Rodent Warriors

Introduction
Generations after the Conflagration, the survivors’ descendants have formed scattered settlements and are rebuilding civilization, sometimes using the technology of the Old Ones. Your village is one of those, filtering out the glowing waters with the Cleansifier.

Yesterday, the Cleansifier broke, leaving the village with a limited supply of clean water. The village elders have met and have decreed that one of the village must go forth into the wastes, searching for the fabled Magic Castle, where we can find another Cleansifier. They have selected YOU to take on this quest. With your bow, knife, and trusty dog, you set off to find the Cleansifier and save your village.

The Concept

My wife and I have been playing a lot of Fallout lately, prompting a desire to play some post-apocalyptic skirmishing. I had a spark of inspiration and am jotting down ideas. Above is my intro to the game.

Ever since I started playing Fallout I wondered what a Florida setting would look like. I just have visions of mouse-eared minions dominating the peninsula from their castle in the middle of the state (hence the name Rodent Warriors).

So far I have a bunch of Florida-themed locations - radiated swamps, an old Spanish fort, a rocket center, shopping malls, retirement homes, the Fountain of Youth, and finally the Magic Castle, home of the Mouse King!

Rules

I'm creating the rules on the fly. So far, I have a table to generate the location / encounter. In my first experiment, I used my latest 2D6 sci fi skirmish rules. I need to make some loot tables, so the hero can upgrade armor and weapons.

Experiments

For my initial foray, the hero Red and his dog set out from the village and ran into some zombies in the wasteland.

The zombies (black tokens) started at long range. Red (green token) tried to shoot them down with his bow, but he missed.

Red's failure allowed the zombies to rush into close combat. 

Red took a wound, but after a short scuffle he and his dog eliminate the zombies.

Searching the rotting corpses, Red discovered that one was wearing light armor. Red donned the prize!

Red then found the Old Fort. However, it was inhabited by mutants. After a long battle, Red and his dog emerged battered but victorious.

Thoughts
The battle with the mutants dragged a bit. Red and his dog kept missing but they kept making their saving throws. I'm looking for ways to speed up combat.