[UA] Powergaming: we CAN find a cure!

[Tim Toner]

Greg Stolze wrote:

>>Powergamers <shudder> the bane of any good roleplaying storytelling. They
>>always want to cut to the chase. Kill. Loot. Move on to the next safe point.
>>    
>>
>
>Don't give up on munchkinny powergamers.  They can change, and I'm proof.
>(At least, geez, I hope I'm proof.  Tim?)
>  
>
What you are is quite different entirely from the classic powergamer.  
To slide into car talk momentarily (only because I can't think of an apt 
sports metaphor), you're the kinda guy who, when a friend brings a new 
car around, absolutely must look under the hood, and maybe take it for a 
drive (or allow the owner to drive it), just so you can feel how it 
rides.  Well, powergamers do that, too, but the important difference is 
that, in my analogy, you're a mechanic.  You're a guy whose bread and 
butter is machines and engines and taking them apart and putting them 
together.  No matter what, anyone who's designed a roleplaying system 
from SCRATCH, and pondered over the effect of various mechanics on game 
balance CANNOT be called a powergamer.  You're merely enjoying the game 
from 'the other side', the esoteric yin and yang that most roleplayers 
really never bother looking at.

I played Champions with engineers.  The only thing worse than playing 
Champions with engineers armed with graphing calculators is playing 
Champions with CPAs and bootleg copies of Lotus 1-2-3.  They'd pull 
their characters over to the sideline after a game session, and tweak, 
tweak, tweak.  Were they trying to understand how the game works, to 
test its strengths and weaknesses?  Nope.  They were raping every point 
they could, so that no matter what I threw at them, they had a leaner, 
meaner variant, with one or two tricks that could trump any 'balanced' 
foe I set against them, forcing me to cheat just to challenge them.  I 
think that a true powergamer never lets the dice have a chance to screw 
them over.  They find a way to make a character so effin' dreadful that 
the minute he steps on the field of combat, it's already resolved.  
Since you always cared about the dice, powergaming just wasn't your 
'thang'. 

Right now, though, you seem infinitely more concerned about not being 
humiliated, which is a good goal, I guess, but the worst thing you could 
have done was TELL me you were concerned about having your character 
humiliated, because once the bear was placed in the corner of the room, 
it was very hard not to think about it.

If I had a powergamer that was getting on my nerves, I'd pull him aside, 
and, with infinite friendliness, I'd say, "So what did you think of the 
game?  Were you having a good time?"  I'd wait for a reply, usually, 
"Oh, sure.  Great time."  I'd then say, "Well, that's funny, because 
from the way you're acting, I'd think that you hated the game.  I know 
that my enjoyment is waay down, what with *and here supply a specific 
instance of powergaming that cannot be argued--don't get me wrong, he 
WILL argue, but make the attempt*, and I think the other players feel 
it, too."

Without waiting for a reply, jump in with, "Do you trust me to tell a 
good story?  I'm trying to tell a great story, and I think all this gets 
in the way of my enjoyment, and that's throwing my game.  So I'll tell 
you what.  I'm going to say the word, 'rebel' every time you do 
something that I think detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game, 
and if you disgree, fine, that's your right.  I just want to make you 
aware of just how often it comes up in a session.  I want to run games 
for you guys, because you're smart, funny, clever, devious, etc., but 
I've got to enjoy it on some level as well, and, well, I'm not."  And 
leave it at that.  Hopefully, the first time you say, "Rebel" at the 
next game session, he'll get the message.  If that doesn't work, it's 
time to bring in the other players, as ugly as that can get.

tt