UD Con XXIV: Chrono Con

This weekend, I'll once again be demoing Daikaiju Director at UD Con. The theme of this year's con is time travel since Daylight Saving Time is happening Sunday night. Despite those pesky time travelers stealing a precious hour of our time, there's going to be more opportunities to play Daikaiju Director this year than ever before!

How is this possible you ask? Well, thanks to our good friends at Ohio Gaming Brigade we will be demoing the game in it's latest and greatest form as well as playtesting 4 brand new monsters for 11 hours at the con!

OGB is taking the success of their first Dayton Designed event and bringing it to UD Con! Several talented game designers from the area will be bringing their games including Galatune, Bellum, Dwarven Defenders, and more. Here at Hot Tomaly Games we are honored to get to show off Daikaiju Director alongside so many fantastic creations. We also can't wait to unveil our new monsters to the world!

Dayton Designed is taking place in the Atrium at the following times:

• Friday: 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM
• Saturday: 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM

The con is free and so is parking on weekends. We recommend parking in B Lot at the University of Dayton off of Stewart St since it is the closest to the Science Center. We hope to see you there and until next time: keep the good times rolling!

DayCon and Other Convention Appearances

First and foremost, I apologize for my lack of online activity. It's been a very busy start of the year, and I've been hard at work at Hot Tomaly Games LLC.

In addition to working on Daikaiju Director and Kaiju Crisis: a Monster Megagame, I've started a company to organize all of the business aspects of the games I'm designing. There will be more information on Hot Tomaly Games and what we're doing in the near future.

Now that I've got all my kaiju in a row, look forward to much more communication and content from me. I'm going to be continuing my Heisei Series Reviews and look for part 2 of "What's in a MEGAGAME?" sometime in the coming weeks.

In other news, I will be demoing Daikaiju Director at DayCon this Saturday and I hope to see some of you there. I'm slotted for 9:30am so hurry up and register. If that time doesn't work for you, I'm sure we will run into each other at some point Saturday. I'll be wearing a white Daikaiju Director hat. Feel free to come up and say hi!

If you can't make DayCon, I will be part of Ohio Gaming Brigade's Dayton Designed event at UD Con March 10-12th, and WittCon on March 25th.

Anyways, sorry again for the long silence and short update. Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

What's in a MEGAGAME - Part 1

This November I opted out of participating in National Novel Writing Month and instead decided to scratch my creative itch by trying my hand at National Game Design Month (which has a WAY cooler abbreviation: NaGaDeMon). I've recently become interested in megagames like Watch the Skies so I started work on "Kaiju Crisis: a Monster Megagame." If you don't know what Watch the Skies or a megagame is watch this video by Shut Up and Sit Down.

A few years ago, I wrote a two part piece about designing Daikaiju Director. Here's part 1 and part 2 if you're unfamiliar with them, but they're not required reading for this series. In this post I hope to cover some of the basic challenges and inspirations of designing Kaiju Crisis. Part two will cover more general megagame design anecdotes.

Inspirations

My main inspirations for this game fall into two categories: games and movies. If it wasn't for Watch the Skies, I wouldn't know what a megagame is so that's definitely a big one. The similarities are readily apparent in the game/subgame structure, but there are some key differences mainly in the way kaiju play vs. how the aliens work. The science and united nations subgames are combined and expanded in the Anti-Kaiju Taskforce subgame. I feel that the tech tree provides much more concrete benefits and risks, but I'll let the eventual play testing decide that.

The other game that's inspired me to tackle this project is Daikaiju Director and all of it's previous iterations and ideas. While Kaiju Crisis is very different from Daikaiju Director, a lot of the ideas I was toying with in the early days of its design have found a home. Where Daikaiju Director focuses on monster on monster combat, Kaiju Crisis focuses on destruction on a global scale and humanity's reaction to the monster threat. It also takes itself more seriously than the "making a monster movie" theme of Daikaiju Director. That's not to say that the game is devoid of humor, it's just a disaster simulation instead of a tokasatsu simulation.

As for the movies that have directly inspired Kaiju Crisis, the game is definitely most inspired by Toho's 1968 movie, Destroy All Monsters. The global destruction caused by the multitude of kaiju attacking simultaneously around the world is just the atmosphere Kaiju Crisis tries to capture. I also tried to emulate humanity's evolving response to monsters over the course of years fighting theme as seen in the Heisei Era Godzilla films. I re-watched all of these films as inspiration for mechanics and tech tree items while I was designing this game. While watching these movies, I wrote some reviews which you can read here and here. I'll be posting my review of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991) next week.

Challenges

Creating a megagame had a lot of challenges. Some of them I expected, and others completely blindsided me. (Which is part of the reason I didn't completely finish the game this past month)

First and foremost of these is that you've got to play a lot of games to design a game and unfortunately I haven't had a lot of opportunities to play a megagame. I greatly look forward to participating in Ohio Gaming Brigade's Watch the Skies event in January, and I expect that I'll make a huge revision to Kaiju Crisis after playing. I encourage anyone in the Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky area to check it out. Chances to play a megagame in the US are few and far between unlike in the UK.

Second, HOLY MOLY, creating a megagame is a lot of work! Not only are you designing multiple games that need to accommodate 20+ players and cohesively fit together, there's page long briefings that need to be written for each player. All of these briefings are unique and require quite a bit of thought put into them. While this made designing this game take way longer than expected, it has been a very rewarding and fun process. I look forward to seeing Kaiju Crisis play out for the first time sometime next year.

In Closing

November Game Design Month has been a challenging and rewarding experience. Expect part 2 of this series later this month and until then, get your kaiju fix by checking out some of my Heisei Godzilla movie reviews. I'll be highlighting more of their influences of both Daikaiju Director and Kaiju Crisis in future entries. Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

Heisei Series Review Part 2: Godzilla vs Biollante

Continuing our series of reviews of the Heisei Godzilla movies, this week I present to you my review of 1989's Godzilla vs Biollante. This time around we can really get a feel for the changes in humanity's (particularly Japan's) response to giant monsters. If you haven't read my review for 1984's the Return of Godzilla you can find it here. I recommend watching it before Godzilla vs Biollante in order to understand this film better. As I said last time: There will be spoilers, but do we really watch giant monster movies for the plot anyways? Well, for this one... Maybe.

Background

If you haven't read my last review in the Heisei Series, I'll give an even briefer overview of what the Heisei Series is. It's the series of 7 Godzilla movies made from 1984 to 1995 that rebooted the franchise and features a tighter continuity than the old Showa era films of the 60s and 70s. Of the 15 films in the Showa Series, only the original 1954 Gojira remains canon.

Godzilla vs Biollante picks up right after the Return of Godzilla with teams of Japanese scientists and a malicious American paramilitary team digging through the rubble of Tokyo for Godzilla tissue samples. After a brief shootout and a cut to a fictional Middle-Eastern country named Sardia, the movies returns to 1989 to introduce the audience to a more competent and prepared Japan. In the 5 years since Godzilla was "trapped" in Mt Mihara, Japan has made great strides in computer science, materials, lasers, genetic engineering, and more. If Godzilla returns again, they will be ready... Or so they think.

This movie features some interesting themes of environmentalism and ethics. Cloning and genetically modified organisms were just becoming reality at this point in time. Humilin, or synthetic insulin produced by modified bacteria, had just hit the market in 1982, and the first mammal had been cloned via nuclear transfer in 1984. The ethics and responsible use of such technology was on everyone's mind as science fiction became science fact. The monster opposing Godzilla in this entry, Biollante, is a manifestation of everyone's worst fears regarding these developments being a hybrid of human and rose DNA inserted into Godzilla cells.

Review

For this review, I watched Godzilla vs Biollante in Japanese with subtitles since I hadn't seen it in that format before. Most of these reviews will be for the English dub of the film since that is the only version I own. (I know, sacrilege for kaiju fans.) I did find that the dialogue in this version was much more natural and informative, and I'd recommend watching it this way if subtitles don't bother you too much.

This movie is good, like really good. Critically, it's probably the best of the Heisei Series, and it's personally my second favorite. (My favorite being the emotional conclusion to the Heisei Series: Godzilla vs Destroyah) It's got wonderful effects, a fresh storyline, amazing monster design, and a good human plot line. Toho was truly firing on all cylinders when they made this movie.

While the Return of Godzilla isn't a bad movie, Godzilla vs Biollante is superior to the preceding film in just about every way. Godzilla looked much better this time around than the occasionally derpy-eyed version from the 1984 film. Also, I can't recall seeing any wires during my viewing, which is more than I can say for some of the later entries in the Heisei Series. The human characters are compelling and the plot is solid. In other words, if you were turned off of the campy monster movies with crappy effects from the 60s and 70s, give this movie a shot!

Let me break my thoughts down even further with some special emphasis on the titular villain: Biollante and the reason for this series: the human response

Biollante

Biollante is one of Godzilla's strangest foes to ever grace the silver scene, and my favorite monster design in this era. As an amalgamation of Godzilla cells, rose DNA, and DNA from Dr Shiragami's deceased daughter, she has one of the most convoluted origins of any kaiju. Biollante evolves throughout the course of the film from a strange looking rose to the magnificent beast pictured below.

Biollante

Biollante towers 40 meters above Godzilla, making Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors look like a common dandelion. She is for the most part stationary, but her massive size and insane reach make her a formidable foe nonetheless. It is theorized by Dr Shiragami that Godzilla is inexorably drawn to Biollante because they are essentially the same being due to being made of the same cells. Whether this is true or not, Godzilla seeks out Biollante wherever she manifests. The two clash and at the end of the day Godzilla triumphs. However, Biollante's neigh indestructible "Godzilla cells" survive and are cast into the depths of space to plague humanity again someday. (But not in a way that you would expect!)

All in all, Biollante is a fantastic foe for Godzilla, and I wish she was featured in more movies.

The Human Response

As I said before, Japan is thoroughly more prepared this time around then when Godzilla attacked in 1984. The JSDF has a lot of new toys including, but not limited to: computer science, robotics, advanced materials, biology, genetics, lasers, and ESP. That's right, psychics try to stop Godzilla. They aren't successful this time, but they return in later films with greater abilities. While the rest of the world isn't really featured this time around, we get the sense that humanity as a whole is not going to be caught off guard again. If Godzilla or another monster rears its ugly head humanity will be ready for it.

After a quick scene in the Osaka Bay to highlight the fact that conventional military can't deal with Godzilla, the JSDF deploys the new and improved Super X2.

Super X2

This version of the Super X is built from the remains of the original, but vastly improved. The new alloy armoring the Super X2 is twice as strong. This craft is also semi aquatic and piloted remotely, giving it greater reach and removing the pilots from harms way. The most impressive upgrade is the "Fire Mirror," which is made of synthetic diamonds. The "Fire Mirror" allows the Super X2 to reflect Godzilla's atomic blast back at him with more intensity, literally fighting fire with fire.

All of these improvements to the Super X show that humanity is getting better at dealing with giant monsters. This film also debuted the blue MBT-92 Maser Cannons, which are direct improvements to the red Hyper Laser Cannons used to distract Godzilla in 1984. Masers are continually upgraded and used against giant monsters throughout the Heisei Series.

The last new anti-kaiju weapon that appears in Godzilla vs Biollante is the Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria, or ANEB. This bacteria was genetically engineered from Godzilla's DNA to create an enzyme that broke down nuclear material making cleaning up fallout from a nuclear plant disaster, atom bomb, or Godzilla attack simple. This bacteria is weaponized and loaded into rockets, which are shot into Godzilla by a crack commando team. After a little coaxing (aka raising Godzilla's body temperature with masers, microwave mines, and a man-made lightning storm) it almost kills Godzilla and forces him to hibernate underwater where it is cool enough to make the ANEB go dormant again.

How Did This Film Influence Daikaiju Director?

When I first started working on Daikaiju Director in 2014, it was much more of a scenario based game that emulated specific movies, than the multiplayer free for all monster fighting game it has become. Godzilla vs Biollante as well as the American 2014 Godzilla were direct influences on the 3 player scenario I was working on where two players played as opposing monsters and the third player played as the ever evolving military.

While this type of gameplay hasn't made it's way into the current incarnation of Daikaiju Director, different game "modes" are being tested now. A military mechanic or player has always been something I've wanted to include, and I'm still coming up with new ideas everyday. I look forward to incorporating these elements back into the game now that the core game has been balanced.

What's Next?

That's it for this entry. Tune in next time for my review of 1991's Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, a very controversial entry in the Heisei Series. I'll also be posting soon about my National Game Design Month project so be on the lookout for that. Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

Heisei Series Review Part 1: The Return of Godzilla

As I posted on Facebook last month that I wanted to start increasing and diversifying posts on the Daikaiju Director website. This is the first in what I hope to be a long line of fun kaiju movie reviews with a special look at how each film influenced the design of Daikaiju Director. I'm going to begin with a series of reviews looking at the Heisei Godzilla movies paying special attention to the evolving human response to the threat of Godzilla and other giant monsters. The first film that I'll be reviewing is 1984's the Return of Godzilla. There will be spoilers, but do we really watch giant monster movies for the plot anyways?

Background

Before I start I want to layout some background information regarding the Return of Godzilla and the Heisei era in general. If your a big kaiju movie buff then you probably already know all of this so feel free to skip to the next section.

What is Heisei Godzilla? For the sake of brevity, the Heisei era includes the 7 Godzilla movies made from 1984 to 1995. This series is characterized by practical effects and tight continuity, which is why it's such a great opportunity to examine how humanity's response to giant monsters changes and evolves over time.

The Heisei Series named after current political era in Japan, which started in 1989. Yes, I know that doesn't make total sense since the Return of Godzilla was released in 1984, but just go with it. Technically the later Millennium series and Legendary series also take place in the Heisei era of Japan, but they aren't considered part of of the Heisei film series. Confusing, I know. Maybe I should do a Kaiju History post sometime down the road...

Anyways, the Return of Godzilla is the first entry in the Heisei Series. It ignores all previous Godzilla movies besides the original 1954 film, Gojira. If you can't stand the cheesiness of some of the older films, then this is the perfect jumping on point. This movie can be enjoyed without having seen any other Godzilla movies. The only thing to keep in mind for younger viewers is that this movie was made in the middle of the Cold War and it pulls a lot from the politics of the time. This movie has only recently been made available on DVD and Bluray so it is finally easily accessible in America.

The Review

After 9 years out of the spotlight, the King of Monsters makes a triumphant return in the Return of Godzilla. While I normally prefer my kaiju films to feature the clash of two or more titanic monsters, this solo outing hits all of the right notes with me. It has the ridiculous monster movie science that I love and an interesting conflict centered around the awkward complexities of Japan's position during the Cold War.

The conflict of the movie is threefold. In one theater, you have Japan dealing with Godzilla's first appearance in 30 years. The atomic horror that is Godzilla has returned to a vulnerable Japan. The Japanese government isn't entirely caught off guard though. They quickly re-purpose the anti-nuclear aircraft, Super X, to deal with Godzilla instead of a  Russian or American attack. With its titanium-platinum alloy hull and newly added cadmium missiles, it represents the government's best hope at defeating the King of Monsters. While I can't speak to the actual properties of the platinum titanium alloy they used, cadmium is used in real world nuclear reactors to slow and control the reaction. It makes sense that these missiles would be particularly effective against Godzilla and his nuclear powered biology.

The second conflict involves the two super powers of the era: the USA and the USSR. As Japan scrambles to repel Godzilla's attack, these two countries send representatives to urge Japan to allow them to nuke Godzilla. They both say that they want to strike him while he's in the Sea of Japan, but they won't hesitate if he moves into Tokyo as projected. Obviously hits a sore spot for Japan given not only Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the plethora of nuclear tests that inspired the 1954 Godzilla movie.

Given the Cold war politics and a anti-nuclear super aircraft, how could this get any crazier? Well the third facet of the conflict involves a group of scientists that want to lure Godzilla into a volcano using birds. Yes, you read that right. The heroes of the film try to trick Godzilla into falling into a volcano by manipulating the same magnetic navigation instinct that birds have. While his magnetic navigation instinct never comes up again in the Heisei series, it does set the stage for the monster mind control technology exhibited in the later films.

All things considered, this is a serious monster movie with some great cinematic moments. While the characters are sometimes forgettable and the science can be hilariously inaccurate, it's miles better than many of the Godzilla movies Toho gave us in the 70s. It's an excellent reboot for my favorite franchise and one of the top 3 Godzilla movies I'd recommend to monster movie newbies.

How Did This Film Influence Daikaiju Director?

It didn't, at least not yet. I began development on Daikaiju Director 2 years ago and I only watched the Return of Godzilla for the first time in September. As I tinker with the military faction and armed response deck this movie will definitely leave it's mark. I want the human military player to have a variety of avenues of attack. Much how the government in the movie argues between deploying Super X, luring Godzilla into a volcano, and using nuclear weapons, I want interesting choices to be the hallmark of the human player. I'll delve more into this later in this series where I talk about the variety of super weapons developed to defeat Godzilla.

What's Next?

The next entry into this series will examine 1989's Godzilla vs Biollante and how humanity ramps up it's response to Godzilla. I hope this review was informative, and if you haven't seen the Return of Godzilla I hope you give it a shot. Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

Dayton Designed: The Aftermath

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to run a playtest with other local game designers at Ohio Gaming Brigade's Dayton Designed event. It was a resounding success. The event itself went amazing and we got a ton of great feedback. If you made it out and got to play Daikaiju Director, thank you! If you didn't, fret not. Ohio Gaming Brigade will be running similar events in the future and Daikaiju Director will be making appearances at other gaming conventions. We want to thank Star City Brewery for hosting the event, Ohio Gaming Brigade for organizing it, and all of the playtesters for making it as amazing as it could be!

Now on to the nitty gritty...

The Good

We got to show off the new Daikaiju art last Saturday and people responded very positively to it. The artist did a fantastic job and we will be showing each piece off as they get colored by our colorist. As said before, this playtest went amazing! People were so excited to play Daikaiju Director that we had a line that we couldn't get through with the time allotted. Next time we hope to have more copies of the prototype and more tables so everyone gets a chance to play. The people who did play only had positive things to say and there were more than a few epic moments that surprised everyone at the table, like the Double Earthquake!

When the player playing Vulcanus played "What a Twist" before dropping "Earthquake" everyone at the table knew something big was happening. After demolishing most of the city with excellent attack rolls, the player just laughed and said, "I do it again."

The second "Earthquake" was just as effective as the first and helped cement his lead in Ratings Points. At that point, the other players began to gang up on Vulcanus, but it was too late in the game. A few double-crosses and failed attack rolls later, Vulcanus emerged victorious in the third and final game of the night.

The Bad

Two obvious issues arose at Dayton Designed. The first is that when teaching the game to new players, they often didn't know how to best utilize their Daikaiju's specific strengths and abilities. This is normal for any game that people are unfamiliar with. This led to a few players mimicking other players' moves to their own detriment. This will hopefully be mitigated by improved Daikaiju cards that have strategy suggestions and a story blurb for each monster. Unfortunately, this issue meant that sometimes, monsters didn't perform to the best of their ability and feedback was skewed towards monsters that weren't necessarily as good or bad as players thought. We realize now that feedback isn't always helpful when it's just "Eelian felt the most powerful" and "Vulcanus won this game" unless it's put into proper context. More about that in a future article though...

The second problem we had was in one game the scene counter got bumped and nobody noticed. This led to a game lasting somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 turns instead of the usual 10. While it was great that the testers enjoyed playing Daikaiju Director so much that they didn't mind playing a more, the people waiting to play were understandably unhappy about this. In an effort to mitigate the risk of such a thing happening in the future we are switching from a scene counter die to a large card with a track printed on it. We will also use this track to mark each player's Ratings Points, which hopefully will help clear up player's positions relative to each other.

The Ugly Gi-Ant Elephant in the Room

Or lack thereof we should say. In our last post we promised a playtest of the new Gi-Ant variant at Dayton Designed. Unfortunately, we didn't feel that it was ready in time for the playtest and elected to just run normal games of Daikaiju Director. It will happen in the future, but it needs a few things before we are confident in sharing this new variant with the world:

1. It needs to be complete and tested by the designers of the game. We don't want to give you an unfinished, broken product to play with.
2. It needs the space to be played. As we are focusing on finishing the core game, we don't want to sacrifice play space for the core game to test a variant that probably won't be included at launch.
3. It needs to look good. With the quality prototypes presented thus far, we want Gi-Ant's twist deck and the Gi-Anthill prop to look like it belongs with the rest of the game. 

 That being said, we will be testing this variant along with others at future playtest events.

In Other News

We want to expand the content on this site so be on the lookout for more game design posts related to Daikaiju Director and other games in general. We will keep you updated on other fun events in the Dayton area as well as other cool games being made around here. In addition to that, since research for this game requires multiple viewings of every kaiju film we can get our hands on, be on the lookout for movie reviews! We plan on review individual films as well as series while providing insight into their historical context and their influence on Daikaiju Director. Hopefully this diversification in content will expand our audience and entertain you guys, the readers.

That's all for now. Check out the Facebook page and Twitter for more updates and keep the good times rolling!

Dayton Designed: a Playtest with Other Local Game Designers

If you've been keeping up with the news we've posted on the Facebook page, then you know that the Ohio Gaming Brigade is hosting a playtest night for local Dayton game designers. Daikaiju Director will be there along with many other great games like Galatune, Bellum, and Just Got Real. I'm excited to have the opportunity to showcase a game I've been working so hard on for the past 2 years alongside so many other talented designers.

The details for the event itself can be found here, but the gist of it is that the Ohio Gaming Brigade is running this event at Star City Brewery on Saturday October 22nd from 6pm to 10:30pm. Star City Brewery is a great family friendly establishment that I've frequented myself many times in the past. They have great beer, a fantastic atmosphere, and an extensive board game library that is available to use if play testing is filled up or just not your style. There will also be a raffle with some pretty neat prizes.

As of right now, there will be two regular games of Daikaiju Director games for people to play was well as a never before played 5 person variant featuring the original 4 Daikaiju teaming up to take on the King of the Ant-Hill himself, Gi-Ant, and his newly redesigned Mut-Ant swarm. I recommend everyone who is looking for something to do that evening to come check it out and support local designers. Hope to see you there!

UD Con XXIII: Mad Scientist Con

It's that time of the year again. UD Con is just on the horizon, and I am excited to announce that we will be having not 1, but 2 playtests there this year! That's a 100% increase in kaiju awesomeness from last year!

Click the image below to for more details about UD Con XXIII: Mad Scientist Con

FASFAC is hosting the Con in the Science Center on UD's campus this year March 4th through 6th. If you want to playtest Vulcanus, Space Hunter X, Eelian, and Fenrir come to the Fishbowl between 7 and 8 pm Friday. If you want to tryout 4 never before tested Daikaiju then come to the Fishbowl between noon and 2 pm Saturday. If you're at the convention but can't make those times, find me and I'm sure we can get a game started at an open table.

I'll also be running a panel about giant monster movies for beginners at 9:30 pm Friday in Room 119. Whether your a total newbie or a kaiju film veteran, it's sure to be a blast. Hope to see you there!

Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

An Actual Playtest for Ants

This past weekend I hosted an amazing playtest with some awesome individuals. The purpose of the test was to see how the changes made after the Gen Con Playtest held up while introducing a new monster: Gi-Ant.

Gi-Ant is unlike any other Daikaiju introduced thus far. What started as a joke from the Gen Con Playtest has turned into a monster that may go on to become a fan favorite. It could be said that he is a synthesis of Eelian and Vulcanus, but don't let that fool you! While it's true Gi-Ant can burrow to escape danger and cause city shattering earthquakes like Vulcanus, his real strength lies in his ability to spawn tiny Mut-Ants!

These Mut-Ants are terribly hard to balance. Expanded action economy is no joke in a game like Daikaiju Director. I want the Mut-Ants to provide an obvious benefit to Gi-Ant, without breaking the game, and I believe I almost hit the mark. Gi-Ant didn't win any of the games in his debut playtest, but he was a force to be reckoned with and a lot of fun to play. He'll definitely need to be tweaked before the final release, but there's a solid foundation to build from.

Now on to things that were completely broken...

If you follow the Facebook page, then you probably know that Daikaiju Director had its first kaiju kill in scene 1. This all happened in the first game of the playtest! Fenrir moved, pounced on Eelian, and then played an impressive combo of Twist Cards that ended up doing 6 damage to the space snake thanks to Fenrir's "Vicious" passive ability. Veterans of playtests past have commented on how Fenrir is either really good, or really bad. He's a glass cannon kaiju killer. After this I'm leaning towards believing he's either too good or too bad. I'm going to make some slight changes to his offensive and defensive capabilities, while hopefully maintaining the spirit of the monster.

The other games highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the other monsters. We had a very even spread of winners throughout the afternoon. Only 2 out of 4 of the playtesters had played Daikaiju Director before, and one of them had only played it at the first UD Con Playtest. Needless to say the game has changed quite a bit since then! We were also joined by a fellow game designer, Zac Reed, who has his own game, Life is Card, available on DriveThruCards.com

Please check out Life is Card here!

One of the best moments for me this past weekend was to see the playtesters have so much fun playing Daikaiju Director. Despite minor necessary rules clarifications and balance issues, everyone had a blast, and at the end of the day that's what gaming is all about.

If you don't already, Like Us on Facebook as well as Life is Card. I should be updating soon with details about this year's UD Con playtest along with some other exciting announcements. I'm currently looking for an artist to help with some concept art. If you know someone or are interested yourself please email Daikaiju Director. Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

November Update

Hey Daikaiju Director fans! I know it's been a while since I last posted so I decided it was time for an update despite not having much to report.

There's not much going on in the development of the game at the moment, but I should be starting a new round of playtesting of the original 4 Daikaiju alongside 5 brand new monsters sometime in December/January. I'm also working on getting some concept art put together so look forward to seeing some images of the monsters you know and even some you don't in the near future.

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month again so I'm busier than ever. Any updates this month will be brief, but after November I might start posting some short fiction featuring the monsters of Daikaiju Director. I'll have to see if writing 50,000 words in a month inspires more creativity or burns me out.

Until then keep checking the site, Twitter, and Facebook for all things related to Daikaiju Director and giant monster movies in general.

Gen Con: "What is This? A Playtest for Ants?"

When they say that GenCon is "the best 4 days in gaming," they aren't joking. It was simply amazing. All of the play test slots went fantastic. Seriously, it was better than we could've ever hoped and thank you so much to everyone who participated or showed interest in Daikaiju Director. I want to especially thank Double Exposure Inc for running the First Exposure Playtest Hall so smoothly. We learned a lot and had a blast. Over 50 games were played over two days by 32 people, and we got a huge amount of feedback.

So what exactly did we learn?

Where's the Ants?

Due to a quirk with the typography of the play test slips, some people thought the were signing up for an strategy board game based on "Ant Monster Movies." With Ant Man in theaters this undoubtedly helped to a attract a few more playtesters and it inspired me to create another monster to be included in the game's release. But more on that later...

Players were very excited to play the 4 different monsters, but they wanted more. Whether they were taken straight from the Godzilla franchise or unique new monsters 1/4th of the playtesters explicitly asked for more Daikaiju in the questionnaires I handed out at the end of the play test slots. This is great because Space Hunter X, Eelian, Fenrir, and Vulcanus are just the tip of the iceberg. I really want Daikaiju Director to grow, and I've got 8 more monsters to playtest.

A Lot of People are Interested in a Kickstarter

A lot of people were interested in investing in a Kickstarter, which is fantastic. It was great to see so much support from complete strangers. Originally I was planning on starting a Kickstarter around tax return season 2016, but I don't think that's feasible anymore. I'm getting married next summer and I frankly don't think I'll have the time to get Daikaiju Director into investors' hands and on store shelves is a reasonable time-frame. I've got to push any Kickstarter or crowdfunding effort back to 2017, but don't be alarmed. This just means I'll have a bigger, more refined game when the time comes to actually produce it.

The Look

Comments on the look of Daikaiju Director varied greatly. It is going to change substantially as we get closer to the finished product. It's going to look sharper and a lot more professional. Specialized art for every twist card as well as monster art for every daikaiju is going to be commissioned. The prototype we had at GenCon was just a taste of what the finished product will be.

Game Length and Complexity

From all of the data we gathered, I believe the game length is pretty much perfect. People who had a lot of fun thought the length of games was either too short or great. People who didn't have as much fun playing thought it was a tad too long. Time flies when you're having fun. I'll include rule for modifying game length in the final release, but I think 10 scenes is pretty close to perfect. The complexity appears to be at a happy medium of not too simple and not too difficult. Those that had more fun with the game found it more simple than those that had less fun.

Randomization of the Set

More than a few people asked if the board could be rearranged or randomized. With the prototype this wasn't possible, and honestly I'm not sure randomization will be possible with the final version. I do want multiple map configurations, both to accommodate various numbers of players and to provide a multitude of scenarios. Balanced gameplay is paramount in any game, and set configuration is one area of Daikaiju Director that needs to be carefully redone. I'm working on it, and the base game is shaping up to have around 6 or so configurations, possibly more.

Wording Clarifications and Balance Tweaks

Of course, the main purpose of this play test was to uncover any wording or balance issues, and there were about as many as I expected.  Eelian's attack needs to be raised and Fenrir's defense needs to go up as well. Earthquake's range needs to be reduced one space and the wording on Vulcanus' water weakness needs to be completely redone.

Overall, most people thought Eelian was weak and under-powered compared to the other monsters, despite winning the most games. Fenrir was also viewed as under-powered in games where he died early, but overpowered in games where he stuck around until the end. This is probably caused by playtester playstyles conflicting with the Daikaiju's playstyle, but I am making some adjustments to try and make them more consistently balanced. Vulcanus was the second most frequently suggested weakest monster, which surprised me since in previous playtests he was consistently singled out as the most powerful by a large margin. I must have overcompensated in the most recent revision.


That's all for this update. I'm going to continue to tweak and test Daikaiju Director as well as implement a lot of the feedback I got at GenCon. Thanks again to everybody who came out and played!

Sneak Peek of Gen Con: What's in the Box?

Continuing our series of Daikaiju Director sneak peeks leading up to Gen Con, I present to you the game box! Before I go into the reveal I wanted to inform everyone about our playtest slots in the First Exposure Playtest Hall. Come by Friday or Saturday at the below times to play some games or talk about Daikaiju Director.

Friday

• 8AM - 10AM
• 2PM - 4PM

Saturday

• 2PM - 4PM
• 6PM - 8PM

We hope to see you at Gen Con!

Anyways, on to what you came here for. Without further to do I present to you the new Daikaiju Director game box:

Snazzy, right? It's a much needed update to the old boxes from the UD Con playtest. It's got the new logo and some fancy art. There's also a blurb explaining what Daikaiju Director is all about. Now let's take a look inside.

It's a bit bigger than the original. There's room for all of the components. You can see the set tiles sitting snugly in the lower left compartment. The Twist Decks for all 4 daikaiju fit in the spot to the right. The daikaiju standees are just above the decks. That leaves the upper left compartment for everything else. There's the building and lava props, along with dice and the various counters for health, energy and ratings points. Below the box you can see the 4 daikaiju cards, more about those later...

What's this?

That's right folks! We've got 2 prototypes finished. That means that we will be running 2 games at the same time during our playtest slots! That's double the dose of Daikaiju Director!

That's all for this installment. We will probably have one more post before Gen Con so keep checking the blog, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twiter.

Sneak Peek of Gen Con: the Set

With only a few weeks between now and the Gen Con Playtest, I figured it's time to give everyone a taste of what to expect. Today's feature is all about the set. We've been hard at work creating new prototypes for playtesting. Check them out below!

Here's the configuration that we have been using for all of the play tests so far, including Gen Con. This configuration is made for 4 player games. The center of the set, which is the focus of all of the action, features a city nestled between two lakes. The rubble hexes are where building props are placed when you start the game, and the dark green spaces are Daikaiju starting positions.

Here it is in pieces. You can construct different sets with these set tiles. There are 3 main tile types.

• Starter Tile: These tiles are just a bunch green grass and don't have any special features besides the Daikaiju starting positions. There's 2 variations of this tile.
• Waterfront Tile: These tiles feature 1 building prop and a whole bunch of water. This hinders movement for non-aquatic monsters.
• City Tile: These tiles are the center of attention in every game of Daikaiju Director. The have 4 building props ready to be wrecked and a lot of space for Daikaiju to duke it out!

Up top there's the bases for the building props. Put three buildings in them and place the prop on the rubble spaces on the set. Then the game is ready to play!

Take a look at it all set up! Not a bad looking set. It'd be a shame if some angry giant monsters showed up and started breaking things... Actually that would be awesome!

Here's another shot of the set featuring some lava. Looks like the city is about to be burned down thanks to Vulcanus!

Well, that's all for this round of Gen Con Sneak Peeks. Stay tuned too see what we reveal next week and spread the word about Daikaiju Director. Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter before Gen Con @Daikaiju_Direct!

I'm Going to Disneylan-er I mean GenCon!

That's right folks! We're going to be at GenCon!

I'm excited to announce that Daikaiju Director will be having an official play test in the First Exposure Playtest Hall at GenCon Indy 2015. We haven't worked out all of the details yet so we can't say for certain when our test slots will be scheduled. I'll post that information as soon as it's set in stone. What I do know is that we will be running multiple games during our slots so make sure to tell your friends and stop by for some giant monster board gaming goodness!

Don't know what GenCon is? It's the best 4 days in gaming! 

Click this image for more info:

Follow us on Twitter @Daikaiju_Direct and help spread the word!

What a Twist!

Last time, I mentioned that Daikaiju Director is finally entering into it's beta version. With that comes some dramatic rules changes and interesting balance tweaks. The greatest of these being an overhaul to how Twist Cards work. As promised, here's the scoop on what's changing and what's staying the same.

Before, players played a single Twist Card at any point during the scene. They took effect immediately and were then discarded. It was simple an it worked, but it didn't always work right. Sometimes people forgot whether or not they had played a twist this scene. Sometimes they forgot what bonuses needed to be applied to combat. Sometimes they played Twist Cards at times that broke the game. These types of problems made the game less fun and they seemed to pop up every game.

Not anymore.

Here's how twists are going to work going forward:

1. You can still only play 1 twist a scene, but there are multiple types of twists that all function slightly differently.

2. You can only play Twist Cards on your turn, unless they are "Immediate Twists."

3. After you play a twist, it stays in play until the "Clean Up Phase" where it's discarded.

Clear as mud? Let's take a closer look at some actual Twist Cards!

This is what a normal Twist Card looks like. Cool redesign, right? The new card layout is jam packed with helpful information about every twist. Not only is there a name, card text, and some art like before, there's also a few new design changes that let you know more about the card. For example, the name of the Daikaiju this Twist Card belongs to is printed right below the card art.

Notice the twist symbol in the upper right-hand corner? That means that you can only play this card on your turn. That symbol is different depending on what type of Twist card you’re dealing with.

Unlike the previous card, this one has a lightning bolt symbol instead of a spiral. Veterans of the various playtests I’ve ran will recognize this card. It’s also the namesake of this post. This is what’s called an “Immediate Twist.” These are playable at any time, just like Twist Cards use to be in the alpha version of Daikaiju Director. Their effects take place immediately when they are played, hence the name.

This type of Twist Card is called a “Persistent Twist.” The symbol at the top is a roman numeral that indicates how many clean up phases it persists through, and it varies from card to card. This one happens to stick around for 3 turns.

This is an "Energy Twist." Each Daikaiju gets 1 in their twist deck. They're really powerful, but with a drawback. They have to to be played at the beginning of your turn, which can be a bit inconvenient. However, if you pay a certain amount of energy, then you can play them as if they are an Immediate Twist. That number is indicated both in the card text and next to the "e" symbol in the upper right.

That's enough about twists for now. If you have questions or comments please share them below in the comments section. 

Let's shift gears for a moment and talk about our growing social media presence. If you haven't already, follow us on Twitter @Daikaiju_Direct. Our official Facebook page went live yesterday. You can find that at https://www.facebook.com/DaikaijuDirector Tell your friends to like our page! We're trying to build a bigger fan base before we make a big announcement later this month.

C-c-combo Breaker or Combo Maker?

From time to time on the blog I talk about about things in metaphors or terms pulled straight from the film making process. Posts relating to changes in the Daikaiju Director brand can come from "the Producer's Desk" or when there's a break in content I will represent it as an "intermission." This is useful technique in explaining things and maintaining the overall aesthetic of the game, but it's not how I'm going to go about writing today's post.

Instead of looking at this update from a writer vs. director viewpoint like I initially envisioned, I'm just going to take the designer vs. developer route. It's simple, easy, and to the point so I'm going to drop the convoluted film metaphors for a moment and talk solely about how Daikaiju Director has evolved over the past month or so.

You've met all 4 of the starter daikaiju, you know the stories and trivia behind them, and you've already witnessed some stark transformations to the game. As both the designer and the developer, I am often at odds with myself when I try to keep a feature or mechanic as I originally intended throughout revisions. Some ideas have been in the game since its first iteration, but are becoming clunky, obsolete, or overpowered as Daikaiju Director evolves. It's becoming increasingly clearer that sometimes the developer in me has to tell the designer in me "no." This has happened from time to time like for example when I had to remove military units because they just weren't ready. Creative cool stuff doesn't always make for a better, more enjoyable gaming experience. Sometimes you've got to take a step back and ask yourself "is this really working?" So what does that mean for Daikaiju Director? Well I'll tell you!

It's time for Daikaiju Director Beta!

Let me explain. Up until now I've been working with Daikaiju Director Alpha. The numerous play tests we've ran with this version of the game have provided an enormous amount helpful data. Now it's time to implement and test the most promising changes to come out of the data. It's time for a whole new round of play testing with a whole new version of the game.

I'm revamping the way a core mechanic of Daikaiju Director works. The Daikaiju abilities are getting tweaked and even the rule book is getting rewritten. During this rewrite of the rule book I'm going to focus primarily on fixing a problem that's popped up in almost every single game of Daikaiju Director.

Twist Cards are an integral part of the game. They add an element of uncertainty and help differentiate the Daikaiju from each other. However, a lot of Twists don't work as intended. For example, Burrow was never meant to be used as a trick for escaping unfavorable combat, but with how the rules are written that is the best way to play the card. I could reword Burrow and the slew of other cards that shouldn't exactly be playable at any moment, but it not quite enough. There are other cards in the works for future monsters that can't function under the current framework for Twists. A drastic change in how twists work is necessary.

This post is getting a bit lengthy and I have a few more things I want to announce before I got into too much detail on this major gameplay change. Things are getting interesting for Daikaiju Director. I've got some events and play tests lined up for the near future that I'm really excited about. We're going to be making multiple Beta Test versions of the game for a couple of playtest groups across the country. A lot more people are going to be exposed to Daikaiju Director in the coming months and that's fantastic for both the quality and promotion of the game.

Speaking of promotion, Daikaiju Director finally has a twitter account. You can follow us @Daikaiju_Direct. We've also got an official Facebook page in the works so keep an eye out for that. I'll announce more about our social media presence in a later post. The blog here is also going to be getting a facelift with a bunch of new content that I think you will all enjoy. 

As always, thanks for supporting Daikaiju Director as it gets off to its rocky start. You guys and gals are the greatest! Tune in next time for a closer look at what exactly is happening with Twist Cards and an exciting announcement!

Daikaiju Spotlight: Vulcanus

Earth's explosive response to the recent, destructive arrival of two alien daikaiju, Vulcanus is lava made supernaturally sentient. Perplexed scientists are at a loss as to explain just how this impossible beast came into being, but leading theories point to Vulcanus being a previously unknown part of the planet's immune system. This destructive protector cares not for mankind or any living creatures in the animal kingdom. It's singular purpose seems to be eliminating the giant alien interlopers through brute force and it's mastery of geological phenomena. Since it's appearance, Vulcanus has ravaged city after city with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions chasing Eelian and Spacehunter X. Nothing can stand in his way!

The stage has been set for the clash of the kaiju! Vulcanus, Fenrir, Eelian, and Spacehunter X converge on the same battlefield and only one can be the victor! Will mankind survive their first contact with giant monsters?

Alright! We've finally got to Vulcanus in our Daikaiju Spotlight series. Remember when I said Fenrir was a fan favorite? Well this monster is THE fan favorite. Vulcanus has been picked first more often than any other daikaiju available at the various playtests I've ran.

But enough about his popularity, let me give you a breakdown of this lava master's -er I mean monster's evolution!

He started, as I've said before, with a mini. Here I was with a sentai looking robot, a space snake, a giant werewolf, and a lava guy. I knew I wanted a daikaiju that messed with the set and the lava guy seemed like a logical fit. So I created Igneous! Yeah, that's right, Vulcanus went through a name change just like Eelian, although his new name was picked by play testers and to this day I still sometimes call him Igneous by mistake.

Anyways, on to the mechanics. I had a lava monster who's shtick was going to be altering the terrain of the set. Obviously, I made him spew lava. The problem was, at least for the first Epic Games Contest playtest, that the rules for lava were not thought out very well. The player who played him sat down at the table and prophetically proclaimed "I'm going to break your game!" which is good and I'm glad he did. I just wish it would've been a bit more difficult. Vulcanus and his lava were Broken with a capital "B."

I hadn't given much thought to how lava actually worked in the game and my snap rulings on situations like "what happens when you 'Crack the Earth' in a space occupied by 3 building props" made it way too good. (Editor's Note: That ruling was that it destroyed all props instantly an awarded the player victory points for each prop.) I kept tweaking the rules for lava damage, but in all subsequent playtests players continued to state the obvious: Vulcanus was too good. His stats are perfect, but his lava ability along with Twist Cards like Earthquake and Burrow forced me to re-evaluate the way a lot of things worked in Daikaiju Director. A lot of play testers proposed a weakness to water as a way to balance out some of his advantages with an additional drawback besides his slow movement. These were all interesting ideas that have helped further the development of the game.

As the game continues to be tweaked and balanced, Vulcanus has been an immensely valuable indicator of just what need to be investigated or even changed.  He has a unique set-altering style of play that is a blast to experience, and I look forward to giving the fans the most fair and fun version of this problematic daikaiju. Vulcanus has truly been my greatest challenge in game development.

That covers the 4 daikaiju that you'll find in the game's first release, Daikaiju Director: First Contact. I'll be updating the "Meet the Monsters" portion of the site to include these terrific terrors! I've got an announcement to make in the next month or so, so stay tuned for more updates from your direct source for all things Daikaiju Director!

Daikaiju Spotlight: Fenrir

A ferocious beast ripped out of myth, built with science and given life through dark magic, Fenrir is not only a threat to mankind, but to other daikaiju alike! His insatiable appetite for destruction was instilled into his very essence by his neo-nazi techno-wizard creators. They summoned the Ur-Wolf's untamable spirit and bound it into a massive werewolf-like body that they had pieced together with genetic modification and profane surgical techniques. Using circuitry and magic to strengthen it into a worthy vessel and Dr Frankenstein's old methodology for animating dead tissue, this abomination is stronger than any natural creature this planet could produce. To further enhance Fenrir's capability to destroy, they sought out ancient god killing artifacts like the Spear of Longinus and even a fang from the original Fenrir of Norse mythology to create his claws and teeth. Now that two giant alien monsters have landed on Earth, the neo-nazi techno-wizards have unleashed this beast to not only save the planet, but conquer it too.

Fenrir, the "kaiju killer," has been a fan favorite since the beginning of Daikaiju Director. When I first started thinking about what different Daikaiju would be capable of in the game, I started a list of different archetypes and abilities that I thought were crucial to providing the most balanced and diverse gameplay possible. The first item on that list was a monster that dealt "increased damage vs. kaiju." When the time came to create the first monster for the game, I looked at that first item on the list and grabbed the meanest looking mini I had set aside for the Daikaiju Director prototype: a werewolf.

Fenrir seemed like a more than perfect name for a giant wolf-like armageddon-heralding daikaiju, so I borrowed the name from Norse Mythology and quickly drafted up his backstory. He got the Vicious ability, which made him deal extra damage to Daikaiju. This later got changed to just other actors in general when I decided to eventually add "extras" or smaller non-daikaiju units to the game. (More on that in a future installment!) Being combat oriented, I gave Fenrir the best attack modifier and more twist cards for modifying combat than any other daikaiju created thus far. I wanted him to be an unstoppable juggernaut when he got into a brawl with an adjacent daikaiju and these two things seemed like the most practical way of achieving this.

I was kind of wrong.

The extra combat modifying twist cards was later determined to be a boring idea. Even daikaiju with the normal amount of combat modifying twist cards drew them way too often. His original active ability, "Fight Dirty," allowed Fenrir to use a free extra Twist Card the turn it was activated. Either nobody used it because they never needed that extra boost in a fight, or they used it in conjunction with a particularly lucky hand to jump all over the set and make a bunch of attacks. The ability was either crap or way too good. There was no middle ground where it was just plain fun.

When something just isn't fun in your game, you've got to change it. Fenrir's Fight Dirty active ability got replaced by Pounce, an ability that let him use 1 action to move and attack. This turned out to be reminiscent of the lucky hand fueled, explosive uses of the old Dirty Fighting ability without being too powerful. Also, since Fenrir does not have an area of attack ability or twist, pounce functions as a way for this monster to hit more than one enemy on the set in a turn.

In the play tests I've run for family and friends as well as the ones open to the public at UD Con, Fenrir has consistently been a player favorite. His simple and ferocious play style is very appealing for players looking for a direct, straightforward win. There were initial concerns that dealing extra damage to other players on every hit was too strong since he could kill most other Daikaiju in 4 successful attacks or 2 turns if he is uninterrupted. However, it quickly became apparent that the amount of aggro his abilities attracted made him somewhat of a glass cannon if the player wasn't cautious. I foresee Fenrir being possibly too good in a 1 on 1 game, but I haven't done very extensive testing on that type of play as of yet.

Anyways, that's all for this round of Daikaiju Spotlight! Tune in next time for your first look at the explosive Vulcanus!

From the Producer's Desk: Logo Change!?

That's right folks! If you haven't noticed already or if you're a Futurian looking back through time, Daikaiju Director has a new snazzy logo courtesy my graphic artist. Here's a comparison: 

The old familiar logo:

The old logo incorporated everything I thought I wanted: the red-white-black color scheme as well as the kanji for "Daikaiju." However, there was a resounding consensus that the kanji (my favorite part of the logo) obscured the name too much. Since a logo's main purpose is to bring recognition to your brand, I decided to work with my graphic artist to increase it's readability.

Here's the new and improved logo:

As you can see, the new logo is much easier on the eyes while still including all of the elements I originally wanted in the Daikaiju Director logo. It took a lot of communication back and forth and probably 30+ different versions, but I am extremely satisfied with the end result. I hope you all are too!

Daikaiju Spotlight: Eelian

A mysterious terror from the depths if space, Eelian has set her sights on Earth to be the beginning of her new cosmic empire! Many millennia ago, her species once ruled much the galaxy with their mind controlling siren song and monstrous size before they were slowly driven to extinction. Eelian, the most ruthless and cunning of her kind, escaped her species' fate by going into a long hibernation in the vast void of space. As the last of her kind, now it is up to Eelian to remind the galaxy of the utter terror her species once wrought across the cosmos. She has begun slowly bending the pathetic humans to her will and establishing her dominance in Earth's oceans, but her machinations will not go on unopposed. Space Hunter X has followed her to this backwater world! Whether it's through the brute force of a thunderous tsunami or the mind bending music of her siren song, the giant interstellar bounty hunter has to be eliminated before she can continue with her plans for galactic conquest and stardom!

The idea for Eelian started to take shape even before Daikaiju Director reached its current incarnation. Back when the game was going to be a specific monster movie simulator and I was working on stating out Legendary's 2014 Godzilla and the MUTOs, I knew that I wanted to make my own monsters and scenarios. I had recently watched some episode of Godzilla the Animated Series and I was really inspired by King Cobra. I jotted down some notes and pretty much forgot everything about the character except that I wanted him to have a constrict and burrow ability.

Fast forward a month and a half: I had just started to make the first four daikaiju and I found a serpent-like mini. I instantly began to make a Daikaiju based on my old notes. I decided to ditch the burrow ability in favor of giving her more mobility in water. I knew water was going to be a special type of terrain and I wanted a character that had an advantage in it or could manipulate it. Manda, from Toho's 1963 film Atragon, is an aquatic snake-like dragon kaiju so I figured there was a precedence for this type of giant monster. Her origin quickly took form and I began to fill out her abilities. I added that weird constriction ability from my notes and some poison, and BOOM! Viper was born... 

Wait- Viper?! I thought we were talking about Eelian! 

Well, we are, but she went through some significant changes since her first incarnation (including a name change). Viper sounded too generic so I changed it. It wanted something that highlighted her giant "space snake" origin so I took the words "eel" and "alien" and mashed them together to get the punny "Eelian." 

The name was one of the last things I changed so let me take a few steps back and discuss the evolution of Eelian's abilities. Leading up to the first FASFAC playtest, I just couldn't figure out how to make poison work. I tried a few different things, but every solution I came up with either didn't feel like poison or it was too convoluted to work smoothly with the rules. I had 4 decks of 40 cards to make for the meeting that evening and I really didn't have that much time to mull it over (I actually cut the deck size down to 30 because I spent so much time on Viper). Swiftly running out of time, I ditched the poison ability and created what would become Eelian's iconic ability: the Siren Song.

The first FASFAC playtest convinced me that my wording for constrict was way off. Not a single player interperated it like I intended. I took that as a sign that it just wasn't working and I removed it like the burrow and poison abilities. Being rushed and messing up her abilities made Eelian what she is today: a fun character who wins through indirect and clever means. Her abilities are deceptively powerful and the UD Con playtest proved. She can outmaneuver most other monsters and use water greatly to her advantage. Pushing two daikaiju together to fight, pulling gravely injured daikaiju away from the action to score the killing blow, and making monsters take lava baths with the help of Vulcanus are all cool things that only the player controlling Eelian can do.

That's all for this installment of Daikaiju Spotlight. Tune in next week for more information on the mythical kaiju killer, the ferocious Fenrir