Escape From Kalisz, a few questions.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

EfK is pretty much the B2: Keep on the Borderlands for Twilight:2000. Everyone has played it to a greater or lesser extent, and like B2 we know there's kobolds in the lower right-hand cave, we know the Castellan has a +1 shield and +1 plate mail and +1 sword, we know the Russians have tanks at this key town but only one of them runs and is used to tow the others into position, we know at this other town that the Polish civilians are very pro-American, etc. etc.

So with all of that considered, how do you folks who have run games approach some of the rougher patches in EfK?

Meaning: there's a few illogical things (like a town whose sole heavy weapon is a single RPG with 3 rounds, or another town that has an artillery piece with no ammunition, etc.)?

Is it a case of "in-situ"? That is, right then, right there, when the party encounters a given place or people they will find it in that condition, and what you as the GM have is a snapshot (if you will) for what they'll encounter regardless of when they get there? Is it just the starting position of a dynamic situation - that town with the RPG with 3 rounds will eventually get a brigade (20-50) cavalry and an SPG-9 and a mortar or two, the tanks will get repaired, etc. that will unfold regardless of whether or not the characters encounter the area, or what?

I prefer the latter. Let's say hypothetically every player is running 3 characters, and you've got 6 players, that's 18 characters, and a chance to wind up with a platoon (2-4) LAVs, or an M1, or a small convoy of Humvees, etc. etc. to play with, and if the party is inclined to evade and escape but start raiding, and especially if they free the soldiers at the prison camp, the Pact forces in the area will definitely firm up defenses - keep a watchful eye on areas of questionable loyalty, and reinforce strongpoints where they can.

What do you think?

[Adm.Lee]

Certainly, what's in the book is what the situation is at the start of the game. I haven't run EfK in a long time, but that's how I would run it now. Things may get better, they may get worse for the village/unit in question, but they should certainly change over time.

[pmulcahy11b]

EfK is designed to blood the players, without them facing such dangers that they won't get out of the module alive (barring any really stupid mistakes).

[Olefin]

the one thing about that modules is that unless your players are part of the 5th that got overrun on the other side of the river you basically have one hell of a fight on your hands if you try to cross the river - and across the river is where most of the really interesting encounters are (two enemy HQ's/base areas, the POW camp, possibly running into either the Special Forces team with Reset or the cav troop that ends up in the Black Madonna module, etc..)

you either have to be really good at somehow sneaking around that large force with the three tanks or you have to be powerful enough to run that blockade (like we were in my game where we rolled an M-1 tank and took those three tanks out)

otherwise a lot of the mini-module is good window dressing but players would never see it

[Raellus]

One can adjust the starting point of one's EfK campaign fowards or backwards to suit the style of play and "difficulty level" of those early encounters. The situation at the beginning of module is meant to be dynamic, with some locales being really fluid and others somewhat static. As always, it's a starting point. There are lots of ways that you can modify things to accomodate different GM'ing and playing styles.

In one PbP (Stalemate War, on RPG.net), the GM had the players start off in a town near Kalisz that was under heavy assault, including a Hind helo- it might sound munchkinist but it was really well done. The players fought it out for a day or two (game time) before negotiating an escape with a local commander keen on taking the town without further losses. IIRC, a couple of players joined the unit after being captured and escaping.

In my current PbP, I shifted the action to Belarus and set the campaign in the year 2030. I keep the basic premises and use the module gazzetteer to plot out local strongpoints and such but the geographical and temporal shift were meant to keep the module fresh. IMHO, it's working out pretty well.

[unkated]

At one point, I had a map outlining later movements of the Russian and Polish troops in the days after the 5th disintegrates.

Players who stayed in the area (or tried to take advantage of knowledge from having read the adventure) found their info increasingly stale, and their problems multiplying.

Uncle Ted

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by Olefin

otherwise a lot of the mini-module is good window dressing but players would never see it

That's a highly valid point. All the detail in the world about a detachment of Polish/US/UK troops with a fresh-condition M1, LAV and Deuce-and-a-half full of supplies doesn't mean squat if the party never sees it or gets near it.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by unkated

At one point, I had a map outlining later movements of the Russian and Polish troops in the days after the 5th disintegrates.

Players who stayed in the area (or tried to take advantage of knowledge from having read the adventure) found their info increasingly stale, and their problems multiplying.

Uncle Ted

That's definitely a good way to approach the module.

[Olefin]

Actually I think the scenario has a good approach to the situation - if you read the account of the battle the 5th died very very hard - that's why things are so disorganized in the area - those towns with the illogical setups are that way because many Soviet and Polish units got their heads handed to them by the 5th - while the division in the end died they took a hell of a lot of the guys opposing them with them

and if you read Going Home those units never really got their acts together - they are still in the area months later and in fact the Poles and the Russians are now fighting each other - so while they won they never really became useful units anymore for the remainder of the war

so those odds and ends make sense given the canonical history

and in some ways it comes down to what you do to the game as to what happens to those towns - is your approach to get the hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible and do as little damage as possible in the meantime? If so then the Soviets and Poles will get their acts together faster and those towns will get reinforced and better organized

however if you play it as taking advantage of the situation to raid and hit back then things could stay disorganized for quite a while or even get worse - especially if you can get in and do some damage to the HQ areas or the supply dumps

even as few as five or six men with a Bradley or M1 or LAV-75 can do a hell of a lot of damage and keep the Soviets off balance and thus prevent proper reinforcement of those towns, thus keeping the area fluid and abetting your escape as long as you don't linger too long

One thing I do recommend if you want to make the scenario better is to have the characters, if they have vehicles, have a real crack at grabbing fuel off the Soviets and Poles - that lets them at least enjoy the module and get clear before you have to start the whole "time to brew fuel" cycle that tends to slow the game a lot - or even adding the deus ex machina of them having a couple of NPC's along for the ride with a fuel truck full of methanol or ethanol that conveniently suffers a big time failure right after they are off the map and on their way to wherever but lets the characters keep their vehicles fueled for the initial module