Since it’s October, I thought, what a fantastic time for themed game nights. We’re starting off with Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein!
This week begins the first of five horror-themed games in honor of Halloween.
Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a 2-4 player worker placement game. Designed by Dan Blanchett and published by Plaid Hat games. A typical game plays in about 90-180 minutes although my experience has typically leaned a bit longer each play.
Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein: $59.99
Get It For Less At Miniature Market
It’s been twenty years since Victor Frankenstein died on a ship in the arctic, but his vengeful creature lives on, as does Robert Walton, the sea captain who vowed to kill the fiend before mercy stayed his hand. It’s now 1819, and a sinister darkness descends upon the city of Paris. A mysterious benefactor of gigantic stature has emerged in the scientific community, never showing his face, claiming to possess the late Frankenstein’s research. He sponsors a grand competition, offering an even grander prize: unlocking the mystery of mortality!
Renowned scientists from around the world come to take part: some drawn to solve this eternal riddle, others coerced against their will. But a certain captain comes as well, one deeply suspicious of the secretive patron, hoping to finally fulfill his vow.
Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a competitive game of strategic monster building for 2-4 players, inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic novel of gothic horror. In the game, the creature demands your help to accomplish what his own creator would not: to bring to life an abomination like itself, a companion to end its miserable solitude. Through worker placement and careful management of decomposing resources, you’ll gather materials from the cemeteries and morgues around the city, conduct valuable research at the Academy of Science, hire less-than-reputable associates, and toil away in your lab – all in an effort to assemble a new form of life and infuse it with a “spark of being”. Do well, and the creature may reward you during one of its surprise visits; do poorly, and you may come to regret not putting forth more effort. Narrative elements come into play throughout the game, guided by your decisions, leading to potentially unsavory outcomes.
Ages: 13+
Players: 2-4
Game Length: 60-120 minutes
Make Another Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein
Abomination is a competitive game with a dark gothic theme and awesome storytelling elements. Set twenty years after Mary Shelley’s Novel, you are playing as a doctor in 1819 Paris. Victor Frankenstein is dead, however, a large mysterious benefactor has approached you claiming to have valuable research. This, of course, is Frankenstein’s Monster who has survived the events of the book. He has come to each of you with a request. He wants you to create another living being for him to have as a companion and he will be closely watching you to make sure that is done or there will be consequences. There is also a Captain in town trying to hunt down your mysterious patron.
Abomination starts off with each player getting a random doctor character card with their own starting stats and abilities. You will begin with one scientist and two assistants as workers to use at the various placement spots on the board. There are three statistic dials that will manage how well you can work humanity, renown, and expertise. Increasing these will be important as it lets you do more and get better rewards as well as end game points.
Each spot on the spot has various methods to increase your abilities or gain corpses. Corpses can be claimed in order to study for expertise or scavenged for body parts. Some spots require the Scientist meeple or just give more for the use of that particular piece. As you gain renown you earn more assistants or even make them into scientists as well.
There are many ways to obtain a corpse. You can visit the graveyard but you will only find bodies with heavy decomposition and mostly bones. The morgue can yield fresher but not by much. The Hospital is usually your best bet for fresh corpses. Each round there is an event or encounter from the Monster. Some events have the execution icon. This yields freshly executed corpses at the town square. You can also visit the docks and pay some unscrupulous souls to do your dirty work. This involves them killing someone for very fresh parts but you will likely lose some humanity for this. The ultimate method for very fresh bodies is to do the murdering yourself. This will definitely lose humanity as well as put the police on your trail.
You can also use animal parts to create your monster and these count as wild for type. However, any body part you create using animal parts has a point penalty. So while easier to obtain you won’t score as high using them.
Once you create parts you can complete those parts by adding blood and skin to them. Once this is done you can start the process of bringing your creation to life. Using charged leyton jars you gain dice that will attempt to bring your body to life. Any eye symbols are successes whereas lightning symbols cause damage and can even destroy a body part.
The game will end in either of two ways. First, one player might bring their creation to life which will please the Monster. The other way the game will end is with the Captain catching up to the Monster and them fighting to the death.
I was intrigued by this game from the moment I heard about it. I had the opportunity to demo this at Origins Game Fair and enjoyed it quite a bit. The horror theme really grabbed my interest and it shows up well in gameplay. It is definitely on the longer side of playtime. Even at two players, it can drag out a bit. It’s pretty tough to gain body parts and to gain the expertise needed to be able to create the parts. The organs and muscles and blood also decompose in your lab so you need to act fast or buy ice to preserve them.
Overall if you like worker placement games and don’t mind a darker horror theme then I think you’ll enjoy Abomination. The art is fairly graphic and could put some people off so you will need to gauge your audience prior to game night. But I definitely think you should give this game a chance. It’s fun and thematic and perfect for a stormy night.
