15

I have been disputing with my friends lately about the fact that the creators of Munchkin intended for people to cheat or not. By cheating I mean doing anything the rules say you can't do or that is obviously not allowed, e.g.: using more hands then you're supposed to, stealing cards from the deck when nobody's looking. I believe the game is all about being a jerk and a backstabber in every way. Who agrees that you should be allowed to steal and cheat in Munchkin but have it be punishable however the GM sees fit?

chicks
  • 299
  • 1
  • 4
  • 13
Elias Rowan Albatross
  • 261
  • 2
  • 7
  • What do you mean by cheating? Can you give some examples. – Joe W Mar 04 '19 at 01:38
  • 2
    @JoeW just going by the definition of the cheating tag on this site. cheating is "breaking the rules" so anything that the rules say you cant do, like using three hands without the permitting card. Or anything that is just blatantly not allowed, like stealing extra cards while nobody is looking and stuff like that. – Elias Rowan Albatross Mar 04 '19 at 01:48
  • 2
    You should edit that into the question but my thoughts are that the answer is no because that makes the game not very fun to play – Joe W Mar 04 '19 at 01:50
  • 3
    Munchkin the board game has no GM to police/punish cheating. As a result, the players must follow and enforce the rules as a group – Zags Mar 04 '19 at 14:10
  • 5
    If cheating is allowed then wouldn't it kinda by definition not be cheating? My head hurts. – goldPseudo Mar 06 '19 at 00:43
  • @goldPseudo Yes i know. I don't mean is it literally allowed, but what i'm really getting at is the intent of the game creators. I heard someone that they encouraged cheating. not exactly allowing it. – Elias Rowan Albatross Mar 06 '19 at 01:08

1 Answers1

32

According to the very old rules from the beginning of munchkin you could cheat if the other players didn't catch you.

Likewise, you may also use only one headgear, one suit of armor, one pair of footgear, and two “hand” items (or one “two hands” item), unless you have a card that lets you cheat or the other players don’t catch you.

That was in an earlier version of the rules and doesn't appear in the newer rules, so probably a no. On the Munchkin FAQ the fifth question under General Questions is

Q. But don't the rules say it's OK to cheat if you don't get caught?

A. Not anymore, and even when they did, it was a joke. If you want a game where cheating is in the spirit and the letter of the rules, try Illuminati.

So again no.

Anyways, cheating is breaking the rules and makes the game not very fun, so I'd say no to cheating.

If you want to read those rules, I accessed them from https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/3069/rulespdf. You need a boardgamegeek account to download them. To find that specific passage, hit Ctrl+F then write "cheat" in the box that appears.

Also see this old cheat card:

Cheat!: "Player may do one thing that would otherwise be against the rules."

Matteo
  • 103
  • 3
Yout Ried
  • 598
  • 5
  • 10
  • 5
    Also, scroll down to the bottom here to see the official stance of Steve Jackson Games on cheating - the line in the manual was meant to be a joke, and they do not endorse it. Unfortunately players took the line at face value and hence thought that cheating was encouraged. – ConMan Mar 04 '19 at 03:37
  • @ConMan yeah I saw that that's mostly how I got my links – Yout Ried Mar 04 '19 at 03:44
  • 14
    Point of fact: you can cheat in any game so long as no one catches you. – L. Scott Johnson Mar 04 '19 at 13:10
  • 8
    @L.ScottJohnson Point of fact: if people do catch you cheating, you will stop getting invited to play board games. Risk/benefit analysis is an important life skill – Zags Mar 04 '19 at 14:15
  • 6
    @Zags Indeed. Just pointing out the obviousness of the "or the other players don't catch you" being a joke / not endorsed. – L. Scott Johnson Mar 04 '19 at 14:48
  • Your geekdo link is broken, Access denied, expired – Andrew Mar 04 '19 at 15:30
  • @Andrew oh you might need a boardgamegeek.com account it still works for me – Yout Ried Mar 04 '19 at 15:37
  • @YoutRied The XML returned by the request said the link expired at 2:30 am GMT, that was actually slightly over 13 hours ago. Looks like it may be a one time use link? – Andrew Mar 04 '19 at 15:38
  • @Andrew I'll try and find a permanent link then but it still works for me – Yout Ried Mar 04 '19 at 15:40
  • The expiry time is right there in the link... though it doesn't match with the data returned when I click the link it still is in the past. 1551666634 is 3:43 pm GMT today – Andrew Mar 04 '19 at 15:47
  • 2
    @Andrew That's the best I can do for now... (please see edited question) – Yout Ried Mar 04 '19 at 16:05
  • 1
    If you added the italics to the quote, you should note that fact. – Acccumulation Mar 04 '19 at 16:52