
By gently—and sometimes not so gently—mocking the fantasy dungeon crawl and the sacred cows of pop culture, the Munchkin® card game has stabbed and sneaked and snickered its way to the pinnacle of success. Along the way, it has sold millions of copies, been translated around the world, and spawned more than two-dozen sequels and supplements. More fun than a Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment and more useful than a Chicken on Your Head, The Munchkin Book is a lighthearted and suitably snarky celebration of all things near and dear to the munchkin heart, featuring contributions from the game’s designer, Steve Jackson (president of Steve Jackson Games), and its signature artist, John Kovalic (creator of web comic Dork Tower), as well as notable mavens of geek culture. The Munchkin Book also includes exclusive game rules to supplement reader gameplay. Steve Jackson Games, based in Austin, Texas, has been publishing games, game books, and magazines since 1980. Its best-selling game is Munchkin, with well over 2 million copies of the games and supplements in print worldwide. Other top sellers are GURPS (the Generic Universal RolePlaying System), Zombie Dice, and Illuminati. Past hits have included Car Wars and Toon. Steve’s very first game, Ogre, recently drew almost a million dollars’ worth of Kickstarter support for a super-deluxe edition to be released in 2013.
Author

aka Richard Awlinson, J D Lowder James Lowder has worked extensively in fantasy and horror fiction on both sides of the editorial blotter. He's authored several best-selling dark fantasy novels, including Prince of Lies and Knight of the Black Rose, and has had short fiction appear in such anthologies as Shadows Over Baker Street and Genius Loci. He's penned comic book scripts for several companies and the city of Boston. His book and film reviews, feature articles, and role-playing game design work can be found in such diverse publications as Amazing Stories, Milwaukee Magazine, and The New England Journal of History. As an editor, he's directed lines or series for TSR, Chaosium, Green Knight Publishing, and CDS Books. He's helmed more than twenty anthologies, several of them not about zombies. In the media, he is a regular contributor to the Milwaukee Public Radio show "Lake Effect," provided werewolf lore on the TV show Weird or What?, and served as a puppeteer on the indie film Misfit Heights.