Recommended Game: Munchkin

by A.J. Coltrane

Title:  Munchkin

Game Type: Lightweight Card Game

Number of Players: 2-6. Best with 3-5.

Complexity of Rules:  Low

Time to Play:  45-90 minutes. Longer with 6 players who are operating at less than 100% functionality. Sometimes much longer. Believe me.

The Concept:  Munkin is a silly, spoofy, screw-your-neighbor card game. Here’s an excerpt from the publisher’s description:

This award-winning card game, designed by Steve Jackson, captures the essence of the dungeon experience… with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. And what magic items! Don the Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm… or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering the Potted Plant and the Drooling Slime, and work your way up to the Plutonium Dragon…

The original version of Munchkin has a D&D theme to it. Later editions include spy/(James Bondish) spoofs, superhero spoofs, sci-fi/(Star Trek) spoofs, and horror/Cthulu spoofs. In the original edition the idea is pretty straightforward:  The players take turns opening dungeon doors. Behind each door there’s a monster that could be anywhere from easy to impossible to defeat. At that point the player may choose either to fight the monster, ask other players for help fighting it, or run away. The other players may either respond to the request for help, or tell the first player something like “Sure, I’ll help, but it will cost you one of the two treasures you’d get when we win.” Alternately the other players may decide to help the monster instead!

Everyone starts at level 1. Each time a player defeats a monster they go up a level and they get phat loot, which helps the player defeat bigger nasties. The first player to level 10 wins.

Why I like it:  The screw-your-neighbor element is fun. It’s a good game that isn’t too “serious.”

Boardgamegeek page here.

Available at Gary’s Games and Hobbies in Seattle.

This Recommendation is dedicated to the guy who always threatens to help the monsters, unless we’d rather give him the treasure we would earn by defeating the monster. You know who you are.