My ATZ Campaign - Day 14 - Soap and Petrol

Following on from their great success last time, Vampifan decided to lead his team back to the same part of Mayhem City that they visited on the previous day. It seemed to be an area of rich pickings, so Vampifan was hoping that lightning would strike twice in the same place and that he'd be equally lucky today. Ah, but this is ATZ, and just when you think all is going well, fate comes along to bite you on the bum!

Here's the game board set up exactly as in the last scenario, although this time, Team Vampifan are entering in the south-western corner or section 7. Just to remind you, the board is divided up into 9 equally sized sections, with sections 1, 2 and 3 at the top of the photo, 4, 5 and 6 in the middle and 7, 8 and 9 running along the bottom of the photo. The ruined buildings that feature so prominently in this scenario are from Games Workshop's range of Warhammer 40,000 buildings.

Before I could begin the scenario I had to roll 1d6 for the placement of three PEFs and determine their Reps.

PEF:1 was Rep:4 and appeared in section 4 amongst the ruins of a small beige coloured building, hidden from view. As before, I'm using red dice to represent the PEFs, with their relevant number on the top.

PEF:2 was Rep:3 and I placed it in cover behind a parked car in section 2.

PEF:3 was also Rep:3 and was placed behind a burned out car in section 6.

DAY 14 - SOAP AND PETROL
I rolled for Lack of Sleep for each member of Team Vampifan. Vampifan scored a 6 on 2d6, Big Sil scored a 9, Angie also scored a 6 and Gap scored an 8. This meant Vampifan and Angie had to take the test. Both passed 2d6 and so were okay.
The team were now armed differently to what their figures were, following their good fortune last time. Vampifan was armed with an Assault Rifle, a Combat Knife, Flash Bang Grenades and wore Body Armour, Big Sil was armed with an Assault Rifle, a Combat Knife and wore Body Armour. Angie and Gap carried an Assault Rifle each and both wore Body Armour. They all wore their Body Armour (Flak Jackets) under their normal clothing. I'm debating whether or not to convert the figures so that they are carrying the correct weaponry, although for Vampifan no conversion is necessary. No way am I adding proper flak jackets to the figures. It would be a sacrilege to hide Vampifan's magnificent T-shirt under a drab flak jacket!

TURN 1.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 1, PEFs = 5

Vampifan led his team into the ruins of the light grey coloured building in the south-west corner of the board. I turned over the top card of my Risks and Rewards deck. It showed that there were no humans or zombies inside but there was a Luxury Item to be found. I rolled on the Luxury Items chart that I've devised and it turned out to be a pack of four bars of soap. I rolled to see who found it and it was Angie, lucky lass!
The PEFs failed to activate so stayed put.

TURN 2.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 6, PEFs = 3

Whilst Team Vampifan made jokes about soap, I rolled on the PEF Movement Table for PEF:1 and passed 2d6. This placed the PEF in section 9, in sight of Team Vampifan and behind cover if possible. Rolling a 1 on the PEF Resolution Table determined this was an Involuntary Encounter. I decided to make it a Random Road Encounter, but rather than use those in I, Zombie (hereafter to be abbreviated IZ) I used the identically named table found on page 56 of the Better Dead Than Zed (hereafter to be abbreviated BDTZ) rulebook. I rolled 2d6 and scored a 7, indicating Gangers. I rolled to see how many of them there were on the How Many NPCs Table (see p.59 of IZ) and scored an 8, meaning one more than Team Vampifan. Seeing as they outnumbered Team Vampifan, they would be hostile.
Next, I rolled for their Reps and weaponry using the Ganger's List on page 9 of BDTZ. They were led by a Rep:5 Hard Case armed with a double-barrelled shotgun. His followers were a Rep:4 female Banger armed with an SMG, two Rep:4 Bangers armed with BA Pistols and a Rep:2 Wannabe armed with a Pistol. Incidentally, for those wanting to know what figures I used, going from bottom to top in the above photo, the first three are EM4 Thugz, the next one up is a Hasslefree adventurer and the female is from the Foundry Street Violence range.

With that sorted out, I had to roll for both leaders on the Encounter Awareness Test table (see p.115 of IZ). Vampifan rolled 5d6 for his Rep and scored a stunning four successes. The Gangsta leader rolled 4d6, having lost a dice for being active and only scored two successes. By winning by two successes, and being inactive, Team Vampifan could roll on the In Sight test with 3d6 instead of 2d6. Cool! All four heroes passed 2d6 and were allowed to fire as normal. Vampifan experienced a brief moment of deja vu as he recalled yesterday's encounter with the National Guard. This looked to be heading in the same direction.

Vampifan fired first. He fired once at the Gangsta leader and twice at a Gangsta with a BA Pistol, hitting them both once. His third shot was a complete miss. He badly wounded them both, putting them Out Of the Fight.
Big Sil fired a three round burst at the female with the SMG and missed with every shot.

Angie showed him how it should be done. Not only did she hit the female with her first shot, but her second hit the other Gangsta armed with a BA Pistol. Like Vampifan, her third shot was way off the mark. The female was placed Out Of the Fight but the male was just Knocked Down. However, he only passed 1d6 on the Recover From Knock Down test and so, he too, was Out Of the Fight.

Gap's three round burst targetting the Rep:2 Wannabe was just as ineffectual as Big Sil's. He missed with every shot. This forced the wannabe to take the Received Fire test. He passed 1d6 and because he was in cover, he could snap fire back. He chose to shoot at Vampifan, correctly identifying him as the greatest threat. However, he had no chance of hitting him. The best he could score would be an 8 and he needed a 10 to hit. Still, he didn't know that, so he gamely fired twice and caused Vampifan to take the Received Fire test. Being a Star, Vampifan chose to pass 2d6 and fired a three round burst back at him. One shot hit him and knocked the teenager down. Alas, when the wannabe rolled on the Recover From Knock Down test, he passed 0d6 and was Obviously Dead.

It was indeed deja vu again. The gunfight resulted in 17 shots being fired.

Now I had to roll for PEF:2 and it passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement table. It moved one section diagonally forward to arrive in section 4 and ended up where PEF:1 had started out. PEF:3 passed 0d6 and remained in section 6.
Vampifan's group could not activate this turn but that didn't matter as things had gone mighty well for them.

All that was left to do was to dice for zombie reinforcements. I rolled 17d6 and scored 10 successes! Bear in mind this scenario took place in a suburban area where zombies only appear if you roll a 5 or a 6 on 1d6. This was an incredible result! You can see eight out of the ten in the photo above on the main road.

The other two appeared at the far side of the large black and silver building. Just out of interest, all zombie reinforcements are from Fortress Figures' range of 35mm scale zombies, which I don't feature very often.

TURN:3.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 3, PEFs = 3, Zombies = 2

I did not reroll for activation between Vampifan and the PEFs because who goes first is determined by Rep and Vampifan's was much higher than the two remaining PEFs, so he went first this turn. Team Vampifan moved from one set of ruins to another - the large black and silver building. I turned over the next card in my Risks and Rewards deck and revealed three zombies guarding a unit of Fuel.

First thing to do was to roll on the Meeting Zombies table (see p.44 of BDTZ). Bad news for Vampifan - he only scored a 6, whilst the zombies scored a 7. The zombies would charge straight into melee, giving Team Vampifan no time to fire first. From the way the figures were lined up it was obvious who would be fighting who. Big Sil, Vampifan and Angie were the targets, whislt Gap lagged behind.

Moving from left to right, I began with Big Sil. He rolled 6d6 (5 for his Rep and +1 for having a higher impact weapon). He only scored 2 successes but his opponent scored none. Scratch one zombie!

Vampifan also rolled 6d6 (for the same reasons as Big Sil). He scored 3 successes, whilst his opponent scored none. Scratch two zombies!

Angie rolled 5d6 (5 for her Rep, +1 for having a higher impact weapon but -1 for having the Runt Attribute). She scored 4 successes but this time, the zombie scored a success. They carried on and Angie scored 2 successes and the zombie scored a success again. Tough little zombie! Finally, Angie scored 0 successes and the zombie scored his third success in a row - victory to the zombie! Angie was knocked Out Of the Fight!

Gap spotted a zombie trying to climb over a window ledge at the far side of the building. He fired three times at the zed, hit him once and killed him. I rolled to see who found the can of petrol and it was Gap who was successful.

Now it was time to roll for the two PEFs. Both passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and had to move one section towards the nearest remaining PEF, placing them slap in the middle of section 5, the only section on the board without any cover.

The zombies on the main road moved towards the entrance to the black and silver building, attracted by the sound of gunfire from within.

The female doctor zombie moved into the ruined building to charge Big Sil. However, he passed 2d6 on the Being Charged table and with just a single shot, he killed her before she could reach him. Vampifan clubbed to death the zombie who had beaten Angie.

I rolled 4d6 for zombie reinforcements and scored one success. Rather worryingly, he appeared right in the south-west corner in the same place as Team Vampifan had arrived at the start of the scenario.

TURN 4.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 2, PEFs = 3, Zombies = 6

Look closely through the window to the left of the silver doors and you can see a zombie standing up who should be lying on the ground dead. I don't know how this happened. Maybe I just forget to knock him over when Vampifan beat him to death. Anyway, just ignore him. Be honest, would you have noticed him if I hadn't pointed him out?

Rolling for PEF:2 first, it passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved one section to the closest group of players, in sight and in cover if available. So, I placed it by the wall that Team Vampifan had used to enter the ruined building. I rolled a 2 on the PEF Resolution Table to give me an NPC Interaction result. I rolled 1d6 to see if they were human (1-3) or zombies (4-6). I rolled a 5, so more zombies turned up

to harrass our heroes.

                 

Next, I had to roll to see how many appeared and got a result of the same amount as the players. I pondered awhile to see if this meant current numbers (as Angie was still OOF) or total numbers. It's a grey area but in the end I opted for four, the same as ALL of the PCs, regardless of their status.

Then I rolled on the Encounter Awareness Table with Vampifan getting a +1d6 bonus to his Rep for having already run into hostile NPCs. He passed 3d6 out of 6. The zombies only rolled 2d6, suffering a -2d6 penalty for being active (-1d6) and being zombies (-1d6). They passed 0d6, which allowed Team Vampifan to once again take the In Sight test with 3d6 instead of 2d6.. Not surprising, they all passed 2d6 and were able to fire at the zombies as normal.

Vampifan fired a three round burst at two zombies. He hit and killed one but missed with his second and third shots.

Big Sil had better luck. Two of his three shots hit and two more zombies keeled over, Obviously Dead.
Gap missed with every one of his three shots.

I rolled to see who the last of the four zombies would charge. Once more, it was Big Sil.

The bearded bruiser had no trouble in defeating the zombie and he clubbed it to death.

I rolled to see if PEF:3 would move but it passed 0d6 and so remained where it was.
Now it was Team Vampifan's turn to move. Big Sil moved adjacent to Angie to see if he could revive her. He would have to wait one full turn before rolling to see if he was successful.

Gap moved to the corner of the buildingto get a better shot at the firefighter zombie. One shot was all he needed to kill the zed.

Vampifan fired three rounds through the open front doors at the two zombies closing in. With rolls of 6, 6 and 1 he easily hit them but when it came to damage he was only able to kill one of them. The policeman zombie was merely knocked down.

I rolled 13d6 for zombie reinforcements and scored five successes. Three appeared at the front of the light grey coloured ruined building...

...whilst two more appeared at either side of the grey coloured ruined building, situated at the far side of the black and silver building.

TURN 5.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan =4, PEFs = 2, Zombies = 3
I had to check who had to take the Recovery test - the victim or the person caring for the victim. It was the victim, although to be honest, it wouldn't have made much difference as both were Rep:5. Angie passed 2d6 and made a full recovery, returning to consciousness and at her normal Rep.
Vampifan moved to the front of the building to finish off the knocked down policeman zombie. In doing so, he saw PEF:3 and I immediately rolled 1d6 to see what it was. It turned out to be another Hostile NPC Encounter. The die determined that it was more zombies. How many more? Twice as many as Team Vampifan! With another 8 zombies now on the board, this was fast turning into Zombie Central! Vampifan easily won the Encounter Awareness test but the following In Sight test proved to be far from helpful as he was not allowed to shoot at any zombies if they were more than 6" away, which they were. Bummer! He used the rest of his movement to turn round and head back inside. He didn't even shoot the knocked down zombie, figuring that flight was better than fight.

At this point there were 20 active zombies on the board. The knocked down policeman zombie spent the turn standing back up. The three new zombies who had appeared in front of the light grey ruined building last turn descended on the OOF Gangers and began to feast upon them. Their feeding would last for four turns. The rest of the zombies moved a lot closer to the ruined black and silver building, some of them almost within touching distance of it.
PEF:3 had already been revealed so that ended this turn. With no shots being fired, there were no zombie reinforcements to roll for.

TURN 6.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 6

Neither side could activate but double 6 meant rolling on the Random Occurence Table (see p.32 of BDTZ). I rolled a 7 for a result of Fire. The lawyers' offices across the road had suddenly caught fire and attracted the attention of 2d6 zombies. I rolled a 7 to see how many would appear. There's never a dull moment in this game, is there? I LOVE IT! By the way, the flames come from the WWG Bits of Mayhem set.

TURN 7.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 4, Zombies = 3

"As the good shepherd once said," Vampifan yelled, "let's get the flock out of here!"

Big Sil, Angie and Gap were able to exit the board with just a normal move. For Vampifan to escape he had to make a Fast Move. He'd be fine as long as he rolled 3 or higher on the 1d6. I was using the new Fast Move rules from IZ for the first time (see p.2 of IZ). Now the character makes his normal move then rolls 2d6 to see how much further he can go, up to a limit of twice his Rep. However, Vampifan has the Slow Attribute, so he only rolled 1d6. He rolled a 4 and was able to catch up with his colleagues.

Just out of interest, if the zombies had won the activation roll this turn, none of them were close enough to reach anyone from Team Vampifan, so our heroes would still have escaped. With 27 zombies left on the board, Vampifan's decision to flee was undoubtedly the sensible option. Whilst this foray had not been as successful as yesterday's, they did not leave empty handed. Angie had found a luxury item and Gap had found some fuel.

As Angie had received an OOF result against a zombie, she had to take the "Harry, Are You Okay?" test (see p.35 of BDTZ). This involves rolling 1d6 and adding the person's Rep to the score. If the result is 8 or less then the person has become infected. If, however, the result is 9 or higher, the person is okay. I rolled a 4 for Angie, which added to her Rep of 5 gave a total of 9. She was safe! Phew!

Finally, I rolled for Rep increases. Only Gap was eligible for a roll. Vampifan and Big Sil were ruled out for not finding any resources, and Angie was ineligible for becoming OOF. Unfortunately, I rolled a 2 for Gap and so he remained Rep:4.

Before running these last two scenarios, I hadn't a clue what to do for a story. I knew that I wanted to use some of the new rules from I, Zombie. Even then, I wasn't too sure which ones to use and which ones to keep for later. Without any doubt, the best decision I made was to introduce PEFs. They made these two scenarios come alive in a way that playing an ordinary Discover scenario from BDTZ could never have achieved. The National Guard encounter last time and the Gangers encounter this time added so much to both scenarios. Also, the way that zombies kept appearing in this game from PEF results, zombie reinforcement rolls and a Random Occurence event, certainly kept Team Vampifan on their toes. There was no way that they could have fought them all. I thoroughly enjoyed playing both games and they are testimony to just how great ATZ has become. Thanks for reading. Your support is greatly appreciated.