Jacksboro postscript

The anatomy of a game.

This was supposed to have been a Dragon Rampant game in part of the ongoing "Dark Conspiracy" fantasy campaign, but my opponent cancelled because of a hospital appointment (never used to happen when we were younger!). The table had already been set up, and I resisted the urge to play the game out solo, deciding instead to catch up on events with Brad and his group.

Since the encounter needed setting up "on the fly", I thought it might be interesting to give a 'behind the scenes' view to how I approach my narrative solo games, and the "Jacksboro" ATZ:FFO encounter would be a perfect candidate since the game itself only lasted three turns!
Although "Mythic" is one of the useful tools I frequently use (and highly recommend BTW),

the Jacksboro encounter was largely driven by a series of simple reviews of the possibilities, decided by the dice whenever there was more than one viable option.

Here's how the thinking went:
When Brad's "recon / scavenging mission a few miles South East of the farm" returned with a hostile 'casualty' (the campaign hasn't polarised into labelled groups of Survivors and Gangers yet), the earlier priorities of improvised zombie defences and ample food and ammunition stocks were suddenly overshadowed by the realisation that the zombie outbreak had generated the threat of attack from other, armed and dangerous survivors.
They'd already witnessed gangs of looters and street thugs taking advantage of the breakdown of law and order, but this was something at a totally different level and called into question their isolated position at Campbells Farm. With that in mind, what was the group to do about their unwanted guest?

At the time, I could only think of the four options, and only one of them didn't rule itself out 'in character'.  The safety of the group was an issue (as it was in two of the rejected options), so how could that be tackled and where would they be going?
These were the considerations, along with a look at the Texas road map...

 I didn't want to play out the journey, and had previously come up with a table of possible events for "road trips" between locations, so just modified it for 'Day 14' and it went like this.....

Then, before packing away the scenery already on my gaming table, I set up the pickup truck and RV on the 'backroads to Jacksboro' for the opening scene photo. 

Once that was done, I cleared the decks and randomly arranged nine 1ft square urban tiles (cork with pdf print-outs stuck on both sides) and populated them with buildings, ensuring I had a residential structure on the central tile as the 'target location'.

The game played out as described in the previous post, and out of interest, I took the role of Rebecca, her folks and the National Guard to see what happened after Brad's group had escaped.

The remainder of the squad made it through the apartment doors just in time before the zombie horde closed in. With more being attracted by the engine noise it was only a matter of time before the entrance would be breached.
The trooper who was encountered in the building (I decided he'd been scouting ahead of the rest of his squad) quickly led them to the window facing the alley where he'd entered earlier.
With the walking dead hammering at the doors and windows at the front of the building, the guardsmen climbed out into the alley, taking up covering positions as Rebecca and her group followed hot on their heels.

Despite the soldiers warnings to keep it quiet, the group attracted the attention of the tail end of the horde still in the mouth of the alley - and newly arrived zeds were out on the street!

As the biters moved in, Rebecca saw the gap and pushed her brother-in-law forwards, yelling "Get the hell outa here!" as yet more zombies were attracted by the sound of gunfire and the National Guard, along with the rest of her kinfolk engaged in grisly hand to hand combat with their undead opponents (well, the ones that weren't simply caught and mauled!).

So, Rebecca got away, along with poor old Jon's brother Pete (who Rebecca always thought was the better looking of the two!!), and as for Lee? After I'd packed away the mini's and terrain, I sat down with a brew and considered the options.

Rebecca and Pete meet up with Lee on the outskirts of Jacksboro and find a safe-house to hunker down in for the night. They've got the car parked outside, Pete and Lee's handguns, but little else other than Rebecca's grudge against Brad and his group.

Pretty basic stuff, and of course any comments or suggestions are most welcome.