Munchkin questions from someone new (to the forum)

[banjonate]

Hey All!

First of all, I'd like to say that I am a Munchkin player from almost day one. My battered, beaten, and blistered poor box is rules version 1.03 that I bought in 2002, I believe. Since then, I have added Unnatural Axe, Clerical Errors, and thrown in Super Munchkin, Star Munchkin, The Good, the Bad, the Munchkin, and Blender for good measure (no, we don't generally cross games but the Blender cards make for interesting stuff).

However, I have never done serious Munchkin gaming outside of Family (most of whom at least have a passing familiarity with gaming) and good (sometimes bad) friends. As such, the "owner of the game" rules judgments have gotten a good going through from me over the years.

As a New Testament follower, I typically believe that the Spirit of the Law is more important than the Letter, so I try to interpret things, rather than applying gaming logic, applying the principal of trying to be as Munchkinly as possible. It makes for loud arguments, which I figure is in the spirit of the game.

So, having no other Munchkin contact with other gamers except on this forum that I have a shiny new registry for, I have some interpretation questions, to see if I have been on the right track all these years... and if not, do I want to continue on the wrong one!

1) I figure that the "Really Impressive Title" and things like it are not 'items' because they are not.... well.... items. As such, they can't be stolen, or lost to curses that cause you to "lose the item that gives the biggest bonus", etc.

2) When you have a "cheat", to what extent can you cheat? In one of our games, someone used the cheat card to use someone else's weapon... which I thought, well, it is "one item that you would not otherwise be allowed to use" and, besides that, was munchkinly. It was the difference in the battle... which caused loud argument... which I figured was a sign I made the right choice.

3) Can the "loaded die" card be used to show a number not on the die? I ask because the card itself shows the die rolling a 7 (and sometimes you need a 7!)

4) Serious question: The Kneepads of Allure. Effectively it makes someone as powerful as themself plus the most powerful person on the table. It always seemed to be a bit of a game balance issue. (Munchkinly, but the game still needs to be fair, right?) My understanding is that at some point the card was removed from the set for that reason, but then it came back. What is everyone's feeling about it?

5) Another halfway serious rules question: we always played where someone can play a Wandering Monster card, and someone else can play the actual monster. This made for a lot of resistance once someone got to level 8 and 9. When I recently decided that, "hey I think that's wrong," there was loud argument of the "We always played like that!" and I recanted.

6) The game says that a game should take "about an hour." It always seems to take us two. What are we doing wrong?

(Not that any of us have an issue with it. Munchkin is always what we play when we all get together, and we all figure it's awesome and we have no problem taking two hours to play).

Several of us have the game, or some iteration thereof, now, and while regular wargaming and RPG is always fun, Munchkin has become the game of choice. It also works as a "gateway game," as some folks I know have gotten into more serious gaming as a result of Munchkin.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Nate