Games > Role-Playing Games
Roleplaying CCG
CSmythe:
Also not at all.
Munchkin is neither a CCG nor an RPG. While the game does have expansions it is really just a card game. There are no real roleplaying elements to it.
The Jade Knight:
Munchkin is not a CCG, you're right, though it is a card game. But it's certainly an RPG as much as RPG videogames are RPGs.
CSmythe:
But a video game RPG is very different from a PnP RPG and since this is not the video games forum why would it matter if it is like a video game?
I have played Munchkin plenty of times and never seen any RPG elements (not even the kind from a VGRPG), it is a card game where the main idea is to mess with your friends. It is not however a game where you spend any time developing the personality of your character, distinct from yourself. In Munchkin (at least in my experience) you are still you whereas in D&D (for example) you take on the role of a character who is distinct from yourself, and interact with other people and the environment from the perspective of that character.
Munchkin is a parody of a lot of the tropes of RPGs but it doesn't actually require or even encourage any actual roleplaying. I might even go so far as to say that actual roleplaying is actively discouraged in Munchkin, especially once you start mixing games together.
The Jade Knight:
D&D frequently does not encourage any actual RPing—and this was especially true of early incarnations. However, the game goes out of its way to allow people to do everything on a board or table and just play what is essentially a hypercomplicated boardgame, if they so wish.
Munchkin is somewhat like that, but way simpler. You have all of the traditional elements of an RPG: Race, class, trappings, levels, etc. You're certainly welcome to RP in Munchkin, too, though it's not necessary to the game.
CSmythe:
It seems then that the wall we are running up against is our definitions of an RPG. To my mind in order to be classified as an RPG the game does indeed require an inherent element of roleplaying. Also I think that an RPG has a big difference from games like Munchkin in that it is a cooperative experience, I do not play D&D attempting to beat my friends, quite the opposite in fact. No one wins at D&D, the game is played for the journey, not to try and be the victor. I think also that a pen and paper RPG needs to encourage creative problem solving and the option of solving encounters through non-combative methods.
Now in my experience Munchkin assumes first off that everything you do is combative but since that is an element of the parody I'll let that one slide. The place where, for me Munchkin fails to be classified as an RPG is the fact that creativity is neither rewarded nor encouraged. If my level is higher than that of the random card I flipped then I win, at the end of the day Munchkin really is closer to a game like War then it is an RPG.
Munchkin, as I have said does not encourage you to take on the actual role of the character you are playing any more then another card game does. Magic's original conceit was that you played as a might Planeswalker who could pull creatures through the void to fight for you, WoW CCG lets you choose a hero who you use to duel and call allies to fight beside, even a game like Monopoly puts you in the role of a business tycoon attempting to achieve that very monopoly and crush your oponents. If you consider those RPGs then I suppose you could consider Munchkin one as well, to me though those are simply card and board games.
sorry if that got a little muddled, haven't had any coffee yet.
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