Weird War Two at ToonCon 2012

Instead of running my regular Saturday night game last night I dragged my WWW2 stuff out to ToonCon 2012. I’d originally said I could run it for four, but planned to take up to five or six. When I arrived they told EIGHT had registered – I had enough stuff with me that I potentially COULD have run a game with eight… but with that many players it could very easily bog down and have players getting bored and wandering off. Luckily a few didn’t show up and I ran a game with five.

One player was a friend of mine from Calgary that came out for the convention (which is organized by a mutual friend). There was another participant names Amy, who I think is from Saskatoon, and three enthusiastic young fellows (I will call them The Three Amigos!) … I didn’t catch where they were from… One was named Jared and another Ethan… and I can’t remember other their friend’s name… or tell you which was which… (sorry guys...).

It was a fairly busy convention in a relatively small space and I found the room very LOUD. I had to shout – almost non-stop for the three and a half hours it took to play the game. So my throat hurts now... and my ears are buzzing. I also had to run around the table and stand next to anyone that was asking a question or saying something just to hear them. And it was a bit warm… Other than that thought, I think everybody had a pretty good time.

SITUATION

Stalingrad 1942. A senior Psionik with the BPO had detected the presence of a Nazi Blood Mage in Stalingrad. A team was sent to deal with him and hopefully capture the Blood Mage for interrogation and vivisection. When they arrived in Stalingrad the Blood Mages work was apparent – Zombies roamed about the streets.

SCENARIO

Locate and Kill and/or Capture the Blood Mage.

There is an NKVD MG team at the start line that will fire at any Russians that retreat!

FORCES

Leytnant Pyotr Iliyavisch Putin - Wild Card Platoon Commander – played by one of the Three Amigos

Ag d6, Sm d8, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5

Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6,

Edges: Command, Combat Reflexes

Gear: Pistol (Range: 6/12/24, ROF 1, Damage: 2d6)

Serzhant Alexi Timurvich Stanislav – Wild Card Platoon Sergeant - played by one of the Three Amigos

Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,

Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 8

Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Intimidate d8,

Edges: NCO, Rock’n’Roll

Gear: Ppsh SMG(Range: 12/24/48, ROF, Damage: , AP: )

Ryadovoy Sergey Vasilovich Kruschev - Wild Card Machine-Gunner – played by one of the Three Amigos

Ag d8, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,

Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 7

Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6,

Edges: Brawny, Rock’n’Roll

Gear: DP LMG (Range: 30/60/90, ROF 3, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Bipod, Snapfire)

Borys Pavelvish Trotsky - Wild Card BPO Psionik – played by Shawn

Ag d6, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 5

Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d4, Notice d8, Stealth d4, Psionics d10

Edges: Arcane Background: Psionics,

Powers: Detect Arcana, Mental Bolt

Gear: Pistol (Range: 6/12/24, ROF 1, Damage: 2d6)

Ryadovoy Nadya Petyanova Gorbachev - Wild Card Sniper – played by Amy

Ag d8, Sm d8, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 5

Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d8,

Edges: Marksman

Gear: Mosin-Nagant Sniper Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Scope, Snapfire)

There were also Three Soviet Rifle Squads one started the game commanded by the platoon commander – the other two could be diced for whenever the Soviets drew a joker.

Soviet Riflemen (6)

Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5

Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4

Gear: 5x Mosin-Nagant Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2),

1x Ppsh SMG(Range: 12/24/48, ROF, Damage: , AP: )

Germans

Nazi Blood Mage – Wild Card Wizard

Ag d6, Sm d8, Sp d10, St d6, Vg d8,

Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 6

Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Spellcasting d10,

Edges: Arcance Background: Magik, Alertness, Command, Combat Reflexes, Rank,

Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Fanatic, Overconfident

Powers: Zombie, Puppet, Fear

Gear: Luger (Range: 6/12/24, ROF 1, Damage: 2d6)

German Protection Detail

Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5

Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6,

Edges: Rock’n’Roll, Combat Reflexes

Hindrances: Loyal, Bloodthirsty

Gear: MP40 SMGs (Range: 12/24/48, ROF3, Damage: 2d6)

German Sniper- Wild Card Sniper Ag d8, Sm d8, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 5

Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d8,

Edges: Marksman

Gear: KAR98K Sniper Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Scope, Snapfire)

Zombies

Ag d4, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,

Pace 4, Parry 5, Toughness 7

Skills: Fighting d6

Edges: Undead

Gear: Bite/Claw Str+d6

Note: there wwere three or four Zombie Bombs – Zombies with bombs strapped to them and a crude triggering device attached to their chest – when they charged into close combat they could with a successful Fighting roll trigger the bomb. The Zombie would sustain 6D6 damage, the target (and anyone else in base contact) would get 5D6 damage, and anyone else within 2” got 4D6 damage. The bombs could be targeted with shooting which could detonate the bomb.

THE GAME

No one had played the game before so after shouting a bit of an explanation of how the game works and the mission for the team, I handed out some characters and had them set up at one end of the table.

Unfortunately it was very dark in the hall as well, so most of the few pictures I took turned out very, very out of focus. As I was trying to keep the game going, I also didn’t end up taking all that many…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The players stared at the bottom edge of the table. A few Zombies could be seen roaming the streets.

The Platoon Commander, Sergeant, Machine-Gunner and squad of extras headed up the one side, while the Sniper and BPO Psionik headed up the other.

The Platoon Commander, Sergeant, Machine-Gunner and squad of extras beat on some zombies and sprinted past the survivors. One soviet riflemen was lost to a zombie bite, another to a sniper shot.

The players pulled many, many jokers and the reinforcement squads showed up fairly early. The second was taken over by the Sergeant, the third which showed up a turn or two later was taken over by Shawn.

In the middle of the pic is the sniper having a sniper duel with the German sniper (in the top left of the picture). BPO Psionik wandering about in the open after having just exploded a few zombie heads.

Dead German sniper. I can’t remember if it was the Soviet Sniper that took him out or the BPO Psionik… I think they both had a go at him and caused wounds…

Feeling a little cocky, the BPO Psionk wandered into a building that turned out to be full of zombies. It did not go well for him… Luckily Shawn still had the reinforcement squad to play!

You can see one of the zombie bombs milling about in the back. After this crowd ate the Psionik they came shambling out to meet the second reinforcement Squad – lead by the zombie bomb which detonated and took out the whole soviet squad (and a few zombied too!)

One of the other zombie bombs had been detonated by the Machine-Gunner, which also took out a few zombies. A third, encountered later, was detonated by the Sniper – taking a few more zombies with it. Everyone thought this was great fun.

Amy, with Shawn hiding behind her and two of the Amigos sitting. About half way through the game. The Amigos characters (and supporting extras had just over run a machine-gun team that had been hiding in the same building the sniper had been in.

Shawn’s reinforcement team mopping up Zombies.

The Blood Mage was finally located and the Three Amigos characters (and supporting extras) charged in!

The Blood Mage was actually taken out by his own minders – who were under orders to, under no circumstances, to allow him to fall into enemy hands alive. When three of the Protection Detail had been taken out, the remaining two riddled the Blood Mage at point blank range on their next activation.

(It was also getting late... I was getting tired...) 

The Sniper took out the last of the Protection Detail with a pretty awesome shot through a window…

Started at 7:30, ended around 11PM – three and a half hours of non-stop, action-packed fun…. Thanks to all that participated and thanks to John Burt for organizing the event. 

At Your Door Session 4

Christian is back from Bordern and joined us this evening with Agent Norman Van Alden of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. Amanda (Dr. Sarah Berenstain), Rick (Lord Stang),  Patrick (Joey Roberts),  and Dave (Leonard Tipple) were also able to make it out this evening….

I’ve been a little distracted by the arrival of Force on Force and so a bit too much of my hobby-reading time was taken up by that and thus I wasn’t as prepared for this evening as I might have liked. Fortunately Christian is a fantastic role-player and much of the evening was “bringing him up to speed” through his characters interview of the others when he arrived on the scene…

WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN - If ever you think you might play the Cthulhu Now adventure At Your Door, read no further! 

Thursday Night – 19 July 2012

The investigators began the session in the town of Delilah, awaiting the arrival of the authorities. A 9-1-1 call had been placed to report the dead body they’d found on Peter Tait’s recently acquired farm.

Sheriff Carter Jones got an urgent call from his own deputy insisting that he return immediately as there was a situation in town that required his immediate presence (Curtis couldn't make it out tonight).

The local deputy arrived first and, after questioning the characters about the nature and location of the body and their involvement in it, suggested that they wait for the arrival of the State Police that were also on the way so they could show them the way to the farm.

When all had arrived (it was now well after midnight) they proceeded to Tait’s farm. The police refused to allow them to drive out into the field as it might upset any evidence. The player characters were unwilling to walk out into the field in the dark – covered as it was in the red plants. So the police proceeded on their own.

 The player characrers watched them walk – or rather their flashlights bob about – expecting them to be attacked at any moment. They heard oaths being issued (as well as some vomit) when they arrived at the “scarecrow” and the police beat a hasty retreat back to the cars on the road by the gate entrance to the farm.

It was decided that it would be best to call in the Feds on this one. One of the State Troopers was posted guard over the farm and the rest drove back into town to make calls and find a place to stay for the rest of the night.

Friday – 20 July 2012

It was about noon when a pair of FBI agents arrived from Samson. After a brief q&A they also proceeded out to the farm. Found a state trooper still on guard (a different one as the previous one had been relieved). The FBI agents took a brief look around, looked at each other and decided it was time to call “The OTHER Bureau”…

Around suppertime Agents Van Alden and Mackie of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense arrived in Delilah. Van Alden questioned the PCs extensively (bringing him up to speed on the investigation so far…). This was a lot of fun to play out… Agent Mackie was dispatched into Samson to recover the “sample” Peter Tait had provided and start looking into a few leads.

While they were talking however they heard sirens in the distance coming quickly toward Delilah. Apparently when the FBI Forensics team, which had arrived in the afternoon and proceeded to record the scene)=, had tried to cut the body down from the posts they were attacked. It wasn’t quite clear what they were attacked by. The body?  The plants!?

Everyone quickly made it out to the farm where they found a few of the FBI team and the State troopers in a panic – mostly hiding behind their cars witht their guns drawn – but not entirely sure who or what to shoot at. There was a member of the forensics team lying in the field looking like they were tangled in assorted plant material and darkness was quickly falling around them.

At this point Agent Van Alden started making plans to have the place razed by fire and called in a BPRD sampling and containment team. After those plans were made Agent Van Alden, Lord Stang, Leonard Tipple and Joey Roberts decided to drive out into the field to try and recover the FBI forensics team member. Hanging out the back of the rental Hummer, Agent Van Alden was liberally sloshing gasoline about from the cans they’d brought along and started lighting fires.

When they were able to approach the FBI forensics team member they could see that he was clearly dead and looked as though he’d been strangled to death. Agent Van Alden made the call that they would not try to recover the bodies but burned them right there.

The BPRD team arrived took samples and burned the rest of the place down after Agent Van Alden had a look around at the Greenhouse and farmyard. Though it seemed rather creepy in the dark – it seemed far less… active…?

 Saturday 21 July 2012

In the wee hours all drove back to Samson. During the drive back they learned of the Theatre shooting in Colorado...

Sarah realized she'd missed a number of anxious text messages from Jatik wanting an update and wondering why federal Agents had shown up at Zymotek, confiscating the "speciman".   She called him back to give an update and ask how to proceed.  Jatik said to continue the investigation into Tait's disappearance as he might still have useful information about what it was. 

Later in the morning they met at the Hotel for brunch and were contacted by Det. Sgt. Joe Macklin who requested that they attend the Samson Hall of Justice to answer a few more questions. Upon their arrival they were informed that when Det. SGt. Macklin contacted Dawn Biozyme he had been informed that there was no such “specimen” missing from their laboratory. Agent Van Alden assured the detective that, whether it had originated from Dawn Biozyme, a “specimen” of the description offered by the other characters was delivered to Zymotek on the afternoon in question and was now in the hands of the BPRD.

It was at this point Agent Van Alden found out that some of the attackers were in custody and requested that he be able to interview them…

At this point we had to call it a night.

Next week I am running a Savage Worlds: Wierd War Two game at ToonCon2012 - stay tuned for a report of that action. Hopefully the following week we’ll be able to get back to this adventure!

At Your Door - Session 3

Just about everyone was actually in attendance this evening…. Rick (Lord Stang), Patrick (Joey Roberts), Dave (Leonard Tipple), Amanda (Dr. Sarah Berenstain), and Curtis (Sheriff Carter Jones) were all at the table - only Jackson (Dr. William Blake) was absent.

WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN - If ever you think you might play the Cthulhu Now adventure At Your Door , read no further! 

Noon, Wednesday,  18 July 2012

Picking up from our previous session, the investigators met at the Hotel Crocker for lunch. Joey Roberts and Leonard Tipple had spent the morning sleeping in after having spent most of the previous day in the bathroom after eating some bad burritos on Monday (Dave and Patrick missed last session).

After lunch they headed back to Peter Tait’s house (the missing microbiologist from Dawn Biozyme that had supplied Full Wilderness with the “specimen” that started this whole invstigation). Leonard Tipple spent the next twelve hourse or so hacking into Tait’s home computer – which turned up a whole lot of not much - other than extenseive contact lists of friends and co-workers and a name and address for a phone number they had found printed on a piece of paper they’d found in Tait’s car.

They tried phoning the number that belonged to a Harold Gall, at 2AM – they’d tried a number of times during the day with no answer. A rather abrasive and rude individual answered and, after a very brief conversation, hung up. Wanting to know a bit more from Mr. Gall they headed to the address.

Mr. Gall turned out to be a thoroughly foul individual, but the investigators managed to talk their way in and attempt to get some information from Gall. They discovered that he had previously owned the farm that Tait had recently purchased, that Gall had also worked for Dawn Biozyme, and that, according to Gall, Tait had been taken by the Sewer People? Gall apparently was working on something to “deal with” the Sewer People, which he showed them. In a laboratory in the rear of his house the investigators were treated to a mass of animal parts heads and legs of all manner of critters (dogs, cats, skunks, rats, etc, etc…) all roughly sewn together – that Gall seemed to be under the impression that he’d be able to animate and send into the sewers to deal with the Sewer People!?

 The following day (Thursday, 19 July 2012), after sleeping in a bit they Investigators made their way out to Tait’s farm after picking up all the items on his “list of things to take to farm” that they had also discovered among the personal affects left in his car. They stopped in the nearby town of Delilah and talked to the locals about Tait and Gall and the farm.

At the farm The found evidence of someone leaving in a big hurry torn up bits of the yard and skid marks on the road and the gate blown off the hinges from within. The chicken coop seems to have recently been destroyed, but otherwise there was no immediate sign of anything untoward in the farmyard itself. In the field, however, they discovered a great many red plants growing out of the carcasses of many critters scattered about the fields. There was also a greenhouse that was absoloutly crammed with plants exhibiting some bizarre and unnatural grown.

Sheriff Jones was positive that one had moved for him and filled it full of lead. He was quite convinced that the plants on the farm were the unnatural byproducts of aliens fornicating with plants and advocated that the whole place be burnt to the ground! (I say we get us 10 canisters of Round Up, roll them in there and defoliate the whole Effing mess…” or something like that…)

Dr. Berenstain, however, insisted that none of the “evidence” be disturbed. She was convinced that Jatik at Full Wilderness would want to know about this place and have a chance to study it… “Clearly this is an important species we’re dealing with and I don’t think you or I or anyone has the right to arbitrarily exterminate it…” (or… something like that…)

I believe Sheriff Jones may have muttered something about taking off and nuking the site from orbit…

They decided that Tait wasn’t here and things best be left alone and turned over to Full Wilderness or the police or someone other than themselves and it was time to go… It was getting dark… Bad things happen in the dark…

Just as they were pulling out of the yard, however, a couple of them noticed a reddish tinge to the scarecrow off in the field… could it be the light of the setting sun…? or was it more of those damned plants!? No one wanted to get out of the vehicles so they droved the rented Hummer over the field to the scarecrow which they discovered to be a teenage boy, held to the crosspiece by more of those unnatural red vined growing out from his ribcage, eyesockets, mouth, ears, etc… They took pictures and sped out of there as fast a s they could!

As there was no cell phone coverage in the valley they drove all the way to Delilah and called 9-1-1. The County Sheriffs office and State Police were notified and on there way. While awaiting their arrival to show them the farm, the investigators asked around town if there were any missing children and discovered one of the local farmers sons had run away a few months back.

And that’s where we left it for the week – awaiting the arrival of the authorities….

The Investigation Begins…

After over a month off we’re finally back at it… sort of… As Amanda was away in Vancouver when last we played she had to make up a character (Sarah Berenstain). Rick (Lord Stang) and Curtis (Sheriff Carter Jones) were also in attendance, Dave (Leonard Tipple), Patrick Joey Roberts) and Jackson (Dr. Blake) were MIA…

WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN - If ever you think you might play the Cthulhu Now adventure At Your Door , read no further! 

Picking up from where we left off… play began Tuesday morning (17 July 2012) when Lord Stang and Sheriff Jones received a call asking them to attend the Samson Hall of Justice and answer some questions for Detective Sergeant Joe Macklin about the previous day’s shooting. They were met by Sarah Berenstain, a Full Wilderness employee, who would be replacing Richard Slakes as their liaison. Slakes had suddenly taken a leave of absence citing extreme anxiety over the previous days shooting! Berenstain would also be taking a more active roll in assisting the investigators (being a Player Character, and all).After some considerable questioning – which were all answered straight up and truthfully  and giving the police a bit more to work, with they were allowed to leave.

Before leaving, however, they were able to talk to Detective Sergeant Jack Bolling about the missing researcher, Peter Tait. As they were very forthcoming with their own information, Det. Sgt. Bolling was willing to share some of the information he had (Note – I gave Det. Sgt. Bolling a bunch of the stuff the Tait’s brother was supposed to have – I didn’t think the police would give up evidence to a next of kin less than a week into the investigation…?! Especially if there was a chance foul play might be involved). He even allowed them to look at Tait’s car – which turned up some more evidence – Tait’s journal, which was secreted in a slit in the mat under the drivers seat. As they provided this valuable evidence to the police, Det. Sgt. Bolling allowed them to make copies and read the journal, which provided a few new leads.

In the evening Lord Stang and Co. interviewed Tait’s brother - a big-shot corporate lawyer.

In the morning they met with Det. Sgt. Bolling to view Tait’s house.  After a search of the premises we called it a night.