The fall brings many delights: cooler temperatures, new episodes of your favorite TV shows, college football every Saturday, and, of course, the thrill of going back to school. (I mean a thrill for parents. Kids are, generally, not so keen on that last one.)

This year, we’re celebrating the best season of the year with a cornucopia of Munchkin fun. The good folks at GTM gave me this chance to talk about them and why I’m excited.

September: Munchkin Shakespeare Deluxe

Earlier this year, we announced Munchkin Shakespeare Deluxe as a September release. We’ll also have an assortment of accessories to support it coming out starting in September and continuing through the fall, including a 17-card Staged Demo for new players, dice, pawns, and a Kill-O-Meter combat counter.

I have to give special props to the folks on JoCo Cruise 2015 who supplied so many fantastic card ideas; the “help Steve and Andrew write a Munchkin expansion” seminar turned into so much more than we had envisioned. Our little literary project ultimately turned into a full sub-line!

Working on all these projects with Steve Jackson and John Kovalic (and a couple of guest appearances by Lar deSouza) was an exercise in having as much fun as we could while staying true to the Bard’s work... mostly. We like to think that Will would have enjoyed the respectful liberties we took with his plays and poems. John, particularly, had a great time drawing our familiar Spyke and Flower characters in Elizabethan garb. And, of course, we found an excuse for him to put some ducks in the game!

Special Easter Egg hunt: See if you can find all the places in the rules and on the cards where we wrote in iambic pentameter! There are several...

Also September: Munchkin Booty Guest Artist Edition

Starting in 2016, we celebrated the 15th birthday of Munchkin with a series of Guest Artist Editions, Munchkin games re-illustrated by some of our favorite talents. As usual with Munchkin, anything worth doing is worth REALLY overdoing, and so we extended the 15th anniversary all the way into the fall of the 16th year. The Munchkin Booty Guest Artist Edition is the culmination of this project, and it’s coming out just in time for “Talk Like A Pirate Day” on September 19.

Tom Siddell, known for his long-running webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court, lent his pen to our game of backstabbing and piracy. I got to see Tom’s art for Booty as it arrived, which led to lots of laughter at my desk. And then I saw it again once the set was completed, and I laughed a second time at having all of it in context. This job has its perks!

If you haven’t seen previews of Munchkin Booty Guest Artist Edition, or you want more information about the rest of the games, check out guestartists.sjgames.com for the whole list.

October: Munchkin Wonderland

In October, we have another literary Munchkin game. This one is a follow-up to our “younger and friendlier” Munchkin Treasure Hunt board game, based on the classic Alice stories by Lewis Carroll (with guest appearances from the Snark and Boojum and a few other friends).

Designed for players 6 and up, Munchkin Wonderland was an absolute joy to work on. Carroll has long been one of my favorite writers, so the chance to explore and play in his worlds was one I couldn’t pass up. And it’s great to work on a game for younger players that encourages them to read, work together, and have a good laugh in the process. It’s fun for adults, too, which is kind of rare in children’s games!

John Kovalic’s artwork for Munchkin Wonderland is some of my favorite art from recent games! It has exactly the right sort of whimsy that Carroll’s books demand, recognizably Munchkin while also being true to the Alice stories. Munchkin Wonderland has been in limited release for several months, and we’re very pleased to present it to a wider audience this fall.

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Andrew Hackard is the Munchkin Line Editor at Steve Jackson Games. He can be reached at andrew@sjgames.com and is @RedPenOfDoom on Twitter. He lives in Austin.