Track down the beast of Gévaudan, and unravel its mystery, before it claims too many victims, in The beastour board game of the week.
Year of grace 1764, attacks of appalling atrocity are reported in Gévaudan. The king sends his best investigators there. In vain: for three years, the beast strikes relentlessly. Can you put an end to this terror?
The beast is an asymmetrical game, both in the roles assigned to the players and in the way of playing. One of them assumes that of the terrible creature, while the others, four at most, embody the investigators dispatched by the king.
They do not have the same purpose. To win, the beast must kill at least 25 people before the end of the game. Investigators, on the other hand, win if they prevent the beast from reaching its goal, or if they manage to unravel the mystery of its identity, chosen from five possible at the start of the game.
The hunt is spread over three years, divided into seasons. The latter come with effects, sometimes to the advantage of the investigators (in spring and summer), sometimes to that of the beast (in autumn and winter).
At each turn, she moves, secretly, from village to village. Possibly leaving traces. It’s more risky, the investigators have more clues, but then she benefits from a particularly advantageous power.
The king’s envoys are also on the move. They are slower, but more numerous. They also benefit from the help of a royal guard or a simple villager each turn.
If the beast is not disturbed, it makes victims in the village where it stops, more or less according to the number of leagues covered. But if an investigator or a royal guard is there at the same time, she is forced to hide.
Each investigator specializes in tracking down one of the beast’s potential identities. The bishop of Mende, for example, knows how to defeat the devil himself, the game warden knows how to fight a pack of wolves, etc. If an investigator ends his turn in the village where the beast was, in this season or the previous one, he can conduct an investigation. If the chosen identity corresponds to his specialty, he captures it, thus restricting the possibilities offered to the creature.
The game ends immediately if the investigators discover the true identity of the beast (or eliminate the other four), or, in the worst case, at the end of the third year. If the beast has managed to make at least 25 victims, it wins, otherwise the victory goes to the investigators.
Why play The beast?
Perhaps you remember your wild games of Scotland Yard , when you were little. One of you played the mysterious Mister X, decked out in a cap to cover his gaze, when he tried to evade the police aboard various means of transport.
The beast, it’s roughly the same thing, with more theme and atmosphere (but less the cap…). And that changes everything.
This atmosphere, heavy, mysterious, simply brought by all the folklore that surrounds the legend of Gévaudan, is enriched by historical references in the rulebook or the material. We feel that the two authors know their subject.
This is not the first asymmetrical game based on the stalking mechanic. Besides the venerable Scotland Yard quoted above, we are obviously thinking of Dracula’s Fury (more complex) or Letters from Whitechapel (longer). Although they all share a dark and scary theme, the advantage of The beast on these two illustrious predecessors is a contained game duration, and accessible rules. One or two seasons are necessary to fully understand the workings, but after a year at most, everything is fluid and everyone can then concentrate on the game.
The game works in all configurations, but we prefer it from three. It is more interesting when several players embody the investigators, which leads to discussions, hypotheses, calculations, on the identity of the beast or its movements.
Finally, the equipment is not to be outdone, in particular the very pretty pawns with a different silhouette for each character and further adds to the pleasure of the game.
Dim the light a little, light a few candles, and play it in the evening, preferably when the wind or the rain beat against the shutters… guaranteed atmosphere. It is the latter, brought by the theme, and carried by relatively simple (but not simplistic), and complete rules, which gives its flavor to the game.
We hadn’t played it yet when writing our pick of the best board games for Halloween, but The beast would have fit perfectly there.
- The beastis a game by Charlec Couronnaud
- Illustrated by Ann & Seb
- Published by Multivers
- For 2 to 5 players from 12 years old
- For games of about 45 minutes
- Priced at €39.90 at Philibert
The verdict
We liked
- The immersive theme
- The gradually rising tension
- tight parts
- The asymmetry between the two camps
We liked less
- Lack of cooperation, discussions, two-player
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