The Plum Island Horror: More of a Bad Thing

 

Well, well, well…you just couldn’t get enough of The Plum Island Horror, could you? And now you went and asked for more “stuff.” Well, to quote AC/DC, “if you want blood, you got it.” Despite my better judgment, the GMT bigwigs have harassed, cudgeled, and shamed me into emerging from my quiet, peaceful retirement and designing more pain and agony for you to enjoy. Bang the drums and sound the trumpets! The More of a Bad Thing expansion is here.

And this time, we’re not taking it easy on you. We’ve asked our elite research team to dig even farther into the historic archives regarding this event, and they’ve uncovered some interesting elements to the story of Plum Island that are not included in the original game (P.S. They’ve all since been fired for not uncovering this stuff for the game in the first place).

We’ve discovered additional anecdotes and accounts of other groups that were present at the catastrophe and who have their own unique (and quite exciting) stories. To honor them, we’re adding three new Factions for players to choose from:


Oceanside Construction Company: This faction has a personal connection to our developer, Ken Kuhn. Digging deep (pun intended) into his family history, Ken realized that his family owned a construction company on Plum Island during the event! What a coinkydink! So, he has taken the time from his busy schedule and designed this faction for the game.

Rarely does one’s line of work prepare them for an apocalyptic disaster, but once Oceanside's Supervisor, Becky, got wind of the chaos ensuing on the Island, she steeled her nerves, channeled her favorite actor Ven Dresel, and quoted “YYY” (her favorite movie of his)—"I was born for this sh..."

As a Faction, the Oceanside Construction Company has a “control” style of play. In other words, they focus on controlling the movement of Horrors units and tend to excel in dealing with those really big Murder of Horrors stacks. As can be seen in the Faction Spoiler graphic, Ty "Tuff" Murray's special ability fully activates when in Close Combat with a Murder of Horrors Stack that is at least seven Tiles tall.


Monkey Island Cult: Secluded on the nearby islet of Monkey Island, the Monkey Island Cultists have been living there for years in preparation for the apocalypse. Their banana-fevered brains initially convinced them that, yes, the arrival of the super-storm and resulting chaos on nearby Plum Island was the sign for which they had been waiting. Jumping aboard their numerous Gilligan’s Island-style rafts, while being escorted by their specially-trained Rhesus monkeys riding even more specially-trained dolphins, they landed on Plum Island to partake in the festivities. Unfortunately, their definition of “partaking” became somewhat fuzzy when the first monk to land on Plum Island was eviscerated by a wandering Horror. Thus, they decided instead to assist the Plum Islanders in fighting off the oncoming hordes. Unfortunately for the islanders, the cultist monks and their entourage were not very well practiced in their preferred method of fighting—the summoning of demons from the Old World.

The sample unit from the Monkey Island Cultitsts faction is their intrepid leader, David Larry. He personally trained the monkeys and dolphins on the island (but he had nothing to do with those silly novice cultist monks). And his power of precognition is demonstrated by his “Curbed Enthusiasm” Leader Ability, which allows him to re-draw a Fate Card if adjacent to a faction unit during the Monkey Monk Cult’s Follow action. Pretty cool!


Z.Z.’s Big Top Circus: Hey, who wouldn’t welcome some friendly clowns into their boardgame, right? They’re not scary at all. Our researchers found out that the circus was in town during the catastrophe! We missed it the first time around because, well, frankly, very few people attended this rather dismal and low-budget circus (for example, they only had two rings instead of three). The Z.Z.’s Big Top Circus faction has an interesting variety of characters who will each perform their specialty acts in an effort to rid Plum Island of the Horrors as quickly as possible, so they can re-open the Big Top…to almost no one.

You’ll notice this faction has two sample units. The first is the eagle-eyed Fannie Oakley who can run and still shoot the eyebrow off of a cockroach (yes, she actually did that while fighting a hideous new Mutation unit—see below). The other unit is the faction’s Compound, the Clown Car—another Compound that can conduct movement. It has great handling and thus can dodge the Horrors niftily and has an unlimited capacity for housing Civilians Units (of course).


I won’t reveal all the details of this mode, other than we take no responsibility for any physical or mental injuries that may occur while trying to play the game using it. But be warned—you will hurt yourself if you are not careful! For example, you will now lose EPs every time a Civilians Unit die. Areas will no longer Replenish during Night Game Rounds so once they’re exhausted, they stay exhausted for the entire game and you’ll have to keep moving to scrounge for Supplies. Oh and if you thought these big, slow stacks of Murder of Horrors were not scary… think again! These are just a few of the adjustments that truly tone up the game difficulty!


We have a plethora of other goodies being added to the game. Most of it is bad…really bad…and that makes me happy. But the “powers that be” have twisted my arm and forced me, against my will, to add some positive stuff as well. Without going into too many details, we have:More Search Cards (most of them good)More Event Cards (unilaterally bad)A new type of Fate Card result (the dreaded “H.O.V. Lane” tied to everyone’s favorite Route 41)More VIP Civilians (like the Civil War Reenactors, the Ancient Aliens guy, and more)A semi-cooperative mode of play (in case you and your friends really don’t like cooperating with one another all that much)More Mutations (like the Reanimated Grizzly Bear, who you can see in the sample image, and Frenzied Cockroaches—yuck!)The new Alpha Horror Tiles (extremely bad tiles that supercharge a Murder of Horrors stack)More Civilians (so there’s plenty of nourishment for the Horrors)The new “Booby Trap” Special Combat Marker (very good—if your timing is right)New short scenarios (for those of you who actually have lives and can’t spend all day playing silly boardgames)And more!…I just added that because every promotional ad does itSo, there you have it—theMore of a Bad Thing expansion for The Plum Island Horror. I hope you like what you see, and if you don’t, well, too late, it’s printed! We’re hoping that these additions will make the game an even richer experience for you and your gaming group. And yes, it does irk me to the extreme to hear that people are actually winning the game. This is unacceptable, and honestly, it’s the only reason that I have agreed to emerge from my cave of solitude to design more stuff. I hope, with all my heart, that the game becomes more difficult and annoying for you to play. Good gaming! - Hermann