We come in peace... shoot to kill!

Another go with the 7TV rules, this time using the Star Qualities and Special Effects.  The original Star Trek away team...

...were pitted against a group of Grey Aliens with an extra tentacled alien:

Location was the interior of a spaceship using loads of the Galactic Core Set scenery.

Stuart took the Star Trek cast and Kieron the aliens.  We used the Watch The Skies trope with an Alien Meteorite as the maguffin.

Kieron's Great Monstrosity made an early rush to the meteorite but Stuart's next script card allowed him to swap Uhura with the alien, so she picked up the meteorite instead.  The Monstrosity got its revenge by taking out Dr McCoy, and grappled with Spock whilst the Grey Aliens chased Uhura for the meteorite.

After Kirk and Uhura had worn down the Alien Leader with statuses, Scotty was able to take it out.

A card brought the alien back for one last turn and he injured Spock and scared Uhura, before dying permanently.  

Although the objective markers had been collected by both casts, the Enterprise team had the maguffin and had taken out the alien leader, giving them 8 points against 3 - a difference of 5 being a Decisive Victory for Stuart.

A few days later, I replayed the episode with Andy but with a different location - a red planet with a couple of buildings, to allow more ranged attacks than the spaceship interior.

In the first turn, James drew the script card that swaps an ally and enemy position.  Kirk found himself on the aliens entry edge whilst Uhura found an alien next to her in his place.  Feeling vulnerable, Kirk stole the scene to finish off the alien he'd ended up next to.

Andy's aliens advanced after the objectives, ignoring Kirk.  Uhura then killed the alien next to her whilst Spock climbed to the roof for an objective marker, and Scotty entered the building, recovering another marker but becoming Infected for his efforts.

A brief visit by Space Vampires caused wounds to both Kirk and Uhura, with Andy's stars escaping a similar fate, and they pressed the attack.

McCoy went for another objective marker but was overrun and taken out by a couple of Greys.

In the last turn, Kirk managed to shoot the alien leader dead and Spock thought he had captured the tentacled alien, until we realised that "Large" characters can't be captured.

A very close outcome, with the points for objectives equally split between the teams but with Andy's loss of the alien leader outweighing the benefit of recovering the alien meteorite by a single point.  However, although that looks like a very minor victory for James, the rules judge that a point difference of zero or one should be considered a Draw, which feels like a reasonable outcome.

In these games, we introduced more of the rules, leaving out only the Genre Cards I think.  We also reduced movement to 4" in the second game as the open terrain on a 24"x24" mat meant that otherwise many of the objective markers could be reached in the very first turn.  We learned that Extras can take out a Star if that Star is already worn down a bit by some status markers.  Also that holding back plot points for a big push in one later turn can turn out well.  Using the Star Qualities and Special Effects on the back of the cards does add extra reading and some complexity but with the benefit of more variety and more story.  I think we're getting used to it.  What should help is that the 7TV rules seem applicable to pretty much every genre so it would be good to use them for other skirmish games so the rules become even more familiar.

The 7TV 80s Genre Guide that I backed on Kickstarter should arrive soon - the PDF has already been sent but I'm trying to hold back until I can sit down with a real book in my hands!

That belongs in a museum!

Finally got round to testing the 7TV rules for Cinematic Skirmish games.  The rules have been around for a while and the second edition was revised this year.  I had played a lot of hero and villain games during Covid lockdowns using the Perilous Tales solo ruleset and it looked like 7TV would be a good step to take to play with others using all the figures I'd painted in recent years.  So I backed the Kickstarter and have since also backed the Kickstarter for the 80s Genre Guide, expected Feb/March next year.

7TV uses profile cards providing 100+ generic characters for a range of genres including spy, action, fantasy, thriller, and horror.  Profiles can be generated too but the idea is to spend more time playing and less time creating cards!  The concept is that players are making a TV episode, so characters are stars, co-stars or extras, activation and special actions are done using "plot points" that your cast earns each turn, and the episode is moved along by event cards happening in three acts.

For this first game, we didn't use Props or the special abilities on the character cards.  The game isn't too complicated but there is a lot to learn initially.  I acted as gamesmaster for Andy and Stuart to play the game.

Our scenario was Indiana Jones trying to beat the Nazis to the Holy Grail.  The good guys cast comprised:

The baddies were:

Both casts cost 28 points, and started at opposite edges of a 2x2 feet area with six objective tokens along the central line of a ruined Egyptian temple.

Stuart brought on Indy and friends first, keeping to cover and using Henry Jones Sr ranged weapon to pick off Andy's cultist archers early on.

Marion and Brady picked up a couple of objective markers with Brady getting poisoned as a result.  Andy had better luck at the top of playing area and was able to revive one of his archers, and found the Holy Grail.

Indiana lasso-ed the Nazi capturing him and reducing Andy's plot points for the next round.

A Skeleton then made a surprise cameo, creating a bit of uncertainty and then hilarity as it bolted through several figures knocking them over.

The skeleton did benefit Andy by killing Salah, the only loss to Stuart's cast.  The Nazi managed to escape and started running towards the top edge of the mat.  In his final turn, Andy drew a blast Script Card setting three of Stuart's characters on fire.  Stuart extinguished Indy and Marion, leaving the already poisoned Marcus Brody to take his chances... he survived.  However, another bullseye from Dr Jones Sr saw the Nazi shot in the back and taken out in the last turn of the game, giving a Minor Victory to Stuart overall.

By the end, we were getting familiar with the rules and where to find things in the book when we needed them.  Next time we will play with Props, and the Special Ability and Special Effects available to the characters, which will provide even more variety (and mayhem) and perhaps balance up teams more effectively.

The key thing we learned was (obvious in retrospect) to play it like a TV episode!  An extra isn't really going to do much damage to a star so you really need to lead with your stars and co-stars and engage their counterparts, and let the extras fight it out when you have the opportunity and plot points.

With larger casts, I think this will work well with two players a side looking after a few characters each.

Episode 204: Marion Ravenwood and the Lost Archaeologist of Imhotep

It wasn't planned as a two-parter but following a cliff-hanger ending last episode (and some encouragement in the excellent Perilous Tales Facebook group), the Director decided to make a sequel to find out the fate of Indiana Jones.

The board was set up as before but with Indy tied up in the sarcophagus on the temple plinth.  So for this episode, a different character took top billing:

"Following the abduction of Indiana Jones by the Mummy of Imhotep, the surviving members of the expedition took the unconscious Marion back to Cairo where a second cousin of Sallah was able to supply an antidote that brought her fully back to life.  Marion recruited Indy’s seaplane pilot, Jock Lindsay, to the gang and then led them back to the temple to try to rescue Indy, find the fourth and final canopic jar, and deal with the Mummy once and for all time."

The game objectives were Rescue the Prisoner, Find the Precious and Kill the Master.

Marion began the episode by revealing the High Priest, who wounded her but not before he took a fair few bullet wounds from Sallah and Jock who had their Eyes Peeled.

In the second turn, Marion finished him off but a further two cultists appeared and ambushed Marion (again) and Marcus.

The following turn, Sallah and Marion ganged up on the Cultist whilst Marcus and Jock did the same on the other, and luckily both were despatched.

Marion healed some of her wounds whilst Henry scarpered away, having failed a Horror Check.  Then Sallah unsuccessfully attempted to use his Handy trait to discover the remaining canopic jar.  Marion boldly rushed towards the plinth to rescue Indiana, prompting the reveal of two threat markers - the Mummy and Bugs! (an enduring peril in place over a wide area unfortunately including the plinth).

Marion took a lot of wounds from the two threats but then, learning a lesson from the ...ahem... technical rehearsal of the episode, decided that attempting to retreat from combat and allow her colleagues to all shoot the Mummy, made more sense than trying to fight hand-to-hand.

Of course this couldn't last long, as the Mummy's reaction on being shot was Step Forward, so he quickly closed the gap on the firing squad.  Meanwhile, Sallah failed another couple of times to dig up the jar but Henry stepped forward and found it straight away.

The Mummy then inflicted 8 wounds on Jock which would have taken him out of action completely.  The Director used the Last Ditch ability to rewind the tape, reset positions and let the Mummy roll again, causing just two wounds and keeping Jock in the game.

The Mummy had taken a lot of wounds by this point and, appropriately enough, Marion was the one to finish him off whilst Sallah and Henry moved to the plinth to rescue Indy.

In the next threat check, Sallah and Marion failed their Horror Checks and retreated, whilst Henry was ambushed by another cultist and a sandstorm blew up.

The Cultist took a couple of bullets and then inflicted 6 wounds on Henry.  Before Henry could respond, he had to endure biting bugs as he activated within 6" of the peril and sadly they took him out of action.  The small silver lining was that with the Cultist no longer engaged in hand-to-hand, Marcus could take revenge for Henry by shooting him dead.

Sallah took 4 wounds from the Bugs (they were vicious) as he moved back to the plinth and began to help Indy.  Jock joined in and together they freed Indiana from the sarcophagus.

At this point, the objectives were all accomplished but the only end game condition (threat level 10) hadn't yet been reached.  The Director decided the team should attempt to escape the bugs, and with a few more snaps at their heels, that's what they did.

Although they had lost Henry, they had recovered Indiana (3 points) and in addition found the fourth canopic jar (3) and killed the Mummy (3).  With the leader Marion surviving the adventure for another 1 point, the final score was 10, graded A for "a truly heroic performance".

The survivors' photo with the corpse of the Mummy and his four canopic jars:

Episode 203: Indiana Jones and the Lost Mummy of Imhotep

 First outing for the Indiana Jones team I painted this week.

I put them together from individual miniatures, mainly from Pulp Figures packs, so that I could get figures that best represented my favourite characters from the Indiana Jones films.  Fortunately I found a seller on eBay selling Pulp Figures miniatures separately.  From left to right we have:

• Marcus Brody: "Claus" (PLP005) from Artizan Designs' Thrilling Tales range 
• Sallah: "Mr M" from Sinister Spies (PHP 03)
• Indiana Jones: "Carson Smith" from Rugged Heroes (PHP 02)
• Marion Ravenwood: "Meg Masters" from Dangerous Dames 2 (PHP 19)
• Henry Jones Sr.: "Reggie York" from Stalwart Companions (PHP 10)

They were pitched against Copplestone Castings' Mummy (a gift from Adrian) and a group of Cultists (from North Star's Rangers of Shadow Deep range - a gift from Andy).

I used the Mummy stats and Desert Dig Site location from the Perilous Tales rules.  Like the Mummy films, the rules have Imhotep believe that one of the adventurers is the reincarnation of their love, Princess Anankha, and he will attempt to escape with that character.  The objectives were to Stop The Ritual, Recover the Canopic Jars (repurposing the Recover Equipment objective) and Kill the Master.

This was also the first time I've used my desert mat and my Egyptian scenery - another excellent eBay purchase of painted plastercast columns, statues and other features.  The threat markers were deployed in the standard pattern.

I started with Marcus and Sallah in the bottom half of the playing area, with the rest in the top half.  Henry used his Eagle Eyes to discover that the top most threat marker was Blazing Heat so that could be avoided for the rest of the game.  Indiana pushed on into the centre revealing an unhelpfully positioned "Thousand Cuts" marker.  This inflicts a 3 Skill attack whenever a hero activates within 6" for the remainder of the game, so it couldn't have been in a worse position.  But it was an opportunity to use some of my bugs counters to represent the threat.

As the threat level increased, a cultist ambushed Marcus but he was despatched by Marcus and Sallah in the following turn.  

Indy recklessly moved through the bugs and revealed three threat markers simultaneously.  One of these was a sandstorm, reducing visibility to 6 inches.  The others were the High Priest and a Cultist.

They inflicted a lot of wounds on Indy but with Marion's help he was luckily able to defeat them both, and Marion partially healed him the following turn.

Indiana spent a couple of turns interacting with the idol to Stop the Ritual.  The others defeated the last cultist whilst Indy and Marion tried to escape the bugs.  Indy succeeded but Marion sadly succumbed to the bugs' bites before she was able to move - despite the use of the Last Ditch rule to re-roll the attack.

Sallah was the first to find a canopic jar at the base of one of the columns.

Marcus found another and then Sallah discovered the third.  With the ritual stopped, three jars retrieved and only one threat marker left, the team were feeling pretty confident.

They gathered behind the sarcophagus and Sallah and Marcus had their Eyes Peeled as Indy triggered the Mummy's threat marker.  The object of Imhotep's affections was randomly selected... and the dice said it was Indiana Jones.  However, on checking the activation rules for the Mummy, I realised that with the "Princess" within 1" of him, and both within 3" of the villainous table edge, they were able to escape together and the game ended.

The final score was 3 for stopping the ritual and 3 for finding the jars.  A point for the leader surviving didn't feel right as although Indiana wasn't killed (unlike poor Marion), he may now have to endure a fate worse than death.  A total of 6 is ranked C: "Adequate, I shall give you a shilling for it".  Looking forward to playing this again and seeing how the Mummy rules play out should he appear earlier on in the game.

Episode 202: Howling At The Moon

A supernatural episode of the A-Team...

The mission briefing from General Stockwell:

The objectives were Find The Precious, Flip The Switches and Escape.  The location perils were those of Sentinel Hill in the rules and the villains had the stats from the Wolfman.  

The threat markers were set up in the Aggressive pattern.

Straightaway Hannibal spotted the Wolfman threat and helped steer the team away from him.  BA bravely revealed two markers simultaneously - not difficult in the Aggressive layout.  A clap of thunder (Unsteady Underfoot) didn't perturb him but the Young Werewolf inflicted 3 wounds after just surviving Eyes Peeled shots from Amy and Face.

The next turn, BA finished off the werewolf whilst Hannibal was struck by lightning, taking 3 wounds and being knocked down.  BA then revealed a further two markers - a raging storm reducing visibility to 6 inches and a wolf, which was swiftly dealt with by the team.

BA started to search for the moon crystal as the team moved up in support.  He failed first time but did discover a wolf that pounced on him.

BA killed the wolf and found the crystal whilst Amy moved on to activate the first switch, accelerating the increase in threat level.  Another threat check saw Amy and Face fail their horror checks and retreat but a bigger problem - the threat marker that had been inching its way nearer finally got to within 6 inches of BA, and the Wolfman spawned on him killing him outright.

The Wolfman then used his Frenzy characteristic to immediately follow up with a further attack on Murdoch, again getting a killing roll.  Using the Last Ditch option to avoid losing a second teammate, the dice were rolled again and this time Murdoch survived.

With just one round to go, Hannibal failed to kill the last wolf with all three of his actions and so was unable to activate another switch.  Fortunately, Amy was able to activate one.  The Wolfman caused another 4 wounds on Murdoch and 6 on Face, but they survived.

At this stage, the team had earned 3 Victory Points for recovering the item, 2 VP for activating two switches, no VP for escaping, plus 1 for Hannibal surviving.  A grand total of 6 VP is graded C - "Adequate, I shall give you a shilling for it".

With the threat level at 10 or above, the game should end but it still felt like a cliffhanger before an advert break rather than the end of the episode.  So I played another couple of turns.  Hannibal finally killed the wolf but took two tries to activate the last switch, so couldn't then escape.  Face and Murdoch escaped from combat and Murdoch, along with Amy, escaped completely.  A surprisingly low threat check roll saw Face fail his horror check and fade into the fog.  The Wolfman consequently moved and attacked Hannibal instead.  In the very last turn, Hannibal escaped from combat and he and Face successfully escaped the map.

Following these two extra turns, the team had earned 3 Victory Points for recovering the item, 3 VP for activating two switches, 3 VP for escaping, plus 1 for Hannibal surviving.  A grand total of 10 VP is graded A - "a truly heroic performance".  But the team lost BA and three others were "marked" by werewolf attacks, so we'll have to see what happens to them next full moon.

Episode 108: A rose by any other name would smell as rank

Having just finished the Thorns of the Briar Queen, I pitted them against the Ghostbusters using the Perilous Tales solo rules.  It was also my first opportunity to use one of my new gaming mats and the ruined church I made in September.

The mission for the Ghostbusters:

Having saved the city, the Ghostbusters are now well-renowned and respected. They receive requests worldwide to deal with paranormal infestations.  The latest is from the Czech Republic.  There’s something strange in the neighbourhood of a ruined church on the outskirts of Prague.  Dr Peter Venkman, Dr Raymond Stantz, Dr Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore have been asked to investigate and clear the site of spectres.

The objectives were Kill The Master, Leave No Stone Unturned and Escape!  The villains and perils used the data for Ghast villains and Graveyard location from the rulebook.  The key thing about the villains were that they couldn't be wounded.  The Briar Queen (Ghast) had to be exorcised by three heroes in the same turn, and the Chainrasps (Spirits) immediately spawned 8" from the hero that had just successfully attacked them. The only change I made was to stop the Chainrasps re-spawning once the Briar Queen had been defeated.

The Ghostbusters parked up and entered the churchyard by two different entrances, Venkman and Zeddemore on the right, Stantz and Spengler on the left.

As they moved in, Venkman revealed the first threat marker and fell headfirst into an empty grave, causing a spectacular 7 wounds (a particularly unlucky early roll of dice including two zeros, which each cause 2 wounds) .  As the "Noose Tightened" following the Threat Check, Stantz revealed a Creeping Horror peril, which disadvantages some rolls with 6" for the rest of the game.

In the second round, the minions started to appear, causing minor wounds in their ambushes.

The team vanquished the Spirits but obviously others reappeared a bit further away.

In the third turn, Stantz revealed the Briar Queen behind the church.

Realising that the team had to re-group in order to take on the Queen, Venkman and Zeddemore used the Discretion trait and Escape from Combat actions to focus on getting across to help rather than endlessly battling Spirits.

By this time though, Venkman had picked up 11 wounds, just one short of being wiped out, so he took the long way out of danger to reach Spengler and Stantz, leaving Zeddemore chased by numerous Spirits.

Winston battled bravely but ultimately succumbed in turn 7 as the Spirits piled on.

Meanwhile, the three remaining Ghostbusters engaged the Briar Queen.

Venkman and Spengler successfully completed their Exorcism skill check but Stantz failed his role.  Fortunately, the "Last Ditch" rule allows one failed attempt in the game to be re-rolled.  This time it worked, and the Briar Queen was vanquished.

Pursued by the remaining Spirits, the team (sadly less Zeddemore) escaped from the villain's table edge.

The Ghostbusters earned 3 points for killing the Queen, 1 point for revealing the final threat markers when the threat level was at 7, 3 points for escaping, and 1 point for the leader surviving.  Eight points gives a final episode rating of B - "a tale fit for the telling".