Well, not so much playing as teaching other people how to.
Just finished a session with a couple of mates who’d not played DZ before. What was fun was watching them learn and play it as a game rather than what I normally do which is playtest stuff. There’s more difference than people often realise.
Although playtesting is naturally trying to get the best game to play, its main function is to make the game work rather than to be an entertainment. That means that it is often interrupted to take notes, to change things or to reset and try things again – all of which gets in the way of it being as fun as it might otherwise be. It is, at the end of the day, work not play.
Teaching the gamers tonight wasn’t aimed at anything other than showing them the ropes, and then letting them strangle each other with them. Whilst I did make a few notes on some further refinements, and while it was a training game, they both quickly got the idea of the tactics and were already having fun doing naughty combos with cards and models by half way through the battle.
The stage 2s did their usual work of mangling the unwary, and the Enforcers replied with their usual shooting efficiency. Grenades seemed to be a popular choice and I think they must have found them all. There were a few close calls and some being blasted off roofs and so on, but it was the one that landed perfectly at the feet of an Enforcer (and then obliterated him) which was most impressive.
In the end the proof of the pudding was in the cheeriness of both victor and vanquished at the end of the battle. Now, they said, they just have to decide which faction(s) to collect…
Quirkworthy 
Hooray for gaming! My Enforcers got mangled by Plague when I tried the alpha rules. It was loads of fun though.
Hopefully you had more moments of satisfaction watching people play the game than you had moments of scrutiny and notetaking 🙂
I still have yet to play a test. Maybe this weekend though 🙂
I’m pretty much settled on the rebs as my faction of choice, I like their apparent underdogginess 🙂
I do have a question about these zombies though, apologies if it’s covered elsewhere – but what’s the connection between the zombies and the plague, and if there is one, why are the zombies equally likely to attack plague as any other faction?
Zombies is their nickname. What they really are is a failed transformation to a 3rd gen, they are termed 3Z instead. Basically when they were infected they didn’t die but they also didn’t react well to the plague; as a result their brains are mush and they are driven mad by pain.
Hence zombies being a nickname: they didn’t actually ever die but they are utterly mindless and look and act like zombies! 🙂
(This is all in one of the updates over on the Kickstarter page, I’m just summarising it from memory.)
Good summary!
Going to play our first game tonight, have thoroughly read over the beta rules and am very excited to give it a shot! If the game goes well, as I suspect it will, I will be recruiting another backer :).
The more the merrier. Have fun 🙂
I really enjoyed the game jake. The turn sequence is great making games tactical and loads of fun. Playing cards at the right time is also key. Keeping your commamder in the game really helps. Stage 2’s are deadly once in your face…. The game is full of depth and character and most of all fun.
Cheers jake great stuff. 🙂
Actually I have one question: The rules say if you start a turn pinned or suppressed you must use a get mean action to raise your aggression, but the wording in break off seems to imply you could use it while pinned/suppressed even though it’s a long action? Is break off an exception to the rule or am I misinterpreting the other rule?
Thanks,
Luke
That’s not covered in the rules. It was talked about in the comments, and Jake said that you cannot Break Off if Pinned or Suppressed. If Pinned or Suppressed you can only Get Mean, even if in the same square as an enemy. Since Break Off and Fight are long actions, you cannot use your last action if you use Get Mean to return to Alert in an enemy zone. If that came out understandable. (It’s in the Beta Rules blog entry somewhere I think.)
I think this will be clearer if it is broken down further to list what you can do when Suppressed, Pinned, Alert/Enraged, Alert/Enraged in the same cube as an enemy.