Here they come! Boarding Scene in Future Tales

In our last scene, Bart Blast and YM-3 lost their Space Battle against the villainous Orlocks.  So is it game over?  Not quite, not that your ship is disabled, the enemy will attempt to board it.  This is played out through the Boarding Scene.

Continuing from the previous scene, our intrepid heroes takes their places and prepare to face their attackers.

"YM, you go first."

The doors then explode open, and (after rolling for how many), the foes appear.

"So which one of your called us ugly?"
(Both point)  "He did!"

They manage to drop one foe, but then more appear through the air lock.  This will continue until all enemy on the board are defeated or the air lock is sealed.

Seeing the danger, Bart slips around the corner, but the Orlocks follow.  I guess they weren't found of the 'slugs' comment either!

Fortunately for our heroes, I roll a Terrain Obstacle.  These occur even in these scenes.  In this instance, it's a leak which fills the ship with steam.  Bart and YM-3 pass and can see without problem.  Most of the Orlocks fail, however, and become easy targets.

Bart even drops two, one right after the other, in a row!

With the enemy distracted, Bart races to the air lock and seals it, preventing more foes from entering.

'And then there was one . . .'

The remaining foes surrenders, allowing Bart and YM-3 to interrogate him.

Tell us what we want to know, or we'll force you to watch Galactica 1980!"

During the questioning, the surviving Orlock reveals that Wurr, their leader, wants to artifact that Bart and YM-3 are seeking for himself, and he will stop at nothing to get it.  Now that they know who the Big Bad is, our heroes will no doubt watch their backs from here on.

But with the enemy defeated for now, the two can continue on their journey to the space station Harlan.

Next time, exploring the Harlan!

Space Battle - Fighting off Attackers in Future Tales!

Here is another sample of game play for Future Tales, the upcoming science fiction pulps game from Two Hour Wargames.  This time, we're showing a sample of a new scene; the Space Battle!

Our hero, Bart Blast, and his robotic ally, YM-3 need to reach the space station Harlan, and to do that, they need a ship to make the trip to the station.  Now for Future Tales, you do not need a map, board, or figures for these scenes.  I just posted them to illustrate the game play.

Just a nice, quiet journey through the system.

And here are our heroes at the controls, well, YM-3 at the controls while Bart sits back and listens to music.

"This is the life, YM, no worries, no stress, just a quiet trip through the stars."
"Bart, I believe that light blinking means we are being followed."

Most of the time, your trips are uneventful, but other times, this happens:

"We are the Orlocks,  Surrender and prepare to be boarded."

The number and types of ships differ with each battle.  In this case, the heroes are being attacked by minions of the Big Bad.

Rolling on the Space Battle table, Bart manages to out-maneuver his new foes, gaining an early advantage.

"Come and get me, slag brains!"

Unfortunately, they're hit and suffer damage.  At times, your crew might have to race to certain parts of your ship for a specific task.  In their case, the star drive is damaged so YM-3 attempts to repair it while Bart leaps into a turret for some target practice.

"Just try and board us, I dare ya, space slime!"

While YM-3 repairs the star drive, Bart takes aim, blasting one of the ships to pieces.

Direct hit!

If you score enough 'Hits,' you'll disable or destroy your enemy and escape.  If not, things will go from bad to worse.

In case you were wondering, they did not escape.

For our heroes, not only did I fail to roll enough Hits, but the enemy succeeded.  Bart's ship is disabled, and the enemy prepare to take it over.

What's next?  If you fail in a Space Battle, all is not lost.  But that is for our next adventure.

Next time, the Boarding Scene!

"They are boarding our ship, Bart."
"YM, we really need to work on your communication skills."

A Night on the Town - Future Tales and City Tiles

Here is the next part in Bart Blast's adventure, introducing you to Future Tales, one of the newest games from Two Hour Wargames.  In this scene, Bart Blast and his robotic friend, YM-3, are searching a town for the next clue in their quest to find an ancient artifact of wisdom.

For this scene, I'm using another upcoming item from THW; City Titles!  These are large square tiles with buildings that can be arranged any way that you please to form towns and cities.  In addition, Counters are included with characters of various types to fit all kinds of sci fi games.

Above are the tiles arranged to form a town for my game.  The bottom left tile is a guide listing building types.  Although future Tales includes rules for determining building types, I'm using this guide for this one scene.

For the scene, Bart and YM-3 start in the bottom right title and must travel to the top left one.

The pink die represents their goal while the white dice represent PEF's (or Possible Enemy Forces).

I made my own counters for Bart Blast and YM-3.

Knowing this is not the best part of town, Bart and YM-3 quickly head through the street, searching for the apartment of a known scholar of artifacts.

They don't see anything thus far, but when they step around the corner, the PEF resolves.

It is an alien about waist-high who is smuggling supplies to another part of the town.  Since neither is a threat to the other, Bart and YM-3 wish the guy well and continue on their way.

However, when they round the corner, they hear voices and jump back.  It seems that one of the PEF's moved to join the other in this square, and now I'll be resolving both at the same time.

The first PEF resolves as another short alien and two humans with the alien being a pilot and the humans being a pilot and Noble.  The other PEF resolves as two robot thugs (The robot counters are not part of the game; I just found them online and added them to my game).

Since the details are left up to me, I decided that the noble is a local singer and the two pilots are his drivers.  The robots are trying to hold them up.  Deciding it's the right thing to do (and the groups are blocking their path), Bart and YM-3 jump in and attack, blasting the robots to bits before they can react.

The singer thanks the two and admits that he told his drivers to push his vehicle to make it home quickly from a concert.  Unfortunately, it ran out of fuel, and he led the two through what he thoughts was a shortcut.  When asked about the apartment, they pointed to the north and again thanked the two.

With that little adventure out of the way, Bart and YM-3 move on.

Entering the final tile, I roll for the PEF but it doesn't resolve.  However, when they enter the building I roll for a Defining Moment (These happen sometimes when moving through buildings) and one resolves.

I decided a map wasn't necessary for the inside of a building (That's compeltely optional on the player's part.) and just used a blank sheet of paper.

The Defining Moment resolves as two physic aliens from the academic field.  I decided they are researchers conducting their own studies.  After some questioning, they pointed to the apartment of their colleague, and our two heroes continued to the end of their mission.

Before I could reach it though, I roll a Terrain Obstacle.  Unfortunately, the door is locked, and before we could ask, one of the researchers turned and said, "No, we do not have the key."  Making a Physical Challenge, Bart manages to force the door, and the two enter the room.

To get the clue, the two must now solve a Puzzle.

The room is mostly empty, but Bart found an odd device on the counter.  "This is clunky for a communicator," he says as he studied it.  "And it's connected to this larger box."  Turning it over, he showed it to his companion.  "It looks like a communicator, but the screen ain't working."

Rolling up to it, YM-3 examinied it.  "When ancient humans first created communicators, they only used them for conversation."

"Only for conversation?"  Bart shook his head in wonder.  "No external access?  No ethereal-net?  How did these barbarians survive?"

YM-3 turned to the box connected to the communicator.  "I believe this device recorded messages to those who could not answer."

(Bart attempted the challenge but failed.)

"Maybe someone left a message."  He leaned closer to the device.  "Communicator, play back messages."  Nothing happened.  "Communicator, play back messages!"

(YM-3 attempted the challenge and succeeded.)

Pausing for a moment, YM-3 came to a conclusion.  "Since this device lacks electronics, I believe you must press the buttons for it to work."  He pressed a few buttons and it began playing.

"This is Professor Oslo.  While I have concluded that the artifact is located in the former human solar system, I am afraid my memory is not what it used to be.  I have sent my data to those researchers aboard the space station Harlan so they can analyze it and with hope come to a conclusion."

Pressing another button, YM-3 caused rectangular object to appear from the device.  "This is a cassette, which ancient humans used to store communications."

Bart snorted.  "It's huge, how much is on it?"

"Just that message.  Humans quickly learned to improve the storage of information, but at the time, this was the peek of their technology."

"Talk about the dark ages!"  Bart thought for a moment.  "Hey, I have some buddies on the Harlan.  Let's go pay them a visit!"

"Very well," the robot replied.  "I will arrange to find us transportation."

Next time, Bart Blast and YM-3 travel through space to the Harlan, and learn the hard way that someone else is searching for the artifact!

An entire game board that fits in a Zip-Loc bag!

City Tiles and Future Tales, both coming soon from Two Hour Wargames!  Keep your eyes open for more news!

Future Tales - Welcome to the future!

Future Tales is an upcoming tabletop role-playing game from Two Hour Wargames.  It is a game of Sci Fi pulps, allowing you to take part in your favorite sci fi stories, or create your own.  Like other THW titles, Future Tales does not require a Game Master to run things.  You can play the game solo, with everyone on the same side, or even head-to-head.

Here is a sample of play.  In Future Tales, you move from scene to scene as if you're in a movie, TV show, or book, travelling to different locations and meeting exotic beings as you seek to complete your objectives.

Let's get started with our Star.

Meet Bart Blast and his trusty (but hapless) robot friend, YM-3.  

Now in this game, you can use any map or miniatures that you want.  As there is no need to determine distance or range, you can use any size map or miniatures that you wish.  All you need to do is divide the map into 9 sections, to determine where opponents appear and where you goal is.  I'm using a map and some sci fi figures that I found on Amazon.

The map may seem a little empty at first, but that's because PEF's, or Possible Enemy Forces, appear as you encounter them.  What kind and how many depend on the location and time of day.  In this case, Bart and YM-3 are exploring a city at night.  If I were to place and resolve all PEF's, the map might look like this:

But on to the story . . .

Bart Blast, a retired soldier, is searching for a mysterious artifact that is said to bestow infinite wisdom to those who find it.  He starts his search in the city looking for a pilot who has information on the artifact.

But first, let's hit the bar!

Bart and his robotic sidekick enter the bar (The dice represent PEF's that they haven't met yet) and I resolve them as 2 reporters and 2 soldiers.  The soldiers aren't too friendly and turn away to enjoy their spoils in peace.  The reporters on the other hand, are a little more friendly.

Why hello there . . . 

Although the chat is fun, neither of us are able to help the other.  So after a chat and some drinks, the women head off in search of a scoop while Bart and YM-3 leave to continue their quest.

The two leave the bar and continue their search.  Knowing their pilot spends his time working in a garage, they set off in that direction.

But first they have a slight problem.

This is a mechanic in the game for determining terrain obstacles and hazards.  Normally you don't need a map for them as they appear at random.  Obstacles are simply objects you need to move past, such as a locked door or low wall.  Hazards are more dangerous and can cause harm if you fail them. In this case, the two have to cross a busy street.

Bart succeeds!

YM-3 isn't so lucky!

Bart races across the road as the craft speeds by.  Reaching the other side, he hears a crash and turns to see his friend lying on the ground, with smoke appearing from some new dents.  Luckily, Bart is able to repair his friend enough that the two can continue.

Now that they're across the street, I have 2 more PEF's to resolve.  The first is nothing.

The second is trouble!

Rolling on both the Alien and NPC generators, I get 3 rather violent non-human thugs who decide to shake down our heroes.  Whipping out his repeater, Bart fires on his foes.  Unfortunately, he's still recovering from either the encounter with the reporters or whatever he drank because he misses all 3.

YM-3, still miffed at the crazy driver who ran him down, is looking for revenge.  Out of a side socket appears a laser, which he uses on the thugs.

Not bad for what almost became an electronic hood ornament!

The third flees down a nearby alley.

"They'll never find me here!"

Bart, not wanting to be shown up by a box of bolts, Bart takes off after him.  The two meet in the alley face-to-face, both draw their pistols, and Bart proves to be slightly faster.

And this time he hits!

The above encounter, including how the thugs reacted, was resolved by just a few dice rolls and lasted a couple of minutes.  In most RPG's a game master would tell you,

"As you repair your robotic friend, you are approached by 3 thugs who point their weapons, demanding the contents of your pockets . . . You shoot two of the thugs and the third runs for it."

Instead, a few dice rolls and glaces at the tables decided the events for you.  While the game does use a variety of tables, they are quick and simple to memorize so you can focus on game play.

And speaking of game play, our heroes have found the pilot.

Meet Zev.

Rolling again on the Alien Generator, I get a humanoid whose race tends to be shy overall.  Bart questions Zev on the artifact, but the pilot has never seen it.  He has, however, heard stories about a scholar who researched it.  While the scholar died long ago, his research still exists at his apartment.

Not a huge help, but at least it points the two in the direction for their next search which will take place in the next scene.

Next, Bart Blast and YM-3 explore a seedy town and attempt to figure out an ancient piece of technology.

Future Tales

Coming soon from Two Hour Wargames!