RT Project - Time to Die - a Pulp Alley Game

The natives at the village said no, don't come here. A cursed place. Shah N'jatnah: 'the place stalked by death'. But what would they know? They still worship the sun and run from the thunder. An ancient and alien place like this would scare them. 

Not us though. We know what we'll find inside. A time capsule. Over fifty thousand years old. No scary stories are going to frighten us away from that.

It is looking a little more complex than we'd have liked. Someone 'misplaced' the teleport homer so we've got to wait for a ship to come and get us. And for all their hatred of the place, those superstitious natives have followed us. It looks like they want to seal us in. But it's nothing that a shotgun and a stick of TNT can't fix.

The exploration team must unlock the alien time capsule (pass three random challenges).

As they work away at the time capsule, the aliens press in, trading shots with the armed members of the exploration team.

The guard with the green carbine was taken out in the first volley of fire.

The exploration team pass the first challenge with ease (one turn), but struggle with the second (three turns!) Meanwhile, unnoticed by anyone, there is a rending of metal and up through the vent...

A hideous predator, disturbed by the intruders!

The juvenile stealer launches itself at the servitor.

Both go down and neither gets back up. The last of the aliens is shot down at the same time.

At this point it looks like mission accomplished. The explorators are still working away at unlocking the time capsule, but there is no threat to them and no real urgency to their task.

Until...

The juvenile was not alone!

The stealer spots the robot, but doesn't quite make it into combat.

Titus Thomas (expedition security) thinks about hurling a stick of dynamite, but then inexplicably decides to charge the vicious monster!

(I was playing with the Pulp Alley solo cards, and they dictated that I charge the nearest enemy: not something I would ever have chosen to do! But it did up the excitement levels quite nicely!)

Titus Thomas holds the monster while the explorators unlock the time capsule (at last!) and begin to flee with the treasure inside.

But he doesn't last long.

And where on earth is that ship?

The monster attacks again!

The explorators are able to flee, leaving the poor ad mech scout with the creature.

The monster pauses and bares it's teeth. ( A card prevented any running or combat this turn. Fortuitous for the explorators, as they could put some more distance between themselves and the stealer.)

At last! Ten turns into the game and the ship arrives.

The last the explorators ever see of the ad mech scout. The treasure is theirs. The scholars of the party have escaped. But they will need a new security complement for their next adventure!

Well, that was a cracking game! My first game with the Pulp Alley solo rules, and they worked a treat, delivering some real moments of tension and excitement. I had both the ship and the stealers arriving randomly. A d6 for each at the end of the turn. The ship arrives when when the ship dice total reaches 21. The juvenile stealer arrives when the stealer dice total reaches 7, the big one when the total reaches 14. Here are the dice!

The timing worked perfectly: the security crew had dealt with the aliens, things were looking cruisy and the big boy arrived! A great game, and a great start to the Rogue Trader project!