Mystery Inc and the Spooky Forest!

 Introduction

It's the end of October and I haven't put on a Halloween game for 2 years (global pandemic, you know...).  Since my local club is now meeting again, it is time for a special event!

This year, I arranged a 4-player game using the Fear and Faith rules from Ganesha Games.  These are a version of the popular Song of Blades and heroes engine, adapted for horror (Gothic through to modern).  Without further ado, on to the report...

The Forces

Mystery Inc

These characters shouldn't need much introduction, I think.  Their stats are taken directly from the "not Mystery Inc" characters in the Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters supplement to Fear and Faith:

• Fred (bold leader)
• Daphne (fashionable monster bait)
• Velma (intelligent scientist)
• Shaggy (hairy dropout)
• Scooby Doo (cowardly, greedy hound)

Girl Guide Camp

For reasons best known to themselves, the girl guides have camped in the middle of a gloomy, swampy forest.  They have several extremely competent ex-guides along as camp helpers and a surprisingly large assortment of weaponry.  Maybe this is preparation for their "Monster Hunting" badge?

• Brown Owl ("spiritual" leader, assault rifle)
• April (hockey stick, confident)
• May (machine pistol, confident)
• Sarah (ex-guide with crossbow and smart mouth)
• Ann (useless adult helper, screamer)
• Barbara (another ex-guide, the chosen one, sword, hero)

The Ghosts

So, the gloomy forest is haunted.  Who saw that coming?

• Night Wraith (fearful, immaterial, warlock)
• 2 x Reaper Ghost (fearful, immaterial, teleport)
• 2 x Banshee (haunt, immaterial, morose)

Note that these characters cannot harm any humans in combat (because they are immaterial), although the warlock can cast damaging spells.  Instead, they use Fear to try to scare away the humans.

Equally, they are immune to physical attacks from the good side (though Fred & Velma both have the conviction ability and Brown Owl can lead a "spiritual prayer" - some form of girl guide chant, I imagine -  both of which could destroy such spectres).

The Children of the Fields

It seems that the curse of the forest has spread to nearby farmland as well.  A sinister individual has animated a number of terrors and brought them to aid in chasing off the humans.

• Mister Wurzel (hard to kill, warlock)  Note that I couldn't find the model I wished to use for this character and had to make do with a ratman instead.  It's still somewhat appropriate, I think.
• 6 x Scarecrow (mindless, zombie, short move)
• 4 x bases of Rat Swarm (mindless, zombie, swarm)

Being mostly zombies, this force is slow, but very hard to destroy.  You can knock them down all you like; they'll just get back up again.  Mostly.

The Scenario

Setup

Setup is simple:

• The humans set up at the camp in the middle of the table.
• The monsters set up around any edge(s) they choose.  Note that the 2 banshees have the haunt special rule which ties them to a particular locality.  They were set up at the centre of their chosen haunted area instead (this could be anywhere on the table, as long as the haunted area didn't cover any of the campsite).

Winning & Losing

There are 6 objectives scattered around the table, all in different directions from the centre.

It takes a (human) character one action to investigate an objective:

• 3 of these objectives are false leads and (once discovered) play no further part in the game.
• The other 3 objectives are clues.

The humans win by picking up all the clues and then having the clue-holders meet together (in the centre?) to work out how to stop the monsters permanently (i.e by revealing the hidden projectors, taking off the villain's rubber mask, performing an exorcism or whatever...).

The monsters win by knocking out or scaring off all the humans.

The Game

Mystery Inc were very active right from the start.  They split up and looked for clues:

• Shaggy and Scooby went straight for the picnic objective, had a look and decided it was important.  Thereafter they mostly bumbled around aimlessly, getting in other people's way.
• Velma approached the shallow grave objective.  Initially she was put off by the nearby banshee, but when Fred arrived to help they saw it off with ease.  Sadly for them, the "shallow grave" turned out to be only some disturbed ground and a fallen branch that looked a bit like a cross.
• Daphne wandered through the foggy forest, looking for the lost cat objective (but becoming a bit lost herself, it seemed)

The girl guides also scattered in every direction:

• There was sporadic gunfire as Brown Owl opened up on the shambling scarecrows, but without much effect.  She did eventually manage to destroy one with a well-placed burst.
• Barbara (the chosen one) ambushed Mister Wurzel.  The warlock was hard-pressed to defend himself, but just managed to stay alive for now.

• Ann rushed too and fro, encountering the second banshee several times.  She probably thought there were such creatures everywhere; I don't think Ann realised that she was running in circles and meeting the same monster each time.  The end result of this was several debilitating rolls on the Insanity table and a lot of screaming from the terrified human.

The fight between Barbara and Mister Wurzel grew as other models from both sides approached.  Most significantly, the Night Wraith joined Mister Wurzel and between them the two warlocks threw curse after curse at the chosen one.  However, neither transfix spells nor lightning bolts had any effect; Barbara just shrugged them all off.

Daphne finally managed to grab the lost cat, though only when April came to help.  It was a real clue, so Mystery Inc had now found two of the three necessary items to solve the puzzle!

On the whole, the monsters were finding it hard to move their followers.  The scarecrows were unmotivated and slow, but one of the ghosts suffered a teleport disaster; it ended up in the far corner of the table.

At least the rat swarms were finally on the move, read to invade the campsite.

Seeing the danger, Fred and Daphne rushed over and attacked the rodent horde.  It turns out that the rats weren't as tough as might have been thought; they were easily scattered (i.e. "knocked down").  Before they could regroup, the humans destroyed half of the swarm (and yes, Daphne's killer heels did exactly that).

Meanwhile, Velma had been left a bit shaky after encountering the second banshee (i.e. one roll on the Insanity table).  Despite this, she rallied, stepped forward and disproved the apparition through the force of science - whereupon it vanished for good.

In their milling around, Scooby and Shaggy had become separated.  The former now found himself beside Sarah, manfully (womanfully and dogfully?) fighting a pair of scarecrows.  To everyone's amazement, Scooby knocked down his opponent and then destroyed it.  Personally, I think he caught his leg in the scarecrow's clothing and then ripped it apart as he turned to flee...

In the long-running fight near the swamp, May had been transfixed by a stray spell.  The poor little girl was rooted to the spot, unable to move for fear of the Night Wraith.

Things seemed to be looking up for the humans though: the chosen one finally chopped the head off Mister Wurzel, sending the heap of ragged clothes tumbling to the ground, dead.

...or was he dead?  Mister Wurzel rose from the mist, as whole as before (that's the hard to kill ability; it was triggered almost immediately by a nearby ghost scaring Brown Owl just out of picture).

The sight was too much for May; she collapsed in a faint and was out of the game.  Even Barbara stumbled back in shock and tripped over a tree root.

However, this was too little, too late for the monster side.  Having destroyed the guardian banshee, Velma recovered the ancient sword clue.  In the last turn of the game (because we had to pack up), she ran for the campfire where Scooby and Daphne were waiting with the other two clues.  She needed three move actions to make it in a single turn, but only rolled two successes and came up a little bit short.

Conclusion

So, who won?  If we had time for another turn, it was almost certain that Velma would have made it into the centre, thus completing all the clues and winning the game.  There was really nothing the monsters could have done to stop her.

In the end, both monster forces (the ghosts and the scarecrows & rats) had lost about half their models.  Against this, the humans only lost May, though Ann was pretty much a gibbering wreck and even Velma was feeling a bit "wobbly".  Can the monsters claim a moral victory for delaying the humans so much that time ran out?  Perhaps, perhaps not.

This scenario was designed to make the humans split up; it worked admirably in that respect.

I'm also pleased with the force compositions.  In particular, the ghosts were intended to be an unconventional threat, using fear as their main effect.  This seemed more appropriate than physical violence in a "Scooby Doo" game.  I think it all worked very well in the end.

See you next Halloween!

7TV: The Mystery of Dutchman's Creek

Introduction

A few weeks ago, we played a game of 7TV at the Helensburgh games club which pitted Mystery Inc (i.e. Scooby Doo and pals) against some aquatic monsters led by an extraterrestrial megalomaniac (see here: The Mystery of Frenchman's Cove).

This game was quite fun and seems to have been well received by readers of my blog, but I couldn't help feeling that we had missed some opportunities.  In particular, our grasp of the rules - and especially the abilities of the two casts - wasn't strong enough to make a really good game.  So we played it again at home, just to see...

The Setup

Much as before, we set up a table that used my new lighthouse model.  Mystery Inc and Sheriff Stone advanced from one side (I was playing them myself), whilst my friend Steve took the Master, the lighthouse keeper and their undersea allies on the other side.

Sheriff Stone and his men saw some strange-looking people advancing up the beach, carrying what looked like car headlight.  "Hippies, I expect" muttered one of the cops.  "We'd better go and see what they want".

Without warning, the creatures raised their devices and opened fire [literally - they were using heat rays!].  One officer went down, whilst the rest scattered for cover and shot back.  This merry little firefight continued for a while with only a few casualties...

In the meantime, Velma drove the Mystery Machine past the lighthouse - and past the bemused lighthouse keeper, who consoled himself by taking potshots at Fred with his revolver.

Velma wasn't driving into danger recklessly - there was a plan: Shaggy and Scooby, using an Unlikely Disguise, would dismount and retrieve the objective right in front of them.  The disguise should prevent them from being shot down immediately..

Velma ran for a more distant objective, but Shaggy and Scooby found their way blocked by a scary-looking pair of Sea Devils.  Hmm - a conundrum...

Ah, but these aliens were unreliable allies.  That means the opposition can spend plot points to command them, within limits.  "Look over there!  Behind you!" screamed Shaggy at the tall figure in black armour.  Burbling to itself in its own, undersea language, the reptilian creature turned around and strode off to see what might be found in the middle of the creek.

"I don't think that was the brightest fish in the fishtank, Scooby!" exclaimed Shaggy as he watched the monster depart.  "And look, here's Tia!" he added as he solved the objective [what, again?  In our last game the very first objective also turned out to be the missing friend].

Meanwhile, near the door to the lighthouse cottage, Fred was charged by a huge, four-legged, slimy monster!  He quickly took a Scooby Snack [err, shouldn't that have been reserved for Shaggy & Scooby?  Well, never mind - the effect of the generic 7TV Adrenaline Boost gadget is pretty much how I imagine a Scooby Snack would work] and waited for its attack.

The Myrka didn't mess around trying to hit Fred, but instead picked him up bodily and threw him about 10 yards.

Daphne used the cover of the commotion to slip into the lighthouse and climb to the top of the tower.  There was an objective on the balcony; she was the only one who had a chance of reaching it.  However, events overtook her and the game ended before she could find the clue.

Tia drove the Mystery Machine away, across the field, to escape the renewed attentions of the Sea Devils.  They did manage to hit the van once, but this wasn't enough to slow it down.

Seeing their transport vanish, Scooby and Shaggy ran after it, shouting "Stop!  Wait for us!".  Of course, the Master then couldn't resist pursuing them [no, he really couldn't resist.  They have a special Star Power which can force an enemy to chase them - great for drawing someone out of position!].

Not fazed at all by being hurled about, Fred ran back into contact with the Myrka and stunned it with a Sleep Spray gadget.  He then proceeded to thump the creature and weakened it as well [actually, Fred's adrenaline boost, plus the status(s) on the monster, plus the fact that it was knocked down gave him extremely good odds of hitting it].

But here's the thing: the Myrka has 4 health points and Fred hadn't even managed to injure it yet.  If he did nothing else then it would almost certainly just get up, shake itself down and be good as new on its the next turn.

I have a cunning plan: Mystery Inc would Steal the Scene and take two turns in a row.  Each side can opt to do this once per game; the moment seemed appropriate because Fred could hit the monster again.  Because it was already weakened - and because 7TV doesn't allow multiple statuses of the same type - he would then inflict an injury on it instead.  It's not much, but it might be the best we can do.

So, Mystery Inc stole the scene.  In the most fortuitous moment possible, the Countdown Card for the new turn was After the Watershed - which allows a free attack with one model.  Immediately, Fred took this and inflicted one wound on the Myrka.  He was then activated as normal for the turn and hit it again: 2 wounds!

OK, this is good - what else can we do?  Fred grabbed his pen [another gadget] and dug it deep into the creature's skin: 3 wounds!

And still the monster wasn't able to respond: it was stunned, weakened, prone and [importantly!] wasn't able to have a turn for itself.

You know what: there's a cop just on the other side of the lighthouse.  He could charge in and have an attack as well.  Result: 4 wounds - the creature is unmasked and the two people inside the rubber suit are arrested!  "It's Mr Gruber, from the delicatessen!"

The game wasn't over yet, of course, as the evil side still had many other models.  One of the effects on the Large Monster profile is Rubber Suit.  This has the following effect: when the monster is knocked out, 1d6 other models from the same cast are removed from the table.

With an air or resignation, the monster player rolled the die and came up with an inevitable '6'.  By the time he was finished, all the Sea Devils had retreated into the ocean and the lighthouse keeper had slunk off, hoping that no-one recognised his part in the fracas.

Only the Master was left on the Monster cast, but he wasn't about to give up and come quietly.  He advanced a little way and threw down some noxious bomb which left Fred, Shaggy, Scooby and the cop choking and coughing.

The Master followed this up by charging Shaggy and knocking him out; Shaggy didn't do himself any favours with his histrionic over-reactions!

The madman kept going; it became obvious that he was trying to recapture Tia, or maybe to steal the van and make his escape, or both.

The Master didn't make it, though.  In the very last turn of the game [thanks to a Cliffhanger countdown card], Fred activated one of his traps.  The heroic side used all their available plot points [8 of them!] to power up the Capture Bubble gadget.  Although The Master attempted to resist, he just couldn't win against this.

Result: the Master was flung far over the lighthouse and into the sea.  No doubt he'd be fished out by a police boat, or arrested when he returned, bedraggled, to shore.  Either way, this was a massive victory for Mystery Inc!

Conclusion

We did add up victory points for this game, but I can't remember the exact amounts.  Even allowing for knocking out Shaggy, the monster side were soundly beaten.

There were some very lucky moments for Mystery Inc, it has to be said.  Fred's rampage and the final unmasking of the Myrka were only really made possible by the After the Watershed countdown card; without this the monster would probably have survived, shaken off its statuses and started to do some damage.  Of course, losing another 6 models when the Myrka fell was catastrophic for the monster cast and there was not really any way they could recover from this.  Catapulting the Master into the sea was just icing on the cake.  Sorry, Steve...

This game felt much more like a Scooby Doo episode to me.  Not all the star qualities/special effects of each cast were used, but a number were.  More importantly, we were aware of all of them [i.e. we hadn't forgotten any - I think] and therefore could plan in advance how to trick or trap our opponents.  It's not just about shooting!

7TV: The Mystery of Frenchman's Cove

Introduction

Recently at the Helensburgh games club, I had the urge to play 7TV again.  I wanted to use my new "haunted" lighthouse model; this seemed like an excellent opportunity to deploy a "Scooby Doo" cast!  Hmm, who could be their opponents, then?  Who...Doctor Who...monsters...why, Sea Devils, of course!  I downloaded the free "Scooby Doo" program guide from the Crooked Dice website and set up my game.

Casts

Mystery Inc

The program guide has just a single scenario and this uses a fixed cast for Mystery Inc:

• Fred
• Daphne
• Velma
• Shaggy
• Scooby Doo
• The Mystery Machine
• A local sheriff and 3 deputies.

There's also a lost friend ("Tia") who is added to this cast when/if she is found.

Note that this cast is short on fighting skills, especially for ranged combat.  However, they do have a lot of gadgets, special effects and star qualities.

Monsters

As opposition, I put together the following:

• The Master (for the purposes of this game, he was playing the role of Sinister Mystic)
• A large monster (the Myrka - the Sea Devils' bio-weapon.  It looks a little bit like a pantomime horse)
• A spy (the crusty old lighthouse keeper)
• 6 alien warriors (sea devils)

The monsters have quite a lot of firepower, but the alien warriors are unreliable allies.  Also note that the cast is dominated by extras and therefore won't generate as many plot points as it would like.

The Game

From the beginning, Mystery Inc advanced rapidly:

• The sheriff and his deputies formed a firing line along the hedge in the north.  Note that one of the deputies tripped and fell over whilst crossing the rocky ground [courtesy of a Countdown card].
• Fred and Daphne drove the Mystery Machine through the field and towards the lighthouse, uneventfully.
• Velma ran forwards to investigate a clue, whilst Shaggy and Scooby hung back noticeably.  She took a long range shot from one of the alien warriors, but fortunately a First Aid Kit soon put her right again.

Worryingly, the Myrka was charging across the grass towards the good guys!

In a stroke of outrageous luck, the very first objective counter investigated by Mystery Inc turned out to be the lost friend, Tia.  This would give them significant victory points in the bag if they could just get her to run off the table the way they had come.  Easy!

Shaggy had an interesting ability: if he ran at full speed then he could cause an enemy to run towards him, also at full speed.  Normally I imagine that this would be used during a chase, but in this case Shaggy and Scooby ran towards the lighthouse, thus causing the Master to attempt to intercept them.  In doing so, the villain had to run straight across the gun line of local deputies!

It was a very cunning plan, only spoilt by the fact that the deputies couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.  The sinister mystic may have used a few plot points to mess with their minds as well; that probably didn't help!  Whatever the reason, the Master emerged from the fusilade unscathed.

In desperation, Fred activated several traps and gadgets.  His rocket cigarette bounced off the Myrka without injuring the beast and the Master evaded the capture bubble with ease.

The angry monster retaliated by zapping Velma and then charging Scooby Doo from behind.

Things started to go bad for Mystery Inc now.  Firstly, an alien warrior shot down one of the deputies; even though he was behind a hedge the heat beam passed through the cover as if it wasn't there.

Then Shaggy was subjected to a series of attacks from the Master's disorienting gaze and the alien weapons of a trio of Sea Devils.  The combination was too much for him and he disappeared [I reckon that Shaggy probably couldn't take the mystic's withering glare and crawled under the hedge to hide there for the rest of the game, rather than being killed by the aliens' ray guns.  The effect was the same either way: the model ceased being in play].

With yet another piece of bad luck, the remaining 3 cops were set on fire by a badly-judged piece of pyrotechnics[another countdown card!].  Perhaps the alien soldier's heat ray had set fire to the hedge, or the grassy embankment?

In a strange reversal of fortune, some of the alien warriors were then subjected to a gratuitous special effects sequence.  The series of explosions left one of them dead.

Having scared off Scooby Doo, the Myrka turned its attention to the stunned Velma.  She recovered enough (just!) to escape by means of a jetpack gadget.  At the same time, Fred and Daphne gave up any hope of recovering more objectives, turned the Mystery Machine around and fled...

In the last turn, while Mystery Inc fled the table, the good side drew a Big Break countdown card.  They only had 2 extras left, the sheriff and one of his deputies - both of whom were still on fire.

The opportunity was too good to waste, so the deputy drew a bead on one of the alien warriors who were advancing up the beach - and nailed the loathsome creature!

Conclusion

Even though Mystery Inc had fled, they did recover 1 objective - and it was the most important one as it turned out to be their missing friend, Tia.  When the victory points were added up, it turned out that this scored enough to counteract the loss of Shaggy and give the good side a victory by 1 point!

I feel that the monster side were somewhat cheated by this rather technical win.  After all, the good guys ran away without solving the riddle of Frenchman's Creek.  Indeed, the monster side never even got to use all their models; their spy wasn't activated at any point.  The lighthouse keeper just watched over the entire debacle from his tower, probably laughing softly to himself at how his plans were coming to fruition...

I feel it's worth making a few comments about the game play.  The Mystery Inc cast is a very unusual one which cannot do much to hurt its enemies.  Instead, it needs to use its abilities to score victory points in other ways; this probably requires some very imaginative planning.

It's difficult to keep track of all their special effects and star qualities; they have so many.  When you add in "disadvantage" effects which the monster cast may have, the range of possibilities becomes overwhelming!  How many of you remembered that the alien warriors were unreliable?  Mystery Inc could have spent plot points on them [up to a point] as well as their own models - but who can keep track of all of this?

Another comment: we used virtually the entire pool of gadget cards in this game [Mystery Inc get to choose from a huge number of cards].  If we play with these casts many more times then I suspect that the gadgets will become a bit predictable.  It would be nice to have a much bigger set of cards, just to keep things fresh and different.

In a similar vein, more [generic] countdown cards and more Mystery Inc-specific scenarios would be very nice to have!