Horrified: American Monsters

I don’t particularly like modern horror. It doesn’t really matter the context, it’s usually unnecessarily violent and bloody. Yes, I’m aware that this is exactly what fans of the genre now expect and desire, and I have no desire to judge them for it. So that makes the Halloween season difficult for me. I love the spoopy side of Halloween, or even just the spooky side of it. My favourite Halloween tradition is watching the little known Rankin-Bass classic Mad Monster Party. If you’ve never seen it, picture something akin to Hotel Transylvania but in the style of their Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. I’m also a huge fan of Monster Squad. Going farther back I have a soft spot for The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. Going not as far back the original Universal monster movies are another fav of mine. So it’s natural I’d want to try out Horrified, but I’ve actually never had the chance. So when I was invited onto Cryptid Crunch to talk about cryptid board games, I knew I needed to set my desire to play the original version, specifically, and reach out about trying out Horrified: American Monsters instead. With the train of thought that got us all here out of the way, let’s look at the game.

American Monsters uses the same concepts of the original Horrified but replaces the movie monsters with monsters out of American folklore: Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, the Ozark Howler, and the Banshee of the Badlands. It’s an interesting selection to be sure. Each monster has its own unique style and objectives to defeat them.

Bigfoot is probably the most well known cryptid in North America, often conflated with Sasquatch, the Himalayan Yeti, and sometimes even the Wendigo, he supposedly represents a missing link in the evolutionary chain. He has been satirized in movies, television, comic books, and is well known (in Canada) to drink Kokanee beer. In the game, he always runs away and never attacks. He always moves away from investigators and citizens whenever possible and when he moves, he leaves footprint tokens that investigators need to collect to reveal sections of a photograph puzzle. They can then discard items to shift the puzzle pieces (like those cheap plastic slide puzzles you might have had as a kid) then when the puzzle is solved they must hunt down Bigfoot and discard three green items to defeat him.

Chupacabra aka the goat sucker, is a creature found most commonly in the southern US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and sometimes farther south. With sightings reported as far back as the 1970s, the name Chupacabra wasn’t coined until the mid-90s. In the game, they are one of the least complex. Players simply find and collect six brown goat tokens, and return them to the Farm location, before discarding 6+ strength of yellow items. 

Banshee of the Badlands Maybe the least well known of the American Monsters. Hailing from the barren landscapes of South Dakota, the Banshee is often seen south of a butte known as Watch Dog, and she is commonly followed by a violin loving skeleton. Investigators each place a violin token on the Banshee’s Monster mat. While at the Banshee’s location investigators must discard a brown or yellow item to roll one or two dice respectively. For every Hit or Power icon rolled that investigator moves one violin token closer to the safe zone. When the Banshee rolls a power icon, she moves one violin token closer to her skeletal companion. If an investigator’s violin reaches the Skeleton, they are defeated. 

Ozark Howler has legends going back as far as facing off against frontier legend Daniel Boone in the early 1800s in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Stories come and go from popular culture over the years but aren’t particularly well known outside the region. In the game, Investigators must reveal a Tracker Token and discard the listed items at the Abandoned Mine three times, before discarding a single token of every colour, also at the Abandoned Mine. For every Power symbol rolled during the attack phase, the Howler places a Death Mark token on the closest Investigator or Citizen. Anyone with a Death Mark takes an automatic hit when a Monster rolls to attack them.

Jersey Devil is said to inhabit the forest of Pine Barrens in South Jersey. Unusually, it can be argued that The Jersey Devil is one of the most famous cryptids, without most people even knowing it. The NHL hockey team, the New Jersey Devils, is a reference to this mythical 13th child of an alleged 18th-century witch. In the game, it is one of the most complex characters, to the point I’m not even going to summarize it.

Mothman’s legend began in 1966 and has since grown to be as much a marketing gimmick for the small town of Point Pleasant, WV as anything else. Conjecture indicates that the name may have been coined thanks to the immense popularity of Batman at the time, coming from the Caped Crusader’s less-than-popular foil, Killer Moth. In the game, Mothman is defeated after arming four traps in four random locations and then discarding Yellow Items with a combined power of 10+. Mothman may also move across the board to the location of The Demon’s Eye token, continuing through any Citizens or Investigators while hitting them for a single point of damage.

That was just a very brief introduction to the so-called American Monsters. The gameplay itself is rather straightforward, minus the individuality of those Monsters. 

First is the Investigator phase, in which a play may take up to the number of actions allowed by the character they are playing. They may choose from the following: Move along the labelled paths between locations. Guide a citizen to or away from your Investigator. Pick Up items. Share Items between Investigators at the same location. Advance a Monster’s specific challenge or attempt to Defeat them. Or some Investigators can take a Special Action.

After their turn, the player flips over a card from the Monster Deck to start the Monster Phase. The card will show how many Items are drawn and placed on the board, if an Event happens, and instructions for a Monster [to] Strike. The Monster Strike section show what Monster(s) will act, how far they move, and how many Attack Dice they roll if they are sharing a Location with an Investigator. Most of the details within those instructions, however, will differ by Monster.

If you defeat all the Monsters being played, you win. If the Terror Level reaches its maximum, you lose. (Yes, I skipped that part of the rules, and more, but I think the name Terror Level makes it fairly obvious as a general game mechanic thing. If the Monster Deck runs out and you need to draw a card, you have one last chance to defeat the Monsters and either win or lose. 

Just as a side note, while I haven’t actually been able sit down with the solo mode, almost all of the rules are the same.

Horrified is a terrific game. The rulebook wasn’t always as clear as I might like, but any questions we had we were able to work out. The art is evocative and there is an absolute ton of replayability. Having never tried the original, I can’t help wondering how well the two would combine to be honest. Could we have a Monster Squad edition? That could be what combining them would feel like. This year would have been the 35th Anniversary of the movie. But maybe that milestone doesn’t matter as much as just having it exist? Oooooo, Maybe Mad Monster Party! 

You can find Ravensburger North America online at www.ravensburger.us or on Facebook at facebook.com/Ravensburger.