This boardgame follows four courageous heroes known as Ashton the Brave, Keith the Precise, Jenny the Fierce and Vanessa the Tactful. Their goal is to travel across town (the game board) and pay their respects to the final resting place of their mentor, Tharef, who was tragically taken away from them by the evil and sinister Grim Reaper. To do this they must fight their way through terrifying and devious monsters that will stop at nothing to defeat them. After an enemy is defeated, the players will collect powerful items and weapons to aid in subsequent battles against the other enemies that block their path. Once this heroic group has reached the gravesite and final resting place of Tharef, they must avenge their fallen mentor and destroy the Grim Reaper before it takes anyone else the fighters care about. Only then can the heroes face the hard truth of the unexpected passing of their mentor and finish their mission.
IMPORTANT - This boardgame requires at least one die (D6) to engage in the game’s combat and gameplay.
DISCLAIMER - The Little Minds, Big Monsters boardgame explores and expresses through its narrative and its gameplay some very sensitive subjects such as bereavement (someone close passing away), the struggles of poor mental health and the topic of death in general. This game is not suitable for those who may be negatively affected by said subjects and it would be best that they do not play this game, as it runs the risk of hurting those that may be emotionally vulnerable.
Game Board – A big rectangular board piece that player figurines travel across over the Enemy Card markers and checkpoints.
Character Figurines – 4 character figurines that represent the protagonists and keep track of player progress on the game board.
Narrative Cards – 5 cards that tell the story of Little Minds, Big Monsters at key points on the game board.
Enemy Cards – 24 cards that players battle against to gain Item Cards and progress through the game board. These cards have three difficulties of easy, medium and hard.
‘My Turn’ Token – The MT Token helps players keep track of whose attacking turn it is.
Enemy Moveset Spinner – The Moveset Spinner determines 1 of 3 of the Enemy Cards attack moves.
Character Cards – 4 Character Cards for each of the 4 players. Each Character Card has a health gauge for HP tokens and also Item Card slots.
Health Point (HP) Tokens – Each player puts HP tokens onto the health gauge on their Character Card. There are 50 tokens in total.
Item Cards – Item Cards are found in the Item Card deck and can be Weapons, Consumables or Equipment and are gained from defeating Enemy Cards or at key points on the game board.
Starting Weapon Cards – The ‘Basic Sword’ is used by players at the start of the game until players draw a better Weapon Card from the Item Card deck. There are 4 starter weapon cards for each of the 4 players.
Mental Health Resources Card – The Mental Health Resources Card provides website links to resources that can help in with dealing with grief, bereavement and poor mental health.
To set the game up you must:
The game board is the biggest piece of the game and illustrated with childish drawings over it and a path of red markers and yellow diamonds. To begin the game follow these steps:
Players must progress through the game by defeating monsters represented by different Enemy Cards, allowing them to continue forward to each subsequent red Enemy Card marker and to yellow checkpoints on the board.
How Enemy Cards Work
Enemy Cards have three separate difficulties (which are shown on the back of the card) and put into three separate piles. These difficulties range from easy (green) to medium (orange) to hard (red). All players mutually choose a single Enemy Card to fight from one of the enemy card piles when moving to a new Enemy Card marker.
Easy Difficulty – Easy Enemy Cards will be the weakest type of Enemy Card in the game with few health points (HP) and they will deal little damage to players. This difficulty is recommended at the start of the game, however it is the players choice. Each easy difficulty Enemy Card gives 1 Item Card to each player once defeated.
Medium Difficulty – Medium Enemy Cards are harder to beat than the easy difficulty Enemy Cards, as they have higher HP totals and more damaging attacks, but they give 2 Item Cards to each player once the Enemy Card is defeated. These cards are best fought midway through the game board (around checkpoint 2).
Hard Difficulty – Hard Enemy Cards will be the biggest challenge for players to face (other than the Grim Reaper Boss Card variants) as they have the highest HP and very damaging attacks to players, however if beaten, the players will receive 3 Item Cards each. These Enemy Cards are best fought later into the game as the player will have better Item Cards to fight against them.
Enemy Card Health Points (HP) – The Enemy Card’s health points (HP) will be recorded with a pencil and paper as players will subtract damage they deal to the Enemy Card on their turn. An example of this could be if a player manages to successfully roll for an attack that does 2 damage to the Enemy Card and its HP is 15, the Enemy Card’s HP will be lowered to 13 overall, as 15–2 = 13. Some Enemy Cards can restore health on their turn and players will add health Points onto the health total of the Enemy Card (but not more than the maximum amount of HP on the card).
Enemy Card INTROS – Once an Enemy Card is revealed, a player will read its introduction story to the rest of the players.
Enemy Card ATTACKing Section - Each Enemy Card will have 3 different attack moves that require different die rolls to succeed and also damage values, or disrupting effects, if they land. Players use the Enemy Moveset Spinner to determine the Enemy Card’s attack on its attacking turn (the square shaped piece of card numbered from 1 to 3, with a stick pointer).
For the Enemy Card’s attacking turn, the player who had their attacking turn last spins the Moveset Spinner and whichever number it lands on (indicated with a yellow square at the tip) determines the attack move the monster must use. For instance, if it lands on 2, the monster will use the attack numbered 2. That player will then roll for the Enemy Card’s attack move using a die (D6) to see if it is successful as instructed on the card and deal damage to the correct player(s) accordingly (or it won’t do anything if the roll fails).
Rewards – The rewards section on the Enemy Card (at the bottom of the card) will instruct each player to receive the correct amount of Item Cards once the Enemy Card has been beaten and destroyed before moving to the next marker on the board.
The Grim Reaper Boss Cards
The Grim Reaper is the final battle players must face before the end of the game and these cards are the hardest to defeat in the entire game. Being the final boss, the Grim Reaper Boss Enemy Card will have 3 variants (purple cards with the numbers 1, 2 & 3 & Impossible written on the back) that each have different attack moves and artworks from the other variants. The variant chosen to be the players last fight will be determined by the Moveset Spinner. If the Moveset Spinner is spun and lands on the number 1 section, players will fight the ‘Lifesteal’ version of the Grim Reaper as it is labelled 1 on the back of the card, if it lands on the number 2 section, it will be the ‘Damage’ variant of the Grim Reaper and lastly, if it lands on the number 3 section it will be the ‘No Items’ variant of the Grim Reaper. The introduction story will be the exact same for each variant of this card.
Character Cards – Each player will get a unique character card (long rectangle cards with a Health Point gauge and Item Card slots) at the start of the game with the name of one of the protagonists from the narrative, which correlate with the colour of their movable figurines i.e. Ashton is red, Keith is yellow, Jenny is orange and Vanessa is purple.
Player Health Point Totals - Character Cards will show and help keep count of the amount of health counters (red counters labelled ‘HP’) the players start with and lose throughout the game. The HP counters each player starts with on their Character Cards will be capped off at 10, unless the player gets an Item Card that increases the maximum value to 12. If a players HP total reaches zero during an Enemy Card battle, they will be defeated, meaning they cannot help fight the current or further Enemy Cards and they will not receive any Item Cards until they are revived. Defeated players can be restored back to full health once the living players have reached a checkpoint on the game board or another player uses a specific item which can bring them back to life. If all 4 players have their HP reduced to zero (the skull icon on the Character Card) they must restart the game or if they want a more lenient experience, they may restart at their last checkpoint.
Item Card Slots on the Character Card - Each Character Card has a different Item Card slot for players to put their Weapon Card(s), their Consumable Card(s) and a slot for their Equipment Card. These Item Card sections are clearly shown by a title i.e. ‘Weapon Card Slot’, ‘Consumable Card Slot’ & ‘Equipment Card Slot’ and artworks.
Item cards (yellow cards labelled ‘Item’) will be the main method for fighting enemy cards. Item cards can be weapons, consumables or equipment cards with each category having a different purpose and use for players to utilise. See below the different types of Item Cards and what they do. If an Item Card gets discarded by a player it must go into the discard pile.
The Item Card pile must be shuffled before the start of a game and once the Item Card deck is depleted of cards, the discarded Item Card pile must be shuffled and will then become the new Item Card deck players will receive Item Cards from.
Item Cards – Weapons & Fighting Enemy Cards
Item Card Description – The item description gives some background story on the weapon being used.
Weapon Card ATTACK Section – To attack an Enemy Card, each player must choose from 1 of the 3 attack moves on their Weapon Card during their attacking turn and then roll for the chosen attack to damage the Enemy Card’s HP total. Some weapon attacks have a better chance of landing (after a die roll/s) but lower damage and some attacks deal more damage but have less success of landing (after a die roll/s).
Each player must consider their chosen attack wisely as once they have used their turn to attack they must wait for the other living players to finish their attacking turns to attack once again (unless they have a card that instructs otherwise). Once a player has chosen an attack move on their Weapon Card and rolled to see if it was successful, they will select the Enemy Card’s attack by spinning the Enemy Moveset Spinner to determine the Enemy Card’s attack move and then they will roll as told on the card to see if the Enemy Card’s attack was successful. When an Enemy Card is revealed, the player who hasn’t attacked for the longest time will get the first attacking turn and then that player will take the attacking turn for the Enemy Card, then the next player will get their attacking turn and after take the Enemy Card’s attacking turn and so on. This will continue until either the Enemy Card or all 4 players have had their HP reduced to zero.
To be clear, an Enemy Card encounter starts with a single player having their attacking turn, then that player will carry out the Enemy Card’s attacking turn, then the next player will get their attacking turn etc.
Additionally, each player may only have 1 Weapon Card at a time (unless they have an Equipment Card that states otherwise) and they will have to discard any other Weapon Cards they don’t want to the discard pile. Weapon Cards can be identified by the WEAPON text at the top of the item card in the title section.
Starting Weapon Cards - All players start with the ‘Basic Sword’ weapon card (blue card labelled starter), unless they draw a better Weapon Card at the start of the game. After a player replaces the ‘Basic Sword’ card with a better Weapon Card, they must put the ‘Basic Sword’ card in a separate pile from the Item discard pile that is not interacted with until another game starts or their current weapon is discarded by an Enemy Card attack and the player needs a Weapon Card to fight with.
Item Cards – Consumable Cards
Consumable Cards will also be found in the Item Card pile and have a similar card layout to the Weapon Item cards, except for a few changes. Consumable Cards will also have an item description section on the card but instead of an attack section like Weapon Cards have, it will have a USE section.
The USE Section – A Consumable Card’s ‘USE’ section will inform the player on what it will do once utilised (which is usually a powerful effect) and it will also emphasize that once the card has be used it MUST be put in the discard pile after.
Like Weapon Cards, each player can only have 1 Consumable Card at a time (unless they have an Equipment Card that says otherwise) and they must put any Consumable Cards they don’t want into the discard pile. Players do not start with a Consumable Card unless it is drawn at the start of the game. Consumable Cards can be identified by the ONE TIME USE text in brackets at the top of the card in the title section.
Item Cards – Equipment Cards
Equipment Cards are once again found in the item card pile and have the same layout to the Consumable Cards with the difference of item type i.e. Equipment in the title section located at the top of the item card.
The USE Section - Like Consumable Cards, the USE section will describe what the card does with Equipment Cards giving a perk for the player, however unlike consumable cards, Equipment Cards are permanent unless an Enemy Card destroys it with one of its attack moves or the player discards it in favour of a new Equipment Card as they may only have 1 Equipment Card slotted into their Character Card at once (nothing can increase the Equipment Card limit). Players do not start with an Equipment Card unless it is drawn at the start of the game.
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS & RESOURCES – This boardgame was created to help shed light on how grief impacts those who have lost a loved one and also demonstrate the mental health struggles others face due to bereavement. With this in mind, the overarching goal of Little Minds, Big Monsters is to spread awareness of mental health and also help support those who may be suffering from a poor mental state due to bereavement or in general. If you are having trouble with your mental health and would like to better your mental and physical wellbeing, these links below may help you. In addition to this, you may find that reaching out to someone trustworthy and dependable can be very beneficial for some insight and advice on your current situation.
Resources:
IMPORTANT - The Little Minds, Big Monsters boardgame provides a mental health resources card with the same website links for easier access to these potentially helpful resources.
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