Wednesday 28 September 2016

Saturday 24 September 2016

2d6 Crossover - Link 2d6 Sword and Sorcery with 2d6 Sci-Fi Combat!

Available now for free.
 Download it here.
 



As 2d6 Sword & Sorcery and 2d6 Sci Fi Combat share similar mechanics, I thought we could use a Crossover doc that allows you to combine them. This lets you blend Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Modern/Historical time periods together.




Monday 19 September 2016

28mm Sci Fi Resin Terrain Project - Looking for Input

I've been approached by a manufacturer to produce terrain for a 12x12 Battle Board for use with 5150 rules, both Urban Renewal and Star Army. It would be for 28mm figures. Think terrain that can be placed on the tiles, both inside structures and outside.

Any ideas?


Friday 16 September 2016

Wednesday 14 September 2016

Back Alleys Bright Lights - Step By Step - Part 3 - Character Creation and Encounters


Character creation in Back Alleys Bright Lights is pretty simple and quick. If you have a character from 5150 Urban Renewal, 5150 Fringe Space, or even 5150 Future Tales you can bring it over into Back Alleys.
If you familiar with THW games you'll see that the character mechanics are pretty much the same. Here's how we do it:


  • Is it a Star or a Grunt? You start as a Rep 5 Star and ALL other Non-Player Characters, friend or foe, are Grunts - run  by the game mechanics. Stars have Free Will (you can choose when to leave the Encounter) and 1d6 of Star Power per week. I'll explain how this works later under Encounters.
  • What is its Race? You have 16 races to choose from. Some you may be familiar with while some may be new.
    Basic, Buardeem, Fezglok, Geenx, Grath, Hishen, Lerksah, Lycaon, Munjar, Nonne, Orabel, Razor,  Tip-Tip Glom, Vangore, Xeog and Zhuh-Zhuh. 
  • What are its Traits? Each Alien has a chance to be Aggressive, Cunning, or has no noticeable trait at all. The Trait it has will affect how it Interacts with others.
  • What is its Profession? We have over 15 Professions from the other books, but as we're Area specific - Little Hisha - you won't Interact with all of them. After all, it is a bit of a seedy area of town.
  • What is its Reputation? Characters start with a Rep of from 3 to 5, there's  no maximum Rep, and how well you do determines how well you Retire - after a ten year career maximum. We use Rep d6 to see how you do. Do good things and get Increasing Rep d6, do bad things and get Decreasing Rep d6.
  • What is its Defensive Value? Defensive Value (DV) is a number that reflects the ability of the character to utilize cover and its instincts to make it harder to be hit when shot at. All start at 1 but that is modified by your Race and Profession. The DV is added to the Rep of the figure so the range of DV is from a low of 4 to a maximum of 10.
  • What kind of Weapon does it have? We've divided them into Pistols (1 shot) and Automatics (3 shots). The actual is up to the player as it's the effect that we're dealing with.
  • Where is its Home? Although Back Alleys Bright Lights is set in Little Hisha, you can have your Home in any of the eleven areas of New Hope City. Time is tracked by the week, so if you declare to stay Home, you can move the Campaign one week, and choose not to have any Voluntary Encounters. Once a month you could have an Involuntary Encounter. When you go Home, you end the week.
Encounters
There are six Encounters in the game. Once a month you will have an Involuntary Encounter thrust upon you. They are:
Burglarized.
Confrontation. 
Job Offer.
Chillin' with a Friend. 

There are five Voluntary Encounters. They are:
Chillin’.
Confrontation.
Job Offer.
Raid.
Robbery. Here's where things are a bit different from other THW rules. You can choose to have as many Voluntary Encounters per week as desired. One, five, three, ten, ...that's up to you. Just remember that your Star Power d6 are gained at the start of the week and not replaced until the next week. 

Friday 9 September 2016

Back Alleys Bright Lights - Step by Step - Laying Out the City Tiles


    
 Back Alleys Bright Lights comes with 5 City Tiles that are used to create the Area of New Hope City called Little Hisha. Each tile is double sided - here's tile #3 and 3b.

Each tile has 4 buildings on it. The colored squares tells you what it is and the number of floors the building has. Here's the info on the buildings for Little Hisha, one of the Lower Income Areas of NHC. Right next to it is the info for the Financial Area. 

   
The different Areas may have different buildings such as Blue is a Flop House in Little Hisha, but a Bank in the Financial Area. What is a Transit Station in Little Hisha is a Club in the Financial Area. This allows you to use the same tiles over and over with different results.

You can choose to lay the tiles out any way you like.
Here's what I call the Long Street layout. As you move off a tile, just note it on a piece of paper in case you return to it, flip it over and place it at the other end of the street.

Movement along the City Tile is from area to area - Intersection (where the tiles come together), Street, Building, and Alley. Buildings can be entered from the Street or the Alley.
Move into a new area of the tile, resolve a PEF. 
Decide to stay in the area instead, resolve a PEF. This insures that something is always happening. 

We combine the City Tiles with the Battle Board - a 12" x 12" area where combat is resolved. You can use any terrain you want on the Battle Board, or none at all. Here's Billy Pink and Noel being robbed - just one of the possibilities in Back Alleys Bright Lights.

 
 Watch for more info on Back Alleys Bright Lights.

Craig's Marketplace - Classic Painted Figures at Reasonable Prices!

 Craig's Marketplace



Craig at Acheson Creations, is offering classic painted figures at great prices. Craig  updates the marketplace monthly, so keep going back.


Thursday 8 September 2016

Infestation Station - AAR of 5150 Star Marine - Part Two - The End

Part One
Things quieted down after the first fight and the Marines split into two groups. Each Squad moved through opposite sides of the facility, going through rooms and corridors. As they did, this reduced the chance of running into a PEF and if one was generated by the Activation Dice, it could only appear in a section that the Marines had not entered.

 Bad Activation Dice resulted in  2 PEFs in section 1. This combined with the original one and 1st Squad became pinned down by a Rep 5 Section (3 figures) of Rebels. Losing the In Sight, the Marines suffered an Obviously Dead casualty and were pinned down in the Command Office. Luckily they had Exo-Armor or the casualties would have been greater.

 Meanwhile, 2nd Squad had reached section 3 and ran into a 3 man Section of Rebels which started a fire fight.



 The Rebels fell back into the Quarantine Area, followed by the Marines. A grenade took out the last two Rebels, one dying and one being captured.

 Meanwhile, 1st Squad won  the In Sight and launched a grenade, taking out  one of the Rebels and forcing the other two to fall back.

The last of the Rebels fell back to Science Lab #2 after coming under fire from 2nd Squad.


1st Squad followed up and after a brisk firefight in the lab, the two Rebels went Out of the Fight.

 Coincidentally, Investigative Reporter Ashlynn Cooper was "in the area" and got an exclusive interview with the Marine's CinC.
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Overall it was a bloody fight that reflected the challenges players will face when fighting Boarding Actions, in t confined areas. More play testing is being conducted on Star Marine, while Star Army 2nd Tour is almost ready for release.

Watch for the next Star Marine AAR - The Trouble with Mushrooms.

Wednesday 7 September 2016

5150 Back Alley Brights Lights the Stand Alone Supplement

5150 Urban Renewal is a great introduction to New Hope City, a large RPG Sci Fi city where you can adventure in. Urban Renewal tells you all about the city and has multiple Encounters. 

5150 Back Alleys Bright Lights takes you deeper into New Hope City, starting with Little Hisha, a Low Income Area of the city populated mainly by Hishen Aliens. Where Back Alleys Bright Lights differs from Urban Renewal is the mechanics that allow the players to deeply interact with the Non-Player Characters they run into. 

With 16 different Alien types and a wide variety of Professions, each Interaction is a chance to take your Story into a different direction. You may start with a Chillin' Encounter, but while on it you meet NPCs that could make Job Offers, attempt to rob you, befriend you and much more.

Here's a sample of the City Tiles with one of the counters we've included in the game.

Because we're focusing on Little Hisha, one of the 11 Areas of New Hope City, we've included 5 double-sided City Tiles that can be used for your adventures. Use them to track your characters as you move about the Area from Building to Building, then take them to the Battle Board to resolve and conflict.

Now why do we call it a Stand Alone Supplement? Because while you can use it with other THW rules such as Urban Renewal or Fringe Space, it includes a set of combat rules based on the 2d6 Sci Fi Combat system, but tailored for New Hope City.

So to re-cap, you can use Back Alleys Bright Lights with other rules, by itself, and with the City Tiles and Counters included in the game. Watch for upcoming Bat Reps and a detailed Step by Step.
 

Friday 2 September 2016

Infestation Station - AAR of 5150 Star Marine - Part One


It's been 5 years since 5150 Star Army was released. In that time we've upgraded the mechanics and released 50+ books. Star Army was the oldest book and time for a re-do, using the current Final Version mechanics. This leaves only FNG, published 4 years ago, as not getting an upgrade. 

Here's our latest play test using the Star Marine variant - a stand alone crossover book with Star Army 2nd Tour. Both share the same mechanics, but have different Missions as much of what Star Marines do involves Boarding Actions and Rescue Operations.

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I decided to use a map from Infestation (2007), an original 5150 scenario book, currently out of print. Two Squads of Star Marines would check out a deserted Gaea Prime research facility located in/near Xeog Space. 

It started with the Squads entering the facility from two directions. As the facility was abandoned years ago, I set the Enemy Investment Level at 1, started with the normal 3 PEFs, but every time a new corridor or room is entered a PEF is rolled for.When the corridor or room was cleared out, they were finished resolving PEFs. In addition, every time the Activation Dice came up doubles a PEF would be placed normally, but only in a section that the Marines had not been in. if the placement d6 was for one of those sections, no PEF was generated. This made the Marines want to move through the facility quickly.

As 1st Squad exits the Lobby a Rebel Squad appears. In Sight is taken, the Rebels fire first and the Squad Leader goes Obviously Dead! Star Power reduces this to a Duck Back and the Squad falls back into the Lobby.

Meanwhile 2nd Squad heads towards the fight, resolving another PEF as nothing, as it moves through Security.

The Rebels activate and toss a Grenade into the Lobby. Thankfully, as the Marines are wearing Exo-Armor, they only suffer a Duck Back. Exo-Armor can stop all but the most fatal of hits that the Rebel small arms could deliver.


Taking a cue  from the Rebels, the 1st Squad Leader tosses a Grenade into the midst of the Rebels. Soft Body Armor is not as good as Exo, as two Rebels are killed and three go Out of the Fight. The last Rebel ducks out the door and disappears from the fight.

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Steve and I figured with all the commotion that the Enemy Investment Level would increase to 2. Watch for Part Two.

Thursday 1 September 2016

And the Name the Aliens Winners Are...

 The votes are in and the winners are...



Watch for them in the upcoming 5150 stand alone supplement - Working Grave. Winners please contact me at twohourwargames@yahoo.com