Family of Blood Cangames 2011 Scenario
This 28mm scale game was a follow on game from the scenario entitled Family Values that can be found in the Doctor Who the Miniatures Game (DWMG) PDF rules supplement entitled "Last of the Time Lords" that was modeled after the TV episode The Family of Blood set in England in 1913. I adapted this scenario to make it a 5 to 6 player game set after the events at the Village Hall in the Family Values scenario. The students and school staff have retreated form the Village Hall back to the safety of the School in preparation for an attack by the Family of Blood and their Scarecrows. I ran this game at Cangames 2011 on May 22nd of that year in Ottawa.NB. It is challenging to reconstruct the events from May 2011 in August 2019 as I was both the GM and photographer at the time which meant I did not have time to take as many pictures as I would have liked, and they are my main tool to reconstruct the events. Plus my camera was much less advanced at the time, as were my photography skills. I have added in some current day staged pictures to show the rosters, and a few from the test game I ran prior to the convention.
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| Overview of the test game prior to convention, May 15th |
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| Combat near the School, test game |
Scenario outline:
Family of Blood: Attack on the School: England
1913.
A continuation of the “Family Values” scenario found
in the DWMG PDF Last of the Time Lords.
The Family of Blood need the life force of
a Time Lord to prevent themselves from dying out, and to do this they need to capture the Doctor. However the Doctor has transferred his time Lord Configuration to a fob watch. The Fob Watch has fallen into the hands of Timothy
Latimer a young school boy with psychic abilities. The Family needs this pocket watch in order to gain the powers of a
Time Lord to sustain their lives and they have cornered the Doctor (disguised
as a school teacher John Smith) in his school along with the students and members
of staff including Joan Redfern and the Head Master.
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| Prequel: The Head Master fleeing from the Village Hall chased by a Scarecrow |
The Forces:
Heroic: Doctor, Martha and the School Staff:
Group 1:
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| Group 1: John
Smith ( Doctor), Martha Jones (maid), Joan Redfern (nurse) + 8 junior boys armed with rifles |
Groups 2:
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| Group 2: Headmaster + 8 senior boys armed with rifles and grenades |
Group 3:
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| Group 3: Vickers MG, Porter with rifle and Timothy Latimer |
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| Vickers Machine gun that will be used next time |
Heroic Figures Made by:
Black Tree Design, Gripping Beast and Wiz Kids. The Vickers MG used in the game was a W.W.I version by Wargames Foundry. I could not find a Vickers MG crewed by School boys (Gripping Beast did not make one) but subsequently I found one by Footstore miniatures from their Very British Civil War range that I will use next time.Monsters: Family of Blood and the Scarecrows
Group 1 |
| Group 1: Son and 8 Scarecrows |
Groups 2
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| Group 2: Mother and 8 Scarecrows |
Group 3
Independent and reinforcements:
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| Group 3: Father and Scarecrows |
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| Daughter and Scarecrow reinforcements. |
Monster Figures Made by:
Family of Blood by Gripping beast. Scarecrow figures by: Gripping Beast, RAFM, Crooked Dice, West Wind Vampire Wars, Reaper and WizKids)
Table and Terrain
Dimensions 48” x 72”, with school
building, Inn, 2 cottages, road, wall, gates, woods, fields. The School building is a Large Gothic Building Plastic kit made by Pegasus and I scratch built the roof for it.
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| Pegasus Gothic Building / School under construction. |
Set-up
Heroic side in the
school buildings except for the Doctor, Martha and Joan who are 4” away from
the main door and the School porter is on watch in the tower. Timothy stars at the side of the school 4” away from any window
which he may climb in. All the other
students are on the upper floor of the school asleep.
The monster player may
set up his forces anywhere he likes proved they are 30” away from the
school. The Daughter may
be placed no closer than 6” from the school, uses infiltrator rule.
The TARDIS is hidden
and its location is only known to Martha, but the Family of Blood may search
for it.
Timothy begins the
game with John Smith’s pocket watch in his possession. He cannot normally be moved closer than 4” to
the Doctor or Martha (but see later).
When Timothy is activated roll 1D6 if he carries the watch. On the roll of 1-2 the monster player can
expend Timothy’s activation to move Timothy up to 6” in any direction. This represents his mental confusion from the
empathic connection with the Doctor’s stored consciousness.
Timothy’s psychic ability can be used to re-roll this
die. If the re-roll brings Timothy back
to heroic control he can be moved into base contact with either John or Martha
if they are close enough. He can then
hand them the watch.
Appearing as a normal pocket watch with
detailed engraving on its outer casing, this watch holds the consciousness of
the Doctor while he is human. With a
perception filter on the watch, it does not seem remarkable at all to John
Smith, who barely gives it a passing thought.
To open it, a special action must be spent by the model whose
consciousness is held in the watch. A
Morale test at –1 penalty must be passed as the new personality will rewrite
the current one – a kind of death, in effect.
If the test is passed from next turn you can use the model’s original
profile. As soon as the Doctor is back in play, you can also use Martha’s
original profile.
Scarecrows have the following special abilities:
Invulnerable (2) against firearms so all firearm strength tests
are at a -2 to convert hits
Controlled: must be within 6” of a member of the Family of
Blood to move or fight. They do not get a card but rather are activated by a
Family of Blood leader.
Cause Fear = morale check to all humans within 6”
Made of straw = can save any damage from hits if they can
exceed the strength of the weapon on a D6.
Fire works on them as it does on regular targets hit by grenades.
Scarecrow
reinforcements:
For scarecrow reinforcements to arrive, the
monster player must, using a D6, roll equal or below the number of scare crows
that are currently in the reinforcement pool (i.e. eliminated scarecrows). The
die roll gives the number of reinforcements that may arrive. The reinforcements arrive in any field that is
at least 12” away form any heroic figure.
The Monster player may only successfully roll for reinforcements 3
times.
Infiltration
The Family of Blood
may use the infiltration rule but against Martha, Mr. Smith, Nurse Redfern and
Timothy it is at a -3 to the score on the intelligence test to reflect the fact
that their identities were revealed at the Dance. Daughter of mine gets a +1 to her ability
against everyone other than Martha, Mr. Smith, Nurse Redfern and Timothy.
Searching the School
The interior of the
school building can be searched by the Monster player to find the watch
provided at least one member of the Family of Blood is inside the School. To search the Monster players rolls 2D6 the
heroic player 1D6. Subtract the Heroic
die roll from the Monster die roll and when the total is 20 the boy (Timothy)
and the watch is found unless he has left the building. If Timothy is controlled by the Monster
player he does not get to roll. The only
way Timothy can leave the school once a Monster player is inside is to roll a 5
or 6 on his search roll. N.B. A
floor plan of the school will be used for combat.
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| The School, with Templates behind it to represent the interior rooms |
End of Game
The game ends when all
Family members are killed or captured or once the heroic side are all killed,
captured or the Doctor and Martha escape in the TARDIS or turn 20 arrives.
The Monster players
all die by the end of turn 20 as their life energy will be gone without the
energy of the Time Lord.
Victory Points:
Monster side:
- Capture the Watch with the Doctor’s genetic pattern or the Doctor = 50 points
- Capture Mr. Smith = 10 points
- Capture the Doctor’s TARDIS = 10 points
- Capture Martha = 10 points
- Capture Joan Redfern = 10 Points
- Kill Martha = 5 points
- Kill Joan Redfern = 5 points
- Kill or capture any of the heroic figures = 1 point
Heroic Side:
- Retain Control of the Fob Watch with the Doctors genetic pattern = 40 points
- Retain Control of the TARDIS = 10 points
- Ensure that Mr. Smith or the Doctor is not captured or killed = 10 points
- Ensure Martha is not captured or killed = 10 points
- Ensure Joan Redfern is not captured or killed = 5 points
- Kill or Capture a member of the Family of Blood = 10 points each
- Kill a scarecrow = 1 point
Win by 1 to 5 points = marginal victor
Win by 6 to 10 points = minor victory
Win by more than 10 points = major victory
Win by more than 25 points decisive victory
The Game:
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| The School on the eve of the attack, only the Porter stands watch |
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| John Smith, Martha and Joan retreat into the School to make ready for the battle. |
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| Daughter acts as a scout as Mother leads a group of scarecrows towards the school |
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| Scarecrows advance |
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| Defenders make ready in the school courtyard |
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| Daughter om Mine is not seen as an enemy and she safely advances. |
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| School boys fan out to defend the courtyard. |
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| Joan hopes her first aid skills will not be called on too often. |
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| Scarecrows pass one of the houses near the school searching for the TARDIS. |
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| Schools defenders deployed in the courtyard |
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| Defenders redeploy |
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| Left to right: Timothy, Martha, Doctor in his true form, and School boys some of whom have fallen already. |
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| Overview of the battle |
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| Son on mine dressed as school boy leads a group of scarecrows past the Inn |
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| School boys open fire on the scarecrows. |
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| Father's group searches for the TARDIS |
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| Scarecrows break into the courtyard, defenders fall back |
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| Fighting in the Courtyard |
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| Doctor looks on as School Boys try to repel the Scarecrows |
The Scarecrows break into the School and the defenders finally realize the Daughter is working for the enemy and she is gunned down. But Joan, the Doctoar and Martha are in danger of being captured.
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| The battle moves inside as the Scarecrows break in. |
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| Martha and John Smith (10th Doctor) |
At the climax of the game the Doctor and Martha make a break for it towards the woods and managed to reach the TARDIS and safety. Unfortunately the GM was too busy to take a pictures of for most of the final turn of the game, but here is as a staged version of the final sequence taken in August 2019. (Doctor was repainted some years after the game).
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| 10th Doctor + Martha out of disguise by the TARDIS |
Conclusion
It was a close fought battle culminating in a last turn victory by the Doctor making a daring escape. This sort of exciting cliff hanger type ending often happens with the DWMG rules, and all 6 players enjoyed (3 men, 3 women) the game. I would certainly run this game again. It also makes a good Halloween game, a version of which I ran in 2008. I would also like to run the prequel Family Values scenario in the future.
We also had some Star Wars themed visitors towards the end of the game.
Below are some pictures of a different version of the school borrowed from a friend that I used in one of the earlier test games in early in June of 2009. Also features Micro Universe figures and Foundry W.W.I British infantry.
1 comment:
Fab!
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