Zombie Munchkin

ZOMBIE MUNCHKIN aka NIGHT OF THE LIVING MUNCHKIN

GNAW YOUR BUDDY’S FACE OFF!

Supplemental Rules to Munchkin

The following rules are to be used as a supplement to Steve Jackson and John Kovalic’s Munchkin card game, published by Steve Jackson Games. We’re doing this with the full understanding that we don’t own this stuff because it’s theirs. It’s just that we dig the hell out of the game; and everything is improved by the presence of zombies.

SETUP

Because there is no race for zombie in regular Munchkin, a race needs to be purloined from another set that you’re currently not using. We find the Cultist cards from Munchkin Cthulhu to work fairly well, even though they’re a class. It’s just that Zombies are treated more like Cultists than anything else currently in the game. But any sort of card will do as long as everyone understands that when it’s drawn, it’s treated as a Zombie Race. Update: Or you could just snag this design and use it!

The rechristened Zombie Race cards go into the Dungeon deck like any other class card.

CARD MANAGEMENT/CHARACTER CREATION

If you wind up with a Zombie Race card in your hand at the start of the game, you can choose willingly to be a Zombie from the get go. Otherwise, you can play it later. Keep reading.

DRAWING CARDS DURING YOUR TURN

If at any point, either face up or face down, you draw a Zombie Race card from the pile, you can consider this a shambling member of the undead who has…well, shambled from the darkness in order to try and attack you. Roll the die. Get a 1, 2 or 3 and you’re bitten. 4, 5 or 6 and you manage to get away. If you wound up with a Zombie Race card in your starting hand, it can be played as a curse at any point during the game. Smacking somebody with this means that the smackee must roll to escape as well. There is no way to dodge a Zombie Race card played against you or drawn unless you have a specific card that countersmacks any card played or you roll and escape the bitten fate. Anti-curse rings or whatnot don’t work.

If a Zombie Race card gets dodged like this, it goes into a separate discard pile, again, much like the Cultists in Munchkin Cthulhu.

If you have been bitten, then you are now a Zombie. Congratulations.

(UN)LIFE AS A ZOMBIE

Becoming a Zombie overwhelms your present race, so it’s gone.

You can, just like a Cultist, have modifiers placed on you, like Monstrous or Overtly Bulbous or Ancient. And they work. Even Undead works as a modifier, because it amuses us to think of you as Really, Really Undead.

Being a Zombie means that your cards that you have IN PLAY work differently. We tried to keep it simple. If you don’t go for simple, see ADVANCED VARIATIONS below.

If it’s anything that requires intelligence or activity to work it, you can’t use it. Examples: magic potions, curses used against others, melee weapons. Those should be discarded after you stand up as your new undead self.

If it’s anything else, something that you don’t have to actively use, then it still works. Examples: modifiers (as above), armor, clothing.

If there’s a question, then whoever owns the game decides. You know the drill.

LOOKING FOR TROUBLE

If you do not encounter a monster when you kick open a door (or shamble through a door, zombies don’t kick much), then you can look for trouble either through the usual way (a monster in your hand) or you can attack a non-zombie player in the game. If you manage to kill the player, you leave the body to be looted by others (the living others…you probably just gnaw on it a bit) and once the body has been looted, that player rises as a zombie.

LOOTING THE ROOM

You can get treasures but if you cannot use them somehow on yourself as a zombie, then you discard them instantly. Same thing goes for dungeon cards.

COMBAT

As stated above, you are limited to the items that you have post zombification as far as modifiers go. You’re fighting with your levels plus those zombie-friendly cards/modifiers.

If you have cards in your hand that a zombie could not reasonably use, like a potion, then you cannot throw down with it. I mean, you are a zombie, after all. And “oh, it accidentally slipped from my undead fingers…” Nah. Come on.

Zombies get an automatic +1 for each other zombie player. This is the Horde Advantage.

Zombies win ties. This is because they have the added advantage of not giving a crap if you lop their arm off in combat. Because they’re busy eating your face.

ASKING FOR HELP

You can only ask fellow zombies to help you. In fact, they must help you if by doing so, they can help you win the battle. However, you can’t ask a zombie to go on a suicide mission with you. If you’re facing down something ginormous that is zombie hostile, then face it like a…um, dead person. Because zombies, dumb as they are, won’t willingly go up against some Level 20 monstrosity.

RUNNING AWAY

Most monsters won’t be interested in you. Undead monsters recognize you as a cousin and say, “Sup?” and wander on. Monsters who would normally try to eat you, aren’t interested, because you’re dead and you stink. Monsters who are just evil incarnate, like a Great Cthulhu or a Gazebo or a Yanni, they won’t be bothered with you and will let you pass. Everything else, though, and you’re either running away or fighting. Running away you get a +1 because most critters won’t try too hard to stop you. Did I mention you stink?

DEATH

Here’s how death works in a game of Zombie Munchkin. When you die as a regular player, for any reason, you come back as a Zombie version of that same character. It does not matter if there’s an available Zombie race card or not. Put a big Z on your forehead or something. If you get killed as a Zombie, only THEN does the usual regeneration trick work. Bonus for your buddies is they get to loot your body both times.

SELLING ITEMS

You can’t sell items as a zombie. I mean, honestly, it would just go pear-shaped:

MERCHANT: You want how much for these things?

ZOMBIE: UhhhRrrhhghhhh!

MERCHANT: I don’t understand…how many gold pieces? I can’t even tell which things you want to sell!

ZOMBIE: HaarrRGHHHgguu!

MERCHANT: Look, I’m sorry, but we seem to be having a bit of a—AHHHH!!! YOU BIT MY FACE!

ZOMBIE: Hello, Aunt Alicia!

WINNING

Same as regular Munchkin, only if everybody becomes a Zombie all at once, then the game ends and the Zombie with the highest number of levels is the winner.

ADVANCED RULES

Evolving Zombies. In this variation, zombies who are level 5 and up can start to use a single melee weapon. If they come across a better melee weapon than the one they have currently, they discard their present one and get the better one.

Rage Zombies. In this variation, zombies are fast as hell. They get +3 on their attacks and defenses due to speed but lose their +1 to run away (because they will attack most anything, since they’re SO PISSED OFF ABOUT BEING DEAD).

Thoughts? Suggestions? Widgett at need coffee dot com.