Munchkin Fun

Mars Attacks — The Dice Game

Ack. Ack ack-ack ack. Ack-ack ack.

And that's all I have to say about that.

UPDATE: Ok, I've been asked to write more about it, so here goes! I was really looking forward to this one because I love Steve Jackson Games and I love the whole Mars Attacks franchise — great "comics".

But I was soooo disappointed!

You get a pile of cards, each of which containing the name of a city or national monument. There are spaces on the card that let you know how many guns (or Martians) you need to roll in order to claim that card. You put down 4 piles of cards (each pile contains the same number of cards — face down, except for the top card — as there are players). Each card also tells you how many nukes you can roll before you are destroyed (and this variable changes by +1 or +2 depending upon how difficult you want to make your game.

Your 10 dice have images of guns, Martians, and nuke symbols. If you're on a city, you're trying for guns (you can re-roll any Martians; nukes remain nukes and are set aside). On a monument, you're trying for Martians (so you only get one roll, because you can't re-roll guns). But if you roll too many nukes (you can roll until you decide to stop, of until you reach your nuke limit), you die and the turn passes to the next player. You keep your place (with a marker) on the card (one spot for each good dice roll during which you didn't die), but if another player is able to beat you to the last spot, they claim the card. You don't have to stick with one card, you can work on a different one each turn (in the pic you can see I have a marker on San Antonio and one on Dallas). The cards can give you bonus actions that can help you.

Gee, when I describe it here, it really sounds fun.

But it's really not. First of all, you're rolling all 10 dice at once. The chances of rolling the 2-3 nukes you want to avoid are — we found out — REALLY high!!! So here is how a game went:

ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Hey, I got two hits! (next roll) Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Yay! I hit! Oh, no, wait, I didn't see that nuke.
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
ME (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!
OPPONENT (rolling all 10 dice): Darn, nuked!

... and I'm really not exaggerating (some games went better), though there were probably a few more hits. But it took forever to claim a card. And that was it; that was the game. I hated it. My 13-year-old hated it.

To be fair, the rules weren't very clear on this one point: we couldn't tell if we were supposed to lose ALL our guns (if that is what we were rolling for) for our entire turn if we rolled the, say three, nukes needed to end our turn. If we rolled two nukes and three guns and then opted to take our chances and roll again, only to roll a few guns and another nuke, do we lose ALL our gun points? Or do we get to keep the three from the first roll? Knowing how SJGames' Zombie Dice goes, we'd lose everything. But we were getting nowhere. So after playing that way the first time, we played another game wherein only the guns from the fatal roll were lost. We progressed a LITTLE faster, but still, each turn consisted of one or two rolls, tops. Any that went past that were REALLY rare (it might have happened once or twice).

And we read that rule over and over — we DID have to roll all 10 dice at once. But I wondered if the game would have been more interesting if you could only roll one die at a time, opting to stop before getting your third nuke — and getting to count all the GOOD rolls up to that point. And maybe if you DO roll the third nuke you lose EVERYTHING you rolled during that turn. I didn't play that way, but now I wish I had tried it.

Want a good dice-rolling game? Go for Zombie Dice or Martian Dice (which is a little more fun than Zombie Dice, in my opinion) or if you want something with more to it, try Quarriors or Dice Capades. But not Mars Attacks. I ended up giving my copy of the game to some younger kids in the 'hood, since it would have been hard to get my money back for it. Maybe they'll like it because little kids don't mind some mindless gameplay. I did mention my disappointment to SJGames on Twitter -- told them they need to rethink the rules. I guess I was hoping for more Quarriors, less Pick-up Sticks.

And Steve Jackson Games ain't cheap — so we deserve better. My heart is still with you, SJGames! Just not with this one game.

How To Play

Around the time my son turned 10 (end of 2011) I was trying to think of hobbies to keep him away from drugs and gangs when he gets older (scary thoughts of teen years yet to come o_O) So I thought back to when I was younger and of the boys I thought of as the “smart” ones — what did they do?

Munchkin in the park

Dungeons & Dragons, of course! Though they never invited me to play: NO GIRLS ALLOWED! ;) So I asked at a local game store if they could recommend something that was sort of D&D light — for a younger kid. They showed me to a game called Munchkin. I'd seen it around ("Kill the Monster — Steal the Treasure — Stab your Buddy," the boxes read). I purchased it and we tried playing it at home, but I was never sure I was really understanding the rules (I'm such a visual learner). I searched and searched online for videos of people just playing the game, to no avail. We put it away, a tad frustrated. A few months later we tried it again, but having never played a game anything like this before, I was still unsure that I was reading the rules correctly (What is the backpack for? Which players can help me? etc). I did another web search and — lo and behold! — this time I quickly found the Munchkin episode of TableTop.

Whaaaaa???? That cutie-pie Wil Wheaton is a geek like us? And has a board game show? And with Steve Jackson (the creator of Munchkin) as a bonus guest in that episode?? Too perfect! So we watched, we learned, we laughed, we LOVED!! It answered our questions and we were able to initiate other players by having them watch the episode.

Butterbeer

So of course, that led to subscribing to the TableTop page and Wil Wheaton's Facebook page (and, from there, discovery of Geek & Sundry and The Guild and Cards Against Humanity and other things geekish that made us so happy!) and so we’ve called it the Year of Wil Wheaton and TableTop. That next Christmas there were TWENTY-SIX games and extensions under the tree (we’re a family of three, so that’s a big number). We have more game nights with friends — to whom we’ve introduced new favorites like Catan and Wits & Wagers — and my son is trying to get a Munchkin Club going on a regular basis (the kids get snacks and butterbeer if they show up, and they LOVE the game!).

My son and I even went to Denver Comic Con for the first time this year and my son got to ask Wil Wheaton a question during his panel — he was giddy with delight! And Wil was so nice :) And of course the whole family stayed up for some Midnight Munchkin Madness in the hotel room!! (See The Guild, season 5)

Luke Skywalker
prepares his next shot

Munchkin club

My family has said that board games are my new addiction. The downside being the ridiculously hefty price tags on some of them (lots of these new, cool games are over $50) — so we wait for sales and special occasions. The local game store knows me by name now and are ready to show me any new games. No matter where I go, I take a travel game with me — like Hive or Mr. Jack or Zombie/Martian Dice (we bought some D24 dice to keep in those boxes so we can keep track of brains and other such scores) or Fluxx. My hubby and I had a great date night this past weekend — and of course we were sure to take pictures and post them on Facebook so that people would see all the fun new games we have, in the hope that we could encourage more friends to join us. Because lord knows I always want more people to play with me!! :)

So thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Wil Wheaton and Tabletop for creating this show and opening our eyes to all the cool new gaming adventures out there! Not that we won’t still pull out Trivial Pursuit, Mille Bornes and Risk now and then :D Any time around the table with friends and family is time well spent. Game on!
x