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Author Topic: Zona alpha  (Read 5724 times)

Offline Chimpfoot

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 562
  • Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all
    • chimpfoots tavern
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #30 on: March 21, 2020, 11:42:43 PM »
Right I started this s**t so I’ll own it and finish it.
Let’s try and get this thread back on the track that I intended it shall we.(if anyone is interested and not just gonna slag it off) in which case I’ll just bin it.
So don’t know if you can tell from the photo but ,will there be razors in the zone?
Couple of shady military types ready to carry out any duties required
Dentatus Hope these are the type of ner do Wells you had in mind.
Cheers all
chimpfoots-tavern.blogspot.com

Offline Chimpfoot

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 562
  • Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all
    • chimpfoots tavern
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #31 on: March 21, 2020, 11:47:54 PM »
Yeah ha ha world's gone topsy turvy.

Define irony.

Cheers all
Peace and safety.

Offline Hacksaw

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 51
    • Hacksaw's Hobby Bunker - a vlog assortment
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #32 on: March 22, 2020, 12:53:56 AM »
Chalk me up as one of the Grognards who doesn't mind a bare framework. When I started mucking about with wargaming in 1979 thats mostly what we had. Most of the guys I knew had 3rd or 4th gen photocopies of rulesets written by a club or someone who just loved the subject. Even D&D back then - for us broke high schoolers anyway - meant writing our own adventures, designing dungeons, mapping regions.

It was great fun, just that part of it. Playing with my friends was a bonus.

Its refreshing to find a game that harkens back to days of yore, where we are encouraged to play the game and not just the rules. Where all the crazy ideas I get can be fit like Tetris blocks into a custom mosaic of storytelling with some shoot 'em up to go with it. I have a notepad with all sorts of ideas I scribble down as they bubble to the surface.

I should have my minis very soon so I can start on them, in the meantime I will be building scenics and modding Matchbox cars and generally being excited about a project. Right now thats huge by itself.

A tip of the hat and a Thanks! to you, Dentatus, for putting it together. 

Cheers!
The Way is Forward.

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 9307
    • Ultravanillasmurf
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #33 on: March 22, 2020, 09:00:05 AM »
Yeah ha ha world's gone topsy turvy.
I have been sulking that my elderly tablet no longer changes from landscape to portràit (and adds bonus acçents).

However it does make looking at inverted images easier.

^__^
« Last Edit: March 22, 2020, 09:14:28 AM by Ultravanillasmurf »

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 9307
    • Ultravanillasmurf
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #34 on: March 22, 2020, 09:24:20 AM »
This set of rules was on my buy list for Salute, sadly it will have to wait until things get better, but remains on the list.

Chimpfoot - keep us informed on how the solo rules play out.

Like Fallout, this is an area I know little about (I almost bought a copy of the first Metro 20xx for a trip to Moscow, but Waterstones did not have it).

Offline DegenerateElite

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 55
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #35 on: March 22, 2020, 10:23:17 AM »

Degenerate elite :guess you're not happy with you're purchase, eh?
I'm sorry you feel that way.
 
But if you do feel the need to thoroughly critique someone else's work please try to find a more amiable tone. criticisms given in a friendly and constructive manner are better received and lead to far more constructive outcomes, whingeing and lists of complaints rarely achieve anything more than bad feelings. Fine you have your opinion and you're entitled to it.
Looking forward with great interest to the release of your 'stalker' rules by the way, I am right in thinking you have purchased all the necessary copyrights?

My first post was my impression of the book and specifically stated the things I did not like about it.   It was not mean or confrontational.  A complaint should have a list of items that are problematic, otherwise all it is is complaining and whinging or saying this is bad with no qualifications given.


After the author responded to basically say that it was my fault for not knowing the rules were generic, and the campaign was barebones, and there was almost no actual background info; all information that you don't know until you buy and read the book.  Maybe that should have been the blurb on the back of the book? 

I expect a historical set of rules to assume you have access to other books on the topic and to avoid anything but a few sample scenarios that serve as a demonstration.  I expect a generic set of combat rules meant to be setting agnostic to gloss over background details.  I have run and played lots of rpgs/wargames where i happily created scenarios and background.

There are tons of sets of barebones rules and it isn't some new invention.  I have a shelf and hard drive full of them.  They actually far outweigh rules where the author has taken time to develop anything past the bones.

However, when I buy a book with a specific setting, most especially a sci/fi game with a very specific setting, I expect that to be a primary focus.  There are lots of ways to write-up Picnic and Stalker inspired hazards that don't step into any copyrighted material.  Games have be writing "Fallout" expansion rules for years doing just that.  I can appreciate that the author has played many games in this genre and is adept at creating scenarios to match within his gaming group.  Almost none of that translated into the published rules, unfortunately.


And it is not that I lack imagination, need my handheld, am too stupid to understand rules or the authors intention stated over and over, should write my own set of licensed rules, should go back to a cave and play solo, or any of the other conclusions that have been so helpfully posted here.

I was not aware that what you were after was just a few unboxing type flip through reviews and posts about people buying it and being excited.  Sorry about that.


Offline Sir_Theo

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1266
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #36 on: March 22, 2020, 11:07:15 AM »
The Osprey blue books have a very specific set of parameters don't they? Page count etc. So I imagine it's very hard to put too much in the way of background etc into them whilst keeping all the rules stuff in there. Compare Zona Alfa to Reality's Edge for example. I don't think that's a bad thing though. I've bought the majority of the series as I really like just reading through the rules as an academic exercise, even if I never get around to playing the game.

I've just ordered Zona Alfa for Wordery for less than I sometimes have to spend for lunch at work. I'm not hugely familiar with the source material but I have played a couple of the Metro computer games so I get the gist.

Looking forward to giving the solo mode a go.

Offline aliensurfer

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1317
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #37 on: March 22, 2020, 10:53:53 PM »
' I've bought the majority of the series as I really like just reading through the rules as an academic exercise, even if I never get around to playing the game.'

Snap.

Offline Splod

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 676
  • Flittering from one project to another
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #38 on: March 23, 2020, 03:46:48 AM »
'Upside down, miss Jane!'

Offline Sinewgrab

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2907
  • All to all, by my mustard!
Re: Zona alpha
« Reply #39 on: March 23, 2020, 04:11:48 AM »
I feel I should apologize as well - my response was stronger than necessary.  I will chalk it up to dtresses caused by the current crisis and it effects on my work, but that is a reason, but not a good excuse.
"There is no known cure for the wargaming virus, only treatments with ever increasing doses of metal."