It has been a while, but I wanted to revisit the solo-campaign I had started for Under the Martian Yoke. We have been following our plucky survivors of the Martian assault. You may recall, that in this world, the Martian Invasion of Orson Welles in 1938 was real! The East Coast of the United States was soon devastated by the invaders. Our unlucky band managed to survive the initial invasion and have now been left to survive in the blasted remains of the Martian controlled territory.
Luke had heard them moving around all night long. He and his companions had gone out into the night to search for food, water, or anything else they could use. They had slunk out of their cozy farmhouse and went searching. They couldn't see much in the darkness, but it seemed safer. The Martian had been active in the area. He had seen Tripods moving on the horizon, and heard the strange hooting of their war horns in the air.
As dawn came, he knew they had to find some cover to hole up for the day. It was too hot for them to be moving across country in the daylight. They were not going to make it back to the farmhouse yet. He had planned the route with Annie's map to take them near a speck of a civilization. Just a little cluster of buildings on the map. Not even a town.
He crouched in the bushes and scanned the area. The main building looked like a good place to hole up. No sign of Martians, but the line-of-sight wasn't great in the early breaking dawn. He glanced up and down the shrub line, and saw Tommy, Annie, and John all looking at him expectedly.
He gave a big gulp, decide to try to look as confident as he could, and gave the signal to move out.
The Survivor Band
This game only allows you a band of 4 survivors. Mine is made up of Copplestone Castings Gangster range. They make great pre-war civilian figures for this.
On the left is Handsome John. He is a criminal archetype and survived by running for the hills when things went south.
Activation Aimed Suppression Fight Brawn Brains Nerve
5+/2 6+ 3+ 4+ 8+ 9+ 7+
Cool Customer
- Pistol, Knife, Canteen of Alcohol
- Duck and Weave- Shooting attacks have a -1 TN when he has moved.
Next is Tommy Wilkins. He is just a kid, and survived when a building collapsed on his family. He managed to dig his way out, but no one else did.
Activation Aimed Suppression Fight Brawn Brains Nerve
3+/2 9+ 8+ 6+ 4+ 7+ 5+
Pitter Patter of little feet, Fear of Enclosed Spaces
- Improvised Fight weapon, Satchel, Good Shoes
The lady is Annie. Annie McCall is a devout believer, trying to process what exactly is going on. She was part of an ambushed evacuation, and forced to flee.
Activation Aimed Suppression Fight Brawn Brains Nerve
6+/2 7+ 5+ 9+ 8+ 4+ 3+
Pray, +3 Experience
- Pistol, Map, Bandages, and Knife
Last up is Luke Goodson, the leader of this little band of survivors. He survived when he was suddenly knocked unconscious.
Activation Aimed Suppression Fight Brawn Brains Nerve
5+/2 7+ 6+ 4+ 8+ 9+ 3+
Do As I Say, Do Not Be Afraid
- Knife, Canteen of Water, Flares
- Revolver is out of ammo and left at Hide-out
Scenario
The survivors left their farmhouse to go gather supplies. However, Martian forces suddenly became active in the area and the group needed to get to cover quickly. Using Annie's map, they found a small cluster of local buildings and made a break for it.
There is 1 marker in the center of the board. It is inside the tire store building. All survivors need to be within 4 MU of the marker by the end of the game. The game also starts at a higher danger level.
This game is happening at Dawn.
Finally, there are 2 Green Gas clouds in the area floating around the table. The game is starting at Danger Level 9!
Set-up
The area is 36 by 36 MU with 1 MU equaling 1 inch.
There are three buildings clustered around the center of the board with a road cutting diagonally across the game play area. There are also scattered trees encroaching on from the board edge in the upper corner, and some groves near the house.
The survivors decide to deploy along the west board edge nearest to the house.
I am not going to go over every turn, but a high level overview of the game as it progressed. It is too hard to play and record on a turn-by-turn basis without breaking some of the immersion and fun!
This start out looking good for our little group of heroes. There are no foes and they skulk their way towards the objective building. Tommy can run pretty freely, nd does so to get to the building. However, things quickly take a turn for the worse, as a really poor Danger roll brings a Martian Black Dust launcher onto the scene! Yikes!
The Martian Tripod made a bee line for Tommy and tried to grapple him with its tentacles. However, the kid was too nimble and managed to avoid them. However, the Tripod also used its Black Dust Launcher on Annie and Luke. They were quickly down coughing and gagging from the evil smoke. Luke manages to pull himself to his feet.
Tommy manages to get away from the Tripod and run for the building they are going to hole up in. However, the door is locked! This proves to be a deadly obstacle as the Tripods Heat Ray cuts into the area Tommy is in and sends him Unconscious and Possibly Dead. The Tripod then scuttles over to downed Annie, and their tentacles put her to Unconscious and Possibly dead as well. Ouch! With Annie and Tommy down, Handsome John turns and starts running for it!
A new Martian Shocker arrives on the opposite side of the town, and heads towards Handsome John. The Tripod manages to see Luke over the building and hits him with a Heat Ray, he is knocked Unconscious and Possibly Dead. He then targets Handsome John in the woods and Heat Rays him Unconscious and Possibly Dead as well.
That is a TPK from 1 Tripod! Yikes! Good thing they have some supplies in inventory! The Danger Level ended at only 18- Yellow!
Post-Game
Thankfully, the survivors went into this game with 11 Food, 14 Water, and 2 Scrap. They are going to need it!
All of the Survivors went Unconscious and Possibly Dead, so they will all need to roll on the Injury table. In addition, none of them can perform post-fame actions!
- Tommy- Shellshock so their Nerve is +1
- Annie- Eye injury so +1 to Aimed Shoot rolls
- Luke- Nerve damage so +1 Shoot for Suppression shooting
- Handsome John- Body Injury so +1 to Grit tests
Ouch. However, Handsome John ended the game running away, so they also suffer from a Psychological injury as well.
- Handsome John- Fear of the Dark
Sadly, no one gains any new experience from this session. This leaves everyone at this level:
- Handsome John- 4
- Annie McCall- 8
- Tommy Wilkins - 8
- Luke Goodson - 8
Oh dear, since they can not post any scouts, the Martians manage to locate and destroy the groups hide-out! They loose their farmhouse and all their stash! Oh no! This is bad, as going into the depravation phase no one has enough food, water, or scrap! They are all deprived! They will each have the following effect:
- Every Game without enough food = +1 TN for Brawn and Fight (Max 10)
- Every game without enough Water= +1 TN for Brains and Nerve (Max 10)
- Every game without enough Scrap= +1 TN for Shooting and Grit (Max 10)
This was a very bad outcome for our plucky band of heroes. Can they recover next time, or are they doomed? Only time will tell!
Luke woke up with a start, and immediately regretted it. His head screamed at him with a searing flash of red across his vision. He immediately grabbed his head. However, the pain told him that he wasn't dead.... yet.
He stumbled to his feet, and tripped over the great tear in the ground the Martian Heat Ray had made. The upheaval of the earth had apparently sent him sprawling clear. He rushed over to where he saw the ragged form of Handsome John. A splash of water from his canteen woke him up, and he immediately groaned.
"I don't want to go..... where am I?" then John immediately curled up and groaned. Luke made his way to Annie, and was relieved to find her sitting up and wrapping some of her own bandages around her head. There was a bloody mark where her left eye was. Tommy has been buried in some rubble as the eave collapsed on him, and he frantically pulled himself out, his eyes darting. Luke was pretty sure that if he had been completely free, the boy would have dashed off in terror, and he would never see him again.
The small band of scarecrows managed to stumble along the edge of the road. They had a hand on the one in fronts shoulder to guide the way. They stumbled along, and a trip that had taken a single day the night before, took them three.
Luke was eager to settle down in the farmhouse and pop open a can of salted pork. They didn't have enough food with them for three days out. His stomach was reminding him of that. They rounded the bend in the small tree-lined road leading to their hide-out, but something was immediately amiss. The smell of burnt wood filled the air.
Where their old farmhouse once stood, was just a smoking crater. A few, burned and blackened supports stuck up from a torn and soot covered earth. The farmhouse was gone. John let out a long, deep, guttural moan.
Until next time!
Become a Patron and get access to all the cool stuff, a peak behind the curtain of Blood and Spectacles, and early-access to playtest games!
You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun!
Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website
No comments:
Post a Comment