Munchkin

Designer: Steve Jackson

Players: 3-6

Age: 10+

Game time: About 1 hour

Game Objective: "Kill the monsters. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddy and GO MAD!"

Board Game Contains:

• 168 cards

• one six-sided die

• Rules sheet

Game Summary:

The cards in the game are divided into two decks: Dungeons and Treasures. Each player starts the game with two of each as a Level 1 player. The goal of the game is to raise your character to Level 10 before anyone else. This is accomplished though various methods such as fighting bad guys, selling treasures, or receiving the benefits of special cards.

A turn consists of the following: Flip over the top card of the Dungeon deck. If this card is a monster, the player must fight it or attempt to run away. These options are very simple, if the player chooses to fight; they must determine their current character level and compare that to the monsters. If their total exceeds the monsters, they win. A player may modify their total by playing special cards or “asking for help” from another player. Other players may also contribute to the battle in negative ways by playing cards that may hamper the other person’s attempt to survive. This is the basic nature of Munchkin: Kill your opponents, stomp on their heads, and take their treasure. Then use this treasure to kill monsters of your own, all the while trying to keep the other players from killing you and stomping on your head.

If a player successfully defeats a monster, they then take the specified number of treasure cards off the top of the deck and also advance a level. There is no item provided to keep track of player’s levels, so you have to do that yourself. Players may then equip the items they find or sell them to the store to gain additional levels.

Game Review:

Munchkin, a Dungeon crawl board gane akin to Dungeons and Dragons with no rollplay and no commitment. In Munckin, players kick open the door to fight monsters and collect loot to trade- working together to fight bigger foes is encouraged. The challenge is convincing other players to help you. This is where the arts of persuasion and negotiation comes into play. You could negotiate sharing "treasures" or "trading cards," whatever works for both of you. You just have to find that sweet spot and you're golden! Having said that, there are also players who can work together to help the monsters defeat you! Now, how do you find a way to keep those players from doing such a terrible deed?

I really enjoy this game because it's just too creative and funny. Not only does Munckin have a vast collection of loot and monsters allowing for different abilities each and everytime but it also has numerous stand alone expansions ranging from Zombies and Vampires to Cthulhu. The freedome of negotiating makes for very interactive game play. Players can trade, conspire, offer deals, break their deals, help each other or stab each other in the back! This game is perfect for players who love DnD but don't necessarily like the roll play or the commitment.

But all that said, my main issue with any of the games in the 'Munchkin' series is the tedious endgame. Once any player gets close enough to amassing the required number of levels to win, the game devolves into series of 'whack the leader' efforts to prevent him/her from winning, the success of which hinges entirely on whether the other players can managed to keep drawing enough 'power-up' cards to amplify monster's strengths up to a point where they're unbeatable. The outcome is pretty much inevitable, it's just the getting there that's the issue.