Posted on May 13, 2025 by David-John
In the Future, I’ll have a few videos here. Namely about how to play the game, how to teach the game to a new player as you play the game (in a way that doesn’t slow down the game play), as well as a video to explain each of the monster powers.
Destroy cites and eat the inhabitants to improve your health. Destroy famous landmarks to increase your infamy. Visit nuclear test sites to mutate into an even more ferocious monster. This is what you must do if you want to become King of All Monsters. Hopefully you are ready when the monster challenge comes around to claim the title that rightfully belongs to you. Don’t forget to use your military branch to attack other monsters, or to “persuade” the monsters to go elsewhere.
(RAVAGE vs MENACE: Hasbro’s Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast republished MONSTERS Ravage America (1998) as MONSTERS Menace America in 2005. Only Menace has been played since 2015.)
This is a Coached Event that allows players who have never played a game, or attended a demo are welcome to show up. I, the GM, and my Assistant GMs will do our best to make sure everyone is taught the rules before being seated to play, but it is still expected that if a new player is at your table that you will teach them any rules they need to learn, as well as help them if they need guidance.
If you are a new player that either needs the rules, or needs help, let people know. No one can help you if they don’t know you need help.
This event attracts many children and teens, so keep all language at the event family friendly, and Rated G.
These rules are in place to make sure the rounds stay in their time slot, and to ensure players can get to their next event on time. Failure to follow these rules or to comply with GM requests to speed up your game may result in the game being disqualified from advancement.
Mandatory Tournament Adjustments: Adjustments #1B, #2, and #9 are required for all games. Each game must ALSO use either adjustment #3A, #3B, or #4. These adjustments ensure that all game end in a timely fashion.
Prohibition against excessive diplomacy or politicking – You are a Monster, not a politician. Some minor deal making is allowed (i.e. “Will you help me surround Joe’s Monster so he can’t get to New York?”) as well as suggesting that a player is the biggest threat. (i.e. “We need to attack Bob; he has 37 Health.”) If a player is not interested in your deal, don’t keep trying variations of the deal. In the event of continuing to engage in excessive diplomacy or politicking, even after being warned, the GM reserves the right to kick players from the tournament.
What to do if a player is not here – If a player is not present for their turn, place a stomp marker in Hollywood, and have them draw a face down Military Research card, then their turn is over. That player may flip over the face down Military Research card(s) after they return and complete their next turn. If a player’s monster or military are attacked, have someone roll for them. (You may not use any one-shots that player has.)
GM Speed Up Requests – The GM may tell games to remove stomp markers to speed them up if they are too slow or start late. If needed, the GM can cancel the MONSTER Challenge and use the score sheets to determine the order of finish for a game.
Each heat is a brand-new competition. Win once during any of the four heats to advance to the single-elimination Semifinal. If more than 16 winners advance, 5-player boards may be used with a National Guard player and 5th Monster. Advancing 17 to 20 winners will result in a 4-player Final. Over 20 winners may result in a 5-player Final. Note: The GM will first advance Players who bring a copy of the game to the Semifinal, until enough copies are present. (The GM will supply 1 copy of the game that does not quality him for advancement. If the GM supplies more than 1 copy, then the GM is qualified to advance like other players.)
Alternates are selected from 2nd places, and ranked first by if they brought a copy of the game to the heats, then by if they finished heats with 15 or more minutes to spare, and finally by taking their score, and dividing it by the winner’s score from the same game.
Family members and players who faced each other in heats will be separated in the semifinals if possible. (They should tell the GM if they have played each other.) The GM may separate players with multiple wins, then former MMA champions.
Juniors, those who would have been juniors last year, and those who have played zero or one times before are eligible for the “Son of a Monster” award, which goes to the best ranked player who is eligible. The “Kinda Friendly” award rewards anything that help promote a fun and friendly event for people, including things like: bringing in new players, helping teach/mentor new players, and good sportsmanship.
Last year (2024) introduced the custom monster the GM (David-John) had designed as prizes that players could get. Several players expressed interest in seeing these monsters added to the main tournament. This year, all 5 of the previously introduced monsters will be allowed to be used, provided all players at the table agree to adding the monster to the pool of monsters to choose from. The GM will do his best to put players who want to play with the new monsters together with each other, and to put together players who just want to play with the originals with each other. The GM will have some extra copies of the monsters to enable more games to have access to the new monsters.
In the event that a game breaking problem is discovered during the tournament, the GM reserves the right to prohibit the usage of any and all non-original monsters for all remaining Heats, Semifinal, and Final. (This is unlikely to be necessary, since the 5 monsters have been playtested, and given errata where needed.)
The 5 previously introduced monsters that will now be allowed this year are:
Ethroh the Ancient One
Kokuri the Butterfly
Komin the Snow Yeti
Qu’thral the Cosmic Horror
Xan the Sand Wyrm
The following is errata to the monster as printed in 2024:
Ethroh now starts with 8 Health, can only move via land/lake, not sea, its special ability is now “While in a space with a water barrier, you get +1 defense during the first 2 rounds of combat.” and the R-4 (1 space north of Detroit) lair has been replaced with P-3 (1 space north of Milwaukee)
Kokuri now starts with 12 Health and has a special ability which is “When stomping a city, Each dice rolled gives 1 less health, to a minimum of 1.” (Yes, this is a negative power, to compensate that it flies at 5.)
On Komin lairs, C-3 (Toxicor’s NorthEast lair) should say C-3 (Toxicor’s Northwest lair)
Qu’thral and Xan have no errata
Also, a rules clarification when playing with these new monsters (as a result of some monsters now sharing lairs): In the event that a monster needs to appear on the board and 2 or more of it’s lairs are occupied by other monsters, it may choose to appear at one of those monster’s lairs instead.
Now for an important rules clarification. As a lot of you know, disappearing off the board, and reappearing at a lair is a great way to refill you health back to its starting value. That said, it was brought to my attention last year that the wording in the rules (although poorly phrased) seems to suggest that it is only when you reappear on the board that you get to heal up, not when you disappear. Last year we played with the rule as that you healed as you went off the board, and I kept it that way even after it was brought up since a tournament should keep the rules the same from start to finish, unless something serious shows up. However, starting this year, and going forward, you only get the healing when you reappear on the board.
ALL games use adjustments 1B, 2, and 9 by default. Adjustment 1A has been retired, and will no longer be used.
1B. National Guard Deployment Change – The National Guard can also be deployed to mutation sites.
2. Stomp when in Hollywood – Each turn a MONSTER starts in Hollywood, place a stomp marker in Hollywood. (GM’s Note: Play is otherwise slowed by disappearing and by going to Hollywood, since nothing is stomped.)
9. Konk Special Buff – Konk’s special power is now +1 to hit all military units. (excluding military monsters.)
ALL games MUST also use either 3A, 3B, or 4. Majority vote chooses. In case of a tie, the tiebreaker goes to 3B, then 3A, then 4. Please make sure to write down on your sheet which adjustments were used by writing down the number and/or letter.
3A. Stomp to Mutate – When a monster visits a mutation site, remove a stomp marker from the supply. If this would remove the last stomp marker, this triggers the Monster Challenge like normal.
3B. Stomp to Mutate, Group Style – When a monster visits a mutation site, take a stomp marker from the supply, and put it on top of the mutation deck. When there are 4 stomp markers on top of the mutation deck, remove all 4 of them from the game. If the stomp marker supply runs out, return all stomp markers from the top of the mutation deck back to the supply, and don’t put any on top of the mutation deck for the rest of the game. (If the stomp marker supply runs out as a 4th stomp marker is added to the top of the deck, return all 4 stomp markers to the supply.) (Cruise Missile rules unaffected.) (For 5 player games, replace the number 4 with 5.)
4. Less Stomps – Remove 1 stomp marker from the game for each player in the game.
You may use these IF AND ONLY IF all players agree to use them. A game may use Any, All, or None of these. Please make sure to mark down on your sheet which adjustments were used by writing down the number and/or letter.
5. Gargantis Normal Move – Gargantis no longer flies, and now moves 4 by land only
6. Toxicor Special Nerf – Toxicor has +1 starting health and Toxicor’s special ability is replaced with the following: The first time you mutate each turn, you may choose to draw a new Mutation card. If you do, shuffle the first Mutation card drawn back into the Mutation deck
7. Reverse Pick – Players pick their Military first and pick Monsters second.
8. Megaclaw Health Nerf – Megaclaw now has a Starting Health of 10 instead of 12
(Under Construction, Subject to changes.)
The new 5 player variant introduces the Space Force as an additional Military Branch.
The Military bases for the Space for are at the following locations*:
C-7 (1 space north of Los Angles)
D-8 (1 space north of San Deigo, on the Marines Base)
L-12 (1 space south of The Alamo, on the Navy Base)
M-11 (On Houston)
Q-10 (2 spaces south of Nashville, on the Navy Base)
S-5 (On Cleveland)
U-11 (1 space north of San Deigo, on the Marines Base)
V-8 (3 spaces south of New York, on the Marines Base)
During the Deploy Step, the Space Force places 2 units that are either their own or from the national guard, plus a National guard unit. (They may also forgo placing units to take a military research card instead.)
The Units the Space Force has are as follows:
(High Altitude) Fighter:
Move: 6 (Fly)
Defense: 4
Damage: 1
Quantity: 6
Stealth Bomber:
Move: 5 (Fly)
Defense: 2
Damage: 2
Quantity: 2
Special: Monsters may not attack this military unit until there are no other military units or military monsters in the area.
*Locations for the bases were selected from real life locations of Nasa and SpaceX.
These are rules additions only needed if playing with the new 5 player version, and/or playing with the new monsters.
1. A rolled 6 is always a hit, and always a smash (+1 damage).
2. A rolled 1 is always a miss.
3. If you need to place your monster on the board, AND 2 or more of your monster’s lairs are occupied by another monster, you may instead place your monster onto a lair of one of those monsters that are on one of your lairs. (“Qu’thral” has no lairs, and thus you can’t pick any of its lairs.)
(This is here for those that would still like to play the old variant.)
The 5-player variant is used to make sure all attendees can play in case there are not enough copies of the game at a Heat. It also can be used if we need more to seat winners in the Semifinal. If used, The National Guard becomes the 5th military. Remove Guard Commander from the Military Research deck AND remove Kinda Friendly from the Mutation deck. Give the Guard Commander card to the player that picked the National Guard as their military branch. The National Guard player may deploy 3 units onto any space containing a city, infamy site, or military base. If the National Guard player gets Mecha Monster, Super Colossal Guy, or X-fighters, those unit may only be deployed to spaces already containing a National Guard unit. IF no such space exists, then they will have to wait until their next turn to deploy them.
The following downloads contain fan-made expansions to the board game “Monsters Menace America™” and were created by David-John Pack in 2024. These works are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Both pages have their content design that they should fit on to both Letter size paper, as well as A4 paper.
Also, since people have been asking, I have broken down the name to show their syllables.
Eth – roh
Ko – ku – ri
Ko – min
Qu’th – ral
Xan
And to give credit where it is due, “Qu’thral” was inspired by a monster made by James Arias at boardgamegeek.
These pictures were made to make it easier to place all the new monster lairs and military bases at setup. The one with the number grid also show how the letter-number grid labeling system works.
