Scream Mart (1989)

In a small town where nothing ever seems to change, Karen’s normal life is broken by the arrival of a mysterious store selling unsettling goods, and a stranger whose pitch seems impossible to resist. As the cost grows ever higher, Karen’s sanity, freedom, and even her life may become the ultimate price of a bargain at Scream Mart.

Design

Scream Mart is one of the two new “mode monsters” introduced in Bride of Spooktacular. One of the cool things about Spooktacular is that each monster is effectively a unique module in and of itself, creating new gameplay experiences for players as they try new monsters. In the base game, we introduced Killtron 3000 as a monster AND as the assigned solo mode. Now, we’re extending that concept by just integrating the new mode into the monster wholesale.

Scream Mart introduces deckbuilding and bidding to Spooktacular, letting players bid on cards that the Scream Mart offers for purchase. Using unique Scream Mart Vouchers as currency, players must fight for ownership of some very powerful cards, letting the Scream Mart’s Cashier win the card herself and gain massive benefits!

Once won, the cards go into your hand, letting you play it and use it for the rest of the game, changing your monster’s overall deck composition! This adds an entirely new dimension to every existing and future monster, letting you “break” them if you can afford it.

Ideation

Scream Mart in and of itself is a vague concept. Is the monster the supermarket? Is the monster the cashier? It’s hard to tell and we wanted to keep things intentionally vague. As such, any poster that directly shows the Cashier felt like it didn’t capture the feel of this monster. It was your greed, your endless search for a capitalistic deal that ultimately consumes you; not the Cashier herself. She merely offered you the chance. You’re the one who took it.

We went with the poster showing someone being consumed by the very products they wished to consume. This perfectly shows the kind of monster it is, while leaving the Cashier as a guiding force, pushing the very cart of your demise.

Strategy

Like we said, Scream Mart is all about bidding and has a giant deck of exciting cards to match. At the start of each of her turns, the Cashier offers the top card of her deck for bidding. Players then begin increasing the bid in turn order, until one person remains in the bid. The winner gets to keep the card and pays the bid in Scream Mart Vouchers to the Cashier, making the Cashier’s buying power even stronger in future bids. What’s more, if the Cashier wins the bid, she gets to play the card IN ADDITION to her usual card play.

This turns Spooktacular into a curious game of bid bullying and budget management. You can’t overpay for any individual card since you’ll waste resources, but you also can’t just give the Cashier every card they offer for free, or else they’ll be double-playing cards every turn! These Scream Mart cards are no pushovers either, offering some really powerful options for the players who do win them! Smash & Grab is just one of the MANY cards that the Scream Mart can tempt you with!

Play If You Like:

• Managing voucher economy to optimize your plays
• Politicking the table for bid wars
• Having access to really powerful cards
  

Avoid If You Dislike:

• Having to play auctioneer every turn
• Being forced to give other people your cards
• Powering-up your opponents

See it LIVE!

Why take my word for it? Watch the Scream Mart in action from our stream last week! 

COMING SOON!

Our upcoming movie will be Ailurophobia!

Alternate Poster

The Russian poster for Scream mart comes from the creative swzydzn. There’s that grindhouse theater vibe to it that reminds me of posters you might see plastered all over the walls of your local supermart.

Are you bidding on this one? Tell me in the comments below! And learn more about Bride of Spooktacular on Gamefound!