Monday, February 03, 2025

Mission: Danger Zone!

Here's another untested and probably insanely unbalanced Stargrave scenario.

DANGER ZONE!



Sector Periculosum is a terrible place. Some say it's full of toxins from the Last War. Some say it's been reclaimed by a hostile biosphere. Some even say it's haunted by vengeful ghosts. Almost no one comes back from their alive. But those that do come back, come back rich.

SET-UP

Divide the table into 16 equal parts, making sure that the boundaries between each section are clear to all players. Each section should be numbered, although not necessarily on the table itself; a diagram is fine, as long as all players can see it.

Place terrain and select board edges as normal. There is no central loot token in this scenario, but each player should place three loot tokens, generating the third token's type as normal. You should try to avoid putting loot tokens on section boundaries.

There is no Target Point for this scenario.

SPECIAL RULES

Danger! Each turn after the first, before rolling for initiative, roll 1d20; the number rolled is the table section that will become a Danger Zone at the end of this turn, after the Creature Phase. Rolls of 17-20, or that correspond to a section that is already a Danger Zone, have no effect.
At the end of the current turn, that section becomes inaccessible for the rest of the game and all figures within it are treated as being killed. Loot tokens in that section are destroyed.
If a figure is on the boundary between a Danger Zone and a safe section use common sense; if over half of the model is in a safe area then they are safe. If in any doubt, roll a dice to decide.
Danger Zones ignore terrain; being inside a building is no safer than being in the open!
Figures can be pushed, teleported, or otherwise manipulated into Danger Zones.
Abilities or effects that protect a figure from being killed work against Danger Zones. In these cases, move the figure to the nearest safe edge, rolling for a random edge if there is any doubt.
Danger Zones do not block line of sight and can be travelled through by means of teleportation or similar abilities, but cannot be flown or jumped over (usually; see Option 1, below).

Option 1 - Role-playing? For the sake of simplicity the Danger Zones are just big killer squares of generic sci-fi death, but you may decide that they are flooded with water, in which case they are treated like normal areas of water, after the initial fatal flooding. Or they are filled with thick gas, in which case they cannot be seen through. Or they are clouds of murderous nanotech, blocking line of sight and flight. Whatever you decide, make sure all players agree to any exceptions before you start.

LOOT AND EXPERIENCE

Loot and experience are scored as normal, with the following additions:
+10xp whenever a crew member starts a turn in an imminent Danger Zone and escapes (up to 30xp).
+10xp whenever a crew member extracts a loot token from an imminent Danger Zone (up to 30xp).
+10xp whenever a crew member is killed by a Danger Zone (up to 30xp).
Experience awards stack, for example if a crew member escapes a Danger Zone with a loot token.

5 comments:

  1. Well now that I have that song stuck in my head, walking into a cloud of toxic gas or nanotech swarm that will break me into my constituent molecules doesn't sound so bad.

    This is a very nifty scenario, though. I'd kind of like to add a bit where there's a way to find what causes whatever the particular instant death is, and give both sides a chance to either take control of it (giving them a big edge in grabbing the remaining loot), or be destroyed, mummy's curse style.

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    1. That's not a bad idea at all. I may try adding that in. Thanks!

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  2. Stargrave has been calling out to me just to explore the galaxy where it's set. Any recommendations for where to get an overview...?

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    1. Hmmm... I'll look into it. I don't think there's a "quickstart" as the rulebook is fairly cheap and you can play it with a d20 and any models you have around.

      As far as setting goes, it's very vague. There was a Last War, and that's left loot to be found by scavenger crews. That's about it! There are a few supplements that may flesh out the setting more, but I haven't read them.

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    2. Huh...well that is pretty vague I guess. Thanks for the summary! I'll let you know if I do come across anything that has a nice galaxy primer...!

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