Pirates of the Visutula

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Raellus

IMHO, the module gives the PCs way too much 12.7mm ammo. My group steamed all the way from Krakow to the Baltic and never came close to running out, even though I'd occassionally "lose" rounds or inflate the round count after a firefight. I highly recommend scaling it way back.

I'd happily stick with the ammo count described in the module, but it's the Twilight War right? So one in every three or two in every three rounds fails to fire. Then watch the fun as the players try to decide which character/s gets the fun job of visually inspecting each of those 20,000 rounds and delinking the ones they think are duds. And even then there's no guarantee that they won't have constant misfires during every firefight. Good times.

Originally Posted by Judge Holden

While looking at weapon systems I came across the 30mm ASP which some light internet research revealed is a gas operated weapon. What does this entail -what type of gas does it use? I'm sure it's not gasoline, so I'm imagining metal 'bottles' like a welder uses.

This is how gas operated firearms work: Gas-operated reloading. We also have at least one gunsmith on this forum who I'm sure is thoroughly well versed in gas operated firearms.

I've always found the American use of the word "gas" to describe petrol as being kind of odd. Petrol's not even a gas when it's burned in an internal combustion engine, it's a fine mist. I guess it must have originally been an abbreviation of "gasoline". Here in Australia if you have a vehicle that needs "gas" it would be one that runs on LPG or CNG. Way to go mangling a perfectly good language, Americans!

[Bullet Magnet]

Originally Posted by Targan

Way to go mangling a perfectly good language, Americans!

Hey, don't give us all the credit! You people outside the States already think we're too cocky, so why add to it? After all, we're just part of a "global community" now, so we must all share in this.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Targan

I've always found the American use of the word "gas" to describe petrol as being kind of odd. Petrol's not even a gas when it's burned in an internal combustion engine, it's a fine mist. I guess it must have originally been an abbreviation of "gasoline".
....

Way to go mangling a perfectly good language, Americans!

Actually it might be more proper to blame the brits (at least for the name gasoline)

Gasolene was first used in an advert in the British newspaper, the Hampshire Telegraph & Sussex Chronicle in 1863. The first use of gasoline to be found in America is in an 1864 Act of Congress which declared a tax on the oil.

it looks like a corruption of Cazeline named after British importer John Cassell. A Dublin shopowner had a counterfeit version named the same, which when challenged he added a slash to the C (making it a G)

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2...n-of-gasoline/

[Judge Holden]

Since I need to play the role of Old Adam: which is more logical for me? - to press on through the night and try to run the river 24 hours a day using spotlights and/or nightvision goggles and IR spotlights?, or do I play it safe and only travel during daylight?

If I only travel in the daytime do I try to stop at towns for the night, or do I park the tug and barge somewhere midstream and send ashore a landing party to hunt and such? Do I park it ashore for the night?

Of course all decisions are up the the PCs its their plans that will decide what happens - I just want to be able to provide some logical suggestions from that salty dog Old Adam.

[Jason]

Old Adam knows the river like the back of his hand, so I imagine he has some idea where it is safe to go ashore as opposed to sleeping midstream. I would not imagine that Adam would approve of trying to sail at night, which seems very irresponsible.

[Raellus]

Is wrecking the tug worth getting to Warsaw quicker? That's the decision that you'll have to make as Adam.

Travelling at night is going to be more dangerous. It'll be harder to spot obstacles. Using the tug's lights to mitigate this danger is going to make her a conspicuous target in the dark, another risk to consider. NVGs are a compromise, but if you've ever used them, you'll know depth and peripheral vision are somewhat compromised making it difficult to pick out obstacles. The monochrome sight picture presented by most military NVGs also makes it difficult to pick out subtle differences in terrain. I would think that this would be even more pronounced for moving water. And then there's the issue of eye strain from prolonged usage of NVGs. As a GM, I would increase the frequency of observation checks and random obstacle rolls if/when the party travelled at night. My players made the decision fairly early on not to travel far or fast at night.

The next major decision you need to make is what the local conditions are in the regions that the tug will be passing through. I tried to mix it up. A few areas were relatively safe, others were empty, many were controlled by enemy forces or bandits, some were home to x factor groups- neither obviously friendly nor openly hostile to the PCs. This created a lot of variety and kept things unpredictable which, to my mind is a good thing. I think that my players mostly enjoyed it as well. This will take some work on your part. The module provides some decent details on the game world between Krakow and Warsaw, but since I knew that a lot of my players had already played P.o.t.V., I made some minor but significant changes to the module materials in order to keep my campaign fresh and suspenseful.

To do determine how much Adam knows about local conditions, you'll have to decide how often Adam has travelled the Vistula in the months leading up to the adventure. If it's been a few weeks or months since his last trip, local conditions could have changed. A town that used to be safe & friendly might not be overrun by vicious marauders. When I played Adam, he hadn't travelled the river since he'd lost his last tug, a period of (IIRC) a few months. He could give the PCs intel, but it was by no means fresh. This gave the players some leads, but they still had to proceed with caution lest circumstances had changed. I played Adam as cautious and tried not to pull any blatant bait and switch moves on my group.

Good luck and have fun.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Judge Holden

Since I need to play the role of Old Adam: which is more logical for me? - to press on through the night and try to run the river 24 hours a day using spotlights and/or nightvision goggles and IR spotlights?, or do I play it safe and only travel during daylight?

If I only travel in the daytime do I try to stop at towns for the night, or do I park the tug and barge somewhere midstream and send ashore a landing party to hunt and such? Do I park it ashore for the night?

I'd have a small boat scouting ahead of the tug wherever possible, maybe not all the time in the day but definitely at night if travel after dark was required.

[Judge Holden]

Sorry about the sizing issues on these deckplans im on a tablet and im kinda rusty.
This is what the team came up with. They traded a T80 tank, a flatbed tractor trailer, a troop truck and a nearly empty diesel tanker truck. All the vehicles were stolen from the Army of Silesia.
The chopper is also stolen, obviously from Krakow but it only has fumes left in the tanks.

Question - can an anti tank missile target the tug, or better yet the barge emplacements? Most of my knowlege comes from BF3 so i picture it needing to lock onto a specific target profile and water might mess this up?

[rcaf_777]

Can you post a bigger image?

[Judge Holden]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

Can you post a bigger image?

here we go

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Judge Holden

Question - can an anti tank missile target the tug, or better yet the barge emplacements? Most of my knowlege comes from BF3 so i picture it needing to lock onto a specific target profile and water might mess this up?

Absolutely. Wire-guided systems like the TOW, MILAN, SPIGOT, etc. require the missile to be steered to the target by the operator. All he/she has to do is keep the tug in the crosshairs and the missile will do the rest. Laser-guided systems too. Fire and forget ATGMs simply require the operator to lock on to the target, moving or stationary. If a Javelin can track a tank, it can track a river tugboat.