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The Scary Ones bonus page

Thank you for purchasing these monstrous cards and visiting the bonus page! I hope you enjoy playing with them as much as I enjoyed creating them. As a recap: you have 40 cards with 4 different suits, each numbered from 1 to 10. The design follows the Italian style, with the 8, 9, and 10 representing the soldier, the knight, and the king, respectively. The suits broadly represent the worlds where the monsters belong. You can identify each suit by its color and the symbol beneath the number:


There are plenty of games you can play with these cards simply made up or from the Italian tradition. The following are instructions monstrify-ed for your scary games. Do you have an idea for another game? Get in touch!

Games index

Scary stories (3 or more players)

Deal 5 cards to each player. In turns, each player places one card face-up on the table. The last player to place a card becomes the storyteller and must create a story using all the cards. The story can be scary, funny, or absurd, but must mention each monster at least once. After the story ends, players vote on its quality. For each vote, the storyteller claims a card from the story. Every player draws another card and you keep going until all cards are gone. The winner is the player that has the highest monster points.

Poo (2 to 10 players)

Start by selecting groups of cards with the same face value, a group of for equal to the number of players. Shuffle and deal them, placing the remaining cards in the middle. Each turn, players pass a card to the left. The goal is to collect 4 cards of the same number. When you succeed, your monsters are ready! Shout "Poo!" and put your hand on the discard pile. All other players must follow regardless of what they have in their hands. The last one to land on the pile "cleans the poo". To determine how much poo they collect, draw a card from the middle pile. Once the deck is finished, the player with the least poos wins.

Monster overlord (more than 3 players)

Based on the traditional children game "Assassino"

Select one card to represent the Monster Overlord, another as the Guard Master, and assign one card to each of the remaining players, who will be the Subjects. Shuffle the cards and deal one to each player, placing the remaining cards in the center of the table.

The Overlord winks at the Subjects to subjugate them, while the Guard Master tries to catch the Overlord in the act. If the Overlord winks at you, declare yourself a Subject and flip your card over. The Guard Master can accuse and arrest the Overlord, but making a false accusation results in an instant loss.

The Overlord wins by subjugating all players except the Guard Master. Players who lose draw "years in prison" and the player with the least prison time at the end is declared the overall winner.

Brrr-iscola (2 to 4 players)

Pronounced *shivers* /'briskola/ inspired by the traditional game Briscola

The Monster hierarchy has been flipped upside down! 1 and 3 are the most powerful cards and you compete to get the best brr-iscola

Objective

Win rounds to collect cards with high point values. The goal is to score more than 60 points (out of 120) by the end of the round.

Card Values

Ace (A) 11 points
Three 10 points
Ten 4 points
Nine 3 points
Eighth 2 points
7, 6, 5, 4, 2 0 points

Setup

Deal 3 cards to each player and reveal 1 card to set the trump suit (Brrrr-iscola).

Gameplay

Players take turns playing a card. The highest card of the leading suit wins, unless a trump (Briscola) card is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of the trick draws first from the remaining deck, followed by others.

Scoring

Add up the points from collected cards. The player/team with 61 or more points wins.

Playing in two or in four

When playing in 4 (or even in 6) you play in a team with the person opposite you. Strategise and play the teamwork in your favour.

Tips

High monsters card (Ace, 3) are very valuable, so try to win them with strong Briscola cards or by playing high cards of the leading world. Pay attention to which cards have been played, especially in the briscola suit.

The Monster Hoarder From two players

Inspired by the traditional game Rubamazzo

Each player is dealt 3 cards, and 4 cards are placed face-up in the middle of the table.

On their turn, a player can pick up any card from the table that matches one in their hand. For example, if a player has a 4, they can pick up a 4 from the table. If a player plays an Ace, they can take all the cards from the table in one go.

Collected cards are placed in the player's hoard pile, with the card they played facing up. When I say "all the cards on the table," I mean all! If you have a card that matches one in another player's hoard pile, you can steal their entire pile.

Once all players have played their cards, deal another three cards to each player. Continue until the deck is finished. The winner is the player with the largest hoard.

The War of the Monsters Two players

Inspired by the traditional game "Guerra"

Deal all the cards in the deck evenly among the players. These cards will form each player's Monster Army. Players should hold their deck face down in their hand.

On each turn, the players reveals the top card from their deck and challenges the other player. The player with the higher card value wins the round, taking both cards and placing them at the bottom of their deck.

If both players reveal cards with the same value, it's WAR! Each player places their card face up on the table and then builds a "castle" by placing 4 cards from their deck face down in a square pattern. Next, both players reveal the top card of their deck again. The player with the higher card wins all the cards on the table.

If the revealed cards are the same value again, it's DOUBLE WAR! Players add another layer to their castle and continue drawing cards until one player wins the round.

The game continues until one player's Monster Army is completely depleted. The other player is the winner!