Return to the Valley that Time Forgot II: the complete campaign

[Doomhippie]

Oh wow, now that's a great scenario! I love the idea of putting new encounter tokens into play when the heroes discover some vital clues! And the idea of increasing numbers of zombies is just as good.  Wonderful stuff!

[Tsune]

The gate has opened and Prof. Beef, well situated, is the first one that exit through the gate, but before doing it, says something to their minions…



But it is not going to be an easy task for the rest of the heroes, as they are dispersed over the board, and they almost have not remaining Hero Points to expend. In addition, one initiative won by the zombie-plants and they are over them! Although they managed to exit all the civilians but one of them, infected and turned to a zombie-plant. This is the case too of Mluda, the hired guide, that is killed and turned in one more being!



All the heroes rush to the gate, like the prof. that climbs down the pyramid and is ambushed by two new zombie-plants and with nobody to help him.



Two rounds remaining and the situation seems desperate. The heroes agree to use their last hope: dynamite! I changed the rules of throwing it to make them funnier (I think I read them in Astounding Tales rules) and the player has to throw a paperball representing the dynamite. There is a great expectation in the result. The player throws it and…



...the dynamite falls in the middle of the zombie-plants, but also Prof. Hauptman and the protoceratops are caught in the explosion. But the effects are disappointing, as only one being is killed, the prof. is badly wounded, and the dinosaurs die. As Prof. Beef has escaped with the remaining proofs, they have no one. They only objective is, now, escape alive. Lovelace exits, and M. Medina too, together with the two monkeys, Benito and Pico.

So, one turn remaining and this is the situation:



They have to fight away the zombie-plants, and in that moment, the members of the Beef expedition betray them, blocking the gate and throwing away some zombie-plants that were fighting themselves to the heroes to stop them! In the last moment, they exit.



The three rounds have elapsed, and the gate starts to close. The rules are that in the fourth round, they can try to pass the gate with a DG test as they throw themselves under the door while it is closing. Four heroes remain on the board, as Prof. Hauptman finally succumbs the zombie plants and die…



They have not HP to expend, so the success or failure depends on one last dice roll… Three of them success, but the ace reporter is trapped!!



And this ends the campaign. The heroes come back to the civilization, one more time without proofs of the valley existence… and strangely, there are no news about the Beef expedition, although they had the proofs. What is he planning??? Perhaps is it related to the seeds he found in the passages???
All in all, it is a “failure” to the heroes, who have gained a great and infamous enemy. And regarding the hero trapped, what happened to him? Is he alive? And will he be rescued by his friend?? That is, sirs and madams, another story that has to be told in another moment…



Thanks for reading and I  hope you liked it.

[Operator5]

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! What a great campaign! The cliff-hanger ending was perfect.

[Shikari Sahib]

Thanks for posting this absolutely wonderful scenario, great for inspiring too.
Great work, one of the things I most appreciated is that you play such great games on a limited table.
I have not great space for a bigger table and see that you arrange such wondeful scenarios on a quite little table was very surprising.
 
Piero
 

[Doomhippie]

Standing ovations here! Wonderful story, great ending. I love it!

[Argonor]

What they said... you hear your audience shouting, and are presented a crown of grass 

Especially the 'small table issue' is something I began using a couple of years ago, too. Even games that tell you to use a larger size table can easily be played on smaller ones, as long as you use lots of terrain.

It has a number of advantages:

• You waste less time moving before getting to the action
• You dont need as much terrain to cover the table - easier to collect/build several types of terrain sufficient for a whole table
• Reduced need for storage space
• Easier for a group of players to sit in close and get that 'rpg' mood going - even adversaries don't have to opposite of each ohter, as is mostly the result with large tables
• Easier sharing of snacks and beverages 
• Add your own... 

That being said, I like large battles on large tables, too (I have staged 1/72 Napoleonic battles using my own Warmaster adaption on a table 3m x 1.5m - and I THINK that table will fit into the new study/office/hobby/gaming room    ) - but adventure games will always run better on fairly small tables, where the interaction between friends and foes is inevitable!

[Calvin Montana]

Bravo!

[gamer Mac]

Great game
Love the scenery.
Great story

[Tsune]

Thank you very much guys.

Great work, one of the things I most appreciated is that you play such great games on a limited table.
I have not great space for a bigger table and see that you arrange such wondeful scenarios on a quite little table was very surprising.
 
Piero

As Argornor has pointed, there are a lot of advantages in playing in small boards games like pulp ones, where you want that the players have a lot of action as soon and as long as possible, and the interaction beetween them is need.

I am not sure with the storage one... or at least my wife does not agree  as if you need less buildings, at least I tend to planning a lot more of different boards.

Regarding the action, I like to design the scenarios so the players (we play mainly cooperative games in pulp) has to do a lot of different things at the same time if they want to accomplish the objectives, so all of them have something important to do on the board. And I try to change the initial objectives during the game, or at least introduce new ones need to get the main one so they can be surprised. One important thing too is to introduce some kind of presure to the players: a counting back, increasing numbers of enemies, etc. Obviously, not always all goes as planned, but I am happy with the ending of this and the previous campaign, where the timing and enemies just work perfect. Some playtesting is necessary too.

[Tsune]

Oh, I forget to say that my brother (he works as an illustrator) and I were thinking in editing the campaign and posting it for free here if someone is interested. It will take a week or so, as I have to translate to English the scenarios and the cards. So anyone who wants to play or see the scenario rules and ideas can have them.

So, if there is any interest, please, say it.

[Anpu]

Yes that would be great!

 

[serran]

The scenario rules would be fantastic, please post them.

Roderick

[Colonel Tubby]

Most deffinatly - thanks for offering these.

[Photographer]

What they said... you hear your audience shouting, and are presented a crown of grass 

Especially the 'small table issue' is something I began using a couple of years ago, too. Even games that tell you to use a larger size table can easily be played on smaller ones, as long as you use lots of terrain.

It has a number of advantages:

• You waste less time moving before getting to the action
• You dont need as much terrain to cover the table - easier to collect/build several types of terrain sufficient for a whole table
• Reduced need for storage space
• Easier for a group of players to sit in close and get that 'rpg' mood going - even adversaries don't have to opposite of each ohter, as is mostly the result with large tables
• Easier sharing of snacks and beverages 
• Add your own... 

That being said, I like large battles on large tables, too (I have staged 1/72 Napoleonic battles using my own Warmaster adaption on a table 3m x 1.5m - and I THINK that table will fit into the new study/office/hobby/gaming room    ) - but adventure games will always run better on fairly small tables, where the interaction between friends and foes is inevitable!

-You can use the other half of the table for a post game fondue party.
-You can hire a hibachi Japanese chef to prepare a gourmet meal before you and your fellow wargamers.
-You can place a key board on the other end of the table and hire a keyboardist to add suspense to the game.
-You can also have a cocktail bar on the other end of the table.

[magokiron]

Thank you very much for this OUSTANDING campaing.

And thanks too for your kind offer about posting the scenarios, but please, remember that this is an INTERNATIONAL FORUM, and there are several SPANISH readers here too!

(Y yo me incluyo entre los hispanoparlantes), así que te agradeceríamos que también compartieras las notas en el idioma original con nosotros. 

Your narrative, scenery, miniatures, changing plots, etc. are TRULY INSPIRING for us lesser mortals.

Thanks again and best wishes.