5Core Pulp Skirmishing, Game 2

For the story so far, see Part 1...

Got in Game #2 of what has become a mini-campaign Saturday night.  5Core Skirmish from Nordic Weasel Games is and incredibly flexible and elegant set of skirmish rules.  Frequently, I have to recruit family members to play, so a nice, fast set fo rules is imperative.

To help speed things along and facilitate speed of setup, I created a small quick reference sheet specifically for Pulp games, along with skill and weapon cards.  I ported over most of the special skills from Astounding Tales, translating them to 5 Core.

One of the things I have done is for simple role playing, all tasks are either classified as Easy or Hard.  Generally speaking, something you are good at is an Easy task.  So, if you are good at climbing, scaling a wall is an Easy task. This can translate to almost any non-combat action or situation in a game, and can even be extended to more in-depth role-playing.

I also did a minor tweak to brawling, if you lose, you roll the difference in the rolls in kill dice against yourself.  If there is no effect, you stay locked in combat until the next activation.

You can find my files for pulp gaming with 5Core here.

Here are some examples of the cards, I printed them on card stock, laminated them using peel and stick laminating sheets, and then cut them out.  They turned out nicely and are

Here we have Imogene Lemon, agent of the Foreign office, with her weapon and skill cards

(Played by Zananda)

World renowned detective, Hercules Poirot.

(Played by Me, he hide the entire game)

His trusty friend, Captain Arthur Hastings.

(Played by Russ)

Lord Rutherford has joined forces with the Poirot to find his friend, ace reporter Roxanne Ritchie.

(Played by Hayden)

 

Here is a view of the curiosity shop owned by Professor Silas Potter.  Clues gained from a search of the cultists in Badger's Drift have led them here.

Professor Potter is not in teh shop, but just exiting the chapel across the street.

Our heroes wait for the Professor to return...

... when suddenly an Ovaltine truck roars into the intersection, disgorging gangsters who make a rush towards Professor Potter!

(Drink more Ovaltine kids!)

Miss Lemon bursts into action, dropping one of the gangsters.

Captain Hastings is rudely assaulted by a bat wielding thug, who after a struggle, will render the good captain hor de combat.

Miss Lemon and Lord Rutherford run off one gangster and hunt down another, gunning the mad dog down in the street.

The game ended with Professor Potter safe and available to help in the investigation. Captain Hastings has a nasty concussion, but should be able to shake it off after a stiff Brandy. Three gangsters are quit dead, with the other two fleeing.  Scotland Yard has issued an all point bulletin for them.

The game played smoothly in 30 minutes, with 3 non-miniatures players enjoying themselves.  Prep work is the key, and the cards I printed makes creating characters and doing a pickup game a snap!  It also says a lot about Ivan's rules and how elegant and versatile they are.

Stay tuned for more pulp action!

5Core Pulp Skirmish

Manged to squeeze in a quick Pulp Adventure game of 5Core Skirmish with Mrs. Tin Man and a very sick Little Miss Tin Man.  Was quit a bit of fun, I have ginned up a whole set of quick reference cards for special abilities I have ported over from Astounding Tales and will share them as soon as I have put on the finishing touches.

Here we see the girl struggling at death's door while overlooking the idyllic village of Badger's Drift, incluyding the new graveyard terrain piece I just built.

Little Miss had Sir Rockingham and ace reporter Trixie Hepburn.  They were there to investigate the rumor of cult activity in the area. Sir Rockingham gently prods a local for information with a Browning Automatic Rifle.

Meanwhile, Europe's greatest detective, Hercules Poirot is also in Badger's Drift, looking for clues in the graveyard.  He is accompanied by Captain Hastings with his sporting shotgun and Imogen Lemon, Miss Lemon's niece and agent for the Foreign Office

Of course in the middle of all this, a bus load of gun wielding cultists show up!  

Miss Hepburn hides in the yard behind a cow, while Sir Rockingham takes care of business!

Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon manage to make short work of the cultists, who chew cyanide capsules to prevent being captured.  Meanwhile, it turns out that one of the cows was actually two men in a disguise, who grab Miss Hepburn and spirit her away!

Now, naturally, the group is going to have to investigate the mysterious symbols worn by the cultists if they hope to rescue the ace reporter.

I am a HUGE fan of this system, and the playing aids I have come up with make setting up a pickup game a breeze, will post more later and hope to get another game in this weekend. 

OGRE in miniature, a quick and dirty project

Going to play a game with Mrs. Tin Man this weekend, but here is a quick project I did a few months ago.  I never played the original (although I knew of it), but last year I picked up the pocket edition reprint of OGRE.

It is great fun, and Mrs. Tin Man and I even played it on our last cruise back in December!  So, given my fascination with 3mm picoarmor, it was an obvious project to convert to miniatures as a side project.  Others have done this project with great attention to detail and with amazing results, but I wanted something I could knock out in a weekend and play just every once in a while.  Quick and dirty.

First up, I took an 18" x 18" vinyl floor tile that looked vaguely like a blasted nuclear landscape and then added a 1" hex grid with a Litko spray paint template.  I think quickly added craters and ridges with a hot glue gun, painted them black, and dry brushed the,  Easy peasy.

Next up, I ordered two "cyber tanks" from Javalin 98's Shapeways shop to serve as my Mark III and Mark V OGRE's.  A quick paint job and they were ready to go.  I did di everything in Army Painted quick shade so they would be "armored" and I could store them in ziploc bags.

Then I painted up an order of 3mm scifi vehicles from Picoarmor.  They painted up fast, I did not put too much detail into them.  Also, except for the infantry, I decided not to base them, but just leave them loose.

Here is the CP (made from a monopoly house) and howitzers.  I did not bother to covert them to static, just do not allow them to move during the game.

Here are the heavy tanks and missile tanks.

And here are the GEV's and Infantry.

All in all, a fun little project.  It looks better from 2 feet away in real life, and is good enough for some fun games of an elegant and clever system.  Plus, the whole think cost me maybe $25, not counting the spray paint template I already owned.