PLAYED
MONSTER INN
This tavern is full of boos
Designer: Roman Pelek | Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
Monster Inn casts players as the controllers of – presumably rival – dungeons who have gathered in a local tavern in an attempt to recruit the best monsters to populate their lair. Each round, you will offer treasures and either get the strongest monsters, or, if the auction doesn’t go so
well, powerful humanoid adventurers who may end up killing off your finest acquisitions. At the end of several rounds of bidding, the player with the most powerful surviving monsters wins.
The art for Monster Inn is… acceptable? Dungeons & Dragons style fantasy art is so well-trodden it has to be exceptional or take some sort of stylistic risk to stand out. Here, it’s merely competent – the trolls and kobolds are standouts – but the humanoid adventurer cards – which make up half the deck – are rather lacklustre, phoned-in representations of generic heroes. However, the physical gold and gem tokens are a welcome inclusion.