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Monday 4 December 2017

PO Ying Valley, Pulp Alley Solo AAR


                                         NICKEL & DIME PRODUCTIONS PRESENT
                                                              Perilous Island


                                               A story by Dave Phipps at Pulp Alley
                                                     Chapter one Po Ying Valley                                   


The plot points are the lower tent top left, creates top right, Hamilton bottom left donkey bottom right & Lady Harriet centre  the major plot point. 
Lord Forbes one of the founding members of the Blue Blooded Society  has gone missing, the last they heard from him was a strange letter some months back & his friends eager to find him have headed to the valley of Po Ying where his daughter Harriet is leading an archaeological expedition.
 They are not the only ones however interested in the whereabouts of the famous explorer & as it so happens both parties have arrived at the valley at the same time, but who will gain Harriet's trust ?
One of the Germans move close to Hamilton & taken cover fires at James Dowl.
Dowl goes down & out as he later fails his recovery roll.
As the next card drawn was the clam it meant that no one could run, brawl or shot for the rest of the turn.
Hess the German leader moves closer to Harriet.
While some of the other members of his party move up in support.
The German who shot Dowl is joined by another,
As Herr Gloup goes over to the donkey to see if there's anything of interest in the sack on his back.
Delbert Collins  the leader of the Blue Blooded also moves closer to Harriet. 
Cliff Moore goes to check out the tents as
This brings turn one to an end, with the Blue Blooded down a man
Grace Simms moves slightly forward hugging a patch of uncleared jungle for cover. 
Collins rushes Hess & so begins a brawl that would make any Rocky movie weep.
While the two leaders are slugging it out Helga approach's Harriet & convinces her get out of there. 


Simms moves forward & switching her gum to automatic opens fire on the German with the machine-gun who returns fire.
One of her abilities permits her to down a dice level to gain 2 extra shots, D8 to D6  
The German goes down while Simms takes a flesh wound. 
This is a minor plot point that could only be done at the front of the tent.
Over at the tents Moore has found some letters sent to Harriet from her Father.
At the donkey Gloup starts to try & search the sack,
In solo play all plot points are extremely  perilous so before the character can try the plot point he must past a random challenge 
but the donkey doesn't like been disturbed while eating & lashes out knocking him from his feet.

Covering the tents one of the Germans see Moore coming out &
  snipes him, falling to the ground Moore lets the letters fall from his hand.
The end of turn two & the Blue Blooded are down two men while the Germans passed all their recovery rolls & have the major plot point.

In the squared circle  the brawl is still raging so Helga,
The donkey more relaxed now permits  Gloup to search  the pack on his back were he finds some thing of value
 decides to head back over to Gloup who has gotten back to his feet after been kicked by the donkey.


Our machine-gun German runs over to the 
steps to get cover behind them before engaging Simms in another shoot out,
but the cover does him no good, Simms taking another wound also falls to the ground.

As one of the Germans tries to make his way over to the tents to pick up the letters dropped by  Moore, a snake darts out from a crop of jungle tripping him up, while his comrade move to the corner of the centre structure. 
This brings turn three to an end, the Blue Blooded are down to their last man while the Germans have lost their first man but now have a minor plot point to go with the major one.

But whats this ? explosions now rock the camp as it comes under attack from unknown assailants. 
No change here it would seem.
Two of the three Germans who along with the donkey were caught up in one of the explosions get clear but the third one is not so lucky.

The German who had the incident with the snake has also been downed by an explosion.
So ends turn four with the Germans having lost two men to the explosions
 No first round ko's in this fight who ever bought tickets have really gotten their money's worth.
Helga closes in on another plot point.
End of turn five
 Things look bad for the Blue Blooded but with the right string of results there is still hope, but probably only a fools hope, the Germans fail to get another plot point as the assailants storm the the valley forcing everyone to flee. 

Cut
Designers note, whoever thinks playing solo doesn't work has never played solo Pulp Alley as between the cards & the dice you really can get turned over as has just happened here, I was playing as the Blue Blooded league if you hadn't guessed, to add to all of this the random   events roll meant that line of sight was limited to 12", this really played into the Germans hands as their league perk gives them an extra shot within 12" instead of the normal 6", so when the German with the machine-gun move back to the steps he not only got the bonus for cover he remove Simms bonus shot for close range while keeping his own & that really is the key to playing solo you've got to use the other league as you would your own.

I've decided  that when I play PA instead of just doing one off games I would do a campaign, the game played out was Hidalgo Fire which is the opening game in the Perilous Island campaign book & is set in a desert in Mexico, now while I might change the names of characters (for Lady Harriet see Lady Elaine) or places from those in the book to suit my terrain the games will be played out as per the book.

I will also try to give more insight into the game in these AAR's  then I have in other AAR's as to how the game is playing out, but will still not show any dice or cards, hey were trying to make movies here :) 
This is something new to me so hopefully my skill at doing so will get better as we go along, so the game ended with the German's winning by 4 VP's to 0 VP's so they got  4 Reputation plus for their rewards they got 1 Contacts & 1 Backup, The Blue Blooded have it all to do in the next chapter The Final Flight, I hope you guys will tune in for that :)

Well that's it for this post, my thanks to Dave https://store.pulpalley.com/  for the script & as always to you guys for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed. :)



    

16 comments:

  1. I just came in for lunch and saw you just put up a post! Absolutely cracking stuff Frank!! Brilliant all around - it's amazing how well the PA solo deck works :)
    *loved how the donkey knocked Gloup down!*

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    1. Thanks Ivor, hope you time to eat your lunch while reading :) I really can't prise the solo deck enough.

      When thing like the donkey happens its like the icing on the cake. :)

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  2. Fantastic! THANKS for playing and sharing Pulp Alley.

    Oh, starting next year we are going to add some bonus Solo cards into the Phantom Agent rewards!

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    1. Thanks Dave, Yes some Solo cards in the Phantom Agent rewards would be great :)

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  3. Superb! I really need to have a look at these from a solo gamers point of view.

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    1. Thanks Micheal, if you want a game for Solo play then don't come much better then Pulp Alley imho :)

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  4. Well, that could have gone better, eh? ha ha
    Great report and photos!

    I agree that the solo deck makes Pulp Alley a great set of rules for solo play! More solo cards would be awesome. The more variety, the better, so you're not always seeing the same cards over and over. I like that there are "rewards" cards that switch things up, too. These things add flavor and randomness without complicating the rules, and that's all goof for solo players as well. At the same time, it also looks like a great game for 2 or more players, too (although I probably won't have many opportunities to try that).

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    1. Thanks Fitz, your right it could have gone better but even while getting my butt kicked it was still great fun :) more solo card will be welcome & yes Pulp Alley is great with 2 or more players, the reward cards are good in two ways as not only do there give you a little bonus in the game they also give you things you can use in further games & help your league to grow :)

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  5. Oh, that donkey... It's the easy-looing ones that hit back at you hardest, and boom - that's up to a sixth of your character's game-participation eaten up!

    A good read, with some great characters there to pull the action along.

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    1. Thanks Idle, yep the donkey was the high light of the game from getting a laugh point :) but even if it hadn't happened it was still a lot of fun.

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  6. Well done. I like how many of the PA scenarios have definite "ends". You don't just stop a turn "X", but there is a narrative reason why the combat breaks off.

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    1. Thanks Will, yes when it comes to narrative PA is up their with the best of them. :)

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  7. Great stuff, Frank!
    I'm thinking about starting a solo campaign and this is just what I need to get going :-)
    Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. Thanks Joakim, always happy to inspire :) & I hope you do mate so as you can inspire me back lol.

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