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Fog of war and or fog environmental card
10-01-2013, 05:00 PM
Post: #1
Fog of war and or fog environmental card
I've been wondering if there was some way to add fog of war to this game. Short of the zombie player marking zombie movement on a piece of paper I don't think there is an elegant way to do it. Having an environment card that obscures vision would be good too. Just thinking of a way to help up the tension when wandering around outside not knowing where the zombies may be lurking only to see 3 walkers suddenly emerge out of the mist.

ALSO:

I'm thinking that if a building has lights out then zombies should have some sort of advantage vs range weapons. If you are shooting into a blackened building or even standing at the opposite end I doubt you are going to be hitting zombies with head shots.
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10-01-2013, 11:07 PM
Post: #2
RE: Fog of war and or fog environmental card
I don't recall seeing rules made for either by anyone.

For FOW for the zombie movement, the ZP could maintain a separate board with the state of the zombies. Lots of honesty required, though.

If you want to check out a game where the "villain" makes all his moves in secret, check out one of my other favorite games: Fury of Dracula.
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10-03-2013, 05:48 AM (This post was last modified: 10-03-2013 06:25 AM by ForestRunner.)
Post: #3
RE: Fog of war and or fog environmental card
(10-01-2013 05:00 PM)ch82 Wrote:  I've been wondering if there was some way to add fog of war to this game. Short of the zombie player marking zombie movement on a piece of paper I don't think there is an elegant way to do it. Having an environment card that obscures vision would be good too. Just thinking of a way to help up the tension when wandering around outside not knowing where the zombies may be lurking only to see 3 walkers suddenly emerge out of the mist.

Being a wargamer, I find FoW an interesting idea. Tried it using wooden blocks - as per Columbia Games block wargames.

In short, the blocks face the zombie player and really only suited a 2 or 3 player game with space limitations. There are blocks in each square which are not in line of sight of any of the heroes... with blocks representing 0-3 zombies.

Each block edge represents a "pip" if you like. Example, a block at "0" has a zombie move into that space. During the zombie turn the block is rotated 90 degrees to be "1"... if another zombie entered that space the block would rotate a further 90 degrees to be a "2" (or 180 degrees all up). When such a space became visible, the block would be removed and replaced by the number of zombies... or alternatively kept empty for no zombies.

If you want further detail on how the blocks work check out columbiagames.com

It was fun to muck around with, but I felt it encouraged wargame type tactics for the zombie player. That may sit well with some, but for me the zombies are mindless and driven by unquenchable hunger for flesh/brains, and not suited to wargamer tactics. It can move away from what the zombies are meant to thematically represent in this great game. There was also considerable time added checking each square and line of sight... so the game could bog down in a mire of detail as well, as "downtime" increased for the hero players. I'm happy with the way The Great Frog has ended up designing this great game, and how it allows a good balance of timing and pacing for all players to be involved... or at least interested/engaged during their downtime.

At the end of the day, Woodinvale represents a small area, and Timber Peak even smaller... it may be night, but it's assumed there is lighting - be it from buildings, lamp posts, the moon, fires that have sprung up through the apocalypse, or even lightning if the weather is bad. On top of sight, the heroes have hearing at short distances as well as knowledge of places explored recently. The heroes may also have an awareness of other commotion in town outside of the control of the heroes (ie pair of zombies chasing down a tonwsfolk survivor who is yelling and screaming).

I feel FoW would be more suited to a large area... like a city or large geographical region like the Fury of Dracula example quoted above.

That's just my play experience shared, rather than trying to ram down anyone's throat what is right or wrong. Take it or leave it.

Oooops... Sorry to ramble on!!

(10-01-2013 05:00 PM)ch82 Wrote:  I'm thinking that if a building has lights out then zombies should have some sort of advantage vs range weapons. If you are shooting into a blackened building or even standing at the opposite end I doubt you are going to be hitting zombies with head shots.

Lights out doesn't necessarily mean pitch darkness as one would associate with a dungeon crawl type scenario. I tried this in my own home last night as proof of concept, with some light still streaming into the house from the outside. I could easily make out the shape/outline of my missus across the room and her movement, but could not make out the plate on the table that was about a metre away from me (roughly just over 3 feet for you guys on the imperial measurements).

Was considering maybe that first roll have a -1 penalty to represent the time it takes for the eyes to adjust... but it is already night time??

I think the rule on this as written on this plays prototypically.

Don't get me wrong... great line of thinking and questioning.

I don't suffer from insanity... I love every minute of it...
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