What’s up with those buildings?

One of the first things I’m going to do with this blog is establish a vocabulary. There are a fair number of elements in Monsterpocalypse™ that I want to talk about, but first I think it’s important to establish what is what.

Today I am going to talk about those cool building models. For Pete’s sake, monsters NEED buildings to destroy!

At the end of 2007, I found myself cruising the web checking out this and that. I stopped by privateerpress.com and saw the Monsterpocalypse announcement on the day it launched. I was intrigued but a little puzzled about how well a miniatures game about “big monsters” could play out. A few months later some pictures from the New York Toy Fair leaked. In those pictures I saw some of the monsters stomping around a map with buildings placed on it.

My imagination instantly took off. Those buildings really made the game pop off the table! Somewhere along the line the word came out that the monsters could destroy the terrain. “Holy crap!” I thought to myself. “Monsters love eating buildings!” I started trying to guess how the game would play. My thoughts included a format where players would rampage through a city, destroy civil defense forces and buildings to power up, and then unleash the fury of high-powered abilities and attacks against one another.

Lo and behold, I was almost right.

Upon perusing the rules, I saw that the guys at Privateer had produced something close to my desires, with a few twists and additions that were better than I could imagine. Those mild manner buildings actually have some pretty awesome game effects. Each building has a defense stat, which is used to attack the building, and an energy stat, which gives your monster power dice when destroyed. Power dice add to your dice pools and are used to produce those power attacks I talked about in my last post.

When you play a game of Monsterpocalypse, you bring with you between two and 12 buildings. Each player alternates placing these buildings, and setting up the city has some tactical aspects to it. Some building have special effects that trigger when you destroy them, others have abilities when you secure them (when your smaller figures stand beside the building to “protect” it).

Since most attacks in Monsterpocalypse result in only one point of damage, players need to look for ways to add extra damage to their attacks. One of the major tricks is to use your power attacks to throw, smash, or slam your opponent’s monster into a building. Since collisions with buildings result in an extra point of damage, and the destruction of most buildings results in a hazard that can cause another point of damage, you can easily triple your damage output by knocking your opponent’s monster into a building.

That makes me want to recreate the action I see in all of the kaiju films. Those films just get so much better when set in a city with the monsters knocking one another into buildings and the fireworks going off.

Monsterpocalypse creates some great mind’s eye visuals. The game is built monster-centric with rules and bonuses that encourage players to take actions right out of their favorite kaiju movie battles. Many games start with a monster destroying a Skyscraper to load up on power dice, and then charging across the map to throw the other monster through a TV Station and into a Nuclear Power Plant, which results in a mini-Chernobyl radioactive hazard. That player just delivered four points of damage to his opponent’s monster!

I can actually picture some dudes, dressed in big rubber suits, throwing each other into movie prop buildings with the firecracker special effects going off all over the place. You will not find action like this anywhere else!

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“The Baddest Man in Gaming” comes to the Monsterpocalypse!

First a little about the “Baddest Man in Gaming”. I hail from Southern California originally, I received the name Erik-Jason Yaple at birth, and I have worked in the game industry in one way or another since the age of 16. I had my first publication at the age of 17 and began working in the legendary game store All Star Game in Diamond Bar, California at the age of 18 (this is where I first worked with Matt Wilson). At the age of 22, I began my professional gaming career with the Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). During my tenure at AEG, I worked on Legend of the Five Rings, Deadlands: Doomtown, and headed up the development and brand management duties of 7th Sea and Warlord: Saga of the Storm until Sabertooth Games hired me on. During my stay with STG, I took on the role of Head of Product Development where I oversaw the development and production of WarCry the Warhammer CCG, various incarnations of the Warhammer 40,000 CCG, the Lord of the Rings TMG, and the UFS CCG until the recent sale of STG to Fantasy Flight Games.

Now I have joined a crew that fits my rough and tumble style better than anywhere else. During my time in the game industry, I have worked in every genre of gaming and with more licenses than I can remember. I love most video games with rocket launchers, sci-fi fantasy movies, and kick-ass tabletop gaming.

Monsterpocalypse is my new game, and I want it to be your new game as well!

I now have one week under my belt with Privateer Press. Having come in with absolutely no idea of what to expect from Monsterpocalypse, I have been enlightened and pleasantly surprised. The visuals for this game are second to none. There are giant robots of various flavors, aliens sent to destroy and conquer, and even great beasts and demons from the earth and beyond!

To be honest, I am a bit new to the kaiju genre of films, but the more I watch the more I love it! Since the announcement of Monsterpocalypse, I have noticed a few commercials featuring over-sized monsters/people/who-knows-what stomping through cities. Big monsters are getting bigger, and Monsterpocalypse is leading the way. Anyone into Big Monster action, professional wrestling, or just great gaming action will be a prime candidate to love Monsterpocalypse.

The rules represent the kaiju genre really well without getting bogged down in details that do not alter the game’s experience. The game can be played as casually and quickly as you like, or you can take some extra time and plunge into some deep strategy. You can really picture yourself charging across the city to body slam your foe inside the big rubber suit with that “rubber suit waddle”.

The majority of my first week has been spent getting acquainted with Monsterpocalypse and attempting to master the game, while taking my lumps from the other guys in the design department, Jason, Rob, and Kevin. I have not lost all of my games, but my wins are fewer than my losses. I am learning, though, and the guys had better watch out, as I am dedicating myself to become the grand master of all that is Monsterpocalypse!

One of the aspects of the game that really surprised me was the “power attacks”. These special moves allow you to address your opponent’s models in a plethora of unique ways. You can throw your opponent’s monster through buildings and into vats of radioactive material or knock buildings over onto your opponent’s models to crush them. While power attacks are the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae of awesomeness that is Monsterpocalypse, there is a lot to master. The game has a depth and brilliance in that regard that is to be celebrated from Seattle, Washington to Asmara, Eritrea to Tokyo, Japan!

As the new head of Monsterpocalypse development, I will bring you a few posts every week regarding the game’s progress and upcoming release, or maybe just some cool kaiju links now and then, so check back often. Bookmark the page now, or you might forget. You will want to stop by now and then to roll around in all that is Monsterpocalypse; this site is your doorway to internet bliss! “The Baddest Man in Gaming” and Monsterpocalypse – two great tastes that taste great together!

Hey, the web developer here tells me that a new Monsterpocalypse preview site is in the works and is almost finished. I’ll be sure to tell you when it’s live – that will be the place to get all of your need to know Monsterpocalypse information. In the mean time I’ll be bringing you the insider’s look here at monsterinsider.net!

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Your inside look at the Monsterpocalypse Collectible Miniatures Game!

Welcome to MonsterInsider.net, your inside look at the Monsterpocalypse™ CMG and all-around celebration of giant monsters! I’m Erik Yaple (pronounced like “Maple” but with a “Y”,) a game developer for Privateer Press, giant monster fan, and author of this blog.

I’ve started this blog to give you an inside look at the development of Monsterpocalypse. As we get closer to the release of the game you’ll see plenty of previews here, as well as the upcoming official site, but I’ll also be celebrating the giant monster (aka kaiju) genre on this blog. So if you’re a long time giant monster fan or you are new to the world that includes ten-story radioactive dinosaurs, stick around ’cause this is going to be big!

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