More Painting & More Infection Z

I've been painting a bit. Just an hour or two most nights but I've also been typing a lot too, trying to bash my Infection Z solo zombie apocalypse rules into shape (more on that below).

Painting wise, I've mainly been doing apocalypse-ish things but I've still been doing fantasy stuff. I do tend to go off on a spree which will eventually peter off and then I get on to something else for a while. This time it's back to zombies.

Anyway, here's a bunch of bikers. I think they're Copplstone figures but I'm not sure. They look like his sculpting but I've seen the same figures on line with other folks making claims on them. They're pretty hefty dudes with plenty of character. I've had them for a while and that's why I can't remember where they came form.

This one is from Studio Miniatures. It's obviously supposed to be Daryl from the Walking Dead and it's a pretty nice figure. But the way it leans forward really annoys me. I might re-base it.

This guy is a Frostgravefigure from Northstar. Very nice. Despite his hood he has a very crazy face. I like him.

Infection Z

I've really been working hard on this. I wrote and changed and worked on a lot of stuff and played a test game. I went back and changed a bunch of things and added new things and played another test game.  Changed more stuff and played another game...

Lots of writing and three test games and it's really starting to take solid shape. I changed a lot of the original stuff I worked on last year but I tried to keep the basic concepts. After three games it now seems to work.

The main changes were made to the survivor characters. And it took a lot of thinking and chopping and changing and editing and chopping and changing again. In the end I looked at good old original D&D for guidance. And I found the inspiration I needed!

As for the zombies: my original concept of a goal system does allow for a lot more zeds. There are a few different types in the game (fast ones and big ones etc,) and they tend to were down the survivors. Some of the zeds are nasty but they can be killed with a single head shot. But it is working out how I wanted them to work. The sheer weight of numbers is what makes them lethal.

I took the following shots to show how, during the game, fairly quiet situations can become lethal pretty quickly. This is what I want. Unpredictability and dangerous, but not impossible, situations.

With writing the scenarios I also decided to go less detailed. Initially I made pretty precise maps but then opted for a general concept. On the tables below I played the same game through twice. The survivors had to get from the building in the big red circle to the exit at the little red circle. The top one was the first game and the second was the more general set up (which allowed me to do any sort of basic lay out).

The second game worked so much better that I forgot to take pics of the game because I really got involved. (And no! The bus and ambulance crash was not part of the game. I only now noticed that I did the same thing in both set ups - It must be a Freudian thing.)

So there you have it. Infection Z is coming along nicely. I'll play the 3 game, mini-campaign I wrote back to back this week to see how it works out.

Some of This and Some of That

I've devoted limited time to painting this week, but I've still been painting a little bit every day. As a result I've finished a few figures. Some I've had for a few months and some that are pretty much new.

This first one is a lady knight from Reaper. It's a very nice figure and required very little clean up prior to painting. The only disappointment is a slight warp in the sword. II don't think it's supposed to be a she-elf but it could be. Lovely figure. Nice detail and easy to paint. I like it's hair.

This one is another Reaper, but this time its a Black Bones figure. In my opinion the Black Bones are much nicer to work on than the original white ones. This figure came in a set of three and it the nicest figure out of the three. (No back shot because it's pretty dull - just a long dark cloak.)

And some zombie apocalypse figures from Studio Miniatures. Nice figures but both of them are quite small. The lady in particular is very small. But her rifle is to scale so she looks like what she's supposed to look like: a tough little lady with a big rifle. The guy is simple but well done and really looks the part. I like his coat and scarf.

And another big zombie from Zombiecide. He doesn't look happy. Judging by the way his legs are posed, I think he needs a pee.

Infection Z ~ What's This?

I've been looking for a solo play zombie apocalypse game for some time and I've yet to find a truly solo game. I decided last year to write my own rules but I got to a certain point and lost interest. Recently I've been playing Rangers of Shadow Deep (which is solo fantasy) and I've really been enjoying the game. So, I decided to modify RoSD for a zombie apocalypse. How did this go? Let's find out.

I originally planned to do this post as a battle report but I think I'll do bit of an analysis of the results.

The rules I started writing were based on a Goal System with a few, but not a bucket of dice. I created a Zombie AI, and an overly complex NPC AI. But where I really got lost was in the scenario creation. I think I got a bit burnt out by the time I got to that part and didn't know where to go. Really, I got lost in complexity with my original idea getting buried in more and more unnecessary detail.

So, when I played RoSD I thought: Wow! This is simple but it works really well. And earlier this week I though: Can I adapt RoSD for my own private zombie games? So that's what I did.

I play tested the game yesterday and, while it worked, I think there was something missing. And that was Zombies! There needed to be a whole lot more zombies. As it was the little game I played had seven characters and maybe a dozen zombies. It was an exciting game with the characters only just surviving with three down and  one dead. But, as you can see from the photo's the streets are empty and it doesn't look right (well not to me).

What I think the problem is, is that the combat system in RoSD can be quite brutal and characters can be killed with a single blow. That's not so bad really because it makes even the most innocuous creature dangerous, but it can't be used for hoards of zombies because they'll just swamp the characters in turn one or two and kill them. While that sounds like a regular situation for a zombie apocalypse, it doesn't make for a good game.

The goal system I wrote has each character rolling a few dice with more added for weapons and situation etc. The average zombie gets one dice but the more there are the more dice you will add. One zombie has 1d6 and five zombies will have 5d6. So weight of numbers is important to balance the game and makes it easy to use plenty of zeds with characters needing to avoid them or running the risk of getting swamped.

One factor that I included, that I think gives it more of a zombie apocalypse feel, is the need to attain a Head Shot. My solution was to give the zed's no hit points but the characters had to get 18 or over on a d20 to get the head shot (adding combat and weapon factors to get here). They also had to win the fight in the first place. It worked okay but seemed a bit odd. I also included a rule that if the survivor characters won the fight but didn't get the head shot then the zombie was knocked to the ground. They would then try to get back to their feet in the last phase of the turn. I call it the Raising Dead Phase (which also incorporates dead survivors turning into zombies). This came directly from my original concept.

Having said all that I have learned quite a bit from playing RoSD and all of my recent writing and contemplation. One of the main things I've taken from RoSD is the composition of scenarios. I initially tried to make it so that any scenario could be created as any time for any reason with everything you could think of taken into account and possible - All with the roll of a few dice. That doesn't work. What I like about RoSD is that by writing a set of three or four short linked scenarios you can create a story arc that could take place over a single day, a few days or a couple of weeks.

So I wrote a short set of three scenarios that I called Day 1 that's all about escaping a city. It was the first of these scenarios that I play tested yesterday and, like I said, it worked but it was lacking.

So where to now? I think I'll go back to my original rules and do some heavy editing and re-writing. Simplicity in the basics is what I need and pretty much what I already have. But I have to develop a layer of complexity over the top that doesn't weigh down the basic mechanism. Let's see how I go.

P.S. All the terrain is card terrain, some are my own pieces but the majority of the table (the better pieces) are by World Works.

Some Things I Painted

I've slowed down a bit with my painting. It's mainly due to my playing Rangers of Shadow Deep and doing detailed write ups. But I'm still puting paint onto figures every day even if I am doing a bit less.

I recently picked up another bunch of figures that have been sitting on my desk and put paint on them. They've been undercoated and gathering dust for about a years or so. That's a pretty short time to sit on the desk compared to some figures.

These are, I think from Studio Miniatures. I got them about 12 to 18 months back and I'm not sure where they came from. I think it was Studio Mini's. I like the guy with the baseball bat but I'm not so keen on the guy with the hammer. The lady is a nice figure but I don't think my paint job is very good. For some reason they look shiny but they're not. They have very matte finish. I can only guess it must be the lighting. They all look like characters from The Walking Dead.

This is figure is a Zombiecide figure. I don't know why I took a photo of it. Anyway, he came out looking good.

This one is an apothecary from North Star: a Frostgrave figure. He came with a crossbow guy who I'm painting at the moment. This is a really nice figure with a lot of character. He has a great face.

And last is this Celt from Eureka. He has been sitting my my lead pile for a long, long time. I think he is supposed to be carrying a coracle (a small skin boat) but I don't have the boat so I fixed the gap in his back with some greenstuff. He'll do for any sort of random NPC.