Game 4: "Dining Out!"
This game is my first use of the Shotgun Diaries inspired rule “No One Gets Left Behind!” found on an early blog post. It seemed to work well, but you be the judge.
This scenario is a Discover mission, with Michael, Lisa, and Kaylee looking for more food as while the grocery store in game 2 was a success, more is needed. Scenario occurs in the morning; I rolled a D12 for the time being 8am. The sky is clear with much of the smoke from the smoldering building in Section 9 not inhibiting visibility.
It's Day 7 of the outbreak, and police forces are collapsing but the military hasn’t been mobilized yet. This is important as you’ll see later in the Battle Report.
The map is laid out as follows:
Section 1: Two buildings/Trailers
Section 2: Third trailer
Section 3: clear
Section 4: Apartment/parking lot
Section 5: Clear (Road Intersection)r
Section 6: Woods
Section 7: Clear
Section 8: Restaurant
Section 9: Burned out building
I ran out of complete buildings so I put up a roofless frame and said it burned out. I rolled a D6 with results being 1-3 fire is out; 4-6 fire still smoldering. I got a 4, so still smoking
Our trio of Michael, Lisa, and Kaylee will come in on foot from Section 7, on foot walking down the road towards the restaurant.
Three Potential Enemy Forces (PEFs) are generated. The first one is behind the apartments in Section 4 (Reputation 2), The second PEF is placed behind the trailer park in Section 1(reputation 3) and the last PEF lands in the clear section 3 (Reputation 3) but is in the southern part north of the Section 6 woods.
Cars on the board are generated randomly. I rolled 3 cars (from Random Vehicle Table posted earlier in blog). One is a sedan in the apartment parking lot, the second is a SUV located in front of Section 1 trailers. The last is a fire truck in front of the burning building. No firefighters though, nor bodies. Curious…?
Zombie placement is now 5-6, and 3 are generated. Lots of 3’s coming up this game! The first is in Section 1, second in section 4, and the last is in section 5; right in the crossroads!
Turn 1
Survivors: 3 PEFs: 3 Zombies: 6
Doubles means a Random event is rolled with result of 7, building on fire, which I will take as the smoking rubble in Section 9. Its fate!
Survivors move 8” toward restaurant west side.
PEFs: The Rep2 moves around the apartments into the parking lot its full 8” toward the group and enters line of sight (LOS) of the survivors. The Rep3 PEF between the trailers moves to Section 4 but out of LOS and behind the apt. Complex. The Rep3 PEF north of woods (Section 6) moves into the trees and remains out of LOS.
The PEF in LOS at the apartment parking lot is rolled for on the PEF resolution tables and is resolved as an NPC group, an equal number to the survivors so that would be 3 figures. The group rolls as 2 women and one man. Man (Rep3) is Police, one of the women is police (Rep4) as well, and the second woman is a civilian (Rep4.)
Michael gets 2 pass dice on the In Sight test so the survivor trio isn’t surprised. NPCs only get 1d6 pass so the survivors get the drop on them.
Michael goes for the “Meet and greet” roll, and rolls 5 dice (he gets +1 dice for being having the Born Leader attribute.) Policewoman gets 1 dice while Michael gets 3. Next roll-off leaves the Policewoman with 1 dice and Michael now with only 2 dice! The final roll leaves Michael the victor with 2 dice! These three join the survivor group.
Welcome to Sebastian a Rep3 Policeman with a BA pistol, Jennifer a Rep4 police with a submachine gun, and Neeva a Rep4 civilian with a shotgun. We just quadrupled our firepower!
Busy turn 1! But why would they join so readily? The Chain Reaction system reveals all next turn!
Turn 2
Survivors: 3 Zombies: 2 PEFS:4
PEFs, Rep 3 moves into the parking lot (and LOS) while the rep3 in the woods remains stationary.
The PEF is resolved as gangers! Seven hostiles no less. Their leader is a rep5 and takes an Awareness test. Others are 3 Rep3s and 3 rep4s. All armed with assault rifles??? This is bad!
Going for his or her guns, Michael uses a “No one gets left behind!” die for this test. Both ganger leader and Michael pass 3 die the first roll. Second he gets 3 pass dice while Michael gets 2. Finally the ganger leader gets 0 pass while Michael gets 1 pass. Good thing I used that die; though things could still get ugly real quick.
The Gangers fire and then duck to cover, but no one is hit.
Among the survivors, nobody gets their In Sight test so move along. Survivors move toward the rear of the restaurant and open back door.
The gangers are the only humans in sight now so the Zombies converge on them. The Zombie from in front of the apartments charges one of the gangers. Zombie goes down in melee, though all 7 gangers fired at it before the melee. Which means more zombie generation rolls! Four zombies are generated. 2 from South (following the road from 7) and 2 from the west; from inside apartments.
Turn 3
Survivors:3 Zombies:4 PEFS:6 Gangers: 2
Zombies converge on the parking lot
Survivors move inside the back door of the restaurant.
The Gangers pass their insight test and follow their leader in pursuit of the two place and their new friends. Deciding to cut the survivors off they enter the front of the restaurant.
End Part One