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Old 08-19-2021, 03:02 AM
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ChalkLine ChalkLine is offline
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Safe at last!

So, the PCs have fought their way across the hell of Twilight 2000 and have re-joined a military unit. Now, they can rest and get back to soldiering, getting ordered around and inevitably losing a lot of their agency . . . .

We can't have that now, can we?

First off, the good bits. The PCs should be rewarded. They shouldn't strive for something and be penalised for doing what they were expected to do. They probably have a lot of stuff they've accumulated and you want to prune that away. I'd do so but reward them by upgrading a significant bit of kit. Have the unit gift them something hardcore like an M2 Bradley if you feel the need to take a bunch of stuff away so they don't feel cheated.

Now, do some housecleaning. Players operate best when they are mean and lean. Cutting away NPCs and excess vehicles/kit makes them have to actually get out in the weeds and adventure again rather than just detailing a bunch of drones to do stuff for them. Don't kill these people off, send them elsewhere so the players are a small tight unit once again.

Now, time to pull the house down.

The unit they rejoin has a much-respected commander and a few sub commanders. You can crib wildly off RE Howard's Conan books here by making each of these sub commanders either a NATO national and/or specialist troop type. Each of them has adherents, fiercely loyal to themselves (this is in all Conan's intrigues). Take the time to let the PCs get to know these people. Now, something happens. Maybe Spetznaz/partisans get in and kill the commander. Maybe there's an internal revolution. Maybe one sub commander kills another and the overall commander dies in the crossfire. However the CO is dead and that's vital as he was the glue that held everyone together.

At some point one guy who may or may not be the guilty party fingers the players as the cause. The unit dissolves into internecine fighting but significantly all parties are gunning for the players. The fact that a civil war is going on means they can't combine to take the players out in a coherent fashion and gives the PCs time to slip away and hit the road again, maybe whacking one of the treacherous bastards on the way out and increasing the mayhem.
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