Steve Jackson Games - Munchkin: Expansion 2 Unnatural Axe - Board Game

Munchkin is a great Dungeons and Dragons parody game, full of quirky humour and adorable graphics on the cards. This is a must game for any would-be geek/nerd.(Please note that the base game can be bought without the deluxe version, it just depends if you want the extras or not.)This version of Munchkin provides the base game card deck with character cards, 6 coloured plastic character tokens and a very simple 1-10 board to illustrate game progression. As mentioned you can buy it without the board or extras but play is a little more straight forward with them. There is space in the box to add in expansions but it could get messy. Thankfully each expansion to Munchkin is identifiable on the cards (you might have to scan through the deck to check).The game is both simple to dive into and great fun with great replayabilty. If you are a stickler for rules they come with the game and are dowloadable from the official Munchkin website. You play as a "Munchkin", who for all purposes is a generic treasure hunting Human character. Equip him/her with armour and weapons, change them into a thief or a cleric or wizard etc and even change their race from Dwarf to Elf and so on, using cards you have from your hand. Then "knock" on a door to find out what is in the next dungeon. The aim of the game is to get your character to level 10, simply by battling and defeating monsters. Of course it isn't as simpe as have more power than said monster. Find a monster who is too powerful to defeat and you can use potions/spells or abilities or even call on a friend (who may or may not help). Or maybe you can easily defeat the monster, in which case your friend could chose to help the monster defeat you. Things get ugly as you get closer to winning and it's never as straight forward as have the most powerful character. What I love is that even if someone is miles ahead they can come crashing down very easily.Game times can vary from 10mins to 1 hour. The more people you have the more competitive and longer the games can last. My experience has been that the various add ons are well worth a look and don't forget to checkout forums and other online stuff for variant rules etc.Buy this if:1) You like quirky role playing games that make fun of the genre2) You have more than 2 friends as above3) Even if you don't like the above but want something different from Monopoly or Trivial pursuit4) You may be willing to lose hours playing and replayingDon't buy this if:1) You have no sense of humour2) You really don't have more than 1 other friend3) Monopoly is you favourtie game ever and there's nothing to beat it...

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.

My eight year old learnt how to play this game very quickly from friends explaining to him. I read the rules which required a lot of cross referencing with other rules, re reading and evetually I drew a flow chart! So it loses a star on 'educational' for the complexity and length of the official rules if they are intended for a novice ten year old. However kids just seem to get it, it was just the grown ups that had difficulty.The game takes about an hour to play, especially when you are all learning so set time aside and a few games to get to grips with it. Once you understand what you are doing it is fiendicshly good. In fact spend an evening reading all the cards so you can get the measure of it and see what kind of stuff can happen, who can do it and when they can do it.There are simply two decks of cards, treasure and door. You are human and yourself to begin with, but may get class e.g.cleric, wizard, thief...and a race e.g. dwarf, elf, halfling.....by picking up a card that will give you the advatages and disadvatages of being that race/class. There are items which may be articles of armor, one shot potions, and cards that give you a fighting advatage. There are monsters and curses that can work for or against you depending on when they are played. You have to battle monsters to go up a level, you can buy your way up a level, and sometimes you get a lucky card. You can't buy a victory though.On a turn you Kick Down the Door, deal with what you find. You can then Go Looking for Trouble if you have a monster in your hand you think you can battle, or Loot the Room and take another card, but it might be a really big monster. You can negotiate, sell or trade items but not while you're battling a monster. The real fun starts when you can't battle a monster with your current fightin points and have to ask for help or try and run away. The negotiations on how much of a share in the treasure you get if you 'help' a fellow is very telling, and just when you think its all roses some else can lay a curse or more power on the monster and Bad Stuff happens....The winner is the one who gets up to level 10.unlike most games where adults tend to have an advatage, so either patronise the kids and let them win or take delight in beating eight year olds..., this game is level playing field. So adults beware, life experience and a PhD in rocket science will get you nowhere! Your little Halfling Thief can back stab you, curse you and steal your level! They can also help you when you need it.A brilliant game that I would recommend for a fun or possibly explosive evening or rainy day. Hell we've played it on sunny days its so good. And it doesn't matter if ltiile ones try joining in at the start then walk off after five minutes, those cards just get put back in the pile and everyone else carries on.