<long> [DL] Munchkin player in need of veteran background

["Roy Spence" <roy.ster@virgin.net>]

> >Anyone has an idea for screwing up this hucksters shotgunning >career?
>
> How about Bolixed?  It's on the VotWW table, all his mechanical items (and
yes,
> Guns are mechanichal items have a Dependibility, and he gets the all
thumbs
> hindarance for free!  (Ooooppps, just droped yer shotgun, and it misfired
into
> yer gizzards.....yer a hurtin.
>
> John

Tried sending something similar to this last night, but it didn't get
through to the list and low and behold I find someone else has posted a
similar thought (more fool me), but I thought I would include my pieces of
wisdom. Apologies if this did make it, on the other hand I've added another
idea that snowballed and makes this post rather long.

To put it simply I agree with above - the all thumbs hindrance would be
pretty good, but I would use it in a different way.  I guess you aren't
limited to a  -1 to reliability rolls, -2 or -3 is possible, depending on
how much you want to mess him up (at least it would make sure that he stays
away from the gattling shotguns).  I would also be more likely to roll the
malfunction secretly myself and not tell the munchkin.  Then carry on as
normal telling him to roll location (do it yourself if he has aimed the shot
at a specific body part) and damage.  Then tell him the gun has blown up in
his face and to apply the damage to himself.

Another thought that I had (two in the same night!) was that during some
event in the past the character had drawn attention to himself and those
downstairs (?).  As he was not so much of a thorn in their side as an itty
bitty pain in their big toe, they assigned a minor demon (like a gremlin but
a bit different) to plague the hero.  The demon lacks the power to take the
hero down directly, however it spends its time getting him into trouble, for
instance:

Stealing his equipment, “now where did those extra shotgun slugs go?”,
Wrecking his “hero” reputation, “what do you mean, you found my shotgun
lying by the dead sheriff!”,
Emptying his gun, “I’ll save you <CLICK>, well maybe I won’t”

The demon’s antics should be mischievous, annoying, sometimes embarrassing
and occasionally deadly.  You could also give the demon a gremlin like aura,
so that when it gets close to the character, things start to mess up (all
thumbs or bad luck hindrances) the challenge for the demon is to get close
without getting spotted.

I gave the demon a power that it allowed it to take other peoples form, but
it always left behind evidence that it had been around – I borrowed the idea
of taking it taking someone else’s skin from one of the sites on the net.

The character should eventually connect the annoying events and the skinless
bodies that turn up wherever he goes.  He then has to try and meet the
demon. I would also allow the character to gain some respite from the demon
through good roleplaying, possibly distracting it or bribing it.  Anyone
resorting to shooting it should find that his guns become extremely (maybe
the demon reduces the reliability of any gun pointed at it dramatically - or
just causes it to malfunction).   Any damage done (even through soul
blasting) causes the creature to disrupt, but it will return peeved and
determined to get revenge (and to be subtler).  When the demon’s antics get
wearing I would allow the guy to search for a permanent end to his troubles.

I used a varient of this for one of my characters (an Eternal Hero), who
first met the demon when it was in the guise of a 9yr old boy, he heard the
boy cackling (which became it’s trademark, just to let him know that it was
around) and opened fire – knowing that it wasn’t natural.  This drew the
rest of the posse to him, (they had not long met each other) and he had much
explaining to do as to why he was shooting at a boy.  Luckily he found the
remains of the boy’s skin hidden (with a couple of bullet holes in it) which
proved his innocence (at least to the posse). The demon also managed to turn
itself into a gargoyle type abomination (hey poetic licence) and fly off
with the characters (dependant) sister.

Hope this helps or sparks an idea.

Roy