on Gary to change. As a DM who recently did a session where broken freeze mechanics literally did disable half my table, I felt really bad about that since I effectively took all their agency out of the game--as a DM I'd want to change and wouldn't use that as a mechanic to purposefully punish my players until they do what I want, you know?

And I think there's a lot of ways you can inject interpersonal drama into DnD; that's something roleplaying is really good at, after all. But the examples given are kind of hard to follow--Gary doesn't want a politics subplot, but neither does Serena. Gary wipes a bunch of low-level enemies off the map, but that's pretty common when fighting kobolds and at a good table your party will be excited when you use your class to its fullest potential (Ash being so salty there! whew! not really a good table dynamic at all). Gary shares the loot that only he earned (and his griping is internal, unlike the rest of his party, who shame him outwardly!), and he at least is more engaged than Misty, who doesn't do a single thing in-character and just complains for all four of her lines of dialogue. I think if you wanted to sell Gary's "redemption" as genuine (and leave him as the only player who makes and effort to adapt his playstyle to the others), he'd have to be meaningfully more toxic than the rest of his table, which he sort of wasn't--they just decide that he is, don't bother to question why, and railroad him into changing. I felt really bad for the guy!

I think some more description from the table would've helped, too! The dialogue is pretty bare bones; mostly just punctuated by he agreed/she replied/he smiled--Misty's character is kind of a black box; Serena was also pretty hard to place. The only person who's struggles I actually understood and empathized with were Gary's, which probably contributed to why I didn't get why Brock and Ash were so antagonistic to him--fleshing out the description there to get a better feel for how everyone else is reacting would help make it more clear if it's the table being jerks or if Gary's failing to read the room, you know?

Grammar notes--mostly clean, but your dialogue formatting is kinda wonky:

He intones "It doesn't help that the orcs have somehow managed to tame a black dragon."

should be: He intones, "It doesn't help that the orcs have somehow managed to tame a black dragon."

"Christine uses Lumiere d'epee." Serena reports.

should be: "Christine uses Lumiere d'epee," Serena reports.

"That means 'light of the sword'". Ash explains to Gary.

should be: "That means 'light of the sword'," Ash explains to Gary.
The same flavor if typos come up across the story--I can point them all out if you want, but it's pretty much in every dialogue bit.

Concept was fun! I have vested interest in pokemon x DnD stories, so I did think that the premise here was a ton of fun and I liked the general skeleton of the idea--I just wish that there was a bit more nuanced character development from everyone at the table, not just Gary.

 

[LightningTopaz]

@kintsugi @System Error

Thanks for the reviews, both of you--I admit that this was a spur of the moment idea, and I know I could expand on it more.

I may expand this into a full story with a few more of the Pokemon cast at the table to address a lot of the issues and suggestions you both have brought up.

 

[Daren]

*Brock seems to be big on the ambiance in his games; I wonder if maybe he used to GM for his siblings?

*This has almost nothing to do with the story but I can't help but wonder if Chambers and Charizards has multiple editions and if so which one they're playing.

*Not gonna lie, Brock's first idea sounds fun to me.

*He does seem to be pretty effective at pivoting to the situation, which strikes me as a useful skillset for running a game.

*The sudden change between adventure tones is quite interesting; the first one had intrigue laced into it and gave the feeling of a fairly long running epic, then for the second it's a very simple dungeon crawl with pre-arranged "boss fights" the quest giver tells them about ahead of time. I'm guessing he has a pretty varied selection of modules.

*I'm not sure why but Ash being a spellcaster feels a bit odd for the main series one who seems to love mixing it up with his Pokémon, even having Pikachu use Iron Tail and Quick Tail pretty often in the later series' (I'm guessing this is part of your remix series, though?)

*I do find everyone being annoyed at Gary quickly getting past a fight a little strange.

*Is the vault sort of a bag of holding or is it just a shared inventory to simplify things rather than an in-universe object?

*Ah, Misty has that good old veteran RPG paranoia in wondering if the bow is cursed.

*It does feel a little odd to me how much Brock keeps dropping out of universe hints (there's another route but you'll need magic; you'll need the bow to advance).

*The ending feels a bit abrupt.

The above was written while I was reading so some of the comments ended up also being addressed in System Error and kintsugi's reviews.

This is kind of minor, but considering Pikachu is with Ash pretty much 24/7 it felt weird he isn't mentioned in the story anywhere.

Overall I agree with the other reviews; it's a very fun idea that fits very well with the theme, but it felt a bit short and the other characters reactions to Gary seemed a little disproportionate. I'd certainly be interested into the larger version you are considering!

Good luck in the contest!

 

[LightningTopaz]

@Daren

Thank you for the review. The longer version is still in the planning stages, and it may take a while to write, but I do plan on addressing and fixing the issues everyone has brought up.

 

[Rainfall]

Hi LightningTopaz!

This sounds like such a cozy and desirable experience – getting down to dinner with your friends after a long week, and engaging an interactive story activity together!
I would be remiss if I didn’t join in mentioning: I cue some novice reviewer ambiance! : )

Gary as the funny man is an interesting take, and I quite like that you chose Gary and not Ash to play this role in this story of their roleplaying experience.
Brock seems like a very nice guy—he’s quite an adaptive dungeon master. He fitted the story path around Gary and the other players’ desires. He gave Gary a chance, or a few. He didn’t let the poor sportsmanship drag on, though, and he Greninja’d a way to kindly, but firmly, open Gary’s eyes and convince him to consider his fellow players and the spirit of the game.

As for Gary, yeah, he’s the prototypical munchkin, sure, though he does seem to react fairly well to Brock putting the foot down, and quickly begins to re-consider his roleplaying action—as Ash (and possibly all) thinks, Gary has hope for “being a good a good Chambers players after all!”

Some notes:

- “The king wants you to lead a small band of warriors in an initial skirmish to weaken the orcs. But with the noble houses squabbling over which of them will lead the charge, you're left with the rogues, the misfits, and the layabouts who only made it into a noble's service by sheer luck. It's a wonder any of them can wield a weapon properly!” – I loved this exposition by Brock, especially that middle line!

- Partial introduction or hints earlier on to Serena’s and Misty’s presence would add to the setting and to when they make their comments!

- “Diamonds glitter on the shimmering walls, creating an aurora like effect on the crystal floors--never mind you are too far south to see the northern lights.” It would help for Brock to add a “that” between “never mind” and “you are”.

- “ "Are there any drops?" Gary asks, oblivious to the angry looks on the others' faces.”
Oh no, Gary! And Brock is sturdy to not break character there and continue.

- Was the ending intended to be abrupt? Perhaps it just felt that way to me. Regardless, it delivered on setting the scene, establishing Gary’s faults and instrumental experience, and showed that he was beginning to show change, without confirming it. That last element is a typical and perfectly successful structure!

- The story is told in third-person, though Gary is very much our protagonist and player character, as much of the actions are taken by him. Even the last one, if only to show that he is turning around!

- The concept of a munchkin, and more widely, of a powergamer is a curious concept. This was a fun detour in looking up the trope, and also learn of a very successful strategic card game using this name.

- Finally, I like the trio structure of the actual game, the in-game game, and the meta-story name:
it consists of the location or theme backdrop and a key actor, in alliteration: Dungeons & Dragons, Chambers & Charizards, Munchkins & Mythology. : )

It was very nice to get to experience a little teambuilding and hang out with the gang of our beloved adventurers : )

 

[LightningTopaz]

@Rainfall

I do plan on expanding on this into a full fledged campaign (and a full fledged chaptered story) based on feedback from everyone. So you may see more of this merry band of adventurers.

I wanted to somehow balance the story being too short and too long, so I only focused on this series of scenes that captured a few moments in the session. But in the longer chaptered version, you'll see more explanation about the group's traditions when they play together (and a few more players in the party.)

Thanks for reading!

 

[Rainfall]

Focusing on the essential parts makes sense. I do want to say my bad for noting that again, perhaps--I wanted to write these responses while avoiding reading other responses first, so I may have said what has been said before! Though on second thought, I probably would have mentioned it anyway, and getting repeated feedback on the same element may be a normal occurrence, too. And the consideration & planning seems to have evolved since the earlier reviews!

That does sound like a fun story, and it'll be nice to see how the group interacts and gets along.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I've lost count of the number of reviews by this point ...

First things first, I really do like the thinking behind this - that a munchkin is a character in the wrong genre. Because in the context of a roleplaying game they have the same sort of chaotic impact.

The problem, I think, is simple. You have a tendency to write very light-hearted stories. Usually that's fine, but it's altogether too nice here. Gary is at worst a bit of a stroppy player. A munchkin would know the rules as written front to back. He'd look for ways to claim the rules allow him to claim all the loot and sulk when he gets overruled. He'd try to get all the other players to act for his benefit as if they were NPCs in a video game. You could have got away with the exaggerated kind of story that you find a lot out there on the internet, 'cause let's face it, every DM loves to exaggerate.

 

[bluering8]

I like what you were aiming for with this! I have a lot of interest in the discussion around roleplaying vs rollplaying, so I think the basic idea of someone with a different playstyle or different expectations for the gm-player relationship being a character in the wrong genre is very cool and fun.
That said, the idea of Gary as a problem player doesn't actually work out with what you've written. Gary's not a disruptive player or a poor sport at any point during this fic, and frankly I ended up feeling sorry for him, because this reads like the other players are being assholes to him while he's just trying his best.

Differing playstyles can certainly cause conflict, but and his playstyle seems like it meshes well enough with the rest of the group. The other characters are just as excited as he is to play a good old-fashioned dragon-slaying dungeon crawl instead of the political campaign, and Gary's entirely willing to roleplay and share loot instead of starting an argument over it. Everything he does feels entirely realistic for a player who has just joined a new group and is going to take a session or two to get into the rhythm of the existing social dynamics. As a result, the rest of the group come off far far worse than Gary does here; they read like narrow-minded assholes who think there's Only One Right Way To Play and have incredibly low tolerance for anyone who diverges from that, no matter how well-meaning that person may be.

There's a word in the tabletop gaming community for someone doing what you're doing right now--munchkin.

I'm sincerely interested in knowing what definition you're using for munchkin here, because I spend a fair amount of time listening to people talk about TRPG drama and I've only ever seen munchkin used to describe the sort of person who rules-lawyers their way through a dozen different loopholes and throws a tantrum when anything bad happens to their precious overpowered PC, and that's absolutely not how Gary's behaving.