Munchkin Cthulhu is part of an extensive range of Munchkin card games, each of which has a different theme, be it pirates, cowboys or spacemen. The rules of Munchkin are more or less same in every version, just with different tweaks to reflect the theme, and most of the versions have their own expansions. You can also mix up different sets of Munchkin if you want to and play a game that is a mix of different themes, which adds to the trashy kind of game that Munchkin is.

I say trashy because the basic concept is that you as the player are a level 1 adventurer, and you have to kill monsters in order to increase your level to 10. The monsters are defined by their own level, so to kill them you need your level to exceed that of the monster. This makes the early part of the game quite difficult, but you have the opportunity to equip yourself with weapons and equipment, or play cards from your hand that give you a combat bonus against a monster.

The monsters are based on creatures and gods from the Cthulhu Mythos, largely based on the weird pulp tales of H.P. Lovecraft. The monster names have been twisted however to become puns on the name of the creature they are based on, and have suitably silly comic book artwork on the card to reflect the pun. The artwork is consistently goofy and fun, and helps make the game play entertaining, and you have to approach Munchkin with a sense of humour.

The cards are made up of a ‘door’ deck and a ‘treasure’ deck. The door deck contains monsters, special cards and ‘class’ cards with which you can upgrade your adventurer. If it is a monster you fight it, if not you draw another door card and place it in your hand. If you defeat the monster you get to pick up between one and five treasure cards, which usually give you a combat bonus. If the monster defeats you ‘Bad Stuff’ happens, which might result in losing equipment, levels or your next turn.

You have the option to ask for help from another player, in which case you add your level to their level including combat bonuses from equipment and so on against the monster. This usually involves offering the other player some of the treasure cards from killing the monster, and can result in some tense haggling. A player that helps kill a monster gains no level from the victory, but it is still in the interest of a winning player to help a player with low levels, just to gain more equipment.

If you aren’t into the Cthulhu Mythos many of the cards will have little relevance, but there are still enough cards in the set that are generic to horror movies that it doesn’t matter. There are enough options though within the Munchkin range of games that any one of them is likely to suit most game groups. When it comes down to it you are just killing monsters to level up, in the same way that you would do in a computer game, which is a pretty straight forward game concept for most people.

The main difference between this version and the others is the cultist cards. Normally you can upgrade your adventurer by making them into a Professor or Investigator for example, which gives you some sort of in game benefit. There is also the cultist class, which you can usually only become when you fight certain monsters, or if a player uses the ‘Sudden Head Blow’ card against you. You get a combat bonus of +2 for every other cultist in play, so it can be useful to have several cultists in the game.

Usually you win by reaching level 10, but if all of the players become cultists the player with the highest level wins immediately. This adds an extra little strategy of trying to turn everyone into a cultist if you have a healthy lead on the other players in terms of levels. In Munchkin games it is quite typical for players to pick on whoever is in the lead in order to slow them down, so adding the cultist end game changes that a little bit. It also adds theme, because cultists feature heavily in the mythos tales.

Munchkin is very much a ‘mess with your neighbour’ type of game, as there are plenty of cards that allow you to interfere in your opponent’s turn. You can increase the level of the monster they are fighting, and even add another monster into the fight from your hand if you have the right cards. During your own turn you can use curse cards to make another player discard equipment, so you can see how picking on the leading player can cause them problems.

The only real drawback to Munchkin Cthulhu and the Munchkin games in general is that you can have games where the winner is on level 10, while the other players are on level 5 or less. Sometimes you just get the wrong sequence of cards and have a bad game, and it can be a little bit dull and frustrating. You do start the game with four cards however, so with the simple option of starting with six or eight cards your adventurers can begin the game with a higher level of competence.

I really enjoy Munchkin games generally, the cartoony artwork is excellent and the game play is fast, furious and confrontational. It can be a ‘chalk and cheese’ love it or hate it game to some people, but if you pick the right theme it is great for a quick game. It plays best with four people to get the best interaction, and you can stretch the player count above six if you have some expansions. What is best about it perhaps is that alliances between players can shift back and forth during the game.