Super Giant Monster Showdown
Scenarios and Rules Variations

Rules Variations
These are some of our suggested SGMS rules variations.
Death: A monster dies when it must mark off damage but is unable to do so because no "active" cards are left to deactivate.

This effectively gives each monster an extra hit point and removes some ambiguity in situations where one's last active card is used to prevent or absorb damage -- official rules seem to indicate that this is fatal, although logic would suggest that it shouldn't die from damage successfully prevented or absorbed.

It also means that a monster can be completely deactivated but not dead, rendering them helpless throughout their next turn until they can heal. This may give the opponent one last turn to try to catch up in population or mapcard categories before moving in for the kill.

"Overall" Score: (Population destroyed / 1000) + (Mapcards destroyed) + (Damage to Monsters) + (defensive units destroyed)

This is an additional category that can be used to break ties or as the sole victory criteria, especially in multiplayer scenarios. Do not round values (preserve any decimals).

The "Damage to Monsters" factor is the damage marked off by deactivating cards and

  • Does NOT count damage that is avoided or absorbed (e.g., via Camouflage or Armor),
  • Does NOT include damage that cannot be marked off (i.e., excess damage when monster dies),
  • Does NOT count damage done by the environment (e.g., fire damage from a burning forest), but
  • DOES count damage directly resulting from your monster's actions (e.g., throwing opponent against a mountain)
This addresses two issues with multiplayer SGMS: multiplayer games often result in ties, and often exhibit a behaviour known elsewhere as "poaching" or "kill-stealing", which is attacking (usually from a distance) one or both opponents locked in combat. The poacher exploits all the damage the original combatants do to each other by delivering just the killing blow, stealing credit for the kill. By counting damage done rather than just kills scored, there is much less motivation to poach and much less profit for those who do.
Hidden Abilities: Once the monsters have been generated, the cards are kept face down rather than revealing them at the start of the game.

Opponent(s) can only tell the types of cards in the monster's makeup (by card color). A card is revealed if its game text is used (e.g., used to move, attack, prevent or avoid damage, etc.). A card is NOT revealed if it is just deactivated to mark damage. When a card is "healed" back to active state, it should also be flipped face down (which forces the opponent to keep track of abilities seen previously).

This variation preserves the sense of discovery present in many of the kaiju films as a new monster's abilities are only realized after observed use. This can be used selectively as a handicap, allowing new players Hidden Abilities while experienced players must keep their own cards face-up.

Scenarios
These are some of our own custom SGMS scenarios. More are coming as they are play-tested.
Buddies: Each player creates and plays two monsters as a team.

The cards for each creature are kept separately and each is played independently. On alternate turns, players use alternate creatures (i.e., player 1's 1st creature, player 2's 1st creature, player 1's 2nd creature, player 2's 2nd creature, repeat).

If a creature is harmed or killed by its teammate, the opponent gains any points that may result. This is to prevent poaching one's own creature to keep the opponent from scoring "Monsters Killed" points. Occasionally, it may still be profitable to perform actions that may harm a teammate, if the overall effect is to one's advantage.

Total the points for all creatures on each side, highest total wins.

Historical: Instead of semi-random generation of creatures, pick any cards to simulate a film, TV or comic creature (or pick from our premade Classic Creatures).

Recreate your favorite battle, or play "what if". For example, would Godzilla beat Gamera?





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