Munchkin Color Card Game

I bought this game after playing it with some friends. If you're a role-player with any sort of sense of humour you'll love it.

It's a card game where you compete against your fellow players by bashing down doors, fighting monsters, and collecting loot. All these actions are performed by turning cards, with the odd die roll thrown in. The first player to ascend to the heady heights of level 10 wins.

The beauty of the game is that it takes the mickey out of all those fantasy role-playing stereotypes, so you end up with weird equipment like "kneepads of allure". Oh, and you also get to stitch up your fellow players.

If you ever find yourself with an hour to kill before or after an RPG session, get the game and keep it handy. Great entertainment.

Back when I was a kid, everyone played cards. Texas Hold 'Em, Magic: the Gathering, Pokémon, you name it. Then came Munchkin. Within two weeks, we'd gone from curious about a card game that apparently took the mickey out of every single fantasy novel, RPG and tabletop game in existence, to completely hooked. We played loads, and I personally owned a copy of the great-but-less-fantastical Munchkin Fu within the year.

Fast-forward a good seven or eight years, and I'm about to go on holiday. We're taking a few things to do, and Munchkin had popped back up in my Amazon surfing habits recently. I went for it, and could not stop talking about the thing until it arrived. At which point, I kept on talking about it.

Munchkin is simple - two decks, Door and Treasure. A levelling system that for once makes sense, and an element of sabotage that will have you cursing the names of your friends as you laugh and plot your own methods of taking them down a peg. From bizarre monsters to hilariously cliché weaponry and items, it's a good laugh and I strongly recommend a large group of players for the ideal amount of laughter and curses.

Do make sure you take care of the deck though - the die is fairly robust (and well designed, the one is a Munchkin face), but the cards are fickle, so either use protectors or don't chuck it in your school/work bag without a thought for the horrible bent format you'll retrieve them in.

If you're tired of the endless depth of RPGs, then by all means support Steve Jackson and pals and show the world that fantasy roleplaying games don't have to be a serious and self-important as most people would have you believe. A giggle, and a triumph.

This is a card game that pokes fun at Dungeons and Dragons and similar role-playing games. The game takes the format of a dungeon crawl where you bash down a door by turning over a 'Door' card to reveal a monster, curse or other cards you can play. And with the slaying of monsters, you gain treasure by turning over 'Treasure' cards which are usually helpful items such as 'Sneaky Bastard Sword' or 'Yuppie Water' for elves. You have cards that allow you to be various character classes such as cleric, thief, wizard or warrior, as well as races such as elf, halfling or dwarf, each with their special abilities. Your gender also has an effect too, as the Amazon will not fight female players, instead giving them treasure. And you can change these cards almost at any time, so that in the middle of combat you can say "Forget being a dwarf warrior, I'm now an elf thief!".
The great thing about this game is that even when it's not your turn, you have plenty of oppurtunities to play, since you can help somebody fight a monster (for a cut of the treasure of course, unless you were forced to fight by a magical item), steal from somebody else or curse somebody else.

It's simple to learn and play is fast. You don't have to be a Dungeons and Dragons veteran to enjoy the game either, although you will understand the many in jokes if you are. I played the game with my wife and a friend who wouldn't go near a Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook with a barge pole +5 and they both enjoyed the game.
It says a game lasts an hour. The games I have played usually last longer, but that's probably because we spend so much time laughing at the amusing illustrations on each card as they are revealed.

Highly recommended.