X marks the spot

I recently got some Maguffin objective markers from Crooked Dice.  They are really nicely detailed and I based them on pennies.  The set includes four Egyptian canopic jars...

...a treasure map, safe and briefcase, and hovering robot drone...

...and a Crystal Skull, Atomic Device and an Imperial Idol:

Inspired by these, I ransacked my spares boxes to see if I could find items that could replace the various different objective markers used in Perilous Tales.  I ended up with three barrels to represent Explosives, three boxes for Equipment, plus a Radio and a briefcase to represent Evidence.

For the switches, I bought a handful of actual surface mounted switches, 12mm by 12mm.

Because they are momentary switches there is no toggle to show whether they are open or closed, so I ended up making 12 switch markers.  6 are for the modern era with just the button painted red or green to reflect the state of the switch - thinking that I'll just swap the markers around when a hero interacts with the switch.

For pre- or non-electric scenarios (e.g. Indiana Jones), I painted up the switches to look like stone, with three of them cracked as if a hero had stood on them to activate it.

Episode 105: Who Ya Gonna Call?

First test of Perilous Tales rules with the Ghostbusters - details of figures and scenery in the previous blog post.  The mission:

After being kicked out of the university where they conducted paranormal research, scientists Dr Peter Venkman, Dr Raymond Stantz, and Dr Egon Spengler set up their own company in an old firehouse.  Along with former marine Winston Zeddemore, the "Ghostbusters" aim to remove spirits and spectres from New York.  There is something mysterious about one of their first clients, Dana Barrett, and her love-smitten neighbour, Louis Tully.  Dana’s apartment building may be a portal that could bring about the return of a sadistic, shapeshifting, apocalyptic entity called Gozer the Gozerian, worshipped as a god by the Hittite, Mesopotamian and Sumerian cultures.

Can the Ghostbusters thwart Gozer’s plans and save New York and all of humanity?

The three objectives were:

RECOVER THE GHOST TRAPS

If a hero on the villainous half of the table makes a successful Interact action with a piece of terrain that has not yet produced an Equipment token, place an Equipment token next to the model. At the end of the game, for each Equipment token in the possession of a surviving or escaped heroic model: score 1 point, to a maximum of 3 points.

LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED

When you reveal the last unrevealed threat marker, if the threat level is 5 or less, score 3 points; if the threat level is 6, score 2 points; if the threat level is 7, score 1 point.

DEFEAT MR STAY PUFT THE MARSHMALLOW MAN

At the end of the game: if the heroes have killed Mr Stay Puft, they score 3 points.

The villains and their special abilities and stats were:

Slimer

·         See Special Rules

Dana Barrett, possessed by Zuul (LURKER, 5 WOUNDS, 4 SKILL)

·         Hang Back: When revealed from a threat marker, spawn this model so that it is centered on the threat marker that revealed it.

Louis Tully, possessed by Vinz Clortho (LURKER, 5 WOUNDS, 4 SKILL)

·         Hang Back: When revealed from a threat marker, spawn this model so that it is centered on the threat marker that revealed it.

Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer (PACK HUNTER, 7 WOUNDS, 6 SKILL)

·         Frenzy: After making an attack with this model, if there is another hero within 2” that this model has not yet attacked this round, push this model 2” directly towards that model and then make another villainous attack action.

Vinz Clortho the Keymaster of Gozer (PACK HUNTER, 7 WOUNDS, 6 SKILL)

·         Frenzy: After making an attack with this model, if there is another hero within 2” that this model has not yet attacked this round, push this model 2” directly towards that model and then make another villainous attack action.

Gozer the Gozerian (AGGRESSIVE, 10 WOUNDS, 7 SKILL) [MASTER]

·         Beautiful and Terrible: Heroes must pass a skill check before attacking Gozer the Gozerian.

·         Lightning Bolts: Gozer can target any Hero within 10” with a Lightning Bolt shooting attack.

The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (AGGRESSIVE, 20 WOUNDS, 5 SKILL)

·         Tremors: Any hero within 6” of the start or finish location when Mr Stay Puft moves must must pass a skill check or be immediately knocked down.

·         Interminable: Can only be destroyed via a critical hit. If an attack that would take the model to 0 wounds does not include a critical hit, the model retains 1 wound.

I created a number of special rules to adapt the Perilous Rules system to reflect the narrative of the original Ghostbusters movie:

Villain order

·         When Threat Markers 1 to 5 are revealed, the Villains appear in the following order, regardless of the number on the Threat Marker: Dana Barrett, Louis Tully, Zuul, Vinz Clortho, Gozer

"Okay, who brought the dog?"

·         When Zuul or Vinz Clortho are revealed by threat markers, remove Dana or Tully respectively.  They also appear in the location of Dana or Tully when either of the possessed characters is defeated.  Ignore the corresponding threat marker when later revealed.

"I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never, ever possibly destroy us... Mr. Stay-Puft."

·         Representing the Destructor form of Gozer, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man appears in Gozer’s location when she is defeated

“He Slimed Me!”

Slimer materialises and slimes the nearest Ghostbuster with a single attack of Skill 5 before dematerialising when Markers 6, 7 or 8 are revealed.  Slimer also attacks as the Minion if the From The Shadows result is achieved in the Threat Check.

I used the standard 2x2 feet playing area but had an extra foot in order to get the roads and the fire house HQ onto the table.

The Ghostbusters started at the entrance to Central Park:

Dana was soon discovered as the guys entered the park and she attacked Egon.

Near the other entrance, Zeddemore got slimed twice by Slimer on the roundabout...

...followed by Venkman the next turn:

Zeddemore next revealed Tully who inflicted several wounds on him.  

A Creeping Chaos result saw Egon and Venkman fall back in horror as Zuul appeared, attacking the latter on the ground.

Zeddemore defeated Tully whilst Egon despatched Zuul with an amazing roll including three critical hits (zeroes).  Vinz Cortho, the second dog, appeared and Venkman fell down again.

Together, Ray and Zeddemore killed Vinz...

...and Gozer was revealed as Ray moved onwards.

Venkman succumbed to her beauty and was unable to attack but everyone else let her have it and her Gozerian form was quickly vanquished to be replaced by her Destructor form, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

 

He caused and sustained damage, with all four Ghostbusters blasting away at him.  But I'd given him the Interminable characteristic, and so he could only be destroyed via a critical hit.  And could they roll one?  

The battle continued, Slimer made another appearance killing Egon, and the Marshmallow Man killed Ray.  Venkman and Zeddemore had one final turn of three attacks each.  All they had to do was roll a zero.  And they failed, the threat level clicked over to 10, and New York was lost.  A measly two points were secured, a grade of F - "Failure, let us never speak of this again".

The character cards showed the devastation:

Later the same day, I set it up once more and tried again.  This time the marshmallow was toasted, with a final score of 8 and a grade B - "a tale fit for the telling".

Ghostbusters - the setup

Perilous Tales inspired me to get on and paint the Ghostbusters figures that I'd bought from Crooked Dice a number of years ago.

To complete the set I modified a pair of Terror Dogs from Heresy Miniatures (by removing some horns on their backs and a skull on their chains) to represent Vinz Clortho the Keymaster of Gozer and Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer.

I struggled to find a suitable figure to represent Gozer the Gozerian in female form.  I ended up heavily modifying an old figure but lost a lot of detail in the process.  It'll do for now.

The final figure was of course Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (the Destructor form of Gozer).  I managed to source an original 1984 model on eBay which stands about 17cm tall.

I picked up a Jada model of Ecto-1, advertised as 1:32 but a little smaller so actually works better.

Thinking I was ready to go, I was then pointed towards TTCombat's Fire Station, which I couldn't resist.

This is a really great kit.  Lots of well cut MDF plus cardboard for the brick edging. The windows are set back rather than flush which gives the model extra depth. Excellent value from TTCombat. The only thing I added was the Ghostbusters sign. Took a while to put together and paint but I enjoyed doing it.

I wanted to play the scenario in the more open space of Central Park rather than filling up the playing area with buildings, so I also got some fencing and an MDF playground to complete the park.

The final elements were some print-at-home scenery for the road system - the Capital City PDF from Fat Dragon Games.

Fourth playtest of Perilous Tales - Episode 104: We Come In Peace, Shoot To Kill

This morning, I finished painting the Starship Crew from Matakishi's Tea House.  I bought them a week or so ago again thinking they would make a great heroes team for Perilous Tales.

I made up some more cards in Nandeck:

And set up the mission:

This required a pretty simple layout with the heroes game edge being on the left and the threat markers arranged in the Aggressive deployment:

I used the Tentacled Aliens as the Villains with some location threats for the planet of Regula II:

The Away Team beamed down and advanced with Scotty revealing the first Baby Alien and Spock prompting an earthquake, resulting in most of the team failing their skill test and falling to the floor. 

Scotty took a beating but Kirk and Uhura killed the alien.  Spock revealed another Baby Alien which wounded him severely, but he killed it the following turn.  After being healed by McCoy, Scotty promptly revealed another Baby Alien and became Mired.  He collected the wounds he'd just had healed, and then he and Kirk took their revenge.  Scott then revealed Disaster Strikes but fortunately this time, none of the Skill 7 attacks hit their mark, thanks to a difficulty die roll of 9.

Spock discovered the Genesis device in one piece and Kirk decided to lead his away team to safety by making an early exit from the playing area.

This was rather scuppered by my subsequently rolling The Trap Is Sprung! in the next threat check, resulting in the Mother Alien accosting Spock...

...and another Baby Alien attacking Scotty, who was bringing up the rear.  Again, three of the Away Team fell down in horror.

Fortunately, the Mother failed to land any blows on the already quite wounded Spock, but Scotty's time finally ran out as the Baby Alien killed him.

McCoy then killed the Baby Alien whilst Spock and Kirk finished off the Mother Alien.  In a couple of event-free turns, the crew escaped with the device.

Despite the sad loss of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, the crew turned in a truly heroic performance with 10 points: 3 each for completing the objectives, and 1 for the leader surviving.

Another fun game and the rules worked well.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing”

Well how long did you think it was going to take me?

"Feel the power of the Dark Side"

To go with the Star Wars theme of my games room a.k.a. The Gentlemen's Quarters, I bought a Lego Darth Vader clock, about 9" high.  Placed on the windowsill, I think the hot weather must have got to him as the alarm became permanently set on, regardless of the switch position on the back.  So I thought I'd take him apart and fix the switch.

Then I realised I could complete him.  Presumably Lego didn't include the cloak so that the alarm and time set buttons on his back were easily accessible (the light and snooze function are operated by pressing down on his helmet).  But it didn't look right.

The Darth Vader figure from the Death Star provided the template and scaling for the alarm clock.

I lengthened the cloak a little as the Lego version wasn't as long as the one in the films, and cut it out of some spare black fabric.  The thin fabric even flaps in the breeze coming in through the window.  The alarm switch is now fixed as well.  An easy and effective mod.  May the Force be with you.

Of course, now I'm thinking about making him a lightsaber...

Third playtest of Perilous Tales - Episode 103: They Don't Like It Up 'Em

My third playtest of Perilous Tales using my Dad's Army figures against the recently acquired and painted Fungoids from Crooked Dice.

Colonel Pritchard called the office in the village hall earlier this week:

“It’s a night exercise in the woods for your platoon this weekend, Mainwaring. Hidden amongst the trees are a radio and three valves for you to find and recover, if you’re up to it. And someone has been prowling around the army hut there too and I want you to take a photograph of the blighter so I can deal with them.”

In terms of Perilous Tales objectives, this equated to Find The Precious (for the radio), Recover Equipment (for the three valves) and Get Evidence.

Using statistics for similar characters in the Villain lists (in brackets), the Fungoids were as follows:

1: • FUNGOID SCIENTIST (MAD SCIENTIST)
MASTER, LURKER, 12 WOUNDS, SKILL 5
Experiment: If there is a knocked down model within 1”, and no other hero within 6”, kill the knocked down model as this model’s activation.
Experimental Simulants: Minions within 3” of this model gain advantage to their attacks.

2: • FUNGOID ATHLETE (LAB ASSISTANT with MONSTER trait)
3: • FUNGOID THUG (LAB ASSISTANT with MONSTER trait)
MINION, LURKER, 8 WOUNDS, SKILL 5
Powerful: If an attack from this model causes one or more wounds,the target suffers knockdown.

4: • FUNGOID SCHOOLGIRL (IMP)
MINION, PACK HUNTER, 3 WOUNDS, SKILL 3
Pickpocket: A hero within 3” of this model counts as having no traits.
Creep: After attacking, trigger this model’s reaction.

5: • FUNGOID DOG (WOLF)
MINION, PACK HUNTER, 4 WOUNDS, SKILL 3
Scent of blood: If this model targets a wounded hero with an attack action, it gains +1 skill

And I used three of the Perilous Tales location perils but renamed to fit the Dad's Army theme for my Walmington Woods location:

6: STUPID BOY! (TEMPTED FORWARD) – Every hero within 6” of the revealer must pass a skill check or immediately take a Walk action towards this peril.

7: DON’T PANIC! (UTTERLY HORRIBLE) - When revealed, the revealer and every heroic model within 6” of the threat marker must make a horror check with disadvantage, treating this threat marker as the closest villainous model. Discard this threat marker after revealing.

8: PUT THAT LIGHT OUT! (THE CAPTAIN) – When you reveal this peril, spawn the ARP Warden, who immediately ambushes as a villain.  He counts as a minion with 6 Wounds and Skill 4.  If a hero successfully takes the Parley action targeting the Warden, minimum difficulty 8, the Warden switches to being a teammate with 2AP and no traits.

The 2 feet square playing area had a Nissen Hut, a pillbox, a pond and several large trees plus a run of telegraph poles.

The threat markers were set up in corridor deployment and the Platoon moved up towards the hut with Mainwaring taking the lead.  He prompted the simultaneous reveal of two threat markers and was ambushed by the ARP Warden and the Fungoid Thug.

Mainwaring took 8 wounds from the pair of them but was fortunately (on his third and last try) able to convince Warden Hodges who he was and gain his help.  Pike searched the hut and found the radio.  The Thug runs to the pillbox being fired upon by Wilson and Jones, and hides.

Wilson shoots the Thug dead before a Crawling Chaos terror check roll results in 4 of the 6 characters failing their Horror Check and retreating.  Jones held on though but was rewarded for his bravery by a nasty bite from a Fungoid Dog emerging from the pillbox.

Mainwaring disappeared behind the hut and found one of the radio valves.  Godfrey came to help Jones but triggered the Fungoid Athlete.

As the noose tightened, an infected Schoolgirl surprised Mainwaring at the edge of the woods, wounding him and running away, only to be taken out by the Captain's subsequent sharp shooting.

Jones killed the Dog and the rest of the squad took out the athlete.  Mainwaring and Godfrey found the other two radio valves.  With the threat level only at 6 and two objectives completed (both 3 points) with no losses (a further 2 points), it was tempting to go for the safe exit down the centre of the playing area and retire with 8 points.  But where's the fun in that?  Instead, Jones activated the Scientist and received significant wounds for his effort.  Then the threat check (The Trap Is Sprung) saw another Fungoid Athlete appear, who killed an already wounded Godfrey.

Mainwaring killed the Athlete whilst Pike took the photograph of the Scientist that Pritchard wanted.  Another "Trap Is Sprung" result saw another Fungoid Thug appear.  The now wounded Scientist attacked the Warden but Hodges was able to escape combat allowing the platoon members to pepper the Scientist with bullets, taking him out of the game.  Pike recovered the third valve from the body of Godfrey.

Another threat check, another minion spawned.  This time the Athlete killed Jones outright with some good rolling.  His colleagues took their revenge.  Not all the characters could exit the playing area in one turn so they moved to the edge ready.  Yet another minion was spawned but the threat level then reached 10, ending the game.

Each of the three objectives were achieved (3 points each) and the leader was still alive (+1) but with the loss of both Jones and Godfrey, the 10 points ("a truly heroic performance") was perhaps a hollow victory.

Great fun though.  And again it prompted a few thoughts on the ruleset which I'll share in the playtesting group.