Game Preview: Monastery

By W. Eric Martin
May 13, 2008

Publisher: Ragnar Brothers
Designers: Steve Kendell, Phil Kendell & Gary Dicken
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 90 minutes
Release Date: May 31, 2008

After delays due to an artist mishap, the Ragnar Brothers will debut Monastery at the UK Games Expo. Monastery is a tile-laying game, but that pedestrian description conceals a lot, for as Gary Dicken has written in the designer notes online, “As in all Ragnar Brothers games, the theme is of paramount importance.”

So how is the theme realized this time? While monasteries have been established worldwide, this game, writes Dicken, “is more specifically based on the monasteries of Western Europe of the medieval period. They were essentially communities devoted to living out their lives according to a set of rules that helped express their faith. A primary function was to offer prayers to God. The monastic day consisted of periods of manual work (toil), study, personal devotion (prayer) and church services involving the whole community. In order to function, monasteries developed their land and built buildings. This usually took place over several generations.”

Thankfully the game itself won’t require that much time; instead players will experience two days of monastic life. Within each day are three rounds of tile placement and scoring (divided between study and toil), three service rounds (Matins, Sext and Vespers), and a night round. Each player starts with a Secret Way tile – which can be reached quickly by this player once placed in the array – and other tiles will be drawn secretly during the game and kept concealed behind player screens. Pathways on tiles must join when placed, and grey study tiles may not lie adjacent to brown toil tiles. All tiles are unconstructed when they enter the game; once 1-5 monks (depending on the tile) occupy it, the tile is flipped to its constructed side. You’re penalized for tiles that you don’t place, so be extra devout and don’t shirk the work.

The Abbey, where monks enter the game


You start the game with one monk in the Abbey, and monks move about to construct tiles, study, toil, use icons (in the advanced game), or pray. The plastic monk figures are designed to tip forward in prayer, which scores you the value of the tile and takes the monk out of service until it returns to the Abbey. Most of these activities score points for a player, and those points can retrieve letters or additional monks from the “letter grid.” Letters on the grid spell out the abbey’s motto – Libera Nos Quaesumus Ab Omnibus Malis Amen – and are color-coded for the players; the first nine letters are red, the next nine are blue, and so forth.

Generally you’re trying to collect letters for your own phrase as “letters collected are the main factor in determining the winner at the end of the game,” writes Dicken, but you can collect others as well to set back opponents. The cost of the letters rises from 1 to 10 as the game progresses.

The Blue player screen, showing the target phrase


Various actions in the game, such as building the beehive or carp pond, give you blessings in the form of coins. “Players can place blessings on tiles to encourage others to join in constructing,” writes Dicken, and they can also help you collect letters or more directly affect your chances of winning.

The player with the most monks in the Abbey during a service round becomes the Abbot, who acts first and has the option of imprisoning a monk on the Prison tile, if it’s already been constructed. Next time, show more penance…

Nine tiles, such as the farm, scriptum and brewhouse, include icons on them which can be used for special purposes during a scoring phase. Dicken suggests ignoring these icons with inexperienced game players as the game works fine without them. Using them, however, results in a different style of game each time depending on the order in which they’re built and how they’re placed in the array.

In addition to its other unique elements, Dicken writes, “we believe the artwork, monk sculpture, design and production are of a very high standard, adding immensely to the enjoyment of playing Monastery.”

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Comments:

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I need forgiveness, as I covet this game! Posted by Kevin_Whitmore on May 15, 2008 at 12:33 AM | #

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