New to Munchkin, looking for some advice

[New Player]

My friends and I recently discovered Munchkin and it's awesome. We have Munchkin Zombies plus the expansions and the original Munchkin with a few expansions. Here's the problem we run into... We usually play with 4 or 5 people and when we play with the expansions we find we get halfway through the deck and the game is over. Basically I'm finding it hard to get a good mix of monsters, sewer cards and helping(?) cards. If we play without the expansions anybody that gets to level 9 has a real challenge getting the last level, with the expansions everyone gets to level 9 and there aren't enough sewer cards to last more than a couple of turns. Should I be taking certain cards out? Do I even have to take cards out? Shuffling so many cards well is pretty difficult.

Thanks a bunch! :)

[New Player]

I think I posted in the wrong forum, sorry!

[Clipper]

I think this is an OK topic for this forum, don't mind about that.

With expansions, you often won't get through an entire deck, which I generally find to be a good thing as you don't get any repetition. You can even start your next game with the other half of the deck without needing to shuffle the rest of the cards if you like.

[emillang1000]

Original Munchkin (aka Munchkin Fantasy), while being the most popular and having the most support, is (compared to other versions) a little underwhelming as just a core set; you really need Munchkin 2-5 to get the "full" Munchkin experience (all 6 Classes, plus the 5 "traditional" fantasy Races which existed for the longest time, plus a wide variety of Hirelings and Steeds). A lot of that comes from it being the original (duh), and because these things we take for granted now as "basic parts of the game" hadn't been developed yet until all those sets had come out.

But, although you really need all these expansions to make Munchkin Fantasy "whole", it has a major upside: it's the best set for larger groups.

The shear number of cards available in a single, cohesive theme, makes playing with 6 or more players very simple, and also makes every game radically different. With almost 1000 cards available, it's very possible to see a specific card in one game, and then not see that card again for several games thereafter. Make of that what you will, but my friends and I like the diversity and how no two games are even remotely similar.

Anyway, Fantasy's my favorite, partly BECAUSE it accommodates 6 people easily (my playgroup is pretty big), and also partly because I'm a D&D/Fantasy nerd.

[Andrew Hackard]

Just because you can play with more than six players doesn't mean it's a good idea. I've run (and played in) seven-player games, and they felt like they were dragging even when things were going pretty quickly. If you're fighting for the win, there are six other people who can stop you. Every time. It's a bit daunting.

With seven players and a set with an expansion or two, I'd probably suck it up. With eight or more, I'm breaking out a second set and suggesting that we make two tables.

[RL]

Yeah, once you get too many people (which I define as more than six) I've seen people getting up from the table to do other things while they wait for their turn to come around.