The Fantasy Trip on a spaceship

I figured I'd try a bit of solo TFT Zombicide style gaming and set up one of spaceship deck posters. Put in a few random goals and my small pair of adventurers find themselves in the bridge of a spaceship. How they got there, and why an Elf and a Centaur are now in a science fiction setting is simply the joy of gaming.

I also added in the OSE rule that every 2 turns roll to see if something spawns. I added a roll also when any combat was happening as fights are noisy and bound to bring in other critters that may want fresh food. I also decided to use the entire stack of creature cards I have from all the things - there must be a couple hundred by now. Basically, an encounter happens and I'd roll some dice to narrow down the deck. Oddly did not even know about the kingowing from the bestiary (which, wow, sells for $80!) but it showed up.

I lost pretty quickly - 2 adventurers is not really enough, much like most RPG game or Zombicide. But at least I got to play with some toys. 

the initial set up, with tentacles at the exit

started on the bridge. I assume the red alert klaxons are sounding!

a spider! Unfortunately, in TFT Elves are at a -3 DX against spiders and the like. Fortunately, it cannot fit up the stairwell.

Unfortunately, the smaller ones can!

And here's the kingowing that killed them - the Centaur was busy trying to get ants off of his hide and while the Elf almost killed the beast, the beast killed him first.

It took longer to set up than actually play but that's okay - it was fun to mix a few genres together. It was pretty random - I suppose I really should formalize a few more rules like I did with our initial run. More of an experiment in solo gaming I suppose. Though without the interaction and decisions from other players it is not as much fun. I did randomize which adventurer creatures would attack, with a bias towards those inflicting damage.

Funny thing was I shared some pics with my game group and he said of course the spider was mad, its bathtime with its rubber ducky got interrupted. Oddly enough...

one of these days I'll finish painting the tub

and a closeup of the creature at the end. Which I did mostly finish painting. Finally. See - I can make progress against the plastic pile o'shame!

eeks!

Taking a bit of a break from the Traveller software - despite being a holiday week I was on call, and we only get Christmas Day itself off. And since I was on call it was still a bit stressful. And even got a few alerts today, so worked a bit as well. I keep telling myself I only have to hold on 3 more years or so! And at my age, that goes by awfully fast. But then I worry about too much unstructured time - I am not good with that either. I've 3.25 years to figure that out. I'll probably volunteer at an animal shelter and probably work part-time. I've got plans for what I need to do for work, and there is no way to get it down in 3 years. Assuming I am still with this company and still alive! I'd better be - I did the lifetime membership at my new gym, and the breakeven point is oddly at the time of my potential retirement!

And finally, January is coming up fast. Not sure if I'll do the character challenge again this year. I may but as always, I'll have to see about stockpiling some ahead of time as sadly my days are pretty busy. And when they are not busy, I often just don't have the mojo it seems. The holidays, though I do enjoy them, are also more stressful to me than they should be for a number of generally self-imposed reasons. Self-awareness is not always what it is cracked up to be!

Zombicide:TFT

Realizing that Halloween was coming up, I decided to start painting a pumpkin beholder that I got on a Reaper Bones KS a few years (!) ago. Then, because we needed to play a game this weekend, I decided to combine Zombicide and The Fantasy Trip as this was my Sunday 1 friend over to play game or workout (we alternate gaming and working out at his home gym - we met at a gym several years ago and somehow struck up a good friendship. Even got his kids playing TFT for a bit).

We've been playing Zombicide as it is a fun and easy to play coop game. Which we usually die playing but it is always fun. But we both missed playing TFT and I had the idea of combining the two. So I did. 

First, as I was painting the pumpkin beholder, and I had a Fantasy Trip garden hex map a friend gave me, I went with the garden leading to a dungeon. Pumpkins grow in gardens after all! There were objectives in the garden as well as the dungeon, so used some of the various coins I have to mark objectives. Each was a random treasure card from the TFT cards Kickstarter I backed several years ago, though I did go through the pile and picked ones I thought could be useful. Instead of spawn points, we rolled a die. Odd meant a spawn, even nothing happens. When we got a spawn, I had a 2d6 table we rolled on. A seven meant nothing happens, and I tried to stick the more dangerous spawns at the top and bottom. Then another d6 for hex direction, and 2d6 for how far away they spawned from us. If we were split apart, a die toll to determine which character was the origin point.

Turned out to be a lot of fun: the speed of playing Zombicide with the complexity of using TFT combat. I hit both sides of the luck: I actually got a very rare triple damage and killed off the giant pacman toad with a single hit, but when attacking the beholder dropped my weapon. We ended up getting in and out all in one piece, a lot of which was due to luck honestly.

We're going to expand out the encounter table to give more variety (we did somehow get the beholder two times, but also the Am Bust two times. Rolling more dice would reduce the chance of repeats) but it worked pretty well

As TFT does not have a beholder, I used AI to stat one out for me. It came up with something pretty good:

Attribute	Value	Notes
ST	40	Big, tough rind; can take a beating.
DX	12	Moderate agility; floats eerily but not fast.
IQ	14	Cunning and magical; capable of spellcasting.
MA	6	Floats slowly through the air

🎃 Special Abilities


Floating Horror: The Pumpkin Beholder levitates naturally, ignoring terrain penalties unless magically grounded.

Pumpkin Pods (10): Instead of eye stalks, it has 10 writhing vine-like tendrils, each ending in a glowing jack-o’-lantern pod. Each pod can fire a different magical effect once per turn:

1. Fear Gaze: Casts Terrify (IQ 14 roll).
2. Rot Ray: Deals 1d+2 damage and causes armor to decay (-1 armor).
3. Sleep Spores: Casts Sleep (IQ 14 roll).
4. Fireburst: Casts Fireball (2d damage).
5. Confusion Mist: Casts Confusion (IQ 14 roll).
6. Vine Snare: Casts Control Plant to entangle.
7. Shadow Beam: Casts Darkness in a 3-hex cone.
8. Hallucination Pulse: Casts Illusion to distract.
9. Pumpkin Bomb: Throws a flaming gourd (3d damage, 1 hex radius).
10. Anti-Magic Glare: Cancels one active spell (IQ 14 roll).

Central Eye (Jack-o’-Lantern Core): Emits a constant anti-magic aura in a 3-hex radius. Any spell cast within this zone requires an extra IQ roll or fizzles.

Immunity to Mind Control: Its alien gourd-brain is resistant to charm, control, and illusion spells.

Weakness – Fire Vulnerability: Takes +2 damage from fire-based attacks (it’s a pumpkin, after all).

The Pumpkin Beholder is a seasonal terror summoned by deranged druids or cursed harvest rituals. It floats silently through moonlit fields, its pods glowing with malevolent intent. It prefers ambushes and psychological warfare, using illusions and fear before unleashing its more destructive powers.

I created the tables for encounters. We'll expand those tables some more based on the minis I have :) Need to use my toys!

almost done painting

and my random encounter tables, mk 0.1:

2	Pumpkin Beholder
3	1d6 Goblins
4	Baby Dragon
5	1d6-2 Ghouls
6	Am Bush Plant
7	Nothing
8	Bloodtree
9	Giant Bullfrog
10	Elemental – roll on Elemental table
11	Giant Cave Bear
12	Pumpkin Beholder

 

1	Earth
2	Air
3	Stone
4	Fire
5	Metal
6	Water