The Young Ones on Vacation - a scenario for HeroQuest Skirmish

 A HeroQuest Skirmish Scenario

In my last post (see here) I mentioned that I was playing around with the idea of using the HeroQuest game system for playing quick and dirty skirmish games. I called this mad idea HeroQuest Skirmish (that's trademarked by the way. Ok. Maybe it isn't. But I'm claiming it even though its completely indefensible in court!).

So dear reader. Here I post about the scenario I will be using to try this idea out. This scenario comes from the most excellent Population Z skirmish game from Tabletop Skirmish Games. Do check them out.

And for reference, the HeroQuest cards are made using the fantastic HeroQuest Card Creator website. I forgot the mention this in the previous post.

The Young Ones on Vacation - a scenario for HeroQuest Skirmish.

Background

Vyv has found himself the lucky recipient of a summer internship at the Pitzer Medical Research Labs located out in the rural countryside of England. Mike, Rick and Neil have joined him at the little British village of Dinglesberry where many of the Pitzer facilities employees reside. The Pitzer Labs are high security and no questions asked. The facility even has its own security personnel armed to the teeth. None of this gives pause to the lads as it's a chance for Vyv to dissect stuff and for the rest of them to bludge off the internship grant. Vyv's faithful pet, the hamster SPG, is with the Young Ones as well. 

Shortly after settling in something goes array at the facility. Some staff, working in the maximum quarantine block, have a workplace accident. They are rushed to St Catherines in the Field a hospital operated by the local nunnery of St Catherine of Complete Mercy. Soon however, other patients start to show symptoms being experienced by the Pitzer workers and some of the nuns who operate the hospital also come down with the strange ailment. The Mother Superior quickly shuts down the hospital and enacts quarantine protocols but shortly thereafter Pitzer private security personnel turn up and take over the lockdown. Not surprisingly Mother Superior Mary Immacolata is not impressed. A former mud wrestler in her wilder days she won't be taking this situation "laying down", so to speak. She quickly rallies the rest of the nuns and begins plans to find out what's really going on.

Meanwhile the rest of the Pitzer facility staff are ordered to leave work immediately and await further instructions from management. Noone knows what's going on but the place goes into lockdown. Vyv, who was on a lunch break at the time, realises that SPG has gone missing. Those bloody infectious diseases virologists were eyeing off SPG whilst he was working, and he bets that they nicked SPG when Vyv was distracted so that they could experiment on the hamster. Unperturbed, Vyv leaves his lunch at the Pitzer parklands and sneaks back to the lab facility to find SPG. Liberating the hamster (and a bunch of other hamsters), Vyv and SPG now attempt to make good their escape back to the carpark and make a getaway from the lockdown in Vyv's Ford Anglia.

But there are some strange people now wondering the parkland. And they don't look very healthy.

Setup

The scenario set up is identical to one of the early Population Z Huntsville scenarios. But modified for my own fun and stupidity.

The Zombie Runner gets two red dice movement each turn. Movement is in any direction desired. There is always one Runner on the table. If it is killed. Another Runner will come onto the board at the start of the next turn.

There is one Security Sergent who arrives on turn one in a Humvee. He is accompanied by his Security Team and they arrive at the car park. They are armed with ranged weapons.

The Security Team consists of three personnel, all armed with ranged weapons and they arrive in the Humvee with their Sergent. They have orders to shoot anything that resembles a human and that is moving. That's not good news for Vyv.

Zombie Shufflers will always move towards the nearest non-Zombie they have Line-of-Sight (LOS) to. Failing that, they will move towards the nearest loud noise. Failing that, they will move towards the biggest group of Zombies in LOS, forming a horde. Shufflers have a move of 5" and can move in any direction.

The game table is set out as below. This is a 3x3 foot area with terrain to suit. There is a carpark, park grounds keeper cottage, a pond, a fenced off carpark and vegetation/rocks to taste suitable for a parkland. The cottage isn't accessible without the keys to open it. Those keys are on what's left of the Groundskeeper.

Vyvyan and SPG start in the opposite corner to the carpark as they head across the park from the labs. There are several plot points that Vyv and SPG can collect to gain victory points and benefits. But at least one of them needs to survive in order to win the scenario. Vyv starts without his Cricket Bat. A decidedly disadvantageous position to be in.

The Zombie Runner starts near the remains of the Grounds Keeper. Munch, munch, munch...

SPG was napped by the virologists whilst he was taking a swim in the pond with his favourite toy. SPG will do whatever he can to retrieve it.

The Grounds Keeper... what's left of him

The Grounds Keeper has his keys still left in his remains. If Vyv can get the keys, he can enter the Cottage and use it to evade the Zombies. But the keys to his Ford Anglia are there as well. All carpark users are required to surrender their keys to the Grounds Keeper before entering the facility. So Vyv needs to get his keys back. To get his keys he needs to get into the cottage. The get into the cottage, he needs the keys off the Grounds Keeper's remains.

Vyv's keys are on the table. And yes, Vyv has a girly keychain. Rick teases him about it all the time until Vyv punches him!

Vyvyan's lunch is liquid in nature. From the local brewery. If he can collect his lunch (and not lose it), he can use it as a Healing Potion as per the HeroQuest rules.

Finally, when Vyv noticed that SPG was missing, he put down his favourite Cricket Bat and set off to the Labs. Now if he can just get to his bat, he can arm himself with it and gain 3 Attack Dice to his normal unarmed attack of 3 Attack Dice. That will be a major advantage to Vyv and SPG. So, this is a priority for Vyv. Fortunately, he dropped the bat not far from where he left his lunch.

Last but not least. There is a Zombie Brute that will appear after the first turn of the game, if there is more than one Zombie attracted onto the table.

Zombies are attracted to the table as per the Population Z rules. It's a very nifty system and so I won't steal its lunch here. It's also got some great AI charts for how Zombies behave and react. ITS A GREAT GAME. So go check out the game and buy it for yourself.

One final thing is that Zombies can't climb anything higher than their chest height. So, they could climb a vehicle or flop over a fence, but not a dumpster and then the house, for example. They also like the smell of rotting flesh and therefore won't enter water. This means that the pond is off limits to the Zombies as impassable terrain.

Stay tuned for the Battle Report.

HeroQuest Skirmish???

I finally got HeroQuest for Christmas after many a year of wondering whether or not this legendary boardgame would be good. As I read through the rules and watched Guerilla Miniature Games Heroquest playlist on YouTube, I took the plunge. I was impressed by its simplicity to learn yet adaptability. And it got me thinking dear reader...

Can HeroQuest be used as a skirmish game?

Well, let's find out, shall we? In the most outrageous way of course.

Meet the Bristol Crew, better known as The Young Ones, from Hayland Terrain.

Vyvyan Bastard starts with a Cricket Bat

SPG (Special Patrol Group) the Hamster, is so small, that attacks suffer a -1 Attack Die roll. I.e. remove one attack die when attacking SPG.

Mike, the de facto leader of The Young Ones, gets a double-barrelled shotgun

Neil, the Hippy, starts with a very hot pot of Lentils. This can be used as both a healing potion, melee weapon and also has the chance to set a hit target on fire due to it being "Wow, this is really amazingly hot...heavy!"

And Rick, The Peoples Poet, starts with a pistol and his poetry book (which grants him both terrible poetry and spells to cast)

Vyvyan and SPG feature in the first test game for what I'm calling HeroQuest Skirmish. This is basically because I haven't painted the other lads as yet.

Vyv starts with a Cricket Bat. The Equipment Card for that is below.

Vyv's Cricket Bat

Vyv's Cricket Bat grants him 3 extra Attack Dice, for a total of six attack dice, which is brutal! But then, he's a "vicious bastard."

Hero Team two will be the Security Guards for the mission I have in mind. Their cards are below.

The Security Sergent leads the second Hero Team

Security Troopers, the grunts of the Security Hero Team

The Security Team is a de facto second group of Heros. They are equipped with blasters that grant a ranged attack of 12" at 3 Attack Dice. So, whether in melee, or ranged, the Security Team have 3 Attack Dice in combat.

You can't really see it too well, but their movement rate is also 2 Red Dice.

And the Monsters they will be facing off against?

The Zombie Runner has 2 Red Dice movement. I had to use a Hero Card for this one.

The dangerous Zombie Brute is not to be trifled within in melee

Zombie Shufflers form the hoard and become most dangerous when in groups

So, the rules will be simple. The Bristol Crew Hero Team moves and acts first. Then the Security Team and then finally the Monsters.

Zombies move towards the closest non-Zombie that is in line of sight. If none is visible, then they move towards the loudest noise.

Movement is in inches, as per HeroQuest and is in any direction desired, as measured from the edge of the base of the miniature.

All models can both Move and Act in either order. But they can't split their movement.

Apart from the Zombie Runner, who gets 2 Red Movement Dice, the other zombies all move 5 inches per movement.

That's the basic rules variations. Nothing departing very much from the HeroQuest Rulebook as you can see. As for the scenario, that's for another post.

Pirate Borg returns for the new year

The lads finally got together for the new year to venture once more into the Dark Caribbean for Pirate Borg. In the previous gaming session, the lads finally eradicated the feral goblin threat to Port Nelson in brutal but efficient manner.

As we kicked off the new year's adventures, the lads finished taking stock of the booty they had discovered. The Captain had found the shrunken head of Lucky Jack in one of the goblin's tents. Jack was known to the Captain, the two having served together on a pirate ship some years before the PC's awoke as skeletal Haunted Souls. Jack had headed off on some wild goose chase regarding a mysterious treasure map and some buried treasure.

The Captain had thought the man mad. But it turned out that the treasure was real. Jack had found it, and clearly the feral goblins had found Jack. Lucky Jacks treasure had been placed as an offering to the feral goblin's idol. Now that treasure was the PC's to have. The Captain rolled a 99 on the d100 Buried Treasure table. That nabbed them a wooden box with 24 stacks of 20 gold coins (500s each) and 6 loaded flintlocks.

As they argued over how best to drag that lot back to Port Nelson, suddenly the idol was thrown to the ground and a giant roar bellowed from the gathering darkness. The lads looked up in shock to see the following...

Out of the darkness charged a Giant Freaking Zombie Gorilla Abomination, or GFZGA for short [side note, this miniature is from Zombicide].

I expected the lads to run off into the gathering darkness like frightened girls, but they chose to stand and fight like the men they once were. And fight they did. The battle lasted ages and the lads barely survived. They were aided by the fickleness of my dice, that rolled many '1's, whilst they themselves were blessed with many a critical hit. Eventually they brought the beast down. Only for it to fall on top of one of the PC's. As they struggled to pull him out from the beasty, the darn thing reanimated and it was on again for a second round. This time, they finally properly killed it, and it promptly fell back on top of the same hapless PC as before.

So, it was now dark, the night sky illuminated by brilliant starlight but the land around them was pitch black. Climbing a tree, one of the PC's spotted a fiery glow off in the distance. Thinking it to be Port Nelson, they stumbled through the night, lost their way, climb a tree, reoriented themselves, and headed off again. Eventually they crested a stream embankment to enter another clearing. This time they found that they were in a village where the only solid structure still standing, and not on fire, was the Church at the opposite end of the clearing.

Movement caught their attention and they noticed slow moving villages heading towards them. The shuffling and moaning soon gave away that these were not well individuals, and the group found themselves about to be surrounded by Zombies. The Captain and one of the lads ran for the church and just manages to avoid the grasping hands to make it inside the building. One of the lads climbed a tree and began doing what he does best, blowing the bejesus out of one zombie after another. But there were many of them and the lads were hard pressed to suppress the threat. One of the lads chose again to stand his ground and took off his back Bianca (his beloved ship anchor) and started swinging away. He managed to crush as few heads as the others fired shot after shot, hoping to hit the zombies in the head.

Run Captain, ruuuun!

The zombie threat finally removed, the lads gathered in the church. It was still night, and the only illumination within was from prayer candles over in one corner of the building. It was then that the lads noticed the priest, nine young ladies and their cadre of children, for all the noise of the battle had drowned out any other noises within. Some hasty talk managed to convince the priest that, although they were no saints, they were certainly not a threat to the survivors gathered there. By the morning, the survivors had come to realise that, by God's providence, these strange protectors were sent to save them.

The priest told the lads that a black mist had descended on the village and soon many of the villagers became ill and suddenly violent and horrific to behold. This was only two nights before and the survivors had gathered in the church hoping for a chance to escape. That chance had now come. The lads dutifully escorted the survivors back to Port Nelson where the "civilised" pirate Orc's were then convinced by the Captain that having more people around would help Port Nelson to not just survive but perhaps become a solid little trading hub. A bunch of humans running around wasn't much to their liking, but they were finally in agreeance that the Captain was right.

And so, our game came to a close for the evening and the PC's began to think of how, once more, they might possibly find their lost ship.

The Ghostbusters - character cards for Pulp Alley

So, if you're going to play a campaign of Ghostbusters using the Pulp Alley rules, you're going to need Ghostbusters. Here's my take on the gents.

The Ghostbusters are a League of Legends and so all four are Sidekicks at Level 3. Based on the scenario the leadership of the group will be handed around to whichever Ghostbuster leads the team based on the scenario conditions.

All I need to do now is finish painting off the Zombicide minis for these gents.

Ghostbusting rules for Pulp Alley - Who you gonna call?

Happy New Year everyone.

Well, I have finally finished the draft of my campaign rules for Pulp Alley Ghostbusters. I have a scenario game almost ready to play test these draft rules as well. Just need to paint a few more miniatures.

But why not share it and let you give it a try as well, if you like.

So, hope it all makes sense and you like it. I drafted the campaign rules very much with the Ghostbusters video game and movies in mind. It has options for using the four main settings for the proton pack from the game, a variety of new ghostly Abilities for ghosts, and rules for capturing ghosts. So, feel free to give it a try. 

Cheap and easy rubble terrain

 

Easy and cheap rubble

I had some MDF bases floating around and some unused sponge and so I decided to give a go at making rubble terrain pieces for use on the tabletop for both wargaming and role-playing games. The first of the finished pieces can be seen above and below.

The process was very simple. So simple, in fact, that a numpty like me was able to do it. I cut the foam into blocks to represent worked stone blocks. Then I added to that some small river stones I had floating around somewhere. You could use thick cardboard for the base but make sure it won't warp first. MDF is better in my opinion. I then smothered the stones and foam in White/PVA glue.

After a few minutes, I then added river sand across the base to add to the rubble effect.

Below, the foam blocks were arranged to make the base of a ruined tower. In this manner, you could make a larger structure stone by stone. However, I wanted this to block partial line of sight whilst permitting ranged attacks over the ruined wall, so I kept it to a low profile.

Below is a fake stone that I bought from a $2 Dollar store. The stone has a hole in the base so you can hide a spare key in it. I wanted it for a large boulder. Once again, the river stones add to the rubble effect, and I'll add sand later to the base.

I mixed some White/PVA glue with water and brushed it over the foam in order to harden it. This took about 24hrs to dry. I did this a few times to get all the foam blocks hardened.

Painting the finished result was simple. A basecoat of black spray followed by a grey spray lightly over that black undercoat whilst it was still wet to blend the colours. I then followed this up with a drybrush of lighter grey and added some straw from an old doormat to make it look like some grass had grown between the rubble then died.

And there you have it. Cheap, easy, simple.

Pulp Alley cards for Animated Ornaments and a Cranky Chrissy Tree

 You better watch out. You better not cry...but you can run in fear though.

Animated Ornaments powered by PKE

And a VERY cranky Christmas Tree. This one is a Construct that must have its Christmas Star atop the tree wrangled from it in a Ghost Wrangling Challenge (more on that when I finish the campaign rules) in order to take it Out.

I've almost finished the campaign rules. I'll post those when they are done and that will clear up some of the weird things on the creature cards.