Wednesday 19 July 2017

Day Two continued.... Childress



I knocked up a very simple 'encounters ruling' for the rest of road trip to Wichita Falls, since ATZ tracks campaigns by the month, but I figured that a lot would be happening during week one of the outbreak while citizens begin the transition to survivor/ganger/zombie fodder.
At key points along the route, I've thrown a red and a white d6 - if red is higher, I roll a d10 on my 'incident table'..... during a zombie apocalypse, even simple problems could turn nasty!

1. Tail end of a traffic jam. (Stuck, and all that NOISE!)
2. Road traffic Accident - all vehs (dice) wrecked, some occupants injured (dice).
3. Junction I need closed by police.(meet & greet)
4. Broken down veh, occupants (dice)are fleeing citizens (meet & greet)
5. RTA - veh's and occupants (dice) are OK, just "sorting it" to clear the road.
6. Hitch-hiker(s) (dice)
7. Wandering zeds (dice as perPEF, but loaded with Z's)
8. What's that noise? Engine trouble????
9. Flat tyre! (when the spare's changed, don't forget to get another!!)
10. Civilization! A farmhouse/truckstop/gas station (dice) Time for a breather??

Brad and Hannah are on the last leg of the drive now, and while Brad is no longer so sure that "the authorities" are going to get this mess sorted anytime soon, Hannah is getting up-tight about getting to her bro'.
Finally, the turn-off for Childress is just up ahead, but just like the outskirts of Amarillo, the police have the road closed off - the detour to the next bridge will take them hours and burn yet more gas!
As the RV approaches the junction, it attracts some unwanted attention (The police replace one PEF and the other two are in the woods in areas 1 and 4, the engine noise only attracts one zombie, but the two characters 'entering the table' attract four more)
Brad and Hannah are totally unaware of the threat as they pull to a stop, switch off the engine and get out to speak with the law officers (The meet & greet goes well with two passes each - 'friendly' and the ER drops to zero!)
Meanwhile, the PEF's move away!....
... while the zombies move in - they have LOS and become frenzied.
Brad just makes it around the RV before the shooting starts (and before he could get jumped by the zombies emerging from the trees)
One officer double taps with his pistol and drops the zed shuffling along the side of the road, while the cop with the semi automatic rifle fires into the group approaching from the wood........
.... continuing the trend for this encounter by NOT attracting anymore zeds!
The PEF's also continue their own trend of 'moving away'!!
Things get tense as the living dead close in.....
.... the rifle cracks again,
and the time spent on the firing range pays dividends
before Hannah fires her first shot in anger....
..... and with a weird sense of pride, Brad sees her drop her target.....
... before he squeezes the trigger...
.... and kills the last of the zombies.
With the threat eliminated, and a 'brothers-in-arms' kinda bond, the rudely interrupted meet & greet resumes.
The police pass on what information they know about the outbreak, and agree to let Brad and Hannah take the Childress road to join the highway into Wichita Falls, even offering to radio ahead to the roadblocks they'd encounter to let them through!
(BTW - That was a successful use of Brad's "Savvy Skill" Joe. What d'ya reckon??)
As the cops cleared the road, they wished Hannah the best of luck in finding her brother,
and with that, they were finally on their way to the city!

Thanks for reading what was definitely the final 'prelim' to the story, once again, any comments are most welcome.






10 comments:

  1. I really like the way you're handling the story Greg, Im like you in that I think a hell of a lot happens in the first 24-72 hours as the world changes, hence why my campaign has had a very extended day one. Keep up the good work!

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    1. It's easy to see why so many classic zombie tales jump straight to the "main event", with the central hero conveniently 'coming out of a coma' (or similar) AFTER the initial outbreak.
      Also, as a "player", it's quite a challenge to view the New World through the eyes of the character.
      Glad you approve of the story so far!

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  2. I totally agree with packing week 1 of the zombie apocalypse with far more incidents than in the rest of your campaign. The two heroes did well in interacting with the police so effectively. Killing zombies together certainly helped them all to bond and I was pleased to see such a positive ending. As Andy said, keep up the good work.

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    1. Many thanks Bryan, I was more than happy with how the 'simple' scenario played out especially as Brad will have raised his low Rep by one point as a result! Hopefully this will give him a better chance of survival as they leave the rural area and venture into the "mean streets" in search of Travis.

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  3. Nice looking game with beautiful minis and vehicles!

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    1. Thank you Phil, you are TOO kind.
      I've visited "Les Riflemen" and added it to my Blog List - there's just so much eye candy and inspirational modelling to see there!

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  4. Corking stuff, Wargame Addict. Ordinarily I tend to rely upon Da Gobbo and Bryan to keep me glued to the monitor with their ATZ tales, but now I see I have the pleasure of a third site :-) Great stuff, and I really enjoyed the almost RPG element of the cops discussing matters with our heroes and coming to an amicable decision. Lots of bullets and dead zeds too!! Looking forward to seeing more :-)

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  5. Thanks for your kind words of encouragement - I hope future installments are up to par!
    Bryan's blog has a lot to answer for ;-) "Vampifan" is THE reason I got involved in zombpoc gaming!
    I see you are also gaming the ECW, I'll be following your progress as I embark on my own project.
    Cheers,
    Greg

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  6. Nice simple encounter,very plasuible. The neural meet and greet was prbably welcomed too.
    As fo rthe use of 'savvy' IU've though it to mean understanding, street wise etc.
    I'd have used probably used the 'people skill' to get info from the cops, but what do I know ?

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  7. Cheers Joe, and you're absolutely, but Brad is a seasoned entertainer, so (from experience) I reckon he's "street wise" when it comes to handling people - he used the 'people skill' to get the info, then 'savvy' to get them to go the extra mile and radio ahead ;-)

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