ABOMINATION: THE HEIR OF FRANKENSTEIN

Welcome to Abomination, a game that continues the story of Frankenstein twenty years later. In this game, you will carry on Victor Frankenstein’s work alongside other scientists. Your mission is to gather materials from the cemetery and morgue, conduct dreadful experiments, and piece together a new form of life. Can you complete your monster before anyone else?

GETTING STARTED

To set up the game, start by placing the Paris card in the middle of the table. The event board goes on top of it. Put the public square cadaver card to the side. The remaining cadaver cards are divided into four decks and shuffled individually. Each deck is then placed in its designated spot on the board. The number of cards in the hospital deck should match the number of players.

Alright, here’s what we need to do to set up the game:

First, I’ll shuffle the scoundrel deck and put it on the right side of the board, near the docks. Then, I’ll deal three cards and place them above the docks.

Next, I’ll shuffle the research deck and put it on the right side of the board, near the academy. Two cards are dealt and placed above the academy.

Now, the humanity deck is shuffled and placed beside the saint-roch. Two cards are dealt and placed above it.

Next, let’s create the event deck. We’ll need six event cards and four encounter cards, which we’ll shuffle together. Then, we’ll place two more event cards on top of the deck.

Alright, finally, I’ll place the captain game piece at the beginning of the story track. We’ll also need to choose four out of the six bonus markers and place them on the Paris board, facing up.

Alright, let’s get organized! First things first, I need to sort all the different items we’ll be using in this game. We’ve got police markers, monster parts, dice, materials, francs, alive markers, damage markers, ice blocks, and jars. Each of these goes into their own supply so that every player has easy access to them.

Now that we’ve got that sorted, let’s make sure everyone has what they need to play. Each player should have a character card, a lab board, an anatomy card, francs (which should be the same as the number of players), 4 scientist game pieces, 3 assistants, a score keeper, a reference card, and a matching game board.

We’re almost ready to start! Before we begin the game, let’s set a few things up. Each player needs to set their dials in their labs. The Humanity dial should be set to zero, and the Expertise dial should be set to one. Next, everyone places one scientist and two assistants in their designated spots on their character card. We also need to place all the score markers at the beginning of the score track. Finally, we determine who the first player will be, and we’re ready to begin.

GAMEPLAY

Now that everything is set up, let’s talk about how the game is played. The game is divided into multiple rounds, and each round has four phases that happen in a specific order.

Event Phase

First, I’ll draw a card from the event deck to see which side matches the round. Then, I’ll put it into play. Some events happen right away, while others take some time to unfold.

City Phase

Now it’s your turn! Start with the first player and go clockwise around the group. Place your meeple on a space or choose to pass. Once you’ve made your decision, you’ll need to deal with the effect of the space you chose. Keep in mind that some spaces only allow scientists, and others have additional restrictions.

If there’s already another meeple on the space you want, you’ll have to bump it off before you can land there. Just move it to the first spot on the bump track and pay the cost to the player who had that meeple there before. But remember, if the bump track is already full, you won’t be able to bump any meeples.

Lab Phase

When I play this game, I get to create my very own monster. I start by choosing a monster part and looking at the anatomy card for guidance. It’s important for me to have the right expertise level and discard the specified materials. Once I’ve done that, I can add the part token and earn points!

If I have completed at least one monster part, I can choose to throw the switch. It’s exciting! I flip the necessary number of Leyden jars and roll the dice for each one I flipped. Then, I have to deal with any shocks that come up. I place shock markers on the table to show that I’ve resolved them.

After all that excitement, I can now preserve some of the materials I’ve collected. I move them from the decomposition track to my preservation store. But I need to remember that I can only have up to nine materials in my preservation space at once.

Reset Phase

So, here’s what happens next: first, I start with decomposition. If you don’t have an ice block, you get rid of all the materials that have reached stage four decomposition. But if you do have an ice block, you just flip it to half frozen.

After that, it’s time to replenish all the cards at the Saint-Roch, Academy, Docks, and Hospitals. Any cards in the Public Square are discarded, and all meeples go back to the players’ character cards. The captain moves one space along the story track, and then we’re ready for a new round.

END OF GAME

Okay, we’ve got two ways this game can end. One: if the Captain game piece reaches the final space of the story, then the game is over. And two: if someone manages to bring their monster to life with all six body parts, then the game is over too. The player with the most points wins. Pretty simple, right?