Munchkin - How To Play

0:07 hi and welcome to watch it played my name is rodney smith and in this video we're going to learn the three to six player game munchkin designed by steve jackson and published by steve jackson games who helped sponsor this video fighting in a dungeon is always dangerous but here it's not just the monsters you have to worry about even your friends are trying to stab you in the back especially when you're carrying all that treasure so look out i've got the deluxe version of munchkin here we'll use this in the video but you can also pick up regular munchkin which has slightly different components that we'll go over at the end of the video so you can compare but that said they both have the same rules so join me at the table and let's learn how to play to set up sort the cards by their backs into what are known as the door and treasure decks giving each of them a good shuffle then put this game board and die within reach of the players and set each deck onto their matching spaces here and here now deal each of the players four cards from each of the decks and in this video we'll assume that we have three players you can always look at your own cards but keep them a secret from the others now have players pick a color collecting the two related standees they then set either standee onto the value one space of the board keeping their other one in front of themselves as a reminder of their player color and that's the setup in munchkin you and the other players start as level 1 fantasy characters fighting monsters and each other in a dungeon that's full of treasures all in an effort to be the

1:38 first to get your character to level 10 winning you the game so let's start by talking about your character as mentioned each player starts as a human but may play cards over time that change the race of their character these will have the keyword race in the bottom right hand corner and we can see some examples of the options here a character can also have a class which represents the type of fighter there you have no class at the beginning of the game but here we see some examples of class cards and these will have that keyword in their bottom corner at the very start of the game before any turns are taken the players can start to customize their characters by playing cards from their hand to change their class and race for example if my character had these two cards i could play them to turn my classless human into an elf warrior these cards will give my character certain advantages and disadvantages as i play and we'll talk more about that a little later just know you can only have one race and one class in play at a time cards in play are any on the table in front of you that are no longer in your hand and anything in play is considered public information that should be visible to all the players cards in your hand are not in play and are kept secret from everyone else okay so we know that at the beginning of the game you can play race and class cards if you want but that's not all you can also equip your character with items you have in hand items will have a gold pieces value in their bottom right corner and even if an item is listed as

3:09 having no value it's still considered an item it's just worth zero gold pieces and we'll see why the gold value of items matter a little later to equip items to your character just play them onto the table in front of you and you can have any number of items equipped at one time with a couple of restrictions some items will have body keywords in their left hand corner and you can only have one of each type equipped at a time except for hand items you can have up to two hand items equipped at once for example you can have just one piece of headgear not two of them at once but you could have two one-handed items because you have two hands some items take up two hands at once like this bow with ribbons so in that case you couldn't have any other hand items equipped also pay attention to any requirements listed at the top of the card the bow with ribbons can only be equipped by an elf character while this pointy hat can only be used by a wizard and this mithril armor cannot be used by wizards some items may be restricted to certain genders like this club and if so you can only equip that item if your mail standee is on the board but as we'll see it's possible for your gender to change during the game so far when talking about item restrictions i've been telling you what you can have equipped but there's a difference between what you can equip and what you can carry for example that pointy hat that we saw that can only be used by wizards it can only be equipped by a wizard but it can be

4:40 carried by anyone my elf warrior can carry that hat they just can't wear it all the items you've played in front of you are being carried but any you don't have equipped should be rotated sideways this means that although you have those items you aren't currently gaining any of the effects printed on them you should also keep an eye out for the size of the items every item is considered small unless it has the word big printed in this corner you can have any number of small items but can only carry or equip one big item at a time with that understood you know enough to create your character at the very start of the game where again you can play one class and or one race card and any number of usable items the game itself is played over a series of turns starting with the first player and then going clockwise around and around the table until someone wins to determine who goes first each player rolls the die with the highest result taking the first turn re-rolling any ties for highest value and just so you know this side of the die represents a one on your turn you perform three phases starting with the kick open the door phase here you draw and reveal one card from this door deck if it's a curse as shown here then it targets you and you resolve its effect this curse tells us to lose a level and your level is based on where your standee is on the track here you can never go lower than level one so this curse would do nothing and whether a curse has had an effect on

6:11 you or not after resolving it it's discarded and discarded door cards go face up into the area for them here and in a similar way when you have to discard treasure cards as we'll see later they go in their related spot just know that you can never look through the discard piles unless an effect lets you some curses like this one are ongoing if you reveal this chicken on your head it will continue to subtract one from all your future die rolls until you can find a way to remove the curse and instructions for removing a curse will be explained on the card itself but curses are just one type of card you may reveal when you kick open the door at the start of your turn so let's see what else you might find in there you may for example reveal a monster and these can be identified by the level they show at the top when a monster is revealed after kicking the door open on your turn you must fight it and to do this you compare its combat strength to yours the combat strength of a monster is its level and any other effects in play that may increase or decrease it likewise your combat strength is your level and any modifiers that change that for example our level here is one but we have a bow with ribbons equipped and that gives us a plus four bonus so our total strength is five and the chickens is only two just understand you can't play an item once combat has started or change the items that you have equipped so if i had that bow in my hand i couldn't play it now that the chicken has been revealed

7:41 if i wanted to play this i'd have to wait until the combat was over either way if your total strength is greater than the monsters you've killed it after killing a monster you move your standee up one level if killing a monster ever causes you to hit level 10 the game is over and you win that said killing a monster doesn't just gain you a level also check its treasure value here when you defeat a monster you now draw this number of cards from the treasure deck when gained this way just add them to your hand without showing anyone and we've seen some of the treasures you can gain already like the weapons and armors we saw that can be carried and equipped but you may find other things in the treasure deck as well just know any treasure may be played as soon as you get it or you can hold on and play it at any time on one of your turns except during combat unless the rules or its effect says otherwise make sense okay let's take a moment here and look at a few examples of things you might find in the treasure deck if a card lets you go up a level like this one does you can play it to advance yourself or even another player one space on the track but there's one very important exception the only way to advance to level 10 and win the game is if you kill a monster you cannot advance yourself or another player to level 10 using some other method like one of these treasure cards either way after playing a treasure you then add it to its discard pile here

9:12 some treasures like this one may have an effect that will let you remove a curse also notice this says it can be played anytime which means you could play it during combat or even when it's not your turn but also notice it is usable only once that means after you play and resolve its effects you discard it here's another treasure that says you're allowed to play it during combat this turns any one monster into a parrot which flies away we might use this potion when facing this horde of level 10 orcs if we don't have enough combat strength when you play a card like this one that gets rid of a monster without killing it you've still won the combat but you don't get to go up a level and you don't collect its treasures unless its effect says otherwise in this case it says the treasures do get left behind so we'd get to draw three not bad we're not going to go through all of the different treasures here in this video as how they work is described on them but if you have any questions well i won't be able to help with those directly there's just too many possible combinations and outcomes i recommend checking the munchkin frequently asked questions website which i'll have linked in the description all right so we got talking about treasures because if you fight a monster and have greater combat strength you kill it go up a level and gain treasure from it sending the defeated monster to the discard pile but what if you didn't win the fight if the combat strength of the monster is equal or greater than the player's strength the monster wins as a level 1

10:43 elf with this bow my total strength is 5 which is higher than this level 4 leprechaun but be careful because some monsters have bonuses against certain heroes like we see here when facing an elf this monster gains plus 5 so now it has a total strength of 9 but that's not all earlier i said that treasures in your hand can't be used during combat but that changes if the effect on the card says it can be played during combat and anyone can play cards or use class or race abilities that they have to help or harm you in combat for example any player could reveal this card from their hand since it can be played during any combat and then they choose to add five to either the strength of the player fighting the monster or they can give those five points to the monster after all you don't really want other players to win fights because then they go up levels and gain treasures so you might want to help the monster out some cards that boost monsters come from the door deck and these are known as enhancers and can be played during combat to affect the monster's strength remember if your combat strength is equal to or less than the monsters you'll lose the fight but if you can't win on your own you can always ask another player for help if they turn you down you can then turn to the other players until everyone has refused or someone offers to help but only one player can help

12:14 a player who helps adds their character's combat strength to yours along with any modifiers they would gain or lose based on the monster that you're fighting just know the special effects of the monster will apply to the helping player as well for example if i was fighting these harpies and another player controlling a wizard offered to help me that would actually give the harpies plus five to their combat strength as shown here most players won't help you without some encouragement also known as bribing them you could offer to play cards on them you can't just give a player an item from your hand but if you had a card for example that would cause a player to level up you could say i will play this to level you up if you'll agree to help me you could offer them items that you're currently carrying or some amount of the treasure that the monster will give out if it's defeated now if you do offer some of the monsters treasures just make sure to be clear which of you will pick from the rewards first after they're drawn if you do succeed in defeating a monster when you're helped you level up as usual but your helper does not then you gain treasure as usual but reveal them face up so everyone can see what was earned then you distribute them based on the deals you made with your helper if any some effects may force a player to help you in a fight but you can never force someone to help you in a fight if winning that fight would cause you to advance to level 10 and win the game so as you can see there are many ways to effect a fight and you should

13:45 always give a brief moment after playing a card before fully resolving the combat in case anyone else wants to add in just one more card to the mix either way when the card play is over if your total strength including any from a helper is equal to or less than the monsters you lose and you won't gain any levels or treasure but that's not all now you must try to run away from the monster by rolling the die if you get five or more you escape and the combat is over but just know that some effects on treasures or monsters may increase or decrease this value on the other hand if your final runaway value is 4 or less the monster does some bad stuff to you before you get away this means you resolve any bad stuff effect on the monster here it takes two items from you one chosen by each player on either side of you at the table after resolving any bad stuff you then discard the monster but if you had a helper in the combat they must also resolve their own attempt to run away rolling the die for themself that said sometimes when you suffer the bad stuff you won't get to walk away from that encounter squidzilla's bad stuff effect says that when resolved you're just dead like really dead when you die you keep your class race level and any curses you might have had but then you put all of the cards in your hand face up on the table along with any items you were

15:15 carrying or had equipped now each of the other players gets to take one item from these face up options starting with the highest level player and going down from there if players are tied at a level they'll roll the die to see who collects first the other players put the card they took into their hand and if there aren't enough cards for everyone some won't get anything but if there are any leftover cards those are all discarded while a character is dead they cannot gain cards for any reason and they can't level up or win the game that said once the next player starts their turn the dead character returns with just the race and class card and any curses they had before they died if any then at the start of their next turn they'll draw four cards from each deck playing any legal cards they want to just like when they created their character at the start of the game i should mention that some cards like the wandering monster can cause more than one monster to be in a fight at the same time causing them to combine their strengths which you then have to exceed you might have a situation where you play a card that allows you to just get rid of one of the monsters leaving only one left to fight but if you're not able to defeat that one you won't get any levels or treasures from either of them unless their card says otherwise i should also mention if you're ever facing a monster with this undead keyword in the area here any player can play additional undead monsters into that fight for free because the undead

16:47 they like to attack in hordes with that we've now gone over many of the situations you'll encounter in the game but as i mentioned before the cards come in all kinds of varieties and it's not possible to cover all of them here so again if you have any questions about specific ones be sure to check the munchkin frequently asked questions website which i'll link to in the description of this video with that in mind though i think it's time to go back and discuss how a player resolves their turn because everything we just discussed related to what could happen when you complete the first phase of a turn kicking open the door where you draw and reveal the top card of the door deck now i should mention if the door deck or treasure deck is ever empty and you would need to draw a new card just shuffle the related discard pile into a new deck after finishing the kick open the door phase the player now performs the look for trouble or loot the room phase but you only perform this step if you didn't fight a monster in the first phase if you did find a monster then just skip this phase but if you didn't fight a monster you now have a choice you can either play a monster from your own hand and fight it just like the combat we discussed earlier or you can loot the room by drawing a card from the door deck when you draw a door card this way instead of revealing it you add it directly to your hand now whether you performed the second phase of your turn or had to skip it you now come to the third phase of a turn charity at this point if you have more than five cards in your hand you may now play enough to get yourself down to five or below if you can't or don't want to

18:18 you must now give any that would put you over five cards in hand to the player with the lowest level if there's a tie for lowest level then you divide the cards as evenly as possible between those players if you happen to be the player with the lowest level you just discard all cards you're holding above five instead and that ends the charity phase of your turn now the next player in clockwise order goes and with that you now know most of the rules for playing the game but you should make sure you look over this chart in the rulebook when you're first learning to play as it will remind you when you can perform certain types of actions and when you can't for example it says that at any time you can discard a class or race card you have in front of you this means you can even do this during combat on the other hand all of these actions can't be performed while a player is in combat with a monster including this first option we need to discuss trading an item with another player items on the table and only items on the table not in your hand can be given or exchanged with another player but any items that are received must stay in play they don't go back to the player's hands some actions like the ones we see here can only be performed on your own turn and this list includes selling items which we'll talk about in a second but you can only sell on your turn when you're not in combat or running away to sell you discard any number of items from your hand and or in front of you that you're carrying or have equipped that are worth at least 1

19:50 000 gold pieces total and then you immediately go up one level you won't get changed back if the cards you trade in are worth more than a thousand gold pieces but if you trade in 2 000 or more then every thousand you just traded in will advance you one level and just remember you can only get to level 10 by killing a monster not by trading in items another area of the rules worth keeping an eye on while playing is this section that talks about conflicts between cards and the core rules of the game any effect on a card can break the rules i've explained in this video except in the four cases that they list here these i've gone over but you should refer to this when you're playing just to make sure you're clear on it as we wrap up i should mention if you have the regular version of munchkin instead of the deluxe one you get all of the same cards you just don't get the folding board or the standees instead players can keep track of their levels with a pen and paper or could just use coins or poker chips the standees can also be useful for tracking your character's gender if an effect says that your gender is changed you put the new gender standee on the level track and take the other one back there are also other products for munchkin that you can pick up that provide new cards and even other settings to play in so be sure to check out the steve jackson website for more information on those but otherwise that's everything you need to know to play munchkin if you have any questions about anything you saw here feel free to put them in the comments below and i'll gladly answer them as soon as i get a chance but as i mentioned for any

21:22 questions about specific cards and interactions you'll want to check the munchkin frequently asked questions document you'll also find forums for discussion pictures other videos and lots more over on the games page at board game geek and i'll put a link to that in the description below and if you found this video helpful please consider giving it a like subscribing and clicking that little bell icon so you get notification any time we post a new video and if you'd like to support us directly you can join our patreon team which i'll have linked below but until next time thanks for watching