Board game analysis
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Munchkins analysis
The following is an analysis of the tabletop/board game Munchkins – Pathfinder edition.
Rules and background
Munchkin is a tabletop card game that’s supposed to be played with several people of pretty much any age. The word munchkin is derived from the world of tabletop roleplaying games and means something along the lines of:
A player, who plays a normally co-operative game in an extremely aggressive manner to amass the most power, gold and monster kills no matter how repulsive or out of character their actions may be.
In other words, somebody who wants to win and become the strongest no matter what, a rather fitting title for the game as the players themselves take the roles of munchkins as they try to be the first to reach the actual goal of the game using whatever methods are available including stabbing their best friends in the back (you don’t usually stab people you just set them on fire, curse them, send monsters at them, stop them from winning against the monster you just sent at them or steal their precious items) in many creative ways.
Anyway, with the age restrictions and title out of the way, let’s get to a quick rundown of the rules. This analysis will take into account that you already know the rules to some extent but here’s a quick rundown of them:
– Each player starts out with 4 door cards and 4 treasure cards.
– The winning goal is to get to level 10 first and become the greatestest munchkin of all time. The players start at level 1 and can gain levels in a rapid fashion depending
– The players take turns to draw door cards.
– After picking up a door card the player has to abide by its effects. If it’s a curse he will be cursed, if it is a class he will equip it and if it is a monster battle will start.
– In battle the player’s combat strength is determined by his level, combat gear and special effects, the monster’s strength is only affected by his level and special effects. The fighter with the highest combat strength wins.
– If the player wants to he can have another player join the fight. If he does the two will share treasures as they wish but the original fighter is the only one who gains a level (unless an exception is noted).
– If the player wins he will gain as many levels as the card says (if it says nothing he will gain 1 level) and pick up as many treasures as the card says as well.
– If the player does not fight a monster when taking a door card he can either play a monster to fight against from his own hand or pick up another door card and add it to his own hand without showing the other players.
– Each player is only allowed to have a total of five (5) cards on hand at all times.
– Cheating is allowed as no one catches you doing it.
As you can see – the rules are rather simple but the scenario can be bent in countless ways using various cards, effects and mean-spirited opponents. It all fits rather well within the framework of the players being munchkins trying to be the one best character.
What’s so good about munchkin?
Well, first of all it’s a very simplistic game system that manages to still create complex situations between the players by using their own will to sabotage for each other. The simplistic system also allows new players to learn the rules fairly quickly and only required a quick explanation and a few minutes of watching the other. Everybody was pretty much at the same skill level towards the end.
Another good thing about the game is its atmosphere and humor. All of the common rpg and tabletop tropes are played with and mocked in this game but this also extends mechanically. Using specific card combinations it is entirely possible to have you munchkin wielding a total of 3 two handed swords… somehow.
What’s… not so good about munchkin?
This is a tricky question because the game uses most of its disadvantages to its advantage. I could say that some of the items are a bit unbalanced or that the five card balance system is severely restricting or perhaps that adding up all of the power levels in a fight is headache inducing when you have about 13 cards on both sides affecting them.
But munchkin manages to work this in its favor. Sure, some of the items are unbalanced but your opponents have an equal chance of drawing those cards and some of them are only unbalanced at a heavy price that the player has to pay. You could also argue that the lack of balance is to allow the players to squeeze as many attack points from their cards as munchkinly possible by abusing the rules and lack thereof.
The five card system might seem like a pain but you only have to follow the rule if somebody catches you breaking it. The same goes for the fight flaw were the numbers disappears beneath a pile of cards and you have to try to calculate it all, but that’s just yet another opportunity to cheat.
The only real flaw I can actually think about is probably the fact that the game can be rather luck-based but this is also negated if the players can play well enough and plan ahead.
That said, simply because these flaws can be worked around doesn’t mean that they are non-existent, it only means that the players have the ability to work around them if they so wish. If the players lack the will and/or creativity to work around this then they will find the game unbalanced, the fights hard to calculate and the five cards limit hard to get around.
System breakdown
The in-game objects and their properties, behaviors and relationships are:
– The Players.
o Properties.
§ Has a level.
o Behaviors.
§ Draws one door card every turn.
§ Collects treasure from beating monsters.
§ Wants to reach level 10.
§ Other behaviors depend mainly on equipment and the player himself.
o Relationships.
§ Other Players. Wants to stop them from gaining levels.
§ Door cards. Fights against monsters to become stronger and collect treasure.
§ Treasure cards. Wants to collect good treasure to ensure victory.
– The Door cards.
o Properties.
§ A card with a door painted on it as well as the word Munckin.
§ Located in the door scrap pile or door card pile.
o Behaviors.
§ Lies face-down in the door card pile until picked up by a player.
§ When picked from the pile at the start of the player’s turn the effects of the card are applied instantly, if it’s a curse he will be cursed and if it’s a class or similar and he doesn’t have a class already he will apply the class to himself. If the card is a monster the player has to fight.
§ When picked from the pile at the end of the player’s turn he will add the card to his hand.
o Relationships.
§ Player. The cards are collected by the players in hopes of getting stronger and gaining more treasure cards. Some of them cause negative effects on the players though.
§ Treasure cards. These are usually gained from door cards.
– The Treasure cards.
o Properties.
§ A card with picture of a hoard of treasure and the word Munchkinunderneath. On the other side is the cards effects and description.
§ Lies face-down in the treasure pile until picked up by a player.
o Behaviors.
§ Upon being picked up the player adds the card to his hand and may use it whenever described on the card itself.
§ Most treasure cards have a value in gold. If the player so wishes to he may sell treasure for an amount equal to or exceeding 1 000 gold to gain 1 level.
o Relationships.
§ Player. Treasure cards can be used by the player to gain levels and equips weapons to improve their abilities.
That’s pretty much it. On their own the cards doesn’t really interact with each other all that much but when they are used by the players against each other they become a lot more active and become tools for hurting the other players.
Analysis
When we sat down and played Munchkin we noticed some interesting factors. These were:
– – The game allows you to be a complete douchebag against your friends.
– – Being good at the game is all about weighing risk and reward against each other and determine when to stop your friends from gaining a level.
– – If you attack your opponents too often you will be unable to defend yourself against them trying to stop you.
– – The game allows you to be a complete douchebag against your friends.
– – You can divide the game into roughly three phases of varying intensity depending on the current levels of the players.
– – The game is easy to pick up and play, even for beginners.
– – The game uses most of its disadvantages to its advantage.
– Cheating is perfectly fine in munchkin.
– – The game allows you to be a complete douche against your friends.
– The first one is rather obvious. With the rules that this game provides and the opportunities that presents themselves we noticed that it was very easy and satisfying to screw over your opponents or even team up with them to screw up another player who happened to gain too many levels.
The second point is about the one measure of skill in this game. There is a lot of luck involved if you will be able to get good monsters to fight as well as the treasure cards you want. To get good at the game one has to be able to measure the risks of play and bluff their opponents about what they can and can’t do. In this way the game is similar to poker with the risks, rewards and bluffs getting constantly weighed against each other since if you attack your opponents too often you can’t do anything when they attack you and you will run out of cards pretty fast. This is further emphasized by the fact that cheating in Munchkin is only a crime when you’re caught doing it.
To show how what can happen in the game I’ve prepared an example below:
Alice (Level 6): Right, so after kicking in the door I encounter a Blog Goblin at level 9 (Yes there is a monster called the Blog Goblin, it is probably not at level 9 in the actual game, but for the sake of the example this’ll work).
Bob (Also Level 6): Can you take it?
A: Sure, it only gains +3 attack power if the player fighting it has a tablet or a computer at the table (This is an actual in-game effect!!!) and I have a total of +5 attack power with my equipment so I can take care of it.
Carol (Level 2): *Snicker* that effect is really something.
B: Don’t be so sure.
A: Why!?
B: I use Lightning in a bottle to give the monster +4 attack power against you!
C: Wow… that’s mean.
A: Yeah, really. I can’t beat it now. Carol, want to help?
C: Sure, what do I get?
A: Well, this monster gives 2 treasures when defeated, so you can have half of it, I guess.
C: Agreed.
B: Actually, I have another card. This one is called Gobblin’ and it gives +5 to the monsters attack power.
C: Wow…
A: Now I definitely can’t beat it.
C: I don’t have any equipment, so my level is not nearly enough to help. Sorry.
B: I’ll help you out for all of the treasures.
A: That’s steep… but if I lose against this thing I’ll lose a level… I don’t want that. Fine I need the level.
B: So, that means Alice and I beat the Blog Goblin with a huge margin and I’ll take the 2 treasures.
A (Now level 7): Well, at least I gained a level…
C: Actually, I use my witch class ability Hex to inflict you with the bad effects of a monster. In this case the monster Hop Goblin from my hand which causes you to lose a level.
A: Wait, you can do that!?
C: Apparently…
A (Back to level 6): So… I get nothing…
B: *Laughs hysterically*
A: Oh shut up!
This session might have seemed a little mean-spirited but it usually goes just like this around the middle part of the game. Looking at how Carol decided to Hex Alice to a lower level she probably knew that if she asked for more treasure she wouldn’t accept her help and asks for Bob instead. Bob on the other hand really wanted that treasure and decided to make the monster more powerful so that Alice would be forced to have him help her. Alice saw the level as more useful than the 2 treasures but wasn’t counting on Carol hexing her to keep Alice away from gaining another level and increasing her lead and once again, the example shows that the game encourages players to be douchebags and backstab each other all the time.
The example I wrote above is about the middle of the game. When we were playing the game ourselves we noticed that the progress of the game can be divided into roughly three parts, these parts are:
– The beginning. In this phase the players are usually on the levels 1 to 4. The players are not very aggressive in this phase as they are still trying to gather levels and powerful cards and stopping a player unless he’s very far ahead is not usually worth it at this stage.
– The middle. Things start to get a little bit more aggressive once the players reach level 5 and it continues like this until they are about level 7. In this phase the players are more willing to take risks and sabotage for their opponents. Still, there are limits as not every encounter will be tampered with and stopped. There is a lot of trickery going on this phase and you never quite know when a move is going to go through.
– The end. Total anarchy breaks out when most players are at level 8 and above. Since players win when they reach level 10 anything will be done to stop them from reaching the final level and winning the game. Of course, this is also the phase where players are the most likely to run out of ammunition (i.e. cards that can stop their opponents). Because of this the game will eventually end with someone finally being able to reach the final level and winning.
Most of us playing were rather used to playing the game but we also noticed that the beginners in the group had no trouble picking up the game and playing and we were at about the same skill level by the end of the second session. However, since we had people with us that already understood the game we had an advantage in that area and as such I sort of hope that the group that will read through our analysis’s doesn’t have as much experience in the game and will be able to give a fresh perspective and validate or invalidate this theory.
This next thing is something that I noted at the Not so great section of this analysis and that is that the game somehow manages to use all of its disadvantages to its advantage. The poor balance, the annoying five card limit and the luck-based progression can all be worked around with some creativity and willpower. Once again, since cheating is technically allowed you can with some trickery use the poor balance to your advantage, have 13 cards on-hand and use the luck-based factor to win big. Just remember that they will try to do the same thing, since the winning strategy in Munchkin is not to be nice and friendly but rather to be a complete asshole with no regard for you opponents in-game well-being and sabotage them at their every move.
Who is this game for?
Well, the box says that it is for 3 years and upwards but I don’t know if that’s entirely correct. The game has a lot of references to tabletop and rpg games and the theme in general is rather relaxed but I’d say that the game is mostly for people with at least some understanding of tabletop games and culture as well as a will to break the rules and attack the other players. Despite this people outside this audience might find it enjoyable.
Summary
Munchkin is a fun interpretation of tabletop games and culture that can be picked up and played easily, even by beginners. The rules of the game encourages trickery, lies, sabotage and cheating but also simple and pure fun since everybody has a chance to stomp on anyone when the chance presents itself.
There’s also quite a lot of replay value to the game as the cards can literally get thousands of combinations in the hands of different players. That witch class you had last game might be in the hands of your other friend and you’ll have to do with another class.
All in all, it’s a fun game to play with friends and enemies alike.
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