Her Majesty’s Government is seeking the legendary Easter Island Ruby. This valuable artifact must be protected in the safety of Her Majesty’s Museum of Antiquities! However, word of this “protection” mission have gotten out and it is expected that the King of Spain will try to keep it locally. The Ruby has been found in a Hacienda located on the island. Her Majesty needs plausible deniability on removing the artifact, so a local band of adventures has been located to do the deed. Others have been found to keep the Ruby safe. Who will succeed? The game is afoot!
Time for another In Her Majesties Name Pulp game. I pulled out my Crescent Root Villa set and recently painted stone head terrain. The scenario design was everyone for themselves. The missions were generated randomly. One group rolled up finding the treasure, while the other two rolled up protecting a building (they chose which before rolling for random placement within the building compound). In addition to the primary objective, each force rolled up their own secondary objectives. There were ten markers on the table. One of these was the Ruby and the others were either small rewards, guards or false leads. The markers would be activated when a figure moved into contact and exceeded a pluck test. Followed by a roll of a D10 for effect. On a roll of 1-4 a 2 point gold piece, on a 5-9 they would find a false clue (which had no game effect). On a result of 10 they would find the Ruby. However, the Ruby could not be found until five markers had already been and would instead result in D5 guards appearing.
The table had the villa in the center, with the game starting at night. Max visibility at night would be 9″ Starting on turn 6, it would be day break. All groups would start in one corner of the compound, with the location determined randomly. The game would end based on the individual mission objectives, with the high scorer being the winner.
We had three forces in play. Due to the limited visibility, fear, each moved cautiously looking for clues. As day broke, each then tried to eliminate each other to clear their objectives. In the end, the compound defenders never did clear their designated buildings and Toddy Rosenfeld’s group was able to find the Ruby and escape to mother England!
- Manteuffel