EotD free rules: two test plays

[obsidian3d]

Excerpted from my latest blog entry at http://obsidian3d.blogspot.ca.

Saturday morning I was able to spend some time sitting in the shade on the deck.  I cleaned up all the molding and flashing lines from the Gothic Horror civilians pack and super-glued them to bases.  In the early afternoon I headed down to Trilogy in hopes of finding someone who would help me try out the starter scenario from WestWind's web site.  Luckily Brandon was around and we were able to smash our way through a pretty fun game.

I played Holmes and Watson against his Jack the Ripper.  He consistently rolled higher than me in the initiative phase for the first SEVEN turns, so I had zero help from the peelers walking around downtown London.  Using my character's Unusual Occurrence to activate during the maintenance phase (essentially getting two activations for the turn I got Holmes into combat with Jack.  We both took a wound and then Jack vanished into thin air.  Screams from the west pointed Holmes and Watson on the Ripper's trail again and they were able to corner him, only narrowly taking him down with a lucky shot from Watson's pistol.

The only question we had after our game was about the use of the wounded/recovery table so I made sure to read through it after returning home.

Sebastien and I were also able to play through the scenario on Monday, and this time I played Jack.  The rolls for initiative were against me again, but I was able to get a quick start and harvest two victims early on.  With the detectives closing in, the peelers sounded the alarm! Jack was running out of options.  Holmes charged in and was able to wound Jack but in the fog and confusion I was able to use my Unusual occurrence and move Jack out of harm's way at least temporarily.



Hiding in wait behind a large hilly tree, Jack gunned down one of the peelers who came a little too close.  The gunfire drew a crowd, including Holmes and Watson.  Jack used the crowd to try harvesting another victim, but was unsuccessful.  Holmes grappled with Jack valiantly as the wounded civilian escaped, but sadly he fell prey to Jack's cold steel.  Infuriated, Watson called the remaining peelers to his aid and they took revenge upon poor Jack, leaving him to die alone on the freezing London cobblestones.

Overall I quite liked the rules for Empire of the Dead.  I can see campaign being a lot of fun, making your faction grow and change throughout the course of several games.  The use of D10s instead of D6s gives it a little bit different feel too, although there are quite a few similarities to Strange Aeons.  It's probably a little bit heavier rules, but the fluff and setting really shine and I do hope I can get some of my friends to try a few games with me in the near future.