Monkeys On The Moon

Scheme your way to glory amongst squabbling monkey tribes!

Monkeys on the Moon is a strategy card game for 3-4 players (a 2-player variant is provided as well).  This game includes unique bidding mechanics, lots of high-quality wooden pieces, and original art  by Scott Starkey. 

Shot into space and long since forgotten, six monkey tribes fiercely compete to advance their civilizations...

Background

Well, "civilizations" might be too strong a word for it -- most of the tribes are still struggling with basic grooming. But they fiercely compete nonetheless.

Fortunately you, the players, have better uses for your time.  Leaving aside your squabbling tribemates, you've learned how to repair the ships that stranded everyone on the moon in the first place. 

But who do you let on board?  Some tribes do not get along, some monkeys wield greater influence than others and some tribes simply can't stand the sight of you.  The player who brings freedom to the most revered and influential monkeys will surely be a hero back on Earth..

Game Overview

Each turn, you play one Civilization Card to teach one monkey tribe a useful skill -- badminton, how to drive a steamroller, chainsaw operation, and so on -- and the grateful tribe rewards you with favor coins. However, each tribe has an enemy tribe who becomes unhappy when you help out its rival; that tribe will demand coins from you.

As coins come and go from each player, monkeys come up for auction. Players use their favor coins as money to bid for these monkeys and place them on their spaceships back to Earth. At the end of the game, the player who has freed the most monkeys from the most learned tribes wins

Game Contents

• 42 Monkey Cards
• 36 Civilization Cards
• 6 Tribe Cards
• 6 Scorn Cards
• 18 Ship Cards
• 1 Tribe Track
• 6 Wooden Tribe Stones
• 42 Wooden Favor Coins
• Rules Sheet
• 2 Rules Reminder Cards

Updated English Rules

You can download the latest English rules that incorporate some rules clarifications.

Rule Clarification

Launching unfilled ships at game end

At game end, the rules say to "launch all unfilled ships."  This does include empty ones.  Why launch an empty ship?  Because it can still help you get rid of scorn.

Of course, if you want scorn to have a bit more bite to it in your games, feel free to vary the rules such that you must have at least one monkey on board to launch a ship at game end.

Rule Variants

Lingering Resentment! 

Start each player with a Scorn Card from a random tribe.

Valet Parking!

Instead of assigning each player a random Ship Card at game start, deal each player 2 cards.  Each player chooses one of the two cards to start the game with and places the other at the bottom of the Ship Card deck.

Living History!

When you play Civilization Cards, don't put them in a stack next to the

draw pile.  Instead, put them next to the Tribe Card of the tribe you are 

helping, on the outside of the tribe circle.  Place later cards so that you

can still read the earlier ones.

This doesn't change the game at all, but it can be funny to read later on.

Plus, it allows you to double-check the position of every Tribe Stone, in

case someone forgot to move a stone.

Monkey Buffet!

You can reduce the randomness of the game by enlarging the Monkey Pool

by one or two cards, or allowing player to have an extra one or two cards in

their hands.

Blake Crawford gave us this intriguing idea:  deal ALL of the Civilization Cards

out to the players at the start of the game.  Everyone still plays one card per turn,

but does not draw any new ones.

Shaky Alliances!

You can make Civilization choices more involved by saying that a card played

for an Allied Tribe is worth 1 less space on the Tribe Track.  For instance, Duct

Tape is worth 5 spaces when played for the Blue Tribe (because the card is blue) 

but only 4 spaces when played for one of its allies.