[kcdusk]

Day 3 Morning Encounter
Waking up on day 3 of his journey, Geddes unzips his sleeping bag (+2 on survival roll sleeping on bare ground) and jumps into his thermals and fatigues (+1 modifier for RECON rolls) before the cold bites any deeper.

Over a cold breakfast, Geddes studies the map and his journey ahead. The journey breaks down into the following over the coming 6 days;

• 1 day marching through woods.
• 2 days marching through hills.
• One day in the mountains.
• One day in the hills.
• And lastly, one day through woods, before arriving at his destination which presents as “ruins” on his map.

Looking around to make sure nothing is left behind, Geddes hefts his backpack (-2 on mobility rolls while worn) onto his back, slings his FAL over his shoulder and starts off into the woods.

Following a single track, perhaps made by sheep or goats, Geddes walks amongst the trees as the sun rises.

Random encounter roll is 10 of spades which is That’s an Order. While playing the encounter out though, I mistakenly read the 10 Clubs encounter details, so I played through Murderous Basterds by mistake!

With my single character travelling off road, unknown to him a single NPC is ahead. Geddes gets to make a passive RECON roll to see who sees whom first. Passive RECON roll as follows;

Range 2D10 = 4 + 6 rolled = 100m as range for encounter.
Intelligence Die: A (D12)
Skill Die: Recon A (D12)
Modifiers: nill
Mod. Intelligence A (D12)
Mod. Skill Die: Recon A (D12)
Ammo Die:none
Roll:*4,3,NA therefore no success. Therefore Geddes is spotted first by the NPC.

Random roll tells me the NPC has an Uzi which is a bit of good news, because its range is 30m. The NPC decides to hold off on firing at Geddes and instead tries to ambush him/me (page 60 of the players manual).

The soldier attempting to ambush (called Waylaying in the player handbook) Geddes has Intelligence of C and Recon of C, so gets to roll D6+D6 hoping to get at least one 6 . Because that’s what he’ll need to roll to allow Geddes to get to within 20-50m and use his Uzi at short or medium range. There are no modifiers to the roll for allowing Geddes to get that close.

The NPC Waylaying roll is made and is an opposed roll, so Geddes gets an opportunity to spot the NPC and react first. The NPC performing the “waylay” action needs more successes than Geddes to not be seen.

NPC waylaying roll;

Intelligence Die: C (D6)
Skill Die: Recon C (D6)
Modifiers: nill
Mod. Intelligence C (D6)
Mod. Skill Die: Recon C (D6)
Ammo Die:none
Roll:*2,2,NA therefore no success. Meaning the NPC was unable to find a place to hide, and would be spotted automatically. I decide there really isnt time to try and find a suitable location before Geddes arrives on the scene.

To help the NPC I decide that the NPC will “push” the waylaying roll. They roll 2 x D6 again and score a single success.

Geddes now has to make a passive and unmodified recon roll in opposition to the NPCs success. 2 x d12s are rolled and failed (4 and 1). So the NPC has successfully ambushed Geddes.

Round 1
The NPC waits for Geddes to get to 30m range and then takes time for slow aim action, then fire.

Ability Die: Strength B (D10)
Skill Die: Ranged Combat D (D6)
Modifiers: -1 moving target = -1 overall
Mod. Strength B to C (D8)
Mod. Skill Die: Ranged Combat D (D6)
Ammo Die:4 – spray and pray!
Roll:*2,1,4,6,5,2. No hits. One suppression (for the 6) and 17 shots fired.

Geddes CUF is A (D12). Rolls a 3 which is a fail. Therefore is suppressed and drops prone, taking +1 stress and looses his fast and slow action this round.

Round 2
(looking back at this encounter I make a mistake here. Geddes should have lost his round 2 actions also due to suppression).

Initiative I am resolving by rolling CUF v CUF (I’m taking the time to try some house rules)

Geddes is D12 v NPV D8. (again looking back, Geddes had his backpack on so should have been a -2 due to being restricted. This is the stuff you find writing encounters up a few week after the actual game play and while still learning the game).

Geddes rolls a 2!
NPC rolls ….. a 1!
Geddes gets to act first.

Geddes fires at the NPC, range is 30m so is close range for his FAL.

Ability Die: Strength A (D12)
Skill Die: Ranged Combat A (D12)
Modifiers: Nill
Mod. Strength A (D12)
Mod. Skill Die: Ranged Combat A (D121)
Ammo Die:2
Roll:*12,4,6,3. So a hit due to rolling the 12 and additional point of damage for rolling 10 or higher. Then the 6 rolled on the ammo dice is either additional hit on same target or increase damage or hit second target in same hex. I choose to hit the same target a second time. 9 bullets fired.

The FAL does 3 points of damage.
First hit 3+1 = 4 points of damage to the torso. (again in hindsight this qualified as a critical hit that I missed in the moment!)
Second hit 3 points of damage to an arm.

As per page 74 of the players manual, the combination of above hits results in incapacitation for the NPC.

Geddes does a quick search of the unconscious man wearing Russian markings. Oddly Geddes only finds an M72 LAW with one round stashed nearby. Geddes leaves the Uzi, and props the soldier up against a tree, letting natural justice decide his fate.

Day 3 Daytime Encounter
Geddes continues to march through the woods into the day. Adrenaline keeping him moving forward, aware that the area he is pushing into used to be peaceful forest, but is slowly becoming badlands between two soon to be warring nations. Nothing could be taken for granted anymore.

Winding through the woods, Geddes notices a hard outline up ahead. Dropping to his knees, he can see the silhouette of a 4WD with some kind of HMG mounted on the back. The HMG is manned by a soldier, Geddes is sure there will be others nearby.

The range is 100m and Geddes ditches his backpack and readies the M72 he acquired earlier in the day. He takes aim at the gun truck up ahead.

Ability Die: Strength A (D12)
Skill Die: Heavy Weapon C (D8)
Modifiers: Nill
Mod. Strength A (D12)
Mod. Skill Die: Heavy Weapons C (D8)
Ammo Die:NA
Roll:*10,6,NA. The truck is hit with 3 successes.

Direct damage of the M72 is base damage +1 for each additional success, modified by armour and cover.

The M72 does 6 damage + 2 for the additional hits -1 armor penetration +1 for the 4WD armor for a total of 8 damage points.

The hit location on page 84 penetration table shows random roll of 5 means a cargo hit which absorbs 1 point of damage. Moving down the table, the next item hit is ammunition which absorbs 2 points of damage and then the suspension takes the remaining 5 points of damage which renders the suspension destroyed and the vehicle inoperable.

I calculate blast damage and all three NPCs are suppressed.

Geddes takes advantage of the eruption from the vehicle and what looked to be a solid hit. Birds take flight, black smoke from burning tyres perhaps starts to bellow up from the position. The soldier standing on the gun truck is no where to be seen. In the vacuum that follows, Geddes backtracks the way he has come to scout around the location giving it a good wide berth.

Evening encounter
Evening is approaching and Geddes wants to stay on time or ahead of schedule if possible, in case there are delays later. He decides to do a forced march (page 140).

Strength (D12) and Stamina (D12) are called on. 2xD12s are rolled and the result is 10+11 for 4 successes!

I decide that due to the number of successes, Geddes marches on into the night reaching the hills early before crashing for the night with no random encounter. Failure would have meant stopping and forced sleep.

When sleep actually comes, Geddes finds a spot out of the wind, in a slightly depressed ditch and settles in for the night. Survival roll to sleep on bare ground (page 149) with a +2 for the sleeping bag means D10+D12 becomes D12+D12. A 2 and 7 are rolled, so one success. Failure would mean no sleep for the night leading to potentially becoming sleep deprived.

Navigation roll page 140 is D10+D12 with +2 for having a compass so D12+D12. A 1 and 12 are rolled for two success. So Geddes is on track! Failure would mean he deviates from course, and likely being further away from his intended destination rather than closer.

Winter is coming to an end, but its still freezing at night. A survival roll verse the cold is called for per page 149 players manual. There is a +1 for having a blanket which sees D12+D12 rolled and a 6 and 8, so he survives the cold.

[B]Thoughts[/B];

• I have now been able to quickly trial hand to hand combat, ranged combat and heavy weapons verse a vehicle. My initial thoughts on the system are positive.
• This episode covers a single day. It was a long day for my PC, true he decided to include a forced march!
• Travel, sleep, navigation, and cold are briefly covered. There is more than just the enemy out there that can impact a PC.
• Geddes always seemed to be rolling a D12 or D10 – is he too powerful a character? I’d answer “no” at this stage. In designing my PC I always intended for him to be on foot, comfortable in the wilderness and living rough. Arguably walking cross country, sleeping under the stars and navigating off road is Geddes bread and butter so he should be skilled at these challenges. Also, I can see there are 3 or 4 or 5 die rolls each day that will be required to keep up this kind of travel. Even with good skills and favourable die rolls, at some point there will be a failed roll and some sort of impact on Geddes. This feels right to me, extended cross country walking can generally be done no problems, but over a few days I’m sure there will be some mishap to deal with.
• Further to the above I think the margin of error for Geddes is small. He is well skilled so getting favourable dice to roll. But just the percentages of something going wrong over time is high, and I expect those small failures will start to snowball into a larger impact. Lost sleep, getting lost, suffering from the cold are all little things that might impact. And that’s before any combat!
• I am also aware I am not tracking food or water. I am assuming he finds both along the way to keep my record keeping down this first time through.
• I intend to bring about some social interactions, which is where Geddes may have more difficult challenges. This is my own personal challenge because combat is easier to made decisions and dice out engagements. I struggle personally to do the same with social encounters. We’ll see, I am looking forward to it.