Sunday 27 April 2014

Conpulsion 2014 & New Products!

This weekend Project Zeke was bringing the zeds to this year's Conpulsion event at Edinburgh University's Teviot (the oldest students union in the world apparently).

All weekend I have been promoting and running demo games of All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out for willing conventioners and shamelessly showcasing my wares in the process. I also took the opportunity to road test some soon-to-be-released PZM terrain items that we'll look at in a moment.

First of all, here's a look at the demo board. The board, road sections and non-card scatter scenery were built and painted by my own fair hand. The cardstock terrain is a mixture of ModernPaperWorld, Germy and Warm Acre products:

The set-up


The night club...all quiet now


The grass is always greener...

The set-up was simple: Get our Rep 5 survivors across the board from behind the nightclub (top right corner), nailing zombies as they appear and make it into the gun shop (bottom left building), where they will be greeted by a shotgun-wielding ganger.

It's hard to tell in the top picture but the entire starting area is enclosed by high fences that are 10(ish) inches from the starting corner. This allowed players to experience basic movement and Fast Moves before the zeds were generated and then Challenges (to scale the fence) as soon as they began the game proper.

By the time the players' characters met their first zeds, they already knew how to activate, move, do challenges and generate zombies, leaving them to try shooting and/or melee. After that it was free play until they reached the gun shop.

Another challenge to unlock the door to the gun shop and players were introduced to the In Sight Test and the Reaction System as they met Eddie inside.


"Knock, knock?"

"Who's there?"

This day just keeps getting worse


All in all each game lasted 10-15 minutues, which was ideal for the purposes of showing players the basic rules and ethos of ATZ and having a little post-game chat whilst not holding them up for too long from the rest of the convention.

In the time between demos I otherwise "occupied" myself...










Okay, so thankfully nobody had to tackle a horde like that but the games were very well received and I thoroughly enjoyed spreading the infection. Anyway, you can't go wrong spending a weekend with friends and making a few new ones.

I also held a prize draw for everyone who took part in a demo game and Ed from Two Hour Wargames was incredibly kind in providing a copy of the ATZ rulebook for the winner. A massive "well done" to our winner: Paul.

Now onto something exclusive. Some of you may have noticed various items of set-dressing on the board above. I can now announce that in the next week or two Project Zeke Miniatures will be releasing its first range of resin-cast scenic products:



Pictured above is the Rusty Carcass car wreck piece, usable in any environment from a corn field to a junkyard. The wreck will be sold as a single piece and will be accompanied by a handy painting guide here on the blog.




Lastly, we have the Urban Detritus Pack, which includes four rubbish bags of varying sizes and a grubby mattress, ideal for dressing up your alleyways etc.

More scenic products to follow very soon.


24 comments:

  1. To get to play games is a day not wasted. And it looks great. Nice shots with all the zeds!

    Looking forward to getting my hands on some of those wrecks, they look good from the pictures.

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    1. Thanks, Johnny. I'll be gettingastock casts done asap and will update when they are released, along with a weathering tutorial.

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    2. How much will they be and will you be doing different wrecks?

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    3. I haven't finalised the prices yet but will post soon.

      Yes, I will be doing some different wrecks, such as a van and maybe a hatchback or station wagon.

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  2. What a great idea for a con game!
    What were the dimensions of the gaming board? I keep not-playing a zombie game as I keep thinking my space is too limited, but this seems quite decent.

    Also, two thumbs up for survivors, that Eddie with backpack is fantastic!

    Nice to see scatter terrain, too - Combat zone inspired? :3

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    1. Cheers, Mathyoo. The board is 2'×3' (ATZ recommended standard is 3'×3') but it is actually one half of my completer board.

      I don't know Combat Zone I'm afraid. The scenic bits are loosely inspired by Fallout and The Last of Us.

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  3. Sounds like it was great day was had by all! Wrecks and detritus are all looking like good additions to the store as well.

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    1. Thanks, mate. FYI, I saw a really nice Across the Dead Earth table online yesterday and thought of you. The wrecks in particular really suit that system, I think.

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  4. What a great way to introduce new players to the wonderful world of ATZ-FFO. Nice set up. I certainly didn't recognise the wrecked cars but I'm very glad to see you releasing them as resin cast models. I want them! Your urban detritus pack is another must have.

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    1. Thank you, Bryan. It was a good time. I'm glad you like the scenic bits. They were sort of born out of necessity as I didn't think I'd have my sculpts done in good time and didn't want the range to stagnate (but as it turns out the models are away at the caster now...woop).

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  5. I have only just heard about this convention in Edinburgh - what a shame to have missed it! Happily it was my birthday so at least I can hide behind that excuse ;) Well done on your demo games, I love ATZ. Very interested in your resin pieces, chief, I will keep watching..

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    1. Happy birthday! Good to know there are more ATZ players locally. IIRC the con has only included tabletop games for the last couple of years so word hasn't travelled as well in those circles. I'll definitely aim to be there next year though.

      In the meantime, keep an eye on our Facebook page for local events as I'll try to involve myself in as many as I can. I'm also hosting a charity campaign (Safe House 2014) that you can find info on here or on FB should you wish to get involved.

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    2. Apologies, I missed the link. Here you go: https://www.justgiving.com/Safehouse/

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  6. I tend to forget just how good card terrain can be these days. The whole board looks good. You might finally inspire me to get of my fat lazy bum and make a zombie/post apocalypse board.

    Only just stumbled across your Blog (blame Brummie as was on his blog roll). Now joined.

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    1. Welcome, mate. I do like these free downloads but I cant recommend Carl Stoelzel's stuff enough either. The man's a cardstock messiah.

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    2. Yes I know Bryan (Vampifan) swears by them.

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  7. Board looks great and I LOVE the waste sacks, very cool indeed! Fancy running a game in Wales later this year at SCARdiff?

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    1. I had actually intended to come down regardless but sadly cannot as I begin my nursing training in September so will be pretty bogged down with work.

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  8. Looks good, it's apity you were at the other end of the UK

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    1. Too true. I'm sewing the zomb-apoc seeds up here though.

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  9. I love the detritus set. Those would make a great addition any urban board. The car wrecks are good looking also, and could be used in a wide variety of areas, from streets to wilds. Cool stuff!

    Great idea for a quick hook game. Quick, shows the different aspects and hopefully grabs some attention. Well done!

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    1. Thanks, dude. The scenic bits will be up on the website next week along with some more photos.

      The games all actually played out about the same (the sign of a successfully designed demo I hope) with each player facing he same challenges etc. There were one or two instances where the zeds failed to activate until the players were out of range but overall everyone got a fair shake at the rules.

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