Tabletop Game 05- Prototype and Rules

   Monster Bash

“Unleash The Beast and Destroy Your Enemies!”

A game by Caitlin Bernoskie

Game Time: 10-30 minutes.

Number of Players: 2

Goal

        The goal of Monster Bash is to use your team of giant monsters to defeat your opponent’s own and survive by the end of the round. If all of your monsters are defeated before the end of the round you lose!

     Game Components

The game is made up of:

•     20 Monster Cards

•         40 Monster Action Cards

•           2 Play Mat Cards

     Setting up the game

1.    Players will take a play mat card and place it in front of them. It will stay in place for the whole game there.

2.     Players will roll dice to see who gets to choose their cards first. Whoever has the highest roll picks first.

3.    Shuffle the Monster card deck. Both players will then pick 5 random cards from the top of the deck to use for the round. Player who rolled highest will pick first.

4.    Shuffle the Action cards next. After they’re shuffled each player will choose 20 cards randomly from the top of the deck and use these cards for the round. Player who rolled highest will pick first.

5.    After each player has chosen their Monster and Action cards they will then place them accordingly on their Play Mat card. Monster Cards are not placed on the Mat however and they will be put to the side of it instead.

      Card Mechanics

1.    Monster Cards

Each monster card depicts its own unique monster. Every monster card has a Health Point (HP) score and an Action Point (AP) score.

·      Health Points-HPs

-Each monster card has a different HP score. If this score is knocked down to 0 the monster is killed and cannot be played again within the round. It is important for a player to keep track of how much HP their monster loses due to an opponent’s attack.

·      Attack Points- APs

-These points will be used as the amount of power each Action Card a player uses will have. For example if a player uses a Monster card with an AP of 15 then their Action card will be 15 as well.

2.    Action Cards

These cards act as the main action for each player’s active monster card. Their value will always be based on the monster card’s AP unless the Action guard is a Block card. There are 4 possible types of Action cards to use:

- Punch-5-15 points.

- Bite-5-15 points.

- Block- Will defend against any attack during a play. Will not work against any monster card with a special ability.

- Dodge and Fight Back

-Monster dodges any attack and punches back with an attack of equal AP of their opponent. Will not work against a monster card with a special ability.

4.    Monster Cards with Special Abilities

-There will be a small number of monster cards that have special abilities instead of APs. These special abilities can only be used once per round. After using a special ability the monster must resort to using their HPs as their Aps for Action cards until defeated.

      Gameplay

            Now that the game is set up it’s now time to start the battle!

•            Step 1- To start, each player will look at their hand consisting of 5 Monster cards. When they choose a monster they like they must place it in the Monster Containment section on their Play Mat and put the rest of their Monster cards to the side.
•           Step 2- Next, players will randomly choose 1 Action card from their deck. Then at the same time both players will lay down their Action cards for both to see. Depending on what Action card is played a few situations may occur:

- Example 1- Both players place an Attack style Action card like Bite or Punch. If no Monster is defeated in this turn then both players must draw 1 new Action card and play until a monster is defeated.

- Example 2- One player uses a Block Action Card while the other uses a Bite or Punch Action card. The attack will be blocked but both players will resort to choosing 1 card from the Action deck to continue until either is defeated.

- Example 3- Both players use a Block Action card. This causes no effect and players must then continue by choosing 1 card from their Action deck until one of the players’ monsters is defeated.

- Example 3- One player uses a Dodge and Fight Back card while another player uses Block. There is no Attack to dodge so the Dodge and Fight Back action is then rendered useless. Both players have no effect put upon them and they must then choose 1 new card and continue until someone is defeated.

- Example 4- One player uses a Dodge and Fight Back card while the other player uses an Attack action card like Punch or Bite. The first player dodges the attack and will hit back with an attack equal to their opponent’s Aps. If the opponent’s monster is not defeated by this attack though both players must choose 1 new action card and continue until someone is defeated.

- Example 5- One player uses a Monster card with a special ability. This cannot be blocked or dodged by the opponent and their attack is rendered useless unless the ability happens to be Copycat.

• Step 3- If a player’s monster has their HP knocked to 0 then they’ll simply put them to the side and choose a new monster to play with from their remaining 4 Monster cards.
• Step 4- Both players will continue repeating the actions in Step 2 until a player has all 5 of their monsters defeated. When this occurs the game is over and opponent and their monsters left alive are the winners!

      Strategy Tips

•           If you have a monster with a high AP in your hand either save them for later or play them first. You never know, you might just give yourself a good advantage for the beginning of a round.
•          Be smart with your Monster card if it has a special ability. It could be your saving grace in a game or it could give you a disadvantage if it’s one of your only good cards. 
•          Have fun and enjoy yourself! This is meant to be a enjoyable game between both players so don’t get bitter if you happen to lose.

Design Notes

• A good deal of this game was based off of various movies like Godzilla and pacific Rim which use the giant monster fighting idea a great deal.
• Giant Monsters have always been something I’ve enjoyed seeing since I was a child so making a game based off of them was really fun.
•  For gameplay I looked at King of Tokyo, WAR, and Godzilla Kaiju World Wars in terms of how the monsters would battle each other in game.