A ray of hope II

[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.

[Adm.Lee]

I ran again today. The grown-up veteran of the game and the guy playing the two Marine snipers were absent, but I added another 7th grader who couldn't make the last two games. I let him pick from the unplayed PCs for this game.

First off, I had planned two main events, plus the inevitable travel encounters. A refugee they'd befriended wanted them to follow him home (and run off those pesky Soviets and set him up as village chief?), as there had been a Soviet vehicle park near there. They did want BMP track-links to get their derelict moving again. So they decided to camp for three days (brew some more methanol) before heading for town.

The other encounter was a result of me trying to think through "what would the Soviets be doing?" To my mind, the Ninth Guards Army was intent on rolling past Elblag and the 2-2 Marines' outpost and meeting XI US Corps to the west. That meant two divisions could keep rolling west over the bridges, while 3rd MRD mopped up and reorganized around Elblag. That translated to 1 battalion being detailed to patrolling into the area where the PCs now were. I rolled some dice, to figure out strengths and weapons available to this battalion (let's call it 3d battalion, 9th MRR). Then, I had an idea. I rolled some dice to see if it was feasible. (My rule is: roll a d20-- high means it's a good idea, or the stuff is available!) A die-roll of 20 told me that the battalion had a reasonably intact LAV-25 at their disposal. Hmm, and a lot of Marine gear is recently captured, and I bet there's a few English-speaking officers around.

Thus was born Major Volokov, a Leningrad-born intel officer from Frontal Aviation, now working for the Army. I drew high Sociable cards for him, so he's interested in rounding up prisoners, rather than kills. He took as many English-speakers as possible, filled out a platoon with riflemen and equipped them all with NATO helmets, flak jackets, Marine jackets and M16s. The plan was to pretend to be Marine stragglers and bring Marines in close, where they could be outnumbered and convinced to surrender. Moving only at dawn and dusk, they hoped poor visibility would help the deception. Of course, a large number of player characters would have different ideas....

It didn't quite work, and the resulting firefight took up the whole gaming session. I let each player (5) take one of the 12 PCs, and those were the ones on watch that night. They heard the LAV approaching, but didn't recognize the sound. When they did see it in the dawn after their last night of intended camping, the range was barely 100 meters. The players thought they might be more Marines, and so they called out, and some approached the road when hailed in English. And when called on to surrender, the shooting started at point-blank range.

The kid manning the SAW hosed down two fireteams really quickly, including the sneaky Major, the guy with the sniper rifle shot from the woods, and the others traded shots up close. Nearly all of the PCs were hit early, and most were hit often. The Barrett could not penetrate the LAV's armor, but the M203 gunner immobilized the LAV. One kid tried to start their HMMWV in order to run down some of the riflemen. This resulted in him unconscious at the wheel with the engine running amid the enemy troopers.

Later shots with the 40mm wrecked the LAV's interior, but could not stop the MG fire. As some player characters were knocked out with serious wounds, I let them bring in their backup characters, running up from their camp in the woods. One of the enemy was able to wrestle his way into the still-running HMMWV and drive away with it (oops, there went half of the food and all the reserve ammo!). The last two Russians in the LAV surrendered, but there weren't so many conscious PCs to accept the surrender.

There were 8 Soviets still alive and taken prisoner, only 3 conscious (good thing one was a medic). Only 3 of 12 PCs were untouched, 3 had serious wounds. The players' Hummer was gone, the LAV was unusable for a long time, and their BMP still needed a track. Their sole remaining vehicle is a 2.5-ton, now going to be full of all their gear.

The ranking prisoner informed the players that they still needed to surrender, as there were other platoons to the north and south who would be coming to check out the gunfire soon, and the rest of a battalion out there. The players are now thinking of running for it. Right now. I didn't get a decision about the prisoners, but I think they will insist on staying put, with or without the Americans. Their medics will be coming soon, after all.

Looks pretty grim for our heroes. I think I'll hurry them along with a mortar barrage?

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

The other encounter was a result of me trying to think through "what would the Soviets be doing?" To my mind, the Ninth Guards Army was intent on rolling past Elblag and the 2-2 Marines' outpost and meeting XI US Corps to the west. That meant two divisions could keep rolling west over the bridges, while 3rd MRD mopped up and reorganized around Elblag.

That's exactly what I envision the Soviets doing.

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

Thus was born Major Volokov, a Leningrad-born intel officer from Frontal Aviation, now working for the Army. I drew high Sociable cards for him, so he's interested in rounding up prisoners, rather than kills. He took as many English-speakers as possible, filled out a platoon with riflemen and equipped them all with NATO helmets, flak jackets, Marine jackets and M16s. The plan was to pretend to be Marine stragglers and bring Marines in close, where they could be outnumbered and convinced to surrender. Moving only at dawn and dusk, they hoped poor visibility would help the deception. Of course, a large number of player characters would have different ideas...

This is crazy. I was toying with the idea of sending some bogus "Marines" into my players' lines but not quite on this scale. I didn't go through with it, though. If you don't mind, I think I would like to steal your idea for a later encounter.

[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

[Adm.Lee]

Our next to last game session had an early end scheduled, so I effectively ran it on fast-forward.

The group met up with the smugglers as scheduled, no further midnight disturbances from any marauders. They traded about half of their captured Soviet small arms for passage across the river, some more food, and contact with the Polish Free Legion on the west bank of the Vistula.

In the time between the meeting and the boat-ride, they questioned the now-conscious AWOL from the last game, and he told them about finding the abandoned Scorpion light tank nearby. The mechanic and an escort were sent to check it out. He reported that it had been stripped, but could run at half-speed (Suspension and turret-traverse damage, but not the engine). This appealed to them, so they put some of their dwindling diesel store into it, and drove it to their bivouac. Then, after converting it to alcohol-running, they put the last of their ethanol into it, and started driving to the river. They hoped the tank could at least be intimidating, even if it did suck down all of their ethanol, and then most of their store of methanol on top of that, just getting to the river.

At the river, the boatmen had something big enough to carry the vehicles one at at time, but... not those guys on horseback approaching from upriver! A very brief firefight ensued, with rapid shooting by the sniper team panicking 16 marauders at 220m. Well, panicking the survivors, anyway.

On the west bank of the Vistula, they met a scout from the 2nd Polish Free Legion, who was quite surprised to see a tank coming at him, and 15 Americans asking for more fuel. He showed them a place to stash the vehicles while he led a foot patrol back to his base, where they might trade for more methanol.

{I figured if the Legion has been in place long enough, it can probably scrounge or brew its own small fuel stores.}

At the base village, someone was awfully happy to meet some Marines, sailors and soldiers. -- the DIA liaison officer. He'd just been handed a Soviet battle plan, captured from the 3rd MRD, showing that division swinging southwest from Gdansk through Chojnice to catch the IX US Corps' rearguard in the flank. When the team told him that they had a vehicle, but needed fuel, he was very eager that they make the attempt to drive through.

By now, the team leadership was less than pleased with the relative value of the Scorpion (actually, it was still faster off-road than the 2.5-ton truck), so they offered it, as is, to the Poles, in exchange for 4 days' food and 950 liters of any kind of fuel. AS well, they offered the remainder of their captured Soviet small arms, ammo and grenades. This deal was eagerly accepted and executed. Oh, and some longbows and crossbows were obtained, too.

The Poles provided a guide, who started them on a chain of local guides to lead them on side roads around the Soviets and towards the NATO rearguard. We ended the session with them looking over a Soviet artillery group off the road, between them and friendly forces. This called for an assault, so a little planning was done, and we ended the game.

All set for a big fireworks-show-game-finale!

[Adm.Lee]

Last Friday's game promised a big fight, with explosions and armored vehicles-- a last hurrah before middle school takes most of the players away.

The group set up near the lip of a lightly wooded ravine, ~170m across. On the opposite bank of the ravine, 3 Soviet artillery pieces, dug-in and camouflaged, ready to start shelling the American lines. The PCs had been led to this battery by Polish Free Legion scouts, and now it was just about the only opposition between these wayward Marines and the lines of XI US Corps.

Of course, an Army-level heavy artillery asset like this had to be protected. The players' scouts could make out at least two infantry positions on the other side of the ravine, plus a BMP-B. On this side of it, 2 squad-sized fighting positions and a BTR-80 backing up the left squad. The players divided up into four teams and began stealthing their way towards the foxholes: 2 snipers in overwatch, two 5-man assault teams, and the medics and CO in reserve... and things began to go wrong.

The right enemy squad spotted them creeping through the woods and opened up, kicking off a Medium-range (60-70m) firefight, 16 Soviets vs. 10 Americans. The PCs started to gain a firepower advantage using grenade launchers and aimed rifle fire, until the KPV on the BTR got into action. The US sniper team drilled the APC with several .50 cal rounds, but they couldn't hit the gunner, and two Marines were killed outright with head shots.

Eventually, the sniper's big gun was able to silence the KPV, damaging its ammo supply. More 40mm grenades into the fighting holes helped to suppress the Soviet infantry, and here's where the players' inexperience came to the fore. They launched separate assaults into the seemingly silenced fighting holes, but only 1 man each. They found that the Soviets were either reloading or playing possum, and both died, one in hand-to-hand combat. Two more attempted to board the BTR while the KPV was silenced, only to hear it come to life again, critically wounding one more PC while the corpsman was knocked out by another rifleman.

At this point, they could hear the BMP grinding across the ravine towards them, and they opted to run away, leaving most of their dead and wounded behind. As the BMP emerged from the ravine, one of the team's least wounded members drilled it with his only LAW, cooking off the ammunition. The Soviet dismounts were thus disinclined to pursue, and the remnants of the party disengaged. I think the final result was: out of 15 PCs, 2 dead, 2 critically wounded, 4 seriously wounded and left behind, 2 unhurt and escaping, bringing another 5 seriously or lightly wounded out with them.

Immediate summary: I think they bit off more than they could chew, in their place I might have tried to attack the squad positions only one at a time. Also, I think they didn't use their two 40mm launchers enough, or in concentration. They didn't deploy smoke until the end, to cover their withdrawal-- I would have preferred to use it to mask the approach.

Attacking in daylight was probably another big sin, I would have let them wait until dark (OTOH, I didn't say they could, but I didn't say they couldn't.)
I toyed with having the big guns open up on a distant target if they delayed attacking, offering both incentive to attack and cover from the noise, but they went right into action.

Rules failures: since I shifted initiative systems away from V1's in favor of a faster card-draw system, that meant getting wounded or even hit by concussion didn't slow down the NPCs (or PCs, for that matter). I think the Soviets in the holes were more effective than they should have been, in retrospect. OTOH, I should have played them in separate 2-man fighting positions, I just lumped them all together in squads for simplicity in record-keeping. Note to self: keep more detailed records, and try my idea of more cards for initiative.

Bullet damage: we went back to v1's (xd6 +xy) formula for this round, to see if PCs would take more significant damage (also doubling NPC hit points from v2's 20, to keep it fair). The PCs did take more significant hits, seeing that there were a few Serious Wounds from AK/RPK fire, but I think it was the SVD and PKM that did more of that. The KPV, of course, with its Damage rating of 12 was off the scale, killing 2 PCs outright and Critically Wounding 2 more.

Next time, I'll try using d12s for damage, maybe allowing an extra die if one scores an Extraordinary Success?

Campaign summary: at least it ended with a big bang-- the BMP. The guys were still excited (though I could tell my own son was close to tears briefly at losing two of his three PCs, I'm not sure I've ever killed off any of his characters before). At least one asked if we could play again next summer. And they cheerily ate pizza before a sleepover at someone else's house, playing "Modern Warfare 3" until the wee hours of the morning. Ah, youth.