Haunted Hotel - High Moon with Insanity Rules

Using my Insanity rules with THW's High Moon, I decided to send my three heroes into the Death's Kiss Hotel (nothing bad could come from a place with that name, right?).  My heroes are:

Ace:  Rep 5 Star:  Marksman, Slow to React, Pistol.
Cade:  Rep 4 Townsperson:  Slow to React, Pistol.
Joseph:  Rep 4 Indian Warrior:  Brawler, Rifle.

Ace (Red), Cade (Green), Joseph (Blue)

Ace and Joseph entered the hotel at around 8 P.M., along with their guide, Cade.  Their job was to see if stories about the hauntings were true or simply legend.  and for that, they'd stay and explore the hotel from 8 P.M. until 8 A.M.  Let's hope they survive.

 
They entered one room when Ace froze in his tracks.  "Did you hear that?"  Sneaking out into the hallway, he peeked into the next room.

PEF #1:  Pass 1d6.

"What is it?"  Joseph asked, his rifle entering the hallway before him.

Eyes peering left to right, Ace shrugged.  "I guess just my imagination.  I could have sworn-"

PEF #2:  Pass 1d6.

"Did you hear that?"

Cade entered the room, pistol shifting as he glanced around.  "I heard that too.  Something's here, just not sure it's a ghost."

"It's like the walls have eyes that watch our every move," Joseph said with a shudder.

Backing out into the hallway, Ace nodded.  "That wasn't the wind.  I thought I heard talking."

PEF #3:  Pass 2d6;  4 Opponents total.

Ace again entered the room and paused as he thought he heard movement all around them.

PEF resolves as ghosts.  Ghosts act first and split into two groups.

"I don't see anything now," Ace said.

Just then, Cade and Joseph spun around to find a spectral being staring at them.  Cade froze in his tracks (gains Insanity point) while Joseph fired his rifle.  To their surprise, the creature disappeared into the room, and the two men gave chase.

Ace, meanwhile, encountered three ghosts in one bedroom.  He opened fire, but suddenly, all three shrieked, and Ace stumbled back, head spinning.  (2 Insanity Points gained.)

11 P.M.

Cade and Joseph chased the ghost through the hallway, with Joseph getting a few shots off.  Finally corning it in a bedroom, Joseph slowly entered.  He fired but missed, and suddenly, the walls begain wailing at him.

Seeing his friend in pain, Cade pointed his pistol and fired.  Hearing a thunk, he thought, 'I got you, so son of a-'

Then he saw Joseph hit the ground (OOF) and he realized his horrible mistake.  Before he could check on his friend, the ghost lunged forward, and Cade bolted for the hallway.

Cade found Ace in a nearby room, collapsed in the corner (4 Insanity Points, but saved by Star Power).  Helping Ace to his feet, the two took off down another hallway.

(At this point, only the heroes activated for three turns.)

2 A.M

As the ghosts gave chase, Ace and Cade opened fire, driving the beings off.  They continued circling from room to room, and both were having problems focusing.

5 A.M.

However, the spectral presence was begging to take its toll, and not long after, Cade collapsed unconscious.  (OOF.  Ace survived again thanks to Star Power, but he was down to 3d6.)

Finding Joseph, he did his best to tend to the man's wounds (Passed 1d6 on Recovery table), before taking up his rifle and continuing on his way.

6 A.M.

Just have to last two more hours, Ace thought.  Spotting a shrieking shadow, he fired, and it vanished, but then he heard howling from the room next to him.  He ducked just as a ghost flew over his head and put his back to the wall as a third approached.

Wait, he thought, is my back glued to this wall?  He pulled himself away, but now the lights were screaming at him, the paint was taunting him, his own gun even cackled when he tried to pull the trigger.  (Gained another Insanity point for 5 total.)

Dropping the weapon, he fell to his knees and covered his face in his hands.  He tried shaking his head, but it did no good.  (Star Power failed). 

Collapsing on the floor, he opened his eyes to find three hideous specters watching him with glee.  And the last thing he heard was their high-pitch cackles.

Ace, Cade, and Joseph were never seen again.  Their bodies were never found.  And no one ever entered the hotel at night again, until its location was long forgotten.

Does Death's Kiss Hotel exist today?  Possibly.  It could even be one you stay in next.  But when the sun goes down, just keep reminding yourself that's possibly all a myth.

Unless of course, the walls really are watching you right now!

Clownin' with Cowboys - a High Moon AAR

I ran this game mostly just to blow off steam, and to test out the Monster Clown for High Moon.  Rep 5.  Quick Reflxes for random Attribute.  1H Weapon.  

Here he is now:

Meet Risi

Risi (short for, 'Risible') has entered the town of Cactus Valley to rescue his buddy Pokes (a Mangler) from the clutches of the so-called innocent people of the town.  This is a Raid encounter, with his goal being the jail in Section 1.  Once again, I used the scale of 1 Section = 10."  And since Risi is armed only with a single jagged, rusty blade, subtly will probably be the best approach.

Time for some fun!

Risi entered the town early in the morning, when everyone was still recovering from a festival the night before.  He snuck around, searching for the nest way to the jail.  

(Note that I started with with 4 PEF's instead of 3 to make it a little more challenging.  Also, if Activation ends up as Doubles and 4 or less, then another PEF appears).

A lone cowboy appears, making a trip toward the outhouse.

(In Sights Check.  Pass!)

Good morning, sunshine!  And good night!

His buddy then heard the noise and rushed out.

Let's just say it wasn't pretty!

(The last PEF didn't resolve so Risi eventually made it to the jail.)

Violets are blue, blood runs red.

(In Sights check - Pass)

I see you, my pretty, and now you're dead!

At that point, another PEF appeared and resolved as a cowboy.

I'll let Pokes handle this.

(Pokes, a Rep 3 Mangler, won Charge into Melee and Melee, and hacked the cowboy to pieces.)

As they left the jail, however, they encountered some trouble.

Gunman Rep 4

Cowboy Rep 3

Cowboy Rep 3

Towns persona Rep 4.

Wanna see a magic trick?  No?  Fine then, die, you spoil sport!

The rest of the group fled behind the general store, and Risi and Pokes followed.

Although Risi got another kill, the remaining cowboy dropped poor, misunderstood Pokes.

Risi snuck behind the duo, but then realized they were joined by the town's blacksmith.

I don't suppose we could talk this over a spot of tea?

Although Risi managed to remove the cowboy from the equation, the blacksmith pulled out two pistols and filled the poor monster clown with bullets.

So no on the tea then?

They buried Risi by nightfall and told the town that a maniac gunman had plowed through the town, but he was executed on sight.  No reason to scare anyone with stories about monster clowns, right?

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That night, they visited the grave and paid their final respects to Risi.

(Not Quite Dead test:  Passed!)

Apparently, though they weren't aware that the only way to truly kill a monster clown is to completely destroy its body.  Burying one is usually a no no.

I will be laughing,
you will be hurt,
and I'll be dancing,
while you breathe dirt!

Singing his little song, Risi sent the blacksmith face-first into the grave and then pulled out his knife, grinning wickedly.

As the bartender ran, he screamed for help, but the people knew the truth of that night and remained in their homes.  They were all too aware of the creature with metal on his face and blades on his hands.  And they knew all too well of the clown dancing around.  So no one emerged to help the poor man.

He managed to make to to his house before a large foot tripped him.  Risi then dragged him gleefully (Risi, not the bartender) to the pond.

Oh don't worry.  I promise you'll float . . . unless of course, I tie rocks to your feet and jump up and down on your chest!

(Since Risi failed in his mission, and well technically, he did not receive any Increasing d6.)

The next morning, the people found the bodies and faced the terror for the first time.  And no one saw Risi the clown or the body of his friend.  But sometimes at night, people claimed to hear cackling in the wind.  

Did you hear it?  Was it the wind or something else?  Hopefully he doesn't know you're listening.  And he's probably not real anyway.  

But just in case, look over your shoulder.

No, your other shoulder . . . 

The Great Paine Robbery! - AAR for High Moon

Here's another AAR for the new High Moon game.  This time I wanted to try the Bank Robbery encounter, but with a twist; I'd be robbing the bank with monsters!

Here's my group:

Ursula:  Witch (Star);  Rep 5 - Quick Relexes
Morgan:  Smart Zombie; Rep 4;  Pistol
Lucy:  Werewolf;  Rep 4; Pistol
Gravid:  Vampire; Rep 3; Pistol.

Since Vampires don't usually work well with werewolves (and neither is fond of zombies), I hard Ursula hire all 3 allies.

This is essentially a Raid encounter, expanded as a Bank Robbery.  The four start outside the Tim Paine Bank.  When we started, Lucy peeked into the window to identify those inside (Mental Challenge).  When she succeeded, I resolved the PEF's.

Two of the PEF's didn't resolve (one Passed 1d6).  The last resolved as a Gunman (Rep 5; Red), Cowboy (Rep 4; Red; top right corner), and 3 bank workers (Townspeople Rep 3; Blue and Green).  The one in the top left corner atop the d6 was guarding the $.

Lucy picked the lock (Mental Challenge), and we won In Sight.

 Entering the bank, Ursula approached the teller and successfully cast a Suggestion spell.

"Go show your friends the stampede outside."

Sure enough, he approached the cowboy and gunman and tried to get them to look out the window.

"Look!  Stampede!"

Both men failed their Mental Challenge and looked.  This left the other two tellers unguarded.

Morgan sneaked up to the one closest to the door and 'silenced' him, and Lucy did the same for the one guarding the door.

As we tried to escape though, the cowboy and gunman heard us (successful mental challenges) and drew their guns.

Gravid tried to eliminate the cowboys, but his guns missed, and they returned fire.  They scored direct hits, but luckily, none of them used silver bullets (They apparently hurt both vampires and werewolves in the West).

Ursula then jumped in and took out all 3 with magical bolt spells.  Our group then took off into the night.  Afterward, I rolled for the loot and Rep improvements.  Ironically, Gravid improved to Rep 4 while no one else did.

Since that encounter ended too quickly, we robbed 2 more banks.  Those got a little bloodier, especially the third, when I decided the gunfire attracted the law who attacked from outside the bank.  All 4 of us survived, but only Gravid and Morgan advanced.  Ursula and Lucy (who got the highest kill counts) failed each time.

Next time, things could get a little darker.  Apparently, our actions have attracted the attention of Alabama Adams, a singing cowboy and the bane of all innocent creatures of darkness.  Upon hearing of darkness falling on the town of Westbrook, Adams immediately went to work assembling a posse to help him.

But Ursula is assembling some help as well.

Until next time . . .

Terror on the Prairie - a High Moon AAR

Sheriff Rogers looked up as the newcomer entered the bar.  He had a shotgun slung over his shoulder, a pistol in one holster, bags that sounded like rattling bullets in the other, and a book under his arm.  

Nearby, leaning against the bar, Bad Tad York, chuckled.  "He don't look like nothin.'"

"Behave, Tad," Rogers said.  "He's going to help us."  "Hey, over here," he called out to the stranger, kicking out the chair across from him.

The stranger sat, placing his book and Rogers pushed a mug over to him.  "This whiskey's the strongest this side of Rockies.  When the man ignored the drink, Rogers pulled it back.  "So you're the one known as Gothe."  His eyes fell on the book.  "Your Bible?"

"Book of legends and tales," Gothe answered.  "What's the job?"

"Well recently, we've been hearing of strange things up in those hills," Rogers answered.  "Last night, something massacred an entire militia."  He took a drink and Gothe noticed the sheriff's hands trembling.  He continued.  "Now I heard you've dealt with things like these before, and you got a debt to pay off.  Now, I haven't got much for you to go by, but-"

"A thousand," 

Rogers looked at him, stunned.  "What?"

"My price," Gothe said again, "a thousand.  You said yourself  it took out a militia."

The sheriff sighed.  "Fine, a thousand, once the deal is done of course."

Just then, Tad sauntered by the table.  "Why don't you give me the thousand, 'stead of this here runt."

"Not now," Rogers said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "this is not a good time, Tad."

Gothe started to stand, but Tad placed a hand on his shoulder.  "What's the hurry, tough guy?  You too good for whiskey?"

"Remove you hand, please," Gothe said, keep his voice steady.

Tad burst out laughing.  "Please?  Why this pearly white city boy's got manners.  I wonder if he's got a pair though.  Care to show me, Mr. Manners?"

Gothe shook his head.  "Some other time, now again, please remove your hand."

He reached for his book, when Tad snatched it.  "Well look what we have here.  Mr. Manners fancies himself a reader!  You wanna read to me Mr-"

Suddenly, Gothe grabbed Tad's arm, twisting it, and slung the larger man into the air, sending him crashing onto his back.  Lifting the book, he glared down at Tad.  "Do not touch my book."

As he walked out, Tad looked over at Rogers, who simply shrugged.  "All that," the sheriff said, "over a book called Fantasmagoriana."

Gothe:  Rep 5 Gunman; Quick Reflexes, Nerves of Steel; Shotgun w/ Silver bullets if needed.

For this game, I combined the Prairie Walk and Confrontation encounters.  The object was to find the cause of the attacks and deal with it.  I also used a couple house rules as follows:

• When I resolved a PEF with a roll of Doubles, that PEF would be the main threat.
• If I didn't encounter it after resolving all 3 PEF's, I'd start Gothe back in Section 9 with 3 more (treating it as a new area).

I added the second rule after my third PEF turned out to be a cowboy who said hi and walked away.  I then started a new location.

After greeting the cowboy and wishing him well, Gothe continued exploring the forest until he heard screams.  Spinning his shotgun around, he spotted several people (PEF resolved as multiple townsfolk) running toward him.

"Monsters!"  they screamed as they rushed past him, not slowing for a moment.

Continuing in the direction they ran from, Gothe spotted a young man hiding behind a tree and reloading his pistol.  "You all right?"

The young man continued reloading bullets and didn't even look up.  "It ate my ma and pa!"

"Which way?"

The kid pointed.  "I'm going with you.  I owe whatever it is a bullet or two."

Gothe shrugged.  "Suit yourself."

Readying his pistol, he nodded.  "Friend's call me Lucky."

"Gothe."

As the continued, they heard a strange groaning and peered ahead.

"Zombies?"  Lucky gave a chuckle and pointed his pistol.  "This shouldn't be so-"

Gothe yanked him back just as a bullet struck a nearby tree.

Lucky gawked.  "They got guns?"

"One of them at least," Gothe said, watching the grinning zombie as it pointed a pistol at him.

Before it could fire though, Gothe point his shot gun and dropped both of them.

Lucky studied the two dead creatures lying on the ground.  "Those things didn't kill my folks.  They're too small."

As if on cue, they heard a pair of howls and two creatures emerged from the brush.

"A werewolf!"  Lucky said, his voice breaking.  "And a . . . what the hell is that?"

"Were-coyote," Gothe answered.  He pointed his shotgun, but the werewolf lunged forward, knocking him off his feet.  It tried to dig its fangs into Gothe's neck, but he smacked it with the butt of his gun and rolled away (Saved by Star Power).  The coyote-like creature lunged at Lucky.  He got a shot off, but it didn't flinch.  It reached the younger man, who fought to keep it at bay.

Taking a step back, Gothe aimed his shotgun at the werewolf and fired, taking the thing's head clean off.  He then turned to see the were-coyote attacking Lucky and kicked it off before firing again and dropping the creature.

Helping Lucky to his feet (Lucky Passed 2d6 on Recovery table but failed the Infection test).  "I feeel weird," the boy said.

"You've got the infection in your blood," Gothe said.  "Go seek out one of the tribes up the mountains.  They might be able to help you."

"If not," Lucky held up his gun, "I'm dealing with this any way I can."

The two parted ways and Gothe collected the werewolf head, bagged it, and returned to town for his reward.

(Gothe got 4d6 Increasing d6 and improved to Rep 6.)


And that was a High Moon Game.  High Moon is the newest game from Two Hour Wargames, and it mixes the wild west with the supernatural.  Expect your cowboys and Indians to encounter zombies were-creatures, vampires, witches, and lots of other creatures of horror.  High Moon is a stand-alone game that needs no other game rules.  It even plays well as a straight-up western game if you're not a fan of horror.  But where's the fun in that?

You can find High Moon at:

http://www.twohourwargames.com/himodere.html

KA-#%%^#$%^$##$%-BOOM! CR 2015 . . . with Grenades!

Col. Vondel of Germany, having lost most of his squad in a recent battle, fled to the town of Basque.  Reduced to using only pistols, they found a cache of grenades and decided to literally go out with a bang.  Meanwhile, Major Lockheed of the United States Army arrived in the town, and his troops had also come upon the explosives.  Vondel thought no one would be stupid enough to trade explosives in such a small town.  Vondel had never before met Americans.

The purpose of this game was simply to have fun blowing people up.  Everyone was armed with grenades and pistols (in case they couldn't ready a grenade in time).  Vondel and Lockheed are Rep 5, while everyone else is Rep 4.  Once again, Radio Operators allow their group to act as Rep 5 for Activation and Reaction tests.

This battle is set up with Vondel's forces in Black on the left and Lockheed's forces in Blue on the right.

In addition, I created a house rule for Grenades versus Buildings.  Here's how it works:

• Every time a grenade goes off (not counting misses), a Blast Circle is placed.
• At the end of every round, I count every Blast Circle touching a building.
• I then roll 2d6 versus the number of Blast Circles for that building.
• Pass 2d6:  Building collapses.  On Doubles, the rubble can still be used for cover.
• Pass 1d6:  Building is Damaged (Orange circle).  +1 to number of circles for rest of game.
• Pass 0d6:  No damage.

The battle started with both sides remaining in cover and tossing grenades close to their opponents' positions.  This did little damage to troops, but the buildings felt the effects.

After the first round of combat, several buildings were crippled and one was reduced to pieces, though allied forces could still hide behind the debris.  And while a few troops got singed, no one suffered serious injury . . .

 Then a soldier, whose name must be German for, 'Butter-fingers,' lost control of a grenade and got a face full of shrapnel as his buddy just barely dove away from it.  Unfortunately for him, he ended up flat on his chest while American troops opened fire.  Now, this guy's name must have been German for, 'Dodge,' because he managed to roll and avoid all incoming fire (None of the American troops could ready their grenades in time).

One American soldier decided to leap over the debris he was hiding behind and launch himself at the enemy.  The German soldiers saw him first and both pulled out their grenades.  Unfortunately again, it seems Mr. Butter-fingers had a brother.  And this time, neither avoided the blast.

One German, though, decided to get brave and charged forward, chucking a grenade at Lockheed and his ally.

"Incoming!" the soldier yelled.
"Oh &#@&!"  Lockheed yelled as they both dove back into the street.

This, however, put them right into Vondel's line of fire, and the two group exchanged fire before Lockheed's group sled into an alley.

Seeing the advantage, Vondel ordered his troops to continue their assault, driving the Americans even farther back.  When grenades failed, they rushed forward, firing wildly at their foes.

This hasty move coast them dearly as Lockheed chucked a grenade right at them.  "Catch!"

And Vondel did just that.  The grenade went off in his hands, and one other soldier was dead before he could face-palm.  The remaining soldier opened fire and caught Lockheed in the chest with a lethal shot (Star Power succeeded once but failed the second time).  The last two Americans turned and bolted from the town, giving the wins to the Germans.


Overall, it was a fun and quick game.  Since troops kept tossing grenades at the corners of alleys instead of directly at opponents, I rolled fewer In Sight tests, which sped up the game.

Next time I'll be running my first High Moon game, which is a new game from THW and covers the supernatural wild west!

World War II! CR 2015 Large-Scale battle.

For my next game, I decided to try a larger scale battle, with about 20-30 troops on each side.  Since I don't have enough Rebels or Imperials, I chose to use my WWII minis instead while using streamlined Nuts FV rules.

Here's the set-up.  Germans in Black and British in Blue.  Also, Squad leaders (with rubber bands around them) were Rep 5 (including my Star), while everyone else is Rep 4.  I also included Radio Operators, who act as squad leaders for their group when rolling for Activation and Reactions.

 This is a simple game with the objective simply being to eliminate all opponents.  In addition, all buildings are 1-story.  Snipers who duck back can move backward to another building as long as it's no more than a space away.

The first round began with everyone making a mad dash for the center.  Multiple In Sight tests took place, and bodies quickly littered the streets (which you can see by the figures beside the map).

This British Demolitions Officer and Radio Operator got cocky and tried to split German defenses.  Unfortunately, they failed the IS test against both groups and got slaughtered.

This is what happens when you roll Activation without an RO.

My Commando (with the red rubber band) lost his IS test.  While he managed to avoid both the enemy DO and RO, he got caught by the Sniper.  I rolled OD for damage, but I still had my Star Power to save me!

CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Luckily, those in range past their Crisis Test and continued on without their brave leader.

Inspired by their leader's loss, my troops continued on and quickly thinned out the enemy's ranks.  Pushing forward, they eliminated our foes . . .

 . . . one at a time.  This left the Germans with their Sniper/Squad Leader and an RO against, well, quite a few opponents.  Their brave leader may be gone, but my loyal and able troops have this fight in the bag!

Or not.  At least we still have 2 against 1.  

Make that 1 against 1.  But the sniper lacks movement.  My last remaining soldier passes 2d6 on Fast Move and attempts to flank the enemy.   We still hvae a chance!

Never mind!  and what's worse, the enemy Squad Leader would've advanced to Rep 6.

Overall it was a fun game, though at times, I forgot who had acted and whose turn it was.  when in doubt though, I just stopped and rerolled Activation.

Once again, this used CR 2015 rules from Two Hour Wargames, which made battles with this many troops easier, at least for me.  If you like games like these in the WWII genre, I highly reccommend Nuts Final Version.  This game covers multiple aspects of WWII, with armies, weapons, random encounters, and scenarios.  Also, you can pick up supplements that cover battles in Russia, France, Japan, and (in upcoming books) Italy and Norway.  You can even find a supplement covering experimental technology like lasers and robots.

Go to www.twohourwargames.com for more details.

Next time, I'm going to try for a smaller game, but everyone will only have pistols and grenades.  I also completed rules for Grenades vs. Buildings.  Let's see what happens when everyone is just trying to blow each other up!