Blast from the past

Month 1 - Discover - Mr. Whiteface

Cast: Mr. Whiteface

Mission: Discover

Area: Rural

Time: Daytime

Mr. Whiteface had awoken lying in the tall grass. He rises to his feet after staring into the trees for some minutes and wondering about the smell. Touching the back of his aching head he glances at the corpse at his feet. He had killed that guy the day before, but his axe was nowhere to be seen. Shame about that good axe. Mr. Whiteface starts to stumble back home...

pic. #1: No place on the table to put my books, dice and unsued minis anymore.

It's the same location, but expanded from 4'x4' to 6'x4'. I've added a small blue house and a primary school. Mr. Whiteface starts where he was knocked out on Day One, on the short border next to the white house. There is just one Zed on the board. He's in the centre of the road in front of the white house. It's a zombified hobo with a sword right through his body, he doesn't seem to care though.

Turn 1: Both activate, Mr. Whiteface is a tad faster. Mr. Whiteface moves forward and stops next to the white house. He isn't trusting people these times anymore. The zombie moves closer as well, but wasn't close enough to charge (or that's what I thought). He's stops closer than 3", so Mr. Whiteface has to take the Zed Or No Zed test. He thinks "This guy knows he has he samurai sword through his body, does he?" (1 success), realizing just in time the true nature of his assailant.

In one fluid motion Mr. Whiteface kills the zombie and removes the katana from the dead body. Making sure that nobody is watching him he grips the samurai sword with both hands and hisses "Ninjaaaa!".

Turn 2: Mr. Whiteface strolls over to his house and stops at the door.

Turn 3: He enters his home and searches the ground floor for people, but doesn't find anyone.

Turn 4: He checks the fridge, but there isn't anything but a can of tuna inside. (search for loot: nothing found)

Turn 5: He moves to the upper floor and discovers a man sitting on the bed and cleaning his shotgun. After a long conversation Shotgun Joe decides to join Mr. Whiteface for today (1 success, this game only, Rep 3 civilian).

Turn 6: Mr. Whiteface searches for something useful, but doesn't find anything but books. (search for loot: nothing found)

Turn 7: Mr. Whiteface and Shotgun Joe go downstairs.

Turn 8: Both leave the house and head towards the white house.

pic #2: Me and Shotgun Joe!

Turn 9: Both do a Fast Move to the door of the white house.

Turn 10: Both enter and find the ground floor vacant.

Turn 11: Whiteface rummages around in the kitchen and finds some food. He had killed a zombie, found a resource and should have called it a day...

Turn 12 - 14: They go upstairs, find neither people nor resources and go downstairs again.

Turn 15: The dynamic duo leaves the building and heads toward the barn.

pic. #3: Smells like success!

Turn 16: They do a short sprint towards the barn. Joe is a bit faster, but...

Turn 17: ...he waits for Whiteface at the door.

pic. # 4: Knock-Knock!

Turn 18: Both enter the barn to find three living and breathing human beeings. They must be refugees from the bit cities because they are survivors and not civilians anymore. They are Sue Ellen (Rep 4 with a Shotgun), Bobby Jim (Rep 3 with a Bolt Action Rifle) and Pamela Jean (Rep 4 with a Machine Pistol). I'd really like to have these people in my team!

Everbody with a firearm decides to start firing! I guess Shotgun Joe may have met these survivors before. (Walk The Walk test is evenly matched, so I continue with rolling for activation).

Turn 19: Both sides activate, but the experienced team of survivors is faster. *Blam!* Sue Ellen's shotgun is blasting Joe away with a double OOF.
Mr. Whiteface is standing close enough to Shotgun Joe to decide that running away is the better part of valour. He ducks back just outside of the barn.
Pamela Jean isn't willing to let Mr. Whiteface get away. She follows him and triggers and In-Sight test when she steps through the door.
*woosh!*
With a lot of luck (using Luck attribute) Whiteface manages to charge her (2 successes on In-Sight test. I decided that a person without a firearm may instead charge a person in melee distance. Wanting to Charge test is also successful). Pamela Jean is definitely surprised by this attack and not able to fire on Mr. Whiteface (Being Charged test with only 1 success).
*clank!*
Pamela Jean uses her machine pistol to block Whiteface's Katana.
*crack!*
With a sharp blow of her elbow she sends Whitface spinning around himself and of into the land of nightmares (Yes, an unarmed girl beat did a beautiful OOF on Mr. Whiteface who was armed with a sword!).

Sue Ellen announces that they better save the bullets and leave these two bozos for the walking stiffs. Oh, and by the way, what a nice sword that is and can you please check his sports bags for some food.


Final Comment: O...K...! Mr. Whiteface wanted too much. As a Rep 3 I have to be more careful I guess. Now he can just lie there and die (this is the result of the Recovery test) or use his Star Power to cheat death and reduce his Rep. His one encounter for this month is over and he doesn't have any food, so he would have to reduce his Rep even further. Anyhow, even as a single Rep 2 civilian he would have almost no chance of survival. Let's just call this the trial run.

Whiteface



Outro: Mrs. Whiteface awakes from the splashing noises coming from the shower. She rises from the bed, dons her bathing robe and walks into the bathroom. She takes a look into the shower and sees Mr. Whiteface. He turns around, smiles and cheerfully wishes her a good morning...

No more Mr. Nice Guy

Day One - Location #4 - Mr. Whiteface

Cast: Mr. Whiteface

Objective: Going home.

Area: Rural

Mr. Whiteface was angry. He had spent half the day walking the long way from his workplace to his home. His shoes are ruined and he is ready to kill the next guy getting in his way. He has just followed the road leading up the hill to the Whiteface's home when he sees her blue pick-up. Accelerating his stride he arrives at the car in no time. The Doors are wide open and dead bodies are lying on the road everywhere around it. Mr. Whiteface holds his breath while he investigates the carnage. To his relief there is no sign of his wife or his daughter.

 pic. #1: As before the objective is the lovely green house behind the trees.

pic. #2: It wasn't me!

The table layout is the same as in the last batrep It never rains.... Mr. Whiteface is standing on the road, there are corpses all around him, but there is no person - living or undead - in sight.

Turn 1: (Seven!) While Mr. Whiteface investigates the scene he doesn't notice (inactive) that three zombies heard him. A guy in a rotten office suit stumbles across the meadow on the right side of the blue pick-up with the fat village mechanic in tow. A half naked man in a bathrobe shuffles around the white Ford.

Turn 2: Everyone activates. The zombies getting closer and Whiteface evades through the gap between the small house and the table border (Fast Move with 1 success).

Turn 3: Mr. Whiteface stops and ponders on what to do next (he's inactive). Two zombies move to the blue car and the bathrobe man moves towards the corner of the small house.

Turn 4: (Seven!) Oh, I get used to this. Two zeds appear and it feels like an ambush. A hobo approaches on the table border next to the barn and a casual suit guy appears in the table corner below Mr. Whiteface. There is only one way to escape left. SNAFU!

Mr. Whiteface fast moves (well, not really) through the small gap between the barn and the small house and stops at the back of the white pick-up. The zombies are planning their next move (inactive).

Turn 5: What to do next? Where to go?! Mr. Whiteface is confused and dosn't activate this round. The five zombies are moving. One is able to see him, the last two move to the spot where they last saw him and the two between the small house and the border are just walking a straight line.

Turn 6: This is all too much for Mr. Whiteface. He can't decide about his next actions (inactive again) and leans against the back of the white Ford. The zombies are homing in. The zombies end their move and Mr. Whiteface perceives a fetid smell and loud moaning behind him. Two zombies are far away, but three zombies may be able to charge into his rear next round.

pic. #3: Whoa, I hope it's not me smelling this foul!

Turn 7: I didn't dare to breath while rolling the dice! I am lucky this time. Mr. Whiteface activates, the zombies are irritated by his unexpected decision to move. He does a half successful fast move directly towards his home and comes to a stop at the road.

 pic. #4: This was just in time.

Turn 8: Whiteface may be a slow decision maker, but now he's up and running. He accomplishes a two success fast move across the road all the way to his garage. The zeds can't believe their bleary eyes. All they manage this round is some disappointed moan and groan.

 

pic. #5: Get the right tools for the right job! The two zeds appear in Turn 9.

Turn 9: (Seven!) Two more zombies appear, but Mr. Whiteface is lucky again. The Zeds don't activate this round, but he does. The new zeds are placed  just out of sight between the upper border and his home. He uses this round of activation to grab his large axe from his garage. Oh Baby, revenge is going to be so sweet!

pic. #6: With the zeds being so slow I took my time to dye my hair. No need to hurry.

Turn 10: (Seven!) One zombie stares through the windows of the white house. Not THE White House obviously, but thiewhite house next to the Whiteface's home. Mr. Whiteface is not worried any more. He has an axe! The zeds are inactive and he moves to the border close to his neighbour's house. This will give him some time to fight the two zeds next to his house. He surely is a changed man.

Turn 11: (Doubles!) Oh dear! He has to face two terrified civilians. Di d I mention that I have an axe? A large one? I will teach these fools some respect.

*Splat!*

I had to use all my luck to beat this guy (LUCKY Attribute). Mr. Whiteface is enraged again and OD's him.

*Wham!*

Where did that rock come from?! Mr. Whiteface is unconscious again. This location ends with a sequence of improbable die rolls.

Final Comment: Day One is over. Mr. Whiteface didn't succesfully finish even one location. Little Dotty and Mrs. Whiteface are missing. Unknown to him Mrs. Whiteface is infected with the Z-Virus and may not be cured. 

Being an office person Mr. Whiteface will not call this a failure, he will rather acknowledge that there are possibilities for further improvement. Lots of possibilities.

On the bright side at least Mr. Whiteface's Reputation will stay the same. Keep your eyes open, there is a Man (Rep 3) with a mission on the loose.

 

Whiteface

It never rains...

Introductory Comment: I always forget to call Mrs. Whiteface “North”, although I had my reasons to choose this name. I think “Mrs. Whiteface” when I roll the dice, I write “Mrs. Whiteface” when I take notes and I call her “Mrs. Whiteface” when I annoy my wife with the adventures of my little lead people. I guess it’s easier when I just call her this way officially. Furthermore I'd like to thank Vampifan for his rules advice and the title of this post.

Day One – Location #3 – Mrs. Whiteface
Cast: Mrs. Whiteface
Objective: Going home
Area: Rural

Pic. #1: The green house in the distance is the objective.

Pic. #2: The setup at the start of the game. How peaceful!

Mrs. Whiteface is driving home. The old car is coming to a stop on the road to her house. There isn’t anyone in sight. She forces herself to calm down, switches off the engine and listens. At first there is nothing, but just when she moves her hand to the keys she hears a low moaning sound…

Mrs. Whiteface is on the road at the right border of the table. She is sitting in her pick-up, but the engine isn’t running.

Turn 1: (Seven!) Good start. Mrs. Whiteface is still trying to figure out where these strange noises are coming from (inactive) when two zombies appear. One old man on the road in front of her and one big woman on the meadow to her left.

Turn 2: (Seven!) OK, Mrs. Whiteface is still in observation mode (inactive). Obviously she isn’t in the mood for quick decisions today. Two more zombies appear while the previous two are moving closer. The new zeds are a young couple, they appear on her right side between the small house and the right border.

Turn 3: The zombies stop a moment to ponder about their upcoming meal (inactive). Mrs. Whiteface (active) grits her teeth and tries to start the car. Guess what: the old car that has never broken down since 1948 chose this moment to stop working. I fear the worst…

Turn 4: (Seven!) Mrs. Whiteface is unnerved. She shouts a lot of four letter words (and none of them sounds like “love”) and her small hands hammer down on the steering wheel (inactive). Three more zombies heard the dinner bell appear on the scene. One guy at the border on her right side, another young guy comes around the corner of the small house and the third one – a guy in a chicken suit – exits the white pick-up.

The previous zeds move, with two of them in charging distance. They will charge Mrs. Whiteface and not her vehicle because the engine isn’t running. Bad luck, but this round they won’t go for her, but for the windows of her car. Mrs. Whiteface passes the Zed Or No Zed test with two successes, I think she’s seen worse in the class room every day.

Pic. #3: This could have been played on a 1'x1' table...

Turn 5: The camera changes to slow motion…no one activates this round.

Turn 6: Only the Zeds activate. Zombies move closer and the next two zombies charge. Mrs. Whiteface has to fight against 4 Zombies this round. Believe it or not: she kills one zombie and evenly matches the other ones.

Turn 7: (Doubles!) Uh-Oh! Suddenly there is a group of terrified civilians running up the road. Mrs. Whiteface will have to fight 4 of them.

 

Comment: I had some rules trouble with this one: usually I would fight terrified civilians in the same activation round they appear. This time I am already in combat with some zombies, so I decided to finish that melee before. For this I needed to roll for activation…

Turn 8: (Doubles!) There must be something terrible down the road. More terrified civilians run around screaming and pushing. A group of five tries to get to Mrs. Whiteface’s pick-up. Allow me to recapitulate: Mrs. Whiteface is in melee with three zeds, three more zeds are in charging distance and nine terrified civilians are in a bad temper. I am sure there will be a lot of Zed Or No Zed checks and fighting between them as soon as I have rolled for activation…

Turn 9: (Seven!) No way! Three more zombies appear. As least Mrs. Whiteface has a barrier made out of terrified civilians. Everyone activates.

It’s Mrs. Whiteface vs. The Zombies and not surprisingly the zombies win. I use Cheating Death to get her into safety with a reduced Rep and the possibility of an infection with the zombie virus. I could have gotten her into safety before she was wounded by a Zombie, but that would have been real cheating.

Closing Comment: I have an idea how to handle the fate of Mrs. Whiteface and  little Dotty in the future. I will tell you more when Day One is over. Mr. Whiteface is out there. He is still walking (to location #4) and in a very bad temper.

Whiteface

Now I'm feeling zombified!

Day One – Location #1 - Whiteface
Cast: Whiteface
Objective: Retrieve Car
Area: Suburban

There was a lot of trouble at work, so I decided to pack my things, call my wife and drive home. I was getting a bit nervous when the telephone network wasn’t working and took a short cut from the office to my car, a blue Ford F-150. Still in my office clothing - white shirt, tie, everything – I stumbled through the woods and shrubbery.

pic. #1: Buildings and vehicles according to suburban arean rules, but I need to get a lot of props. Anyway, will work.

Mr. Whiteface starts on the right border, behind a group of trees. His objective is the blue pick-up parking in front of the church.

Turn 1: Mr. Whiteface is analyzing the situation, cleaning his shoes and brushing his clothes. (i.e. he’s doing nothing at all).

pic. #2: I can see my car. This is going to be a piece of cake!
Yeah, I am a real talent with my camera, why?
















Turn 2: After careful observation Mr. Whiteface concludes that this is going to be easy. Hello, there’s no one in sight. What could probably go wrong?

He is doing a successful Fast Move along the right flank of the trees and into the shadow of the apartment block. His car is directly across the road and there is almost no traffic.

Turn 3: (Double 6!) Uh-Oh! While he’s standing at the corner of the brown apartment block fumbling for his keys he doesn’t notice that there is a couple of pushy adolescents in front coming for him.

“Hey, give us your car!”

“What…?”

“I say we wants your car!”

“Are you stupid or what?!”

*Thud!*
The male teenager tries to hit Whiteface, but he pushes him back onto the road.

*Wham!*
Whiteface turns to face the girl just in time to receive a powerful kick. There is only pain and darkness and certainty that he won’t be able to walk straight for the next days.

Mr. Whiteface has been knocked out with an OD result. This location is over and his car is gone. When he regains his conscience he decides to change his plans. There is no sense in going to the supermarket without a car. His next location will be his home.

It’s going to be a long walk and with zero successes on the Getting There Table he will arrive there on Location #4!


Day One – Location #1 - North
Cast: North
Objective: Get Dotty from the Kindergarten
Area: Rural

Without hesitation Mrs. Whiteface drove to the Whiteville Kindergarten in her old pick-up. She stopped her car when the Kindergarten was in sight. There were lots of terrified people coming from the church or evacuating their children. No sense in driving through this crowd.

 

pic. #3: There isn't much too see in this rural area. Did I mention that I need more scenery?
















North is at the bottom of the road leading to her objective. There are 6 terrified civilians in front of her car.

Turn 1: North stares at the crowd and thinks about this situation. She will be better off walking. (i.e. she doesn’t activate)

pic. #4: I have a bad feeling about this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn 2: (Seven!) Two Zombies appear, but these aren’t her real problem. She leaves her car and faces six terrified people.

North pushes against the first male, it’s an even fight, but in the end she’s going down.

North has been knocked out with an OOF result. She awakes on the road beneath her car. Tears run down her face when she realizes that this location is over. As a result of her erratic driving due to her condition she will arrive at home on Location #3.

Final comment: I thought I'd need more buildings or a lot of police cars, but now my shopping list has changed. I need stuff to bring more life into the countryside. Hills, trees, hedges, whatever. I wasn't that surprised that North had been knocked out, but I was a bit surprised that Whiteface didn't reach his objective. In hindsight I should have gone home first and taken a large axe from the tool shed. Aw, live and learn...if you survive.

Whiteface

P.S.: I am not yet fully satisfied with the appearance of my posts. I wish I had more possibilities / tools to create something with more structure. It's not WYSIWYG, it's you see something, you get something different every time.

Please allow to introduce myself...

Day One - Introduction

Summer of 2012: The living dead consumed Whiteville and the world as we knew it ceased to exist. In the early days of the outbreak nobody realized what was happening. There were numerous reports of violence and missing persons all across the country. We thought this was just a problem of the big cities suffering from the millennium heat wave, this couldn’t happen in peaceful Whiteville. Yeah, right!

At first there was just a single report of domestic homicide, then ten, hundred, thousand incidents…in the end the whole country was going FUBAR with millions of those creeps shuffling around. You know the story.

Me? I am Oz Whiteface, former office drone and now unshaven, shotgun wielding psycho. I lost contact to my wife and daughter on Day One. There was so much disorder and violence. We weren’t prepared for this kind of…

The cause? What the heck do I know about the cause?! And who does really care?! Some blame it on genetic engineered food, some blame it on the military, there are some weirdos talkin’ about some alien mumbo jumbo from Planet X. Who cares anyway?!


OK, my intention was to do a dramatic intro scenario for my zombie campaign, but this would have left me with more months of planing and preparing instead of just playing the game. The Whiteface Family was ready, so everything I had to prepare was to grab the dice and develop a foolproof plan for Day One.

The Whiteface Family:
Whiteface (Mr. Whiteface) - Rep 3 Star, Lucky
North (Mrs. Whiteface) - Rep 3 Star, Protective Mother
Dotty (Daughter) - small child, see "The Bleens" (ATZ:BDTZ).
Both Stars are just Rep 3, without weapons and with just one attribute. This is going to be hard but realistic. Both will receive their second attribute IF they advance to Rep 4.
Both attributes are non-standard. "Lucky" is taken from Nuts! 2 and "Protective Mother" is from the ATZ:BDTZ scenario The Bleens.

My Plan for Day One:
It's a normal working day when the outbreak of Apocalypse Z is announced. Little Dotty is in the kindergarten, Mrs. Whiteface is teaching in school and Mr. Whiteface is doing Excel Sheets in the office.
I decided that there is a one out of six possibility that Mr. and Mrs. Whiteface may be coordinating their actions by phone, but the telephone network was overstrained.
Mr. Whiteface guessed that Mrs. Whiteface highest priority would be getting little Dotty from the Kindergarten. So his decision was to get his car (1.), buy lots of food in the supermarket (2.) and to drive home (3.).
Mrs. Whiteface was indeed going to fetch Dotty (1.) and drive home (2.).
So far, so good...

 "No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy." - Gen. Moltke


 

The Rocky Road to Whiteville

The small, fictional town of Whiteville is finally coming into existence. Yeah, I know, there are several real Whitevilles out there, but this Whiteville is not on a Map. It's a peaceful place, probably somewhere near Pleasantville and it is the home of the Whiteface family. As you may have guessed all characters appearing in this blog are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

The last days I've been working on my road system. They are made from black 3mm PVC hard foam. Maybe 2mm would have been better, but 3mm was available in my local DIY store and they are easy to cut and won't warp after spray painting.

Pic. #1: T-Intersection, 40cm (about 16") long and 18cm (about 7") wide.

Pic. #2: A can of textured spray paint (do I have to translate Granit-Effekt?) from the DIY store. I expected that I would have to paint and dry-brush the roads afterwards, but they came out perfect.

Pic. #3: A sheet of rubber foam. I will need this in picture #4.

Pic. #4: I've glued a continous strip of 3mm wide rubber foam on a 40cm piece of wood (right side). This wasn't my best idea, because there was an annoying amount of warping. Afterwards I glued the next strip of rubber foam onto pieces of PVC hard foam and cut it until I had a full road length of 4cm rubber - 4cm gap - 4cm rubber etc. (left side). 

As visible in this (pretty dark) picture I used yellow and white paints (GW / Citadel) with these newly created stencils.

Pic. #5: Et voilà! A finished road. I could have never painted these road markings so perfectly un-perfect.

Pic. #6: A part of Whiteville. The crossroad is still without road markings. I've yet to work on a stencil for this.

 

I have to say, that I am pretty pleased how this turned out so far. The purchase of several Plasticville Buildings this year had a very positive effect on my motivation and I was fed up with improvised Zombie Wargaming. No more gaming on bluepints!

Thanks to Willy and Bryan for keeping me focussed on Zeds with their great batreps.

Whiteface