Coop's Zombicide scenario design journal, help me!

[coopasonic]

This is my first attempt at creating a competitive scenario for Zombicide. I'm looking for constructive feedback before I submit it to the scenario design competition. I just put it together today and haven't had a chance to playtest it, but I like the idea at least. I'll leave my thoughts and comments out of it for a bit as I want some feedback before I start giving excuses.



Story
We were almost out of here. We had both keys to access the basement doors that would lead us through the radio station to the helicopter parked on the roof. Only then did we notice that the helicopter was too small. It wouldn't carry more than 3 people. I don't know who panicked, but everyone was screaming about being left behind.

Someone started throwing punches, but at least nobody started shooting. After the confusion, we escaped the others but lost most of our gear. We only have one of the keys, and the other guys must have the other one.

We can't trust them anymore. Someone in the radio maintenance crew must have lived or died around here. There must be another set of keys, and we'll have to find them first!

Setup
Two teams are competing to escape and survive. Split the players evenly, arrange the team in alternating positions around the board. Alternating picking characters and give the first player token to the team that picked last. Both teams start with a crowbar and pistol (and pan if 3 character per side) and may distribute them among their survivors as they wish. The team starting on the blue spawn marker gets a token representing a blue key. The team starting on the other location gets a token representing a green key.

Take the green and blue objective markers as well as two red, turn them over and randomize them before placing them on the indicated locations on the board. The green and blue objective markers are key tokens and should be treated as inventory items once they are retrieved. All objective markers give 5xp when picked up for the first time.

Objective
This is a competitive team scenario. Each team is trying to get a set of keys, one green and one blue. The keys will open the doors to the central building and allow any survivors there to access the helicopter and flee the city.

Special Rules

The Cop Car can not be driven. {Insert usual rules about searching cop cars here}

An opposing player can only be wounded or killed by a 2 damage weapon, similar to a fattie. The first hit wounds and causes an item to be lost, the second kills as normal. if the only item the survivor is carrying when they are wounded is a key, the key is dropped where they are standing.

The key tokens and green and blue objective markers are inventory items. If a player holding a key token/objective marker is killed, the key falls where they were standing. Picking up a key takes an action. A key may not be picked up if there are enemies in the space, human or formerly human. A team MAY hold more than one copy of the same color key. Picking up a key that was dropped does not give any xp.

When a key is used on one of the colored doors, flip it to the open side. No survivor may access the inside of the building unless both doors are opened. During the zombie phase, if only one of the colored doors is opened, close it. This means both doors must be unlocked on the same players phase. If both doors are opened they stay opened and either may be used to access the building.

Any player standing on the exit space may use an action to leave in the helicopter if there are no enemies in the space, human or formerly human. Any friendly survivors in the space are in the helicopter and escape with the survivor taking the action. Anyone left behind is zombie food.

[coopasonic]

played a solo playtest - not the best way to test a versus scenario, but I do what I can. I managed to get everyone wiped out, though it stayed more or less balanced the whole time, losing people on alternating sides. Neither team successfully made it to the opposing side. At least not for long.

Main problem is that it's really easy for people to kill other people. I need a different combat mechanic for PvP or respawning. Respawning doesn't really make sense so I'm thinking of other options. Interestingly, melee weapons become more important for noise management. If you can stick to melee and the other team uses firearms, as long as there is no LoS street zombies will go the other way.

There is an obvious rush to the pimpmobiles to get the easy weapons. Wanda can reach a pimpmobile and loot on one turn. I thought about moving them further away, but it just gives Wanda more of an advantage, not less.

I thought two spawns may be too few, but it's not bad at all. People are way more dangerous.

Main thing to resolve is the PvP combat. It's hard to hide from people that can move so far in one turn. The flip side is they can leave themselves exposed to your teammates on the next turn. Maybe if I made it take 2 damage to wound a person? Ma's Shotgun becomes even more valuable. Do I ditch the pimpmobiles?

[Zarathud]

I would say ditch the pimp mobiles - the weapons are really powerful.

Make searching the cars a bigger risk -- you could get a sniper rifle, a frying pan or any weapon in between.

I like the idea of treating other players like fatties who require 2 points of damage to wound. That makes 2 hits with a shotgun to eliminate players on the other team. If you want to penalize players, maybe you cause players who are hit with weapons that do only 1 point of damage lose actions -- they're too busy dodging bullets/evading. Not sure if that's effective unless you can roll multiple dice when attacking.

Change the story to be in the past tense about how you were so close, but someone panicked because they would have to wait for a second trip by the helicopter:

We were almost out of here. We had both keys to access the basement doors that would lead us through the radio station to the helicopter parked on the roof. Only then did we notice that the helicopter was too small. It wouldn't carry more than 3 people. I don't know who panicked, but everyone was screaming about being left behind.

Someone started throwing punches, but at least nobody started shooting. After the confusion, we escaped the others but lost most of our gear. We only have one of the keys, and the other guys must have the other one.

We can't trust them anymore. Someone in the radio maintenance crew must have lived or died around here. There must be another set of keys, and we'll have to find them first!

I'd start players without any axes -- which will prevent players from immediately going to kill each other. They'll have to race for the keys and to get a 2-damage weapon first.

If you want more spawn zones, add them at the end of the alleyways at the NW and SE corners so the zombies have a walk before they get to the center. It will also make things crazy about 10-15 turns into the game. Maybe the zombies spawn from those areas every other turn, or on a roll of 1-3.

[coopasonic]

Took away the axes and replaced the pimpmobile with a non-drivable cop car. I also changed up the map because I only wanted one cop car centrally located. It also prevents Wanda from safely opening a door on the first turn, she can do it, but it won't be a good idea. I completely randomized the keys as well. No need to be too clever.



I played a game with the 2dmg required for people rule and it makes a pretty good difference. The game played out pretty well. Luck is still pretty significant but I don't think it takes too much away from the fun. I managed to escape with careful coordination of Wanda and Amy after Amy turned Phil into a smear with a machete in two swings.

[coopasonic]

Thanks for the input Zarathud. I used your adjustment to the story section and submitted it to the publisher. Hopefully they are receptive to a versus scenario.

My real wish was to come up with a solo scenario, but so far inspiration has eluded me. If anyone has a story concept for a solo scenario I'd love to hear it. Keep in mind even a few zombies can be a bitch when you are by yourself. The player would have to start in a searchable location in my opinion. Starting in the street is too hard for a solo player. On the flip side, the danger has to be imminent, so the player can't search endlessly. I'm thinking the player starts in a building with an open door and a spawn 4-5 spaces away. That gives them a time limit on free searches. That's a good start mechanically, but I still need a story which needs to explain why the door is down. Remember zombies can't break/open doors in this world.

[coopasonic]

Story
The neighborhood had been quiet for weeks. I had a pretty good setup going and hadn't seen anything but the occassional walker for more than a week. Once I figured out other people were the real danger things got better. Unfortunately, I got complacent... sloppy. I set my backpack down while I was scavenging yesterday and forgot to bring it back to the safe house. In the middle of the night something happened. It might have been an earthquake. Whatever it was, my safehouse doesn't have a door anymore and the zombies are stirring. I can hear the moans. I need to find my backpack, which has my machete and all my other gear, and get the hell out of here.

Setup
Take the blue objective marker and a red objective marker, turn them over, randomize and place at the indicated locations. Select one survivor and equip a pan and a flashlight.

Objective
This is a solo, single survivor scenario. Get the blue objective token, representing your backpack and machete and get to the exit.

Special Rules
Objective tokens are worth 5xp. When you pick up the blue objective token, give your survivor a machete.