Guardians' Chronicles: Save Zurkovia!

We had a chance to give Guardian's Chronicles another try.  The Liberty Patrol consisted of Jon Mark (Sgt. Freedom), Bill (Goldenboy) and Terry (Adam Spell).  Chris was expected to play as Super Nova, but he never showed up...

Plot:  Doktor Skarov is wanting nuclear war.  In order to achieve his nefarious scheme, he is launching four missiles at the capitol of his own country, Zurkovia.  The Liberty Patrol must 1) stop the missiles from destroying their target and 2) stop Doktor Skarov in his lair.

Surrounded!

Right off the bat, the heroes were attacked by androids and the robotic assassin lieutenants, Ki, Chi and Noi.   Chi could jump out of harm's way, Ki could roll an extra attack and Noi could attack two characters at once.  They each gave the heroes fits, which was pivotal later in the game.

I'm gonna knock you out!

Goldenboy was initially held back by several androids.  He had to punch his way out, but not before being wounded.  The rest of the squad slogged their way to the missile control station, destroying androids the entire way.

The lair is jumping with activity!

Stay....STILL!

Sgt. Freedom went toe-to-toe with Chi and was eventually able to knock her out, achieving a personal mission.

Surrounded and under pressure!

Eventually, Adam Spell was able to get to a control station and began, with poor results, to deactivate the missiles.  He stopped one, but the rest were rumbling in their silos, eventually taking off into the air toward Zurkovia.

Get off me, you crazy robot!

Impeding his progress was Noi, who was inflicting terrible damage to both Adam Spell and Sgt. Freedom.  Would the Liberty Patrol be able to stop the missiles in time?!

Magic and technology don't mix...

Adam, with the aid of Sgt. Freedom, was finally able to stop the last missile at the very last second.  The last bomb splashed harmlessly into Zurkovia's bay.  A collective sigh of relief was heard from the Liberty Patrol.  Success!

Four down!!!

Adam and the rest of the Liberty Patrol then went after Doktor Skarov.  Standing in their way were several androids and one last robot assassin, the pesky Chi.  She took down Adam in a flurry of razor claws and then eyed Sgt. Freedom, who was running on fumes.

Spell down...

Sarge took down the lieutenant, but Goldenboy was the next to fall.  Surrounded and alone, Sgt. Freedom collected his friends' limp bodies and hightailed it out of Skarov's lair.  "Another day, Doktor.  We'll stop you yet!"  he cried as he left.

 

 

The headline of the next day's paper told the tale.  While the Liberty Patrol managed to stop the missiles and Sgt. Freedom was able to accomplish his personal goal, the group was ultimately unsuccessful in capturing Doktor Skarov.  

The Liberty Patrol will live to fight another day...and hopefully win! 

Axles and Alloys - Recruits 2015

Yeah, I'm a slacker.  I'll freely admit it.  It has been two months since Recruits convention and I'm just now getting around to posting this AAR.

I was approached by a friend of mine about running an A&A game at the convention.  He was in contact with a gentleman that was slated to arrive from the upper Midwest that was really jonesing to play, so I thought "Why not"?

I didn't have a particular scenario in mind, as I was focused on other things at the time.  The gaming group had discussed hosting a racing scenario for the convention, but it never really got off the the ground.  Then inspiration struck.

Ken had a bunch of HO scale buildings he'd thrifted.  They were the typical small town, 1950s-60s buildings that you'd find in places that still have town squares with the courthouse in the middle of a grassy knoll.  Exactly the sort of place I grew up in, actually.  The buildings were too beat up to resell on eBay, so he 'donated' them to the cause...if I "dirtied them up" first and made them available for group play.  Done deal!

After a few furious nights of cleaning, repairing and applying washes to the buildings, I felt they were acceptable for the gaming table.  The next step was configuring a track and creating a backstory.

The paraphrased "hook":  The Deadlands' gangs race in a neutral zone once a year.  The place they do this is a dilapidated town in the middle of what once was a rural community.  The buildings are vacant (except for the strip club, but that didn't come out until the convention), but that doesn't keep the gangs from strategically placing snipers in well-hidden locations.  So, pick your team of three and get ready to see who's the Deadlands champ this year!  One thing to note: There can only be ONE champion...and I mean ONE!

I had a full table.  12 players driving 12 cars.  I had four more people wanting to play, so I assigned snipers to each team.  That last bit proved to be somewhat overkill, but did provide one moment of hilarity and chaos.

With that many racers, the start line was broken into two locations with six cars randomly assigned to each.  This served to not only break up teams, but also open up the racing corridors.  The track itself was a modified figure 8 track that had, at points, vehicles racing head-on at each other.  In my mind's eye I envisioned incredible crashes and skullduggery.  What more could one want from a race like this?!

To top it all off, I had a trophy for the winner.  It was a beautiful thing to behold and real keepsake for the race.

Ironically, the gentleman from the upper Midwest that spurred on this whole thing couldn't make it.  However, I had an unexpected and pleasurable surprise, as a bunch of fine fellows and friends of mine came up from Arkansas and got a chance to play in the game. 

I want to extend a hearty "Thank you" to Terry for the pics, as my phone died right before the race started. I modified a few pics, but I'm going to let them do the talking...

The start of the race.

The Heavy trucks are making a mess of things...

Red team, working together.

Post-apocalyptic drafting!

The Dutch Oven is under fire!

Your winner: Jon Mark!  Look at that trophy!

The game was what one would expect.  There were horrible crashes, both bad and fantastic, by the seat of your pants maneuvers, hilarious dialogue and even a sniper head shot that instantly killed a player.  In another word: perfect.

We didn't actually finish the race.  Specifically, we made it through approximately 1/3 of one lap due to the sheer number of players and the chaos that ensued.  Jon Mark won, literally, by 1/2 car length.  Ken was gunning for him, but got spun out at the last second by someone's poor driving and resulting skidding collision.

Thank you to all who played.  I hope you enjoyed the game and look forward to playing again next yer!

Guardians' Chronicles

I've wanted a superhero game that I could throw on the table and play for quite some time.  While I absolutely love SuperSystem (the link is to the 2nd edition of this great title.  There's a third edition, but I've never played it), it doesn't make its way to the gaming table too often. 

I was at a book store, 50% off coupon in hand...uh...on phone.  When I saw a used (opened, but unplayed) copy of Guardians' Chronicles for $17.50, I decided to give it a try.

In short, this game features the superhero team, Liberty Patrol (LP for short), against the nefarious Doktor Skarov and his many minions.  It's basically a mission-based dungeon crawl for 2-5 players, with one person playing as the evil Doktor.

Tonight's crew was Bill (Goldenboy), Jon Mark (Sgt. Liberty) and a face from the past, Chris (Super Nova).  The mission?  Rescue the hostage and get out the far side of the board.  Sounds easy, but in the LP's way were nasty droids and a mean Lieutenant assassin. 

The LP came into the game swinging for the fences.  I managed to put a couple of dents on Goldenboy, but he still stood strong.  The good guys made quick work of the less robust androids, but the two lieutenants put some stink on Goldenboy and Sarge before being dispatched. 

Goldenboy got shot...twice...by this 'bot.

Reinforcements are coming!

There's the ninja lieutenant, ready to gig someone.

In true superhero fashion, Goldenboy squares off against the ninja.

Super Nova refused to enter the rooms with guns.  Super Wimp!

 After Super Nova shot the doors off their hinges, Goldenboy rescued the hostage.  He and Sgt. Liberty took a substantial amount of defensive fire from the automated machine guns Skarov used as a trap, but not enough to KO them before they completed the mission.

The end result?  Only Super Nova completed her personal mission, while the team did win overall.  The newspaper looked like this afterwards (great component to the game, in my opinion).  That's a LOT of ads!

The team won, but only Super Nova fulfilled her mission.

As this was the introductory game and we were all new to playing, there were mistakes to be had.  We noted them for the next time we play.  Everyone said they'd give it another go.  We'll see when that happens.  It does take care of the itch I was wanting scratched, so maybe it'll happen sooner rather than later.