Munchkin

Complexity Medium Cost £17 Duration Medium Players 3-6 Producer Steve Jackson Games Size Small

Premise

Kill the Monsters. Steal the Treasure. Stab your Buddy.

Review

Another classic card game from SJ. The premise is pretty obvious, I'm sure that all roleplayers will recognise this scenario. The idea is to crawl your way upto level 10 from level 1, stamping on anyone in the way, including your buddies.

The way you get to level 10 is by killing monsters or cashing in treasure. Of course your fellow players will aid you in this quest - er not. In fact they will undoubtedly do their utmost to convert that puny level one monster into a ravenous, level 60 monster(s).

When you kill a monster you may also get treasure, some of which is more useful than others. Liberally scattered in the pack are various curses (where would we be without them) and race and class cards - it is also possible to become multi-race or multi-class, so you can be a Dwarf/Halfling Cleric/Thief if you want. Each race or class has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Whilst the rules are not as well written as they could be, arguing over them is the sign of a true Munchkin anyway, and resolution by whining is accounted for in the rules.

A great game, which could only be improved by full colour cards.

Expansions

Unnatural Axe

An amusing expansion in the general vein of the original game. You get Orcs as a race and all sorts of silly stuff that you'd expect. The cost is slightly less than the original game. Still no colour cards unfortunately.

Clerical Error

More silliness, this time with Clerics as the name suggests. Again no colour cards, but at least it all still fits in the original box (just). With this many cards, you can easily play it with more than six players, although the games are likely to go on for ever.

More expansions are threatened (and you can incorporate Space Munchkin) along with minatures and other strange stuff.

Rating

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