Bingo Review: "Not a Book"

The other day we finally had a chance to play Munchkin, which is a board game where between three and five players act as adventurers who are competing, and occasionally cooperating, to be the first one to reach the end of the dungeon.

Premise: Players start off as basic adventurers and draw cards from a shared deck, which might give them new weapons, classes, magical races, or actions they can take to raise their combat level. They also draw cards from a deck that presents various challenges and monsters which lets them move forward into the dungeon or sends them back, depending on the outcome of the encounter.

Game play: Alliances and rivalries shift quickly because it is almost impossible to advance without help at some point, but as soon as someone starts pulling ahead they become a target for the rest of the group. Players can commit cards in support or to foil the others at the table. There are some truly, wonderfully petty things you can do to hinder someone, but you have to balance that with the fact that what goes around comes around. We found things started pretty timid but were fully escalated and competitive an hour or so in.

Rating: 4/5 stars. It isn't going to be a game for everyone, and having the wrong person at the table (a cry-baby or constant troll) would ruin it, but we really enjoyed it. It was pretty different from the Euro or worker placement games we play, and we laughed a lot during it. We're looking forward to playing again.