This is Not a Test: Cold Vengeance

This is not not "This is Not a Test".  As a matter of fact, it very much is "This is Not a Test" (TNT).  TNT is a post-apocalypse skirmish warband game.  I like to play in 15mm, though I think 28mm is the default.  It's a pretty cool game with some nice features and not a lot of fiddling with the numbers.  It also seems to have a robust campaign system that my friends and I are looking forward to starting.

Also, it's a post-apocalypse game, so I get to use my homemade "Red Rocket" terrain. :P

So, now that the end is here, let's get to the beginning.

THE WARBANDS

Vault 99 Reclamation Team

Agent M (Lorekeeper), Jeffords (Arbitrator), Diaz (Reclaimer),
Peralta (Seeker), Santiago (Seeker), and B0YL3 (Heal-O-Matic)

Tri-State Field Agents

Verdun (Road-Marshal), Bloo (Warden), Sherman (Officer), Hunter (Officer),
Pagán (Officer), and Horton (Officer)
(and Constantine (Tactical) hiding off-screen)

(These are mostly just the figures that I already had. I'll probably get around to some purpose-painted post-apocalypse figures eventually.)

The scenario is called "Cold Vengeance".  The objective is, of course, to kill the other guys, but the trick is that the first one to shoot loses victory points.  It's a sort of game of "chicken", but with guns.

As a complicating factor, there are pools of radioactive materials on the table.  The strength and range of the radiation aren't known until somebody gets within 3 inches of them, though.

Somebody didn't give a hoot.

Shouldn't this be a "Biscuit Box"?

TURN 1

Initiative:
V99: 10
TSFA: 3

Jeffords activates and rolls a 7, plus his Mettle of 5 = 12 vs target number 10.  This means he gets two actions.  He chooses to move twice.  You can take the same action twice, except for shooting (unless you have a special ability, like "Burst", that says otherwise.

Peralta activates, but his total score is less than ten, so he only gets one action, and afterward, TSFA will get to activate.

Peralta starts slow, and ends slow.

Constantine activates successfully and moves twice as well.

Sherman fails his activation and takes a single move action.

I know these guys are hard to see.  It's called "camouflage".

The rest of the turn is uneventful as everybody else catches up.

These guys are in cover.  That's smart.

These guys are not so much in cover.  That's less smart.

TURN 2

Vault 99 wins initiative again, and Jeffords goes first.  He has the "Move Or Shoot" trait, so he decides to just shoot.  He rolls to activate and gets... a '1'.  Because he's wearing artifact power armor, this is a Malfunction.  He gets a token, and can't move or shoot until he can repair the suit.  He does get his one action, though, so he uses it to make an Intelligence test with a target of 10, and fails.  The suit remains powered down.

Bzzt!  Clank!  Hisssss!  "Is it supposed to make that sound?"

Now seems like a pretty good time to shoot back, so that's what TSFA does.

Artsy!

But despite the immobile target, Hunter still misses.

"We don't believe in cover!"

Bravely standing their ground instead of looking for cover, Peralta and Santiago shoot Pagán and Sherman.  Agent M moves up and blasts Pagán with his plasma pistol, and Diaz misses.

That's the end of my turn, so now we check on the guys who got shot.  Successful ranged attacks are marked with the strength of the weapon hit, but aren't checked until the end of the current player's turn.

Like this. Sometimes guys get shot more than once.  Just in case.

Then, we compare d10 + Weapon Strength vs d10 + Defense.

Pagán didn't make it. The extra shot from the plasma pistol is wasted.

Sherman's too tough.  He shakes it off and keeps fighting.

That's one kill for Peralta!

If you survive getting shot, you're "grazed" and have to make a test to see if you duck for cover and go prone.  Sherman makes his save and remains standing.

Now the other side finishes their turn.  Control normally passes to the other side when you fail an activation test (after you take your 1 action), but since Vault 99 has activated everybody, a failed activation just means the TSFA guys don't get the normal 2 actions.

Frustrated, Bloo decides to risk running past the radioactive zone.  Once he gets within 3 inches, I roll a d6 and a d3.  The d6 shows how far the radiation extends.  The d3 shows the intensity.  I get...

6 and 3.  Well, crap.

Crap crap crap.

Because Bloo passed through the radioactive area, he has to make THREE (because of intensity) Survival tests vs. a target of 10.  (It's actually a test using Mettle.  All skills are basically Mettle.  Survival just lets you know what modifiers will apply.)  He fails one, and now he has a cumulative -1 to his Defense.  Worse, because he couldn't didn't clear the area, he'll have to make the same tests next turn, until he can get far enough away.  If his Defense drops to zero, he collapses and is taken out of the fight, and might turn into a Mutant!

Everybody advances, and Verdun takes a shot at Agent M with his large-caliber pistol.  He hits, and manages to wound M, who chooses to automatically fail his Will test in order to get into cover and go prone.  He's not dead, though, because unlike his followers, he has (well, had) two wounds.

I don't know.  I feel like this is a bad sign.

TURN 3

Vault 99 wins initiative again (for all the good it's doing them).  Jeffords goes first, trying to fix his suit.  He fails, and tries again, and fails.  He's tried turning it of and on again.  Maybe it's a problem with the turboencabulator?  This is the saddest thing I've ever seen.  He's basically got a 50/50 chance of fixing it with each test, and is still flubbing it.

"Terry hates this power armor!"

Most of the rest of the warband shoots and misses.

Then, with the power armor just sitting there, the entirety of the TSFA lights him up!

That's not a '6' in the back.  That's a '9'!

Now, normally the power armor suit's armor plating gives it an extra d6 to roll for Defense.  If the d10 is lower, you can use the d6 result instead.  Plasma weapons, like Bloo's rifle, ignore that, though.

Boom.

So, I suppose there was a lot of wasted firepower, but TSFA really wanted to make sure that thing went down.  This kill goes to Bloo, obviously.

B0YL3, the Heal-O-Matic, moves up to try to fix Jeffords, but only has one action and can't try to inject him with healing goo until next round.  Agent M is prone, and hidden from much of the battlefield, but he can see Bloo, so he rolls over and fires off a shot, but it goes wide.

I call this image, "Good Luck Meets Bad Luck".

Also, I'm not quite sure when Agent M moved into range of the irradiated zone, but it's a moot point.  A crazy lucky roll (contrast with Bloo) gives it a 1 inch range at intensity 1.  Agent M isn't even affected.

TURN 4

The Tri-State Field Agents get to go first this time, which is great for Bloo, but he's got to make a choice.  Does he want to try to take out the leader (Agent M) or stop the robot (B0YL3) from resurrecting the power armor?  I decide that the Heal-O-Matic is too much of a resource, and Bloo takes it out with his plasma rifle.

"Bzzt!  Whrr! I was just learning how... to...    loooove........."

This is obviously a problem, and with anguished cries, everybody left in the 99 unloads on Bloo (but only Diaz hits).  But it's a good hit, and Bloo goes down!

They "bloo" him away!  Ahh? <Bad joke husky smile face/>

TSFA tries to return the favor, but everybody misses, and Horton and Hunter jam up their rifles.  Verdun takes the opportunity to fall back.

When it rains, it pours... weapon jams.

TURN 5

TSFA gets the initiative again, but wastes it on a missed shot.  Vault 99 realizes that they've been standing in the open for a while now, and moves to cover and maybe a flanking position.

Diaz is awfully close to that radiation zone...

TSFA mostly spends its turn unjamming rifles.  This doesn't require a test like a malfunction does, but it does take an action.  With the rest of the 99 out of sight (Agent M went prone again), the only target is the straggling Peralta.  Sherman and Verdun shift to better positions and shoot at him.  He survives the first hit, but Verdun's big pistol brings him down!

You don't have to be faster than the bullets, just faster than Peralta.

With the warband now at half strength, everyone in the 99 must make a Morale test.  Both M and Diaz fail, and make a full move toward their side of the table (in cover if possible).  On the bright side, this takes Diaz out of the radiation zone.  So, there's that.

Morale failure only lasts for the turn, though, so it's not too big a deal, though it might disrupt your plans, I suppose.

"All is lost!  Oh.  Wait.  Nevermind."

TURN 6

Agent M considers moving, but he's got a guy right there who needs shooting, so he does.  It's a close thing, but Sherman goes down in a spray of blood and plasma.

"Tell... my wife... 'Honka honka!' She'll... know what it... means. Guh!"

Santiago runs up to the corner, risking radiation, and fails twice for -2 Defense.  Yuck!
Diaz manages to take up a covered position outside of the radiation zone, and shoots at Constantine.  He shakes it off (barely) but fails his Will test and throws himself to the ground behind that green shipping container.

Action movie style!

The TSFA can't seem to scrap together more than one action each, so they mostly just get into position and drop prone.

Either that, or maybe it's nap time.

TURN 7

So, it's turn seven, and the points are (just barely) in favor of Vault 99, and the enemy is dug in, so as boring as it sounds, they're playing it safe right now.  Agent M only gets one action (otherwise he would have gone on Hold (aka "Overwatch").  So instead, he ducks back into the garage and out of sight.  Hunter and Constantine shoot at Diaz, but get only one hit, which she manages to soak.   She is forced to drop prone, though.

Santiago is still bathing in rads as she stands there, so she decides to move away, but not before taking a bit of a long-shot at Constantine.  It actually connects, but his armor absorbs the damage to no effect.  And Santiago still loses two more Defense.

"Hey, Santiago!  You left some hair over here!"

TURN 8

This is it.  It's the last turn, and the only chance that TSFA has is to get Verdun up to the garage to take out Agent M.  M is wounded already, so this could totally happen.

Unfortunately, Vault 99 gets the initiative, and the first thing that Agent M does is to Hold an action.  Santiago gets one action and decides to pass.  Then Verdun rushes Agent M.  M fires at him, of course, but at least Verdun is still behind hard cover.  It's a hit!  But that's OK!  Maybe Verdun will shake it off!

Well, no.  But that's OK!  He's got two wounds, so he still gets to finish his turn!  But first he needs to make a Morale check.  Success!  But now he needs to make a Grazed check.  Fail!  He falls prone behind the barricade where he can't see M, and his turn is basically over.  And that's game!

"Curse you, M!  I'll get you next time! FIST-SHAKE!"
"Did... did you just yell 'fist-shake'?"

AFTERMATH

So, first things first.  Who won?
TSFA took out two "Rank and File" and one "Specialist", for three points.  But they shot first (despite Jeffords trying to shoot first) so they lose two points.  Final tally: 1 sad, lonely point.

Vault 99 dropped two "Rank and File" and an "Elite", for a total four points.  Final tally: 4 happy, well-adjusted points.

I guess we should see who survived.

B0YL3 is fine.  Just a close call.
Despite his embarrassing failure, Jefford's scars are impressive.  He actually gains 1 XP.
Peralta, on the other hand, is severely wounded.  He's got a bent elbow (-1 Mettle), and he's Reckless, which gives him the Frenzied ability, which means he has to test to avoid charging into melee every turn.

Pagán... oh no!  R.I.P. Pagán.  We hardly knew ye.
Bloo makes it out with a close call.
Sherman is banged up, and suffers a -1 to all rolls next game.

EXPERIENCE

Agent M: 6
Peralta: 3
Santiago: 2
Jeffords: 3
B0YL3: 2
Diaz: 3

Verdun: 4
Bloo: 4
Sherman: 2
Hunter: 2
Horton: 2
Constantine: 2

So, that's cool, but not enough for anybody to advance.

INCOME

Now we see what we made from all of this.  First, each enemy taken out is worth five Barter Scrip (BS).

TSFA: 15 BS
V99: 15 BS

Then, Vault 99 chooses four members to go out scrounging.  I choose B0YL3, Diaz, Santiago, and Peralta.

Yeah, I know.  The weird green cards are weird.

Then I draw a card for each of them.  The scenario says I get to redraw twice if I win, so I ditch a Jack of Hearts and a Four of Clubs.

The Seven of Spades and Eight of Diamonds are just money, so I get 3 times that in BS (45).
Then, the face cards.

The Queen of Hearts says that B0YL3 encounters an active auto-turret.  I can brave it and try to score a mini-gun at the risk of injury, but I decide to play it safe, and scrounge up some unspent ammo nearby worth 10 BS instead.

The Jack of Spades says that Peralta encountered a caravan with a broken wheel.  It's low risk, so I decide to help.  Peralta succeeds at a Strength check to help fix the wheel, and gains 35 BS in thanks.

End result: 60 BS

Then, for TSFA, I choose Bloo, Constantine, Sherman, and Horton

It's possible that I didn't shuffle well.

The Joker says that Bloo gets offered the chance to go on a "monster hunt".  He fails the Survival test, and the mutant creature gets a way, but not before goring him.  Bloo is severely injured, and now has a "bum leg" (only one move action per turn), but he is also "hardened" and gets the Brave skill for free!

Constantine gets 2x3 (6) Barter Scrip.  (Yawn.)

The King of Clubs says that Sherman encounters a raider in an old fire house.  Winning a flame-thrower doesn't seem worth it, so he chooses to avoid the raider and find an old fire extinguisher worth d10(6) BS instead.

The other Joker means that Horton has found an old "Continuity of Government" bunker, but she has to figure out the access code to get in.  She just barely fails, and the tunnel collapses!  She's trapped for several days, but in the long run it was just a close call with no effect.

End result: 27 BS

Whew!

So that was "This is Not a Test".  It's pretty fun in its own right, but I think the campaign system will give it longevity.

You can get it HERE.

-Jason "Ludanto" Smith