Speaking of progress, I ran a Gamma World game session today.
It went really well. Oh, there were a couple of things I'd have liked better... like the encounters lasting a bit longer, especially the second one, but they were damned fun, and I really liked the way they ran and the way they turned out. :)
The first encounter was the group - a radiation/felinoid named "Rad-Cat", an android/cockroach named "Unit D5", and an android/yeti named "George" - exiting a mountain trail and discovering an apparently abandoned property. A barn was the first thing they saw, looking run-down but still intact. Walking around to the front, they spotted the house, which appeared to be in the same condition as the barn.
Investigating the barn, they found the door chained shut and secured with a padlock. After a mix of success and failure in opening the door, Unit D5 picked the lock and they were in! Pushing the doors open, they discovered a completely intact Ford F-100 pickup truck, avocado green. Moving further in, they found what appeared to be the remains of a moonshine still, with only the glass and metal components still intact. Under the cabinet the still was on top of, they found three jugs of moonshine, still extremely potent after all this time.
Just then, a mass of black tar flowed out from under the truck and attacked!
(Yes, indeed, that is a Tar Horror miniature that I made myself out of black clay the night before the game. :) )
Rad-Cat stepped up to the plate, slipping Rad-Cat's skateboard off Rad-Cat's arm and zipping over to the Tar Horror, slamming it with Rad-Cat's sledgehammer! The impact of Rad-Cat's blow damaged the thing, but also set off the thing's "Noisome Breach", exploding acidic tar back onto Rad-Cat, wounding Rad-Cat, slowing Rad-Cat, and burning Rad-Cat with ongoing 10 acid damage (save ends both)! Dee went next, hopping into the truck, trying to start it up (and failing), and then shooting the Tar Horror. He damaged it, and it spewed tar onto the truck in response, but it missed Dee. George grabbed two of the jugs of moonshine and hopped into the back of the truck.
The Tar Horror attacked, slamming Rad-Cat, burning Rad-Cat with more acid and immobilizingRad-Cat (save ends). Rad-Cat went again, activating Rad-Cat's Artificial Blood omega tech, which allowed Rad-Cat to replace any save with a 10, until the end of the encounter. This allowed Rad-Cat to shed the immobilization and ongoing damage at the end of Rad-Cat's round.
Dee got the truck started about this time, the exhaust giving off a terrific backfire as the engine turned over. Dee and George shot at the Tar Horror, and then Dee tried to run the thing over as they exited the barn, but it flowed out of the way, and tried (and failed) to slam them in response.
Just then, the back door of the house burst open and a hulking brute shambled out. Sickly grey skin stretched over its massively obese form, and it gave off a horrid stench of death. It let out a groan and moved forward to slam Rad-Cat, but Rad-Cat dodged out of the way, and shifted backwards, in front of the truck, where Rad-Cat grabbed hold of the front, and held on while Dee drove them off the property and to safety... but not before Dee hocked an acid/bile loogy at the zombie, missed, hit the corner of the house behind the zombie, burned through the support beam of that corner, causing the entire house to collapse as they drove off.
Proceeding further up the mountain, driving along the winding Chatsworth Highway, with Dee driving, George in the back, and Rad-Cat being pulled along on Rad-Cat's skateboard, their noisy truck drowning everything out...
they did not hear what was coming until the last moment...
as a gang of bikers crested the next rise and came into view! It was the Porker bikers, Kewl, And, and The Gang! George won initiative, and dropped a Gravity Well behind the gang. The well pulled Kewl off his bike, giving him a nasty case of road-rash! One of The Gang was pulled off of And's ATV, meeting his death under And's wheels, and the well continued to influence the area, doubling the cost of movement into any square within 5 squares of it.
Rad-Cat held off for now, falling back behind the truck for cover.
Kewl, recovering from his face-plant, quickly jumped to his feet, ran against the pulling force of the gravity well, until he caught up with his bike, which was still rolling forward at half-speed. Reaching it, he jumped back on and kept driving! He's so Kewl!! ;)
Dee wove the truck between the wrecked cars on the road, targeting Kewl with his next attack. He bloodied Kewl, which knocked the Porker gang boss off his bike, and caused his bike to be destroyed... and after such a great recovery too! Oh the indignity!!
And drove his ATV around the wrecks and came up on the driver side of the truck, hacking at Dee with his axe, but his attack bounced harmlessly off the door! George used his Disruptor Pike and launched an attack on the bikers, killing one of The Gang and damaging his motorcycle, which crashed. Rad-Cat worked Rad-Cat's way around to the other side of the truck, pulled Rad-Cat's pogo-stick off Rad-Cat's back, and jammed it in the spokes of the front left wheel of And's ATV!
Two of The Gang zipped up along the passenger side of the truck and swung their chains at George, trying to pull him off the truck, but whereas they were able to hit him, they were unable to unseat him from the truck. Kewl pulled a scattergun off his back, and waited...
Dee gunned it, ran over the back left wheel of And's ATV, then pulled a 180 degree hairpin turn, swiping the back of the truck at Kewl to hit him.
When they got close, Kewl got his readied action and let off a blast from his scattergun! Fortunately for George and Dee, the truck was adequate cover and protected them from the shot!
Dee completed his swerve nearly plowing into Kewl, but he managed to dive out of the way, ending up prone on the ground!
Dee followed up by blasting The Gang member "Lenny", who was driving the go-cart in the back, killing him! Poor Lenny! He just wanted to belong to something!
And jumped off the back of his ATV as it ran over Rad-Cat and then skidded to a stop, both left wheels ruined. Rad-Cat used the opportunity to use Adaptive Resistance, overcharging it successfully and becoming immune to physical damage for the rest of the encounter!! Ending up prone next to And, And swept out and attacked Rad-Cat with his axe, but the axe blow just bounced harmlessly off Rad-Cat.
George took his heavy crossbow off his back and fired a shot at Kewl, putting the heavy bolt right through Kewl's eye and pinning his head to the ground! It took a crit to kill the porker... he was just that Kewl! George then hopped out of the truck and made his way towards the last of The Gang.
Rad-Cat stood up, pulled his Leaky Fusion Rifle off his back, and blasted poor prone And, doing more than twice the number of hit points And had left...
completely disintegrating him!
The last member of The Gang, seeing the rest of his gang torn to shreds in a matter of about 18 seconds, guns his engine and takes off, exiting the map.
That entire fight with the gang took only 3 rounds. Wow. The group had some very high-powered Alpha and Omega cards, so it's no surprise, but wow, did they tear that gang apart! :)
Continuing on up the mountain, they found where they were supposed to be... the "Ft" in "Ft Mountain"...
and discovered a secret set of stairs down under the shale fort, leading into a very out-of-place technological underground base. They will explore the base next session, but this session was lots of fun. :)
