A Munchkin we will go, a Munchkin we will go!

Munchkin. You know the term, it's those min/maxing, rules loophole living, WAAC roleplayers. Well, sometimes that is. This last weekend I finally purchased Munchkin, as well as The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin, as well as several of the booster packs for the Munchkin game. Steve Jackson Games came out with this game a number of years ago, and I had played it several times. It is a card game in which you delve into a dungeon to kill the monsters, steal the loot, oh... and stab your buddy.

The concept of the game revolves around the dungeon delve, but also the interaction between players to help or screw with the other players. It's a totally beer and pretzels kind of game, but hilarious fun. And I'd been wanting to get a copy of the base set for years.

At DieCon I happened to find a copy of the base game as well as the western version for 20% off on each, so I picked them up. All in the name of having a game that is fun to play and would be fun with the whole family. So I broke it out of the box, and taught my wife and kids (boys ages 8 & 10) how to play. It was pretty hot and sticky outside, so it was a good time to do that. Over the course of 3 hours I taught them to play as we played, and great fun was had by the whole family.

The upside(s) of this game:
Easy to learn mechanics
Funny to Hilarious card titles
Great game for 3-6 players
A ton of expansions (at last count 8 for the base game not counting the boosters)

The downside(s) of this game:
Occasional crude language in card titles (The Badass Boots being an example)
Needs a fair sized table after a while (you can end up with a TON of cards 'equiped')
The expansions are nearly as expensive as the base game (Munchkin $24.95, 6-7 of the expansions $19.95 each)

Overall I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone with a group of people they can spend a few hours gaming with that want a high on humor, light on seriousness, game to play. In the end it's a game that has 8 variants, the various themed sets can be mixed together to make even more themes (Space Munchkin + The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin = Munchkin Firefly). And Steve Jackson Games is supporting all the versions with periodic expansions and 'booster packs' of new cards, reworked cards, and updated cards.

Getting to level 10 first was never so much fun, but SJG realized that sometimes you even need to be more EPIC! So they came out with free downloadable rules for playing to level 20. There are also other free downloads available from SJG, including FAQ's to variant rules.

Go ahead and try it out, you'll have fun playing and never regret the purchase!

(Images used without permission, but with no intent of infringement. Used to help promote the game)