[Raellus]

Childhood, as we know it, is a relatively recent invention. For most of human history, childhood ended at puberty, with boys and girls joining the workforce (the family farm, cottage industry, or with the advent of industrialization, on the factory floor). I imagine that the Twilight War would set childhood back at least a couple of centuries. With survival being much more challenging, I don't imagine many children going to school in the T2KU. Instead, I reckon that most kids would be forced to work- mostly in agriculture or doing manual labor in exchange for necessities- in order to support their families and themselves.

Then there's the somewhat overused tropes in fiction- that of children as hostages, or victims needing rescuing.

Here are some less common contexts in which T2K kids might be encountered.

Unit Mascots

I've seen multiple mentions in histories of war of units "adopting" orphans on campaign. You can see it in fiction, as well: there's the kid in the movie, The Green Berets, for example. I haven't seen it in a T2K campaign yet, but I could definitely see a young tag-along.

Brass Monkeys

This thread is inspired by a brief scene in the most recent episode of PBS' Frontline- a kid who looked to be around 10 or 12 picking spent cartridge cases off the ground and collecting them in an ammo box. I assume he's going to earn something for this scrap. In the T2KU, with settlements like Krakow manufacturing small arms and mortar ammo, I can imagine a market for brass. I can see kids employed in scavenging battlefields, paid in food, clean water, shelter, etc.

I can also see kids employed in the reloading of spent brass. There's a scene in Schindler's List when one of the Nazis tries to take some children to the killing floor but Schindler (or his accountant, I can't recall) saves them by saying that their small hands are essential for polishing the inside of shell cases.

Spies

There's an episode in Cornelius Ryan's Bridge Too Far (and in the film version, two) where a Dutch teenager assists the resistance by riding his bicycle past German billets and reporting the unit markings he sees. It's very dangerous, but I can envision all sides using kids to gather intel.

Child Soldiers

By child soldiers, I don't mean young draftees- it would not be uncommon, in some places- like Poland, for example- to see kids as young as 14 or 15 in uniform. I'm referring to even younger kids forced to bear arms and fight. Sadly, this is not uncommon, especially in modern times. The civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone have featured pretty horrifying examples of children press-ganged to fight. Some of the worst atrocities in both of the afore-mentioned conflicts were carried out by and on children.

ISIL is well-known for employing children as suicide bombers. Thankfully, I don't reckon that this would be too common in most campaign settings.

In a Pirates of the Vistula PBP I ran, I wanted to give my players an unusual/moral challenge so I had them encounter a force of child soldiers. I thought that this might encourage the use of diplomacy and/or subterfuge instead of force, but the players opted to shoot it out and the result was a bloodbath, with the kids coming off much the worse.

How have/could children featured in your T2K?