Auton's Playtest Report
Over the weekend I ran the play-*test*-('") of my upcoming Resident Evil:Apocalypse club game. There were two players running the zombies and a further three players each running a pair of humans (medical staff, tv crew and kids). I've based the rules on a stripped down version of the old Zombie Plague boardgame, incorporating the card pickup idea and converting squares to inches. The players need to find some keys to start a helicopter to escape. The humans decided that safety in numbers would be a good plan and all started off together heading along a residential street towards the first crate they could search. Staggering on from the other end of the table came a tide of zombies. They all searched the crate hoping for a nice selection of weaponry but the first card drawn released the Nemesis, a huge zombie with a built in mini-gun (yikes) The best weapon found from six searches turned out to be a length of 2 x 4 with a nail in it.... Deciding that it would be prudent to head away from the Nemesis, our heroes headed towards the church. Searching another crate en-route and throwing up a quick barricade across the road. The zombies advanced. Too late the nurse got trapped and immediately infected turning her into a zombie. Disaster! The humans fought their way around the church holding off more zombies. The kids threw up a barricade to delay them. They all rushed towards the next crate but one of the kids got attacked and turned into a zombie yet again! Still some useful items were found this time, a rifle and a molotov amongst them. With the Nemesis approaching they all decided to head towards a back alley and slip through to the next street. Bad news, zombies had entered from the other end but with some fancy swinging of the plank he'd found earlier the tv cameraman managed to clear the alley of the threat (never moan about finding a plank!) The tv anchorwoman proved deadly with the rifle as well... Avoiding the crate in the garage as there was only one entrance/exit they all headed towards the next crate but the doctor got cut off. He fought his way through crowds of zombies with his bare hands and headed towards a crate in some tall grass. A quick search threw up a flak jacket which almost immediately got used to fend off an attack. Meanwhile the last remaining kid decided to lob her molotov but disaster struck and it burst into flames at her feet (never let kids play with matches!) Not only did this cause her wounds but now meant she moved the same speed as the zombies around her. They slowly wore her wounds down until none were left. Bad news again, the rifle ran out of ammo. The tv crew headed towards another crate but a single zombie attacked the anchorwoman and she too went down. This left the doctor and the cameraman, things looked very bad... With the doctor being chased by lots of zombies the cameraman searched one more crate, no keys but a lovely chainsaw! The bad news was the Nemesis was homing in plus several zombies. Swinging his chainsaw at zombies he cut down several but managed to injure himself as well. Not good. At this point both humans were close to the helicopter and the one remaining crate. The doctor ran for the helicopter, barricading himself inside rather than taking on the mass of zombies and Nemesis. The cameraman reached the only crate left and found the keys! Even better news, Nemesis ran out of ammo on his mini-gun! It was chainsaw time on Nemesis and despite being surrounded, the cameraman took him down. Unfortunately the zombies were too much and brought him down within sight of the helicopter. The doctor realizing there was no other way out, exited the helicopter and fought his way to the keys left on the ground. He grabbed them and beat off zombies as he headed slowly back to the helicopter. He finally succumbed to wounds within inches of the helicopter, brought down by a mass of zombies. Game over. Roll titles. It all ran rather well, just a tweak here and there ready for the proper game in a few weeks.
Over the weekend I ran the play-*test*-('") of my upcoming Resident Evil:Apocalypse club game. There were two players running the zombies and a further three players each running a pair of humans (medical staff, tv crew and kids). I've based the rules on a stripped down version of the old Zombie Plague boardgame, incorporating the card pickup idea and converting squares to inches. The players need to find some keys to start a helicopter to escape. The humans decided that safety in numbers would be a good plan and all started off together heading along a residential street towards the first crate they could search. Staggering on from the other end of the table came a tide of zombies. They all searched the crate hoping for a nice selection of weaponry but the first card drawn released the Nemesis, a huge zombie with a built in mini-gun (yikes) The best weapon found from six searches turned out to be a length of 2 x 4 with a nail in it.... Deciding that it would be prudent to head away from the Nemesis, our heroes headed towards the church. Searching another crate en-route and throwing up a quick barricade across the road. The zombies advanced. Too late the nurse got trapped and immediately infected turning her into a zombie. Disaster! The humans fought their way around the church holding off more zombies. The kids threw up a barricade to delay them. They all rushed towards the next crate but one of the kids got attacked and turned into a zombie yet again! Still some useful items were found this time, a rifle and a molotov amongst them. With the Nemesis approaching they all decided to head towards a back alley and slip through to the next street. Bad news, zombies had entered from the other end but with some fancy swinging of the plank he'd found earlier the tv cameraman managed to clear the alley of the threat (never moan about finding a plank!) The tv anchorwoman proved deadly with the rifle as well... Avoiding the crate in the garage as there was only one entrance/exit they all headed towards the next crate but the doctor got cut off. He fought his way through crowds of zombies with his bare hands and headed towards a crate in some tall grass. A quick search threw up a flak jacket which almost immediately got used to fend off an attack. Meanwhile the last remaining kid decided to lob her molotov but disaster struck and it burst into flames at her feet (never let kids play with matches!) Not only did this cause her wounds but now meant she moved the same speed as the zombies around her. They slowly wore her wounds down until none were left. Bad news again, the rifle ran out of ammo. The tv crew headed towards another crate but a single zombie attacked the anchorwoman and she too went down. This left the doctor and the cameraman, things looked very bad... With the doctor being chased by lots of zombies the cameraman searched one more crate, no keys but a lovely chainsaw! The bad news was the Nemesis was homing in plus several zombies. Swinging his chainsaw at zombies he cut down several but managed to injure himself as well. Not good. At this point both humans were close to the helicopter and the one remaining crate. The doctor ran for the helicopter, barricading himself inside rather than taking on the mass of zombies and Nemesis. The cameraman reached the only crate left and found the keys! Even better news, Nemesis ran out of ammo on his mini-gun! It was chainsaw time on Nemesis and despite being surrounded, the cameraman took him down. Unfortunately the zombies were too much and brought him down within sight of the helicopter. The doctor realizing there was no other way out, exited the helicopter and fought his way to the keys left on the ground. He grabbed them and beat off zombies as he headed slowly back to the helicopter. He finally succumbed to wounds within inches of the helicopter, brought down by a mass of zombies. Game over. Roll titles. It all ran rather well, just a tweak here and there ready for the proper game in a few weeks.