I'm Dreaming of some Nice Survivors...

For those of you so inclined, here's an update of my stars and grunts that have managed to survive the apocalypse so far.  This includes the results of the random generation of our newest members.
LtoR: Blondie, Rick, Tiger, Daryl, Kendra (DWS), Gus, Christie, Chantelle, the Bazinator, Alec
Before going any further, it may be helpful to explain a few things.  Especially if you've never encountered the Two Hour Wargame mechanic before.

You start the game with a gang of four people.  One of these is the Star.  He or she is your main character and gets some special rules that allow you to have more control over their actions than the other characters, or grunts as they are called.  These rules are known as Larger than Life, Cheating Death and Free Will.  Basically they mean you can stick around a little longer than the rest.  In addition, a star gets an Attribute which is essentially a skill.

Grunts can be determined completely randomly or put together as you wish.  As we were using the plastic Apocalypse Survivors sets from Wargames Factory, we did a bit of both.
There's only one characteristic in ATZ and it's called Reputation, or Rep for short.  Your star starts with a Rep of 5.  Your Grunts will begin anywhere between 2 and 5.  The THW game mechanic is simple, but different from any other system I've played.  You normally roll 2D6 for any check.  Each dice you roll is compared to your Rep.  If you roll equal or less than the testing figure's Rep, each dice that does so is considered to be a pass.  You can therefore pass 2, 1 or no dice.  These results are read off the charts to determine what happens.  It's simple, but it works really well.
Of course, thanks to a simple system, your Stars and Grunts alike can advance in Rep and gain Attributes.

First up then, we have Gus.  He began as a Rep 5 star, but after surviving this encounter, he's just gained enough Reputation Points (RP's) to advance to Rep 6, which is absolutely fantastic news!  And in the process he gets to add an Attribute.  After a nanosecond's thought, I chose to add Crack Shot to his Sidewalk Demon.  Now he not only doubles the swath width of his firing ark, he gets an extra dice to try and hit those Zeds with.  Good job he has an assault rifle, a pistol and body armour.  And to think I almost lost him in the previous game! Neither the LTL or CD rules won't stop you being killed by a Zed.  Gus is all I have left over from the original gang.  Jenny and Baz are pushing up the daisies, and Alec is a babbling idiot.
Alec is now Rep 1 due to being a babbling idiot.  He's never recovered since he saw Jenny get eaten alive.  Such was the result of passing 0D6 on the Crazy About My Job Check.  Gus is a good guy.  He looks after his team.  He's done it time after time.  So there was no way he'd leave Alec behind when the Mystery Machine ran out of gas.  So we decided that Alec would follow Gus in base to base contact.  That way he'd automatically activate when Gus did.  To make things fair, we decided that he'd babble at bad times which would attract the Zeds.  Thus every turn Alec is on the table he will count as one shot fired from the place he stands at the end of the turn.  This means a dice is rolled each turn to see if Zeds are attracted.  As we are gaming in an Urban environment in the early phase of the apocalypse, that means a Zed appears in 12"on a 4+.  Alec still wields his trusty cricket bat. Unfortunately, the only person he's likely to injure is himself.

Kendra (Die Wamp-ihr Saly-ah) was rescued from impending doom.  Her random generation resulted in a Rep 2.  As she was met during a game, we were also able to give her a random Attribute.  This resulted in Brawler.  With her two trusty blades, this seemed excellent.  But with such a low Rep she consistently fails to roll many 1's and 2's no matter how many dice she gets to roll.  Of course, since getting freaked out in her first adventure in the park, her Rep was reduced to 1.  This now makes her about as much use as Alec. Ho hum.

The Bazinator, bearing something more than a passing acquaintance to Baz (funny that) was met at the same time as Kendra.  Like his namesake, this Rep 3 Grunt wields a chainsaw.  It's a fantastic weapon in close combat.  But boy dies it make a racket.  It attracts 6 potential Zeds every time its used.  Which means that if he gets bogged down, he will eventually be overwhelmed.  On the plus side, his randomly generated attribute is Wuss.  This means that he only rolls one dice if trying to Rally, Charge or Being Charged.  Oh, I forgot to mention that he too suffered a reduction in his Rep.  He's now at Rep 2.  So he's not likely to charge, might possibly hang around if he is charged, and has precious little hope of rallying if he does run away.

And now we add Christie Kerr, the famous golfer.  She was randomly generated with a Rep 3 and the Medic attribute.  Who'd have though she'd be so helpful?  And as before in all our Golf and Urban Golf games, she's armed with her trusty iron and pistol.

To round off my gang, we add the second survivor found in the Summer Holiday Bus.  Chantelle is a very down to earth gal, rather well endowed, and has an affinity with the Bazinator as she too wields a chainsaw.  She was randomly generated with Rep 3 and the Stone Cold attribute.  This will allow her to roll 3D6 when making any reaction checks rather than the usual 2.  She may not have the best Rep, but she's more than likely to take the fight to the Zeds and stick around when the going gets tough.  The Bazinator could really learn a lot from her.

So reading down the characters in the order I just presented them, that's a Rep line of 6,1,1,2,3 & 3.  Can I just remind everyone that Zeds have a Rep of 4 as standard?  That's right.  Four.  That means a solitary Zed has the same gumption as Alec, Kendra and the Bazinator thrown together.

Seriously?
My learned colleague's gang has now received some much needed boosts, and generally looks to be in a far stronger position than my own.  Rick, the Star of the gang has also reached Rep 6 and needs to choose a second attribute to go alongside his crack shot.  Having lost Lori his missus, and their son Carl, he's actually surviving really well.  Of course, having an assault rifle helps no end.

Daryl has now advanced to Rep 5.  Despite also having the crack shot ability, he still manages to have a checkered history when it comes to his marksmanship.  A true silent hunter with the crossbow, there's been many a game when he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.  Not that there are many of those things around in a modern city environment...

These two have been joined by Blondie, a sandy haired suited man wielding a pistol who was randomly generated a Rep of 3 and the slow attribute.  He loses 1D3" in movement each turn.  Better watch out he doesn't get left behind like Kendra then.

And finally we have Tiger, the other golfer from our Zombie Golf escapades.  With a Rep 3 and the Stone Cold ability, we can expect her to take her iron to a lot of Zeds.

Four of them with a combined Rep of 17 compared to my six with a score of 16.  Did I say Zeds have a Rep of 4?

Watch out as we head to Episode Ten in a fortnight.  This lot will be stocking up the bus ready for a journey to the sticks.  We'll survive this apocalypse even if it kills us!

Now there's an oxymoron for you!

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