Munchkinomicon During Combat

[codog27]

My friends and I have played with the Munchkinomicon a few times and we continuously run into one issue while playing the game.

Whenever a munchkin gets close to beating a high level monster, people start discarding cards to steal the Munchkinomicon card to try and draw out more spells that can stop the Munchkin who's fighting the monster. I don't have a problem with this happening, say one time. But we've played a few times where this happens 5 or 6 times in a row until finally the munchkin loses the battle or the players finally give up. I should mention that its usually two players who exchange the card back and forth until it finally stops.

I'm just curious how others play with the Munchkinomicon card. Do you guys tend to let this happen or become more strict with the 2.6 seconds to do something rule?

[ChargerFan2121]

My group allows this. We see that it is no different then the idea of a level 1 thief discarding cards in an attempt to prevent someone from winning. A munchkin gots to do what a Munchkin gots to do.

[DoomedDuck]

I'm pretty sure Andrew has said fishing expeditions like that violate the reasonable time clause but I'm not sure if that was actually in reference to the Munchkinomicon.

Either way, my group only allows each player to obtain the M'con once per turn per method, eg. once by sacking a level, once by discarding 3 cards, etc.

[Mister Ed]

Yes, fishing expeditions in hopes of maybe finding something to stop the person are officially discouraged. The situation with the thief mentioned is different because the thief isn't stealing stuff DURING combat because that's against the rules. If a couple players wanted to pull this BEFORE combat started in order to get something to stop a possible combat win, I can't see any real issue, but when you are trying to stop somebody from winning a combat in progress, you need to either have the resources in hand, or have a way of CERTAINLY getting them, like Divining Rod (though maybe that's frowned upon, too, for this purpose. I'd allow it). You aren't supposed to hold up the game repeatedly fishing for something, anything, that MIGHT do the job.

[Brandonson112]

Doing such a thing violates Wheaton's Law and such would be frowned upon.

[emillang1000]

My group houserules that the Munchkinomikon may only change hands by sacrificing levels ONCE per turn. So while everyone else can Lose a Level and fish for something, that's it - one-and-done per person. Same goes for the Discarding.

Cursing someone, on the other hand, is kosher, because at least they're getting Cursed.

[Andrew Hackard]

I've been thinking about the whole issue, and here's my semi-official clarification of my earlier comments:

Once a player says, "OK, I'm winning -- is anything doing anything to stop me?" the "reasonable time" count begins. You cannot stop the player by saying you INTEND to do something; you have to make an affirmative action (by playing a card or discarding to use a power). Discard diving is not an affirmative action -- you can pull Spells with the Munchkinomicon if you want, but if you don't play Spells that directly affect the fight, then you aren't changing the state of the combat, and so the "reasonable time" clause is still in effect.

I will allow one exception: if you have a discard-diving card and there is a SPECIFIC combat-affecting card that you can name that you are trying to pull out of the discards, then stating your intention to play that specific card once you find it counts. If that seems to be a stalling tactic, however (for instance, if you are reading every card instead of skimming the card titles in the hope of hitting a game time limit), this exception is revoked and the player can go ahead and win the fight.