Pyroclastic Flow

May 03, 2023

Shiros was a volcanic planetary hell. It was also a key production center that the Theocrat rebels had to capture.

Pyroclastic Flow is a modern reimagining of the vintage Metagaming Microgame titled Hot Spot. It is a quick playing, beer and pretzels, tactical wargame about the Theocrat raid on Shiros. The Soros Corporation maintains fragile, floating platforms called Crustals that can move through molten lava. The Crustals are defended by Infantry and Hovercraft.

The Theocrat attackers are strong, but they must capture Crustals quickly, before their Attack Platforms break up and their units melt into the planet’s surface. It's the wargame version of "The Floor is Lava."

Pyroclastic Flow uses an entirely revamped conflict resolution system inspired by the Panic Engine used by the ttrpg Mothership. Instead of using a standard combat results table, this game uses a pair of opposed rolls of d100 dice and a combat matrix to determine the combat results. Every single attack can result in a negative outcome and is super easy to resolve. The most difficult math in the game is adding up multiples of 10 to a maximum of 100. This game eliminates calculating odds ratios in favor of rolling directly against a stack of units stats. You can read more about this design and how it compares to other vintage Microgames here.

This game is designed as a friendly entry into hex and counters wargames, which is a pretty daunting genre to enter into.

Pyroclastic Flow comes with everything that you need to play, you just need to provide 2 sets of d100 dice and two pencils:

72 Counters
11"x17" Map
8"x16" Rules Pamphlet
2 Player Trackers

Print and Play

The print and play version of the game is available via DriveThruRPG ($9.99 MSRP) or Wargame Vault.
You can also get this version at the bottom of the page if you are a paid subscriber to The AGP.

Print-On-Demand

Pyroclastic Flow Counters ($24.99)

Crowd Sale

There will be a Crowd Sale from November 14, 2023 to December 12, 2023 on The Game Crafter for a physical box ($49.99 MSRP) with all components including dice and 2 dry erase markers.