Board Meeting

Review: Munchkin

Ever since I first went away to school and got broadband, I’ve read quite a few webcomics.  One of the regulars in my rotation is still Dork Tower by John Kovalic.  One thing led to another, and during my Livejournal craze of the first couple years of the 21st century, I added his feed to my friends list.  What does all this have to do with Steve Jackson Games’ Munchkin?  Well, John is the artist for all of the images in the Munchkin games, and he would update his progress in his blog entries.  For the longest time, the game was on my list to pick up, but I never really remembered it when I had the opportunity to buy it.  Last year, as mentioned on my personal blog, I finally picked it up.  After several game nights featuring only Munchkin games, I feel confident saying that it is one of my favorite games of all time.

COMPONENTS

One of the most interesting features of the core game is its simplicity.  I don’t mean that it’s too easy to play, or that it poses no mental challenge, but that the game materials themselves are not unnecessarily complex.  The edition that I purchased comes with two sets of cards (Doors and Treasures), an instruction book, and a single die.  That’s all that it takes to form one of the most enthralling game experiences of my board game history.  The die is just a standard d6, but the cards and the instruction manual are really what stand out.

RULES

Wait – the instruction manual?  That’s right, the manual is terrific.  It is written very much tongue-in-cheek, with lines like “Any other disputes should be settled by loud arguments among the players, with the owner of the game having the last word” (Munchkin official rules).

The cards are the gem of this board game.  Kovalic did (and does) an amazing job illustrating the cards in a way that makes them informative while hilarious.  Each card is unique because even similar cards (such as class cards) are differentiated by gender or some other marker.  Some of the curses and such have had my group laughing hysterically.

DIFFICULTY

Munchkin was designed specifically to bring the RPG style gameplay to an audience not necessarily familiar or comfortable with that style.  Because of this, the game strives to make all situations in game fathomable and straightforward.  It took my group only a couple of complete rounds to grasp it enough for gameplay actions to be second nature and strategy to become a factor.

FUN FACTOR

A large amount of the enjoyment we pull out of playing Munchkin is derived from how crazy and excited we can get while playing.  As far as my group is concerned, this is not a game to be played quietly.  One of my cousins was a thief and was constantly yelling out ‘”BACKSTAB!” to everyone (even if he wasn’t capable of doing it at that time), and on another round a different player tried to play two Warrior class cards on himself, prompting a stream of double class jokes for a few nights afterward.

OVERALL

Especially considering the low cost of the core game, Munchkin is an overwhelming winner in my book.  The expansions are not needed to have fun playing this game, but I intend to at least pick up some of them.  Even with just the original set, the game varies enough through turn order, luck of the draw, and crazy item swiping and trading that the replay value is huge.