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'Nam project - first game ... sort of

I decided to play test the Disposable Heroes Point Blank Rules this weekend, and at the same time test out the solo rule ideas I had to go along with it.

Late Friday afternoon I threw together a bit of scenery, came up with a quick scenario and went at it.

Using a 4 ' x 4' playing area I had an entry point for my LRRPs and determined a patrol area, which was their mission.

arrows indicate the direction the patrol was to take

Point Blank has an action pool allowing players to activate their troops.  This assisted me greatly with solo play. I  had a pool to draw from with each side having a different coloured counter. The side owning a particular counter was able to activate a soldier or team. This would go on until all counters had been drawn.

 Each turn saw an enemy 'blip' placed on the map and by using a scatter die I would randomly move them.

The LRRPs approach their first nav check point. Note the 'blips' in the background.

 The system for enemy blips and movement didn't really work the way I had set it up, so I ended the game where it was and started the game again.

The 'blips' converted to actual VC on the table.


The rules were OK, but the solo system wasn't working, and it didn't really leave me with a sense of what I wanted from the game.

Ending play for the day I messed around with a few ideas I had for solo play for a while.

It wasn't until much later I had a stroke of genius - why not use the zombie spawning idea from "No More Room in Hell"?!

 A quick look at the zombie spawning system showed I would have to adapt it a lot as a) I didn't have the sheer numbers of VC that would be needed for a zombie game, and b) the place would be crawling with all the VC I did have that blips wouldn't work.

 In the end I settled on a single die roll at the start of each turn based on a "threat level" for the mission. Each time I rolled equal to or under the threat level I would randomly place a 'blip' on the table and move it according to some rules I put together.

Unlike the first game this time each 'blip' represented a team or group of enemy or a 'blind' instead each blip being a single soldier or a blind.

Next up: the replay of the first game.

1 comment:

colinmnash said...

Sounds like a very worthwhile test. Onto see how the revised system worked!