Escape from Kalisz 18 July 2000 Anniversary

[natehale1971]

The morning of 18 July 2000 (right before sunrise) the Commanding General of the 5ID sent out that message that we will all remember till our dying day...

"Good Luck. You're on your own now."

Hi everyone... sorry for having gone dark for so long. My desktop and laptop both were down for a very long time. I guess the fact that I was able to get on here today, on the 'anniversary' of one of our mutual gaming passions.

So... how did your most memorable T2k characters make their escape from Kalisz?

This anniversary only comes once a year, and would be pretty interesting if every year we'd have a thread were we talk about various adventures on just how our characters made their breakouts and started their T2k campaigns.

My First T2k character was MSG Richard Alexander Spaight (yes, he was based off of me... most of our starting characters in T2k started out as fictional versions of ourselves until we got to learn the system and background). It was a T2k V.1 game (we didn't really convert over to V.2 because we really didn't care for the timeline) that we started playing during the Thanksgiving 1989 holiday on board the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN69 (HORAH that magic number)! That campaign lasted until 1991, and ran alongside four other T2k campaigns that each had their own GMs... all were in parallel universes so we'd get to run the same modules (well they were only the same as that's what the GM based the adventure arches on... but changed alot according to their strong suits, such as one of the Computer geek squad guys onboard completely rewrote just what RESET was... and i really wish I still had that character journal).

MSG Richard Spaight was a US Army Range who had found himself being assigned to provide security for a group of soldiers that composed mostly of Combat Support types that was under the command of an unorthodox Field Artillery Lieutenant Colonel and a very sexy Major from Military Intelligence (who happened to be a knockout babe who's callsign really should have been 'Hardbody') who had come up with a plan that would get as many of the 5ID out of the danger zone and blunt the Soviet Offense by carrying out a campaign of sabotage and mayhem (they dubbed what we would do as Operation Calamity... we joked because that sexy major's callsign was 'Calamity Jayne' that they named it for her).

Lot's and lots of good memories about that campaign. And i've been debating writing what i can remember as a story... with some changes to keep it fresh and interesting (and to keep from being accused of plagiarism)!

[Tombot]

Your right! Its the date ... well now it was..

First time i played the introduction in Kalisz, well... it blasted 2/3 of the group...
We used a homebrew-system (the main part coming from oldschool Traveller, which has a pretty bloody combatsystem. We added a few things about injuries, infection, etc. ). There was a lot of brutal fighting, but it ended in some cases "a bit" to fast. INCOMING!!!

Only the "cowards" (f...ng up their Coolness-under-fire in some important situations) survived... And they didnt play like cowards, but bad luck made them run - which saved their lives in the end.
It goes to show... modern warfare with all the toys (artillery, tanks, automatic-fire from all calibers, grenades, mines...) is NOT good for you.

The players were good. They still enjoyed it, learned the rules, some had good results with a more social approach (asking & getting help by locals), which distiguished it from a bad splatter-affair.
The owner of the killed PCs all started their next set of PCs without hesitation; they we´re hooked by all the options, the background gives you.
And WWIII ! They did NOT wish for elves and dwarfs no more!
And we knew that this battle is a bloody climax right at the start; the death-toll would´nt be that high, all the time. (Not necessarily ...)

So the survivors and new characters from the rest joined and formed a new group, which started in the vincinity of Dobrodzien.
All in all - a really dramatic start for a long, and satisfying campaign.
(Although we did´nt really finished it ..but i will in the future )

I like the dramatic feel of the introductory setting, and the basic sandbox, with the huge amount of little dynamite-ideas/hooks Chadwick and the rest put in there...
Every time i read that, i have new scenes in my mind.
That taken-back approach, decent, functional presentation. And these little shreds/hints of personal fates and backgrounds... just to click the right spots in your GM-brainsection
Its the shit!

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

So... how did your most memorable T2k characters make their escape from Kalisz?

This anniversary only comes once a year, and would be pretty interesting if every year we'd have a thread were we talk about various adventures on just how our characters made their breakouts and started their T2k campaigns.

I can't remember much of the earliest days of my first group. The characters became memorable, though.

CPT Harvey Tackleberry (named for the gun-nut character in the "Police Academy" movies)
1LT Ernie ??? - Dutch tank officer, slightly deranged after surviving a week in an biochem-surrounded tank earlier in the war.
Big Pierre, a Canadian machinegunner
and a bunch of others.

It was the spring of 1985, late in my junior year of high school. The summer before senior year was one of the best of my life, I was able to buy "Ruins of Warsaw" at my one and only trip (so far) to GenCon.

Random tables led to the group recovering an M1, not in great shape, but very useful.

[natehale1971]

Which of these looks the best?

Without Bio-Hazard symbols...

With the Bio-Hazard symbols...

[Tombot]

The first one does it for me (the second is a bit crowded with the 2 different fonts and the biohazard symbols)

[natehale1971]

I really like the first one too. I'm just not sure i used the right colors for the lines "Play by Post Campaign" at the bottom... i debated using dark gray lined with black. but couldn't really decide what looked best.

[Tombot]

Stick with the first one - the same colour made me read it from start to end, while the different colours had the same effect on me, like a newspaper with a couple of different coloured headlines - i stop reading...

The first one is classic in style, and gives all information in a non-flashy way, which i do like better.

[Rainbow Six]

Definitely the first...the second is too "busy" imho...

[natehale1971]

This is the rating logo i created... what do you think?

[Legbreaker]

It's big.....
The font and colours work well though.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

It's big.....
The font and colours work well though.

Agreed on both points...

[natehale1971]

It's big to show off the font and look.

[Sanjuro]

One day this spring, shortly after I received my T2k cds from Far Future, I was flying back from the middle east. Over Poland, I happened to check my map and realised we were over Kalisz!
I rang the call bell, had another coffee, and less than two hours later landed at Heathrow...

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

It's big to show off the font and look.

Or maybe it's just compensating for something else...?

[Chris]

I like it without the biohazard symbols. The With version is too busy.

Really like the stenciled NC-17 sign. What's your secret?

[natehale1971]

i play with the fonts... i draw in the outlines around the font pixel by pixel. that way it stands out more. that's why i had it larger (so i could draw the outline in).