Munckins

[Mr_Sukebe]

Munchkins

My 7 year old has now reached the stage that he can deal with some more mentally challenging games than Monopoly (which I hate).
He's already playing Chess, but I wanted to give him some other tabletop games to try, at least to keep him off the Ipad for a while.

So recently bought:
- Perudo, which is a classic dice/bluffing game and I regularly play with my own friends. Ace game
- Pandemic. Recommend on these forums and others. Turned out to be a little too complex and thus a bit dull for him. Have still to manage a full play through
- Arkham horror. Supposedly a brilliant game, that I'm certain will be too advanced for him, but it was cheap whilst I was in the US on business
- Munchkins. Wow, what a simple yet utterly brilliant game. My son loves it and even the missus likes it. If you haven't got a copy yet, then do it. Just bonkers cheap for something that appears very simple, but can become very complex quite quickly.

Lastly, I wrote an RPG set of rules a few years ago, which we've been using with his friends. At least they seem to like it.

 

[Psymonkee]

Could always look into Forbidden Island as an alternative to Pandemic - same designer, same co-op gameplay but a little easier to get into

I love a bit of Munchkin but it gets a lot of unnecessary flak here and in a lot of popular gaming circles

 

[Shamikebab]

As long as you accept it for what it is (luck based and ridiculous) then it's a fun game to play from time to time.

 

[SKILL]

I think Munchkin is also improved a lot by the 'delux' version (with board to see peoples base levels), played Super Munchkin around a mates without the board and it just seemed generally worse for it...

Another option might be Settlers of Catan? The base game is probably fine for a 7 year old, or there's the Junior edition which is even simpler, and it's a good fun little game imo.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

As long as you accept it for what it is (luck based and ridiculous) then it's a fun game to play from time to time.

Sure, you shouldn't expect it to be serious, it just isn't.
The RPG I wrote was my attempt at being more serious.

 

[Bickaxe]

We Didn't Playtest This At All is a good card game. Very simple and completely ridiculous.

Camel Cup is good too

 

[Mockingbird]

If you enjoy Munchkin, then Fluxx is also quite fun, cheap and varied - it has the same (or greater) element of randomness, and a lot of custom sets (pirates, monty python). We play it with an emphasis on fast play (no pondering, when it's your go you just go) and it makes for a frantic, exciting game.

Basic principle is you start the game with the rules "on your turn draw 1 card and play 1 card" with no way to win. Various cards either become 'keepers" (positive equipment) "creepers" (negative equipment), "goals" (how to win, usually something like "have this combination of 3 keepers"), "actions" (e.g. draw an extra card, steal a keeper) and finally "rules". The "Rules" cards are the best bit - you can quickly reach the point where the rules are "draw 4 cards, play your entire hand" which makes for very rapid rules/goal changes every turn. Worth a go, particulalry at a night when you might play 2-3 different games (as opposed to Catan, where I prefer to stick with it for the session).

 

[Rroff]

Not usually my kind of thing but ended up playing both Flux (the pirate version) and Munchkin at various Christmas gatherings over the weekend.

If you don't take it seriously Munchkin is actually quite ridiculous - started off quite accidentally with one side of the table working against the other side and then ended up with various back stabbing towards the end - could have done with more variant in terms of the board environment though as it didn't end up with actually that many monster encounters by the time someone won.

I think calling them luck based is being a bit unfair though both games are kind of that at a basic level with inexperienced or moderately experienced players - with a thorough understanding of the games you could definitely swing luck very much in your favour. (Though I did win the 2nd game of Flux on my second turn and there was very little anyone could have done to stop me).

 

[jenovat]

As long as you accept it for what it is (luck based and ridiculous) then it's a fun game to play from time to time.

Yeah, it's not meant to be taken seriously but I know people who can get too involved in games regardless of the style and get upset when they lose. It's frustrating because I just want a lovely evening but when people take it too seriously, things generally go downhill.