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Monster Pit: Sand Dragon Set
- 1–5 players
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- 2023
- BGG rank
- BGG #17,558
- BGG rating
- 7.0
Monster Pit
2023
Rules assistance for Monster Pit
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–5 players
- 60–120 min
- 14+
- Complexity 3.0/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for Monster Pit
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Monster Pit is a board game released in 2023 for 1–5 players, 60–120 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Aron West and Nick Seddon and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Hand Management, and Role Playing.
Expansions
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About the game
Monster Pit features tableau building, dice drafting, and hand management in a fully co-operative, fantasy adventure game. During the game, loyal Captains must rally their forces to defend the Citadel against the emerging threat of a creature from the deep. Think Gandalf rallying the forces of Minas Tirith in Return of the King. This is not a tower defense game, but blends several mechanisms including dice drafting (there are custom dice and rolls can be mitigated), tableau building (the player boards are extra large to organize the various cards), and worker placement (in terms of the various buildings your Captain will visit). Your Captain’s tableau will include soldiers, wizards, heroes, mounts, and wyverns. Some of these characters are for offensive purposes (attacking the Monster etc) and some for defensive purposes (building your resources including your dice pool). During the game player will also complete quests for the King, buy items from the Town Hall, ride a Mount, fight creatures in the streets of the Citadel, upgrade their Captain at the Armoury, visit the Dwarven Grotto for gold, and find helpful trinkets in the Fountain. The game supports "true solo" (a solo player need only control one Captain), fully co-op multiplayer against the Monster, one vs one (one player controls the Captain, the other player controls the Monster), or one player (controlling the Monster) vs up to four Captains. All play modes feature long or short variants. There are five monsters included in the game (Dragon, Enchantress, Behemoth, Vampire Queen, and Orc War Chief) both featuring "A" and "B" sides for greater challenge and variation. The game engine can be further adjusted with Difficulty Tokens. —description from the publisher
Questions and answers
Monster Pit supports 1–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Monster Pit is 60–120 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Monster Pit for ages 14 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Monster Pit has a complexity rating of 3.0 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-weight game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Monster Pit belongs to these categories: Fantasy, Fighting, and Dice. Its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Hand Management, and Role Playing. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Monster Pit are: Aron West and Nick Seddon. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Monster Pit as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.