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Feb 5th, 2013 at 12:24:43 - Munchkin (Other) |
Munchkin is a card-based role-playing game for 3 to 6 players. The game uses funny names for items and monsters as well as funny picture to create a funny take on common dungeon crawling role-playing games. Players begin as level 1 humans and are dropped into the middle of a dungeon and must battle monsters, gather items, and gain levels until they win. The players take turns opening the door to their next room, taking on whatever waits inside the room, then taking inventory of what they have at the end of their turn. Players are also encouraged to help or back stab their friends in order to win the game.
-Objective-
The game is won when a player reaches level 10. Levels may be gained by defeating monsters, selling items, or playing cards that give a player a level. The winning level must be gained by defeating a monster unless the card specifies the level gained can be the winning level.
-Setup-
The game consists of four parts: a treasure card deck, a door card deck, a six-sided die, and the players' imaginations. Each player is given a hand of four of both types of cards to begin the game. They may play any applicable cards and then roll and argue about who goes first(actual rule). Once the argument is finished, play begins.
-Players-
The players each have a race, a class, a level, and equipment. They begin as naked level 1 humans. Over the course of the game they have a chance to drawn a new race or class from door cards as well as new equipment from the treasure cards. Certain pieces are equipment are held in or worn on a certain part of the body and a player is limited to only one of each type of item(a player may have 2 one-handed items or 1 two-handed item).
-Turns-
A player's turn is split into 4 phases:
(1)Preparation-
In the preparation stage the player can equip items, sell items, trade with other players, and play cards from their hands if the card says they can. Once the player is prepared he or she moves on to the “Kicking Open the Door” phase.
(2)Kicking Open the Door-
In this stage the player draws face-up the top card from the door card deck. If the card is a monster the player immediately moves to combat with the monster. Once combat is finished the player skips to the “Taking Inventory” phase. If the card drawn was a curse, it takes effect immediately, other wise the card is placed in the player's hand. Then the player moves to the “Inside the Room” phase.
(3)Inside the Room:
Once safely inside the room, the player now has two choices. He or she may either “look for trouble” and fight a monster from his or her hand or “loot the room” and draw the top card of the door deck and immediately place it into his or her hand. If the player chooses to “look for trouble” they enter combat. Once the player's action in this phase is complete they move on to the “taking inventory” phase.
(4)Taking Inventory:
This phase mirrors the “Preparation” phase. The player can equip items, sell items, trade with other players, and play cards from their hands if the card says they can. Once finished, play passes to the left.
-Combat-
Combat matches the monster's level against a player's level and equipment. The higher number wins the fight. The player in combat may ask for assistance from one other player to aid them in combat. Helping is completely optional. Other players can also play cards from their hands to power the monster up and stop the player in combat from winning. Once all cards have been played, if the player wins the fight they gain a the number of levels specified in the bottom corner of the monster card and may draw treasure cards from the top of the treasure card deck equal to the number listed in the bottom right corner. If the monster wins, the player must roll to run away from each monster in battle. If the roll equals 5 or higher, the player gets away. If it is not, bad stuff happens, literally. Each monster card has a section under their picture called “bad stuff” which happens on a failed run away. Once combat has been resolved, the player moves straight to the “Taking Inventory” phase unless they were killed(different from failing a run away roll) by the monster.
-My Experience-
First Game: I played with Team Anomen, my project one group. I had played before, but the other three were completely new to the game. We began and I drew a very favorable starting hand and was able to equip a couple items to increase my power level to around 9 though I was only level 1. The first couple turns saw little action as not many monsters were found in the rooms. I was lucky enough to kick open the door on a few low level monsters and quickly took a level advantage. Jonathan also was lucky enough to net a kill or two. Jimmie and Christopher were not so lucky. However, since they were not drawing monsters, they were getting many monster power-up cards. Due to my good starting items and an early level advantage thanks to beating a few easy monsters I was the target of those power-ups and in one instance failed my run away roll and died. On my death I lost all my items and my entire hand, allowing the others to loot my body and setting me back greatly. The looted items helped out Jimmie and Christopher and soon they began to climb the level ladder rapidly themselves. Jimmie was able to amass a huge amount of equipped items and power-ups and seemed unstoppable. But before he could rise to level 10, I kicked open the door and found the “Divine Intervention” card, which instantly grants all clerics and level, which can be the winning level. Jonathan just happened to be a level 9 cleric and instantly won the game.
Second Game: With a game under our belts, we started a new game. With the experience of the last game, play moved more rapidly and the levels stayed relatively even throughout the game. Jonathan once again shot up the level ranks and I was the target it seemed of everyone's monster power-ups. But once Jonathan hit level 9, he was not able to gain that last level due to the intervening of the rest of us. In fact, we managed to stall him until everyone reached level 9. It became a game of can who can outlast everyone's monster power-ups. After Jonathan barely missed defeating a monster and Christopher not finding a monster on his turn, I kicked open the door to find a level 2 monster. I had the win, as everyone had already used up all their tricks previously. But I did not win. Christopher had a transferal potion, which allowed him to transfer the monster to himself, and he became the winner.
-Analysis of the Game-
Munchkin has specific rules in place to assure that everyone has a chance to win. The afford players many different ways to level up aside from just killing monsters so that luck of the draw is not a big factor in leveling up. As well, the fact that a level 9 must beat a monster to win(unless Divine Intervention is drawn as seen) gives the other players a definite chance to thwart a player from winning. The rule limiting equipment also stops a player from just equipping every treasure they get and becoming unbeatable. Curses also act as a sort of check against players, though they can hurt both the weak and the strong.
Munchkin prides itself in giving classes and races huge advantages and powers that seem almost game breaking at times. One example involves clerics. Clerics can choose a card from the discard pile and as long as they can discard the number of cards equal the the cards above the chosen card, they are allowed to draw that card instead of the top card of the deck. This means that clerics can fight the same low level monster every turn if very few cards are discarded on top of it, especially if the player group is small.
Munchkin also purposely vaguely defines some rules. The Generic monster power-up card states that “if the monster wins in combat, it is drawn the next time a door is to be kicked open.” Does this mean that if a player successfully runs away it still won the combat and is drawn next time, or does the player facing it have to lose the run-away in order for it to be drawn next door card? This is only one example, another being how play order is chosen. The rules literally just say roll the die and argue.
-Why Play Munchkin?-
So why play Munchkin? It is fun, challenging, and no one is ever completely out of the game. The rules make player interaction fun and entertaining as alliances are struck and broken with impunity. Even lower level players have great power when wielding powerful monster enchants and no mater a players level they are a an unfortunate happening away from losing items, losing levels, or even death. Overall it is a hilarious game that will produce many laughs and entertain any fan of role-playing dungeon crawler games.
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