Munchkin Deluxe

I just finished playing this game for the first time with my mom and my nephew, and I can't wait to get some friends together to play it again! Munchkin is a rather simple game to learn. While the rules seem a bit long, that's part of the joke. My 10-year-old nephew hadn't read the rules, but after a few turns he was figuring things out for himself and even reminding me of things. (My mom... not so much. But she'll be the first to tell you that she has no imagination, and fantasy isn't really her favorite genre anyway.) However, there's actually quite a bit of strategy to it. Between the humor and the gameplay, I can already tell it has LOTS of replay value. The first thing my nephew asked when we finished the game was "That was awesome! When can we play this again?" I do feel the need to point out a few things. First of all, while this Deluxe version does come with a board, Munchkin is a card game, not a board game. The board is just a (very) convenient way to keep track of each player's progress and to help keep the stacks of cards a bit orderly. (One of my mom's complaints was that we didn't seem to be moving the pieces around the board fast enough. My nephew's response was "Well, it's really a card game.") It's entirely possible to play the game with a few counters (such as 10-sided dice) or a few sheets of scratch paper, and the only real difference between the regular and Deluxe versions of the game is the addition of a board and tokens. Also, if you're going to be playing the game regularly, you'll probably want to buy one (or more) of the several available expansions. With three players, we went through half of the cards in a single game. Since part of the fun of the game is wondering what cards are going to show up next, more is definitely better. Fortunately, there are currently about 7 major expansions (of about 100 cards each) and about a dozen minor expansions (of about 15 cards each), in addition to the different variants. So it will be easy to spice things up a bit if the game starts feeling a bit repetitive. Finally, Munchkin is a parody of fantasy roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. If you've played those kinds of games before or you just like the fantasy genre, you'll probably have a lot of fun playing this game. If not, you might want to look into one of the several other versions of the game, such as Star Munchkin (sci-fi), Munchkin Fu (martial arts movies), Super Munchkin (superheros), Munchkin Bites! (vampires, werewolves, and etc.), Munchkin Zombie (self-explanatory), Munchkin Booty (pirates), The Good The Bad And The Munchkin (westerns), etc. There's a Munchkin for just about everyone. And it's fairly easy to combine different versions of the game if you want. I play a lot of card games and board games with my friends. In the past year (and that I can remember), we've played Apples To Apples, The Game of Things, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Say Anything, and good old-fashioned poker. But I think Munchkin is going to be a new favorite, and frequent part of game night.

My bf made me purchase and it's such a cute game. Gameplay and strategy is great and the age range is perfect for our friend group. The cards are casino quality hard and durable. It's got a variety of characters

I am new to Steve Jackson's Munchkin universe and this is the only game in the set that I own (though the first expansion and apocalypse munchkin are in the mail). I would say that this is overall a great game. The game is very interactive with friends, and it's nice to help them one turn then backstab them the next. The titles of the cards are hilarious and John Kavolic did a great job on the artwork. While I do give the game five stars there are some downsides to it that may turn potential players off: 1) Though the game says three to six players I think the ideal size is 4. Once you start getting into the five and six the game becomes a lot of sitting around waiting for your turn and everyone complaining because there aren't enough classes, curses, enhancers, etc. to do anything significant when it's not your turn. I think this problem will be fixed with the expansions but for this one try to keep it at 4 (five if you have a group that loves to screw each other over every turn). 2) This may only be for my group of friends but I've noticed that everyone likes to hold on to their monster enhancers and other mischief until someone gets to lvl 9 (you win the game at lvl 10). This makes the game a little bit slow in the beginning and very long at the final level. It also makes it pointless to try and screw each other over early on because everyone is willing to help out for treasure even if the person in combat is in the lead. Also, saving all your cards till the end makes it almost impossible to reach that final lvl no matter your combat bonuses. I would highly encourage treachery throughout the game to ensure lvl 9 isn't where everyone is three quarters of the game. 3) This game is mostly straightforward but you will find different interpretations of what the cards allow you to do during the game. While most of these questions can be answered on forums or by the munchkin czar that is tedious and impractical in the middle of gameplay. I would suggest just reading the forums during some downtime after a couple of games when you know what to look out for, but you'll probably have to establish some house rules. I know I mostly talk about some of the flaws but this game is a lot of fun. I am an avid gamer of every kind and especially love board and card games. Munchkin is my favorite of them all despite its few flaws. I would also recommend the deluxe version over the standard because the deluxe includes a game board, avatar cards with both genders (important when you're declaring your sex or cursed to change your sex), and miniatures. It adds convenience to the game and minimizes "you're a ****ing liar" disputes.

As a long time Gamer I found this game to be quite enjoyable. The term ‘Munchkin’ harkens back to the days of old when meeting younger new players at gaming club meetings. They always over-read the rules and found any loophole to take advantage of. Hence, they were dubbed “Munchkins”. That spirit of crazy do-anything-no-matter-how-illogical-to-win spirit is captured herein. I originally bought this game to play with my daughter. She won't play serious dungeon/adventure board or card games, but after reading a few cards of this game she eagerly agreed to a simple two player learning game, and now we are hooked! This game is written with good humor, which we both enjoyed. As an old school player myself, I found the humor of the Steve Jackson Games Team welcoming like an old friend. My daughter just thinks the cards are fun; Boots of Butt-Kicking, the Duck of Doom, etc. These are great fun! They are loaded with imaginative humorous puns! Some might find a card or two inappropriate for younger players. I feel you either have to be easily offended or think children should be raised in a bell jar until they are twenty one to find this game objectionable. If you are the kind of person who is offended by the terms “Sneaky Bastard Sword” (a play on words), “Horny Helmet” (A helmet with huge Horns), or “Kneepads of Allure” (Not explained), then don’t complain, simply DON’T BUY THIS GAME FOR YOUR KIDS! Yes older, adult players may get the subtext of the artwork on the “Leather Armor” card, but a ten year old probably won’t see it. Take a chill pill and let your kids mature a little. Now, the game play is simple, very simple. This is no huge strategy game. Gameplay is literally as easy as; Kick the Door in, Kill the Monster, Grab the Treasure, and Go up a level. Get to level 10 first, and you win. There is some strategy added with helping and hurting the other player. There are times when it is advantageous to both hurt and help an opponent in the same turn. (See my definition of Munchkin above). The final stages of the game almost always end very cutthroat, and pulling out all the dirty tricks you can to stop your opponent. If your kids or you can’t handle this; don’t buy! Playing time 30-60 minutes, 3 Players recommended, but 2 player games are possible just less fun. It will take several playing sessions before you experience all the cards, and should you find they get boring or predictable, there are eight expansions with new cards, new concepts and new variations on the game. I’ve already bought a few.

This is a great game that my family really enjoys playing often. The components are high quality, the cards are easy to shuffle, which is always the mark of high quality cards to me, and the board is excellent. The rules were fairly hard to know if you digested all of the or not, but the game has a ton of flexibility in the rules such as trading cards between players and bargaining for help or other cards, so I had to put my OCD aside and just play. The rules flush themselves out as you go. The basic rules are super simple, so my advice is unless the rules say you can’t, you have a lot of options on how to approach the challenges you are presented to win the game. It is a very interactive game. There will be a lot of deal making and negotiating, so I really like that this game fosters teamwork among my kids in killing monsters. I would highly recommend this game. I have not even got any of the expansions, but this version of the game offers a ton of value for hours of fun on game nights. Also, I am glad I purchased the deluxe version of the game, as it is very clear where the cards belong and what level everyone in the game is currently at. It is not necessary, and my frugal self argued about spending the extra money on the Deluxe version, but I am glad I got it over the standard edition. Bottom line, it is a really fun game with pretty basic rules that remains exciting even after many repeated plays. It is a very social game with a lot of interaction, whether you like fighting monsters or not. And it is humorous.

This is a great family friendly game of absurdity and fun. Lots of puns and innuendos and whacky art. It's one of those games where it's easy to go quickly over the basics of the turns, then learn as you play your first game. Almost everyone I've played with has gotten it pretty well after playing just once. There are some ambiguities when it comes to very specific quibbles over rules, and the rule sheet does try to address this slightly, but in the end it's a game where you play to have fun. I know that sounds standard but I think it's an important distinction. You can play this with a group of friends in a cutthroat, "You're going down!" manner, but it's by and far more for fun. While tactical, it's easy to just get screwed over with bad luck. While I can see this game being played in an hour, whenever friends and I play it seems more like a two hour game. Probably because of all the backstabbing and tactic discussion we have. Right now this is only $4 more than the "base" game. I highly recommend spending the extra four bucks and getting this Deluxe version. It comes with a game board and plastic colored figurines to track your levels (first one to level ten wins) and since you can have several level changes over the course of one turn I can't imagine playing without a visible tracker as it's important to know how close anyone one is at any time to winning. The bigger box, though not as important, is also nice because this is a game that just gets better and better the more cards (read: expansions) you have, and this gives you a way to keep all of them together. While Munchkins is certainly playable without any added expansions, almost everyone I know who's played or owns the game, it becomes a regular, and even just one expansion is a great way to increase the lifetime of enjoyment you get from the game.

EDIT: A year later, my kids and I gave this game another chance. I am now happy to report that the game is actually quite fun. It's very simple to play once you figure out how. That's the only trick. The rules are horrendous. Very poorly written, and I stand by that. Everything could have been explained much better. But once you understand the rules, you realize there's not much to them, and the game becomes fun. I now see the appeal of the game. It can be a little slow sometimes between turns, but overall it's pretty fun. If they were ever to rewrite the rules in a coherent way, I would give it 5 stars. I'll keep my original review below because I don't feel like changing it, but I was way too harsh against the game. I was wrong. It's a good game after all, and I would be happy to buy some expansions. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! --------------------- As a veteran CCG and RPG gamer, I thought this would be the perfect game to try out with my boys, aged 7 and 11. Bad idea! I'm a college-educated engineer, and I couldn't make heads or tails of the rules. It had lots of jokes mixed in, which I didn't need - just tell me how to play! So you take a door card. Then you take another one. Then you play it - except when you can't. After about a half hour of ponderous door card drawing (if someone picks up another cleric card I'm gonna scream), somebody finally got a monster card. Except it was too high level to fight. Sigh... Rinse and repeat. FINALLY somebody got a low level monster, and killed it. And they advanced to... Get ready for it... Level 2! Yay! Right? Except the kids are squirming around, bored out of their skulls. And we still have to do 8 more levels before this thing is over? No way! So into the box it went, to the back of the closet. Where it will probably stay until someone digs it out 10 years from now. I am really disappointed. I had heard rave reviews about this game. It sounded wacky and fun. Instead it was overly complicated, boring, and confusing. Above all, it is most definitely NOT a game for kids! So is it a good game for teens or adults? Maybe. I wouldn't know. I do know that the instructions are difficult to figure out, especially for what I thought would be a casual game. And after that lousy first impression, I'm not too interested in watching YouTube videos or whatever just to figure out how to play a game. So no, I didn't like it! Not recommended.

A great game for like-minded board game nerds, it's RPG-lite fun for 3-6 players. The first time I played this game, it was fairly confusing and not easy to figure out quickly without someone of experience present. While very fun, I can't recommend it a group that doesn't have the patience or time to learn. I wouldn't even come close to rating this game as complicated, but the first play-through will take some time and you're likely to go against the rules at some point. I highly suggest watching a match played on YouTube before the group convenes to make it easier to get into. I also highly suggest to play with the original included decks before venturing into the many alternative branded decks. While it's immediately comfortable to play an RPG-lite game where you have races and classes and are venturing through a dungeon, it can be a bit confusing if you instead started learning with the "Nightmare Before Christmas" pack and instead are fighting in dungeons with "rides" and having citizenship to towns, for example. If you're wondering whether or not to get the deluxe version for the board, just do it. It's much easier and cleaner to be able to quickly see what level everyone is at, otherwise it could be easy to lose track and end up helping someone when you didn't realize those 2 levels they got for killing a monster just won them the game. Pay the extra $2, get the board, be happy. Great game, very much recommended from a casual board game player such as myself. While I'm typically drawn towards co-op games, this one still scratches that itch while giving me the power to turn adversarial at any point, which is fantastic. Help each other while low level, slowly turn the knob to back-stabber when it's required to stop someone else from winning.

Super jeu, très drôle et qui dure assez longtemps. On me l'a fait découvrir et j'ai décidé de l'acheter parce qu'il m'a beaucoup plu. C'est un jeu parfait à jouer entre amis ou même en famille. C'est bien une version anglaise que je voulais donc je suis contente de mon achat. SEULEMENT, une des photos du produit montre des figurines qui font office de pions. Je pensais donc recevoir le jeu avec des figurines mais ce sont en fait des petites cartes bien cartonnées et décorées qu'on utilise en tant que pions, on les voit d'ailleurs sur la photo montrant le dessous de la boîte de jeu. L'autre photo est donc mensongère, faites attention! J'ai donc mis une étoile en moins.

Great game!

Munchkin is a great Dungeons and Dragons parody game, full of quirky humour and adorable graphics on the cards. This is a must game for any would-be geek/nerd. (Please note that the base game can be bought without the deluxe version, it just depends if you want the extras or not.) This version of Munchkin provides the base game card deck with character cards, 6 coloured plastic character tokens and a very simple 1-10 board to illustrate game progression. As mentioned you can buy it without the board or extras but play is a little more straight forward with them. There is space in the box to add in expansions but it could get messy. Thankfully each expansion to Munchkin is identifiable on the cards (you might have to scan through the deck to check). The game is both simple to dive into and great fun with great replayabilty. If you are a stickler for rules they come with the game and are dowloadable from the official Munchkin website. You play as a "Munchkin", who for all purposes is a generic treasure hunting Human character. Equip him/her with armour and weapons, change them into a thief or a cleric or wizard etc and even change their race from Dwarf to Elf and so on, using cards you have from your hand. Then "knock" on a door to find out what is in the next dungeon. The aim of the game is to get your character to level 10, simply by battling and defeating monsters. Of course it isn't as simpe as have more power than said monster. Find a monster who is too powerful to defeat and you can use potions/spells or abilities or even call on a friend (who may or may not help). Or maybe you can easily defeat the monster, in which case your friend could chose to help the monster defeat you. Things get ugly as you get closer to winning and it's never as straight forward as have the most powerful character. What I love is that even if someone is miles ahead they can come crashing down very easily. Game times can vary from 10mins to 1 hour. The more people you have the more competitive and longer the games can last. My experience has been that the various add ons are well worth a look and don't forget to checkout forums and other online stuff for variant rules etc. Buy this if: 1) You like quirky role playing games that make fun of the genre 2) You have more than 2 friends as above 3) Even if you don't like the above but want something different from Monopoly or Trivial pursuit 4) You may be willing to lose hours playing and replaying Don't buy this if: 1) You have no sense of humour 2) You really don't have more than 1 other friend 3) Monopoly is you favourtie game ever and there's nothing to beat it...

Fun. Bit hard to understand at first. After 1 session you are having a ton of fun. Not a 3 player game, though. Play with minimum 4

Very fast delivery Everything perfect!!!