Oh, I've been waiting forever for this update, and I finally got it. Paleo Diet is a great solo game. Pulp brings it out of the stone age. I took it to another time period and mixed in one of my favorite movies.
The tiny town of Not-Quite-Perfection is almost deserted, with only
our 4 brave (foolhardy?) adventurers left.
By the end of today they'll need more than one hole.
Our Heroes. Although I have a ton of 28mm cowboys, I had to use these 30mm folks just because of Jose's dynamite.
I rolled for traits, hoping for 1. All 4 got traits, 2 good, 2 bad.
Randi Red-dress, Egotist with pistol
Sheriff Wayne, Big game hunter with rifle
Jose the engineer, pistol and lots of TNT
The Gambler, Loner with a pistol
That's the last time you'll see the Gambler near anybody else
The monsters terrorizing the town. Ended up only using 1. They have both surfaced and subterranean markers.
King Carnivore stat from Pulp. More rules below.
(3D printed file from Thingiverse, scaled down quite a bit to fit)
-all movement is underground
-will normally go around buildings
-will surface if end of move is within 1 short of any other living creature
-"Flees" and "Rests" will end underground. "Move Away" and any hunting action will stay up.
(this was the final edit during the game to keep them on the surface more)
-won't attack hunters on top of buildings or on rock outcroppings
-1 to hit if underground (basically, need a 6)
-no insides of buildings are safe / useable
-grazers will treat graboids as hunters for reaction
Randomly rolled all starting locations, for some reason everybody started out on one side of town.
Randi is just visible peeking around the back side of the livery stable.
Jose is oblivious to the sneaking menace behind him.
Gambler and Sheriff are across town.
The first turn started with a bang, literally. Randi got great rolls and climbed like a spider to the roof of the livery stable. I guess it's easy to climb when you're not wearing many clothes.
Jose spotted the approaching monster and lit a stick of TNT. He rolled to see where his throw went:
Yes, it did.
It bounced right in the open door of the stable and exploded under Randi's feet.
The graboid raced away unhurt. Randi took a wound from the blast, and another from falling 2 stories into the now burning stable. Bye Randi.
Oops.
The Gambler successfully climbed on top of the hardware store, and managed never to fall off. (Great rules on slippery roofs!)
The Sheriff tried to climb on some rocks, but fumbled his roll and stampeded Momma cow and baby calf.
Turn 2
No more Randi.
Jose tries 3 dice, passes 2. Nearest beast is a horse. Still alarmed by the burning stable, he flees.
Brave but foolhardy, Jose moves towards the graboid in the street.
Sheriff Wayne fails 2. There is a hunter in medium range, so he pops up and Roars. Jose backs away. Cow rests.
The gambler passes 2 but can only carefully move to the edge of the roof.
Turn 3
Gambler wants a shot, but fails 1, passes 1. the Graboid stays up and moves towards a cow, it stampedes. No shot for gambler.
Sheriff passes 1, fails 1. Cow rests. He climbs on rock.
Jose passes 2. He moves closer, keeping quiet.
Turn 4
Sheriff wants a shot before Jose messes things up. Passes 2! Aimed shot with rifle. Hit!
Sorry about it cracking right past your ear, Jose...
Oops. Graboid is mad, Dashes towards nearest hunter. He attacks Jose but misses!
Jose passes 3. He skulks away, then tosses a stick of TNT right into the monster. But it misses! And fails to wound. Graboid runs.
He can sense the Gambler on the roof, so he stays up.
Gambler passes 2. A lucky roll, he hits! 2 wounds now.
The beast roars. Gambler fails 2 and skulks to the back of the roof, luckily not falling off. Jose and the sheriff both fail 1 and back away.
Turn 6.
Sheriff moves out to get a better shot.
Gambler tries a shot from the roof, misses.
Jose? Well, you know what he's going to do. Kaboom! But it doesn't hurt the graboid, he just runs away.
How much TNT does that guy have, anyway?
Sheriff, wanting to kill Jose, just moves closer.
Gambler tries a shot, misses. But that triggers a Dash on the graboid. He doesn't quite reach the Sheriff.
For once Jose remembers his pistol and shoots at the beast. Another hit! The graboid is Alarmed and moves away. That puts him too close to the fire, so he flees back the way he came.
The Sheriff tries to skulk away, but trips over some horse dung in the street. (The Sheriff never could roll in the middle. He always got great rolls or terrible ones.)
The graboid triggers, Dash! Random die roll says he goes after the Sheriff.
He erupts at his feet and munches on the Sheriff! One wound. The Sheriff clubs the graboid with his rifle but misses.
Gambler tries 2, fails 1. Graboid gets a Lunge and crunches the Sheriff. Two down. Gambler's shot misses.
With the Sheriff down, Jose sees his chance. The throw is off again, but it hits! That's 4 wounds on the beast.
Gambler aims and misses.
Jose tries 2 dice and fails both. Graboid gets a Dash and attacks Jose. Jose is wounded!
Jose passes 1, fails 1. Graboid Lunges again and Crunch! Dead Jose.
With Jose out of the way, the loner Gambler can now get closer. He moves to the edge of the roof. A clear shot!
Gambler passes 2 and fires into the bloody maw. A final hit! Dead Graboid.
Final Thoughts:
-One King Carnivore per party is quite enough
-Graboids still need some tweaking. They're too hard to hit when underground
-Explosives are never your friend. Since they take 2 actions to throw, maybe add an "aiming" with a 3rd action that gives you a +1 to the throw.
-I need more cows and horses
Next time:
What happens when a voodoo sorcerer comes to town?
