Children during T2k...

[natehale1971]

How many people use kids as NPCs during their campaigns?

One of the campaigns that we did, one of our guides when we got to the Free City of Krakow was a 16 year old Polish girl who's dad had been a professor at one of the unversities who fell out of favor with the Soviets (he had actually said that the Poles should have done the same thing the East Germans were doing and kick the Soviets out so that Poland could handle their own internal affairs and not send troops to fight an imperialistic war against China). The GM based her off one of the girls from Red Dawn, and she was always giving little gifts to one of the PCs she had a 'chrush' on... In fact she was the one who provided our group at that time with the "Going Home" message. Poor girl was in tears and didn't want to tell us what it was, when she finally told us... we promised to take us back with us as a dependent.

[95th Rifleman]

I like to create moral and ethical conflict by using child soldiers. How will the PC's react when the enemy are 14 to 18 year old kids consripted from the villages and towns?

They make interesting marauders aswell. The PC's find out that those "bandits" who have been raiding the supply lines are just hungry kids, admittedly hungry kids with automatic weapons.

[Tombot]

I used a 14 year old girl in krakow as the leader of a band of kids, which carved out a living outside of the citywalls as thiefs. They sometimes worked for the DIA-Boss and (after trying to steal some stuff of the PC´s) as guides for the search of the hideout of Warsawskie-Marauders.

And about children-soldiers... that is a hard one, but that kind of soldier would surely turn up in T2k-times. I did not use them yet, but thought about doing it in the future in the desperate vincinity of the "Zone Morte", where life is even cheaper than elsewhere...
VERY mean topic, surely a brutal twist for the players. Every good man, who stops shooting back for a second ("These are KIDS!"), could bite the dust very fast. Or earn some mental problems, after "overcoming" these attackers... (especially the soldiers which already had children themselves).

And i recently had a group of a dozen children following a fanatical catholic priest, which the players encountered on their way to bremerhaven.
The priest called his group "flaggellants" and they prayed and whipped themselves "for the sins of the past", begging for food, on their way.
(Off course he used ´em as thiefs, and there were hints about sexual abuse, too).
The T2k-world is harsh place, and kid-soldiers are another (real evil) facette of just that.

Addition: Ah - almost forgot! The Warsawskie-Marauders within the citylimits had kid-soldiers! They armed a gang of tough street-urchins to watch the main-entrance of the abandoned trainstation above their HQ! They gave them some weapons and spread the word among the homeless/refugees living in the ruins there, "to shut up or die" about the place and its residents. The kids acted as forward observers, and had the mission to scare away the civilians.
Above that "Adam Zmiski" (one of the marauders) recruited them sometimes as spys for ORMO-activity.
My players managed to rush the kid-soldiers and take them alive, before they surprised the russian deserters in their hide-out.

[natehale1971]

The Role-playing game "Year of the Zombie" had feral children as an encounter group...

[Raellus]

In my PotV PbP, part of the group on a salvage mission to Nowy Huta (an industrial suburb of Krakow) was attacked by a band of kids living among the ruins. They called themselves the "Kings of Nowy Huta" and their motto was "f*** America, f*** the Soviet Union, f*** Germany- long live the Kings!" It was all very post-apocalyptical Lord of the Flies. They were armed with slings, slingshots, and crude clubs, spears, and bladed weapons. The players were able to fend them off without killing any of them (one of the older kids got his knee destroyed by Snakeye's South African mercenary PC, though).

The kids were originally from a couple of towns further east. A few months before my players met them, were sent to Krakow by their desperate parents but their bus was stopped and ransacked by marauders so they walked to Nowy Huta where they established themselves, subsisting mostly on scrounged canned goods and small game. By the time the PCs met them, a few were already suffering from accute radiation poisoning.

[Legbreaker]

Most memorable child NPC encounter I ran was when the PCs holed up in a townhouse for the night. Around midnight a serious thunderstorm struck and the lightning flashes illuminated a figure crawling across a wire from the neighbouring building to the roof of theirs.
The PCs had set up an RPK observation post in the attic with a view out a hole in the roof. The PC on guard (female) opened up with a burst at the relatively short range (maybe a dozen metres) and scored a hit. The body fell several stories and landed with a splat.
Meanwhile the two PCs outside guarding the vehicles (a BRDM and BTR) fended off what can best be described as a probe by poorly armed bandits (crossbows, spears, etc) with one being saved from almost certain death from a bolt by his body armour.
Wisely, the PCs battened down and waited until dawn.
The body that fell from the wire turned out to be a girl of about 13 - about 3-4 months pregnant. The firing PC was rather screwed up by that for quite a while.

[James Langham]

I do use kids, often to create moral dilemmas. One of the bits of background text in my history gives a good idea of this:

"We were dug in when all of a sudden I got a call from the sentry position. There were these Polish kids in a mish-mash of uniforms cycling towards us. I saw mixed military bits that were too large, a postman's uniform and even a boy scout outfit. These kids looked about 13-14. My guys who weren't much older themselves started laughing. The laughing stopped when they saw us, dismounted and actually started shooting with the oddments they had. My guys were stunned, NCOs were having to go round kicking guys, making them fire. Lots of them were firing crying as they did. One of my guys broke down there and then and three more were evacuated as psychiatric cases after. The last casualty of that firefight died here in the States when he shot himself leaving a note that it was the only way to stop seeing their faces and torn bodies."
Sgt John Warner
1st Armoured Division

Inspired by a scene in Team Yankee when they come under fire from a teenager.

[Brother in Arms]

To me If they are carrying a weapon they are a target regardless of age.

Because I know how much of a threat I could have been at age 13 in a guerilla a conflict. I new all the best hiding spots in my neighborhood. I had been skulking around since I was 5 playing manhunt with my freinds. I had tons of camouflage, so I wouldn't be seen and I already had my very own chinese SKS rifle and a couple hundred rounds on hand in stripper clips.
There were also plenty of wooded areas to fire from or retreat too.

So I see children a potentialy dangerous combatants, nothing to get especially emotional about a human being is a human being regarless of age.

[atiff]

And in addition to that, children don't have the same moral compass or mental processes / understandings that adults have. This can potentially make them more dangerous...

Let's just leave that one there, eh? A bit too scary...

[95th Rifleman]

The picture of the kid with the FAL is starting to freak me out.

When I was a kid, my dad made me an SLR out of wood and odds/ends in the shed. I loved that toy. The thought that people the same age are using the real thing is disturbing.

[Brother in Arms]

I dont find children with firearms disturbing...but then again im not british.

I fired my first firearm when I was 5 and by the time I was 9 I had my very own shotgun for hunting. By age 13 I have several rifles and shotguns.

It's not the fact they they are children using firearms. It't the situation those children are in that is causing them to have to use the firearms that is scary and sad.

Atiff is correct about children moral compass, morality is created by adults, and children will have to do what they have to do after the end of the world. We cant judge them or the actions of those who might have to kill them with our wolds morality.

If a pack of armed children came at me id be chucking grenades and slinging lead. I don't want to be killed by anyone especially not someone who should be playing with tonka trucks.

Brother in Arms