Subject: Balance in Munchkin...
Author:
Posted on: 2016-01-15 21:48:00 UTC
... consists of other players beating on you if you get too far ahead.
hS
PS: You are all terrible people and if I end up making a digital version of this /you'd better balley well play it/.
For those who don't know Munchkin is a card game where the goal is to "Kill the monsters. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddy." Sounds fun right?
I have the Cthulhu version plus the first two expansions for that, the Nightmare Before Christmas version, and a copy of the original signed by Steve Jackson himself.
I've tried the classic game with a lot of expansion packs added and Star Munchkin. I have a friend who has a bunch of different versions and we're planning to work our way through them all.
It's really fun. We get all backstabby and then we pretend to be really mad at each other.
...But I have only played it with my cousins, of whom I only see during holidays.
I hope I can get the base game someday, to go with my Dork Tower comics.
By the way, does anyone ever tried the board game? WOuld want to know if it's worth it.
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get my brother back for a nasty combo he played once.
>Up against the Plutonium Dragon
>Plays Wandering Monster: Gazebo
>Plays Ancient
>Plays Enraged
>Plays way too many other bonus cards
>And then to add insult to injury, plays Mate.
Little turd.
The fact that they're old and battered just makes them mad.
(I realise it would be much more sensible to stack the modifiers on the dragon, but this was funnier. Which would make it a far better Munchkin play, come to think...)
hS
Is so I wouldn't be able to ask for help when facing them.
Stupid, Munchkinning baby brother. >.>
Like...
~Monsters~
Doctor's Daughter
Level 9
Bad Stuff: She can travel through time. If you gained a level on your last turn, you lose it.
Harry's Twin
Level 4
Bad Stuff: She jinxes you and your tongue turns urple. Discard one random card from your hand.
Tenth Walker
Level 20
Bad Stuff: She ruins the plot for everyone. Roll a die. On an even number, you are dead. On an odd number, you go insane.
~Items~
One Ring
+5 Bonus
Drives you slowly insane, unless you are a Hobbit.
Lightsaber
+2 Bonus
Ruby (or silver, you book nerd) Slippers
+2 Bonus
Footgear
Can be used once to escape any encounter. Just click your heels and say "There's no place like home."
Stuff like that! :D
hS
(PS: Serious question - are people genuinely enough in that style of art for me to put in the time to make 150+ cards? That's a lot of time investment, and if the result is going to be six posts saying 'wow that's awesome' and then it dropping off the face of the internet, I'll settle for a card list and no pictures.)
If there's any way I could help, assuming you'd be willing to do this, just let me know!
1/ Card ideas. Right now I have 60 cards listed, most of which are complete (there's a couple of name-only curses, and the 'classes' are only half-done), but the Munchkin base set is 160. I'm vaguely aiming for 150+, so if people want to throw out card ideas - monsters, curses, and equippable items are the big things - I'll cheerfully take them. (Not promising I won't monkey about with them, of course!)
2/ Card assembly. I'm putting the actual cards together in a combination of Word and Paint, which isn't ideal. I'm not sure I'd get it done if I had to use PaintShopPro, so if someone's willing (in the dim'n'distant future) to take the images and text and make them go together, that'd be lovely.
Also:
(You either become a Time Lord, or you get an alarmingly different body. The PPC can be very Munchkin at times.)
(The picture here took about half an hour, for reference.)
hS
WhatThe
Use during combat. -3 to the player only.
Flip a coin. If heads, go insane. If tails, you're safe.
(I'm working on a mission that's making my brain hurt, and then this idea popped into my head.)
Couuld some Legendaries be used for high-level monsters?
For example: Rose Potter Level 20 Bad Stuff: This nudist psycho tries her Puncturing Curse on you. You're dead. (No, I'm not using Action Movie Hero from Zombies Munchkin as a basis, why are you asking me this?)
Lightsaber, 1 hand, +4 Attack Power. Sci-FI Fandom only. Fire attack. (Would have to be balanced.)
Exploding CAD. You had to point it at these Sues, right? Throw a dice. On 1-3, it explodes at your face, -3 for you. 4-6, you manage to throw it at the offending monster, -3 for him. (Balancing too, I guess.)
... make them generic. A Level 10 Character Replacement (Suvian) card which you slap Legendary and Overpowered modifiers on seems like more fun to say 'Hey, it's Rose Potter!' about than, well, a card that says 'Rose Potter'. Also, it means people from any fandom will get the joke, rather than just those who've read Iximaz's missions. ^_~
hS
3,872 Fangirls
Level 10
Bad Stuff: They trample you to death.
(yes, this was based on the orcs, don't judge me. :P)
~
Curse! Lose your remote activator
You are not able to attempt to run away from your next encounter.
~
Curse! Tempt the IO
Be careful what you say! If you begin a statement with the words "It could have been worse", "At least it wasn't...", or any other similar phrases, the first player to call you out on it gets to draw a card from your hand.
This curse lasts until you remove it with an item.
~
Cafeteria Food
Useable while in combat. -3 to either side. Serves you right for trying to eat it.
Curse! Insane Authorial Work Ethic
Each time you kill a Monster, draw another Monster. This counts as a different encounter, so one-use-only items are considered already used up.
~
Jaycacia Thornbyrd
Level 7
Parody
Bad Stuff: Lose two levels. Additionally, you must tell a joke. Lose an item for everyone who doesn't laugh.
Muggle-Use Wand
+2 Levels. +4 against Fantasy enemies.
500 Coins
~
Muggle-Use Wang
+1 Level. +2 against Parody enemies. If you have the Free-To-Use Agent Luxury, her bonuses are doubled.
100 Coins
(N.B. I think Companions might be best reflected with Free To Use Agents. =] )
The Unspeakable Things In Moria
Level 10
Bad Stuff: You get involved, and can never be spoken of again. You will wish it was just death.
~
Cowrite
+2 Levels. Gain the benefits of a random other Department or Fandom.
Continuity Council
Flip a coin. If heads, the enemy gets +7 levels and the card is discarded. If tails, the character in the fight gains +3 levels AND the card. If the person playing the card has the Sci-Fi Fandom, they get to pick which effect activates.
~~~
Bob
Level: 5
Bad Stuff: The incalculable shame of having been vanquished by a sandwich that walks like a man means you lose a random item.
Are they just a +3/whatever bonus item, or is there more to it?
Also, I'm trying to keep strictly in-universe (y'know, as far as the PPC ever is), so the Insane Authorial Work Ethic - despite the awesomeness of that title - has become simply Overworked.
Alsø alsø wik: Jaycacia. I said to Hardric that I'd like to keep cards 'generic' where possible, buuuut it's Jaycacia. Should I keep her named (since she's in the PPC rather than badfic, so is equivalent to 'Luxury' or, indeed, 'Department of Mary Sues') or make her a generic 'PPC Sue' card? I'm asking for input because I'm well biased about her.
hS
Work kind of like a level boost, but there's a bit more to it than that. Companions can carry stuff, be given equipment, and so forth, but I think there's also methods of making them disloyal or killing them off. =]
Given that we've already got the Insanity mechanic in play, I think I'll leave Temporary Partners for the inevitable expansion.
Which means I can keep Luxury as this:
(That is a terrible picture. I hoped shrinking it would help, but it didn't... :O)
hS
The drawing thing. Well, I mean, the main issue with the Lux picture is that her head is much too big, but apart from that, the way to get them to look good better is to double the image size before I do the outlines.
(The eyes are deliberate. The lack of signature is not.)
That makes me feel better. ^_^
hS
PS: Also I think her leg has snapped off at the hip. Dynamic poses are not my thing. ~hS
We could even set up tournaments! I'm sure a lot of people would be interested!
Techie
Level 4
Bad Stuff: He won't let you misuse this piece of (uncanonical anyway) tech. Discard a Weapon.
Bleeprin-Deprived Agent. (Say slowly Bleeprin. like a zombie.)
Level 7
Bad Stuff: You win the encounter if you hand discard a Bleepstuff card. Hope you aren't a Time Lord. If not, you discard one card from your hand while he's pillaging your body.
Of course, in Munchkin, you've got your races and classes cards, right? And yes, I'm well aware that these need some serious balancing.
Races
Hobbit: Whenever you want to run away, you can reroll the die. You must use the second roll, even if it's lower than the first.
Yeerk: Once each time after you gain a level, you can control another player to assist you in a fight.
Dalek: You can only assist other players of the Dalek Race, but you both go up a level afterward if you win the encounter.
Dwarf: Monsters with the Sue keyword automatically are repulsed by you. They take a -2 penalty when fighting you.
Classes:
Assassin: +2 against monsters with the Sue keyword, -2 against monsters with the Possession keyword
Exorcist: +2 against monsters with the Possession keyword, -2 against monsters with the Sue keyword
Floaters: You can use Big weapons like they are normal sized. Gotta be versatile, right?
Detanglers: You get a +4 bonus if you are facing multiple monsters from different continua.
Back when I made the PPC Card Game, I started by giving every card an individualised race and canon. That's led to the current rules needing a table of conversions for the races, and as for the fandoms - eesh! We have cards specifically for Yu-Gi-Oh! in there, how did we think that was going to work?
What you've got here is a perfect excuse for people to list every species they can think of. How often do you draw a Race in Munchkin? Exactly.
If I were making PPC Munchkin (haha, 'if'), I'd ignore the 'race' and 'class' descriptions. I'd go with something like the following:
Fandom
Fantasy: Don't have an idea for the bonus. Something to do with magic attacks?
Sci-Fi: After stepping through the portal (== kicking down the door), if you don't like the first Portal card you draw, you may discard three cards to discard it and turn over a new one.
Anime: Maybe do something with transformations, not sure.
Video Game: Carry (and use) as many Big items as you like - because you have an arbitrarily-large inventory.
Department
Pretty much your Classes, but renamed to be literally 'DMS', 'DBS','Floaters', and 'DIC'. I'd probably make the DIC bonus based on being in a battle involving an agent from a different fandom, but that's all fiddly details.
hS
something along the lines of reusing One Shot items
With the Video Games card, I'd suggest 'carry and use as many Big items as you like, provided you have that slot open in your inventory' so that way you can't have people quintuple-wielding two-handed Big items.
I think that's very close to the base-game Dwarf power, actually.
Or one of them, because Munchkin classes and races tend to have two abilities. Obviously these would too.
hS
Could the fact of potentially using any objects from any fandom be a bonus?
I only have Munchkin Zombies, base set.
Interspecies Marriage: Equip a monster card
Get a Partner: Play this on a fellow player, they cannot deny your request of assistance
Read the charges: No more modifiers can be added to the monster
Curse! Get drenched in glitter: Lose all cards from the ppc deck in your hand
Hunter
It's also a gun: Discard a card during any combat to add an attack bonus equal to a card of your choosing in play to any side.
Transforming weapon: can add up to 2 card that gives a bonus attack to a weapon as a modifier.
Post a Mission
Realize your Agents are TV Tropes Gods
Destroy a C-Cad
Commune with Monty Oum
Visit the Armory
Go on a Vacation
Find the Pool - Can be the winning level
Post a Collab
Get feels
Regenerate -Go up a level, but lose your race, class, and items related to those classes
Get glomped by Lux
Recognize a pop culture reference
Threaten the Flowers With Fire - Go up a level
I like to imagine that the PPC Munchkin game is a quest to see who hits retirement (level 10) first. :P
Gem
Fusion: When assisted by allies, total attack is equal team's Total Combat score divided by the allies currently assisting you multiplied by 1.5
Regeneration: agent keeps 1 one handed weapon upon death, but loses it's modifiers
Please keep in mind the fact that munchkin should not be balanced. at all. part of the fun.
... consists of other players beating on you if you get too far ahead.
hS
PS: You are all terrible people and if I end up making a digital version of this /you'd better balley well play it/.
I'll be crossing it with any Munchkin set I happen to possess at the moment I discover it exists. The mix will be perfect.
Race
Demigod: +1 combat bonus for each discard, up to +3 bonus, -1 runaway
Demigod
ADHD: +1 combat bonus for each modifier on the enemy,
Smells like chicken: -1 runaway
Why not a card "Flame-thrower Crazy?" forcing a player to attack another. (Say Mr. Rogers! Mr. Roogers while playing this card.)
Oh, and what would be the Flowers' level?
You automatically hit maximum insanity, causing you to attack the player on your left. Whoever has the higher item bonus wins, and the loser must let them take a card of their choice from your hand.
Unless you don't have the cheat with both hands card set