Thursday, December 11, 2014

Turn 14: Up and Away



 

Stars: 6

Police: 2

Zombies: 1

Tiger: 4

 
Stars don’t activate, but I use the Final Fade-Out rule that cars running still move even if the driver doesn’t activate. After all, you’re driving at full move so you wouldn’t suddenly hover in place just because you didn’t make the roll.

The tiger goes first, attacking another zombie. Zombie loses (it’s a tiger after all!) and is Out of the Fight, which means Obviously Dead. The zombies go into melee on the tiger in return…leaving the tiger battered but victorious!

The remaining policeman takes a “Leader Lost” roll to reflect the cruiser taking off, and falls back to the convention center. He fires at the zombie nearest and misses.

Zombies converge on the cop except for the one on the highway, which follows in the cruiser’s wake. Curiously no zombies are generated this turn, neither the shot nor the car engine causes enough noise.

Our Stars saunter off the board edge, and this game ends.


So, you’ve got a police car, a shotgun, a truncheon, a pistol with ammo… Where do you guys go next?

 

Zombie Chow

 

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Turn 12: Bugout?



Matt doesn’t reply at first to Connor’s query, showing the bleeding police officer into the car by main strength. He falls into the back seat as well, only then replying.

“I dunno. But we need to get outta here. This cop needs a doctor. Other than you two.” Matt’s eyes are drawn to the oncoming creatures, as if mesmerized by the danger. He blinks, then continues. “I don’t know WHAT the hell’s up with that cougar over there, but it looks like more of those rioters care trying to get past it. Let’s just go north. At least there the power’s still up.”

His last words are drowned out by the continuing gunfire of the younger cop, seeming determined to shoot every weirdo coming down the street. ‘Looks like both that cop and the kitty over there as lost it.’ Matt thought frantically. Will they be next?

The cop in the back seat seemed to have passed out, and Matt quietly retrieved the policeman’s pistol and spare magazines.

 

*          *            *

 

Turn 12

 

Stars: 3

Police: 1

Zombies: 6

Tiger:  5
 

The Tiger, Stars and cop activate, zombies do not.

The Tiger attacks one of the zombies following it, and gets 2 successes over it resulting in that Zombie being Obviously Dead.

Stars move as noted earlier. Connor jumps into the driver’s seat of the police cruiser, with CJ jumping in to ride…er…”shotgun.” ;)  Matt is already helping the injured cop into the back seat so will pile in as well.

What about the other cop? As CJ is nearest to him this will be a Rally check to get him into the car. CJ rolls 2 successes, but the cop gets 4! He ignores CJ’s pleas and keeps firing at the oncoming zombies. His two shots result in a miss and an Obviously Dead result, dropping one of the oncoming hordes.


What to do? Do you leave the cop, or try again to encourage him to see sense?


Zombie Chow

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Turn 10: "Whacha gonna do when they Come for You?"


*For last turn, gunshots generate no zombies.

 

 

Turn 10

 

 

Stars: 2

Police: 1

Zombies: 5

PEF: 2

 

 

The lone PEF gets no successes so doesn’t move from its place behind the retail shop.

Stars:

*Connor makes a in sight test to see the zombies moving east down the road towards them. He gets 3 successes, so sees the four moving towards them from the west (where car alarm and ambulance is).

 

*CJ makes a challenge test to see if the shotgun is in the front seat or in the trunk. As the police have been dealing with looters I’ll say only 2 successes are necessary for the shotgun to be there. CJ gets 3 successes, so surreptitiously snags the shotgun without either cop seeing him.

 

Matt moves towards the older cop to assist in melee.

 

Zombies do not activate.

 

Police go into melee with zombies.

 

Round 1

Rep 5 cop:3

Matt: 1 success

Zombie: 4 successes (2 on cop, 2 on Matt)

 

Round 2

Rep 5 cop:  1 success

Matt: 1 Success

Zombie: 3 successes (2 on cop, 1 on Matt)

 

Round 3

Rep 5 cop: 0 success

Matt: 1 success

Zombie:  1 success (on cop 2)

 

Round 4

Matt: 1 success

Zombie: 0 success

The Rep5 policeman is Out of the Fight, while the zombie is Obviously Dead.

 

Now: Cop 2!

 

Round 1

Rep 4 cop: 3 successes

Zombie: 2 successes

 

Round 2

Rep 4 cop:   3 successes

Zombie: 1 success

 

Round 3

Rep 4 cop:  1 success

Zombie: 1 success

 

Round 4

Rep 4 cop:  1 success

Zombie: 0 success

 

Zombie is killed

 

 

The Police car is left running so 3 zombies are generated. 2 from the west, 1 from the east, all 12” from the Stars.

 
***Random Event and fiction coming up!
 
Zombie Chow 

 

 

Saturday, November 22, 2014

"Its not what you think...?"


Fast move
CJ: 1 success

Connor: 1 success

Matt: 2 successes

 

Using the ATZ: FFO Fast movement rules (which I like better than ATZ:BDTZ) both CJ and Connor move the 8” normal move +4” which equals 12” north. Matt with 2 successes could technically move 16” but doesn’t want to leave the group so will only move 12”.

 

Running straight north leads them right into PEF 2, which resolves as… Oh yay, a police car! Police are in a vehicle, and pass in sight test.

 

 

Meanwhile, what about that pesky car alarm?

 

The car alarm now generates zombies. As this is Day 1 of the outbreak, this urban area is treated as a suburban area (5 or 6 on d6) to generate new zombies. I roll and resolve 3 zombies that appear, one north, at 12:00, one southeast at 5:00, and the last at 6:00 south. They are placed 12” away from the noise that generated them (the car alarm) which means our heroes run right into the 12” zombie!

 

All zombies congregate on the car alarm as currently Stars are out of sight of any zombies. The two (5 and 6pm) zombies walk around the convention center and move west. The zombie walking north into section 4 turns around instead and heads south towards the car alarm. The two zombies in the street and the one on the west side of the center turn and congregate around the van; probably beating the hell out of it to get inside.

 

*          *            *

 

With Connor’s suggestion, the trio runs down the side of the street, northwards and hopefully to freedom. As they get nearer to the intersection suddenly a car’s headlights come on, and so do police lights and siren. A gruff voice over a PA system says “Hold it right there! Do not move!”

 

*          *            *

 

Now, we need to do a “Meet & Greet” for the police. Over to you folks!

 

Zombie Chow

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, November 17, 2014

Down the Road


ATZ Turns 3-5

Activation:

Stars: 6

Zombies: 4

PEFs: 3


There are no doubles so no Random Events


Zombies and PEFs move, Stars do not activate this turn. PEF #2 moves into area 5 on the road, but is still beyond the 6" visual range for nighttime without lighting so no Insight test is triggered. The group is out of visual range of the zombies at the ambulance so their movement is random.

Zombies at the wreck: 1 moves North 6” toward section 1. The other zombie bumps into the ambulance and skirts around it south into Section 7.

Zombies at parking lot: 1 moves south then east to the side of the convention center. The half zombie moves north to the roadway. This zombie is only a half a body, so movement is reduced to 3”.
 

Still no zombies in sight of Stars or visa versa as turn ends.


*          *            *


Turn 4:


Activation:

Stars: 5

Zombies: 5

PEFs: 6


Nobody activates, but doubles are rolled so a Random Event is triggered!


A roll of 12 means 2 events are triggered, and a 6 and 7 means both are vehicle events. A roll on the Vehicle Events table comes up a 3 and a 7, to wit;

 

3     Random vehicle on table has car alarm go off. Roll each turn to attract zombies. May be disconnected by hotwiring the vehicle. If a Raid encounter the enemy will now count as fully aware.

 

And…

 

7     If inside a vehicle there is a zombie in the back seat. The zombie automatically activates and melee is joined.


***Since nobody’s in a vehicle 7 is ignored. A random roll says the vehicle the 2 parking lot zombies are near (the Mobile Service van) has its alarm go off.

 

*          *            *

 

Turn 5:


Activation:

Stars: 2

Zombies: 1

PEFs: 5


Stars and Zombies activate this turn, PEFs do not. Stars move before zombies though.


The car alarm will possibly draw zombies, they will be placed at the end of the turn.


Your move, guys!


Zombie Chow

Friday, November 7, 2014

Out on the Streets

The three friends stood at the rear steps leading into the back of the Victorian mansion now convention center. The faint glow of electric streetlights far to the north broke up the otherwise pitch-black night around them. Down the facing street to the west could be seen the strobing lights of an ambulance but little else in the area.

As they looked at each other, deciding what to do…Matt waves at a figure coming around the east side of the building. “Hey, are you with the convention?”

The figure doesn’t respond, and walks slowly to the three on the steps…

***Time to roll a “Zed or no Zed” check! I’ll post results as a reply to this thread.

 

Zombie Chow

 

 

Friday, October 31, 2014

Shots in the Dark: Turn 2

Connor couldn’t see much past the small circle of light around him, but heard CJ’s voice echoing from the upper landing of the stairway. While waiting for his brother to make his way down the dark stairs, a stranger made the landing first. He blinked at Connor in the yellow flickering light and said “Hey. Did you hear anything about the riots? Are the police here yet?”

 

Before the zippo-wielding man could comment, the sound of police sirens cut through the night. They rose in volume, then began to recede. Strobing red and blue lights past the windows of the convention rear of the building as a squad car shot down the street, moving at high speed.

 

Matthew joined his friend in the lobby, and said “Riots? What’s that about?” The unnamed man continued in a rush. “I was watching TV before the power went out, and the local station was saying something about attacks and fights breaking out at the hospital. They had some guy at the scene, but were having trouble raising him.” He shrugged at Connor and Matt, then said “Either way, I’m not staying at this lame con. I’m outta here!”

 

With that he walked blindly towards the back door. From the side windows, the four of them (now joined by CJ) saw the faint yet steady glow of flashing lights…they appeared to be coming from an ambulance down the street, parked next to something in the darkness. The stranger opened the back door and stumbled off into the night, going west toward the parking lot.

 

 

***Ok, next moves?

 

Zombie Chow

 

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Cast of Characters


Our 3 Survivors

 

“C.J.”

Reputation 4 Citizen

Attributes: Medic 2, Marksman, Free Spirit

Weapon: None

 

“Connor”

Reputation 4 Citizen

Attributes: Medic 1, Athlete, Knife fighter

Weapons: None

 

“Matthew”

Reputation 4 Citizen

Attributes: Born Leader, Swordsman, Runt
 
Weapons: none

 
 

...pics to follow tonight. Honest!

Zombie Chow

Monday, October 20, 2014

Day 1: "Splattercon!!!"


 

Day 1

 

“Man, I hate lame conventions…”

 

Matthew sighed dramatically and took another drink of rum and coke. This round, was it the fourth? Fifth? He couldn’t remember…was more rum than Coke he figured. Still, what else do you do at the hotel bar at possibly the worst attended Horror convention in North America.

 

His companion just nodded sagely. “True dat.” He threw back his own drink and glanced with a gimlet eye at the television running the local news channel. It was posted on the ceiling, almost at the opposite end of the bar. The chipper blonde on there seemed to be smiling while informing the public of a new celebrity faux pas, a new terror attack, just about anything and ms. ‘Tee Hee’ chick wouldn’t change her delivery one jot. He turned back to Matthew and asked “Where the hell is CJ anyway?”

 

“Still in his room I think.” Matthew’s reply was dour, but he’d been that way as soon as the attendance became apparent. Granted, this was the first Horror con in Tyson City, “Splattercon!!!” had been all over the papers in Chicago a few years ago. Well, this sequel in the semi-boonies didn’t seem to be making a splash. Or a splatter. Or anything.

 

Connor shrugged, and gestured to the barkeeper for another scotch. “Well Matt, I can’t but think he might have the right idea. Or is he still sick from dinner?”

 

The other man just shrugged. “He’s your brother, how should I know? Though it is funny, an internal medicine doctor getting sick from Taco Hut burritos.” He chuckled, an expression not shared by Connor.

 

“Well” the brother of the aforementioned doctor grumbled. “It could be worse.”

 

With a far off crash down the street, there was heard the pop of electronics and all the lights went out in the bar.

 

In the pitch-blackness, Matt sighed again. “You just had to say that, didn’t you?”

 

*          *          *

 

Day 1 – SPLATTERCON!!!

 

The player characters will start inside the Victorian mansion that Tyson City remade into a convention center back in the 1980s. It is 1am in the morning, with a partly cloudy sky. All power in board sections 4-8 are out, and sections 1-3 are spotty, with the warehouse in section 1 lit but not the auto body shop.

 

The goal of the player characters (PCs) is to leave the center and get out of the “dead” area. Exiting via the road going west off board in section  1 or the road leaving the board north on section 2 are the only obvious ways out of the blackout area. Other might or might not work…as encounters may show. All PCs came to the con by taxi, so they have no cars themselves. However, hotwiring may be possible, as are chances police will show up and arrest carjackers (see Day 1: rules in ATZ: BDTZ for details).

 

The Board


 

Section 1: Auto-body shop, warehouse, road west.

Section 2: wood

Section 3: North road, clear/Hill

Section 4: Electrical Transformer

Section 5: Retail Store

Section 6: Hamburger Hut

Section 7:  Road west, clear/Parking Area

Section 8:  building***Con center

Section 9: Offices, road east

 

There is one wreck, a car into the transformer at 4, killing electrics on most of the board

 

There are 4 starting zombies:

1 in 7 between parked cars

2 at 4, Transformer wreck and ambulance

1 at 8, on the Far East side of the convention building

 

There are 3 PEFs (Potential Enemy Forces) along the north endge of the board, sections 1-2. Visibility is down to 8 inches on sections 3-9, but are 12 inches on sections 1 and 2.

 

Special Rules:

 

* Even though all PCs are in the convention center, the center can still be “searched” for useful items or encounters. Searches count as Suburb instead of Urban in the center due to lack of light.

 

* Game starts with Matthew and Connor, though others who are currently out of town (no names!) may join in as they wish. If there’s no post in a given week, then we assume that the PC is holding in place…no doubt terrified!

 

Your move, guys!

 

Zombie Chow

 

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Crawling from the Grave…


 

Well, it’s been almost a year since my last post and I’ve finally got the gumption to restart things here. Part of what’s caused this is that a couple of old pals of mine were in a Rotworld RPG with me when the game took an untenable turn and we bailed. Yet we still wanted to play Zombie Survival gaming. What to do?

 

After some e chatting we decided to go to my old love All Things Zombie. We discussed setting up a forum to run the game and started looking at free forum options. Then it hit me. Why not just revive this blog and run it via posts, with the guys posting in comments their reactions?

 

I must admit Shelldrake’s ATZ games via webcam inspired me some…but since webcam isn’t feasible we decided to go with photos instead and a gratuitous amount of verbal RPGs. We shall see how this work.

 

For ATZ purists reading this, don’t expect the games to be 100% BTB. I’m using ATZ: Better Dead than Zed with a few Final Fade-Out rules imported in and a bunch of house rules to increase the RPG feel without some of the clunkier systems out of FFO. The rules suggest starting out at Rep 5, but we agreed to go with Rep 4 instead. To cover this a bit more (and increase the RPGisms) I’m going to allow Stars to start with 3 attributes instead of 2. We shall see how this works. I’m also going to try (at least for the first game) to use both random zombie generation along with PEFs. If we don’t survive I’ll revisit this issue!

 

Hang on everyone, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

 

Zombie Chow