The Game

You have set out together to hunt the monster and end its existence once and for all.

Against the Monster is a story game about a monster hunt, the good in the monster, and the monstrosity of the hunters. Whether it’s a dragon, vampire, tentacle monster, artificial intelligence, or something else entirely—you’ll decide in which setting you’ll hunt what kind of monster

When the monster faces you in the end: Do you really attack it?

Against the Monster was written by Jasmin Neitzel and Andrea Rick and illustrated by Andrea Rick (you can find further credits on this info page).

It’s available in English and in German.

The Rules

Against the Monster is a GM-less Descended from the Queen​ story game (you may know the mechanics from For the Queen or from our previous project Viva la QueerBar) for 2-6 players and a flexible play time of about 1-4 hours (one-shot).

All you need to play is this zine and a regular deck of playing cards (52 cards). No preparation or previous game experience necessary – just start playing!

The rules of Against the Monster are very simple: At first you read the short instructions out loud together. The text has our recommended consent and safety tools already built-in. During that introduction, you also choose the rough setting of your monster hunt.

Then the core game starts: You take turns drawing a playing card and looking up the question associated with it in the random tables. Over the course of the game, your monster, your  characters, and further details about the context of the monster huntt develop through your answers to these questions.

In the end, all main characters answer: When the monster faces you in the end: Do you really attack it?

Due to the random selection and order of the questions (you’ll typically use around half of them during a 2-hour game) and the huge variability of possible settings, you can play Against the Monster again and again and have a different experience each time.

The Zine & PDF

Format:

• 24 pages in A5 format (148 x 210 mm / 5.8 x 8.3 inches)
• Full-color cover, black-and-white interior
• Zine: Staple-bound, uncoated paper
• PDF: Screenreader-ready with image descriptions, PDF tags, internal references, and external links

Contents:

• Complete instructions for play (consent and safety tools included)
• 4 random tables with questions (13 options for each of the 4 suits = 52 different questions)
• Table with 18 monster ideas
• Evocative illustrations on every page (100% human-made)

You also need a regular deck of playing cards (52 cards without Jokers) and something to write. You can also use an online card deck. A template for playingcards.io is available via the Downloads page linked below.

More about the game

Under Downloads, you can find free materials for this game.

You can find more information about the game, its team, and external media links on this info page.