Munchkins: D&D but not as you knew it ... Brilliant Family Fun

I am feeling really  happy that I finally "discovered how to play" this little classic board game. First, at the after-hours "Gamers Club" at work and then immediately when I brought it home and played it with the family. Certainly not a "cooperative game" but the fun is also in the 'sneaky thief' stab-in-back aspect to the game. It gets quite murderous in the "end game" phase as many tall-poppy fell making bloody scenes from "Game of Thrones" look like Kinder-garden Cop by comparison (see below, the iconic art work from Steve Jackson Games - note there are also many differently themed variants out there, such as Warhammer 40K):

Despite coming "a joint close second (just when I thought I was in with a chance a female warrior ran past me wearing 'slime armour' to ace it to Level 10)" in the friendly Work Game, I was roundly beaten by the superior wit and cunning intelligence of my eldest son in the no-holds barred "Home Tournament" game (see below, the game nearing its end phase - a two player duel for Alpha male dominance in which I duly lost, being a Dwarf Wizard with a "singing sword" was no match against a Munchkin multi-class [wizard-warrior], multi-race [Elf-Dwarf] tooled up killing machine with a sword in both hands and a scary bandanna, not to mention "the boots of butt-kicking"!): 

The Home Game: The final score card shows the hectic frenzied finale. To his credit it was a well earned victory with him overcoming many adversities as he was finally crowned House Munchkin Champion (see below, "First to Level 10 wins"): 

The game was so much rip-roaring fun (we made a lot of noise in retrospect, which included my son developing a Germanic accent for some unexplained reason), the wife even expressed more than a passing interest in playing; the eldest's Dungeons and Dragons school friends will soon be exposed to this D&D Lite event (the shouting from which I expect to be very loud and boisterous)!

Family Christmas Games Night will be fun this year!