Munchkin, from Steve Jackson Games, is a fairly polarizing game, especially at BGG, where people tend to love it or hate it. I love it, mostly from playing some truly memorable games with my kids over the years.
Nolan was to my right. He kicked in a door and didn't find a monster, so he looked for trouble, playing a level 3 something from his hand. "Does anyone want to mess with me?" He asked, avoiding looking in my direction.
"It's funny you should ask," I said. "That's an illusion. You're actually fighting a level 18 Squidzilla." I played the appropriate cards.
"Oh, okay." Nolan pulled a card from his hand. "It's now enraged, so it gets an additional treasure." He pulled another card from his hand. "And with this Polymorph Potion, it turns into a parrot and flies away." He paused dramatically. "And I take five treasures."
"OHHH!" Ryan and Michael said.
"Man, that's a really great move," I said. "Too bad I'm playing Annihilation on it."
He was forced to discard the potion, and face the Enraged Squidzilla on his own.
"OHHH!" Ryan and Michael said."
"Okay, then." Nolan said. "I guess I'm running away."
We all laughed. Nolan rolled a one. He stopped laughing. We looted his body. There was much rejoicing. (Well, there was 3/4 rejoicing.)
I've talked to lots of people at cons and stuff who haven't played Munchkin, but have read about me playing it, and were curious about it.
The best way to learn a new game, in my extremely humble and unassailably correct opinion, is to jump right in and play it with experienced players (note that this is yet another reason the Friendly Local Gameshop is such an important part of our ecosystem). But sometimes, that just isn't possible or practical ... and the webmonkeys and interzombies at SJ Games have created a playable flash demo of Munchkin, based on the Rigged Demo they've been running at cons for years, just for you.
