Quarantine Zone - Reloaded

So I got a bunch of my pals together Saturday night and we played a quick game of Quarantine Zone. Just another playtest really, we didn't get much further than character creation and played through a kinda long combat- it started to drag out so we ended it and went for beers. I got some pretty decent feed back and the players seemed to like a couple of things. I also pinpointed some areas that needed fixing or  further development.

The biggest thing to come out of the session is that I have decided to rethink one of my original game concepts. One of my big selling points for the game was that when you play QZ you are encouraged to set the game in you real-world location. After a few sessions I have realized this might not be the best approach. I think that instead of trying to do a rules lite real world simulation type thingy I should rework QZ into a sandbox type map crawl.

I was thinking I would get a big sheet of 1inch graph paper and draw out the roads and buildings of a town onto the sheet. I figured each square would represent a kinda abstract sized portion of the city, like a road/street would be 1 square wide and individual city buildings would usually take up 1 square each. Using this model I could draw out fairly large areas onto each sheet, and then just keep track of where each sheet meets up with the other sheets to make bordering territories. Like one sheet could represent "Downtown" and an adjacent areas could be "Lakeside" and the "Industrial District" for example. The more I think about using this method the more I like it, I can make up some cool random encounter charts and seed each map with cool locations and stuff. This way I can leave alot of the control in my player's hands and let them decide how they want to try to survive in the zombie filled sandbox.

Hopefully I  have done a decent job explaining what I plan to do but I will also take some pictures as I start drawing out the maps.

Another problem area was in combat. In my combat rules it was wayyyyyy too easy for PCs to end up breaking their weapons in combat. Nearly every player broke their weapons within the first few rounds of battle. The problem was that anytime a 1 was rolled on the damage chart a weapon would break, and the way it worked out was that the better a player did the more likely it was that their weapon would break. To fix this I am adding a simple correction to my weapon damage rules:

 "Only the highest dice result applies when rolling on a weapon damage chart."

This fix should work out nicely because you will need to roll all 1s on your damage roll for the weapon to break. Obviously the more dice you roll the less likely it will be for all of them to come up 1s, whereas there is a 1 in 6 chance if you only are rolling 1 d6.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. Hopefully it is semi-readable. Comments and questions are welcome.

-Cheers!

  

   

Traits and Talents Pt 1

When creating a character for Quarantine Zone you get 3 points to spend on Background Traits and Talents to customize your character. You get an additional # of skill points equal to the number of points in your Intelligence ability score.                                         

 Traits and Talents: 

-Officer of the Law (costs 3 skill points)
Before the outbreak you worked in law enforcement. During the first few days of the outbreak police forces took enormous casualties, heroically defending barricades against a rapidly rising tide of undead. Many bitter survivors are desperate for someone to blame for the outbreak . If your character is openly acting as a law enforcement officer (in uniform) and you encounter another group of survivors roll their initial reaction as you would normally. If the reaction is positive increase it by one step to create a better positive result (from wary to friendly), if the initial reaction is negative though decrease it by one step to make a worse negative result (from unfriendly to hostile). In certain situations when you are called upon to make an ability check for something which relates to law enforcement the ZM (Zombie Master) may give you a modifier d6 to represent your expertise and training.

A character with this trait begins play with a police uniform, a pistol, a sturdy police baton, and 6 + 2d6 bullets.

-Pistol Owner (costs 1 skill point)
You either owned a pistol before the outbreak or you were able to find one since then. You begin play with a pistol and 6 + 2d6 pistol bullets.

-Shotgun Owner (costs 2 skill points)
You either owned a shotgun before the outbreak or you were able to find one since then. You begin play with a double barreled shotgun and 2d6 shotgun shells.

-Rifle Owner (costs 2 skill points)
You either owned a hunting rifle before the outbreak or you were able to find one since then. You begin play with a hunting rifle and 2d6 rifle bullets.

- Walking Arsenal (costs 1-3 skill points)
You are very fond of your weaponry and try to have the perfect weapon for every situation. You may take this talent up to 3 times, each time you take it you may increase the number of weapons you may carry by one.

-Hoarder (costs 1-3 skill points)
You hate to throw things away... you might NEED it later. You may take this talent up to 3 times, each time you take it you may increase the amount of gear you may carry by one.

-Survivalist (cost 1-3 skill points)
You like to plan ahead and always try to stock up on supplies. Before the outbreak you already had some gear stashed away. You may take this trait up to 3 times, each time you take it you may select a piece of survival gear which you will begin play with. 

-Brawler (costs 1 skill point)
You are particularly burly and have seen more than your share of fistfights over the years. In melee combat you may get an extra modifier d6 on your Brawn checks.

-more to come.

Cheers!

Blood Splattered Dice

Quarantine Zone uses regular old d6s to resolve everything so I thought I should try to spice them up a bit. I bought some crappy dollar store dice packs and borrowed some bright red spray paint from one of my friends - he does alot of spray paint and stencil on canvas artwork and he is very talented. Anyway, I sprayed the red paint on the end of an old toothbrush until it was dripping wet and then flicked the paint off onto my pile of dice. I tried to vary my flicks so that in some spots big drops appeared and some areas only got a light mist. They took a long time to dry but I think they came out pretty good ->

Easy homemade bloody dice - they are fun to roll.

Recently when I was in a Chapters bookstore with my pretty lady I found these awesome little zombie notebooks.

I immediately snapped up two. Inside half of the pages are lined and the facing pages are blank, with a very faint green image of the cover art on every page. The art is by Rob Sacchetto but good luck finding somewhere to buy these online cuz I can't. I guess I'm planning to fill these in with the rules for Q-Z at some point but right now I am too worried I will ruin them so they are just sitting on my shelf looking nice.

And finally here is a shot of my status cards for Q-Z.

    Looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

-Cheers!

Quarantine Zone- Character Generation

To make a character for Quarantine Zone you need some paper and some dice. Quarantine Zone uses only standard six sided dice.  I recommend at least a small handful of dice for each player. It would ease play if you have two types of easily distinguishable dice ( two colors of dice or different sizes) but not strictly necessary.

Quarantine Zone is set approximately 6 months after a massive outbreak of the zombie virus swept across the world. Each player should try to imagine for themselves a tough survivor who has managed to last this long using wits and luck. What does your character look like? What did your character do before the apocalypse? How did you manage to survive this long?

To start with each player should write a name for their character at the top of a sheet of paper and write the names of these 6 abilities in a column down the side of the page.

Each Player character has 6 ability scores-'B.R.A.I.N.S.'

Brawn- How physically tough and strong a character is. Used in hand to hand combat and to resist illness.

Reflexes- A character's speed and agility, also used to measure manual dexterity.

Attitude- A character's ability to connect and make relationships. Used in social situations.

Intellect- The knowledge and mental skill of the character. Determines starting skill points and used to resolve intelligence based checks.

Nerve- A character's ability to stay calm in difficult situations and overcome fears. Used to shoot ranged weapons.

Search- A character's ability to notice details. Used to scavenge supplies.

Now roll 6 dice as d3s (1-2=1/3-4=2/5-6=3) and note down your results on a scrap piece of paper. Assign one of your dice results to each ability score above. This should give you a score of between 1-3 in all of your abilities.

Each character will start with:

• One sturdy melee weapon ( a baseball ball, length of metal pipe, or meat cleaver )
• One random piece of gear.
• One backpack.
• Three cans of food.
• Three bottles of water. 

 Each character is also assumed to be carrying some simple miscellaneous equipment such as can-openers, and similar minor stuff as well as seasonally appropriate if not ideal clothing and footwear.

Unless otherwise noted a character may never carry more than:

• Two weapons.
• Three pieces of gear.
• Six cans of food.
• Six bottles of water.

There are certain Talents which can be taken to increase how many weapons or pieces of gear a character can carry. These encumbrance rules are meant to be simple and represent the survivors trying to travel light and be self-sufficient, carrying only their own gear in case of separation or mishap.

-Ok, so good start here. Talents and Traits to come, as well as equipment lists.

-Cheers!

Skull Island Rivals

Like many kids I was absolutely in love with dinosaurs. When I was a bit older I got completely enthralled by ancient Aztec and Mayan culture. When I started getting into Warhammer my first purchase was a box of Lizardman Saurus Warriors (Aztec dinosaurs). Recently I added a handful of "tribal folk" miniatures to my collection of fantasy jungle stuff. My collection of jungle terrain has been slowly growing for many years, I have a bunch of aquarium plants for jungle trees and two half finished pyramids. I'm big fan of Peter Jackson's King Kong and a HUGE fan of module 'X1 The Isle of Dread'. I recently bought three rather expensive solid toy animals from a kinda higher end kids toy store- the kind with educational toys instead of action figures. I might show some pics of the third animal later on but here are the first two since they are related and both finished :

I repainted them and mounted them on CDs for bases. I covered the top of the CDs with really cheap plasticine and painted them with two coats of white glue, then sprinkle sand on and paint as you would normally. There are some aquarium plants on there as well and a piece of garden tree bark to look like stone on the T-Rex's base. The brown bases look a little bare so I think I will put some patches of grass or flock down at some point. And yeah there is one of my half-painted tribals for scale.

Hopefully I can pick up some pulp era explorers someday.

Cheers!

Mordheim Progress

Some new wip pics:

 Building 1 front

 Building 1 back

 Building 1 side

 Building 2

 Building 3 front

 Building 3 side

Building 3 back

 Woodpile & chopping block

 Busted cart

 Busted cart other side

Intact wagon

Had a freak snowstorm yesterday so I got today off work. Going to get some paint on these today hopefully. Cheers!

Here comes Papa Nurgle!

 I really like Nurgle. I don't own much chaos stuff but Nurgle is by far the coolest power. I like undivided as well though. So anyway, the cool thing about nurgle demons is that they are super easy to sculpt yourself, like I did a few years ago with this guy:

So there he is, my homemade greater demon. I used some extra hands from the warhammer giant. He is plasticine sculpted up around a rubber bouncy ball. He needs a little bit of a facelift, maybe I could redo my sloppy paint-job. I think he will look particularly good stomping down the streets of Mordheim. I will probably sculpt up a handful of nurglings to accompany him 

Cheers!

Mordheim update

 Ok, just some random stuff I photographed on my work table. Eventually I will post some nice shots all staged and such of the gameboard. I also have been coming up with some rule changes and house rules.

 I bought some charming little ceramic houses from the dollar store.

 I am going to base these up, give them some details and some fresh paint.

 I 'm building small additions onto two of them to extend the size and cover up some undesirable features.

 Covering up this extra small door and staircase.

 I really like this one, I am leaving it mostly alone.

 I will paint them kinda drab and rundown looking, but not actually ruined. Hopefully they will work as a peasant village for other games or as Mordheim pieces.

Just glued down a frame for the cardboard roof to rest on. I am going to try to make some building with roofs that are gently sloped. I like the idea of models running along the rooftops and fighting.

Cheers!

Mordheim - The City of the Dammed!!!

"Mordheim, once a great city capital of the Empire's most northern realm, was slowly enveloped by corruption. The only beacon of hope and sanity in Mordheim was the Convent of the Sisterhood of Sigmar. Weeks before the end of the year 1999, the symbol of Sigmar himself - the twin-tailed comet - had appeared in the sky. As midnight of the final day of the year approached, Daemons crept from the shadows and mingled with the throng, crying joyously and cavorting with man and woman alike. As the festival reached its zenith, the comet impacted upon the city. Only the Temple of Sigmar's Rock, home to the Sisterhood of Sigmar, remained unblemished. The city burned for weeks, the comet leaving the ruins of Mordheim covered in shards of solidified Chaos, soon to become known as wyrdstone. When Mordheim finally stopped burning, mercenary warbands from all over the Empire and beyond came in search of it, for it was said that wyrdstone can do anything; change your luck and fortune and turn lead into gold. Of course, Man was not the only race interested in wyrdstone, and many other creatures prowl the City of the Damned."

 Mordheim is a dark and evil place. The bands of your fellow ruthless treasure hunters are the least of your worries amid the cracked streets. Creatures from your darkest nightmares prowl the alleys and the air is poisonous.

Mordheim is a tabletop miniature skirmish game set in the Warhammer world. I have been constructing buildings to make a section of the city to be the battlefield when I play. I have also been collecting a decent number of odd models to represent the inhabitants of the city (although very few are actually painted). So anyway here are a couple pics of some of the stuff I have been working on.  

 The Gallows, for public execution.

 There is a Headsman's block as well.

 "Cheap Meat" stall. Some of the pork tastes very suspicious...

 Cheap Meat back view- large rat advancing on a human hand.

 The Row houses, not as complete as the meat stall but playable.

Row houses- interior/back view.

 Row house close up.

Wyrdstone counters (green sparkly nail-polish supplied by my pretty girlfriend).

So yeah, just some of the stuff I have been working on. I have a bunch of D&D type material in my head, I just need to get it up on here. I just started work last week, and have been composing lengthy blog posts in my head at work only to pass out as soon as I get home and forget to post them.  Also apparently Jack and Evan have been posting about familiars as well- here. They had a much more interesting and in-depth look at the topic but it is quite a coincidence that I did a post on familiars yesterday too.

Cheers gang and Happy Easter!!!

Familiar Tables

Random tables for generating a familiar. Roll or simply choose. I suggest one roll on the animal table followed by one roll for either color or a special feature, but you could roll on all three if you want. Go nuts.This is really just meant to get the ball rolling.

Familiars

Animal

1- toad/frog

2- owl

3- rat

4- raven/crow

5-snake

6-rabbit

7-fox

8-hawk

9-bat

10-cat

11-lizard

12-ferret

Color

1-deep blue

2-green

3-golden

4-spotted crimson

5-glowing pink

6-rainbow

Feature

1-antlers

2-unicorn horn

3-sharp fangs

4-spikes

5-bat wings

6-strange eyes