Savage Worlds War of the Dead - Session 1 Recap

[jcayer]

A couple nights ago we started our War of the Dead campaign. I've been wanting to run this for a while and there was definitely some excitement among the players. I have a fairly large group to deal with, some of whom play remotely over google hangouts, so it was definitely a challenging session tonight. To make things interesting, I let them start the game as themselves.
In attendance:
Jeff: chemistry teacher, good physical condition
Bob: analyst, good physical condition, EMT
Aimee: social worker, bad knee,went to bed early
Adam: computer administrator, poor physical condition(sorry buddy)
Remote:
Mike: Salesman, outdoorsman, EMT/Paramedic
Kris: nurse, good physical condition
Joel: accountant

Once they boarded the ship, I gave them the opportunity to explore a bit and introduced everyone to one NPC. I figured this would give me the chance to hook these NPCs back in and give the victims some faces. FYI, all of the NPC names were generated here: Random Name Generator Thanks, I think to Jordan, for suggesting a list of NPC names. I planned to do that, but his suggestion solidified it for me and it made things so much easier.
Aimee spent some time at the pool where she met Mrs Treymore who was vacationing with her family
Joel opted to visit the casino where a successful gambling roll netted him a bit of coin. He encountered Ted Milnes, a professional gambler.
Jeff went to the gym to workout where he made friends with a very attractive woman, Tabatha Thaler.
Bob(recently wed), spent the afternoon, alone, with his wife.
Adam met Billy Haynes at the bar. It was an easy way for me to introduce Billy.
Mike opted to go skeet shooting and met Benjamin Moore paint salesman, Jessie Wait
Finally, Kris went to book some excursions where he met Javier Betton, an avid adventurer

With the first afternoon coming to a close, the group prepared to attend the celebration ball. Copying Ferret, I also played Luck Be a Lady Tonight(from youtube) as Mr Forthington was introduced. I took it so far as to have a glass and tap on it with a small stick. It really did the trick for getting their attention. I also used a picture of Richard Attenborough to give them an image for Forthington. Shortly into the celebration, Bob raised a toast and Billy Haynes accidentally bumped into him, causing him to spill his drink. Billy, being the man he is, couldn't resist buying the table a round to make up for the accidental bump and before anyone knew what was happening, I had the medical guys make a Notice check. Mike and Bob both noticed his unsteady gate, sweating, and shortness of breath. As soon as he collapsed, they swung into action performing CPR and trying to assist. In the meantime, Jeff and Kris went looking for a defibrillator. I wasn't prepared for them to save him then and there, so they didn't find one. The Medical Team from the ship was quick to respond and whisk Billy away. Mike offered to join them, but was assured they did not need his assistance and that he should enjoy the party.

As the party drew to a close, the group decided to hit a club to check out the night life on the ship. This was a very convenient time for them to bump into Mrs Haynes who was returning from the infirmary. She was beside herself, confused, and terribly upset about her husband. Some of the group comforted her as best they could while the rest found a concierge phone and called for assistance. Once again, a member of the medical crew showed up to escort her to her room. When asked about Billy's condition, he stated he had just come on duty and did not know anything. Some gentle prodding here by me resulted in no interest to investigate the infirmary. I also stole from Jordan(I think) here and used the aurora thing at night. The group would later learn that disrupted communications.

The next day dawned early and Mike and Bob decided on a run up on deck to start the day. After that, they thought to stop in and check on Billy. Arriving at the infirmary, they found the waiting room empty of staff or visitors. Instead, they were greeted by the terrible stench of death and blood and gore splatters throughout the area. Mike went to call security from the phone on the table and the remains of Mr Haynes walked in from the back room. He was dragging part of a medical assistant and munching on its intestines. This of course, required a guts check. Mike succeeded, but Bob failed, resulting in him freezing up in fear and shock. Next up, I gave it my all and gave them the moan. I think it was pretty good and definitely unsettled the players. Cards were dealt and Mike got to go first. He grabbed Bob and basically dragged him out of the room. They were able to quickly outdistance the zombie, but not lock the doors as they didn't have the keys.

Mike and Bob ran up to meet the rest of the group at breakfast where they told them the story. The rest of the group were very concerned and decided they needed to act. Some were already discussing getting off the ship. Jeff contacted the Matre d and asked where security was and if he would call medical to see if anyone was there. Jeff wanted to be sure Bob and Mike had not hallucinated or something like that. The matre D returned and told them there was no response from medical. At this point Bob, still reeling from his failed Guts check, was trying to climb on a table and convince people they needed to get off the boat ASAP. Kris and Jeff managed to subdue him enough that the few people who saw him thought he had some sort of mental imbalance or was playing a joke.

The group headed to security where they met the receptionist on duty, Shirley. There was a veiled reference made to Airplane the movie that named her. After Bob and Mike tried to explain what they had seen to her, she was not real receptive. She wasn't sure if she was on some prank show,or if there was something wrong with the two of them. Finally, Jason Kirkman(played by Liam Neeson) came out of his office. Like Shirley, he had trouble believing their story. In retrospect, I should have let it go at this point and just said he would investigate. However, I wanted a bit more, so when Bob failed his persuasion check, Jason insisted Bob go with him to investigate. He felt the story was so absurd that if Bob was going to waste his time with a prank, Jason was going to waste Bob's time as well. Bob was extremely frustrated with Jason at this point and was not afraid to let him know. Video surveillance cameras showed stains on the floor that could have been anything, but no motion. Bob would not go with Jason, however, Mike, Jeff, and Adam agreed to join him. Bob, Kris, and the rest of the gang would return to their cabins to see what happened.

Once they arrived at the infirmary,they could see blood splattered all over the reception area, but before they could investigate, they heard, the moan and a scream from around the corner. Looking around, Jeff found an axe(Ferret again) and Adam a fire extinguisher. Racing over there, they got a front row seat of zombie Haynes dining on a security guard Kirkman had radio'd to meet them there. Jeff and Adam both failed their gut checks. After an enormous breakfast, Jeff was almost sick, while Adam unloaded everything he had stuffed in his gullet for breakfast, and then some. The zombie advanced but was far enough away that he could not reach them on the first turn. Adam dropped the fire extinguisher and retreated down the hall. Kirkman pumped a pair of rounds from his Glock into the chest of the creature, that didn't slow it down. At this point, Mike said aim for the head....I let him have it as it was obvious shots to the chest were ineffective. The creature attempted to attack Kirkman, but missed miserably. Jeff then stepped up and buried the axe deep into its neck. So deep, he couldn't get it out. At this point, Jeff was able to hold him in place long enough for Kirkman to bury a slug in Haynes' head, dropping him in his tracks.

Mike went to check the dead security guy and was promptly attacked. I rolled a one on the attack, which made it pretty pointless. Jeff was there to back Mike up, and swung his axe...snake eyes, critical failure. How could I resist? The zombie shifted at the last minute, moving Mike into the oncoming blade. Fortunately, Jeff continued to roll ones and rolled snake eyes for damage again, one for damage and one for strength. So Mike lived to fight another day as Kirkman took this one out as well. Mike wanted the gun from the dead guard, but Kirkman refused to give it to him. Like Bob, Mike's frustration with Kirkman was brimming over, and Mike was done with the mess. Once he rounded up the others, his intent was to steal a lifeboat and escape. Kirkman did give Jeff the radio, and Mike pocketed some handcuffs. Kirkman then insisted they return to their rooms so his men could get the situation under control. Although not happy about it, they complied with the intent of agreeing with Mike, and stealing a lifeboat and taking their chances on the high seas.

Back at the rooms, Bob had everyone packing a small bag and preparing to leave. Once again, I wanted to keep the players on the boat a bit longer, so I had Kirkman radio them and ask for their help. Mike and Adam both have the Heroic hindrance so you can bet I used that against them. They agreed to meet Kirkman in his office where he asked for their help, offered to make sure their loved ones were safe,and arm them, if they would help him. They agreed, but now that they were armed,half the group was ready to jump ship. Before giving them the weapons, the scene with Forthington, Kirkman, and Romero had to play out. Forthington and Romero bust into the office and Forthington tells Kirkman he is not allowing Romero to contact the coast guard and that the problem should be handled internally. Kirkman is furious with the statement but wants to keep his job. The players don't care about that and Mike handcuffs Forthington as they lock him in the brig. Kirkman agrees to arm them, Romero returns to the bridge to contact the coast guard, and the players escort their loved ones to the secure area. Kirkman earned big points here by "changing sides" and giving the players what they really wanted...guns!

The next couple hours are spent rounding up injured people and bringing them to the security office, now set up as a temporary infirmary. I should have run a couple small encounters here, but it was getting late. Things settled down a bit, but then Kirkman lost contact with the bridge. Everyone converged there to find a dead zombie, dead security guard, and damaged radio. They asked Romero if he had been able to contact the coast guard and he said he had not because of the interference in the atmosphere from the aurora. With that, an explosion rocked the ship, sending it into darkness. Romero commented how Forthington had some controls wired to his personal suite and this could be a result. Kirkman's attempts to raise the security office failed. The group agrees to go there with him, but are very close to cutting their losses and steal a lifeboat. Arriving at security, they find it overrun with zombies.


I called for a break here as we came much further off the rails than I was prepared for. So next session, either next week, or the week after will pick up here, with a battle.

Here is the prep thread: Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group :: View topic - Gearing up for War of the Dead

 

[S'mon]

You seem to be a better GM than the one I had. Very important in WotD to be able to let the PCs go off the rails.

 

[jcayer]

Thank you. For a group that usually stays right on the rails, it was a surprise when they deviated so far. Still, I enjoyed being on my toes and am just trying to figure out how to get some of the key points in, that I think they'll enjoy, but are in danger of skipping.

 

[jcayer]

Session 2 - In the books

WotD Session 2 game report
When we last left our unfortunate vacationers, they were racing from the Bridge down to Security, as contact with that section had been lost. Rounding the corner and coming down the stairs, the section was overrun with creatures. On the way, Kirkman had mentioned he had another 350 or so rounds in his office and Joel had come forward to state they should make some effort to rescue Forthington, who had been locked in the brig. If they didn't, they had effectively executed him themselves.

I dealt the players action cards. Among them were included "Fade to Black" - which would take one character who was wounded grievously and have them go unconscious, removed from the scene, and appear with the group some time later miraculously unharmed. Boom Head Shot - Which converted any normal hit retroactively into a head shot. Momentary Distraction - Which creates a loud noise, like a car alarm, at a perfect moment, distracting all enemies in the room.

Cards were dealt and the passengers all came out ahead of the shamblers. They took some pot shots, not hitting anything and began retreating almost immediately. Mike, the only trained shooter in the group drew his glock, squeezed the trigger, and snake eyes, critical failure. I was going with some sort of malfunction and flash blind him for a few rounds. But Mike knows far more about guns than I do, and said that pretty much can't happen. I said, fine, the gun malfunctions, blowing up in your hand, you’re able to drop it, but it’s a useless hunk of metal now. Strangely, he was ok with that solution. In the end, everyone retreated during the first round of combat and then made a run for it during the second.

The players began to realize just how difficult it was to headshot a zombie. With a -4 to hit the head, and a standard difficulty of TN of 4. That effectively made a headshot an 8 or better with no other tricks to assist. Until this point, they had been much more confident about their abilities in combat.

As they retreated, the last man at the bottom of the stairs, Kris, was too close to three of the undead. They moved adjacent to him and we saw the first instance of the wild attack plus ganging up combination. They hit him and the party almost had their first death. Kris used a bennie to soak the two wound's worth of damage. The players realized just how easily they could be taken out. They realized that for Kris to escape, he would have to sustain three attacks to step away from the creatures. The players then decided to use their "Momentary Distraction" card. Bob suggested that distraction could be that a person could walk out of an adjacent internet cafe with headphones on, and be devoured, buying them time. That seemed too grim indeed and morally questionable. Instead I opted to have one of the player's missed shot hit the fountain and cause it to malfunction in such a way that it began bubbling, cracking and popping, temporarily distracting the undead. The group used this opportunity to run away the next round.

At this point, Kirkman admitted he didn’t have much chance of regaining control of the boat. Most of his security guys were not answering their radios and they were running into these things everywhere. He then told them he would take them to their loved ones so everyone could get off the ship. He was not yet willing to sound the abandon ship alarm as it would make it almost impossible to make it to the crew quarters and their loved ones. Besides, that was still the captain’s job.

The players at this point were extremely animated. There was a LOT of talking. Some wanted to ransack the local shops on the promenade. Others wanted to make for the skeet shooting range and commandeer the shotguns up there. Still others wanted to fashion a bomb out of alcohol at the liquor store and throw it against the 20 undead near the security office. The players talked for more than 15 minutes about next steps before agreeing to head for their loved ones in the crew quarters. It is easy to see that there are a lot of strong personalities among this group, and I expect future heated discussions as they progress. Bob used this moment to retrieve two sturdy knee braces from his backack and put them on during this discussion, given his weak knee and torn ACL.


Kirkman suggested heading through engineering as that was probably the least populated deck and might be free of the zombies. Bob and Mike were not big fans of that idea and in the end, Kirkman said he’d try to take them the most direct route he could. What followed was several of the “random” encounters in the adventure. In truth, I chose the ones that I liked and thought would be the most entertaining.

Almost immediately, they ran into Ms Hartten, played by Kathy Bates. She would not leave the characters as they had weapons and could help protect her. She spent most of her time rambling on about the “Will of God” and him “Cleansing the Earth” The characters quickly tired of her, but she would not leave them.

Heading down another corridor, they stumbled on 3 zombies who had cornered an old woman in her nineties. She was managing to keep them at bay with her walker, but was tiring. Realizing she had little to no chance of surviving without their help, they opted to attempt to save her. Most of the players had acquired axes while traversing the ship, so I let them have the drop on the creatures, so they could easily rescue Ethel, played by Estelle Getty. Ethel, much like Hartten would not leave their side. When asked about keeping up, she poked Adam and said, I’ll keep up with the fat guy, don’t worry. She never fell behind….as an NPC, she was barely mentioned, but she made it.

A couple minutes later, they ran into Jon Treymore and his family. Wife Ellen, and three kids, ages 6, 9, and 12. Aimee had met Ellen earlier, while the were sunbathing around the pool. Treymore had an axe and Mike persuaded him to go up to the lifeboats as that was the eventual destination of the party. Mike took a moment to explain that the group had so far determined that aiming for the head seemed to work best. Nothing else stopped them. And he also cautioned against exposure to blood or being bitten. At this point the group was beginning to get a better understanding of the dangers they were facing.

Not a minute later, a man carrying a young child bumped into the group. The child was bitten. Bob offered to tend to the child while Mike let the father in on the grizzly truth, the child was doomed to become a zombie as a result of the bite. As Mike was telling the father, Bob was pretending to bandage the her, but was actually tying her up, in case she turned at that very moment. Eventually the man would no longer listen to Mike and said he was leaving and taking his daughter with him, to which Mike and Bob said no. They wanted to keep her nearby, just in case. Ultimately, the man grabbed her and raced off, down the corridor.

The final “random” encounter was an open cabin, with a crying baby inside. The mother was dead on the bed, being consumed by 8 zombies. The baby was in a crib in the corner, crying. I expected there to be a “bit” of contention by the players about how to handle this. As it turns out, “Bit” was an understatement. Adam was first to approach the door and see into the room. He immediately shouted out to get the creature's attention. Bob and Mike were behind him and looked into the room. Mike's first response was, "Really? Did you really just do that?" to which Adam replied. "It's done. I've already shouted. Deal with it." Bob and Mike(despite his Heroic hindrance) did not want to get involved. Adam, on the other hand, could not leave, due to his own heroic hindrance of having a soft spot for all children. Despite Bob’s best effort to close the door, Adam burst in, screaming and yelling at the creatures, attempting to distract them away from the baby. It succeeded and the zombies began to follow him out into the hall where the other players were waiting. Bob wasn't prepared to face eight zombies, however, and initiative was drawn between Bob and Adam. Bob won iniative with a Queen and ran forward and closed the cabin door. Adam went next with an 8. He prevailed upon Kirkman to unlock the door with his security card. Kirkman unlocked the door and Adam re-opened the door. At this point the undead were now directly at the door and stumbling into the hall.

In this case, I gave the players “the drop” as it was an easy way to handle someone waiting outside a door, with a glock, ready to blow someone’s head off.

This encounter could have been over fairly quickly, but really degenerated into a difficult exchange between players. Adam was adamant about saving the baby and Mike was threatening to shoot Adam since he put the group in danger. "If you ever do that to the group again, Adam, I will shoot you in the head," Mike warned. Bob was also very upset with Adam and things were not made easier by Ms Hartten calling the two of them(Mike and Bob) the “spawn of the devil” and other like names, since they wanted to leave the baby behind. She praised Adam, Joel and Jeff as "Angels of God." A quick search of the room did yield a baby carrier and a backpack with formula, diapers, etc. Adam accused Bob of being heartless and a monster for actively closing the door and attempting to allow a six month old to be killed. It was reprehensible. As he spoke he became even more upset. Bob responded telling Adam his priority was getting back to his wife and making sure she was safe. Bob said that should be Adam's priority as well, as Adam was the other member in the group who's wife had joined the cruise. Adam asked, "Who was hurt in that? Did anyone get hurt there? No! No one got hurt!" Bob told Adam he couldn't save them all. He asked Adam how many zombies would it take for Adam to close the door - 16? 30? It was clear that Adam's own extremely heroic hindrance of having a soft spot for children did not sit well with Mike or Bob. Words became heated, and Kris warned that the raised voices would attract more creatures to the group. Adam walked away, furious. The players were feeling real emotion here - they really got into it. Adam actually stood up and I had to bring the volume level down for fear of waking my wife.

Kirkman said they were almost there when they came to a deck that had been completely overrun with the creatures. They had no good way to get past them. Every route to the crew quarters seemed to be blocked. Kirkman continued to say he thought going through engineering would be the best choice until finally, they agreed.

They made it to the engineering deck without further incident and descended a ladder into complete darkness. Luckily, Kirkman had a flashlight with him. This was a pretty intimidating map as I used Fog of War and Darkness in Maptools to really limit what the players could see. The group heard a low, long moan from somewhere within the room, and they knew they were not alone in the dark. The undead was among them. As they prepared to begin crossing the room, automatic gunfire was heard on the far side of it. Mike looked at Kirkman who replied, “I don’t have any automatic weapons. I don’t know where they came from, but I would certainly like to get my hands on a few.” Moments later, a klaxon sounded and was followed by a message directing all passengers to report to the auditorium immediately.

Once the announcement was over, Kirkman began swearing. When asked, he replied, ”Captain Romero is probably dead. That alarm sounds when sensors installed in the ship detect anything that sounds like weapons fire and when there is another boat within 50 feet of the ship. The alarm can be suppressed on the bridge, or from security. If that alarm is going off, it means a ship is nearby, there’s been gunfire, and there is no one on the bridge to stop the alarm. It was designed to get passengers into the auditorium, which can be sealed and used somewhat like a safe room.” Once I get you to your loved ones, I need to get to the auditorium to try to get everyone there into the lifeboats. Bob spent a significant amount of time trying to convince Kirkman his plan to visit the auditorium was foolhardy and that there would be terrorists there, but Kirkman would hear nothing of it. He had a duty to protect these people. Even his own friends were getting impatient and exasperated with him, and the group spent a lot of time attempting to convince Bob it made sense to escort Kirkman to the auditorium after they had reconnected with their loved ones. Bob eventually relented, but not until he suggested that perhaps he should split from the party with his brother and meet them at the lifeboats. He decided it would be best to stay with the group. Despite being a group of friends, I’m curious if they would stay together long term if such an event happened.

With things going from bad to worse, the group was unwilling to brave crossing engineering. In their minds, terrorists or pirates had also invaded the ship and had automatic weapons. At least one or two where down in engineering, along with an unknown number of dead, and the possibility of a crying baby. I had really wanted to run engineering in a horrorish role, but they really didn’t want to stay, so I took off my conductor’s hat and let them find another, much longer way, to the crew quarters and their loved ones.

After doubling back several times, avoiding any combats they could, and taking almost an hour, they ran into a Miami policeman who had been on vacation. Stephen McDermont was a gruff cop who had seen a lot in his career. He was described as a God-fearing man. He had already acquired a gun from a dead security guard and a nasty gash on his arm from someone who was using a piece of broken mirror as a knife. Mike and Bob wrapped the arm, inspecting McDermont for signs of any bites or wounds that could be infected. They found none. And Stephen joined the group. Moments later, they dispatched a few zombies that were outside crew quarters and they were reunited with their loved ones during which Bob and his wife Andrea shared a kiss so passionate it made the one at the end of the Princess Bride look like a peck on the cheek.

Kirkman briefed the two remaining security guards about his plan to get to the auditorium and get anyone there off the boat. Once again, Bob spent significant time trying to change his mind, but to no avail. Kirkman told everyone there was a back staircase from the crew quarters that went past the back of the auditorium and then up to the deck. Again, Bob did not believe this was a sound plan. He had concerns terrorists would be in the auditorium. Even after being reassured the staircase was only known to the crew and they didn’t actually need to enter the auditorium, Bob still objected to the plan. He pointed out that an auditorium filled with hundreds of people only required one infected person to make the place extremely dangerous. He spent significant time trying to change everyone’s mind, but no one would budge, they all agreed the staircase was their quickest/safest way to the top deck and lifeboats. In the end, Bob caved to stay with the group, but he was definitely not pleased.

Moments later Kirkman and his remaining security guards said their goodbyes to the passengers as they parted ways. Kirkman went to the auditorium and the rest of the group went up to the decks and hopefully a lifeboat.

At the top of the stairs, chaos reigned. Dozens of zombies crowded the deck as a small group of survivors struggled to winch a lifeboat down to the water. The two guys who were trying to operate the winches were under pressure from zombies. Two members of the crew were separated from the group and would soon be surrounded. The group came out at the top of a staircase and were able to avoid immediate detection. Several lounge chairs lined the deck, and there was a wooden bar approximately one hundred and forty feet away. The group counted dozens of undead shambling on-decks. It looked insurmountable. As they looked down the stairs, a group of zombies gathered at the bottom, looking upwards.

Taking a quick inventory of the situation, Bob told Andrea he loved her and ran off to try to create a distraction to allow the rest of the survivors to get to the lifeboat. Mike opened fire, dropping the closest zombie with a headshot. Jeff advanced, picking up the corpse and throwing it at two approaching zombies. Thanks to a great roll, he knocked them both prone. Several of the others ran halfway down the stairs and attempted to leap the railing, with varying degrees of success. They did manage to bring down one of the zombies pressuring one of the winch operators.

By this time, Bob had made it to the bar that was on deck and jumped on top, yelling and screaming, attempting to draw the zombies to him. Unfortunately, only some of the zombies turned their attention to Bob. That's because just at that moment, the baby began to wail and scream. The crying infant, combined with the sounds of gunfire from the top of the stairs, served as an equally powerful distraction. As the round progressed, some lucky rolls dropped more of the zombies by the lifeboat, allowing the gang to close in on their salvation. Adam took over one of the winches while the rest of the gang worked to clear a way to the other winch.

Realizing his distraction was over, Bob lept off the bar and took several attacks as he tried to make it to the boat. He soaked a couple wounds, acing on two vigor rolls and then his luck ran out, he took a wound he couldn’t soak, taking 21 points of damage over his toughness of 5. In the end, he used the adventure card, Fade to Black
, which allowed him to wake up safe and sound after the battle. Bob took over running Stephen McDermont to give him something to do. Jeff also took a pair of wounds from a particularly ferocious attack, acing on his vigor roll and probably saving his own life. Luck was with him as he managed to soak both of those wounds as well. Joel attempted to fire at a zombie, despite never having used a gun in his life. Rising to the occasion, he made a perfect headshot, destroying a zombie by the winch. Next to that zombie, the man who had been managing the winch fell to his knees. He was infected and could no longer control himself. Jeff raced over and pushed him overboard.

With the battle winding down, Jeff took over running the other winch after pushing the recently bitten former operator overboard. Mike, Stephen, and Joel provided cover as Kris and McDermott attempted to make it to the ship. During the battle, Ms Harttel, the baby, Ethel, and numerous others safely made it to the lifeboat.

As time was running out and everyone prepared to get into the lifeboat, Joel saw Jon Treymore, carrying his youngest daughter, 6 year old Monica. His wife and sons were nowhere to be seen. He was dodging and weaving and trying to make it to the boat. With seconds to spare before they dropped the boat, he made it to them. With tears in his eyes, he handed Monica to Joel. He didn't move. A second later, the reality of the situation set in: Jon had been bitten, and after losing his wife and sons, had given everything he had to get his daughter to safety. My players, chatty and engaged the entire night - were stunned speechless. Joel offered him his gun, but Jon refused. He looked to Mike and as Joel took Monica into the lifeboat, Mike pulled the trigger and made sure Jon Treymore would never become a zombie.

 

[S'mon]

Cool account - interesting to see how another group did this.

Mike, the only trained shooter in the group drew his glock, squeezed the trigger, and snake eyes, critical failure. I was going with some sort of malfunction and flash blind him for a few rounds. But Mike knows far more about guns than I do, and said that pretty much can't happen. I said, fine, the gun malfunctions, blowing up in your hand, you’re able to drop it, but it’s a useless hunk of metal now. Strangely, he was ok with that solution.

When I played, this critical failure rule was one of the worst things in the game - having my Glock 9mm explode in my hands just felt completely ridiculous in what was supposed to be a semi-realistic scenario (with zombies). What is this, the 16th century? IMO the only plausible result from a critical failure would be that the gun jams and needs to be cleared, ie something that actually happens IRL, and that would be quite bad enough when zombies are trying to chomp you. The designers should have specified some plausible results.
It also seemed weird that NPC non-Wildcards could never suffer crit failures since they didn't roll a wild die. Very poor design IMO.

The -4 headshot penalty felt overly harsh to me; it might make sense shooting at a dodging human; not so much vs a shuffling zombie. This was badly exacerbated in the game I played by the GM sticking on another -4 Darkness penalty any time light conditions were sub-optimal. The result was that shooting zombies was practically impossible, and with PCs so hard to take down fights became extremely grindy. We tended to run away more from boredom than fear.

 

[Emirikol]

Fascinating account of play. I hope your players appreciate your efforts.

If anyone has converted it to the Outbreak Undead or AFMBE game system, it would be interesting to know how it varies (as poster says above about limitations of the system).


jh

 

[jcayer]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, it will be a couple more weeks till we play.

As for the system rules, the Shamblers are supposed to always wild attack, so that gives them a -2. So that -4 for the called headshot becomes a -2, for the most part. I'll admit, we're still new at this, so we haven't formed much of an opinion about the rules yet as we continue to digest them.

So far it's been great and I've really benefited from some of the other game reports over at ww.peginc.com

 

[jcayer]

Session 3

War of the Dead, Session 3, 10/23/12

After a three week hiatus, we got back to the game. We had done some email gaming while on the lifeboat. In the end, the 6 players, their 3 family member NPCs, and 8 other NPCs remained on their boat. We were missing Kris tonight, so his character was handled by Bob.

After 2 weeks at sea, the survivors finally spotted land. Using the remaining fuel, they landed at the Calm Seas Marina. Looking around, they saw a couple smaller boats, a mostly empty parking lot, and a small, 2 story building. They gave Lt. Dan the binoculars and one of the two security radios they had obtained on the ship and set him as lookout. The other NPCs remained in the lifeboat. Mike took a few minutes to investigate the two boats while Bob scanned the radio stations and the other 4 guys headed for the building.

Mike found very little of value, taking some rope and a couple of mop handles, hoping to fashion spears out of them. Bob managed to hear some of the Emergency Broadcasting System directing North Carolina residents to Jacksonville. The rest of the gang hit the building. After taking a quick lap to make sure there were no suprises out back, they headed in, but only for a couple minutes. Looking around, they noted a stairway up, and a door to the left. Otherwise, the room was a total disaster. It had been completely ransacked. Jeff got on the radio and reported back to the lifeboat.

Waiting for the others to join them, they decided it best to open the door on the left first. Ever so cautiously, Jeff opened the door an inch wide. He placed his foot as a stop and braced it with his shoulder. Looking through the crack, the room looked like another ransacked room. Heading in, it was obvious this room had also been cleaned out. The only thing of note was a door that they assumed led to the basement. Not yet wanting to open the door, they pushed some shelving against it and headed upstairs. Once again, more of the same...a completely ransacked and looted office.

Returning to the basement, Jeff and Bob cracked the door. Any hope they had that the infection had not spread to the mainland was doused as the stench of rotting flesh assaulted their senses. Jeff managed to keep his lunch in through an amazing roll. Bob on the other hand immediately vomited....then they heard it, the moan(I love making the moan sound, it really creeps my players out). Quickly closing the door, they did catch a glimpse of the first zombie and noted the gunshot wound to the chest that likely killed the person. They also believed they saw additional creatures moving in the dark.

At this point, Mike and Bob went outside to see if there were basement windows. Luck was with them and after breaking a little glass with his mop handle, turned makeshift spear, Mike speared one through the head. Unfortunately, the way the body fell, it prevented any other zombies from approaching the window. The second window they approached had boxes stacked against it inside, so they could not see anything inside. A third window yielded similar results to the first, with a second dead zombie left inside.

Returning to the stock room, after MUCH discussion, Joel pushed the door to the basement open, and Jeff and Bob pushed some large shelves down the stairs, smashing into the two zombies that were still on the stairs. They were plowed over and then pinned to the ground, allowing Jeff and Mike to make quick work of them with axes. Like the rest of the building, the basement was empty of anything useful.

After a few minutes of debate about what to do next, they heard a single gunshot off in the distance. Bob and Mike were not interested in investigating it. Based on their previous track record of meeting people, they were very hesitant to look into it. Instead the group went to the parking lot to see about commendeering a few vehicles. A quick inspection of each showed the gas tanks had been emptied and anything of value removed. Snagging a few tire irons, some maps, some fishing gear, and other odds and ends, they moved on. They found a newspaper bin and rifled through it. They discovered a newspaper from two weeks ago with no other new publications. The paper was hastily made - a one-sheet. And on the front page was the headline: PANDEMIC STRIKES ENTIRE WORLD. Giving details of a never before seen sicknes and stating the government was setting up evacuation centers. The newspaper listed the closest evacuation center in the local area. The players compared this against their maps. Another gunshot range out.

The group then decided they did not want to spend another night in the lifeboat, so they relocated all of their food stuffs(plenty of the lifeboat supplies were left), to the small building. And they heard another shot. Mike was able to identify the sound as a hunting rifle.

Still unwilling to go into the woods to investigate, the group split, with Jeff, Kris, and Joel following the treeline south west and Mike, Bob, and Adam heading northeast. The southern group followed a small trail into the woods, and encountered a single zombie. They easily dispatched it and continued to explore. The northern group came to a small road that led them deeper into the forest and closer to the gunshots. Cautiously following the road, they saw a farmhouse in the distance, with a dozen dead zombies in the yard and a few more milling around. Bang, another one dropped. Ever so cautious, they decided not to investigate further and returned to the marina for an uneventful night.

After more discussion about what to do, including ideas of rowing one of the 20 foot boats to Jacksonville, I decided it was time to move things along and brought Hell Furrie, Spiderbait, and the rest of the Ghost Riders to bear on the survivors.

The roar of motorcycles is a hard thing to not hear, so the survivors were not surprised when 24 bikes, with 36 bikers, arrived at the Marina. A few hasty suggestions were made, such as fleeing, etc, unfortunately, the survivors ran out of time and tried to set themselves up in the 2 story building. Bob ran downstairs into the basement and scrabled to find a place to hide weapons. His eyes were drawn to the corpses that remained there. Using the hole in the chest of the first, he deposited a Glock in the first zombie's chest. He hid another Glock in the stomach of the second. Jeff hid a Glock in Lt Dan's wheelchair.

Adam stepped forward as the spokesman for the group. Hell, realizing he finally found some bait for his raid on Newport, ordered the players to throw down their weapons and come out of the building. They replied with, "No." Hell was not satisfied with that response and told his guys to "Burn it down." That got a different response from the survivors and they all came out of the building, except Mike and Joel. Both were up on the second story and thought it suicide to give up their weapons. After a few back and forth comments, Hell had a couple of his guys toss grenades at the building. Having learned of the food stores that were inside, he decided burning was less of an option. Fortunately for Mike and Joel, the first grenade just missed their window, instead landing in the flowerbox just outside. After diving to the side, they both managed to avoid taking damage. The other grenade was tossed in the front door.

At this point, Joel came out but Mike continued to resist. Ultimately, he slung the M16 he had over his shoulder and come out the front door, a glock in each hand, ready to fire. Cards were dealt and Spiderbait got to go first. She double tapped, hitting and shaking Mike. Adam screamed at Mike to stand down as 6 more M16s were aimed at him. Filled with frustration, Mike refused to lower his pistols, but did continue to talk.

Hell then briefed them on his plan. He would take the six of them to Newport, NC. A small town about 25 miles away. They would not be armed, but instead, sent into the city to act as a distraction. So his force could hit a local mall. If they returned, they would be free to reunite with the rest of the NPCs, who would stay at the marina under Spiderbait's watchful eye. Mike still resisted giving up his weapons. In the end, Hell decided to respect Mike's nerve and told him, when they got to Newport, Mike would be given a fully loaded glock and one additional clip. Mike agreed and the survivors were loaded into a box truck. Bob requested they be permitted to keep their ship's flares, which may help with the distraction. Hell agreed. Hell was not so agreeable when the party suggested he give them a motorcycle, however.

After a 30 minute ride, the door was lifted and they found themselves a mile or so outside the city. On the ride over, Adam asked for a cigarette and a lighter, which one of the bikers provided. Adam's wife complained, saying that Adam didn't smoke. Adam later explained that he didn't get a cigarette - he just got the group a fuse. It was roughly 10AM when they asked Hell were they were to rendezvous with the Ghost Riders after making the distraction. Hell told them, right here, but we aren't staying later than 2:30.

The session ended with Hell reaching into his pocket and handing the characters a restaurant-style place mat map of the city and telling them to get going.

This was a tough session in a couple regards. First and for most, I need to say, I was really not happy with how things with the Ghost Riders went down. I knew what Mike's reaction would be and tried really hard NOT to have Hell kill him out right as would have been the likely outcome if I'd have played it as I should have. Additionally, the players floundered at the start. With no clear goal to attain, they were distracted and took over 2.5 hours to explore the 2 story marina building and kill 4 zombies. I think they actually spent close to 20 minutes talking about how to position shelves to best block the basement door. I'm certainly part to blame here, which is why I finally moved things along by bringing the Ghost Riders in.

We tentatively play again in two weeks. It's election day, so that might shift a bit.

 

[S'mon]

Nice account. When I played it we found the zombie-shooting old couple in the house, and were holed up there when the Ghost Riders hit. There then featured an incredibly annoying Railroad as the GM vetoed my super-high persuasion attractive female PC from using her persuasion skills on the biker leader. Since my PC had basically been built from the ground up for exactly this moment, that was quite devastating.
Our PCs were still in a stand-off when my wife called me 9pm at the pub to explain that riots had spread all over London, they were intent on burning down the city, and I had to Come Home Now. Which was appropriately apocalyptic - I made it home ok but missed the resolution, apparently the powergamer player with the ex-SAS PC threatened the bikers with grenades until they left. So the GM was ok with violating the railroad, just not with *me* violating the railroad.

 

[Emirikol]

It sucks when you've got a character that can only do one thing and then the GM has to veto you to keep the rest of the campaign on track. Sometimes that's just how it has to be

jh