A ray of hope II

[Adm.Lee]

As I mentioned [URL="http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=3452"]here, I offered my son and his pals a T2k game for the summer. After Origins, I invited in group member Rnitze and his son, too. Character generation was yesterday, so we are on our way. I really wish I'd had more than one copy of the careers pages on hand, I had to go around the table to get everyone's terms in.

Rules are v.2.2 (mostly); I told them all to roll up 2 PCs, to allow for casualties. I was planning to run good ol' "Escape from Kalisz" but events intervened. Early on, at least two of them entered the Marines for their first terms, so I asked if everyone wanted to play Marines, rather than Army. Most said yes, so I will be shifting to make use of Raellus' "Task Force Inchon" concept. (Off to read that again tonight....)

As it is, we've got 7 Marines (1 Irish-born, 1 East German), 4 soldiers and a Navy Lt. j.g. Two of the Marines are a sniper team, 1 Marine and 1 soldier are engineers, and the ranking officer is an Army intel geek. They rolled for vehicles, and negotiated for a BMP-B (vice a Bradley) and a HMMWV.

Some of the guys started to get a glimmer of character-building through the lifepath system, using their choices in careers to build some story. One had 4 terms as a FedEx truckdriver before getting drafted. One had two criminal terms, followed by 2 as a cop before joining the Army MPs. One went to university to earn a Ph.D., then spent 4 terms as a geology professor before the war came along.

Something I noted is that some of them damaged my illusions on the [skill + attribute vs.d20] system, maxxing out their Small Arms skill and putting their biggest stat into Strength. There's a sniper with 9 Str and 10 skill, meaning his Short range, aimed shot, to-hit number is 76. (Yes, I know, he can still miss the shot on a roll of 17-20.)

I showed them a BRDM shooting at their BMP, which I think drove home that it's not THAT well-armored.

Something that surprised me: no one talked about where their characters were from. I remember that being a key piece of chargen (both rules editions) even when we first started playing. What I mean is that no one talked about their home state or city, "This guy's from Boston, and he played in a band," "This guy's from Hamburg," or "He's from south of nowhere in Tennessee." For that matter, one doesn't even have a name.

As for gear, I just had them give me a wish list, and I reviewed it this afternoon, then tacked on food & fuel and some miscellaneous stuff. Shooting starts on Tuesday afternoon, but there's one more kid that wants in, and he needs characters (They're gonna want a corpsman, so that may be one of them).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Great to hear you're indoctrina... err... educating... yeah, yeah, we'll say "educating" the younger generation.
But seriously, that is great news. It's nice to see that new gamers can be exposed to "old" RPGs and find that they enjoy them.

As for the bit that they didn't discuss where their PCs were from, it doesn't surprise me too much. I recall someone on this forum saying something related to this. It was some time back (last year) but essentially he had introduced some younger people to T2k and was explaining the background/history of the Twilight War. They said something along the lines of "We don't care about the history, we just want to play the game".

[Legbreaker]

I've just finished a six day marathon of 2.2. Started with Kalisz, moved through Black Madonna and then Krakow and got a few miles down river in Pirates before we'd all gotten sick of the sight of each other.
None of the players is over 21 and it was their idea to play it in preference to the dozen other systems I've got.
I'll have a summary of events posted once I recover from the sleep deprivation.

[Adm.Lee]

As for the bit that they didn't discuss where their PCs were from, it doesn't surprise me too much. I recall someone on this forum saying something related to this. It was some time back (last year) but essentially he had introduced some younger people to T2k and was explaining the background/history of the Twilight War. They said something along the lines of "We don't care about the history, we just want to play the game".

I really quickly ran the Cold War/Twilight War for them, and I could tell they didn't really grok, or care. One got confused in his attempt at backstory, saying his West German PC got conscripted into a Soviet labor project.

[Adm.Lee]

Session 2

I ran again today, for the first real playing session. I leaned a lot on random encounter tables and played dice to tell me if NPCs had any good or useful information.

The party started in a woods SW of Elblag, having been run out of that city by the 3rd MRD. They had a BMP and a HMMWV, with about 1/3 of full ethanol tanks. I had turned initial decision-making over to the player that wasn't 13, and was an Army vet. He played with Google maps, and planned a route SSE so as to avoid the Polish cavalry at Malbork before looping back to the Vistula. As there was a lake and a canal between them and the Soviets, they hoped they were staying on their side of it. He plotted a course that put them into patches of woods off country roads every 10km or so, to hole up for the night.

Dice served early to heighten the tension, their BMP had a suspension breakdown as they neared the end of their first leg. I allowed them to drag it off the road and into cover, but not very far from the road.

All the while, someone was watching them from the west. Every once in a while, their best spotter (Marine sniper gunny sergeant, of course) would see someone eying them with binos. (This was Polish cavalry, but only scouts with no interest in tangling with Americans headed away from them.)

A Polish refugee in the woods admitted that he had seen broken-down Soviet BMPs east of the canal, on the main route of the Soviets into Elblag (duh, this is the whole 9th Guards Army). With no suspension parts on hand, they sent 5 PCs in the Hummer to see if they could get lucky on the Soviet MSR. They got as far as the lake immediately south of Elblag, where they had a shouting-distance conversation with a Polish smuggler band (the smuggler had a wagon on a raft, towed by a motorboat). He was unhappy with them, and promised to bring some tracks tomorrow.

On to a village with a bridge, with a Soviet ammo depot on the east bank. Three PCs swam the canal in a midnight rainstorm, to see if they could raid the truckers and depot there. Instead, they triggered a firefight. All 3 PCs caught minor wounds while slaying lots and lots of entirely too gung-ho Soviets. The Hummer came blasting through town across the bridge with its MG roaring. Curiously, or not, the village militia didn't interfere with anyone or anything once the tracers started flying in large numbers.

When dawn came, the PCs were stripping the vehicles (a 2.5 ton with diesel in its tanks!) and bodies, the villagers came out to parley. They accepted some of the guns and ammo, offering light medical care and food and promising to redirect any Soviet comebacks elsewhere. They had no BMP tracks, but thought there was a Soviet vehicle repair depot 4km up the highway

Meanwhile, the grumpy smuggler tried to ambush the PCs with a Soviet horse patrol. Instead, that patrol failed to notice the 2 Marine snipers hiding behind them and settled down at really short range. You can guess how that ended: all the Soviet patrol wiped out (1 Marine slightly wounded), the smugglers wiped out and their boat adrift.

Next game, the PCs are feeling gung-ho themselves, wanting to hunt down the rumored Soviet AFV repair depot after they rest up, brew some ethanol for a fuel reserve, and heal their minor wounds. I'll be reporting back in 3 weeks.

GM asides: I'd be strongly tempted to abandon the BMP, throw everything onto the deuce-and-a-half with diesel in its tanks, and keep moving south. Also, since they could have captured the motorboat, and they have to cross at least two rivers, including the wide Vistula, before getting back to friendly lines, I'd want to put that on one of the trucks or trailer for later use. I was really surprised when they handed the boat over to the refugee who helped them earlier.

Evil GM asides: This is the early stages, when they get to collect stuff and think themselves powerful. Soon, I will show them some serious firepower and watch them scurry in terror! {rub hands, chuckle, rumble of thunder & lightning}

Rules thoughts: Oh, yeah, bullets don't hurt so much when everyone rolls 2d6 (AK74s & M16s) in v2. The .50 cal stuff really puts NPCs down, though.

[Raellus]

Cool, man. Elblag is fast becoming a classic T2K hot-spot! Keep us posted.

[Legbreaker]

Rules thoughts: Oh, yeah, bullets don't hurt so much when everyone rolls 2d6 (AK74s & M16s) in v2. The .50 cal stuff really puts NPCs down, though.

Don't forget knockdown and stun! They can really screw PCs up.
One of my players (US Marine Sniper) thought he could get away without wearing any armour, not even a helmet. First contact with a handful of AK-74 armed marauders soon set him right.
Another PC was stripped of their armour when captured by KGB agents in Krakow. Was tortured for about four hours before they were rescued by the other PCs - were more upset over the loss of their kevlar than anything that had occurred!

And shotguns at close range! All I have to say about that is OUCH!!!

[DocSavage45B10]

Rules thoughts: Oh, yeah, bullets don't hurt so much when everyone rolls 2d6 (AK74s & M16s) in v2. The .50 cal stuff really puts NPCs down, though.

Has anyone tried using D10s instead of D6 for damage dice

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Has anyone tried using D10s instead of D6 for damage dice

Nope but I do drop the number of hit points the PCs get - when their head only has hit points equal to their CON score, they get a bit worried about blows to the head let alone being hit by bullets.

[Adm.Lee]

Don't forget knockdown and stun! They can really screw PCs up.

Yeah, that was a rude surprise. They only took minor wounds, but the "flat out for the rest of the turn" was a shock.

DocSavage, yes, I've thought out either using d10s, or allowing the d6 to "explode" (roll again on 6s). Not doing it this time around.

[Adm.Lee]

Session 3 report

I ran again today. The grown-up veteran of the game and the guy playing the two Marine snipers were absent, but I added another 7th grader who couldn't make the last two games. I let him pick from the unplayed PCs for this game.

First off, I had planned two main events, plus the inevitable travel encounters. A refugee they'd befriended wanted them to follow him home (and run off those pesky Soviets and set him up as village chief), as there had been a Soviet vehicle park near there. They did want BMP track-links to get their derelict moving again. So they decided to camp for three days (brew some more methanol) before heading for town.

The other encounter was a result of me trying to think through "what would the Soviets be doing" To my mind, the Ninth Guards Army was intent on rolling past Elblag and the 2-2 Marines' outpost and meeting XI US Corps to the west. That meant two divisions could keep rolling west over the bridges, while 3rd MRD mopped up and reorganized around Elblag. That translated to 1 battalion being detailed to patrolling into the area where the PCs now were. I rolled some dice, to figure out strengths and weapons available to this battalion (let's call it 3d battalion, 9th MRR). Then, I had an idea. I rolled some dice to see if it was feasible. (My rule is: roll a d20-- high means it's a good idea, or the stuff is available!) A die-roll of 20 told me that the battalion had a reasonably intact LAV-25 at their disposal. Hmm, and a lot of Marine gear is recently captured, and I bet there's a few English-speaking officers around.

Thus was born Major Volokov, a Leningrad-born intel officer from Frontal Aviation, now working for the Army. I drew high Sociable cards for him, so he's interested in rounding up prisoners, rather than kills. He took as many English-speakers as possible, filled out a platoon with riflemen and equipped them all with NATO helmets, flak jackets, Marine jackets and M16s. The plan was to pretend to be Marine stragglers and bring Marines in close, where they could be outnumbered and convinced to surrender. Moving only at dawn and dusk, they hoped poor visibility would help the deception. Of course, a large number of player characters would have different ideas....

It didn't quite work, and the resulting firefight took up the whole gaming session. I let each player (5) take one of the 12 PCs, and those were the ones on watch that night. They heard the LAV approaching, but didn't recognize the sound. When they did see it in the dawn after their last night of intended camping, the range was barely 100 meters. The players thought they might be more Marines, and so they called out, and some approached the road when hailed in English. And when called on to surrender, the shooting started at point-blank range.

The kid manning the SAW hosed down two fireteams really quickly, including the sneaky Major, the guy with the sniper rifle shot from the woods, and the others traded shots up close. Nearly all of the PCs were hit early, and most were hit often. The Barrett could not penetrate the LAV's armor, but the M203 gunner immobilized the LAV. One kid tried to start their HMMWV in order to run down some of the riflemen. This resulted in him unconscious at the wheel with the engine running amid the enemy troopers.

Later shots with the 40mm wrecked the LAV's interior, but could not stop the MG fire. As some player characters were knocked out with serious wounds, I let them bring in their backup characters, running up from their camp in the woods. One of the enemy was able to wrestle his way into the still-running HMMWV and drive away with it (oops, there went half of the food and all the reserve ammo!). The last two Russians in the LAV surrendered, but there weren't so many conscious PCs to accept the surrender.

There were 8 Soviets still alive and taken prisoner, only 3 conscious (good thing one was a medic). Only 3 of 12 PCs were untouched, 3 had serious wounds. The players' Hummer was gone, the LAV was unusable for a long time, and their BMP still needed a track. Their sole remaining vehicle is a 2.5-ton, now going to be full of all their gear.

The ranking prisoner informed the players that they still needed to surrender, as there were other platoons to the north and south who would be coming to check out the gunfire soon, and the rest of a battalion out there. The players are now thinking of running for it. Right now. I didn't get a decision about the prisoners, but I think they will insist on staying put, with or without the Americans. Their medics will be coming soon, after all.

Looks pretty grim for our heroes. I think I'll hurry them along with a mortar barrage

[Raellus]

The other encounter was a result of me trying to think through "what would the Soviets be doing" To my mind, the Ninth Guards Army was intent on rolling past Elblag and the 2-2 Marines' outpost and meeting XI US Corps to the west. That meant two divisions could keep rolling west over the bridges, while 3rd MRD mopped up and reorganized around Elblag.

That's exactly what I envision the Soviets doing.

Thus was born Major Volokov, a Leningrad-born intel officer from Frontal Aviation, now working for the Army. I drew high Sociable cards for him, so he's interested in rounding up prisoners, rather than kills. He took as many English-speakers as possible, filled out a platoon with riflemen and equipped them all with NATO helmets, flak jackets, Marine jackets and M16s. The plan was to pretend to be Marine stragglers and bring Marines in close, where they could be outnumbered and convinced to surrender. Moving only at dawn and dusk, they hoped poor visibility would help the deception. Of course, a large number of player characters would have different ideas...

This is crazy. I was toying with the idea of sending some bogus "Marines" into my players' lines but not quite on this scale. I didn't go through with it, though. If you don't mind, I think I would like to steal your idea for a later encounter.

[pmulcahy11b]

This is crazy. I was toying with the idea of sending some bogus "Marines" into my players' lines but not quite on this scale. I didn't go through with it, though. If you don't mind, I think I would like to steal your idea for a later encounter.

I've done a variation of that to players. The good guys were a Spetsnaz team that had defected to the NATO side, but still wearing Russian uniforms and kit and weapons. The bad guys were NATO stragglers who had turned marauder. They're in a vicious firefight, and the players show up in the middle of this. They don't know who to help.

[Adm.Lee]

That's exactly what I envision the Soviets doing.



This is crazy. I was toying with the idea of sending some bogus "Marines" into my players' lines but not quite on this scale. I didn't go through with it, though. If you don't mind, I think I would like to steal your idea for a later encounter.

Bwahahaha! I've got a psionic talent!

Go for it, really, I'm pleased to contribute, especially since your "Beach too far" has inspired this game in the first place.

Some details:
FWIW, I broke down 3-9 MRB as 3 companies of 60 men each, a 20-man recon platoon (horsed) and a mortar battery (4x82mm non-automatic, 1x120mm, all with horses for pulling and caissons). One company is holding the Vistula and Nogat bridges, one is garrisoning/mopping up Elblag, and one is patrolling to the south for Marine stragglers, west of the Elblag Canal. The recon troop is also patrolling, on the east bank of the Elblag Canal. The HQ and the big mortar are at Jelonki, where there is a crossing of the Canal. The 82mm mortars are attached to the sweeping company.

If you look at Google maps, there's a large lake/swamp and some woods south of Elblag. That's where my players went, but it's also an obvious place for stragglers to try and hide, so that's what the 7th company of the battalion is focused on.

That company split up- 1 platoon (and half the mortars) to the north, 1 to the south (with the other half of the mortars), and the 3rd tried the deception trick. I imagine Maj. Volokov is from Army HQ's GRU detachment, and he pulled some of his half-dozen English-speakers from the division, and/or Army HQ. I put a higher percentage of females in this platoon, figuring they were drafted as English-speakers.

(BTW, look up the canal and the lake south of Elblag. The lake is a moderately deep swamp, and the Canal has some sections that are a railway to carry boats overland. That was curious to read.)

Something else I learned from reading Wikipedia on the Elblag area. Since it used to be the dividing line between East and West Prussia, there is still a German-speaking minority. That's something else the GRU would be concerned about, so there could easily be another, German-speaking, cell looking to sniff out Prussian guerrillas.

FWIW, Maj. Ivan Sergeevich Volokov
Str 1 (autogun 0, armed martial arts 0, Pistol 2, Unarmed MA 1)
Agl 3 (Ground vehicle 3)
Con 3 (Combat Engineering 1, Swimming 3)
Int 7 (Observation 2, Streetwise 2)
EDU 6
CHA 7 (Act/bluff 1, Interrogate 4, Language (English) 7, Leadership 2, Persuasion 5)

10 Hearts, 2 Spades. 3 terms in Air Force Intelligence, but maybe I should have gone for a tour as an attache or illegal agent in America....

[Raellus]

I've done a variation of that to players. The good guys were a Spetsnaz team that had defected to the NATO side, but still wearing Russian uniforms and kit and weapons. The bad guys were NATO stragglers who had turned marauder. They're in a vicious firefight, and the players show up in the middle of this. They don't know who to help.

Wow, talk about a conundrum! Truly wicked, Paul.