Rickno7's Scenarios: Meltdown 1.0

[Rickno7]

Back Story
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As hinted at on several cards, this is not the first time the town has had a problem with the undead. It was after this first time that a desperate measure was decided upon by the townsfolk. If the town were ever over run, the entire town would be destroyed so the world would be spared.

To do this, the town lobbied for a nuclear power plant(The Plant) with a few modifications. Keys were given to the trusted town elders. Two would be needed so that no one person could go insane and destroy the town himself. When two of the keys are inserted, it starts a countdown that will end in the destruction of the town and all surrounding areas.

Now is the time. You must find two willing townsfolk to initiate the plan and spare the world from the undead hoard.

Set up
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1. Use the field middle section and the tile with the Plant. All others are to be chosen randomly.

2. Remove the townsfolk cards from the decks. Collect the townsfolk tokens and put 6 of them in a building without having more than one townsfolk in the same building, also do not place a townsfolk in the Plant. Let the Zombie player place 3 townsfolk tokens, and let the Heroes place the other 3.

3. Remove 2 revolvers, a shotgun, and the chainsaw from the Hero deck. Remove one Lights Out and one Locked Door card from the zombie deck

4. With the Hero players not looking, the zombie player will place the 6 townsfolk cards face up with 1 of the removed zombie or hero cards that were previously mentioned(2 revolvers, a shot gun, a chainsaw, Lights Out and Locked Door)

5. All players start in The Plant

6. Place the truck between the gunshop and the plant.

7. The zombies start with 2D6 zombies placed in the middle section of the board. Spawnpoints can only be used if there are no Townsfolk in the buildings, also the plant can never be used as a spawn point.

Object of the Game
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The players must go to a townsfolk and ask them to bring their key. Once they are asked, the card under them is revealed. If they agree to help, they will give the player a weapon and agree to move with them to the plant.

If the card is a zombie card, then the townsfolk rejects the idea and disappears. The zombie card is given to the zombie player and is kept in their hand until they use it. The card represents sabotage that the traitorous townsfolk does to the players. These specific cards can not be countered(though other ones drawn from the zombie deck can be)

If a zombie gets into the same square as a townsfolk before the players get to them, they die and are removed from the board. If at any time its revealed that the players can't get 2 townsfolk to the plant, then the heroes lose.

When a Hero has a willing townsfolk with them, they keep the townsfolk card with them so that people know who is with who, but they can NOT use the townsfolk card's ability and zombies can't attack the townsfolk either.

Once two townsfolk enter the plant and insert their keys, all players have 3 turns to get into the truck before the explosions begin. As long as 2 heroes leave in the truck, the Heroes win.

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Afterthoughts:

I'm a GM/DM at heart, so this scenario is set up around telling a story rather than trying to make everything balanced.

This scenario causes the players to think about strategy and also plan their time wisely. The Zombie player knows who are traitors, so they can easily give away which townsfolk is a traitor by not trying to attack them. So I guess the Zombie player does indeed have a bit of strategy to plan as well.

Very fun. Very easy to set up.

If you play, please let me know how things went.

[Old Dwarf]

Interesting.....of course it will play havoc with the town's property values.
I like the mechanic of this,for me the nuclear option is too drastic but it
would be fairly easy to convert the objective.

I've been kicking around a WWZ type campaign & in that context this would
fit perfect

OD

[mqstout]

I like the overall premise. I really do like the twist of the "elder" deck when you get to a townsfolk. It's much more elegant than others I've seen, including FFG's own roll a die.

Suggestions:

* The plant is very thematically a foundry or factory of some sort -- or at "biggest" some sort of boiler. I'd recommend a secret reactor under the mansion and use the mansion center.
* Draw cards from the bottom of the "elder" deck rather than the top. If you draw from the top you know the next one is going to be hero/zombie and it will significantly alter your choices. I'd also suggest a few more zombie cards. 5 good and 2 bad cards sounds a little irrelevant. Have you playtested?
* The time limit to get to the truck is great.
* Have you considered replacing the Plant's spawn point with another? Not being able to spawn in that corner seriously hampers the zombie. (If you switch to the mansion, this is solved.)

Welcome to the boards! Great first post!

[Rickno7]

Its not intended to be a new "deck" actually.

The intention was that you would have 6 Townsfolk cards on the table, with a single zombie or hero card UNDER the townsfolk card so you couldn't see what it was. When you talked to them, you would see which card was under them. The reason I chose only 2 traitors is that its pretty easy for the zombies to get to a few of the townsfolk before the players. Originally I only had 4 townsfolk and it was WAY too easy for the zombies to win that way. So I upped the ratio of agreeable to disagreeable.

The idea of a Elder deck is interesting. I kind of like the idea of having most of the "good" hero cards tied to the elders to try and balance out the advantage the heroes have over the zombies currently. I also really like the idea of a secret nuke under the mansion, it would free up a few more zombie spawn points. It actually simplifies a lot of things.

perhaps after my next play session I will have a 2.0 up, I like the suggestions and will try them out

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EDIT

Ok. Played this some more. 2.0 is coming soon.

I got a really bad hand of zombie cards the last time I was the zombie in this scenario. The scenario just seemed really crazy and lumpsided with a bad hand. Played with a few of the suggestions and did the Townsfolk in a way where no one knew what was going to happen when a townsfolk was reached, taking that advantage away from the zombie.

So the story is sound, now I"ll work on making the game last longer and be more balanced even with bad hands. I welcome suggestions on how to SLOW the game down. This is a quick game variation. I'd like more suspense.

Thanks everyone.