How do you simulate artillery barrages?

[Michael Lewis]

I'm going to be starting Escape from Kalisz in a couple of weeks using TW 2013 rules.

How do you simulate an artillery barrage? Do you use core rules or just whip something up for flavor?

[stg58fal]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you'd like your players to survive the ordeal.

Description, mostly. Sure, roll some dice so they think they're in danger, have some fragments tear through the canvas or body of any soft-skinned vehicles they're driving and whiz past someone's head. If they're on foot, have some trees take hits overhead and shower them with splinters. That kind of thing.

[Grimace]

Yeah, I kept mine more of a "whip up something for flavor" and threw in a few die rolls to keep things interesting. I made them roll some dice to heighten the tension, had some NPCs catch some shrapnel or get blown to bloody bits, and sometimes told them the the concussive force knocked them to the ground or rocked their vehicle.

But unless you really want some dead PCs in the very first adventure, it's usually not best to go full on rules for the Escape from Kalisz adventure. It's enough of the sh*t storm without blowing up their characters to boot.

[stg58fal]

I forgot to mention, make sure you really play up the rumbling from shells that pass by overhead, esp if the Russians are throwing anything 200+ mm at them. And the concussion as was previously mentioned. Maybe make a reference to teeth feeling like theyre going to shake out of their skulls.

And definitely do as Grimace suggested and have some NPCs get blown up. Esp. if theyre just missing legs and do a lot of screaming and bleeding on everything before they die. Gives the team medic something to do, too.

[James Langham]

What I did was lots of dice but ignore them...

I was also REALLY sadistic and planted a player and told him he was going to die in a barrage and worked with him to have a second character ready. This really scares players...

[stg58fal]

Originally Posted by James Langham

I was also REALLY sadistic and planted a player and told him he was going to die in a barrage and worked with him to have a second character ready. This really scares players...

I like this.