July 13th, 2013
Just like a movie, the game Pittsburgh 68 can throw unexpected plot twists at the players and Zombie Master. As we hear about them here at Zombie HQ, we’ll post them under our Unexpected Twist thread. These aren’t so much questions on rules, but interesting outcomes of where the game can go. Moments when the players say, “Wow. I didn’t see that one coming!”
Here’s our first Unexpected Twist from a Zombie Master in Indiana:
It is the Zombie Master’s turn. There is only a single card left in the Reel Pile. The Dealt Hand has two Item cards covered with zombies. The third card is a lone zombie. The ZM takes the lone zombie and attacks, then replaces the empty slot with the Stumble card (the last card for the Reel).
The Stumble card causes the ZM to take the zombie cards that are covering the Item cards. Now, the only cards remaining in the dealt hand are the items. Unexpectedly, since it is the end of the ZM’s turn and only Item cards remain, he can immediately end the reel (via Clipping The Reel rules, page 6).
Talk about a game changer! The Survivors had some hope to grab those items, if they could just clear away those covering zombies. Then, by the flop of a single card, all hope is dashed! The zombie throngs swell, the reel is over!
The reel need not be over though; it would be the ZM’s choice to end the reel. It could be more advantageous to let it play out another round (especially if the ZM could sneak in some Sanctuary attacks). Also, if this twist occurred on the fourth/final reel of the game, it would also trigger a final full round of play that ends on the ZM’s next turn (as per “Ending Reel 4” rules on page 5 of the P68 rulebook).
If you have interesting twists in your games, let us know!
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July 12th, 2013
Great stuff comes out of our WEGS Old Skool convention games; this game’s little 2d6 2d10 heart beats for such occasions! Recently, a Goblin Warrior was faced with a foe (a Wight of all things) who caused enchanted wounds to any one within four squares at the Spante. The player asked if their Warrior could do a reverse Charge. He wanted to attack first and then run away from the Spante damage.
The “Brave Sir Robin” lyrics from Monty Python and the Holy Grail come into mind:
“When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled…”
Primarily, the Warrior skill Charge! is used to move a Warrior quickly into combat and attack. It is also used to move about combat encounters without the fear of being swiped from opponents. Most importantly though, it allows the Warrior to position themselves behind their foe to gain a Back Attack (a -20% penalty to the foe’s Invulnerability score). From a game standpoint, it encourages combat to keep chaotically swirling around the battle mat.
In the spirit of WEGS, the answer to the player’s question was “Sure! But if you fail, you get only the Attack, not the Move.” The attack would be skill free, too. Normally, if you fail a Charge!, you get the Move but not the Attack. Needless to say, the Warrior failed the Charge!, failed the attack, stood their gaping at his foe basically, and soaking up some Spante damage. If at first you don’t succeed…
“Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about and gallantly he chickened out…”
The old “Yes/But” is something that folks running the game at home should keep in mind. Always try to see the upside of the rules tweak, but always think of the consequences. The give/take with allowing the Hit-n-Run manuever is that the Warrior cannot move to reap the Invulnerability bonus. Sure, the player could spoint move to gain this, which is even better: any time a player spends spoints it shows the heroic importance of the action. Such allowances keep the game spinning in new directions. Fun wins every time!
“Bravely taking to his feet, he beat a very brave retreat…”
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July 11th, 2013
For those who haven’t been following along, and/or just found out about Pittsburgh 68 at a recent game convention this summer, let’s bring you up to speed on the Pittsburgh 68 Zombie World Series!
The P68 ZWS is a series of 68 games spread out across four quarters of 17 games each. As you can guess, it’s Survivors versus Zombies, and each victory gains the winning team one point. Helping us run and track all these games is an awesome throng of Zombie Masters from a bunch of different states. Series games have been played in IN, MA, NJ, NY, PA, OH, and VA.
The first quarter began in October (2012) and the Survivors took that series by a single game. In the second quarter, the Survivors led by a single game again, giving them a two game lead. Then, over Memorial Day Weekend, we held a mini-series where each of our Zombie Masters ran a game and reported back the results. The team with the most victories was awarded a 3 point bonus lead. Unfortunately for the zombies, the Survivors won and established a five game lead!
This brings us to the current quarter…
The third quarter was timed with the start of the summer game convention season: it began at Origins Game Fair (June) and has continued through to Dexcon in Morristown NJ. Between these two cons, fourteen games for this quarter have been played. More bad news for zombie fans… as of right now the zombies trail seven games behind! There’s no doubt that the Survivors are in full zombie annihilation mode!
Or maybe this lead is just what the Survivors need to give them that false sense of security…
We shall see!
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July 4th, 2013
The GameWick Games gang will be hunkering down at the Dexcon gaming convention in Morristown NJ this weekend (July 4-7). Our booth and gaming arena is set-up by the waterfall at the side entrance to the Hyatt hotel. With three game tables at our command, we’ll be running lots of games and demos. Come on over and jump into the fray with us!
Below is the full list of events we are running. There’s plenty of WEGS Old Skool and Pittsburgh 68 games to pick from! We might even sneak in a few more if time allows. From our adventure to zombies, we got you covered.
In addition to our games, we also carry the complete line of Bent Castle Workshops cards and games! If you haven’t seen their Deck of the Living Dead or Jules Verne inspired Extraordinary Voyages deck, stop by the booth and take a look. We also carry Grandpa Beck’s card games, Cover Your Assets and Golf. Fun games all!
Visit our booth and check all this gaming goodness out!
The WEGS Old Skool Events
All WEGS Old Skool Events are approx 3.5 hours
(Event descriptions on bottom)
Thursday
9:00AM – WEGS Keep on the Borderlands
2:00PM – WEGS Keep on the Borderlands
8:00PM – WEGS The Dunge O Doom
Friday
9:00AM – WEGS Keep on the Borderlands
2:00PM – WEGS Keep on the Borderlands
Saturday
9:00AM – WEGS Keep on the Borderlands
2:00PM – WEGS Keep on the Borderlands
8:00PM – WEGS The Dunge O Doom
The Pittsburgh 68 Shuffling Horror Events
All Pittsburgh 68 sessions are approx 68 minutes. Event descriptions on bottom.
Thursday: Games start at 2:00PM, 4:00PM, 8:00PM, 10:00PM
Friday: Games start at 2:00PM, 4:00PM, 8:00PM, and 10:00PM
Saturday: Games start at 11:00AM, 2:00PM, 4:00PM
We will be running demos all day, so swing by the table and check us out!
The Event Blurbs
Title: Pittsburgh 68-Shuffling Horror
The Time: 1968. The Place: Pittsburgh. The Problem: Zombies. Thrills and chills await in Pittsburgh 68, a card-n-dice game that plays like a creepy old zombie movie. Trapped in a desolate farmhouse, players face an ever growing zombie problem (which they will probably end up being a part of). When a player is eliminated, they don’t stop playing – they just shuffle back into the game as zombies in classic Living Dead style! A new and creepy game from GameWick Games that pays homage to a time when slow moving zombies ruled!
Title: The Dunge O’ Doom
System: WEGS Old Skool
Sword-n-sorcery dungeon fun with WEGS, the Wickedly Errant Game System! Create heroes in minutes, kick in the dungeon door, and head straight for the treasure. Foul monsters and wicked traps await. How far will you and your little dungeon party make it? Do you even care? Anything can happen in this furiously frantic intro to WEGS Old Skool, a system you can count on for full throttle fantasy!
Title: WEGS-Keep on the Borderlands
System: WEGS Old Skool
Play in one session or many of this classic D&D module with a twist: we are using WEGS (the Wickedly Errant Game System) as the system! Fantastic Old Skool heroes will be created in minutes and, moments later, face-to-face with terrible foes in the dread Caves of Chaos. With its easy rules and wild dice rolls, WEGS delivers full throttle sword-n-sorcery adventure. All rules taught – all you need is a sense of adventure to get started!
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