Author : Cédric Millet
Illustration : Markus Erdt
Writing : 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 universe of « The New MonStar ». In this talent contest, the terrifying stars of tomorrow show what they are capable of.

But the jury is demanding and has tastes all its own: some members adore powerful voices, others are seduced by breathtaking hip-sways or by a chilling style. Still others have a penchant for the horrible and repulsive performances. The goal 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!

Whoever gets the largest 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.

• Power duo (game variant only!)

  Some MonStars form a power duo. Two MonStars with the same power duo symbol score an additional popularity point.

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

1. Take one 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 enter play only in the third round. If you play with two or three, you only need of 10 Jury tiles (2 per talent). You only use the 15 tiles only when you play with four.

3. Shuffle all other MonStar and Jury tiles face down in the middle. Then flip 6 tiles of your choice (they may be MonStars or jury members).

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

You play taking turns clockwise. The game is played in 3 rounds. Each round includes 2 phases :

• During the casting phase, you gather tiles to the rhythm of the soundtrack : place the MonStars on one of the three zones of the stage at the top. 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 as correspond to 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: gather tiles

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

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 on your left. From that moment on, you can no longer take tiles, place any, nor move any on your stage.

Warning : it is important that you pay close attention to the soundtrack's audio cues (breath and buzzer)! If you don't hear them or ignore them, you'll 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: earn popularity points

The time has come to party with your MonStars! After the casting phase, you are greeted (hopefully!) by a burst of applause, which earns you popularity points.

Go through all the tiles on your stage. Proceed as follows:

1. Return duplicates:

   there can be only one copy of each tile (MonStar or Jury) on your stage. Choose one tile for 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 matching to the jury gives you 1 popularity point.flipped costs you 1 popularity point.

4. 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 number 30 at the star, flip your spider to the star side. It then indicates that you have already collected 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. The player to the left of the most horrible one starts.

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

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

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

The game ends at the end of the third round.

Which is now the spider score marker that is furthest ahead ?

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

In case of a tie, the one who scored the most popularity points in the third applause stage wins the game.

This variant makes the game's atmosphere even more electrifying and slightly sneakier. The shock-duo symbols on certain MonStar tiles become crucial. Try to assemble pairs of symbols on your stage: a shock duo assembled yields 1 popularity bonus point at the applause step!

But don't get your hopes up 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 identical symbol on another stage. To do this, wait for the buzzer signal at the casting step, then take the shock-duo tile that 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?