smart | detour
Fall into a hobby with fantasy games like Munchkin Quest
Role-playing games bring out people’s competitive natures and breathe life into the old-fashioned activity
T
here is a chill in the pumpkin spice- scented air. Toughts as well as bodies are looking indoors – not that I am
an outdoor person to begin with. Te chip bowls are full, and the fridge is stocked with Half Pints craft beers. You’ve shaken down your
guests and confiscated their stash of Monopoly money they had tucked away in sleeves, the board is set up, and your guests are fighting over the race car token. Slyly you pull out your token of a little horn- helmed guy brandishing a rather intimidating-looking chainsaw. “I get an extra 200 dollars and get to roll three dice instead of two for every turn,” you triumphantly ex- claim. You are met with blank expressions of disbelief. Af ter a few moments of
Level 10, and beat the boss monster. Shortly thereafter, the Monopoly board
is put away, you’ve handed out the starting cards and tokens, people have picked their munchkin token, and the first room tile is on the table. You start as a Level 1 munchkin with no class, and believe me, class goes out the window when this game comes out. Munchkin Quest takes the
role-playing game genre and adds some fun and lunacy to it. Every turn you pick a room tile, and place it where you like, connecting to another room in the dungeon like a giant puzzle. Monsters ranging from gi-
All Fun & Games Stephan Bazzocchi
awkward silence, someone demands to know exactly what it is you are talking about. “It’s right here in the rules,” you state as you pull out the rule book for Munchkin Quest and point to the section that explains using your munchkin in other games and the bonuses it brings. More silence – perhaps some anger – and now definitely some chips and popcorn are being thrown at you. Once the barrage has abated, someone
asks you to explain what this Munchkin Quest is. You happily pull out the box, ex- plain that the premise is running around a build-as-you-play dungeon, helping and hindering the other players in a mad race to gain the most loot, get your munchkin to
Crossword
ACROSS 1. Two-syllable poetic unit 5. Anarchist in '20s news 10. Subsides, as the tide 14. Waterfront walkway 15. Line holder 16. Gender: Abbr. 17. Nocturnal breathing problem 19. Without: Ger. 20. Herr Schindler 21. Broadside
23. Prime minister of Japan during WWII
26. More mindless 27. "Forget it!" 32. Parseghian 33. Yard in Perth
34. Quarterback tackles 38. Time, in Mannheim 40. J. Lo bomb
42. Season to be jolly 43. Arabic for "submission" 45. Cheddar cousin 47. Room type 48. "Fat Actress" star 51. Bit of current 54. Veteran, perhaps 55. Longfellow chief 58. Ice palace of sorts 62. Timbuktu's country 63. Star of "The Defenders" 66. Despot Idi ___ 67. Pot spot 68. Promo on the tube 69. Small dent on a fender 70. Couch potato's object of devo- tion
71. Alleges
DOWN 1. Word with facto or jure 2. Feels pain
3. Earth's inheritors 4. Respiration 5. Govt. old-age insurer 6. "Killer" piece of software 7. Fir fruit
8. Joel who directed "Raising November 2014 Arizona"
9. Patron saint of Norway 10. Noted bomber 11. "The Quare Fellow" author 12. German political groups 13. Bum ___ (bad tip) 18. Tourney type 22. Overnight stops on the road 24. Photo file format 25. Lenses, mirrors, etc. 27. Ultra-authoritarian 28. Some natural resources 29. Follow a suspect 30. Cereal fungus 31. World traveler Bly 35. Hair roller result
36. Swiss painter: 1879-1940 37. ___ of State
Answers on next page
www.smartbizwpg.com Smart Biz 17 39. Make like a bird
41. Nimble mountain animal 44. Variable star 46. Directional antenna arrays 49. Double-check 50. Signals
51. Sportscaster Rashad 52. Heat's home 53. Michael of "A Fish Called Wanda"
56. 'Design on a Dime' network 57. Famous ___ (cookie brand) 59. Liquid rock 60. Maker of Touch of Sun skin products
61. Cutlass or 88, in the auto world 64. Hail
65. No longer playing: Abbr
About Adequately After Atheist Blurred Bugging Bushier Cables Caged Canoe Chirps Chuck Creaked Dittos
Suduko
Feeble Feign Fifteen Focal Focuses Graphs Hostiles Jaguars Jeered Lacquers Manual Monks Nasals Nomads
Pelican Pithy Plateaus Reach Roman Scolded Sicks Soccer Solar
Sparing Swapping Terse Udder Union
ant goldfish to floating noses appear. You fight them. Search the room for loot. Collect weapons, armour and potions. Gain levels, and so on and so forth. Sounds pretty basic.
The real fun/friendship-breaking/di-
vorce-inducing portion comes in during the monster fights. You can ask your fellow munchkins for help in return for a share of the loot. Tey may choose to help you or do nothing. Tey may also decide to help out the monster. Tat little Venus flytrap that seemed so
harmless a moment ago is now a rampag- ing horror that makes the mind gibber at its sheer obscene repulsiveness – and it makes short work of defeating you in one round of combat. You sit there dismayed and start draft-
ing up written proclamations of vendetta as your spouse/BFF-turned-nemesis sits
Your next quest awaits: it's time to face the Munchkin. Photo courtesy of Steve Jackson Games.
across from you giggling maniacally as they proceed to take all that sweet loot you could have had. Munchkin Quest is fun, plain and simple.
It’s refreshing to play a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously – or seriously at all for that matter. Te pieces (and there are lots of them) are sturdy so they withstand the heated excite-
ment that comes with such a competitive game. Te artwork is comical, making fun of all the standard fantasy game tropes. Tere really isn’t any other way to create
frenemies with such whimsy. You can pick the game up at your favourite board game store. Also, check out the regular Munchkin game. Same premise, no room tiles – all the same mayhem and lunacy.
Word Search
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20