A Second Ranch House

Today I finished up my second Raised Ranch House from the Stoelzel's Structures line.  It is essentially identical to my earlier one, just a different color.  The pdf for the house, which is printed out on cardstock and then mounted on foamcore (I like to use black because it covers more sins), features several different wall colors so you can build an entire neighborhood.  I didn't include pictures of the interior because it looks identical to the interior of the previous house.

Hopefully I'm going to be getting at least more new building this week, and then try again for another session on the weekend.

ATZ Campaign, Day 21, part two: A Friend in Deed

"So let me get this straight.  You're here to help me?" Erin asked quizzically.
She looked at the two people sitting in her apartment.  One was wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora like he was out of an old Sam Spade film.  He even had a tie on.  Under his coat was a large pistol and a machete hanging from a holster.  He was also taping up his ankle using an ace bandage he had found in her bathroom.
The other person was a tall woman decked out in elbow and knee pads and appeared to be wearing a bike helmet.  On her feet were black roller skates, and across her back was a shotgun and a bat in an improvised quiver.  A large revolver was tucked in a belt she wore around her waist.
"That's right," said the woman who called herself Irene.
"We've been chatting with you on the newspaper's website," said the man, who was named Robb.  "We decided we ought to try to make contact and stick together.
"Unfortunately, things haven't worked out as well as we'd hoped.  I sprained by ankle on the way over, and we're both running low on ammunition.  But we've got more back at our house, along with some food and some other things."
Erin thought it over in her head quietly.  Robb and Irene seemed okay.  Certainly a lot more normal and friendly that what she'd run into already, and she had been very, very lonely.  "Okay, let me get my stuff," she said.
In a little while Erin returned from her bedroom.  She had a hunting knife strapped to her thigh and a pistol-gripped firearm across her back.  In her left hand she lugged a chainsaw.
"Chainsaw?" asked Robb, raising an eyebrow.
"You know," said Erin, "for emergencies."
Irene grinned.  "I think I like her, Robb."

Erin (whose name is too close to Irene, but I had chosen to use friends' middle names for their alter-egos in the game) is a Rep 4 Survivor Grunt with Pep 2 and Sav 3 and the Agility attribute.  She is armed with a knife, a chainsaw, and "the hogleg."  I'm not sure what's on her back in the miniature, but it has a pistol grip but is longer than a pistol, so I'm calling it a pistol-gripped rifle, something like a carbine.  She can either fire it two-handed normally or one-handed with a -1 Rep penalty.  

This is part two of the "Escape!" scenario from ATZ:FFO.  The heroes must move diagonally from one side of the board to the other.  I'm using the same board as before, retaining the zombies and PEF from the previous turns.  Robb is currently at -2" movement and has no reloads for his BAP.  Irene also has no reloads for her shotgun.

Turn 21: Robb 4, Zombies 4

Another random event, but it was the "if you just checked a building" one, which didn't apply.

Turn 22: Robb 2, Zombies 2

A large dog bolted from across the street, heading right for Robb and his friends.  "Another dog?" asked Irene.
"Yes, and like the other one, he's brought friends," said Robb

Another random event?  And this one was the dog again.  My kids were upset that the dog died in the previous adventure, so I was a little glad for a chance to have another dog in the game.  Also she was being chased by only one zombie.

Turn 23: Robb 3, Zombies 4

As the zombie moved closer to them and the dog, Erin unslung her carbine.  "I got this one," she said confidently as she fired at it, but the bullet missed the zombie entirely.  Robb tried to coax the dog closer to him.  "C'mere girl.  You're okay.  We'll take care of you."
But the dog wasn't having any of it, and kept Robb at a distance.  Panic was evident in her eyes.

Erin is the only one who could hit the zombie at more than 12", but missed.  Thankfully her shot didn't summon any zombies.
Robb attempted a "Meet and Greet" with the dog, who was Rep 4 but outnumbered 2:1, giving Robb a 1d6 bonus.  Robb only passed 1d6 to the dog's 2d6.  I counted the dog as a Survivor, so he's just exchange pleasantries and move on.

Turn 24: Robb 2, Zombies 6, Dog 1

Robb moved closer to the zombies coming towards them along the side of the buiding across the street.  "No one messes with a dog in my town," he said, firing twice.  A zombie fell to the ground, dead.  Irene and Erin both fired as well, but both of them failed to hit.  But their gunfire was attracting more zombies, including behind them.

Robb shoots two, hits one, and gets an Obviously Dead thanks to the "Easy to Kill" rule (I think the shoot two, hit one, kill one should be called the "Robb Special.")  Erin and Irene both missed, Irene having switched to her BAP in hopes of not attracting more zombies from the sound.  What's worse, they summoned two zombies between them from the noise.

Turn 25: Robb 5, Zombies 4, Dog 1

With a yip, the dog took off down the street.  Man's best friend, Robb thought grimly, but he didn't blame the animal for running away.  The zombies drew closer, hemming them in.

Zombies moved close and would be in melee range on their next activation.

Turn 26: Robb 2, Zombies 1, Dog 5

Irene holstered the pistol and drew her shotgun.  The trio of zombies in the alley were too tempting a target to pass up with the scattergun.  She fired, hitting three and killing two outright.  Erin fired her hogleg as well, killing another.  Robb turned in the other direction and pulled the trigger on his pistol twice.
Once again, it clacked impotently.  "Son of a bitch!" Robb snarled, realizing that he'd worked his way through the last of the ammunition for the pistol.

Irene shot and hit 3d6 and OD'ed two, Erin fired once and got another.  Robb, however, rolled snake eyes again for his pistol.  Because he had only passed 1d6 when he had reloaded it previously, he was not out of bullets and the pistol could not be used for the rest of the game.

Turn 27: Robb 3, Zombies 4, Dog 5

The zombie rushed at Robb, whose eyes widened in fear.  He got his black-bladed machete up just in time, blocking the zombie's rush and knocking the disgusting creature to the ground.  "I got it," said Erin, whipping out her dagger and plunging it into the zombie's eye socket.

Robb was charged and passed 2d6, but it didn't matter.  He beat the zombie 3d6 to 2d6, but only got a Knocked Down result.  Erin moved in to assist, getting 3d6 to 1d6 because the zombie was prone, and got the Obviously Dead result.

Turn 28: Robb 6, Zombies 5, Dog 3

Tongue lolling out her mouth, the dog turned left, away from the zombies down the road now approaching it, and broke away.

Turn 29: Robb 1, Zombies 5, Dog 6

Robb felt the tide turn in his favor and he began hacking away at the last zombie still standing.  It fell to the ground.  Irene stepped in, clubbing the zombie with the butt of her shotgun and crushing its skull.  "See, I can finish off my boyfriend's opponents too," she said to Erin.

Robb got 3d6 to the zombie's 2d6, knocking it down.  Irene, benefiting from the same bonus Erin had, got 4d6 to 2d6 and got the Obviously Dead.

Turn 30: Robb 1, Zombies 5

With a sigh, Robb slid the Colt 45 ACP back into its holster and switched the machete to his right hand.  "Looks like you're my dancing partner now, Belle," he said to the gore-covered blade.
"He's talking to his machete," Erin whispered to Irene.
Irene looked back at her steadily.  "If that's his only eccentricity after all that's happened, I'm not complaining."

The heroes finally began to move towards the opposite end of the table.  I decided, in the fear of getting Robb snarled up with his ankle again, to move them the crawling 6" pace, which would mean several more turns on the table than normal.

Turn 31: Robb 2, Zombies 3

Robb and his friends continued down the street, not aware that behind them, the door to the building was swinging open.

Turn 32: Robb 5, Zombies 2

Three zombies, all wearing scanty g-strings and pasties emerged from a police station behind them.  In the back of his head, Robb wondered if they had been picked up on some charge, but then been attacked while in custody.  Any attraction they might have once held was gone with their pallid flesh and grisly limbs.  A second later the three undead hookers were upon them.  Irene raised the shotgun and hit one, its head snapping back before it tumbled to the ground.  Erin swung her carbine up in an awkward one-handed hold and pulled the trigger.  The hogleg missed, and then the zombies were upon them.  Robb fended off the first with his machete.  Irene slugged the second across the jaw with the stock of her shotgun, crunching in the skull.  Erin's knife lashed out at the zombie whom Robb had knocked to the ground, but it thrashed around too much for her to be able to get the blade into its skull.

One thing I hadn't realized until recently was that zombies didn't need to be in actual contact, just within a few inches of the heroes to start melee.  That meant that melee was much more likely, and these zombies were well within range from the building in which they had first appeared.

Robb passed his Being Charged test 3d6, but it didn't matter.  It just meant he'd still count as being armed.  Irene and Erin both passed 2d6, Irene taking out one zombie instead the three I'd been hoping for, and Erin,whose shooting was down 1 Rep from being one-handed, missed.  I kept the hogleg at the one-hand status because I wanted the knife in the inevitable melee.

Robb beat his zombie in melee by 1d6, but only knocked it down.  Irene beat hers by 1d6, but I rolled a 1, meaning the zombie had been killed.  Erin went after Robb's zombie again, but failed this time to do any damage, despite beating the zombie by three.

Turn 33: Robb 5, Zombies 3

The last of the zombie strippers staggered up, just in time to have its head removed by a wide sweep of his machete blade.  Robb glanced over at the two women.  "Sometimes, I kill my own zombie," he said with an ironic grin.

The zombie got up on its activation, but lost melee combat to Robb by 3d6.  Robb got the Obviously Dead result.

Turn 34: Robb 3, Zombies 1

The trio moved up the street.  There, several zombies who had just hours ago been feasting upon a dead dog came shambling towards them, blood still dripping from their mouths.  Erin aimed her carbine at the group, squeezing off a shot that cleanly hit one of them in the head.  Irene fired as well, hitting two and killing it outright, which the other was just knocked to the ground.

The gunfire summoned one zombie.

Turn 35: Robb 3, Zombies 1

Erin fired at the zombie as it struggled to rise, but missed.  Irene cocked the slide of her shotgun and fired once more, and the zombie stopped moving.  Irene moved the slide of the shotgun up and down again, but this time the sound was different.  She pulled it down and glanced in the chamber, then looked at Robb.  Robb stared back at her, knowing what had happened.  Irene's shotgun was out of ammunition as well.  Without a word, she put the shotgun in her back sling and pulled out the bat.  Her fingers tensed on the handle nervously.  In her other hand she pulled out the revolver she had scavenged from the semi-rig whose occupants had nearly killed her the week before.

Erin had fired and missed, but Irene had fired and hit three times, easily getting the Obviously Dead.  Unfortunately there were two 1's in the roll, meaning she was out of ammunition from the random event earlier in the session.  We were now down to Erin's carbine and Irene's pistol.  The bat is technically a two-handed weapon, but I was going to just penalize her 1d6 like it was being used off-handedly.  The pistol also was in the wrong hand, just so the bat didn't have a double penalty.

Turn 36: Robb 2, Zombies 5

The three of them hurried around the corner, moving closer to their goal of getting to safety.  Unbeknownst to them, two zombies were lurking in the alley, having been slowly following the sound of gunfire from before.

This is one of those moments where I was doing something that wasn't as smart as I could, but I was thinking "in character."  The zombies were moving towards them, but were shielded from sight by the buildings.  I could have swung out wide, but that would mean acting on knowledge that Robb & Co. didn't have.  It might cost me, but I want to play this straight.

Turn 37: Robb 1, Zombies 4

The alley disgorged two zombies silently behind them.  Robb and Erin were both totally taken by surprise, but Irene had caught the slightest glimpse of them and her derby-borne reflexes had her spinning, pistol barking out loudly.  The bullet went wide, however.  Still spinning, Irene brought the bat crashing sideways into her target, and the zombie sank to the ground.  Robb and Erin had not been expecting the attack but had both shrugged off their attacker and brought him to the ground.  Robb's machete rose and fell repeatedly, slashing deep cuts in the zombie's face until it stopped moving.

Robb and Erin both failed their Being Charged tests at 0d6 because of the penalty of being charged from behind.  Irene passed 1d6, but her shot missed (thanks in no small part to the off-handed penalty).  In close combat, Erin beat her zombie by 1d6 and only knocked it down.  Robb beat his by 3 and I had high hopes, but they were swiftly dashed and he failed to roll low enough to kill it.  Irene, despite her penalties, beat her zombie by 4 and killed it with the bat.

On Robb's activation, he beat his own zombie by four (thanks to the prone penalty) and got the Obviously Dead.

Turn 38: Robb 3, Zombies 2
Turn 39: Robb 2, Zombies 1

Robb looked around.  He thought he could still hear moaning off in the distance.  He considered whether he wanted to duck into a building, half for safety and half on the chance of finding something useful, but decided against it.  "Between those buildings.  Go," he commanded and staggered towards the gap between the two stores.

Within a few minutes, they were back at their home.

Even slowed, the zombies still on the board could only pursue without catching the team.  Robb, Irene, and Erin moved off the board steadily, finishing the scenario successfully.

Despite that, I had to roll on the new rules about keeping the group together.  Erin is Rep 4 (randomly determined) and wouldn't just fall into line.  Robb got 4d6 to Erin's 3d6, being helped out by his "Born Leader" attribute.  Erin obviously had some questions about how competent Robb and Irene were, given everything that went wrong, but they were all alive and that counted for something.

This does mean that they are now out of food at the end of the month, however, and would need to go out again soon.

Rolling, none of the three got advances.  Perhaps next time.

Comments welcome.

ATZ Campaign, Day 21, part one: A Friend in Need

“Robb, I have a question,” said Irene quietly as Robb entered the room.

“What's that?” said Robb.

“Do you think I should have given him the bat?” asked Irene, looking up from where she was sitting, the bat in question resting across her legs.

“Excuse me?”

“Monty. He asked if he could have the bat. I didn't give it to him, but then I never used it once when we went out to look at that truck. Maybe if he had been holding the bat, he wouldn't have died.”

Robb sat down beside her. “Irene, there's no way of knowing that might have happened. Monty could barely take care of himself as it was, and we certainly didn't cause his death. If anything, he was safer with us than on his own. Did you see those two zombies that came out of the house next to the truck? That was his house. If he hadn't been with us, then they might have gotten him, and then we'd be having to fight him off instead of his being with us. But what's done is done, and you and I are still okay.”

“But we're going after that other person?” asked Irene, looking up.

Before Monty's death, he had shown Robb and Irene how to access the city-wide wifi system despite their not having an account. The local news media hadn't updated their articles for over a week, and the final posts had been full of conflicting and unhelpful information.

But many of the articles had comments posted at the bottom of each page.  And over the last few days, Robb and Irene had seen a person in River City posting regularly, someone named "Erin" who appeared to be holding out across town.  But she was alone, and was reaching to any one else left in the city.  After some discussion about the risks involved, Robb and Irene had decided to try to make their way to where Erin was holed up.  Much of their decision had been influenced by the guilt both of them were wrestling with over Monty's death.

"Yeah, we're going," said Robb as he pulled his overcoat on and rested his hat on his head.  "Are you ready?"

Irene snapped on her helmet and tugged down the edge of a light blue tank top.  She had not put on her practice outfit, but had instead opted for her official uniform.  "I'm pretty," she said with a slight smile.

This episode will be using the "Escape" scenario from All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out.  The heroes have to move diagonally across the board from zone 1  to zone nine.  Having done that, the group will automatically gain a new teammate.  They then have to re-enter the board at zone three and make their way across to zone seven, diagonally the other direction.  Time to move fast and not get too stuck in with distractions.

Robb and Irene's stats are now featured on a separate page for the blog.  I'll update them as we go along in the campaign.  In case it changes later, both are currently REP 4 Star Survivors.

The Encounter Rating for the session is 2, for being a suburb.  There are three PEF's: Red (Rep 5, zone 3), White (Rep 6, zone 2), and Blue (Rep 2, zone 4).  I noticed the instructions of the scenario have the heroes starting in the PEF zones, which seems odd since most of the time you don't, but I'll see what happens, even if it means I have three PEF's very close by.

Rolling 2d6 for starting zombies, I got four.  I use a d12 now to determine location, rolling 12, 12, 11, and 8, and place them accordingly.  A low zombie count at the beginning is a good sign.

Turn One: Robb 2, Zombies 1

Robb and Irene moved down the street cautiously.  They immediately saw the zombie ahead of them, and one over by the building to their left close by.  They moved closer to the zombie to their left, Robb raising his Colt 45 and firing two shots.  The first caught the zombie in the shoulder, but the second one took its head off.    Irene took aim at the one down the street with her shotgun, blasting it away.  From their new vantage point, they could see three more zombies lurking behind the building to their right, while another was farther down the street to their left.
"We need to get moving before something bad happens," said Robb, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."



Robb fired twice, hit twice, but got a Knock Down on the first shot.  The second shot, however, got an Obviously Dead.  Irene rolled 6d6 and kept 3d6, but the zombie was too far away from the others to catch more in the blast, so she had to get by with only killing one.  The 5d6 in noise summoned two zombies.

The White PEF moved into LOS, but only got the result of +1 to the ER.  The Red PEF also came into view, but generated nothing.  The Blue PEF only passed 1d6 so it moved farther away.

Turn Two: Robb 3, Zombies 3

Robb turned in surprise to see a dog running down the road, six zombies in pursuit.  "Oh, that's all we needed!" said Robb angrily.

Thanks to the ER now being 3, the doubles created a random event, in this case a dog appearing 6" from the heroes (rolled randomly for location) with 1d6 zombies 12" behind it.  I rolled a 6, which made the situation even worse.

Turn Three: Robb 1, Zombies 1

Turning to run from the dog and its pack of hungry zombies, Robb felt his ankle take a sharper twist than intended as it fell in a small pothole.  He shouted in pain.
"What's wrong?" Irene asked.
"It's my ankle," said Robb through gritted teeth.  "I think I sprained it."
"Are you kidding me?" shouted Irene with exasperation.

Doubles again meant another random event, this time one of the heroes would suffer a twisted ankle and be -2" for movement and could only pass 1d6 with Fast Movement.  Moreover if they rolled 0d6, they would fall down.  I couldn't imagine a worse thing to happen, given this scenario.

Turn Four: Robb 2, Zombies 6, Dog 6

"We got to try to keep going," said Robb as he grit his teeth and began to trot with a painful limp away from the mass of zombies gathering on the street.  Irene easily zipped along behind him.  Some of the zombies had turned their attention to the dog, while others were still following them as they hobbled along.

I risked a Fast Move, passed 1d6, and moved Robb and Irene 9" from the zombies, barely more than what they could have done with a normal move.  I've learned the hard way, though, that running from zombies makes a lot more sense sometimes than standing and fighting them.

I added the dog into the activation list for the time being, but decided not to count him towards doubles.

Turn Five: Robb 5, Zombies 1, Dog 4

Robb saw an alley across the street.  Hopefully, Robb thought, they could lose them in there.  His ankle felt like it was wrapped in hot copper wire.

The dog continued to run away from the zombies pursuing it, but others close by had begun to circle around, pinning it off.  With a moan, they lurched towards the animal.

The dog has a Rep of 4, but it attracted the attention of some of the zombies generated earlier in the game when it went by, and they drew within inches of it.  Others continued to close in on Robb and Irene down the street.

Turn Six: Robb 3, Zombies 2, Dog 6

"Go, go, go!" urged Irene as they continued to run awkwardly for the alley.   Down the street, the zombies began to grapple for the dog, but it growled, skittered, and lunged at them, knocking several down with its blows before becoming entangled up with another.

Robb passed his Fast Move 1d6 again, and I ran both of them 9" to the lip of the alley.  Irene could easily have made it off the board by now if she went alone, but she would never do that.

Four zombies entered melee combat with the dog, rolling 3d6 to the dog's 4d6 (I counted him as having an improvised weapon).  The dog managed to knock down two of his assailants in combat (thanks to the +1 for fighting a zombie rule) but tied the other two.  Sorry, pooch, but this doesn't look good.

Turn Seven: Robb 3, Zombies 6, Dog 4

A shooting pain shot up Robb's leg, causing it to buckle beneath him.  He fell to the ground with a cry of agony.  "Robb!" shouted Irene with alarm, stopping suddenly to avoid running into him.

Meanwhile, the dog pounced atop one of the zombies before jumping onto another, ripping viciously at its head and ripping it open.

Robb passed his Fast Move 0d6, meaning he takes a Knock Down but is Carry On.  The dog fought the two zombies with which it was locked in combat, getting another Knock Down result with one, but getting a lucky Obviously Dead with the other!  Go dog go!

Turn Eight: Robb 5, Zombies 4, Dog 5

Slowly the zombies scattered around the growling, snapping dog stood up.  Other zombies moved towards the downed Robb as Irene readied her shotgun.  "Time for a last stand?" she asked.

The zombies' sole activation meant that they all got up, or moved closer to the heroes.  Things were getting very tense.

Turn Nine: Robb 5, Zombies 6, Dog 5
Turn Ten: Robb 5, Zombies 5, Dog 5
No random encounters because the roll was over the ER.
Turn Eleven: Robb 2, Zombies 2, Dog 4

Farther down the road from the alley, a cell phone began to ring somewhere in the vicinity of a red car.  Irene glanced at it quizzically.  "It's Lady Luck calling," said Robb drily.  "She's calling to say she's pissed at us."

Another random encounter, this time a cell phone.  Rolling 3d6 for the noise, no zombies were summoned.

Turn Twelve: Robb 1, Zombies 5, Dog 2

"Let 'em have it!" shouted Robb as he pointed his pistol at the closest zombie and pulled the trigger repeated.  The slide moved back and forth with a clack, but nothing else happened.
"I'm out?" Robb said disbelievingly.
"Oh for the love of God.  Let me handle this," said Irene.  She turned her shotgun towards the crowd of zombies and fired.  One single zombie staggered and fell, but the shot had clearly landed low.
"Not saying anything," said Robb flatly.

Elsewhere, the poor dog had been finally wrestled to the ground by a pair of zombies.  They began to tear and claw at its flesh.  The dog howled briefly, then fell silent as the zombies began stuffing flesh into their mouths.

Robb fired twice, but rolled two ones.  By the "Tight Ammo" rules for campaigns, that meant he was out of bullets until he tried to reload.  Robb was truly snakebit this game.  Irene fired her shotgun but only hit one out of 6d6, and what's worse only knocked it down.  No zombies were summoned, though.

The dog lost the first combat with the pair of zombies and was knocked down.  With a second zombie attacking him, it was over and the dog was Obviously Dead.  Rolling 1d6, the zombies would be feasting for two turns, but were so far away that they had lost sight of anyone else.

Thankfully, no zombies were summoned by the phone.

Turn Thirteen: Robb 2, Zombies 3

As the zombies drew even closer, Robb turned back towards the alley.  "This way," he said.
"No," Irene said, tugging him towards the car.  "We've got to stop that phone ringing before it draws every zombie in the neighborhood."
Robb didn't feel like arguing, but instead slapped another clip into his pistol.  He realized as he fumbled around his the pockets of his trenchcoat that he didn't have another one.  "Um, hon?" he said quietly, "after this one, I'm out."
"Out?  Jesus, Robb, what were you thinking before you headed out today?"  Irene picked up the cell phone lying on the ground and immediately turned off the ringer.  She'd figure out who was trying to call later.
Robb lips tightened into a frown.  "Fine, I'm sorry."
Irene glanced back at the zombies continuing to come after them.  "Never mind.  I'll give you my pistol if you run out again.  We have to keep going, though."

I resolved the cell phone like a PEF, but once again got nothing but an increase of the ER to 4.  Robb reloaded, but passed only 1d6, meaning he could not reload again.  The Blue PEF moved away again.

Turn Fourteen: Robb 2, Zombies 1

Robb began firing his fresh clip into the zombies, backing slowly away from them.  "I'm not sure I'm up to running."
One of his shots collapsed a zombie's head.  Irene fired as well, taking out another.

Robb fired twice, hit once, and got an Obviously Dead (this seems to be statistically the norm for him).  Irene fired, hit two, and got an Obviously Dead and a Knocked Down.  Their shots summoned one zombie, this one behind the others.

Turn Fifteen: Robb 1, Zombies 3

Robb continued to back away, firing continuously and killing another zombie.  Irene was more lucky this time, catching three in her shotgun's blast.  Two were killed immediately, while the other staggered to the ground.  "That's the lot of them," Robb said.  "I feel like I might be able to run if I needed to."

Robb fired twice, hit once, and killed one.  Irene hit three and got two OD's and a KD.  One zombie was summoned, this one in the way that they needed to go, however.
The PEF didn't move.

Turn Sixteen: Robb 6, Zombies 4

Turning around, they saw a zombie moving across the grass of the empty lot towards them.  Robb sighed heavily.  "Want me to hit him with my bat?" asked Irene.
"No, the way things are going he'd kill both of us," said Robb.

The zombie moved closer  Other zombies got back up that had been knocked down.  The PEF moved away, but was at the corner and wasn't going anywhere.

Turn Seventeen: Robb 2, Zombies 5

Robb raised his pistol and fired twice, hitting the zombie squarely in the skull.  He and his girlfriend continued through the field.

Robb fired twice, hit once, and got an OD.  

Turn Eighteen: Robb 6, Zombies 2

Behind them, the zombies shambled closer.

Turn Nineteen: Robb 3, Zombies 3

Irene felt in the pockets of her small bag around her waist to check and see how many shotguns shells she had.  Her fingers sifted through several large bullets.  Bullets?
"Robb, honey...Listen.  It looks like I only brought bullets with me for my pistol.  I don't have any shotgun shells left when I'm out."
"Not saying anything."

Again with the random events, this time telling me that a random hero had backed the wrong reloads.  If it was Robb, it wouldn't really matter since he was out anyways.  Unfortunately it was Irene, so her shotgun would be out when she rolled double 1's.  I was surprised it hadn't happened yet, given that she was rolling 6d6 every time.

Turn Twenty: Robb 2, Zombies 1

Irene glanced around at the street signs at the corner.  "We made it.  We're almost there."
"Thank God.  I really need to get off my feet." said Robb wearily
Behind them, the zombie they had been outpacing moaned sadly, its meal having gotten away.

I risked another Fast Move, and got the two off the board, the zombie right behind them.  Now, they'll re-enter on another corner, this time with another team member, Erin!

Comments welcome.

Irene Revised

I got the new version of Irene painted, this time in her team colors.  The RL Irene asked if I was going to paint a cast onto her arm, but I pointed out that there were not any doctors available in the campaign.

I will hopefully get a ATZ:FFO session in soon.  When that happens, a batrep won't be far behind...

Quick, go to the grocery store!

I was shopping at Kroger's (a midwest grocery chain) when I noticed in their two bin that they were selling the same brand of model vehicles I have purchased in the past at CVS for 50% off.  That means that a $6.00 car was being sold for only $3.00.  While many of them are not appropriate for my zombie game, or were ones that I already owned, I did see one that I thought would be a good addition to my collection.

Get me to the nearest gun store, and step on it!

As you can see, the scale isn't a bad match at all.  Right now I'm painting up the new version of Irene (Irene 2.0?) in hopes of being able to use her in the RL Irene's team color's for the next batrep.  I'm also getting some additional survivor-types painted up in hopes getting Team Robb beefed up a little.

Speaking of the RL Irene, the early reports on her injury are good, and hopefully she'll be able to play most if not all of the season.  If you're interested in following Irene's team, head over to the KC Roller Warriors website and check them out!

Some bad news

I haven't gotten a chance to put together another solo session of ATZ to write-up in this blog yet, hopefully when I'm done with the holidays.

But in some bad news, the real life Irene is, like the ATZ Irene, a roller derby enthusiast.  This year she got drafted to a major WFTDA (Women's Flat Track Derby Association) team and would begin practicing for the 2013 season in just a few weeks.  A couple of days ago, Irene fell while skating at a kiddie rink (or more accurately, a small child bumped into her, causing her to fall) and broke her wrist.  It will likely be in a cast for several weeks, but there's a chance that she won't be allowed to skate for several months, which would pretty much prevent her from participating in the 2013 season.

So we are all kind of bummed out.  I picked up a new "rollergirl" mini to paint in her new team's colors, but maybe I need to pick out a different outfit instead!

Liebster Blog Awards

Black Smoke over at The Colour of War was kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster blog award, and was even kinder still to say that the reason why was because he enjoyed the All Things Zombies battle reports.  The idea is to promote relatively unknown blogs that you enjoy, so here are the rules:

The Rules

• Copy and paste the award to your blog, linking it to the blog who nominated you.
• Pass the award to your top five blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their blog posts to notify them that they have won the award and list them on your own blog.
• Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that you have made someone's day
• There is no obligation to pass this onto anyone but it is nice if you do.

My Nominees

• Barking Alien mostly RPG's rather than wargaming, but this guy's Venn diagram of RPG's virtually mirrors my own.  Plus he once created 300 NPC's for a Star Trek game.
• Blood of Prokopius Easter Orthodox Christianity meets OSR?  Plus Fr. Dave is a member of the clergy.
• Battle Game of the Month as a pretty serious victim of "Hobby ADD" I can deeply respect a man committed to a project (even if it isn't my scale)
• Solo Nexus a true disciple of solo wargaming and solo RPG play, plus some truly funny Heroclix-based batreps.  There's some great resources here too.
• Waystar High Port I'll admit I've been saving his solo Traveller RPG sessions in a document on my computer so I can read them like a novella.

Speaking of battle reports, I'm hoping that I will be running Robb and Irene through the gauntlet on Friday.  If so, there should be a new batrep forthcoming.