Welcome To Lazarus

Instead of a "BANG", humanity is passing away with the shuffling of dead feet, and hungry moans. Desperate men and women fight against the rising tide for the newly risen dead.Sometimes, though, the undead are not he most dangerous things out there. Civilization has failed the test; the only thing left is survival.

Lazarus is just one of many places where humanity holds on by a thread, and life and death come as easily as a roll of the dice.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

To Serve And Protect - ATZ Campaign Day 1

I wanted to start off my campaign with several short games, just to set the tone.  There are no Stars, as of yet, and everyone is cannon fodder at this point.  A brave soul may survive, to become one; time will tell.

9-11 Dispatch: "Lazarus 911, what is the nature of your emergency?"
Caller (old woman's voice): "You need to send police over here immediately.  One of the prostitutes that live in my apartment building is attacking the UPS guy out on the sidewalk."
9-11 Dispatch: "Ma-am what is the address of you location?  We'll get a patrol car over there immediately."
Caller: "Oh dear, hurry, it looks like she's gone crazy and is really hurting him."
9-11 Dispatch: "Yes, ma-am, stay inside and lock you door, help will be there shortly."
9-11 Dispatch: "Patrol 13 codes J-04 at.....please respond."

Setup:
Downtown Lazarus: It is an urban location, in the seedier part of Lazarus.  Lazarus PD patrol car 13 has been dispatched on an assault call.  Officers Jones and Baakus (both Rep 4, armed with pistols and batons) are expecting nothing more than one of the locals who is high on meth causing trouble.
Downtown Lazarus


Turn 1: (Police 3, Zombies 2)
Patrol 13 en-route.
Police Move:  The patrol car arrives on scene, and the police officers exit the vehicle.  They see what looks like a hooker bent over a body dressed in UPS brown on the side walk.  
Officers Baakus and Jones exit their car.
They both pass 2 on a "See the Feast" roll.  Since it is Day 1, I decided that they don't understand what's going on, and must take a "Zed No Zed".  Officer Baakus passes 2 and recognizes that the man is being brutally attacked by the hooker.  He also recognizes the hooker as one of the regulars (double on "Zed No Zed" test) and calls her name.  Officer Jones passes 1 on the roll and doesn't recognize the threat.  He advances towards the hooker.  

Zombie Move:  The zombie charges Officer Jones and they begin grappling. As they struggle, Jones bashes the zombie's head on the concrete; killing it.
The Zombie hooker attacks.
Turn 2: (Zombies 3, Police 1)
Zombie Move:  The body of the downed UPS driver stirs and rises to its feet; turning to face the officers.

Officer Jones is attacked from behind.
Police Move:  Events are moving fast, and Officers Baakus and Jones still don't understand the nature of the threat (GMs prerogative).  They take another "Zed no Zed" test, which they both pass 1.  As a result, the zombie charges the closest officer.  This happens to be Officer Jones, who has his back turned as he looks down at the dead hooker (-2d6 in melee; again GMs prerogative).
Officer Down!

The zombie scores one more success than Jones and knocks him out of the fight.  At this point, Officer Baakus pulls his baton (+1D6 in melee) and charges around the car to aid his partner.   He swings at the zombie, which is bent over Officer Jones. He connects, but does no damage (0 successes on melee roll).

Turn 3: (Zombies 3 Police 1)
Zombie Turn:  After being struck from behind, the zombie turns on its attacker.  Officer Baakus brings his baton down on zombie's head and splits it open. It lays dead in the street.
Baakus stands over 2 dead zombies and his wounded partner.
After the fight:
Officer Baakus frantically applies first aid to his partner, who is bleeding profusely from a bite wound to the neck.  He calls for an ambulance.  Help arrives and Jones is rushed to the hospital; hanging on to life by a thread.  The ER staff works to stabilize him; little do they know, though, he is infected (roll of 6 (4+2) on a “Harry Are You Okay?” roll).  Soon, he would be among the first living dead in Lazarus, but definitely not the last...

6 comments:

  1. Haha, great start! Beautyful pictures, keep it coming!

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  2. And so it begins. Good stuff as always.

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  3. Adding in the dice rolls and the mechanics explanations is a very nice touch.

    Looks like it will be a good blog to follow to help wrap your head around how the game works.

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  4. Oh, I really like your blog! I love Day One scenarios. Following!

    Whiteface / Oliver

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  5. I'm glad everyone likes it; I really enjoy putting things like this together. If you are a fan of "Day 1" scenarios, then you definitely need to stay tuned. ATZ rules say that a proper ATZ campaign starts around Day 26 (page 53). So, that means that I have 25 days worth of one off scenario ideas to play with to create a history for my campaign, and maybe create some Stars in the process. If anything, it give me multiple opportunities for zombie fodder to be thrown into the gnashing teeth of my imagination...I'm giddy with excitement :-)

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  6. Great little AAR to start your ATZ campaign off with! Provides me with motivation(and ideas) to get my ATZ campaign up and running on THE QUICK AND THE ZED.

    Maj. Dizaster

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