ATZ Batrep - Lazy Sunday Kids Game

A bunch of little kids carrying torches and pitchforks mobbed my garage this morning and demanded to play ATZ.  What else could I do?  So Nick and all his little hooligan friends decided to play a early epidemic city game with all Rep 3 characters and no weapons.  So off to the Zed chow line we go!

 The lineup:  We had a bunch of kids going in and out of the game today and some just spectated.  I got most of the major players here.

The starting positions.  The kids ran out towards the tanker truck and quickly found Zeds all around them.

As we are all Rep 3, it doesn't take long for the Zeds to become a threat.

The bozo brigade gets their butts in gear in the nick of time with a huge mob of Zeds right on their heals.  There is no room for error here.

Then luck turns their way and they leave the Zeds in the dust.  Once in the clear the boys start sniffing around for keys.  No matter how many times they play this game and get eaten, they simply cannot get away from the allure of vehicles!

Too much standing around and arguing equates to Zeds slowly closing the gap.  Nobody seems worried yet.

C'mon guys, what are you waiting for!?!?

Well, we did it again.  The group gets caught and a couple of Zeds go down along with Dad.  My rolling was awful all morning as you shall soon see.

While Dad is getting whooped, a couple of Cops named Bill and Ted come out of the station to try to start clearing the city of Zeds.  They take a look around and are not feeling so good.

The boys, with Zeds in hot pursuit, decide to scamper up a nearby truck to gain some safety from the Zeds.

This was an error, I should have moved the Zeds to feast on Dad's corpse.  I corrected this after the pic was taken.  On the right, you'll see a new character coming out of the red warehouse.  That is a long legged red head played by Dad.  Also Rep 3 no weapon.  The streets are filling up fast.

Bill and Ted are scared and confused and not sure what to do.  They better decide quick because the Zeds know what they are about!

Nick has the great idea of climbing through the building upper story window to escape.  One problem; there is no ledge on the inside so it will require a risky jump.  Oh yes, and the building has caught fire!  If they decide to enter the building anyway, there will be a risk that it will collapse if another fire event happens.  With three activation die in play, this chance is not so far fetched.

Nick and Caleb decide to risk the building and they make the jump okay.  No new Zds are generated but some existing ones are milling around in there.

The youngest player, Carter, decided that the others are nuts and he decided to strike off alone.  You can see him just squeezing under the rear of the trailer.

Meanwhile, Dad is assaulting  the Zed Sheriff and takes him down and grabs the gun from the holster.  Just what we needed, a crazed red head with a gun!

Back to Nick and Caleb who have managed to find trouble in the warehouse office.  Nick takes down a Zed but Caleb falls.

Dad fires twice at point blank range and misses, and runs out of ammo, then runs off to hide!  Pathetic.

Clever little Carter has squeezed past the building and is off like a shot.  The shambling mob of Zeds is none the wiser.

Caleb has come back as another character and immediately heads for the infamous silver porsche convertible!

Bill and Ted the cops have decided to run back into the station and start taking pot shots from the windows.  They start dropping some Zeds but they are attracting attention fast.

Nick, Carter, and Caleb are all back in the same neighborhood again.

After a random occurrence of having the wrong ammo packed for the gun, Dad is forced to "pop the weasel" on this Zed by melee means.  And he fails!  I'm telling you, my die have been evil today.  Fortunately when the Zed activated and attacked, I managed to down it.

Lots of Zeds and the feasting continues.

Zounds of Zeds are congregating on the police station and Bill and Ted are shooting away at them.

Nick and Carter head off down the street at full tilt while Caleb keeps on trying to hot wire the Porsche.  

The police station has turned into the Alamo and the Zeds are beating on the doors hard now.

It is a good thing that a lot of Zeds are still tied up with feasting.

Nick and Carter are approaching the gun shop!  And there's Caleb far behind.  He finally lost his nerve and decided to catch up.

Yum! Yum!  Brrrraaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiins!!!

Dad has managed to sneak around the back way to the heli pad.  Whats this?  It seems that there are Zeds pounding on the back doors to the police station too!  And the doors just gave way!

Doh!  And the front door just gave way too.  I think Bill and Ted are in trouble..

Yep.  Despite the many Zeds they have dropped this day, Ted goes down in melee.  Bill is still standing but he will soon have Zeds at his back as well.  Dad is at the helicopter now where he finds a pistol.

The Zeds activate first and swarm all over poor Bill and one is coming close to hitting Dad in the back.

Meanwhile the boys have made it into the Gun Shop where they find a couple of Civs.  They talk the talk and manage to get them to join the group.

Back to Dad.  He caps the approaching Zed with his new found pistol and takes off like a rocket.

The feasts are starting to break up.

The boys head upstairs at the gun shop where they cap a Zed and soon after wards find some supplies.  Carter scores a pistol and the others find food and tobacco.  Outside, Dad is still working his way along the perimeter.

The shooting is attracting Zeds which might prove to be an inconvenience to Dad.

Dad decides that all that shooting is unhealthy.  He decides to split while he's ahead.

Soon after, the boys decide to follow suit and come out the back door with guns blazing.

By this time they have attracted a fair number of Zeds and they decide to go.  Here's the rear guard right before the dash off board.

The survivors.  Dad and Caleb went up a Rep, but keep in mind their first characters died.  The two NPC's only joined for this mission but made it off alive.

Overall this was a very tame game by our standards but all in all it was well played by the kids especially when you consider that everyone was Rep 3 with no weapons.  But good play usually means less excitement than boneheaded play.  The kids are really getting this game down when they play well with low reps so I think it is time to set them on a harder path.  I think heading into post apoc is in order!

Some nuttiness followed the game out in the yard today.  I posted the story at THW and I'll copy it here as well.  We got a good laugh out of it.

All the neighborhood kids were here playing ATZ today and after the games the
kids started running around the yard playing "Zombies". It wasn't long before
they decided to play ATZ for real. One kid would run the game and the dice.
One kid would be the survivor and have to reach a certain location. The Zeds
(all the other kids) would be placed after the first move and then activation as
normal. Inches were turned into paces and when a combat needed to be fought
they settled it with boxing gloves until one went down to the ground. A couple
of my Redneck neighbors came out and we just drank beer, laughed, reffed the
matches, and confiscated illegal weapons as they "mysteriously appeared". All
in all it was great fun!
LTL Dad