Volume 16: Monster Maker and Monster Eater
This week, I’m talking about… a board game? Let me be clear: I normally suffer through board games. I do not have the attention span for most of these things, especially many of the ones in the post-boom period of complex rules with dozens of pieces to manage. And why are so many of them about colonialism and managing labor? I’ve enjoyed a few, but they’re usually cooperative, on the shorter end, or more aimed at children. All that said, I found one in the local comics shop the other day that caught my eye, largely because of its connection to the DRPG space. Monster Eater: A Delicious in Dungeon Board Game, is a cute-looking tabletop take on, well, Delicious in Dungeon, Ryoko Kui’s fantastic manga inspired by the likes of Wizardry and Dungeons and Dragons. After playing and enjoying this curious little card game, I later learned it’s actually a modified version of a classic Japanese card game dating back to the 1980s. A perfect subject for the Blobber Blog.
Delicious in Dungeon is great because not only is it a dungeon-crawling story for sickos, it’s also got a great comedic twist. The main character is kind of a freak who has always been curious about what dungeon monsters taste like. In the position of being penniless and needing to dive into the local dungeon to save his sister, he figures he can save money and energy by capturing and cooking monsters instead of buying and rationing food. His best friends reluctantly agree to go along with this, and they find a dwarf along the way who loves the dungeon ecosystem so much he lives in it, sharing the protagonist’s interest in cooking albeit with much more wholesome motivations. What ensues is part dungeon adventure, part cooking show, and a story that perfectly threads the needle between monster-eating comedy and dungeon-danger drama.
The board game, Monster Eater, is about threading a similar needle, but mechanically. You have to figure out the balance between exploring the dungeon, preparing for an inevitable boss encounter, risking combat, staying fed, and building an inventory of victory points. It’s also a race against the other players, as there are only two bosses, they’re both worth hella points, and the game ends when the second one is dead. The rules are kind of complicated, but it’s one of those things when once you see them in action they’re easier to understand. Nerds love to say that for most games and they’re usually lying, but I think it’s actually true here. Just keep the booklet handy for the times you’ll inevitably need clarification on a few things.
My favorite part is you get to explore the dungeon with a team, just like you’re playing a DRPG. You can either pick an established team from Delicious in Dungeon, or you can run the game like a draft, ending up with custom teams that may or may not have balance issues, along with the possibility of a special character who otherwise isn’t part of any teams. Characters have certain roles and abilities, and skills for cooking, combat, or other scenarios. Once you have a team you dive in, and have to spend cards to progress in the dungeon and manage enemy encounters. The twist is when starting an encounter, you can send an enemy directly into anyone’s dungeon path, not just your own. This is interesting because, as the rulebook suggests, avoiding combat is generally ideal. After all, if combat goes poorly you’ll end up exhausting your characters (Magic: the Gathering style), and burning food to keep them going. And you can’t explore if there’s an enemy in the way! But! When you beat an enemy you can attempt to cook it, and succeeding nets you food and victory points. So if you’re avoiding combat, you’re leaving resources on the table. Chasing combat is a risk of course, pitting you against the dice.
As a Wizardry fan I know to “savor the risk,” and ended up going after combat for most of my first game. I got quite lucky with the dice, and was able to stock up on food and fear battle less and less over time. I pretty much ran away with the round. Even though it was pretty one-sided my opponent had fun, thanks to the card art, fast pace, and fun setup. We’ll definitely be playing again, and trying to get a group of more players to see how that impacts balance.
The other cool thing about this experience was the history lesson in the back of the rulebook. More than just a card game based on a popular manga/anime IP, Monster Eater turned out to be a modified version of Monster Maker, a game that debuted in 1988 from designer Ginichiro Suzuki. This thing really took off in Japan, spawning a whole brand comprising manga, novels, other tabletop games, and even apparently video games. It’s a big deal! Over time Monster Maker has moved through multiple editions and publishers, including a recent edition designed with some gorgeous art from Ryo Hirao. I know their work from The Legend of Legacy and The Alliance Alive, two of my favorite RPGs from Furyu. It’s neat to trip over something kind of silly in a comic shop, then come to realize it has several layers of interesting, cool history.
According to the rulebook, Suzuki passed away shortly after reading Delicious in Dungeon and giving his blessing to this modified version of his classic game. It’s a real shame he didn’t get to see the end result. I’d be curious to get a hold of the original to see how the two compare, although this seems to be the first time anything adjacent to Monster Maker has been published in English. I had a great time with it, and could really feel the dungeon-crawling history behind the mechanics, even with the silly cooking aspect added on. I absolutely recommend diving into everything I’ve mentioned here, from Kui’s manga to the board game version, and those two Furyu games I worked in. It’s all good shit.
Until next time, dungeon delvers.
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