Author: Cédric Millet
Illustration: Markus Erdt
Editing: Patrick Tonn
Playing time: approx. 20 minutes

The curtain opens on the most monstrous performances in the world! It's a pleasure for us to welcome you to the world of "The New MonStar". In this talent contest, the frightful stars of tomorrow show what they are capable of.

But the jury is demanding and has tastes all its own: some members love powerful voices, others are captivated by breath-taking moves or by a chilling style. Others still have a penchant for the horrible and disgusting performances. The aim of the game is therefore to cast the jury's favorites : the audience will be just as enthusiastic, which will earn points on the applause meter!

The player who gets the highest number of popularity points after three rounds wins the game!

• 45 MonStar tiles (including 5 Mega-MonStars)

• 15 jury tiles

• 4 stages

• 4 spider score markers

• 1 applause meter

• Spotlight symbol: the MonStar can only be placed in the yellow, green, or red area of the stage.

• Shock duo (game variant only!)

  Some MonStars form a shock duo. Two MonStars with the same shock duo symbol grant one additional popularity point.

• Talents : each normal MonStar has 2 different talents. There are 5 possible talents: horror, singing, repulsion, style and dance.

1. Take a scene each and place it in front of you. Take the spider score marker of the same color and place it in the green sticky area of the applause meter.

2. Set aside the 5 Mega-MonStar tiles. These only come into play in the third round. If you play with two or three players, you only need 10 Jury tiles (2 per talent). You use the 15 tiles only when you play with four players.

3. Place all other MonStar and Jury tiles face-down in the middle. Then flip 6 tiles of your choice (these can be MonStars or jury members).

4. Select the soundtrack that corresponds to the number of players of the game. You will find the audio files to listen to and download on this site.

The player to the left of the most horrible one starts.taking turns clockwise. The game is played in 3 rounds. Each round includes 2 steps :

• During the casting phase, you collect tiles to the rhythm of the soundtrack : place the MonStars on one of the three zones at the top of the stage. The jury members sit on their chairs.

• At the applause phase, at the end of each round, your goal is for your MonStar tiles to show as many talent symbols matching those your jury likes. Each match gives you a popularity point, which you can mark on the applause meter with your spider score marker.

Casting phase: collect tiles

You all have the same chances to place tiles to fill your stage (= MonStar tiles and Jury tiles), and this continues until the end of the round. However, during the first round, a jury slot must remain empty. Indeed, there is always a late monster who arrives after the show has started!

Who among you is the most horrible? You start the first round. Start the soundtrack.

When you hear a tense breath in the soundtrack, you must flip a tile. When the buzzer and the cheer sound, you can take a face-up tile and place it on your stage. At the next breath, the turn passes immediately to the person to your left. From that moment on, you can no longer take tiles, place or move any on your stage.

Warning : it is important that you stay attentive to the soundtrack's audio signals (breath and buzzer)! If you don't hear them or ignore them, you will quickly get lost and might forget someone. Fairness is the golden rule in The New MonStar (it even comes before the ban on devouring the audience!).

As soon as the thunder of applause, the casting phase is over. You can then stop the soundtrack.

Applause phase: gain popularity points

It's time to party with your MonStars! After the casting phase, you are greeted (hopefully!) by a burst of applause, which awards you popularity points.

Review all the tiles on your stage. Proceed as follows:

1. Return duplicates:

   there can only be one copy of each tile (MonStar or Jury) on your stage. Choose one tile of each character and return duplicates to the middle of the table.

2. Flip misplaced MonStars : is a MonStar tile not in the correct zone of the stage (see spotlight symbol)? Flip it.

3. Count the popularity points:

   Compare the talent symbols of your MonStar tiles with those of your jury. Each talent symbol identical to the jury earns you 1 popularity point.Each tile turned over costs you .

4. 1 popularity point

   Advance the spider score marker

: on the applause meter, move your spider score marker forward by the number of points obtained. As soon as you pass the number 30 at the star, flip your spider to the starred side. It then indicates that you have already accumulated 30 popularity points.Once you have advanced your spiders, all the tiles from your stage are returned to the middle of the table

. Turn all tiles face down, shuffle them well, then randomly flip 6 of them face up.Restart the soundtrack.

• Round 1 : the jury members can only occupy only 2 of the 3 jury spots and you do not use the Mega-MonStar tiles.

• Round 2 : you can occupy all jury spots and do not use the Mega-MonStar tiles.

• Round 3 : you can occupy all jury spots and add the 5 Mega-MonStar tiles hidden faces at the start of the casting phase.

The game ends at the end of the third round.

What is now the most advanced spider points marker ?

Congratulations ! You have won over the audience and truly deserve the title of New MonStar! But you will have to fight to keep it, because one thing is certain: Show must go on!

In the event of a tie, the player who scored the most popularity points at the third applause step wins the game.

This variant makes the game's atmosphere even more electrifying and a touch more sneaky. The shock duo symbols on certain MonStar tiles take on full importance. Try to gather pairs of symbols on your stage: a shock duo when completed awards 1 popularity bonus point during the applause phase!

But don't rejoice too soon! Indeed, a player who already has a MonStar tile bearing a shock duo symbol on their stage can steal a tile with the same symbol from another stage. To do so, wait for the buzzer signal during the casting phase, then take the shock duo tile you're missing from another player instead of a tile from the middle of the table. The player who was stolen from has one fewer tile than the others on their stage at the end of that round. That's mean, don't you think? Sure, but we're dealing with monsters, aren't we?