Munchkin Cthulhu

by Steve Jackson Games

Product Features

• Game Includes 168 cards

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches ; 13.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: 155634760X
• Item model number: 1447
• Manufacturer recommended age: 12 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,077 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Product Description

Product Description

Munchkins have hacked their way through dungeons, kung fu temples, starships, haunted houses, and super-foes. Now they face their greatest challenge - Cthulhu! Will they survive? Will they retain their sanity? Will they . . . level up? Munchkin Cthuhlu is the newest stand-alone game in the Munchkin line, this time lampooning Lovecraft's Mythos and the horror gaming that surrounds it. Brought to you by Steve Jackson and John Kovalic, this set features four new Classes - including the Cultist - and a lot of classic monsters from outside reality. And they all have Stuff you can take from their twitching bodies. You can play Munchkin Cthulhu by itself, or combine it with any number of other Munchkin games for mind-bending silliness.

Product Description

Munchkins have hacked their way through dungeons, kung fu temples, starships, haunted houses, and super-foes. Now they face their greatest challenge - Cthulhu! Will they survive? Will they retain their sanity? Will they . . . level up? Munchkin Cthuhlu is the newest stand-alone game in the Munchkin line, this time lampooning Lovecraft's Mythos and the horror gaming that surrounds it. Brought to you by Steve Jackson and John Kovalic, this set features four new Classes - including the Cultist - and a lot of classic monsters from outside reality. And they all have Stuff you can take from their twitching bodies. You can play Munchkin Cthulhu by itself, or combine it with any number of other Munchkin games for mind-bending silliness.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mad Munchkin Fun for those in the Know, July 13, 2007

By 

Jutlander - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars 

Munchkin Cthulhu is the newest branch on the Munchkin family tree and as its predecessors, this is a game for gamers, made by gamers, and making fun of gamers.

Game Mechanics

In terms of game mechanics and concept, Munchkin Cthulhu is almost identical to its predecessors. The players kick in doors, fight monsters, steal treasures, and stab their buddies. Traps are now known as Curses, but are otherwise the same.

The new Classes are the Investigator, the Monster Whacker, the Professor, and the Cultist, and of these the Investigator seem to be the one with the most useful abilities (they are particularly neat when combined with the Feline from Star Munchkin), while the Monster Whacker seems to be the most puny. There are no Races (or an equivalent such as Loyalties from Munchkin Impossible), which is a bit of a disappointment as it limits the possible character combinations.

There are some special rules for the Cultist printed in the rules but not on the Cultist card, and it is very important to read these if you want to keep the game from going awry and the players from going mad. Finally, similar to the "...in Black" monsters from Munchkin Impossible, Munchkin Cthulhu offers "Goth" monsters such as the Shog Goth and the Froggoth which can aid each other and cause havoc in combat.

Theme

Not surprisingly, Munchkin Cthulhu is concerned with the game Call of Cthulhu and so it takes on a great challenge. As a game Call of Cthulhu is by many considered an all-time classic among roleplaying games, but the truth remains that it is also a relatively obscure and narrow game. The universe of Call of Cthulhu is complex and a veritable treasurechest of gods and monsters, but even if many roleplayers know and have played the game, the mythology is undisputeably esoteric. This makes it a difficult topic for satire. While the illustrations by John Kovalic do that cards such as the Nightie-Gaunts and the Fun Guy from Yuggoth are amusing in and by themselves, they are probably more so to someone who has encountered Night Gaunts and Fungus from Yuggoth in their games. But many gamers think of Call of Cthulhu as a style of gaming more than an actual game, and so these references to mythos monsters are often for naught. Therefore the challenge of Munchkin Cthulhu is to capture the essence of this style as much as it is to get the references right.

To a large extent Munchkin Cthulhu succeeds in both. In mythos specific references we find monsters such as the Shallow Ones, the Dunwich Snorer, and the Grape Old Ones, as well as Curses such as Learn Yet Another Awful Truth and a card declaring that the Stars are Wrong. It is not a huge surprise that beside the Necronomicon itself, there are no less than four Necronomi-puns (I made that one up myself).

More interesting, maybe, are the cards trying to reflect the sillier aspects and problems of Call of Cthulhu games such as the players being railroaded into the plot (Tchoo-Tchoo People), finding circumstances to be against them (Flashlight Goes Out!), taking drastic measures to defeat the monsters (Backpack Full of Dynamite), abandoning their friends (Shoes of Only Having to Run Faster Than You), and then finally involving outside authorities to deal with the problem (Report Creatures to the FBI), after which they are declared insane (Dragged Off to Snarkham Asylum).

Conclusion

Munchkin Cthulhu is a fun game, and overall the game designers have done a good job of getting the atmosphere of the game just right with a good selection of references and jokes. It shows, though, that the premise of the game - the original Call of Cthulhu - is not as broad a "genre" as for example fantasy or science fiction.

While the many puns on the Necronomicon and the various "Goth" monsters are amusing, they are also a bit repetitious. Likewise, there is a great emphasis on the Cultist, which steals some focus from the other Classes. This is only made worse by the fact that there are no second character-defining trait such as Race in the game.

Even more so than the other incarnations of Munchkin, Munchkin Cthulhu is highly dependent on the players having a specific frame of reference to understand the jokes. While a wide audience can probably appreciate the more universal and pop-cultural jokes of games such as Star Munchkin and Munchkin Impossible, it is doubtful that the same appreciation will be found for the Cruller Out of Space or Gnarlyhotep. But if you do know your Cthulhu Mythos, it is very funny.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn, July 21, 2007

By 

Wendy Wojda "Luna Drache" (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Munchkin Cthulhu (Toy)

I was very happy to see a Cthulhu addition to Munchkin... well, besides the level 20 Cthulhu monster in the Munchkin Bites set. This set adds in cultists, which is a nice addition when you have more players, as cultists get bonuses for other cultists being in the game, though it's very difficult to stop being one. The other classes are investigators, professors, and monster whackers. There are no side-kicks in this set, which was kind of a bummer. It would be nice to include some research assistants or something like that. You don't have to have read any Lovecraft to appreciate this set, though it helps if you want get the jokes and puns.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent addition to the Munchkin line up, May 17, 2007

By 

Matt Dahlquist - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Munchkin Cthulhu (Toy)

Another wacky and fun Munchkin version, this time into the mind bending world of HP Lovecraft's Ancient Evils From Beyond The Stars (and possibly under the bed). The best feature is the "cultist" mechanic, that speeds play and adds a few great twists to stabbing your buddies in the back! The jokes are not as fun and inspired as in "Impossible", the classic Munchkin sets or "Bites!", but there are still plenty of chuckles, puns and groaners.