Last night
our GURPS game took an interesting twist.
Our current group is building an inn with the money we received from a
ransom after capturing the Scanadian King.
We acquired land and permissions, builders and allies. Next door to the place we choose to build is
a place called the Plain of Cairns.
Probably not the best location, but it looked good to us at the time.
Current session. Our inn is being built. We were coming back from another mess
involving a mage guild. That’s a whole other
story. When we get back to our site we
notice something is amuck. No one is at
the worksite. Well, one zombie is
walking around. Crap.
Delvin (Ken,
The Rusty Battle Axe) and Brom (Chris, Clash of Spear on Shield) went ahead and
played whack a zombie. I stayed back
just in case. It was then I noticed a
large group moving to the north. I got
the other two and up we went on our horses.
Horses became the single most important thing in this game. We came upon a horde of 25 to 30 zombies
chasing our workers through the woods.
These were the fast 28 days later zombies.
I came upon
a brilliant idea. Actually it was pretty
cool. I had one end of a rope and Brom
had the other. We formed a taut line and
then rode through the zombies knocking them all prone except for a
handful. We got into a short battle,
took out a couple of them. Enough to
allow the workers to get away.
Then the
horde got up.
This is
where the speed of the horses saved our bacon.
And our asses. It was obvious
that we wouldn’t survive a frontal attack.
Even a strategic attack would find us joining their ranks. So we ran.
This is
where is got cool. We used Pathfinder’sChase cards. They really added a cool
element to the chase. Like the
instructions said we laid down 5 cards and flipped them over as we went. It was a blast. The cards helped us get rid of the pursuing
zombies.
Two of the
horses nearly died, one of the chase cards was a giant snake and two of the
ponies went down. Luckily I had a couple
of neutralize poison potions.
The second half
of the adventure was us dealing with the mage guild again. Like I said that’s another story and another
post. Rob (Bat in the Attic) ran a hell
of a game. It was a lot of fun and a
great adaptation of using a product from another system.
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That sounds like a great time. I've nothing against GURPS but I could never get into it and never knew any group that used it.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting to like fast zombies.
It was a blast. We've been playing GURPS since the mid-eighties. We enjoy it. It's no longer our go to system, but we split time in various systems. This year we've played AD&D, S&W, Blood & Treasure, GURPS and a wee bit of Traveler.
DeleteThe fast zombies are a lot scarier than the moaning stumbling kind.
The fast zombies are a lot scarier than the moaning stumbling kind.
DeleteHoly cr**, yeah they are! I've been having flashbacks all day. I'm still slightly surprised we managed to get away intact.
And I'm still quite impressed by your rope idea.
That's a good idea on the rope. That's the kind I've had player think of, and only while they're doing it think, "Wait, maybe we should have tied the rope to the horses . . ."
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff.
Wow. I think the rope idea is horrible. Those zombies have mass and when you hit them with a taught rope force is going to be required to move those zombies. That force is going to be transmitted down the rope.Now the most likely result is the rope being drag out of your hands and days of awkwardness trying to explain to barmaids why you have friction burns on your hands. If you do manage to hang on, it's possible you might get a result like this.
ReplyDeleteThey made their strength based riding roll along with using their saddles to secure the ropes.
DeleteAnd the zombies are running on foot and the party caught them from behind. So momentum worked in their favor.
DeleteIs it strictly realistic? Probably not but it was close enough. And if they failed their check the consequences of three separated warriors on opposite sides of a horde of zombie outnumbered 8 to 1, would have been horrible.
Very horrible.
Well, I didn't think of the zeds running AWAY from the food, so that would change things.
DeleteMy apologies for misspelling 'taut'; it was late. That, of course is no excuse. Where is my wakizashi?
There's also the question of what a group of players wants their fantasy RPG to simulate. Strict physical reality (for all non-magic) is one valid possibility, as are movie-like action scenes, or even various blends of the two.
DeleteFor me what rocked about Tim's idea was that it was a fun cinematic stunt (in essence "accurately simulating" a typical adventure film) and that it gave us an awesome "high-five" moment afterward.
Excellent move with the rope. I'm going to have to remember that one.
ReplyDelete