Which standee for pets?

[GeekZap]

Just finished another awesome game of munchkin quest and a question came up that I can't find an answer for anywhere else.

When someone takes a monster as a pet (in this case it was the Shoulder Dragon), does the pet keep the same color stand that it had, change to the color of the owner, or use no stand at all?

Thanks!

[Verble]

We've been playing that it keeps the base it already had, though obviously I defer to the authorities. Just sharing my 1/50 of a dollar.

[GeekZap]

Originally Posted by Verble

We've been playing that it keeps the base it already had, though obviously I defer to the authorities. Just sharing my 1/50 of a dollar.

That's what we've been doing too but this time the pet appeared very early in the game and it didn't seem right for one player to only have 2 bases for most of the game. Hence my question...

[MunchkinMan]

Quite honestly, I'd just remove the Monster standee from the board, take it off its base giving that back to its owner, and keeping the card with the player who made the Monster his pet.

[GeekZap]

Good enough for me. Thanks MM!

[Progmode]

Originally Posted by MunchkinMan

Quite honestly, I'd just remove the Monster standee from the board, take it off its base giving that back to its owner, and keeping the card with the player who made the Monster his pet.

Huh. The text on the card is a bit misleading:

It stays with you and does NOT move as a monster. Other players cannot kill it.

None of that would be relevant if you take the standee off the board. You're the boss though. :)

[MunchkinMan]

I understand what the card says, and I'm giving a subjective opinion on what I would do. I'm concerned that this is a unexpected circumstances situation. Should someone seriously lose out on a Monster on the table that he could use to get a DxM card when he kills it? If you want to play it straight from the card, keep the Monster on its current base, no change, but until someone tells me that was an intended consequence, I'm going to err on the side of fairer play.

[O'Keefe]

It was intended that you remove the standie from the board and the monster is just represented by the card.

I can see how it's confusing. I'll make a note for the reprint.

[Plod Hopper]

Originally Posted by O'Keefe

It was intended that you remove the standie from the board and the monster is just represented by the card.

I'm sorry to hear that. I have bribed the Crawling Hand a couple of times in my adventures, and I liked having the little dude's standie sticking by my side as we tromped around in the dungeon together. The reasoning behind keeping the monster's standie on the board even after it became an "item" was because when the Crawling Hand became my pet it was explicitly excused from Monster Movement rules. Only Monsters can be exempt from Monster Movement. All Monsters have a base. Ergo the Crawling Hand remains a Monster, retaining its base and existence on the board, until the munchkin who bribed him wins or dies. Stay with me here:
If the munchkin who has control of the Crawling Hand ultimately wins the game, well then hip hip hooray, whatever, he was probably cheating anyway... But:
If the munchkin who bribed the Crawling Hand dies, he must drop all his items. Including the Crawling Hand, which (I contend) at this moment in time has un-become an item. It goes feral. It reasserts its Monsterness because the guy who had bribed it died, and it is no longer beholden to its late business associate with whom it has recently had the misfortune to part company. Now it's a free agent again, wandering, waiting to be killed for loot or bribed by any munchkin who encounters it.
Well, that's my argument for why a pet monster keeps it's standie, anyways. I play it that way in my games because I'm the owner of the set we play on, et al. Then again, I haven't been the player whose base is hijacked yet, so something tells me I'm going to see the other side of the argument at some point in the future.
And to the argument that it upsets game balance too much, I say: Well, golly, it looks like the Munchkin whose base has been hijacked is now playing with some kind of "modifier" affecting his game, and if he really wants his base back he should do all in his power to have the Munchkin who kidnapped his monster die.
.
..
...
Clincher:
Sometimes when I have an above-averagely spectacular turn, I grab my Munchkin and the Crawling Hand tokens and make them jump a few centimeters off the room tile and slap each other high-five in the air. "Wh-Psh!"
It's called moral support, people.

[ArcadianRefugee]

Originally Posted by Plod Hopper

If the munchkin who bribed the Crawling Hand dies, he must drop all his items. Including the Crawling Hand, which (I contend) at this moment in time has un-become an item. It goes feral. It reasserts its Monsterness because the guy who had bribed it died, and it is no longer beholden to its late business associate with whom it has recently had the misfortune to part company. Now it's a free agent again, wandering, waiting to be killed for loot or bribed by any munchkin who encounters it.

I actually like that idea. I'd just roll for a new color base at that point, like when one adds any new monster (which is what this is) enters play.

But I do like it.