Wednesday, March 16, 2011

More Pulp Mayhem!

Mikey here again, with another game report.

Before getting too far into this, I have to confess if what happened this last time keeps up, we may have to change the name of this blog to "Mike Loses Again." I suffered a pair of ass handings this time around...

Here we see the Ornery Galoots in the jungle again, looking for adventure and (most of all) treasure! Bob had worked on some rules/tables for weather and time of day, and little romp ended up being set in the dark of night. If you lose it out here, you're in a world of hurt.

Normally I play conservatively, skeedaddling out of the scene after grabbing a few markers and taking one or two casualties. This time I was out for blood... and treasure! With that I split my party, ignoring a vital rule from my D&D gaming, and sent Ford and Schecky to check out an idol... what are the cops doing here? Oh crap, that can only mean one thing, the Shadow's here... and he's taking our treasure!


As if to make matters worse, Lloyd's Lads were on the hunt as well. Jane had just entered the building on the right through her normal means of ingress (i.e. the window. Remember, doors are dangerous!) when the normally useless Bromsky swipes the marker through the bloody wall. Curse you and your fake beard!



Meanwhile Lloyd, Ahkmed and Angus made sifted through some ruins, unaware that some shootin' was about to commence.




While the rumble in the jungle started heating up, Jane made a typical exit in pursuit of Bromstein, determined to teach him a lesson in "what's mine is mine!"


It got even uglier when Lloyd and Ahkmed met up with Sammo and Sanchez. Due to poor dice rolling for visibility Sammo and his Bren were absolutely useless as he couldn't see a damn thing until he caught the glint of Ahkmed's dagger. That glint quickly disappeared... along with Sammo's gall bladder.

After beating the crap out of Bromstein with the Chain of Command, Jane now had herself a dilemma: move from behind cover to open fire and support her Galoots, or grab the treasure Bromstein dropped in the hopes it would cover their medical bills. Surprisingly enough, she chose the former -- yeah I know, there's a first time for everything.


The jungle fighting took a turn for the worse when one of the Shadow's companions, The Cape, plowed into Ivan. Unbeknownst to everyone (including the Cape thanks to the head wound that made him crazy), this crime fighting madman is a direct descendant of one of the Great Jumping Paladins of Tyr. This order of goodie-twoshoes was obscured by some douchebag in Constantinople named Charlemange... like anyone would remember him...

While the Galoots fought valiantly -- okay, I can't say that with a straight face. Valiant? These guys? It's nut shots the whole with these guys. While the Cape had balls of steel, everyone else in the Shadow's gang had reinforced jock straps, which meant the Galoots had to quit the fight with broken toes.

And Sammo... he didn't last against Ahkmed. We lost Ivan in the fight, which hurt the Galoots somewhat because he did have some valuable experience... and some of the Shadow's silverware in his pocket from when we looted his mansion. The money was just enough to break even, so we could embark on our next mission: a chase!

We had never done a chase mission before, and Bob wasn't certain this would work. He considered doing something different, but we decided to see how things would play out. By this Bobby had shown up, so we paired off into teams: Bobby (Baron Helmut) and I would be pursuing Lloyd and the Shadow. As pursuers, we had to split off a third of our gangs and deploy them near the far side of the table, while the rest of our figures (and our prey) deploy on the close side. The idea was to stop the prey before the got off the far side of the board.

I had Jane, Sanchez and Sammo take the road, while the Baron and his cronies took to the fields. Our opponents would then be pursed by Dr. Tooba and his zombies along with Smythe (of the Islington-Findleydale Smythes) and the rest of the Galoots.


We may have been at something of a disadvantage, given the Shadow's gang was being chased by zombies, and I was on foot against Lloyd's Funkengruvenwagen. A party van it is not, but a front mounted Hotchkiss will at least make certain that traffic isn't an issue. No, that's not a factory option.



It took a couple of rifle shots, but we managed to take out the driver. Sammo and his Bren were useless again, but fortunately Crazy Charlie Wilson emptied both his BAR and the Hotchkiss without ripping us apart.

The Shadow and his gang were caught between the zombies and the Baron. The forests negated the speed advantage the living had over the dead, making the chase look like the Running of the Retards. As he engaged the Baron, the Shadow changed tactics -- he offered the Baron $10 dollars to take out Jane. Before you could say "Curse your inevitable betrayal," one of the Baron's men squeezed a few shots of at her, but to no effect.

Jane didn't notice, because she was having too much fun trying to blow up the Funkengruvenwagen with grenades (despite one mishap). The best she could do, sadly was take out Angus McBastard and rip up the rich Corinthian leather in the upholstery. Lloyd could have driven off into the sunset at this point, but instead he decided it would be prudent to exchange insurance info with Jane. Ahkmed, being Lloyd's personal assistant, has the policy and agent numbers tattooed on his knuckles.

It wasn't enough to leave Jane with a limp, oh no. While Charlie Wilson and Sammo did a reenactment of the fight scene from "Highlander" using their empty machineguns as swords, Lloyd and Ahkmed kicked the crap out of Sanchez, dragged his ass into the truck and took off.

Waiting to pay off that ransom wasn't enough, and I knew that if I were to mount a rescue I'd be on my own -- Jane has not made any friends here, and that was how I played it. So instead of cash I offered Sammo's Bren. Replacing his weapon and replenish numbers left me with $1 left in Jane's wallet.

That aside though, the chase mission worked out, despite Lloyd's vehicle and the shambling zombies. With our next pulp game, we're planning on making some new gangs and starting fresh, just to see if things can stay balanced. I have one gang almost ready and another in planning, figures pending.

Until next time, be sure to drink your Ovaltine!