The other day, almost by coincidence I discovered the solo print and play game Armageddon Hour in the Ganesha Games store. It seemed to be their take on the GW game Chainsaw Warrior, but basing it on the Mutants and Death Ray Guns rule set, of which I am mildly put a fan. You play as the grizzled mutant hunter Frazer whose entire squad has been wiped out by the mutant overlord Big Bad Boy. When it comes to your attention that he has created a super weapon, a bomb meant to corrupt and mutate anyone within miles, you do the only thing a hero like you can. You gather your fire axe, revolver and scrape together what supplies you can to take the fight to Big Bad Boy.
The game plays out with a 60 minute timer ticking down as the bomb is nearing detonation. And you fight your way through the floors of broken building that Big Bad Boy is hiding in among with his minions and lieutenants. Rules wise it was an easy read and transition for me, as many mutations and pieces of equipment does the same as in MDRG, but with a few differnces. For my own sake I sat down and wrote down a cheatsheet with the essential differnces from MDRG, including things like your wounds, new grenade mechanics and enemy reinforcements. I also made an easy sheet containing the info about the enemies, special tiles and rules on each floor.
And finally I went along to also remake all the games printable cards. Which was the biggest hurdle for me. I do like the zany over the top artstyle, but sadly it was a varied lot on the cards. Some had evocative pieces like the skill Group Fighter while other items like the Unstable Plasma Grenade was a lot more stale. Likewise sometimes the formatting on the cards were a bit jumpy, which tickled my excessive pedantry in all the wrong ways.
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| Armageddon Hour Cover |
The game plays out with a 60 minute timer ticking down as the bomb is nearing detonation. And you fight your way through the floors of broken building that Big Bad Boy is hiding in among with his minions and lieutenants. Rules wise it was an easy read and transition for me, as many mutations and pieces of equipment does the same as in MDRG, but with a few differnces. For my own sake I sat down and wrote down a cheatsheet with the essential differnces from MDRG, including things like your wounds, new grenade mechanics and enemy reinforcements. I also made an easy sheet containing the info about the enemies, special tiles and rules on each floor.
And finally I went along to also remake all the games printable cards. Which was the biggest hurdle for me. I do like the zany over the top artstyle, but sadly it was a varied lot on the cards. Some had evocative pieces like the skill Group Fighter while other items like the Unstable Plasma Grenade was a lot more stale. Likewise sometimes the formatting on the cards were a bit jumpy, which tickled my excessive pedantry in all the wrong ways.
So I spent a few hours yesterday rewriting all the cards on Go Deck Yourself.com with some simple icons from Game Icons.net also omitting some of the explanations that a MDRG veterans wouldn't need. Some time with a printer, old Magic lands and sleeves and I've some sexy new replacement.
While I would like to link to the printable cards, I am not sure on the legality when it passes personal use, since it is official components and rules I am spoiling. So sorry lads. But along with the game also came these neat printable characters, which I will obviously substitute with minis, I already have most of the stuff. But looking at their paper doll for Big Bad Boy himself, I might have to kit-bash something up to represent his lovely art.
Other than all that the purchase also included printable floor tiles and files for for use with the Paper Make It.com Shuffler map generator software, so you have all the official assets available to make new floor tiles to play on without them looking jarringly different. So all in all this will be a fun little bunny hole to dive into, and considering that MDRG has had two official expansions since the release of Armageddon Hour in 2010, there is plenty of room and inspiration for home brewing new enemies, missions and what-not.
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