Hushed tales of fantastic beasts under the dark waves have been told throughout the known world for centuries: a giant piranha-turtle with a trident, a sea serpent that swallows ships and crew whole, a bearded dog-lizard with two water spouts on its head... stories so wild as to defy the imagination. While untold sailors have met their grim end by these sea monsters, an intrepid few have welcomed the challenge of discovering them with timeless rumors as their only guide.
In Monstra Maris, 2 to 4 players each control a small fleet of ships, represented by wooden discs, that they sail across the board with the flick of a finger. Their goals are the changing locations on the board where the monsters are rumored to have been sighted. When a player flicks a ship disc onto one of these locations, he or she is awarded points for the discovery and granted an experience token for end-game scoring. Players also hope to avoid the storms and pirates that may come their way, thanks to their opponents. The game ends after one player has discovered twelve monsters, and the player with the most points is declared the winner.