Friday evening, I played a test game of my vault crawl with a friend from the 2D6 Lodge wargame club in Cambridge. That evening, I got home to the news of the upcoming Fallout Wasteland Warfare game! It will be interesting to see how my vault rules will be impacted. Will I end up making my game a dungeon crawl 'mod' for the new game, or continuing to forge my own path?
What ever happens, my purchasing of new 'not-fallout' miniatures is on hold. Ish. I may still pick up some toys that fit the universe, or my fan-made part of it, but are unlikely to appear in officialy releases. I hope the new models won't be too pricey - more in line with the prices of Prodos' AVP range, where £12-£15 will get you a 5 man squad, than Games Workshop, where £12-£15 will get you a sigle figure. Time will tell!
Anyway, here is a report from the vault crawl!
My Kingdom for a Skills BookThe Wasteland fighter and Explorer set off into the exposed upper levels of Vault 26, leaving the relative safety of the still-secure deeper levels. Their task was to retrieve a text the Overseer had decided contained vital information for the ongoing safety of the vault, and last known to have been stored in this sector.
Mere moments into their exploration, the Vault dwellers stepped into a decaying bed chamber, only to find it had been selected as the base for 5 Super Mutants, probably attempting to find a way to access the lower vaults to locate potential 'recruits' to their ranks...
The vault dwellers spotted the Mutants first, and fired, wounding one of the Bruisers, who rushed forwards to attack, whilst the grunts took cover and began taking shots when a line of sight could be drawn.
The battle was long and tough, with the Vault dwellers taking lots of damage. The Super Mutants focused their attention on the Explorer, who ended up needing to use his stim pack to regain some health. Eventually, the mutants were destroyed,and the exploration could continue.
It seemed this location had once been a maintenace sector for the vault's generators. The bedroom backed directly onto a generator room, inplting the bedroom must have belonged to the technicans maintaining the power.
The generator room was occupied by 3 feral ghoyls and a roamer, who were also caught unawares, the high Perception of the explorer spotting the first. However, both vault dwellers missed their shots, and soon found themselves in combat.
The Explorer was very nearly taken out during this exchange, having gotten himself cornered between a locker and a generator, but the Ghouls were eventually killed. A happy find of some pureifed water in a locked cupboard restored some health. The exit to the room was also locked, and as the dwellers attempted to unlock it, part of the ceiling collapsed, causing two radioactive waste barrels to tumble into the chamber. Fortunately, both missed the dwellers. Unlocking the door, they were able to continue.
After passing along a long corridor, a T junction was reached. Taking the left hand turn first, the dwellers found the maintenance workshop, which was a very busy room. Not only had the room become flooded, but 9 bloatflies buzzed around the remains of a malfunctioning Eyebot. This time, the bloatflies spotted the dwellers first, but a barrage of thier living ammunition caused only a single wound to the Fighter. Nevertbe less, this left her dangerously low on hit points. In retaliation, she accurately threw a grenade into their midst, taking 5 out!
This seemed to enrage the bloatflies, who suddenly became deadly accurate, shotting off the last few HPs of the fighter, who died, having no more stims or food to keep her going.
The explorer was then able to finish off the last of the bloatflies. Finding only a toilet beyond the maintenance room, he returned down the other corridor, finding a final chamber. In a desk within the room, he found the Skills Book he was looking for, and was no able to return to the Vault-Tec guarentted saftey of the lower levels.
ThoughtsWell, as with any test game, lots of things came up.
How do you add objects if they are spawned as an unexpected event? Does the Overseer freely place them, or is their some randomisation?
The old damage system is very balanced at 2 vault dwellers per mission. But it was slow, and this confirmed the need for change.
Can players be locked in combat? Should all guns be able to shoot in combat, or should their be a minimum range for some weapons? The explorer is way too bad at combat if shooting isn't an option.
If you are 'locked' in combat, can you escape with an agility test?
How exactly will radiation damage work?
So, plenty to think about. The game attracted a lot of interest around the club, and the feedback was "I would definately play this again and build a character over a few missions."
So, lots to go away and think about!
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April 29, 2024, 02:35:39 PM
December 14, 2013, 10:32:06 AM
