[Andrew Hackard]

Massive multi-reply here. As a general note, I'd just like to say that I'm pleased by the reaction so far; even the folks here who are less than excited by the game are being positive about the news, and I appreciate it. Some places have been less . . . optimistic.

I also want to mention the very hard work Darryll Silva and Devin Lewis have been putting in on this game. Ich spreche kein CCG, so having two experienced CCG guys spearheading the internal development of the game has put my mind very much at ease. When this game succeeds, they will deserve a great deal of the credit.

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

That surprises me, as I'd always thought that not doing that was a deliberate choice for Munchkin.

Not in the way you're thinking, no. Munchkin was originally designed as a standalone silly card game, following on the heels of Chez Geek (about which more later). When it came time to work on expansions, and especially the boosters, we decided not to go with a randomized model because it didn't really fit the game we had designed -- it's too easy to unbalance a Munchkin game if you aren't careful picking and choosing cards. I know; I've tried it.

So we made a deliberate decision to stay away from the randomized booster model, but the decision not to work on a CCG wasn't really a decision as much as that just wasn't the kind of game we wrote when we made Munchkin. Perhaps if we had recognized the juggernaut at its birth, we would have done things differently. Perhaps not; the current strategy has worked pretty well so far.

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

I might go for a starter set if you can actually play a good game just with that.

The starters are designed to be fun two-player games on their own. We're trying to make sure that each pair of decks has good interactions and leads to a fun game.

That said, it's going to be a BETTER game if you start dipping into the boosters; the other thing that is true of the starters is that they present only a subset of the card mechanics that have been worked out. Some of the booster cards are scary.

Originally Posted by ThisisDog

CCGs aren't my thing, especially with the cash I've sunk into building my standard Munchkin collection over the past year (fun fact, next friday marks one year since I was gifted my first Munchkin set, it seems like a lot longer ago). I'm going to reserve judgment until I see some of the cards and the rules.

Happy Munchkiversary!

We had a prototype set of the starters and rules at our retailer party in Las Vegas earlier this week. Even some of the more skeptical retailers came away from the game enthusiastic about it, and most of them were vocally pleased with how fun the game was, even apart from the Munchkin content. Eric and Kevin have really done some fun things with the CCG format in this game.

(And, again, these were the starter sets. We didn't cherry-pick cards to build fun decks; this is what will be in the first packages people see, modulo a bit more playtesting and polishing.)

Originally Posted by scuba1125

That is great to hear! I had a chance to talk briefly with Eric at GenCon last year and he seemed like he would be a wonderful person to work with, or even just sit and chat with.

He is, very much so. He also knows lots of great places to grab a bite in Toronto. I'm hoping to make Toronto one of my regular gaming travel destinations now, along with Indianapolis and Seattle.

Originally Posted by CaptainChwelve

On the one hand, this is very exciting! I love munchkin and am thrilled to see it expand and try new things. I'm confident that it's going to be a quality game.

On the other hand, I simply can't afford this. I've dabbled in collectible card games before, and if you want to play at any sort of competitive level, it will break the bank.

Let the record show that we are quite sure many fans will decide to stick with the normal (-ish) Munchkin game, and that's totally fine with us. This is a parallel game, not a replacement that's designed to choke regular Munchkin off the shelves. We figure some CCG players might hear about the new mechanics and give it a whirl, and some Munchkin players who are looking for a new type of game will try it out as well.

Originally Posted by offsides

And while I have no illusions that players of one type will automatically equate to players of another, getting more people interested in Munchkin of ANY variety is a good thing in my book. :)

Yep!

Originally Posted by ThisisDog

But not always for the consumer. I've bought both Cthulhu Dice and Chez Geek off the back of Promo items from W23, and let's just say neither have lit game nights on fire

That's a real shame. Cthulhu Dice is a fun time-filler -- and a fantastic way to decide who gets to go first when you're playing a bigger game! -- and Chez Geek is one of my own favorites of the games we produce. Certainly not trying to talk you out of your opinions, just saying that you mentioned two of my own go-to games.

(On that note, if you haven't tried Castellan or the Mars Attacks games, you're missing out -- they're all very different from other games we've tried and they're all super fun. Each one can be played easily in under an hour.)

Originally Posted by ThisisDog

Also, the focus on content for this will hopefully make the release schedule for the non-collectable game a little more sparse, which can only be good news for my wallet...

<Andrew looks at his deadline schedule, weeps a single tear of blood, goes back to the pun mines>