Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Verhoevens Retinue
Warlord Frangks Kroniez
Last weekend PB and I explored more of the arse-end of the 40K universe in miniature. The quest for the Ragna Rock was realised using the Pulp Alley rule set. This proved to be the best gaming decision that either of us has made for quite some time…
=][=nquisitor
The Ragna Rock – Act 1 -“Where the Streets Have No Name”
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VOICE OVER On the border of the Tempestus and the Ultima Segmentae, Krellborn IX spins around its star, far from the light of the Astronomican. A galactic backwater many months travel from either Kar Duniash or Bakka, Krellborn IX has neither remarkable resources or strategic importance. The systems only inhabitable planet is therefore only Imperial in only a loose sense: the power of the Emperor of Man is a distant notion, rather than an ever present force.
At many times in its history the Krellborn who dwell at the planets polar jungles have been subjugated by xenos, most notably the Hrud. These long periods of xeno occupation combined with isolation from the Imperium have led to a more pragmatic attitude towards intelligent alien species. Although not officially acknowledged, intelligent aliens can be found integrated into Krellborn society in the more remote parts of the planet, such as the town of Standard Falls, situated on the edge of the Northern continent spanning jungle…
01. A SHACK IN “STANDARD FALLS”, A SLUM ON THE NORTHERN CONTINENT OF KRELLBORN IX. A GROUP OF ORKOIDS AND A LONE HUMAN WAIT IMPATIENTLY FOR THEIR LEADERS ORDERS
EFFECT: green holographic display, various beeps and bings emit from device
RENEGADE RUNTMASTER ZODGROD (Reads information from an unlikely looking handheld device, bangs the side of the device with the heel of his hand and grunts, dissatisfied)
RENEGADE RUNTMASTER ZODGROD
“The ship came down nearby. Cant be more definite ’cause of interference from the Kryll storm. Told ya to bring a mek.”
WARBOSS FRANGK
“Shut it Zodgrod. Ill feed ya to da zoggin Kryll if ya keep this up.”
GRETCHIN ZERO (moves behind Frangk, tenses and growls quietly)
KRONKIE (works the pump action on his shoota)
KIM JONG BONO (places hand on hilt of power sword and takes a step backward)
WARBOSS FRANGK
“Relax boyz. These hyoo-mans will know. Even hyoo-mans will spot a stolen lander full o’ boyz crashing near their crappy huts. Lads, its in-vest-er-ga-shun time!”
WARBOSS FRANGK (kicks down door, shoots his slugga in the air and roars while the rest of the group run out of the shack threateningly)
CUT TO INQUISITORIAL AGENT ROSA “DIGGER” STONE LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 100 METRES AWAY
ROSA (speaks into wrist communicator)
ROSA
“Digger to Big Daddy, greenskin contact in quadrant gamma niner. Please advise.”
EFFECT static crackles from comm unit. Inquisitor Verhoevens voice is heard
INQUISITOR VERHOEVEN
“Do not engage, for now gathering information is more important than confronting these beasts and the migrating Kryll will be upon us soon. Stick to protocol, we will join you shortly. And dont call me that.”
(Go to intro sequence)
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Games of Pulp Alley hinge on plot points. Usually four Plot Points and a single Major Plot Point are set up at the beginning of the game each providing victory points and other bonuses. For this scenario, The Trail of Clues – one of the six standard scenarios – only two plot points are set up initially, with more revealed as players gather them. The two initial plot points placed in Standard Falls were a local inhabitant by the town sign and a pole dancer in the rundown watering hole, “The Saucy Servitor” (the large building).
With both sides survey equipment disrupted by local conditions, each side is trying to gather information about a stolen Imperial lander that crashed somewhere nearby.
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With a cry of “YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAAAAH!” Ork/Human Relations Officer Kim Jong Bono decides to confront interstellar poverty face-to-face, the hope being that the local can give information in the location of the stolen lander.
Accompanied by “P”, a member of the “Viri in Coracinis” – a local group of human/alien integrationists based on an ancient Terran organisation – Rosa Stone takes cover and puts the green haired quisling in her sights…
Although KJB still hasnt found what he is looking for, Rosa takes him down. Nonetheless, Kronkie takes point as Zodgrods charms prove more persuasive. Zodgrod gains the Plot Point and his scanner picks up a damaged drone from the ship crash nearby.
Meanwhile Vehoeven is carousing in “The Saucy Servitor“. The barman isnt keen on his sort, but diplomacy rules the day and Patricia the Pole Dancer divulges information on the location of a local piece of scavenged wreckage.
Unfortunately, the identified clue is located in an area thick with unexploded mines (Standard Falls real estate prices are competitive).
The Inquisitor exits the bar with Patricia giving directions, while Rosa and Agent C weather a storm of fire that takes out Agent P. Zodgrod and Agent C each circle towards the recently discovered drone.
Rosa is wounded, forced to limp for now. But Rosa doesnt gunsling with her feet and forces Kronkie to take a dirt nap.
Grot blasta fire ricochets around the Inquisitor and pole dancer occupied minefield. The Inquisitor is unruffled, engrossed in the task at hand. The entertainment industry employee, not so much.
The intimidating Frangk manages to flush Rosa from cover and engages in a nailbiting, running gunfight and brawl with the wounded Rosa that takes them into the bar and back out through the smashing windows.
Zodgrod and Agent C make it to the drone even as the sky darkens with millions of hostile local aerial life-forms. They clash briefly before both side retreat, each with just enough information to search for the landers location once the skies clear.
Final Score: Imperials 1 Plot Point, Orks 1 Plot Point.
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That game was a lot of fun and considering that it was a first game of a new system it ran smoothly and intuitively. Ending in a low scoring draw was the result of quite a lot of shenanigans (I dont think that PB will place a Plot Point in a minefield again any time soon), so it was more fun to play than the low score might suggest.
On a personal, hobby sort of note the game included a lot of other satisfying things for me. This was the first game for many of the miniatures used and its always rewarding to see the little painted guys in their initial imaginary firefight. It was only the second game for the MiB figures that I painted on a whim back in 2010 and rebased recently and I thought that they fit in well enough with Inquisitorial types. People in the future will probably wear suits from time to time too after all.
Although I put together and painted the bar waaay back in 1996, rebased it in 2010 and have played a few games with it since this was the very first time that the interior of the bar, complete with barman and pole dancer model played an active part in a game. As well as Verhoevens detective work Rosa and Frangk also had a very cool edge-of-seat close range fight in around the tables towards the end of the game (too entertaining to remember to take decent photos it appears unfortunately). An interactive bar-room brawl was exactly what I made the simple box shaped thing for way back, so it was the realisation of an eighteen year old goal when that happened.
Lastly, it was also the first time that I used any of my recently made jungle terrain in a game. It didnt really do much as it was put down to show the hostile jungle encroaching on Standard Falls, but as a piece of foreshadowing it pleased me. Speaking of which…
Join us next time for The Ragna Rock Pt 2: Welcome to the Jungle
Filed under: Games in Progress | Tagged: 2014, 40K, 40K Skirmish, Inquisition, Orks, Orx, PB, Pulp Alley, Sci-fi, Standard Falls, The Ragna Rock |
sho3box 
great stuff, loving the bar, does the top fit over the interior walls or is it just a lift off roof?
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Thanks WP.
The roof lifts off. The furniture, including the interior walls come from the old Grendel “Cyber Bar” set, still available from Scotia Grendel. All of those pieces sit into recesses in the plastic used to make the floor. The interior walls delineate the two rooms but they are not as high as the exterior walls.
The roof being a one piece is a bit of a rush job that I did almost twenty years ago (Im not sure where little 28mm space men got a single piece of corrugated metal of those dimensions), but it does the trick.
I feel compelled to finally get around to making a proper sign, maybe a Vegas neon sort of thing to advertise its wares in the medium term. Actually using the interior in a fun way has my enthusiasm fired for the manky old place.
Thanks for the feedback.
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I’m absolutely *loving* that Bar. Can I put in a request for an entire post dedicated to showing it off with many photos of it and the individual components from many angles? Just another of your ideas that I’d love to rip o… erm, to be directly inspired by.
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Cross pollination is a huge part of all the hobby blog stuff, so directly inspire away 🙂
The bar is pretty rudimentary: just a box shape with a few of those cool cyber-bar tables and a “back room” delineated by those resin wall pieces. I never quite finished the piece properly back in the nineties. I did a did a quick refurbishing job to get it tableworthy a few years ago when working on other parts of the “Standard Falls” terrain and thats how it currently stands. I still want to add a few bits and pieces to it before I call it finished and while some of the painting could really be a lot better, at this stage I wont repaint any of it. When I do properly finish it I will take a few more photos and write a piece on it.
What was very cool about this game was that it managed to be an indoor/outdoor affair, something that can be hard to pull off in games I find, so I got my moneys worth there and then really.
Thanks for the feedback.
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I’ll really have to order a bunch of the old Scotia Grendel stuff that I didn’t get back in the ’90s. I just hope shipping that heavy resin out here to Australia doesn’t completely negate their otherwise-very-reasonable prices. How many bar sets did you use for the piece? I’d certainly be keen to see your updated version, when it happens, but frankly, I’d be happy with some good clear shots it the current one.. 😉
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Its so long since I did it that its hard to remember… a distant memory.
The bar is five piece:
http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2734
I made a mould of the two regular sized tables back in 1995 and duplicated each once. So the bar as shown features 1 x five piece set plus two extra table duplicates.
Arguably they are a bit 25mm rather than 28/30mm, but I think that the images speak for themselves in that regard: close enough for me for sure.
I could easily spend a fortune on the old Grendel resins. Lots of cool stuff.
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Great looking skirmish. I’m intrigued as hell by the ruleset. Eagerly awaiting part 2.
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Im glad that you like it Mr Saturday. If you are interested in an overview of how the game mechanics work, rather than a crunchy dissection of details then I suggest that you take a look at the Stalker 7 blog HERE.
That blog was the one that finally made me cave and invest in that ruleset (for peanuts BTW).
Part 2 over the next few days if I can manage it.
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Thanks for the link. I was going to ask about the game system. Now I’ll just follow the link and see for myself!
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There is a free quick start version of the rules available. If you like that then the basic PDF is only $10USD,
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Sounds good to me. Now I just need to find it.. (can’t see it in any obvious place on their website).
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http://www.wargamevault.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=5628
That should do it 🙂
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Excellent stuff! On the edge of seat awaiting Pt.2.
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Im glad that you liked it Sean. You and I are paying a visit to Pulp Alley soon… in May maybe?
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Wooo! This is absolutely charming! Love the atmosphere and the way the game is leading to. If you add a neon sign you will have the most awesome bar all over the galaxy!
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Thanks Suber. The neon sign will happen when I next work on some terrain. That probably wont be for a while though as the jungle terrain that I made at the start of the year was enough for now.
The story is melodramatic pulp, just like all 40K stories should be 🙂
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Very cool.Thanks for the shout out on LAF.
I like the dialog and background to set the scene in old school GW
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You are more than welcome MG and thank you for publicising the system for sci-fi settings. Your blog and Dentatus’ STALKER7 blog are heavily responsible for me picking up this ruleset for my own games.
Your blog is unique as far as I am concerned, with huge emphasis on story and setting. Pulp Alley allows for that in the context of a fun and (reasonably) competitive game alongside many other benefits of the system that I wont go into here. Im looking forward to many more PA games 🙂
As for the dialogue/background, that sort of thing isnt really my forte, but having briefs like that for each of the games really adds to the fun, so I decided to share them here. Im glad that you liked them.
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