Munchkin (game): Difference between revisions

 

 

 

You are in a dungeon. Also present in this dungeon are monsters and treasure. You have been sent on a holy quest to kill the monsters and steal the treasure. Unfortunately, everyone else in your party is trying to do the same thing.

 

 

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* [[Actually Four Mooks]]: "3,872 Orcs" (which only counts as 1 monster)

** Also some "monsters" in ''Super Munchkin'' such as the "Wimpy Thugs" series.

* [[All Women Love Shoes]]: In ''Star Munchkin'', the [[Hot Amazon|Bionic Bimbo]] can be deterred from attacking you if you give her shoes. Indeed, she even pays you handsomely for the footwear item, with 3 Treasures. [[You Bastard|You can then fight her anyway.]]

* [[An Adventurer Is You]]

* [[Attack of the Monster Appendage]]: Squidzilla, The Big Ole Planet Eater Guy, The Unspeakably Awful Indescribable Horror and Big Foot.

* [[Butter Face]]: The Geisha Gorgon.

* [[Chainsaw Good]]: The Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment, which is a fairly decent weapon.

* [[Character Level]]: The objective of the game is to get to Level 10, or 20 if you are playing ''Epic Munchkin''. There are no [[Experience Points]], though; beating one monster usually gets you one level.

* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]: Half the fun of the game boils down to this. There's a reason the tagline's third part reads "Stab Your Buddy". A fair chunk of the cards serve no purpose except to screw with other players.

** Cards that give one-time bonuses to combat are common. Cards that give bonuses to one ''specific'' side are rare. Help or hinder, the choice is yours.

* [[Combat Medic]]: Clerics don't seem to spend much time [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|actually healing anything]] (although they can resurrect dead cards, sort of).

** Munchkin Cthulhu had 3 expansions and a line of [http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/toys/chibithulhu/ plush toys.]

** The Unspeakably Awful Indescribable Horror in the standard deck may also be a Lovecraft reference.

* [[Cute Is Evil]] - it's not a fluffy kitty, it's the set's nastiest, most powerful monster. Called 'The Evil'.

** Also, the My Little Cthulhu doll, which makes it impossible to avoid [[Secret Circle of Secrets|Joining The Cult]]

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: The Divine Intervention card.

** Not to mention [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Deus Ex Machinegun]].

* [[Dungeon Crawling]]: There's no actual dungeon map, but the game assumes that you're in one.

** For a similar game with a dungeon map, there's the spinoff [[Munchkin Quest]].

** [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja]]

** [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons]]

* [[Evil Is One Big Happy Family]]: Cultists from ''Munchkin Cthulhu'' gain larger bonuses the more cultists are on play.

* [[Fighter, Mage, Thief]]

* [[Fungus Humongous]]: What you get if you play the "Humongous" card on the "Fungus" monster. "Don't truffle with the Humongous Fungus!"

** To elaborate, the "Humongous" card increases a monster's level by 10. The fungus is a Level 5 Monster that states that, should it become humongous, gains 25 levels instead of 10. "Do not truffle" indeed.

* [[Gag Nose]]: the Floating Nose and its shadow.

** And there are Merch T-shirts that while worn, define your character's sex (which normally starts out as your own). People have been known to layer these.

* [[Goddamned Bats]]: Invoked, adding Bat type enemies into a fight already including one is a free action in Munchkin Bites. With some nasty luck, that level 2 Bat monster just became a horde of bats, combined level 29. Bat Masterson from The Good, The Bad, and The Munchkin counts btw. Hong Kong in Munchkin Fu, Goths in Munchkin Cthulhu and Sharks in Munchkin Booty (which, naturally, includes [[Amoral Attorney|the lawyer]]) work the same way.

* [[Happy Fun Ball]]: The "Duck of Doom".

* [[Have a Nice Death]]: the "Bad Stuff" on some monster cards

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: The guy who did [[The Unspeakable Vault of Doom]] did the artwork for one of ''Munchkin Cthulhu'' 's expansion pack.

** The Magnificent Hat card features art by [[Phil Foglio]]. Double Bonus: It's sported by a [[Girl Genius|Jaegermonster]].

** The regular series artist is famed gaming cartoonist John Kovalic, best known for his ''[[Dork Tower]]'' comic series.

* [[House Rules]]: Inevitable, considering that "Argue about the rules" is actually in the rules.

** The Good The Bad And The Munchkin has a character class that gets bonuses if other players face the "bad stuff" of a monster after a defeat, and the Schadenfreudian Slip item works in a similar fashion, encouraging backstabbing even further. This is also a feature of the "Dark" race modifier.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Most of the cards. Most notably "The Punster" from ''Super Munchkin'', who's stated as being "just a card. Ha ha. '''Kill him right now'''."

* [[Infinity+1 Sword]]: Most notable in ''Star Munchkin'', where you can stack up anything with its name ending with '-aser'. This can lead to a plus-''24'' [[Cool Gun|Laser-Dazer-Raser-Maser-Schmaser-Bobaser-Bananafanafofaser-Laser]]<ref>Wot, no Memymomaser?</ref> if you're lucky. This is strong enough to beat everything.

** It is, however, possible to obtain the "Antimatter" trap, either via the initial draw or Looting The Room, and then to use said trap to turn someone's [[Game Breaker|stacked-laser weapon]] into an un-droppable [[Inverted Trope|Negative Infinity Minus One Sword]]. (The combined laser [[Crippling Overspecialization|counts as a single two-handed "complex" item]], so it works.) The unfortunate person/Munchkin on the receiving end is [[Fate Worse Than Death|pretty much crippled as a result]].

*** Made even more fun when [[The Plan|you're holding onto the "Antimatter" trap in your hand waiting specifically for someone to build their laser up to a big enough bonus]] ...

* [[Kneecapping]]: The card game gives us the Hammer of Kneecapping, usable only by dwarves.

* [[Loads and Loads of Rules]]: More rules get added every deck. There's even a rule lampshading this.

* [[Low Level Advantage]]: Some of the more powerful monsters will not chase characters below a certain level, allowing them to automatically run away. The lowest level player will also receive everyone else's extra cards as Charity.

* [[Luck Manipulation Mechanic]]: The ''Munchkin'' card game has several cards and extra collectibles that allow manipulating the dice. Also, cheating at the game actually does qualify for this trope, as [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught]] is an actual part of official rules.

* [[Magic Knight]], and any other cross-class you'd care to name, if you have a Super Munchkin card

* [[Mooks Ate My Equipment]]

* [[More Dakka]]: ''The Good, The Bad, and the Munchkin'' has a modifier card called Infinite Ammo, that gives +2 to a one-handed weapon that uses bullets, +3 to a two-handed weapon that uses bullets. There's also a +5 Gatling Gun. Combine the two for days of fun (and bullets)!

** It's actually in the rules that one can "Equip anything they want, so long as they have the proper number of hands, are the right race or class, have a Cheat card, or don't get caught".

*** However, it should be noted that this line was apparently meant to be a joke that would up being taken seriously. The creators have since tried to state that this is a joke, and more recent versions of the rules don't have the "don't get caught" line, saying that only "Cheat!" cards let you cheat. Some groups keep this in as a house rule, but don't be surprised if you find yourself with a group that doesn't allow cheating.

* [[Not the Intended Use]]: Using "go up a level" cards on your opponents to force them to fight monsters. Among many others.

'''Answer''': We want to say no, but that's just such a Munchkin thing to do that we have to allow it. }}

* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]]: Includes werepenguin, a werehamster and a weremuskrat. They are all oversized and sharp-toothed - even the penguin has fangs.

* [[Punny Name]]: Most cards.

* [[PVP-Balanced]]: While being a Monster Whacker will penalize you against monsters level 16+, none of the races or classes will really make you much worse at killing stuff, and no other race or class has any penalties at all, after a revision.

** While most of ''Munchkin Zombie'' has art by John Kovalic, one card, ''[[Dead Baby Comedy|Meals On Wheels]]'', isn't. Kovalic refused to do the card as he had recently become a father (and if you're wondering why that would make him refuse, see where the pothole leads.)

** Some cards vary in effect based on what day of the week your playing. Some cards have all of the above conditions applied to them.

* [[Roaming Enemy]]: You draw monsters from a deck, and in some circumstances you can sic them on other players.

* [[Running Gag]]: There's a variant on "Everyone starts as a level 1 human with [[Incredibly Lame Pun|no class]]" in the game set-up portion of every version's rules. Later editions started lampshading the hell out of this.

** "You have no class and no [[Foo Fu|style]]."

** In later sets: "Everyone starts as a Level 1 character with no class. (We never get tired of that joke.)"

** Everyone starts as a Level 1 zombie with no Mojo. (This is a zombie movie, so nobody has any class.)

* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: Fights can sometimes develop into this, especially if there are many players with extended card holding rights. Say you've encountered a Plutonium Dragon and its Evil Twin, facing painful death should you fail to beat them or run away. After numerous bonuses and anti-bonuses have been played on the monsters, the dragon's Baby Clone, and its Mommy, have been introduced to the fight, multiple Powers and one-shot items have been used to help or hinder you, several different methods of backstabbing have been employed, lengthy negotiations of teaming up have been had, and you're ready to reap your whopping eight levels and twenty-five treasures... Some asshat plays a few cards, leaving you without any levels or treasure, and everyone many cards poorer. Which is, of course, very munchkinly indeed.

* [[Shout-Out]]: All but made of them. Some of the more obvious ones are:

** ''Munchkin Cthulhu'' has the [[Land Down Under|Ozathoth]], and the Song of Madness {{spoiler|''Waltzing Matilda''}}.

*** ''"G'day, mortal!"''

** The "Vampire Hunter" in ''Munchkin Bites'' is a [[Buffy|blond girl]] in a [[Iconic Item|strangely familiar jacket]].

** A "Bowie Knife" has the word "[[David Bowie|Ziggy]]" written on it.

** Munchkin is illustrated by John Kovalic. So, it's a perfectly normal thing that the PCs sighted include [[Dork Tower|Matt, Carson, Ken and Igor.]] ''[[Dork Tower]]'' throws in a reverse [[Shout-Out]] [http://www.dorktower.com/2006/11/03/comics-archive-853/ here.]

** [[Pokémon|Pukachu, I]]--''([[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]])--ew...''

** The Froggoth from ''Munchkin Cthulhu'' causes you to suffer [[Irregular Webcomic|Death of Choking On A Giant Frog]].

** The description of the monster Filthy Geats reads "Filthy Geats ain't got no rhythm" and the Bad Stuff starts "Now you're never gonna dance again."

** One particular encounter in ''Star Munchkin'' is an ''Ogre'' cybertank.

* [[That One Rule]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in the rulebook. "Decide who goes first by rolling the dice and arguing about the results and the meaning of this sentence and whether the fact that a word seems to be missing any effect."

* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: The Annihilation card permanently removes one card from the game. Try to find the perfect card to use it on.

* [[Torpedo Tits]]

* [[Visual Pun]]: Many. A card called "Steal a Level" depicts the theft of the tool, for example.

* [[We ARE Struggling Together!]]: It's easy to forget that in the [[Excuse Plot|premise]] of the game you play a group of adventurers that are ostensibly working together.

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* [[Amazonian Beauty]]: The fairy on one of the "your powers have grown" cards.

* [[Cardboard Prison]]

** And, of course, Undo Top Button.

** Also the improperly revealing ripped dress in Munchkin Bites expansion set Pants Macabre - it rips more, gaining an additional +1 with each sex change the character wearing it goes through.

* [[Faceless Mooks]]: The Faceless Army.

* [[Most Common Superpower]]: In ''Super Munchkin'', the Cleavage Stun and the spray-on costume. (The former is only usable by females, while the latter grants a higher bonus to females than males.)

* [[Naughty Tentacles]]: Implied - the below-mentioned [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|Thing Man Was Not Meant To Know]] is depicted as a mass of tentacles behind a censor bar. The description says it doesn't mind knowing ''female'' characters.

* [[Rules Lawyer]]: The "Invoke Obscure Rules" card. (Also highly encouraged in the gameplay.)

* [[Shoulder-Sized Dragon]]: The card is "Cute Shoulder Dragon," and was considered as a [[Trope Namer]].

** And the "Baby" nerf card showing it to be even more true.

** Inverted with the Plutonium Dragon in the tabletop version of the game, whose strength is cut in half with each age category.

* [[Underwear of Power]]: A card in ''Super Munchkin''.

** Also there's the Pantyhose of Giant Strength.

* [[Weapon of X-Slaying]]: Inverted by the "Sword of Slaying Everything Except Squid". It gives a substantial bonus but against squid (there are two in the decks so far - karate squid and Squidzilla) the fight is automatically lost.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Card Games]]