Bringing PC's in that were created under other GM'S

[Darth_Hilarious]

How do you guys decide when a player wants to bring an advanced PC that was created under a different GM and is going on into Munchkin capabilities when the rest of the gaming group would be way outclassed by the new PC?



And what is the worst munchkin someone tried to slip into your game?

[atgxtg]

Here are some of the things I look at:

1) THe player. Does he have something that he really wants to role-play or is he just power gaming? Sometimes you can give a good roleplayer a bit more slack in you know how he is going to play it.

2) Does the character fit in with the group? Just because a player wants to play a Jedi Master and built up one under a different GM does not give him the right to play one in my campaigns. If the new PC completely outstrips the rest of the group, I probably wouldn't allow it.

3) How smart is the player? A powerful character in the hands of a bad plyer isn't nearly as dangerous as one in the hands of a smart player. I've seen smart PCs who were outclassed on paper wreck more carnage that powerhouse characters that were run poorly by poor gamers.

4) Munckhinism. TO me that is pretty much an automatic no. A little bit of munckinism makes some sense, since there is a lot of fighting going on and players should pay some attention to the things that improve survivability. But all out pure munchikinism is not something I'd put up with in Star Wars. It's usually a fast track tot he Dark Side.

5) If I have any sdoubts on the new character, it's up to the player to try and convince me to change my mind and let it in.

[Dromdarr_Alark]

I think I would explain the issues that could arise with imbalance and ask how the player would keep the game balanced.

If the player's story is good enough, I'd allow it.

If it turns out that the player is not maintaining balance, I'd talk to the player and work out a way to make balance, either by nerfing the character with a disease or injury (or some other imaginative occurence), or by having the player make a new character, with the OP one leaving the group for other things.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[jmanski]

I'd be careful about it. I would probably say no, unless there was a really good reason and I trusted the player.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

[Draven]

Never had anyone try to slip a muchnkin into a non muchnkin game. Played a few very high end Rifts games though. I would not allow a player to play a character built under another GM without heavy reveiw of the character and a full unerstanding of his story. As for he outstrips the others that would depend on how he plans to fit this character into the group. I have had a player play a mentor character like a Jedi master that far outpowered the other characters but he was their mentor and teacher so he held back his full ablilities unless they were needed. Of course to do that you would have to know the player and most everyone would have to agree to it in the game.

[Dromdarr_Alark]

[Raven Redstar]

[garhkal]

Now i have had some time to think on this more.. I forgot a few cavieats..
1) If i know the game/GM who the player HAD his character made up under (and gotten to that level), that changes things up a lot.. especially if i also played under that GM.
2) New skills/powers. Forgot to mention that if the pc has any of these, he MUST have some source for them, for me to review. If they are from sources I do not have, then no go.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

Lots of good advice here already. I would allow somebody to bring in a high-powered character (and have done so for non-SW games), but I'd want to carefully go over it beforhand. If the character was one that the person was dying to play, then they should be cool with nerfing their character a bit to make it so that PC doesn't outshine the rest of the group. I did that recently in a supers campaign. Joined my son's campaign and played a PC who I didn't really enjoy, then decided to bring back my old high-school PC (who I hadn't played in decades), but intentionally made him a much lower level. It's worked out great.

One time with the same game system (Villains & Vigilantes), in my long-running campaign, I had a player join us who'd lived in another state. I think he also lowered the level of his PC, but he convinced me (the head GM) to allow one powerful weapon (imagine Iron Man's chest laser). Instead of something like 2d100, I allowed it, but made it much less powerful. It was years ago, but I think he had a 'normal' setting of something like 1d20, and then in emergencies (which he promised would only be used rarely), it had a much more dangerous setting (something like 36d6). So what do you think happened in our first battle? You guessed it. The villain upset him, and he unleashed the full might of the high-powered setting! I learned my lesson there. Now I'd probably only allow something like that with a person I already knew and trusted. This player was not a munchkin, btw, but the power proved to be too tempting in this case.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[atgxtg]

Yeah, it depends on the players involved. I've been on boths sides of this situation.

I once brought in a character who had tons of wealth from a previous campaign. If I had decides to go shopping for high powered items, I could have seriously disrupted the campaign. Instead, five minutes into the game, my character took offense with the Chez Lounge and insisted on spending thousands redecorating. The money never became a problem in the campaign.

One thing that I find helps is some players will tell you up front about anything that might be a problem. You can usually trust them to be up front about things. Others try to sneak stuff by you, and that is generally a sign that trouble in on the way.

[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

Yeah, I was at least wise enough to make the Power cost super expensive (so it was essentially a one-shot use).
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Fallon Kell]

I actually munchkined-up my youngest brother's character so he could keep pace with my other brother's more experienced character. (Brand new players like him get grenade launchers and armor.)

[Leon The Lion]

Can't tell you anything on the munchkin part of the topic, as I have no such experiences.

Only once did a player want to bring in a previously established character into my game. It was at the beginning of my current SW campaign, in fact.

When it came time for creating his character, the player in question presented me with the character - the only SW character he ever played, continuing his story for something like 12 years real-time. I think I'm the fourth GM running the character. Obviously, having survived this long, the character was quite advanced and had a lengthy and complicated backstory.

I was, understandably I think, apprehensive. But instead of refusing outright I rewieved his story and sheet and found nothing at all objectionable. In fact I quite liked the character. So I agreed, and we hashed out a way to bring him into my planned story and era.

The game was supposed to be advanced characters anyway, so I just gave the other player the same CP total to spend on creating her character.

Everything worked out very well.
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