We have a lot of Optional Rules that you can try, if you want to spice up your Battle Monsters games.

One that we have been toying with, but haven’t implemented, is the idea of one-shot, single-use Special Powers.

If you recall, we have actual cards you can use to indicate a special ability or power. For the monsters we publish here, they aren’t needed because the abilities are written directly to the card.

And we mentioned the idea in passing in that same post — shuffle the cards, hand out one card to each monster.

The player then has the option to use that special power at some point in battle. It’s a one-time, single-use special power, just for fun.

(Of course, as an option to the option, you can give the monster that power for the rest of the game.)

For things like Elemental Damage or some defensive powers, we roll a die at the time of use, to know its strength.

It’s an oddball way to use the cards, but it helps to keep things interesting. Like we said, there’s no rationale for giving a Zombie Fire Damage +6.

And in some cases it’s not really logical (why would Water Doom use — or even need — Brain Drain?), but it’s definitely entertaining.

P.S.: Still no ruling on ura-monsters. We’re tinkering with it. We promise.