Final proof reading has been going ahead with the core rulebook for Across the Dead Earth. Time has now begun to start working on the games first supplement. As yet untitled and merely a bunch of ideas it focuses on what is happening in Europe and the good old United States of Apocalypse. (ha ha I'll get my coat).
First up on the agenda is testing out rules for Sollus (Soulless or plain old zombies) at the moment they have been used as more of an environmental hazard which we trialled for last in a game we plated last Thursday .
We made the choice of playing a three way fight with a single objective to capture an old abandoned tank. We initially rolled a random number of Sollus using a D6 at the start We rolled a 5 and decided to deploy the Sollus around near the objective just to make things more interesting.
It was a 3 gangs playing was Adam's Family (played by Tom), the newly painted and arrived that day Jesters IAO squad (by Rich) and the final gang the Red Claws (by me).
The Sollus activate each round like each player normally but the rule control which Sollus activates and what they do is rolled against using dice and some simple charts determining what and how they react.
It worked quite well It was decided that when moving into building or a new room a dice was rolled to see if there was a Sollus lurking inside. It was quite interesting and a few gang members got surprised at what they found as they explored rooms and buildings
After a few turns we had pretty much killed off most the Sollus (Shambler types have considered not to have fed very recently and aren't very strong.) and only a few were being spawned by exploration. We then decided to add in a sort of dice pool that increased in number for shots fired or grenades etc going off.
Note to self I keep meaning to mention to Rich that perhaps there should be a hazard level determined at the start of the game so that if everyone keeps quiet Sollus can still be spawned. We didn't want teleporting Sollus so we rolled for each Sollus that spawned and it came on at a randomly determined table edge in the middle of it when possible.
It worked out quite well and was a distraction to the normal shooting at each other that goes on especially when advancing on objective though towards the final turns there was some combat between us all with Tom coming out the worst and the State showing how resilient they are though I did manage to torch Yoshi with Pyro's flame thrower. The Red Claws one as the State and Adam's family tore into each other I managed to seize it around turn 3 and then hold it against all comers.
The Sollus could do with toughening up perhaps but they do use up actions that normally would be used against other gang members so they can be a nuisance especially en mass and if you are noisy as that attracts them like nobody's business. It would of been interesting had there just been two gangs and not three. There was a lot of shooting from Adam's family and the State so a lot of the Sollus got attracted towards them and I was lucky with the random placement being all the other table edges apart from mine.
Bit or boring post so here are some highlights of the game (taken on my mobile as I forgot my camera).
The central objective with the Sollus milling about doing well Sollus stuff.
My Redclaws enter the area cautiously.
Pyro and Topper head up the road.
This Sollus proved to be extremely resilient I think it took about 4-5 shots at practically point blank range and a grenade before it eventually went down. (thats just the way the dice rolled it was quite lucky with saves)
A large group spawn behind the State.
Yoshi gets attacked from behind by a spawning Sollus.
Squint saves the day jumping up onto the car roof and then drilling the Sollus from his elevated position with his assault rifle.
A Sollus spawns inside the church but is quickly stomped on by Fatboy.
The tank is taken by the Redclaw gang. Topper then rips into SIWOC with his scattergun at close range
Yoshi should of got man of the match really he managed to grenade Reggie, Pyro and Adam and himself before Pyo moved up and took him out with a burst of his flame thrower.
Just some cool pics taken by Rich of the game a Sollus spawned in the centre of the first floor landing it was quickly despatch by Skylar
.jpg)
