Death Road to Brontoforumus

SELECT PRAYER

Friday
0
No votes
Lyrai
1
6%
Mothra
2
11%
Rico
0
No votes
Romo
1
6%
Silver
2
11%
Sora
0
No votes
Stush
0
No votes
Thad
0
No votes
BeatBandit
0
No votes
Bongo
0
No votes
Solid Brent
0
No votes
Kazz
2
11%
Zara
1
6%
Francois
0
No votes
Leeham
0
No votes
Smiler
0
No votes
Newbie
0
No votes
Sharkey
1
6%
Bal
0
No votes
Caithness
0
No votes
Buge
0
No votes
Lady
0
No votes
Mars
1
6%
Geo
0
No votes
mharr
0
No votes
Random Roll
7
39%
 
Total votes: 18
User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Mongrel » Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:16 pm

"What luck! There's a ramen noodle in my beard!"
Image

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:25 pm

Hey guys remember this thread?

It's time for...

RUN TWO: THE REVENGE.

Previously used characters (R^2, Grath, Mongrel, Esper) have been removed. I've added Lady, Mars, Geo, and mharr, changed a few traits around on existing characters, including fbm and Friday.

First, I promised fbm he'd be going, so he's the leader. But his original stats were pretty terrible, so I gave him a new trait I unlocked, Specialist.

(Apologies in advance to anyone whose appearance isn't right or offends.)

Image

Our fearless leader. Explorer gives a bonus option during ABL choices and reduces gas cost to reroll. Very good perk to have in the party. Specialist gives +2 str, fitness, and shooting, and even lets you go over the cap by one on each of those, but your inventory space is reduced from 3 to 1. Overall it's a super powerful trait.
Rating: 4/5.

Image

Friday also picked it up, replacing her more boring usual Warrior trait. (+2 str and fitness, - boring personality.)
Rating: 5/5.

Image

Lady's got the super useful +3 mechanic and civilized traits, making her an S tier support character.
Rating: 5/5.

Image

mharr isn't from the US so he has good healthcare and is a fine British gentleman, and he's just as civil as Lady. Swapping out mechanical skill for medical skill isn't as great overall, but it's still very strong and having a good healer is useful.
Rating: 4.5/5.

Image

Geo is able to punch good and is physically fit. But just like his friend Mongrel from the previous run, he's Canadian and therefore is a Frantic Whiner. (Run faster, less health, can annoy people in the car)
Rating: 5/5 Geo is the best

Image

"Gungineer" is the closest thing to "mecha pilot." Mars is good with both mechanical and shooting, and she's an anime fan to boot, so she starts with a cool Katana but comes with a warning "not to reach max morale." I still don't know what happens if that happens.
Rating: 4/5

Well, that's the new people.

I've reset the poll, so vote for who should accompany fbm on his adventure!

Oh, I'll be playing this on regular Long Winding Road mode. It increases the game length from 15 to 25 days, and trust me, you feel those extra days. I tried to three times to beat it so I could unlock Long Winding Familiar Faces Mode, but alas I kept dying near the end. I ran into a good amount of you guys even on regular mode, though. Hopefully this will be the run!

All of the rest of the characters are the same as before, so refer back to the start of this thread for them.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Lottel
Posts: 501
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:07 pm

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Lottel » Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:28 am

Random or bust
Image

User avatar
Mothra
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3963
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA
Contact:

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Mothra » Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:27 pm

Random

User avatar
mharr
Posts: 1583
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:54 am
Location: UK

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby mharr » Tue Apr 28, 2020 6:17 am

Well that's my next cosplay sorted

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 28, 2020 2:48 pm

Random it is!

Looks like Bal is gonna be joining FBM on his quest for colder climes.

Bal is an Athlete/Travel Light. So he's got +2 str/fit, and faster movement but one less inventory.

FBM is a Specialist, so he only has 1 inventory slot. That means I only have three slots to work with instead of the usual six. Uh oh.

Image

Our Journey begins.

Image

Our heroes. FBM starts off with a "piece of wood" which is one of the absolute worst weapons in the game, as well as having a high break chance when swung. Bal's got a Cricket Bat, which is decent, but has a low (1%) chance to snap when attacking.

Image

Not a bad haul for the first map. We also found a hatchet inside, so FBM gets an actual weapon. The 41 gas we found is particularly useful.

Image

Our second ABL has an option between a Bar and a Clinic. Bars suck, and Clinics contain useful medical supplies, so the choice is pretty obvious.

Image

The building in question. Fun fact: Every building is much, much bigger on the inside than the outside, and frequently non euclidean, with doors leading into rooms that should in fact be inside other rooms or whatever.

Image

In the back of the clinic we find paydirt. That shelf has +3 medical on it, and in the upper left that's a healing spray item, a carry-able tool that heals on spray. It's got 3 charges but we accidentally wasted one because Bal was so excited that maybe it would Kritz him I hit the wrong button.

Image

All that plus the spray. Pretty good, though more food would have been nice. For those of you keeping track, food is both your money at trader camps, and, well, food. You can't actually starve to death in this game, but not having enough food at meal times drops your morale, and bad shit starts happening when it bottoms out. Called "Despair events" they range from bad to extremely bad, such as people stealing from the group and taking off, getting hurt, kicking others out at random, forcing the player to kick someone out, etc.

In any case, you're going to see me go after as much food as I can, because even if you have a surplus you can buy really useful shit with it.

Image

But before anything else can happen, we face an S-tier threat.

I choose to ignore it with Bal, hoping he'll be a man like we all know the Scout is in his heart.

Image

Low wits and high attitude. Bal's Scout cosplay is going A+ so far.

Image

Our first camping event. I pick "shoot golf balls" hoping that our collective fitness score will pay off, since FBM is a specialist and Bal is an Athlete.

Image

It doesn't work. Despite starting with +2 fitness, Bal's fitness is still below average. Lame.

Image

The next event is one I haven't seen before! I pick FBM, our fearless leader, to open up since Bal has been getting a lot of his stats revealed.

Image

Hmm. High Loyalty and Attitude, low composure and mechanical. I knew about the bad mechanical already just with how his traits were, so that's not particularly useful information. But knowing his composure is low could help me avoid sending him on solo text missions in the future.

Image
Image

Our first Trader camp is on fire, and under seige by a horde closing in from just offscreen. The one guy there offers a FIRE SALE of cheap weapons, but we don't have enough food to buy anything. Oh well.

Image

Our first required siege event. We're stuck in a small cabin with some supplies while zombies pour inside. Bal's cricket bat breaks almost immediately, as does several nail boards. I grab a rifle and start swinging with it (no ammo) out of desperation. It too eventually snaps. This is going poorly, but we manage to finally whittle down the horde and escape when the timer runs out.

Image
Image

Gotta get huge.

I briefly considered upping the groups mechanical, but without anyone already skilled it in, going from "completely awful" to "awful" is probably not going to be helpful. We will hopefully pick someone up with mechanical skill soon, because it's a super useful skill to have for repairing the car and other events. Who knew I'd miss R^2 for his stupid van skills?
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:40 pm

The adventure continues.

Image

I know from experience what this event does, it's gas at the cost of the person sent to siphon getting sick (morale hit) and being tired until the next sleep.

I send FBM as Bal is the slightly better fighter, so I want him rested. We get a good amount of gas.

Image

As you can see.

Image

Bleh, bandit events. We've got 12 food, enough for three meals, no way am I handing over 9. Giving in to demands also lowers morale, so it's double bad and should basically never be chosen unless you absolutely have to. Bal could maybe help them by using the last of our medical, but his healing is poor so I don't want to risk it. We fight, which reduces both our HP from 3 to 2.

Image

Oh, nice. "Secure" or "Fancy" means the map will have a safe, which you will need to find the keys/combo to open. It can have really good shit inside.

Plus, junkyards always have decent metal weapons (crowbars and such) and FBM broke all of his in that last siege. He's currently got a zombie femur, which is pretty damn poor.

Image

Entering the junkyard. Somehow fbm pulled a golf club out of his ass, I don't even know. Golf clubs are decent melee but they have a high snapping chance.

Image

Oh hey, a metal pipe.

Pipes are very powerful and can often one-shot zombies, but they're heavy as fuck and suited for stronger and fitter characters. But it's better than a golf club, so we take it.

Image

That notebook nearby has the combo we need. The icon above fbm is reminded me that he's tired and at half his normal effectiveness.

This junkyard is very sparsely populated, so it's almost a pleasant romp through the environs while we collect loot. There's not much to be found, just a few bullets and scraps of food in the scattered dumpsters. We head back to the safe.

Image

Wow, what a haul. I spend a lot of time thinking about this. All four options are appealing. Finally after considering all our options, I take the slug shotty. I won't even be using it for a long time, but it's an incredible weapon for endgame and has a high chance to pierce. If we can get fbm's shooting up, or find someone with good shooting, it can take out lots of zombies without using much ammo.

Image

The next sleep event offers to let someone chop wood, or just go to sleep. Chopping wood is always worth it, despite tiring Bal out. Free str and morale!

Image

Some fucking cowgirl forces her way into our group. This is actually bad, because in the early game you want low numbers to conserve food. We don't need extra fighting power quite yet.

Image

Well, let's see if she's got any skills that could be useful.

Nope! She wastes a day (-6 food) trying though!

Stupid cowgirl. We continue on foot.

Image

Ow. That reduces both fbm and Bal to 1 HP.

Image

We get a few non-impactful events (I'm not screenshooting everything) and finally find a bunch of trashed cars we can siphon from and maybe find a working version.

Image
Image

It's dark, so it's lucky I remembered to give Bal a flashlight. I swap his hatchet for fbm's pipe, since Bal is more suited to using a heavier weapon. I also remember I have that healing spray, so I use the 2 charges to heal fbm and Bal back up to 2.

Image

A working ice cream van. There were so many freakin' zombies around it that I'm forced to kite the horde allllll the way back to the start, fighting through the zombies I skipped again. It gets pretty hairy, but Bal's increased run speed really helps me navigate.

Eventually, I lure the massive pile of zed far enough back that I can quickly run past them and hop in the truck.

Image

But Cowgirl gets cut off and is left behind. I'm okay with this, as she was just another mouth to feed at this point in the game.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Yoji
Posts: 1440
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:12 pm
Location: Screamtown

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Yoji » Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:10 pm

(deadpan) oh no charlie i can't believe she's gone
Image: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow
Image: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:49 am

Adventure part 3.

Image

Oh, damn. Three really good options. Another safe, a rescue (which is always good, even if you don't want the recruit, they will give you random training/stashes of items) or a deadly but lucrative food store.

I think about it for awhile, but in the end I go with the guaranteed food.

Image
Image

It's not too bad...

Image

But then it is.

I duck into a nearby room to get away from the horde, hoping for a spacious bathroom and some room to kite.

Unfortunately it's a small storage room with tons of zombies already in it.

I'm panicking at this point and have no guns to fall back on due to limited inventory space. I don't take any screenshots due to my adrenaline, and in the end, we have to make a blitz into the horde and try to push through.

It works... for fbm.

Bal is overwhelmed and eaten.

Image

To give you some idea of how much shit was in this place. I didn't even loot the whole thing, having to flee as fbm can't handle this on his own.

Image

I should probably take the gas, but WHAT IS THAT STICK?!!??!??!

It turns out to be a regular stick. This game is a hardcore troll sometimes.

Image

Now alone, fbm manages to somehow barricade a house before going to sleep. It even increases his mechanical skill.

Image

fbm's strength is decent, so smashin' it is.

Image

Nice. But good events won't save us if we can't find another partner. With only one inventory space, we desperately need another human to fight and also just hold shit.

Image

Eh. Police stations aren't that great, usually only having like one gun in a back room. But umbrella shops are about as useful as they sound, so.

Image

We head inside. With only one character, we have to avoid riling up zombies at all costs. Luckily they seem fairly sparse and sluggish.

Image

We spend a lot of time kiting back and luring, then dashing around, but manage to make it out with some loot. Hardly anything, really, and I cleared most of the town and the entire station.

Image

This is a text event that needs someone with composure, which we know fbm doesn't have. But we're so far behind now that I play risky and send him in anyway, hoping he'll roll well.

Image

He doesn't. At least the penalty wasn't that bad.

I didn't take screenshots, but the next encounter was a Trader camp. I pull in desperately hoping there will be someone to recruit from it.

There isn't.

Image

Hahaha, we are so fucked. With only 1 inventory space and 17 slugs for our shotgun, I decide to take the hatchet as I'll need a lot more than 17 shots to survive this, and also shooting will instantly piss off all the zombies to maximum aggro state.

Image

We can't even take a flashlight with us. I duck inside.

There's a ton of supplies, and a cleaving nail board, a good weapon with cleave (can hit multiple zombies per swing) but with a decent chance to break on hit. I pick it up because shit, we gotta roll the dice. It manages to keep me alive at first, but...

Image
Image
Image
Image

Yep.

This run was a good example of how one wrong choice (me ducking into that room instead of staying out in the main room with the aisles to kite around before Bal died) can snowball into an unwinnable scenario.

Despite the jokey tone, this game can be brutally difficult. We weren't even into the harder parts of the game yet.

Also, Specialist is a lot less good than I thought it was, because only having one inventory slot REALLY hurts. Combined with Bal's also limited inventory (2 instead of 3) my usual fallback guns were simply unable to be kept on me, leading to Bal getting eaten.

I think a single specialist is fine, but you need to make sure you're going to have no dogs and everyone else with full inventories.

Run 3 coming soon.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
nosimpleway
Posts: 4514
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:31 pm

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby nosimpleway » Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:30 am

Friday wrote:Who knew I'd miss R^2 for his stupid van skills?

I also make a mean canned tuna/Spaghettios/green cabbage that isn't too withered yet/black olive casserole.

The secret ingredient is love.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Mongrel » Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:10 pm

I love that this is back <3

EDIT: Reread the whole thread and I think I woke up Buge with my incessant giggling FRANTIC WHINING.
Image

User avatar
Mothra
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3963
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA
Contact:

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Mothra » Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:16 am

They died in battle. There is no greater honor.

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Fri May 01, 2020 2:39 am

Alright, run 3.

I decide to switch back to Familiar Characters mode. There's no marathon Familiar Characters mode (just a hard mode for it) and I want to maximize the facetime of my internet friends.

I reroll our starting two characters.

... Leeham and Zara.

Leeham has "Trademark Weapon" and "Anime Fan" which when combined start him with a NINJA KATANA, a super good weapon. Anime Fan warns you not to hit max morale and "beware the power of anime."

Zara is a Mechanic/Inventive, which makes him a super strong support character. So we have a strong fighter and strong support. Excellent.

Image

Our Heroes begin by raiding a rest stop.

So the thing about this game is after enough runs the events start to repeat. Common events especially. I won't be as detailed with my screenshots, just making notes of interesting stuff.

The first raid goes well. I try out my Ninja Katana and it's fast and deadly and can cleave. Excellent. We get around 14 food because the back room of the rest stop was packed full of supplies.

Image

Zara it's time to do your support character job.

Image

Good going. Shippu 2 when?

We head into the next ABL.

Image

Yeah could I get a motherfuckin' uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Image

Inside we find a pair of souls, who, locked into eternal combat over a can of beans, perished and became skeletons.

i dunno i thought it was funny ok

Image

The next event after finishing the looting is a dangerous one. I'm a little apprehensive about sending anyone in, since this can go very badly for obvious reasons. But I decide to have faith in my Kato masked friend.

Image

Holy shit nice. Zara, you're the man. We also get 47 gas too.

The run is going great so far. TIME FOR THE OTHER SHOE TO DROP I BET
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Fri May 01, 2020 5:06 am

Image

Haven't seen this one before, huh.

I eventually have Zara dismantle the car for parts.

Image

Alright, cool. Zara already has his mechanical at max. Nice.

Image

Hmm, looks familiar...

Image

mharr joins up! He's got Healthcare and Civilized, so he's an excellent healer and has maximum personality stats. Another nice support character!

Image

At that same Trader camp, we run into an anime truck. I guess it had Lodoss and Dirty Pair stuff because Lee-ham is LOVING IT.

We don't buy anything as our food stock is low. We head back into the car.

Image

UH

Image

WHAT?!

Image

OH

Image

MY

Image

GOD

Image

Leeham-chan shoots giant hearts out of her wand.

Holy shit.

Image

Hahahaha what?!

Wait, are her eyes bigger?

I compared the two screenshots. They are.

"getting more anime by the day."

Uh oh.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Mongrel » Fri May 01, 2020 5:17 am

So... is the wand just a really powerful weapon? Or does it neutralize zombies in some way? Or... what exactly?
Image

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Fri May 01, 2020 5:19 am

Yeah, it's amazing. It's like an infinite ammo gun that shoots giant heart projectiles that even bounce off walls and rebound if you miss. They seem to one shot zombies about 50% of the time. I'll get some screenshots of the projectile next time.
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Friday
Posts: 6264
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:40 pm
Location: Karma: -65373

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Friday » Fri May 01, 2020 6:08 am

Image

Leeham-chan struttin' her stuff.

Image

*Twirls*

Image

Well, at least we have good medic on our team.

Image

oh, crap. Like I said, nothing is 100% guaranteed. Despite his high medical, mharr fails this check.

Image

The next event is a super army siege. We're trapped in a small cabin, and even with Leeham-chan's magic and pure heart, there's simply too many zombies to fight, except...

Image

This long, horizontal wall dividing the cabin in two is the horde's greatest bane. Zombies always try to go straight for you if they're near you, so they end up just walking nonstop into the wall except when I decide to let them trickle in one of the sides.

It's cheap, but faced with this overwhelming force there's no other option if we want to survive.

Image

We eventually whittle the horde down to nothing. The Power of Walls and Anime!

Image

The next event is a Police HQ. I've never seen one before, so I pick it over a grocery and a swarmed rest stop.

Uh.

Leeham-chan, you doin' okay?

Image

The police HQ turns out to be pretty boring. It's just a bigger police station with two back rooms full of loot instead of one. This one had two shotguns and a brass knuckles, which are a very good lightweight weapon for our weaklings in the back bringing up Leeham-chan's rear.

Image

Yeah. That's a pitiful haul as far as supplies go, but two shotguns isn't bad I guess.

Image

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LEEHAM-CHAN WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOU AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ImageImageImage

Niku
Posts: 1807
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:23 pm

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby Niku » Fri May 01, 2020 6:42 am

I was going to complain about the lee-ham with the katana FLIPPING OUT and not self-destructing but
Image

User avatar
mharr
Posts: 1583
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:54 am
Location: UK

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby mharr » Fri May 01, 2020 11:55 am

This is pretty much exactly how I'd expect a visit from Scotland to the Pacific coast to turn out.

User avatar
LaserBeing
Posts: 217
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 3:24 am
Contact:

Re: Death Road to Brontoforumus

Postby LaserBeing » Fri May 01, 2020 1:17 pm

Image

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests