Earlier tonight as the rest of the world sat down to watch ‘The Big Game’, I sat down with a group of my friends to play a little game called Munchkin. This amazingly fun and clever card game, created by Steve Jackson, is a complete spoof on the role-playing game genre. The word ‘Munchkin’ itself is actually a gaming term referring to a player in a non-competitive game who plays all out in a overly competitive way. This game not only encourages this once annoying behavior, but makes it the sole element of the game play experience. As the tag line states,  your main objective is to “Kill the Monsters. Steal the Treasure. [and] Stab Your Buddy”.

Though seemingly daunting at first, the rules to the game are relatively simple. Flip over a card and if it’s a monster, you fight it. Every time you defeat a monster you gain one level and the first player to level ten wins. Ok, so there’s a little more to it, but that’s the the basic premise.

The game is played with one six sided die and two decks of cards (one of door cards and the other of treasure cards). Before the game begins, each player is dealt two cards from each deck. These cards can be any combination of Monsters, Curses, Traps, Monster Enhancers, Character Classes, Character Races, or Equipment. All of which can be played at relatively any time during play.

At the beginning of your turn, you flip over a door card. If there’s a monster there, you must fight it. To defeat the monster, you add together your level and the bonuses from all your equipment or character abilities. If that number is greater than the level of the monster, it is defeated and you get treasure (items, equipment, and such). If that number is lower, you can either ask for assistance from one other player, or you can attempt to flee by rolling the die for a five or six. Additionally, each monster card has a list of “Bad Stuff” that happens to your character if that roll is four or below.

Sound easy enough, right? Wrong! While you’re working on defeating your monster(s), your opponents can play any number of cards that can boost up your monster’s level or give you some sort of penalty. This makes for incredibly fun gameplay as the power slides from person to person as you all blissfully backstab each other and barter treasures for help in combat.

As if the gameplay wasn’t enough of a selling point, the actual playing card names, descriptions, and illustrations (by John Kovalic) are a riot in and of themselves. With monsters like “Level 14 Unspeakably Awful Incredible Horror”, “Level 14 Insurance Salesman”, “Level 6 Pukachu” (which, as its name suggests, attacks with projectile vomit) and Curse cards like “Sex Change” and “Chicken on your Head”, you’ll be laughing out loud with your friends while you stab each other in the backs as you clime your way to level ten.

The bottom line is that Munchkin is an incredible game. Whether you like RPGs or you don’t even know what those letters stand for, this is the perfect game for anyone. If you’ve never played Munchkin, you need to try it for yourself.

posted by Christopher Schnese

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