The Trials of Tanya Episode 1

The sun was just breaking over the eastern horizon as Tanya peeked out through the window. Shadows slowly lightened and the light ground fog began to burn off. Seeing nothing of interest - i.e., dangerous - Tanya ate a leisurely breakfast of black eyed peas and a granola bar. Gathering her gear, she checked her pistols and the spare clips she'd collected. Ensuring the area was clear, she stepped outside and walked down the gravel drive to the farm road she'd been following.

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All Things Zombie: Reloaded (ATZ:R) is a board game incarnation of the Two Hour Wargames All Things Zombie miniatures franchise. ATZ:R is completely compatible with the miniatures game, and provides an excellent means of playing ATZ when you don't have the time to set up a table top miniatures game.

In the game, you take on the persona of a "Star" - a person trying to survive in a zombie apocalypse. Humans come in three classes in the game, each with a slightly different twist. Gangers are pretty much what you expect, and tend to populate urban areas. Militia are former law enforcement and military and other like-minded people trying to reestablish law and order with them being the law and order. They can usually be found in the suburbs. Survivors are everyone else: housewives, ranchers, shop keepers - people caught in a world gone crazy and trying to survive. They migrated to the rural areas to avoid the Gangers and the Militia.

Zombies are known as "Zeds".

Episode 1 finds Tanya on a Search encounter, trying to find a fellow survivor to join her for mutual protection, or failing that, finding more supplies so she doesn't have to keep eating blackeyed peas. Every. Single. Day.

It's just after sunrise. Tanya finds herself in a rural area with widely separated buildings. She needs to search the buildings in the hope of finding a friend or supplies. You never really know what you'll find when you open a door....

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Tanya moved briskly past a field of overgrown crops. Zeds don't hide well, but they have an unnerving ability to appear where you least expect them. With the crops behind her and a highway intersection in front of her, she stopped to take stock of her surroundings. Moving to the drainage ditch, she carefully surveyed the area. You had to be either unlucky or inattentive to have a Zed sneak up on you, but a lot of people were likely to shoot first and loot your body without bothering to ask any questions.

Seeing nothing moving in the early morning light, Tanya decided to backtrack to a farm house she'd passed.

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ATZ:R comes with six map sections, two each of rural, suburban and urban areas. The main difference between the map sections is the number of buildings on the map. As this was my first go at ATZ:R, I chose to place the two rural map sections side by side with Tanya entering from the southwest side of the map. The rules don't care where you enter from, and I really don't have any idea why I chose the southwest edge.

I chose to play with Tanya as my Star. She's the ATZ:R poster girl. Her bio on her character card reads "One day a model, the next a poor man's Lara Croft. This sucks." The game comes with several "pre-generated" character cards to be used as either Stars (player characters) or Grunts (non-player characters (NPCs) who form the Star's crew). Stars and Grunts have three stats: Reputation, Movement, and Special Attributes.

Reputation (Rep) is a measure of how "good" your character is. Stars are generally Rep 5, which is pretty good. Grunts are generally Rep 4, but can be as high as 5 and as low as 3. Zeds are Rep 3. Reputation is used for EVERYTHING in the game, from deciding when you can act, to how you react; how many dice you roll in melee and how well you negotiate. High Rep good; low Rep not good.

Movement is the number of movement points you have to spend when active. Clear terrain costs one movement point to enter, while pretty much everything else takes two. You have the opportunity to increase your movement by up to two points if you successfully "Fast Move".

Special Attributes are perks that make your character a little more than it might be. Tanya's special in that she has two Special Attributes: Initiative and Crack Shot. Initiative allows Tanya to pretty much activate all the time when she's operating alone. Crack Shot makes it more likely she'll hurt someone when she shoots at them.

On the first game turn, the player characters take one turn of movement onto the map, then check to see if any Zeds are around. You can Fast Move on that first turn by "passing" die rolls. That is accomplished by rolling two six-sided dice (2d6) and comparing it to your Rep. Rolls equal to or less than your Rep are "passed". When rolling for Fast Move, each die passed grants you an additional movement point. Tanya Fast Moved up the road.

After their initial move, each character draws an Event card to see if any Zeds are placed on the map.

Event cards are divided into three rows: Humans, Zeds and loot; and three columns: Urban, Suburban and Rural. After each character completes its first move, they draw and Event card and cross reference the Zed (Polaroid) row against the column for the area you are in. If the value is non-zero, that many Zeds are placed on the map. Each Zed counter has a number on it that directs which direction from the character to place the Zed. Zeds are placed six hexes away from the character. In Tanya's case, no Zeds were present.

The Event cards add a lot of uncertainty to the game, and ensure no two games are alike.

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Tanya moved back to the farm house on the west side of the road. Pausing in front of the house, she couldn't see any movement. A quick search around the perimeter of the house revealed nothing: no movement, no noise, no signs of life. Lightly stepping up to the front door, she was unable to hear anything inside. Checking the door handle, she wasn't surprised to find the door unlocked. It always seemed like the farm houses were unlocked. Opening the door a couple of inches, she smelled the unmistakable stench of Zed. Drawing and cocking her pistols, she pushed the door open with her foot and stepped inside.

Pausing in the doorway, she let her eyes adjust to the gloom of the house's interior. The stench was strong, but there was nothing to see. Moving into the house, she turned down a hallway she thought might take her to the kitchen. Turning another corner, she found the kitchen. And a pair of very hungry looking Zeds.

Caught by surprise, Tanya jumped back as one Zed grabbed for her, hitting her back painfully against the hallway wall. Two quick shots and dead Zeds. Dead Zed is good Zed.

After catching her breath and making sure the Zeds were truly dead dead, she cleared the remainder of the house, then searched for anything useful.

Nada.

Leaving the house she stopped in the front yard and studied the surroundings. Movement to the north. From the shambling gait, it appeared a Zed popped up from somewhere. It sure wasn't there when she entered the house. Looking across the road, Tanya decided to check that house next.

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Buildings come in two sizes: big and small. Big building are multi-hex and have doors (indicated by colored triangles) that must be unlocked in order to enter the building. Small buildings are one hex in size and never locked.

When you successfully enter a building, an Event card is drawn to determine if any humans or Zeds are inside. Event cards will never generate both humans and Zeds, only one or the other.

Tanya drew a card that showed the house to be populated by two Zeds.

Zeds only engage in melee combat; they never use weapons. Normally, Zeds engage humans by passing a "Charge into Melee" test. When taking that test, each character, Player and NPC, roll 2d6 and compare the number of dice passed. The results of the test will allow the target of the charge to either shoot or not shoot prior to engaging in melee combat. If the target is fortunate, he can drop the attacker and avoid the melee. You really don't want to melee Zeds as there is always the possibility you might become infected and turn into a Zed yourself.

In a normal Charge into Melee, the Zeds do not roll dice; instead, they are always assumed to have passed 1d6.

The mechanism is different for Zeds when you encounter them in a building. Instead of the normal Charge into Melee test, you perform the "Zombie Surprise" test. After successfully entering the building, the Zeds and each human each roll a die. The Zeds add the number of Zeds to the die roll. The humans add their Rep to the die roll (I did mention that Rep is used for EVERYTHING, didn't I?). If a human scores better than the Zeds, they can fire before melee. After all the firing is done, any surviving Zeds enter melee.

Tanya (Rep 5) barely bested the Zeds in the Zombie Surprise test (modified 7 to the Zeds modified 6)...

... and snapped off two quick shots, hitting both Zeds (modified 10 and 8 on the die rolls)...

... and dropping them (modified 7 and 5).

Hmmm.... I just realized Tanya actually missed the second Zed. Let me explain.

Ranged weapons have two stats: firepower and range. Firepower is the number of dice rolled when shooting with that weapon. When you shoot a weapon, you roll a number of dice equal to the weapon's firepower and add the shooter's Rep to each die roll. You then consult the Ranged Combat table to see if your shot hit. In Tanya's case, the modified "10" is an automatic hit, while the modified "8" would have been a hit if it wasn't for the fact Tanya was suffering a "Rushed Shot" penalty for shooting two weapons at the same time. In this case, an "8" was a miss, which I missed. Oops.

For every shot that hits, you then roll a die and consult the Ranged Combat Damage table. Basically you compare the modified die roll (Tanya adds "1" to the roll because she's a Crack Shot) to the target's Rep (did you really think there was some other stat to test against?). If the modified roll is "6" or greater, the target is killed; a modified roll equal to or greater than the target's Rep but less than "6" kills Zeds and puts humans Out of the Fight (OOF). A roll less than that target's Rep has no effect on Zeds, but causes humans to Duck Back into cover. Tanya's modified rolls of "7" and "5" both bested the Zeds Rep of "3" and killed them.

Zeds are created in several ways. First, by drawing an Event card at the beginning of the game. Second, by drawing an Event card when entering a building. They are also generated by gunfire. For EACH shot fired, a d6 is rolled. In urban areas, a Zed is generated on rolls of 4 or better. In suburban areas, Zeds are generated on rolls of 5 or 6. And, in rural areas, Zeds are generated on a roll of 6.

Tanya's two shots generated one Zed,

which was placed six hexes to the north of the farm house.

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Tanya watched the Zed to the north slowly making its way toward the house she'd just walked out of. "Must have heard the shots", she thought to herself. Waiting until it looked like the Zed wasn't looking her way, she sprinted across the road and put the overgrown crop field between her and the Zed. "If I can't see you, then maybe you can't see me", she thought.

Studying the second farm house, she saw nothing alarming. Cracking the front door open, she drew her pistols and carefully entered the house. The relatively clean air inside the house assured her there were no Zeds lurking about, which she proved after a thorough clearing of the house. Searching the house, the only thing she found was a pistol mounted in a frame above the fireplace. It looked like something Billy the Kid would have carried. Not finding any ammo in the house, she left it where it was.

Stepping out of the house, she looked to the east and saw a ramshackle barn. Hoping that she might find some tools - a hammer, an ax, even a screw driver - Tanya sprinted through the sparse brush.

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At the beginning of each turn, all sides roll a single die against their leader's Rep. If you roll equal to or less than your leader's Rep, you can activate that turn, in order of highest activating die roll. Tanya rolled a "4" while the Zed rolled a "1"; Tanya activated first.

Choosing to Fast Move in order to keep as much space between her and the Zed, Tanya rolled 2d6 against her Rep, passing both.

Increasing her movement from 4 to 6 hexes, she darted across the road to the second farm house. The Zed, being attracted the the gunfire it had heard, moved toward the first farm house.

On the next activation, Tanya entered the second farm house and drew an Event card.

No Zeds or humans were in the house.

After you clear a building, you get to retrieve the loot in the line applicable to how you entered. I mentioned that large building have doors marked with a colored triangle. Small buildings are marked with a "-". In this case, Tanya found a pistol. Already having two, she left this one behind. If she'd had a Grunt with her, the Grunt could have taken it.

When it activated this turn, the Zed, not hearing any gunfire, continued to move in the direction it had been moving. After two hexes, it bumped into the first farm house. Zeds will only enter a building if they see a human enter it. Otherwise, they move randomly to the left or right of the obstruction. This Zed moved to the right of the building.

On the next activation roll, Tanya and the Zed rolled doubles. When doubles are rolled two things happen. Well, really one thing. First off, nobody activates. You then draw and Event card to see if any Zeds or humans are generated. In this case, nothing was generated.

As a side note, you don't always find loot after you clear a building. Looking at this Event card, you'll notice there is no loot listed for yellow doors and small buildings.

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Stopping short of the barn to catch her breath, Tanya took in the surroundings. The barn was nestled among some trees and heavily shadowed. Pulling open the barn door, she looked up to see a pair of Zeds lurching toward her. Two quick shots and the Zeds were good Zeds.

Searching the barn was a bust: nothing found.

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Tanya won the Zombie Surprise roll and popped off two shots

rolling a modified "10" and "8" when hitting the Zeds. I again missed the fact Tanya was suffering the Rushed Shot penalty, and should not have killed the second Zed. Tanya's Fairy Godmother was looking out for her....

Rolling a d6 for each of the shots yielded one "6", which generated a Zed. Had I been in a suburban or urban area, the "5" would have generated a second Zed.

Consider this: A group of 5 Militia gets into a gunfight with 5 Gangers, and everyone is carrying a submachine gun (fire power of 4 dice). I'll talk about the In Sight test a little later, but assume all 10 get to shoot. Each shot - all 40 of them - is an opportunity to generate a Zed. In an urban area, that happens a little more than 50% of the time. Each round of that gunfight has the potential to generate between 20 and 25 Zeds, if not more. There is a reason I have a bunch of zombie miniatures....

Selecting a random Zed counter, I placed it in accordance with its placement number.

On the following activation roll, Tanya and the Zeds rolled doubles.

Since nobody activated, nobody moved. That means the next time the Zeds move, they with either (1) move toward a human they see, (2) move toward the sound of gunfire, or (3) move in a random direction.

Notice the doubles did not generate any humans or Zeds.

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Looking at the two Zeds motionless on the ground, Tanya took the time to replace her pistol's magazines. Looking to the northwest, Tanya saw a Zed appear around the north side of the crop field. Looking back toward the first farm house, she could only see its roof above the crops. Certain the second Zed would be heading her way, she moved quickly to the wooded area to the east. Picking her way through the underbrush, she began to question with wisdom of moving through the woods where every tree could hide a Zed.

Coming to the edge of the woods, she saw what looked like a small business area, complete with a small grocery store and what looked like a restaurant across the road from it. The way looking clear, Tanya moved toward the grocery store.

The grocery store's sliding entry doors were shut, but with a little effort Tanya was able to pull them apart wide enough for her slender body to fit through. Hurrah for bikini diets!

Looking further into the dark store, Tanya spied a Zed standing by one of the cash registers. Pop! Dead Zed.

Scrounging around the store, it proved to be empty of nearly everything but laundry soap and cockroaches. Climbing over the Pharmacy counter revealed a seen from a tornado movie. It looked like someone had simply dumped the shelves' contents into some sort of container, not caring if they dropped anything. A few minutes' work, and Tanya had restocked her first aid kit.

"This is nice, but I could really use some food. Food! F-O-O-D, FOOD, damnit!"

The cockroaches ignored her.

Tanya walked around the grocery store one more time to make sure she didn't miss anything, then made her way to the door she'd entered. Through the glass doors she saw a figure that moved much too fluidly for a Zed. If that wasn't a give away, the weapon he was carrying removed any doubt. Before she could duck back out of sight, the figure shouldered his weapon and waved for her to come outside.

Taking one more moment to look around, Tanya stepped outside and holstered her pistols.

Warily, the two walked toward each other until a few yards separated them.

"Yo. You with those militia ass wipes who raided our crib?"

"No."

"You see any militia types around?"

"No. All I've seen today are about a half dozen Zeds and you." Studying the Ganger, Tanya saw that he had no food to barter for. She was really beginning to despise black eyed peas.

The Ganger noticeably relaxed at Tanya's words. "Well, if you see those militia pukes, you tell them they'd better not come around again." With that, he turned and headed back the way he came.

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Leaving the barn, Tanya activated on a "2" while the Zeds rolled a "6". Since their die role was greater than their Rep, they didn't activate this turn.

Tanya pased 1d6 on her fast move roll and moved through the woods behind the barn and toward the grocery store to the north. On her next activation, Tanya successfully entered the green triangle door and was greeted by a Zed. Zombie Surprise was rolled, with Tanya winning modified "9" to modified "7".

Having won the Zombie Surprise, Tanya shot with one of her pistols, rolling a modified "8" and dropping the Zed.

Before you say "Fairy Godmother", I got it right this time! As she only shot one of her pistols, she didn't suffer the rushed shot penalty, so the "8" was a hit. The damage roll was sufficient to kill the Zed. The single shot did not generate any additional Zeds.

The shot did, however attract the attention of the Zed located north of the second farm house, so it moved toward the sound.

The first Zed, near the first farm house, was too far away to hear the shot and moved randomly into the crop field.

The next activation roll was doubles. Drawing an Event card revealed a Ganger (Red = Ganger, Blue = Militia, Green = Survivor). Unlike Zeds which have a placement direction number on them, humans are placed in the direction corresponding to the die roll. I'd decided direction "1" would be due north, so double 3s placed the Ganger to the southeast.

By now you've noticed I use a bunch of different colored dice. The game does not require it, but having a half dozen or so of about 4 colors of dice really makes the game move more quickly as you can determine how many and what color dice you need and roll them all at once.

For this game, I chose blue dice for Tanya, yellow for humans, red for Zeds and black for bullets.

Rolling for activation on the next turn, the order of activation was the Ganger, then Tanya. The Zeds rolled greater than their Rep of 3, so did not activate.

Meeting humans can be a bit tricky. First, you have to decide if they are Friends or Foes. Once you do that, you then try to talk with each other. That conversation can result in NPCs joining your party, bartering with your party, saying "Good Morning" to your party, or trying to take your heads off.

The way this works starts with the "Friend or Foe" test. This test is sort of like the Zombie Surprise test. Each side rolls 1d6 and adds the number of people in their group. If the NPCs' total is two or more times than yours, they don't want to talk and go straight to the shooting.

Assuming you're not shooting at each other as a result of the Friend or Foe test, you then move to the Talk the Talk text. This is essentially verbal combat as the mechanic is identical to melee combat. The leaders of both parties roll a number of d6 equal to their Rep, modifying that number of dice by any applicable circumstance modifiers, and look for successes (rolls of 1, 2 or 3). The rolls will result in one of three conditions: the Characters roll more successes; the Characters roll an equal number of success; or, the Characters roll fewer successes than the NPCs. Each condition results in a different outcome.

In this case, Tanya out rolled the Ganger on the Friend or foe test (modified "7" to modified "3",

so the two moved toward each other to Talk the Talk.

Tanya won the Talk the Talk four successes to two, which lead to a result of bartering since the NPC was of a different class than Tanya.

Had the NPC been a Survivor, he would have joined Tanya, which is actually the purpose of this encounter. In this case, the Ganger did not have anything she wanted to barter for, so they exchanged pleasantries and parted ways.

One thing I forgot until the encounter was over is that all of the NPC counters have a card like the Character counters do. Just as with the Characters, the NPCs all have a special attribute. Fortunately, none of the attributes would have effected how the encounter turned out, so it was pretty much a wash.

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Tanya watched the Ganger - they never even exchanged names - walk back the way he came. Turning away, she moved toward a road side diner called "Meemo's". "Just one can of squash. Boiled corn. Anything!" she thought to herself.

Looking back, the Ganger was still moving away and being a good little Ganger. Drawing and cocking her pistols, she reached for the door knob...

...only to have the door yanked open!

Looking up, she was looking down the barrel of a very large gun held by a very large man wearing a very large frown.

"Put your weapons on the ground, Ganger."

Never looking away from the barrel of the man's weapon, Tanya carefully uncocked and lowered her weapons to the ground.

"I'm not a Ganger."

"Oh, sheesh! Just pop a cap on her and be done with it!"

"Shut up! We saw you come out of the grocery store and go talk to that Ganger. How do we know you're not part of his crew?"

"I never saw him before. I'm just looking for some food."

"HA! Aren't we all? What did he want?"

"Sounded like someone raided their camp last night and he was scouting around to see if he might find them."

"What did you tell him?" It was amazing how the gun's barrel never wavered while the man spoke.

"That he was the only person I'd seen all day who wasn't already dead."

Tanya sensed movement to her left and dared a glance. Another Militiaman, making at least three.

Donning her cover girl smile, Tanya said, "Hey. Look. I don't know anything about any Gangers. I just walked up the road this morning looking for some food. If you have any, maybe we can do a trade? I don't have much, but I do have a really well stocked medikit." If they wanted to trade for something more personal, this could get pretty sticky, thought Tanya.

Staring at her for an eternity, the man suddenly stood upright and pointed his weapon's barrel skyward. "Ah, hell girl. We don't have any food. Why do you think we raided the Gangers in the first place?"

Tanya thought to herself that she didn't know, but judiciously kept her mouth shut.

Looking at her as if sizing up her worth, the man said, "Go on, girl. Get out of here. We don't have any food to trade, and don't need another mouth to feed."

"May I take my pistols?"

"Yeah. Take 'em and get out of here."

Tanya cautiously picked up one pistol, then the other, holstering both. Standing upright, she stepped away as the man shut the door in her face.

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Rolling for initiative after the conversation with the Ganger, Tanya activated followed by the Ganger. Once again, the Zeds did not activate.

Moving to Meemo's, Tanya drew an Event card: three Militia.

Tanya won the Friend or Foe test

and trounced the Militia on the Talk the Talk test.

As with the Ganger, they had nothing Tanya wanted or needed, so they exchanged pleasantries and parted ways.

What about the Ganger? NPC movement is governed by the NPC movement table. Basically, the NPCs roll 1d6 versus Rep. If they pass 1d6, they will either fire at the closest threat if confronted by enemies; move toward the nearest player group they have not yet Talked the Talk with; or, move away from the nearest player group they have Talked the Talk with and attempt to exit the map as quickly as possible. If they fail 1d6, they will not move or fire. In this case, the Ganger activated, passed 1d6 on the NPC movement chart and moved off the map.

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Tanya walked away from Meemo's and into the road. Looking north, she saw what looked like another diner, a gas station and some building with a flagpole out front. A Post Office? Postal workers carry weapons, don't they? Maybe someone mailed a fruit cake and it's still waiting to be delivered? Those things are supposed to last forever...

Tanya was really hating on black eyed peas right now.

Walking up to the gas station, Tanya could tell the convenience store section had already been ransacked, but perhaps there might be something in the office? Pausing to listen at the door, and hearing nothing, Tanya entered the gas station.

To find a man standing in the corner with a loaded crossbow pointed at her.

"Shut the door." She did.

"Put your guns down." Again? Really? This sucks.

But, she did.

"Who are you?" the man asked sharply.

"I'm Tanya. I'm just looking for some food. I don't want any trouble."

"You're not with those Militia jerks? Assholes shook me down for everything I had. Took my tricked out AR-15 and left me with this crossbow and three - count them, THREE - bolts. Assholes."

"What's your name? And can you not point that at me?"

"Oh". The man lowered the crossbow. "I'm Jimmy."

"Well, Jimmy. I'm looking for some food and maybe someone to watch my back while I do it. You interested?"

"Beats being alone."

"Sure does."

The two of the packed up what little Jimmy had scrounged from the gas station and left.

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The next turn found Tanya the only one activating.

Moving north, she entered the gas station and drew and Event card. Survivor! All she needs now is to get him to join her and she'll have a successful encounter!

Tanya won the Friend of Foe test.

And, the Talk the Talk test.

Jimmy joined Tanya. Now that Tanya was no longer acting independently, her Initiative attribute was no longer effective. Instead of activating on a "6" or less, she will only activate on a "5" or less.

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Leaving the gas station, Tanya and Jimmy looked over at Meemo's to see the three Militiamen leave and head east.

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Jimmy yelled, "Assholes!"

Over his shoulder, one of the Militiamen waved a single digit farewell to Jimmy.

More softly as he turned his back on them, "Assholes."

Moving across the street, Tanya and Jimmy entered the diner cleverly named "DINER" to find it empty of everything. Even the trash had been taken.

Tanya looked at Jimmy. "Let's go check out the Post Office. Perhaps there is something there."

"Okay."

Tanya and Jimmy left the diner and started toward the Post Office. The door to the Post Office opened and a baseball bat wielding man stepped out. The sound of an automatic weapon's charging lever being worked drew their attention to an open window where a woman had appeared. She looked like she knew how to use her submachine gun. She also didn't look entirely all together.

Holding her hands away from her pistols and backing slowly toward the diner, Tanya spoke, "We don't want any trouble."

"What do you want?" This from the man as a second man stepped out from behind the building.

"We're just looking for some food."

"BITCH! You ain't getting any of my food!" The lady really did not have it all together.

Tanya and Jimmy dove back into the diner.

And the shooting started.

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Missed a couple of photos...

Tanya and Jimmy entered the diner and found absolutely nothing. On the next turn, the Militia were the only ones to activate and moved off the board.

The following turn, Tanya activated...

... and moved toward the Post Office.

Drawing an Event card revealed three Survivors! SWEET! At Rep 5, Tanya can have four Grunts in her group. If this works out right, she'll flesh out her entire crew on the first encounter.

Not.

Tanya lost the Friend of Foe test "3" to "9". As 9 is more than two times greater than 3, the interaction with the Survivors went straight to a fight.

Joy.

Perhaps one of the most important tests taken between humans in ATZ:R is the "In Sight" test. It's sort of like chess: mechanically simple, but fraught with nuances.

Simply put, when one group of characters moves into line of sight ("in sight") of an opposing group of humans they had not previously seen this activation, they trigger the In Sight test. The leaders of each group roll - you got it! - one d6 per point of Rep, looking for successes. Ties roll again. The side rolling the highest number of success acts first. The winning side has a few options on how they can act after winning the In Sight test:

1. If they have a loaded weapon and are in range, they will fire.
2. If they are out of range, or unloaded:
a. They will Charge into Melee if they can make it, even if it includes a Fast Move
b. Otherwise, they will Duck Back into cover and keep their head down.

Tanya lost the In Sight test.

One of the modifiers to the In Sight test is a -1d6 if you are the one moving when the test is triggered. The idea is that a moving person is easier to notice than one holed up. That's why Tanya only rolled 4d6. Not that the fifth would have helped....

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Diving into the diner, Tanya barely had time to scramble to her knees when the guy with the baseball bat charged into the diner screaming like a madman. Right behind him was the second guy hefting a - cast iron skillet? It looked just like the one Grandma used to make biscuits in. How weird is that?

Shaking herself, Tanya barely ducked the baseball bat swung at her head. Pushing herself away and sliding on her back, Tanya placed her pistols almost against the guy's chest and pulled the triggers.

A wet thud snapped Tanya's head over to see Jimmy take that frying pan right upside his head. He slumped to the floor in a heap.

Before Tanya could gain her feet, the Cook from Hell wailed that damn frying pan against her left shoulder, causing her to drop that pistol and fall to the floor again. Where CFH's forehand caught her left shoulder, his backhand caught her right shoulder, causing her to drop that pistol as well.

CFH stumbled over Babe Ruth, giving Tanya enough time to get to her feet.

Charging her with a guttural yell, CFH ran right into two left jabs to the face. Fortunately for him, he staggered back enough to where Tanya's right cross missed.

Caught off balance by the missed punch, Tanya spun around and CFH was able to snake an arm around her neck.

"No way, jerk! I saw this movie! SING it, Baby!"

"Solar plexus!"

"Instep!"

"Nose!"

"Groin!"

The last took the fight out of CFH.

Breathing hard, Tanya studied her handiwork. CFH was bent over clutching himself and struggling to catch his breath. Walking up to him, Tanya grabbed him by the ears and drove his face into her rising knee.

That put CFH on his knees.

Picking up his damn FRYING PAN, Tanya raised it over her head and brought it down with a two-handed blow against the back of CFH's head.

That put CFH on the floor.

Staggering across the diner, Tanya picked up her pistols. Leaning against the wall, she slowly slid down to the floor.

"Just a couple of seconds to catch my breath."

Through the window, Tanya heard, "Nick! Marc! You okay?! What's going on?!"

Tanya crawled over to the window. Carefully peeking over the widow sill, Tanya was greeted by a hail of bullets.

"BITCH! What did you do to Nick and Marc?!" She might be bat shit crazy, but you had to hand it to her: Psycho Chick had good vision and quick reflexes.

Hoping PC hadn't moved, Tanya popped up with her pistols drawn. PC let loose with another fusillade and Tanya put two rounds center of mass.

____________________

Okay....

This one got pretty crazy for me, and Ed Teixeira of Two Hour Wargames had to beat me severely with his Stick of Knowledge to make sure I got it mostly right.

When you draw an event card which reveals humans, you first have to determine if they are of the same class as your characters. Birds of a feather, so to speak: you can only group with humans of the same class. If they are of a different class (Militia and Gangers in Tanya's case), you draw a corresponding number of generic NPC character counters as indicated by the Event card that generated them. The generic counters have the NPC's weapon on the counter, so after drawing the counter you take the corresponding NPC character card and a randomly selected item counter. When you have completed that, each NPC will have a weapon, a non-weapon item and a NPC character card that identifies that NPC's special attribute.

If the NPC humans are of the same class (Survivors, in Tanya's case), instead of pulling a generic NPC counter, you draw from the unused character counters and pick out that counter's character card. Since the character counters do not have weapons on them, you will need to also pull a weapon counter and an item counter for each.

In this case, I drew the counters for Nick, Beck and Marc. When I drew for weapons, Nick wound up with a baseball bat; Beck with a submachine gun (SMG); and, Marc with a frying pan. Besides being a little cute, the frying pan does not do lethal damage; you can only render someone OOF. All three of them drew supplies as their non-weapon item.

So, Nick, the leader of the Survivor NPCs, wins the In Sight test. Beck, being the only one of the three with a ranged weapon, opens fire. When you have a ranged weapon with multiple fire dice, you can split the dice among multiple targets. I rolled a d3 where "1" was everything at Tanya, "2" was everything at Jimmy, and "3" was two shots at each. Tanya "won", and had all four shots aimed at her.

Beck's Rep of 4 meant only one of the bullets hit Tanya. The resulting damage die roll was less than Tanya's Rep of 5, so Tanya was forced to Duck Back. Simulatneously with Beck shooting, Nick and Marc charged Tanya and Jimmy, respectively. All four of them rolled 2d6 against their Rep, counting dice passed. Here are the number of dice passed by each:

As Tanya beat Nick, she was able to fire both pistols before Nick engaged her in melee. I only had her fire one pistol because I did not want to suffer the Rushed Shot penalty. If Tanya had had Beck's SMG, she would have been able to fire all four fire dice with no penalty.

Jimmy and Marc rolled an equal number of successes, so Jimmy was allowed to fire with one fire die. Since that's all the fire dice a crossbow has, the didn't lose anything.

Rolling to hit, Tanya rolled a modified "10" for a hit, while Jimmy missed with a modified "5".

Rolling for damage, Tanya scored a modified "7" which made Nick Obviously Dead.

Here's where neophytes to the Chain Reaction engine can sometimes get confused: even though shots have been fired and frying pans are about to get swung, we are still technically in the resolution stage of the In Sight test.

Now that the Charge into Melee test has been resolved, any chargers left standing may now engage in melee. Members of opposite classes cannot remain in the same hex, so the melee will continue until only one side is left standing. That means if Marc beats Jimmy, he will have to then fight Tanya.

Jimmy and Marc square off to fight their melee. Melee combat is a standard "success" test where dice equal to the character's Rep are rolled and successes counted. The difference in successes is counted and is called "impact". Melee dice were rolled (Marc has +1d6 because of the frying pan), and Marc counted two successes to Jimmy's zero, giving Marc and impact of "2".

After determining the impact, a single die is rolled and compared to the impact. A result of "1" is an Obviously Dead result; less than or equal to impact, but not a "1" puts the character OOF. Results higher than impact lead to another round of melee, but the loser counts his Rep at -1 to his current Rep. Yes, this is cumulative....

Marc rolled a "1" on his damage roll. Luckily for Jimmy, the frying pan does non-lethal damage, so instead of becoming OD, he was sent OOF.

Having bested Jimmy, Marc now had to fight Tanya. I must apologize: I got so wrapped up in this melee I forgot to take pictures, but I did take pretty good notes. Marc (Rep 3) engaged Tanya (Rep 5), beating her in two consecutive rounds of melee and knocking her Rep down to 3 due to damage rolls greater than his melee impact. Both Rep 3 with Marc still rolling four dice (Tanya doesn't have a melee weapon ready), they tied the next two rounds of melee. Tanya then managed to best Marc causing him to drop his Rep to 2. Tanya won the next round and put Marc OOF.

Now that everyone has taken their actions, it's time for Reaction tests. Since Tanya and Beck are the only two left standing , they are the only ones who need to take Reaction tests. Since she's been shot at and has had one of her group go OOF, she must take the Received Fire or Man Down test. This test is a 2d6 versus Rep passing die test. There is a different test for each class of character. Zeds don't take these tests. Also, Stars can choose how many dice they pass. It's one of the perks of being a Star. Tanya chose to pass 2d6; however, she has an outstanding Duck Back from Beck shooting at her, so she Ducks Back.

Beck wasn't fired at, but she does have to take the Man Down test. She passes 2d6 and achieves a result of Carry On, which means she can act normally when she next activates.

This is where everything stood at the end of Tanya's activation:

Nick is dead. Marc and Jimmy are out of the fight. Tanya is Ducked Back. And, Beck is peering out the Post Office window looking for something to shoot.

That concluded Tanya's activation.

On the next turn, Tanya is again operating independently due to Jimmy being OOF, so she activates on a "6". Beck rolled a "2" and also activated, but Tanya went first.

Tanya activates and "pops up" to peak out the window, thus triggering an In Sight test. Beck wins the In Sight test and lets loose with her SMG, achieving modified rolls of "10", "9", "9" and "7". The "10" was a hit and the "7" a miss. The two "9"s would have been hits if Tanya had not been in the building and therefore in cover.

Resolving the hit, Tanya's damage roll was less than her Rep, so she again Ducked Back.

Beck then activated, but as Tanya was Ducked back and could not be seen, there was nothing for Beck to do by sit pat.

Tanya activated first on the next turn and again popped up, triggering another In Sight test. Beck pops off four rounds from her SMG and rolls four misses. Taking the Received Fire test, Tanya (as a Star) chose to pass 2d6 and returned fire. Rolling double sixes (I chose to shoot both pistols despite the Rushed Shot penalty as I needed a "10" or better to hit Beck while she was in the Post Office) to hit, Tanya followed that up with a modified "6" and "4" on the Ranged Combat Damage table, killing Beck.

This last round of gunfire generated a Zed and kept the one Zed moving toward the diner.

____________________

Tanya waited by the window for a few minutes to see if PC was going to start shooting again. Tanya was pretty sure she'd hit her high in the chest, so there was a good chance PC wasn't getting back up.

Deciding PC wasn't an immediate concern, Tanya made a circuit of the diner's windows to see if the gun play had attracted any unwanted attention. Looking past Meemo's, she could see a Zed moving slowly toward her. Not an immediate threat.

Continuing her circuit, she spotted a zed about 20 yards from the diner. "Must be the one I saw back at the barn", she thought to herself. Stepping to the diner's back door, she took careful aim and dropped the Zed.

A groan behind her caused to to spin with both pistols raised. Jimmy was beginning to stir.

Helping him to a sitting position, she examined his head and eyes. Jimmy was obviously concussed and his eyes weren't focusing too well. He didn't look like he was suffering from anything fatal, but she wasn't a doctor. Though groggy, his speech wasn't slurred. That would be bad, right?

Once Jimmy could stand on his own, they searched CFH and Babe Ruth (Marc and Nick, or Nick and Marc? Does it matter?) Babe Ruth had back pack with a nice tool kit. CFH had some other useful items, but no food.

"What kind of cook doesn't carry food in a zombie apocalypse, anyway!"

Having taken everything useful they could find, Tanya and Jimmy decided to check out the Post Office and PC. Following Jimmy out, Tanya stopped in the doorway. The Zed to the east was getting closer. After a long look at the Zed, Tanya looked down at the unconscious form of CFH and shook her head.

"Sucks to be you."

She then walked away from the diner. She left the door open.

Entering the Post Office, they found PC lying on the floor, obviously dead. Jimmy knelt down and picked up the SMG and looked at Tanya. Shrugging, Tanya said, "I prefer my pistols, anyway."

Searching PC's backpack, Tanya gave a squeal of delight when she found a half dozen cans of food. Reading the labels, she asked Jimmy, "Hey. What's hummus?"

"I think it's some sort of dip for chips."

"Sort of like bean dip?"

"I think so."

"Well, it's got to be better than black eyed peas."

Leaving the Post Office, the two looked around. The Zed was still wandering around east of Meemo's, but there was nothing else in sight.

Stepping onto the road, they headed north until they found a safe place to hole up for the night. Jimmy seemed to be getting worse, but he didn't complain. In fact, they passed most of their time in silence.

"I grew up around here."

Startled out of her thoughts, Tanya looked at him.

"Yeah, about 20 miles east of here."

"What did you do before all this?" she asked.

"I taught High School chemistry. How about you?"

"I grew up on a farm. Went to school on the coast. Did some modeling to help pay for school, then found out that I could make a lot of money doing that. We were on a shoot when all this happened."

They drifted back into silence. Eventually, Jimmy yawned and said, "I'm going to turn in. Good night."

"Good night."

Some time later, Tanya drifted off to sleep.

Sunlight on her face woke Tanya up. Looking around the storage shed they'd passed the night in, Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. Looking around, she found a note on the work bench.

"Good Luck."

"Crap. Alone again. Oh well, time for breakfast."

Taking a half-eaten granola bar from her backpack and opening a can of hummus, Tanya dipped her granola bar in the hummus and took a bite.

"Oh, God! This is worse than black eyed peas!"

____________________

As neither Zed saw anyone enter any buildings, they will not enter buildings themselves. However, they will continue to move toward where they last heard gunfire, so they could prove a threat when Tanya leaves the diner. So Tanya decided to kill the closest Zed.

Shooting Zeds when they are not performing a Zombie Surprise is a little different. The Zombie Surprise is carried out just like normal ranged combat: fire dice rolled, Rep added, hits determined and damaged assessed.

Not so when they are out in the open. Instead of using the Zed's Rep of 3 and trying to roll a damage die higher than 3, you instead roll against the shooter's Rep, trying to roll equal to or less than the shooter's Rep. It's intended to make it easier to shoot Zeds when you can see them coming because they are slow, coming straight at you and don't use cover.

Tanya easily rolled less than her Rep of 5 and killed the Zed.

Tanya then tended to Jimmy's wounds. To check for recovery after the fight, you to the the After the Fight Recovery Table. 2d6 are rolled against the injured character's Rep. Medical knowledge or medikits grant an additional 1d6 each. Passing 2d6 means the character recovers completely. Passing 1d6 means the character recovers but loses 1 Rep. Passing 0d6 means the character dies of his wounds.

Jimmy passed 1d6 and recovered at Rep 3.

The next couple of turns saw Tanya and Jimmy activating, searching the Post office and looting the bodies. They recovered Beck's SMG, Nick's baseball bat and all three supply counters. You can carry up to your Rep in items with no penalty. Between one and two times your Rep means you only roll 1d6 when Fast Moving. Anything over twice your Rep means you can't Fast Move and all movement costs you an additional point. Tanya and Jimmy were loaded down to the point of only rolling 1d6 for Fast Moves if they needed to.

The two then moved north off the map and the encounter came to a close.

If you are playing a one-off game, that's it. However, if you are playing a campaign, there is some administrative work to be done after each encounter. First, you see if anyone changes his Rep. Rep can increase or decrease. In order to qualify for an increase, you must first have had a successful encounter. There are several things that make for a successful encounter, and it is possible for some characters to have successful encounters while others do not.

In this case, Tanya had a successful encounter, so she had the possibility to increase her Rep (there is no upper limit for Stars). To check for an increase in Rep, 1d6 is rolled and compared to the character's Rep. If it is greater than the character's current Rep or a "6", the characters Rep increases by 1. Tanya failed that roll.

Jimmy went OOF during the encounter, which is one of the criteria for an unsuccessful encounter. The rules say you roll 1d6 versus Rep, but really you are looking to see if you roll a "1" on 1d6. If you roll a "1", your Rep decreases by 1. Which is problematic for Grunts as the lowest Rep they can have is "3". If their Rep falls below 3 they "disappear". Spooky.

Jimmy rolled a "1". Poof!

In a campaign, characters can have 1 voluntary encounter and may have one involuntary encounter each month. This encounter was Tanya's voluntary encounter. Next time I set up to play, I will need to see if she has an involuntary encounter. Otherwise, I will play another voluntary encounter.

This was a lot of fun. I have a first run copy of ATZ:R, so there were some misprints on some of the cards and counter, and I downloaded a revised copy of the rule book that corrected some issues in it. Ed at THW is very responsive to questions on the THW forums and is unbelievably patient.

I don't think all of my AARs will be this detailed and long, but I felt the first should at least explain the game mechanics in addition to telling the story.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

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