Zombie RV Times Three!

    The chaotic aftermath of the Shell Station board, overrun by zombies and on fire

I taught the Sunday Evening Gaming crew how to play Zombie RV last night. I had each of them create two characters using the campaign adaption that I am playtesting upon hearing the author's ideas. They paired up and were each given a 2'x2' block of zombie-infested city to explore. Jenny and I used our crew, back for their third mission with yet another new face, Curly. Having lost shotgun-wielding Mophius in Mission 1, rifle-armed Coop in Mission 2, would we actually make it through a game with all four surviving? Time would tell, but we were down to just two pistols for firearms, with both Woody and Curly armed only with hand weapons.

    Quon takes on the roll of the "rabbit," again...shooting at the zombies to lead them on a merry chase

I reworked my Quick Reference Sheets emphasizing in all caps that the first thing the survivors do is roll to see if anyone gets a third action ("6" on 1d6). Lo and behold, with us not forgetting to check, we actually rolled quite a few 6's! In fact, I would say the third actions that Quon and Woody (especially) rolled were key to our success. Quon chose to be the rabbit, again. He dashed into an alley way near the spawn point and fired upon the initial five zombies. Guess what? I rolled another natural "1" on my first shot of the game! That meant one of our two pistols was out of ammunition! Meanwhile, Jackie stealthily investigated Sams Quickie Mart while Woody began an end run to the water tower (where he could see a pile of boxes peeking out from the underbrush). New-guy Curly was given the job of investigating the factory nearest where our pickup truck was parked.

   We added a new wrinkle with a second survivor drawing off the zombies chasing Quon

Quon got a third action to start the second turn, and boldly ran up to the closest zombie, smashed its head in, and then scampered off, leading the zombies in merry pursuit. Both Jackie and Curly found more supplies in their respective buildings. Something weird, dice-wise, was happening in our rolls once we discovered a Resource Token. We only roll 1-2, which yields generic Supplies. We had plenty of food! However, we had yet to roll any weapons, ammunition, or new survivors. As a side note, Keith and Joel would roll TWO new survivors in their searches in their game. Side note #2: Don't let Keith and Joel name characters. Their choices for their four new characters? Moe, Schmoe, Darryl, Darryl. Their two new guys? Trunk (because that was where they found him hiding), and something I didn't even write down because it was equally silly.

    After leading the zombies into the underbrush beneath the water tower, Woody backs away

Meanwhile, Curly decided to get the zombie horde off of Quon's tail by moving closer and shouting. One of the rules I think I am going to add is you can always voluntarily add +1 Noise to your actions. This freed Quon up to slip around the corner and investigate the second factory. Meanwhile, Woody had waded through the underbrush beneath the water tower and found...a box with a grenade! A new weapon? Woo-hoo! He pocketed it, while keeping an eye on the new batch of zombies from the spawn point surging towards him. One included a mutated, Nasty zombie! He made sure they were scrambling over the wall into the underbrush before backing off and ducking behind the car on blocks. 

    Jackie prepares to blast away at the zombies until she rolls a "1"...CLICK!

After grabbing supplies from the Quickie Mart's shelves, Jackie fired out the window of the rear door, splattering a zombie. This led several of them to shamble towards her. She retreated out of the shop, with three zombies staggering after her in pursuit. Taking position near the overturned semi-trailer, she saw Curly round the corner running as fast as he could. She yelled at him to get in the driver's seat of the pickup truck and start the engine. She faced down the zombies staggering towards her, raised her pistol, aimed for the head of the nearest and...click! Our of ammo, again! What??

    As Curly drives the pickup truck, Jackie jumps in the passenger seat and Woody dives into the bed

Our crew was completely out of ammo, but had gathered all four resource tokens. Quon had quickly searched the warehouse and found more supplies (of course!). Woody continued to roll 6's for extra actions, so sped away from his zombie pursuers along the alley beside the Quickie Mart. Using our speed and the lack of any Fast zombies, we each made our way back towards the street. It was a close call, but Woody and then Quon dove into the bed of the pickup truck as Curly kept the vehicle just out of reach of the zombies. Our first truly successful mission!

    Firing from the barricade at zombies mired down in the brick pile, these guys had an easy mission

On the table to our left, Allen and Mike S were having a cake walk of a mission. The tire barricade left in place by the apartment complex (before it was overwhelmed), was a natural firing position. The brick rubble field near the spawn point meant all the new zombies s-l-o-w-l-y made their way towards shotgun blasting Big Bass and a rifle-armed survivor who looked like Coop's brother. Those two blasted away pretty much the entire game while their two compatriots quietly infiltrated the buildings containing the supplies. Once they'd collected all four, they ducked back through the alleys, hidden from the center commons were all the zombies seemed to be. All four were able to load up in their van and drive off. Yeah, I definitely made their board way too easy! That, and the only character on their board who rolled a "1" for shooting was the guy who had the extra clip!

    The 'new guys' - Blue Van Crew - laugh Jackie's boys as they drive by after their cake walk

The third city block, dominated by the Shell gas station, seemed to be a mess, though. Keith and Joel's survivors were scattered along the edges all across the board, with zombies swarming everywhere. Things looked grim until one of Keith's survivors (Moe or Schmoe, who knows?) found a Molotov Cocktail. He immediately tossed it into the biggest horde of zombies he could find, frying half of them instantly. Joel and Keith were also helped by two new survivors they rounded up hiding in the vehicles. With their clubs and cleavers, they were able to turn the tide and escape every time the zombies got too close. When Jenny and I had first finished our game, I looked at the gas station and thought they would lose two characters, at least. However, with Molotovs, fortuitous rolls, and skillful redirection of zombies, they were able to all escape. Barely!

    No cake walk at the Shell station! Zombies swarm towards three different survivors

Had I made the tables too easy this time? I definitely think Allen and Mike S's board was too easy. We agreed that their should have been gaps in the barricade where the zombies had broken through to overwhelm the residents of the apartment complex (and become the new zombies they were facing). Our board probably had too much terrain, too. I had been really happy in Mission 2 how survivors could lead zombies into difficult terrain to slow them down. I think I need a little more open board here, too, to give the zombies more of a chance. The gas station seemed okay, though. I clarified with the rules author that ordinary zombies should not clamber over vehicles, but instead be channeled around them. I'm not so sure, now. Maybe I will simply count them as difficult terrain and they will swarm around or over them, whichever is quicker? We'll see.

    One of Joel's 'Darryls' and Trunk shelter behind a rubble pile as a Fast Zombie scampers their way

The Sunday Evening gamers enjoyed Zombie RV, though. They handed me their character sheets and said they wanted to play it again, keeping the same survivors for a loose campaign. Jackie's Crew even traded some supplies to the Darryls & Schmoes so they wouldn't go hungry. In return, we recruited one of their new guys to our crew. I think I will be doing some renaming, though. I'll paint a name on the base of the new survivors I've painted up, like I had done with the others for my post-apocalyptic campaign. I didn't spend hours on them for someone to slap Moe or Schmoe on them...ha, ha! 

    Earle (who Joel renamed Darryl) and Moe? Schmoe? sneak around the back of the Shell station

Now the new challenge will be to tweak the rules to manage a bigger game with 10-12 characters on the board. I'm thinking of trying that rather than having three separate games going on. Some ideas:

• At least a 3'x3' area, maybe bigger. 
• Multiple spawn points. 
• Wandering zombies arriving on random board edges each turn.
• A chance that each room a survivor enters may have one or more zombies in it -- like in the Army Base scenario we played for Mission #2.

    A fortuitous find of a Molotov cocktail blasts the zombies moving towards Trunk on the rubble pile

I would love to hear suggestions from others who have done this, or have ideas!

    Zombies mumble and groan about the Keith and Joel that got away on the Shell station board...!