Saturday, 10 June 2017

Day One The Gas Station



Basked in the dawn light, Brad pulled up at the pumps, but as he walked round the RV he was confronted by a pair of wild looking youths running his way.....
... first activation roll of the campaign, and it goes against him! Is this a taste of things to come?
The youths move first and rush into contact - Brad passes the "brown pants" test and stands his ground. The first round of melee ends in a tie and results in a stand-off,
but the second youth beats Brad 2 successes to 1,
which results in knocking him to the ground.
A little dazed and clueless as to what had just happened, Brad could only watch as the pair fled off over the road towards the woods.
Dusting himself off and then filling the RV while he mulled over the morning's events, he was still none the wiser as he went to pay for the gas......
.... inside the gas station, the proprietor was standing open mouthed with the owners of the bike parked at the pumps as they stared at a TV screen.
As Brad followed their gaze, he turned to the screen and felt his own jaw hit the floor!






So, our hero is now fully aware of the situation unfolding around him - the bikers explained how they'd ridden around the police cordon and made it to the outskirts of Amarillo, where they'd witnessed scenes of total mayhem.
The phones were out which meant he couldn't contact Hannah and he had to decide what to do next........
and fast!

Admission time: First off, I've "cheated" with Brad's stats!
His age, fitness, prior military training and experience would qualify him for Rep of 4, but I had problems with his People and Savvy skills, which I really felt should be on a par with each other to better suite his character.
To fudge this, I took one point from his Rep (making him a 3) and gave it to one of the skills (making them both 2)
I'm happy with how that rounds him out as an ex-soldier turned entertainer, and the lower Rep serves well to portray his easy going nature at the start of the outbreak!

Secondly, the above encounter was played on a small board just representing the gas station and its immediate surroundings, since it was set alongside a minor road running through a wooded area which would limit line of sight.
This was a practical convenience to get around the fact that "the lady of the house" has currently commandeered the table while she's working on a birthday cake!!


Finally for this post, I'm delighted and thrilled to say a big welcome to Bryan who in my opinion, after following his "Vampifan" blog,  is Mr Zombie Gaming personified!


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5 comments:

  1. Vampifan10 June 2017 at 20:49

    Greg, you are far too kind, but I appreciate the sentiment. I wouldn't worry too much about fudging Brad's stats. I often do it to make a character appear how I think he should appear and not how the rules should appear. For example, I never roll for a character's attributes. I just pick the ones that most suit the person I have in mind. As Ed says, the rules are just a guideline - you decide what to use and how to use it.

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  2. Da Gobbo11 June 2017 at 17:43

    Hey .Bryan, glad you made it to Greg's blog, I told you his batreps are good :-)

    Don't worry about fudging the stats as B says, Ed wants you to make the game yours and encourages you to go "off books". Hopefully he'll get wind of your blog and comment over time.

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  3. The Wargame Addict11 June 2017 at 23:10

    Thanks for the insight and advice guys :-)
    I'm never too concerned about bending any rules when I'm 'GMing' for a group, but I was a bit worried about upsetting the game balance of this solo campaign. You've put my fears to rest!

    Bryan, let me just say that I WAS an Oldhammer player who hankered after the long defunct Games Workshop card buildings and found your blog while searching the net for them. What you've done with pdf models and tiles is OUTSTANDING, and along with your AAR's is honestly the reason I "got into" the whole zombie apocalypse gaming genre.
    I owe you many thanks!!

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  4. Zabadak12 June 2017 at 12:56

    Nice intro to your campaign, I'll be very interested if and when you find use for the savvy skill without contriving one. As for the rules, I think of them more as guidelines and I change huge chunks of them to suit my own game vision.

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    1. The Wargame Addict14 June 2017 at 02:04

      Thanks Joe, food for thought and I'll bear it in mind when a "savvy test" crops up - the rules comments have been gratefully received and I've already spent some time googling (and found my copy of "Haven" squirreled away on my hard drive!)

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