Duke Morrison and the Great Zeppelin Raid at Cold Wars

   At Cold Wars last weekend, Buck Surdu and I ran a Pulp game in the morning entitled, "Duke Morrison and the Great Zeppelin Raid".   We had decided to do this scenario, because Buck had received, and build, a huge 6' long Zeppelin kit from Kickstarter last year, and after a successful game with it on New Years Eve, we decided it would be fun to do a game with it at a convention.
   

A long view of the zeppelin.

   We used the always fun GASLIGHT rules for the game.  The scenario involved Buck's perennial game hero, Duke Morrison, and his Army buddy "Wrench" Webb, and  Navy pal "Boats" Morgan, along with some of their Army and Navy troops, defending the zeppelin of the great scientist, Professor Serafini Nannini.  Along with the professor were his lovely daughter, Gianna, and a couple of his lab assistants.   Also helping guard the zeppelin were Crash Corrigan and his Rocketeers, and a unit of the city's finest policemen. 

She-Wolves advance as the Gangster leader "Slasher" (orange shirt), cuts his way through some sailors at the back of the airship

      The reason the zeppelin needed such a strong security presence, was that the professor was transporting a new invention that the forces of evil coveted.  For security reasons the invention had been broken down into 6 components, and hidden around the airship.  The fears of our heroes were not misguided for attacking the zeppelin was a combined force of Nazis and Gangsters. 

"Wrench" with one of his Soldiers, and Giana, with a couple components, begin to converge on the Rocket-sled

        The game was set up as a race against the clock.  It started at 9:00 AM, and after a quick rules brief we got under way at 9:30.  At that time the victory conditions were announced: the God Guys had to get all 6 components of the invention into Nanni's rocket-sled, which was in the cargo bay of the airship; then at exactly 11:30 by real-time, the rocket-sled would auto-launch out the cargo bay doors. (there was no way to launch before that time, or delay it.)  The more pieces of the invention aboard the rocket sled, the better the Good Guys' victory.  The Bad Guys had to prevent this, and steal the pieces of the invention for themselves.  To make things even more difficult for the Good Guys, only a few designated Heroes were capable of piloting the rocket-sled: Duke, "Wrench", Boats", Nanni, and his Daughter.   So at least one of them had to be kept alive.

Crash Corrigan helps stem the tide of the Gangster horde that stormed the front of the ship.

      The game was a ton of fun, with daring deeds on both sides.  The Gangsters on the zeppelin dock quickly overpowered the policemen defending the entryway to the ship, while Nazi Rocketeers and She-Wolves snuck in through one of the engine nacelles.    More Gangsters were disguised as passengers and hidden in crates in the cargo hold.  The Heroes certainly had their work cut out for them!

An aerial shot of the game.

     One by one, the Heroes were able to gather up the invention components; except for one, which a pair of gangsters dragged to the back of the ship for safe keeping, staying near it to make sure no wandering hero might snatch it from them.    The sides were slowly wearing each other down, but the Heroes made steady progress.

"Boats" makes to the sled with another component and the desperate final battle begins as the She-wolves storm the Rocket-sled.

        In the end, it came down to "Boats" Morgan in the rocket-sled being the sole survivor.  Opposed to him were the two gangster mooks who had hidden out in the back of the ship with their prized component.  They had decided to advance just in time, and they approached the sled from a a gangway over the cargo hold.  "Boats" fired his trusty pistol at the pair, but missed; then one of the gangsters returned fire, and hit "Boats"!   The player rolled the Save dice and....failed!  "Boats" was dead!  The clock read 11:28.   Evil had prevailed. Wow what a finish!

The She-wolves are cut down, but "Wrench" is killed, as a couple of the Gangsters attempt to board the craft.  

      All the players had a great time, as did we as the GMs.  You couldn't ask for a better edge of your seat last-minute ending.  We had such a good time that we are considering bringing the game back to Fall-In in November. 

The end.  All that left is pair of gangsters in a zeppelin full of carnage.