Space Station Zero: Vorann (The Pod)

 Hello, humans!

Continuing from the previous post, Vorann's crew faces a new Challenge in "The Pod".

As they arrive in a new section of Space Station Zero filled with loose, sci-fi junk, a pod opens up and ejects some kind of device displaying a digital count-down.

Oh no!  I guess we'd better get over there and disarm what is obviously a virus bomb!  Good thing there don't seem to be any other threats in here. [wink]

Turn 1

Apparently there are hidden units here, so one of my crew gets on chance to "spot" them.  It's a free test, so they don't lose their action.  It's a Reaction test, so I have Vorann do it, even though Heather has a scanner that gives her +2 dice to find hidden enemies.  Doesn't matter, though, because he succeeds and reveals four mutants and two automated turrets lying in wait!

I guess this is the housekeeper's week off?

Oakley moves into cover and BLASTS a mutant for 10 damage using his tweaked heavy autorifle, killing it immediately...

DAKKA! DAKKA!

...which is good because he subsequently falls through a hole in the floor.  The only injury is to his pride, but he's out of the current fight.  At least we all know to look out for holes now, and it won't happen again.

DAKKA! DAK... WHOOPS!

Two mutants charge Verda. He fends off the first, but the second clocks him for a point of damage!

"RRGH!  US HATE SCIENCE!"

Vorann jump boots his way over all of the obstacles and gets into hiding near the virus bomb.  The bomb is a priority because when it goes off it kills EVERYBODY, and the recovery rolls gets modified to all but guarantee that everybody stays dead.  Better to lose a few to the fight than lose everything to the bomb.

Jump Boots: They look stupid, but they work!

Grant sidesteps a mutant and burns it for 1 point of damage.

The turrets are nasty.  They don't have great Combat, but they can attack three different targets each turn.  This could have been very unfortunate, BUT the AI for the enemy only says how an individual enemy acts.  It doesn't say who has to go first, and as lopsided as this game is, I chose to activate the enemies that were least likely to do anything useful before I could get out of the way.  As much of a cheat as it is, it actually adds a level of strategy to the game.  So far, so good.  Anyway, a turret clips Verda for 1 damage.

Verda then moves away from the other turret and the two mutants and into cover and fumbles his own shot at the mutants.

Finally, the last turret hits Heather for 3! Ouch!

I mean, I think we can still salvage this...

Four more turns before the bomb goes off.

Turn 2

Heather needs to get away from that turret, so she backs into hiding. Oh, and she's a Medical Officer, so she might as well heal herself. I roll 5 dice, needing 6+ and get two successes!  That will heal two damage!  Oh, but I also have a med-kit, which gives me two extra dice!  I roll those, too, and get a one and six! But that one matches my other one, making this whole roll a Critical Failure!  This is one of those things people complain about.  Statistically still in my favor here, but it certainly didn't feel good.  At least she won't get shot by the turret.

Speaking of the turret, I wisely choose to activate it next, as it has no targets!  One of the mutants also gets to go, throwing itself ineffectually against Grant's armor and taking another point of damage.

Vorann pops out of hiding to hack the virus bomb for three out of ten successes.  He's going to need help.

Pardon me while I somehow manage to hack alien technology.

Then the other turret goes, hitting Verda for another point of damage.

Keeping the initiative, another mutant injures Heather further, and then the last mutant takes out Verda!  Poop!

Grant rushes to join Vorann.  He's exposed but if he doesn't take this risk, it might all be for nothing.

Three more turns before the bomb goes off.

Turn 3

Vorann hacks the turret for three more successes.  Just four to go!

Unfortunately, we don't keep the initiative, but Heather makes a surprising showing as she turns the tables on a mutant that comes up behind her, elbowing it in the nose for 2 damage!

"Hands to yourself, perv!" *THWACK!*

And then another mutant Crits her for 6 damage and she avoids NONE of it!  Down she goes! :(

Misogynist Mutants. Mute-sogynists?

On the bright side, Grant manages to hack the bomb for three more.  Just one left!

By "hack" Grant means here "hit it with a heavy object".

Finally, the two turrets dogpile Vorann and Grant, doing a couple points of damage each.

Two more turns left before the bomb goes off.

Turn 4

Grant moves into a better position, and gets only one success, but that's enough to disable the bomb!  Now to survive the rest of this!

Heavy object hitting for the win!

The enemy swarm toward Vorann!  Two advance from afar, and Vorann plugs one as it gets close, but the nearest one jumps in and hits him.  And then the turret gets him, too!

This is going to be close.  And probably not end well for me.

Turn 5

Vorann backpedals into cover.  His weapon is not as powerful as Grant's but he's got a guy right on top of him, so I have him go first.  He needs to do four damage to take this thing out in one hit.  He gets three successes, but it's a Crit! So that's six successes!

Does this add up to 69?  Because it's NOICE!

The mutant only gets two success to dodge, and takes four damage, just barely killing it!

Jump-Boot-Shoot combo!

At this point, I really, really need Grant to go next!  I roll to keep initiative...

Something about differing perspectives...
Oh, wait. That little line means it's a six.

6!  Yes!

Grant gets 8 dice to attack, and the mutant only has 2 HP left.  This should be easy.

And...  

I get 4 successes, and the mutant gets 3.  Boo! :(  The mutant takes one damage and is still in the fight!

"WHY. WON'T. YOU. DIE?!

The mutant goes next, rolling 5 successes!  Crap!  But thank goodness for Grant's armor.  Two of those successes are "2", so they don't count.

I couldn't have orchestrated such a dramatic dice roll.

Grant rolls 5 dice for defense and gets... 

4 successes!  

And the payoff!

In close combat, if the defender wins, they do the difference in damage, so Grant does one point to the mutant!  

A mutant impales himself on Grant's fist.

That's just enough to finish it off, and per the scenario rules, that ends the Challenge.  The turrets suddenly go silent!

BWEEeeeeeooooo.... zzz.

The Aftermath

Heather and Verda were the only casualties.  Heather will be out of commission for the next Challenge, but Verda's OK.

As we gathering our bearings, the floor creaks loudly before collapsing, sending us plummeting to the floor below, a Science Lab!

More Thoughts...

For better or worse, this fight was TENSE!  Part of that was knowing that the virus bomb was a party killer, but I'm not sure that's a good justification.  Going in knowing that it was a priority was helpful, though.  If I hadn't been paying attention, I might have figured that getting blown up wasn't too big of a deal.

Also, as stated above, I realized that part of the game is (or could be) careful selection of which enemy activates when.  You have to follow the AI rules, but other than that I have full control, and as difficult-difficult-lemon-difficult as this campaign is, it doesn't really seem like a cheat.

And speaking of the campaign, this whole thing is a cool concept, but I feel like it would be nice if more was revealed by the Challenges.  I'm assuming there's some mystery at the end that explains what's going on in Space Station Zero, but hints of that along the way would make me feel like I was making progress.  Heck, I wouldn't mind a little "rogue-lite" action as well.  Maybe previous crews can partially pave the way for new crews.  After all, once that virus bomb gets disabled, why would it re-enable itself for the next crew?  Just a thought.

And along those lines, it's not always clear what happens next.  Like, if we disabled the bomb, but were taken out by mutants (and survived the recovery rolls), would we have to play this Challenge again?  Would the bomb be re-activated?  Or would we just have to re-fight the remaining mutants?  Or could we just skip all of that and go to the next Challenge?

Also, "experience" seems to be pretty linear.  After all, either you get the XP from the Challenge, or you're dead.  If your crew all go down in a fight, but survive, do they get XP? By the rules, yes, because they survived, but then you might as well say that crewmembers all level up every 5 Challenges.  I don't know.  Just some stuff I thought of.

Well, until next time,

Ĝis la revido!

Jason "Ludanto" Smith C;E