The Good, the Bad, the the Munchkin -- Door deck

Continuing my ruminations on The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin.

In Munchkin-series games treasure cards are important, but it's Door cards that you interact with very turn. The very first thing a character does is open a door and, if no monster is present and none brought out of the hand to fight, a second door card is drawn while "looting the room."

Monsters -- 37 cards with nominal levels ranging from 1 to 20 broken down as follows: Five each Level 1 & 2; Four each Level 4,6 & 8; three each Level 10, 12, 14 & 16; Two Level 18 and one Level 20. I say "nominal" because 50 of them have bonuses and/or penalties depending upon the class, gender or other characteristics of the player character fighting them.
Discussion – Calling them “monsters” seems a wee bit odd for a Old West setting, but is consistent with the terminology used elsewhere in the Munchkin series. The names are mildly amusing, although quite a few of them rely on bad puns for their amusement value. Fully seven of the monsters are "undead" which has no effect in this game but may be important in a blended game.

Class -- 16 cards. Four each of Cowboy, Dude. Indian and Outlaw. Every Munchkin game includes class cards, if for no other reason than the opportunity to use the line "Everyone starts as a Level 1 character with no loyalty and no class. (heh heh)." Each class provides a couple of bonuses. A player can belong to only one class unless having a card that allows otherwise such as Super Munchkin.
Discussion -- The class attribute plays a larger role in this game than the typical Munchkin game because there are no secondary kinds of characteristics such as Loyalty, Style or Races. All four classes have useful advantages, although I think the Cowboy advantage of being able to win by reaching Level 9 might catch players used to the other games in the series by surprise if they’re not watching .

Trap! -- 12 cards. Eight of them may cause you to lose cards from your hand or on the table, one costs a level and one changes your sex. One has a similar combat penalty to changing your sex, while the last one allows players to gang up on you to play traps.
Discussion -- If encountered while opening doors, these can be annoying, but usually aren't too debilitating. With 12 in the deck they'll come up pretty often and there’s very little anti-trap capability in the game. But if collected while looting the room these may be useful to stop an opponent’s bid for victory.

Monster enhancers -- 6 cards. Two are +10 to the monster's level, three are +5 and one is a -5 penalty.
Discussion --There are just a half dozen of these, so their rarity makes them valuable. They are one of the few ways to foil a strong opponent’s bid for victory

Steed -- 6 cards. Previously seen in Munchkin’s The Need For Steed expansion these provide level bonuses and often some other benefit. You need one to use the Civil War Cannon, for example. A character can usually have one steed.
Discussion – Always useful, with six in the deck there’s a good chance to get one.

Munchkins --4 cards. While not a formal category under the rules, these all operate in much the same way, allowing the player to "break" the rules by allowing additional classes (Super Munchkin), items (Cheat) or class restrictions (Cheating Varmint).
Discussion -- One of the core concepts underlying the design of the series, Munchkin-style cards are pretty rare in this set.

Sidekick --4 cards. The “hireling” class in this game, also seen in Super Munchkin. Three provide a modest level bonus and another benefit while the Greenhorn can help you win a combat by sacrifiing himself.
Discussion – Useful, but playing a smaller role in this game than many others in the series.

Miscellaneous -- 9 cards. These provide a hodge-podge of benefits. All are one-use only.
Discussion -- Using these cards is situational, but most provide an unsubtle benefit like Medicine Show which allows you to cancel a card. Most of the cards are played during combat and help add a needed degree of uncertainty. Perhaps the most useful one is Mexican Standoff, which makes the sides even no matter what cards had been played before. This is a way to trump a bid for victory.

Wandering Monster -- 4 cards. These allow a player to add another monster to a combat.
Discussion -- Most useful when trying to stop another player's bid for victory, it's also useful for jacking up the potential treasure haul by adding a second weak monster to a monster you can easily defeat. With four of these available adding a monster is a common tactic for affecting combats.

Overview.

The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin is a mediocre entry in the Munchkin line. Like several of the later games in the series it shows some strain for trying to apply the Dungeon Crawl to an ill-fitting genre.

The game is a bit more dramatic and Munchkinly than .its expansionless stablemate Munchkin Impossible, with more scope for shaking things up with Wandering Monsters and other cards that can affect combat. In Munchkin Impossible players have relatively few options to stop a leader, leading to a less-than-Munchkinly end game. In The Good, The Bad, and The Munchkin it’s a lot harder to ensure that your winning bid will work – and that’s how it ought to be.

The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin -- Treasure Deck

In another one of my running projects on questions that suit my fancy, I'm going to look at the cards of various Munchkin series games and how they affect play of that particular edition.

Next up is The Good, the Bad and the Munchkin, the Old West-themed game. Like Munchkin Impossible, this set has no expansions as of yet, and considering that the attention of Steve Jackson Games has turned to the Munchkin Quest board game, there may never be an expansion to this one.

Like some of the later games in the Munchkin series, the whole dungeon-prowling aspect underlying the game definitely seems strained in the Old West setting.

This will be a two-part post. First I'll look at the Treasure Deck. This won't be a card-by-card look but an overview of the cards by frequency and category.

Items (permanent) -- 38 items, ranging from +1 to +6 in level bonuses, plus four cards that are provide enhancements to other cards ( +1 to +3) and one Saddle Bags card which provides no level bonus but allows a player to have one more card in hand. A full dozen of the items have restrictions on who can use them or who are prohibited from using them (i.e. female, Indian, Outlaw, etc.)

Discussion -- By Munchkin standards the items are of average power. The majority are +2 or +3. Few form combos with other cars, but there’s one interesting combo involving the Sheriff’s badge (+3) which allows the Sheriff to require anyone wearing a Deputy’s Badge (of which there are two, each a +1), to help in combat. The deputy’s in turn, can ask the Sheriff for help in combat. He doesn’t have to do so, but if he doesn’t, he gives the Deputy a card. The +6 item, Civil War Cannon, requires a steed to be used. Overall, the items in combination can allow a character to boost his/her effective level a considerable amount. The dream combo would be “My grandpappy’s steam-powered civil war cannon with unlimited ammo” which provides a +13 bonus and still leaves a hand free.

Items (one-use) – Just 7 items, with a variety of benefits. The ones that give combat bonuses are generally +2 to +4.
Discussion -- There aren't a lot of these in the deck, but they provide just enough of an edge to make a difference in a close combat. It may be just enough to block another player going for the win. Thye oddest item in this bunch is the Cow Chip, which provides just a +2 bonus, but the other players get to dice for who gets the cow chip, with the winner adding it to his hand – and perhaps getting to use it in the same combat! A tie die roll destroys the cow chip, but there’s potentially an unlimited number of times the cow chip could affect a combat, which could make for a pretty wild situation when someone is going for the win. This could be the funniest card in the game with the right group.

Level-ups -- 10 cards. Six are straight Go Up a Level. One can only be played after the death of a monster to Go Up a Level. Another can’t be played by an Indian, but any other Gets a New Indian Name which can lead to some amusing banter. The last two potentially award two levels, but only if certain conditions are met (Killing a Level 10+ monster or after someone has discarded a steed), otherwise it’s just 1 level.
Discussion -- These are always useful, but 10 seems like an awful lot of arbitrary levels for the base game.

Hirelings -- 0 cards. In this game Sidekicks are in the Door deck.
Discussion – This class of card bounces between the Door and Treasure decks, depending on the game.

Loaded Die -- 1 card. Allows you to change one die roll.
Discussion -- Another card with no real downside, except that there’s just one in this deck.

Miscellaneous -- 9 cards. A couple of Wishing Rings that cancel traps and 7 other cards with a variety of effects, mostly beneficial
Discussion – These provide some more of Old West flavor to the deck, with titles such as Code of the West, Lost Spanish Treasure and Peace Pipe. Some, such as Quick-Draw (extra hand), are similar to cards seen in other Munchkin games, others, such as Fool’s Gold (which forces all treasures drawn with it to be discarded) are unique.