"Gaming The Film '30 Days Of Night'?" Topic

Ok. I guess I'm in a "polar" mode this week ("bipolar" actually, since I've been talking about both the North and South poles):

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Anyway, has anyone tried gaming anything like the film "30 Days of Night" (2007)?

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If so, please give us all the juicy details on what terrain, figures and rules you used, and anything else you can think of!

Thanks.

Dan

I was hoping someone had gamed it since this other thread was posted about 3 years ago:

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Man, it doesn't look like the humans stand much of a chance, but someone could eventually make it an even game:

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Dan

To make the initial attack more gameable, assume that some of Barrow's inhabitants are… werewolves, superheroes, mutants, etc.

I am planning to do a very close "knock-off" of this movie using Occult Wars rules. The setting will be a northern Canadian or Alaskan village and logging camp in late Autumn or early Winter (depending on how the figure hunting goes). Will most likely do it in 15mm using figures from various manufacturers (GZG, Rebel and Khurasan so far). There will be werewolves with their actual wolf cousins, vamps and other nasties who have entered thru a "rift" or some sort of other contrived plot element (that is, an excuse to do this type of game…lol). Not actually 30 days of night…but somewhat the same flavor. Oh ya…buildings will be mostly scratch built with the odd HO scale stuff as found/scrounged.

Pete

We played a WWWII game against a family of vamps and it was pretty bloody!
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I agree that unless the humans had some heavy weaponry or some other kind of edge like supers they would be pretty hard pressed to just survive let alone kill them off even with the vamps stunted senses.

Brian

Hmm. I guess it would be somewhat similar to this other scenario (with werewolves, instead of vamps):

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Dan

Haven't seen the film, but read the Wiki article..

Sounds like it could be done using the Last Night On Earth
rules.. with suitable variant / house rules, of course..:-)

Terrain Sherlock,

Just watching this bit will give you a sense of how hopeless it would feel to be assailed by vampires during a month-long period of darkness:

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Dan

Pretty decent film actually, I like these Vampires much better than the angsty bunch of sparklies that call themselves bloodsuckers….

But, just a comment. Why would the game have to be 'even'? It may be interesting to game it from the humans perspective, with just barely a chance to survive.

Super Vike: "Why would the game have to be 'even'? It may be interesting to game it from the humans perspective, with just barely a chance to survive."

I would be happy with the latter though, you as must imagine, a larger number would prefer the former.

To me, it would be refreshing to play a "Thermopylae" scenario, where the chances of survival are almost non-existent.

However, the fact that, in the film, the lead vampire is killed and there are a few human survivors, does not mean that the humans were really victorious. The fact is that the vampires came, ate to their hearts' content, and then fled to safety means that they got what they wanted in the end. The humans in Barrow (or any other town up there) are still open to a repeat of the same horrors 11 months later.

In such a "Thermopylae" situation, victory for the humans would really have to meet the following two conditions; 1) to get the word out to the outside world and 2) stall the vamps as long as possible, until reinforcements arrive.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

Dan

I think the vamp to human ratio is the real factor. If you had 10 vamps and 15 humans, the humans are screwed but if you only had 3 vamps vs 15 humans then you might pull it off. Also the scale of the game would be important. If you are playing on a small table then the possibility of out maneuvering or even isolating individual vamps is lessened. Also, if the terrain is sparse then the humans are at a huge disadvantage. The more buildings, the better because that will give the humans more options and the vamps will actually have to search for them if their are numerous places to hide. The cold is also a factor so the humans would have to stick close to structures or freeze up. In fact, the rules we use wouldn't even have vamps in this environment as they would just freeze solid due to the lack of any body heat.

Holding out till, say sun up would probably be the most stressful for both parties. The vamps will be desperate to find their prey or even fortify a structures for the impending dawn and the humans would probably be apt to move more if confronted because they know that if they can just doge the blood suckers they'll make it. Lots of chases and single kills with a game like that.

An escape mission would be fun but I think the vamps would easily win that one. Because of the arctic conditions there would only be a couple if not just one means or location for escape from it so the vamps would probably swarm those areas and block the humans from it with relative ease.

Now if the humans had the means, ie special knowledge of who the head vamp is and that if taking him out would cause the other to balk then I think they would most defiantly more more aggressive against the undead.

Lots of playability here and if you do play a game I'd love to see it.

Brian

I agree CC….Having victory conditions for something simplistic for the humans to achieve (granted they can survive long enough) seems a very doable way of approaching this.

That way they can still win by a 'pulling the carpet from under the feet' from the vampires. Like an almost 'instant win' situation, whereas the Vamps have to finish them all off, stay hidden from the outside world, etc.

This really sounds fun! Keep us updated.

Coming up with the right figures and the right terrain/scenics seems to be the hardest thing right now:

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I would love to see an actual layout of what the town in the film looked like.

Here are a couple of photos of the real Barrow Alaska:

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Map of the real Barrow Alaska:

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Lot of the names seem similar to some of the street names in the map:

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Dan
PS. Humans fighting in darkness or near-darkness, with vamps having the advantage, should be reflected somehow, regardless of the rules used:
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Check this out:

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Dan

Well, with the christmas decoration season upon us already, there are a lot of relatively cheap terrain options now available.

To keep the leader vampire as a victory condition, I might add an "Every vampire wants to be in charge" rule. You use at least one obvious leader figure, and tactical concerns on the part of the other vamps require the proximity of a visible leader (they are just "hungry and overconfident" otherwise), so they aren't hanging back (hey, they're hungry too). Each time the humans kill a visible leader a roll is made. Most of the table just transfers Leadership to another vamp in LOS (swap the mini), with a slight chance that no other vamp notices so the Leadership doesn't transfer, meaning that group of vamps stays less aware (also the result if there is no other vamp in LOS), and a slight chance that this leader was the Big Kahuna. His "leadership" may still transfer, but a victory condition has been met for the humans. Subsequent Leader kills could still get this result and stack it, representing the culling of the gifted vampires off the top of the pack.

I'm tempted to do this with SoBH, actually.

I would consider the types of people who choose to live in a place like Barrow:

And please do not kid yourself, I have been there and I was stationed at a tiny US Coast Guard Loran Station, 21 people, in the middle of no where NW of Nome Ak…the people that choose to be there are, odd.

Some are born and raised.

But those that are not, that some how end up there, those are the ones I am thinking about.

If you had an illness, a disease that caused you to have savage cravings, say for meat. Maybe you go bonkers and all wild on a lunar schedule.

If I were a werewolf (werebear, etc.) I would live in the great white…lots of open space, plenty of animals to hunt, and not so many people.

Let one of the communities be wolfen or bear-en :)

The vampires kill one of theirs, they take the hunt to the vamps. The humans are the ones caught in the middle.

Or a cult? A remote location of Lovecraftian types…maybe defrosting an elder one or such?