Saturday, December 3, 2011

Emergency Dispatch

I've been wondering about the fact that miniature games don't have to be miniature wargames. However, there doesn't seem to be a lot of examples around. Recently I played a 2008 game called Emergency 3, where you are an emergency dispatcher who must send rescue and police units to help people in car accidents, fires and crimes.


The game was heavily criticized for the high amount of micromanagement necessary to play. I figure part of this was due to it being a computer game, so players expected some autonomous AI from the cops, firefighters and medics. This made me think of using Chain Reaction 3.0 to add emergency teams and maybe even allow playing some random emergency scenarios on the tabletop. Bear in mind that I haven't tested these yet:

The Lists
I based the firefighters and EMT lists on the Police list. All of them are unarmed:
2 - 3: Crew commander / emergency physician (rep 5)
4 - 5: Veteran firefighter / paramedic (rep 5)
6 - 9: Seasoned firefighter / EMT (rep 4)
10 - 12: Rookie firefighter / EMT (rep 3)

For civilians, the list is simpler: just roll one die, on a 1-2 they are rep 3, otherwise rep 2.

Changes in the Flock of Seagulls Test
A civilian who passes 0d6 in a Flock of Seagulls test will hunker down instead of retiring.

Emergency medical treatment
All firefighters and EMT can rally other figures, and both can carry out of the fight figures to a safer place. All EMT may perform a challenge to bring an out of the fight character back to consciousness (stunned.) Paramedics and Emergency Physicians may perform a challenge to stabilize characters that seemed obviously dead. On a success, they count as in critical condition and cannot be further improved during the mission. Otherwise they are confirmed dead.

Fire
Sources of fire must be marked on the table as 2"x2" patches and they have a rep ranging from 1 (small flames) to 6 (raging inferno.) Civilians make the Flock of Seagulls test when they first see a source of fire of rep 3 or greater. A character who needs to approach or move close (2") to a source of fire with a rep equal to or higher than theirs must make a reaction test. Pass 2d6 = carry on; Pass 1d6 = halt; Pass 0d6 = duck back.

Characters who pass through a source of fire or finish their move within 2" of it suffer a ranged attack. The target rating and impact are equal to the rep of the fire source - 2 (minimum of 1.)

Sources of fire are extinguished by using a fire hose or fire extinguisher. Roll a number of dice equal to the character's rep (+1 if using a fire hose.) Non-firefighter characters roll one less die. You need to accumulate a number of successes equal to the fire's rep to reduce it to one rep below. So to extinguish a rep 3 fire you must first obtain 3 successes, then another 2, then another one success. You can reduce the rep of a source of fire by at most two levels on a single turn, even if multiple characters are trying to extinguish it.

If a source of fire is not being extinguished, there is a chance it will grow in intensity. Roll one die. On a result equal to or less than the rep of the fire, increase its rep. However, fires will only increase rep above 4 if there are ate least two other patches of fire within 2". If the source of fire does not increase its rep, roll another die. On a 1-4 it will spread, creating another patch of fire in the general direction: 1 = north, 2 = east, 3 = south, 4 = west.

Smoke
A closed room with at least one rep 3 (or greater) source of fire will start to be filled with smoke. A character without proper equipment must make a reaction test before acting: pass 2d6 = carry on; pass 1d6 = carry on; pass 0d6 = make a recover from knockdown test, worst result is out of the fight.