Edsel
Aug 22nd, '04, 08:59 AM
Last night I had to run another one-shot game for our group since our current GM had gotten boned on his work schedule and was unable to attend. Due to his being absent on Saturday night several other players took the oporturniy to do other things as well. As a result we had a grand total of only four people (myself, Kevin, Audie and Chris).
I chose to run a game using the Twilight of the Dead (http://www.yamoslair.com/totd.html) rules. I recommend this website and setting it is very well done. Twilight of the Dead is a Hero System setting based upon the Zombie movies of George A. Romero.
Since we only had three players I allowed the characters to be built on 50 points with up to 50 additional points in disadvantages. The normal rules recommend 25+25 but with only three players I figured they'd need the help.
Since we all live and play in Oklahoma City, I based the game in Oklahoma. The characters were three buddies on a fishing trip at the beginning of the end. The characters were as follows:
Jack Taylor (played by Audie). An automotive mechanic who has three ex-wives and four teenaged kids aged 13-17 years old living in the Oklahoma City area.
Dirk Humphry (played by Kevin). He is pawnshop owner whose shop is located in Del City on Reno Ave. He is married but has no children.
John Smith (played by Chris). He is a semi-homeless Vietnam veteran who lives in a trailer out behind Dirk's pawnshop. He works for Dirk and provides night security for the shop.
All of these characters are in their early to mid 40s.
The scenario was done on the fly since I had no prep time for this. I ran the whole thing on the spur of the moment.
The game starts with the three buddies in Dirk's bass boat on Lake Ellsworth (just north of Lawton in Southwest Oklahoma). They are cat fishing. On the boat, in addition to their fishing gear, they have a Ruger Mk II .22-calibur pistol and a Marlin .22 pump-action "gallery gun"¯ rifle. (The guns were taken along as anti-snake/snapping turtle weapons). They have a radio and a cooler full of beer and some sandwiches. They were bright enough to mention that they had a radio, which they were listening to. Their luck fishing is mediocre. It is one o'clock on July 7th, a hot and sunny day.
At about one o'clock they hear the first reports of a disturbance in the city of Lawton. Not much just a confused report of some sort of a shooting incident involving a group of people. A little later they notice what seems to be some smoke rising in the direction of the town of Elgin. Within thirty minutes the radio is reporting that some scattered rioting seems to be occuring in Lawton and that the police are encouraging people to remain indoors while the police restore order. At about this time John thinks he hears some distant automatic weapons fire coming from the direction of the Fort Sill Army base. They notice that there seems to be several fires burning in the area as smoke is now seen to be rising from the direction of Fletcher, Elgin and several other points at varying distances.
By two o'clock the radio has reported that the violence that has broken out in Lawton seems to be, at least, a regional phenomena since they are getting report of similar disturbances in Oklahoma City, Altus, Elk City, Ardmore and across the state line in Wichita Falls Texas. The three buddies figure they'd better pack it in and head back to Oklahoma City, their homes and families.
By a quarter after two they are pulling the boat out of the water and getting the trailer hooked up to Dirk's Ford F-350 Crew Cab pickup. Dirk has a 30-30 M1889 lever-action rifle in the truck. The group has 100 rounds of .22LR ammo and 24 rounds for the 30-30.
The reports on the radio are very scary by this point. Roving gangs of people seem to be wandering the streets and murdering anybody that they find. As the group pulls onto the road to Elgin, and thence the HE Bailey Turnpike to Oklahoma City, the EBS takes over the radio station and announces that a national state of emergency has been declared. All National Guard and Reserve military personal are ordered to report to there designated mobilization areas. The three buddies are now driving as fast as they safely can when they approach the Turnpike entrance at the town of Elgin (junction of US-277 and I-44). From the overpass they only catch the barest glimpse of the town. There seems to be a police car stopped on US-277 with its lights on and door open but they see no sign of the officer. Dirk, who is driving, thinks that he saw some lying down behind one of the buildings (he saw them from the knees down). Whatever had been on fire here was now only smoldering so they could not clearly tell what it had been.
As they speed northeast past the town of Fletcher they notice that the cemetery seems to be somewhat "dug-up"¯. Perhaps there have been several funerals lately? They see a couple of people slowly walking around on the cemetery grounds. The distance is too great to make out any details. There seems to be a fire or two burning in Fletcher, but they do not concern themselves about this since they only desire to get home as soon as possible.
Just as they get past Fletcher the EBS urges all people to not use the interstate highways since they are needed for the strategic movement of official government forces. Reports now state that gangs of people are roaming the countryside throughout the United States killing anyone that they encounter. Scattered reports hint that this may be a global phenomenon. They choose to ignore the advice on the radio and stay on the interstate, passing the next exit ramp a couple of miles past Fletcher.
Earlier, Dirk and Jack had used their cell phones to contact their families in Oklahoma City. Dirk found out that his wife had closed their pawnshop and was hold-up in the shop with the doors locked. Jack called his kids. Jack's oldest boy (seventeen) was in his car with some friends, dad ordered him to go home and call his twin sister (who the boy said was at the mall) and tell her to head home as well. Jack's fifteen-year old son was at his home playing video games. Jack told him to shut it off, watch the news and stay put. Jack's youngest son (thirteen) was at Whitewater Bay (water theme-park) and so he had to leave a voice mail for the kid telling him to head home immediately.
Just after the EBS broadcast they try their cell phones again to find that all circuits are busy. The radio advises people to find shelter, stay indoors and lock-up. People are asked not to use their cell phones since emergency traffic needs the bandwidth.
Approaching Chickasha they see that traffic is backed-up getting into the city. It looks like a police roadblock of some sort. They switch-out drivers at this point since Jack is the best driver in the group. They cross the median and find a place to drive off the highway, through a fence, through a field and then onto a section-line road. They manage to keep from loosing the boat and trailer. They bypass Chickasha and, using section line roads, they make their way to US-277 near Tabler, east of the city. A pall of smoke can be seen hanging over the city of Chickasha, sirens and gunfire are heard in the distance.
Their going up US-277 is slower than normal. With traffic being urged to stay off the interstates the two-lane highways are busier than normal. At Tabler they pass a gas station were numerous people seem to be helping themselves to gasoline. The door to the station stands open and there seems to be no attendant. Fortunately Dirk's pick-up has a pair of 30-gallon saddle tanks and a 26-gallon main tank. Due to a lucky die roll, they had topped off all the tanks (86 gallons) just before arriving at the lake.
They pass through the town of Blanchard to see that several fires are burning here as well. Gunfire is heard in the distance and several houses have doors standing open. They see people hurrying about and some are shooting at slow moving people down some of the local streets. They aren't able to make out much detail as they speed through the town. As they approach the I-44, US-277 junction north of Newcastle things become much more interesting. For one thing they see a National Guard heliocopter using its M60 door gun to fire at something off east of the highway!
It seems that several disheveled-looking people are standing on the highway in the path of traffic. People are swerving to avoid them as best they can. An older white Lincoln swerves into the median and bogs down. Jack, with his high moral code, decides to stop and help. As they stop they see three nearby people start to approach in awkward, shambling steps. As they open the doors to get out they all smell the stench of rotting flesh. One of the pedestrians approaches within three hexes of group and they realize that this person is truly sick (he looks like a rotted corpse). Fearful they order the person to stop and Dirk grabs the 30-30 rifle. The zombie continues to shamble toward them so Dirk shoots the zombie in the chest, knocking it back a step but otherwise having little effect. The first zombie fight begins.
Initially there are three zombies close by and the group has one 30-30 rifle, one 22 rifle and one 22 pistol. It takes them a little while to realize that only a headshot will kill the zombies (they role-played this well since of course they knew this all along). They rescue two elderly ladies from the bogged down car but only after one of the women has a finger bitten off and suffers a second bite to her shoulder. Also during the fight two additional zombies eventually get into the action. Three of the zombies are killed. One is shot with a flare gun (they got 5 flares left). Jack smacks one upside the head with a gasoline can. A oncomming car runs over a zombie, failing to kill it, then looses control and rams their parked pickup at about 20 mph. Dirk who is in the back seat firing out the back window at the time, is temporarily knocked out by the impact and take a 3 BODY wound to his left forearm.
Eventually they speed away in their damaged, but drivable, pickup with Dirk and Jack in the cab and John and the two old ladies in the boat. Once they get some safe distance they transfer everybody into the cab of the pickup and head onward toward Oklahoma City. Their idea is to drop Mabel and Edith off at the first government strongpoint they get to.
They soon realize that another roadblock will prevent them using the I-44 bridge to cross the Canadian River. They exit west onto State Highway 37 and take it to County Line Road and turn north. They cross the river using this, lesser traveled, bridge. They head to SW 29th street and then turn east toward the city. They will then turn back south at May Avenue to 44th street and head east to the National Guard Armory. They will have to pass the Czechoslovakian National Cemetery to do this.
As they approach the cemetery they see that numerous cars are stopped and crashed all over the road. About a dozen zombies wander through the wreckage (some are eating). Jack determines that if he drives through a couple of front yards he can make it past this obstacle. He succeeds but they loose the boat and trailer doing this (so much for their fish and cooler of beer and food). A zombie manages to clamor into the bed of the pickup when the trailer catches the corner of a stopped vehicle slows them. After a some frantic shooting they manage to kill the zombie and no one is bitten. I don't think anybody remembered to dispose of the corpse now laying in the back of the pickup.
They finally make it to the National Guard Armory which includes 23 National Guardsmen, 6 Hummers with .50-cals., and about a hundred terrified civilians. The 23 guardsmen are commanded by 1st Lt. McKenzie, who is normally the XO of the company, however these soldiers represent all that have shown up. This armory is part of an anti-tank unit so they have a lot of old Dragon ATGMs and such (not really the best weapon against a zombie). Due to the lack of troops here they have been able to distribute some weapons to the able bodied civilians on sight. Each of the PCs is able to get an M1911A1 pistol with 21 rounds.
The PCs want to press on to Dirk's pawnshop in Del City but it is now 6:30 and with the chaos on the streets it could be dark before they managed to get there. Lt. McKenzie advises against it. He suggests that they wait until morning. The Armory is a strong point with a guarded perimeter where they can more safely pass the night. Of course inside the armory they have setup a temporary morgue with about 40 bodies! (ought to be an interesting night).
The PCs are leaning toward ignoring Lt. McKenzie's advice and pressing on. However this is where we had to call the game for the night. Since it was a one-shot we may never continue this adventure, but we'll keep the characters and this narrative incase we get a chance to continue in the future.
Later I may post the HD2 files for the three PCs and the zombie's but right now I have a clogged Kitchen sink to attend to.
I chose to run a game using the Twilight of the Dead (http://www.yamoslair.com/totd.html) rules. I recommend this website and setting it is very well done. Twilight of the Dead is a Hero System setting based upon the Zombie movies of George A. Romero.
Since we only had three players I allowed the characters to be built on 50 points with up to 50 additional points in disadvantages. The normal rules recommend 25+25 but with only three players I figured they'd need the help.
Since we all live and play in Oklahoma City, I based the game in Oklahoma. The characters were three buddies on a fishing trip at the beginning of the end. The characters were as follows:
Jack Taylor (played by Audie). An automotive mechanic who has three ex-wives and four teenaged kids aged 13-17 years old living in the Oklahoma City area.
Dirk Humphry (played by Kevin). He is pawnshop owner whose shop is located in Del City on Reno Ave. He is married but has no children.
John Smith (played by Chris). He is a semi-homeless Vietnam veteran who lives in a trailer out behind Dirk's pawnshop. He works for Dirk and provides night security for the shop.
All of these characters are in their early to mid 40s.
The scenario was done on the fly since I had no prep time for this. I ran the whole thing on the spur of the moment.
The game starts with the three buddies in Dirk's bass boat on Lake Ellsworth (just north of Lawton in Southwest Oklahoma). They are cat fishing. On the boat, in addition to their fishing gear, they have a Ruger Mk II .22-calibur pistol and a Marlin .22 pump-action "gallery gun"¯ rifle. (The guns were taken along as anti-snake/snapping turtle weapons). They have a radio and a cooler full of beer and some sandwiches. They were bright enough to mention that they had a radio, which they were listening to. Their luck fishing is mediocre. It is one o'clock on July 7th, a hot and sunny day.
At about one o'clock they hear the first reports of a disturbance in the city of Lawton. Not much just a confused report of some sort of a shooting incident involving a group of people. A little later they notice what seems to be some smoke rising in the direction of the town of Elgin. Within thirty minutes the radio is reporting that some scattered rioting seems to be occuring in Lawton and that the police are encouraging people to remain indoors while the police restore order. At about this time John thinks he hears some distant automatic weapons fire coming from the direction of the Fort Sill Army base. They notice that there seems to be several fires burning in the area as smoke is now seen to be rising from the direction of Fletcher, Elgin and several other points at varying distances.
By two o'clock the radio has reported that the violence that has broken out in Lawton seems to be, at least, a regional phenomena since they are getting report of similar disturbances in Oklahoma City, Altus, Elk City, Ardmore and across the state line in Wichita Falls Texas. The three buddies figure they'd better pack it in and head back to Oklahoma City, their homes and families.
By a quarter after two they are pulling the boat out of the water and getting the trailer hooked up to Dirk's Ford F-350 Crew Cab pickup. Dirk has a 30-30 M1889 lever-action rifle in the truck. The group has 100 rounds of .22LR ammo and 24 rounds for the 30-30.
The reports on the radio are very scary by this point. Roving gangs of people seem to be wandering the streets and murdering anybody that they find. As the group pulls onto the road to Elgin, and thence the HE Bailey Turnpike to Oklahoma City, the EBS takes over the radio station and announces that a national state of emergency has been declared. All National Guard and Reserve military personal are ordered to report to there designated mobilization areas. The three buddies are now driving as fast as they safely can when they approach the Turnpike entrance at the town of Elgin (junction of US-277 and I-44). From the overpass they only catch the barest glimpse of the town. There seems to be a police car stopped on US-277 with its lights on and door open but they see no sign of the officer. Dirk, who is driving, thinks that he saw some lying down behind one of the buildings (he saw them from the knees down). Whatever had been on fire here was now only smoldering so they could not clearly tell what it had been.
As they speed northeast past the town of Fletcher they notice that the cemetery seems to be somewhat "dug-up"¯. Perhaps there have been several funerals lately? They see a couple of people slowly walking around on the cemetery grounds. The distance is too great to make out any details. There seems to be a fire or two burning in Fletcher, but they do not concern themselves about this since they only desire to get home as soon as possible.
Just as they get past Fletcher the EBS urges all people to not use the interstate highways since they are needed for the strategic movement of official government forces. Reports now state that gangs of people are roaming the countryside throughout the United States killing anyone that they encounter. Scattered reports hint that this may be a global phenomenon. They choose to ignore the advice on the radio and stay on the interstate, passing the next exit ramp a couple of miles past Fletcher.
Earlier, Dirk and Jack had used their cell phones to contact their families in Oklahoma City. Dirk found out that his wife had closed their pawnshop and was hold-up in the shop with the doors locked. Jack called his kids. Jack's oldest boy (seventeen) was in his car with some friends, dad ordered him to go home and call his twin sister (who the boy said was at the mall) and tell her to head home as well. Jack's fifteen-year old son was at his home playing video games. Jack told him to shut it off, watch the news and stay put. Jack's youngest son (thirteen) was at Whitewater Bay (water theme-park) and so he had to leave a voice mail for the kid telling him to head home immediately.
Just after the EBS broadcast they try their cell phones again to find that all circuits are busy. The radio advises people to find shelter, stay indoors and lock-up. People are asked not to use their cell phones since emergency traffic needs the bandwidth.
Approaching Chickasha they see that traffic is backed-up getting into the city. It looks like a police roadblock of some sort. They switch-out drivers at this point since Jack is the best driver in the group. They cross the median and find a place to drive off the highway, through a fence, through a field and then onto a section-line road. They manage to keep from loosing the boat and trailer. They bypass Chickasha and, using section line roads, they make their way to US-277 near Tabler, east of the city. A pall of smoke can be seen hanging over the city of Chickasha, sirens and gunfire are heard in the distance.
Their going up US-277 is slower than normal. With traffic being urged to stay off the interstates the two-lane highways are busier than normal. At Tabler they pass a gas station were numerous people seem to be helping themselves to gasoline. The door to the station stands open and there seems to be no attendant. Fortunately Dirk's pick-up has a pair of 30-gallon saddle tanks and a 26-gallon main tank. Due to a lucky die roll, they had topped off all the tanks (86 gallons) just before arriving at the lake.
They pass through the town of Blanchard to see that several fires are burning here as well. Gunfire is heard in the distance and several houses have doors standing open. They see people hurrying about and some are shooting at slow moving people down some of the local streets. They aren't able to make out much detail as they speed through the town. As they approach the I-44, US-277 junction north of Newcastle things become much more interesting. For one thing they see a National Guard heliocopter using its M60 door gun to fire at something off east of the highway!
It seems that several disheveled-looking people are standing on the highway in the path of traffic. People are swerving to avoid them as best they can. An older white Lincoln swerves into the median and bogs down. Jack, with his high moral code, decides to stop and help. As they stop they see three nearby people start to approach in awkward, shambling steps. As they open the doors to get out they all smell the stench of rotting flesh. One of the pedestrians approaches within three hexes of group and they realize that this person is truly sick (he looks like a rotted corpse). Fearful they order the person to stop and Dirk grabs the 30-30 rifle. The zombie continues to shamble toward them so Dirk shoots the zombie in the chest, knocking it back a step but otherwise having little effect. The first zombie fight begins.
Initially there are three zombies close by and the group has one 30-30 rifle, one 22 rifle and one 22 pistol. It takes them a little while to realize that only a headshot will kill the zombies (they role-played this well since of course they knew this all along). They rescue two elderly ladies from the bogged down car but only after one of the women has a finger bitten off and suffers a second bite to her shoulder. Also during the fight two additional zombies eventually get into the action. Three of the zombies are killed. One is shot with a flare gun (they got 5 flares left). Jack smacks one upside the head with a gasoline can. A oncomming car runs over a zombie, failing to kill it, then looses control and rams their parked pickup at about 20 mph. Dirk who is in the back seat firing out the back window at the time, is temporarily knocked out by the impact and take a 3 BODY wound to his left forearm.
Eventually they speed away in their damaged, but drivable, pickup with Dirk and Jack in the cab and John and the two old ladies in the boat. Once they get some safe distance they transfer everybody into the cab of the pickup and head onward toward Oklahoma City. Their idea is to drop Mabel and Edith off at the first government strongpoint they get to.
They soon realize that another roadblock will prevent them using the I-44 bridge to cross the Canadian River. They exit west onto State Highway 37 and take it to County Line Road and turn north. They cross the river using this, lesser traveled, bridge. They head to SW 29th street and then turn east toward the city. They will then turn back south at May Avenue to 44th street and head east to the National Guard Armory. They will have to pass the Czechoslovakian National Cemetery to do this.
As they approach the cemetery they see that numerous cars are stopped and crashed all over the road. About a dozen zombies wander through the wreckage (some are eating). Jack determines that if he drives through a couple of front yards he can make it past this obstacle. He succeeds but they loose the boat and trailer doing this (so much for their fish and cooler of beer and food). A zombie manages to clamor into the bed of the pickup when the trailer catches the corner of a stopped vehicle slows them. After a some frantic shooting they manage to kill the zombie and no one is bitten. I don't think anybody remembered to dispose of the corpse now laying in the back of the pickup.
They finally make it to the National Guard Armory which includes 23 National Guardsmen, 6 Hummers with .50-cals., and about a hundred terrified civilians. The 23 guardsmen are commanded by 1st Lt. McKenzie, who is normally the XO of the company, however these soldiers represent all that have shown up. This armory is part of an anti-tank unit so they have a lot of old Dragon ATGMs and such (not really the best weapon against a zombie). Due to the lack of troops here they have been able to distribute some weapons to the able bodied civilians on sight. Each of the PCs is able to get an M1911A1 pistol with 21 rounds.
The PCs want to press on to Dirk's pawnshop in Del City but it is now 6:30 and with the chaos on the streets it could be dark before they managed to get there. Lt. McKenzie advises against it. He suggests that they wait until morning. The Armory is a strong point with a guarded perimeter where they can more safely pass the night. Of course inside the armory they have setup a temporary morgue with about 40 bodies! (ought to be an interesting night).
The PCs are leaning toward ignoring Lt. McKenzie's advice and pressing on. However this is where we had to call the game for the night. Since it was a one-shot we may never continue this adventure, but we'll keep the characters and this narrative incase we get a chance to continue in the future.
Later I may post the HD2 files for the three PCs and the zombie's but right now I have a clogged Kitchen sink to attend to.