ZQ1: M.N.S.T.R.


M.N.S.T.R.: Monster, Ne’er-do-wells, and Silk Trade Routes, by Indigo McDonald


The pitch: Light, no-prep Powered by the Apocalypse game about the lives of traders leading caravans through the wasteland between city-states on a fantasy Silk Road.


Why I backed: The Silk Road is a cool setting, and I’m always in the market for a game that can convincingly do a no-prep campaign.


What I received: A pdf with no illustrations other than the cover.


How it works: Despite the opening statement that the game was heavily inspired by Apocalypse World, that’s not the full story. It has a roll 2D6+stat mechanic, as well as partial successes and the concept of GM and player moves, but that’s where the similarities end. The difficulty ranges are adjusted by fictional positioning as in a Forged in the Dark game. But the biggest inspiration by far appears to be Mouse Guard. The game is divided into GM-directed caravan phases and player-directed town phases. In the Caravan phase the PCs test skills against the GM’s obstacles, and in the town phase the PCs must spend currency to take town actions.


What I thought: MNSTR is an interesting effort to hack together several games that I like. And it has some clever ideas of its own. For instance: when reading a person or a situation, on a “partial failure” the PC still gets to ask two questions—but the answer to one will be a lie.


Overall, however, this one didn’t work for me. The game is too heavy for the kind of pick-up- and-play style it wants to serve. The writing is not detailed enough to fully spell out the interactions of the various game systems it fuses - chalk that up to the zine format. As written, the system feels very board- or video-gamey, without a lot of incentive or opportunity for role-playing or creative problem-solving. And the setting/mood is sketched so lightly that there isn’t much to get me fired up, or to support me at the table if I were to run it.

What I’m going to do with it: I only have the pdf, so I’ll keep that. 

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