I have not read through the final draft of the Maximum Apocalypse Gothic Horrors rules, but the rules are (were?) established. You start with zombies and move your way up in scenarios/ apocalypses, use dice for spawns, don’t mix decks, and when you die you lose. I think the default rules said that maps should be square grids, but leaving holes or getting creative added difficulty. That said, the rules are very open ended with options (like map setup). Usually this is “advanced rules” right after the tutorial rules which is just the full ruleset. However, Mike Gnade seems to be essentially offerering the players rules options in computer game styled checkboxes. That is, there isn’t an advanced/ full ruleset, just an “options screen” of sorts. Do you want to play ironman mode? Check box. Do you want to salvage 5 mech parts instead of 3 in order to be able to rebuild a mech? Check box. Does your playgroup hate player elimination? Check box. Do you want monsters to wander? Check box. Or, don’t check any boxes and play the default game. Default zombies is definitely baby mode. It sounds like default Cthulhu is crazy hard. Options can and did allow making zombies more challenging-- which I appreciated.