My Blog List

My Blog List

Thursday 11 January 2018

Lagoon of Terror, Pulp Alley Solo AAR

   NICKEL & DIME PRODUCTIONS PRESENT
                                                              Perilous Island



                                               A story by Dave Phipps at Pulp Alley
                                                     Chapter five Lagoon of Terror

Going through the old sailor's log book the Blue Blooded found references to what seemed a very strange island their was also written the latitude & longitude points of the island that when checked against a map showed nothing but open water.
The mast  of a boat  the major plot point  & a minor plot point the native on the shore line
Collins" That very odd don't you guys think?"
Moore " yes & no, their are this large parts of the oceans still not explored & as these points aren't on any shipping lanes its not out of the question that there's something there.
The three other minor plot points, top right  skeleton  remains, top left backpack at big skull & centre a little jug  
With nothing else to go on the Blue Blood charter a boat, two days later they sight land at the point given & forge towards it at full steam, but before they can reach it the boat is rocked by an explosion.
The Germans have tracked them in a U-boat & now knowing were they are headed have fired torpedo's into the boat sinking it, before surfacing & sending a small party a shore.
On the random events table the BB's got to up their dice for the roll off while the G's got to place areas of perilous terrain, which are the two pieces of longer grass seen in the picture above.
The leagues deployed, Collins, Grace & Moore all deployed beside one another, bottom centre with Dowl over at the left top hand corner, the Germans in twos, Hess & Gloup left centre, Brown & Fritz at the top to Moore's right & Helge & Muller at the terrain nearest to the top right hand corner.
Moore heads over to the small jug ,
Collins runs & shoots Brown

BB's Moore card peril passes, Collins card bonus 1d to brawl, shoot or dodge, Grace card means that everyone has to take a card this turn, Dowl card fail can run this turn Germans Hess card warm up top secret , Gloup card sprint may run an extra 3" attach until used, Helga card on fire top secret.





Knocking him from his feet  with some well placed shoots.

Grace gets into some cover before firing at Brown

& dropping him
Hearing the shots behind him  Moore spins & blasts away at Fritz
who joins Brown on the ground, but not before taking Dowl  down
Hess seen his men dropping like flies  decides  some payback is in order
& drops Moore , while
Gloup heads down to the native 
as Helga moves to the skeleton 
Turn 1 Recovery Brown, Fritz, Moore & Dowl pass, Muller fails & is ko'd 
Moore gets back to his feet, but Hess is having none of it
Moore surprise twist activation switches to the other side, Hess card quirk of fate remove all solo cards in play,Fritz card missing clue fail can't run this turn.







& pumps more lead into him taking him out for good
Fritz, Brown & Moore all back on their feet, trade lead again 
With Moore taking the hits
The native turns to face Gloup  & not happy tells him he's just scared off the biggest fish he's ever seen 
Grace notice's there something under the skeleton 
& tossing it into the crop of jungle  bends & picks something up, slipping it into a pocket as Brown moves to cover her
Collins runs down to the water front & looks out at the mast I wonder he thinks to himself
Grace now moves over to the jug that has cost Moore so dearly 
& picks it up, while seen to Moore, I'll be ok he tells her you just look out for youself
Turn 2 Recovery Dowl passes & Moore fails
Collins wades out into the water & shoots at Hess on the beach wounding him
Collins card momentum top secret, Grace card peril passes, Dowl card hesitation can not perform any actions or run this turn.









Grace runs with the jug & hides out behind some foliage
Dowl moves into the cover of some trees & lines up a shot at Gloup
who falls at the feet of the amazed native
Hess  wounded limps to where he can draw a line of sight to Grace & fires wounding her
While Dowl was busy shooting at Gloup Fritz has move to get a shot at him
The first Dowl knows of it is when the bullet hits knocking him from his feet 
Brown rounding a piece of foliage spots Grace & open up with his machine gun  

Helga runs across some open ground keeping a watchful eye as she goes
Turn 3 Recovery Dowl, Hess & Brown pass, Grace fail & is ko'd
Dowl gets back to his  feet to give 

Fritz card lucky guess  top secret,  Hess card peril passes , Brown card double down, meaning two cards are played on Dowl, first card peril passes second card peril passes








Fritz  some payback
As Hess moves in on the jug
Brown get  Dowl in his sights but at this range the machine gun has no effect
Helga moves in on the backpack  stopping as she notices some movement in the long grass 
Collins has reach the mast & taking a deep breath, swims down to the boat
While Dowl goes to talk to the native 
Turn 4 Recovery Fritz & Helga pass
With Dowl  busy talking to the native Fritz decides now would be a good time to try to snip him
Fritz card move along, Hess card blindsided top secret,  Helga card no shot can't shoot



& Dowl falls to the ground 
Hess now has the jug but Helga  is a state of fear over the long grass
as Collins returns to the surface with some waterproof pouch he found down on the boat
swimming for the shore Collins can't spot any of his  friends 
but does spot Fritz 
& gives him some lead
What the hell is wrong with you Helga Hess barks 
but she just turns & runs leaving his question unanswered
Turn 5 Recovery Fritz pass, Helga Dowl fail, Dowl ko'd
Collins now back on dry land 
Brown card fouled top secret, Fritz card all clear Hess card make it count +1d  brawl, shoot or dodge, attach until used


gets the better of Brown 
Just before the  lagoon behind him erupts as the largest crocodile any of them has ever seen breaks the surface of the water sending them all running  inland as fast as their legs will carry them 
Designer note, you'll have noticed a bit of a change in the report, there's a couple of reasons for this, but the post has just taken what seems like for ever to get done, I think by now most people should have a good idea of how PA works so I've cut back a bit on what was happening game wise.

As I said in the last post I was trying out some new solo card for Dave & these worked well imo adding a bit more to solo play, the cards btw are the ones with top secret beside them :) the game like so many seen the BB's really luck out on recovery rolls but with taking the risk of the terror to go for the MPP they managed to pull off a draw, the next post in this campaign will be awhile as I've some work to do on a set for it, but the good news is that after this weekend life should start to go back to normal whatever that is :)
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. :)

14 comments:

  1. Frank those 1st two photos are brilliant, the waves breaking on the sand, top notch. Presumably it's some form of teased out polyester filling, whatever it is it's effective.
    And that crocodile - scary.
    I don't use the Pulp Alley rules so I don't miss the detailed description but I do enjoy you letting us know how the rules have had an effect on the story.
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks John, Yep that's all the waves are simple but effective :) sadly the croc failed to show up, how it works is from turn 3 you roll a dice at the start of each turn & he comes in on a 4+, would have been big trouble for the BB's had he showed as he gets placed within 12" of the MPP

    It's trying to find a balance between letting you guys know stuff & the amount of time I spend writhing up an AAR, as you know the making of the movie over riders everything else for me mate :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's this thing with the crocodile that I find interesting for solo games, we need to design the game so something happens but because it's solo we don't want to know when it's going to happen. I've done various things, once so many doubles are thrown for activation, or start needing 12 on 2d6, then next turn 11 then 10 so eventually it happens but when!!! Some times it happens too soon or too late and buggers up the game, at least from what we envisioned but it becomes a different game, which is probably good;-)
    You need to write the games as you enjoy writing them, it's your blog at the end of the day for your enjoyment and we will hang on for the ride.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr Croc O Dile :) is playing the part of what is called a terror in PA John & is part of the scenario even if it multi player, the fact of whether he'll turn up or not adds a nice bit of uncertainty to the game which is good & has the players having to decide is it worth the risk in this scenario to go for the MPP.

      I could see the Germans where starting to get the upper hand so took the risk & got away with it :)

      Delete
  4. I know how much time putting together game reports can take. Do whatever works for you.

    Well, this one turned out to be a rather bloody affair, or at least a lot of casualties, it seems. One thing I have noticed with Pulp Alley is games can have a lot of casualties or very few. Either way they are still fun.

    Sounds like the new solo cards are going to be a boon for solo players, like me. It's always good to have more variety, especially for solo games, to keep things interesting and not the same old thing every time.

    The late arrival of the giant croc Is rather cinematic. I could just picture it in one of those old pulpy movies.

    Keep up the good work! One of these days I will get some games in and post a report myself! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Fitz, yep it does take time & having the flu & other real life things going on at the moment doesn't help :( but glad you enjoy it :)

      Yep it was bloody but that's good right ? 15 new cards adds to the mayhem & makes solo play all the more enjoyable imho, Dave has built in ways of making the game end instead of just saying the game ends on turn 6 which I like & does add a nice cinematic feel to things :)

      Getting everything set up to start gaming takes time if you want more then just throwing a few things on the table & moving models around but you'll get there & I'll be waiting to read all about it :)

      Delete
  5. An excellent beginning to 2018 - a great entry, looking forward to the next instalment!

    ReplyDelete
  6. As usual, another brilliant episode Frank! It's terrible to say out loud, but I was hoping that croc was going to pull someone into the lagoon :)
    But then that could have made for a neat rescue!
    How cool would it be to design an underwater table - ala 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - where you actually game Collins swimming down to the boat to find the pouch :) I've always wanted to do an underwater scene like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ivor, as long as it would have been one of the Germans it would have have been ok:)
      20'000 leagues would be cool but not sure how easy it would be getting the right effect for underwater unless I shot it in the bathtub :)

      Delete
  7. Excellent stuff!
    I was so hoping that croc would get a snack... I have terrible memories of 'our' monster in said game :-)
    I really have to start my own solo campaign, just have to finish a coupla of terrain pieces first

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joakim, whats with everyone wanting the croc to get feed ? :)

      Yer you really have to so I can read all about it, have you any idea which one your going to run with ?

      Delete
    2. I have my eyes on Tomb of the Serpent - perfect for solo-games. Need to fix some terrain and some cultists. Should be possible without to much hassle.
      I intend to bring my trusty Vatican-party, I really like them :-D

      Delete