Pocket Danger Patrol!

From time to time I don't just play miniatures or board games - I fiddle with role-playing games as well. Lacking a regular group, or a regular desire to play, I tend to go for short, simple games which I can either play with my family or run solo.

A few years ago I downloaded and played a neat sci-fi adventure game called 'Danger Patrol'. This is set in a retro future, and is inspired by various pulp sci-fi settings, such as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, as well as the style of such things as the Indiana Jones moves. It's about Danger! Daring! Capitalisation! And Exclamation Marks!

It was great fun.

It's been in playtest form for years now, but I was thrilled the other day to discover that there was a new version of it available - Pocket Danger Patrol! All the fun of the original, but distilled onto two sides of A4.

The full Danger Patrol rules have a brief outline of the setting, which is deliberately open-ended. The players are member of the Danger Patrol, heroic and/or super-powered crimefighters who protect Rocket City from a variety of evil menaces and strange threats. It is set mainly within the solar system; Earth has been destroyed in atomic war, but humans fled to other planets. The two main colonies are the utopia of Rocket City on Mars, and the militaristic dictatorship of the Crimson Republic in Jupiter's red spot. All of the other planets are probably inhabited, either by human colonies or non-human natives.

Anyway, I thought that it would be fun to try out the pocket version of Danger Patrol. Much of the game is developed during play, which makes it an excellent role-playing game if you don't have a lot of preparation time. But it also makes it a good solo game as well; whilst you lack the range of creativity that several players offer, you can use simple die-roll mechanisms to generate information and setting details as the game goes along.

I decided to run two characters. Titanium Steel is a Robot Detective (all characters are defined by a style - Robot, in this case - and a role - Detective). I imagine him as a shiny metal man in a trench-coat and hat; a metal Bogart. To accompany him I created Sss'Kkk, an Alien Warrior; a blue lizardman from the swamps of Venus. Characters assign points to eight characteristics in order to define their specialities, then pick descriptors for four Bonus Dice, which are associated with their role and style. So the characters look like this:

Titanium Steel (Robot Detective)
Daring - 2, Heart - 1, Power - 2, Weird - 0, Action - 1, Cunning - 2, Battle - 1 Science - 1
Bonus Dice: Robot sensors, Overload!, Data Banks, "I Planned For This!"

Sss'Kkk (Alien Warrior)
Daring - 2, Heart - 0, Power - 2, Weird - 1, Action - 2, Battle - 2, Cunning - 1 Science - 0
Bonus Dice: Extra Life, Venusian Mind Link, Crystal Sword, Fearless

Danger Patrol is split up into scenes in which the characters deal with a number of Threats. A game starts with a short teaser in which a set of Threats are introduced. This is then interrupted by the 'Previously On ..' segment, in which the players get to narrate a short sequence, elements of which can be incorporated into the story-line at a later date. You then go back to the scene, and the Action begins. Players attack Threats by assembling a dice pool based on their attributes, bonuses and by narrating extra danger. They may also get Threat Dice, representing damage or other circumstances beyond their control. The dice have different sides - the games uses D4s, D6s, D8s and D10s - but regardless of the sides a score of 4 or more is a hit on a threat, whilst anything else is a miss and, except in the case of the bonus dice, generates danger and complications for the character. This means that there is both advantage and disadvantage to assembling a big handful of dice.

Danger Patrol Pocket includes a Threat-O-Matic, which allows you to generate random threats on the fly. I used this, plus some tables from the Mythic GM Emulator or of my own creation, to create my initial threats.

And so:

Twenty miles outside of Rocket City, in the Martian hills, sits the President's private retreat. Tonight this modest mansion is the scene of a secret conference between the President and the Neptunian Ambassador, in which the two official hope to settle the trade dispute that has nearly brought war to the solar system.

Craniax!

But suddenly, in a flash of energy, the discussions are disrupted. A giant mechanical floating head appears - Craniax, the mad psychic overlord of the dark side of the Moon. And with him are hordes of blaster-wielding Neuro-Soldiers - mutants from the smoking atomic wastes of Earth, converted to helpless slave-warriors by Craniax's mind-control helmets.

They attack the conference, cutting down bodyguards and delegates - the Neptunian Ambassador's life is in danger!

Speeding towards the mansion, a hovercar. And in it, two member of - Danger Patrol! Will they save the day?

Previously On Danger Patrol ...

Titanium Steel stands in front of a blackboard covered in writing. "Of course" he cries, "The robberies were just a diversion to divert security away from the Mansion!"

Sss'Kkk pushes doggedly on through a sandstorm ...

The Threats were as follows:

Craniax, Two Squads of Neuro-Soldiers, Save The Neptunian Ambassador, The Mysterious Fleeing Figure. The latter two Threats had a countdown - after three rounds they would cease to exist, and push the characters closer to failure as, respectively, the Neptunian Ambassador was assassinated and the mysterious figure got away. To make things harder the Fleeing Figure was a protected Threat; it couldn't be attacked until at least two of the Craniax/Neuro-Trooper Threats had been defeated. All Threats have a strength (which makes it more dangerous to attack them with certain attributes) and a weakness (which allows certain attributes to score extra hits). This affects how characters may choose to approach them.

On with the action:

Our heroes intercept frantic radio messages as they hurtle into the grounds of the mansion. The Ambassador, and diplomatic relations with Neptune, is in danger. Sss'Kkk fires up his Danger Patrol rocket pack and hurtles out of the car. Fearlessly dodging blaster fire he hurtles past the Neuro-Soldiers and grabs the Ambassador. Shielding him from fire with his own body he carries him to the safety of an armoured hovercar. Meanwhile Titanium Steel readies a rapidly assembled psi-jammer; his investigations had given him forewarning of who and what he might be facing tonight, and he'd come prepared. He has wired it directly into his own power-cells to boost it, and when it activates the entire first wave of Neuro-Soldiers go down. Unfortunately it also causes a wild, unstable, chain reaction in his power cells.

With barely a thought Sss'Kkk hurtles back into the mansion, drawing his sword to confront Craniax himself. Through a hail of blaster bolts he charges, reaching out with his Venusian mind-link in an attempt to distract the evil overlord. Craniax fights back with all his will, but the lizardman is too determined. Cowardly to his rotten core, Craniax teleports to safety before Sss'Kkk's sword descends. But his presence is planted in the Venusian's mind ...

On the assumption that Sss'Kkk can deal with the last of the Neuro-soldiers, Titanium Steel guns the engine of the hovercar and sets of in pursuit of a shadowy figure that was leaving the mansion as they arrived. the figure is fleeing into the night in their own hovercar, firing behind them to throw off the pursuit. Into the steep hills and deep canyons of Mars the two vehicles go, both navigated by quick, cunning minds. As the chase hots up a fierce Martian storm adds to the danger ...

By this stage there were only two Threats left in play. The others had been defeated quickly by judicious use of attributes keyed against the Threats' weaknesses. However both heroes not only had Threat dice against them, but had Complications, which are extra, mini-Threats generated during play - Titanium Steel had a Martian Storm to deal with, whilst Sss'Kkk had 'Craniax Is In My Mind!'.

Fighting the residual mental influence of Craniax, Sss'Kkk moves to attack the last squad of Neuro-Soldiers.  Taking blaster hit after blaster hit, shrugged off by his Venusian constitution, he cuts his way through the mindless drones. But the lunar overlord's influence has weakened him, and he is overwhelmed, joining the drones as a controlled soldier.

If a character takes too many hits in one turn they are taken out of the fight. In this case I assuemed that Sss'Kkk became a mindless slave of Craniax, so I added his complication to the Neuro-Soldier Threat to represent the extra strength he gave it.

Titanium Steel pursues the other hovercar into the storm, and takes a risk. Drawing his ray pistol he slows and, with great concentration fires a single shot at his quarry. It's a risk, but it pays off; the other hovercar flips over and crashes. Its occupant is thrown out, unconscious. Titanium Steel pauses only long enough to handcuff them, before leaping back into his own car and speeding back to the mansion. As he does so he attempts to repair his damaged systems, with only limited success.

There was enough time on the clock for Titanium Steel to take a rest, which recovers bonus dice. He also spent a round trying to remove his short circuit complication, but failed.


Titanium Steel arrives back at the mansion, and uses the psi-jammer to drop the last of the Neuro-Soldiers. But the strain on his own systems is too much, and he falls, disabled. By he time he recovered, and returned to the crashed hovercar the mysterious occupant had escaped into the night. Craniax's hold on Sss'Kkk was broken by the jammer, and he recovers to fight again.

So that was the end of that scene. The heroes defeated the threats, but their own defeat means that they may start the next scene with additional complications in play. Before them they will narrate some kind of interlude; full Danger Patrol has a special Interlude scene structure for this, but the Pocket version doesn't, so I am making a mechanism up on the fly.

Who was the mysterious figure? What was Craniax up to?

Find out by tuning in ... one day .... for the next episode of :

Danger Patrol!

Walker

"One must act with severity, or perish"

'Walker' is a 1987 film by director Alex Cox, starring Ed Harris. It's a quirky retelling of the life of 1850s American filibuster William Walker, although it is also intended as a commentary on the then contemporary US involvement in Nicaragua. The film is famous for including deliberate historical anachronisms, and it was those which inspired me to put together an army for 'Hordes of the Things' based on it. Since it put in a brief appearence on my blog the other day, I thought I'd do a post showcasing it.

Needless to say if you haven't seen the film, and you want to, this post will contain one or two spoilers.

The army is as follows:

1 x Cleric General (William Walker, with some of his aides and lieutenants)
6 x Warband (Walker's Immortals; the American Phalanx)
1 x Shooter (Firing Squad)
4 x Hordes (Nicaraguan Allies)
1 x Airboat (US Marine Corps Helicopter)

Stronghold - Impressive Nicaraguan Public Building

Bar the helicopter and the cow (what?) every figure in the army came from Peter Pig, and there's surprisingly little in the way of conversions. I got the look of 1850s irregulars, both American and Nicaraguan, by using various figures from Peter Pig's Wild West and American Civil War ranges. They also provided most of the character figures, although some were done from WW1 Austro-Hungarian commanders. The US Marines are professional soldiers from the AK47 range. The cow is from Irregular Miniatures, and the helicopter from my son's toy-box - he didn't miss it at the time I made this army five years ago, and is 16 now so doesn't care.

On the the army. Here are the Nicaraguan Democrat allies, classed as Hordes:

They are mostly a mix of Confederates and Mexicans from the Wild West range, but there's also a US military advisor (not actually in the film, this one, but true to the concept I feel, and the figure was going spare):

The element also includes the English artist Doubleday, who tags along with Walker's forces for much of the film:

Next are Walker's Immortals; filibusters from the USA. They are primarily Peter Pig gunfighters from the Wild West range, as this gives them a more irregular, non military, appearance:

The flag was apparently made up for the film. I drew it up in a photo-editing package, using about five stills from the film as reference (there's not a single shot I could find that shows it in its entirety). The wording says 'Not Without Honor':

I have no idea why Baron Bruno von Natzmer first appears in the film riding a cow, but I couldn't not include him:

Ideally this element should include one of Walker's many political opponents in front of it, but it wouldn't have fitted in the base depth. The firing squad is a Shooter element, and is mostly Wild West gunfighters with a Confederate officer in charge:

The main man - William Walker, the 'gray-eyed man of destiny', and the sort of person who writes an autobiographical account of his exploits in the third person (seriously - 'The War In Nicaragua' it's called - recommended, and fascinating, reading, so long as you remember that he wrote it himself). Accompanying him on the element base are (left to right): Doctor Jones, Major Siegfried Henningson and Captain Hornsby:

Finally, the bit everyone who has seen the film remembers - the US Marine Corps helicopter. It's not the same kind of helicopter which appears in the film, but it was all I had to hand that was likely to fit on the element base. the figures are from the AK47 range:

Here's the stronghold. Yes, it's the chapel from the Alamo. May years ago a work colleague of mine brought it back for me from a holiday in the USA, and it sat on my desk at work. But I eventually decided that it might have more use in a game, so I gave it a quick paint, added in the steps to hide the words on the base (it says 'The Alamo', obviously) and put it to work as the kind of impressive Nicaraguan building you get to see in the film, before Walker has them all burned down:

The above photos were taken with my 'real' camera, which is good for doing that kind of thing. Here's some arty shots I took when I was trying out the new macro lens for my iPhone.

A quote from the film:

“I cannot help noticing Sir, during the time I've spent with you, that you've betrayed every principle you've had, and all the men who supported you. May I ask why?”
“No you may not.”

“What exactly are your aims?”
“The ends justify the means.”
“ What are the ends?”
“ I can't remember.”
(Doubleday and Walker)

The Campaign For Alto Peru - Rules

I have tidied up the South American Liberation campaign rules that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, and made them available on my Free Stuff page. You can also get v1.0 here:

The Campaign For Alto Peru

Although they are designed for use with my Liberated HOTT variant, they should be easy enough to adapt for standard HOTT, DBA or other sets. If the Political Tokens are removed then they would work for a linear or ladder campaign with very little alteration.

If you give them a try I'd love to hear about it.

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding ... ?

When I started this blog I never thought that I would be doing theatre reviews, but that's what this post is, so it just goes to show that you never know. It's of peripheral wargames interest, so I thought it would make a nice change of pace. Plus, this is my blog and I can do what I like with it :)

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone-call from Eleise at 'What's On In Wollongong' to say that we'd won a coupe of tickets to go and see the Wollongong Community Theatre's production of 'Dad's Army'.

Yes, that 'Dad's Army'. The classic, much-loved British comedy, adapted for the stage.

The performance consisted of two episodes from the series, with an interval between them in which we  took part in a 1940s sing-song. Strangely that was compered by a woman claiming to be (and sounding like) Hyacinth Bucket.

The episodes adapted were 'The Godiva Affair', in which the women of Walmington-on-Sea compete to be Lady Godiva in a town parade, and the classic 'The Deadly Attachment' in which the Home Guard platoon are obliged to guard a German U-boat crew overnight.

"I Don't Want Any  Nasty Soggy Chips!"

It was strange seeing the famous Dad's Army characters being performed by people other than the actors who originally portrayed them, but it worked. The actors managed the difficult job of playing both the character and, to some extent, the original actor. The casting was pretty good such that most looked the part - Pike looked a little to old to be convincing, sadly. Obviously to my ear one oddity was the underlying Aussie accents, but that's to be expected when you go and see a play in Australia.

I really enjoyed Michael Connnor's portrayal of the U-boat captain.

The entire cast and crew did an excellent job of making an entertaining evening out of the difficult job of translating something familiar to the audience, and familiar through television as well, to the stage. Well done.

As a bonus it turned out that someone we knew (through our peripheral connection with the local arts and crafts scene) was in the cast - Sal Harris played a couple of small parts in the play itself, and was the guest artist in the half-time singalong:

Oh, and I loved the Lewis gun prop.

'Dad's Army' is on at the Wollongong Workshop Theatre until 26th May. You can contact them through the link  towards the top of the post.

The Battle Of Tijuana

It's my birthday today. I've had a good present haul, of course, some of it in useful hard-cash form and some of it of relevance to this blog. Here's the items of relevance:

Two new games (courtesy of my brother) - one a RPG and another a set of miniatures rules I've been keen to try for a while. The small black object in the corner is a lens attachment for my iPhone; it gives me wide-angle, macro and fish-eye capability, all of which I will find useful.

This afternoon I played through another Mexican Revolution game, using the latest draft of my 'Struggle Against Everything And Everybody' rules. I based my game around the 1911 battle for Tijuana. Tijuana is in Baja California, right against the border with the USA. In 1911 the Federal garrison of about 200 was attacked by a force of 200 Magonistas, followers of the anarchist Flores-Magon brothers. The Magonista force was, in fact, mostly Anglo-American - only ten of them were Mexicans - and there were accusations that their campaign was less about revolution and more about good honest US filibustering. They were commanded by a British soldier of fortune, General Caryl ap Rhys Price, who claimed descent from Owain Glendwr.

In 1911 the Magonistas captured the town of Tijuana, although they only held it for a month. Could they repeat the feat?

I set up the town on the edge of the board, representing the fact that beyond it was the US. Troops retreating off that edge would not be coming back. Although in the actual battle the forces were equal I went for the following OOB to create a 'balanced' game:

Federals: Three Infantry (Strength 4), one Artillery (Strength 3), one Machine Gun (Strength 3), one Cavalry (Strength 3) (6 Units total)

Magonistas: Six Infantry (Strength 4), two Cavalry (Strength 3), one Machine Gun (Strength 3) (9 Units total)

The forces represent the chronic lack of artillery the early revolutionaries had. But they were otherwise assumed to be well supplied with arms from the US.

The Federal forces obviously had the cover of buildings, and could also make use of barricades in the gaps between them.

The Federals deployed by placing counters where they wanted a unit to be. the Magonistas then rolled a D6, and the Federals had to actually deploy that many units in place of the blank counters. The Magonistas then chose how to split their forces; they could start on any board edge except the US border. The Federals then got to deploy their remaining troops.

I won't bore you with details, but it ended up with this Federal deploymant - the Artillery and Machine Gun were covering the western approaches, with Infantry covering the east. The Cavalry and a unit of Infantry were held in reserve:

The Magonistas were split to the east and west. The western force was a screen consisting of the two Cavalry, one Infantry and the Machine Gun. Their aim was to prevent the Federals from pulling troops away from that side of the town by threatening it with a lightning cavalry attack. the Machine Gun would be sited to provide long-range covering fire as well. The eastern force, of five Infantry was the main attack; their orders were to rush the town - nothing subtle:

The western diversion moves into position:

The Magonistas attack the town under heavy Federal fire:

Showing off my birthday present - a fish-eye view of the battle from the US side of the border:

The Magonista forces charge hard, but the Federals get the initiative a couple of turn in a row and cause heavy casualties:

With the eastern attack faltering the diversionary force is thrown into the battle to try and relieve the pressure:

Magonista cavalry charges the Federal artillery:

And against the odds it pushes it back:

The other cavalry unit tries the same trick against the Federal machine gun, but is mown down:

The Federal cavalry gets in on the action, charging out of the town to scatter the stalled Magonista infantry assault:

Although the Magonistas have a couple of units in the town, the Federals are still in a strong position:

After this photo was taken a Magonista infantry unit was destroyed by Federal cavalry, and their machine gun came of worse in a duel with their Federal counterpart.

At this stage I got called away by a delicious meal of halloumi and beetroot (plus beer), as well as a birthday phone call from my parents in the UK, so I called it a day. The Magonistas had forced an entry into the town, but they weren't going to be able to hold onto it; the Federal forces had won the day. The key to their victory was partially down to good initiative rolls, in that they got to act first on a couple of turn just as the Magonistas reached the town, causing heavy casualties before the attack could be properly launched. But the Magonsitas probably had too many troops tied up merely threatening the western side of the town rather than supporting the main attack; the machine gun may have been better deployed adding covering fire.

As with other games using these rules it played quickly and with no fuss. There are a couple of small changes I will feed back into the rules, but they are mostly working well.