Monday, November 23, 2009

Munchkin Quest play review

So yes I and the Bratii ended up playing Munchkin Quest; I'd got everything ready before they'd shown up so we got straight into it.

First off you do need at least one playthrough to cement the rules, having to flick back to the manual was tedious; particularly, as I mentioned in my first impressions, as the rules layout can be a bit haphazard. A case in point was what to do when you needed to draw a new monster but all the bases were out. Flicking through the manual I couldn't spot a resolution to this so we made one up, which by happenstance turned out to be darn close to the actual rule which is filed under Exploring and is split over two pages. Also amusingly it covered one of my original queries 'What to do when you roll a colour not being used'.

Also would be nice if the monster movement symbols were also included on the back page, although after a few plays they are remembered; on the first playthrough 'what does a green footprint mean?'

First off you definitely need a flat surface for this, we were playing on carpet (the table being used) and the links to rooms weren't holding up to well, also need to impose a house rule that you can't enter a room that would cause one to be placed off the edge of the 'play space'. trying to shuffle the pieces around was difficult.

Both Bratii picked up the rules quite quickly, and were happy to play monster enhancers and curses. Sadly neither had the patience to read the cards and so missed some opportunities and in one case Minor played an armour card that was in fact a Monster enhancer which we all missed (the card had a picture of armour on it so hey it's armour).

I'd modified the player mats (as I'd got the sizes slightly wrong) and they were helpful in keeping cards and pieces in position, slight difficulty in keeping monster cards and enhancements in combination if they got knocked so some clips might be handy to keep things together. Likewise, as has been mentioned by others, monsters have a tendency to group, unless you've got the odd Contrary, Fast, Slow once a monster joins another it's difficult to separate them; although the rule regarding bases can have an effect in removing the higher level monsters.

All-in-all play took 3 hours, including manual re-reading and both Bratii enjoyed it and a) would play it again and b) wanted to play it again. With a firmer knowledge of the rules I suspect play will be much better next time around.

Oh and I won in the end, Major came second, Minor third. I'd also like to thank Major for the Summon Wall that left me travelling back to the entrance the long way, which was reciprocated by creating a Humongous, Ancient Baby Undead Horse for him to fight. Much laughter.

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