Meet The Horrors (And Don’t Call Them Zombies!!)

There are a number of different types of monsters that you will have to deal with when playing The Plum Island Horror. While none of them are very pleasant, some are far worse than others. So I felt it would be worthwhile to do a short treatise on the “Horrors” that you and your friends will be fighting. And by the way, be aware that the term “zombies” is never used in the game’s literature. Calling the abominations that attacked Plum Island “zombies” is an insult to them and their reputations. In fact, there was an unsubstantiated report that we uncovered which claimed that one researcher referred to a captured Horror as a “Zed”. Supposedly the Horror overheard this remark and became so infuriated that it tore out of its cage and consumed the researcher in one gulp. The “Horrors” of Plum Island are more vicious, faster and smarter than any of those ineffectual Romero monster wannabes. Sure, they’ve benefited from great publicity and their marketing department is pretty sharp. But don’t let that superficial nonsense fool you! The Horrors of Plum Island were a real threat to humankind, not like those slow-moving, groaning zombie half-wits that you see in all those popular movies and TV series. The Horrors come in two distinct and disgusting flavors … a Murder of Horrors and Mutations.

A Murder of Horrors is essentially a singular horde of the monsters. Tied together by some weird kind of camaraderie or, more precisely, an innate sensory attraction to one another (mutated pheromones, perhaps?), these Murders can grow to enormous sizes. There have been eyewitness accounts of at least one such Murder that was estimated at 2500 individuals barreling down the Mid-Island Parkway on the second day of the crisis! An interesting corollary to the size of Murders is that the larger the group, the slower it moves. Scientists chalk this up to an inexplicable OCD-style disorder that compels the Horrors to want to stay organized, neat and in lock-step with one another (yes, much like our board game collections).

If that’s not petrifying enough to make you want to throw this game into the garbage and get out your copy of Uno instead, it is now confirmed from reliable sources that Murders would grow in size immediately after feasting on hapless civilians and fighters! Victims of the creatures would apparently often reanimate and morph into the Horrors themselves and then immediately join the pack that just killed them. Talk about irony!   

In The Plum Island Horror game, these phenomena are simulated with pinpoint accuracy utilizing three mechanics (once again, because this game is the most realistic game you will ever play … just wanted to remind you of that):

1)      Murders will not only keep their component units together when moving but they will also absorb other Murders into one combined, globular Murder. At the end of their moves, Murders ending in the same area will automatically be grouped together into one larger, more terrifying Murder. And they do this before resolving any combat in that area.

2)      Whenever a Murder eliminates a unit (either civilians or a player unit), players spawn another tile with the Murder immediately after the combat. And there is no maximum size to a Murder! That’s right, you could have a pile of Horrors on the map that reach to a foot tall (the thought of that alone makes me shiver).

3)      The larger the Murder, the slower it moves. Murders that are only 1 – 3 tiles move up to 3 spaces (!) at a time, those that are 4 – 6 tiles move 2 areas and those that are anything from 7 tiles to infinity (and beyond) move only 1 space each activation. Players know this and thus can plan their strategies around these speeds (though in true designer evilness, there will be many cases where Murders will move unexpectedly and/or faster than normal).

While many of you might be saying to yourselves “Hey Hermann, massive Murders of Horrors are enough … please stop”, I would respond, “Ha … you ain’t seen nothing yet! Strap yourselves in for the rough part of the ride!”. Let me introduce you to the real big baddies … the Mutations.

Mutations units are a singularly repulsive, dangerous and generally unlikeable version of the Horrors. Sure, they began their existence as run-of-the-mill, average, fun-loving Horrors. But then something inside them got twisted out of alignment. Our intrepid researchers still haven’t found the real biological cause of these heinous mutations (some experts think it has to do with the original human host liking brussel sprouts) but regardless of their origin, the Mutations are a real problem for the players.

Mutations units are brought into the game by those devilish Event Cards and each unit represents anywhere from one to a handful of the fiends. There are six different types of Mutations units – Leper Messiahs, Murder Hornets, Wild-Eyed Rats, Birds of Prey, Infected Sasquatch and Most Wanted. Yeah sure, they all sound warm and cuddly but don’t let those friendly labels fool you. These are units that you and your friends will be working overtime to take out.

Each of the Mutations types have their own distinct combat and movement ratings. Some of them even have additional special rules. For example, the Leper Messiahs are so terrifying that any unit that wishes to attack them must first pass a Bravery Test! The other characteristic that makes Mutations different from normal Horrors is that they take Hits like player units (see Combat below). In other words, they can accumulate Hit cubes during the game and you will have to achieve a certain number of total Hits to eliminate them. What’s worse … yes, there’s always something worse … is that their immune system is so accelerated that they will actually regenerate during the game! One Hit is removed from every Mutation automatically every turn.

I know – it all sounds so unfair to you, the gamer. You are probably throwing up your hands right now, screaming at the Heavens and asking why you bought this game just to be tortured. But we cannot compromise the integrity of this design … this is just the way things went down on Plum Island.

The Combat System

There is only one way to tame a wild Horror and that’s through brute strength and tough love. This is accomplished in the game through Combat. And there are two types of combat represented in the system – Close Combat (very dirty) and Ranged Combat (much cleaner).

Close Combat is the preferred method of fighting for the Horrors and involves them simply getting up close and personal with your units using their fangs, claws, tentacles, spit, body odor and whatever else they can throw at you. It is gruesome. For the players and civilians, you’ll be using your hands but hopefully those hands will also be grasping a crowbar, baseball bat, knife, can opener, houseplant … something besides your bare fists. In both cases, bodily fluids are likely to be exchanged and that means contamination and possible infection. Yuck! This is reflected in the game with the use of Biohazard Cubes (or as we like to call them “Nuggets of Nastiness”). With each Close Combat, one Biohazard Cube goes into the Biohazard Bag (see what we did there?) and once each Game Round the players will be drawing two cubes from that bag. The color of the drawn cubes (green, yellow or red) will reveal the actual effect on the Biohazard Track. So as you can see (because you are brilliant game players) the more Close Combat that is fought, the more risk that the Biohazard Track will go nuclear and possibly lose you the game. So what’s the nearly helpless game player to do about that? Well, you need to get your cowboy on and use Ranged Combat!

Ranged Combat is a special type of combat that only player units can do (and some talented civilians) if they have a Ranged Rating and at least one Supplies (for ammo, of course). If you can use Ranged Combat, you will want to. First of all, you don’t have to be in the same area as the horrible Horrors – you can shoot at them from an adjacent area. No bad smells or monster flotsam and jetsam! Secondly, no Biohazard Cube is generated because those disgusting things aren’t getting near your body. Finally, there is no counterattack by the monsters – they don’t have weapons (what dummies!). So you can shoot at them and they can’t fight you back. Cool, right? The only problem is that your units need to be equipped with weapons to start with (represented by a “R” rating) or they could possibly find some pistols or Molotov Cocktails laying around the map and use those. Whether you are launching golf balls or slinging rocks, you will always need to consume a Supplies each time you strike from range. But hey – those are minor inconveniences compared to the reward of knocking out those critters from a distance.

But wait, you say … how do we actually resolve the combat in this peace-loving, Kumbaya-style game? I’m so glad you asked. We have a really neato and simple dice system that uses up to six cool-looking custom Combat Dice. Basically, units (of either side) will roll a number of dice depending on their Combat Rating – one die per rating but never more than six dice. The Horrors are not as efficient as some units, but can be deadly in large groups. Horrors roll one die per tile in the murder. Mutations have combat ratings like player units. 

On each die are five possible results:  

• Miss: This has no effect on the target unit (thus the clever title). Two of the six dice faces have this result.
• Shielded: This result counts as 1 Hit unless the target unit is in a Building or Forest area. If in those areas, this is treated as a Miss result instead. This applies to all units – Horrors are harder to get to and whack if they are accidentally standing behind a tree or there’s a building between you and the monster. Your units will be taking cover deliberately in these cases.
• 1 Hit: The broken heart symbol means … Drumroll please … you score a Hit! The innovations found in this design just never cease.
• Light Hit: Ah, this is a tricky one. This result counts as one-half of a Hit, represented by a half heart. For every two of these results you roll, you will score a Hit. A lone Light Hit result is a Miss. Some units have a special ability that will allow this result to be counted as 1 Hit.
• Critical Hit: The die result that every true gameplayer loves – the “exploding die”! The icon is an explosion, see what we did there?
  This counts as 1 Hit plus the player rolls this die (only) again. Re-rolls can be made any number of times, as long as the critical symbol keeps rolling, and all results from them are accumulated. This result can make for some terrific “stand up and shout” moments as your pathetic little unit mows down a half-dozen Horrors tiles!

So combat itself is a pretty easy-to-resolve affair. Just pick up the right number of dice and chuck them across the table (but avoid knocking over the counters or throwing them off the table entirely … you know who you are).

In the next article, I will describe the three decks of cards that are used in the game and what they each do. Some of it is pleasant, but most of it you will hate … and I can’t wait to tell you about them. Good gaming and thanks again for all your support!

Hermann Luttmann

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