Monster Mansion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Summary and Objective
• Playing
  • Phase 1: The Audition
  • Phase 2: Turn Order
  • Phase 3: The Casting (Cast or Reserve an Actor and/or Add a Chamber)
    • Cast or Reserve an Actor
    • Add a Chamber
  • Phase 4: The Show
  • Phase 5: Maintenance
• End of the Game
• 2 Player Game
• Cards
  • Actor Cards
  • Chamber Cards
  • Reward Cards

Components

• 37 Actor Cards
• 12 Reward Cards
• 4 Mansion Cards
• 12 Chamber Cards
• 65 Cards in total
• 88 Skulls: 20 blue, 20 red, 20 green, 20 yellow, and 8 grey
• 80 Tickets: 15 each of the values 8, 6, 4 and 2, and 20 of the value 1
• 4 Turn Order Tiles (reversible), numbered 1 to 4
• 4 Sales Markers
• 1 Sales Board
• 4 Player Screens
• 1 Discard Tile
• 1 Starting Player Token
• 1 Cloth Bag
• 1 Rulebook

Setup

Example setup for 3 players is shown on page 3 of the rulebook.

1. Shuffle the Actor Cards and place the deck face down in the centre of the table.
   • For 3 players, before the game begins remove the 3 Cards that show the [player-count symbol].
2. Place the Reward and Chamber Cards, sorted by type, above the deck of Actors.
3. Place the Sales Board in easy reach of all players.
4. Place the Turn Order Tiles next to the Sales Board.
   • For 3 players, remove the "4" Tile from the game and place the others so that the [side icon] side is visible.
   • For 4 players, place all the Tiles visible on [side icon] side.
5. Put all of the Skulls into the Cloth Bag and place it to one side of the table.
6. Place the Discard Tile to one side of the table.
7. Place all the Tickets to one side of the table to form a Stockpile.
8. Each player chooses a Mansion Card, the Screen and the Counter of a single colour (the screen colour is indicated by the hats). Place your Screen in front of you and your Mansion Card in front of your Screen and your Counter in the "1" space of the Sales Board (this is because your Mansion itself gives you one Ticket to start).
9. Each player takes a total of 30 Tickets and places them behind their Screen (for example: 3x [8] and 1x [6]).
10. Finally, the Starting Player is chosen at random and they take the Starting Player Token.

Summary and Objective

You have been entrusted with the task of putting together the cast of monsters that will be in charge of terrorizing the visitors of the Monster Mansion. In each round a number of actors will audition in the hope of being cast for the show. Each player will have the opportunity to try to be the first to cast the best actors for their show and through a system of choosing their turn order, each player will receive the necessary resources to cast these actors, but also a number of tickets to be disposed of. The goal is to choose well and get the combination of monsters that means that you sell the tickets for your attraction as quickly as possible. The first player who manages to hang up the "Sold Out" sign will be the winner.

Playing

Monster Mansion takes places over a varying number of rounds. In each round you must play the following 5 phases in order:

1. The Audition
2. Turn Order
3. The Casting (Cast or Reserve an Actor and/or Add a Chamber)
4. The Show
5. Maintenance

Phase 1: The Audition

Turn over as many Actors as the number of players plus one and place them in a row to the right of the Actors deck. Then, pull Skulls out of the Cloth Bag at random and place them below the Turn Order Tiles:

• For 3 players, pull out 7 Skulls.
• For 4 players, pull out 10 Skulls.

For 3 players, 4 Actor Cards are turned over (3+1) and 7 Skulls are pulled out of the Bag.

Note: If there are not enough Skulls left in the Bag for The Audition, return all the discarded Skulls to the Bag to continue.

Phase 2: Turn Order

The player with the Starting Player Token chooses a Turn Order Tile, and places it in their playing area. They immediately pick up the number of Tickets indicated on the Tile and place them behind their Screen. Next, the next player clockwise does the same and so on until all the players have a Tile. These Tiles determine the order in which each player will perform their actions in the following Phase: The Casting (Cast or Reserve an Actor and/or Add a Chamber).

If you are the Starting Player in the round and you do not take the "1" Tile, you must put the Starting Player Token back upon the "1" Tile. The player who does take the "1" Tile, takes the Starting Player Token and will be the Starting Player in the next round.

As the Starting Player of the round, Ivan takes the "3" Tile, 2 Tickets and he puts the Starting Player Token back upon the "1" Tile. Jayne, the next player clockwise, takes the "1" Tile, 6 Tickets and also the Starting Player Token. Finally, Mar takes the "2" Tile and 4 Tickets.

Phase 3: The Casting (Cast or Reserve an Actor and/or Add a Chamber)

The player with the "1" Tile will take from The Audition the number of Skulls that their Tile shows, they place them behind their Screen and then Cast or Reserve an Actor from The Audition and/or Add a Chamber. Next, the player with the "2" Tile will do the same, and so on until this phase is over.

The effects, limitations and requirements of all the different cards are explained in the Cards section (see page 8).

Cast or Reserve an Actor

This action consists of carrying out one of the following actions:

• Cast one of the Actors or cast one previously reserved.
• OR
• Reserve one of the Actors.

In order to cast an Actor or cast one that you have reserved, you must pay its cost in Skulls. Place the Skulls spent on the Discard Tile. Once cast, place the Actor in your play area, above your Mansion Card. If when you cast an Actor you meet the requirements of one or more Reward Cards, immediately add them to your line of Actors at no cost.

Important: Grey Skulls are like wildcards and can be used as a substitute for any coloured Skull.

When you increase your Sales Level, you should immediately alter the Sales Board to reflect the change, whether it is due to an Actor you have cast, an Actor that has been cast by another player and that is interacting with yours, a Chamber that you have added or due to one or more Reward Cards that you have earned.

As the first player in turn order, Jayne takes the 2 Skulls that her tile grants her from The Audition, choosing a red and a grey one.

Then, she decides to cast The Ghost, paying its cost with the Skulls which she has just taken (the grey is a wildcard and replaces the yellow Skull).

After incorporating The Ghost into her line of actors, Jayne adjusts her Sales Level: +1 for The Ghost (as she has 1 Chamber), +3 for the Clown (which she obtains immediately by having Verona, Cthulhu and The Ghost) and +3 for the Witch (which she gets immediately for having 4 Actor Cards of different colours).

To reserve an Actor from The Audition, take one of the Actor Cards from The Audition and place it face down to one side of your play area without paying its cost. There is no limit to the number of cards you can reserve.

Add a Chamber

This action consists of adding a Chamber to your Mansion and you can do it before or after casting/reserving an Actor.

In order to add a Chamber, you must pay its cost in Skulls. Place the Skulls you have paid on the Discard Tile. Each Chamber always costs 2 Skulls of any colour. Once acquired, place the Chamber in your play area, to the right of your Mansion Card. You cannot acquire more than one Chamber per turn.

Following on from the previous example, Jayne decides that in addition to casting an Actor, she also wants to Add a Chamber because she has enough Skulls behind her Screen. She discards a green and a blue Skull (the colours are indifferent) to pay the cost of the Costume Card. She then adds this card to the right of her Mansion Card and adjusts her Sales Level: +1 for The Ghost because she added another Chamber. This ends her turn for this phase.

Phase 4: The Show

After the previous phase, now it's time for The Show. The quality of the performance will be measured by the amount of Tickets sold. First, players who have The Black Lagoon Monster Card must decide, in turn order, who they will give a Ticket to (see page 9). Then, each player returns the number of Tickets indicated by their Sales Level to the Stockpile.

Ivan is the only one who owns The Black Lagoon Monster and decides to give a Ticket to Jayne. Afterwards, everyone proceeds to sell Tickets based on their Sales Level. Jayne has reached a Sales Level of "13", so she returns 13 Tickets to the Stockpile.

Phase 5: Maintenance

To end the round, all the Actor Cards still present at The Audition are discarded. They will form a face up discard deck of Actors to one side of the table. Each player must also return their Turn Order Tile back to its place.

Jayne has taken the "1" Tile and Ivan the "3" Tile, leaving the "2" Tile unselected, which corresponds to the dummy player. Jayne first completes her own turn by casting an Actor and, as she goes before Ivan in turn order, she then resolves the dummy player's turn, choosing an Actor Card for the dummy player and discarding 2 Skulls from The Audition. Then it is Ivan's turn to play as he chose the "3" Turn Order Tile.

Actor Cards chosen for the dummy player during The Casting (Phase 3) and discarded during Maintenance (Phase 5) are displayed and remain visible throughout the game in an area on the table corresponding to the dummy player, since all of them are considered to be cards which the dummy player has acquired and therefore count when interacting with the Actors of both players, as would be the case in a 3 player game.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately if a player has no more Tickets behind their Screen at the end of The Show (Phase 4), proclaiming themselves the winner. If more than one player runs out of Tickets at the same time, the one with the most excess Tickets sold will win. If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

After a few rounds, Jayne sells 21 Tickets during The Show, meaning that she has no more Tickets left at the end of that phase. Ivan sells 16 Tickets, also running out of Tickets. For her part, Mar sells 13 Tickets, but she still has 4 behind her Screen, so she loses the game. Ivan wins the tie-break between himself and Jayne as he had 8 Tickets behind his screen and has sold 16, meaning he has an excess of 8 Tickets, compared to Jayne who had 15 Tickets behind her screen and sold 21, thus having an excess of only 6 Tickets.

2 Player Game

Set up the 2 player game in the same way as a 3 player game (see Setup, page 3).

At The Audition (Phase 1), reveal 3 Actor Cards (one more than people playing) and take 7 Skulls out of the Bag (see page 4).

After determining the Turn Order (Phase 2), one of the Turn Order Tiles will remain unselected: that Tile corresponds to a third dummy player. (If that Tile is the "1", the player who has the Tile with the lowest number will keep the Starting Player Token.) When the dummy player's turn comes around, the player who owns the Turn Order Tile with the lowest number must perform the following 2 actions:

• Place an Actor Card from The Audition in an area on the table corresponding to the dummy player.
• Discard the number of Skulls corresponding to the dummy player's Tile. Place these Skulls on the Discard Tile.

Jayne has just acquired the Cthulhu Card. Ivan has no cards of the colour indicated in his Mansion, but there are 2 cards of that colour in the dummy player's area (Dracula and Frankenstein), therefore Jayne increases her Sales Level by 3 Tickets: 1 for the Cthulhu Card itself and 2 for the cards in the dummy player's area.

Cards

The effects of the cards are applied as soon as you acquire them and always during Phase 3: The Casting (Cast or Reserve an Actor and/or Add a Chamber), except for the Black Lagoon Monster. When your Sales Level increases, you should immediately alter the Sales Board to reflect the change, whether it is due to an Actor you have cast, an Actor that has been cast by another player and that is interacting with yours, a Chamber that you have added or due to one or more Reward Cards that you have earned.

Actor Cards

Actor Cards exist in 5 different colours and are divided into two types of Cards: ones that allow you to increase your Sales Level and ones that grant Abilities. You can only Cast or Reserve one Actor per turn.

Cards which increase your Sales Level: You can have more than one card of the same type and its effects are cumulative.

• Dracula: Increase your Sales Level by 1 Ticket.
• Werewolf: Increase your Sales Level by 2 Tickets.
• Frankenstein: Increase your Sales Level by 3 Tickets.
• Cthulhu: Increase your Sales Level by 1 Ticket for each Card of the indicated colour (the Cthulhu Card itself counts) owned by you yourself, the player to your left and the player to your right.
• Verona: Increase your Sales Level by 1 Ticket for each Dracula Card owned by you yourself, the player to your left and the player to your right.
• Eva: Increase your Sales Level by 2 Tickets for each Frankenstein Card owned by the player to your left and the player to your right.
• The Ghost: Increase your Sales Level by 1 Ticket for each Chamber that you yourself own.

Cards which grant abilities: You can use each ability once per turn, but you cannot have more than one card of each type.

• The Black Lagoon Monster: Give one of your Tickets to another player before The Show (Phase 4).
• The Mummy: You can cast an Actor from the Discard Pile, paying its cost. (In 2 player games you can cast an Actor from the dummy player's area, paying its cost).
• The Swamp Thing: Take one Skull from the Bag at random and place it behind your Screen without showing it to the other players.

Chamber Cards

Chamber Cards are only available in a single colour (orange) and they grant you various abilities. You can only purchase one Chamber per turn. You can use each Chamber once per turn, but you cannot have more than one Chamber Card of each type.

• Make Up: One colour is equivalent to another as indicated. (In this specific case, a red Skull would be equivalent to a blue one and vice versa.)
• Costume: Take 3 or 5 Tickets from the Reserve in order to take 1 or 2 Skulls from the Discard Tile.
• Props: Any two Skulls are equivalent to one grey one.

Reward Cards

Reward Cards are obtained as soon as you meet their requirements (they have no cost in Skulls) and allow you to increase your Sales Level. You can obtain several Rewards in one turn, but you cannot have more than one Reward Card of each type.

• The Clown: Increase your Sales Level by 3 Tickets as soon as you have at least 3 of the 4 types of Actor Cards indicated on the Card.
• The Zombie: Increase your Sales Level by 3 Tickets as soon as you have at least 3 Actor Cards of the same colour.
• The Witch: Increase your Sales Level by 3 Tickets as soon as you have at least 4 Actor Cards of different colours.