A ray of hope II

[Adm.Lee]

As I mentioned [URL="http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=3452"]here, I offered my son and his pals a T2k game for the summer. After Origins, I invited in group member Rnitze and his son, too. Character generation was yesterday, so we are on our way. I really wish I'd had more than one copy of the careers pages on hand, I had to go around the table to get everyone's terms in.

Rules are v.2.2 (mostly); I told them all to roll up 2 PCs, to allow for casualties. I was planning to run good ol' "Escape from Kalisz" but events intervened. Early on, at least two of them entered the Marines for their first terms, so I asked if everyone wanted to play Marines, rather than Army. Most said yes, so I will be shifting to make use of Raellus' "Task Force Inchon" concept. (Off to read that again tonight....)

As it is, we've got 7 Marines (1 Irish-born, 1 East German), 4 soldiers and a Navy Lt. j.g. Two of the Marines are a sniper team, 1 Marine and 1 soldier are engineers, and the ranking officer is an Army intel geek. They rolled for vehicles, and negotiated for a BMP-B (vice a Bradley) and a HMMWV.

Some of the guys started to get a glimmer of character-building through the lifepath system, using their choices in careers to build some story. One had 4 terms as a FedEx truckdriver before getting drafted. One had two criminal terms, followed by 2 as a cop before joining the Army MPs. One went to university to earn a Ph.D., then spent 4 terms as a geology professor before the war came along.

Something I noted is that some of them damaged my illusions on the [skill + attribute vs.d20] system, maxxing out their Small Arms skill and putting their biggest stat into Strength. There's a sniper with 9 Str and 10 skill, meaning his Short range, aimed shot, to-hit number is 76. (Yes, I know, he can still miss the shot on a roll of 17-20.)

I showed them a BRDM shooting at their BMP, which I think drove home that it's not THAT well-armored.

Something that surprised me: no one talked about where their characters were from. I remember that being a key piece of chargen (both rules editions) even when we first started playing. What I mean is that no one talked about their home state or city, "This guy's from Boston, and he played in a band," "This guy's from Hamburg," or "He's from south of nowhere in Tennessee." For that matter, one doesn't even have a name.

As for gear, I just had them give me a wish list, and I reviewed it this afternoon, then tacked on food & fuel and some miscellaneous stuff. Shooting starts on Tuesday afternoon, but there's one more kid that wants in, and he needs characters (They're gonna want a corpsman, so that may be one of them).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Great to hear you're indoctrina... err... educating... yeah, yeah, we'll say "educating" the younger generation.
But seriously, that is great news. It's nice to see that new gamers can be exposed to "old" RPGs and find that they enjoy them.

As for the bit that they didn't discuss where their PCs were from, it doesn't surprise me too much. I recall someone on this forum saying something related to this. It was some time back (last year?) but essentially he had introduced some younger people to T2k and was explaining the background/history of the Twilight War. They said something along the lines of "We don't care about the history, we just want to play the game".

[Legbreaker]

I've just finished a six day marathon of 2.2. Started with Kalisz, moved through Black Madonna and then Krakow and got a few miles down river in Pirates before we'd all gotten sick of the sight of each other.
None of the players is over 21 and it was their idea to play it in preference to the dozen other systems I've got.
I'll have a summary of events posted once I recover from the sleep deprivation.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

As for the bit that they didn't discuss where their PCs were from, it doesn't surprise me too much. I recall someone on this forum saying something related to this. It was some time back (last year?) but essentially he had introduced some younger people to T2k and was explaining the background/history of the Twilight War. They said something along the lines of "We don't care about the history, we just want to play the game".

I really quickly ran the Cold War/Twilight War for them, and I could tell they didn't really grok, or care. One got confused in his attempt at backstory, saying his West German PC got conscripted into a Soviet labor project.

[Adm.Lee]

I ran again today, for the first real playing session. I leaned a lot on random encounter tables and played dice to tell me if NPCs had any good or useful information.

The party started in a woods SW of Elblag, having been run out of that city by the 3rd MRD. They had a BMP and a HMMWV, with about 1/3 of full ethanol tanks. I had turned initial decision-making over to the player that wasn't 13, and was an Army vet. He played with Google maps, and planned a route SSE so as to avoid the Polish cavalry at Malbork before looping back to the Vistula. As there was a lake and a canal between them and the Soviets, they hoped they were staying on their side of it. He plotted a course that put them into patches of woods off country roads every 10km or so, to hole up for the night.

Dice served early to heighten the tension, their BMP had a suspension breakdown as they neared the end of their first leg. I allowed them to drag it off the road and into cover, but not very far from the road.

All the while, someone was watching them from the west. Every once in a while, their best spotter (Marine sniper gunny sergeant, of course) would see someone eying them with binos. (This was Polish cavalry, but only scouts with no interest in tangling with Americans headed away from them.)

A Polish refugee in the woods admitted that he had seen broken-down Soviet BMPs east of the canal, on the main route of the Soviets into Elblag (duh, this is the whole 9th Guards Army). With no suspension parts on hand, they sent 5 PCs in the Hummer to see if they could get lucky on the Soviet MSR. They got as far as the lake immediately south of Elblag, where they had a shouting-distance conversation with a Polish smuggler band (the smuggler had a wagon on a raft, towed by a motorboat). He was unhappy with them, and promised to bring some tracks tomorrow.

On to a village with a bridge, with a Soviet ammo depot on the east bank. Three PCs swam the canal in a midnight rainstorm, to see if they could raid the truckers and depot there. Instead, they triggered a firefight. All 3 PCs caught minor wounds while slaying lots and lots of entirely too gung-ho Soviets. The Hummer came blasting through town across the bridge with its MG roaring. Curiously, or not, the village militia didn't interfere with anyone or anything once the tracers started flying in large numbers.

When dawn came, the PCs were stripping the vehicles (a 2.5 ton with diesel in its tanks!) and bodies, the villagers came out to parley. They accepted some of the guns and ammo, offering light medical care and food and promising to redirect any Soviet comebacks elsewhere. They had no BMP tracks, but thought there was a Soviet vehicle repair depot 4km up the highway?

Meanwhile, the grumpy smuggler tried to ambush the PCs with a Soviet horse patrol. Instead, that patrol failed to notice the 2 Marine snipers hiding behind them and settled down at really short range. You can guess how that ended: all the Soviet patrol wiped out (1 Marine slightly wounded), the smugglers wiped out and their boat adrift.

Next game, the PCs are feeling gung-ho themselves, wanting to hunt down the rumored Soviet AFV repair depot after they rest up, brew some ethanol for a fuel reserve, and heal their minor wounds. I'll be reporting back in 3 weeks.

GM asides: I'd be strongly tempted to abandon the BMP, throw everything onto the deuce-and-a-half with diesel in its tanks, and keep moving south. Also, since they could have captured the motorboat, and they have to cross at least two rivers, including the wide Vistula, before getting back to friendly lines, I'd want to put that on one of the trucks or trailer for later use. I was really surprised when they handed the boat over to the refugee who helped them earlier.

Evil GM asides: This is the early stages, when they get to collect stuff and think themselves powerful. Soon, I will show them some serious firepower and watch them scurry in terror! {rub hands, chuckle, rumble of thunder & lightning}

Rules thoughts: Oh, yeah, bullets don't hurt so much when everyone rolls 2d6 (AK74s & M16s) in v2. The .50 cal stuff really puts NPCs down, though.

[Raellus]

Cool, man. Elblag is fast becoming a classic T2K hot-spot! Keep us posted.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

Rules thoughts: Oh, yeah, bullets don't hurt so much when everyone rolls 2d6 (AK74s & M16s) in v2. The .50 cal stuff really puts NPCs down, though.

Don't forget knockdown and stun! They can really screw PCs up.
One of my players (US Marine Sniper) thought he could get away without wearing any armour, not even a helmet. First contact with a handful of AK-74 armed marauders soon set him right.
Another PC was stripped of their armour when captured by KGB agents in Krakow. Was tortured for about four hours before they were rescued by the other PCs - were more upset over the loss of their kevlar than anything that had occurred!

And shotguns at close range!? All I have to say about that is OUCH!!!

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Don't forget knockdown and stun! They can really screw PCs up.

Yeah, that was a rude surprise. They only took minor wounds, but the "flat out for the rest of the turn" was a shock.

DocSavage, yes, I've thought out either using d10s, or allowing the d6 to "explode" (roll again on 6s). Not doing it this time around.

[DocSavage45B10]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

Rules thoughts: Oh, yeah, bullets don't hurt so much when everyone rolls 2d6 (AK74s & M16s) in v2. The .50 cal stuff really puts NPCs down, though.

Has anyone tried using D10s instead of D6 for damage dice?

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by DocSavage45B10

Has anyone tried using D10s instead of D6 for damage dice?

Nope but I do drop the number of hit points the PCs get - when their head only has hit points equal to their CON score, they get a bit worried about blows to the head let alone being hit by bullets.

[headquarters]

Originally Posted by DocSavage45B10

Has anyone tried using D10s instead of D6 for damage dice?

we use d12s to get the job done