Munchkin (card game)

Munchkin is a card game from Steve Jackson Games, written by Steve Jackson with art by John Kovalic. It pokes fun at role-playing games by centering on "munchkins"—players who focus only on building the most overpowered character to win. The game earned the 2001 Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game and began as a spin-off of *The Munchkin's Guide to Powergaming*, a humor book that won an Origins Award the year before.

Following the original game's success, multiple expansion packs and sequels were released. Munchkin is now available in 15 languages, made up over 70% of Steve Jackson Games' sales in 2007, and remained the company's best-selling title through 2020. A Munchkin Second Edition was successfully crowdfunded on BackerKit in February 2026.

In a standard game, all players begin at level 1 and aim to reach level 10 (or level 20 in Epic Level games). The main way to advance is by defeating monsters, which grants a level per kill. During play, players can use cards to help or hinder others on their turns. A turn starts when a player "kicks down the door," drawing a Door Card face-up. This card might be a Monster (which must be fought or fled from), a Curse (which applies an effect), or an Item, Race, or Class card (added to the hand). If no monster appears, the player may "loot the room" by drawing a face-down door card, or "look for trouble" by playing a monster from their hand.

When fighting a monster, the player's level plus item bonuses (and any allies' contributions) are compared to the monster's level. A winner collects treasure cards and levels up as the monster dictates. A loser must roll a die to flee; failing a roll of 5 or 6 triggers the monster's "Bad Stuff," which might cost levels, equipment, hand cards, or even cause death. If a player dies, their turn ends, and the highest-level player (with ties broken by die roll) picks a card from the dead player's hand, followed by each other player in descending order. The rest are discarded. On the next turn, the new character starts with four face-down cards from each deck and any legal cards already in play.

The game encourages cutthroat tactics: players can act as mercenaries, use cheat cards to alter die rolls, or intervene during others' turns by buffing or debuffing monsters, adding extra monsters, or offering help in exchange for treasure. Cards include Items for combat, Treasure