I’m still working on the Dracula’s America posse builder as friend Reese offered to help run some validation in the file. He’s already finished it, I’m just behind in checking it over. In the mean time, I set up Act II of my solo campaign and gave it a run through to figure out if I need to make any tweaks.
The set up of this scenario has the gallows in the middle with a surviving member of the Buckner gang up on the ropes. The town has decided to take out years of torment on the one person foolish enough to not get out of town in time. Poor Billy Buckner looks to be at the end of his rope. Maybe the heroes can come in and stop the town from giving the boy a fair trial and face real justice.
The preacher is giving a sermon before pulling the trap and setting Billy’s soul flying. For the mission, starting in round 2, you’ll roll the preacher’s grit (d8). If you get an 8, he stops sermonizing and will pull the lever after drawing the second Joker in the activation deck (6 cards, 2 Jokers).
The heroes have to get Billy free and out of town where he can face a fair trial. He may still end up at the end of a gallow’s noose but at least it will have been at the discretion of the law and not some hotblooded townsfolk. They can free Billy by shooting out the rope (needing an 8+) or grabbing him (getting into base-to-base contact). Once grabbed, a hero can escort him off the map.
The townsfolk don’t like this so they will engage the heroes and try to slow them down. They will fight but only shove them if they win. You are not here to kill townsfolk either so you can only shove them out of the way as you approach as well. Once free, the townsfolk will become very aggressive and start throwing stones at Billy (shoot test with 1 die, 8″ range). Get Billy off the board alive and the heroes win.
before we begin, I forgot to determine experience from the end of the last game. Wyatt was down so he doesn’t get to roll but Virgil, Morgan, and Doc all roll their grit (d8s, needing 8s). They fail but get experience to mod their roll at the end of the next game. Because Wyatt went down, he does get to roll to see if he sustained an injury and he does! Apparently, Wyatt took a bad shot to the leg and now walks with a limp.
Wyatt gets first action off the draw and limps his way towards the crowd. They then turn and rush him. Wyatt is tough to handle and he shoves them all away. Virgil and Morgan rush past the townsfolk while Doc moves to the side to see if he can sneak past near the buildings.
At the beginning of the second round, I need to check to see if the preacher is wrapping up his sermon and he is! He sees the heroes coming and knows he needs to get to the point so the townsfolk can be appeased of their blood vengeance.
The action deck is reshuffled and on the second joker draw (2 jokers in a 6 card deck), he will hang Billy Buckner until dead. The heroes will need to really get moving if they want to make sure this town doesn’t descend into lawlessness.
The first Joker is drawn and the townsfolk swarm the heroes. None of them can get a hold and are all pushed back. Morgan gets drawn and no one else is in a good range to shoot so I have Morgan run up and take his shot at the noose but fails.
The second Joker is drawn (I’m using red Jacks instead) and the preacher pulls the lever. With a quick snap! Billy falls limp, his neck snapped. Oof, the heroes have failed. That seems like the worst scenario for this set up, giving the heroes very little time to do anything. Just to see how it can play out, I give the heroes until the end of the round instead.
Virgil is able to make it up the gallows this turn and grab Billy from the noose. The rest of the heroes make their way to the gallows to give Virgil some space to get back down. Those townsfolk will be mad and throwing things soon enough.
At the top of the third round, the townsfolk start throwing stones and luckily they are all lousy at it.
Virgil leads Billy down while the heroes start to try and block the townsfolk. They throw stones but again, whiff.
One of the townsfolk, however, decides to rush at Virgil, loosening his grip and sending Billy sprawling. Virgil easily fights her off but it leaves the Buckner boy exposed. At the top of the next round, the townsfolk still fail to hit him (they need 5+ on a d6 but the rolls have been terrible all game for them).
Virgil, takes hold of Billy again and leads him through the buildings and eventually out of town. The heroes have saved Billy from a potential injustice. He will now get his real day in court and can maybe appeal to a more objective crowd.
The mission was about the right length of game time but had a pretty swingy opening that made it nigh impossible with these heroes (maybe if someone had a rifle…). After the soft reset, the game then got too easy as the townsfolk failed to shoot. There are some complicated interactions that I have to hand waive as well. I want the heroes to escort Billy so I need to hobble him a little. Likely reducing his move to 2″ should do it.
Townsfolk throwing rocks is interesting too. Maybe if they do better next time, it will be a real challenge. Also, if they force fight with a hero, they are very likely to lose and just get shoved away. This made it easier for the heroes to get through them quickly and I want them to be slowed down by them. I think I’ll just limit their actions to engaging and not fighting. That way, the heroes will burn actions fighting them and shoving them away to get through the crowd.
Back to the testing ground as I run the scenario again to see if these tweaks give it the feeling I want from the mission.