Freelance Police
United States
Palo Alto
California
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One problems with Munchkin is the dreaded "dogpile on the leader" when a player attempts to win the game. Specifically, the player must obtain his last level through combat, subject to all the nasty modifiers his opponents will play on him. In practice, the first player to attempt to win the game gets hit with all the negative modifiers the players built up during the game and fails to win the game. Another player attempts to do this, and so on. It's essentially a long drawn-out attrition.
At first, the Epic Munchkin rules don't seem to address this. Essentially, in Epic Munchkin, you play to twentieth level. After tenth level, you draw *two* door cards per turn. (If you draw two monsters, you fight them both. If you draw a monster enhancer and a monster, apply the enhancer to the monster and fight it.) Classes and Races receive special powers. 19th and 20th level may only be reached by actual monster kills. That's about it.
So if Epic Munchkin has twice the levels of Munchkin, it should be twice as long, right?
Wrong. Many games have an accelerated endgame, and Epic Munchkin does precisely that. How so? Well, you may have noticed that the Munchkin deck doesn't change as the players become more powerful. This may be overly obvious, but games like Runebound, World of Warcraft: The Boardgame, and World of Warccraft: The Adventure Boardgame, have different decks for more difficult levels of challenge.
As a result, after tenth level, it's easier to crush monsters. And, more importantly, gain Treasures. And, of course, get those nifty Epic powers for your Class and Race. It's the Monty Haul and power gaming you missed in the days of AD&D Vorpal Swords and Rods of Lordly Might.
The mechanically inclined will also note that, since you draw two cards per turn, your chances of encountering monsters are doubled, meaning that you'll go up levels twice as fast. Sure, you might encounter two monsters at once, or one that may even be enhanced. But somehow, a Stealthy Pinata isn't much of a threat when you're 15th level Warrior Dwarf, with the Epic powers to hold two Big items and unlimited hand size, an Elf Hireling, Boots of Butt-Kicking, Flaming Armor, Two-Handed Sword, Helm of Peripheral Vision, Poisoned Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment of Doom, Hammer of Kneecapping, Nasty Tasting Sports Drink, Yuppie Water, and Wolf Steed with Press-On Wings. Yes, it's pretty difficult to stop you if and when you have a greater bonus than your level, and you're 18th level. (And, even if you've just lost a level to Bad Stuff, you'll sell off your unused items to gain that level back.)
Unfortunately, while the Epic rules are free, you may want to use reference cards to remind you of your Class and Race's Epic powers, rather than refer to a rulesheet. At the moment, there's a free "print and play" set of cards, for only the Classes and Races in the basic set (see the web link in the BGG entry). With SJG using a $10 small expansion set format, hopefully there will be printed cards for at least classic Munchkin.
Epic Munchkin may not take care of all the BGG complaints about the game, but it removes the "last level" stalling and gives player an opportunity to claim more shiny things and stomp monsters with excessive amounts of ludicrous power.
Now where did I put that +4 Bonus Lawn Roller? That Potted Plant looks awfully suspicious.
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Sam Yhanto
United States
Arlington
Texas
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The problem, though, is that after tenth level the game gets too easy. It's almost duller than the pre-tenth level game.
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Normally the normal game goes like this:
Player A stays at level 1 for the whole game because he only draws evil monsters.
Player B and C rush for level 10.
When Player B reaches level 9 and faces an easy kill players A and C use up all their cards to stop him. Afterwards Player C draws the potted plant and easily kills it and wins because no one has any cards left.
Same with the epic rules, just takes longer.
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Peter J. Towns
Taiwan
New Taipei City
New Taipei City
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Phil, you're totally right. That is the big flaw.
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