Episode 157: Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein

Episode 156: Horrified

October 7, 2019

Episode 158: Flotilla

November 4, 2019

October 22, 2019

Show Notes

00:01:04 – Trivia

Banter

00:06:04 – Google Hangout: November 11th at 8:30pm
00:07:40 – Grandma Steals a Card
00:13:00 – Death by Monsters Podcast
00:19:26 – Gloom Cabin

Plays

00:36:55 – Vast: The Mysterious Manor * [Buy] – Leder Games, Designer: Patrick Leder, Art: Kyle Ferrin

00:48:17 – Hako Onna * [Buy] – WizKids, Designer: Go Ejin, Art: GEN k, Scott Hartman

00:57:30 – Terrors of London [Buy] – Kolossal Games, Designer: Brad Pye, Art: Ryan Pye

01:04:00 – Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters [Buy] – Korea Boardgames, Designer: Brian Yu, Art: Pierô

01:11:12 – Tiny Epic Zombies * [Buy] – Gamelyn Games, Designer: Scott Almes, Art: Miguel Coimbra, Benjamin Shulman

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein * [Buy]

01:20:01 – Rules Breakdown

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a 2 to 4 player worker placement game designed by Dan Blanchett with art by Mikhail Palamarchuk and Tony Sart and published by Plaid Hat Games in 2019.

In Abomination, players take on the role of scientists under the patronage of Frankenstein’s Monster, who has come to Paris some years after the events of Mary Shelley’s book. Your goal is to create a companion for the Monster by collecting materials, and then using them to create – and eventually animate – a monster of their own. All the while, events are taking place in the city that hampers the players’ efforts, including the arrival of Captain Walton, who has vowed to stop the Monster at all costs.

Abomination has all the standard features of a worker placement game. Players will take turns sending their workers – here, scientists and assistants – out to various locations on the game board or their personal player board. Locations generate resources or other benefits that the players collect and manage on their boards. Here, though, the resources are macabre – muscle, bone, organs, blood, and the occasional animal part. Players collect and store these resources during the City phase of the game, generally by raiding cadavers from various locations – the hospital, the morgue, and so on – or by paying unsavoury characters to do it for them at the Docks.

After the City phase, players will simultaneously cash in the various resources they have collected to first build, and then complete, and eventually animate, their monster. On the player-board, this is represented by a puzzle-like assemblage of arm, leg, torso, and head tokens. Players can attempt to animate these pieces one by one by cashing in lightning jars – though the success or failure of the attempt is determined by a roll of dice that can also result in damaging the monster they have worked hard to create. At the end of this Lab phase, resources the players have collected will degrade unless put on ice, or players will have the option of preserving materials which they can then sell at the marketplace the following round.

In addition to their human resources, Players are managing three interrelated tracks on their player board: humanity, reputation, and expertise. Humanity can move into negative territory depending on actions the player takes, reducing reputation and resulting in end-game point penalities. As Reputation increases, players gain more and better works, and Expertise determines if and how well players can create and animate parts.

Points are scored over the course of the game when players build their monster depending on the quality of parts used in each build, and at the end of the game based on each player’s position on their tree tracks. Additionally, randomly determined objectives may allow players to score during and at the end of the game by reaching certain milestones or majorities.

The end-game is triggered either be reaching the end of the 12th round, or when a player completes and animates their entire abomination.

01:23:04 – Review
01:45:38 – Ratings