Isle of Monsters
Isle of Monsters Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
The game is played over a number of rounds. Each round consists of four phases: (1) the Nurture Phase, (2) the Mature Phase, (3) the Scare Phase, and (4) the Clean-up Phase.
Over the course of the game you will be capturing, feeding, and maturing your creatures in order to scare the crowd and other players' creatures to earn scare points. The player with the most Scare Points at the end of the game wins.
Components
- 45 Food Tokens
- 15 Bone-Chill Berries (Blue) Tokens
- 15 Fear Flowers (Pink) Tokens
- 15 Menace Mushrooms (Yellow) Tokens
- 1 Center Island Board
- 5 Outer Island Boards
- 5 Cage Boards
- 40 Creature Cards (scare values range from 1 to 9 in three types: water, earth, fire)
- 1 Draw Bag
- 100 1-Point Scare Tokens
- 50 3-Point Scare Tokens
Creature Cards: each color/element has 13 cards valued 1 to 9.
Set Up
Place the Center Island Board in the middle of the table. Place a Cage Board in front of each player. Place an Outer Island Board between each Cage Board and return the unused Boards to the box. The Outer Island Boards don't belong to individual players; each player will always be adjacent to two Outer Island Boards.
Creature Cards: Shuffle all the Creature Cards. Remove a number of the Creature Cards from the game based on the number of players (see chart below). Put the removed Creature Cards back in the box without looking at them. Deal a number of Creature Cards face-down to form a pile on each Outer Island Board. The number of cards per pile depends on the number of players (see chart below).
| # of Players | # of Creature Cards to Remove From the Game | # of Creature Cards in Pile on Each Outer Island |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 14 (#6-9) | 8 |
| 3 | 1 (random) | 6 |
| 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | 0 | 3 |
Once dealt, flip each pile face-up to reveal the bottom (now top) Creature Card. Keep the remaining Creature Cards face-down at the side of the table. These cards will come into play later (see Creature Replenishment).
Food Tokens: Put all the Food Tokens in the Draw Bag and thoroughly mix them. Draw a number of Food Tokens equal to the number of players and place them on the Center Island Board. Next, draw and place two Food Tokens on each of the Outer Island Boards.
Scare Point Tokens: Put all the Scare Point Tokens in a face-up supply near the play area.
Starting Player: The most fearless player goes first. Give them the Draw Bag and begin the first Nurture Phase.
The rulebook shows 3-player, 4-player and 5-player set-up diagrams and a 2-player set-up diagram; these are illustrations of the placements described above and are not transcribed.
Card Anatomy
- Creature Type (earth, water, or fire) and Scare Value (1 to 9): the type of creature the card is, and its scare value.
- Creature Illustration.
- Feeding Spaces in three colors (yellow, blue, purple).
- Icon in the top right corner: the type of Creature Card that this card scares.
Gameplay
1. Nurture Phase
Starting with the player who has the Draw Bag and moving clockwise around the table, players take turns until all players have passed. On your turn, take ONE of three possible actions: Capture, Feed, Pass.
Capture: You may capture one creature by taking the top Creature Card on either of the two Outer Island Boards adjacent to you and placing it in an empty cage on your Cage Board. If you have no empty cages on your Cage Board you may not choose the Capture action.
Feed: You may feed one of your creatures by taking ONE Food Token from the Center Island Board or either of the two Outer Island Boards adjacent to you. Place the Food Token on a matching feeding space on one of your Creature Cards. If you have no empty feeding spaces available on any of your Creature Cards you may not choose the Feed action.
Example: Nykki has a yellow feeding space available on a 4 scare value Creature Card on her Cage Board. She chooses to take a yellow Food Token from the supply on the Center Island Board and places it on the empty space. Cameron has an empty purple feeding space available on a 3 scare value Creature Card on his Cage Board. He chooses to take a purple Food Token from the supply on the Outer Island Board to his left and places it on the empty space. Sarah has no empty feeding spaces on any of the Creature Cards on her Cage Board, therefore she may not choose to take the Feed action.
Pass: The first player to Pass takes the Draw Bag and will become the Start Player in the next round. Once a player Passes, they may no longer take any actions during the current Nurture Phase. After all players have Passed proceed to the Mature Phase.
2. Mature Phase
All players check their Cage Boards to determine if any of their caged creatures are fully fed (i.e. they have no empty feeding spaces remaining on their card). Fully fed creatures mature and are now ready to scare. Remove the Creature Card from its cage and return all Food Tokens on the matured creature to the Draw Bag. Place your matured creatures in a face-down pile on the table next to your Cage Board. Next, proceed to the Scare Phase.
Note: You may always ask another player how many mature Creature Cards they possess.
3. Scare Phase
During the Scare Phase players repeat three steps to score Scare Points until everyone is out of Creature Cards or only one player has Creature Cards remaining.
- Play Creature Card(s)
- Scare the Crowd
- Scare other Players' Creatures
3.1 Play Creature Card(s)
Each player takes all their mature Creature Cards (including any from previous rounds) into their hand. Everyone who has at least one Creature Card MUST choose one or more Creature Cards of a single type (blue, pink, or yellow) to play. Once you have chosen your Creature Card(s), place them face-down on the table covered by your hand to indicate that you are ready without revealing the number of chosen cards.
Once all players are ready, everyone simultaneously flips their selected Creature Card(s) face-up on the table.
3.2 Scare the Crowd
Add up the total Scare Value of all the Creature Cards you just played. If you have the highest total, take a 3-Point Scare Token from the supply. If there is a tie, all tying players take a 1-Point Scare Token. Keep all your Scare Tokens face down near you.
Example: Nykki plays three yellow fire Creature Cards with a combined Scare Value of 16. Cameron plays four brown earth Creature Cards with a combined Scare Value of 19. Sarah plays one yellow fire Creature Card with a Scare Value of 4. Since Cameron's Creature Cards have the highest combined value he receives a 3-Point Scare Token for having scared the crowd the most.
3.3 Scare other Creatures
Each type of Creature Card scares one other type as indicated in the top right corner of the card. As shown below, Yellow Fire Creatures scare Brown Earth Creatures which scare Blue Water Creatures which scare Yellow Fire Creatures. Take a 1-Point Scare Token for each adjacent player (both to your right and left) with a played Creature Card Type that you scare (scare values do not matter when scaring other creatures). To determine adjacency skip over any players who did not play Creature Cards.
- Water scares Fire
- Fire scares Earth
- Earth scares Water
Note: When only two players have played Creature Cards (because it's a 2-player game, or because the other players are out of Creature Cards), the same player will be adjacent to both your left and right. You still only score 1-point Scare Token for scaring that player's Creature(s).
Note: You only receive one Scare Token per player you scare regardless of how many Creature Cards you or they have played. After scoring, set used Creature Cards aside.
Important: Each mature Creature Card in a player's hand may only be played once during each Scare Phase.
Example: Nykki plays three yellow fire Creature Cards with a combined Scare Value of 16. Cameron plays four brown earth Creature Cards with a combined Scare Value of 19. Sarah plays one yellow fire Creature Card with a Scare Value of 4. In this case, the three players are adjacent to each other. Since fire creatures scare earth creatures, both Nykki and Sarah receive 1-Point Scare Tokens for scaring Cameron's earth creatures.
Repeat the Scare Phase until one of two things happen:
- All players are out of Creature Cards, or
- Only one player has Creature Cards remaining. In this case, the player receives a 1-Point Scare Token for each remaining Creature Card.
Players now collect all of their mature Creature Cards and place them in a face-down pile next to their Cage Board to be used during the next Scare Phase.
4. Clean-up Phase
Food Replenishment: The player with the Draw Bag replenishes the food supplies by drawing a number of Food Tokens from the bag equal to the number of players and placing them on the Center Island Board. Next, draw and place two Food Tokens on each of the Outer Island Boards.
Note: Food Tokens remaining from previous rounds do not count toward the number drawn, so you may end up with any number of Food Tokens on an Island Board.
Creature Replenishment: Draw and place a Creature Card face-up on each Outer Island Board covering any Creature Card(s) already there. Now you are ready for the next Nurture Phase.
Game End
When the last Creature Card is dealt from the deck the final round begins. This final round may be played as normal except that players may skip the final Clean-Up Phase.
At the end of the final round, players calculate their total number of Scare Points. The player with the most points wins the game! In the case of a tie, the players play a game of Earth, Fire, Water (you may substitute Rock, Paper, Scissors) until a champion is crowned!
Two Player Variant
There are a few special rules when playing with two players. The two player game only uses Creatures Cards with 1 through 5 Scare Values. Remove all Creature Cards with 6 through 9 Scare Values from the game. Each player gets two Cage Boards, placed side by side (as pictured on the right).
Capture: When capturing a Creature Card, you must place it in the Cage Board closest to the Outer Island Board it was captured from. If all the spaces of the nearest Cage Board is full, you may not capture a creature from that Outer Island Board.
Feed: Likewise, when feeding, you must feed creatures in the Cage Board closest to the Outer Island Board where the Food Token was taken from. If there are no matching feeding spaces on creatures on that Cage Board, you may not take the Food Token. Food Tokens taken from the Center Island Board may be fed to creatures on either Cage Board.
Other than these small changes the game may be played as normal. Enjoy!