The Last Stand

My bad! Before I begin to describe the gory details of how the cards work in this game, something I forgot to mention in my last riveting update was the Last Stand option that player’s units can exercise in combat. So, among the thousands of in-person interviews we conducted in order to bring you this highly realistic simulation, we kept coming across the same stories about the amazing last-ditch stands that many groups of Plum Island’s finest pulled off during the three day siege. Incredible tales of struggles against impossible odds and seizing victory from the jaws of defeat. Sure, we quietly guffawed at these ludicrous claims and discounted them. They had to be just the wild rantings of some seriously damaged individuals who were putting a brave, but highly imaginative, face on humans getting their butts kicked by vicious lumps of deteriorating flesh. Yet there seemed to be the smallest (sub-atomic, to be honest) kernel of truth to these stories, so we had to include the possibility of these acts being pulled off in the game as well. Therefore, whenever a unit suffers its final Hit and would thus normally be eliminated, it will attempt a Last Stand. The owning player draws a Fate Number and if that number is less than or equal to the unit’s Bravery Rating, the unit will survive! Instead of being horribly devoured, it will instead retreat (actually, flee while screaming incoherently) to an adjacent area – just like a phoenix rising from the ashes! Better to run away and live to fight another day, as they say. So, there you have it – we’ve actually tilted the game-balance scales in favor of the players with this one, as unjustifiable as it is. But hey, at least no one can call me a devilish, heartless game designer now … well, not until you see what’s coming up in the next sections. Sorry …

The Fickle Finger of Fate

Sometimes referred to as the Harbingers of Horror and the Catalysts of Calamity, the Fate Cards are the central driving force of the game engine. And that central driving force is quite likely to blindly hurl you off the edge of a cliff while humming a happy little ditty. These cards are the cause of some just awful game effects. Every time a Fate Turn Order Cube is drawn from the Bag of Death (officially known as the Turn Order Bag in the rulebook) players will need to draw the top Fate Card. These Tableaus of Terror are responsible for spawning new Horror Murders (reminder for those who did not study, those are the huge masses of monster blobs that will be chasing you all game long) and activating Horrors already in the game.

Spawning is the placement of new Murders onto the map, normally into the Spawn Zones at the head of each Track. But sometimes … [insert evil laughter here] … you will draw a Chaos! Spawn, which spawns two Murders on two Tracks, or a Regenerate! Spawn, which will add two tiles to every Murder located on a random Track (no matter where those Murders are located). You can imagine the confused frenzy that development will cause amongst your calm little group of players. 

Activation is when the Fate Card will tell you which Tracks have their resident Horrors move and possibly attack. This is decidedly unpleasant for the players. All the Horrors units, of either type, will move their full movement allowances but if they enter an Area occupied by any of your units (including those hapless civilians), the monsters will stop and attack them. There will be sobbing and general cries of lamentation but remember – it’s only a game! Don’t get too upset.

The Fate Cards also provide two other services for the gameplayer (they take great pride in their versatility). They will inform players if an Event occurs (see below) after a player was foolish enough to conduct a Follow Action and they are used most often for the generation of Fate Numbers, which are used to resolve various procedures throughout the game. You will learn to despise these numbers, but thankfully there are only six of them.

For example, check out this card. And please remember, these are playtest components! Sure, go ahead and laugh at my pedestrian attempts at producing game graphics. I hope you are pleased with yourselves. 

If this card is drawn because a Fate Turn Order Cube was pulled from the bag (that’s the red cube), the players will first collectively dissolve into puddles on the floor. This is a bad card! After the players reconstitute themselves at the game table, they first must resolve the “Spawn On” instructions, which in this case is the dreaded “Reanimated!” spawn. One of the players will draw another Fate Card and check out that bottom right number (yes indeed, you guessed it, that’s the Fate Number with the glorious easy-to-read yellow background). For argument’s sake, let’s say that the other Fate Card’s Fate Number (exactly how many times can I use the word “fate” in this article?) is “5”, like this one. That means they will investigate Track #5 and wherever they find an existing Murder on that Track, they will immediately add two Horrors tiles to that Murder. I won’t even go into what happens if you don’t have enough tiles to put down … it’s not pretty. So, after you do that, you go to the next entry on the card and that is the “Activate” instruction. Like I said before, this is a nasty card and it tells you that you have to activate Track #’s 1, 2 and 3!! How are you and your now-former friends going to survive this? Well, you won’t, so just pack up the game and start making popcorn and put on Netflix. If you do decide to continue anyway then you will first activate all the Horrors on Track #1. That means you will move them and wherever they share an area with a player unit or some worried-looking civilians, you will need to conduct a combat. After the bloodshed, you do the same on Track #2 and then again on Track #3. The lesson? Throw this card in the garbage! Don’t use it – it’s horrible.

One of these Fate Cards is also drawn immediately after one of your fellow gamers takes a Follow Action. This is done to find out if that person has caused an Event to occur and if so, the event gets resolved by the drawing of an Event Card (see below) and the halting of any further Follow Actions. So, if that player happened to draw the Fate Card pictured above, that’s exactly what would happen as that card states – quite clearly – “Draw Event Card” at the bottom left of the card. You can’t put it more succinctly than that!

Finally, as mentioned above, on the bottom right of each Fate Card is the proverbial Fate Number. These are all numbered “1” through “6” and numbers are evenly distributed throughout the deck. These numbers are used to resolve many different situations throughout the game.

As you can see, the Fate Cards are indeed the ultimate Messengers of Madness. They are the motor that drives this crazy roller coaster. Strap yourselves in tight, because you’re going to the boardgame version of Action Park (you can Google that). 

The Event Cards

Sometimes referred to as the Couriers of Chaos and the Purveyors of Pain, the Event Cards will keep the players on their toes … or more likely, with their toes pointed straight up toward the sky. An Event Card will be drawn whenever the dreaded Impending Doom Turn Order Cube is drawn (which will happen every Game Round) as well as when one of your goofy fellow players manages to get a “Draw Event Card” result when doing one of their pointless and selfish Follow Actions. These Cards of Kerfuffle will usually bring in the Mutations (once again for you that did not study, these are the exceptionally bad-ass Horrors who are very anti-social), create a possible Biohazard infection crisis, spawn even more Murders or just kill off some civilians that you thought were snug as bugs in a rug. There is no avoiding the consequences of the Event Cards, but you can mitigate their frequency by being careful when and if you take those dangerous, but oh so necessary, Follow Actions.

Let’s take a gander at one of these lovelies (once again, playtest component alert!):

So, you draw this card and immediately need to enact its instructions. First thing, you will need to draw a Fate Card to get a Fate Number (yes, more “fate” word usage!). Let’s say the number is a “1”, so you will have to grab the “Leper Messiahs” Mutation unit and place it in Track #1’s Spawn Zone. This unit is now active in the game … you and your partners are not happy about this. Next, you check the flavor text at the bottom of the card and you’ll need to scan the map and see if the “Utrid Viking Cruises” Civilians unit is anywhere in the game – either currently on the map or already evacuated by your efficient team. If so, they have a kick-ass lady working for them that who has managed to sneak into the area and hurt the monsters, making them start the game with one Hit against them. Yay for your side and humanity!

All the Event Cards tell a little story and game circumstances (as evidenced by the card above) can change the card’s effects. I know I don’t have to tell you this, but the Event Cards are all finely crafted to accurately portray real events that occurred during the Plum Island crisis. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! So, you will be experiencing the actual terror and bold decision-making that confronted the citizens of the island. Enjoy!

The Search Cards

Sometimes referred to as the Hamburger Helpers of Plum Island and the Scrolls of Serendipity, the Search Cards represent the fruits of a unit’s labors after they conduct a Search Location Action. This means the unit is spending its time searching the area (duh), sifting through files, opening lockers, looking under mattresses and generally annoying any passersby they run into. In other words, your unit is making a general nuisance of itself. The upside, of course, is that you may thereby find some supplies, get some information about other survivors, find some equipment … or on occasion you may get jumped by some Horrors. But don’t worry! That’s really a very rare event (sort of) that I’m sure would never happen to you. The bottom line is that these cards are essential to helping the players getting done whatever it is they need to get done. Some will just reward you with gifts, showering them down on you from up high, and some will make you work a little harder to get their Pearls of Perpetual Pleasure. In either case, they are certainly worth pursuing.

What do these wonderful cards look like and how do they work? Glad you asked – and by the way … WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT! PLAYTEST COMPONENT – AVERT YOUR EYES OR YOU WILL FEEL ILL!

This card has a little story on it, based on actual eyewitness accounts of what transpired during the crisis. Crates of food and jugs of fuel were discovered by some survivors in a huge but off-the-beaten-path parking lot. Guarding these treasures were some rather large individuals, their purpose and origin is unconfirmed to this day (though there was a GMT Warehouse convention on the island during the crisis, so there is that). You have to decide at this point, based on the skill and audacity of your searching unit, if you will just try to bull your way through the guards and take the supplies by force or if you decide to sweet talk the guards, using your diplomatic skill and batting your eyelashes. If you “Run the Gauntlet”, your unit will take damage but you will also gain more Supplies and you’ll need to reference the unit’s Close Combat Rating. If you “Negotiate With Them”, you’ll be using the unit’s Admin Rating and though you won’t take any damage you will secure fewer supplies. The other twist and contributing factor is whether the sales team from “Jiffy Jeff’s Used Cars” is in the game or not. They are top-class negotiators and never fail to sell a car … and with an extended warranty! So, if they are available, you may want to opt to negotiate as they will increase the award by 2 Supplies. Tough choices my friends, but this is why you do this gaming gig, right? Finally, you’ll note that there is a red band at the bottom of this card. It tells you to “exhaust” this area after the card is resolved and that entails placing an “Exhausted Location” marker into the area. By doing so, that means that no other units can use this Area to conduct any Location Action for the remainder of this Game Day. During the Replenish Locations Step at the end of the “Night” Game Turn for this same Game Day, players will remove all of the “Exhausted Location” markers on the map and these Areas can be used again for Location Actions. Some of the Search Cards have a green banner at the bottom and these will not exhaust an Area. Cool!

I hope you enjoyed this short but oh so enlightening piece on the cards of Plum Island. They are in many ways the driving force behind the narrative and gameplay strategy. They are also going to make you very mad … very often. But what’s Game Night without tears, blood and some thrown furniture, right?

Thanks so much and good gaming!

Hermann

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