[Snagliph]

I wouldn't exactly call them house rules, but we certainly have a few unusual add-ons. One is for the Cheat card. Instead of only allowing a cheat on an item, as long as the cheat is defined, it can be on any (reasonable) aspect of the game. For example, one player cheated to be allowed to always hold one extra card at the end of his turn. This way he could have 6 cards, or while a dwarf he could have 7 cards. This continued through the game with the cheat card kept in front of him as an "item" that could be lost with a curse or death.

Another fun variant that we tried was a "random event" game. This was so successful that I think that I will try it again with experienced players. Basically at random points through the game (although I am considering a timer) a random event card would be played. I wrote up these events before the game, but to make it even more fun, the players could each write one up that would be shuffled into the random event deck to be played later. Events could be anything from being forced to switch hands around the table to having to perform a bunch of silly and sometimes munchkinly stuff, both to your benefit and your harm.

We love the kneepads of allure - they are a surefire way to get the rest of the players to gang up on you! Very rarely does a player with the kneepads have a chance to get too close to winning.

Another rule we tend to play, especially when doing demos is that there are no backstabbing-type plays permitted in the first three rounds. Players could help eachother, but not interfere with battles. This helped with alliance forming and learning the game in a friendly manner. After the third round the gloves come off and everyone goes to it.

When cards are played face up (especially in demo games) the text is to be read out loud so all players know what has been picked up. When a player is facing a monster, the bad stuff must be read out for any who request it. No monster is defeated or player loses a battle until all other players have a chance to particpate in the battle.

The worst game I ran was with a particularly rowdy group of kids who did not pay attention to the other half of the game. There were 10+ players, which would have been fine had they paid attention, but in this situation it was too wild. The one end of the table didn't know what the other end was doing, and while everyone had fun the GM (me) was VERY frustrated by the end *sigh*.

I need to think up some house rules to manage such a situation should it happen again. While limiting the group helps, the best game I participated in (didn't run, but wound up running much of it anyway, since the person running it didn't know Munchkin very well) was with 8 players.

One last house rule. We have the "Major Pain in the Butt" award. This is for the most annoying player in the game (who is usually mercilessly ganged up on and has no chance of actualyl winning). The prize is an "unofficial" roll of Munchkin toilet paper (Munchkin head attached)! Sadly, the last game didn't have a winner for this prize - or perhaps I won it by being a rather Munchkinly GM ;) Everyone had a blast though, including the two players who had never played before.