The Munchkin Collectible Card Game matches opponents head-to-head. You can choose one of three two-player starter sets that let you play the game right out of the pack. Players can customize their decks with boosters, each containing 12 random cards drawn from a pool of over 300 cards. Begin your journey by choosing your hero. Are you a Bard, a Wizard, a Cleric, a Thief, a Warrior, or a Ranger? Each hero has its own unique, wacky ability. Included with every starter is everything you need to play the game. In a world filled with monsters, weapons, locations, and loot, your goal is to be the last hero standing.

Andrew McMillian sat down with Steve Jackson Games CEO Phil Reed, Chief Creative Officer Sam Mitschke, and Munchkin Line Editor Andrew Hackard to get answers to all our questions about the Munchkin Collectible Card Game.

How did you conceive the original idea for the Munchkin Collectible Card Game?

Phil: We’re very good at funny games and we wanted to give players a new way to enjoy the world of Munchkin. After discussing a lot of suggestions, our favorite was a game making fun of collectible card games . . . by making one ourselves. Getting to work with Eric Lang and Kevin Wilson was an awesome extra benefit; they’re both talented designers who brought a lot of ideas we wouldn’t have thought of ourselves to the table.

Andrew: We’ve been talking about a Munchkin CCG for almost two years, and the fan response has always been, “When, where, and how much?” We’re finally ready to answer those questions: “February 2018, everywhere, and how much have you got?”

What excites you about this game?

Andrew: Munchkin fans have been asking for a great two-player experience since about 20-minutes after the original card game hit shelves. This gives them everything they could have hoped for. If we don’t end some friendships, we did it wrong.

Sam: My favorite aspect of the game is the bluffing/cheating mechanic. It's a tense combination of strategic choice, timing, and an effective poker face. I don't know of another CCG that offers a similar experience.

Phil: Many Munchkin fans have built customized sets out of the existing games and expansions. With a collectible game, now each fan creates their own deck right from the start – winning isn’t just how well you play the cards you get, it’s what cards you choose in the first place.

When creating each card do you have a system you follow (a spreadsheet of ideas put into categories, for instance), or do you just let your imagination take you where it will?

Sam: It’s very much a collaborative environment. We have a list of ideas: specific game mechanics we want, silly character names, or funny turns of phrase. Everything goes into a spreadsheet and we build cards from there.

How much time have you personally invested into this game?

Sam: I have put in months of uninterrupted days, working behind closed doors with Randy Scheunemann and the rest of the team. It’s been an enormous undertaking.

Andrew: A lot of the work on this was done while I was busy with the Munchkin Guest Artist Editions and other projects. I consulted when I could, but I knew we had the right team working on the game and they would make something fantastic. (I was right.)

Phil: The nice thing about being a CEO is that I get to delegate. If Sam and Randy had questions, I answered them, but mostly I stayed out of the way and tried not to ask for status reports too often.

I noticed that quite a few different artists were used. Please enlighten us how this came about?

Phil: When we were working on the Munchkin Guest Artist Editions and the Munchkin comic from BOOM! Studios, part of our goal was to get a variety of artists familiar with Munchkin so that we could get a head start on the illustrations for the Collectible Card Game. I wanted John Kovalic’s artwork to appear in all the starter decks, so we had him illustrate all the neutral cards that every hero starts with, and assigned each set of hero cards to one artist.

Andrew: If you look at a published CCG, you’ll see a variety of art styles. We wanted to make sure our CCG had that feel, too. Phil vetoed my suggestion to hire a different artist for every card (something about problems signing 300 checks), so we compromised.

Sam: We hired several colorists for this job, which also adds a lot of variety to the cards above and beyond the different illustrators. We’ll be working with even more artists and colorists on the expansions!

What should fans expect when the Munchkin Collectible Card Game reaches their friendly local game stores?

Phil: We’ve created event kits that stores can use to run Munchkin Collectible Card Game tournaments right out of the case. Munchkin fans know to expect lots of promo giveaways, and this game won’t disappoint them! We also have plenty of promotional materials for the stores themselves.

Sam: We spent a lot of time making sure the tournament rules make sense. If you’ve played in events for other CCGs, these will be familiar, but I can say that drafting for this CCG will be a unique experience.

What do you see down the road for the Munchkin Collectible Card Game?

Phil: The initial game is complete and ready for print; it’s scheduled to come out in February 2018. The first expansion is in production, slated for May, and the second is in development right now, coming out in August. In the future, I see releases about every four months, give or take a month here and there.

Sam: We’re likely to release a second core set in 2019 with three new starters and new boosters, followed up with new expansions. This will allow sets to work with new players and a new storyline. The more cards we put out there, the more it allows us to world-build and tell a story. Plus, we get to incorporate all of the jokes, parody, and fun we can come up with.

Andrew: I don’t think the Collectible Card Game is going to replace the traditional Munchkin game, but it’s a fine complement to it. We’ll keep making both games as long as people are buying ‘em!

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Andrew McMillian is a writer in Austin, Texas, where he has lived for over 15 years. In his free time he paints, draws, and takes longer-than-usual power naps.