Monster Castle Board Game

Monster Castle is a simple flip & write game where focusing only on your own board is definitely not enough. Invite different monsters to the party and place them in the castle in a way that benefits you. Every decision... you make directly affects all your neighbors at the table, so in this game, you can quickly be loved and even quicker — hated! Monster Castle: a little more about the gameWhen the clock strikes midnight, the party of nightmares begins in King Pumpkin's castle! Ghosts, vampires, witches, skeletons, the whole Frankenstein family, and even unicorns — they are all on the guest list. But how to fit this motley crew so that everyone is happy — after all, the castle is not rubber? This is a task for a true party master!You have a board with a plan of the castle, where you will draw various shapes with the invited monsters. But which monsters and in which parts of the shapes they will be placed is decided also by your opponents. This is where the trickiness and cunning of this game lies. You never know what to expect from your neighbors — they might unexpectedly help you, or they might fully betray you by throwing in absolutely unnecessary monsters. At such moments, the atmosphere at the table, to put it mildly, heats up!Moreover, in this game, it even matters what side of the table you are sitting on — the active player will turn the shape towards themselves in a way that benefits them. The other players will have to draw the shape in the orientation it sits on the table in front of them, with no ability to turn or mirror it. Such an unusual mechanic adds even more crisis and sharpness to the interaction between players.And even if everything works out perfectly for you, at any moment, someone can use a special action to shuffle all the monsters or turn the shape the other way. All your plans are collapsing — you need to urgently think of how to minimize losses and at the same time how to take revenge on that sneaky neighbor! But remember — if you decide to intentionally make life miserable for your opponents, you also risk finding yourself in a terribly difficult position.And if you want to add more puzzle-solving to your games, play on the reverse, complicated side of the board with additional conditions for earning victory points. Briefly about the rulesOn their turn, the active player takes the top shape card from the deck and lays it on the table face up, turning it in any direction as they see fit. After that, players take turns filling in this shape by playing one guest card from their hands — the active player plays the first card, then the next clockwise, and so on, until the shape is fully recreated. Of course, you will try to play the guests you need in the right parts of the shape, but you can only guess what monsters your opponents will then play — and they will surely want to throw a couple of uninvited guests into your castle.When you finish assembling the shape, each player must draw in the free cells of their board the symbols of the corresponding monsters, keeping the shape in the position as they see it from their side of the table — changing the shape's position is strictly forbidden.Some unwelcome guests, who do not fit in the castle or disrupt your placement plans, can be sent to the water ditch outside the castle or left on the bridge in front of the gates. Yes, they will be unhappy and take away your victory points at the end of the game — but you saved space for other monsters. That's not too heartless, is it?During the party, three unexpected events will also occur, which can earn you additional points if by that time you have placed monsters in the castle in a certain way. When this will happen is unknown. But the sooner you start preparing for them, the more chances you have to earn a lot of victory points!As soon as the third clock card comes out of the deck (which, as usual, catches you by surprise), players play the last event and proceed to the final scoring. The largest groups of all types of monsters, their placement relative to the kings are counted — and of course, don’t forget about the penalty guests you "kindly" sent to the ditch.On the complicated side of the board, the castle plan will be bigger, and it will feature five entertainment spots, next to which it is advisable to place certain types of monsters to earn bonus points. More conditions mean a tougher puzzle for the king of parties! Game duration: from 30 minutes
Number of players: 2-4