Parking Lot Problems

Part two of Day One at Work.

Pamela opened the fire door at the bottom of the stairs, slamming it shut to cut off the alarm that sounded.  The morning air was bright, but the smell of smoke from somewhere was strong enough to make her worry about a fire nearby.  Sirens and the occasional thump of an explosion could be heard all around the city.

Pushing her remote, Pamela could see the lights flash on her car, in the last stall.  She also saw two zombies stumbling towards her from the street, and one lurking near the parked cars.

"Gotta go sometime..." she muttered and headed for her car.

Starting at the fire door.

Pamela ducked into the parked cars, hoping to lure the zombie into trying to crawl over the parked cars, and allow her to run by.  The tactic seemed to be working.

Three zeds close in

Around the front of the building, a crowd of panicked civilians fought off two zombies that attacked.  This caused the entire group to decide to bolt, and they ran off over the next couple of turns.  I was surprised that the panicked civilians did so well.  In retrospect, this boosted my own confidence beyond where it should have been...

Two zombies charge into the mob

Mob rules!  Zombies are knocked down.

Pamela jumped over the low stone wall, confusing the zombies, who shambled towards her as best they could.  In game turns I had two turns where I activated and the zombies did not.  The panicked mob ran off the board (ran in a random direction, which took them off board.)

Pamela got to her car, looking over the lot, she could see four zombies moving toward her.

Ducking behind a wall

Finally at the car

I had a random doubles roll of 10 (two 5's) and for this scenario I had decided a double would indicate another vehicle entering the board.  I randomized the entrance and exit goals, and randomly rolled an SUV - entering the far side, and trying to leave the near side.

Crazy driver alert!

Meanwhile, two zombies had made it to the downed driver of the wreck, and had started feasting.  This didn't matter to the game, but you can see them in the above picture.  the SUV zoomed through the intersections, ran over one zed (barely stayed on course) and shot off the board.  The vehicle rules have changed slightly from BDTZ, with vehicles moving even when not activated - this is much more realistic, and keeps them moving, as you would expect.

Pamela tried to start her car, but it wouldn't turn over.  Pamela started sweating, why wouldn't it start?  She could see the zombies getting closer, panic welling up, the wiper blades stared a clatter across the windshield, and Pamela tried again to start the car.  It wouldn't catch.  The thump at her window made her scream.  The zombies were right out side her door.

How long will a window hold out a zombie?

Things went bad, and stayed bad.  I had three turns of no activation, and then missed another starting the car roll.  The zombies proceeded to melee the car, which held up for a couple of turns, but I didn't get to activate, and they just kept hitting the car...eventually something was going to give.

Pamela watched in horror as the driver's window stared to spiderweb.  Dropping the keys she dug into her glove box - at least she had a screwdriver (improvised weapon) when the window broke.  Which it did - a spray of glass came across her and two zombies were pushing through the opening.

I ran melee with two zombies versus Pamela, seated in her car.  I improvised and reduced everyone's dice by one (the zombies were interfering with each other and Pamela was basically prone).  The dice gods gave me some hope, as Pamela held her own, knocking both down.

The next activation was a random event (I rolled 6 and 6) which turned out to be a barricade fails.  The car wouldn't stop the zombies any longer.  The next turn, Pamela didn't activate, and the zombies piled in...

Damn cheap hatchback!

Again, the dice decided to give me hope, Pamela killed one and knocked another down, and managed to get to evenly matched with the third zed.  All I needed to do was activate, disengage and run for it.  I got doubles again for activation, and an ATV entered the board.

I didn't think this was street legal

The zombies charged the ATV, and killed the driver in one shot.  It went careening down the road, and came to rest in the street.  The zombie battle continued in the car.  Pamela managed to activate, but missed the roll to disengage.  That made the situation that much worse...

Pamela fought, but felt the teeth clamp on her shoulder.  Another blow from one of the zombies sent her world spinning towards darkness.  The last thought she had was that she hoped Mark wasn't trying to come and get her...

The end of the line.

Once again, fighting zombies is dangerous.  I had several activations to start the game without the zombies activating.  That made me overconfident and I paid the price.  It was a bad string at the end, I only had one turn of activation in the last five turns, and the zombies activated four times.  Still, it's a good lesson on not getting cornered, and keeping in mind what your objective really is.

Next scenario will be Mark arriving on the scene.  Let's see if he is hero material or zero material...

Day One at the Office

There are a few special rules I used for this scenario, more or less just some looting rules, and a couple of random charts for the elevators.  I also randomized where each human started, and proceeded from there.

The day had started off normal enough, although Pamela had hit a few huge snarls of traffic, and was 20 minutes late to work.  She managed to grab the last space with her yellow compact, and hurried in, catching an elevator.  The radio had mentioned that the police were warning people to stay off the streets, so it wasn't a surprise to see a couple of empty desks when she got to her desk.

Pamela set her purse down, started up her computer and decided on some coffee.  Sandra said they were interrupting music with some sort of news about the chaos hitting the city.  Pamela figured she would get an update when she got back to her desk. 

In the break room, Pamela ran into Ted, the manager for the floor.  He was looking out the window, apparently there had been a crash in the intersection.  "Lots of crazies today, Pam.  I just heard the crash out there, and it looks like there are several fires nearby - look at the smoke!"

Pamela looked out window, and saw a pickup and car crashed into each other.  The car had gotten the worse of it.  "What are those people doing wandering around?"  Pamela was a bit worried - the news had reported some riots and strange attacks in some other large cities over the past couple of days.  Could it be happening here?

"Well, I guess we will never..."  Ted trailed off as the elevator doors opened, and a pair of...people shambled out.

Round 1 setup

Round 1:  The elevator arrived, and 2 zombies shambled off.  They moved into the front desk, trying to get the guy working there.  This caused him to panic (passed 1d on zed or no zed check, and I rolled a run away result for random action).

 

 

Ding!  Zombies!

Round 2:  Ted, the boss, Moved up and attacked the zombies.  Pamela ran back to her desk and grabbed her purse.  Everyone else popped up over the cube walls.  The guy from the front ran for the stairs.

The boss takes charge.

Ted knocked down the first zombie, but didn't kill it.  The second one latched on and with huge bite, tore out Ted's neck and he went down with a gurgle and spray of blood.  This caused the woman in green to panic, and freeze in place (failed 2d, random action was freeze).  Pamela convinced Sandra to take a look at the commotion.  Which they did on their next turn.  Pamela grabbed her keyboard (improvised weapon) and got ready to fight.

Turn 3/4: Sandra moved up, saw the dead body and zombies, and panicked - running back, barreling over Rick (in blue) who came out of the bathroom to see what was happening.  Everyone else was panicking and running for the stairs.  Pamela moved up after this, and charged the lead zombie.  (Realistically I should have just run away, but where's the fun in that?)

Sandra runs past.  Maybe she played lacrosse as a kid.

Round 5:  Pamela fought a round in melee, and only managed to knock down the zombie.  Damn, they are hard to kill without a good weapon.  It was rapidly becoming just Pamela versus the zombies as Rick panicked and ran on the next turn.

One down...and uh-oh

Round 6/7/8:  (I am missing a pic, not sure what happened) Pamela backed off, and the zombies moved up to the corner.  Against my better judgement, I charged and managed to actually kill one.  Unfortunately, the dice gods struck back, the next round - one zombie knocked Pamela down.  On turn 7 I rolled double 6, and ruled the boss had reanimated, so I had another zombie to play with.  With Pamela down, I had to check for infection - I managed to roll a 6, she was not infected, and passed 2d for knocked down.  She was stunned for a turn, and I anxiously waited for the next turn activations.

This usually where the game ends...

Round 9/10: Pamela won initiative, stood up, and killed the zombie that had knocked her down.  It was by far the best round of melee I had rolled yet.  Looking at the last zombie, and it being someone Pamela "knew", I figured the odds were not good.  Discretion being the better part of valor, Pamela headed for the stairs.

Up and at 'em!

Heading down the stairs, (I had planned on this being on the third floor, so I only had a few floors to go down) Pamela didn't run into anybody (random rolls came up with empty and 2 "normal" civilians, who ignored her) and I reached the ground floor.  Rather than trying the lobby (it was either going to be zombies, panicked humans or both) Pamela ducked out the fire door and into the parking lot.

Boss, I am leaving early today...

That was the scenario I had planned out.  It was fun, I wasn't sure where the zombies would first come from, I had a few random charts planned out.  As it turned out, they stumbled off the elevators and fun ensued.  I know the boss re-animating wasn't strictly by the book, and the randomized reactions (it was all fight or flight type actions) didn't add much, but it did seem like everyone panicked and ran.

So round 2 now starts - outside...

It must be safer outside...

With some luck, I will play this week and post the bat rep before next weekend.

Campaign Start Up

I have started an ATZ:FFO campaign, and I will document it as it unfolds.  I will be using the rules pretty much as listed, however, I have added a resource called ammo.  I did this for my ATZ:BDTZ and I like having some additional resources to look for, and it gives me something else to find besides weapons.  I will also use the Risk and Rewards deck from THW and the very cool events deck from Colgar6 (Colgar's blog) for the various situations.

My starting survivors will be a husband and wife:

Mark and Pamela for day 1

Mark - Rep 3/Pep 1/Sav 2 (attributes will be generated one per scenario after the first)
Pamela - Rep 3/Pep 2/Sav 1 (attributes will be generated one per scenario after the first)

Both will be stars, but only one will be a star in any scenario they are together.

My intention will be to have a series of linked scenarios of them trying to get together and get home.  After that, it will be wherever the game takes me.  Once I get past the first scenario for each, I will play with normal rules for adding members to the group.

They will start with an SUV and a sedan, plus a house in the suburbs.  They have two pistols and a shotgun, two baseball bats, a crowbar, an axe, 4 units of food, 2 medical supplies and 8 luxuries at their home.