Spawning Monsters

Spawn cards are only played during step 2 of the overlord’s turn. See “Spawning Monsters” for more information.

Important: Only one spawn card may be played per turn.

Each turn, the overlord player may play a single spawn card. After the overlord places any spawned monsters on the board, he discards the used spawn card. The following rules limit how the overlord player may place spawned monsters on the board.


 * The overlord player may not place spawned monsters in a space that contains a figure or an obstacle, such as a pit, rubble, water, or slime.
 * The overlord player may place spawned monsters in a space that contains a treasure or encounter marker.
 * If the base of the spawned monster takes up more than one space, all of the spaces in which the overlord places the monster must be on the board and free of figures or obstacles.
 * The overlord player may not place spawned monsters in a space that is in an unrevealed area.
 * The overlord player may not place a spawned monster in a space to which any hero figure on the board has line of sight.
 * Exception: For purposes of spawning new monsters, other monster figures do not block a hero’s line of sight.
 * If the overlord player cannot find a legal space on the board for one or more of the spawned monsters, then he cannot place those monsters.
 * The overlord player may not place more monsters on the board than there are available figures. For instance, if all of the Beastmen are on the board, the overlord player cannot spawn an additional Beastman (although he could spawn a Master Beastman if any of the red Beastman figures are still available).
 * If the overlord player wishes to place a monster on the board but is already using all of his available figures, he may choose to remove a monster figure from the board to make that figure available for immediate placement. The overlord player simply removes the figure from its original space on the board and places it in a new space, following the normal rules for spawning monsters or placing monsters when a new area is revealed.