Munchkin

Here's my first post, as promised!

Munchkin here is a card game, produced by Steve Jackson Games. It's not a new game, and has 5 expansion sets out in the market until now (Until Munchkin 6 - Demented Dungeons). There are also extra rules (Epic Munchkin, or Fast Play) that you can add to prolong or speed up, as well as add more twists and fun to your game.



This was what was inside my box when I opened it during Christmas last year. The left set of cards are called the 'Door' cards, and the ones on the right are the 'Treasure' cards.


What are Door and Treasure Cards?

Both sets of cards are shuffled at the start of the game and placed face down. Each player will start at Level 1 and be given 4 cards from each deck.

Door cards usually hold monsters, potions (like the one shown in the photo), Race/Class cards or curse cards. Race and Class cards allow you to change your race/s (Elves, Halflings, Dwarves etc) or class/es (Theives, Clerics, Warriors etc) respectively during the game. Everyone starts off as a Human with no class.

Some potions add or take away levels from a particular monster, or add monsters into the fight. These cards are used to prevent someone from winning the game (the winner is the first one to reach level 10), or to weaken the monster you're playing to win the fight.

Door cards are the cards that you turn over to start playing your turn.

Treasure cards, on the other hand, hold potions (that add bonus advantages to the player or monsters) or equipments that you can equip to yourself to add bonuses. When you fight a monster, your level + bonuses (from potions and equipments) has to be higher than that of the monster's in order to win the fight.

These cards are drawn whenever you win a fight with a monster. The number of treasure cards that you can draw depends on what is stated on the monster card.


How to Play

Each turn starts as such:

1. Equip whatever you want to
2. Turn over a door card
   
   If it is a monster card:
   a) Fight it (Your level + bonuses has to be above the monster's in order to win). If your own level + bonuses cannot win it you can try asking the other players for help through bribing. You could always offer half of your treasures or all of it if you're desperate! You will then add the other player's level+bonuses against the monster.
   
   i. If you win, go up a level and take the number of treasures stated.
   ii. If you lose, attempt to run away by rolling a 5 or 6 with the die. If you fail to successfully run away, carry out the 'bad stuff' stated on the monster card. (Note that sometimes you may have cards that give you an advantage or disadvantage during escape.
   
   If it is not a monster card:
   a) If it is a curse card, the curse happens to you. Otherwise, take the card into your hand.
   b) You can now either 'Look for Trouble' or 'Loot the Room'.
   i. Look for Trouble
   You take a monster card from your hand and fight it. (Same as above)
   ii. Loot the Room
   Take another 'Door' card into your hand face down.
   
   
3. If you have more than 5 cards in your hand (or 6, if you're a Dwarf), pick out excess cards and give them to the lowest level player/s. If you are the lowest level, discard the cards into the discard pile.
   
   
4. End turn.
   

Selling Items

You can also sell items anytime during your turn, as long as it is not during combat. Items that can be sold are anything (equipment, potions etc) that state a value on the bottom right of the card. These can be Treasure or Door cards.

When you sell items that add up to 1000 gold, you go up a level. If say you sell items that are over 1000 but do not reach 2000 yet, you cannot bring the excess over to the next time you sell something. So if say you sell 1500 worth of gold, that extra 500 gold will be wasted.

Game Example

My friends had a stay-over at my place a couple of weeks back, and I introduced Munchkin to them. The game turned out extremely exciting (probably one of the most exciting I've played).



That was how our game looked like during one of the rounds (My cards can't be seen in the photo, but I was responsible for half of the monster add-ons you see on the table =P)

This round belonged to the player seated at the bottom (Player 1). If you notice, she's currently at level 9 (I used lucky stars to indicate each player's level) So if she won this round, she would win the game.

Let's take a look at her cards first. [Click on the image to view the image in its full size]




The cards on the right show her classes/races. She had a Super Munchkin card that allows a player to hold 2 classes (the equivalent for races is the half-breed card) so she was a Cleric and Warrior. The card next to it is her race card, the Halfling.

Her equipments gave her a total of 13 bonuses, and as her level is 9, her total level+bonuses was 22. Now here comes the fun part.

All of us were going all out to stop her from winning this fight, and thereby the game, so what started out as a harmless level 2 monster that she had to fight, turned out to be a full-fledged war that had her running for her life. [Click the image below for a clearer view]



My friends and I added a total of +15 to the Level 2 monster (left) and then added a Level 14 Wandering Monster into the fight. Instead of 1 monster, she now had to fight 2 (levels and bonuses of both monsters, against her level and bonuses).

The total level+bonuses of the monsters was now 31.

The cheat card she played (in the earlier photo) after that enabled her to force another player to help her in the fight. That forced us to add another +10 bonus to the second monster. (on right)


The above is the 2nd player's cards. (The one Player 1 forced to help) Her level + bonuses gave a total of 18. (level 6 with +12 bonuses)

Player 1's levels + bonuses was now 40, while the monster's was 41.

We got what we achieved.

The fun did not end there, though, as she had to run away from the two monsters separately by rolling the die. A 5 or a 6 allowed a player to successfully run away from a monster, while a failure to do so meant that the player had to carry out the 'bad stuff' written on the monster card.

Player 1 did not bother running away from the Level 2 monster, as she did not have any big items to drop anyway (so it didn't really matter whether she ran away successfully or not). However, as she was not a wizard, the Level 14 monster would cause her to 'die' (meaning all her equipment cards and cards in hand would be gone) if she failed to run away successfully.

One more point against her was the fact that she was a Halfling, which meant that she could only roll a 6 to successfully run away.

By then, we were all almost certain that she would die in this round. Look at the image below to see what happened in the end:



Lucky girl, isn't she.



Signing off... ...
Munchkin Fever