Strange Aeons - The Watchers In The Woods Campaign

[superflytnt]

http://superflycircus.blogspot.com/2013/07/strange-aeons-campaign-watchers-in-woods.html

I'm planning a big game night on Saturday, so I came up with a long, pretty unique campaign to run through. Take a look, enjoy!

[Mr. Peabody]

OMG. The Winchester... The Sheriff... That is some serious, high-powered incentive to rescue civilians!

Great stuff all around, downloaded and thank you. Bonus points for writing up a very playable scenario. Not a lot of special figures or models required to get that on the table.

How many BP does the Threshold list your buddies will be running for this session have?

[superflytnt]

Thank ye kindly. I like to make scenarios that can be played with pretty much any models, anytime, by anyone. The terrain is a little onerous, but to get the right vibe you have to be a committed miniatures player and have buildings to stand in. This is one I'd love to see Mason run with his ace terrain!

This will be played by a FRESH list. It's meant to be hard, but playable. I always give the Lurkers a bump because if Threshold gets enough guns, they don't stand a chance. Hard to mess with a .30 LMG in the hands of a trained Agent.

The Sheriff was a tough call - I wanted to give the vibe that if you rescue ALMOST all the civvies, he is so thrilled he gives you "Betsy", and if you save them all, he figures he's got a good chance of living through it so he joins you AND brings "Betsy" along. I'm thinking of a big, corn-fed ass country Sheriff, the kind that deals out punitive justice on the miscreants via baton and bicep. A real geezer.

I wanted it also to feel like Threshold was not sodding about with the idea of the world ending, so they sent in their best physicist to sort out what the rift is really about. I want the players to have to protect him, which adds a sort of unspoken objective, because if he survives, then you have a model that can investigate the rift while still shooting back at the cult, which gains one free turn, in essence.

If we get to do it, I'd like to write up a nice AAR.

[Mr. Peabody]

Ok, good to know. I was just imagining our 30 and 40+ BP teams going in... 

[superflytnt]

I built it to scale, thinking that a 30 BP team would end up facing a 35 BP Lurker force. One mission, I forget which but it's near the end, has a scale that allows Lurkers 1 extra BP per Threshy model.

I think it would work well due to the system's innate ability to scale to the Threshy team, but as Anatoli and I had discussed here previously, a well equipped, well trained Threshold team is hard to beat with the Lurkers, even if no min-max stuff has been going on.

I could also note that in my games here at the house, we play with my house rules:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=55130.0

So perhaps I should've amended the initial commentary to include the following:
- We allow magic users to cast as many spells as they're able, but failures on a spell costs a damage point to the caster, so it can be dangerous and risky to dabble in the black arts.

-I also allow Lurkers 1 "free" BP point per character or agent "level" (using how many skills have been acquired) which makes the games more competitve.

I think it will work using the off-the-shelf rules as well, but when we play here, we ALWAYS use the magic rule, and we sometimes use the Free BP based on level rule.

[Mason]

This is looking great, Pete.
I have only read the first couple of Missions and skimmed acroos the next couple (I am at work.... ), but it looks like great fun to me.
 


I will see if I can get one of my group to volunteer to try this out.
 

[ImhotepMagi]

Looks like great stuff! I haven't even had a chance to play the basic missions yet, but this will be on the list to try!

[Uncle Mike]

Just given this a basic read thru! Great stuff!!! I will need to get this on the table and try it for myself as soon as possible!

[superflytnt]

Glad you enjoyed it, Mike. It plays REALLY, REALLY well.

I write up quite a few scenarios for many different games, but I'm quite proud of this one. If you ever want some writing done for any of your expansions, email me at superflytnt ~a t~ twc ~ dot/ com~. I'd be glad to help you out, and I have ~some professional experience~ with writing. Plus, I absolutely, unabashedly love your game.

_{(I'm an executive marketing/business manager for a huge recycling company...)}

[obsidian3d]

Just given this a basic read thru! Great stuff!!! I will need to get this on the table and try it for myself as soon as possible!

Pssst, can I play too?

[Mason]

Superflytnt has gotten me thinking: Maybe you could have a collection of fan-made scenarios or Black Dossiers available as PDF's on the website.

I will certainly be trying this campaign at some point, I just need a 'victim' volunteer.
 

[Bergh]

Looks great!

But why the "magical" Winchester 1894 Lever-Action Rifle? With those statistics it must surely be magical blessed or something.

[superflytnt]

I actually own one (a Marlin repro), and it's pretty damned magical. The 30-30 Winchester round produces 2580 joules of energy and travels at 1/2 mile a second. It's a great round that can put down anything on earth besides a rhino or elephant.

The 1894 is faster firing than a bolt-action rifle by a long shot, and was the "king of weapons" for a long time in the "old west" as far as field rifles went. All in all, it's a hell of a gun that gets the great rate of fire of a semi-automatic but the accuracy and power of a bolt-action rifle.

I added it for some flavor as well as because this campaign is VERY hard, considering that the Threshold group is always at a disadvantage on BPs and almost always at a disadvantage for turn order, placing terrain, et C. They needed a boost to get to the end.

My final reason for including it is a self-serving one as well: getting access to such a lovely rifle (let alone the physicist and the Sheriff) would all be attractive to players, who would try out this campaign specifically to get it on their list for future games!

[Bergh]

You surely know more about firearms then me, my experiences is limited too military training and a few hunting rifle shoots. I'm sure its a superior firearm compared to many others in real life.

But compared to the simple weapon system stats in Strange Aeons, its seems to be over the top:
It have longer range then a Bolt action rifle.
It have more firepower then a Elephant gun.
It shoot faster then the machine gun due too no "Ready"-special rule. So its actually firing 4D per round if you use it in both actions, which aren't possible with a Ready weapon and don't make me talk about its ability to make shots when alert.

I always seen the "ready"-rule as both loading time, but also the time it takes to make an aimed shot over longer ranges. Also the quite limited range of the bold action rifle in Strange Aeons, is as I see it also because generally battling with cultist and hunting monsters is happening at night, and the darkness limits your vision/range.

It seems more of a personal darling for yourself, then it fits into the game balance IMHO, and it is a "jump the shark" moment for your very fine campaign.

It would be more fitting for your campaign to make up some special rules or event, then just giving the threshold team a super weapon which literately breaks the rule system in Strange Aeons. My gaming group would loose interest in the game, if your rifle was introduced.

I have always has the opinion that in any miniature game, especially skirmish size games, if the normal "soldier" with his standard weapon can't do anything, and really just are useless fillers, and you need super heroes with portable howitzers as standard weapons just to be able do anything, its not a game worth bothering with.

[Mr. Peabody]

Hi Bergh,

As a 'ready' weapon this is still only going to have a rate of 1d6, so aside from its awesome damage, no big deal there when compared to many other weapons available.

There are plenty of over-the-top weapons available to both Threshold and Lurkers... The Tesla Rifle is my favourite, and Lurkers can get their hands on one of those with Rogue units...

But the key is that these all require some effort or luck to obtain in the first place. Threshold can not just go out and buy them. Lurkers can, but only on a per-use basis.

The Wonderful Winchester is not given away, or guaranteed to the Threshold team taking on this campaign and so the 'treasure' or 'artefact' nature of this weapon is not inappropriate.

In our group, gaining an item like this would be a fun reason to 'Strike a Might Pose', and become part of our collective sh*t talking gaming lore.