The Eh-Team: How One Playtester Played Killshot With His Kids

I am the Warden and this is the Eh-Team!

The who? You know, the Canadian edition of that popular and cheesy action TV series from the 1980s.

I received this email from Brandon Neff, my longtime friend and playtester, who was looking for a way to play Killshot Reloaded... with his kids. What resulted became an homage to the kids' favourite show on Netflix and I couldn't help but share them with everyone. With stats provided by Brandon, I've taken the liberty of transplanting them onto official Killshot Reloaded character records for your group to try out in their next playtest. You can read Brandon's account of how they played the newly provided Dealing Justice job (available to all backers of Killshot Reloaded) with a twist.

One of the kids at B.A.'s gym, Billy, quit hanging around the gym. BA asked around the other kids and they all said he had gotten mixed up with some old friends that were up to no good. BA went to Billy's house and the parents told him that "Cred" was back in town and was likely dealing to the local kids. BA told the parents he'd take care of Cred and get Billy straightened out. 

They found Cred's apartment with some decent tech/hack rolls. Face and Murdock hacked into some public records and eventually into some private legal records to find out that he'd been early paroled and after a stint at a halfway house was back in town. 

The team reconnoitered the block from the confines of the van, using binoculars to locate the Blades hanging out in front of the building. Hannibal, in disguise, went over to try and buy drugs. He was turned away, but found out that Cred might sell to him tomorrow. Face noticed an old, rundown bus driving by, heading towards a nearby senior center. It was their "fun bus", taking them to various crappy locales in the name of entertainment.  

The planning session was what the kids really loved. They came up with different plans, ranging from "a drink with bombs in it" courtesy of my 4 year old, to renting the apartment above (or accessing the roof) and entering Cred's apartment that way. In the end, just because it was so audacious, we went with BA's plan: Face went over and charmed the manager of the old folks' home. He told them he was from the bus company and they wanted to refurbish/repair the bus, free of charge, as a tax write-off. It didn't take more than a few hits in the bullshit pool to get a yes. Then BA, using his craft skill, modified the bus with some loudspeakers and paint. BA and Face drove the bus past the Blade's blaring something about a "free beer party at a nearby park, just follow the bus!". The blades in front of the building all left, chasing after the bus with visions of frosty mugs in their heads. 

Then Hannibal and Murdock, in disguise, went up to the apartment. They were granted entrance by Cred, who was a little suspicious about the bus, but played it cool. When his back was turned, Hannibal used the "knockout drugs" they usually reserve for when they have to get BA aboard an airplane. He nailed Cred in the neck and Cred was out. Murdock beat on the other thugs in the apartment until Hannibal joined in. They tied them up and hauled off with Cred. 

As they were getting downstairs, Cred wrapped in blankets, the fun bus returned along with a bunch of angry Blades who had followed it in a big circle. They loaded Cred on the bus, fired a few machine guns to disperse the Blades, and drove the bus to an alley where the van was waiting. They made a safe getaway, thanks to BA's driving skills. 

Cred was taken to a remote location and pummeled rather gratuitously until he agreed to leave town and never return. Satisfied, they returned to Billy's parents and told them that Cred wouldn't be bothering them any longer. 

At the end of the session, the 4 year old even proudly proclaimed "I love it when a plan comes together!" 

All in all, it was pretty freaking awesome! The kids LOVED it and can't wait to play again.  

The session was really fun from the Director's chair, too. The kids never failed a roll, which was surprising. They had 100% successes, which was ok for the first session, but I need to ratchet up the difficulty a bit, I think. I warned them that instead of Evidence points for a 1 on the base die, it would be Col. Lynch points (the army guy that is always after the A-Team). They were pretty worried about getting caught! 

But the Optional System worked like a charm. Easy to figure out what to roll and when to roll it. Easy to determine success and failure, and really easy to learn, even for kids. The 4 year old was too little to get it, but even the 8 year old was scanning the sheet looking for skills/options to add to the rolls.

You can download the characters straight from my Dropbox account. Enjoy!