Last saturday we started a new narrative campaign with N4 and home made rules. In this one, players will "cooperate" in order to build a mining colony in Human Edge, under O-12 monitoring. They started with heavy restrictions regarding list building and play : - Silhouette 1 & 2 troopers only. Cargos need to bring a lot of equipment and materials for the colony and can spare no place on board for bigger military shipments. - No remotes, as Maya is not yet fonctionnal here. - Specialists can only score points for scenario purposes, but cannot use in game actions (a hacker cannot hack, a doctor cannot heal, ...). Because no Mayanet means no hacking. And because doctors, engineers and so have been requisitioned by the colony. - Everyrhing outside of the buildings is considered "Zero-G" terrain. For the campaign I changed the Terrain (Total) rule. Each player had to choose one type of terrain, and the skill only works for that terrain. These rules will change during the campaign. Between each game players will invest the scenario points they scored in projects leads by the differents O-12 Bureaus to help building the colony and change the rules of futur games. Each Bureau has collective achievements changing rules for every players as the colony grows, and personnal ones rewarding only those investing in that particular project. For exemple, investing in Bureau Hermes will result in more Space being available in the cargos, and this will allow players to collectively choose bigger silhouette troops. And for each player, investing will allow to enlist remotes, as they will be rewarded with a Maya secured access as the network is set up. These rules were thinked to soften the transition between N3 and N4. We start with only part of what makes Infinity and the full rules will come slowly as the campaign goes on. As my players will have to choose in wich project they want to invest only with lore indications, I will not yet post the all rules for the colony development. Spoiler: Some Pictures Sooo... We started to play last saturday. The first three scenarii will take place at the same time, in three different places. An unidentified probe crashed in town, just in the center of what may be the worst district regarding criminality. It resulted in an underground collapse, and teams of spec-ops engaged in an unofficial operation are now trapped underearth. Sending help might be the occasion to finish the job. And O-12 does not need to hear about it... They were seven objectives on the table. Three on the central line, and two on each side. Every trooper could come base to base with an objective and try a WIP roll to identify who was trapped under. If succeed, the player drew one of the seven cards. (Each card can only be drawn once.) The objectives were : 1) A hacker trying to send important data trough a cable connection. (hacker objective) 2) An Engineer trying to patch a damaged generator and needing a GizmoKit. (engineer objective) 3) A wounded trooper needing a MediKit. (doctor and paramedic objective) 4) An H.V.T. important enough to justify the contrôl of the zone. (control objective) 5) Something embarassing that a demolition charge would help stay hidden. (demolition charge objective) 6) A confuse fight that was waiting for a forward observer to mark it for missile fire. (forward observer objective) 7) Nothing alive. Taking advantage of the opportunity to kill ennemy lieutenants was also rewarded by points, 'cause why not ? They were six players, going three against three at 150pts per player. We had TAK, Imperial Service and USARF teaming against Bakunin, Shasvastti and Onyx Force. (Yes, aliens are everywhere !) The game went pretty well, with every objective identified and six out if seven completed in three turns. The players all said they enjoyed this first N4 game. I am quite happy with this, as they were two of them playing with us for the first Time. I will try to take more pictures during next game ! For this one I spent many time checking rules. More coming next week ! P.S. : I work with pen and paper, but if somebody wants to try a scenario of this campaign, I can make a digital version of it and send it ! Just ask me.
We played the second scenario last saturday. The crashing probe that caused part of the colony underground to collapse in scenario one also damaged a private and clandestine laboratory. O-12 felt highly concerned when a living experimental project escaped, and started murdering peoples. Bakunin and USARF troops came to solve the problem, only to discover that the project (gently called Giselle by the soldiers) was protected by an upgraded nanoscreen they could'nt pass trough easily. To do so, they needed to find the right sequence of attacks to switch off the shield. They were four objectives on the table, each one representing a part of the sequence, and Giselle at the center of the table. One of the objectives was randomly choose to become active. Only this one could be scored with a base to base willpower test. Then, another one was randomly choose. Giselle activated during each player impetuous phase and acted like an impetuous trooper, except that instead of rushing the deployment zone she would go for the active objectif and try to destroy it. She also reacted to both players actions with AROs. The active player could also react to Giselle's actions with AROs, as if it wasn't his turn. An alternative way to find what could desactivate Giselle's Shield was to attack her with various ammunitions or comm. attacks and see if it did something interesting. Bakunin went for the data and USARF for the field test, resulting in a Bakunin victory. The Nomad player succeeded in taking three out of four objectives. The last one was taken by the Ariadna player. Two field tests were successfull. As a result, Nomads know the entire sequence in the right order, and Ariadnans know two steps, but don't know where they fit in the sequence. They also would score a point for killing the ennemy Lieutenant, and... Giselle unwillingly gave a point to the USARF player by killing The Bakunin Lieutenant. In the End, Giselle escaped, but don't worry : she'll be back in futur scenarii ! The game was less chaotic than expected, but quite fun anyway. It was really cool to have my two players trying to hold Giselle away from the objectives while trying to kill each other to claim it while testing attacks when they felt they could spare ressources. I wasn't sure if having a third party in a one versus one game will be a good idea, but it definitly was. Spoiler: Photos
Another Saturday, another game. This one was the last of the first part of the campaign. We played it on three different tables, going one on one on each. At the center was the crashed probe, and the objective was to secure both the probe and the two streets wide enough for heavy vehicules to come and bring it back home. They were three objectives, diagonaly cutting the table into two triangles. The central one was the probe, and the other two the road accesses. A model had to pass a willpower test while being into base to base contact with an objectif and stay here until the end of the turn in order to score a point. Each objective could only be scored once per turn, for a total of nine points. The last one was, as always, killing the ennemy Lieutenant. The spicy thing were the criminals trying to gain the probe for they own benefit. Each time a figurine succeeded thé WIP test for one of the two road accesses, the player had to randomly choose an event. It could be nothing, but it could be a sniper trying to shoot the model, a jamming attack, a speculative grenade launch or someone rushing the model with a CC Weapon. The three games were Shasvastii Vs USARF (9-4), TAK Vs White Banner (3-6) and Bakunin Vs O-12 (4-5). With the first three scenarii done, it is know time for the players to spend their points in the O-12 Bureaus and get their rewards. So Far, I am realy happy with this campaign. Three games with such heavy restrictions regarding list building were enough to be fun still, and make people realy want to invest in the colony and have more options. More coming son ! Spoiler: Pictures Spoiler: Pictures (2)
Thanks ! There is still one game we played, I will post pics and text as soon as possible, but with the new lockdown in France the next one will have to wait. There was also a special Halloween scenario we couldn't play, that I need to post somewhere !
