The Monolith

More Details on the Bot Pack Expansion!
2 months ago – Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 07:19:59 PM

Greetings!

We have exciting news heading into the second week, namely that the Bot Pack Expansion rulebook has passed through editing and is now ready to be shared.

Plaid Hat Games is no stranger to solo gaming, especially when it comes to our card game Ashes Ascendancy which has an incredibly robust solo mode famed for feeling very much like playing a human opponent. We knew that whatever we made for The Monolith should provide a gratifying experience and not feel tacked-on. We also knew it needed to fulfill two requirements:

• Feel as close to the 3-4 player game as possible.
• Not burden the game with complex rules.

Designer Phil Gross had already attempted numerous approaches to solo and 2-player gaming and been left unsatisfied. The Monolith is designed around the multi-player experience and 2-player games quickly became lopsided and unfun. He realized the solution was to implement bots.

The system in the Bot Pack is easy to grasp, card-driven, and produces results more akin to playing against other humans. This means players can learn it quickly, play it, and walk away feeling they had a proper play session of The Monolith.

You can read the Bot Pack Expansion rulebook here. Want more? Read designer Phil Gross's design diary here.

Thanks everyone!

New Deluxe Package Add-On
3 months ago – Thu, Aug 20, 2026 at 03:36:53 PM

Hello backers!

Some of you wanted to save on shipping with family and friends and asked if we could also include the Deluxe Reward Tier as an Add-On. Done! Now you can get multiple Deluxe sets all at once. Get enough of them and you could use them to build a fort in your backyard!

An Incredible Start!
3 months ago – Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 08:48:11 PM

Day 2 (and the tasty early bird special) is drawing to a close, and we've more than doubled our funding goal. Thanks, everyone! Its late here on the eastern side of the US, but we will take a moment to talk a little bit more about the Bot Pack

A lot of you are eager to know how it plays and if you'll get a chance to see it in action. Because this is a new addition and we're only just now finalizing details with the printer, it's unlikely we'll have a pretty production copy to show off and play on a video for you. That said, we'll be sharing the rulebook soon, once it has passed through another round of editing, and we will provide you with a decent overview of how the system works.

Basically, we wanted something that mimicked and felt true to the core 3-4 player experience, and we didn't want to overcomplicate the simple elegance of the game. We think designer Phil Gross has a done a fantastic job on that front! Stay tuned for more details soon.

That's it for now. Thanks for joining us on this adventure!

Funded?!? Thank You!
3 months ago – Tue, Aug 18, 2026 at 03:51:14 PM

Well! We hit the goal we needed to fund, and we did it in what? About seven hours? That's pretty darn good, especially since our funding estimate was more conservative for this campaign.

Thanks to everyone who jumped in and helped us achieve this success. We've been working on The Monolith for some time now, from the early days when designer Phil Gross was building it with a hammer and saw, to the development period when publisher Colby Dauch used a file to sand off all the edges. This is a labor of love, and that love has produced a board game that we couldn't be more proud of. It's fun, novel, and easy to learn, but it's packed with painful, strategic choices that will create high drama on your game table. You're gonna love it.

There's more to come in the days ahead. We'll show off a bit more of the game to you, and give you more peeks behind the curtain. But for now, please accept our thanks. Launching a crowdfunding campaign is always nerve-wracking, and this one was especially so. Your vote of confidence means more to us than we can possibly say.

Thank you,

The staff at Plaid Hat Games