Deep in the jungles of Siam, lies the mystical Valley of Malaeng Saab Tua Yai. Tales of its ancient temples and riches are a common folk tale of the Bangkok underground local lore. While these tales are cast aside by most as simple fear mongering to keep the locals away from the triads, there are a couple of western adventurers that think there might just be something to all the stories. Clearly the tales of great beasts are just tall tails to keep people away, but the possible riches and glory just seem to be a bit too close to the truth, when reading through the old Sanskrit scrolls in the local temples. The two competing teams have hired some military protection to protect them from local gangs. Clearly, any beast sitings have been grossly exaggerated, but nothing a 7.92 shell will not take care of!
A buddy of mine was visiting from out of town, so I thought it would be good to set up a game for our old group. Unfortunately, all the local guys turned out to be unavailable! I had one taker, so left it to them to what they wanted to play. There was no strong opinion, so I decided to pull out the pulp collection, as this was a simple game and it would not take a lot of pre-work.
I set up the table using my temple terrain mat and ruins. I added some jungle bushes to fully break up the table (I did not want it turning into a long range shooting match! I placed nine objective markers, equally spread about the table. Each player would have to take an action to search a marker that they had a figure in contact with. On a successful pluck roll, they would discover “something”. After that happened, I rolled two D10. One was positive and one was negative. The negative roll would be subtracted from the positive roll and the difference would determine what was found. If the result was positive, then the model would find jewels (treasure) equal to the difference. If the rolls were tied, the player would find a giant snake that was sleeping! If the number was negative, the player would find a nest full of giant cock roaches, equal to the negative result!
The sleeping snake would awaken if it was attacked or rolled below the turn number. The roach nests would keep pushing out bugs on the following turns on a roll of 7+, equal to half a D10 roll.
Victory conditions would equal each point of treasure found and each hero in play taken out of the game (ten points each). Figures would be limited to how many jewels they could carry. 1-5 would have no effect. 6-10 would not allow the figure to run (unless they had the strong trait). Figures would not be allowed to carry more than ten. Figures would had other models any number of jewels. If a figure was knocked down or taken out, they would drop the jewels, which could then be picked up by other characters.
The roaches would attack the closest figure they could see, unless the figure already was fully engaged and then they would go after another open figure. The snake would only go after figures that were carrying treasure. Figures could leave the playing area at their point of entry (a two inch section in the center of each board edge.
We got to it and both players moved onto the board and headed to the objects, mostly ignoring one another. Lord Huffington’s party kind of came away with the crap end of the stick. Every objective they uncovered was swarmed with roaches. Dr Archibald had much better luck and just kept finding jewels.
Both groups worked the table, taking a few shots at one another. Dr Archibald decided his team had found enough, once they discovered the giant snake and headed back to the trail home. Lord Huffington just watched his group get overcome by bugs, falling to them himself! The game ended with Lord Archibald having more than enough to fund expeditions for the rest of his life. Lord Huffington just had gallons of bug juice to show for all their trouble!
- Manteuffel