No pictures, so I will try out my story-telling.
Pulp Alley solo game. Scenario was Dangerous Delivery.
The Shadow's Agents (me) vs. Anastasia's Heroes (the game AI)
Prelude:
Lamont Cranston looked over his paper as Miss Lane entered his kitchen.
"You should knock." he remarked, fully prepared for a sassy reply.
"Why? You didn't lock the door." Margo teased, "Besides, you always know when it's me!"
She sat at the breakfast table and picked up a croissant, dipped it in his coffee, and took a bite.
"Why on earth..." he began, but was cut short seeing his ring blink, indicating a waiting message.
***
Some time later, Moe pulls up to the outskirts of a small town, The Shadow and Margo Lane exit the vehicle with him. Three others are waiting, summoned by secretly delivered messages. The Shadow gives further orders.
"What we know is a group of Russians, fugitives of their own country, will be passing through this area. They have in their possession official plans (main plot point) for a potentially dangerous device, stolen no doubt. Our task is to delay them and capture the plans."
"There's an armed guard (pp1) to the north of us, by that building." Officer Burbank, in plain clothes, adds, "We should be careful around him, in case he's got an itchy trigger finger."
"I'll look into that, unless our main target shows themselves first." says the Shadow, "Spread out. Keep your eyes open. They're probably close."
Turn 1:
The Shadow's agents start in the south-east on a crossroad.
Anastasia's Heroes Start in the north-west, behind a building. Anastasia carries the plans, Mikhail has a broken rangefinder (pp2). They activate first. Victor and Yarina both hesitate, must have a bad feeling about this place. Ana and Mikhail run down the west side of the building and cross the street. Igorek makes her way across the north end.
Margo and Dr. Tam head west along a collection of outbuildings, keeping an eye on the open area with an old well in the middle of it just the other side of the sheds. The Shadow and Trixie go north, toward the guard. Moe and Dr. Tam hang back, in case someone gets past.
Turn 2:
I choose AH to activate first again. Mikhail is held up and Anastasia's card instructs that cards be drawn for all characters. Yarina runs around to the east end of the building and spots something odd: an ancient falcon (pp3) statue sitting on a stone protruding from the side of the building. Victor chickens out and runs the other way (fails a challenge, health saves and is out of the game).
The Shadow and Trixie stop just behind a row of trees. They can see the guard, but he can't see them. Moe tripped over a barrier and knocked his head, Dr. Tam gets disoriented in the dark and goes the wrong way, both are out of the game. Margo rounds the outbuilding at the end of the row and spots a very old looking document sticking out from under the door.
Turn 3:
Anastasia and Mikhail make a run for it across the clearing, past the well. The Shadow sees them and rushes Mikhail, but Mikhail's momentum upends the Shadow for a minute. Yarina snatches the falcon statue from the building as Igorek catches up.
Officer Burbank moves to head off Anastasia's escape. Margo carefully pulls a parchment through the crack under the door. It's a map, but it looks quite unfamiliar (pp4). Trixie takes a shot at Anastasia and misses.
Turn 4:
Mikhail, locked in a brawl with the Shadow, calls out, "Ana...keep going!" Then he throws a punch that gets blocked by the Shadow. The Shadow counters and knocks down Mikhail.
Anastasia makes it to the south-east intersection, knocking down Officer Burbank. The Shadow won't let her go so easily, he causes her mind to think she sees a great bear standing in her way. Unfortunately, Anastasia quickly sees through the fearsome image.
Yarina and Igorek stay to the north, headed toward the guard, who is casually watching what he can see of the pandemonium he can see from his post.
Trixie and Margo both run back to where the action is.
Turn 5:
I try to get Margo to Anastasia to stop her getting to the goal, but the card I draw immediately switches initiative to the opposite league and Anastasia gets away with the plans. Igorek and Yarina reach the guard, and through some artful cunning, Yarina relieves him of his weapon and Igorek opens the door of the building to find a small cache of guns and ammunition, which she loads up on.
The Shadow succeeds in getting the rangefinder off of Mikhail, but the game is over.
Aftermath:
Anastasia has escaped with the plans and her team has two other plot points. The Shadow got the rangefinder and a mysterious map, but has to accept the he was outsmarted and out-fought by these Russians.
Epilogue:
"I wonder if she's a little like me," Margo as she drove Lamont and a recovering Moe back to the city, "You know, able to see through your mind tricks."
"Perhaps" is the only word a defeated Lamont utters, lost in thought wondering if this was a new threat he'd have to worry about facing again.
More words:
Reminded again of how quickly this game can be played. 5 turns took less than an hour. I've had the table set up for a month waiting for some time to play the game in. Almost seems wasteful.
I had the thought that Maybe I'd like to keep this table set-up a little longer and play a few of the different rule sets I've accumulated. I know that I've used the same Idn Kar Wastes battlemat for two or three different games, but it was far enough apart and without the intent of comparing game rules across them that I can't really compare the experiences. Maybe comparing rules on the same map doesn't matter, but it seems like an interesting enough exercise that I want to try it. If nothing else, it will get me to be a little more active in my gaming. So, I'm off to decide which set is next.
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| Here is the set up I used for this game and what I'll use for the other rules I decide to apply. |
Update 20/05/23: I tried playing similar scenarios using other rule sets. Each scenario was the AI side trying to make it from top left to bottom right and me trying to stop them. I used Swordplay 2015, Star Breach, and Five Parsecs: Bug Hunt.
I don't know how comparable Star Breach is to the others as I had to play both sides where the other games used some level of automatic decision making. At any rate, Pulp Alley was the only one I lost. In the end, it was getting harder for me to want to stick with the same layout and the same scenario. I've go no really in depth analysis on similarities and differences. So all I really accomplished was to pull out and dust off rules I hadn't played in a long while. And that's okay.
