Thursday 20 April 2017

Mutants & Death Ray Guns Report: Judge Dredd & Tweak - "2T(FRU)T" - Part Two

“The story so far… Finding Mega-City One once again threatened by the deadly 2T(FRU)T virus, Judge Dredd, Tweak, Judge Giant (Senior) and Judge Hershey have travelled down into the metropolis' Undercity in order to recover some vaccine crates. However, the virus has already spread to the ruinous landscape's denizens, and after an attack by the frenzied horde Joe's furry extra-terrestrial friend has been infected himself..."


THE TABLETOP - THE UNDERCITY
Already starting to struggle from the symptoms of the 2T(FRU)T virus, Tweak returned to the open entrance of Dai's Den. The alien momentarily turned at the sound of Judge Giant still futilely banging on the stubborn front door to Zabadak House. Seeing her Justice Department colleague's problem, Hershey moved over to give John Clay's son a much-needed hand. Dredd meanwhile, had had no such issues kicking down another interior door within Martin Cooke Apartment Block, and now had one more between him and his vaccine-filled prize.

To the north the 'search & recovery team' could just make out the low rasp of someone muttering "Tooty Fruity", but the sound was still someway off. Clearly the death of their homicidal leader by Tweak had shaken the local inhabitants of the Undercity, despite their manic madness...
HERSHEY AND GIANT'S SEARCH STALLS OUTSIDE ZABADAK HOUSE
With a big boot, Judge Dredd split asunder a pair of double doors in Martin Cooke Apartment Block, and wrenched open the crate before him. There was enough antidote serum inside the eagle-insignia covered box for half his city's needs, so the search for more vaccine would need to go on.

Aware that the door to Zabadak House was taking far too long to physically break open, Giant pulled out his lawgiver and blasted the lock apart. Hershey immediately rushed inside the building, but came to a jarring halt as she put her shoulder to an interior door and ignominiously came off second best...

Outside, the increased noises emanating from the surrounding darkness indicated that the insane dwellers of these ruins were becoming braver. Indeed, a ghoulish-green figure suddenly emerged near the town centre from the north, whilst another denizen appeared approaching from the west.
MEGA-CITY ONE'S TOUGHEST LAWMAN DOMINATES THE TOWN CENTRE
Hearing the disturbance, Joe Dredd rushed outside from Martin Cooke Apartment Block and placed himself near a half-empty dumpster, which was located in the middle of the street. From here the senior judge had some protection from any missile attacks, and could easily cover anything thinking of sneaking up behind his colleagues in Zabadak House.
Deep inside the aforementioned building, both Hershey and Giant blazed away at the interior door before them. But clearly both law officers needed to spend some more time at the Academy of Justice's firing range, and neither judge managed to destroy the obstinate lock. Tweak meanwhile staggered towards a bed located between himself and another vaccine crate in Dai's Den.

Chattering excitedly, a 'Tooty Fruity' infected reached a battered blue mail box just north west of Dredd and prepared to launch himself at Mega-City One's toughest lawman. The Judge Fargo clone's eyes narrowed as he spotted a further two of the crazed killers rushing towards his location from the western end of the street as well. It was time for the maniacs to taste Justice Department lead...
DREDD FACES THE 'TOOTY FRUITY' INFECTED AS GIANT DISCOVERS MORE VACCINE
Dredd took aim at the loon by the mail box with his lawgiver, and disconcertingly watched as his shot simply caused his target to back away into the surrounding darkness. Hearing the senior judge, Hershey finally managed to break down the door hindering her progress through Zabadak House, and gesturing to her companion to carry on without her, rushed back outside. With no further impediments before him, Judge Giant ripped open the lid of another vaccine crate, and grimaced at the amount of antidote inside. The Justice Department needed just a little more serum before they had recovered enough to thwart the 2T(FRU)T outbreak in the metropolis. Tweak meanwhile rested himself against the bed... it was becoming hard for the furry alien to even gather his wits...

Incensed by Dredd's bullet wound the insane Undercity resident rushed towards the lawman as fast as his legs would allow. Soon his teeth would taste Justice Department flesh... The other 'Tooty Fruity' infected to the west, slowly moved ever closer themselves, almost as if they were waiting to see whether their comrade-in-insanity would manage to bring the senior judge down alone.
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUCCEED AS MORE CRIMINALLY INSANE CITIZENS APPEAR
Tweak, finally succumbing to the effects of his contagion, collapsed in front of the crate inside Dai's Den, his pincers twitching just inches from his wood-packaged prize. Sensing his Cursed Earth companion's poor condition, Judge Dredd yelled for Hershey to take out the demented denizen before him, and with one shot, Barbara did just that; albeit her lawgiver jammed in the process. With no 'Tooty Fruity' zombies close to his position, Joe rushed into Dai's Den, past his friend's failing body, and tore off the vaccine crate's lid. There was just enough serum inside to enable the judges to inoculate Mega-City One's population. They'd done it... 

34 comments:

  1. Poor Tweak! So close yet so far....

    A win for the good guys and a very enjoyable yarn, thanks Simon

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    1. You;re very welcome :-)

      I've yet to roll for the impact this mission has had upon my Justice Department team, Andy, but I'm hoping Tweak will be around for the next scenario.

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  2. Once again, Dredd proves why he is the star! Joe did well. As for Giant and Hershey - could do better. Need to spend more time at the shooting range. Alas poor Tweak. At least his sacrifice wasn't in vain. A thoroughly enjoyable batrep, Simon. More, please!

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    1. Thanks Bryan. The game is entirely down to the rule-set rather than anyone else, I just roll the dice... Glad you enjoyed it, and I hope to have something new posted soon. It'd be nice to establish a BatRep Friday posting if possible.

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  3. Love this, simply love it. The style the tone, everything, its all just so right. Nice narration and nice photos (wish they were bigger, even when blown up, but meh.. its not a problem). Part two had a nice lot of suspense, but the Judges didn't feel like invincible super men, which is something which tends to be overly done in many JD AAR`s. They felt RIGHT, tough, trained, and equipped - But human.

    Excellent conclusion, and thoroughly enjoyable to read. I really like the modelling, it looks like an entirely different style from you Simon, compared against the modelling I am used to seeing you do. I like it.

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    1. Cheers Hils. Very much appreciated. I have tried to increase the size of my pics, but to do so would scrunch up my sidebar, which causes other issues as the blog has been running so long.

      Glad you like the Judge stats. They are just typical "M&DRG" humans with a few appropriate weapons. Nothing fancy at all; except JD who has everything the game can give (Champion, Hero and Leader).

      The scenery is the first cardboard I've used, coming from the "Battle Systems" scenery range, and gives me enough to fill a 4x2 table - although I'm not hosted such a large game yet. I don't ordinarily like such scenery, but this stuff is very 3d.

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    2. Oh gosh I know I know, its a real problem with blogger isn't it. We tend to do all photos set as Extra large, so when you right click on them, they blow up nice and BIG. But other than that, there is very limited option.

      Mutants & Death ray Guns obviously REALY works or you and your style, as is so apparent by the sheer `style` and finesse of this new vain of excellence. I very much enjoyed your Judge Stats, the ghoulish green yuckies.. those 'Tooty Fruity' infected are truly terrifying.

      Yeah, "Battle Systems" is excellent isn't it (though a pain to store between games). It would be simply unfeasible for us to take it apart and reassemble it every week, as we literally use it to play at least three games a week (both home and club) and it would take forever to design a fresh set up and get any games in during any respective evening, if we tried to put it away between each game use. The club guys alone sometimes pull the terrain out of storage and used it a couple of dozen times a month, for whatever game they are playing at the time: sometimes Bolt Action, Dungeons and Dragons, Malifaux, Zombicide, or whatever. It has many diverse uses doesn’t it.

      We never bought all the "Battle Systems" terrain when it came out (only the dungeon stuff), but over time, we pretty much collected all of it, for each of the different genres. Like you, we wouldn’t normally be that fussed with cardstock, but this really is lovely terrain so we made an exception this time. Though the future, of course, lies in 3D printing. For now this is the best that cardstock terrain has to offer.


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    3. I certainly like "Mutants & Death Ray Guns" as a rule-set, and hope to continue to add to it with the other books in the system. Hopefully that'll give me plenty of scope for other genre BatReps.

      "It would be simply unfeasible for us to take it apart" - mine too is partially assembled and sat in a box. Too many clips otherwise :-)

      I ahve just taken delivery of some more additions to my "Battle Systems" collection, so I can better fill the 4x2 table. I'm not enamoured with their price for their clips though!!

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    4. Well they do say that great minds think alike ;-)

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  4. Fabulous read Simon and a great result, except of course for poor Tweak.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Glad you enjoyed it. I certainly want to do many more BatReps this year, rather than simply churning out minis out couple of days... and hopefully Tweak will return too.

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  5. Another testimonial proof I think, to an excellent set of rules. Wow Simon this was simply FANTASTICAL.. FANTORICAL even, just like your blog name sake.

    Best line in it all was: ""Hershey immediately rushed inside the building, but came to a jarring halt as she put her shoulder to an interior door and ignominiously came off second best...""

    Ouch I felt that, and the shoulder crunch.. Oo Ouchie!!!. Poor girl.

    Stevie will LOVE this AAR when he gets back from his trip.

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    1. Cheers Tarot. I'm delighted you enjoyed this and the write-up - its always hard to mix narrative with rule mechanics in my books!!

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    2. oh absolutely Simon. But you managed it real good :)

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  6. Great stuff...fantastic read!

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    1. Thanks Gordon, and once again for the heads up on the rule-set.

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  7. Great batrep Simon. Alas poor Tweek I knew him well, so close and yet so far

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    1. Cheers Dave. I'm hoping Tweak will be back. He's such a terrific sculpt (and people have been asking me about him on TMP) that it'd be a shame not to see him in the next scenario.

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  8. This is inspiring stuff. Really good read, really well done, and makes me want to get all my own war toys out and start playing games with them (always a good sign when an AAR makes you feel like that). Glad you are finding Ganesha works so well for you, I can tell it does simply by the high standard of your writing approach. Keep it up, and all that.

    "Axe High, Friend Go I"

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    1. Many thanks indeed, Dave. Very much appreciated. Glad you enjoyed this. I have a few BatReps in the making for this year, as I didn't do as many as I had hoped in 2016. The basic "Ganesha Games" rule-set really does seem to suit me down to the ground :-)

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  9. Great report Simon. I have the pdf of this game kicking around I really must get around to reading it !

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    1. Cheers Simon. I'd heartily recommend "M&DRG", especially if you've already got a PDF :-)

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  10. Good read, it had me gripped from the moment the first building was broken into.
    The scenery looks impressive despite my reservations about it when it first came out.

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    1. Thanks Joe, glad you enjoyed the BatRep and that you're warming to the scenery; I bought some more at "Salute"...

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  11. This is simply the best. I`m so chuffed to see M&DRGs being wielded so expertly. Great penmanship too bud.

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    1. Cheers Steve, very much appreciated :-) Hopefully I'll be able to do a "Mutants And Death Ray Guns" BatRep every month or so from now on, as it certainly seems popular.

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  12. I would enjoy that very much indeed, as I`m sure would many others a well.

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    1. Well I certainly have high hopes for the next instalment of my "Judge Dredd" story, as his search for more 2T(FRU)T vaccine takes him out into the Cursed Earth, and he encounters a somewhat mad road warrior ;-)

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    2. OOOOOooooh, does this mean Dredd versus Mad max???

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    3. Possibly a pairing more than a confrontation, a necessary one too as they explore the remains of a seemingly abandoned Skynet facility ;-)

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  13. O poor Tweak. Strange how a virus could affect his alien physiology in the same way it does humans.

    Very fun write up mate.

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    1. Cheers Dai. Much appreciated. I guess no-one is safe from this particular strain of the 2T(FRU)T virus ;-)

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