Review: Flying Lead

Flying Lead, by Rich Jones and Andrea Sfiligoi, can be seen as the modern conflict version of Song of Blades and Heroes. From reading the official forums and the rules, it becomes apparent that it is the most sophisticated rules-wise among the Song of Blades "children" (I've played so far SoBH, Mutants and Death Ray Guns, Fear and Faith and Song of Drums and Shakos.) So let's get to the review:

Contents: Flying Lead is a 48-page standalone rulebook that is chock-full with rules, rosters, scenarios and optional systems. It doesn't hold back on information and is enough on its own to play modern or near-future conflicts with the Song of Blades engine. It includes general rules for vehicles that with a little work might be adapted to include small mecha or powered armor too.

Presentation: As with other Ganesha books, it's laid out in two columns with grayscale illustrations. The exception are a few brownish "watermark"-style silhouettes on a few pages. These, and the bullets on the margins of all pages, were a little annoying while reading and a waste of printer ink but still not enough to cause grief. Font sizes are still good enough to read in booklet format.

Wasteland Wanderer: the Solo Scenario

In this solo scenario for Mutants and Death Ray Guns, you control a group of survivors that must cross the post-apocalyptic wastelands. Maybe they have to bring supplies or information to some distant settlement, or maybe they are on a quest to find something or someone. In any case, they must leave the relative safety of their village or citadel and brave the dangers of the wastes.

The wanderers
To start this scenario, create a party of four characters using the standard MDRG rules. They can only be humans, mutants or robots and at least one of them must be human. For each human on the party beyond the first, you are entitled one reroll of equipment (on any character) when creating your party. Note however that mutants and robots may allow special options in some encounters.

Scenario structure
This scenario is played as a series of six random encounters, rolled on the encounter table. After each combat encounter that you win, you may use the Survival Table from the book to find out the fate of your figures defeated in combat. If all your figures are defeated in combat, you lose the scenario. If some of them flee, you may go on with those. You win the scenario if your party survives their sixth encounter. At this point, they manage to complete their travel without further incidents.

Cops and Gangs: a New World Disorder battle report

In a previous post, I have written about my first impressions of New World Disorder, which looked like a promising system with some RPG-like features. However, I still had to play some games to write a proper review. In the meantime, I've also bought the two expansions for the game, Cyber Zone and Zombie Apocalypse, which will be discussed in future posts. This post is a battle report of a solo test game.

The scenario
In a dystopian near future, whole cities have turned into ruined slums, and there is constant fighting between gangs and corporation-sponsored police. In this game, a patrol of corporate cops chases Massive, a notorious gang leader, along with two gang members, to a dead end in the slums. The cops decide to try to take down Massive instead of waiting for reinforcements, interested in the bounty on his head.

The opposing forces
From left to right, we have the three gang members: Red (Punk, Brawn 1 / Brains 1 / Guts 1, carrying a light assault rifle), Massive (Thug, Brawn 2 / Brains 1 / Guts 2, Fearless, with a medium submachine gun) and Skid (Punk, Brawn 1 / Brains 1 / Guts 1, with a medium semi-auto pistol).

Flat-folding glueless blocks

I've been fiddling with other ways to create flat-folding glueless models, inspired by TopoSolitario's great IKubes. The first picture shows the results of my experiments, including some 2"x2" blocks, a ramp and a wall.

There are two versions of the block. The most basic one is built from a single strip of paper, requiring nine cuts. It can be easily drawn with a ruler and square. The downside of this version is that some parts of the top stay raised, making the resulting model less appealing. The other version adds some tabs and slots to help closing the box. In both cases, the bottom of the block is open and a diagonal support can be inserted to add stability.

Two or more blocks may be connected using a short strip of paper, which acts like a simple clamp. This way, several blocks may be used to build larger structures. Blocks can also be stacked on top of each other to create buildings of different heights.

Here is a picture showing the unfolded models. From the top left, in clockwise order: the basic block, ramp, the alternate block and the wall (certainly the most complex of these structures.)

Even though I did these tests using common paper (75gsm) the results were reasonably sturdy. In the end, the modular blocks are less efficient than the IKubes -- I would need two sheets of paper to fill about the same volume as a single IKube. However, these blocks may be useful as an additional option for flat-folding, easy to build terrain.

Pulp terrain pieces

I've been building some terrain pieces in 28mm scale, which I intend to use in both ShadowSea-inspired games as well as pulp adventures: pre-historic jungles, swamps, ancient ruins...

The materials used were mostly Lord ZseZse Works' Ancient Worlds set, Puka Shell Games' Terrain Pack (for the grass texture on the campground), a plastic potted plant and some epoxy, foamies and hot glue for modeling. The bases are 1.5mm thick cardstock or 4mm thick foamcore in the case of the campground.

The campfire was inspired by this simply awesome article on modeling burning tires and oildrums, although my results don't do it justice.

I was amazed at the texture quality from Lord Zse Zse Works' product. These columns were easy to build, fit perfectly and they will look great as obstacles or hiding spots in a game.

I still plan on building the temple from Lord ZseZse, plus some ruins with a sacrificial altar using Finger and Toe Models' Lost City blocks but these will take time.