ATZ Campaign, Day 1, Part 2: Outbreak

With Vampifan putting us all to shame with is epic assault on the police station over at his blog, I felt inspired to go ahead and see what happens to Robb and Irene.  Robb is a Rep 3 Civilian with Born Leader, Agile, and a BA Pistol.  Irene is a Rep 3 Civilian with Athletic, a shotgun, and a baseball bat (which will come in real handy this session). 
As a side note, the real Irene sat in and watched how it all went, so we're featuring real commentary today!

Turn 1: Robb 1, Zombies 4

With a groan, Robb pulled himself up off the sidewalk outside the big box store.  He went over and with a heave untangled Irene from the pile of shopping carts where she had fallen.  A quick glance inside the store showed the place to be in shambles.  "This place is a total mess," Robb said grimly.  "Let's head for that small locally-owned grocery store.  It's only a few blocks away and might not be as bad."

Turn 2: Robb 6, Zombies 4
Turn 3: Robb 3, Zombies 1

Robb and Irene began walking cautiously towards the store. They slowly began to walk down the street.

Turn 4: Robb 6, Zombies 6

From the other direction, two people came hurtling at them.  One of the men shouted, "hey, they've got weapons!  Give them to us!"  And rushed at them.  Robb swung a fist out at one of them and the man thought the better of it and ran back.  The other wrestling with Irene's bat for a few moments before a hard kick to the shins had him limping away.  "Good thing I gave you that bat," said Robb.  "It looked like you were having some trouble there."

Doubles meant once again running into panicked civilians, and this time the dice came up a merciful two.  I divided them equally between Robb and Irene.  Robb made short work of his opponent, but Irene had to go several rounds before finally finishing off her opponent, despite the one die advantage from the bat.

Turn 5: Robb 1, Zombies 3
Turn 6: Robb 2, Zombies 2

Robb and Irene decided to abandon the road in favor of a shortcut across some back yards.  As they did so they heard a voice saying, "What are you doing skulking around back there!  Get away from our house!"
The screen door on the back of the house clanged open and four people came piling out at them.  The first one collided in with Robb, sending him crashing to the ground.  The man began kicking Robb's ribcage.    With a yell, Irene began laying into the crowd with her bat, nimbly hopping from opponent to opponent with the occasional shot from an elbow pad or a kick with a skate.  In a few seconds of furious activity Irene had driving them all back into the house.  "Come on, tough guy," said Irene with a grin as she helped Robb to his feet.
"When I get to the store I'm going to see if they sell baseball bats," said Robb with an embarrassed frown.  "At this point I'd settle for a frozen lamb shank."

 Doubles once again meant a frightened mob, this time four people.  Robb was rendered OOF by the first person he encountered, which meant Irene had to face all four with her bat, 4d6 to 2d6 each time.  Thankfully the odds stayed in her favor, and she managed to subdue all four.  But would their luck hold?

Turn 7: Robb 4, Zombies 5
Turn 8: Robb 6, Zombies 1

"We have to keep moving," said Irene impatiently and she looked about the back yard.
"Hang on, I think that guy bruised a rib or something," said Robb.

A seven on the activation roll meant that I had to roll for zombies.  On Day One it is 1/2 die for a suburban area (counts as rural), but that's per human, and I've got two.  I rolled a six, and another six, meaning six zombies would appear within 12" of the pair: two to the right, two to the left, and one top and bottom.  Things had just taken a turn for the worse.

Turn 9: Robb 6, Zombies 4

The zombies began shuffling towards Robb and Irene, who were oblivious to their peril.

Turn 10: Robb 5, Zombies 5
Turn 11: Robb 2, Zombies 1

Suddenly half a dozen gruesome figures entered into the yard from every direction.  "What are those things?" Irene shouted with alarm.
"That's what attacked me on the way home from work earlier today!" said Robb.
"What's wrong with them?" Irene asked.
"I don't know.  But I'm tired of getting my ass kicked today," said Robb as he pulled the Colt .45 ACP from his shoulder holster and fired two shots at the approaching figures.  One shot went wide, but the other hit its target and one of the misshapen bodies collapsed.  Irene hoisted the shotgun and fired off a blast which fell another.
Then the remaining zombies were upon them.  Robb knew immediately he was in trouble, but thought he would at least go down swinging.  He pummeled the first person to the ground, clouting the man across the head with the barrel of his stocky pistol.  But a second was immediately on him, snapping at his face with diseased teeth.
Irene found herself grappling with two of the figures at the same time.  Both of them seemed poised to over-power her at any minute.

So things go badly here.  The zombies activate twice without Robb activating at all.  That means he first had to make a "Zed or No Zed" check, which he passed 2d6, and then a Being Charged Check, which he also passed 2d6, meaning he could shoot before close combat.  That was a very, very lucky break.
Robb fired his BA Pistol twice, missing once and hitting once.  Because he was being charged I couldn't use the "Easy to Hit" rule for zombies but had to roll damage normally.  Thankfully I rolled high and the zombie was OOF.  Irene's shotgun blast hit and easily destroyed her target, but I would have to pay for that later.
In close combat things were really dicey, because unlike panicked civilians, zombies have a weapon rating of 1, while Robb was unarmed at 0.  That meant that each zombie had two die while he had three to split between them.  I briefly considered having Irene split her three die three ways because she has a bat with a rating of 2, which would give her two die to every zombie's two die, but I thought that was kind of unchivalrous of him.  Robb beat the first zombie with his two die, but the second one was a nail biter: 1d6 to 2d6.  Thankfully they tied and he would go onto the next round.
Irene went 3d6 to 2d6 on one and 2d6 to 2d6 on the other zombie.  Interestingly enough, she tied both of them and it would also go to the next round.
The three shots only summoned one zombie, which hopefully wouldn't come into play.  Again, lucky.


Turn 12: Rob 1, Zombies 5


Robb rolled over on top of the zombie trying to bite him and clubbed him repeatedly in the skull until the undead monster stopped moving.  Irene heatbutted one of the zombies, sending him staggering back as she brought the bat to bear.  With a few quick swings, all the of zombies in the yard now lay still.
Robb looked at Irene with concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine.  I thought one of them might have bitten me, but I'm okay."
"Good.  Let's get out of here.  We don't know how many more of these things there might be."

Robb was able to bring his full dice pool to combat the second zombie, and rendered him OOF.  Again splitting her base die 2d6 and 1d6 (with the 1d6 bonus) Irene was able to handily defeat the first, and narrowly beat the second.  The one zombie on the table failed to activate.


Turn 13: Robb 4, Zombies 2

Unbeknownst to Robb, a zombie quietly moved towards them.

Turn 14: Robb 5, Zombies 4

A zombie staggered into the yard.  "Yeah, like him!" said Irene.  Robb pointed his pistol and squeezed off one round at the zombie, hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground.  Irene ran over to the still-moving body and brained him in the skull with her bat.
"Head shots, dear.  Head shots."


The remaining zombie activated twice in a row, moving towards our heroes.  Robb passed being charged 2d6 and shot the zombie once, knocking him down (still can't use the "Easy to Hit" rule).  Irene moved into close combat and confidently finished him off.  It's always a risk doing that, but I thought 4d6 to 1d6 was pretty good chances, and I didn't want to risk the shotgun summoning another group of zombies.

Turn 15: Robb 5, Zombies 2

Another seven means more zombies.  I rolled a 1 and a 2, divided in half makes 1.  He appeared 12" towards the bottom.

Turn 16: Robb 5, Zombies 2

Yet another seven, meaning more zombies again.  A 3 and 1 on the die rolls means two more, towards the bottom and to the left.  The zombie summoned last turn moves closer.

Turn 17: Robb 6, Zombies 5
Turn 18: Robb 3, Zombies 4

As another zombie staggered towards them, Robb took aim with his pistol and fired another round, hitting him in the head and dropping him.  "Like that, right?"

"Seriously, let's move on," said Irene.

The zombie from Turn 15 made it into combat, but Robb again passed 2d6 on the charge.  This time I got lucky with an OOF result for damage.  The other zombies started closing in.  Robb and Irene used their activation to move to the store.


The store was a scene of chaos just as bad as the big box store.  Dozens of people continued to run about the store grabbing at things on shelves and from the hands of other people.  People continually spilled out onto the street, making it impossible to get inside.  After a few quick attempts to force their way inside, Robb and Irene gave up.

"This is impossible, and the store is wrecked.  We should just head back home."

Once again, 2d6 panicked civilians, eight in total.  Both Robb and Irene failed in their initial combats with the first people they met, despite the advantage.  This turn was done, but even if it had been successful I would have just had a 1-in-6 chance of getting anything, because the die roll at the beginning had indicated it would be treated as one location later, meaning fourth.


A close game, coming down on occasion to a single roll, including one 1d6 vs. 2d6.  We continue on as they close out the final chapter of the first day of the zombie apocalypse.