Take turns in a clockwise direction and play for 3 rounds. Each round consists of 2 phases:
In the casting phase, collect tiles to the rhythm of the soundtrack and place them on your stage – MonStars on one of the three upper stage areas and the jury on their chairs at the bottom.
Your aim is to have as many talent symbols on your MonStar tiles that match the talent symbols on your jury tiles for the applause phase at the end of each round. For each match, you score popularity points, which you mark on the applause-o-meter with the help of your scoring spider.
Casting phase: collecting tiles
Each player has the same number of chances to place tiles (which always means both MonStar tiles and jury tiles) on your stage and to fill this up by the time the round is over. In the first round, one jury space must remain empty. After all, one monster always arrives to the show too late.
Who can make the scariest face? You go first in the first round. Start the soundtrack.
When you hear a scared gasp on the soundtrack, you must turn over a tile that is still face down. When you hear a buzzer and cheering, you may take a tile that is already face up and place it on your stage. The next time you hear a gasp, the player to your left takes their turn immediately. From now on, you may not take any more tiles, return them, or move them to your stage.
Important: It’s important that you always listen carefully to the signals (gasps and buzzers) on the soundtrack! If you miss them or ignore them, you will quickly lose track of things and perhaps wrongly leave someone out. Fairness is the number one rule on “The Next MonStar” (even ahead of “don’t eat the audience!”).
As soon as you hear the big round of applause, the casting phase is over. Pause the soundtrack at this point.
Applause phase: scoring popularity points
Now it’s time to celebrate you and your MonStars! After the casting phase you will (hopefully) hear applause, which means popularity points.
Check all the tiles on your stages following these rules:
Return any doubles: Each tile (MonStar or jury) may only appear on your stage once. Choose one tile of each character and place any extra ones back in the middle.
Turn over incorrectly placed MonStars: Is there a MonStar tile on the wrong part of the stage (see spotlight symbol)? Then turn the tile face down.
Count popularity points: Compare the talent symbols on your MonStar tiles with those on your jury tiles. For each matching talent symbol, you score 1 popularity point. For each face-down tile, you lose 1 popularity point.
Moving the scoring spider: Mark your current score on the applause-o-meter with your scoring spider. As soon as you pass the star showing the 30, turn your scoring spider over to the side showing the star. This way you will know that you already have more than 30 popularity points.
Once you have all moved your scoring spiders, remove all the tiles from your stages and put them back in the middle. Turn all the tiles face down, mix them up well, and then turn any 6 tiles that you like face up again.
Restart the soundtrack. This time, the player to the left of the one who made the scariest face goes first.
