The ruins of the old Whately farm, distroyed so many years ago under mysterious circumstances, lies in a plain, partly hidden behind a small hill. An overgrown roadway leads around the hill to the former home. The property is lined on one side and dotted around by tall trees. Behind and beside the house ruin is the former field, now long since fallow, but still deliniated by fences and with a stone wall marking out one side. Beyond the field, the Azathaquon flows in its lazy course. At the far end, the Azathaquon makes a turn beyond a rocky outcrop. The outcrop is where Jack has made his camp and were the majority of his supplies are.
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NWMP Arrest Jack Pickman |
Pickman's Gang Prevent Jack's arrest |
| NWMP | Pickman's Gang |
|
Inspector Yongestreet (hero) Sargent Major Monton (hero) 7 NWMP Constables |
Jack Pickman (rifle) (villian) Teddy Pickman (rifle) Bobby Pickman (rifle) (villian) Capt'n Jack (pistol) Long Hair'd Larry (rifle, knife) Qing Ren (rifle) |
The Rules
The rules as played are a home created variant of Hugh Pitt and Nick Lund's KillZone.
You may see my modified version on the Historic KillZone
page or give a boo at the original
version on Tim Peterson's page. They're a fun set of rules and play quite
quickly with a fair level of detail. Best of all...they're free!
Pickman's Transformation
Jack, Ted and Bobby Pickman have a horrible secret. They are really hybrid human-deep ones,
and are undergoing a transformation from fully human to fully deep one. After 1d6 turns
start checking for all three of them, each turn. Roll 1d6, on a six they begin to transform.
The transformation will take three turns, in which they operate only under "Keep Down" orders
and any shooting is at -1. They are considered supressed with regard to hand to hand
combat. During and after the transformation the brothers will attempt to make it to the
river so as to slip quietly in and disappear with the other Deep Ones, leaving their former
alies to fend for themselves.
Pickman's Family
Jack does have a bit of an ace up his sleeve, though. While awaiting the transformation of
their kindred, several Deep Ones are in the river and they will leap to the defence of
their side. When they emerge from the river they may appear on any part of the shore. The
Deep Ones operate only under Assasult orders and will fight to the death if necessary. They
can not be supressed. They will send three of their type to do battle. Treat as armoured
for kill purposes. Their claws give +2 in hand to hand.
Hidden Placement
Jack's gang begin the game hidden. Place markers where gang members may be,
and reveal them per the TSATF spotting rules.
Captured Mounties
Any Mounties who are captured will be taken back to the rocks where they will be turned
over to a Deep One to be taken to their underwater city. There they will be used as food
or for their dark, unwholesome ceremonies to spawn more Deep Ones.
Pickman's Orders
For order purposes, while Jack is in distress, Bobby is the gang's leader and gives the
orders for the group. All figures have an initial set of orders when they are deployed
which may not be changed until they meet up with Bobby again.
Arrest
Not a special rule per se but more a reminder. The KillZone rules provide that
any supressed figure who is contacted by a figure of the other side may be killed or
captured. Capture by Mounties is called an arrest. Arrested figures may be released
if the arresting Mountie (and any others with the captured figure) are killed or
themselves captured.
NWMP
- capture Jack before he transforms: 20 pts
- kill Jack before transforming: 15 pts
- kill Jack after transforming: 25 pts
- kill Bobby or Teddy after transformation: 20 pts
- per gang member killed or captured (while human): 10 pts
- per Deep One killed: 10 pts
Pickman's Gang
- help Jack, Bobby or Teddy escape: 20 pts (each)
- per gang member who escapes after Jack's transformation: 10 pts
- per Mountie killed: 5 pts
- per Mountie captured and delivered to the river: 10 pts
This game was designed for Bruce Pettipas' visit to Ottawa one weeknight on business. I knew we'd only have an hour or two in which to play so I wanted something short, but also scary and bloody, because it's my second bi-annual Halloween game. Okay, we played it in September, but still...it was late September. Halloween should be a month long thing anyway, they can have a month long lobster-fest but Halloween is only one day? Doesn't seem fair.
But I digress.
The game could be made longer by changing the scenery/table layout to hinder the advance of the mounted troops more. You could also add more figures to the gang so that the Mounties have more of a fight of it. In our game the Deep Ones never came into contact for hand to hand, which probably would have changed things drastically.
Return to the dispatches
to read about more encounters.
View the figures and
scenery for this scenario.
Go back and reread the exciting
Q Division Always Gets Their...Man?
Q Division Always Gets Their...Man?