Munchkin 2014 Silver Piece rule for April

[Nikolai]

According to the new Munchkin 2014 Silver Piece rule for April, you have to balance the Coin on your nose.

I had to try this out immediately after reading it... :-)

The text implies it would be a hard task.

I am curious, am I the only one who finds it extremely easy? If I tilt my head towards my neck until the back of my nose is approximately horizontal and then put one of the two sides of the 2014 Silver Piece on it, I can keep it there practically indefinitely without much effort (if nobody interferes with me which I would guess is not allowed). Let's say for 300 seconds if need be, the resulting +200 bonus will be enough to defeat any monsters.

Do I have an unusually shaped nose? ;-)
Or am I doing something wrong here, is that not what "balance" means? Maybe they envisioned not putting a side, but the rim of the coin on the nose? Now that would be extremely hard, I don't think I'd ever manage 3 seconds of that. But I don't think anything in the word "balance" implies "on the rim rather than a side".

[Andrew Hackard]

Nothing in the rule says other players aren't allowed to distract you, jostle you, or otherwise interfere with your balancing act.

[Brf]

If your skin is dry and your nose is pointy, you would have a harder time. ;)

[Mister Ed]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

Nothing in the rule says other players aren't allowed to distract you, jostle you, or otherwise interfere with your balancing act.

Which just makes it go from easy to impossible, providing your opponents don't WANT you to get any bonus. Since the rule doesn't state otherwise, they could simply flick it off your nose. You could try to dodge, I suppose, but good luck keeping it on your nose while doing that.

[Andrew Hackard]

If someone plans on keeping a coin in place on his nose for five minutes, I think the opponents have been more than reasonable if they start fidgeting after 20 seconds or so.

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

If someone plans on keeping a coin in place on his nose for five minutes, I think the opponents have been more than reasonable if they start fidgeting after 20 seconds or so.

That doesn't invalidate Mister Ed's point, though. Making up a time span of 20 seconds seems completely arbitrary. If they are allowed to interfere with you at all, they should easily be able to flick the coin from your nose within the first 3 three seconds. Unless the rules specify a time frame in which they mustn't interfere.

They are rules-lawyer munchkins, after all, why would they let you get away with a very sizeable +12 bonus for doing it for 18 uninterrupted seconds if the rules don't require them to?

Seems like an, ahem, improvable rule to me as is... ;-)

[Andrew Hackard]

I've revised the rule to have a +10 max, because 15 seconds is entirely long enough to expect ANY game group to wait around for another player to finish making a fool of himself. :-)

(Thanks to Nikolai for the correction to my timing -- this is why I shouldn't post without coffee. Lots of coffee.)

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

I've revised the rule to have a +10 max, because 15 seconds is entirely long enough to expect ANY game group to wait around for another player to finish making a fool of himself. :-)

I think that is a very good addendum to prevent us sticky flat nose people from making the game group wait too long and getting too much out of this Silver Piece rule! :-)

However, it doesn't solve the issue of the task being too hard when people interfere. My proposal would be to add an explicit rule that other people are not allowed to interfere, otherwise it'll be very hard to get any bonus once your fellow munchkins realize that they are allowed to flick the coin off your nose.

The Super Munchkin Winged Helmet of Swiftness Bookmark already has an explicit rule for something like this. The bookmark offers you a reward for keeping your wings (consisting of half a bookmark each) behind your ears until your next turn. Its rules explicitly state that if anyone else makes your wings fall, you get the reward immediately.

So in analogy to that the Silver Piece rule could say something like
"If anyone else makes the Silver Piece fall, you get the maximum bonus."

[Mister Ed]

If you are considering suggestions, then I agree.

I think the ideal situation would be to cap the bonus, as you have done, and ALSO specify that opponents aren't allowed to interfere in your attempt (physcially, anyway. Trying to distract you or make you laugh seems kosher, so long as they don't touch/blow on/throw something at/etc. you or the coin).

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

I've revised the rule to have a +10 max, because 15 seconds is entirely long enough to expect ANY game group to wait around for another player to finish making a fool of himself. :-)

(Thanks to Nikolai for the correction to my timing -- this is why I shouldn't post without coffee. Lots of coffee.)

5 seconds in and I'm going to start screaming and throwing things.