June 21, 2019: Munchkin Musings: June 2019 - Special Post-Origins Edition!

I just got back from this show last night and I'm really pleased with how it went. I've only been to Origins once before, in 2014, and this show feels so much bigger than I remember that one being.

We had both Munchkin Warhammer 40,000: Faith and Firepower and Munchkin Warhammer 40,000: Savagery and Sorcery for sale, and while I don't have final numbers, I can say that they both sold quite briskly (along with the Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 base game, of course). Faith and Firepower is shipping to distributors now and should be on store shelves by the end of June. Savagery and Sorcery will come a couple of months later. We're also releasing a Kill-O-Meter and pack of Chaos Dice for Munchkin Warhammer 40,000, each of which comes with four cards – that's eight cards you can't get anywhere else!

I was also lucky enough to demo a prototype of Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar for a couple of lucky "Mystery Munchkin" tables . . . and we maaaaay have playtested a couple of expansions for that game in those sessions. Everyone seemed to have fun and the backstabbing was legendary, so it looks like we have another success on our hands! Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar is scheduled for release late this year.

It's weird, after over a year spent working on Munchkin Warhammer projects, to be done with the design and well into development on the last couple of pieces. I have really enjoyed this project – series of projects, really – and I am forever grateful to Games Workshop for being such wonderful partners in the process. And, of course, the games wouldn't be as awesome as they've turned out without the work of John Kovalic. When all is said and done, I will have written and John will have illustrated over 800 cards for these games and expansions. Not bad for a year's work!

Back to Origins: I also ran "Learn to Play" events for Munchkin Shakespeare Deluxe, Munchkin Steampunk: Girl Genius, and Munchkin Warhammer 40,000. A whole lot of fun was had, and I know some people went across the hall to buy the games, so they did their job!

Oh, and there was one other thing that I showed off at Origins. Phil says I'm not allowed to talk about it yet, but I think I can safely throw out the hint that it's a new Dungeon expansion for one of our most popular Munchkin sets, with a slightly different approach to the Dungeons that fits that game perfectly. I'll tell you more about it when I'm free to reveal the title.

I didn't spend all my time at Origins playing Munchkin, however; we also showed off the upcoming "draw and draw" dungeon-delving game, Deadly Doodles. (Phil talked more about that right here, a few days ago.) Randy ran some Car Wars Sixth Edition previews, and several people were running demo games of The Fantasy Trip, too. And I got to roam the hall and see friends and their new games. I'll only mention one here: Are You A Robot?, from Looney Labs, which is billed as a social-deduction game that requires "2 players, 2 minutes, 2 dollars." It lives up to the promise. Even if you're not a fan of these games, this one is worth the money.

Now that I'm back home, I have to start working on the games we're hoping to have for Origins next year. We're working almost a full year ahead on our Munchkin schedule at this point – we have to, if we want to stay ahead of ever-busier factories, worsening international trade situations, and the usual array of unforeseeable delays that make this business challenging and fun. It'd be boring if everything were easy, right?