My ATZ Campaign - Day 59 - Meeting the Media Part 1

This was Team Vampifan's first foray away from home since the death of Angie just over a week ago. Hannah decided to stay behind to look after her son, Billy, who was still recovering from being shot on his last outing. As the rules stand at present, Billy could return to action as soon as he made his recovery roll, which he did. However, I'm using a bit of common sense here, and it will take him time to fully recover from a bullet wound to the stomach. This left just four members able to go out on the mission. Here they are with their stats -
Vampifan; Rep:6 Star with Nerves of Steel and Slow attributes; armed with Assault Rifle, BA Pistol, Combat Knife and Body Armour.
Big Sil; Rep:5 Grunt with Knife Fighter attribute; armed with Assault Rifle, Combat Knife and Body Armour.
Gap; Rep:4 Grunt with Phobia of Clowns; armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt with Brawler attribute; armed with BA Pistol and Medical Supplies.

The game was played on a 3' by 3' board divided into nine 1' square sectors with sector 1 being in the top left hand corner of the photo above where the small wood is and sector 9 being in the bottom right hand corner where the general store is.

The only new item on the board that I haven't featured before is the stretch limo that has crashed into the wood. I bought it at a local toy shop in a sale for about £3 or £4 instead of £10.

Team Vampifan began the game in sector 7 next to the front entrance to the deli store. I rolled to see if any of them had suffered from a lack of sleep prior to setting out but all made their checks without any problems.

I then rolled for the placement and Reps of the three starting PEFs. PEF:1 was Rep:5 and was placed in sector 6 at the front of the alley between the two houses.

Pef:2 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 1 in the small wood.

PEF:3 was Rep:1 and was placed in sector 5 at the back of the limousine.
HOUSE RULES. There was recently a discussion on the Board of the Living Dead forum http://boardofthelivinglead.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=atz&action=display&thread=118 about whether external doors should be locked or unlocked. The default rule in Better Dead Than Zed is that all doors are unlocked. The argument is that is this realistic? Well, no, but it does speed up gameplay. Anyway, I have decided to adapt Joe's (aka Zabadak) rule that all doors are unlocked on the roll of 1-5 on 1d6. Only if I roll a 6 will a door be locked. Locked doors can be smashed open but doing so creates noise, equivalent to one gunshot for the purpose of attracting zombies and possibly alerting any occupants inside the building. I have also made the decision that I want no Ragers or Smart Zombies during the first six months of my campaign (i.e. up to day 183).

Day 59 - Meeting the Media Part 1
This would be a standard Discovery scenario set in the suburbs of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. Note that any reference to the Better Dead Than Zed rulebook will be abbreviated to BDTZ and any reference to the I, Zombie supplement will be abbreviated to IZ.

TURN 1.   Activation - Vampifan = 4, PEFs = 3
Vampifan was going to enter the deli store but he found the door to be locked. Inside, the shop looked deserted so he moved along to the dry cleaning store, with the rest of the team following faithfully behind him.

PEF:1 passed 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved alongside PEF:3 in sector 5.

TURN 2.   Activation - Vampifan = 1, PEFs = 5
PEF:1 again passed 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved into sector 7 at the corner of the dry cleaning store. However, when I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table, it turned out to be a false alarm. Much relief!

This time the door was unlocked and Team Vampifan entered the dry cleaning store. I turned over the top card of my Risks and Rewards deck to reveal no humans, no zombies and no resources.

TURN 3.   Activation - Vampifan = 5, PEFs = 6
With the PEFs unable to activate, Team Vampifan left the dry cleaners and headed across the road. This brought them in sight of PEF:3, so I rolled to see what it was and got a result of NPC Interaction. I determined that the NPCs were a news team made up of a Rep:4 cameraman and a Rep:3 reporter.

TURN 4.   Activation - Vampifan = 3, News Team = 4, PEF = 5
The PEF was unable to activate so the news team moved towards Team Vampifan.

Team Vampifan approached the news team and introductions were made. The cameraman was called Simon McQuarrie and his young colleague was called Jenny Tyrell. I rolled on the NPC Interaction Table (see p.117 of IZ) with both sides rolling d6 equal to their leader's Rep. This meant 6d6 for Vampifan and 4d6 for McQuarrie. No other modifiers applied to the rolls. After a couple of rounds of rolling Vampifan won 2-0. This gave him a +2 bonus when he rolled 1d6 on the NPC Positive Reaction Table (see p.117 of IZ). I rolled a 4 for Vampifan, which with the +2 bonus, gave him a score of 6. This meant that the news team would hang out with Team Vampifan for the rest of this scenario. I'd rather they joined them on a permanent basis but for that to have happened I'd have had to roll a 6 on the 1d6.

TURN 5.   Activation - Vampifan = 2, PEF = 1

The six humans moved further across the street towards the general store.

 PEF:2 passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved into sector 5, taking cover behind the stretch limo. This brought it in sight of Team Vampifan, so I rolled to see what it was on the PEF Resolution Table.

I got a result of Hostile NPCs, or more specifically, zombies. There were six of them but at the moment they were too far away from Team Vampifan to be considered a threat, so no one fired at them.

TURN 6.   Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 3
Team Vampifan reached the front door of the general store, which was unlocked.

The zombies shuffled along the road towards the clearly visible group of humans.

TURN 7.   Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 5
With the zombies unable to activate this turn, Vampifan led his followers inside the general store. The Risks and Rewards card once again, revealed no humans or zombies inside but there was a Food resource, which Jamie found amongst the mostly empty, looted shelves.

TURN 8.   Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 4
The six zombies ambled slowly down the road, getting ever closer to the general store.

Vampifan led the way up the stairs at the back of the store.

TURN 9.   Activation - Vampifan = 3, Zombies = 1
As Vampifan entered the living room upstairs, he was confronted by a very tall man with a handlebar moustache and dressed in the uniform of a National Guard Officer. He was a Rep:5 Star, armed with an Assault Rifle and he possessed the Brawler and Nerves of Steel attributes. I rolled on the Meet and Greet Table, rolling 11d6 for Vampifan (6d6 for his Rep and 5d6 for outnumbering the officer by five) and 5d6 for the officer (his Rep). Not surprisingly, Vampifan won by more than two and so the officer would join Team Vampifan permanently. As the Risks and Rewards card revealed, there was a Medical Supplies Resource to be found and Big Sil snaffled it.

The six zombies were now less than six inches away from the general store entrance.

TURN 10.   Actibation - Vampifan = (4) 2, Zombies = (4) 5
After tying for Activation I rolled again and this time the zombies rolled too high to activate. So, Team Vampifan spent this turn getting acquainted with the National Guard officer. He identified himself as Lieutenant Ulysses Catweazle, the only survivor out of his platoon.
Note that Lieutenant Catweazle has appeared in two games of ATZ prior to this encounter, although they were not part of my official campaign when I played them way back in 2009. You can read about his exploits here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/10/atzbdtz-battle-report-01.html and here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/10/atzbdtz-battle-report-02.html
Now that Lieutenant Catweazle has joined Team Vampifan, his two previous scenarios are now canon and they will form part of my ongoing campaign.

TURN 11.   Activation - Vampifan = 5, Zombies = 1
Vampifan lead his rapidly expanding team back downstairs, as he continued to chat to Lieutenant Catweazle.

Two of the six zombies entered the general store, with the other four close on their heels.

TO BE CONTINUED