When I went to Dragonmeet a couple of weeks ago I picked up two new boardgames. I specifically chose games that could be played by the whole family and were fun to play.
Munchkin by
Steve Jackson Games definitely falls into that category. Its also illustrated by
John Kovalik (of
Dork Tower) who is one of my favourite webcomic artists.
I roped in the kids to help me play this game as it works best with more players (ie more opportunities to back-stab your friends!). The rules are fairly simple and as most of the in-play rules are printed on the cards this is a fairly intuitive and easy game to get into. Its also a real laugh as most of the cards are an in-joke or tongue in cheek dig at the Dungeons and Dragons game and its conventions. Even if you're not an old D&D player like me you'll still find it funny as the artwork and concepts work excellently together.
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| My daughter Sarah and her boyfriend Perry helped play-test the first game. Being a gamers daughter Sarah got most of the in-jokes but even Perry who has never rolled a polyhedral dice in anger got most of the humour. (Artwork: John Kovalic) |
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| Munchkin combines a board game with a card based game making it easy to learn and fun to play (Artwork: John Kovalic) |
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| The artwork and humour are very well balanced and integral to the enjoyment of the game. (Artwork: John Kovalic) |
This first game lasted about an hour and a half but we were working through the rules so I expect future games will be a bit shorter. There are loads of expansion sets for this game and I'm sure I'll be picking up one of these in the not to distant future.
When I went to Dragonmeet a couple of weeks ago I picked up two new boardgames. I specifically chose games that could be played by the whole family and were fun to play. Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games definitely falls into that category. Its also illustrated by John Kovalik (of Dork Tower) who is one of my favourite webcomic artists.
I haven't had a chance to try this one yet, it looks good fun and quick to play. So what was the second board game you picked up?
ReplyDeleteLord of the rings Risk. Again relatively easy to play with an element of cooperative/offensive game-play (ie stabbing fellow players in the back when they least expect it).
ReplyDeleteMunchkin is one everyone's lips today... I should really try it!
ReplyDeleteRisk is my all-time-favorite game. It's all about intriguing...
Good choices :)
Cheers,
Mojo
Munchkin is awesome :)
ReplyDeleteEven my wife likes it, she is the one buying new cards for us :D
The Rejects would only play it with alcohol and tell Perry to get his hair cut!
ReplyDeleteIs this the "Munchkin Boardgame" or something else? Never seen this particular version, and the "boardgame" is expensive as if the components were made out of gold. The cardgame is one of few cardgames I enjoy, played Munchkin Cthulhu on convention and had lots of laughs.
ReplyDeleteI have seen in my local shop, but never stopped to take a closer look. Looks like the perfect game to spend those silly Christmas afternoons when you don't know what to do with the kids. Are they easy for a 11-12 years old bloke?
ReplyDeleteIf you like this then check out "Munchkin Quest" it keeps the same humor, gameplay, and similar cards but adds dungeon tiles and monster tokens that have you explore and build a dungeon as you go. I got my wife, and inlaws all to play it, all of which are not gamers beyond basic board games and they loved it.
ReplyDeleteMunchkin comes with a board now? Wow. First time I came across Snails on Speed I nearly choked on my tongue!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of it, I thought you'd bought some chocolate sweets or something??????
ReplyDeleteI've been playing Munchkin off and on for many years now though wasnt aware there was a boardgame version ( I have the card game version and its booster packs). It's the closest I get to RPGing these days... ;-)
ReplyDelete