Scavenge Skirmish Survive

[Silent Invader]

The following is a straight lift from the 'games' page of the SSS project website ...

http://sss.miniaturemojo.co.uk/index_games.htm

The project website is for game specific hints, tips, advice, info etc  (sales are from the miniatureMOJO webstore).

The following report and images are from BLAM - a UK meeting of the Lead Adventure Forum, held in November 2013, where we played two 'demo/test' games of Scavenge Skirmish Survive, using BETA 3.03 (note the beta!) of the rules.

We used the same board of 60cm by 150cm for both games, with terrain elements including a number of abandoned vehicles and a railway station whose platform crossed the width of the board with a ticket office and elevated footbridge. The north end of town included two single houses (one wrecked by a gas explosion), a garage block and a pair of shops. The south end comprised a pair of houses, a block of flats, a supermarket and a childrens' playground.

The first game had six players and the second had seven, with Dirk (NurgleHH) and Torbjorn (Dr.The Viking) participating in both games. These games used the survivor characters from the rules, with each player receiving a random distribution of four characters. Each player started with their gang of survivors on a road somewhere at the board edge.

All players were new to the game and therefore to the rules and so I took the role of GM, and in the first game I somewhat crashed and burned as I overlooked a couple of rules (in particular, the limitation on drawing Special Event cards to one per turn as I went Special Event crazy) and neglected to issue specific objectives.

At this point, it's worth emphasising that the Scavenge Skirmish Survive rules are used to direct a narrative, and so in some respects they differ from more conventional rules in that turns do not reflect equivalent periods of time but instead are developmental stages of the resulting story. It's also worth noting that this is the FIRST TIME that the game has been played by so many players at one time, without any of the players having previously played, and I was by now battling something of a sleep deficit......

In the first game, the issue of so many Special Event cards slowed the early turns quite considerably while the lack of primary objectives meant that players seemed more inclined to scavenge with hope and caution, the game becoming something of a treasure hunt as players avoided confrontation. However, there were some moments of aggression, the most notable being when Doug (Doug em4) unleashed both barrels of a shotgun into Torbjorn's (Dr.The Viking) spear-wielding survivor who had misguidedly presented himself in the doorway of the shop that Doug's gang were busy looting.

Paul (Matakishi) was the first player to withdraw from the table, as having collected a good haul of supplies I believe he felt the urge to protect his gang by removing them (and their stash) from further danger.

In the second game, as per the rules only up to one Special Event card was drawn per turn, which eliminated a whole lot of uneventful dice rolling. The players also had a personal objective, which was rolled-for from an objectives generator that I have been testing for version 3.04. These objectives usually indicated a direction of travel and something that needed to be obtained, both in addition to survival of the gang and the more general accumulation of supplies. Richard (Captain Blood) had perhaps the hardest task, as he was required to acquire a lady friend and the only one available was at the other end of the table but early in the game she was mercilessly shot down by Mark (Dr De'ath).

In this second game, the chance of finding something was also improved; with the required dice roll for a successful search of, e.g., a cupboard being changed from 5-10 to 3-10. The result was that the pot of available supplies was quickly exhausted, which probably freed the players from any lingering urge to treasure hunt and by now they were pursuing their objectives. It was noticeable that most players quickly formed alliances, with these alliances usually reflecting complementary objectives. Dave (Bullshott) and Steve (Elk101) joined forces as one particularly needed food and the other shelter and so between them they despatched a small pack of wild dogs, cleared the shops of supplies, and established a camp. Mark (Dr De'ath) and Rich (Chillwind) worked together in a similar way and were the first to bank their stash by leaving the table in accordance with their objectives, though as previously mentioned Mark had taken the opportunity to eliminate the female member of Steve's gang (and, interestingly, rather than retaliating Steve took the loss and focussed on his tasks).

On the other side of the railway line, Dirk (NurgleHH) and Torbjorn (Dr.The Viking) worked together to clear out the supermarket but soon ran into friction from Richard (Captain Blood), who lost two men in fire fights and another to a savage attack from Torbjorn's dog. Richard's remaining survivor withdrew into the apartment block and without any weapons of note or any supplies at all, lost the will to live and settled down to await the cold sleep.

Choosing a winner of the second game was a close call, but I gave it to Dave and Steve with Richard the clear loser.

These test games usefully exposed some holes in the rules (and in me as GM!) which I take on board and will hopefully resolve in the next release, which will also include specific gang objectives probably in the form of a randomly dealt card. My thanks to the players for their patience, for their participation, and for their feedback.

There are undoubtedly errors in and omissions from this report as at times the games were very busy, the nature of the rules being that many players can take their activations at the same time, thereby speeding the game along (which can catch out inattentive players) but requiring me to answer questions and clarify rules to several players at once, meaning that I didn't get to take notes or photos. Which brings me to photos: for kindly permiting the use of their images, which of course remain their copyright, my thanks go to The Shed Wars Blog (shedwars.blogspot.co.uk), The View From The Hill Blog (velodoug.wordpress.com/) and to Dr De'ath at the Lead Adventure Forum (leadadventureforum.com).

Plus the additional photos courtesy of Doug

[Silent Invader]

Someone should do a wrecked tanker/cargoboat stuck in ice as a board.

I like that idea .... on a much smaller scale it's made me think that I need my board to have a canal with a big barge and maybe some smaller boats!

[NurgleHH]

On wendsday i watch "the road". I think it also fits well with the game. No food, but one more thing: cannibalism.  Hunter, who wants to kill the players. I can bring a lot of action and more players have to work together to stop the dangerous villains. Maybe the umpire should control the cannibals with guns.

[Mason]

Cannibals!
That is bloody brilliant, Dirk.

That has to be an option in the rules, Steve.
An alternative version of 'supplies'....
With consequences of 'revulsion' or 'hatred' from other survivor gangs?

Worth a think or two, I reckon mate.
 

[Elk101]

Funnily enough I'm putting a couple of random notes together and cannibals do feature!

After BLAM I'm so tempted to make a proper winter board. You don't need a big table and the vac formed buildings are spot on.

[NurgleHH]

Going back to "The road" one scenario can be a raid at the cannibals house. They have all the goods (maybe not the meat the survivors want to have for dinner  ) and you can find a lot of useable stuff at their temple of horror. But, when they come home, you can be dinner...

@elk101: I startet mine with searching together all my PA-Stuff. I have an old board from a kitchenlocker. I want to make all buildings moveable, so I can use it for several settings.

[Silent Invader]

 

The Road is a great, bleak movie.  Others worth watching are The Day and Stakeland.

Cannibalism will be coming as part of the zombie supplement as it's how the infection is spread.  That said, the way the rules work you'll be able to include cannibalism without including zombies, if that's your preference. 

I've left it out of the core rules to keep them a bit more family friendly - eating small children can be a bit too bleak for some, which is fair enough  

[Doug ex-em4]

Certainly the possibility of cannibalism was mentioned pretty much from the start of the first game at BLAM.

Doug

[crancko]

So after BLAM what are the release plans for Buildings, new rules, new minis?

[crancko]

While considering to place an order I was wondering what would be a good starter set for playing a 4-member 4 gang game in terms of minis and objects sets?

It would be nice if you could create bundles for 2,4,6 gangs sets for exmaple.

Any idea of release date for those buildings?

[Furt]

After reading your report Steve the game sounds even more fascinating. 

How was Richard meant to "coerce" a lady over to his team? I feel there are some really heavy moral subjects/choices happening in this game. I like that.

Also could there be more room for co-operative missions/scenarios, rather than always just against each other?

[Too Bo Coo]

While considering to place an order I was wondering what would be a good starter set for playing a 4-member 4 gang game in terms of minis and objects sets?

It would be nice if you could create bundles for 2,4,6 gangs sets for exmaple.

Any idea of release date for those buildings?

There are some nice sets of 4 minis together.  I was where you are about 3 months ago.  After hemming and hawing, I ended up getting the entire line in 2 orders.  Since Steve started this I have to say, it's been one of the very few projects that I've come back to over and over again.  The idea of a snow PA is so intriguing I found it hard to pass up.  And there are a surprising amount of third party stuff to use, plus the ease at creating a snow table. Since it's the season, I bought a fleece thrown blanket for 2 euro, wha-la I have a new sow board after a could of blasts with the clearcoat.

For me I'm waiting for the buildings to be released!  I have the Hamlet set from Warlord games as well as some second hand railroad buildings I bought in scale to use for my slightly more rural town.

In the 1950's Americans were crazy about digging nuclear fallout bunkers, and this came back into fashion during the Bush years, so I thought maybe to create a campaign that centers on this idea somehow.  Either a Base of operations, fight for control, discovery by chance, something is there I just havent grasped it yet.

There is just SO much possibility for gaming here!

[crancko]

Thanks I have the same thoughts than you...

 I am toying with a card driven mission system to generate encounters for this PA Snow era. Which combines with my designed FECO system to play solo it can work very well. I shared already the FECO system material with Silenet Invader to test it in his games.

If you are interested you have just o go here and download it.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=320507

The mission system is just an sketch but if you want I can also share the ideas with you.

[crancko]

And if you are interested with snowed games have a look at this  game I created in 15mm from combining minis from different ranges and some cool ideas... Now that we are in christmas period! 

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=35649.0

[Silent Invader]

Thanks for the comments guys 

In no particular order......

In multi-player games I am reluctant to include rules to force people to work together, partly because I want to keep them as light (ie, to lessen the dictatorial) as possible.  In games I've been involved in, it's usually worked with the choice just being there,  though to some extent it does depend on the nature of the player and perhaps their prior experience of the game.

I don't plan to stray from the existing singles and multi-pack system, which is price optimal.  Put another way, if I introduced more variations of packs, I'd have to put the price up to reflect additional casting, bagging and storage costs.  Also, I don't particularly want to drive the buyer/player character choice, which I fear would happen if I put together 'optimised' teams.

Regarding Richard's need for a lady friend..... the rules do allow for the taking of prisoners 

That in the games player's started discussing cannibalism almost immediately says something about the nature of BLAMers! 

To some extent the new ICE troopers will play to the enclave and bunker scenarios already mentioned.  I have a hankering to make something 'beneath the city'  (a bit like Resident Evil's Hive Complex but obviously smaller (and in this respect The Colony also looks interesting) 

Regarding the buildings, due to other pressing matters it will be more like 2 weeks than 2 days.  I am awaiting confirmation on an order of plasticard before finalising pricing.

Next releases?  Buildings, troopers, maybe some new survivors, revision of the core rules (with objectives, etc).  After that? More zombies, zombie rules, maybe a vehicle, more survivors.  All of which have been mentioned previously.  Stuff I haven't mentioned I'm not yet ready to mention!!!   

Thanks again for the support and interest

Steve