Space Station Zero: Vorann (Docking Bay Access Port)

Hello, humans!

Snarling Badger Studios came out with a new solo, sci-fi minis skirmish game and it had a great cover so I went ahead and picked it up.

The idea is pretty cool, and it has a sort of "rogue-like" quality that might work well for a video game, but seems to be ruffling some feathers as a minis game.  Maybe it's just expectations?  We'll see.

Regardless, I decided to give it a try.

The premise is that your starship has made a one-way mis-jump to this gargantuan alien space station (Space Station Zero, don't you know.)  And now your crew goes out to explore the dangerous alien artifact.

First, I made a new crew.  You have the option of fewer, better crewmembers, or more (but weaker) crewmembers.  Model availability and brain-power led me to the minimum count of four crewmembers (and one commander).  They come from a starship on an exploratory mission, but also do a little smuggling, which gives them a few extra toys to start.

Oakley (Chief Eng.), Verda (Scientist), Heather (Med. Officer),
Grant (Soldier), Captain Vorann (Commander)

The first "Challenge" as the scenarios are called is "Docking Bay Access Port".  There are two of four random obstacles to overcome.  I got "Live Wires" and "Poison Gas", which means I'm having to resist poison each turn until I can shut off three leaking valves, but moving through all of the loose wiring means I risk being shocked to death unless I can disable the power first.

I decide that my best chance, especially with my smaller, tougher crew, is to stand there and disable the power, and then dash for the poison valves.

(As an aside, it wasn't clear if moving at all risked getting shocked, or if each move action (up to two) risked the shock.)

The Access Port.  The leaky valves are spewing little white clouds.
I don't know why there are human numbers on things.

Turn 1

The game uses pools of d12s.  Even results are successes.

Captain Vorann passes a Life test to shake off the poison and then disables one live wire by rolling three successes.

11:11!  Make a wish!

Chief Engineer Oakley also ignores the poison.  He only rolls two successes to disable a live wire, but they're 12s, so it's a Critical Hit, which doubles the result to 4 successes and disables the live wire.

Double '1' is a Critical Failure, but Double '12' takes priority.

The scientist, Verda, disables the final wire without incident, and the last two crew run (double move) for the left and right gas leaks.

"GO! GO! *COUGH!* GO!"

Turn 2

Captain Vorann suffers a point of poison damage despite having 7 Life.  He also has "Jump Boots", so he's the best choice to get to the far leak up on the platform, soaring 12 inches over terrain and across the map.

Vwoooosh!  Whee!  Again!  Again!

The soldier, Grant, fails to disable a gas leak, missing by 1.

"Let's see.  It's Lefty Tighty, Righty Loosey, right?"

Verda takes two points of damage from the gas and the medical officer, Heather, takes one as well as everybody else moves toward a gas leaks.

"*COUGH!* Ze helmets!  Zey do nossing!"

Turn 3

Verda takes another point of damage and Grant takes two.  EVERYBODY fails to disable the gas leaks, with the Heather critically failing (though to no additional effect).

(I should note here that, somewhat counter-intuitively, tests default to being "extended" tests.  Which is to say that the successes that I got last turn should have counted toward this turn, and I would have had at least one valve closed by this point.  Oh well.  It turned out OK this time.)

How many monkeys in space-suits does it take to turn a knob?

Turn 4

Grant takes another point of damage.  Everyone fails to stop the gas BY. ONE. POINT. EVERY. TIME!

(Again, this was on me. I'll submit myself to the compliance officers for re-education.)

Turn 5

Finally, Captian Vorann manages to plug one of the gas leaks.  The Oakley fails, but Grant and Heather manage to stuff enough garbage into them to stop the poison!

Mission accomplished with no casualties, despite my best efforts!

Everybody gets a little bit of experience, and then it's onto the next Challenge, the Fabrication Bay!

New Challenge!

This one was short (narratively) so I decided to sneak it in here.

After randomly selecting an exit from the previous Challenge, I set up the table anew.

The white containers are big, stinky, sci-fi SLA printers.

There's toxic gas in the air again, this time the outgassing from these huge 3D printers in an enclosed room for who knows how long, but there's a stuck vent in the right wall that can be opened to clear the gas out.  There are also three humanoid swarms of mini-drones that are out to get us.

As this Challenge has enemies, I'll have to do the Initiative thing.

Turn 1

Captain Vorann goes first, jump-booting over a building to get closer to the vents to let the toxic fumes out.

Boi-oi-oing!

Grant goes next, rolling a Crit to double his 4 successes into 8 successes, plus two damage for using his energy weapon against a drone swarm.  It rolls 3 successes on defense, but 7 damage is still enough to destroy it!

KER-FWASH!  Drone vapor!

Almost everybody else shoots, too, but the drone swarm defends against it all.

(I rolled a bunch of elevens to keep the initiative for almost the entire turn.)

The drone swarms are too far away, so they double-move towards the crew.

BZZZ!  *SHUFFLE*  BZZ!  BZZ!

Turn 2

Everybody takes shots at the drone swarm, but nobody can do anything to it except for the Grant with his energy weapon, who hurts it for 4.

Meanwhile, Captain Vorann tries to open the vent and fails (but technically got a couple of successes that I should have been tracking).  Luckily, the drone swarm chasing him Crit fails the attack.

Turn 3

Next turn, the Grant finishes off the second drone swarm, and Verda manages to cobble together an anti-swarm tool from one of the fabricators.

*KER-FWASH!*
"Dude!  I was like, three feet from that thing!  The hell?!"

"Ah, man!  The supports are all jacked up.
Maybe I can sand it down."

Captain Vorann gives up on the vent.  (He only needed another success, but I hadn't figured out the cumulative success thing yet.  Plus it was barely doing any damage.  The worst part was having to roll for it every time a figure activated.)  Instead, he tries to fight the drone swarm, but can't get a hit on it.  (There's a penalty for non-energy weapons).

Everybody else follows up, running across the room.

Turn 4

More running and shooting and missing.

Turn 5

Finally, everybody catches up.  The drone swarm gets a solid hit for 3 damage on Captain Vorann, but Grant burns it for 2 damage, and then Verda just obliterates it with the anti-swarm device. (The "swarm-jammer" as it's called, is an instant kill, but it's not clear if the enemy gets to defend.  It probably does, though.)

Verda: [Smug look]
Grant: "Well, I loosened it for you."

We aren't able to build anything else from the fabricators before they shut down, so we look at our options and climb through an open ventilation shaft to the next Challenge, "The Pod"!

Thoughts so far...

First, there's a LOT of dice rolling.  I had to roll a pool of 6 dice to resist poison every time one of my guys activated.  Then maybe 7 dice to attack, and then 5 for defense.  If I had tried to run through the "live wires" in the first Challenge, I'd have been rolling 6 dice once for the gas, and then another 6 for moving (and maybe another 6 for doing a double move?) every time I activated a figure.

Second... Well, I haven't encountered it myself yet, but there are Challenges that will blow up the entire crew, or leave them struggling to make a difficult test to be able to even move as they flounder over icy floors while inhaling more poison gas and basically being able to do nothing about it.  That's the story I've heard anyway, and that's a bit rough. If it were a computer game, that would be like entering the room and watching the failure messages and damage counters pile up before you got your first turn.  BUT, I haven't personally encountered that yet.

So for now, Vorann's crew continues to trudge through the massive space station toward the next Challenge.

Oh, I suppose a link is in order: Space Station Zero

Ĝis la revido!

Jason "Ludanto" Smith C;E