Once More Into The Passing Lane

KGS will be meeting again tonight to resume our adventures on the Atomic Highway. Stay tuned for summary of tonight's events.

Gaming Aide #1b - Tabbing Atomic Highway

As a promised, following up my post Gaming Aide #1this post, Gaming Aide #1b, is my second in a line telling everyone where I've put my tabs in some of my most used game books.

Atomic Highway has taken roleplaying in the post apocalyptic age to a new high. The V6 engine gives you easy mechanic with a system that drives you to being focused on having fun. For many of us in KGS this has become the standard on what a good fun game should be like. For myself this is my preferred game to run for game days at the store. In a 4 hour demo I usually have everyone make characters and for the rest of the 3 hours and 45 min they have plenty of time for an action packed adventure. The V6 engine lends itself to entertaining seasoned players while not overwhelming new players with a bunch of rules and confusing mombo jumbo.

If any book doesn't need to be tabbed it would be this one! Atomic Highway is only 129 pages and if you use it a few time you find yourself opening the book right to the right page without trying. Still I think you'll find that the few pages that I have tabbed will speed up your game.

Like I said in #1a , one thing to keep in mind about my list is that my books are tabbed for my use as a referee not a player. Here and there you'll find me marking a page for my players but not to often. So as a player in a Atomic Highway game you'll want most of these same tabs along with the tabs for any other thing that you end up using all the time.

What you'll find below is what page to put the tab on and what I wrote on my tab

Atomic Highway referee tabbing:

pg 19 - Character Creation

pg 23 - using exp

pg 47 - Weapons

pg 51 - Vehicle Customazation

pg 55 - Scavenging

pg 65 - Actions

pg 75 - Healing

pg 81 - Vehicle Combat

pg 101 - NPC's

pg 121 - Creatures

Yeah, I know its not very many pages but that's one of the things that makes us love Atomic Highway, it all you need.

Atomic Highway @ Open RPG Day 3/12/2011, Comic Store West

For my afternoon session at the Open RPG Day March 12th, 2011 at Comic Store West's morning session, I ran one of my favorite games, Atomic Highway!


Three players from the last Open RPG day came back and 3 new ones joined them on and adventure named Milk Run.


Spoiler alert! I'm going to write this adventure up and post it on our sit for Game Master to use. So if you might be playing in it you don't want to read it!! But let your GM's know its out here for them, thanks!


Milk Run
Boss man Billy G, owner of BG's Raceway and the town of Chappell called the group up to have a chat with him. he's got 2 of his favorite drivers, hurt in the last race, that he wants taken to the monks of Comfort In Gods Arms right off old exit 177, just south of New Platte. Along with the 2 drivers he wanted them to haul six 55 gallon barrels of milk. They would give it to the monks and the monks would give them back a bunch of tech stuff. When they ask the boss why they wanted milk he said he didn't know but they did good trading so it didn't matter to him. He also gave them a truck to haul the milk in and told the group that his drivers, the milk and the truck were worth more to him then the whole group put together, so don't let anything happen to them!

The game then opened into the middle of a road combat. It ended in the players destroying 3 raiders and their Road Warrior flipping his Mustang and all but dead as the Police of Big City, pre-death Ogallala, drove up and checked out the situation. The policeman then sent them on their way.

At exit 177 they found the Comfort Inn that had had the last 'n' knocked off and huge metal letters hanging below that said Gods Arms and front of the building was a Pre-Dark War Memorial or 3 soldiers and a huge metal plate with a large pyre burning on it. The monks met the party in the parking lot and took the Road Warrior and other 2 injured while other monks came with dollys to claim the barrels of milk. The Monks then told them that they did not have the high tech items for them today but tomorrow the truck would come with the shipment and they could have the tech items and their healed wounded back. They were welcome to stay in the parking lot over night but they were asked to please stay in their vehicles. When asked why they wanted milk one of the head monks ran back into their building and returned with several pre-death magz and showed them pictures of people with milk mustaches. Then he pushed back his own cowl and smiling big, with a white upper lip he said "Got Milk? Milk does a body good!" Being very pleased that someone was interested they went about their own business.

In the middle of the night the group was awoken to chanting. They saw 11 monks carrying 3 blooded white sheets wrapped around body shape figures. Thinking they saw one of them move the party quickly ran over and demanded that the monks put down what they were carrying. The monks assured them that all was as if should be and that they were to return to the cars. The monks didn't stop and the players opened fire on them. As one went down to a players flame thrower the monks begged the party to allow them to do what MUST be done. After several monks had been killed the rest dropped the bed sheets and ran into the Inn locking themselves inside. While inside the sacks they found 2 bodies they could not identify and their road warrior who was drugged and groggy.

From the Inn speakers boomed and the monks said that they have not yet harmed the group and they must be allowed to complete the ritual. When they asked why they had tried to sacrifice their road warrior the monks replied that he was he was to far gone to waste the gods healing upon. The player they took the dead monks and the two dead and placed them in the pier and returned to their cars. Volvo, the one played stayed and help the monks when they came out and finished their ritual. This involved letting the bodies burn and then using shovels to scoop out the remains and pile them by the edge of the small nearby lake. Before returning to the Inn they told Volvo that since he showed interest and had not harmed anyone if he wished he could join them to become an initiate of the monks order and they would expect an answer in the morning.

The next morning the party was taken in to see their friend and then two wounded road-warriors from Chappell. Inside the Inn they were amazed by the amount of high-tech items they saw and they were pretty sure that what they were seeing was more advanced then any pre-death stuff they'd ever seen.

Volvo's stayed to start his initiation while the rest fo the group drove north up 83 to visit the huge trading post they had seen on the other side of the interchange. The pre-death building was shaped like a old wooden fort with machine gun emplacements along the walls and in the towers. They were met our front by a man dressed in a loin clothe and huge feathered head dress who invited them in to trade.

After shopping (funny a one off game and the players still want to go shopping for gear! =) ) and as they were leaving they felt the ground vibrate and the feeling grew stronger and stronger when from the north a well kept Semi with blackened windows and pulling a short box drove by. It made no noise at all and if it wasn't for the ground vibrating they'd might not have noticed it. Sure that was the truck with the tech they headed back to the inn.

At the Inn Volvo had been given his initial classes and given holy milk to join him with the monkhood as an initiate. When the truck arrived he was put to work emptying out crates of tech items and then filling the truck with 55 gallon drums of milk. When it was completed he noticed the leader of the monks walk up to the tractor of the semi and from it climbed down a small grey skinned mutant with skinny arms and legs and big almond shaped eyes. After the two of them spoke the mutant climbed back into the truck and it departed.

The party return and had their tech and wounded, now fastly healing, put on their vehicles and wished a safe trip. Volvo was told to return to finish his initiate period and released back to his friends who found that his upper lip was stained a permanent white.

Several of the group wanted to follow the truck back to where ever it came from but the wiser prevailed and the group returned to Chappell to give the Boss his tech and his, now healed, drivers.

Back at Chappell the boss filled thanked them and filled all their tanks and supplied them with ammo. The game ended with Billy G. promising some party members a motorcycle and a battle car if they drove for him, and won, in the up coming race.

Of course they accepted and you can expect that next Open RPG day's Atomic Highway game will start at B.G Raceway!

I can't say enough about this system. Atomic Highway is great for high-action quick play games and it lends itself to role-play events like Comic Store Wests Open RPG days. Nothing tells you that people enjoyed it more then when someone buys their own copy after playing...so far I've sold 3 copies!

You guys that played ~ Thanks for playing, see you next time!

KGS Podcast - Episode 00001 - Atomic Highway Review

Review of Atomic Highway Role Playing Game

KEYSTONE GAMING SOCIETY REVIEW
GAME:	Atomic Highway
PUBLISHER:	Radioactive Ape Designs
WEBSITE:	http://www.radioactiveapedesigns.com/
PRICE:	$29.99
THE RATINGS:
SCOTT:
OLD BRIAN:
YOUNG BRYAN:
DAVE:
SAM:

D'OH! Retraction Time! We Messed Up!

Sorry Radioactive Ape Designs! In our podcast for Atomic Highway we (Sam and I) unfairly criticized the game because of the fumbling rules. Well, as Colin from Radioactive Ape Designs so kindly and gently pointed out, we got the rules wrong! More dice do NOT increase your chances of a fumble. So I humbly apologize for the error. If I could go back in time I would rate Atomic Highway a FIVE not a FOUR like I originally gave it. But in my defense I'd like to say that it was SAM who read the rules and taught me how to play.

Colin, thanks for checking us out and listening to our podcast. We really do love Atomic Highway. Sam has run it for a few different groups now and is planning to run it in our upcoming RPG day at Comic Store West on March 12th.

NEW - Atomic Highway Expansion

Atomic Highway

Twisted Armageddon

Great news! Looks like we're going to get a source book for one of our favorite games.

From the mouth of the designer himself:

"No, no magic, I'm afraid. Aliens, cybernetics, zombies, killer robots, retro-future and alien tech in this sucker. ~ Colin"

Great idea Colin and great cover art too! I'm sold! Where do I direct my PayPal payment to?

So I guess we'll all be watching Radioactive Ape Designs (http://radioactiveapedesigns.com/) for more about the new release.

Atomic Highway RPG Open Game - 10/23

Comic Store West will be hosting a RPG day on October 23 to celebrate the release of GAMMA WORLD. The Keystone Gaming Society will be holding a gaming session of ATOMIC HIGHWAY on this day. Sign-up at the store today before all of the available spots fill up.

Atomic Highway 5 to the end

Heading down the highways they had to take a off-ramp to keep following the road to the Race Strip. There they ran into a group of raider that they had it out with. It ended with Roach jumping from the hood of the Hauler onto Gorbo's Gunny-Car as the Hauler veered off the highway and exploded in a ball of flame. This was after Roach had killed its crew with repetitive shotgun blasts through the window slits.

Billy J Syths race strip was a paved runway back before the big death. Now for 5 gallons of gas a car load of anybody can come in to watch the race. The old air strip now has 10 foot high metal plating 8 feet off each side of pavement for the length of the strip. Above both side of that a scaffolding holds rows and rows of bleachers with Syths own viewing stand above and centered on the north side of the track. Any driver can put his vehicle into the pool to be called to race. Racing involves both cars facing off and flying down the airstrip at each other with guns blazing. At anytime a driver can give up and drive out of one of the ends of the strip but then he lost. what do you get? Nothing. what do you get if you win? Usually nothing, unless you kill the other drivers crew then you get salvage rights on his vehicle. So why would people race for nothing? Thats were Mr Syths's real money maker comes in. Gambling.

Any salvaged items you want are collected and given a value. Their then traded in for chits that can be used to bet on the races with. Winning are then claimed from collected salvages. Trading in their salvage Rambler and Hank started placing bets on the races. After a short time Rambler had won over and over and found himself with a load of chits while Hank found himself over his head in dept to the track. Telling the Sec men he owned a car they put him and Gunny car into the pool of drivers.

Rambler found himself taken up to the private booth of Mr Sythe, the man he was sent to look for. Talking for a short time Billy Sythe seemed to like Rambler. It was that Rambler saw Hank and Gunnycar being taken out to the track as the announcer said that he was driving to pay off dept to the track. Rambler then convinced Billy Sythe that Hank was to good a battlecar warrior for a regular race. Billy Sythe called of the race and put Hank back into the pool to run during the mixed class.

Rambler then told Billy what had happened in Big Springs and how Solar Tower 3 had sprung a leak and that the city wanted more molten salt to resupply the tower. Billy said that north west of New Platte there a storage area that had a tank of molten salt from before the Big Death. They would have to find it, heat the tank up so it becomes liquid and get a transport to get it out of town, and no they wouldn't get any help from him. But the information was free.

Roach then striped Jesus's car, Lady, for part for Gunnycar. Loading it out with an extra machine gun a grenade launcher and ram and solid tires they were done in time for their race. The mixed class put Gunnycar up against a huge armored pickup with a heavy machine gun in the back bed.

As the match went on Hank was able to get the upper hand by tear gassing the rear gunner. The race ended with Gunnycar all but destroyed and the pickup a smoldering hulk. Talking their winnings the group then paid to get both cars fixed up.

They then drove north to Chappell and spend the night in the walled city that made its money from selling fuel. The next morning they saw a tanker truck leave town escorted by a armored pickup and 4 battlecars. The party talked about attacking the convoy to get the truck and then decided that it be easier to get jobs as battlecar escorts and then they would only have the pickup and 2 battle cars to deal with.

Finding the convoy boss they asked for a job and were told they have to interview with the big boss first. Going in the towns tavern they were taken upstairs and into a large office with lots of Sec men around. Behind the desk was Billy G Ray Sythe who knew immediately what they were up to. he told them to get the hell out of their town and if he ever found them causing him any problems he would have them maimed and left for raiders along I80. As they were being escorted out of the room he told Rambler to stay. He poured Rambler a drink and told him that he'd have tried the same think in his youth. Laughing and talking for awhile he them left him go.

Heading east to New Platte they didn't find any real problems. At one rest stop they came across some nomads who they traded for a big cowboy hat for Gorbo and a huge #8 NASCAR belt buckle for Rambler.

At the exit to New Platte they found allot of activity. One quarter of the exit seemed to be a lite up memorial in front of a Inn turned into a church hospital. Heading North off the exit they passed a huge wooded fortress with the words Trading Post across it. Entering the ruined city Rambler noticed gang symbols right before they were forced stop when they noticed mines in the street in front of them. They then were shot at from a hotel to their right and from the second story of an office building to their left. With Gunnycar being shot Gorbo got out and ran at the hotel room with his hammer as Ramblertook the drivers seat of Gunnycar. Gorbo broke into the hotel room and started hammering on raiders as Rambler opened fire on the side of the hotel somehow missing Grobo and killing the raiders that gorbo hadn't gotten to.

Hank and Roach killed several of the raiders in the office building and they last one disappeared into the building. From behind the building there was a roar of engine and a Humvee took off across the parking lot. Behind them Rambler followed once Gorbo got into the car. Roach gave chase and as they got near he told hank to take the wheel as he climbed out the window and jumped onto the Humvee. The Humvee then sideswiped Lady making Hank loose control of her and crashing nose first into a ditch. Rambler continued to give chase until Gunnycar ran out of gas. Gorbo quickly got out and continued to chase the Humvee on foot. Hank climbing out of Lady finding himself surrounded by ganger's of another gang.

On the Humvee the driver made a sharp turn as he came to the barrier at the edge of his gang territory. Hanging on Roach shattered the windshield and then reached in and yanked the steering wheel as hard as he could sending the Humvee up and over the barricade in a flying barrel roll. Waking up Roach found himself, Gorbo and Hank all tied to crosses surrounded by 20 flesh loving cannibals.

Rambler found himself surrounded with ganger's and dropped a grenade out his window. Using one of his points, he found that his car hadn't ran out of gas and the grenade explosion was enough to restart the car. Rambler then took off to follow the trail of the cannibals.

Rambler managed to find the clearing and his friends tied up. Reeving up his engine Rambler flew into he middle of the clearing opening up with the cars weapons while running over others. At the same time the tied up member managed to break loose and join the fight. left with only the leader who had a gun to Hanks head there was a shot fired from outside the clearing and the leader slumped to the group with a bullet through his brain. In the distance, on a horse was a bearded man who introduced himself as Buffalo Bill.

Buffalo Bill lead them back to his ranch that was just across the rail lines to the North. The Cody ranch was nice and they starting point from where the Codys were bringing order to Norther Platte.

Over dinner the group told what their plans were and the next day Buffalo Bill had his men take the group to the tower of molten salt and took them o get a hauler with a tanker trailer. Roach then started the heaters on the storage tower. The group noticed that there was a rail line behind the storage area and lines that connected large special tanker train car to the salt storage tower. Gorbo then, while no one was around, hooked up the tank to the tanker trailer and started to transfer molten salt into the tanker. Roach was able to turn off the flow when he noticed that the molten salt was melting the tanker trailer.

The group then decided to get a diesel engine from the rail yards. They also hooked up a car transport train car for Gunnycar and a flatbed train car for the hauler. After some talk about getting a caboose the idea was forgotten and the group headed to Big Springs.

The train consisted of the engine with Rambler and Hank driving, then the car carrier with Gorbo in Gunnycar. The molten salt car and then flatbed with the hauler tractor and Roach on it. On the rails some raiders along route 30 decided to try to attack the train. As the 3 raiders vehicles caught up to the train Roach started shooting at them aiming for their tires managing to shoot out 2 of the pickups tires it gave up the chase. Hank sped up the train getting up to about 70mph. As the cars passed the train Gorbo jumped onto the lead car. As he fought for his footing the car passed the engine and the passenger started shooting out at the trains fuel tanks from across the roof of the car. Rambler shot the passenger and the shot the driver sending the car out of control. The car severed onto the tracks in front of the train. Hank gave the train more speed as it collided with the car smashing it to pieces. As the car crumbled Gorbo jumped from the top of the car onto the speeding train. At the same time Roach made a called shot on the driver of the last raider killing him. The last raider car careened off the road and under roaches flat bed train car. As the train cars rear wheels drove over the wreckage of the battle car Roach spent adventure points to make sure that the train cars rear wheels landed right back onto the tracks safely.

Back at Big Springs the group was hailed as hero's and paid well for their adventure.

This is where we stopped playing Atomic Highway.

Sam

Atomic Highway Session 4b

4b because once the party got back to town and sold the scavenged bitz they wanted to sell I started my adventure.

The party went to see one of the consul members as the weird woman told them to. He was a little taken aback that they came to him when he was just going to seek them out but he told them his problem. Most the people of Big Springs work on Solar Tower 3 or work protecting it. Solar Tower 3 was made right before the Big Death to subsidize the power from the local dam North of Big City, what use to be called Ogallala. Last week one of the feed lines on Solar Tower 3 cracked, and about 6000 gallons of molten salt poured bout before they could get the system shut down. Lucky for the town, buried deep under the Tower complex is a holding tank that was about full when the Big Death hit. The latest spill has drained most of the remaining surplus of molten salt.

The guy named Billy Syth has said he knew where a old storage vat of Molten salt is and the town needs the party to go talk to him and bring back a load of molten salt for the tower. Tomorrow night is race night at the strip, Billy will be there. The party just needed to follow old Interstate 80 West about 40 minutes till they see the race.

going to a race the party decided that they'd be best to take both their battle car. Knowing the Jesus Billy Throttle would never allow his Lady to go without him they stole it with plans of returning it unharmed.

Coming up on the overpass for Rd 203 they could see that under the bridge the East bound lane was filled with burned out wreckage from the Big Death times. 203's overpass had junk piled high over the side of its concrete. Coming at the Bridge at about 65mph Rambler and Book, in front with Lady, noticed a raider with a machine gun right as he opened into them from the bridge above. Surprised, Book lost control of the car and went into a spin as he slid under the overpass. Regaining control (he rolled something like 6 successes!!) he stopped his spin with 4 startled raiders in his gun sight. Lady's machine gun took out 3 of them as Rambler leaned out the passenger side window and killed the last with his pistol. Then he noticed the Machine gun raider had ran across the bridge to open up on then again. With a single shot to the head the guy was down. As the party started to scavenge from the dead on I80 they heard a motorcycle start up and head south. Finding the machine gun and a grenade launcher on the over pass the party felt they had done pretty well and moved on.

Stay tuned for the next daring adventures in the wastes of Nevada!

Normally i'd not have given allot of exp for the adventure since they made out with pretty good loot with almost no injury's but since we don;t know how long it is till we move onto the new game we want to see how character advancement works. So I gave everyone 6points to do advancements with.

-Sam

Atomic Highway Map

Here is the map of the area we are currently located for the Atomic Highway game.

MAP

Atomic Highway Session 3

Atomic Highway Session 3

Picked up the new creature source book - 'Irradiated Freaks' from the store before the game (but I won't need it tonight).

ok, not much action last session but I promised there would be more in this session. I spent the last two days of my vacation designing the prison and then I found a better prison floor plan on-line (http://www.mysterylist.com/hag.htm).

Our band of brothers first decided to check the cars in the lot for good batteries. They lucked out and found one with a decent charge which allowed them to use Rambler's deer spotting light. The group then decided to check for a generator
and found it in an exterior building, along with a good amount of gasoline (in an aux tank). They got the generator up and running and got the prison lit up. The group journeyed into the prison through the destroyed east wing which went
directly through the Warden's quarters. A few useful items were found in the warden's quarters expecially after Gorbo ripped the door off of the hidden safe.

Continuing to the warden's balcony our group spotted their first two zombies (yes kids you heard right zombies). Our group of Einsteins started shooting at them which caused more zombies to spawn because of the noise. The first zombies to appear
were ex-prison guards and prisoners (these were called Lurchers). Then the higher ranking guards (called Moaners) came finally followed by our first female prisoner (a screamer). Check back soon for full zombie specs. It took a while for the group
to realize everytime they used a gun (or chainsaw) the noise was attracting more and more zombies. There was 1 point where I was actually running out of minis to throw at the party.

The following characters got bitten: Hank and Rambler. Gorbo received a nasty claw scratch from the Screamer and I think all of the party received some damage from the screamer's scream. Only time will tell if Hank and Rambler turn into zombies because of the bite damage.

Anyway most of the party switch to quiet melee weapons and the zombies were destroyed.

Gorbo rolled two critical misses and once with the hammer (hitting the door frame instead of a zombie) and once with the chainsaw (getting the blade lodged in a zombie's spinal cord). Rambler
also ran out of bullets in his pistol and was forced to switch to his rife.

Atomic Highway Character - Gorbo Smashskull

Atomic Highway Character - Eddy Throttle

Atomic Highway Character - Hank Hill

Atomic Highway Character - Rambler

Here's my Atomic Highway character, a remnant sentinel named Rambler, who drives a small Winnebago through the wastelands in a constant search to salvage parts, technology, and knowledge from the past for a better tomorrow. And for some fat cash.

Atomic Highway Session 2

Atomic Highway Session 2

We started off with some quick character creation for Bryan and Dave since they missed the prior week. But then within about 30 minutes we were off.
So Gorbo, Roach and Eddie were off still trying to deliver the magazines/books from session 1 when they came across a broken down Winnebago owned by Rambler and
his friend Hank Hill. They managed to tow the Winnebago back to Little Town after killing a few Rat-Dogs (stats on Rat Dogs coming soon).

Once at Little Town we discovered that Rambler and Hank have been looking for this old detention center that was rumored to be in the area but had never been found. With the help from our
in-house history book Roach was able to figure out the aproximate location of the detention center.

Gorbo, Eddie and Rambler rode in the '58 Chevy and Hank took his motorcycle up The One (Rte 80) and finally found the overgrown rode. The vehicles were unable to continue through the overgrown rode so our heroes
made the last trek of the journey on foot.

Meanwhile Roach stayed behind in Little town to Tweak Lady (Eddie's car) and Rambler's Winnebago. Little did our heroes know Roach has a 'chem' problem (rules on chem coming soon) and probably should not have been left alone.

Our group of heroes found the lost prison, which because of tectonic shift was at the bottom of a steep cliff. The outer fence was wrecked it many area so after checking if it was electrified our heroes journeyed to the outer walls of the prison.

Experience for the session was given. All characters got 2pts. Gorbo was MVP so he received an additional point.


To be continued in session 3...

Atomic Highway Character - Roach

Atomic Highway - Session 1

Character Creation

Brian ran character creation for Scott and Sam. Brian chose a Remnant, LoreKeeper for his character - ROACH. Sam chose a 'Steader, Road Warrior character, and Scott went with a Feral, Pit Fighter character.

Since Dave and Bryan were absent we just did a short car battle adventure.

Brian and Sam are both going to run some in this game system.

Character stats to follow.

The following equipment was acquired:

wet/dry vac
2 sets of jumper cables
trailer hitch
2 bootles of fuel additive
portable battery charger
4 bottles of car wax

Scott acquired:
1958 Chevy
Medium machine gun on the hood
Medium armor (11)
Protection of 75 (8 damage taken so far)