Demon Dragon

by Sandy Petersen | Feb 23, 2018 | BLOG, Design Corner, Planet Apocalypse, Sandy's Design Corner | 1142 Views

Dragon Pack – All the Demons

The Cendiary

The Cendiary sculpt is based on a flaming Asian demon. I felt that at least one of the demons should spread hellfire.

When the Cendiary spawns, every hero catches fire, regardless of his location. Furthermore, should you be so bold as to attack the Cendiary in a group, when it attacks every hero in its area catches fire again. Fire inflicts 1 damage per turn on the hero, at the very start of his turn. It can be extinguished by giving up a hero’s attack. You can give up your own attack to extinguish the fire on yourself or another hero. Or you can simply try to “fight through” the flames for a while, perhaps using first aid to keep from dropping too much. Ultimately this last is a losing game but it can work in an emergency.

Fighting The Cendiary

With Toughness 5 and Attack 4d12, the Cendiary is a fairly tough enemy. Also it’s one you can try to avoid. Fire isn’t the worst status effect (that would be Stun), but it’s certainly not a walk in the park.

Plug for an obscure game

I first encountered the concept I wanted to use for the Cendiary while playing an little-known game known as Culdcept (actually Culdcept Saga, a sequel to the original). This was on the Playstation. The game was a sort of combination of Monopoly, Magic the Gathering, and Pokemon, and had the deepest strategy of ANY digital game I’ve ever played.

I understand there is now a game named Culdcept Revolt. That’s almost enough to get me to buy a 3DS.

The Elemental

This is not what most gamers today think of as “elementals”. Dungeons & Dragons popularized the idea of spirit-things based on the ancient Greek (or, sometimes, Chinese) elements. But the word “elemental” and its origin is rather darker. In paranormal research, elementals are hostile beings that can possess or harm humans with their psychic abilities. They cause milk to sour, drain human energy, engage in poltergeist activity, and otherwise wreak harm. That’s what this is. Not a ball of earth or water. Now you know.

The Elemental’s most cogent ability is that it blurs the images of the demons, making them harder for the heroes to see and target. In game terms, this means that the hero has to designate his target before he rolls his attack dice.

Normally, Planet Apocalypse lets you pick your victim after your dice are rolled, which is really useful. If you roll a 4 and a 2 on two dice, for instance, you can use the 4 to kill a first circle demon, and the 2 to take out a limbo minion. But if the Elemental is in play, you have to pick first. If you picked first circle enemies, then that 2 you rolled was useless. If you picked limbo minions, then the 4 you rolled is underperforming. If there is only one demon in a room, the Elemental’s effect is harmless, but the demon numbers tend to increase with its presence.

He has Toughness 5 (about average) and 4d10 attack. Of course if you want to hit him, you have to designate this before you roll. Argh.

One mitigating feature – this “blinding” effect does not stop ambushes, only heroes. So you can lean on troopers during this time.

The Nuckelavee

The Nuckelavee is a Scottish demon which really struck my imagination as a child. In the tale, a man is walking down a narrow road between two bodies of water. Ahead, he sees a terrifying horror – the Nuckelavee. It has a horse’s body, with a man’s body grown up from the middle of the back. Its huge head, like a pumpkin, lolls from side to side. Its’ claws stretch almost to the ground. Worst of all, it was skinless – its black veins & nerves were visible moving against its muscles. And the man couldn’t run away, since he knew you must NEVER turn your back on an evil spirit. Brr. Our Nuckelavee figure is based on this legend. You’ll note that the human part of the body is currently mostly resorbed into its form. Perhaps it’s nearly ready for a new “rider”?

The Nuckelavee is one of the most detested 4th circle demons, because when it spawns every player has to take one of his toughness counters and place it on the Nuckelavee’s card. That’s right – he indefinitely lowers your toughness. There is a way to get it back though – if you can kill the nuckelavee, everyone gets their point of courage returned. This of course makes the Nuckelavee a really critical target for the team.

He (it?) has Toughness 5, which is not good, but at least it’s attack is weak, at only 4d6 – tied with the Philtre for lowest. On the other hand, since everyone fighting it is down 1 Toughness, perhaps it doesn’t need so much of an attack. This is one demon you cannot afford to ignore.

Lady Stroma

Stroma is kind of based on Charybdis, but also on the all-devouring mother-thing common to many religions. Even Christianity has her, in the form of Lilith.

Stroma’s image shows her just as a gigantic pair of hands and a hungry face. Before her face (and between her hands) is a sort of a stand, like a whirlpool. This is large enough for a hero’s figure to fit, and that’s what it’s used for.

Her toughness is 4+4, which is hard to overcome, and takes time. She has a lot of hit points (20 for 4 players), and since a typical hit vs. her only does 1 damage, thanks to her doubled toughness, it will take many rounds to kill her. Do the math. If you have four players, each with at least 2 dice, who are lucky enough with gifts, helping, and rolls to get a hit 2/3 of the time, this means that it will take 6-7 complete rounds of combat to kill her. That may not seem too bad until you see her attack.

Her Menace is simple – the captain picks a hero who is placed on Stroma’s mouth-pool.

When Stroma attacks, she ignores the defender’s toughness, and simply rolls 1d6. This damage is taken directly off the hero’s hit points (though it can be absorbed by troopers, if he has any). Most heroes can last only 2 rounds – 3 if he has useful troopers.

The victim hero is absolutely certain to die, unless the fight lasts long enough to kill Stroma. He cannot retreat from the battle, and must be left behind if the rest flee.

Battling Stroma

It’s a problem. Most demon lords you can pop in for a quick strike, then exit again, lick your wounds, and return once recovered. But if you try this with Stroma, one of your heroes is certain to die every time. Unless you have a sacrificial lamb of some sort, you really don’t want to do this.

Thus you are encouraged by her nature to make one big attack late in the game hoping to burn her health down faster than she is killing your heroes. Yet that is not too palatable either.

Lord Chthon

Some backers have commented that Chthon looks like the entity of the same name in the old Quake computer game, also that it kind of resembles the Shambler from that game. Well all I can say is it’s no coincidence, since I was involved in that game. Chthon of course is derived from the Greek term. This lord is based on gaining power over time.

He has a toughness 5, and an initial attack of 6d12! His menace is to add a 1d4 token to his attack box, or else raise an existing die token in that box by 1 level.

Per 1 damage you inflict on Chthon, you must either add another 1d4 to his attack box, or bump up a die by a level. Chthon cannot have more than 4 dice of any one type (except d12s), so eventually you are forced to increase the die size. Unsurprisingly, he has a lot of hit points so he can really bump up those attack numbers.

Battling Chthon

Let’s just look at the raw math.

First attack – heroes enter Chthon’s area and hit him for 10 damage over a number of rounds before they feel obliged to leave. Chthon’s attack at this point is probably something like 3d4+4d6+6d`1. Chthon is down to 20 HP now.

Second attack – the heroes go after Chthon and hit him for another 10 damage. Now Chthon’s attack is something like 4d4+4d6+3d8+6d`1. But he only has 10 HP left.

Third attack – the issue now is every attack is adding a d8 or even a d10 to the lord’s attack, so the heroes simply can’t survive very long at a time. Perhaps only one round.

Hero Dragon

by Sandy Petersen | Feb 22, 2018 | BLOG, Design Corner, Planet Apocalypse, Sandy's Design Corner | 1104 Views

Dragon Pack Heroes

Bernice Kuchler

I watch a lot of horror, alien invasion, and action movies. I dote on them. One of my best friends once mocked me when I remarked that “The Sound of Horror” might be too well-known for a movie night with my buddies. He immediately made it clear that what I think is “well-known” is not the same as any other human being.

A rather common character in these films is a person who is dying, usually with a terminal illness, or radiation sickness, or whatever. The person at some point in the movie sacrifices himself or herself in a glorious last battle in an attempt to kill the Big Bad. This trope of the dying hero is still around (heck, it’s featured in both Pacific Rim and Fury Road. Yeah I know spoilers, but I’m not saying who it is). But for some reason, I don’t recall seeing it in a game. So I created Bernice – she is a terminally-ill police officer, who is going up against the demons hoping to die in battle rather than in bed. In other words, she is actually designed to die during the game – you have to use her to her best advantage.

As a result, she has been an extremely popular hero in my tests.

She starts out pretty great, with 10 hit points, Attack 1d6, toughness 2, and luck 1 as well. But those 10 hit points are incredible.

Her start ability is Legal Expert which means if she is Captain, she doesn’t have to give it to the next person in rotation when she is done. She can give it to anyone – even herself, which means she can stay Captain forever.

Her next ability (this is always her next) is Teamwork. When she helps or is helped, the help can give an extra 1d6 instead of a die boost. This means comparatively early in the game, she can enable other players to roll 2 dice in combat.

Her last ability is Death With Honor, which is also her signature feature. This lets her add 4d12 to her attack, then place all her courage in the pool (so it’s not lost). Finally, she dies after the attack, but this costs no Doom. This death cannot be canceled by any gift or ability. It’s actually not that trivial to achieve Death With Honor, and is usually her last or second-to-last ability. You have to plan ahead to use it to the best ability, and I have seen Bernice killed without ever getting to access it. Which is sad, indeed, particularly when I was her player.

Her weakness is that she can’t use the Courage pool for anything except paying for gifts. But usually you don’t want to steal from the pool for her gifts, because she isn’t going to be around forever, and that courage is lost. On the other hand, you wouldn’t mind her using the pool when she Helps (particularly with her great Help bonus), but she can’t.

How Bernice Kuchler works

She has a terrific tech tree. Two of her upgrades let her bump up an attack dice by a level, and one of them adds 1d12 to her attack. Her final attack (if she takes no gifts changing this), is 1d10+1d12 – probably the best of any player. She also has a really useful gift which lets her divide up 10 courage among the other players (and this only costs her 8 courage, so is always a net profit).

I want to know more about the Sound of Horror!

It’s an invisible dinosaur movie from Spain! It’s only 90 minutes long so doesn’t outstay its welcome. Has some surprisingly gory moments for a black-and-white film from 1966. Oh yes, a young Ingrid Pitt and Soledad Miranda are both present. In most movies, in a dancing scene the action stops dead and it’s super-dull. Not when the dancers are Pitt & Miranda!

The film is public domain but is also old, so it’s not on streaming Netflix or Amazon on demand as far as I know but it’s on youtube and a variety of cheap DVD versions are available. Soon you, too, can scoff at your friends’ unfamiliarity with it.

Victor Steele

Victor is an inspiring, but impulsive leader. Soldiers seek to follow him instinctively, but he may not always make the wisest possible use of them. He is a very trooper-focused hero, who typically takes best advantage of them on patrol (i.e., when accompanying a hero).

He is average at the start, with an attack of 1d6, toughness 2, health 5, Luck 3.

His start ability lets him absorb damage with someone else’s patrol troopers. This is of course only handy when that other hero is in his area (and has troopers). So it may not seem that amazing, but it is actually really useful. It means, for example, if you are being hit by a dangerous enemy, you can absorb with troopers from 2 or more allies – thus spreading the loss more evenly. It’s REALLY good against a Lord, because Victor can basically take all the hits, using others’ troopers. Even if each other player only has 1-2 troopers, Victor can use them to protect himself.

His two earned abilities (which take a while to get – he can’t ever access them early in the game) are Leadership and Stragglers, both of which involve troopers. Leadership causes troopers in his area to absorb damage equal to their cost. In some cases this makes no difference, but in others it can greatly increase their protective value. For example, an Army trooper normally blocks 2 damage. But with Leadership he will block 4! On the other hand, a policeman remains unchanged. (He’s still 3.)

His Stragglers ability is handy because it permits him to Recruit troopers even if he’s not in the player start area. However, it is slightly inferior to the normal recruit, so when convenient, that’s preferred.

Victor Steele’s flaw scales oddly. It represents his less-than-stellar ability to create strategy, and says that when he is Team Captain, he cannot move at all. Obviously this ability takes effect more often in a game with fewer players, since he is Team Captain more often. But one or more players are likelier to have troopers in a game with more heroes, which means this disability is more crippling in those cases. Also, it always seems to happen that Victor is immobilized on just exactly the turn you needed him to move.

How Victor Steele works

Other heroes want to be in his area, because not only can they protect him with their troopers, he makes those troopers tougher with Leadership. Also he almost always HAS troopers along with him, thanks to his Stragglers ability. Of course early in the game these have not kicked in yet, so he is just another hero for a while.

His cheapest gift gives every hero a cost 1 trooper, if they don’t have one. This means you need to plan ahead to take the most advantage – of this. You’ll want all the heroes to plant their troopers as ambushes the first turn. Then the second turn, Victor gives everyone their free trooper, which also means all the heroes have the same trooper type, so they should plant them into one big ambush! His second-cheapest gift lets him place four cost-2 troopers into an ambush-free area, which also requires some planning. Where do you want it? (Tip: on the Moonbase map, plant this in the Blue Railgun area.)

He gains 1d8 attack on the tech tree, and a toughness, so he is a decent fighter, if not amazing. His extra attack die only costs 8 courage, and is a Start option so he can get it pretty early. Again with some planning.

In fact this is Victor’s paradox. His “poor planning” weakness and tech tree force his player to carefully plan ahead. This was MY plan all along!

Difficulty

by Sandy Petersen | Feb 22, 2018 | BLOG, Design Corner, Planet Apocalypse, Sandy's Design Corner | 1240 Views

Planet Apocalypse Difficulty

It’s my firm opinion that a co-operative game needs to be fairly tight in difficulty, or why even play it, right? Planet Apocalypse follows this philosophy. The first time most people play the Invasion map against a basic boss like Baphomet, they lose. Some veteran or lucky players are able to win right away, which is fine, because they still had to use their brains, fight, plan ambushes, etc. Some players (I’m looking at YOU, Earthslug) have found cool combinations of gifts and abilities that seem really strong. That’s intentional – it’s part of the game’s fun. Of course you cannot always rely on getting one particular recipe (you might not have enough courage to buy it when it comes up, or the gift track may not show it, or whatever), so you have to piece together interesting combos from what you have available. That’s fun too.

Also, a particular combination might be thwarted by a certain legion, or fourth circle demon. Imagine getting Rapid fire for two players, and gloating over how you’re going to mow down those Limbo minions, then getting the double-whammy of the Hades Legion (Limbo minions how have toughness 2) and the Philtre spawning (all enemies have +1 toughness). I’ve seen it happen.

Massively Expandable

Eventually (some sooner than others) you’ll reach the point you can beat the Invasion map vs. a basic boss reliably on the easiest difficulty level. That’s keen. But Planet Apocalypse can keep bumping up the difficulty:

MAPS– after the invasion map, we have 9 more maps, each a little (or a lot) tougher than the one before). So when you play the game vs. the same boss, with the same heroes on the Moonbase map, you’ll face more of a challenge than the Invasion map. This keeps getting harder till you reach the Final Battle, the most difficult of all maps. Nothing prevents you creating your own map though there are not specific rules to do so.

BOSSES – the bosses are loosely grouped into three categories, marked by crowns. Before you panic, these crowns were inadvertently left off some of the published boss sheets. Have no fear, they’ll be in the published versions. Baphomet has 1 crown. Geryon has 2, indicating that Geryon is generally considered a tougher boss.

ADJUSTMENTS – the game rules include no less than five means of increasing difficultly, some of which have multiple levels of adjustment. These include the Secret Identity, Enraged Lord, Increased Despair, Moving On Up, and The Miniboss. You can combine these. A brief description if you don’t want to look them up in the rules:

• Secret Identity – you don’t get to know who the boss is till the first Hell Time. This means you won’t know which gifts are best to aim for early on.
• Enraged Lord – just increases the Lord’s health. A simple, but effective, way to make him harder to kill. Usually each level of Enraged Lord means you’ll need one additional incursion into Hell Time to kill him. (Our team generally takes 2 assaults to kill Baphomet. When he’s enraged it usually takes 3.)
• Increased Despair – another simple but effective technique is to start with more than 4 dice in the Despair pool There are more, and worse demons from the beginning, and it just accelerates.
• Moving On Up – start the Lore closer to the exit. This only has meaning on maps where the Lord moves, of course, but it restricts where you are, gives you less time to stop 4th circles, etc. etc.
• The Miniboss – possibly the toughest of all the difficulty changes. Starting with a 4th circle when you have no upgrades is a poser.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Planet Apocalypse will never be “too easy”. If your team are super-adept players, you can keep scaling up up and up the challenge. Playing the game on an advanced map, with an enraged Lord, and Increased Despair Pool is a LOT tougher contest than the basic game. That said, even the basic game usually beats new players. If you defeated it first time, kudos to you. It’s time to ramp it up.

Troopers

by Sandy Petersen | Feb 21, 2018 | BLOG, Design Corner, Planet Apocalypse, Sandy's Design Corner | 1078 Views

Trooper Design

The basic rule is of course that every map starts with 5 types of troopers. In the vast majority of regionsz their cost goes from 1-5, with one trooper at each price point. The number of troopers at each level is generally set at 8 for the 1-point troopers, 6 for the 2 & 3 point troopers, and 4 for the 4 & 5 point troopers, so you can run out of any trooper and be forced to recruit someone else, or not to recruit at all. They are a limited resource. Of course when one is killed, he goes back on the stack and you can recruit him again. This is my sideways method of reminding players that using troopers to absorb damage is actually a good thing.

The basic troopers are: Volunteer 1, Citizen Militia 2, Police 3, Army 4, and Special Forces 5. The volunteers represent civic-minded citizens who have grabbed a shotgun out of their closet and are trying to help stop the demon horde. The citizen militia can represent a variety of different elements. He could be a volunteer with somewhat better equipmen and training – perhaps a military veteran. Or he might be a crazy survivalist, excited that his predictions of disaster have come to pass. The police are of course the forces of civil authority, trying to keep law and order in a state of chaos.

The volunteer and citizen militia both only absorb 1 damage, but the citizen militia has a generally better attack, with one exception – they cannot hurt a Fiend, and a group of 3-4 volunteers has a shot at it. But for most purposes, you’re better off with the citizen militia for combat purposes. Howvever since they cost twice as much as volunteers, if you are only recruiting them as “meat shields” the latter are a better bet.

The Police have a weak attack – as weak as the volunteers. This represents the fact that they are probably only packing nightsticks, a pistol, and maybe a shotgun. But they are really good at the Protect and Defend thing, able to block 3 damage each. They are ideal for a boss fight where you plan to be walloped.

The Army is just like the citizen militia except for two things. He absorbs 2 damage, and his special ability is terrific – you can discard one in your area (either from your patrol or an ambush) to add 1d10 to your attack. That’s also useful in a Lord battle, because sometimes that extra 1d10 is extremely handy.

The Special Forces is the best, of course, and you can’t even recruit one without spending courage. His attack is by far the best, he absorbs 3 damage (as much as a cop), and he has a neat special ability – basically, when one absorbs damage (which normally kills any trooper), you can roll 1d6. On a 6, he survives! In our games, this comes up about once a game, but saving a 5-point trooper even once is a pretty terrific trick.

Void Pack

If America had to choose one single virtue, it would be freedom I believe. So the American region gives the players’ choices. For each of the 5 categories of troopers, you get a choice – either the normal “vanilla” trooper, or an alternative. So for example, you might have volunteer, citizen militia, evangelicals, US marines, and special forces. Or whatever. Anyway that’s the idea. I’ll discuss the alternatives here:

Gang – the 1-point alternative to volunteers. These of course represent urban thugs who see themselves as defenders of their neighborhood. Better-armed than the volunteers, but perhaps lacking in core values, the gang’s signature feature is that though they have a good attack (as good as the army), after each time they fire in an ambush, one of them runs away and is discarded. So they dwindle over time.

Next we have Evangelicals. These are religions people, who are probably somewhat more fanatical so now that their predictions of a apocalyptic future have come true. So they are here to battle hell. They are pretty much identical to a mere volunteer (they’re also not well-equipped or trained) ,but they have the special ability that if a 2nd circle or higher demon is present, they get to add 1d4 to their Ambush, which while it won’t help them kill that 2nd circle, might at least take out a limtbo minion. They are a popular choice.

The National guard are the alternative top police. They are like the army in stats, except their special ability is different – you can pay 1 courage to swap a guard ambush with a patrol, thus “picking up” the guard and replacing them with whatever you had with you. So they are flexible.

The US Marines are of course the alternative to the army, and they are like the latter except they can absorb 3 defense (and have no special ability). That 3 absorption is enough of an ability.

We have two alternative 5-point troopers to the basic special forces. One is Navy Seals, who generate 1 extra courage if they manage to kill at least 2 minions (you need at least 3 seals in an ambush to pull this off). The other are Texas Rangers. If you pick the latter, then by definition you are in Texas. They’re like the Navy Seals & Special Forces, except their final attack is only 3d8 instead of 3d10. Still good though. Their special ability is that when a ranger dies, you get to lower the despair track! (Minimum of 1.)

The Void Pack also includes the Astronauts & Cosmonauts, but they are special and restricted to the Launch Pad & Moonbase maps.

Dragon Pack

This pack adds Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Canada has Mounties replacing their police because hey, mounties. They also have a special start-up as a sort of homage/gentle teasing for their national health system. Basically they don’t have starting courage in their pool, but each hero starts with 1 extra health above their cap. Once this health is lost, it can’t be restored. To represent the mounties always getting their man, you can spend 1 courage to reroll a mountie’s ambush roll.

Mexico has Federales of course (and has gang members for their 1 point troopers). The Federales are really good. They can absorb 3, but have a high attack, so it’s the best of both worlds. Unfortunately they have a disadvantage to balance this, namely that you must spend 1 courage when a Federale absorbs damage for you. Still usually worth it though.

Great Britain adds their Constabulary (3 points), the British Army (4), and the SAS (5). The Constabulary is kind of like a police, but has the worst ambush attack in the game, in celebration of their famously unarmed troopers, at least in London (yes I know it’s not, strictly speaking, true – every cop has a weapon in the boot of their car). But I think it’s fair to say that they at least have slightly less use of their weapons than American police. They have an interesting special ability which is that you can pay 5, 7, or 9 to buy 2, 3 or 4 constables, thus getting a nice price savings over the normal cost of 3 each. Since they absorb 3 damage that’s sweet. Of course their attack is so weak that the only reason you’d set them up in ambush is so that they can absorb for other players.

The British Army has stats like the other Army counter, but with a different special ability. You can choose for a British Army ambush to roll 1d12s instead of 1d6s, then remove 1 British army from the ambush. So if you really need to hurt a 4th circle or kill a fiend, they are perfect. The SAS is a typical 5-point elite, with great attack, absorb 3, and in their case the special ability that their ambush automatically stuns a limbo or first circle minion in addition to anything else accomplished. I guess it’s flash-bang grenades.

Pack of the Pit

This adds France, Germany, and Russia.

The French have two different 4-point troopers instead of a 4 and a 5. This is to me an advantage, because the 5 point troopers are always a pain to get (I admit this is intentional). They have Paras and the Foreign Legion for their two high-end troopers, both of which function like the Army, but with special abilities – the Foreign Legion earns you 1 courage when one dies (so in effect, they really cost you only 3 courage over time), and you can discard a Para in an area to get an extra move. This last can be really handy, because you can move into an area, attack, then move back to the start to recruit again (perhaps re-recruiting the same para you just discarded). The French police are, of course Gendarmes. They are terrific, with a high attack, and absorb 3 – but only when set in an ambush. When on patrol, they only absorb 1. This is my tribute to French organization and centralization. When they are set in position they are at their best. When wandering aimlessly with a half-insane untrained hero, not so much.

Germany has Pollizei for their cops (of course. They are really good, but their ambush earns 1 less courage to counteract their high attack. Their army is the Bundeswehr, who in honor of their skilll and training have the highest attack of any 4 cost unit, and their elites are the KSK, who simply have a huge attack – even a single KSK rolls 2d6. Germany also introduces the Paramilitary unit (also used with Russia & Japan). Paramilitaries have a terrible attack, but at least absorb 2 damage. Their ability is nice which is that you can spend courage to upgrade them into a higher-value trooper. For example, if a Paramilitary is in an area, you can spend 3 courage to bump it up to KSK level.

Russia – Russia is weird because instead of having 1-5 point costs, it has 2-6. Also the very first recruit you perform at the game start you get to add +1 to your die roll. After that, you’re on your own. Their 5 & 6 point troopers are the Spetsnaz and the BMP. The Spetznaz have a fabulous attack based on 1d10s, but the courage they earn goes to the team captain instead of the pool, which is a slight limitation. The BMP is actually an armored vehicle. It counts as 4 troopers to recruit just one, so you can only place 1 in an ambush, or have 1 on patrol. It’s ambush value is 2d8, and it absorbs ALL the damage from one incoming attack, so it’s a terrific “ambush”, but that cost of 6 is tough to swallow.

Battling Lords

by Sandy Petersen | Feb 21, 2018 | BLOG, Design Corner, Planet Apocalypse, Sandy's Design Corner | 994 Views

Fighting the Lords

So let’s talk about the final battles in Planet Apocalypse, and how they work, along with an analysis of a typical battle.

Let’s see how a fight goes! This is an actual example from gameplay.

The game begins – a normal Invasion map, with Baphomet at the other end from the heroes. In a 4 player game, Baphomet starts with 15 health (and another 5 for his Wall).

Heroes: John Dark, Naomi Joslyn, Moose Kowalski, Hannah Hazard

The heroes start it off easy. They recruit a few troopers, start killing demons, and by the time the Despair dice are at 6, all of them have at least one gift. They feel they should strike at Baphomet before he spawns a 4th circle demon, so they do.

ROUND ONE – please note that the heroes have a few upgrades, and some are wounded.

BAPHOMET: 6d12 attack, toughness 6, Health 15 (Wall toughness 5, Health 5) In Baphomet’s area is an invasion token, which spawns into 1 First Circle, 1 Second Circle, and 2 Limbo minions.

John: 1d4 attack, toughness 3, Health 4; 2 volunteers (absorb 1)

Naomi: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 2, Health 5; no troopers

Moose Kowalski: 1d6+1d4 attack, toughness 2, Health 6; 1 police (absorb 3)

Hannah Hazard: 1d8+1d4 attack, toughness 2, Health 4; 4 troopers (absorb 1)

• Menace – Baphomet hits. The Captain, John, chooses for Hannah to take the hit. 2, 4, 4, 6, 7, 12 is rolled, for 5 hits. Hannah uses her troopers to block 4 of it, and takes 1.
• John uses Forfeit Soul to add 1d10 to his attack, and unfortunately rolls a 2 and a 3, so he kills the two Limbo minions. At least he gets 2 courage from it.
• Naomi attacks, helped by John and Moose, thus increasing her dice to 1d10 & 1d8 and gets a 3 and a 6. She uses the 6 to hit Baphomet’s wall for some courage.
• Moose attacks, helped by John, Naomi, and Hannah, so he rolls 1d8+1d10. He luckily rolls a 5 and a 9. He ponders what to do, and then decides to kill both remaining minions instead of hitting Baphomet.
• Hannah rolls her dice and gets a 3 and a 3. Using her Head Shot ability, she adds these together and hits Baphomet.
• Baphomet attacks, all his minions gone. He rolls 6d12. The Captain, John, chooses for he himself to take the hit, despite the possibility of death. He rolls 3, 3, 6, 10, 11, 12 for 4 hits. He uses his troopers to block 2, and takes 1.

ROUND TWO: FIGHT!

BAPHOMET: 6d12 attack, toughness 6, Health 14 (Wall toughness 5, Health 4)

John: 1d4 attack, toughness 3, Health 3

Naomi: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 2, Health 5; no troopers

Moose Kowalski: 1d6+1d4 attack, toughness 2, Health 6; 1 police (absorb 3)

Hannah Hazard: 1d8+1d4 attack, toughness 2, Health 3

• John: uses Forfeit Soul again. This time he rolls a 7 (He doesn’t bother to roll his 1d4, since it can’t hurt Baphomet or the Wall). He decides to hit the Wall for 2 courage.
• Naomi attacks, helped by two other players. She rolls a 5 and a 6, so hits the wall once.
• Moose attacks, helped by three players, and rolls a 6 and an 8, hitting the wall and Baphomet each once.
• Hannah attacks, again using Head Shot to combine her dice into a single roll. Total is 7, so she gets the tough choice of whether to eliminate the wall, or hit Baphomet. She decides to kill the Wall, to lower Baphomet’s attack to 6d8 permanently.
• Baphomet attacks, rolling 6d8. John, the captain, decides to have it hit Moose. Baphomet rolls 1, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8, for 5 damage. Moose uses his cop to block 3, then takes 2.

Before round three, the players realize that Baphomet could possibly kill one of them in his attack. Rather than take that chance, they retreat.

Some time later, when the despair dice have built up to 9, and the heroes are mightier (more gifts), they return to the fray. Again, some are injured. Coincidentally, John is again the captain.

ROUND ONE (second assault)

BAPHOMET: 6d8 attack, toughness 6, Health 13; 2 First Circle, 1 second circle, 3 limbo.

John: 2d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 3; 1 police (absorb 3)

Naomi: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 6; 2 army (absorb 2)

Moose Kowalski: 2d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 5; no troopers

Hannah Hazard: 1d10+1d4 attack, toughness 2, Health 4; no troopers

• Menace: John chooses to take the hit on himself, a little reluctantly. Baphomet rolls 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, inflicting just 3 damage, and exactly killing his police.
• John: uses Forfeit Soul. He rolls a 2, 3, and 5, so kills two limbo & a first circle.
• Naomi attacks, helped by John. She rolls a 7 & 8(!) 6, so hits the lord twice.
• Moose attacks, helped by all three other heroes, and rolls two 5s, merely killing the remaining first circle & limbo.
• Hannah attacks. Since she rolls 10 & 4, no need for Head Shot. She decides to kill the second circle fiend. Thus eliminating the lesser demon threat.
• Baphomet attacks, rolling 6d8. John, the captain, decides to have it hit Naomi. Baphomet rolls 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6 for 4 damage, which she takes on herself, saving her two army.

ROUND TWO (second assault)

BAPHOMET: 6d8 attack, toughness 6, Health 11

John: 2d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 3

Naomi: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 2; 2 army (absorb 2)

Moose Kowalski: 2d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 5

Hannah Hazard: 1d10+1d4 attack, toughness 2, Health 4

• John: doesn’t dare use Forfeit Soul any more, so to have a chance of hitting Baphomet, asks for help. Two players help him, and he rolls 2d8, sadly getting 3 & 6, so misses.
• Naomi attacks, helped by John. She also discards both her army, to add 2d10 to her roll, rolls 6, 6, 7, 8, so hits the lord twice. Baphomet is now down to 9, in the single digit range for health.
• Moose attacks, helped by two other heroes, and rolls 2 & 8, hitting once.
• Hannah attacks. Even with Head Shot, she only gets a total of 4.
• Baphomet attacks, rolling 6d8. John, the captain, decides to have it hit himself. Baphomet rolls 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 8 for 4 damage, which kills John’s cop & gives him 1 hit.

Fearing another round will kill them, the players retreat again.

After healing up from the fire (remember, Baphomet’s attack sets herores on fire) struggling through a 4th circle demon and cleaning up some of the messes on the map, they return again. This time Baphomet has 12 despair dice for its invasion token. There is a big force of demons in the start area, and Doom is now high enough that if they can’t kill Baphomet, they will lose the game on the next Enemy phase. So this is it. The big time.

Round one (third assault)

BAPHOMET: 6d8 attack, toughness 6, Health 8; 1 third circle demon (it tried to spawn 2, but one was already in play, so instead Doom bumped up a point), 2 second circle demons, 2 first circle demons, and 6 limbo.

John: 2d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 4; 1 police (absorb 3)

Naomi: 1d10+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 6; 3 volunteers (absorb 1)

Moose Kowalski: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 2; 1 army (absorb 2)

Hannah Hazard: 1d10+1d4 attack, toughness 3, Health 4

• Menace: John, once again captain, chooses to have the menace hit go on Moose. 1, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8 is the unfortunately result. Moose takes 5 damage.
• John: can’t use Forfeit Soul (Despair is at 6) so asks for help. Two players help him, and he rolls 2d8, getting 5 & 5 – enough to kill the third circle cacodemon!
• Naomi attacks, helped by one ally. She rolls 2 & 10, and uses the 10 to hit Baphomet (the 2 kills a limbo minion.
• Moose attacks, and rolls 3 & 6. He now has All-Out, so Baphomet’s Toughness is reduced by 2 vs his attacks. So he hits Baphomet & kills a limbo minion.
• Hannah attacks, and also uses her Frag Grenade gift to add 3d6 to her attack. With Head Shot, she gets a 7. The frags get 5, 5, 6, killing two first circle and another limbo.
• The demons attack. This time, the minions weren’t all killed in the first. The three limbo attack John, scoring 2 hits, which he takes. The two second circles attack Naomi, and roll 3 hits, which she takes on her volunteers. Finally Baphomet attacks, rolling 6d8. And John has it hit himself. Baphomet rolls 1, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8 for 5 damage! This kills John’s cop and himself as well! Doom bumps up 2.

Round two (third assault)

BAPHOMET: 6d8 attack, toughness 6, Health 6; 2 second circle demons, and 3 limbo.

Naomi: 1d10+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 6

Moose Kowalski: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 2; 1 army (absorb 2)

Hannah Hazard: 1d10+1d4 attack, toughness 3, Health 4

• The players can’t retreat. This is the final battle.
• Naomi attacks, helped by one ally. She rolls 12 & 2, killing a limbo & hitting Baphomet.
• Moose attacks with help, and rolls 4 & 8. He hits Baphomet & kills a limbo.
• Hannah attacks. She rolls a 7 and decides to kill one of the Fiends, which were so deadly in the first round. Also she needs a courage to keep helping.
• The demons attack. The lone limbo rolls a 2, so doesn’t hit anyone. The second circle attacks Hannah, and scores 2 hits. Finally Baphomet attacks, rolling 6d8. And this time the team has it hit Naomi. With a lucky roll of 1, 1, 1, 4, 7, 8, she only takes 3 hits.

Round three (third assault)

BAPHOMET: 6d8 attack, toughness 6, Health 4; 1 second circle demon, and 1 limbo.

Naomi: 1d10+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 3

Moose Kowalski: 1d8+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 2; 1 army (absorb 2)

Hannah Hazard: 1d10+1d4 attack, toughness 3, Health 2

• Naomi attacks, helped by one ally. She misses. Well, she does kill the last limbo.
• Moose attacks with help, and rolls 1 & 7. He hits Baphomet, who is down to 3 now.
• Hannah attacks. She rolls a 12 using head shot, and hits Baphomet again. Just 2 hit points left.
• The second circle attacks Naomi, knocking her down to 1 hp. Baphomet attacks and the team chooses for him to hit Moose, who is the likeliest to survive. But he doesn’t, taking exactly 4 hits (killing his army as well as himself).

Round four (third assault)

BAPHOMET: 6d8 attack, toughness 6, Health 2; 1 second circle demon.

Naomi: 1d10+1d6 attack, toughness 3, Health 1

Hannah Hazard: 1d10+1d4 attack, toughness 3, Health 2

• The team is now down to the two female heroes. They know they will lose if they don’t kill Baphomet this round, but since he only has 2 health, they have a good shot at it.
• Naomi rolls 1d12+1d6, being helped by Hannah. She gets a 10 on the d12, so scores a hit!
• Now it’s all up to Hannah. If she hits the Lord, the team wins. If not, they will lose. One more dead hero will bump Doom to 13 and end the game anyway. She rolls 1d10 +1d6 (helped by Naomi) and gets to add the dice together with Head Shot, She rolls 2 & 6 for an 8, and the game is over with a hero win!

The players then proceeded to talk smack about how weak my boss was and how trivially they’d beaten him. This despite going right down to the wire AND losing 2 heroes in the process. Humph. I invited them to take on Baphomet on the Demongate map next time, and they settled down.