Beaver Town: Zombies-1, Humans-0

Last Saturday we had the CGC Xmas Game for 2012, and what a game it was. Thanks again to Shane for hosting, and to everyone who came to share in the camaraderie and back stabbing! Everyone appeared to have had a good time, as evidenced by everyone being willing to play two hours past our initial stopping time. Regardless... the zombies won anyway!

I am not going to write up a bunch of "stuff" as I have a ton of homework staring me in the face, so I'll just post the snaps and add some comments to each as seems appropriate.

This is the extraction point. Guarded by Beaver Corp security, who are safe from the zombie hordes thanks to an experimental zombie repulsion field generator (patent pending). They are in the process of repairing a bus (all the vehicles in town were disabled by another experimental pulse generator that failed to kill the zombies, but did blow out most anything with an electrical system) so that important Beaver Corp personnel can be extracted to safety before the town is nuked in order to wipe out the zombie infestation and keep the plague from spreading further. The good news for players is that they are welcome to escape town on the bus too. The bad news is that they all have a mission to accomplish first. Missions take three types: Rescue someone (an NPC) by getting them to the extraction point safely; collect a favored or important item before going to the extraction point; or destroying 30 zombies before being extracted. There is one unique mission, as we shall see in a mo.

Here's a snap from the start. In the bottom center is one of the player's teams. In this case, it's the Beaver Town Jihadists. Their mission does not fit any of the three main mission types, in that they must blow up two buildings that represent American imperialism (such as the police station, movie theater, brewery, etc.). The bad news is that the only explosives they begin with are suicide vests. Sure, they can use them to accomplish their missions, but there would be very little of them left to extract. So they started searching for explosives early...

Here the Beaver Town SWAT tries to hold back a gaggle of zombies. It is critical to have a few choke points on the table or it becomes virtually impossible for the players. The table is designed as 10'x6', but we only managed to eek out approximately 10'x5' (the game was originally going to be played at my house, hence the oversight for playing at Shane's). Losing a foot of width actually had a big impact on how the game played, making this little corner of the table much deadlier than it would have been otherwise. Just a fun game design fact.

Cities being what they are, the players tended to use main routes of travel as they were often the most direct. Here, to the left the Beaver Town Mafia is trying to get across to the town to loot the bank ('natch) before being extracted. Running up behind them are the only two survivors of the Beaver Town Game Club, intent on looting the Sleven (a regional mini-mart chain) of all its pornography...

And that leads me to comment on the nature of the CGC Xmas Game (and other CGC events for that matter). The Zombie Game is part serious, in the sense that it requires team work if the humans are to stand any chance. It is mostly funny and irreverent, however. All the characters are caricatures from popular media. As a result, they are anything but PC. If this offends you, then you are at the wrong web site. It's all just for fun and we make fun of everyone equally, including - and mostly - ourselves. 'Nuff said.

Located on The Wrong Side of the Tracks is Sarge's Military Surplus. Beaver Town Bail Bonds are currently in the store, looting it of whatever firearms and ammo they can find. Models are placed on roofs to indicate they are inside a building, because only some of the roofs lift off (the downside to using railroad buildings). If a living human was in a building for more than one activation, zombies would start to appear. Here the bonds men are fighting a zombie in a chicken suit. The pretty lady in the yellow jumpsuit is waiting to be rescued by her beau from the local Kung-Fu academy.

Two retired boxers are seen scrambling away from zombies!!! Unfortunately, I don't think Billy noticed that he was running by a zombie generator. He was soon overwhelmed, but then one of Beaver Corps experimental exploding zombies wandered by and... blew up. That wiped out the zombies, although Billy's boxers were grievously hurt in the process.

On the left is Herschel Liebowitz, of Beaver Town Talent. Next to him is his hired help, Clint. They are trying to get across town to the trailer park to help their rising star, Davy Jownz, to escape to safety. As you can see, it's not going well...

Billy's boxers are about to get swamped...

More action around the railroad tracks. These tracks bisect Beaver Town, separating it into "Downtown," and "The Wrong Side of the Tracks." Beaver Town P.D. is fighting zombies in the lower right, Beaver Town SWAT to the left, and the Beaver Town Boxers are at the top. They are near two zombie generators, a proximity that made things difficult.

It was at this point that the boys from Beaver Town Talent decided that running any further wasn't going to pay off in anything other than them becoming zombie chow. In a decision that would only delay that inevitability, they opted to stand and fight near the corner of the Beaver Town Memorial Park and Homeless Shelter (TM). This is actually just a fraction of the zombies they would end up battling. They put up a hell of a fight!

The front of the Sleven. To the left are the boys from the Beaver Town Game Club. To the left are (my team), Kewl & The Gang, the latter consisting of Sampson L. Jackson. As I recall, I was doing a lot more running than fighting, thinking that would be the key to success. While in theory my strategy should have worked... well, you'll see soon enough!

Bobby showed up late due (and I am thankful he could show up at all, all things considered), and opted to run the folks from the Beaver Town Senior Center. Their mission was to rack up 30 zombie kills before being evacuated, so they came out of the senior center with shotguns blazing!

Remember how I told you that this game is not PC? Well, Shane was in charge of the Beaver Town Black Leopard Party. Feeling a bit... LARPy... he took his characters' hatred of "the man" to heart and opened fire on Timmy's team (Beaver Town Bail Bonds) as soon as he had a clear shot. Here they are, facing off against each other on Main Street.

The boxers and cops fleeing from the growing zombie hordes. Maybe those giant dice can be used as weapons?!?

A nice shot showing (most) of the table. Before long, the number of zombies will be twice what are deployed in this picture.

Sampson L. Jackson (left of the tracks near the top) attempts to distract the zombies from his boss, Kewl, who has taken a hit of crack "for medicinal purposes" and run off the right side of the photo.

A wider view of the previous shot. You can see Kewl bravely running away to the right.

Things were really heating up at this point. Shane was on his anti-Whitey vendetta against Timmy's group, my gang was trying to run around various zombie packs, and anyone in the park was currently surrounded. Here, John, who was in charge of Beaver Town Game Club, ran his guys into the Sleven, where they quickly started stuffing their backpacks full of porn, slipping it between RPG books and Warhammer codices... The zombies could smell their pungent gamer flesh and were chomping at the bit just outside!!!

Not knowing where to run, a giant finger from the heavens points the way for the beleaguered survivors!!!

Akboom of the Beaver Town Jihadists decides to strike a blow against imperialism by setting off his suicide vest in the brewery. Way to take one for the team!

The first human casualty! Sylvester, former Beaver Town Boxing champ, becomes zombie show! He died due to an experimental zombie exploding, avoiding the embarrassment of coming back as a zombie himself.

More action on Main Street.

Robert, running Beaver Town Talent, does his level best to make a silk purse out of a... well, a huge pile of crap, really.

The Zombie Game uses the "Something Good, Something Bad" card system. Shane had to draw a Something Bad card, and ended up getting the dreaded "Don't Roll a 1" card. Youch! Well, he rolled a 1 that activation, trying to open the back door to the Military Surplus, so his hero dropped dead on the spot. You would think one of the CGC Flounders would know better than to tempt fate when rolling a 1 is involved...

And the zombies continue to pile up downtown. Apparently, Robert's guys were really tasty...

By some miracle, Sampson L. Jackson survived the zombie hordes, and caught up with Kewl at the Warehouse. Here, they are about to enter to Kewl can grab his stash before heading to the extraction point.

By this point, the Beaver Town Bail Bonds guys were both zombie-fied. Here, one of them joins some garden-variety zombies as they chase down the Beaver Town Black Leopard Party.

On the left are the Beaver Town Lipstick Lesbian Alliance, busy chopping up male zombies wherever possible. They actually ended up accomplishing their mission (thanks to finding a chainsaw in a dumpster), but failed to get to the extraction point in time.

Sic semper talentus agentus!!! Robert's team put up a good fight for a long time, but - as you can see - they never really had a chance. Life's not fair. My game's aren't either.

Gamemaster Phil makes a run for the extraction point, his backpack full of pilfered porn for the apocolypse!!!

Zombies continue to swarm around the Sleven, thanks to Mayonnaise Boy still being inside.

Just a big cluster-fork of zombies. There you go.

Because I am always most interested in what's happening to my characters, here's a snap of Kewl trying to make a break for it with his stash. Unfortunately, I made the same mistake Billy did, and ran too close to a zombie generator, allowing them to rat pack me...

A closeup of same.

Meanwhile, around the corner, Beaver Town SWAT had managed to rescue the mayor (their mission objective), but weren't having much luck getting him to the extraction point...

It was getting near the extraction time, so several teams were trying their best to get their before the bus left and Beaver Town was nuked. In the lead is the Beaver Town Mafia, followed by Beaver Town P.D., followed by lots of zombies.

Old Pete from the Beaver Town Senior Center does his best to blow away as many zombies as possible. Unfortunately, he ran out of shells and soon became zombie chow...

The girls try to make a break for the extraction point!

The shites starting to hit the fan now. Here, Mayonnaise Boy finally gets chewed down!

For awhile, I was afraid that my game would have a crack-friendly message, thanks to all the action points I was getting and the lack of consequences. Finally probability reasserted itself, however, and my character succumbed to his drug "solution", passing out in an inopportune spot. That he was eaten by a fat zombie was somehow ironically appropriate...

The last snap. Here, Gamemaster Phil and one of the gals fall just short of the extraction zone when Beaver Corp pulled the plug on any more survivors getting on the bus. In other words, there were no winners. Zombies-1, Players-0.

That said, I think when we play again (and we will), now that folks have a better feel for the layout of the city, and the sidekick concept and how it can be used, we will see survivors next time. In this game, almost no zombie generators were destroyed (only two total), a fatal mistake by any measure.

Still, everyone had a good time, and it was probably the best CGC Xmas events since Warlord Zmerphs of the Apocalypse. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to spend the day with us, pushing around little lead figures and this wonderfully goofy hobby!

Cheers!

- Rod