Brad and Hannah had taken turns driving through the night and had got around Amarillo without incident by staying on the minor roads.
A sign told them a gas station and diner were up ahead on the outskirts of Clarendon, so keeping the tank topped up seemed a good plan, as well as possibly grabbing a cooked breakfast, coffee, and maybe more information on what the hell's happening (Brad was confident that "the authorities" wouldn't waste any time getting the situation under control - whatever it was), so he prepared to pull over onto the forecourt.........
The RV was set to enter from the west, and PEF's were promisingly placed in sectors 2, 4 and 5 as per the photo. Then the "fun" started (have I done this right????)
The group drove onto the table and so I rolled for generating zombies. It's a rural area, so there'd be 1/2D6 per character - but there's also the engine noise of the RV, which adds another 6D6 (halved because of the encounter rating)
I placed them using a D12 and the "clock face", and ended up with a couple behind the RV, one to the left and right, and a mini horde to the front!
All three PEF's failed to activate, so we don't know if there's any help around or not - Brad passed the "brown pants" test and aimed the RV straight up the road!
The zombies were real though, and they started moving in.
.. it must have been 'just a shadow' he said as they drove off down the road towards Childress.
It looks like things are going to be tougher for the pair than I thought - especially if I've understood the rules correctly regarding generating zombies during week one.
I'm off for another read of the book before the next encounter on this road trip on the way to trying to find Hannah's brother Travis in Wichita Falls!
Thanks for reading, and comments most welcome (especially if you know ATZ:FFO better than me!)
I think that I'd have kept driving too, given the circumstances!
ReplyDeleteIIRC the fifteen zeds you generated are only'potential' zeds all have to have a second roll pendant on the ER of the area they're in. Don't trust my failing memory though as I've changed somany of the ATZ rules to my own version.
Thanks Joe - I was expecting a fairly mundane encounter, more to "beef up" the characters a little than anything else.
DeleteIn the end, Brad might have passed with his dice roll, but I definitely FAILED the Brown Pants test!
A very quick but tense game!
Great post. I'm loving the series. Please keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with Zabadak. Much better to keep driving. Why give up your life just for a tank of gas?
Much appreciated Tim - the next encounter is coming up in a day or two :-)
DeleteBrad's lucky he only wanted a "top up", that was definitely NOT the place to run out of gas!
Staying in the car and driving on was the sensible decision to take. As I keep saying, knowing when to run is just as important as knowing when to fight and this was definitely the right time to run.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Bryan, and your absolutely right, I shudder at the thought of what might have happened if anything went wrong with the RV at that moment - even ramming the three Z's in the road was worrying, it was the first time I'd done it and had visions of stalling, losing control and crashing etc!!
DeleteI found my mistake which caused so many Z's to be generated, but in game terms they must have been swarming there for a reason - maybe there were trapped survivors in the gas station / diner?
Who knows, perhaps a bunch of zombies will have been drawn away trying to follow the RV and allow the trapped folk a chance to escape??!!
Nice encounter Greg, keep going that's the best policy!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Andy, but I'd also add "and don't look back!" ;-)
ReplyDelete