#8/52. A Funny Game - Munchkin (Star Munchkin)

For my Board Game Geek 2016 52 Game Challenge, #8 on that list is "A Funny Game." No game to date has made me laugh more and with more people than Munchkin and its variants. In this case, Star Munchkin! Both were developed and published by Steve Jackson Games.

In Munchkin - and it's variants - all of the players are part of an adventure group. A regular Munchkin game is based on Dungeons & Dragons and features creatures from that particular game like:

• Centaurs
• Dwarves
• Elves
• Gnomes
• Halflings
• Humans
• Lizard Guys
• Orcs

You also get to play classes (or jobs) like:

• Bards (Singer/Story Teller)
• Clerics (Priest/Medic)
• Rangers
• Thieves
• Warriors
• Wizards

You go on adventures to fight monsters of various levels and powers in order to gain experience levels, treasures, armor, weapons, allies, and steeds. The purpose of the game is to be the first one in the group to reach Base Level 10 (without equipment points). However, because you are in competition to reach Level 10, you are constantly trying to sabotage each other or working with some of your party to sabotage other members of your party who seem to be having an easy time against the monsters. The whole game is done very tongue-in-cheek and the monsters, weapons, and combinations that can be made cause much hilarity to ensue.

Tonight my husband and I played Star Munchkin - which pokes fun at the Sci-Fi genre using the Munchkin Theme. Instead of playing Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings, you are playing Mutants, Felines, Cyborgs, and Bugs who are employed as Traders, Psychics, Gadgeteers, Bounty Hunters, and Space Rangers. Again, the goal of this card game is to get to Base Level 10 first. 

Each player is dealt four door cards and four treasure cards. The door cards can contain monsters, allies, traps, and races or classes for you to build your character with. The treasure cards contain equipment that can help you to fight the monsters and level-up cards that give you free levels. On your turn you "kick in a door" to see what's in the next room you are exploring. If there is a monster you either fight it or try to run away. If you want to, you can ask your comrades for assistance. Sometimes they will charge you for this help - usually a portion of the treasure you will win from defeating the monster. If you win, you go up 1-2 levels depending on what the monster's card says. You also gain some treasure - again depending on what the monster's card says. Each player puts active cards they are using to fight monsters on the table in front of him/her. Any cards they aren't actively using are kept in his/her hand. There is a hand limit of five cards. Any discards go to the player with the lowest level. 

As my husband and I played Star Munchkin, I was a Feline Star Ranger. Mark ended the game as a Bug Trader (your race and class can change during the game - sometimes multiple times). On the last play of the game I went up against a Level 15 Mutant Elvis (a two-headed Elvis). With my equipment (which gives boosts to your base level) and base level of 8, I was at Level 19 and had this monster beat by 4. Mark threw out a +5 levels card to the monster to keep me from getting the +2 level bonus that defeating this monster would have given me - which would have given me the game. I was losing by 1 now.

I desperately looked over the cards in front of me in an effort to find some sort of solution. My eyes landed on my class card (Star Ranger). Star Rangers can draft any other player into a fight if that player's assistance means the difference between winning and losing the combat. In compensation a Star Ranger has to give their helper either all of the levels OR all of the treasure. The choice is up to the Star Ranger. Mark was a Level 30 with all of his equipment bonuses.  I drafted him to help me and gave him the treasure. I took the levels which boosted my base level to 10 and won me the game! Mark was stunned, but shook my hand for pulling a classic Munchkin move to win the game. We both had a good laugh over it.