Laser Mummies!

Laser Mummies!

This past Gamestorm, Jake Richmond and I won second place in a design contest. The contest was a “Junk Drawer Design War” – the organizer brought six identical bins filled with identical parts, most of which were salvaged from other board games. Each team of contestants had an hour (or two? i don’t remember) to create a game based on some or all of the included parts. Teams could trade with other teams for more parts.

Our game was called Laser Mummies.

The following rules are those we came up with on the fly during the design contest. So, without Further ado…

LAZER MUMMIES!

So there’s a board like the one above, a numberless generic spinner, and a 20-point game round tracker. There’s a bag full of slothing size tags, labeled 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, S, M, L, and XXL. There’s a die from the Heroquest board game. There are two doorways from the Heroquest game. There are four Shield tokens, with numbers 1, 1, 2, and 3 on their backs. There’s a ruler to use for movement direction. And there are three Mummy figurines.

So there’s two players. Each has a mob of dudes they control, including a large handful of footmen, three elites, and one signature Big Hitter (these pieces were from Lord of the Rings Risk, I believe). Each side has two laser turrets.

GAME SETUP:

Each side places their Portals on their sides, and then places three of their footmen anywhere in their zone.

HOW TO WIN:

To win, accomplish any one of the following:
* Destroy Two Mummies
* End round 20 with the most points
* Direct a Mummy to destroy enemy’s gate; if enemy has no gate and no units in play, the enemy loses.

GAME FLOW:

Game flows in 20 rounds. In each round, both players get a turn. On a player’s turn, the player rolls a die. The die has three results, which do the following:

* Shield – Flip over a shield token, and gain that many Unit Points which must be spent immediately.
* Skull – Either add a new mummy to the field and immediately move it, or move all current mummies on the field.
* Black Sigil – Place a new laser on your side, and then ALL lasers on the board fire at the same time.

At the end of round 20, if no one has already won or lost, then use the points to determine winner.

UNIT POINTS:

When you flip a shield, you will get from 1 to 3 unit points which must be immediately used. A unit point allows you to move any single unit on the field in a straight line. Take the ruler and make a bee-line towards your target anywhere in the board. The moment the unit comes into physical contact with anything, it is halted. If the obstacle is an enemy unit, roll combat.

You can also use unit points to add new units to the board, placing them anywhere in your field. The cost in unit points is equal to the unit’s Value. You have unlimited footmen, but can only ever have a max of three elites and one Big Hitter on your side at any one time.

When all shields have been revealed, flip them back down and then mix them up, so they can be used again.

UNIT COMBAT:

When a unit encounters another unit, both sides roll dice based on that unit. The results:

* Skull – deal one normal hit to the opponent
* Shield – block one normal hit from your opponent
* Black Sigil – Poison hit! Deal a shield-bypassing hit to your opponent.

When a unit takes hits = it’s toughness, it is killed. When you kill a unit, you score points and that unit is returned to your opponent’s general unit pool.

MUMMY MANAGEMENT:

When a mummy is placed on the field, it begins in the center circle, and then immediately moves in a random direction. When a mummy moves, spin the spinner and then choose which mummy to move. The mummy then moves in that random direct until it hits an obstacle or encounters the game board edge. If it hits an object, it destroys whatever it hits, including other mummies. If it hits the edge, it stops moving.

If there are multiple mummies on the board and you choose to “move” instead of “spawn” when the Skull is rolled on your turn, then you must spin separately for each mummy currently on the table, and move them one at a time. You can spin before choosing which mummy to move.

FIRING THE LASERS:

When a black sigil is rolled on your turn, you can place a laser on one of your two corners of the game field. You have at most two turrets you can place. When a laser is placed, after placement it and all other lasers fire. Your lasers fire first, applying a hit to anything they contact (except portals). If you shoot an enemy laser, you destroy that laser before it can fire. After yours are fired, the enemy’s lasers also fire.

Don’t cross the streams! If either of your lasers crosses streams, both lasers explode. Crossing streams with your opponent’s lasers has no effect.

SCORING POINTS:

You score points by killing enemy units. Footmen, Elites, and Big Hitters destroyed earn you a number of draws from the score bag equal to the unit’s value. The numbered score pieces are kept and added up to determine your point score. The lettered score pieces give you extra immediate unit points. S = 1, M = 2, L = 3, and XXL = 4. Lettered pieces have no score value.

UNITS:

Footmen – Roll one Die, Toughness 1, Value 1
Elites – Roll one Die, Toughness 1, Value 2
Big Hitters – Roll Three Dice, Toughness 3, Value 3
Laser Turrets – Deal 1 hit to everything in it’s path, including mummies; destroys enemy turrets
Mummies – Destroy whatever it contacts (including portals), Toughness 2, can only be hit by laser turrets

One Reply to “Laser Mummies!”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.