Munchkin Review

Designer: Steve Jackson

Artists: Alex Fernandez, Edwin Huang, John Kovalic, Ian McGinty, Heather Oliver, Philip Reed, Gabby Ruenes

Publisher: Steve Jackson Games, Arclight, Asmodee, ADC Blackfire Entertainment…

Year Published: 2001

No. of Players: 3-6

Ages: 10+

Playing Time: 60-120min

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Review:

Ever wanted to collect treasure, kill monsters, and stab your friends. Then do we have the game for you. Munchkin is the dungeon delving, level collecting, and friendship ruining game that’s perfect for everyone. 

Players take the form of a level 1 human munchkin that wants to become the strongest. The strongest is the person that reaches level 10 first. During the adventure, they come across tons of monsters including a potted plant, an undead horse, and lawyers. Each monster is guarding treasure that allows them to fight tougher enemies. 

A big part of munchkin is the ability of everyone to affect combat. A player can ask another player for help. Other players can backstab each other or buff up the monsters. 

Setup:

Each player needs to have a representation of their level that goes up to 10. The game has two decks, door cards, and treasure cards and they need to be separated and shuffled. Deal 4 of each to every player and roll the dice to see who goes first. The game is now on. 

Gameplay:

A turn consists of a few actions. First, a player can activate whatever cards they like, sell items, trade items. After a player is ready, they kick down the door. Kicking down a door is done by drawing a door card face up. If its a monster, combat ensues. If its a curse, the current player suffers the effect. If its something else, the player takes the card. If the player didn’t fight a monster, then they can look for trouble, which is fighting a monster from there hand. If they don’t want to look for trouble, they can loot the room. Looting the room means taking a door card face down. Once done the player has to drop there hand to 5 cards and they do that by giving cards to the lowest level player. 

Theme and Mechanics:

The game is perfect for a quick RPG. Play goes quickly as each turn players can do stuff to each other. It also helps keep everyone involved. The game mechanics work well and are easy for anyone to play.

Artwork and Components:

Munchkins’ artwork is iconic. Cartoony and violent the artwork portrays the feel of the game perfectly. The cards themselves are standard and aren’t anything special.

Final Thoughts:

A good game to get that RPG feel in a short amount of time. Munchkin is great for any amount of people and perfect for game nights.  If the standard dungeon doesn’t appeal to you munchkin has been released in many different forms.

Players who like:

Card Games

Interactivity

Backstabbing

Gameplay:

A turn consists of a few actions. First, a player can activate whatever cards they like, sell items, trade items. After a player is ready, they kick down the door. Kicking down a door is done by drawing a door card face up. If its a monster, combat ensues. If its a curse, the current player suffers the effect. If its something else, the player takes the card. If the player didn’t fight a monster, then they can look for trouble, which is fighting a monster from there hand. If they don’t want to look for trouble, they can loot the room. Looting the room means taking a door card face down. Once done the player has to drop there hand to 5 cards and they do that by giving cards to the lowest level player. 

Theme and Mechanics:

The game is perfect for a quick RPG. Play goes quickly as each turn players can do stuff to each other. It also helps keep everyone involved. The game mechanics work well and are easy for anyone to play.

Artwork and Components:

Munchkins’ artwork is iconic. Cartoony and violent the artwork portrays the feel of the game perfectly. The cards themselves are standard and aren’t anything special.

Final Thoughts:

A good game to get that RPG feel in a short amount of time. Munchkin is great for any amount of people and perfect for game nights.  If the standard dungeon doesn’t appeal to you munchkin has been released in many different forms.

Players who like:

Card Games

Interactivity

Backstabbing