Therapy & Terror

What if the monsters today sent young men and women off on pointless wars of aggression and pride? What if the monsters today sat at their keyboards and spread hate and lies—and were even paid to do it? What if the monsters today printed or broadcast hate and division in the name of patriotism? What if the monsters today refused life improving and even life-saving medical care because it was deemed too expensive and people suffered because of it? What if the monsters today took hostages for political gain? What if the monsters today poisoned wells and befouled the waters because it was profitable? What if the monsters today were in positions of power and influence, what would happen to the monsters of old? The monsters from under the bed. The monsters from folktales. The monsters from legends. The monsters from just at the edge of the shadows? The monsters reduced to entertainment on screens big and small, in books on the bestseller lists? Would they even be monstrous at all? And if they cannot be monsters as they once were, what will they do?

In Mansters, you roleplay one of these monsters. Classic, even universal monsters. The Vampire, the Witch, the Werewolf, the Mummy, the Not-Frankenstein, the Ghost, the Zombie. Monsters who have lost what they once were, that is, scary, yet they still have the same powers for which they were known. Monsters who in attempting to understand why the world has changed and why humans are no longer scared of them, have lost part of what made them monstrous. And have thus become depressed at their loss of status and loss of opportunity to embrace their true, monstrous natures. Since they are trying to understand humans, they do what every human would do and that is to seek therapy. Fortunately, Doctor Lector runs Depressives Anonymous at which every monster can unburden himself and come to terms with the world that he finds himself in. He also finds an outlet for his monstrousness, seeking the evil men and women of the world and striking fear into them, to prove himself what he once was.

Mansters: Fight Against the Real Monsters of the World is a storytelling game, a satire upon horror stories and the modern political and financial worlds. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is from Black Lantern, the Greek publisher best known for the Soulmist, the post-apocalyptic setting of a world literally divided into two by darkness and light, written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The aim of the Player Characters—or Monsters—in the game is restore balance in the world, both internally and externally. Externally, they want to return a sense of fear to the world, but keep themselves unknowable. There is a Veil between the ordinary world of humans and the world of Monsters, the Monsters living as ordinary humans on one side and unleashing, even revelling in, their monstrous nature on the other side. A Monster can draw upon his monstrous nature to achieve strange and arcane feats, but pierce that Veil too often and too readily, and a Doom may befall upon him. Internally, they want to understand humans better and restore their self-respect. So, they set out to stop those in power and control who spread fear, uncertainty, and hatred, and commit crimes that go unpunished, so that ultimately, humans will fear monsters.

A Monster in Mansters is first defined by his Abilities and Skills. There are three Abilities—Body, Mind, and Heart—and each Ability has four associated skills. Each Ability is represented by a circle, which is divided into four quarters, or Hacks, and each Hack into two Slices, so that an Ability has four Hacks and eight Slices. Similarly, each Skill can be divided into four Hacks and eight Slices. He will also have a Monster type—Ghost, Mummy, Not-Frankenstein, Vampire, Werewolf, Witch, or Zombie, a Charisma, and a Flaw, two more Banes, and a starting Monstrosity Level. The Charisma is the Monster’s positive quirk, ability, or power; the Flaw a negative, limiting trait; and Banes the aspects of the Monster which will impede him. Some Banes are mandatory, whilst the others a player can choose.

To create a Monster, a player selects a Monster type and then Charisma and a Flaw, two more Banes, and a starting Monstrosity Level. Each of his Abilities starts at two Hacks and he can then assign a further two Hacks. He then determines the number of Slices his Monster has in each Ability and assigns that number of Hacks to the four Skills associated with the Ability. The process is quick and simple.

Dirk Fordice
Type: The Ghost
Charisma: Mind Over Matter
Flaw: Incognito Window
Banes: It’s Cold Out There, Chatterbox

Body 2 (4) – Fight 1, Stealth 2, Shoot 0, Handle 1
Mind 3 (6) – Knowledge 1, Perception 2, Investigation 2, Politics 1
Heart 3 (6) – Manipulate 2, Insight 2, Intimidate 1, Streetwise 1

Mansters uses what it calls the Hack & Slice System. It makes clear that it is not a ‘hack & slash’ roleplaying game. To have his Monster undertake an action, a player will roll either a number of six-sided dice equal to the number of Hacks his Monster has in an Ability or the number of Hacks in an Ability and a Skill. The aim is to roll successes, that is, rolls of five or more. A Difficult task would require two successes for a Monster to succeed, whilst an ‘Are you insane?’ task would need four. To make a task easier, a player can spend Slices. A Slice spent from an Ability lowers the number of Successes required to succeed, whereas a Slice spent from a Skill a reroll of any dice that have not rolled Successes. A short rest will restore some, but not all Slices, whereas a long rest of several days under the care of Doctor Lector will restore them all.

Confrontations can be physical, mental, or social. They are opposed rolls, with the winner inflicting damage equal to number of Successes rolled more than the defender. Each point of damage inflicted removes one Slice, whether that is physical damage from Body, mental damage from Mind, and social damage from Heart. If a combatant rolls two Successes more than his opponent, he gains the Edge. This applies to both the Monster and the NPC, and gives limited narrative control to the combatant with the Edge. For the Monster, the plater decides what happens and for his opponent, the Doctor—as the Game Master is known—decides. If a roll is failed, it adds to the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock.

When a Monster wants to use one of his Monster Superpowers, his player makes a Monstrosity roll. This is equal to the Monster’s Monstrosity Level. If the number of Successes rolled is equal to the Difficulty of the particular Monster Superpower, it is activated. However, this is not easy and it has consequences. A higher Monstrosity Level means that the roll is more likely to succeed, but a high Monstrosity Level will add even more to the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock. A player can choose to lower the Difficulty by expending Ability Hacks, but this will lead to exhaustion if done too often. A player is thus forced to make a choice and as much as Monster strives for some kind of balance in game, there is no balance here. The consequence is to add to the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock and also to the Doctor’s ‘D(oo)M’ Clock.

So what is Skutendo? It represents unlucky events that occur near the Monster, rolled randomly. For example, it could be ‘The Little Cousin’ in which the Monster’s aunt asks him to look after his cousin or a ‘Monster Movie Craze’ in which people start dressing up and acting as the monster, making it more difficult for him to intimidate anyone. It is triggered when the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock is filled and then cleared again. When it is triggered it, it also adds to the ‘D(oo)M’ Clock. This tracks the likelihood of Hunters turning up to look for the Monsters, the Slices from the ‘D(oo)M’ Clock being spent by the Doctor to bring them into play.

They include the sibling monster hunters, the Losechester Sisters, Van Helsing, and Scrood-Be-U, a gang of monster hunters which travels in a van called the Misery Machine and whose members benefit from eating Scrood-be-Snacks. Antagonists in Mansters are talked about in terms of archetypes (as are the Player Characters). These consist of Mr. Moneybags, The Man in the High Chair, the Long Arm of the Law, the Underworld, and so on. These are supported by detailed examples, such as Elton Mask for the Mr. Moneybags. It is here in the naming references that Mansters best and most obviously shows its satire. There is some advice for the Doctor, but it is very light. There is, though, an introductory adventure in which the Monsters investigate a landlord who is evicting all of his tenants to turn a block of flats into short stays for Airbnb.

One issue with the scenario is that it does not fully showcase all of the roleplaying game’s mechanics since a Hunter is not intended to appear as the ‘D(oo)M’ Clock fills. This is disappointing, but it means that the Doctor can save Mansters’ Hunters for a scenario of her own. Oddly, it does introduce another mechanic, ‘Initiative Points’, which essentially tracks the effects of the Monsters’ actions and determines how well they have done at the conclusion. What this means is that it is not entirely the typical adventure the Doctor might expect as an introductory adventure for Mansters when it comes to showing the rules in action. This does not mean that the actual adventure itself is bad as it is otherwise enjoyable and nicely detailed. It also showcases how a typical adventure starts with the Monsters all attending Doctor Lector’s Depressives Anonymous sessions, which are as much social events as they are therapy sessions. Despite the name, the Doctor is not evil, but part of later therapy sessions will involve some reflection of the adventure or situation that just happened. These post-investigation/post-defeat the banality of evil session are also where the players expend Experience Points. This has the potential for some interesting roleplaying scenes if the Doctor and players want them.

Unfortunately, the rulebook does not list the experience point costs for improving the Monsters. Nor does it list the Monstrosity Levels for each type of Monsters. Nor does it really explore how a Monster’s Monstrosity Level goes up or down. In fact, only the Vampire has a Bane which can increase his Monstrosity Level. Instead, Experience Points are intended to be spent on permanently lowering the Difficulty of activating a Monster’s powers. Ultimately, it may be up to the Doctor to decide, depending upon a Monster’s actions, whether his Monstrosity Level goes up or down. Mansters should have explored this aspect of its design and developed mechanics for it.

Physically, Mansters is well presented. The artwork is fun, capturing the tedious normality of the Monsters’ lives versus their true nature. The writing could have been clearer in places and it is repetitive in others. The cover also suggests that monsters other than the ones given in the book can be played when that is not the case.

Mansters does come as a boxed set. In addition to the rulebook, the box also contains a set of dice, a deck of ‘Skutendo’ cards, Monster portfolios for each Monster type, and oddly, a set of Monster-themed coasters and a set of Monster-themed bookmarks! One advantage of the boxed set is that the Monster portfolios do give each Monster’s starting Monstrosity Level.

There can be no doubt that the intent of Mansters is good, a satire of classic monsters versus the banality of modern live and the banality of modern evil, and of old evil versus new evil. Unfortunately, Mansters does not quite achieve what aims for. Mansters can be played as is, but the lack of interplay with and of potential to shift the Mansters’ Monstrosity Levels means the roleplaying game’s intended imbalance between the Monsters’ everyday, humdrum human existence and their inhuman, monstrous nature cannot be explored as it really should.

Universal Horror Co-op

Monsters have arisen and the village is under attack! Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster—and his Bride, the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon are all on the rampage and it is up a dedicated team of heroic monster hunters to keep the villagers safe from their predations, find the means to thwart each and every one, and then put an end to their reign of terror! This is the set-up for Horrified, a co-operative board game from Ravensburger, designed for between one and five players, ages ten and up, in which they face the classic foes of the Universal monsters series of films from the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. If you are a regular player of board games, then you will definitely spot the architecture and design elements of the first classic co-operative board game, Pandemic, but Horrified is far from a drily themed race to find the cure to four different diseases! It is a desperate race to defeat classic monsters, each of which is very different in terms of what they do and what the players need to do to defeat them, it oozes both theme and charm, and its horror is scary, but not terrifying, so it can be played by the family as well as the dedicated horror fan—and both will enjoy it.

Open up a copy of Horrified and the first thing you see is a warning about the potentially horrifying experiences to be found in the box. Of course it is a little tongue in cheek and so perfectly in keeping with the tone of the Universal Monsters, but what is clever is where this warning is placed. Not on a separate sheet of paper or the back of the rulebook, but on the back of the game’s board. It is a clever use of space and points to the degree of thought and detail which has gone into this game. The board itself depicts various locations within a village, a curious mix of the American small town and the European Gothic, so there is a precinct and a mansion as well as an abbey and a tower with an adjacent dungeon. A river runs through the village, connecting a lagoon and the waterfront. At the top of the board is the Terror Track.

The Heroes in Horrified—and there are seven of them—are each represented by a Hero Badge, essentially character cards detailing their abilities and their playing pieces. Each has good illustration, a number to indicate how many Actions he or she can take a turn, and a special action or ability. For example, the Mayor has five Actions per turn, but no special action or ability, whereas the Courier has four and can travel to any location where there is another Hero, and the Professor, also has four and can move any Hero or Villager one space.

The Universal Monsters in Horrified—and there are six of them—are each represented by plastic playing piece of a different colour and a Monster Mat. Each Monster Mat details what the Monster can do and how it is defeated, the latter requiring two steps. For example, Dracula can use his Dark Charm to pull a Hero to his space, and to advance to point where they can him, the Heroes need to visit each of the four locations where his coffins and destroy them, before confronting the vampire prince directly. At least six points of Red Item Tokens are required to destroy a coffin, and six points of Yellow Item Tokens to destroy him. The Mummy has a tablet on which Scarabs can be moved, the number of moves determined by the value of Yellow Item Token used. Move them into the right order and the curse is broken, and the Mummy can be entombed by confronting him and expending at least nine points of Red Item Tokens. However, the Mummy can fortify the curse by turning one of the Scarabs upside down! Perhaps the most interesting Monster to defeat, at least thematically, is that of Frankenstein and his Bride. Both have to taught to live peacefully together, Blue and Yellow Item Tokens being expended to increase their Humanity on a dial for each of them in their respective spaces. They constantly move towards each other, and can be ‘defeated’ if they have sufficient Humanity when they meet, if not, they flee back to their starting positions and the Terror Level goes up by one.

In addition, there are Monster tokens which are added to the game when particular Monsters are selected as the foes. For Dracula, this is his four coffins and for Frankenstein and his Bride, it is the dials to tack their Humanity, but the Creature from the Black Lagoon includes an overlay piece which replaces the Camp location and instructs a player what to do to direct the boat counter—which also comes with the Creature from the Black Lagoon—ever closer to its lair where it can be defeated. Essentially, the means of defeating each Monster is different and requires the Heroes to collect and expend the different coloured Item Tokens.

As well as the game pieces for the Heroes and the Monsters, Horrified comes with ten Villagers. When they appear on the board, they always want to reach their safe locations and the Heroes can guide them there. If they do, then they will be rewarded with a Perk Card. If a Monster reaches a Villager and defeats him, the Terror Level is increased. The Item Tokens come in three colours—red for physical items, blue for intellectual, and yellow for spiritual—and range in value between one and five. There are Markers for both Terror and Frenzy, the former used on the Terror Tracker, the latter to indicate when a Monster is Frenzied. Along with three dice, there five Reference Cards, one for each player; thirty Monster Cards to indicate Monster actions; and twenty Perk cards, awarded when a Hero gets a Villager home. Each Monster Card indicates how many Item Tokens are drawn from the game’s cloth bag and added to the board and gives an event such as ‘Thief’, in which case, the Invisible Man appears at the location where there are the most items and steals them, forcing them to be discarded. The Monster Card also reveals which of the Monsters move on a turn, including the Frenzied Monster—which can mean that a Monster can move and act twice in a turn, how many spaces, and how many dice it rolls to attack. Some Monster Cards can be beneficial, for example, the ‘Sunrise’ Monster Card will force Dracula to flee back to the Crypt, which might be away from a Hero or a Villager, and some might not have any effect, either because the Monster is not being played in the current game or because it has already been defeated. The Perk cards provide single benefits, like a ‘Taxi Ride’ which gets a Hero to any non-water location or ‘Late into the Night’, which grants the current player two further actions.

Horrified has one win condition and two loss conditions. The Heroes triumph and the players win the game if they defeat all of the Monsters. However, they lose if the Terror Level reaches its maximum level, forcing everyone in the village to flee in horror and allow the Monsters to take over. And they also lose if the Monster deck is emptied and one more Monster card needs to be drawn, the Heroes and thus the players having taken too long to save the village.

Game set-up is simple enough. The Terror Marker is set at zero and the selected Monsters set up as instructed. Then each player selects a random Hero, receives a Perk card, and the sixty Item Tokens placed in the cloth bag. Twelve of these are drawn at random and placed on the board. The rule quickly guides the players through the process, but goes not one, not two, but four steps further. It suggest that the players’ first game be against Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, any two Monsters for the Novice game, any three Monsters in the standard game, and any four in a challenging game. Thus it eases the players into the game and its play whilst showing them how to make the game more difficult.

A player’s turn has two phases. In the Hero phase, a player expends his Hero’s Action Points to move, guide a Villager to or from an adjacent location (a villager will accompany a Hero and move with him), take a Special Action, pick up Item Tokens or share them with a Hero on the same location, Advance a Monster’s task, or Defeat a Monster. The latter two task are different for each Monster and are given on their respective Monster mats, and require the Hero to be in specific places. In the Monster phase, a Monster Card is drawn from the Monster card deck, and the number of Item Tokens given on the Monster Card placed, its Event carried out, and then any movement and attacks conducted. The latter requires rolling dice, which have exclamation point and star symbols on them. Rolls of the exclamation point active a Monster’s power, such as Dracula’s Dark Charm, whilst rolls the star symbol force a Hero to discard Item Tokens, and if a Hero has none, defeats him, sending him to the Hospital and raising the Terror Level one step!

Physically, Horrified is a well-presented game. Everything is in colour, the board is painted in dark shades with pools of light to suggest that it might be midnight, the Item Tokens and cards are all easy to read, and the rules are well explained. In fact, the rules are very well written, with plenty of clarification and explanation of how each Monster works and can be defeated, along with several good examples of play. A player with some experience of playing board games could easily open up the box to Horrified, read the rules, and be playing within a relatively short time. Plus there is a little advice here and there on playing again, strategy, playing it solo—which is even more challenging, and so on. Another nice touch to the graphic design is the inclusion of an explanation of who the Monsters are on the outside of the inner box, also done in colour. However, the production values are not high as they could be. The plastic miniatures for the Monsters lack detail and the card stock for the game’s various cards is thin and will not stand up to too much handling.

In terms of game play, where in Pandemic, as members of the CDC, the players are travelling the world, visiting cities and treating diseases, and drawing and swapping city cards of the right to cure the game’s four diseases, in Horrified, the players as the Heroes, are moving round the village collecting as many Item Tokens as they can in order to have enough of the right colour to first advance the condition on each Monster Mat to the point where the Monster can be defeated. Hindering the players in Pandemic is the constant appearance of new cases the four diseases, and worse sudden outbreaks where a disease spreads to other cities, whereas in Horrified, the Heroes need to track where both the Monsters and the villagers are, because if the Monsters get to the Villagers, they kill them and so drive up the Terror Level. The Heroes also need to avoid the Monsters themselves until the time is right to confront them directly and defeat them. Of course, if a Hero can get a villager to his or her safe location, that earns him Perk card.

However, defeating two Monsters—the base difficulty in Horrified—is fairly easy. Defeating three, though—the standard difficulty—is challenging. Four is another matter altogether! The difficulty will also vary slightly depending upon the Monsters in play, plus the more players a game has, the more Monster cards are drawn and the more Villagers appear to be taken by the Monsters and so increase the Terror Level. The higher difficulty levels may not necessarily suit all players though, casual or family players potentially finding Horrified too difficult at three Monsters, and more so at four.

Horrified is a good game for a number of reasons. In terms of game play, it is relatively light, suitable for casual players and the family, but offering enough for the hobbyist player as a lighter option. Its theme is really well handled, from the different means of defeating the various Monsters and the inclusion of the villagers from the films those Monsters appeared in, to graphical design and the attention to detail which evoke a sense of nostalgia for the Universal Monsters. It offers a decent degree of replay value too, with seven Heroes and six Monsters to choose from, enabling players to mix and match both. However, it would be great to see an expansion with even more and different Monsters. In terms of value, Horrified is a game you can buy on the high street and specialised game shops, and as a mass market board game, it is not just a good game. In fact, it is fantastic game, because as a mass market board game, it is not only inexpensive, but it combines its theme and its mechanics really well. No longer do we have board games based on intellectual properties that are just throwaway ‘roll and move’ designs, but like the earlier Jaws: A Boardgame of Strategy and Suspense, we have mass market board games designed to fit their themes and make use of their themes, that are readily available and consequently, make you want to play again. Jaws does that, and so does Horrified. Lastly, it is also great to see a horror themed board game which involves neither zombies or Cthulhu, and so Horrified is not just nostalgic, it is also a refreshing change.

Thematically, Horrified is a great piece of design and it showcases just how modern game designers have been able reach beyond the hobby and bring thematically appropriate design and game play to the general audience. Horrified is a light co-operative game that horror fans will enjoy for the nostalgia and the family can play for the fun and the scares.