Back in (re)action!

Well, after three months of inactivity, I am back to posting on this blog. Here is a quick battle report of a game played with the Chain Reaction 2015 rules. These updated rules have streamlined ranged combat and close combat and might require a few less dice rolls. The basic rules (character stats, reaction system, turn sequence) are unchanged or had only small adjustments.

In this quick game, Maxi (rep 4 grunt, pistol) and Stella (rep 5 star, SMG) are gangers that have crashed their car after escaping a police chase.

Maxi on the left, Stella on the right.

Now they must cross a stretch of an enemy gang territory in order to return to their turf. The goal is to leave the map through the street on the opposite edge, avoiding or fighting the rival gang members.

Can you spot the three Possible Enemy Forces?

The two women start moving cautiously down the street. Some noise from a nearby building draws their attention but they don't see anybody. [As the game began, the two gangers moved into sight of the closest PEF but it was resolved as "There's something out there."]

Maxi and Stella move behind a parked van just as another ganger steps onto the street, coming from a nearby parking lot. Stella fires a burst from her SMG, sending him scurrying for cover behind a building. [The second PEF was resolved as a single guy - I rolled on gang recruitment and fished a random figure to determine his equipment:. a Rep 4 ganger with an SMG. I won the In Sight test, fired but only scored a duck back!]

The dice in this picture indicate the number of successes for each side on the In Sight test. Under the new rules, a tie favors the side that was not moving.

The enemy moves behind cover of a car at the parking lot. The women decide to rush behind a close building but, as they get into an alleyway, the ganger fires at them. Stella shoots back and kills him. Now the way seems clear for them to get away. [I moved into sight of the last PEF, which was resolved as nothing. The enemy won the In Sight test as I moved from behind the building, but missed with three 1's. Stella fired back and scored an Obviously Dead result. After that, there were no more enemies on the map, so they could finish the mission.]

That's an awful to-hit roll. Usually I get these results, not the enemy.

This was a quick game -- around 30 minutes, including taking pictures. Not surprising as this was a simple scenario and I was used to the game rules (despite the modifications in the 2015 version.) I would say that the streamlining worked well -- I was afraid that the new firing rules would be too simple but they match the game style.

In other news, Aleksandar's napoleonic miniatures arrived in July. I have seen some interesting tutorials on the Baccus Miniatures site but I still have to base and paint them.

My printed copy of Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls has arrived more recently (and along with it, the dice with skulls that appear on some of the photos of the battle report.) I hope to play some of their classic solo adventures and write about it.

386 pages of old school role-playing

This is all for now, I expect to get back to updating this blog regularly.