Alone in the Dark Written and developed by James Houlahan, Bret Rood, and John King. Layout and Final Preparation by James Houlahan. Photography by Bret Rood and James Houlahan. Miniatures painted by Bret Rood, James Houlahan, and Ryan Steiner. Additional Testing and Writing by Robert Valentine and Ryan Steiner.
Miniatures Produced by: Hasslefree Miniatures (www.hfminis.co.uk) Wargames Factory (http://wargamesfactory.com) Reaper Miniatures (www.reapermini.com) Tengu Miniatures (Now C-P Models http://www.cpmodelsminiatures.co.uk/)
Š 2015 Rust Devil Games. All rights reserved. Zed or Alive: The Zombie Miniatures Game, Zed or Alive, Rust Devil Games, and all associated logos are the property of Rust Devil Games. This material is protected under the Copyright Act of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without express written consent of Rust Devil Games. This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc. com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose of this product. This document contains graphic design elements ŠFuzzimo (www.Fuzzimo.com) used with permission. Printed in China.
One thing that we wanted to address after playing our most recent Rust Devil Games campaign was to add another way players – especially starting players, could hedge their bets when a group member gets seriously injured. It can sting to get a particularly debilitating result on the Badly Wounded Table for a key group member, and it can send a new group into a downward spiral that may be extremely difficult to recover from.
Alone in the Dark (C)
So, while the following new Confrontation can be played by any group, it is especially useful to groups that don’t have access to a medic.
Your character has just regained consciousness deep in the ruins, left for dead after the previous confrontation’s vicious fighting. Having luckily escaped notice by the infected corpses combing the city in search of food, the wounded combatant must now successfully escape the Shamblerinfested ruins back to the safety of his group’s camp as the midnight moon is slowly but surely blotted out by a thick fog.
What we came up with should provide players with a way to tempt fate in an attempt to improve the chances of a character who is wounded in combat. We sprinkled in a few design elements that we’d been tossing around for a while and came up with...
Terrain: Take turns placing each piece of terrain, or simply arrange it by mutual agreement. The table should be densely covered with terrain,
Objectives: The human player(s) must escape the board by reaching the opposite corner from their deployment.
A pair of survivors are cornered behind a derelict video store and forced to fight their way to safety. Miniatures by Wargames Factory, Hasslefree, and Reaper.
Zeds mill about, searching for any food they can consume. Miniatures by Wargames Factory and Tengu Miniatures.
forming a maze of alleys and ruins. Supplies: There are 1d4 crates of supplies on the table. Each one is Civilian (1-3), Industrial (4-5), or Military (6), each one containing two items. These can be opened during the game by spending an action in base contact, or carried as a Bulk 6 item. If there is no Virus Strain player, human players take turns placing these on the table within 16” of the center of the table. If a Virus Strain is present, that player may place the supply crates anywhere on the table as long as it is at least 8” from a table edge. Shamblers: Do not roll on the Density table. There should be eight plus 1d4 zombies for every player and four spawn points. Additionally, if a Virus Strain is present, he may choose to hold one Shambler per human character in reserve and deploy on any Shambler turn from a table edge or spawn point. Deployment: Assign a number to each corner of the table and roll 1d4. The first group deploys within 8” of the corresponding corner, his opponent in the opposite. Virus Strains: If a strain is present, it deploys Aberrants along with Shamblers, but may not deploy within 12” of the objective and may not move within 8” of it unless it is actively pursuing a survivor or his blood trail. Additionally, any Aberrants fielded have the Ticking Time-Bomb as the Sentinel (see ZoA pg. 67.) However, when dealt a face card, it may move 4” in any direction, and on a Joker it may act as normal without Ticking Time-Bomb. If the Aberrant ever spots a human, Ticking Time-Bomb is removed. Left for Dead: Each human player may only field one character in this Confrontation. He may either choose a character who Bled Out or was Bleeding
Out when the last game ended or randomly determine a character. Keep in mind you should play this game before rolling to see if your character is injured from the last Confrontation. If being alone wasn’t bad enough, he is also only armed with one of his secondary weapons. If none is owned, he was able to scavenge an improvised club. Shambler Bait: As the old adage goes, you don’t need to run faster than the zeds, just faster than your friends! Any human characters in the game are still seriously hurt and suffer a reduced Pace of 4 and running die of d4. When running, players must make a Vigor check or stumble, losing their entire move. Their wound is also bleeding openly, leaving a trail of their life’s essence that the infected can smell. At the end of each move, place a Blood Trail counter behind the character. This is treated as a Loud Noise for purposes of being detected by Shamblers and Aberrants, except they do not affect the decibel meter and they do not go away. If a character does not move, there is no need to place another counter. Shamblers will always move toward the most recent Blood Trail counter within sight distance. Night Fog: It is the middle of the night and a thick fog has just covered the ruins. All rolls to hit are at -2, and targets aren’t visible beyond 10”. Additionally, the the sensory deprivation is very unnerving; all Fear checks are at -2. Against All Odds: If the human players escape, your character gains a +2 bonus to roll whether or not they suffer a serious wound. If the mission is failed, they do have to roll to see if they were injured from the last Confrontation as well as if they were taken down in this one as well.