A new Munchkin stand-alone set hits the shelves this weekend, putting Steve Jackson Games’ twist on classic fairy tale characters and tropes in Grimm Tidings. The 114-card game, with art by John Kovalic, mines both familiar and obscure ground of the folktales collected by the Brothers Grimm. The Munchkin team gave GeekDad a peek at the new set after our interview at Gen Con.
Gameplay works like other flavors of Munchkin: kicking in doors, fighting monsters, and grabbing treasure in the race to be the first player to reach Level 10. (Never played Munchkin? You can get a quick feel for the game in this official online demo, or take a half-hour and watch this episode of TableTop.)
You’ll find four new appropriately-themed classes–Woodcutter, Thief, Hunter, and Tailor–along with three other new role-shaping cards, Eldest, Princess, and Youngest.
References to “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Rapunzel,” sure, you’ll get those. But what about “Mother Holle?” “The Three Little Men in the Wood?” “The Robber Bridegroom?” I found myself online looking up references and discovering stories I’d never read–and as the old tales often go, yeah, some of them are a bit twisted. (Grimm Tidings doesn’t really go there; it’s level of cartoon-violent humor pretty much tops out at a curse card called “Trapped in the Murder Room.” But if you’re playing Munchkin, you’re probably familiar with the recommended ages 10-and-up material.)
Here are a few more peeks at the set:
In looking over the instructions, I see that Steve Jackson Games has updated the rules with a more clear explanation of carrying and equipping items than I’ve seen in some of the earlier sets, which is very helpful. And for those who are interested in such details, the custom six-sided die for this box is a nice yellow-on-purple piece that matches the packaging. As with all standard Munchkin base sets, you need to provide your own method of tracking your levels during gameplay. (We’ve always used 10-sided dice.)
Grimm Tidings is available exclusively at Walgreens, marking the Munchkin crew’s first time kicking down the door of that particular store.
Disclosure: GeekDad received a review copy of Munchkin: Grimm Tidings.
