Munchkin Game Board

Munchkin is a card/board game from Steve Jackson Games. The illustrations are drawn by John Kovalic of Dork Tower fame. A basic set of the cards and a dice will cost you around $19. It's a fun romp that makes fun of the “power gamers” that any RPG player has ever come across.

The basic set does not however come with a board or mat to mark your progress through the ten levels of the game. This is where my indestructible comes into play.

I am using techniques I learned from DM Scotty on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/theDMsCraft I thought that his 2.5d dungeon terrain would be an easy tweak for making a game board for Munchkin.

You will need to use sharp objects and spray paint for this project. If you are a kid please have your parents help you out.

You will need the following:

A cardboard box (free)

Acrylic craft paint (about 80cents a bottle – your local X-Mart will have them)

Paintbrush (obvious if you are using paint)

Hot glue gun

Pencil & Magic Marker

Razor knife

Scissors

Spray paint (optional)

White glue (optional)

Sand (optional – get pool filter sand or construction sand not just play sand, although play sand does in a pinch)

Straight Edge (optional but it helps a bunch)

Cut down one seam of the box so it lies splayed out before you. Using the straight edge select the side of the box you want for the base and the one you want for the cut out. Since most boxes are rectangular it does matter which sides you are using.

Once you cut the upper and lower section hold them together and trim them so they are a close match.

Have a plan. Draw out in pencil your ten rooms. It can be as simple as circles or squares. You can get as simple or funky as you want. Use square rooms if you want to go for a dungeon look or use kidney shaped rooms if you want a more cavern looking board.

It helps to label the rooms 1 through 10. Once the rooms are drawn you can go back over the pencil lines with a marker as well as draw in the corridors connecting the rooms.

With the scissors cut the piece into a few manageable pieces that will make it easier to cut out your rooms.

Only cut the piece of cardboard that you drew your plan on. Leave the other place on the floor or table. I know I am being Captain Obvious :p.

I find it is always easiest to start in one of the corners (doesn't matter which one). Being right handed I usually start at the bottom right corner.

Since it takes about 10 minutes for a glue gun to heat up go ahead and plug it in now.

Now start cutting out the rooms from the pieces you have cut. You should do one at a time alternating between this step and the next step.

Place your just cut piece down on the bottom piece of cardboard. Now trace it with the marker. Keep bouncing between step this step and the last step till you are done. Not tracing things out after every piece might make for some confusion later on.

This is why I said to trace your pieces. It's time to hot glue them on to the uncut cardboard. Best to start at the edges and work your way in.

When you have a seam between two pieces drag your glue gun over the seam.

All the pieces are glued on to the base and all the seams have a bead of glue on them.

This step does two things. One it provides some extra strength to the board. Two it provides some texture for dry brushing. Makes some glue beads, drag your nozzle over it just any old random way will do.

Do like two rooms at a time so your glue doesn't dry out on you. Make a small puddle of white glue in the room. Spread it around with your finger and pour some sand down on it. You can lightly press down on the sand.

Do all the rooms and give it a little bit of time for the glue to dry.

Get some junk mail fliers/newspaper and tilt your board to get the excess sand off of it. Tape it a few times, shake it, play a drum rift on it. Put the sand back in your container of sand.

Give the board a squirt of black spray paint. This will help cover up and marks left by the pencil or marker. Plus it gives a very minor top coat to the sand.

Once again Captain Obvious says that if you are kid get your parents to help. Don't spray paint indoors because of the fumes and trashing your carpet/table/room. Spray paint fumes cause central nervous system and brain damage and the world already has enough stupid people in it :)

With the board being dry it is time to put on the base coat. I'm using a brown as I am going for a cave or cavern look. You can use whatever colors you want. Draw some water onto your brush every time you grab some paint and have at it. You want your paint a little bit thin so it sinks in between your textured glue.

I went simple on the floor and just did a dry brush yellow on top of the black spray paint. Once again you can use whatever color you want. You can also do it as a two step process. Apply a base coat and a dry brush coat.

Squeeze out some paint on a paper plate and get your water. If you went with a dark color for your floors use a light color paint or vise versa. Number your rooms 1 through 10.

Squeeze out another color (lighter than your wall's base coat). A neat thing to do is use a green if you want the hot glue texture to look like vines or plants. Use the dry brush method and hit the high spots of the glue.

Go out and buy

Munchkin and play it!

I went to the local dollar store and got some cheap action figures to use as pawns.