Short convention report

[Adm.Lee]

I got to run T2k, v.1, again today! Roman N. will be running a few more sessions later this week, as well.

At Origins, I ran a short adventure following up on a previous convention session. 3 years ago, I had a mixed group of American stragglers from the 5MD run out from Krakow and pick up Maj. Fillmore, the F16 pilot mentioned in "Free City." This year, they went to pick up the recon pod from his downed Viper.

1. Only 3 people signed up, all regulars to Roman & myself. That was a small challenge, so I let them run 2 pre-gen PCs apiece.
2. I thought I'd planned for most of their actions, but they still managed to do something I hadn't planned for ("let's exit that way, before the pre-planned encounter attacks us!"). All the more fun, they got to know they had "beaten" me.
3. The NPC veteran with the SVD really punished them, shooting out 2 tires on their HMMWV and seriously wounding 2 PCs at medium range. The dice were hot for that guy, even without aimed actions.
4. One PC was left behind, so I guess I need to roll another PC for next year's convention. The general idea, I think, will be a city fight in Krakow. Marauders attack, once they know that the player group has a few wounded?
5. I used a mishmash of v1 and v2 initiative rules, with poker chips. For each PC, there was a stack of 6 poker chips: white for hesitations and blue for actions. If they got hit, red chips would substitute for blues: 1 for a slight wound, and 2 more for serious.
6. I tried a new autofire rule, borrowing from v2 and Savage Worlds. Shooters had 3 options:
- single shot, which rolled % to hit as normal, but only did 4d6/3d6/etc. damage if it hit.
- 3-shot burst, which rolled up to ROF time, but a hit inflicted damage as written
- full spray, which used bullets = 5xROF, and rolled a d6: 1= hit as normal, under target's Coolness = suppressed for a round, or else no effect. A number of 8-meter hexes could be targeted equal to ROF.

This had two interesting effects: it allowed PCs to quiet mulitple NPCs, even if they were under cover and nearly unhittable, and it used up ammo at a rate I considered realistic. Entire belts were shot through by MGs, which should catch the eye of those concerned about supplies sooner or later.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Very interesting! Would like to hear more people talking about their non-computer sessions, that's for sure.

[Draq]

Indeed. Totally borrowing that.

[Ancestor]

1. Thank you for sharing. I, too, would also like to hear about everyone's real world gaming sessions.

2. I'm stealing your auto-fire rule. Much more realistic yet very simple to implement.

3. Just out of curiosity (and laziness) was there anything specific in the recon pod that the characters were assigned to recover?

[Adm.Lee]

Ancestor: They don't really know what's in the photo pod, except maybe the pilot. It must have been high-priority, to need one of the last flying planes in NATO. As a GM, I haven't really defined it, beyond it being taken before the 2000 summer offensive. I have the vague idea that it should be of the Pact rear area, perhaps the 4th Guards Tank Army (moving or not?), but more likely the Red Bear's army (moving or not?).

As such, the information is dated by August 2000, but not many people really know that yet. OTOH, a set of pictures of Gen. Chelkov's deployments (defensive & dug in vs. ready to move west) might be very useful to the Soviets. I suspect even the DIA guys in Krakow don't know or weren't briefed on the mission, and certainly don't know the results.

I have ideas about next year's game already, perhaps the same characters will resume the merchant convoy escort job that was their "cover" on the way to Myslenice. They can deal with either marauders south of Krakow, while waiting to return to the city, or maybe the Soviet paras I sent on the same photo-recovery mission will figure it out and track them to the south. I'd like to do something like an extended urban gunbattle, so maybe a ruined
factory complex or apartment/hotel block? I am open to suggestions.

Side note: Since several of the same players come back to the event year after year, and I am using the same pre-gen PCs, I let the players add some % points to skills, in lieu of experience points, and they put their names on (1 each) character sheets. They will get first call on those PCs in future games, so this will be more like a running campaign.