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  | AN ONGOING NEWSLETTER | June 2006 |
He was sick of Zombies & Monsters: But what could one person do? As the Corporate Giants put more and more of the population in prison for IP infringement, the system became more and more overburdened. Even worse, with the shrinking tax base, the expense was becoming too great to bear. The answer? Make the prisoners pay their own way. The Corporations were happy: They were able to hire workers for slave wages and to get labour for jobs that free workers just wouldn't do. The government was happy, because they were making money on the prisoners. And most of all the prisoners were happy, because... no. Wait. The prisoner's weren't happy. Oh well, two out of three isn't so bad. The Scenario: Guards: Captain Rumbo Every morning, you and your squad from M4 security pick up a work detail from IP Prison. They are usually non-violent offenders: Today's crowd is a bunch of wargame writers and miniatures sculptors who ran afoul of Giant Wargames inc.. but one of them looks out of place. Sure enough, among the workers is 'Mad Doug' McCowie, a hero among local bike gangs. He bribed his way onto troday's detail, and sits smugly among the other prisoners as the bus heads off to today's worksite. Great. Today's job is to clean up after another Rebel 'Action'. They blew up a truck containing a shipment of 'Tax Paying is Cool' posters, and the dam' things are all over the place. Easy work, the guards will mostly have to make sure the prisoners do a good job. Babysitting, really... The bus unloads at the scene, and you get the prisoners sorted into teams, each with their guard. They start to spread out, and everything goes to hell. Suddenly BANG! The front wheels are off the bus and it's full of smoke. You shout to your men 'Over there! Ambush!' pointing at the foe. Your team takes cover facing where you pointed, just before the bad guys open fire. The Rescuers You know they're on their way. You blew up the leaflet truck last night, knowing your boy would be on this morning's work detail. Rabbit has the lone RPG, and he swears he can get close enough to take out the bus. You and the boys hunker down in hiding: Rabbit will give a blast on his toy whistle, so everybody can get into firing position before he lets loose. The guards should be easy meat: Between the whistle and the blast, they'll be looking in the wrong direction when you open fire. Suddenly BANG! Where was the freaking whistle? Goddam Rabbit! By the time you get into position, the guards are ready and have taken cover. The Table: A neutral area of the city. Therefore, a messy one. The centre will of course be a truck surrounded by blowing posters, but there can be cars (wrecked or not) barricades from the riots, piles of trash, furniture thrown from rooftops, dumpsters pushed into the street by gangs, whatever. Clutter is good. Aside from that, whatever buildings you have are fine Line the street, leaving plenty of alleys and a cross-street or two. And there's a dead bus, too. Set Up The guards and prisoners are all within 6 inches of the truck, and drop to take whatever cover they can. (The scattered posters can be represented by some torn-up newsprint and can define the guards' deployment area.) The rescuers must deploy at least 8" from the guards' deployment area. (From the entire area, not just frrom the guards) Their position is marked on a map before the guards deploy. N.B. First turn, everybody is in cover: Rumbo chooses the direction he thinks the ambush will come from. If he's right, the guards have +1 on their first initiative roll. If away, the Rescuers get + 1 on their first initiative roll. Otherwise roll as normal. The Forces: Whaddaya got? The Guards: I'd use the prepainted Swat troopers, or the paramilitary types. Count 'em all as armed with SMGs, MARs, or shotguns: No assault cannons, lasers, or flamers are needed to guard prisoners. If all you have is NBC troops, then the blasted truck was full of toxic cheese, and the prisoners get a free lunch as they work. See how many you have, and total 'em up. The Rescuers: The choice is yours: Bikers, Savages, Rebels, Scavengers, Corporate Agents, whatever you want to use.It doesn't matter. Just use an equal points value to the troopers. You don't need to pay for Rabbit or the RPG: It's a free special effect, and is gone by the time that the game starts. So is Rabbit. When he realised he screwed up, he ran away. The Prisoners: In real life they'd be in prison fatigues, so if you have unarmed figures in prison fatigues numbering roughly 3x the number of Guards, you're set. Otherwise, use whatever unarmed figures you have. Designate one as Mad Doug, so he's easily spotted. Winning & Losing If the rescuers get their charge away alive, they win. They are not worried about casualties, heavy losses just means more monay for the survivors. If the guards retain their prisoners alive they win. Spoilers, Notes and Special Rules.
GM Note: The Rescuers are not here to rescue McCowie: they have been brought in from a different area, and have never even heard of them. They will not give him a gun, and he will not ask for one. For his part, he has no idea who they are, and since he has plenty of enemies he has no reason to assume they are here to rescue him. He will keep his head down and behave like any other prisoner. The Rescuers are here to rescue Osric Fairhope, a renegade RPG Designer. He too has no reason to go with them, and will become the Rescuer's prisoner: He will not be armed, and if unescorted he will merely sit or lie down to avoid bullets. He will move with his guardian, who must remain within 1" of him. They have only a poor picture of him, and of course all these dam' gamers look alike. They must examine each prisoner rolling for each. A 12 on 2D6 IDs the prisoner. Each rescuer has a picture and examining a prisoner within 2" takes 2AP. Point a gun at him and he'll follow. |
N.B. First turn, everybody is in cover: Rumbo chooses the direction he thinks the ambush will come from. If he's right, the guards have +1 on their first initiative roll. If away, the Rescuers get + 1 on their first initiative roll. Otherwise roll as normal. The Forces: Whaddaya got? The Guards: I'd use the prepainted Swat troopers, or the paramilitary types. Count 'em all as armed with SMGs, MARs, or shotguns: No assault cannons, lasers, or flamers are needed to guard prisoners. If all you have is NBC troops, then the blasted truck was full of toxic cheese, and the prisoners get a free lunch as they work. See how many you have, and total 'em up. The Rescuers: The choice is yours: Bikers, Savages, Rebels, Scavengers, Corporate Agents, whatever you want to use.It doesn't matter. Just use an equal points value to the troopers. You don't need to pay for Rabbit or the RPG: It's a free special effect, and is gone by the time that the game starts. So is Rabbit. When he realised he screwed up, he ran away. The Prisoners: In real life they'd be in prison fatigues, so if you have unarmed figures in prison fatigues numbering roughly 3x the number of Guards, you're set. Otherwise, use whatever unarmed figures you have. Designate one as Mad Doug, so he's easily spotted. Winning & Losing If the rescuers get their charge away alive, they win. They are not worried about casualties, heavy losses just means more monay for the survivors. If the guards retain their prisoners alive they win. NOTE: . Spoilers, Notes and Special Rules.
GM Note: The Rescuers are not here to rescue McCowie: they have been brought in from a different area, and have never even heard of them. They will not give McCowie a gun, and he will not ask for one. For his part, he has no idea who they are, and since he has plenty of enemies he has no reason to assume they are here to rescue him. He will keep his head down and behave like any other prisoner. The Rescuers are here to rescue Osric Fairhope, a renegade RPG Designer. He too has no reason to go with them, and will become the Rescuer's prisoner: He will not be armed, and if unescorted he will merely sit or lie down to avoid bullets. He will move with his guardian, who must remain within 1" of him. They have only a poor picture of him, and of course all these dam' gamers look alike. They must examine each prisoner rolling for each. A 12 on 2D6 IDs the prisoner. Each rescuer has a picture and examining a prisoner within 2" takes 2AP. Point a gun at him and he'll follow. I must say, I found the Guard Commander quite engaging! - R |