d20 Zombie Apocalypse

I am working on a zombie Apocalypse campaign called the M-Virus Incident for my son. This campaign uses the d20 Modern Core Rulebook as its foundation,   additional rules I cherry picked from a variety of other sources, and specific rules I wrote for this campaign. If you are not familiar with the d20 Modern system, it is an offshoot of D&D 3/3.5 and shares the same basic rules set. However, d20 Modern adds more than it subtracts from it predecessor.

Image taken of the interwebs without permission.

The M-Virus Incident is set in your home town during a bleak Zombie themed Post Apocalypse that takes place in the mid 2000's. The players (PCs) are members of a group of survivors. They have been together in a somewhat safe location for about 2 weeks. Some of them knew each other before the 'Incident”, some have joined the group more recently. Supplies are getting low and the survivors have to go out for a scavenging run sooner than later. But wait, someone hear something...

At low levels of the campaign the players should feel like they are in a horror film—A single zombie will fill the players with fear and be very difficult to stop. Then during mid levels, the campaign should feel more like an action thriller—The players begin to chase down zombies and have conflict with other groups as packs of civilization begins to creep up. Finally, at high levels, it is a full apocalypse as hordes of zombies destroy everything in its path and wars break out between different settlements.

The standard d20 Modern occupation/class system is used, but many of the character creation steps are omitted, changed, or added. For example the wealth system is completely overhauled to represent hastily prepared equipment. Some of the big addition that really ad a horror vibe are permanent damage, insanity, and the biggest impact, multiple levels of fatigue (from lack of sleeping, eating, drinking, excessive damage, the environment, and illness).

Zombies are overhauled. They cause fear and they can't be killed by damage alone--Players will need to use called shots to put a zombie down permanently. I am also adding my most favorite thing ever--Tables!! But seriously, yes, there are pages and pages of tables for generating random equipment, food, weapons, occupations, encounters, insanities, traits, flaws, disorders, and injuries.

There is a unique set of features that I think is going to really help set the tone. At character generation, players determine a number of associates. They make note of the following:

Choose d3+3 associates. They can be family, lovers, friends, enemies, co-workers, acquaintances, etc.; They can be on good or bad terms with you. For each associate, provide the GM with their Name, Gender, Age, Occupation, and describe your relation/disposition with you. When the campaign starts, d6-3 of your associates will be with you. The remaining associates are given to the GM where their fate may or may not be discovered as the campaign unfolds.

also...

The player's characters and their associates aren't the only ones in the team. There are d3+3 additional group members. The GM will determine their vital statistics, equipment (d6 random items), and relations with each other.

As the campaign unfolds, players will have their attentions and allegiances split between party members and NPC loved ones. Additionally, when a PC dies that players takes over one of the other group members (either a loved one or on of the additional group members.

This is still very much a work in progress, and I will periodically post updates here.

Xenos Jungle Terrain WIP

This is a continuation of the Fungus Among Us project I started in 2013, and is part of my Modular Terrain System™. Yeah, I know, I'm not very good at finishing projects. Four years later I'm still not done... but I have added more to the project. You can trust me when I say that I have made progress. Really.

The base component of these alien 'trees' are Lotus Pods Stems that I purchased at a local craft store. The seeds and stems have been removed. The pod glued to a Citadel Wood base. Then that is glued to a CD. I bought my first Airbrush with X-mas money earlier this year. This is the first project I airbrushed.

I'm also working on some aquarium plant scatter terrain. Not exclusively 'jungle' but still part of this project.

Peak Pass Stealers Showcase

This team was originally purchased and painted in the late 80s. Back then, all of my teams were named and painted like the famous teams in the fluff. This team was no exception--The Dwarf Warhammers. However, I now prefer to name my teams after NFL teams in homage to second edition Blood Bowl. In fact, I have a post showcasing the Dwarf Warhammers way back in 2009 here. 

In this go around, in addition to renaming the team and creating a team logo, I touched up the paint, added back number plates, added glossy elements, re-did the bases, and painted a colored ring around the base lip. There are no Star Players represented here. All of my Star Players are painted differently than team colors.

New Team Logo

Since I was not planning on re-painting the team in its entirety, I was limited on which NFL team to base the dwarves on. The obvious (and only) choice was the Pittsburgh Stealers. I searched the Warhammer Old World map and chose the home stadium to be in Peak Pass. The Peak Pass is the next most northerly passage across the Worlds Edge Mountains. It is overlooked at its eastern starting point by the greenskin fortress of Gnashrak's Lair, and at its western end by the Dwarf Stronghold of Karak Kadrin.

Coaching Staff

The Coaching staff from L to R: Head Coach, Assistant Coach x2, Apothecary, Cheerleader x3.

Head Coach

Linemen

Positionals

Big Guy

Full Team (front view)

Full Team (back view)

While I didn't completely repaint the team, the 'minor' changes really stand out and help to make game play more clear.

Ordo Bowl '17 Season 2 Round 7 AAR

Final regular season game! As I mentioned in my previous post, I played my round 7 and 8 games out of order. So I played this game, my round 7 game, during week 8.

This is another post that I am writing about 2 weeks from playing the game. Strangely, I remember less of this game than that last game which was played 2 days prior. It could be that this game went into overtime. Oops! Spoilers!

Zorcon's Premiership League Game 8
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks vs Garblat Greenskins (Orcs)

Advancing the ball very early First Half.

In this game I gave up 200k in inducements. My opponent kicked in another 70k to buy the Troll Star Player Ripper Bolgrot, giving the Greenskins a strength advantage.

The Orcs kick-off and we had another game with nice weather. This was a grind fest! I managed to slug that ball up for a TD on turn 8, but it cost me. A Hobgoblin died, and a Journeyman was Seriously Injured.

I kick-off in the second half. I'm down 3 players, and struggle holding the Greenskins at bay. The Orcs get in scoring range and stall. They have the numbers and the strength. I keep trying to put pressure on the ball and force my opponent to score but I don't have enough players able to get in range. Finally the Garblat Greenskins tie up the game on turn 16.

Both the orcs and myself would win a play-off spot with a win, so we agreed to play overtime. Although, I was pretty sure I was going to loose at this point--My dice had gone stone cold, my opponent was rolling really well, and most importantly I would only be able to field 6 players. But if the situation was reversed, I would have been miffed if my opponent bagged out on OT, so I agreed to play another half.

I won the flip and chose to receive the ball. I set up with everyone on one side. My opponent tried to take advantage with a kick to the opposite side of the pitch, but I got a favorable bounce and pushed the ball up to my front line and formed the bast cage I could. It only took 2 tuns for the Greenskins to get the ball away from me and he stalled the rest of the game.

The Zharr'Thrak Seahawks at the end of the season.

I loose in overtime 1-2. I took a beating as well with 1 death and 2 serious injuries.

Final Thoughts
What an epic season! Even though I didn't make the play-offs, I had a blast. However, in hindsight I would have been more frugal re-drafting my team and started this season with a lower TV--I gave up way too much inducements.

Ordo Bowl '17 Season 2 Round 8 AAR

Getting to the final stretch of the season. There are two games left in the season, and I only need to win 1 to cinch a seat in the play-offs. I played my round 8 and round 7 game out of order. So this is my 7th league game, but my scheduled round 8 game.

I am also quite late in writing this post--We played this game 2 weeks ago. So my recollection is pretty sketchy at this point.

Zorcon's Premiership League Game 7
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks vs Tails of Yore (Lizardman)

Game pic unavailable

I gave up 220k of inducement in this game and my opponent kicked in 30k from his treasury in order to purchase the Suarus Star Player, Sibli. This gives my opponent a very tough front line--A ST 5 and *seven* ST 4 players!

I won the kick off and we had nice weather. On turn 1 I KO'd my opponent's Kroxagor. I was feeling pretty good. But my luck changes and I got stuck in a brutal mash pit just past the line of scrimmage. One of my Bull Centaurs got Badly Hurt and I lost control of the ball. A Skink took off down the sideline almost getting a TD. But I had one player in range for a Dodge and 2 GFI Blitz and got the little bastard. The ball scattered off the pitch and it landed in a favorable spot. I knew I couldn't survive a running cage this late in the game and so far back on my side of the pitch. So I attempted to knock down as many players as I could before grabbing the ball for a Hand-off. I had a very lucky turn and pulled off my plan. I recovered the ball, was a good amount passed the line of scrimmage, the most of the Tails of Yore were either down or covered. Before I scored on my Turn 8, I managed to put 4 more lizards in the KO box. The bad news is this my opponent still had his Turn 8 and this gave the lizards 2 opportunities to recover KO'd players.

By the time I set up to Kick-Off in the second half, all the Lizardmen were back on the pitch and I was down 2 players. The second half did not go well. By turn 4, 2 or my Chaos Dwarves were injured, and 2 hobgoblins were KO'd. The Tails of Yore had complete control over the game. But the bade a crucial mistake. My opponent decided to stall instead of quickly score. The game dragged on for about another hour, and the Lizards finally scored on his Turn 16, giving me 1 round to try and bash heads.

Final score 1-1. I got more than I gave and lost the Casualty game as well 3-2. A Chaos Dwarf with a Niggling Injury got a -1 AG (the Niggle didn't matter in this case as my opponent rolled a 12). But I got an end of game surprise when a different Chaos Dwarf leveled and got a +1 ST!

Final Thoughts
That second half was brutal and I couldn't do anything about it. I'm glad the game didn't end in a loss, but as far as the league standings, it doesn't matter if it was a loss or a tie. I'm down to 10 players going to my final game vs Orcs.

D&D 5e PCs Showcase

I am in a 5e D&D campaign that my buddy Lord Grimskull is running.

My character is a Human (1/4 Orc) Ranger who has been on his own for a long time. Influenced by the sci-fi game I am also in, I wanted to replicate having different ranged weapons for different situation.

So my character has a short bow for melee, and a heavy cross bow for sniping.

The finished piece. I started using a horn for warnings and long range communication in game after I started painting, but I still managed to add a bit last minute.

One of the other players is playing a Half-Elf Paladin. He bought the figure and I offered to convert and paint it for him. He wanted a head swap and here is the picture I sent him of possible options.

Here is the finished model. You can see the new head fits perfectly.

D&D 3.5e PCs WIP

Awhile back, I started running my wife and son through a D&D 3.5 campaign. We are starting with The Sunless Citadel and if they want to keep going, we will continue with the rest of that series.

They decided to play twins, brother and sister--One is a fighter, ad the other a cleric. To emphasize being twins, I chose to build the base figures identically. The axe was custom built for my son's character, from plasticard, plastic tubing, and 2 orc axe heads.

Base colors down, nearing completion.

Cryx Army WIP Photo Bomb 2

Part 2 of a Cryx download of images. All magic weapons and models with Ghostly are painted in the same green hues.

Aesling Vikings WIP

A female Norse Blood Bowl team from Shadowforge's Gridiron line. This is my only Blood Bowl team comprised of non-GW models.

Bog standard line-women.

The only GW figure on the team is a Thrower. The other Thrower, the Catchers, and the Berserkers are an modified Shadowforge Norse-women. The 2 Ulfwerenar are Berserkers/Blitzers with heads from a HeroClix X-Men Wolvesbane. The Yhetee is a HeroClix Alpha Flight Sasquatch.

Here is a first draft of the team logo.

Cryx Army WIP Photo Bomb 1

Besides a recent post about Objective Markers, I haven't posted anything for my Cryx army in about 3 years. So I am just going to photo bomb my progress to date.