After Action Report, EZO: Research Base Chomsky

On February 23rd and 24th I ran my escape scenario Exclusion Zone Operations: Research Base Chomsky at the post-apocalyptic event Juggers of the Wasteland Winter Games IV in Victorville CA.

Overview

Background

This is the second year that we've done these EZO missions at this site and the first year we have done a purely non-combat scenario. These scenarios are based loosely on the videogame S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and the novel that inspired the game, Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

In the post-apocalyptic ruins of Southern California, there are strange alien artifacts, entities and phenomenon. The City State of Los Angeles, in its campaign to restore civilization, has begun sending teams of explorers, called "stalkers" into these zones in order to try to understand them.

This one had its origins in the fact that we had access to Schmidt Park for this event, but not to the ruins surrounding it. I said something along the lines of "If all I had was an abandoned tennis court, I'd do something like..." and all of a sudden I was designing, writing and directing the thing.

Premise

Spoiler Warning: We will be running this again in the future and from here on, there be spoilers (I'll try to elide as much of the actual solutions as possible though).

My elevator pitch was "To John Carpenter's The Thing as Pontypool was to zombies".

A research outpost has been infected, not with a physically metamorphic alien imposter, but with a memetically infectious alien consciousness. In the struggle for control, the outpost went dark, and a team of stalkers is being sent in to investigate.

Summary

The players are assembled and briefed (see orders). Their objective is to ascertain what happened and restore communication. If they fail to do so within an hour, the team is assumed compromised, and an airstrike destroys them (and the base). They are then briefed on the game mechanics (see special instructions). Once briefed they are taken to the entrance and into a decontamination "airlock", and then released into the base, at which point the timer starts.

They should quickly discover that the radio was disassembled and its parts scattered throughout the base. Notably, one part was locked in a seabag and they need to figure out the combination to the rotary lock.

The infection is still present in the base and the players must expose themselves to potential infection in order to repair the radio. They have the ability to sedate personnel, and can use this to contain the infection. This especially is likely if they discover a way to test people for the infection.

There are survivors of the research team, who may help or hinder them in their mission.

Once the radio is assembled, they need to establish communication and either request evacuation or an immediate airstrike.

If the base is evacuated, and the infection is contained, the uninfected members win, if they escape with uncontained infected (or transmit the infection over the radio) the infection wins.

Mechanics

There were two core mechanics as mentioned in the linked special instructions, and one additional one that could be discovered in play:

SAIECs and Infection:
The first was a loyalty card mechanic that determined infection, similar to those in games like The Resistance, Outpost-13, or Shadows over Camelot. In-game these were lampshaded as "Self Administered Infohazard Exposure Controls" (or "SAIECs"). Each player received three numbered envelopes, each with a randomly distributed card that either had "No Effect", "Immune" or "Infected". All but one player in each group had two "No Effects" and one "Infected", while one player had two "No Effects" and one "Immune".

Each set of three SAIEC envelopes was printed with one of four sets of keywords.

Infection could be caused by the very first exposure to the glyph or to a phrase in conversation that had three or more of the keywords printed on the SAIEC envelopes. In order for a conversation to count the initiator has to say something to the target, the target has to say something back, and then the initiator can use the infection trigger phrase (given on their infection cards). After either of these exposure triggers players where instructed to check there next numbered SAIEC. After all envelopes were checked they were instructed to pretend to check one of their previous envelopes in order to keep their status secret.

Three frequently asked questions about this were:

Q: Why the numbered envelopes?
A: I thought it would be a lot easier to keep track of in-play than picking a unique random envelope each time would be, as I thought the envelopes would likely get mixed up in that case. With the numbered envelopes players could be sure that they weren't accidentally looking at one they've already checked.

Q: What's the deal with the four sets of keywords when there's only one infection trigger phrase?
A: As there was no way around issuing the SAIECs at the start of the game, I wanted to at least obfuscate the nature of the infection somewhat. Also this made it much harder to reverse engineer the phrase from the keyword sets.

Q: Why only the first time you see the glyph?
A: In playtest it was discovered that the glyph trigger is extremely easy for the infected to just spam. The conversation trigger is much harder to deploy and therefore much less abusable.

Sedation:
As explained here, a non-combative way to resolve conflicts.

The Test: As in The Thing, there needs to be a way to test for infection if there is going to be any chance of containment. In this case, if asked a specific seemingly innocuous question, the infected always respond in the same, non-sequitor, way. Fortunately for the players, the researchers accidentally discovered one, and a clue to figuring it out could be found in the research notes. Additionally this mechanic was, by necessity, on the "Infected" SAIEC cards, and because the infected could use this to their benefit, it is possible for the non-infected to discover it by observing them.

The Set

Research Base Chomsky was built on one of the tennis courts at Schmidt Park. It was divided into quarters:

1. SW, Administration/Operations: This was the nerve center of the base, and the workstation of base commander Capt. Garry and radio operator Cpl. Barclay. This was a frame structure with camouflage netting and a table.
2. SE, Laboratory/Infirmary: The research and medical center. This was the workstation of scientists Connant and Dutton, and medical doctor Cooper. This was a large tent with cots and tables.
3. NW, Living Quarters/Mess Area: Where they lived. This was a large tent, an easy-up covered with a parachute and a table.
4. NE, Quarantine: Where people who might be infectious should go. This was an old canvas tent we got from the Goodwill warehouse that people had to crawl a little to get into. There also was a curtain wall (made from the same sheeting that we lined the walls with) that concealed the tent, but that didn't survive the winds, and really was only there for the first game on Saturday.

The entire exterior wall of the court was covered in black plastic sheeting, which served to isolate the base from the rest of the event, and was quite visually impressive.

Significant Props and Set Dressing: 
Some things that the players needed to interact with:

• The sedation kits containing:

• One novelty syringe
• One vial of "sedative" (water, dish soap, yellow food coloring).
• One vial of stimulant (water, dish soap, blue food coloring).
• A black MOLLE zippered bag.
• The infographic card shown above.
• The artifact was made by Primo Catalano, and was amazing.
• The radio was an actual working radio, and players were required to actually get comm up.
• Useful information was found in a number of documents, that I had different people write out by hand:

• Radio Log
• Research Log
• Medical Log
• Quarantine Log
• Cpl. Barclay's NCO notebook
• Dr. Connant's letter home.
• A personal note on the back of a photograph (photo manipulation provided by Lindsey Robbins.

•  Cpl. Barclay's corpse, made from a plastic skeleton, dressed in a uniform and stuffed. Her face was unflavored gelatin poured into a cheap plastic mask and covered in fake blood.
• Additionally there were lots of little bits of set dressing, maps, books, scientific and medical gear, crates and boxes, ect.

Execution 

We had a rough start and general production problems throughout, so none of the sessions started on time. Fortunately the audience was very forgiving.

We ended up canceling the Friday night game and the last Sunday game due to lack of interest, but two of the Saturday games were nearly sold out.

Initially we had intended to disarm players, but in practice to save time, we just asked them to not use any prop weapons they were carrying.

 

Observations

Highlights

Reception

Lessons Learned