My ATZ Campaign - Day 50 - Who's Laughing Now? Part 1

Hannah's two children, Jamie and Billy were bored. They wanted to go somewhere they could play and have fun. Big Sil mentioned that there was a skateboard park not too far away. That was it - the kids wanted to go there and for a full day they pestered their mum to take them to the park. Hannah wasn't too sure. Venturing outside was incredibly dangerous what with roving gangs and hordes of zombies to contend with. However, the rest of Team Vampifan thought it would be a good idea, especially if the adults all accompanied the kids. So it was decided - they would make the journey to the skateboard park.
Unfortunately, the day they chose to go was the day that Vampifan was on guard duty to watch over their home at the abandoned warehouse. Each of the adults took it in turn to do a six hour shift keeping an eye out for anyone or anything hostile approaching the warehouse. When the rest of the team set off on that fateful day, Vampifan was stuck back at home. His presence would be sorely missed but at the time they didn't realise how much. Perhaps the team got overconfident after their last mission out into the suburbs of Mayhem City had been such a cakewalk and they thought they could do without him.
Because this mission was on behalf of the children, Vampifan put Hannah in charge of the team. It was up to her how long they'd stay at the park. No one had any objections to taking orders from Hannah. She'd proved herself to be a capable fighter. Here, then are the stats of those taking part -
Hannah Vaughn; Rep:5 Grunt, Stone Cold, armed with BA Pistol and Knife.
Big Sil; Rep: 5 Grunt, Knife Fighter armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Angie Johansson; Rep:5 Grunt, Runt, armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Gap; Rep:5 Grunt, No Attribute, armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt, Brawler, armed with Pistol.
Billy Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Wuss, armed with Catapult.
SCENARIO: The kids, Jamie and Billy, had to spend 8 + 2d6 turns playing in the skateboard park without any interruption or interference. The adults' mission was to protect the kids and to make sure they had a good time. The best way to accomplish the mission was to clear the board of all threats, then let the kids loose on the park. No Ragers or Smarties would be generated during this scenario.

The game was played on a 3' by 3' board divided into nine one foot square sectors with sector 1 being in the top left hand corner of the photo above where the trees are. Sector 9 is in the bottom right hand corner where Team Vampifan is situated.

There are two new buildings on this board that I have never shown before. First, is the Quonset Hut, which is made by Finger and Toe Models. You'll see a lot more of it as the scenario progresses. The other "new" building is my ruined barn, which I've had for years. It's a one-piece hard styrene casting that may have been made by Ziterdes, but I'm not sure as it was a very long time since I bought it. I painted the wood bits and the muddy ground. The stone bits were inked in when I bought it. Sadly, you won't be seeing any more of it in this game. The skateboard park is from the WWG Urban Grind set.

Here is Team Vampifan, starting the game in sector 9 and crossing the road to check out the Quonset Hut to see if it was occupied. Their mood was jaunty and confident, apart from Hannah who couldn't shake a sense of deep foreboding.

I rolled for the placement and Rep of the three PEFs.
PEF:1 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 2 at the side of the big ramp.
PEF:2 was also Rep:2 and was placed in sector 6 at the back of the Quonset Hut.

PEF:3 was Rep:4 and was placed in sector 5 at the side of the stands by the entrance to the skateboard park.
None of the PEFs were in sight of Team Vampifan so all that remained to do before rolling for activation for Turn 1 was to test for lack of sleep. Fortunately, everyone passed the test and so were unaffected.

Day 50 - Who's Laughing Now? Part 1
This special scenario took place in the suburbs of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. Note that any references to the basic rulebook, Better Dead Than Zed, will use the abbreviation BDTZ, whilst references to the supplement I, Zombie will use the abbreviation IZ.

TURN 1.   Activation - Vampifan = 1, PEFs = 2
All of the PEFs were eligible to move this turn but because PEF:3 had the highest Rep it got to roll first on the PEF Movement Table (see p.57 of IZ). It passed 2d6 and moved into sector 9, in sight of Team Vampifan but behind cover if possible. The fast food van was handily placed to provide it with cover. I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table (see p. 58 of IZ) to determine what it was. I rolled a 1 on the d6 for a result of A - Encounter. To decide what the encounter was I used the Random Road Encounter Table (see p.56 of BDTZ) and scored a 7 on 2d6 for a result of Gangers. There were five of them and I decided to make them Killer Klowns. I'd had a request to show them when I reviewed the WWG fast food vans. I rolled to see what their Reps were but not their weapons, as I wanted them to be armed as the figures were. So, the leader was Bozo, Rep:5 and armed with a shotgun and a custard pie. The others were all Rep:4 and were armed as they appear in the photo above with a machete, a sickle, a spiked club plus Flash Bang Grenade, and a BA Pistol.

Next, I rolled on the Encounter Awareness Table (see p.115 of IZ). Team Vampifan rolled 5d6 for Hannah's Rep but the clowns only rolled 4d6 (5d6 for Bozo's Rep but -1d6 because they were active). Team Vampifan won the roll off by 1 die and so were allowed to take an In Sight Test using 2d6. Hannah, Big Sil, Angie and Jamie passed 2d6 and could open fire normally. Gap and Billy only passed 1d6, so any shooting from them would be classed as snapfiring.

Hannah fired first but the two shots from her BA Pistol missed her target, the clown armed with a BA Pistol.

Gap fired next at the same target. One of his three round burst from his Assault Rifle hit the grinning clown between the eyes, blowing a big hole in the back of his head.

Jamie and Billy fired at the clown with the spiked club and Flash Bang Grenade but they both missed.

Angie fired a three round burst from her Assault Rifle at Bozo. She hit once but only scored a knockdown. Bozo passed 2d6 on the Recover From Knock Down Test and was only stunned.

Big Sil fired three shots at the orange-haired clown with the machete. He missed with every one.

Because the clowns' leader was down, even though he was only stunned, the other clowns had to take the Leader Lost Test. They all passed 2d6 and so halted and would chose a new leader when they were next active.

Now it was time to see if the other two PEFs moved. PEF:1 passed 0d6 on the PEF Movement table and so stayed put in sector 2. However, PEF:2 passed 1d6 and so moved into the sector with the closest PEF - PEF 3 in sector 9. As there was no available cover for it, I placed it in front of the Quonset Hut. Rolling on the PEF Resolution Table I scored a 4 for result C - Hostile Encounter. I rolled 1d6 to see if they were human (1-3) or zombie (4-6). They turned out to be human, so I thought it would be perfectly logical for them to be part of the same gang encountered earlier this turn. Yep, more Killer Klowns - nine of them, in fact. I rolled for the Reps of the newcomers and two were Rep:5, one of whom was also a Star. I decided to make Sunny, the clown with the severed heads and knife the Star. I also gave him the Knife Fighter attribute, which seemed appropriate. Yama, the other Rep:5 was the clown balanced on the big brown ball and he was armed with a Flash Bang Grenade. The clown in the back and white costume carrying the knife and black balloons was only Rep:3. The rest of the clowns were Rep:4 and all were armed with one-handed melee weapons.

I rolled on the Encounter Awareness Table and once again Team Vampifan rolled 5d6, whilst the clowns rolled 4d6. This time, Team Vampifan won by two successes and were allowed to take the In Sight Test using 3d6. Everyone passed 2d6 and were allowed to fire normally.

Hannah fired first. Her target was Sunny, the leader of the Killer Klowns. One of her two shots hit but just scored a knock down. Sunny passed 2d6 on the Recover From Knock Down Test and was merely stunned.

Gap fired next. Only one of his three shots hit the clown wearing the green shirt, but it was good hit, killing him in an instant.

Angie fired a three round round burst at Yama, the second Rep:5 clown. Again, just one bullet hit. It put Yama Out Of the Fight (OOF).

Big Sil's three round burst was more accurate, hitting two clowns and placing them both OOF. He hit the clown riding the unicycle and the clown wearing the brown dungarees, both of whom were directly behind Sunny and Yama. 

Jamie fired her Pistol just once and scored an OOF result on the clown in the red suit and pointed hat.

Last to fire was young Billy. His catapult shot knocked yet another clown OOF, this time the one wearing the bowler hat.

The two remaining Killer Klowns passed 0d6 on the Leader Lost Test and retired to the back of the Quonset Hut, where they would remain hunkered down until rallied.

Now it was time for Team Vampifan to activate. Hannah walked up to the front door of the Quonset Hut and turned to face the Killer Klown holding the studded club and Flash Bang Grenade. She fired her Magnum Revolver twice at him. Unable to claim cover, the clown was hit twice. One shot just knocked him down but the other put him OOF.

Gap moved to the corner of the skateboard park to get a clearer view of the clown armed with a sickle. He fired a three round burst and rolled 5, 1 and 1, indicating a hit then a loss of ammo. His hit was a good one and he killed the clown. Gap's shooting was proving to be uncannily lethal. This was his third kill of the day.

Jamie and Billy advanced far enough to reach their mum. They had failed to notice that Sunny was only stunned and so ignored him. This could prove to be a fatal oversight.

Angie moved to just past the front of the fast food van to get a clear shot at the orange-haired clown armed with the machete. Of her three shots, two hit and one killed him outright.

Big Sil sauntered alongside his girlfriend to "pop the weasel" on Bozo, the Rep:5 clown, who was only stunned. A single shot to the side of the head put an end to the Killer Klown's evil life.

Wow, what an incredibly action-packed first turn! All that remained to do was to dice to see how many zombies had been attracted by the sound of so much gunfire. I had to roll 32d6 and zombies would appear on the roll of 5 or 6 because this was taking place in the suburbs of Mayhem City. My dice rolling resulted in 12 zombies appearing. You can see ten of them in the photo above. Don't include my counter for PEF:1.

The other two zombies appeared at the side of the Quonset Hut. It was only when I was clearing everything away that I noticed I had Litko tokens for Hunkered Down, which I should have placed next to those two scared clowns. D'oh! I totally forgot I had them. I won't make that mistake again!

TURN 2.   Activation - Vampifan = 4, Clowns = 3, Zombies = 1, PEF = 6

Hannah ordered the team to move inside the Quonset Hut, as she led the way. I shuffled my deck of ATZ Risks and Rewards cards and turned over the top card to see who and/or what was inside. The card revealed that there were two Gangers present, one of whom was Rep:4 armed with a Pistol, and that the resource to be found was a Squad Automatic Weapon (S.A.W.). I had to turn over a second card to reveal the stats and weapon of the second Ganger. This one was Rep:5 and was also armed with a Pistol. I had just the two figures to use - Punch and Judy, both members of the Killer Klowns. Punch was Rep:5, naturally, and Judy Rep:4.
It would have been totally illogical to roll on the Talk the Talk Table to see if Punch and Judy would join Team Vampifan given the carnage our noble heroes had already inflicted on the Killer Klowns, so I went straight to the Walk the Walk Test (see p.46 of BDTZ). The leaders of each side had to roll 1d6 each and add their Rep scores to the result. Whoever rolled highest got to shoot first. Both leaders were Rep:5, so it was all down to the dice rolls. I rolled a 2 for Hannah and a 3 for Punch. Bummer! Punch quickly raised his Pistol and fired twice, once at Hannah and once at Billy.

TO BE CONTINUED