Spotlight: Munchkin

Munchkin is a game with an interesting reputation amongst gamers; rarely does it have an evening devoted to playing it, however it's perfect for killing a couple of hours whilst your waiting for D&D players to show up or if you're popping into your local games shop on your way home. (Note that if you do want to make an evening of it, you may want to look out for Munchkin Quest- a Heroquest style board game based on the Munchkin card game).

So, What is it?
Munchkin is a humourous card game made by Steve Jackson, most famous for being the creator of GURPS (not to be confused with the other Steve Jackson, co-creator of Games workshop and the Fighting Fantasy books), and illustrated by John Kovalic.  The game is based on the concept of 'munchkins', the term referring to role-players who 'play to win'.  The game contains a multitude of references to D&D, Monty Python, and all the various stereotypes that have been built up by gamers over the years; all with copious amounts of puns.  You don't need to be a multi-genre geek to play, but it helps (especially with the expansions).

How do I Play?
The aim of the game is to reach level 10 (unless using 'epic' rules) before any other player.  This is accomplished by killing monsters, randomly drawn from a deck.  In order to kill higher level monsters you need to loot rooms of their treasure, perhaps pick up a randomly assigned race/class, and maybe even enlist the help of other players- though they will expect rewards.  Conversely, if the other players think you're pulling ahead too far then they can choose to use cards to give bonuses to the monster you're fighting.  One of the things that makes this game interesting is the fact that, in true munchkin style, cheating is encouraged.  If you're caught, it's up to the players to decide your punishment.

What do I need to play?
All you need are 3-6 players, the treasure/door cards included in the game, tokens to count how many levels each player has, and a die (The implication is that it's a 6-sided die, though cunning players could use their polyhedral dice instead- if the GM (i.e guy who owns the game) will let you get away with it).  There are many other decks available, most usable as standalone games themselves but all are possible to integrate into the base game- if you find yourself in possession of many decks you may want to look into using the epic rules (available from the official website) for a more balanced and longer game that will get you through earlier levels much quicker.

Example of Play:
It should be noted that I have all the expansions to the base game, which have all been mixed in together.  As such some cards I describe here may not be included in the base game.  For this example I'm going to assume there are 3 players (in practise you'd want closer to 6 though), and the game will be seen from the perspective of player 1.
Each player draws 2 Door cards and 2 Treasure cards.  Player 1 has 2 monster cards, a piece of armour, and a special card.
"Anything anyone wants to play now?"
Player 1 reveals his armour; a +1 Paper Plate Mail.  He also reveals his special card: A 'Go Up A Level' card with the description 'Promise the GM you'll stop telling him about your character.'
"Level 2 already", player 1 smirks.
"Can you do that?" asks player 2, "If you're technically the GM then you can't stop telling yourself about your own character!"
"Nice try," says player 1.  Arguments are encouraged by this game, and some card rules rely specifically on actions taken by players; In some games player 2's argument could be seen as perfectly valid, especially if player 1 had a significant lead.
Player 2 has nothing she can play now.  Player 3 reveals his 'Wizard' card; a class card.  Races and Classes are only obtainable from randomly drawn cards, and each have benefits and drawbacks.  In the case of the wizard, he gains 'Flight Spell' enabling him to discard cards to help him run away from battle, and 'Charm Spell' enabling him to discard all the cards in his hand to pacify a monster, allowing him to sneak off with its treasure.
"Time to start"
Everyone rolls a die, the player with the highest roll goes first; Player 3 rolls a 6, he goes first.
One card is drawn from the Doors and placed face-up; it's 'Monsters Are Busy' which has no immediate effect, so he can have it in his hand.  Because he has a card on the table- his Wizard card- his hand consists of the 3 other cards from the start of the game and the card he just drew.  Because a monster wasn't encountered, he may now fight a monster in his hand or draw another Door card as he 'loots the room'.  He draws a Door into his hand, giving him a total of 5 cards.
Player 1 draws a face-up Door: It's a monster!  A level 3 'Psycho Squirrel'.  The description reads 'Will not attack females'.
"Aha, I'm a girl!"
"No you're not!"- unless stated before the game starts, an adventurer is the same gender as their player.
Combat: The monster is level 3, meaning the adventurer's combined level and item bonuses must be 4 or more.  He is level 2, and has +1 armour giving him a total of 3; not enough to defeat the squirrel.
"Anyone want to help?"
"Nah, we're good"
"Then I'm going to have to run..."
Player 1 rolls the die; he needs 5 or more to escape.  He rolls 4.
"Oooh- too bad! What's the bad stuff?"  Each monster has 'bad stuff' associated with it, which takes effect if you can't escape.  In this case: "Lose 1 level.  Speak with a squeaky voice until your next turn."
"Stupid squirrel... sorry, 'stupid squirrel!'"
Because he failed to defeat the monster, he doesn't have the option of looting the room- his turn ends.
Player 2 reveals a Door: 'Half-Breed' which is only applicable if she has a race card.  As she doesn't, it goes into her hand and she chooses to draw another card.  She now has 6 cards in her hand so has to donate a card to the lowest level player.  As all players are tied for lowest level, a card is discarded- the 'Joy Buzzer' which was usable by Gnomes only.
Player 3 reveals a Door: A monster! "Level 5; Ghost in the Shell.  +2 vs Wizards! I've got no chance... but I can use my 'Monsters are Busy' card- 'Play during combat, the monsters are busy with their own game; they won't fight and will slam the door if attacked'."  That's considered running away, so no option to loot the room.
Player 1 can talk normally again, and reveals a Door: A Curse! "Clerical Error- the most recent monster in the discard pile is reanimated as Undead... Oh no! That means..."
"The Psycho Squirrel's back!"
"Aww man, please help someone?"
"Oh all right... What do you need?"
"I've got 2- one for level, one for armour."
"I can help, but I want its treasure"
"Ugh, fine..."
Player 2 reveals her 'Nasty Tasting Sports Drink: Use during combat, gives +2 to either side'.
"Then it's defeated! Unless you object?"
Player 3 shrugs.  The Psycho Squirrel is defeated.  It drops one treasure- drawn face-up because Player 1 received help.  It's '+2 Holy Rollers' which give further bonuses vs undead.  Player 1 gains 1 level for defeating a monster.

...And that's how this plays.  In the early game it will take a while to build up levels because every monster will be stronger than you, meaning you need to work as a party- but as encounters become easier and treasure is dropped more often, players will start storming ahead.  That's when the others will reveal the potions, curses, and wandering monsters that they've got stored in their hands, and you'll find you can drop from level 9 to 4 whilst someone else takes the chance to go from 1 to 8 in the space of a turn.

Conclusion:
Munchkin is an extremely fun and addictive game; the only problem is finding the time and people to play it.  The rules seem simple, but when other expansions get added in then it can get needlessly complicated; especially if you have other base games mixed in.  It could lead to combinations like a half-orc half-werewolf investigator with a steed, 6 items, a hireling and a duck of many things- which could take a few minutes just to read every card to remind yourself what you're capable of.  Then you draw a Cultist card from a Cthulu deck that will rewrite half of those rules...
Ultimately the game is what you make it.  It's most fun if you incorporate some form of role play into it, but to get the truly bizarre characters you'll need a mixture of decks which means more complicated rules.  Just remember the number one rule is to have fun, even if that means ignoring half the other rules.

The next Spotlight will be looking at some of the expansions, and how they shape up in terms of humour, what they add to the game, and how game-breaking they are.

Spotlight: PTA Homebrew

As I stated previously, Pokémon Tabletop Adventures is a game that has a lot of potential, but a few flaws.  As such, I've been working on some homebrew rules for it to make things more streamlined whilst also giving a bit more depth to the world.

A whole new world:
Before we got too far into the FireRed game, I decided to restart in a new region now that we had gotten a grasp of the rules.  We would play in a region I had been working on called Aerouanta (I can provide an in-depth analysis if requested), and the plot would remain basic: each year a competition is held to discover the region's champion.  Trainers gather from all over the world (allowing a couple of our players to keep their previous characters), but they would only be allowed to start with a single low-level pokémon.  Participants would also be divided into teams of 4-5, so they can take part in various events held throughout the year; things like tobogganing, bug-catching contests, and general other things inspired by the animé.  Obviously it would take a long time to get through a whole year, so I would throw in various sub-plots involving legendary pokémon and evil teams getting in the way- before we stopped playing I had an elaborate plot involving a bottled water company named 'Érus' that was experimenting on one of our players, inadvertently creating a psychic link to Deoxys due to a certain chemical they used to augment water's healing properties (I had to come up with some explanation as to how water could heal you in the games).  Ultimately, if the players ranked highly in the end of year tournament then they would have the option of becoming gym leaders or hunting down legendaries, or maybe the whole plot would be halted in favour of a civil war between the Poison-type metropolis and the Psychic-type city.

Rule revisions:
The most significant rule change I made was completely revamping trainer classes.  I decided that trainer classes as they were took away emphasis from pokémon, and there were just far too many feats to keep track of when you had to look after a team of 6 pokémon as well.  Instead I created my own classes (which I shall go into detail about in a separate post, if requested), each with 'base' abilities and 'advanced' abilities that steadily rose in power with each gym badge obtained.  We found immediate improvement in terms of gameplay, though slight disappointment at losing abilities from the previous game.
Another change I made was with pokémon contests, which are a bit of a disjointed mess in the source material.  My changes were a hybrid of the video-games and the animé; there is an 'appeal' stage and a 'battle' stage.  The appeal stage consists of a two-move combo to amaze the judges- Mr Contesta who likes unpredictable moves, like cute pokémon using tough moves; Mr Sukizo who likes moves that accentuate a pokémon's strength, so smart pokémon using smart moves; and Nurse Joy, who likes a balance of power and affection- if a pokémon can only use the move it learns at level 70 then it's extremely impressive, if it's a tm then she doesn't appreciate the pain caused by applying a tm.  The results of this round give a handicap to the battles, which are a standard fight until knockout though you also gain points according to the judge's criteria.  This eans that even if you won the match you may still lose on points.  The players all found contests to be an interesting change form regular battles with an added level of skill and creativity, even inspiring one player to focus most of the efforts on ribbons rather than badges, meaning I had to think of much greater prizes to compensate for reduced levels.
Smaller changes I made included making trainer HP= Con x10, giving trainers a higher chance of survival and making calculations easier; trainer movement= 5+/- Wis modifier, reflecting a trainer's ability to 'know' the battlefield; and most significantly the amount of moves a pokémon could learn equal its Intelligence capability +3, applying to both natural and TM moves (so an Int 3 pokémon could learn 6 natural moves and 6 TMs).  This gives a lot higher unpredictability in battles, and means you won't run out of moves quickly because you picked all 'Battle' frequency moves.  These were all met with great approval.

Rule additions:
The biggest addition I made involved skills, which I used Skyrim as inspiration for; basically the more you do something the better you become at it.  This included higher knowledge checks for scanning many pokémon, better capture rolls for capturing more pokémon, shorter hatching times for hatching eggs, etc.  Ultimately I feel these skills failed as we started gathering more cluttered character sheets which was the exact thing I was trying to avoid with trainer classes, but I still feel there is some potential for this method.
Another addition yet to be tried, is giving each species of pokémon a unique characteristic, the theory being that traditionally unplayable pokémon will now be playable, and traditionally overpowered pokémon may prove more difficult to control keeping a balanced playing field.  Examples I have so far include Butterfree attaching Poisonpowder to moves using its wings, and Jigglypuff having increased accuracy on Sing whilst using its 'inflate' capability.

And that's it for my homebrew bits for Pokémon Tabletop Adventures.  Feel free to use any of the above ideas for your own games, and if requested I can provide more in-depth files for pokémon characteristics or I can put up a post going into more detail about trainer classes or my region, Aerouanta- descriptions of gym leaders, rules for events, etc.

Finally, if you're interested in what you've read and fancy playing the game yourself, and you live in the Weston-Super-Mare/Bristol area, then let me know and perhaps you can join us for the new game I'll be setting up early next year.

Spotlight: Pokémon Tabletop Adventures

So far, this blog has had little tabletop content- something that needs rectifying considering this is the reason why most of you are here.  Semi-regularly (i.e when I have games available and playtested) I shall do a 'spotlight' on a particular game, similar to a review, and follow up with some in-depth looks at particular aspects of the game such as expansion sourcebooks or my experience with races and classes.

Today's spotlight is on Pokémon Tabletop Adventures.  A few things will go through your head on hearing that title, and the people I tell about it generally have one of two reactions; either 'Pokémon is awesome, how have I not heard of this before?!?' or 'lol Pokémon's for kids, how would a tabletop game of it work?'.

So, What is it?
Pokémon Tabletop Adventures (PTA) is a fan-made game that looked at the various pokémon abilities and settings and thought 'this could make for a pretty decent tabletop roleplaying game'.  It addresses the fact that there will never be a console game directed to an older audience, nor will there ever be an official tabletop game.

What do Trainers do?
Trainers are the player's avatars in the game.  They share the same stats as D&D characters: Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis and Cha.  They also have classes such as Ace Trainer, Martial Artist and Breeder, as well as feats to help specialisation.  Feats include how effectively you can hatch eggs, special 'tricks' you can perform in battle like commanding a pokémon to close it's eyes, avoiding certain moves etc.  Levelling up is versatile, essentially being awarded for how often you perform certain actions.  You can level up from catching a certain amount of pokémon, winning badges from gym leaders, or by simply performing a great enough accomplishment that the GM feels you're worthy to level up.  Levelling up grants access to advanced features of your class, or you can choose to cross-class.

What do Pokémon do?
Pokémon are obviously the main focus of the game.  They serve as willing thralls to their trainers, provided they're treated fairly and with kindness- though it's up to GM's discretion if ruthless slavery is allowed.  Pokémon are used as tools for overcome skill challenges, such as using a vine whip as a ladder, and as weapons for defending against wild pokémon or battling other trainers.  Whilst pokémons' stats, moves and abilities are adapted from the video games, tabletop introduces capabilities- this covers how far a pokémon can move per turn in certain environments (overland, underwater etc) as well as how heavy an item they can lift, how intelligent they are (which can affect ability to follow commands or how much abuse they're willing to suffer), and any special abilities they may have, such as telekinesis or egg-warming.

What's the aim of the Game?
Many games are run similar to the video games, a simple quest to collect badges and become champion of the region.  However the greatest fun comes from thinking in terms closer to other role-playing games- looking at legendary pokémon's abilities and thinking how they may pose a threat to the world, either under the control of an evil trainer or through their own free-will.  For inspiration it is recommended GM's look at the various pokémon movies- Mewtwo has a vendetta against mankind, someone's attempting to harness the legendary birds' power, Deoxys has crash landed... Or there's the option of basing your game on the side-games like Pokémon Conquest, a feudal era setting where warlords vie for control over a region; or do away with trainers entirely and be based on Mystery Dungeon where players can control a single pokémon to represent themselves.  This game is hugely versatile in terms of what style of game you wish to play.

What do I need to Play?
All you need as a player is this website: http://pokemontabletop.wikidot.com/
This contains everything you need to play the game, and is updated when any changes come along (currently it looks like a couple of months before Gen VI is added though).  Alternatively there are pdfs available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?c5cpr5p5z3ybca3 You will also need these pdfs to be GM, as they have handy references for capture stats, experience drops, and information on legendary pokémon.
Everything is completely free, and there are tools available for random stat generation etc.  Most of these can be found on the PTA forums: http://forums.pokemontabletop.com/index/
Also bear in mind that this game is still in Beta, so there may be the occasional balance issues that need addressing.  If you do encounter any issues when playing, please bring them up on their forums so they can be discussed.

Playtest Findings:
When I discovered this game, I asked a few of my friends what they thought and ended up with a group of 4, plus me as GM.  The group consisted of my partner, a huge Pokémon fan and long-time roleplayer; a guy who enjoyed Gen I pokémon but has little roleplaying experience outside of video games; and a couple who had little to no experience of pokémon at all, but a lot of roleplay experience.
I decided to keep things simple at first, playing an adaptation of FireRed almost word for word and seeing what happens.  The classes chosen were Ace Trainer, Capture Specialist, Breeder, and Psychic.  Each trainer was given their starter- something that wouldn't be overpowered but not too weak either.  In game-terms, these were the default starters as well as any pokémon the players could justify owning as a family pet.  This resulted in Charmander, Squirtle, Psyduck, and Eevee.
We weren't keen on the character sheets supplied, and ended up making our own which was simple enough- the main problem was a lack of space for inventories and feats.  I don't know if the provided sheets have changed in the meantime, as I've used our own sheets ever since.
I had heard that early encounters could be extremely difficult, but we didn't have too much trouble- a lot of GM discretion is needed to judge what a party is capable of.  We did encounter our first major problem at this point though, which is how much info are trainers allowed to have?  My partner could list every type advantage and had a good idea of stat-lines just by looking at a pokémon, and had trouble segregating player knowledge from character knowledge.  I decided to give the others a chart of type advantages, but I didn't want them to know the types of pokémon they saw- it would be more fun to figure it out themselves.  This had mixed success, as the couple new to pokémon couldn't resist looking things up in bulbapedia on their phones at every opportunity.  Ultimately I decided it wouldn't matter too much about what they knew, as capabilities meant pokémon were capable of different things than they are in the videogames, but it was a pity they weren't willing to play blind.
Our next problem was with the amount of pokémon being captured.  One player in particular wanted to capture everything he encountered, which brought the game to a halt as we listed off relevant stats for everything, and between sessions I was using a lot of ink and paper to print out sheets for them all.  I had to insist that he make a choice as to whether a pokémon would be used or not, just to speed things up, which he was understandably disappointed by- it's nice to have the freedom to use anything you want.
Nevertheless, we were having fun and streamlining things as we went.  We soon came to our first gym battle vs Brock, the Rock type gym leader, and this is where we realised tabletop really excels.
In the video games, you pay barely any attention to a pokémon's nature, or the conditions of a gym battle.  So it would be perfectly acceptable for this player to use a Sickly Pidgey against a Rock type, if only to gauge how strong his opponent is or scout moves.  However, in tabletop; Brock is a soft gym leader, who appreciates the love that goes into raising pokémon and can't stand seeing them injured for no reason.  His gym floor is also littered with rocks, giving him a small advantage to compensate for his lack of type versatility.  Even moreso, he has several Trainer levels as a Type Specialist, which help compensate for his weaknesses.  So when this Sickly Pidgey is sent out against him, he is not impressed.  He gives the challenger a chance to reconsider, but the challenger refuses.  One hit and the match is over.  Brock berates the challenger for using a pokémon he knew would fail, and lectures him on how being a trainer means loving your pokémon and not using them simply as tools.  The player felt ashamed and went off to sulk for a bit as he lost his gym battle where the others had a hard-fought victory.
At this point, our opinion of the game was good, but there were a few things that could be changed...

Conclusion:
The game is extremely fun, but certainly has its flaws.  There is a lot of paperwork involved, and it can be difficult to keep track of all the different mechanics; personally, I believe there's too much emphasis on trainers and not enough on pokémon.  The trainers appear to develop into superhumans when you have enough levels, which I feel is wrong for a pokémon universe.  Playing a straight port of the video games doesn't work, but it helps you understand how the game works and makes good practise for when you're confident enough to make your own world.  Possibly the most surprising finding, is just how dark this game can be; The early game can involve many pokémon deaths when following standard rules, and when you actually think about some pokémons' abilities they are horrible- 1000 year curses, eternal burns, soul-stealing... and in tabletop, all of these can be plot hooks that will turn a cartoony kids game into a Call of Cthulu-esque setting.  And that is awesome.

In my next post, I shall describe some of the homebrew changes I've made, as well as show off my own region.