Today's announcement of a possible Monsterpocalypse movie has the Monpoc community in a stir. My question to you all is.... would a Monpoc specific movie draw new blood to the game? And do you think Privateer Press would re-publish (maybe a varient of) the game to merchandise along with the movie?

In my head, I would expect PP to create simpler and more streamlined version of the game for the general public to consume (probably something along the lines of a board game). I would hate to see a reboot of the game, as I am sure we all would, but by virtue of a new simpler game, I think it would be a good conduit for bringing players into this one.

But one step at a time. Let's get this move started!

When my older kids were younger, I was actively playing the game.  Heading to events, making lists, testing them out.  I had my figures out a lot during this time, and being cool looking monsters and stuff, the kids were very interested in them.  At first i was reluctant to let them do more than look, but they quickly learned that these weren't action figures that  you could bash into each other...at least not for long, not without daddy packing them away again.

So they got to play with them.  Mostly lining them up, sometimes telling little stories.  Xavy would attack bases and destroy things, Neva would declare one monster to be the mamma monster, and some units to be the baby...this works best with Pteradax and Pteradactix, clearly.  But everyone got to play, after a fashion.

Most of my figures have been in the basement for the past year, pretty much untouched.  While recently moving my painting station upstairs, some of my Monpoc figs came with me.  And it wasn't long before I started letting 17 month old Xander play with them.  He can be a little rough with them, but I play with him the whole time.  With the older kids, I felt fine letting them play on their own, but Xander can't reliable remember not so smash them together, put them back in their case, or not deposit them into a laundry hamper.  

It may not be another player ready to drop dice, but it's a (baby) step in that direction.

Now, excuse me, I need to re-attach Alpha Defender X's right arm...toddler play can be rough on a giant robot.

Local interest in the game tapered off before I could really get my son involved.  Now that he's 9, and we're starting to be able to play more games together, I really want to get him into Monpoc.  He took a liking to the Planet Eaters, so I've managed to get him the four standard monsters, and keep an eye out for Vorgax when I head over to the LGS.  But thinking about how to introduce him to the game, while not overwhelming him with all of the different abilities present, but at the same time giving him a compelling, fun game experience that makes him want to play again, has been a bit daunting.

Until I remembered the solo variation presented in one of the Strategy Guides. 

Essentially, the variant pits one side of only units against a single monster form.  The player takes the units, and attempts to stop the monster before it destroys too much of the city, using a programmed AI to run the monster.  There's no Unit-Monster pool flow, so the player gets 10A to start every turn, and otherwise plays the game following all the normal rules.

I thought we could start out by taking active roles for both sides.  I'd let him run his monster however he wanted, while I'd follow the AI rules when I take my monster turn.  It seems like a good way to split the rules load, while avoiding breaking the game down into simpler component parts that might not be fun to play.