There are a few cards that can only be used by characters of one gender (and cursing yourself strategically with the gender change card to be able to use those cards is a very munchkin thing to do; I can't say it happens routinely in our group, because it requires you to have the right cards¹ at the right time, but when it does it's considered basic munchking strategy). The two other common methods of using that curse would be to curse somebody who is using a gender-restricted item (to make them lose it) or simply to give a -5 during some combat.

So, yes, there are only two genders, but it's definitely not a fixed thing.

¹ one gender-limited item with a good enough bonus that it's worth doing this, one gender change curse and a low level monster that you can easily defeat afterwards, while suffering the -5 malus.

in character? not really.

or rather, munchkin encourages people to get “in character” not as their characters, but as a munchkin RPG player (warning: URL may not be safe for your free time) who spends their time obsessing over optimizing for game mechanics rather than getting in character and doing role play.

So... no, gender stereotypes aren't really a thing you are encouraged to do during a munchkin game.

I think this is based on an original D&D (or maybe it came from some other pen & paper RPG) item, a belt that changed the gender of the character, and *that* may have been a case of “oh no i am a girl now how terrible”. Munchkin is just making fun of that item, like it does with many other RPG tropes.

uhm, just the instructions aren't really enough to get an idea how a game of munchkin runs: most cards have specific rules on them, and those are a big part of what happens during a game.

I guess that by now they are famous enough (in their niche) that they don't need to bother anymore with explaining what the game is to new players, as they get enough new buyers by word of mouth from people who play?

Rather than a matter of age, I suspect it may also be a matter of target: a lot of the jokes in munchkin are based on making fun of RPG tropes (and those are probably only fun if you are an RPG player who has been guilty of some of those tropes sometimes).

uhm, no, munchkin the card game¹ is pretty different from an #RPG like D&D, I don't think it would work as an introduction to that.

I've heard good things about #fate ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate_(role-playing_game_system) ); I've never actually played it, but I believe it is pretty lightweight and it may be a good introduction to RPG in general, if not to D&D specifically.

Adding a few hashtags in the hope that somebody who has actually tried it can chime in.

¹ I know that nowadays there is also a munchkin tabletop game and... something else, I'm not sure what: I've only played the card game.