Munchkin (game): Difference between revisions

{{work|wppage=Munchkin (card game)}}

[[File:Munchkin_games_1343Munchkin games 1343.jpg|frame|Munchkins are universal.<ref>Not shown: Munchkin Zombies, Munchkin Axe Cop, and Munchkin Conan.</ref>]]

''[http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/ Munchkin]'' is a card game series by [http://www.sjgames.com/ [Steve Jackson Games]]. The fundamental rules are simple and easy to learn, but the text on the cards regularly changes the rules. If you keep a sharp eye on what the rules say at this very moment, you will uncover situations where your half-Elf half-Halfling Barbarian Cleric can wield four weapons at once, send any monster he fights over to another player instead, and get the treasure from it anyway.

* [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]]: Player characters. Players, too, when they stand to gain a level.

* * [[Cthulhu Mythos]]: It's got an entire deck dedicated to it.

** Go Up A Level cards are also a staple part of the game. Selling items worth 1000 gold also gives you a level, but you don't get change. Note that players CANNOT''cannot'' attain a winning level by selling or Go Up A Level cards. They must kill a monster or have a card that specifically says that it can grant the winning level.

** And the Perfectly Normal Bunny, which can become [[Monty Python and Thethe Holy Grail|"That Bunny"]] due to a dice roll.

* [[Dead Man's Hand]]: A curse card that forces you to discard your whole hand.

* [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist]]: A player who dies keeps his Class, Race, and Level, instead only losing all of his other cards. He revives at the start of his next turn and even gets a new starting hand of eight cards.

** [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks]] - ''Munchkin Booty'' has sharks. Whenever any combat includes a shark, anyone else can add another shark without a wandering monster card. ''Star Munchkin'' also has the [[Punny Name|Star]][[Incredibly Lame Pun|fish]].

** [[Everything's Deader with Zombies]] - ''Munchkin Zombies'' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

* [[Exact Words]]: Let's put it this way: This game had to have errata added to clarify that, yes, the bad stuff 'you are roasted and eaten' means 'you are dead'. The game's played by [[Munchkin|Munchkins]]s, what else do you think they're going to do about rules they don't like?

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: sinceSince [[Death Is Cheap]], replacing the dead's hand and items with eight random new cards, a fair few monsters have Bad Stuff even worse. King Tut forces the discard of everything without the replenishing hand, and the Wight Brothers reduce the player's level to 1.

** On the other hand, some Bad Stuff has no in-game effect, but can be terrible regardless. If you lose theto the level 1 Goldfish, for example, the Bad Stuff is that "all the other players get to mock you". [[Don't Explain the Joke|Because you just lost to a fish in a bowl]].

* [[Gender Bender]]: The "Change Sex" traps. There's also a "[[Freudian Slip|Freudian Slipper]]per" that lets you alternate between genders, but if you lose it and you're stuck with the wrong gender, then you're at a disadvantage.

** The text on it also qualifies as [[Don't Touch It, You Idiot!]]--"You should know better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon!"--and—and [[Noodle Incident]]--why—why ''would'' a duck be such a dangerous thing to pick up in a dungeon?

** Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, featuring Aubrey from [[Something *Positive]].

* [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]]: This game tends to bring out the worst in people; if you're not threatening, counter-threatening, and backstabbing your "friends" at every opportunity, you're playing the game wrong.

* [[I Know Kung Faux]]: Parodied in ''Munchkin Fu,'' with techniques like Drunken Monkey Kung Fu, Fee Fi Fo Fu, and Stomach Fu.

** The true [[Infinity+1 Sword]] is the [[Plot Device]] from Super Munchkin. When played, it says "You are now winning the combat by 1, no matter how much you were losing by before." If, in theory, you were losing by infinity, this would actually provide a literal Infinity Plus One bonus. (Of course, people can still play more cards afterwards to make you lose anyways.)

* [[Micro Monarchy]]: Parodied on the "Ruler of A Small European Country" card, which shows the character standing in a "country" about one foot square.

* [[Metagame]]: mostMost of the gameplay is metagaming. You could even say that the metagame ''is'' the game.

* [[Obvious Rule Patch]]: The Loaded Dice card originally let players ignore one die roll of their choice and just call the number they wanted the roll to be. This being ''Munchkin'', players quickly noticed that they could call ''any'' number, and started using Loaded Dice to make die rolls come up as ten million, or negative thirty thousand, or any number of truly ludicrous results. Combined with other cards that keyed off of dice rolls, the game was soon being broken in new and inventive ways, and a ruling was handed down that Loaded Dice card allows you to change the face of the physical die that was rolled.

* [[One Curse Limit]]: Very averted. The rules state that curses (or traps) may be played at any time. A player can get a pile of curses at once, but then, driving your opponents to tears is a viable strategy if it makes you win...

* [[Pinata Enemy]]: The Pinata is a measly level 3 and gives a treasure to every party member when killed.

* [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]: A racial option in Space Munchkin which acts as a catch all for the entire trope. You get to pick your one inhuman physical feature, the [[Planet of Hats|hat your planet wears]] and the one concept from human culture your race doesn't have a concept for (loyalty, dignity, hygiene, etc).

** "You must fight a Rabbit! However, it's ''that'' rabbit, from ''[[Monty Python and Thethe Holy Grail|''that]]'' [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|movie]]. And his picture is no one else than [[Sluggy Freelance|Bun-bun]].

** One of the Space Ships in the expansion booster for Star Munchkin is "[[Firefly (TV series)|Housefly]]" which grants specific bonuses if you're using it with the cowboy set.

* [[Superhero]]: Super Munchkin. That's right, munchkins trying to [[Playing Against Type|play superheroes.]] Weep.

* [[TradesnarkTradesnark™]]: Professor Tesla's Electrical Protective Device (pat. pending).

=== {{tropelist|'''Tropes referenced in-game''' ===}}

* [[Jumping the Shark]]: the name of the supplement about pirates.

* [[Martial Arts HeadbandHachimaki]]: The [[Badass]] Bandanna

[[Category:MunchkinTabletop Games]]

[[Category:TabletopPages Gamewith working Wikipedia tabs]]