TOPIC: Dungeon Delving Board Games

Laggramar wrote: Anyone else played Munchkin? It is quite amusing, like an every man for himself dungeon crawler card game. Very comedic too.

Eh. I'll be the stick in the mud and dissent.

Munchkin is a so-so game. It's not horrible or unplayable. But neither is it anywhere close to good. If anything, I think it is vastly over-hyped.

1. First off, it tries too hard with its humor. So either you find it hilarious or not (guess which camp I am in). The same applies to other games like Fluxx, and possibly Illumanati (though I actually find the latter to be amusing, though not everyone does).

2. Secondly, it makes a common "mistake" for multi-player games, in that there's an extremely high temptation to simply pile on the leader. Although sometimes such a mechanic may be there on purpose (ostensibly to help "balance" game play) it often seems odd from a player strategy perspective when you want to do well but not too well. This is a common problem with CCG's designed for 2 players but then they try to expand it to more. You'll see a similar problem (though slightly different in nature) in board games like Battlestar Galactica, where you don't want to do too well at the half-way point, because you may end up changing sides.


But back to the original topic. As for dungeon delving board games, I did like Hero Quest back in the day (though it's a bit primitive by modern standards). I like Arkham Horror and Betrayal at House on the Hill, though they're not quite like D&D. I also think the new D&D board games seem kind of neat (though I wish there was even more depth to them). Always meant to try Descent but I just haven't gotten around to it.