Munchkin

I'm going to be looking at Munchkin today.  This was one of the first table top games I played when I got into the hobby.  It's still a game I enjoy but I play it less and less these day.  In the game you are a group of adventures moving through a dungeon D&D style (minus the roleplay unless you really want to).  So whether you are a Wizard Dwarf or a Elf Cleric it's time get kill as many monsters as you can and get out with more treasure than your friends.

How it Works
The game is set up with two decks of cards, Door Cards and Treasure Cards.  Each player starts with a hand made of a mix of these.  These can be equipment cards that can be used to improve your character or special item or action cards you can use for one off bonuses.  There can also be curses and monster cards that you can play against your friends, more on that later.

A round starts with the the player "kicking down the door" and turning over the top card of the Door Deck.  This are normally Monsters or Curses and they need to deal with them straight away.  Monsters are fought by adding up your total level which is your current level plus all the bonuses from your equipment, if you beat the number on the monster card you beat it and go up a level plus get any treasure cards it says on the card.  If you are lower or draw with the monsters level you must run away, you roll a dice, if you pass you escape, if you fail you have to do the action on the monsters card which can range from loosing equipment or levels to death (starting again on level 1).

When you are fighting monsters you can ask your friend to help, this adds their level and equipement scores to yours to help you beat that monster's level in exchange for some of the Treasure you would get from beating it.  It is also possible for players to help the monster that you are fighting, giving it a boost or even giving the monster a friend to help them out.   It makes card management quite important, there is no point playing a good card to mess with your buddy when he is fighting a low level Monster that he might still be able to beat anywhere even if they are winning and you need to stop them, but playing it against the same friend later when they are fighting the Plutonium Dragon could really ruin their day.  Also a lot of the cards can be either played on you or Monsters so you need to decide whether messing with someone else is worth a card that could help you later in the game.

If a player didn't have to fight a monster when they kicked down the door they can either loot the room and draw a door card into their hand to use later or go "looking for trouble" in which case they can play a monster card from their hand and fight that instead.

The game carries on like this until one player reaches level 10 and they are the winner.

The Good
I do like the puns and humour in the game, it appeals to my sense of humour.  The classes and equipment are funny and some of the monster names can be pretty witty.  There are a few cards that parody D&D and other RPGs or parts of geek culture, they are funny but I think people would miss some of the jokes if they don't have an interest in RPGs and fantasy.  I also really like the fighting element, being able to ask for help or try and mess with your friends is something I like in games.  There are a huge number of versions of this game and expansions to add new cards to keep things interesting.

The Bad
The cards humour can get old, they are funny but after a while you will see the same cards come out and it wears off after a while.  My other big issue with the game is it is just too long, I enjoy it but it get repetitive and getting through 10 levels with everyone trying to drag down the winner can draw it out longer than the game should take.  I think it also depends who you are playing with, you need to be mean to people and if your group don't like that it really isn't the game for you.

Overall
I like the game and have the Munchkin Deluxe (which really just gives you a board to track your level on).  Expansions and other editions mix well and I think are needed to keep the game fresh.  The humour in the game is what makes it so new cards to make you laugh will stop you getting bored as quickly.  I have heard people say that it's a 30 minute game that takes an hour and that is something I can see but still if someone wants to play it I am always happy to play.  In the end I think the player interaction more than the actual game play is what makes this game something that still gets regular time on my table.