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Looking For Staff
Down at the local fantasy inn you'll find all sorts of patrons from either side of the alignment spectrum, they'll range from the best to the worst but all have one thing in common, they like coin. As a local Dungeon Master you're in the ideal position to provide this in exchange for staffing up your halls. But you're not the only one out looking and competition could drive up the prices....
Monster Inn almost works like a cross between For Sale and No Thanks, you'll be turning up with your riches to bid for the selection of cards available each round, representing the different characters available in the Inn, however you're bidding to avoid taking the worst cards on offer. The weaker Monsters will be the first hired while the stronger ones wait for more cash to be splashed, but you might find some Humanoids sneaking around who get picked up instead. Using the 2 different resources available try to strategically outbid your rivals, so they get stuck with the worst options while you scoop up the superior ones for cheap, but you better remember just how much riches your opponents are hiding in their dungeons so you don't end up out of pocket and stuck with the rejects!
Meeting The Patrons
First up, the Inn needs some characters to bid for. To prepare, you begin by shuffling all the cards together to create a Draw Deck. This will be made up of 40 cards in total, 20 Monsters, with a plain back, and 20 Humanoids, who's cards have a range of numbers and skulls on the back.
Secondly, give each player 6 treasures as their starting riches, 3 Gold Coins and 3 Gems. Players will keep their amount of treasures in their personal supply secret from the other players during Monster Inn. The remaining Treasures form the Reserve.
Players will need to leave room for their dungeon in front of them, it will consist of two rows of cards.
Finally, choose a starting player randomly or by your preferred method.
How To Play Monster Inn
At the start of each round the first player fills the Inn, to do this you draw a number of cards equal to the number of players and keeping them facedown you lay them out in a line leading away from the draw deck, then organise them as follows:
1) Turn all Monster cards faceup but keep all Humanoid cards facedown. Each type of card has a unique number between 1 and 20 indicating its Combat Value, with the higher numbers showing the stronger creatures. They also show a number of skulls, which will come into play during scoring.
2) The Humanoid cards will still be facedown and so will only show the possible range of values the card could have. Place the highest range closest to the deck, then other Humanoid cards further away in descending order. If two cards have the same range then their order does not matter as they are a hidden value for now.
3) Now take the Monsters and place the weakest (lowest number) next in line by the last Humanoid, and order the rest in ascending order, until finally you have the strongest (highest number) furthest away from the deck. The Monster cards have an additional symbol and colour to show what type of monster they are, this has no effect on position in the Inn.
4) Now the Inn is set up with all the Humanoids closest to the deck and all the Monsters furthest away. It's possible to have an Inn that only contains either Humanoids or Monsters in a round, and that's fine.
Once the Inn has been set its time to start bidding. Beginning with the starting player that round, then proceeding clockwise, every player either chooses to Remain at the Inn or Leave.
Remain - The player must place one Treasure into the Inn, following the below rules.
· If there is no Treasure currently in the Inn then you start a new Treasure Pool by placing one of either Treasure type into the Inn.
· If there is already a pool of Treasure in the Inn then you add one matching type of Treasure to the pool.
· Instead of adding a matching Treasure to the Treasure Pool you can make a Treasure Exchange. To do this you can take all of the Treasure in the Treasure Pool and replace it with the other kind of Treasure plus an additional two. E.g. if there are 3 Gold Coins in the treasure pool when you choose to Remain, then you can take these into your personal supply and replace them with 5 Gems from your personal supply, as long as you can afford it.
Leave – If a player cannot or chooses not to Remain then they Leave. When a player Leaves they take all the Treasure Pool into their personal supply, and then take the Creature card closest to the deck into their Dungeon. The card and bonus for taking is determined by the type:
Humanoid – The card is kept face-down and played in the left most space on the bottom row of your dungeon, it will remain face-down until the end of Monster Inn. As a Humanoid Bonus you also gain 1 Treasure of your choice from the Reserve into your personal supply.
Monster – When you take a Monster it goes into the left most available space on the top row of your Dungeon. The Monster will also give a Support Bonus when acquired, detailed below.
Note: Cards always fill the available spaces, so your first picked Humanoid will always match your first picked Monster, your second picked Humanoid will match up with your second picked Monster etc, no matter how many rounds apart the cards are taken.
Support Bonus – There are 5 different kinds of Monster cards which are indicated by the colour and matching Icon; Purple Undead, Orange Kobolds, Red Goblins, Green Orcs and Blue Trolls. If the Monster you just acquired matches the same kind of one you already have, then it can provide a Support Bonus for one card of that kind, including itself. Place one treasure from your personal supply onto the chosen Monster card, it will now be protected from any Humanoids at the end of Monster Inn, but the Treasure will be lost. This bonus must be applied now or not at all, it cannot be done later.
Once a Dungeon Master has chosen to Leave they are out for the round, and the next player in order starts by choosing to Remain or Leave. If you are the only remaining player then the Treasure Pool will be empty and you must Leave. Each player will take exactly one card during the round.
After the last card has been picked from the Inn, the player to the left will begin the next round by drawing cards from the deck and organising them as before. After drawing from the deck if there are less cards remaining than the number of players then this will be the final round (the deck will have one card left in a 3-player game which is discarded to the box, otherwise it will be empty with 4 or 5 players).
Last Call
After the final cards have been taken from Inn you can begin the scoring by taking the following steps:
1) Remove all Humanoids from your Dungeon that are not underneath a Monster card, or are underneath a Supported Monster. Do not move any cards to fill any gaps.
2) Reveal all remaining Humanoids, any who’s Combat Value is less than the Monster they are facing are also removed.
3) Use your remaining cards and Treasure to determine your overall Fame score
Fame Scoring Simplified
· Each Monster in your dungeon provides you with Fame equal to the number of skulls shown on the card.
· Each Humanoid in your dungeon will lose you fame, subtract the number of skulls they show from your Fame.
· Every 3 Treasures you own will provide you 1 Fame, regardless of type. (Do not forget that Treasures used for Support will be lost so are not counted, even if they are not used).
Total up your Fame scores and the Dungeon Master with the highest is declared the winner. In the case of a tie the player with the most Treasure is the winner. If there is still a tie then the victory is shared.
Open Variant
You can Monster Inn with player’s Personal Supplies open information, to offer more tactical play during the bidding sections of the game.