Nice report. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next
So am I. SAE30 will be going in without Pyle, and they won't have time to deploy Robot...I imagine I'll get to Game 2 within the next week or two...
Snakes...why did it have to be snakes...? 
Seriously, hope you had as much fun playing it as we did reading it. It seems like everything worked well from the AAR. Looks great, too. Nice to get those recently-painted toys into a game right away!
Mike Demana
You got that one, eh?
I'm developing character quirks as we go. So far, it's Carter's dislike of snakes, and Pyle and O'Rourke's inter-service ribbing. We'll see what I come up with for the others...
And I did enjoy playing it out. And yes, the rules mash-up worked out quite well. Here are my thoughts on how that aspect went...
Fistful of Lead That was pretty straightforward. In
Zona Alfa, there are the 3 character classes (Veteran, Hardened, and Rookie IIRC), with stats, abilities, and gear done up according to each class's experience level.
Fistful or Lead has 2 ways to do that. First are the Leader/Specialist/Regular classes, which govern traits and gear. It also uses d12/d10/d8 for Veteran, Regular, and Green, respectively. I made my crew a Veteran Leader (Leader and 3 traits, and 3 gear "slots"), and 7 Regular Specialists (2 traits and 2 gear "slots"). in addition, all have chest rigs, ballistic plates (8+ armor), and personal comms for free. I wanted a fairly experienced Zone Crew. It all worked well.
And, a la
Zona Alfa, I decided that the Leader trait gave Carter the ability to give his actions to other figures within his command radius. He didn't do that this game, what with trying to flag down the ambulance and not getting eaten by that snake. Carter was kind busy most of the game....
Zone Hostiles were easy too. I've only done up the table for when PEZ is Soft (TL1), and it's based on my minis collection. I stat'ed them up with d10 and 3 wounds as the base, and adjusted from there. For example, those snakes are d10, but only have 2 wounds. Regular-size dogs are d8 with 2 wounds, but big dogs are d10 with 3 wounds. The humans all have 3 wounds, but the looters are d8, while the bandits (who haven't appeared just yet) are d10. The humans' weapons were whatever I felt like grabbing from my figure trays (I have plenty to choose from, and SAE30 is gonna have a cow if an RPG gets whipped out...
Good thing Jupiter 2 has light armor...).
And the movement, combat, task, and recovery mechanics were used straight out of the box.
And, I used the "What happened to him" chart in the campaign section of the book. Pyle was the only character to end the game with a wound (Carter and O'Rourke had both been wounded, but ain't the Queen of Hearts a great card?), so his roll on the chart will see him miss the next game. I bet he stays away from windows now...
I still have to figure out Renown Points for character advancement. I'll figure that out in due time. But they'll have to learn new traits/abilities within the context of the game and campaign play, so some characters might miss a game or 2 as they go off to attend some course...and they can use their "discovered" cash to get more equipment (I'll use the charts in
Zona Alfa for pricing, and the SAE will get their 25% cut, ya know). But, they have to be someplace where this stuff might be available. Jethro and his gas station, and Mr. Chambers and his hardware store, may come in to play there...I can tell you this though, Robinson is gonna be pissed off if something happens to Robot...
Zona AlfaI used some of the abilities and equipment from
Zona Alfa. They translated almost exactly. The only difference is that in
Fistful of Lead, high rolls are good, while in
Zona Alfa, low rolls are good. So any modifiers were just reversed for play in
Fistful of Lead.
I already discussed the Zone Hostile Table. I'll develop tables for when the PEZ is Medium and Hard when we get there...y'all might be surprised what might appear, due to my figure collection...
I used the Objective/Hot Spot and Anomaly Tables right out of the book. The only thing I had to figure out was how a character negotiated any Anomalies they found. Fistful of Lead does not have anything comparable to a Will Stat. After giving it some thought, I ultimately decided that it took a successful Medium Task Roll (5+) in
Fistful of Lead terms, and the modifiers in
Zone Alfa (the detector and a leader's presence) to work through an anomaly's counter-measures. Using the d12/d10/d8 mechanism in
Fistful of Lead, a d12 approximates a Will Stat of 7 in percentage terms, a d10 to a Will Stat of 6, and a d8 a Will Stat of 5. Close enough for government work, and it worked out OK.
Black OpsThe Civilian Reaction Table was inspired by the one in
Black Ops, only reversed so that high rolls are good, and includes the possibility of civilians affecting Hot Spots and Objectives. As in
Zona Alfa, Zone Hostiles can't trigger them, but I see no reason civilians can't, intentionally or otherwise...and civilians may even be somewhat useful...I do want to flesh that table out a bit more, though. I'll do that prior to Game 2, but it worked well enough for Game 1.
ConclusionI think that does it. My rules mash-up worked out quite well, I think. A couple tweaks before Game 2, and we're off and running.
And here's a teaser - I think we may find out what happened to the roadblock in Game 2. And there may be more hints about the goings on in the PEZ
18 December 2010, 11:15:40 PM
