Is it just me, or are the Munchkin card games rather lame?

[Cowpie Zombie]

Been playing a lot of Munchkin lately, including the original, Star Munchkin, Munchkin Bites, and (most recently) Munchkin Cthulhu. In the past few years our group has probably played a total of 20 or 30 multi-game Munchkin sessions, so I'm not just saying what I'm about to say based on a quick on-off game.

My conclusion is that Munchkin seems . . . lame to me.

At some point in my Munchkin gaming I started thinking, "It's totally random who wins this game." It seems to depend almost entirely on what cards you are lucky enough to draw, and who can make deals to team up against monsters the quickest. When one player gets to level 9, all the others dogpile him and subsequently ignore anyone with a score lower than 9, which in turn leads to everyone being at level 9 before long, at which point it's just luck who happens to draw a monster that they can defeat.

The jokes are funny, the first time. But I'm not the kind of person who keeps giggling at "Knee Pads of Allure" after seeing it for the thousandth time.

Maybe these games are fun if you're slightly drunk? Maybe the whole point is that they're simple, light-hearted "beer and pretzels" card games that shouldn't be viewed as legitimate games so much as a "party activity"?

Anyway, just my personal opinion, but I finally realized recently that these games contain far less substance than they might seem to at first glance. They're basically a one-joke pony that gets old incredibly fast, especially if you're looking for a game with any degree of strategy and depth.

 

[sckeener]

At some point in my Munchkin gaming I started thinking, "It's totally random who wins this game." It seems to depend almost entirely on what cards you are lucky enough to draw, and who can make deals to team up against monsters the quickest.

I think you just noticed the name of the game....it is after all...Munchkin...

drink some beer and enjoy.

 

[amethal]

Maybe the whole point is that they're simple, light-hearted "beer and pretzels" card games that shouldn't be viewed as legitimate games so much as a "party activity"?

That's how we've always treated them.

I assumed that was how everybody saw the game.

 

[Celebrim]

I've never played it, but I have a few observations

a) It's rare that a game is actually deeper than 20-30 sessions. The interest in most games will flag after playing them 20-30 times. I can count the number of games I've played more than 30 times. So, if you've played the game 20-30 times, if you enjoyed a fair percentage of those games, then you got your money's worth.

b) You are surprised that a gimicky, humorous game is not particularly deep? Cosmic Encounters, Bohnanza, and History of the World play much as you describe, for example, as do many other games. In general, what you describe is typical of multi-player games. Richard Garfield (who I admire as a game designer) describes most mutliplayer games as boiling down to this, "Give each player 5 tokens. Each player must give thier tokens to the other players. After all the tokens have been distributed, the player with the most tokens wins the game." So if you find a multiplayer game that doesn't play like you describe, then you've found a real gem.

c) I've heard this basic complaint by people who played Munchkin before, so you are probably right. That doesn't make the game 'lame' though, since you got 20-30 games out of it. so consider yourself now a Munchkin expert, that you've explored all the depth of the game, and move on to something new.

 

[Crothian]

It is luck but there is some skill as well. But for the most part it is a funny not serious party game. And it usually lasts way too long.

 

[Crothian]

Of course now it has its own drink .

 

[Steel_Wind]

It has its moments.

I prefer Chez Geek or the ZeeMan B Movie card games myself.

Whatever the case, Munchkin is generating over half of SJG sales - and so they'll be giving us more Munchkin expansions ad nauseum until the fad wears off. Nothing succeeds like success.

It's not that it's not a fun game; it is. I do think it has over-achieved though.

 

[SteelDraco]

You're right that there's not a whole ton of strategic depth to them. It's a dogpile kind of game, where almost always one person gets way ahead, everyone else starts attacking them, and one person sneaks past everybody else for the win. Most powers aren't the kind of thing that are going to win you the game - the only ones that are, in my experience, really important are classes, races, and anything that ends a combat. Most of the time the game consists of people hoarding their fight-ending cards, and everyone leveling up slowly to nine (or nineteen, since we usually play Epic Munchkin). One person will make a big bid to win, and everyone will empty their hands to prevent it. Usually less than a turn later, one of the other players has managed to get close enough that they can win before everyone gets new stuff in their hand to prevent it.

I play the game fairly regularly, and we use it mostly as an excuse to hang out and do something, rather than because the game is fantastic. There are some very powerful combinations out there, if you're playing with multiple decks mashed together with Blender and such. I will admit it's more fun if you're drinking, though we only do that about half the time.

As far as the humor goes... not much stays funny with repetition. Once you've seen the cards a couple of times, sure, it's not funny any more.

 

[billd91]

It's a beer and pretzels game, nothing more, nothing less.

I would classifiy it with a variety of other "thwart" games in which the important play is in how you thwart players from winning, while exhausting everyone else's ability to thwart you when you make your bid. Kill Dr. Lucky also fits in with this sort of game. As does Chez Geek. The basic strategies may or may not have some minor complexities, but the end comes when someone is unable to thwart the player on the winning move/card play.

The real beauty of games like this, and many other card games or other games with major random elements, is that you can play it with people who aren't hard-core gamers and they'll still have a reasonable chance of winning.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I demoed a new game from Smirk and Dagger at the GAMA Trade Show that will be coming out soon called Cutthroat Caverns http://www.smirkanddagger.com/sneakpeeks.htm that is similar to Munchkin but somewhat more serious. I found it had somewhat better mechanics and I liked the slightly more serious nature of the cards. There was still plenty of fun and laughter but it was the gameplay instead of the humor on the cards. It is supposed to be out at Gen Con hopefully so you might want to give it a look there if you like that type of game.

Edit: seeing what got posted above. This has some thwat elements but there is also a fixed duration (fixed number of encounters) with whoever is ahead (and alive) at the end the winner.