A Horror in the Library expansion focused on strange devices, mechanisms and new dangers.
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Build the machine. Herd the monsters. Escape together—or be annihilated.
Found inside the Horror in the Library Collector’s Expansion set, the Apparatus Expansion transforms the competitive struggle for survival into a tense cooperative board game challenge.
Trapped once again inside the Mad Professor’s interdimensional Victorian Library, the players discover a scattered collection of his private memorandum cards. Hidden among them are plans for an extraordinary invention: the Monster Perturborator, a bizarre machine capable of clearing the monster-infested Portal and creating a route to freedom.
There is, naturally, a problem. The machine has not been built.
Players must work together to locate its missing components, assemble the Apparatus and drive every manifested Monster into the Portal before the machine activates. Unlike the familiar rivalries and betrayals of the main Horror in the Library board game, Apparatus forces the trapped characters to cooperate. Pages can be shared, discoveries must be discussed and the whole group must coordinate its actions if anyone is to escape.
At the beginning of the game, a selection of Apparatus cards is placed beside the Library. Each card represents a component of the Monster Perturborator and requires particular lost Pages to activate it. Players search the Library’s bookcases, exchange cards and combine their discoveries to match the Secrets shown on each part of the machine.
Complete every component and the invention will finally be ready—but some discoveries cause additional Monsters to manifest, making every success potentially dangerous.
The Monsters are not merely obstacles to avoid. They must be deliberately confronted and herded towards the Portal. Defeat one in combat and it is moved there to await the final activation of the Perturborator. Leave even a single creature wandering through the Library when the machine fires, however, and the entire plan may fail.
Fortitude becomes a shared strategic concern. A character who falls to –5 Fortitude is paralysed by fear, captured by the Monsters and dragged to the Portal. They can no longer search for Pages or help fight the remaining creatures. At least two players must survive inside the Library to activate the completed Apparatus, so protecting vulnerable companions can be just as important as finding the next machine component.
The finale creates a thrilling race against time. Complete the Perturborator first and the group receives only one final turn each to force every remaining Monster into the Portal. Herd all eight Monsters there first and the players instead have one final round to finish the machine.
Either way, hesitation, poor planning or one missing Page can bring disaster.
The Apparatus Expansion offers a dramatically different way to experience Horror in the Library. It preserves the searching, rotating rooms, Monster encounters and Fortitude management of the original game while introducing communication, shared resources and a demanding collective objective.
It is ideal for groups who enjoy cooperative horror board games, Victorian steampunk inventions and dramatic last-turn victories.
Find the Pages. Complete the Monster Perturborator. Clear the Portal—and pray the Mad Professor’s machine actually works.
The Apparatus Expansion is included in the Horror in the Library Collector’s Expansion set and requires the core Horror in the Library board game to play.
News, development notes, videos and useful links for this product.
Want to play Horror in the Library co-op with friends online?
I am working on developing a new Horror in the Library Tabletopia edition and this will feature Apparatus so you can play with up to six players cooperatively online. :D Marcus
