Alternative scenario ideas for Free City of Krakow

[Mahatatain]

In a couple of months’ time I’m going to take over the GMing slot for my weekly face to face gaming group and I’ve persuaded them to give T2k a go. My plan is to start with my own tweaked version of Escape from Kalisz and to then (hopefully) lead the players to Krakow.

I’ve never felt comfortable with Operation Reset though so I was wondering what other scenario ideas players had for either getting PCs to Krakow or to involve the PCs in once they’re in the city. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have several ideas of my own but it’s always good to borrow ideas from other GMs/players.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

[kato13]

You are not alone in your discomfort with reset. I think the a very similar question has been asked twice before.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=1144

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=351

[Mahatatain]

Thanks - I'd seen the second thread already but I'll go and read through the first.

Thanks.

[Adm.Lee]

One thing that I have thought of came from one of the small towns outside Krakow. There's a USAF Major being held there after he ejected from his F-16. I think the original module said he'd been there for years, the local government was waiting to hand him over to the Soviets at Lublin.

I felt like altering that-- what if he was shot down early in 2000? Perhaps the last air sortie of USAFE-- what could be so important? I'm thinking he was on an armed recon mission, taking pictures of the Soviet reaction to the summer offensive, and maybe bombing a bridge on the way. Is there some vital information on the photo-pod that might still be on his wrecked jet? (Perhaps that the Red Bear's army is NOT coming west?)

Anyway, going out to get him, and maybe going out to get other stragglers, might be a good op for the local DIA or CIA to send the players on.

I always felt sorry for the pilot-- I think I've run FCoK at least 3 times, and no one's gone to rescue him. So I'm running a game at Origins this year to go get him out.

[Olefin]

it also depends on how you escape - when my characters did the original module we ran into both Zulu and the Cav as well as springing a bunch of POW's - so when we got to Krakow (which I havent gotten to yet in my retelling of my original campaign as we did Black Madonna first, not Krakow) we had basically an infantry company with some armor with us.

With the size of our group, in addition to Reset, Krakow hired us to go after several marauder groups in the area, which they then paid us with in food and supplies.

You also could play it without Reset by instead meeting up with the DIA guys and have them hire you out basically as his personal hit squad - for instance going after the KGB.

[Matt Wiser]

We didn't do the Reset angle in our CSU Fresno group, but did rescue the pilot (trojan horse trick with our Soviet armor and defectors). And we were confused with the people who were in on Reset: a couple of ambushes out of side streets, having a member kidnapped by some KGB muscle-and rescuing that person, all looking for the documents. And during that time, the folks who had the documents got their material delivered quietly and then left. After the adventures were over, we all thought that the GM had set us up: we were the bait to draw attention (and fire) away from those who actually had the papers.

[Olefin]

Ever seen the movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead? Its a great movie where they tell the story of Hamlet from their viewpoint as witnesses to the great events of the play.

Something like that is what you described - i.e. you didnt get Reset instead you were only witnesses or outside participants looking int at those who did have it and tried to get it.

That would be a great way to approach many of the modules if you think about it. i.e. doing Pirates of the Vistula but not on the boat, instead as another party of Americans seeing the boat getting attacked and you have to either decide to save the day or scavenge whats left afterward.

[Mahatatain]

Thanks for all the suggestions – very interesting.

One thing that I have thought of came from one of the small towns outside Krakow. There's a USAF Major being held there after he ejected from his F-16. I think the original module said he'd been there for years, the local government was waiting to hand him over to the Soviets at Lublin.

I felt like altering that-- what if he was shot down early in 2000? Perhaps the last air sortie of USAFE-- what could be so important? I'm thinking he was on an armed recon mission, taking pictures of the Soviet reaction to the summer offensive, and maybe bombing a bridge on the way. Is there some vital information on the photo-pod that might still be on his wrecked jet? (Perhaps that the Red Bear's army is NOT coming west?)

Anyway, going out to get him, and maybe going out to get other stragglers, might be a good op for the local DIA or CIA to send the players on.

I always felt sorry for the pilot-- I think I've run FCoK at least 3 times, and no one's gone to rescue him. So I'm running a game at Origins this year to go get him out.
I had forgotten about Major Andrew Filmore, who's being held prisoner in Myslenice, and so I went back and re-read the brief details in the book. Your memory is slightly incorrect however as there is no mention of how long he has been there - all it says is that his F-16 was critically damaged over Romania and that the leaders of the town want to hand him over to Soviet forces. That implies that he was captured after the Polish 8th MRD declared itself independent along with Krakow in Oct-99.

Your tweaked background to Filmore therefore works well and is certainly something that I will consider, particularly if my PCs end up working for the DIA or CIA. Thanks.

[Chris]

Whatever you do, put Skeletor into it somehow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szkieletor

That was a real WTF moment when the team was asking locals about it.

Also the Forum Hotel, sadly, they never visited it.
http://architecturerevived.blogspot.com/2009/09/hotel-forum-krakow-poland.html

[Mahatatain]

Chris - thanks for these two locations. I will have to see what use I can make of them. They both sound like they have potential!

[Legbreaker]

I once "guided" a group of PC's by making it known they had a Spetznaz unit on their tails. If I needed them to go east, I'd let them hear a rumour of the unit to their west for example. Needless to say, the Spetznaz never did actually catch up.

Rumours of superior forces, valuable caches, even something as simple as picking up a hitch-hiker who just wants to go to the third village down a particular road can all be great tools.

[Mahatatain]

I once "guided" a group of PC's by making it known they had a Spetznaz unit on their tails. If I needed them to go east, I'd let them hear a rumour of the unit to their west for example. Needless to say, the Spetznaz never did actually catch up.

I'm not planning on using RESET so if I was to follow this route I'd need another reason to have a Spetznaz unit in the vicinity and also to have them interested in the PCs. It's not something that I'm looking to do however - the campaign I'm planning will be much more about soldiers from regular units stuck behind enemy lines rather than a story about some "fantastic" item that would be of enough interest to lead to the commitment of special forces reserves. My players haven't really played T2k before so there is enough mileage in the setting as it stands.

Rumours of superior forces, valuable caches, even something as simple as picking up a hitch-hiker who just wants to go to the third village down a particular road can all be great tools.
These however will work perfectly well for guiding the kind of group of PCs I'm anticipating and were the kind of thing that I was thinking of. Well the rumours of superior forces and valuable caches were - the idea of a hitch-hiker is an interesting one that I hadn't thought about and is one that I'll think about further. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Panther Al]

I once "guided" a group of PC's by making it known they had a Spetznaz unit on their tails. If I needed them to go east, I'd let them hear a rumour of the unit to their west for example. Needless to say, the Spetznaz never did actually catch up.

Rumours of superior forces, valuable caches, even something as simple as picking up a hitch-hiker who just wants to go to the third village down a particular road can all be great tools.

Never thought of spetz being a way to guide PC's in the direction I want them to go. Consider the idea stolen! :)

[Targan]

I once "guided" a group of PC's by making it known they had a Spetznaz unit on their tails. If I needed them to go east, I'd let them hear a rumour of the unit to their west for example. Needless to say, the Spetznaz never did actually catch up.
I did something similar. When Major Po and his merry band were performing their mission to set a backpack nuke at the Pact Reserve Front HQ at Lublin they knew they were being tracked by Spetznaz and had been for some time. When they were exfiltrating out of Lublin they knew the Spetznaz weren't far behind and a couple of long-range firefights ensued (which slowed their escape down). When the nuke went off Po and his men (who knew exactly when the detonation would occur) weren't as far out as they had hoped to be but they were in adequate cover. The Spetznaz weren't and most of them would've died slow, miserable deaths in the weeks afterwards.

[Legbreaker]

I'm not planning on using RESET so if I was to follow this route I'd need another reason to have a Spetznaz unit in the vicinity and also to have them interested in the PCs.

Reset doesn't have to be involved, in fact there doesn't even need to be any reason the PCs know about at all! Could be the pursuers simply heard a rumour the PCs have something they want. Could be an item, could be information, could be an NPC (or even PC) they've picked up in their travels. Doesn't even need to be Spetznaz, could be a group of slavers, militia, even plague ridden refugees seeking the PCs medical supplies and food. Might even be zombies...

There's soooooo many things, or even just rumours of something that can keep PCs heading in the right direction. Could be a Spetznaz unit was initially on their trail, but were taken out in a firefight by a PC friendly unit. That unit is now attempting to catch up with the PCs but the PCs aren't aware of the change and just keep running. The misconception could be continued by the pursuers running into trouble near PC friendly villages they've visited and the sounds of battle carry across a couple of miles to the PCs.

Maybe a it's a lone assassin/sniper on their heels, and the occasional hunter accidentally missing their prey with the round striking their vehicle being enough to keep the PCs paranoid and on the move. As a GM you can have a lot of fun playing with PCs and get them very, very jittery. :p

[Cdnwolf]

I am trying to tie Black Madonna in with Krakow because my group has to pass by where Black Madonna is before getting to Krakow. I also change the papers from rebuilding a computer to a new form of biological warfare weapon .... I might have the characters get infected and get healed miraculously by the Relic.

[weswood]

One thing about using superior forces, the PCs may decide they've had enough and ambush said superior forces. That happened to me years ago running an AD&D campaign. I set up a group of evil NPCs that were just a bit tougher than the PCs and used them to influence the PCs. Until an ambush and a Mexican stand off in some no name village.

On the other hand if Spetnatz are chasing the PCs, it might be from actions the PCs have taken, "foraging" from villagers, or even just a case of mistaken identity of marauders.

[Mahatatain]

Personally I'm always wary of using Spetsnaz as antagonists for a couple of reasons.

Firstly it always seems a bit Hollywood to me to have some Spetsnaz turn up, particularly if there isn't a reason to justify them being there. RESET is a good reason and Black Madonna is another one but it's easy for a GM to fall into the trap of over using Spetsnaz when there is no real reason for them to be interested in the PCs. Spetsnaz can sometimes be used by a GM as some kind of bogeyman and that lessens their impact to me.

Secondly how do the PCs actually know that they are being chased by or keep engaging a group of Spetsnaz? In my imagination a unit of Spetsnaz in the year 2000 will be hard to tell from another group of pro-Russian/Soviet soldiers who are well equipped, well trained and well-motivated. They're also highly likely to try to blend in and not look like who they really are!

To me there are a lot of alternatives that make more sense than Spetsnaz.

[Mahatatain]

I am trying to tie Black Madonna in with Krakow because my group has to pass by where Black Madonna is before getting to Krakow. I also change the papers from rebuilding a computer to a new form of biological warfare weapon .... I might have the characters get infected and get healed miraculously by the Relic.
For the campaign I'm currently planning I'm going to do this in a slightly different way/order - I'm going to get the PCs to Krakow (not using RESET) and then send them to recover the Black Madonna from there. Essentially I'm going to use it as an expedition mission from Krakow rather than something that the PC's "bump" into.

[Legbreaker]

Personally I'm always wary of using Spetsnaz as antagonists for a couple of reasons.

Like I said, it doesn't have to be Spetznaz. Just the rumour of them might be enough, or just substitute an enemy of your choice. Doesn't even need to be human, but could be the rumour of a recent nuke sending fallout their way, a rapidly spreading disease, flash flood, downed bridges, a militia checkpoint blocking their preferred route, etc, etc, etc.
There's literally as many options available as your imagination can supply.

[Mahatatain]

the rumour of a recent nuke sending fallout their way
That's one that hadn't occurred to me.

Thanks.

[Raellus]

Also, some player groups may look at Spetznaz as a challenge that they wish to accept and move towards a confrontation with them instead of away.

Another push factor you could use could be an outbreak of a really nasty epidemic disease, drug-resistant pneumonic plague for example.

[Legbreaker]

And don't forget pull factors which can be real, rumoured, or a total fabrication.
Could include a cache of gold, fuel, food, badly needed parts, shelter, prisoners to liberate, somebody with needed information, medicine or medical assistance, etc.
Or perhaps a combination of push and pull. Perhaps one PC gets bitten by a dog and the party medic diagnoses (rightly or wrongly) rabies. Rumour places the only known rabies vaccine in the direction you want them to go. Alternatively, some kind of slow acting poison could be used, radiation sickness, or perhaps even one PC with some kind of mental disorder/diabetes/etc who's just run out of their meds?

[Targan]

The rumour tables included the modules in that AO (Free City of Krakow, Pirates of the Vistula, The Ruins of Warsaw, Black Madonna) have some great ideas in them. One of the rumours from those tables (that one of the nuclear demolition charges placed in Czestochowa by withdrawing NATO forces failed to detonate and remained intact) was the seed for the excellent Lublin mission that I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread. They are well worth trawling through for ideas.

[Mahatatain]

I need to go back and re-read the rumour tables! Some of them might just be true! :)

[Matt Wiser]

Some of those rumors are definitely worth going over. And a few might just be true. In fact, the one about the second ADM being a dud might be true: and why a cruise missile was used a few weeks later to finish the job.

One rumor you could create: say you hear in Krakow that there's a POW camp down by the Czech Border: it's a real hellhole, with torture and other abuse rampant, prisoners worked to death, sadistic commandant, etc. And some of the prisoners are Americans. This can tie in with that Challenge article about a POW camp (Black Siberia). Hmm...new thread idea.

[M-Type]

My players just arrived in Krakow but an 'hour ago' (our sessions are from 7-9PM EST), so until next week I'm planning! I didn't use RESET, but I have my own story arc idea cooking. I don't want to give a lot away because they might see this, but it involves AvGas...stolen AvGas...that 'certain people' want their hands on.

[Mahatatain]

One rumor you could create: say you hear in Krakow that there's a POW camp down by the Czech Border: it's a real hellhole, with torture and other abuse rampant, prisoners worked to death, sadistic commandant, etc. And some of the prisoners are Americans. This can tie in with that Challenge article about a POW camp (Black Siberia). Hmm...new thread idea.
That's a nice idea and would work well as a "mission" for my PCs to be recruited for from Krakow (I hope that they'll end up based in the city for a while).

I didn't use RESET, but I have my own story arc idea cooking. I don't want to give a lot away because they might see this, but it involves AvGas...stolen AvGas...that 'certain people' want their hands on.
Possibly connecting to a certain helicopter?;)

On a similar vein I've been tempted to use the rumour of fuel tanks hidden in Nowa Huta in some way but I'm currently undecided. It always struck me as a rumour that obviously wasn't true so would need a convincing set up for my players to even regard it as potentially true.

[M-Type]

Partially correct. The helicopter is just one stop in the weaving mystery I hope to craft. Hopefully.

[Legbreaker]

In a game about 20 years ago, the PCs actually tried to steal the helicopter with mixed success. Problem was their pilot wasn't on board when the heli took off and the PC that did manage to jump on didn't realise that if you take out the pilot you're probably going to end up in a very bad place.... ;)