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Thursday 8 March 2018

The Adventures of Becky - Chapter 3 Boris and the Swan

This story follows on from the previous and rather disastrous episode where Boris stole the journal from Becky and her chums escaping with it and leaving them tied up in a remote house near Inverness - Scotland.
The good news is that the girls have a lead to the Swan Hotel in Inverness. This turns out to be fortunate because Gabrielle has a friend who works there, a quick phone call and she confirms that the 5 Bikers have already checked out and left, but a large bald man is still in room 3 at the hotel although he's informed the Reception Desk that he will check out this morning.

No time to loose then.

The previous game is here https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-adventures-of-becky-midnight-callers.html

I wish I had the silent movies soundtrack whenever a chase is taking place so that I could have it play when you are reading this. It might make it a bit more exciting.

As it transpires all the action will take place in the Swan Hotel but I didn't know that beforehand and had the table set up, so you will have to endure a few gratuitous shot's of Inverness and then it's back to the card plans. Sorry.

An overview of the centre of Inverness, the Swan Hotel in pretty much in the centre of the centre.

The Swan is the building with the blue doors and this is the view from the E type in which Roxanne and Susanne are keeping an eye on the front entrance.

Boris will leave in a time determined by the dice. Each turn both parties throw 1D6 for activation and each 7 thrown reduces the number of turns before Boris leaves, it needs 6 throws of 7 and he leaves and if the girls have not done the business by then it will be too late.


One of the side streets in the town.

And another of the side streets. There are only 2 streets :-) so you're saved from more shots of streets.

I'm sorry but I quite like these moody shots that have nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

A mysterious down at heel sailor, is he drunk and just propping himself up on that old Austin or could it be more sinister and he's lurking in the alleyway for a more nefarious purpose.

Becky and Gabrielle shown here walking over to the Swan

Turn 1 - 7 thrown. 1X7 thrown

Turn 2 - Becky and Gabrielle arrive at the front door of the Swan.

Turn 3 - 7 thrown. The girls enter the Swan and meet up with Gabrielle’s friend who confirms that Boris is still in his room but leaving shortly. 2X7 thrown.

Turn 4 - The girls decide to change into maids outfits, dice roll confirms this will take 4 active moves. In retrospect I’m not sure what my thinking was here. I have no figures in maids outfits, I probably would like to have them!!! I guess the thinking was they would be able to take Boris by surprise. – hum – better not go there.

Turn 5 - 7 thrown, girls active and changing. 3X7 thrown

Turn 6 - Girls active - changing

Turn 7 - 7 thrown, girls active – changing and 4X7 thrown

Turn 8 - Girls active and now in the maids outfits. No comments please.

Turn 9 - 7 thrown, girls active and through the Office and to the bottom of the stairs 5X7 thrown, Boris has packed his bags and is getting ready to leave. Just needs one more 7 and they will be too late.

Turn 10 - Girls active and go up the stairs and knock on the door.

Turn 11 - Boris not suspicious and just asks who it is, “Maids to clean your room sir”. Responds Becky.

Turn 12 - 7 thrown, - just leaving says Boris and opens the door, he fails his insight test and so does not recognise the girls in their thin disguise as maids. Just shows what a short black dress, white apron and feather duster will do.

Turn 13 - Boris turns to pick up his case and laptop, the girls should jump him now but for the 1st time in the game are inactive – and don’t move – bugger.

Turn 14 - Boris comes out of the room past Becky and for the 2nd time in the game the girls are inactive. Next turn he will be down the stairs and then it will be difficult and a noisy affair to stop him.

Turn 15 - Boris fails to activate but finally the girls do, but only just. Becky who is behind Boris saps him hard, he is stunned but does not go down and turns groggily round only to be hit with the sap a 2nd time and as she hits him again he goes down to his knees.

Turn 16 - The girls drag Boris into his room and close the door. The dice roll says it will take the girls 5 turns to bind and gag him. How soon before he wakes and starts to shout, hurrah a 6 is rolled so Boris will wake in 6 turns, by which time he will be securely tied up.

Turn 22 - Boris awakes, tied to the bed and gagged, with 2 beautiful girls standing over him, not every mans nightmare scenario. However for Boris it is not looking too good.

Turn 23 - In my version of the rules everyone has an affinity, that means that if they want to do a conspicuously good or bad act they roll a dice and have to score higher or lower than their affinity level to do the deed.
Of course this is totally unlike Wargamers who would shoot their best friend in the back if it would win them the game.

In this case to do a bad deed the girls have to roll higher than their affinity. Gabrielle is a bit of a saint with an affinity level of 6 and so has to roll higher than a 6 on a 6 sided dice to do a bad deed, not much chance there then.
Becky on the other hand has an affinity of 4 and so 5 or 6 allows her so do a bad deed and she rolls 6. BAD news for Boris and he knows it, Becky puts a knife to his throat and asks the 1st question, Boris is a coward – guts 2 and so has to roll 2 dice and get 1 or 2 dice at 2 or less to resist, he rolls 1 and 1. Hum this might not be as easy as I thought.

Turn 24 to Turn 34 - Every time Becky was able to question Boris forcefully he was able to hold out. Eventually Gabrielle insisted that this was going no where and Becky had to agree.

Turn 35 - The girls called it a day they recovered Becky’s dads journal and files and took Boris’s laptop, passport, driving licence, and library card – no only joking about the library card, that wouldn’t have been a very nice thing to do.

They then left quietly, partly untying him so that he would be able to leave later with out causing a fuss and getting the police involved.

So a good result for Becky and the girls, recovering the information they had previously lost and not had time to read thoroughly, there is a good possibility that they will get a lead from the laptop as to whoever is employing Boris, they all agreed he was not the man at the top.

These games were exciting to play but there doesn't seem to be much happening when I've actually written them up and re-read them. However a change of pace and another chapter concluded in Becky's saga.

To be continued………

If you are still here - thanks for reading, and let me know you passed this way.

27 comments:

  1. I really love your Inverness layout, the atmosphere it evokes is inspiring. The scenario itself was nail biting as the clock ticked away with the girls getting changed, you really threw a lot of 7s! I like the affinity rule, not every person has a vicious streak and the thought of torture would turn most people’s stomachs, great touch Jon. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

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    1. I'm pleased you like the layout, although Inverness doesn't look anything like this.
      This game goes back about 4 years and I re-did all the photos for this post because I've improved my terrain since then, although the dialogue is original and hasn't improved.
      By my calculations 7 comes up 17% of the time so 6 x 7 in 12 throws was extraordinary but it worked brilliantly for the game.

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  2. Another cracking read John, and there was plenty of tension as the girls first raced to get to Boris, then tie him up in time and then attempt to extract the information (nice touch with the affinity ruling!).
    Love the "moody sidestreet shots" that as you say, might not play a direct part in the story, but boy do they set the scene and put us 'in' the scenario :-)
    I think they SHOULD have taken his library card - it would serve him right for not coughing up the information. Taking the lead from his laptop was just mean, though I suspect a replacement will be easy to find ;-)

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    1. Hi Greg - cheers, I'm pleased the tension came across, there was plenty in the game but I didn't think it worked so well in my write up, probably need to take lessons from dGG.
      I can't believe you would have taken his library card, that shows a very bad attitude, I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of you or Brad. ;-)

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  3. Well played, well-photographed and well-posted, Vagabond. Thoroughly enjoyed this, and the RPG elements around the decision whether to torture or not. I potentially thought Boris might come a cropper at one point, but that's pleasingly not the way it planned out. More please :-)

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    1. Hi Bk - thanks, that's kind of you to say and I'm pleased you enjoyed it. I don't know if you have read the previous games but I sort of conceived it as a book with various chapters pencilled in. The previous game/chapter sent it off track but this one brought it back.
      I think because nearly all my games are solo, the RPG element comes into play quite a lot. I usually play one side, not always, and my aim is to win, but in a manner that gives a fair result, so with the character cards I can make reasonable decisions for both sides based on what the individual figure might reasonably do. I know it's daft but it works for me.
      The early part of the 'book' is set in the UK and so probably no firearms, I wanted to get at least half way in before someone gets killed, because it would sort of stop the story if Becky gets killed :-( and I'm not sure how I would handle that.
      Cheers

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  4. Inverness looked great John & I'm glad you took the time to show it to us even if it had no impact on the game, as for the girls changing into maids & a man waken up tied up on a bed I just hope the wife doesn't read your posts : )

    You might think that nothing much happened but your wrong mate & it was exciting to read, but I know where your coming from as I've often felt that way about some of my own posts, well done & thanks for an other enjoyable movie : )

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    1. Thanks for the view of confidence, I've had this post on the blog for a couple of weeks trying to decide if I needed to rewrite it. I did ask Mrs Vagabond to give me her opinion and after laughing at my spelling mistakes she said it was ok, mind you she doesn't like blood and the alternative post has lots of it. ;-)

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    2. Sorry vote not view. Aghhh I hate predictive text.

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  5. Vagabond, you have a really IMPRESSIVE collection of terrain there, really fit for the adventures of such an inspiring heroine with her Hello Kitty backpack, WELL DONE! :O)

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    1. Cheers Eduardo, I will need to look up what Hello Kitty is, sounds vaguely interesting;-)

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    2. Ok I checked out Hello Kitty and you must realize I've been living under a rock in the middle of no where with no outside communication for most of my life not to know about this.
      All I can say is that it's a warm dry rock.:-D

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    3. "All I can say is that it's a warm dry rock.:-D" :O)

      (we DEFINITELY need emoticons here!)

      Looking forward to the next adventure!


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  6. That was a great adventure, despite the seemingly "not much happening", I was on the edge of my seat, so to speak, as the adventure got closer to either a botch-up or a success.
    Great stuff and thoroughly enjoyable !

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    1. Thanks Joe - I know when I played this and having no idea how it would end, I was on the edge of my seat. Maybe it's just that now knowing how it ends it just seems a little lacking.
      Glad you enjoyed it though.

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  7. As always, I am loving your tales, John. It is good to see someone else concentrating so heavily on telling an interesting story as opposed to it being all gunfights and fisticuffs - not that there isn't a time or a place for such shenanigans, but I'm sure you know what I mean! Lovely scenery, that really brought your fictional version of Inverness to life. The story elements worked well and I thought this was a tense episode that could have gone either way. I wonder what Becky would have done if Boris had escaped? As it happens, that's irrelevant now. Go, Becky, go!

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    1. Hi Bryan I'm really enjoying the storylines that I am able to incorporate into the games, it's the same thing I enjoy reading in other guys blogs. That element of fiction that is guided by the results of a game, there is also a very strange pleasure from characterisation of the figures. I don't quite understand that though:-D

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  8. Great stuff John! Brilliant table and really love the use of a separate template for the interiors of the buildings, may have to nick that for some of the model railroad buildings I have :)

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  9. Nick away, I nicked it off someone else, I always used to draw plans on a bit of paper, it works, but looks crap, then I saw where the guy was cutting out hardboard and painting the plan on it, I though, I can do that much easier, might nor be as good but dead simple and quick.
    All the buildings on the table are cardboard 1:72 railway models, so cost very little, don't stand too close a scrutiny but work reasonably well en masse.
    cheers

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  10. I wouldn't have minded some shots of turn 3 to 7... ;-)
    The Inverness set-up is great, and I recognize that sailor. A slight change of clothes, though :-)

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    1. :-) 3 - 7 yes me too.

      When I did my All Things Zombie campaign the sailor was the figure I chose to represent myself, so i suppose it's how i see myself.

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  11. Once again you delivered a beautiful table and story. I agree with some of the other comments on the use of interiors. Looks nice and functional. Really like the dog figure, but then again all dogs make me smile so that isn't such a surprise.

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    1. Thanks. I have 15 to 20 dogs with another 7 ready to paint so I'm a bit of a fan.

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  12. Just letting you know I stopped by. I'm slowly getting caught up with your blog and adventures, and thoroughly enjoying your terrain, miniatures, general setup, storylines and how you play your games. Lots of ideas, as well as entertaining.

    Even if a chapter isn't action-packed it doesn't mean nothing is happening. The atmospheric establishing shots are cool. The tension over whether the ladies can get to Boris soon enough, then needing to cosh him on his way out, and then spending time trying to extract information, and all that, adds up to a lot of uncertainty over whether they will be able to complete their mission. It's called suspense. :)

    I also like your "aspect" idea. And the fact that it isn't all about big shootouts is good.

    I think I'm going to have to try to keep these ideas in my head when I get around to some games of my own. It will probably be a while, as the next couple of months are going to be hard on gaming time (but for good reasons).

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, sometimes I get a bit lost in the story line because with this game I played and photographed it and wrote it up at the time.
      I then posted it on LAF and re-took the photos and re-wrote it, and when I posted it here I did it all again, new photos and a bit of a re-write still the same game just edited again and again.
      By that time I knew the story inside out, had proof read it a number of times and it sort of lost all it's shine to me, so it's very helpful to get a new perspective on it.
      I have 3 more of the Becky series in the can so to speak but was a bit disillusioned with this story that I've delayed posting the others, after your comments I'll put them back in the queue.
      Cheers

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    2. Yay! I look forward to reading them. It would be good to at least see this arc to its conclusion. Thanks!

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    3. I'll get my finger out then, although I envisioned the story line to be around 10 episodes so still a long way to go. :)

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