Munchkin Cthulhu

An equpiment card, monster card, and class card respectively.

In class in early September, I brought Munchkin Cthulhu to play.
The story is no mystery in Munchkin Cthulhu as the box proudly exclaims "Kill the monsters, steal the treasure, stab your buddy and go mad." The game is about killing monsters to level up. The first player to level 10 wins the game. There are two stacks of cards, "regular,"  and "treasure," which the players sit in a circle around. Players take turns by drawing a card from the regular stack. If the card is a monster, the player's equipment and class determine whether they can defeat the monster. If the player is victorious, they get a number of treasure cards as indicated by the monster card and they level up by one. If the player is unsuccessful, "bad stuff" happens as also indicated on the card. "Bad stuff," can range from losing a turn to turning over all equipment. What's interesting is that other players can use cards they have gained  to aid either side in the fight.

Although the game is humorous, emotions can run high as players backstab each other in order to achieve victory. People who you think are your allies can quickly become enemies with one play of a card and revenge always seems to ensue. Munchkin Cthulhu can be very rewarding as one's character becomes increasingly powerful with the acquisition of new equipment and abilities, but it's definitely a game you want to avoid if you want to keep your friends.

My first game design

 The first game I designed ended up being very similar to air hockey.  It started out with a simple premise, flick a bouncy ball with your finger off the edge of the table on your opponents side. As time progressed and we continued to refine the game, we made sturdier side-boundaries and added rules like adding another ball in every five seconds. The best improvement was the replacement of using fingers to flick the ball with paper cards.

The final rules of the game are as follows:
- The game is played by 3 players, 1 on each team and the third as a referee.
- The field must be 12 inches by 21 inches
-Players must hit the bouncy ball with cards.
-Hitting a ball into the other player's goal scores a point
-The first to 20 points wins
-  A players starts with a ball each round. The round begins when both players simutaneously hit the ball towards each other.
-The ref keeps track of score
-The ref adds one ball in every 5 seconds.
-Players may not reach over the half-way line.

Picture time

Here's Alyssa designing her card.

Card design prototypes. We ended up just going with a simple one-fold-on-the-bottom design.

Playing the game

Taking notes on the session, deciding what to add next.

Assignment #1

For my first game, I'd like to design something that involves improv and telling personal stories between the players. It would probably be a lot like truth or dare and there would be a stack of cards and a different "challenge" is written on each card like " make as many sexual innuendos as you can within 30 seconds" and the player would receive a point for every successful laugh in the audience, or "all virgins gain a point."

There are many possible avenues and spin-offs for my game to evolve to. For example, If the game isn't fun as just a card game, I could turn it into a board game where points would be moving forward an additional point instead, or perhaps it could turn into a drinking game where the points become sips and you can either take them yourself or pass it to another player.

There really isn't much of a story to my game, I just wanted to design something that would bring people together and make them laugh or bring up conversations. This would be an ideal game for a group of friends who are looking for something fun to do while they're kicking back and having a beer at the end of the day.

Blog Introduction

Hello! I'm Michael Morgan, I'm gonna be making games this semester and posting all progress here WOOHOO