Scenario - what would you do?

[kato13]

kcdusk 12-03-2005, 10:17 PM I've got two rangers behind enemy lines, in woodlands. Random encounter calls up a roadblock, so i say that they have come parrallel to a road and there is a roadblock up ahead. The encounter rolls generate 8 soldiers with a PK machine gun, random chance roll says the Rangers have come up from behind the roadblock (I see the RB as some sandbags on either side of the road, PK dug in a little, purpose is to check traffic between two towns). Distance is 60m when the rangers detect the roadblock and the soldiers have not detected them.


The rangers decide to withdraw quietly backwards. one will creep back while the other covers, then vice versa, until they are 100m from the roadblock when they cannot be seen at all.


As the Ref, i decided the ranger trying to sneak away needed to pass an average stealth roll. His stealth was 12 and he rolled a 15, so they were seen. I rolled D100 and rolled a 90 and so determined the first ranger was 90% of 100m - 60m = 36m plus the orginal 60m away when he was spotted.


So now i have one ranger 60m away and the other 96m away for range purposes. Does this all sound plausible? Would you have made the ranger roll for stealth or just accepted they could creep away without being seen?

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copeab 12-03-2005, 11:31 PM As the Ref, i decided the ranger trying to sneak away needed to pass an average stealth roll. His stealth was 12 and he rolled a 15, so they were seen. I rolled D100 and rolled a 90 and so determined the first ranger was 90% of 100m - 60m = 36m plus the orginal 60m away when he was spotted.


So now i have one ranger 60m away and the other 96m away for range purposes. Does this all sound plausible? Would you have made the ranger roll for stealth or just accepted they could creep away without being seen?


I would have made the guards make Observation rolls to actually spot the ranger (probably Difficult given the cover). If none of them made it, they might assume it was an animal and send one or two to check it out, or just alertly wait for a few seconds.


Then again, I'm not big on random encounters, especially ones that can be extremely lethal.


Brandon

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kcdusk 12-04-2005, 12:54 AM I've gone back to using some random encounters, just to see what crops up. Plus i've almost extingushed the list i made up.


I was more interested in knowing if i was tough on the rangers. I checked for stealth, Copeab would have checked against the soldiers observation ... mmm ... on one hand i would rather check against the PCs attribtues since they are the centre of the game, but also the NPCs would have had a harder time detecting the PCs than they would have being stealthy so maybe i should have used there observation to give the rangers a bigger chance.


Bottom line is, given the rangers were 60m away in woods i probably should have made the stealth attempt average (*2) rather than difficult (*1). My original post should have said they had to make a difficult rather than average stealth attempt.


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Badbru 12-04-2005, 01:40 AM I would have made the Rangers roll their stealth and then used those results to modify the observation rolls of the roadblock troops. (Doesn't everyone?)


Rangers critical failure = Troops automatic spot


Rangers fail = Troops observation roll is one level easier


Rangers pass = Troops observation roll either the base level or one level harder depending on....


Rangers critical success = Troops observation roll one or two levels harder, (see rangers pass )

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copeab 12-04-2005, 02:02 AM I was more interested in knowing if i was tough on the rangers. I checked for stealth, Copeab would have checked against the soldiers observation ... mmm ... on one hand i would rather check against the PCs attribtues since they are the centre of the game, but also the NPCs would have had a harder time detecting the PCs than they would have being stealthy so maybe i should have used there observation to give the rangers a bigger chance.


Bottom line is, given the rangers were 60m away in woods i probably should have made the stealth attempt average (*2) rather than difficult (*1). My original post should have said they had to make a difficult rather than average stealth attempt.



Like the other poster I would have had rolls against Stealth *and* Observation. Admittedly, T2K mechanics aren't set up for opposed rolls. The more correct thing to do would have been to use Observation of the guards as a penalty to the Stealth roll.


The Stealth roll probably should have been Average, given the range and cover, despite it being in daylight.


Brandon

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ChalkLine 12-04-2005, 02:19 AM My first thoughts are that if the roadblock contains experienced enemy, they'll have a hidden OP out on the road in both directions in ambush/overwatch, even if it's just one guy in a spiderhole. These are your main worry, as they're as essentially hidden as the Rangers are. Also, if they're part of a unit, they may well be in a patrol route that occasionally checks up on them.

Logically, they're there to interdict the road, you don't just park up in a scratch hole and congratulate yourself for being an insurmountable problem. They're just a target. Remember that the NPCs in many cases have survived four years of the apocalypse war, they're fantastic survivors and soldiers of the sort not found in peacetime. Luckily, your PCs are too.


So, if they see sign of a roadblock, they should know that most of the enemy's assets are not yet found, and may well be checking them out as they're checking them out. If it's not vital, your Rangers should immediately backtrack over known ground and use another route. This should be what makes T2K travel so slow, the constant covering of old ground. In my opinion they did the absolute right thing, as did the GM although how you handle detection is up to you.


My PCs fear nothing so much as the dreaded PKM GPMG, but we use CP rules where a PKM can saturate the area with slugs.

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Badbru 12-04-2005, 07:02 AM As the Ref, i decided the ranger trying to sneak away needed to pass an average stealth roll. His stealth was 12 and he rolled a 15, so they were seen.


Ummmn...Which rules set are you using? Rolling 15 for an average task when the asset is 12 means he succeeded. Ave is asset x2 in this case 24 he could only have failed on a "fumble" d20=20 result. So to be nit picky.


Also I'm with Chalkline. The PK ought to have been dug in offset to the road on either flank, probably the higher side of the road if there was one and if commo allowed the roadblock should have had an "op" some distance infront and behind out of the PK's arc of fire. If they stumbled upon the four guys left available to actually man the barricade then they were in it deep in my humble opinion. But then it is a likely occurance as the op's should be difficult or formidible to spot (ditto the PK possition) and even the roadblock itself should come as a bit of a surprise to prevent people easily avoiding it.

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kcdusk 12-04-2005, 03:25 PM Yep, your right. I did try to correct myself in the last post. The original attempt was Difficult, not average as i said at the start.


Man, you guys make roadblocks hard! I'm complaining about a roll of the dice and you guys are making mince meat of the actual encounter setup! Great ideas there, players wont know what hit them next time they come across one of these, hehe.

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