Monday, December 20, 2010

Tommy's Take on War of the Dead: Chapter Two Week Nine

We are in the homestretch of War of the Dead Chapter Two, as it enters Week 9 and the Fall of Sanctuary.

Last week was easily the most horrific twist in the campaign so far, so I have a hard time imagining what could happen in the final five weeks that could top that.



As the Week begins, the city is being overran by Ragers. A sidebar helpfully informs the GM that this will be an incredibly combat heavy week, so giving PCs bennies faster than usual is a vvery good thing.

Here in the opening scene, The Ragers just keep coming until waves until group threatens to bring down the entire fence.

Caitlin tries to get them to go rescie Samantha, and the path from here to there is filled with another great random Encounter chart. Unfortunately, it becomes obvious that the whole situation is going completely to Hell, with soldiers turning on civilians in order to guarantee their own escape.

Another encounter chart is provided for the big escape, with this section taking place inside a humvee rather than on foot. This is a whole convoy making a break for it, with the potential to bust out the Mass Combat rules if anything goes wrong.

The NPCs helpfully steer the path if the PCs are unsure where to go, noting that they should head for the new government headquarters in Colorado, though Morrison recommends hitting his military base before they go...the same base that the PCs had to break into back in Week 4...now completely overran by the Living Dead.

An optional appendix, with random chart, is included if the PCs opt to enter the UniMed building to try and save innocents, with one option including a pregnant woman launching onto labor due to the stress!

What can I say? Unfortunately, it never quite feels like the War of the Dead inside Sanctuary quite lived up to its potential of the four factions going at it...I know this had at least a little to do with the author ultimately not liking Sanctuary anywhere near as much as I did. This week itself is pretty heavy on combat, which is fine, but doesn't leave me with a lot to say here. One thing that is pretty cool is that the PCs should be allowed to kick a LOT of butt here, even as they are heading for higher ground. With only four Weeks left to go, it'll be interesting to see just what kind of head this leads to, as the Fall of Sanctuary seemed like it would have made for a natural conclusion to Chapter 2.

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, I didn't like having to squeeze Sanctuary into Chapter 2, which was done because of something Morrison said earlier on that sets-up the fate of Colorado in Chapter 3.

    We've talked, you and I, and I've commented that between the 52 adventures for War of the Dead, the plot-point setting book coming out for World of the Dead, the future Showdown stuff, and the upcoming Super/Zombies (and now a FATE edition of a zombie apocalypse that Cubicle 7 has approved that I am working on), I have a crap load of zombie writing for 2011. As a result, I was iffy on doing the planned Sanctuary plot-point book that would have the players portraying different characters and focus 100% on the city. That one would be 1/2 a complete city guide with maps, then the Plot-Point and Savage Tales, much like The Flood.

    Given how many people like Sanctuary and want more stuff on it, it looks like that PPC book will happen at some point.

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