If you love Dungeons and Dragons and are okay with “take that” sort of gameplay, then you definitely want to check out Munchkin! Full of puns, this game is hilarious and so much fun.

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Munchkin makes fun of Dungeons and Dragons, with cards saying things like, “Wash the DM’s car. Go up a level.” Generally, the only way to level up in D&D is through experience points (XP), but I have seen XP rewarded for a well-done backstory.

Everyone starts the game as a level 1 classless human of whatever gender you are in real life. You start each turn by opening a door (flipping a door card over). Sometimes there’s a class or race card. You can just pick it up and decide to be that class or race. There are bonuses and drawbacks to different ones.

Here are some of the possible door cards. They can be races or classes like the top row, a card that you can pick up and later use to modify another monster like in the second row, or a monster you have to fight or a curse that impacts you like in the third row.

Here’s where the math comes into play. In order to figure out your total level, you add up your character level, bonuses from equipment and weapons, and temporary bonuses (like from a potion). If you get a friend to help, you add up their total level, then add your total levels together to get your combined level. I bet you can play Munchkin with your kids, and they won’t even realize they’ve done their daily math practice!

If you are this halfling cleric and open the door to find this Level 8 Male Chauvinist Pig, you would need to be at least a level 3 in order to beat it by yourself. With the addition of your three bonus cards, that would put you at level 9. If you don’t have at least 3 levels, you could ask for help and beat it that way.

You could even change the rules to support cooperative play. I imagine, that if you had a family goal to get to a combined 50 levels, say (maybe party number plus one times ten), and especially if you had an expansion pack that included a lot of high-level monsters, that could work well. We have the first three general Munchkin expansions, so we do have a lot of high-level monsters. I think we may try this!

Here are some possible treasure cards. When defeated, each monster awards so many treasure cards. They could be something you can use once in a fight, like on the bottom row. They could be something to help you go up a level or otherwise help you out, like in the next row. Or they could be equipment or weapons that you can use again and again, like the top two rows. Note that not all cards may necessarily be appropriate for all kids, like in the top row.