I’m not much of a party gamer, but I do acknowledge that with the right group of friends or family members, they can be a fun way to pass a half hour. Especially if there are children involved, who have a knack for making you feel less silly when playing a silly game. And if there’s a decent enough hook, I’m open to trying out the occasional party offering. In comes MonsDRAWsity, where players are police sketch artists drawing monstrous aliens recently sighted by local witnesses that most definitely have not been dreaming or hallucinating. Sounded intriguing, but was it fun?
MonsDRAWsity is a drawing party game from Deep Water Games designed by Eric Slauson for 3-8 players and plays in about 15-20 minutes.
Gameplay Overview:
The rules are simple and typical for party games where a judge determines whose “answer” is best each turn. Players each receive a white board and marker, then take turns being the Witness, who has recently seen some horrific abomination they must describe to the others.
The Witness has 20 seconds to look at a card depicting the monster they saw, using the time to memorize as many details as possible. After this, they will have 2 minutes to describe the creature, without looking at the card, to the rest of the group, who will spend this phase drawing the monstrous culprit.
The sketch artists can ask follow-up questions at this time, such as whether the creature has eyes, or long claws, etc… After time is up, the Witness secretly chooses which artist has most closely captured the essence of the monster in question, as they remember it, without referring back to the card.
Finally, the monster card is revealed and the artists each choose who they think came closest to the original image that was being described by the Witness. Whoever got the most votes among the artists receives a point, while the artist selected by the Witness also receives a point.
The next player at the table becomes the Witness for a new round and play continues until everyone has been a Witness twice. Points are tallied and whoever has the most is declared the winner.
Game Experience:
Chances are that you’ve played some sort of party game that has a similar structure and MonsDRAWsity plays out exactly like all those other games. People will laugh at the silly drawings, the judging is completely subjective, and the points are essentially arbitrary. The goal is to have a good time with a group of friends or family members, and I think MonsDRAWsity does a decent job of pulling that off.
The twist in this one is that the Witness is basically playing a memory game while the sketch artists are playing a drawing game. The judge/describer has more of a hand in contributing to the quality of the drawings because their ability to remember what’s on the card and to competently describe that image determines whether the artists have enough to go on in replicating the picture. Remember that the Witness awards points based on how well the drawings match what they recall, while the artists themselves judge the drawings against the original card art.
Some people are just bad at memorizing details, and maybe even worse at describing something well enough to produce a viable sketch. It doesn’t help that the creatures are all bizarre anomalies that don’t look like anything you’ve seen before. But this adds to the chaos and fun of the game, ensuring that no one takes any of it too seriously.
For families playing MonsDRAWsity with kids, the rulebook suggests letting children look at the card while they describe the monster, rather than forcing them to rely on memory alone. It’s hard enough to put the look of these strange entities into words, so if it’s easier for them this way, which might help make it more fun. But it may be just as entertaining to see what they come up with from memory. Just like with the adults, they’ll likely add details that weren’t even there, and everyone will get a good laugh during the reveal.
Final Thoughts:
If anything, MonsDRAWsity drives home the unreliability of witness memory and makes all those scenes in police procedurals where the sketch just happens to look exactly like their prime suspect even less believable.
If this type of party game, where silly “answers” are judged arbitrarily, is normally up your alley, then MonsDRAWsity will provide the same level of entertainment that you usually get from such an experience. Maybe even a little more, given the faulty memory element and the resulting chaos.
However, if you aren’t into party games, I highly doubt this one will be the game to win you over to lighter social fare. It’s more an activity than a game, so if structure, rules, and meaningful scores are what you want, don’t look here.
But for what it is, MonsDRAWsity does a fine job of providing some laughs and giving the right group some funny memories.
Final Score: 3 Stars – Silly drawing party game that reminds us just how unreliable memory is and just how poorly most of us draw.
Hits:
• Good, silly fun for the whole group/family
• Unreliable witness/memory is a nice ripple
Misses:
• Doesn’t really add anything to the party game genre
• Everything is subjective, and the points don’t matter
