Friday, January 6, 2012

At last, fiction started on 'Those Who Remain Journal'

Hello all,

Apologies for the delay in starting to get fiction over to the TWR Journal site. I wanted to keep the fiction chronological so that left me actually having to write up the Day 1 scenario as fiction before posting other (already written) stuff.

The short story for Graveyard Shift: Day 1 is now up at:




Enjoy!

Zombie Chow


Sunday, January 1, 2012

First Post of the Year! The Smith Letter

Hello all,

As anyone who's read this blog can attest, I like All Things Zombie mostly for its solo campaign element. I play solo wargames in a variety of eras, and I read the Lone Warrior blog for the Solo Wargames Association at the link below.

  
In their August 2011 section, Chris Hahn discusses a letter he read in the March 2011 Miniatures Wargaming magazine that discussed the overemphasis (in Mr. Smith's opinion) on detailed painting of figures and exquisite terrain over the basic idea of wargaming; that is getting together and playing games. He further considers that it promotes a brand of financial and painting skilled "elite" that intimidates and deters many people from entering the hobby.
 I'm still chewing on it, but I think he may have a point. Not that I think those who paint all their figs or create detailed terrain are elitists, they are simply exhibiting their love of the hobby and its modeling-painting aspect. Does this keep people from the hobby? I've been at conventions where I've overheard miniature wargamers sneering at a person's bad paint jobs on their figures, or turning their noses up at paper terrain. But is this just the normal level of appreciating greater effort? Or a sign of something worse, as Mr. Smith seems to imply?

Read the Lone Warrior article and please give me your opinions:


Still chewing on it,

Zombie Chow

Friday, December 30, 2011

Day 7: "Dining Out" (Part 2 of 2)

Sorry for the delay all, with holidays and all I've been busy. Not to mention finishing up the Fall semester and grading tests. To paraphrase the movie Clerks, "...this job would be great if it wasn't for all the damn students!" :D

* * * 

Turn 4
Survivors: 3 Zombies: 6 PEFS: 1 Gangers: 1

Doubles mean another Random Event (8); the civilian Neeva firing at shadows outside, generating 0 zombies.

There are 3 zombies inside the building as per the I Zombie rules. Normally (in those rules) there are areas 2-10, but I'm giving 3 chances for zombies in the front area (Dining room) of the building, as it's by far the largest area of the building. Despite this, only 1 zombie is in the front of the restaurant. Another is in the rear hallway leading to the back door, and the last is in a storeroom located to the left entryway of the rear exit.

I'll assume that the person in the storeroom was a restaurant employee that was bit by the zombie in the hall, and was hiding in the storeroom; but later died from the wounds and turned.

It's a narrow hall, so Michael and Sebastian are the only ones who can shoot in the doorway. The hallway zombie is Knocked Down (KD), but still kicking.

Jennifer pushes by the two guys and fires her SMG, with 2 of the 3 being hits with more KD results

Outside and at the front of the structure, the Ganger group attacks the front door, easily overcoming its Defense Value (DV). So, 2 Gangers enter and attack the zombie in the dining room with 2 Out of the Fight (OOF) results. The spray of gunfire generates 1 zombie, emerging with the horde gathering in front of the apartment complex.

The last PEF moves through the woods and enters Line of Sight (LOS) of the Gangers, resulting in a false alarm. Pity, a distraction to the Gangers would really have helped the survivor group right about now!


Turn 5
Survivors: 4 Zombies: 2 Gangers: 5

Lisa and Kaylee enter the hallway, melees the prone zombie and kills it with a rapier thrust.
Neeva moves to the kitchen doorway to keep a watch out for the Gangers...and possibly more zombies.

Outside, the zombies follow the sound of automatic gunfire in the restaurant dining room, as its closer and certainly more than the one shot in the back of the building. A horde is gathering.

The leader of the Gangers moves into the building and kills the prone zombie in the dining area.


Turn 6
Survivors: 6 Zombies: 2 Gangers: 6:


Doubles rolled YET again means one more Random Event, but the result of 11 applies only to moving vehicles, so there is no effect. The survivors are busy splitting the group in two in order to check the office/break room and storeroom of the building.

The zombies continue their plodding movement toward the building's front doorway and windows, blocking the Gangers within the restaurant.


Turn 7
Survivors: 3 Zombies: 2 Gangers: 1

The survivors split up to check office and storeroom. Find a total of 6 units of food...and the zombie! Jennifer is guarding the back door, Sebastian & Michael enters the storeroom and fire at the zombie in the crates. Lisa and Kaylee search the office, and Neeva continues to keep watch on the kitchen.

The resulting volley of fire results in Sebastian getting an OOF and Michael (finally!) gets to kill a zombie. The gunshots generate 1 zombie outside, moving toward restaurant from south; being placed 12 inches to the east thus near burned out building.


Which brings up a question... What happens in ATZ when the location of a generated zombie places it off the table? I resolve this by moving it east and have it at an angle rather than a straight line...but I need to remember to ask others how they handle this.

Meanwhile, things are really getting ugly out front, with the zombies getting thicker and thicker on the ground. I'd hoped to search multiple buildings but I think we're going to be lucky to get out of the restaurant alive and with supplies.

Two zombies charge the gangers standing just inside the doorway.
One ganger succeeds and snap fires at the charging Z's, the others go into melee (3 gangers total. The snap fire misses horrifically; guess he was spooked! In the resulting melee, one ganger is killed, and his zombie attacker will feast for 4 turns. Several gangers are now in range of the feeding to take the "See the Feast" (STF) test. Three of them end up forced to take the sanity test. All 3 are stunned and must take the STF roll again next turn.
Finally, the ganger turn arrives. With 3 of them stunned, the other 3 shoot at the zombies in range. The non-feeding zombie is KDed, though 2 zombies are generated by the gunfire. A result of boxcars means the two generated zombies enter the game from the apartments (west). What is this? A Zombie reunion?


Turn 8
Survivors: 5 Zombies: 3 Gangers: 2

The survivors don't move...perhaps they are busy packing food in backpacks?

The horde arrives. Five zombies burst through the doorway in the front, 2 in the doorway itself and the other 3 crash through the glass windows. Window zombies fall upon two of the stunned gangers, and the two in the doorway move for other prey. The Knocked down zombie stands up. So, we have 7 zombies inside, with one feasting for 3 more turns. The end is drawing near for the gangers I suspect!

The unstunned ganger Rep 3 fires and misses the incoming doorway zombies, while the two Rep 4 gangers spray at full auto towards the zombies. 6 shots, and 4 hit their targets. One zombie is Obviously Dead (OD), and the other is KD. The remaining zombies inside broken windows melees the nearby Rep 3 ganger and gets an OOF. Dinnertime! Meanwhile the gang leader and guards (Reps 4 and 3) make there being charged test and fire 6 shots, with 2 KD results.

Oh boy...15 shots for Zombie generation??? This is gonna suck. It does, with 8 zombies generated! 2 arrive from the north, 3 from the east, 2 from the west, and 1south.


Turn 9
Survivors: 6 Zombies: 1 Gangers: 2

I guess the survivor group is still packing up foodstuffs. No move this turn.

As for the gangers, the two near the door open fire on the in a vain attempt to hold back the horde. the Rep 4 ganger shoots once, and the Rep 3 ganger fires full auto; 3 shots. Both get 1 hit on a zombie, with the results being one zombie OD. The gang leader with his homeys knock 1 zombie down, kills another.

Again, 7 shots generate 4 more zombies; with 1 from the west, 1 north, and 2 from the east.



For their turn, the outside zombies continue to congregate and mass in front of the building. Inside, 3 zombies stand up. The feasting one only has 1 turn left.

Turn 10
Survivors: 4 Zombies: 3 Gangers: 1

Everybody finally gets to move! The survivors begin to gather back into the hallway, though Michael takes over Neeva's guard position in the kitchen. He moves further inside to see if he can find anything useful in the kitchen itself.

Out in the dining area, a zombie starts feasting on the OOF ganger, noshing for 2 turns. Two other zombies charge the gang leader and his bodyguards, and the two stunned gangers retake the "See the Feast" test; with the result they are both Stunned again. The charge melee ends with 1 zombie KD and another ganger OOF.


Turn 11
Survivors: 1 Zombies: 4 Gangers: 3

The zombies move en masse into the building. The KD zombie crawls over to the OOF ganger and begins feasting for 5 turns.

The other feasting zombie finally finishes his meal and rises to attack the gang leader. The gang lord gets KD, but the zombie is shot by the remaining bodyguard for a OD result. The earlier reps 3 and 4 who were stunned are now hunkered down. All gangers open fire, with 4 shots killing 2 of the zombies entering the restaurant but one shot missing the feeding zombie.



The survivors (sans Michael) start moving out the back door of the restaurant and gather outside the back of the building. Curious about the noise, Michael moves through the kitchen to check what's going on inside the dining room...only to see the carnage inside! Despite all common sense, he decides to take a shot at both of the hunkered down gangers and gets a OD and a KD result on them. These two shots generate 2 zombies, one from the east and the other....you guessed it, south; right in front of the gathered survivors! Thanks a LOT Michael!


Turn 12
Survivors: 4 Zombies: 3 Gangers: 2

At last, Michael runs like a scared old woman out the back door. Sebastian takes a shot at the surprise zombies to the south and misses yet again. Jennifer opens up with the SMG (only 1 shot) and gets a KD result. Lisa draws her rapier yet again and gets an auto-kill on the prone zombie. I think she's killed more zombies than anyone this game!

Apologies for the blurry pic but we only noticed it after the game.



Back to the zombie horde, one Zombie jumps the ganger Michael KD'd and begins to feast for 3 turns. More zombies move into the building, with over 24 (!) in crowd.

Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, the Gang leader and his remaining homey run into the kitchen.

Turn 13
Survivors: 2 Zombies: 1 Gangers: 1

Yet more doubles mean a Random Event: 5+4= only valid in a vehicle, so no result.

The survivors run off the board! Here's hoping they can all fit into the SUV; or that the vehicle is still where they left it. ;)


One Zombie is generated from gunfire from the east, but game is over.

- GAME ENDS -


Damn! All that time generating the board and my group only searches one building! Much like Whiteface noted in his Battle Report, the same thing happens to me only we got out without any casualties. Still, I'd been tempted to hang around and pick up some of those assault weapons left by dead gangers, which was why Michael originally went to the front of the building. Maybe I'll take another cue from Oliver and have game 5 a return bout to the same neighborhood.

This is the game where I was faced with the idea of zombies rising from a dead human; most notably the dead gangers. So, as noted earlier I came up with this house rule:

@@@New House Rule: Unless there are more zombies at a feast than the victim's rep, at the end of the feast the victim gets up as another zombie. If there are more zed's than the victim's rep, its assumed not enough of the victim is left to rise.

Zombie Chow

Saturday, December 3, 2011

He's not dead yet....He's getting better!

Sorry for the delay in part 2 of the BatRep....Had to go out of town and now that I'm back finals and research papers are piling up. I'll try to at least get part 2 up in the next day or so. After that....it might be a bit before I can update here. After Christmas most likely.

Merry X-Men all, and a Happy New Mutants! ;)

Zombie Chow

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Day 7: "Dining Out" (Part 1 of 2)

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


Monday, November 14, 2011

Those Who Remain Journal

Hello All,

In order to facilitate the publishing of Battle Reports I've decided to create a support blog just for the fiction. I'll be importing the already written stories over there during the coming week so if you're a fan of the fiction then future stories about Michael, Lisa, and Kaylee will be found at:

http://thosewhoremainjournal.blogspot.com

The Game 4 BatRep part 1 will be up tomorrow!

Zombie Chow

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Zombie, Run!

     Just ran across this planned ultra-immersive game that you play while actually running for exercise. Its on preorder now for $12 and season 1 covers up to 30 missions.     I think I'll be getting it...so long as I don't have to actually buy an Ipod or Android to play. I like my Sandisk, thanks!

Check it out at:

http://www.zombiesrungame.com

Zombie Chow