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{{trope|wppage=Munchkin (role-playing games)}}
{{quote|'''Red Mage''': Thus, as you can plainly see, I have balanced every nuance of my character to perfectly complement every other facet. I've exploited every rule in the book to eradicate the very notion of flaws. Look on my character sheet, ye mighty, and despair!
'''Ordeal of Pride''': There's still the matter of hubris.
'''Red Mage''': Have you heard ''nothing'' I've said?
|''[[8-Bit Theater]]'', [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/25/episode-616-mark-of-the-marvel/ "Mark of the Marvel"]}}
The [[Munchkin]] is the [[Tabletop RPG]] player who plays the game to "win", at any cost, even if that isn't the point of the game. Perhaps the most ridiculed [[Player Archetypes|Player Archetype]] of all time, this player is rarely interested in the ''story'' behind the game. Indeed, his characters are little more than extensions of his [[Author Avatar|own personality]], or whatever personality would give him the most plusses.
He sees fighting monsters and solving puzzles only as a means toward more power, more gold, more stuff, more ''plusses''. A
The Munchkin's ambition frequently outstrips his sense of fair play. Most of the time, he looks out for number one; the other players are little more than minor inconveniences to him, or obstacles on his path to ultimate power. As such, the Munchkin may engage in one or more of these irritating personas:
* [[Ninja Looting|Ninja Looter]]: Don't expect a Munchkin to share the spoils of an adventure
* Gamebuster: [[Min-Maxing]] taken to its upper limit. Any Munchkin character of this type is nothing more than a collection of 'kewl powers', taken for no logical in-story reason other than their combat effectiveness. Often includes blatant [[Game Breaker]] abilities and power combinations that were never meant to be. Call him out on this, and he'll call you a [[Scrub]].
* [[Rules Lawyer]]: This Munchkin disputes every [[Game Master]] ruling, and has memorized every loophole in the game manual. For some reason, he never seems to "correct" the DM when the rules as written would hurt him... The [[Game Master]]'s best tactic against this guy is [[Rule Zero]]; what the DM says, goes, no matter what page 54, column 2, line 41 word 5 of the book says.
* Cheater: He never rolls where you can clearly see him, and he gets a distressing number of natural 20s. It's just his "lucky dice", he says. His character sheet comes prerolled with max stats. And he has an annoying habit of "forgetting" to write things down, like whether he's used up his spells for the day. Could this be the sort of sad, pathetic creature that would cheat at a cooperative [[Tabletop RPG]] game? (Yes.)
* [[Metagame
* [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath|Psychopath]]: If it has stats, [[Lord British Postulate|it's there to be killed]]. For this Munchkin, [[Murder Is the Best Solution|violence is the first, last, and only solution to every problem]]. Even the most zealous [[The Real Man|Real Man]] knows when it's not time to fight, but not this guy. He'll take up any excuse to start a fight.
Munchkins are a constant source of pain and agony for the [[Game Master]], unless [[Monty Haul|he's a munchkin too]], and will often be the direct cause of the [[Bolt of Divine Retribution]], or even [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]]. He may be forced to employ some [[Killer Game Master|killer tactics]] just to challenge them.
A more pleasant brand of munchkin may try to share his rule-bending benefits with the rest of the group. A more audacious one (a cross with [[The Loonie]]) takes advantage of his knowledge and power to do incredibly crazy things that their fellow players will be telling their children about in years to come. Sadly, a rare breed.
A [[Player Archetypes]] trope, along with [[The Real Man]], [[The Roleplayer]], and [[The Loonie]]. Can be [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]], if they leave the other players in the dust, and force them to play "Their Way." Not to be confused with the small but pleasant folks who live [[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Compare [[Mary Sue]], who is frequently the literary counterpart. See also [[Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend]], who is someone who gets Munchkin benefits thanks to a third party.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Lina Inverse of ''[[The Slayers]]'' is a pretty good example of a Munchkin as a main character, with maybe trace elements of [[The Loonie]]. Incredibly powerful and greedy, with no qualms about blowing up her own friends or beating them to a pulp (though she does draw the limit at actually stealing their
** This is kind of variable through seasons or between the series and [[
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''
**
*** This is a good time to note here that this is a case of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]]; not only does it work out to be purified awesome, but it is ''perfectly well justified''
*** And let's also note one other thing: Nodoka
** Perhaps even scarier was Nodoka's Best Friend, Yue. With her ability to
* ''[[
* Many of the villains of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' could be considered this. And in a purely adversarial sense, Seto Kaiba.
== Comic Books ==
== Comics ==▼
* Igor Olman from ''[[Dork Tower]]'' is arguably one of the best examples of this trope.
* Several characters from ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' fill this role, with Newt being the most persistent.
== Film ==
* Cass in ''[[The Gamers|The Gamers: Dorkness Rising]].'' The humor value of some of his antics (attempting to kill the Big Bad with
== Live-Action TV ==
* Dwight on ''[[The Office]]''. In the episode "Murder," he and everyone else in the office play a murder mystery dinner party game set in Savannah, Georgia. He draws the Butler character but immediately abandons it to play a hardass detective.
* In an episode of ''[[
== Literature ==
* ''[[The Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters]]'' is a [[RPG Mechanics Verse]] novel about Disgusting
== Mythology ==
* ''Real Mythology'' example -- [[wikipedia:Sun Wukong|Sun Wukong]], the monkey king from ''[[Journey to
** Of course, ''his'' GM responded by dropping a mountain on him (which means that [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] is [[Older Than Feudalism]]?) and later using a cursed headband to effectively place him under control of a more sensible player. Bravo!
** Also, Sun Wukong's name in Japanese is very familiar to a lot of people with similar implications: [[Dragonball Z|Son Goku]].
* Also, not to be outdone, the [[Norse Mythology|Norse]] have an entire Pantheon of Munchkins. From Thor, who can't die unless he lets go his magic hammer (that he can't let go of){{verify}}, to Odin, who had some of the most epic lootz in all of mythology.
** Odin may very well be a literal munchkin god. He took a major flaw (ripping out his left eye) in order to get a huge bonus to his Wis and Int skills (drinking from the legendary Well of Mimir). He even got some nice animal familiars out of it, the ravens Huginn and Munin [[Genius Bonus|(thought and memory, respectively)]].
* Marduk. He first appears after every other god in his pantheon collectively fail to destroy Tiamat and destroys her singlehandedly for them. On the way, he loots the halos of every divine entity he kills, making him orders of magnitude more powerful than any other deity, and returns to the heavens to be made king of everything for eternity. The entire story reads like a terrible'' Dragon Ball Z''
== Tabletop Games ==
* The card game ''[[Munchkin (
** It's telling when the rulebook opens with telling you to roll for turn order, then argue about it.
** The company also published the satirical ''Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming'', covering useful and critical information such as how to cheat at rolling dice, manipulating the GM, [[More Dakka|How Every problem Can Be Solved With Bigger Guns]], and weapons such as the rapid-fire miniwand, capable of firing dozens of fireball spells per second.
*
* An amusing anecdotal etymology: In the beginning of the '80s, a Parisian player nicknamed "Gros Bill" ("Big Bill") became infamous for this style of playing, to the point of becoming legendary among French roleplayers. As a result, the French term for "munchkin" is "grosbill".
** The term also describes Badasses and [[God Mode Sue
* The game ''1000 Blank White Cards'' basically revolves around this if you want to win. The final blank in the deck is usually the card that wins the game. You need to expect this.
** That said, ''1000 Blank White Cards'' is the sort of game only a Munchkin would ''want'' to win, since the only rule (aside from the premise) is that the guy with the most points wins-as the website points out, what's the point in making a card that says you get all the points, if the next guy makes a card that demands you eat your "I get all the points" card? As a consolation prize, the website offers an extra win condition for those who can't fathom the notion that you can have fun playing a game even if you don't win-if there are more of your cards in the pile at the end than anyone else's, you win.
** It's a ''slightly'' modified game from ''[[
* Pretty much all players in ''[[Penny
* ''[[
** The "tortured" character who avoids traditional
** The "ugly alcoholic baby midget ninja" who takes on a monumental number of relatively mechanically-inconsequential character flaws (being short, being a child, being ugly, being an alcoholic or drug addict etc.) in order to pick up a game-breaking combination of advantages. Which is [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught|not actually allowed by the rules]], though.
** Not everybody knows about him nowadays, but the original ''World of Darkness'' does have its very own metaplot munchkin character: [[The Scrappy|Samuel]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Haight]]. (And he broke the rules to get that way, make no mistake.) But considering he ended up as an
* There is the famous story of Old Man Henderson, the only character to ever win ''[[Failure Is the Only Option|Call]] [[Killer Game Master|of]] [[Call of Cthulhu (
** His 320 pages of backstory also allowed him to be an [[All There in the Manual|expert in whatever was needed at the time]].
== Video Games ==
* In [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|massively multiplayer games]], there exists the opportunity for higher level players to give lower level players gold and items the lower level players would not normally be able to acquire. From the era of [[MUD
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' twinks dominated [[Player Versus Player]] battlegrounds in the lower level brackets, often frustrating more "average" low level players. One famous twink had a dodge rating of 120% at level 10. Blizzard really ought to know better; Diablo II had level restrictions on enhancement items way back in the late '90s.
*** Twinking in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' was eventually trumped in a patch which made battlegrounds give experience, so
** ''[[
* ''[[Maple Story]]'' has an extremely large portion of the higher-leveled community who are pretty much like this. The MMORPG itself even has a plot, but virtually
** Some games have even easier twinking. In ''[[Phantasy Star]] Online Blue Burst'', the only equipment with level requirements are frames (aka armour) and barriers (aka off-hand shields). But in addition to these basic items, the game featured units, with varying purposes, and MAGs, whose stats would augment that of their owner when equipped. Some units were especially powerful in the early game, such as Centurion/Ability, which boosted five of the player's six stats by 30 points each. Since they lacked level requirements, these rare and powerful units could be used at level 1, as could MAGs which had been raised to level 200, their maximum. (Conversely, some of these
*** Also of note, it's entirely possible, through the use of [[MA Gs]] and Units, for a level 1 Ranger type character to use any gun in the game, including the most powerful ones.
** Due to the use of skills rather than level for item requirements, ''Anarchy Online'' was particularly notorious for twinking. It crossed into lampshade territory as almost the entire player economy was based on twinking and even casual players would be using gear at least a few levels higher than them. This was severely curbed, as equipping high-level items early on depowers it to the point where it can actually be ''worse'' than something in line with your current level.
** A case could be made that MMOs don't even ''try'' to discourage munchkin-style roleplaying. Sure, items have minimum level requirements, and the most powerful gear requires you to bring down raid bosses for which you'll need the ''second''-most-powerful gear to even attempt, but the basic style of play is oriented toward making your character constantly more powerful. Players will even ''deride'' other players for ''not'' [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|playing like munchkins]]. The trick-and-trap or intrigue-based adventure of a pencil-and-paper RPG is completely absent.
*** Technically, there are such things as "roleplaying shards". And ''they'' are specifically marked as such, not vice versa. So grinding/munchkin is the default mode.
* This is [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[
* The Einzberns in ''[[Fate/stay
▲== Web Comics ==
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html This strip] shows off a very good example of a character a Munchkin would make, and a very good example of how a smart [[Game Master]] can deal with it. The example given is quite possibly illegal (depending on your interpretation of the rules for "attacks of opportunity"), but also relatively mundane, considering that [[Vancian Magic|the spell system]] of ''[[Dungeons
▲* ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]''
▲** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html This strip] shows off a very good example of a character a Munchkin would make, and a very good example of how a smart [[Game Master]] can deal with it. The example given is quite possibly illegal (depending on your interpretation of the rules for "attacks of opportunity"), but also relatively mundane, considering that [[Vancian Magic|the spell system]] of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' is widely considered to be a [[Game Breaker]] in its own right. (It should be noted that the tactic in the comic doesn't work, but see the discussion page if you want to talk about that.)
** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html Behold] a "Roleplaying" Munchkin at its shameless moment.
* The embodiment of the Munchkin is the character Red Mage of ''[[8-
** Ranger is also a solid Munchkin, considering his choice of classes (to be precise, Ranger and Ranger) his constant abuse of the rules ("Moreover! As a Ranger/Ranger, I can dual-wield my dual-wield!") and his strange family (every species is in his genealogical tree).
* ''[[
** [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0528.html This strip] finally [[Invoked Trope|calls it by name]] and shows Pete's reflex to the word (even in a ''[[
* ''All'' of the PCs from ''[[DM of the Rings]]'' (the precursor to ''Darths and Droids'') have some Munchkin aspects (most notably an obsession with treasure), but Legolas is the biggest one of the group.
* Cory ([[One-Man Army|Zoro]]) and Luke ([[Lethal Joke Character|Luffy]]) from ''[[One Piece: Grand Line 3 Point 5]]''. Given that the GM designed parts of the game with this in mind, this makes [[The Roleplayer|Natalie's]] life rather difficult.
* ''Chainmail Bikini'' has a great example in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130614234207/http://shawntionary.com/chainmailbikini/?p=37 this] strip.
* Protagonist of ''[[Weregeek]]'' was [http://www.weregeek.com/2007/04/06/ suspected of being "natural-born munchkin"] at his first ''[[Dungeons
* Played for humor in ''[[Dan and
{{quote|
** Given that the comic was based off an RPG chatroom, it might be a jab at munchkin players.
* [[Exactly What It Says
** Fumbles originally aimed for this type of archetype but after he [[Kick the Morality Pet|hurt an innocent]] he was [[Player Punch|yanked back into the story]].
* The three players of ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'' fit this archetype to one degree or another, with Nelson taking the cake. The most notable example of this behavior was when they managed to finagle their way into ruling a kingdom after a simple intro quest and using its massive resources to fund expeditions netting them ungodly power-ups.
* ''[[
** The alien Vriska Sekret, takes time out from being a [[Killer Game Master]] to be a [[Expospeak Gag|Petticoat Seagrift]] in the "extreme role playing" game F[[LARP]]. She has ''all'' the levels. [[Memetic Mutation|All of them.]]
** Eridan applies too, under "psychopath". What little we're shown of his time in SBURB has him bitching that no one seems to want to come to his world and help him deal with all these murderous angels. Karkat points out that the angels wouldn't have been murderous at all if Eridan hadn't automatically assumed he was supposed to kill them, or at least, having discovered that he gained no benefit from killing them, proceeded to ''keep killing them anyway''.
* Resonance Ben from ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'' deliberately cultivates Resonance (a [[Walking Wasteland]] curse that all Abyssal ''[[Exalted]]'' have) and uses it to make necrotic attacks. No sane GM would let him do such a thing in the game proper.
* Mike from ''[[Something
== Western Animation ==
* In the ''[[
** [[Laser-Guided Karma|However, Dee Dee gives him a weak and worthless halfling character, much to the amusement of the other players.]] Dexter expresses distaste, but the others [[Ironic Echo|remind him that "she is the Game Master, he is her pawn, and that she controls his fate.]] Even at the end where Dexter gets the item of the quest, it turns out to be a impractical cup that would "never spill when drank from".
{{reflist}}
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