Overwintering

[kato13]

ChalkLine 12-22-2005, 05:55 PM With the scrounging and survival threads getting me thinking, has anyone done serious overwintering campaigns?


We did one where the PCs became the ORMO for a small town on the Wisla (Tarnobrzg), and had to organise food, security, fuel and shelter for everyone before winter froze everything in.


The best way I found is that the PCs should be officers, Captains work well, and have engineering competancies. Their rank allows them to boss NPC troops and give them strategic planning, but still particpate in combat ops.


I didn't give in and give them power over their civilian community, I made a civilian local government like a town council and mayor be their sounding board and , this stopped the PCs treating the civvies like military automatons.


Of course, the group started out with three players, not enough to be the security element of a phone booth, so the PCs had to find troops, train, equip and organise them in their task, as well their other tasks.


Here's some of the stuff they had to do:


- Organise a perimeter: The town had elements of the 38th TD lurking about, slowly starving and fighting itself. As winter came closer, they started to drift away but many did not or could not move, in most cases they aggressively tried to take the town's supplies. Also, the rapid organisation was detected by government troops, who massed in an effort to capture the rebellious town. The guys went for mutually supporting bunkers with dug in IFVs backing them up.


- Organise fuels stocks: I estimated that every person required about a ton of firewood for the winter, and the PCs had to go outside the perimeter to gather this wood.


- Organise foodstocks: Foor requirements are easy to calculate, I made sure there was shortfall do the PCs would have to raid somewhere and get the government's attantion.


- Organise troops: The PCs staged a raid on a POW camp to get troops, the POWs were doing forced labour and being fed the equivalent of 0.5kg per day, so the PCs command was a marked improvement. This let me introduce an informer into the group, as a PC had been suborned by the camp police. I made sure he was a plain jane soldier, not especially different in nationality or habits. The group also picked up some NATO and Pact stragglers, the latter were suspect when the informer's activities became obvious.


- Organise labour: Everyone had to do something, and the task of reclaiming damaged sections of town, establishing a hygiene regime, building defences and organising patrols became big, but was really rewarding in a game sense. The inhabitants had been brutalised and were not functioning as a community, given to burning valuable furniture as firewood and not following hygiene requirements. The PCs embarked on a campaign of morale boosting to encourage food production, reclaimation and improvement.


- Defend against the Final Encounter: The government troops made a big effort at a seige at the end of winter when the river had frozen over, the guys were driven back into street fighting and savage hand to hand in the trenches. They forced the government troops out only by making a deal with marauder units nearby to take the pressure off the town, dealing with the devil. In the end, they found a unit that was essentially decent men and women driven to extremes by their situation. In the spring, after months of checking them out, they handed ORMO duties over to the ex-maruaders and sailed downriver to new adventures.


I hope this gives people some ideas, it was the best non bought scenario I ran for the game.

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kcdusk 12-22-2005, 06:50 PM Christ my games are boring, linear, repeated efforts that lack flavour, thought, vision and ... and ... chutzpa!!!!



<hitting self on forehead>



<still repeatedly hitting self on forehead>



<round house kicking self to the face>

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DeaconR 12-23-2005, 08:33 AM Good thing you have access to a cool forum like this, huh Kcdusk? Seriously, I remember feeling the same way a few years ago, so don't worry about it too much, I think the way you ask questions and are trying to learn more about how to get more out of your game is cool.


Btw Chalkline, that sounds like it was a fun game! I like how you blended logistics and planning with giving the players mini adventures to do. Another btw: isn't Tarnobrzeg in the Vistula game occupied by a petty warlord? Did your players oust him or did you just change it to suit your campaign?


My players went through something similar but it was while they were with NORTHAG HQ during the last part of their stay in Europe. Basically I divided it partly into:


1. Training (basically the players justifying experience point use in some things like for instance the MI6 operative raising her unarmed combat skills)


2. Missions (the player group went on a couple of recon missions for the HQ)


3. Escorting staff officers on assessment missions to determine the levels of resources of local population. (this was actually a mini adventure in which the players learned that an allied officer was extorting from the local population and in fact was planning a mutiny of his troops)


4. General atmosphere: a sort of "Valley Forge" of NORTHAG, where the main object was survival of the remaining forces. Conveying the hostility of some of the German population, the occasional tension between allies, homesickness and weariness among the troops, struggle for a decent diet, warmth and safety. Bitter, bitter cold almost everywhere. Cold affecting vehicles and player stamina constantly. The "Bastogne" episode of "Band of Brothers" conveys something of how it was for my players. While the Soviet forces opposite were not seriously trying to take them on there were incidents, raids and the like. As well there were the marauders, mostly deserters from all and sundry in the area. A constant vigilance was at work; even at the HQ people were always at least lightly armed.

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graebardeII 12-23-2005, 10:02 AM With the scrounging and survival threads getting me thinking, has anyone done serious overwintering campaigns?

<snip>

I hope this gives people some ideas, it was the best non bought scenario I ran for the game.



Ever consider doing it again?

Grae

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ChalkLine 12-23-2005, 01:22 PM Yep, Tarnobrzg was one of those little two-hour-sideshows as the guys went downriver, until a BMP on the shoreline made a mess of the tug and the guys limped back upriver to the closest town where they'd made a good impression by booting out the marauders. The crew of the tug spent four months fixing her, finding parts and increasing it's survivability.

The last part of the Vistula scenario was decidedly nonstandard as the players steamed downriver with what was now a riverine home-made battleship and fifty combat crew, the little ship looked more like a Vietnam era monitor and the guys carefully scouted ahead in rubber duckies that scooted back to the tug whenever they came under fire, then they'd land a ground element and support it with the tug. The pirates copped a pounding, but command told them they were actually helping the Pact out by securing their rear areas and to cut it out!


Do it again Grae? Well, don't resign your Schlactebrucke subscription just yet.

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graebardeII 12-25-2005, 04:48 PM Do it again Grae? Well, don't resign your Schlactebrucke subscription just yet.


Resign? NEVER!!!!

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