War of the Worlds Survivors Campaign

I belong to a monthly gaming group, four of us who have been meeting up (mostly) once a month since before Covid. Over time we have played a couple of Frostgrave campaigns, 2 or 3 Sellswords and Spellslingers campaigns and a Mutants and Death Ray Guns campaign. I fancied doing something a bit more VSF leaning, so suggested groups of survivors in the aftermath of a Martian Invasion, in the style of H G Wells.

Background, as presented to the players.

Barely a year after the First Martian Invasion, once again cylinders fell to Earth from space, this time in greater numbers in Britain, Europe, North America and Asia. In Britain the military were overwhelmed in weeks and in two months the country was totally cut off from the outside world, with no knowledge of what was happening in other countries.

It is now a year since the Second Martian Invasion, and you are part of a group of survivors eking out a precarious existence. After the first few months the Martian constructed sealed domes close to major waterways and Martian and their fighting Tripods are rarely seen away from these domes. Presumably to protect themselves from the diseases that wiped out the First Invasion. Many captured prisoners entered those domes, never to be seen again. Rumours of strange experiments abounded.

Smaller machines (christened Stalkers and Scuttlers by survivors) are despatched into the countryside to hunt down survivors. Also Shades have been released to join the hunt. Once human, perhaps the results, or the rejects, of Martian experiments, their skin has a strange blueish hue, as if their red blood had been replaced with some other fluid. They wander the countryside like mindless wild creatures who quite literally rip their victims apart and devour them.

Most recently another horror has appeared. Some sort of bizarre Martian/Human/machine hybrid, armed with a smaller version of the heat rays carried by the original Tripod fighting machines.

At your home base your group has a Marconi wireless radio apparatus, which is sometimes used to communicate with other survivors. But recently the apparatus has been receiving strange, unintelligible signals, which appear to originate from a location some 80 miles away to the southwest.

Your party have been despatched to try and locate the source of these signals and identify whether they pose a threat.  Other groups of survivors may also be aware of the signals and have sent exploring parties of their own. These parties should be regarded as rivals and potentially hostile, so treated with caution if encountered.

Campaign games will alternate between Scavenging Games, where the aim is to find useful equipment and food; and Scenario Games, which will move the players on towards the campaign’s objective.

The rules will be Ganesha Games' Mutants and Death Ray Guns, with elements from Fear and Faith and a few additional tweaks. I have added in the ability to find "salvage". This means any old, potentially useful, junk, scrap metal, flammable chemicals etc. Players can use this to try to create things like improvised body armour or explosives, in between games.

Martian robotic fighting machines, a Stalker and a Scuttler.

A Stalker with tentacles extended.

A Martian/Human hybrid machine thing.

A group of Shades.

Two survivors face a trio of Shades.

I don't think a crossbow will do much in this case!

"Come on chaps, we can easily deal with this little mechanical monstrosity!"

"I say chaps...where are you all going?"

Return to Gothic Horror with Fear and Faith

 I had Kirstie and Ian around on Friday, so I threw together a quick 3-player scenario using Ganesha Games' Fear and Faith rules in my Gothic Horror setting. I realised that i had not put my scarecrows/pumpkin heads on the table since I bought them on Ebay over a year ago, so I thought it high time to get them bloodied.

Three factions, A Vampire, a Warlock and a Witch. Each have a bride/daughter/sister trapped in a demon plane and need to carry out a ritual to release them. Unfortunately, when they reach the site of the portal, they discover the other parties are also there and fisticuffs ensue.

The table layout. The ritual must be carried out at the altar stone in the centre of the table (2 actions and pass a successful Q roll). First one of the three standing stones must be activated (1 action Q test) to generate the magical energy required and direct it to the ritual caster. Once "switched on" the energy could be diverted to another caster in the same way.

The Witch and her artificial animations (ME). Only her magic can harm the vampire and her minions have a high Q score, so will be difficult to command. On the positive side, they are hard to kill.

The Warlock and his followers (IAN). The Warlock has magic, his henchman is a vampire hunter with wooden stakes and holy water vials, plus one of this minions is a huntsman with a crossbow and a supply of wooden bolts, so lots of ways to kill a vampire here. The other minions are average quality thugs for hire, so nothing special.

The Vampire and his enthralled Cossack guards (KIRSTIE). The Vampire is the most powerful character in the game, but his Cossacks are just average sword fodder.

The warlock's followers rush forwards, one of them reaching one of the standing stones.

Another gets to a second stone, just ahead of a cossack.

Another cossack gets to the third standing stone.

I on the other hand roll appalling dice and by the third turn I still have not even got all ny artificial creatures off the starting edge!

Kirstie rolls much better dice and while my forses are dithering, activates a standing stone.

Shooting is not so good however, two attempts to shoot the Warlock minion by the central standing stone miss by miles!

One the other side of the table, having switched on the energy for the Warlock, the musketeer moves up to get a shot at the one creature I have been able to get moving.

The Warlock rushed into the centre of the table, but then, feeling a bit exposed decided to move back and let his minions do the fighting.

The Vampire hunter charges one of the cossacks, joined by the thug with the pitchfork.

The second cossack charges in to help his colleague. A frantic melee ensues, with both cossacks being knocked to the ground, by scambling back on their feet before the coup de grace could be delivered.

The musketeer hits my pumpkin head. It's a kill, but because it wasn't an aimed headshot, the creature is only knocked down.

The Vampire moves forward to survey the carnage.

Finally a turn with reasonable dice rolls and two of my creatures charge the musketeer befor he can reload.

The next turn goes badly for Ian, one of his minions is killed by a cossack....

...while another is killed by my creatures.

Allowing another pumpkin head to move up and redirect the energy to my witch.

I had my Witch in the centre of my forces, where she could influence the most creatures and try to get them going. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed this cossack who had crept forward and took a long range shot at the Witch. It shouldn't have been too much to worry about, there were lots of minuses for the shooter.

But Kirstie rolled a 6 and I rolled a 1!!! The only result that could have killed the Witch, so I was out of the game. The huntsman took a shot at the Vampire with his crossbow, but missed.

While the huntsman was reloading and seeing that the Warlock and Vampire Hunter were busy elsewhere, the Vampire took a chance and rushed up to the altar stone. It was down to who activated first, if Ian gained the initiative there was a chance for the huntsman to reload and shoot, as well as the Warlock moving up and casting a spell. But Kirstie won the initiative and the Vampire easily passed the rolls required to  cast the ritual and open the appropriate portal.

A win for the Vampire and a definite big loss for the Witch! The Warlock lives to try again when the start are next in alignment for the ritual, so he will be back in a few years!

A lot of laughs were had, some beer was drunk and we all had a great evening.

Gothic Horror - Part 2

 The five factions were the Nosferatau and Dracul vampire clans, the Scarlet Fangs and Rd Clws werewolf packs and the human Monster Hunters.

Victory points were assigned for each monster killed by your faction (no points for killing mere humans). Each monster faction had a particular enemy who scored bonus points for each kill. The humans scored bonus points for each monster faction wiped out, no matter who was responsible, after all they just wanted to clean the streets!

Werewolves rampaging through the streets of Venicia!

                             

The Red Claws started the mayhem straight away, charging into the Nosferatau clan. It was a little premature as the result was the Red Claws pack leader being surrounded and cut down by the vampires. With a second werewolf was killed it looked like an early bath for the Red Claws player!

But, then a lucky blow killed the Noseratau Elder and the balance started to move the other way. The two factions would remain in a brutal slogging match for the rest of the game.

Scarlet Fangs face off against the Dracul Clan. After the Dracul put one of the werewolves down these two pussy-footed around each other for the first half of the game! They spent more time glaring at each other and name-calling than anything else!

Which was just as well because the human hunters were finding it difficult to get going! They spent a lot of time milling around the central plazza (lots of failed activation rolls on my account!).

Finally the Scarlet Fangs pack got stuck into the hunters. The Dracul Clan had bravely hidden in a house allowing the werewolves to finally bypass them and get to the humans.

The Dracul Clan finally decided to show thei faces and risk getting their nice dresses dirty, after the Scarlet Fangs and killed the best Vampire Hunter!

It turned into a three-way brawl in the plazza....

...which resulted in the Scarlet Fangs being wiped out! Half the hunters were also dead, along with one of the Dracul vanpires

In the meantime the epic Red Claws/Nosferatau streetfight ranged on.

One of the Vampire hunters thought about cahring in, but decided it was better not getting involved!

Finally it was down to a single Norferatau still standing, but still the fight carried on. Both sides were finding it impossible to roll killing blows, so just knocked each other backwards and forwards.

At this point the Dracul clan decided that their previous tactic, stabbing the Starlet Fangs in the back whilst they were distracted fighting someone else, had worked so well they would try it again. But the Nosferatau and Red Claws promptly found their dice mojo and killed a Dracul each, wiping the clan out!

Having worked out how to kill vampires, the werewolves now made short work of the last Nosferatau. The Red Claws were victorious, the city of Venicia was theirs!!!!

Apart from the four humans rushing towards them, of course (a minor point!). They briefly considered ripping the impudent humans apart, but as silver bullets pinged around their ears they decided it was a good time to leave.

A clear win for the Red Claws with 9VPs. 

The Hunters actually came second with 6VPs.

The rest of the factions varied from 2 to 5 VPs each, but as they were all dead it was a moot point anyway.

A lot of fun was had by all.

Five-player Gothic Horror Game

 I'm just setting up for an epic 5-player Gothic horror game later tonight.

Using Fear and Faith rules, the factions will be  2 werewolf packs, 2 vampire clans and a band of heroic (Foolish?) Human hunters.

For many years the Dracul and Nosferatau Vampire clans have conducted a reign of terror over the city of Venicia, preying on the inhabitants whilst striving against each other for total dominance over the city.

But in recent times their power has been challenged by incursions of werewolf packs from the mountains. These upstarts not only poached the vampire’s rightful prey, but even started to take over districts within the city and claim them as their own.

In desperation of the monsters haunting the night time streets, the city’s governor sent a desperate plea for help to the Vatican. In response a Papal Legate was despatched to Venicia, with a bodyguard of elite vampire hunters, to rid the city of the undead menace. The legate also brought new weapons to arm the city’s polizi in their fight against the monsters.

The streets of Venicia are silent as night begins to fall.

The citizens shutter their windows and lock their doors.

Leaving the empty streets to the monsters...and the monster hunters.

The Scarlet fangs and Red Claws werewolf packs.

The Nosferatau and Dracul vampire clans.

The Prey....or Hunters.

The scene is set.....but what happens next?

Vampire Hunting - First outing with Fear and Faith rules

 I have been so impressed with Mutants and Death Ray Guns for post-apocalyptic gaming, I decided to try Genesha Games Fear and Faith rules for our Gothic Horror games https://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_8&products_id=15

Kirstie came over and I set up a simple vampire hunting scenario.

The table lay out. It is approaching dawn and the vampires must get to their lair in the graveyard crypt.

Trying to stop them are a band of heroes. A Hungarian vampire hunter, who has roused the locals against the monsters. Joining him are the village blacksmith, a huntsman and three villagers, one with a musket and two with pointy farm implements.

The bad guys. The vampire master, his bride and three entralled cossack minions, one with a big axe, one with a flintlock pistol and another with a musket.

The vampire bride rushes over to flank the defenders whilst the rest of the party distract them. In fact Kirstie hadn't grasped the Minion rule and had moved the master too far away to boost the cossack's poor activation rolls. It took time to move the master back and get the cossacks moving!

His blood up at the sight of the undead monsters desecrating his beloved village, the blacksmith rushes forward.

He charges the nearest cossack, who fumbles his attempt to shoot the blacksmith with his pistol...

...and is felled with a mighty blow from the blacksmith's hammer. First kill!!!

Having crossed into the graveyard, the bride dodges a wooden crossbow bolt aimed at her heart. The charges the huntsman who flees in terror! Three fails on his fear roll, made him flee to just short of the edge of the table and an insanity roll left him very jittery, -1 to all shooting attacks so needless to say he didn't hit anything for the rest of the game!

The musket armed cossack and villager exchange ineffective shots. They were happy to do this for several turns, it probably felt safer than engaging the vampires or mad Hungarian.

The master and a cossack cross the graveyard wall through a gap in the old stonework.

They charge their foes. The musketeer promptly flees in terror, again stopping just short of the table edge.

The vampire hunter and the blacksmith close in on the vampire bride. despite knocking her down twice, the Hungarian failed to get in his killing blow with his wooden stake.

After a prolonged melee, the cossack axeman finally kills the villager.

As the sun rises, the vampire master rushes to the aid of his bride.

And between them they kill the heroic blacksmith.

The Hungarian hunter fights on but falls to the vampire onslaught!

In the end a massacre for the vampire hunters, they only killed one cossack for a complete wipe-out. The game went back and forth, the master was unable to kill anyone until the end because everyone he charged promptly fled in terror. Three times I had characters rout only to stop just before leaving the table. However that also left me with three fighters also suffering additional penalties because of their failed rolls.