I did a solo playthrough as part of the testing and assessment of a new starter adventure for Super Dead, using two pregen characters provided and one of the provided hooks. It's always a bit difficult to do a soloplay of an adventure that you wrote, because you know how things are set up "behind the screen" so to speak; but, I find that if I use them as writing prompts and write as I go, I can get myself into character.
That said, the two and a half hour duration of the play through included a lot of dialog and character writing. Much more representative of what would actually go on around a table than just a quick solo play. Though I did move to a quicker solo play style for the back third of the session. In all, players could definitely spend 3-5 hours in this location.
For setup, I imagined the "find some ammo" prompt and set a 1 hour timer for the Slug to arrive and got to playing.
Entering the station
The two characters started by scouting out the police station. The Devin "Dust" pregen has the ability to turn into dust, so he used his dust form to stealth around the outside and get a sense for the building. Since the other character (Carlie "Four-Leaf Clover") had luck as her ability, they reasoned to go around back closest to where the ammo would be kept, and just try the door.
Carlie's luck let her find a loaded magazine in a car – sloppy police work – but wasn't enough to get the door open. Devin used dust form again to slip underneath the door. Neither thought to examine the dumpster, where Oscar was hiding – too bad. I wanted to RP that out for myself.
Inside, Devin spooked Jane, the detective's wife, causing her to scream, a loud noise that brought some zombies to the scene, as well as her husband, Mack, the detective. Devin succeeded in calming Jane down, but was on the back foot when Mack ran over, handgun drawn. He was able to convince Mack to let him open the door for Carlie, as zombies were beginning to enter the parking lot. Lucky her.
Inside the station
Carlie took the reigns inside, using her charm power to get Mack to bring Devin to the armory, while staying behind herself to talk with Jane. On the way, Devin tried to pump Mack for information (failed badly!). Mack insisted that he would help, but that he could use their help with some things this afternoon – their powers would come in handy – and he'd fill them in in due time.
Carlie, meanwhile, was talking with Jane when her daughter Nora shows up. Nora "let's slip" that Max is in the building, and Carlie uses her charm to get Jane to take her to see him.
Just then, there's a loud noise coming from the garage.
Garage shootout
Devin, Carlie and Mack rush to the garage. Mack tells Jane and Nora to hide. And the three position themselves to the side of the door, so they'll get the drop on whoever opens it. They can hear shouting from inside, and then three armed men – henchmen of Sinister Slug – emerge. The shooting begins. Then the henchmen duck back inside the garage. Then Devin and Carlie rush in t fight hand-to-hand. Devin power surges and works to blind everyone to keep Carlie save, while she uses her luck, flinging knives about to try and take out henchmen. Devin and Carlie both take hard hits, but manage to quickly down three of the six henchmen. Two remaining henchmen fail their morale checks, and fail to re-enter the frey.
Seeing his side on the losing end of the engagement, Sinister Slug sues for peace, and insists that they all get in these cars and drive off before the zombie horde they've summoned with all this shooting shows up and devestates the station. Mack reluctantly agrees, and they all head off together: neither quite sure who is captive who is captor.
Review
The adventure provided a polarized experience, with a lot of low-stakes warm up, and then a high-climax shootout. It would have been nice to see the secondary NPCs involved: Oscar and Max. The roleplay with Jane and Nora was a highlight, as was the shootout.
The noise mechanic factored in heavily into the narrative of this one. There were no zombies "on screen", so to speak. So that could be a disappointment for someone expecting something a bit more zombie forward.
If I were to run this at a convention, I might open with a small zombie fight as the player characters are taking their spot looking out over the police station from across the street, just to make sure that beat was included there.
Overall, really like how this one turned out. It was fun even to soloplay through knowing all the ins and outs.