Mother of Frankenstein: Volume One
Mother of Frankenstein: Volume One Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What Is Mother of Frankenstein: Volume One?
Mother of Frankenstein is a narrative puzzle game based on the life of Mary Shelley. It is a collaborative experience featuring 12-18 hours of gameplay divided between three volumes.
Mother of Frankenstein is a groundbreaking puzzle game that combines the best of escape rooms, board games, immersive theater, and novels. Designed for 1-6 players, ages 13 and up, it offers 10-15 hours of puzzles to solve, 2D and 3D jigsaws to construct, gorgeous documents to parse, and mysterious artifacts to examine, all wrapped up in a shocking re-conception of the true story behind Mary Shelley's famous monster.
Inspired (but not entirely beholden to) the incredible real life of Mary Shelley, Mother of Frankenstein is designed by Terry Pettigrew-Rolapp and Tommy Wallach of Hatch Escapes, creators of LA Magazine's top-ranked escape room, Lab Rat. It challenges you to solve a series of puzzles in order to learn the truth behind Shelley's infamous monster. While challenging enough for serious puzzlers, it also features a rich, emotional narrative composed by New York Times bestselling YA novelist Tommy Wallach.
Mother of Frankenstein is one continuous narrative divided into three volumes that must be played in order. The game is divided up into three acts, each of which contains a trove of documents and puzzles, all of them beautifully crafted and cunningly designed — ostensibly by Mary Shelley herself — in order to reveal a great secret she left to her only surviving child.
Volume One
Volume 1 concerns Mary's teenage years. We learn about her education by her iconoclastic father and complete three assignments on the subjects she most loved as a student — poetry, music, and astronomy — each of which is presented in the form of a puzzle. Simultaneously, Mary embarks on a love affair with the dashing (but married) poet Percy Shelley. The course of their courtship is laid out over 15 love letters — complete with original poetry, gorgeous drawings, and some heavy flirting — but be warned, in Mother of Frankenstein, there are always secrets hidden in the spaces between the words, for those who know how to look…
What's Included
Each volume contains 3 Puzzle Envelopes, an introduction, and a solution. Volume 1 additionally contains interlocking puzzle ring components.
Game Info
- Players: 1-6
- Age: 13+ (listed as 14+ on some editions)
- Play Time: 3-5 hours per volume; the full three-volume story runs 10-15 hours (12-18 hours per the BoardGameGeek listing)
How to Play
Prove your worth by studying the documents, constructing the jigsaws, and solving the puzzles… and you'll be treated to a heartbreaking story that culminates in a shocking reimagining of the truth behind Mary Shelley's famous novel.
Getting Unstuck
Hatch Escapes maintains an online hints page for players working through Mother of Frankenstein, introduced with this note from the publisher: "If you're currently playing through Mother of Frankenstein and looking for a bit of help, you've come to the right place. If you're not playing yet, then get the heck out of here before you spoil things for yourself." The hints themselves are organized by volume and by puzzle (Astronomy, Music, and Poetry for Volume 1) and are deliberately spoiler content, so they are not reproduced here.