Not my interior, but the same one
Axle lift kit installed
handles dirt roads well!
All set up. Awning is currently off.
The back side, showing the insulating "Pop-Up Gizmos"
Yes, a real hard-sided bathroom (again, not my pic)
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
First playtest of Rogue Stars
Repo Man
Rogue Stars playtest
Attackers:
Mercenary squad from the book, except dropped BB#3 and Big Brother. Replaced with single character "Robot Enforcer" as it fit the model better. Changed leader's weapon to something appropriate for boarding action. (Everybody got non-penetrating ammo)
Defenders: Vivan Roo's squad straight from the book.
Cut me a break on the minis, OK? Actual crews are on the painting table. Although there just might be an entire crew of rodents...
Mission: Boarding Action.
Location: space ship interior.
Complication: Love is in the air. Bud (merc leader) and Dalla (psion) secretly have feelings for another. May not shoot each other. May melee, but never with more than +1 weapons.
Bud got the ship access code from Dalla and brings his team on board in the middle of the night. 2 defenders must start in quarters, 1 in workshop or entertainment room, 1 on duty in control room. Characters in bed must spend 2 actions to get dressed and grab their weapons. All door start unlocked.
Intelligence roll: a 2 and a 1. Nobody knows nothing.
Initiative roll: Even with Blitzkreig, a 3 on the init roll means the attackers trigger an alarm when entering. Defenders will go first!
Crunch activates first with 2 dice and gets dressed.
Pip tries to activate but gets caught in his nest, 2 fails.
Bud reacts and runs for the stairs.
Pip tries again and gets dressed.
Jin hears someone pounding up the stairs and tries for a triple activation, passing 2. Blackie fails to react. She draws both SMGs and turns towards the door.
She activates again and gets 2 successes. She runs across the control room, bringing her in sight of Bud on the stairs. Her marksman cancels out the -1 for ambidextrous, and surprise attack cancels his heavy cover of the stairs, so she unloads both SMGs at Bud.
First is a hit to Bud's arm. He takes 1 pin, his arm is crippled, and he drops his gun.
Second is a crit to the head! Bud sucks on his damage roll and is OOA.
Dalla never even saw Bud, so she doesn't know he's bleeding on the deck above. She activates twice and starts running towards the fight.
Crunch sees an opportunity to block up the intruders. He activates twice, running to a corner and then shooting at Blue, standing in the doorway. Crunch isn't known for being subtle, he uses his laser cannon. Better not miss! Again, the surprise offsets the heavy cover of the door. He hits the torso. Blue, even with Tough 2, blows his damage roll too and is OOA.
Red sticks it out, but Blackie is hit by bits of Blue and fails his morale roll, suffering a pin and a stress.
The Merchants spend two of thier determination points to remove 2 stress.
Getting nervous about losing the initiative, Dalla rolls 1 die and activates. She attempts to Encourage Pip and succeeds. Pip decides to go for broke.
2 successes and a critical failure to activate! But Pip is Lucky, and re-rolls the critical failure, getting a 3rd success. With his tiny little rodent legs, he has to run to get to the corner. He is about to throw a stun grenade when he realizes it would be useless. So he draws his sonic pistol and shoots Blackie. He almost crits his attack, giving enough for a head shot. Tough offsets the pistol damage, and Blackie rolls a 12. That's enough for a pin and light damage. He's knocked prone, and goes for his Endure test. Easy pass.
The Merchants are up to 13 stress, which would make a Take The Initiative roll easy. But so far nobody is failing to activate. And it doesn't help that all the remaining Mercs are non-reactive.
Dalla rolls 1 die to attempt to activate again. This time she fails. The Mercs Take The Initiative! Finally.
Red goes first, getting 2 successes and 1 fail. Pip fails the reaction roll. Red moves to the door and takes a shot at Crunch. Being in a bad situation, he opens up with a Hail of Fire. Of course, he misses with both.
Thanks to his non-penetrating ammo, nothing happens but some scratches.
He activates again, getting 1 success and 1 failure. Crunch reacts (and I finally remember his Veteran bonus). Critical failure on the reaction! He is a Sitting Duck! It's Hail of Fire time for Red again. Of course, he misses with both, again.
This time he hits a locker, and lookie! Some contraband spices fall out. +2XP if they can get them off the board.
His second shot hits a light control panel and now all lights are out in the ship! -2 to shooting rolls.
Blackie gets 2 successes and a fail on his activation. Crunch tries to react again.
On the second round, Red plugs the hole, but is sucked right through it. Bye-bye, Red. Blue's OOA body gets stuck in the breach, plugging the hole.
Unbelievably, Blackie still passes his Morale roll. He stands up and moves into Melee with Crunch.
With nothing to lose, he rolls a critical success, critical failure, and a success. He uses the crit to cancel the crit, then manages to blow his melee attack.
He attempts to activate again, 1 success 1 fail. The Merchants manage to Take the Initiative from him.
Dalla activates on 1 die to help Crunch, but fails. The non-reactive Blackie gets a 19 and reacts! He melees Crunch and scores a critical hit to the torso. 2 pins, 1 wound, he's Prone and Staggered.
Pip, finding himself way to close to a large enraged robot, rolls 3 successes. He aims (1), shoots, and gets a 19! With the point-blank range and aim offsetting the darkness penalty, that's a headshot.
Crunch has head armor and tough 2, against a measly 2 damage pistol. Crunch rolls a 1 for his damage roll. Another pin, another wound, and OOA unless he passes his endure roll.
Crunch fails his endure roll spectacularly. The Mercs are wiped out.
Game 2:
That was a solo version. When Miles was done with his homework, we played it again. He took the attackers, and was much more effective. His strategy was to lead with Blackie, instead of Bud.
Crunch blows up an interior wall early, spraying high-temp hydraulic fluid over a large arc. Later on Red, even with non-penetrating ammo, managed to blow open a cage and let critters start running around the ship. Blackie rushes up to Crunch and chest-punches him OOA while Dalla is right next to both. She critically fails her morale roll and surrenders.
By the end the ship was listing to port, the artificial gravity was at half strength, and the only 2 left standing were Jin and Red. Jin was holed up at the top of the stairs and not letting anybody pass. Red decided to grab Dalla and run for it. Jin couldn't stand the thought of losing all her crew and attacked Red. But in the ensuing gunbattle, Red managed to send Jin staggering. Instead of running away, Red moved up for the kill. A narrow win for the Repo Men!
Rogue Stars playtest
Attackers:
Mercenary squad from the book, except dropped BB#3 and Big Brother. Replaced with single character "Robot Enforcer" as it fit the model better. Changed leader's weapon to something appropriate for boarding action. (Everybody got non-penetrating ammo)
 |
| Leader "Bud". Blue and Red from the Merc squad. Blackie the robot enforcer |
Defenders: Vivan Roo's squad straight from the book.
 |
| Jinn the leader, Dalla the Psion to her right, Pip to her left, and Crunch the roadie in front |
Mission: Boarding Action.
Location: space ship interior.
Complication: Love is in the air. Bud (merc leader) and Dalla (psion) secretly have feelings for another. May not shoot each other. May melee, but never with more than +1 weapons.
 |
| This ship is full of choke points! |
Bud got the ship access code from Dalla and brings his team on board in the middle of the night. 2 defenders must start in quarters, 1 in workshop or entertainment room, 1 on duty in control room. Characters in bed must spend 2 actions to get dressed and grab their weapons. All door start unlocked.
 |
| Crunch and Pip are in bed. Dalla is watching a mindless holo-vid in the rec room. Even when docked to a space station, Jin keeps watch from the command deck. |
Initiative roll: Even with Blitzkreig, a 3 on the init roll means the attackers trigger an alarm when entering. Defenders will go first!
 |
| Oops. That wasn't the doorbell... |
Crunch activates first with 2 dice and gets dressed.
Pip tries to activate but gets caught in his nest, 2 fails.
Bud reacts and runs for the stairs.
Pip tries again and gets dressed.
Jin hears someone pounding up the stairs and tries for a triple activation, passing 2. Blackie fails to react. She draws both SMGs and turns towards the door.
She activates again and gets 2 successes. She runs across the control room, bringing her in sight of Bud on the stairs. Her marksman cancels out the -1 for ambidextrous, and surprise attack cancels his heavy cover of the stairs, so she unloads both SMGs at Bud.
First is a hit to Bud's arm. He takes 1 pin, his arm is crippled, and he drops his gun.
Second is a crit to the head! Bud sucks on his damage roll and is OOA.
 |
| Well, that didn't take long. It sucks when you can't blame the other player for the damage roll |
Morale roll. All 3 cyborgs hear Bud go down, but pass their roll.
Crunch sees an opportunity to block up the intruders. He activates twice, running to a corner and then shooting at Blue, standing in the doorway. Crunch isn't known for being subtle, he uses his laser cannon. Better not miss! Again, the surprise offsets the heavy cover of the door. He hits the torso. Blue, even with Tough 2, blows his damage roll too and is OOA.
 |
| Did I mention he was using a laser cannon? And that it sucks to roll your own damage? |
Red sticks it out, but Blackie is hit by bits of Blue and fails his morale roll, suffering a pin and a stress.
The Merchants spend two of thier determination points to remove 2 stress.
Getting nervous about losing the initiative, Dalla rolls 1 die and activates. She attempts to Encourage Pip and succeeds. Pip decides to go for broke.
2 successes and a critical failure to activate! But Pip is Lucky, and re-rolls the critical failure, getting a 3rd success. With his tiny little rodent legs, he has to run to get to the corner. He is about to throw a stun grenade when he realizes it would be useless. So he draws his sonic pistol and shoots Blackie. He almost crits his attack, giving enough for a head shot. Tough offsets the pistol damage, and Blackie rolls a 12. That's enough for a pin and light damage. He's knocked prone, and goes for his Endure test. Easy pass.
The Merchants are up to 13 stress, which would make a Take The Initiative roll easy. But so far nobody is failing to activate. And it doesn't help that all the remaining Mercs are non-reactive.
Dalla rolls 1 die to attempt to activate again. This time she fails. The Mercs Take The Initiative! Finally.
Red goes first, getting 2 successes and 1 fail. Pip fails the reaction roll. Red moves to the door and takes a shot at Crunch. Being in a bad situation, he opens up with a Hail of Fire. Of course, he misses with both.
Thanks to his non-penetrating ammo, nothing happens but some scratches.
He activates again, getting 1 success and 1 failure. Crunch reacts (and I finally remember his Veteran bonus). Critical failure on the reaction! He is a Sitting Duck! It's Hail of Fire time for Red again. Of course, he misses with both, again.
This time he hits a locker, and lookie! Some contraband spices fall out. +2XP if they can get them off the board.
 |
| Red is shooting at the guy in the bottom right corner, and somehow hits a locker in the room to the upper left, tumbling out some purple spice. That's some pretty poor shooting! |
Blackie gets 2 successes and a fail on his activation. Crunch tries to react again.
He does.
He misses.
Spectacularly.
Crunch blows a hole right through the side of the ship! Pressure loss!
Nobody makes their save roll, everybody gets dragged towards the hole.  |
| That big blue hole goes to the vacuum of space! Everybody, alive or not, is being dragged towards it. Red is screaming in terror... |
 |
| Al least I did not die in vain. Hey, look at Red floating out in space... |
Unbelievably, Blackie still passes his Morale roll. He stands up and moves into Melee with Crunch.
With nothing to lose, he rolls a critical success, critical failure, and a success. He uses the crit to cancel the crit, then manages to blow his melee attack.
Dalla activates on 1 die to help Crunch, but fails. The non-reactive Blackie gets a 19 and reacts! He melees Crunch and scores a critical hit to the torso. 2 pins, 1 wound, he's Prone and Staggered.
Pip, finding himself way to close to a large enraged robot, rolls 3 successes. He aims (1), shoots, and gets a 19! With the point-blank range and aim offsetting the darkness penalty, that's a headshot.
Crunch has head armor and tough 2, against a measly 2 damage pistol. Crunch rolls a 1 for his damage roll. Another pin, another wound, and OOA unless he passes his endure roll.
Crunch fails his endure roll spectacularly. The Mercs are wiped out.
 |
| Don't mess with the mouse... |
Game 2:
That was a solo version. When Miles was done with his homework, we played it again. He took the attackers, and was much more effective. His strategy was to lead with Blackie, instead of Bud.
Crunch blows up an interior wall early, spraying high-temp hydraulic fluid over a large arc. Later on Red, even with non-penetrating ammo, managed to blow open a cage and let critters start running around the ship. Blackie rushes up to Crunch and chest-punches him OOA while Dalla is right next to both. She critically fails her morale roll and surrenders.
By the end the ship was listing to port, the artificial gravity was at half strength, and the only 2 left standing were Jin and Red. Jin was holed up at the top of the stairs and not letting anybody pass. Red decided to grab Dalla and run for it. Jin couldn't stand the thought of losing all her crew and attacked Red. But in the ensuing gunbattle, Red managed to send Jin staggering. Instead of running away, Red moved up for the kill. A narrow win for the Repo Men!
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Faustus Festivus
Finally, a write-up on our Christmas game for this year:
It is a little-known fact that Santa Claus isn't one person. In reality, a new Santa is chosen every year from the strongest of the North Pole Elves. The Xmas Decathlon features such events as speed-wrapping, chimney spelunking, and sumo-style belly wrestling. But the crowning event, the final showdown, is a 4-way sleigh race among the top finishers.
The idea started when I found Permes"Santa Claus and Reindeer Chariot" free paper-model download at DriveThruRPG.Com. free paper model Being a larger scale than we usually play, it required a larger course. So we had to get creative with the obstacles. Yes, the Christmas tree farm is lighted for the holidays.
The rules: Faustus Furius, of course. The Rules What else could it be? See below to the minor changes to the rules:
Crowd Pleaser: To designate who has the loyalty of the crowd, the player wears a Santa Hat instead of a laurel.
Dirty Deeds: As a gift, each player starts with one of:
Icy Patch: Your elf pours a large jug of water on the snow behind them at the start of any bound, before rolling to activate. Any sleigh that drives over the icy patch will have to stop their movement immediately and roll on the out of control table. The icy patch will remain on the track until it is driven through by a sleigh.
Australian Carrot Patch: Your elf has purchased Australian carrots which can be dropped from behind their sleigh at the start of any bound, before rolling to activate. Since everything is upside-down in Australia, the carrot patch sticks out of the snow. As magic reindeer love carrots, any sleigh that drives over the patch will immediately spin out as described in the collision table. The carrot patch will remain on the track until it is driven through by a sleigh.
And of course, the crowd. They may be pleased, they may be irked, but in this game they will always be caroling snowmen.
The four players: Mrs. MommyElf, Mr. DaddyElf, Miss GoodyElf, and Brother NastyPantsElf. (Guess which one of us named the players?). After drawing for position and which dirty deed to load up, the race started.
Right off the bat, Brother NastyPants lived up to his name. Rolling a triple activation at the start, he gained Crowd Favorite by pelting Miss GoodyElf with snowballs (close range attack, we had no archer chariots). As he sped off practicing his "Ho Ho Ho", she collided with Mr. DaddyElf and they both rolled flips.
It was game on from that point, and the camera was hardly ever picked back up. Here is Mrs. MommyElf halfway through her second lap, ignoring icy patches and random caroling snowmen. She's about to lap Mr. DaddyElf.
And the winner by a mile! Or at least 8 reindeer. Yes, Santa Claus will be transgender next year. Congratulations Mrs. MommyElf!
Faustus Festivus
It is a little-known fact that Santa Claus isn't one person. In reality, a new Santa is chosen every year from the strongest of the North Pole Elves. The Xmas Decathlon features such events as speed-wrapping, chimney spelunking, and sumo-style belly wrestling. But the crowning event, the final showdown, is a 4-way sleigh race among the top finishers.
The idea started when I found Permes"Santa Claus and Reindeer Chariot" free paper-model download at DriveThruRPG.Com. free paper model Being a larger scale than we usually play, it required a larger course. So we had to get creative with the obstacles. Yes, the Christmas tree farm is lighted for the holidays.
The rules: Faustus Furius, of course. The Rules What else could it be? See below to the minor changes to the rules:
Crowd Pleaser: To designate who has the loyalty of the crowd, the player wears a Santa Hat instead of a laurel.
Dirty Deeds: As a gift, each player starts with one of:
Icy Patch: Your elf pours a large jug of water on the snow behind them at the start of any bound, before rolling to activate. Any sleigh that drives over the icy patch will have to stop their movement immediately and roll on the out of control table. The icy patch will remain on the track until it is driven through by a sleigh.
Australian Carrot Patch: Your elf has purchased Australian carrots which can be dropped from behind their sleigh at the start of any bound, before rolling to activate. Since everything is upside-down in Australia, the carrot patch sticks out of the snow. As magic reindeer love carrots, any sleigh that drives over the patch will immediately spin out as described in the collision table. The carrot patch will remain on the track until it is driven through by a sleigh.
And of course, the crowd. They may be pleased, they may be irked, but in this game they will always be caroling snowmen.
The four players: Mrs. MommyElf, Mr. DaddyElf, Miss GoodyElf, and Brother NastyPantsElf. (Guess which one of us named the players?). After drawing for position and which dirty deed to load up, the race started.
Right off the bat, Brother NastyPants lived up to his name. Rolling a triple activation at the start, he gained Crowd Favorite by pelting Miss GoodyElf with snowballs (close range attack, we had no archer chariots). As he sped off practicing his "Ho Ho Ho", she collided with Mr. DaddyElf and they both rolled flips.
It was game on from that point, and the camera was hardly ever picked back up. Here is Mrs. MommyElf halfway through her second lap, ignoring icy patches and random caroling snowmen. She's about to lap Mr. DaddyElf.
And the winner by a mile! Or at least 8 reindeer. Yes, Santa Claus will be transgender next year. Congratulations Mrs. MommyElf!
Sunday, December 18, 2016
A "Dusty" Round of Fire
Time to combine "Round of Fire" with "Dust Tactics" and see what happens.
Still converting units, but I have enough to start. Well, I don't have the heavy weapons converted yet, but you gotta include walkers.
The Germans have word of an item of power that might be found in some old desert ruins. Sigrid Von Thaler forms a force of weirdness and heads out. The Americans, caught off-guard, scrape together whatever they can to intercept.
Germans:
Sigrid Von Thaler, leader
Recon Grenadier squad
Battle Grenadier squad
Laser Grenadier squad
Braineater squad (because I want to test the weirdness)
Ludwig medium walker
Americans:
Corps Officer Team (Leader, Medic, Mechanic)
Recon Boys squad
Gunners squad
BBQ squad
Pounder medium walker
It's a simple 6-turn stand-up fight.
Initial positions on the wheel:
Since the Braineaters go first, they run.
The Recon Boys and BBQ Squad are both fast movers. They can Run for 4 instead of 5. So they both head for cover.
The Pounder goes next. Because of his turret, he has shoot and move. His Dust "Jump" ability translated to "Agile", so he gets to ignore blocking terrain. He Assaults, and (dual wielding) fires his main gun and 50 cal at the braineaters. (The Ludwig would be in long range, but because of the assault he can't hit it.)
The pounder blows both his rolls, never getting a hit in. The battle-hardened Braineaters respond back with their solo P100 panzershrek, and do hit the Pounder. Both advance on the wheel.
Game postponed on account of dinner, and the realization that I need to print some of the unit cards. Can't keep flipping between 4 open files on the laptop to find numbers...
Still converting units, but I have enough to start. Well, I don't have the heavy weapons converted yet, but you gotta include walkers.
The Germans have word of an item of power that might be found in some old desert ruins. Sigrid Von Thaler forms a force of weirdness and heads out. The Americans, caught off-guard, scrape together whatever they can to intercept.
Germans:
Sigrid Von Thaler, leaderRecon Grenadier squad
Battle Grenadier squad
Laser Grenadier squad
Braineater squad (because I want to test the weirdness)
Ludwig medium walker
Americans:Corps Officer Team (Leader, Medic, Mechanic)
Recon Boys squad
Gunners squad
BBQ squad
Pounder medium walker
It's a simple 6-turn stand-up fight.
Initial positions on the wheel:
Since the Braineaters go first, they run.
 |
| Recon Boys have "Terrain Expert" so they monopolize the smaller cover |
 |
| BBQ Squad stacks up behind some ruins, with the flamer claiming "corner cover" |
The Pounder goes next. Because of his turret, he has shoot and move. His Dust "Jump" ability translated to "Agile", so he gets to ignore blocking terrain. He Assaults, and (dual wielding) fires his main gun and 50 cal at the braineaters. (The Ludwig would be in long range, but because of the assault he can't hit it.)
The pounder blows both his rolls, never getting a hit in. The battle-hardened Braineaters respond back with their solo P100 panzershrek, and do hit the Pounder. Both advance on the wheel.
 |
| NOT what I expected. Who gave RPG's to Zombies? |
 |
| Sample unit card |
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
300Blackout blowout
Had a major rifle malfunction on the range today. 300 Blackout, in a rifle I have several hundred rounds through, failed to fire. Firing pin wasn't even touching the primer. A group together tried to diagnose the problem.
As a last resort, I swapped the bolt carrier group from another rifle. The rifle fired, and the round blew out of battery? It blew the magazine out the bottom of the rifle, and peppered the watchers with powder. When I got home and dis-assembled, the problem was even worse than I thought.
As a last resort, I swapped the bolt carrier group from another rifle. The rifle fired, and the round blew out of battery? It blew the magazine out the bottom of the rifle, and peppered the watchers with powder. When I got home and dis-assembled, the problem was even worse than I thought.
BCG stuck partially out of battery
Extractor bent
Barrel bushing? Cracked through
Cartridge (minus base) stuck in barrel. Bullet is still 3/4 down the barrel also
Even the upper receiver is cracked through
Monday, October 10, 2016
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Monday, August 29, 2016
SoDT - Beaver Wars Playtest
Playtested a Scenario today for the upcoming supplement to Songs of Drums and Tomahawks - Beaver Wars. Great fun and 2 (yes, two) nail-biter endings.
But first, as always an apology to the writer, Mike Demana. He produces great scenarios, and then I do my best to butcher them up beyond recognition. Here's his map for the "horse raid" scenario:
And my butchered response. Don't have enough horses, so we'll use cows instead. Can't find the cornfields, so we'll use orchards instead. And half the Indians are still on the painting table, so it's now Settlers vs. Indians. But I did keep them as a tribe, not using SoDT settler archetypes.
Each band (232 points), had a leader, several warriors, and 2 youngsters along. The Indians were surprised halfway through their raid. In the first turn, most of the settlers approached from the North East.
Here in turn 2, one Indian is making away towards the wood with the prize bull. A lone settler enters from the South West and takes a shot. Miss!
The Indian War Leader, upset at the temerity, fires back. At long range he scores an amazing hit and takes out the first settler! (shown here before removal)
Since one of the ways to win is to collect scalps, the War Leader rushes towards his kill, dodging excited cows along the way. But wait...
Uh Oh! The Settler's partner enters the field. It's going to be a fight! Who will activate first?
The War Leader does! And gets a triple activation. He is able to rush up, scalp the unfortunate settler, and move into contact with the next one!
Action was occurring all across the board, of course. One of the Indian youths had frozen in the corral after missing a settler. He didn't miss his return shot, and rushed in for the scalp (blue dots).
Settler Joe hid in the center orchard and killed the other youth and scalped him as the cow wandered off, only to be killed by a return shot from the other cow-handler.
The rear guard Indian got grazed a few times, and finally rushed into hand-to-hand with a settler. He forgot it was the Leader of the Settlers! In the background, the 2 Settler youths started heading towards the cow that got away.
But catastrophe! The Settler Leader finally dispatched his opponent, triggering a morale check on the Indians. Both braves holding cows panicked and ran off the board (we ruled they lost the cows). The Leader calmly moved on, and ran into the settler boy just as he finished scalping his victim. This would be an easy kill for the War Leader (C3) versus the youth (C1)
But No! In an amazing feat of high-and-low dice rolling, the boy manages to score a kill on the Indian War Leader! It's a rout, a huge success for the Settlers. Tom (Indians) is inconsolable, Sara (Settlers) won't stop bragging!
Ending Two:
After enduring endless bragging, Tom realized he calculated the combat incorrectly! Ha Ha! War Leader wasn't dead! He demanded a replay, just like the Olympics. After pouting, Sara agreed.
The second fight went more to plan, and the War Leader killed and scalped the boy. But with more Settlers rushing forward, he wisely ran for the exit.
Final score was 4 scalps for the Settlers, 3 for the Indians, and no cows taken. Still a win for the Settlers, but not nearly as dramatic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)