Beautiful Monsters (Print & Play)
A physical, full-production version with real cards and fancy tuckbox is available on DriveThruCards!
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Beautiful Monsters is a quick-playing 2-player card game about recruiting a team of monsters, dressing them up in accessories, and entering them into a beauty contest!
Multi-use cards: Each Monster can have a varying number of Accessories attached, and each Accessory can be attached to augment the Monster's Traits -OR- enhance their Personality. Scoring is tight, so this choice makes a world of difference!
Hybrid open/closed drafting: You can use Monsters/Accessories from your hand -OR- from the Shortlist/Market (public card rows). Either way, you always end up putting a card into at least one of those rows. Will you put junk there to limit your opponent's options, or will you take a risk by leaving something useful for you to use on your next turn?
Variable scoring criteria: Each game has a unique combination of scoring criteria shared by both players. 2 criteria award points based on which Monster(s) you committed to it. A 3rd criteria modifies those points based on the composition of your opponent's team or even the Shortlist/Market. Focusing your strategy on one area means neglecting another, so pick your battles carefully!
The print-and-play files are letter-sized sheets (8.5 x 11in). All cards are US Poker size (2.5 x 3.5in). Here's what's contained in the files:
- _README.txt — Details on how to print/organize the cards
- Beautiful Monsters - Cards (Color).pdf
- Pages 1-4: 15 Accessory cards, front and back
- Pages 5-10: 20 Monster cards, front and back
- Pages 11-12: 6 Scoring cards, front and back
- Page 13: 4 Rules cards, front and back
- Beautiful Monsters - Cards (Grayscale).pdf — Low-ink grayscale version of the above
- Beautiful Monsters - Rulebook.pdf — 2 pages of setup, rules, etc. Note that all of the important info in this PDF is also contained in the Rules cards.
Beautiful Monsters was created and self-published from the ground up by Chris Logsdon and Alix Lytton (aka Maow House). What started as a challenge to make a game in 1 month has become their first foray into their dream of bringing to life the games they want to see in the world.
Purchase
In order to download this physical card game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Full game out now!Oct 03, 2022
- Project migration & release date info!Sep 28, 2022
- Progress update!Jun 07, 2022
- Fixed Rulebook Scoring ExampleNov 01, 2021
- Fixed Card NumbersOct 29, 2021
Comments
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We played it! 🤩 Took us a little while because we were sort of expecting it to be complicated so decided to save it for new year's, and it turned out not to be so scary 😅 The short playtime for each game is actually really neat.
Monsters are super cute of course (even when they don't have the "cute" personality~) and the physical cards are really cool. So many pretty designs! It's nice to have the rules and example setup on cards too.
Once we figured out how to play, the game itself was fun too! The scoring cards are great for replay value. I think we both appreciated that in practice the maths never got too intense amidst all the other variables, similar to some regular card games.
It was also neat that there were just enough cards for one game. Took us a moment to parse out from the rules tho ("skip drawing if you just committed your third monster" sounded more like some exception than something that's meant to end the game every time) so we'd've really benefitted from a straight "every game lasts three rounds and ends with scoring" I think.
I don't think we every figured out "who can wear the most hats on their head" so we just alternated taking turns, still feel really thick about that one. Maybe it was a straight up joke but since the game is about accessories I'm still not 100% sure lol
Also really liked that every card type was distinguishable when lying face-down. Whole deck just feels so neat!! 😍
I did notice neither of us every found a reason to attach accessories by personality but maybe there are relevant scoring cards that we've managed not to get so far?
We might have to play more to figure that last one out, but we're happy to do so either way as again it was very enjoyable to play. Really well done 💜💜💜
Thank you for these kind words, and thank you both for playing! I'm glad it wasn't as tough to learn as you expected. We tried really hard to bring together short playtime, tricky choices, and fun visuals into as small a package as possible.
I can see why that phrase regarding skipping drawing could be confusing. That was one I deliberated on the wording of quite a bit. The difficult part is that without explicitly saying you should skip drawing, players would likely end up in a state where they're asking "wait there are no more cards left to draw, did we do something wrong?" Space is so limited on the rules cards, but maybe I could find some place to clearly say something like what you suggest, because that is indeed a good suggestion!
The way accessories are attached can vary pretty drastically based on which scoring cards are in play. It sounds like you got a mix where they weren't all that relevant. :)
Thanks again for playing!
~Chris
Oh, yeah, size of the cards is something to consider too. Well, I'm excited to play some more and try out different scoring cards then! 🤩
Oh, also! The thing about wearing the most hats is just supposed to be silly. No particular inside joke or deeper meaning :P ~Chris
Suspected as much but it's good to have it absolutely confirmed lol, thanks!