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Old 12-30-2013, 06:27 PM   #621
YakkoW
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Default Re: Member House Rules

All the regulars in my game group are gay, so we've jokingly considered a house rule to switch the required genders to use the Catboi Hireling and Henchwench Hireling. ;)

Other than that, we do our best to stick to the official rules, and I keep my laptop nearby for looking things up on the forums whenever we have a confusing situation mid-game. (If I can't find the answer right away, we make a decision and I look up the official ruling later to clarify things for the future.)
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Old 12-30-2013, 07:14 PM   #622
Phill_DS
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Default Munchkin for money

I thought of an idea to make playing Munchkin a lil more interesting; play for money.
Basically each player puts in £10 in £1 coins (or $10, depending on which country you live in.) All the money goes in a pot in the middle of the table. If there are 6 players there should be £54 in the pot and each player has £1 in front on them to signify they are on level 1. As the game progresses instead of gaining levels players will gain £1 from the pot. The player who wins the game will get their money back us whatever money is left in the pot when the game is over.
For example if 4 people are playing, player 1 has £5; player 2 has £4; player 3 has £9 and player 4 wins with £10 then player 4 will get £12 that is left over in the pot walking away with a total of £22.
Me and my friends will be testing this method soon. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Old 12-31-2013, 12:31 PM   #623
bms
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: St. Paul, MN
Default Re: Member House Rules

One of the more bizarre house rules I've heard. I'll let the conversation that transpired explain it.

Situation: pick-up game of Munchkin at a convention.

Player: "So are you guys playing with the rule that you can't interfere with anyone below level 5?"
Me: "I've never heard of that rule. Sounds like that might be a house rule from somewhere?"
Player: *pause* "So you're all going to be [vulgar term referencing portion of male anatomy] then."
Me: *speechless*
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Old 12-31-2013, 12:51 PM   #624
Mister Ed
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Member House Rules

I wonder if that person thought you weren't allowed to interfere based on current level, or prospective level after winning the combat. Because I've actually (when very lucky) managed to go up 5 or more levels in a single turn, by adding easy monsters to my own combat and such. It would be kind of funny to watch somebody who insisted on that rule forced to sit there and do nothing against a lower level player whose combat was now for the win. :-)
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Old 01-11-2014, 11:06 AM   #625
Zugzwain
 
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Reno, Nv
Default Re: Member House Rules

Some fun rules we do
1) reach into the pawn bag to find out what sex you start as (you have to have both male and female pawns) some times we use this to also see what jumbo d6 you get and gain the card effect

2) we keep a d100 handy for cards that say roll a dice not roll a d6

3) if you pick up the duck of doom bag for any reason you loose 2 levels

4) loosing levels past level 1= death
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Old 01-18-2014, 11:48 AM   #626
Parrot
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: Member House Rules

I bought Munchkin Deluxe and have played a number of games against both family and friends. One thing a couple people have said to me was that they'd prefer the battles to be a little more involved. So I thought that perhaps I could create some house rules to make the battle system a little more interesting.

I did a search for Munchkin house rules as well as different variations for ideas. I've come up with something that I like, and I don't think that anybody's come up with anything like it but I'll be happy to be corrected.

I thought I'd share it here to see if anybody notices difficulties that I've missed or areas where it needs to be fine tuned:

NEW COMBAT PARAMETERS
Running Away: Creatures that have a level greater than 5 above the player’s power level determine the player to be beneath their notice. The player may automatically escape without a die roll unless the player manages to damage the monster in combat, in which case all bets are off.

Leveling: Defeating a creature that is less than 5 levels below the player’s power level does not allow the player to gain a level. The player still gets treasure from defeating the creature.

Interference: Any player, other than the combatant, who helps a monster in combat against another player is now entitled to gain one level if the monster wins. This level cannot be the winning level.

NEW COMBAT STRUCTURE
Initiative: At the start of combat, the player rolls a die to determine initiative. On a roll of 3 or below, the player attacks first. Otherwise, the monster attacks first.

Battle: Player and monster take turns attacking and defending. The player may choose to try and run instead of attacking. A player may only run when it is his or her turn to attack, and may not avoid the monster’s attack by immediately running if his or her attack did not do well. Running is handled exactly the same way as in a regular game.

Both the attacking and defending parties roll a die. The result of this die roll is added to each party’s power level to determine the power of attack and defense. If the attack power is greater than the defense power, the defending party’s power level is reduced by the difference for the duration of the battle. If the player has the ability to win ties, then the player adds +1 to his or her roll in the event that the attack and defense powers match. Death results when the power level reaches 0.

Unless otherwise indicated on the card, a monster that is level 3 or below will allow the player to try and run instead of dying when his or her power level reaches 0.

When the player is attacked, he or she may decide to discard any number of items on the table, whether in use or not, to gain a bonus in defense. In these cases, the player has thrown the item or items in question at the monster in an attempt to slow down its attack. The monster shatters the items thrown at it, but its attack is blunted by one point for each 300 gold of item worth. If the player throws an item that is currently giving a power bonus, the player’s power is immediately reduced by the amount of said bonus.

The other players, who are watching the battle, may also decide to throw items at either of the combatants in order to blunt their attacks using the same rule of one point for each 300 gold of item worth.

Items that give either the player or monster an instant advantage during combat must be played at the beginning of either the defense or attack phase, before the dice have been rolled. The effect lasts until the end of the next phase, so for example if played on the player during the attack phase, the effect lasts until the end of the player’s next defense phase.
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Old 01-18-2014, 01:10 PM   #627
Clipper
 
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Member House Rules

Parrot, what do you mean by power level? Do you mean the Level of the player/monster, or their combat strength? It seems you are talking about just the Level in the earlier part of your post about Running Away and not gaining levels, but then later on you have the battle playing out as power level + die roll, which seems like you are now referring to combat strength (including bonuses from Items). Sticking to the proper game terms (Level and combat strength) would make it a lot easier to understand what you mean.

How does the helper factor into all your various comparisons for running away and failing to gain levels?

Is the defender allowed to use abilities, such as the Wizard's Charm, if he fails that initial die roll for initiative?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parrot View Post
Interference: Any player, other than the combatant, who helps a monster in combat against another player is now entitled to gain one level if the monster wins. This level cannot be the winning level.
Just so you know, there's a card that already gives almost this exact same effect. You are essentially giving everyone the Dark Race Enhancer (although I guess they don't need a Race now), which can be found in Munchkin Reloaded! and Munchkin Game Changers.

Quote:
NEW COMBAT STRUCTURE
Initiative: At the start of combat, the player rolls a die to determine initiative. On a roll of 3 or below, the player attacks first. Otherwise, the monster attacks first.
You may want to switch that around so that the player wins on higher numbers. That way, it will interact properly with Curse! Chicken on Your Head.

Quote:
When the player is attacked, he or she may decide to discard any number of items on the table, whether in use or not, to gain a bonus in defense. In these cases, the player has thrown the item or items in question at the monster in an attempt to slow down its attack. The monster shatters the items thrown at it, but its attack is blunted by one point for each 300 gold of item worth. If the player throws an item that is currently giving a power bonus, the player’s power is immediately reduced by the amount of said bonus.
It seems like there a few Items that would help in this regard. Most Items provide a bonus which is more than their GP value divided by 300. It's useful for the Items that provide effects rather than bonuses, I guess, but it still seems mostly worth it.

Quote:
Items that give either the player or monster an instant advantage during combat must be played at the beginning of either the defense or attack phase, before the dice have been rolled. The effect lasts until the end of the next phase, so for example if played on the player during the attack phase, the effect lasts until the end of the player’s next defense phase.
Keeping track of the timing of these might be tricky.
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Old 01-19-2014, 01:46 PM   #628
Parrot
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipper View Post
Parrot, what do you mean by power level? Do you mean the Level of the player/monster, or their combat strength?
Forgive me if I don't remember the exact terminology from the manual, it can be difficult to find the right mention when you need it. What I mean by power level is combat strength. I was using level to refer to the character or monster level, and power level to refer to combat strength. I'll edit the document with the proper terminology.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipper View Post
How does the helper factor into all your various comparisons for running away and failing to gain levels?
Do you mean if you get somebody to help you fight a monster? My thought is that he's just adding is combat strength to yours, and he gets any treasure that you've offered if you win just like in the regular game. As usual the helper doesn't go up a level when you do.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipper View Post
Is the defender allowed to use abilities, such as the Wizard's Charm, if he fails that initial die roll for initiative?
As I see it, a player can use abilities at the same time he or she can use cards, on their attack phase. So if the monster gets the initiative a wizard will have to bear one attack before using charm.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipper View Post
Just so you know, there's a card that already gives almost this exact same effect. You are essentially giving everyone the Dark Race Enhancer (although I guess they don't need a Race now), which can be found in Munchkin Reloaded! and Munchkin Game Changers.
Good to know. I might try those in the future.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipper View Post
You may want to switch that around so that the player wins on higher numbers. That way, it will interact properly with Curse! Chicken on Your Head.
Good point! Thanks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipper View Post
Keeping track of the timing of these might be tricky.
Maybe. I'll try it out and if it gets too cumbersome I'll modify that.

Thanks for the analysis! It was a big help.
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Old 01-19-2014, 04:18 PM   #629
Clipper
 
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Member House Rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parrot View Post
Forgive me if I don't remember the exact terminology from the manual, it can be difficult to find the right mention when you need it. What I mean by power level is combat strength. I was using level to refer to the character or monster level, and power level to refer to combat strength. I'll edit the document with the proper terminology.
I guess you will also need to clarify so as to make sense of the combat strength without One-Shot Items when doing the comparisons to see if you get a level or not. You also need to determine what happens when there are multiple monsters present. Do you sum the Levels of the monsters to determine if you get levels for beating them or not?

I also think denying levels becomes rather unfair to the player. You can't change which Items are equipped during battle, so if you go into battle with a combat strength of 20 and you face any monster below Level 15, then you can't get any levels. You have to purposefully unequip stuff before the battle to bring your combat strength low enough to be able to get the main benefit from combats brought around by Kicking Open the Door.

Quote:
Do you mean if you get somebody to help you fight a monster? My thought is that he's just adding is combat strength to yours, and he gets any treasure that you've offered if you win just like in the regular game. As usual the helper doesn't go up a level when you do.
What if the helper is an Elf? How do you determine if he gets his level for helping kill monsters or not? Even if they are not an Elf, if your combined combat strength is more than 5 higher than the Level of the monster, do you get the level/s or do you only look at your own? The same questions exist when Running Away, especially given that you Run Away from each monster separately.
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Old 01-20-2014, 04:03 PM   #630
Atlus
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Lansing
Default Re: Member House Rules

My house rules are generally for Fantasy set only because I have every expansion and booster possible for it.
Here they are:

Race/Class at start:
The game starts with getting 4 from each deck but each player is allowed to randomly choose one card from a mixed up race pile and a class pile (including PF classes, not Conan's races though). Each pile has one blank in it too for just the chance of being screwed over. This is generally because the deck is just far too big for classes and races to show up often (the math made it about 8 or 9% of ever finding one at all per door).

Conan's Races:
After mixing them into Fantasy they are just to lackluster so they count as "nationality" cards not races so you can be an Stygian Elf Thief if you want without the need for a half-breed or equivalent card.

Faction/Nationality's at 5:
Since GUAL's are usually hoarded in my group to just appear weak early game I had to make incentive to level up so I made a faction and 'nationalilty' (conan races) pile that they are allowed to draw once card from either one to add to their own power.

Race/Class Enhancer at 8:
Same thing as the rest written above but these are one pile and only one can be drawn. This overall promotes leveling to get first picks of a random pile and to allow each class to be available from the start.

Side Deck:
Every single holiday booster (Christmas, Easter, and Halloween's doors and treasures) are put into their own side deck which sit next to Munchkinomicon and Fairy Dust and is known as the "Holiday Surprise Deck". Basically after 3 rounds (full rotations from the first players turn) everyone at the start of their turn gets to take the top card of that deck into their hand. It makes Santa's being used with each other much more common and allows for extra draws for card effects or the random treasure from time to time. It's thematic and cute so I tend to use it with my group.

No Take Back Rule:
If for any reason you put a card on the table purposely and it can't be used then it is discarded. If you try to do this to avoid giving cards to people when you are about to die then you take level loss and the cards are still passed around.

Cheating:
If anyone is ever caught cheating during the game, whether intentional or not, they lose levels. And it's worse each time caught. HOWEVER if you go through the entire game not getting caught then you get to gloat all you want if that's how you won.

Kneepads of Allure and The Magnificent Hat:
They get 3 counters each, after that it's used up until it's either drawn again from reshuffle or pulled from the discards.

Winning:
You CANNOT sneak a victory, you must declare it your winning level or not when it arises, and you must wait until each player admits defeat for the combat to resolve. This isn't very munchkiny but it does allow for some of the most intense stand off's in my gaming experiences.

Thief:
They must have levels to expend to steal or else they will need to discard twice as many cards to use it, they are also not allowed to steal successfully from the same person until it's the thief's next turn.

xxxx Already the Rule xxxx
Bard:
They cannot keep attempt to enthrall the same person twice in a turn if it failed the first time, they must choose a new target.

Pathfinder Classes and Fantasy Classes:
Necromancer and Wizards count as the other for items and combat.
Alchemist and Thief count as the other for items and combat.
Summoner and Bard count as the other for items and combat.
Witch and Cleric count as the other for items and combat.

xxxx The current ruling for the Card as of Munchkin 3 xxxx
Hirelings:
The normal Hireling card may use any item regardless of restrictions (aside from gender). Hirelings that are class specific or unique do not apply to this rule and must follow their own card rulings.

Dungeons:
After 3 full rounds from when a dungeon was opened it will close and another will be drawn. This will prevent people from keeping out the good dungeons all game. BUT a player may choose to discard 3 cards from their hand to keep a dungeon in play for another 3 full rounds too. Aside from that all other rulings for the dungeons are the same.


>>>>>>>>>>Epic Munchkin Rules<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Kicking down the Door:
You kick two down in the order they are drawn. So if a curse is drawn first it hits then the next card happens automatically. Enhancers that are kicked down with monsters APPLY to the monster kicked down.

Monster Treasure/Levels:
Both the treasure and level amount given for any combat are halved and rounded up. Enhancers and other cards that add/remove treasures take effect after the halving.

Ex: Winning vs Plutonium Dragon gives 1 level and 3 treasures, but if he had a +5 enhancer he gives 4 treasures instead.
Ex: Winning vs Potted Plant and Plutonium Dragon gives 3 levels and 6 treasures normally but would give 2 levels and 3 treasures now.
This was put in place because Epic Munchkins was mainly a race to level 10, once you got there you had double the treasure and levels available to you depending on the draw, so any player not epic could be left behind if the epic players began to snowball.

Monster Combat Strength:
Monsters 1-9, in Epic get a natural +10 bonus.
Monsters 10-20, in Epic get a natural +5 bonus.
Monsters fought initially alone against the munchkin (one monster kicked down not two or when a fight is picked from the hand) it gets double the above bonuses. HOWEVER if the fight is initially two monsters this doesn't apply or if the fight changes from a single monster fight to multiple, the initial monster bonus isn't changed.

Ex: Potted Plant is kicked down with a race card, Potted Plant is level 1 with a +20 bonus. Someone decides to WM in a monster, PP is still combat strength of 21 but now including the new monster and its bonuses.

This sounds complicated but each fight is now truly epic, it originally was double the monster level but some players would get full itemization while others didn't so hitting epic ended up killing some while others steamrolled through. So after a lot of theorycrafting on the right bonus per monster I cam up with the above numbers (which are still pretty clean and easy to remember).

GUAL cards and selling:
They can be used from 1-9, and 11-17. From 17 to 18 you must also be won with a combat.

Losing Epicness:
If someone were to make you lose your epicness (go back down to 9), you can choose to level up anyway you want from 9 to 10 after that (Eg selling, GUAL, combat, etc). This ruling was made because people could be forced to stay at 9 through Curses and rude munchkin players who are epic and drawing more to force them to lose combats repeatedly until they are too far out of the game to recover. This just makes the game less fun without in place if you have players who know how capitalize on major turning points in the game.

Helping:
There is absolutely no helping allowed to people at 17 or higher unless cards would otherwise change that and must be legal for standard 9 to 10 victories.
Epic players cannot help other epic players for any reason until all players have attained this status.
Epic players cannot get Fairy Dust cards for helping non-Epic players win combats (debatable but it has been argued by my group before).

Last thoughts:
Generally my Epic Munchkin games include the house rules I mentioned for my standard Fantasy Munchkin game too. This adds to the immersion of the game while making Epic Munchkin more competitive for my group instead of the rules given. We still have the epic bonuses from each class/race/faction/etc as well but that is one of the few unchanged rules from the original epic rulings.
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Last edited by Atlus; 01-21-2014 at 12:55 PM. Reason: Changed Bard note and Hireling note
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