Matthew BaileyToday, we’re going to be looking at Making Monsters, an upcoming bag-building, push-your-luck game that’s coming soon to Kickstarter. I’m really happy to give you a preview and my first thoughts. Please bear in mind that this was played with a prototype, so things may change before release.
The general idea of Making Monsters is that you are a mad scientist building a collection of bizarre beasts, Frankenstein style, ready for the upcoming monster-making mad science fair.
The first thing you notice when you open the box is the unusual circular board. This board is mainly a placeholder for where things go, and a lot of the game actually happens on your own player board. Underneath the circular board, you place a neoprene mat, so you can easily rotate it like a lazy susan. As turns go on, different things rotate to be in front of you that you pick up depending on how well you do on your turn.
All the monster body parts and upgrade tokens go into the centre. You set up your own board, get your all-important order monster tokens, and your bag, which already has a starting selection of monster parts in it. You also get L.E.S.T.E.R. cards, which give you one-off special effects.
The main concept is simple. Every monster on your board needs certain tokens to be completed. You draw tokens from your bag, hoping to get the bits you need without pulling too many reject parts. Reject parts are either unusable pieces or rot tokens, which are completely useless and go straight into your reject pile.
The first part of the turn is the order monster phase. All players have three tokens in yellow, red, or blue. These tokens give you different actions, such as drawing a certain number of tokens or adding more tokens to your bag. This phase is surprisingly important, because each order token also has a “super action” at the bottom in a different colour. If you choose a super action that matches the colour of the player to your left or right, you get to take it. These super actions are extremely powerful, and getting them consistently can swing the game in your favour.
We played at two, three, and four players, and I will be honest, at lower player counts, especially with two players, getting this part right can make or break the game. When I played with Jack, I got very good at predicting what colour he would choose and triggered the super action almost every turn. That basically won me the game. Super actions can let you choose exactly what to draw, score victory points, or use the all-important L.E.S.T.E.R. cards for some really strong effects.
Once you have locked in your action, you draw your delivery. The tokens you pull out of the bag have to be placed on your monsters. You are trying not to overload your reject track, because if you do, you lose the multipliers and bonuses for that turn. You can choose to hold off on completing monsters to build several in one go for a big points payout, but this is risky. If you bust by getting too many rejects, you are forced to build whatever you have without any of the bonus rewards, and that hurts.
At the end of the turn you decide whether to reanimate. If you do, you score your bonuses, add more parts to your bag, and also take a rot token, which brings the game closer to ending. If you do not reanimate, you keep your monsters as they are and carry them into the next round. At the start of each new round you draw two monster cards and keep one, replacing any existing monster if you like.
The game ends when the shared rot track is empty, triggering the final mad science fair phase. This is one last big push, where you lay out all your monsters and draw tokens one by one to see how many you can complete before busting. I really like this round, it is tense and push-your-luck heavy, especially if you are just behind and need one perfect pull to win.
Component quality is solid, even in prototype form. Some things were not finished, but it is impressive for a first-time designer. I would personally love a deluxe version with bakelite tokens, but the cardboard ones worked well and punched out cleanly, which is always nice.
The obvious comparison is to The Quacks of Quedlinburg, as this shares a lot of DNA. However, Making Monsters actually plays quite differently and, in my opinion, works better for younger kids than Quacks & Co.: Quedlinburg Dash does. The artwork is fantastic, with some really fun monster designs, and it is clear that a lot of thought and care has gone into it.
It is not perfect. After three plays, I think the order phase can feel a bit too powerful at lower player counts, especially if one player is much better at reading the other. Also, the push-your-luck element is more about deciding when to build your monsters rather than the act of pulling tokens, which might surprise some players. These are minor points I have passed on, and they could well be tweaked before release. They are definitely open to feedback, as there is already a newer, much better rulebook than the one I had to play with originally.
Overall, Making Monsters is a fun, engaging bag-builder that works brilliantly with younger players and still offers plenty to enjoy for adults. The Kickstarter goes live on the 16th of September and I will post a reminder on Little Board Gamers when it does. Definitely one to watch, I have really enjoyed my plays so far.
Disclaimer: A prototype of Making Monsters was provided on load for the purpose of preview. All thoughts and opinions are however, our own.
