So our first proper go at trying the rules!
Richard and I set out on a daring mission to recover a film canister from a politically and environmentally sensitive area on behalf of a shady unnamed gov't agency.
Our party was rolled up and we decided it consisted of Jean Claude Van Damme, Sean Connery and Roy and Moss from the IT crowd.
So two heroes and 2 nerds
It started badly... Finding an isolated hut was a good start... finding there was a polar bear behind it was not!
It turns out that the polar bear as originally specced was an unstoppable monster and basically ate the whole party. But that's what play testing is for! So readjusted the stats and tried again. Turns out Roy was a crack shot and felled the bear in two shots! This time the polar bear was a huge threat but we managed to fell it before it ate anyone just about!
Once that was out of the way... we found more huts, a icebound ship and an airfield (well helicopter). Aware of our mission we pressed on....
A pack of wolves was prowling abut we decided to leave them... but that affects your overnight sanity checks...
Bit of an oddity in that we had two lots of bad weather and a lot of good weather, we decided that actually it represented the weather over the day so you can get cold adn wet, then slightly less cold and wet then cold and wet again.
A vantage point loomed and Moss climbed up to have a look revealing the surrounding terrain - a Sno-Cat and another hut! We cautiously approached the sno-cat looking to get a ride... but there was a sentry on guard and we moved on.
Our last move of the evening saw us walk into a heavy patrol 4 soldiers armed to the teeth. Having run out of ammo we had to move in to assault.
Again the balance was off and we adjusted the stats. We ran out of time at this point.
Despite being the author... I was pleasantly surprised it seemed to hand together quite well. There was plenty going on and lots to keep you busy. The balance was somewhat off and a few its need adjusting but on the whole it seems to work.
Major changes:
Enemy balance - the polar bear was too tough and the heavy squad was too well armed for a party to deal with.
Gun run out of ammo too easily, I've removed ammo limits from rifles and pistols, only automatics now have ammo limits.
Critical hits added to speed up the contacts.
Loads of minor tweaks but generally the basics work well.
Observations - using playing cards is hard as you have to keep trying to remember what each card is but some stickers will sort that in the short term.