New to GMing T2K

[Gabe The Gun]

I am new to the T2K v1 system and am going to run a campaign for 4 of my friends, they each want to run 2 characters so thay can get more rolls for vehicles. Since I am new to the system should I allow this? My only reason for even thinking of letting them do this is because I am thinking " Good fucking luck on fueling all those vehicles!" Ha Ha. Anyways another thing I wanted to bring up is I am running this game starting with the module from the boxed game set, Escape from Kaliz. I would appreciate any input about running the system or campaign from any experienced GM's for I want to blow the minds of my players for they are all extremely excited about finally getting to play this game. Thank you Pmulcahy for all of your helpful info on your site and anyone who replies with any info. Also I will be posting regular updates and details about my game when we start in 2 weeks. Thanks everyone and take care.

[kato13]

I am new to the T2K v1 system and am going to run a campaign for 4 of my friends, they each want to run 2 characters so thay can get more rolls for vehicles. Since I am new to the system should I allow this? My only reason for even thinking of letting them do this is because I am thinking " Good fucking luck on fueling all those vehicles!" Ha Ha. Anyways another thing I wanted to bring up is I am running this game starting with the module from the boxed game set, Escape from Kaliz. I would appreciate any input about running the system or campaign from any experienced GM's for I want to blow the minds of my players for they are all extremely excited about finally getting to play this game. Thank you Pmulcahy for all of your helpful info on your site and anyone who replies with any info. Also I will be posting regular updates and details about my game when we start in 2 weeks. Thanks everyone and take care.

First off welcome aboard.

Second I would personally limit them to one character and maybe throw them a few NPCs (non player characters) and count them in the calculation for vehicle dice. I find that people play one character much better than trying to play two.

For the vehicle table if you want to give them a little variation you may want to use the Alternate Starting Vehicle Tables.

If you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask as we are a very helpful and supportive group.

[kota1342000]

I second that, welcome aboard!

In general, I only allow a player to run two characters if they can demonstrate they can make me and the rest of the group that he/she is capable of acting out two sets of traits and personalities. That rarely happens, and its tough as a GM too (which of your characters told the Krakow guard to pound sand?)
Though I think that Kato's idea is very likely the better idea, I say that if they want lots of vehicles...SURE! HAVE FUN! Youre absolutely right about fuel. Also think bad weather, being easily detected, ammunition, repairs, oh the list goes on and on.
As for Escape from Kalisz, theres lots of ways to have fun with the adventure and squeeze your players into other adventures. And its definately a good module if your players are combat hungry. I think the best piece of advice is keep everything moving fast. Don't let things bog down and keep the PCs running like hell.

[Cdnwolf]

"Sniff..sniff" Ahhhh virgin blood!!

The good thing about starting the game is that you have so much more information like satellite maps and references pages that we didnt have when the game originally came out.

Like how many people knew that just south of the town of Kalisz is a major dam that people can blow to flood the streets and slow down pursuit?

[weswood]

Welcome aboard. Got to go with the majority here, one player apiece, until you're all familiar with the game. That way you can concentrate on learning and getting used to a new system.

And vehicles??? Pahhhh! Make 'em walk!

[Adm.Lee]

What I learned PDQ in GMing Kalisz was to roll up a bunch of random encounters ahead of time (2 or 3 for hill terrain, some for woods, roads, etc.). Jot down the cargo loads in wagons/trucks, who's got heavy weapons, etc. If you don't use 'em all, keep them around for later. My group started finding derelict American vehicles, but couldn't keep them running for long. I did let them have an M1, but boy, did I make them work for fuel! I don't think they ever found any main-gun ammo.

Jeez, I wish I'd known about that dam! My original group would have gone for that in a heartbeat!

[Legbreaker]

One character per player is definitely the way to go with a couple of NPCs to pull guard duty when the PCs are out away from the vehicles and fill in the gaps in skills.

As for the major dam, it'd probably have already been attacked earlier in the war or is too substantial for the fairly limited amounts of explosives PCs are likely to be carrying. Depending on it's construction, several tonnes might be needed to make a dent in it.

I've had great success in minimising the equipment and stores PC groups have - limits them to just a few options the GM can easily predict and prepare for while keeping them hungry and taking more risks to acquire needed items.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Welcome aboard!! I hope you and the group enjoy Kalisz and all the chaos, mayhem and bloodshed that T2K can bring :)

Like the rest of the gang on here I'd limit them to one PC each to start with. My group has been playing together for about 10 years, and some of us have heading for 30 years gaming experience and we'd still mostly stick to one character each. Only time we would double up is if someone was missing and we needed their character played by some one else for a session.

Once again, welcome to the group, enjoy it here and take advantage of the info, tips, knowledge etc that everyone can provide - I know I do :)

[Targan]

I concur with the group's consensus - one character per player, but I like Kato's idea of allowing NPCs to be factored in for vehicle rolling purposes.

And welcome to the boards Gabe The Gun. I hope you can provide us with regular updates about how your campaign is going.

[leonpoi]

In my current game, which I unfortunately has been suspended because of work travel, had only 2 players. One player was new to the system and had one character, I also had 3 NPCs that I controlled. The other player rolled up a drafted doctor with no combat skills at all so he asked if he could control another character that would focus on fighting skills, i.e. he has 2 for a total of 6 in the team.

The guy with 2 characters does a pretty good job because when the combat starts he basically takes on the role of the combat character. his other medic character has good persuasion, leadership and other skills like that so he gets to be involved in a lot of the out of combat scenes with this character. The other player with one character has a very combat oriented character but is also the only one who speaks any Polish, so he is involved in most role-playing dialogue scenes too. The whole situation works quite well.

Having said that, I'd rule against it if you have enough people at your table. 4 is plenty so I strongly suggest letting the additional players be NPCs.

here are a few things you might also find useful:
a map of the are in a pdf (if you have pro you can edit it). I use it to keep track of what's where and where I can get info (which sourcebook) for a region.
http://sites.google.com/site/leonpoitw2k/Home/files/InteractiveCampaignMap.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Encounter tables in Excel. it's for 2.2 but it shouldn't be much different. No instructions but it also has a macro for motivations and a few other things.
http://sites.google.com/site/leonpoitw2k/Home/files/Encounters.xls?attredirects=0&d=1

[Marc]

Same here. One character per player. I’m used to play with novice players as I always enjoy introducing new blood to roleplaying games and I think that the best result is always achieved with one character per player. Be sure that each player is happy and comfortable with his/her character and use the NPCs as a help and as a way to introduce them to the Twilight world. Good and realistic NPCs can put the characters in situations they would never put themselves and they are a good card to play when the referee needs to guide the situation in one direction. A killed or injured NPC in the first session will make notice your players about the low value of a life in the Poland of 2000 and will keep their heads down. As a side note, players with two characters may tend to use one of them as a secondary character, as a “cannon fodder” or the coffee guy, with less willpower and personality that a good NPC controlled by the referee.

About the equipment and vehicles, I’ve never used the method described in the rulebook. My advice is always to be scrooge. Equipment, the same as initiative points and skill points, must be earned by the players. They will aprecciate any new piece of equipment they will be able to obtain in the future.



Like how many people knew that just south of the town of Kalisz is a major dam that people can blow to flood the streets and slow down pursuit?

Hmmmm...nice finding, Cdnwolf. I will consider the dam undamaged (or nearly undamaged) and as a possible target for my group of combat enginners in our current campaign.

[pmulcahy11b]

Like how many people knew that just south of the town of Kalisz is a major dam that people can blow to flood the streets and slow down pursuit?

How did the new guy just waltz in here and notice something we've been missing for 20+ years? That dam's just begging to be blown! :o

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Zalew Szale - Szale lagoon, not so much a dam as a flooded river plain used as a recreational lake for bird watching, fishing and swimming.
It's about 6 or 7 kilometres from the Kalisz city outskirts and from the best I can find, isn't particularly deep, something like 6 to 8 metres

[pmulcahy11b]

Zalew Szale - Szale lagoon, not so much a dam as a flooded river plain used as a recreational lake for bird watching, fishing and swimming.
It's about 6 or 7 kilometres from the Kalisz city outskirts and from the best I can find, isn't particularly deep, something like 6 to 8 metres

Are there any levees or steep banks that could be blown?

[Gabe The Gun]

Welcome aboard. Got to go with the majority here, one player apiece, until you're all familiar with the game. That way you can concentrate on learning and getting used to a new system.

And vehicles??? Pahhhh! Make 'em walk!

Ha ha! That was my first idea is to have thier asses humpin' it all over Poland but, after the revolt of telling them no vehicle rolls I had to put a stop to the whining by giving in. Thats ok Ill just blow thier vehicles up one at a time.

[Legbreaker]

Zalew Szale - Szale lagoon, not so much a dam as a flooded river plain used as a recreational lake for bird watching, fishing and swimming.
It's about 6 or 7 kilometres from the Kalisz city outskirts and from the best I can find, isn't particularly deep, something like 6 to 8 metres

I had a bit of a search around last night myself and came to the same conclusion. This isn't so much a dam as a flooded depression as SSC mentioned. The wall looks to be a gently sloping mound toped with a hard walkway/road surface.

Blowing it is likely to require many, many tonnes of explosive dug into the wall and the result wouldn't be a catastrophic flash flood, but a relatively gentle flow (I've seen very similar events IRL when earthen wall dams breach, and had the very unfun job of trying to block the breach with sandbags, rocks and loose earth).

The best that could be hoped for is making the downstream area a bit wet and marshy after about a day thereby preventing wheeled vehicles crossing the area. Tracked vehicles would also be wise to avoid it, but they might actually still get through.

In my opinion, breaching this dam is a waste of limited resources, especially in light of the extremely short amount of time the 5th has at the end.

[Cdnwolf]

??? I thought this was fiction.... IN MY CAMPAIGN its a whooping big dam and it helps delay pursuit when the commander uses all the excess ammo to blow it up.

[pmulcahy11b]

Well, fiction is good, in a measure. I personally wouldn't, under most circumstances, do wholesale earth resurfacing.

So it's sort of like Medina Lake here in San Antonio -- a flat-bottomed, shallow, really big pond that's more wetlands than anything else?

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Poland doesn't have a lot of traditional style dams in those areas because much of the terrain is flat or low hills. Someone once said that it's not surprising that it got invaded all the time, it's so flat that cavalry can sweep through most places.
I cannot be arsed arguing the whole "How you play your game/canon vs non-canon/fiction vs reality" debate. Suffice to say I was presenting the information that I had found - the GM can decide whether to use that information or not and should not think that my presentation is a criticism of their plans

As for levee banks and so on, no there are none that I could find, it's literally a flooded river plain. If you have Google Earth you can access some photos people have taken around the lake

[Legbreaker]

I'm with Stainless on this. The RL situation is that the dam is unsuitable for blowing, however do what you want in your own game. If however you're looking for as close to RL as possible, expect to need several tonnes of explosive planted deep within the earthen bank to blow it.
It might actually be simplier to just dig the bank away with a backhoe...

[kato13]

I personally would roll for a status of the dam.

First to see if it survived this far into the war and if it did what the condition might be. Who knows it might have been recently damaged by artillery fire and is getting weaker by the moment. Cue dramatic music and a cutaway to the dam leaking.

[pmulcahy11b]

It might actually be simplier to just dig the bank away with a backhoe...

Or an AEV...

[Legbreaker]

Yes, that would work...

Actually with so little fall from the dam, I can't see any reason it would have been attacked. It's absolutely useless as anything but a water supply to the local area. You're certainly not going to be running any hydroelectricity generators off it.