So I got this awesome assignment from school to play a board game with some classmates and analyze it, what better game to play than Munchkin. I will now take a look at the card game Munchkin and try to analyze it. For those of you who haven't heard of Munchkin before I'll try to explain what it is. Munchkin is a highly competitive card game with a comical twist. If you've played it before I'm sure you know what I mean and if you haven't you'll see what I mean by the end of this analysis. Before I start analyzing the game and finding out why it's so good/bad I need to explain how it works.
What is Munchkin and how does it work?
Munchkin is based on the typical fantasy roleplaying games we know and love but with a comical twist. Munchkin is a popular game with tons of different versions of it, they are basically the same but with different themes such as Munchkin Cthulhu based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft or Star Munchkin with a Sci-Fi Twist. The version I have been playing is Munchkin Pathfinder based on the roleplaying game Pathfinder and it is that version I will be analyzing.
Munchkin is played with four or more players, preferably with good friends or mortal enemies. A fun thing about this game is that cheating is allowed if no one sees you doing it.
The basics of Munchkin is to kill monsters, betray your friends, gather treasures and level up. All the players start at level one, the goal of the game is to reach level ten first. In Munchkin there are two types of cards, door cards and treasure cards. Door cards include monsters, classes, factions, curses and other various effects. Treasure cards consists of items, effect cards and go up a level cards.
 |
| Go up a level cards can be played immediately and adds a level, this can not be the game winning level. |
Let's go through the beginning stage of Munchkin. Two decks, one with treasure cards and one with door cards are shuffled and then each player is handed four of each. This game is turn based so one player is selected to go first and after his or her turn the next player clockwise or however you want to do it gets to play their turn. Before anyone starts their turn any player can equip or use items, play class or faction cards and go up a level cards. After your turn you must discard cards so you don't have more than five on your hand. You can also sell treasure cards and buy from other players, when you got 1000 gold pieces you level up and your gold is reset. A level from gaining 1000 gold can not be the game winning level.
Let's say we start our turn first. We equip our armor and use the Eagle Knight faction card. Our faction is now Eagle Knight, this means that we cannot use another faction card unless another card says we can. Our armor of insults gives us a +2 bonus, this +2 bonus plus our level is our combat strength. So we are level 1 and we have +2 from our armor which gives us 3 in combat strength.
Each turn the player must kick the door. This means drawing one card from the door deck face up so everyone can see it and something happens depending on what type of card it is you drew. If I draw a curse I am afflicted by it's effect like this one below which makes me lose by best item, this would be my armor of insults in my case.
 |
| A typical curse card. If I start with a curse or draw one face-down I can use it against other players. |
Let's say I didn't draw a curse and I drew a monster card, I now have two options and that is to run away or fight it. I've encountered a Level 1 Hobbled Goblin, its combat strength is equal to its level which is 1. This monster is no match for my +3 in combat strength and I defeat it easily. After defeating it I get to loot the room for 1 treasure which I draw facedown from the treasure pile and go up a level making me level 2 and my combat strength +4. Monsters always wins ties unless you have a card that says otherwise.
Let's say the monster was level 6 and I attempted to run away. When running away I roll a dice and I must get 4 or higher to successfully run away. If I fail in running away I am inflicted with the monsters bad stuff which is descriped on the card. Bad stuffs can vary from losing levels, losing items, getting a permanent -3 in combat and even dying. Upon death a player throws away all their cards except class or faction cards that are in use and wait upon their next turn to draw four door cards and four treasure cards. Levels are retained even in death.
If I neither drew a monster or a curse card I can either play a monster from my hand to battle it or take a face-down door card and end my turn. If I battle I cannot draw the face-down door card at the end of the turn. Players are welcome to trade cards with each other and assist each other in combat. When assisting someone in combat you don't get any levels but you can discuss the reward for your assistance, for example two treasure cards. When fighting together your combat strengths are added together. That's how your play Munchkin basically, the rules might seem hard at first but once you get into it and actually start playing you'll learn it in no time.
Munchkin, Round 1, Fight!
Enough of the rules, let's see how it went for me and my classmates when we played our first round of Munchkin. Me and four of my classmates gathered around the table to play Pathfinder Munchkin, all but two of us hadn't played the game before so we started with a test round to figure out the rules. It started out with everyone equipping themselves up with items, factions, classes and so far it was pretty fun and not much conflict. After a while, I was in the lead, level 9 and that's when it went chaotic. Because I was so close to victory everyone started working against me, this included cursing me by removing all my items, reducing my level and messing up my combats with effect cards. If I were up against a monster who had 16 in strength and I had 18 they would strengthen the monster so I ended up dying and losing everything. After being abused by all my friends I was almost out of the game, no cards or items left to use.
 |
| An effect card that can add +3 in combat strength to either side. |
This game escalated so quickly when players started getting higher levels, I could barely keep up. The randomness of it all makes it very enjoyable. I was so close to winning and yet it turned around so quickly. We noticed afterwards that everyone had been cheating in one way or another during the game whether it was holding to many cards or slightly bending the rules. Keeping track of everything becomes really hard when the game is nearing its conclusion. Amidst the confusion I had eight cards on my hand while I was only allowed five yet no one noticed. What was supposed to be a test round turned out to be loads of fun. This round took about two hours to play.
Munchkin, Round 2, Fight!
Now we're all familiar with the game, by the beginning I already noticed the evil grins of my fellow classmates. This start involved a lot more trading than the round before, we would sell and trade items to prepare ourselves for the oncoming onslaught. This round I wasn't in the lead which I believed was a good thing, I was saving my items for the end and played quite passively. Unlike the first round, when one player would face up against a strong monster everyone else would offer their help in exchange for a fitting reward.
By helping the weak players progress we get stronger ourselves. Things escalated as before into chaos as my classmate, Simon was closing in on victory. As every round went on we threw everything we had at everyone else, hoping that when our turn came we could secure our own victory. Martin ended up winning again and we could do nothing to stop it. It all felt like a giant lottery, we were just increasing our chances. This round took about one hour to complete, considerably shorter than the first one, perhaps due to the first one being more of a learning experience.
Round 3
This round was very much like round 2 but more diverse. Four players, including me was around level 7 and 9 when one was level 3. We were three level 9s competing for the victory while the two other players who were low level was only sabotaging for us with higher level. I won this round by manipulating others into using all their stuff on the others with high level. I started noticing around now that this was much like poker, you can't reveal your hand too early and bluffs can be very effective. This round was about one and a half hour long.
Round 4
The last round we played together was a close one, everyone had been learning and adapting to each others playstyles. We had been testing different tactics and figuring out what worked effectively. This ended like all the other rounds in total chaos. The first player to go for the victory is almost always guaranteed to be sabotaged. I won this won too but it was extremely close, everyone was level 9 waiting for an opportunity to claim the victory. It was really cool to play such a competitive round without an underdog, goliaths facing each other on fragile ice.
 |
Target group interpretation
Munchkin is fun for any group of people I think, but it is definitely more enjoyable by people who get the references and has a roleplaying game or fantasy background. It is aimed at teenagers and people under 30 who grew up with roleplaying games but I think it's enjoyable for everyone as long as they have the right mindset towards it. The comical aspect of the game appeals to many young people but many children won't get most of the references so I wouldn't recommend it towards anyone under 12. I also believe it gives adults an opportunity to be childish.
Summary
Munchkin is a great card game, a heap of fun. The balance of the game is that there is none, the most important part of Munchkin is the social aspect. The chemistry between the players is the best thing about the game. It creates situtations where we hate and love each other, the group dynamics are amazing. The rules are not set in stone and the game is very flexible in a way, because why not cheat if no one notices anyway. We only have one goal and that is to reach level 10 first. The cards are designed in such a way that it feels like they are there to empower us, they are tools for our victory. We might hit a wall and be in last place but we always have the opportunity to mess with our fellow players. One bad thing about the game is that if you're unlucky it can be very slow and unfair. There are curses that make you lose all your cards in your hand and then you have to wait a lot of turns before you can recover from it. Even though the randomness can sometimes be bad it can also be a blessing in disguise, it allows for a lot of funny situations and much replayability. I love Munchkin and I will definitely play it more in the future, thanks for reading.
Hello, Valdemar.
SvaraRaderaI agree with you about Munchkin being an enjoyable game and I’d love to play it again now after I've been introduced to it. From here on, I’ll review to your post in a critical way in terms of the content of your blog post.
I’m afraid that I can’t find much identification and break down of systems in this post. About eighty five percent of your blog post is put into introducing and documenting the play sessions of your group, who won and how long it took. It might be good to record that kind of information prior to an analysis, but it isn't as relevant to me as a reader unless you use it to prove a point in a theory of yours. In the last fifteen percent you mention the assigned bullet points briefly but in my understanding they should be the main subject of your post. I think you would have gotten more out of this assignment if you had directed your focus on the analysis part more. I will give you a brief presentation of what I found while analyzing the game, and all the while keep your opinions in mind.
What I noted was the objectively best part of the game was the amount of replay value. Since the game is based and highly dependent on its players and the dynamic of their social interaction, the game is very flexible to be what the specific group of people wants it to be. There is a high variety of play styles and possible scenarios in this game, which will make it feel fun for a longer period of time than for example the co-op game Pandemic that my group played. You are both mentioning group dynamics and replayability in your summary, so I’ll draw the conclusion that we have similar opinions on this matter.
However, I believe it’s a somewhat false statement to say that there is no existing balance in the game. I am sure that the developers of the Munchkin franchise have had to think hard about and iterate the cards in order to create interesting gameplay. What gives the impression that there is “no balance” is that the core system of the game gives a large amount of room for chance and player influence. The players have a lot of power over the balance of the game, depending on whether or not they help each other and which people they decide to help out. This creates a bad side about the game; if you don’t draw good cards due to chance and no player helps you, it’s bound to be less fun for that player. I see that you are mentioning something similar about the bad side of the game but don’t make an in depth explanation about it. I am assuming that we think fairly alike on this matter as well.
Since the game depends a lot in chance and player interaction, this game is a bit trickier in terms of identifying a core system, but I’d guess that it’s the combat system. It’s the only thing I can find in the game that actually feels like a system. It’s bound by a set of rules that determines who wins a fight depending on combat strength drawn from level and equipment. Everything revolves around this system; the classes, factions, curses etc. There are a lot of relationships between the objects involved in terms of the combat system. Maybe I happened to miss it but I couldn't see if you had come to any conclusion about this.
SvaraRaderaWhat I’d say is the most interesting system of the game – if one can call it a system – is the fact that the game deliberately made the rules free to each players own interpretation. One could say that cheating is as much a part of the gameplay as anything else. There is a whole risk/reward type of feature in this and the player gets to feel like a sneaky little kid again. And finding ways to bend the rules to the advantage of oneself is really satisfying and makes the player feel smart. Not many games openly encourage cheating like Munchkin does so I’d say that it’s the most interesting part of the game that makes it stand out.
Now, over to the target audience interpretation. I can absolutely see how you are thinking, since the game contains a lot of references from role playing games and probably other places I’m not sure about. But I will take the liberty to strongly disagree with you not recommending young children to play this due to many of them missing out on references. A vast majority of cartoon movies and TV-shows for children are packed with outside references and indications that only a grown up would understand. It doesn't make it boring for the ones that don’t catch up on it, it just gives it a bit of extra enjoyment to the ones who get it. I’m saying this with a “What one doesn't know, doesn't harm them.” kind of thinking. I know for sure that I didn't catch all the references since one of the group members laughed at some of the monster names. It didn't make the game boring for me. So I’d say that children should absolutely play this game if they can handle reading what all their cards do. Due to the type of humor that the game presents, I’d suggest that the game is optimized for young adults but enjoyable by everyone.
To summarize I’d like to say that I think that you seem to have thought about the game in an analytic sense and that we have come to similar conclusions, but that you didn't take the analysis and the presentation of game systems far enough. Keep this in mind for next week and I’m sure that you’ll learn a lot of new, useful stuff. Dig up the carefully thought through game design underneath and present it for us!
Good Luck!
/ Ida Lahti