Aftermath28

18 Aug, 2023

Here are the rules to my game made for the Non-Combat Tabletop Challenge. They haven't been assembled into a well designed doc yet, so they will live here in plaintext for now.

Aftermath28

You are a part of a community. Your resources have been overwhelmed. This is a game about striving to provide the care your community needs in the time after some disaster has taken place. The disaster doesn’t matter. Obviously it was an important event, but disasters can be many things and happen anytime; this game is not about playing out the disaster in real-time. It is about the period after the event, when only the physical and social effects are left to be felt, and when the community can begin to help itself heal. This game is about care.

Playing this game will involve wrangling together at least 5 miniature figures (or as many as 10), a table at least 2 feet long by 2 feet wide, things to represent scenery (buildings, hills, trees, etc.), a tape measure, one four-sided die, and some kind of identifiable “tokens”. It can be played with friends working together or alone, but it does not facilitate competition.

Setting up the game:

The scenery you have and how it is arranged will be a major part of Aftermath28, as it will reflect the nature of the disaster that has happened. There are no parameters for how much terrain there should be, or where it should be placed. There is, however, an ethos you should follow when placing the scenery you have:
*This should look like a real community.
*There should be some consistent visual indication of the disaster.

The tokens mentioned earlier enter the game now. Once you have built your community, take those tokens and place one on each floor of any building placed, or in any clearing/point-of-interest. If there are no multi-story buildings, place two tokens in the two largest buildings or areas of interest. These will be Care Tokens, representations of people having a need that must be met in order to move on from the disaster. How you interact with them will come up later on.

Playing the game:

Gather your team, the minis you want to represent the folks you’re guiding on their mission to help. There are two relevant “types” of minis, but they do not represent different kinds of people, just people caught in different situations with different backgrounds; a Civilian is a member of the community who is in a position only to provide their aid as a neighbor. A Specialist is a member of the community with some relevant training to the problems at hand. Roll a four-sided die for the number of Specialists you (and any other players) may include in your team, and choose which type of specialist they are (building, social, or medical).

Deploy your team with their bases touching one board edge, on some path through or into the community.

Begin turn one:

On each turn, each model may:
*Move - 6” per turn.
*Interact with a care token, either:

1. Reveal the form of Care needed by rolling on the tables.
2. Provide care, if requirements are met.
3. Search the area Forego moving, but find the supplies you need. Cannot be done on the street/in open areas, must be done within a fenced area, inside a building/ruins, etc. Allows civilians to provide certain kinds of specialist care after a turn.

The game will last as long as there is a Care token that has not been addressed. Stakes may be created by adding a turn limit, or a time limit, but it should be kept in mind that in actual cases of disaster, there is no “end” until all the necessary care has been provided.

Care tokens:

These are tokens that represent some expression of a need for care. The kind of care will depend on the roll of a four-sided die: 1 represents structural care, 2 social care, 3 medical care, and 4 will represent a kind of care depending on the disaster that has occurred. From here, you will roll on the table below to see the specific form of care needed. An asterisk (*) indicates Specialist care is required, except for the social column. When a social specialist rolls Care 3/4, add a model to your team to represent a member of your community joining your team.

#games #miniatures