First 45A Game

[Wirelizard]

So we finally got a 45A game in today - first outing for all our pulp figures, and first run of Rattrap's 45 Adventures.

We skipped big swathes of the rules - no scenario, no encounters, encounter markers, just a straight-up firefight. We also left out Hero Points, and most of the characters were kludged together at the last minute. We quickly learned that scenarios & encounters aren't really optional extras - a lot of characters only make sense if there's things to do aside from just brawl.

We had four players on the table, with 2-5 figures each - 5-7 levels of characters in each group.

Me - Capt. James McGregor (RNAS, Ret) & crew - Capt. James was Grade 3; "Wrenchie" Smith, engineer, Grade 2; 2 tommygun-toting Grade 1 crew; 1 Grade 1 Heroic Dog ("Patch").

Corey - Sir Reginald Utter-Psychopath, self-described Great White Hunter (Grade 3), and three Grade 1 flunkies - buddies of Reggie's who were homeward bound after a spot of safari. (he's Burgundavia here on LAF)

Malcolm - German LuftWulfen air pirates, 1 Grade 3 officer, 1 Grade 2 flight officer, 2 Grade 1 gat men pirates.

Dale - 1 Grade 3 Foreign Agent (Mr. Round, master of disguise) and his shifty assistant, Grade 2.

The setting was a zeppelin cabin in flight - the RMAS (Royal Mail Air Ship) City of Capetown on the Joannesburg-Cairo-London route (the cardstock zepp cabin from Rattrap's website, built by me). The scenario, such as it was, had Malcolm's LuftWulfen as a prize crew, taking the recently captured zepp to their secret hideout. The spies & hunters were passengers; Capt. McGregor & crew had been locked in one of the cargo holds but escaped and re-armed from a 'private' arms locker tucked into the zepp's massive envelope.

With no particular scenario in mind, we just started shooting, hunters & crew on one side, air pirates and shify spies more-or-less on another.

The only actual death of the game was Patches the ship's dog, who got skewered by Mr. Round on his sword-cane! Lots of tommygun fire to no particular effect, Mr. Round got clobbered on the back of the head by a wrench, the hunters distinguished themselves by utter bloodthirstiness and disregard for allies blocking lines of fire for their massive rifles, Capt. McGregor & the air pirate officer came to a very tentative truce, the zepp went diving for the ground in a maneuver so violent many people were knocked off their feet, and a sabretooth tiger ate parts of one of the great white hunting flunkies.

Yes, a sabertooth. Seems the hunting party had some... interesting cargo in the other cargo hold, and it escaped during the excitement of the hijacking...[/i]

We called the game at a damn good cliffhanger:  a multi-sided armed standoff in the main part of the cabin, a savage beast loose in the aft cabin, and one dead dog on the carpet!

We had the usual new-rules issues during play, but everyone had fun and we're stoked to do more and better-organized pulp play in the near future!

Will Patch be avenged? Will the pirates honour their deal with the airship crew? Will the savage beast eat everyone? Stay tuned...

[Burgundavia]

Just because I was shooting up your precious ship that you call you me a psychopath. Not very sporting. Also, clearly it was your shoddy government-made hold that allowed my precious sabre-tooth to escape. You will be getting a bill.

[Operator5]

I see you've descended into the madness as well.  

You can run straight-up fights, but they sometimes need a little something to make them different. I usually run "Event Cards" instead of Encounter Markers in those cases. I draw a card at the beginning of each turn and have its effects take place.

Check out this link on The Speakeasy: http://www.rattrapproductions.com/speakeasy/viewtopic.php?t=973

For your airship you could have A.)Wind Gust: Buffeted by high winds all models must pass Dodge test or be knocked prone. B.) Punctured Cabin: A bullet has ricocheted through a window and now air rushes in. All models must pass a BRAWN test to move or the strong winds hold them in place. All kinds of things like that to make a game interesting.

[Wirelizard]

I see you've descended into the madness as well.  

Entirely! The maneuvering of the airship & the appearance of the sabretooth weren't even thought of during setup, they came up during play.

The LuftWulfen player had control of the ship and asked, "So, what happens if I dive it toward the ground?"; the Great White Psychopath/Hunter's player mentioned the captured lion in the cargo hold, which caused one player to reach for his figure case and say, "Not quite a lion, but..."  

Thanks for the link to the Speakeasy thread on Encounters - some very interesting ideas brewing now! I've also signed up there - seems the obvious place to take rules questions.

[Wirelizard]

Finally got our first "real" games of 45A in today - we actually ran the two introductory scenerios in the back of the main book to, you know, introduce ourselves to the game. What a novel concept!

45A with actual scenerios, encounter markers and such is a much different game than 45A run as a straight-up gunfight. Large chunks of the rules suddenly make a lot more sense!

We lacked cops & gangsters, but we're well supplied with flyboys, zeppelin troopen, and similar, so some substitution took place...

We did "Shootout in the Park" as "Shootout in the Airmen's Memorial Gardens" - the dastardly Lt. Wolinsky and two henchmen VS Captian Gary Goyle & Lt Sullivan, who are trying to recover two vital (and possibly incriminating?) freight logs that Wolinsky has stolen from Goyle's tramp freighter zepp.

This was a draw, each side leaving the board with one ledger; it was also notable for Goyle's last-round headshot that killed one of Wolinsky's henchmen instantly. That didn't stop Wolinsky from escaping with one of the ledgers, though!

"The Docks At Midnight" became "The Flughaven At MIdnight", this time with Lt. Sullivan and some of his crew being surprised in mid-smuggling operation by a unit of Lufttroopen who thought they were dealing with anarchist foreigners.

This one was a Lufttroopen victory, but also a savage gunfight & brawl!

Some random observations:
- Streetwise is quite possibly the most valuable skill in the game.
- but only to characters smart enough to use it. Henchmen with Brains of 2 don't quite cut it.
- Shotguns are incredibly lethal.
- SMGs put incredible amounts of lead in the air, but aren't quite as reliably lethal as shotguns.
- Rifles in night scenarios are a waste of time. They're at their best at 12-24", and night visibility is only 12"...

All in all, it was great to finally have a 'proper' game, and it's inspired much thought of scenerio design and scenery building!

[Burgundavia]

As the other side today, I have to disagree on a few points:

1. SMGs are fairly deadly. My excellent rolling meant that I was a doing a lot of damage with my little Lvl 1 gatman.
2. I did not find the shotguns very lethal. I was on the receiving end of these, so...
3. The police in the 2nd game won a pretty Pyrric victory. Although they technically one, I dealt
out a lot more damage than I took, excepting two dead Lvl 1s.

[Operator5]

SMGs are great in the hands of Grade 1s. Their sheer firepower means there are a lot more bullets flying around. Shotguns are good IF you  can get close. Their ability to deal double damage can drop a model quickly (head shot to a Grade 3 will render him unconscious).

I'm glad to see that scenarios make sense now. And altering a simple scenario to fit your own personal setting is fairly easy. Change some of the background, maybe some of the Encounters and the scenario can take place wherever you want.

Also, if you played the Gettin' the Drop rules, there was one change made to them in the latest book. If a model "Gets the Drop" on another model, besides the increased damage, they can also use Hero Points to change the hit location (even if they don't have the ability to do that normally). That means a sap to the head could actually be a sap to the head and not to the arm.

[Burgundavia]

We played with the getting the drop rules, yes. However, it ended up that I rolled lucky and spotted the police on the 1st round and thus everybody was alerted.

One recommendation for the scenarios: include full stats blocks for each person, in the standard style. This would help speed up initial play, as we had to create characters from scratch, which can take 30mins or more.

[Operator5]

One recommendation for the scenarios: include full stats blocks for each person, in the standard style. This would help speed up initial play, as we had to create characters from scratch, which can take 30mins or more.

This has been done with the later books. All the characters in the scenarios are pre-made and ready to play.