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"Solo" Game day 2 with my young kiddo who is lovintg it. Dramatis Personae: My daughters Character Dr. Cecilia Zazchek, a civillian NGO Aid Worker. My characters CDR Jason "Rooftop" Kim, a Tomcat driver who got his F-14 shot out from under him, and Sgt. Frank Gorman, a simple, plain-spoken corn-fed ogre of an infantryman. Their quest to get to Łódź, chasing the rumor an airfield there is the first leg of a trip back to the States. "As the sun begins to sink over the horizon, Rooftop slows the truck. 'Look,' He says, pointing at the road ahead. On the outskirts of the crumbling city, you see figures being lead down a road by armed soldiers. Rooftop calls back to Gorman." (Some Recon rolling happens) ''Russians,' Gorman says, 'like half a dozen. Maybe we can find another road'" 'Look like civillian prisoners, maybe locals,' Rooftop observes, slowing the truck to a near-idle. He turns to you. "What do you think we should do?'" "Dad, can I roll dice to decide what my character does? Like roll against my empathy? I think it makes sense if I succeed an empathy roll I want to help? My character would feel bad about the refugees we passed up yesterday, too." "Sure, if that's how you want to choose what your character does. The rules actually have something like that, you have to /fail/ an empathy roll to kill a helpless person." "Okay." She rolls the dice. I say 'We have to help these people.'" "Sergeant Gorman grumbles from his perch in the truck bed. 'These people ain't our problem. Look I don't like Commies any more than the next guy, but I don't want to take on a full-strength Soviet infantry squad with Top Gun's MP5, your hunting rifle, and my M16 with one spare mag.'" "'Maybe we could try talking to them?'" "Gorman seems about t let out a string of expletives but Rooftop cuts him off. 'They haven's started shooting at us yet and they probably can't tell how many are in the pickup, or if we might be part of a larger convoy. It's not the worst idea. And someone in that group of people might have information on where we can find the airfield.' The Sergeant groans 'Yeah or it could be a giant trap.' 'You can stay with the truck while the doctor and I parlay.'" ... (the following scene plays out with some skill rolls and pushes and stress dished out) "The Soviet officer has had his troops take up likely firing positions on either side of the road but their weapons are still slung low but ready. His hand is on the butt of the Skorpion machine pistol in a leather holster on his belt. He is young but has a haunted look, as is common of a great many young men these days. He looks like he is about to speak, but you could get in the first word if you want." "I ask him in Russian: 'Where are you taking these people?'" "'These are probable partisans. We are taking them for questioning. What business is it of yours?' You see now that all of the prisoners are what are euphemistically called 'military age males' in conflict zones, anyone from the age of pre-adolescence to still able to walk and theoretically carry a rifle, and these men run that gamut. You notice several of them are wracked with deep, wet hacking coughs and it's a fair bet they're suffering from pneumonia." "I say 'I'm here to help people. I am an aid worker.' I show him my papers. 'These aren't soldiers. Please let me help them.'" "He scoffs, and switches to fairly good, if heavily accented English. 'An aid worker in the company of--' he glances at Rooftop's flight suit '--An American Lieutenant Colonel?' Rooftop smirks almost imperceptibly but makes no effort to correct him at this point-- he's letting you take the lead. The Soviet officer gestures towards your truck in the distance 'with more American invaders waiting in ambush?'" "'They helped me when I was in trouble. Everybody's just trying to get by now.'" "'Maybe some people have fallen to base survival. Some of us still have a mission to help our neighbors re-establish a People's Republic governed for the benefit of the Proletariat.' You can see his back straightens. He buys into his own press. 'And these people need to be questioned about anti-Revolutionary activities.'" "'Well are you going to help the sick people?'" "You detect a defensiveness in his tone: 'Our resources are limited and our fighting strength must be preserved, but we will do all we can for them.'" "'What's that even mean? Are you going to help them or not? If you won't help the sick people, you shouldn't capture them. That's the same as killing them. The same as if you just shot them.'" "His lip stiffens. 'The Soviet Ground Forces, contrary to Capitalist propaganda, do not engage in violations of the law of armed conflict. We are here for the safety and liberation of all peoples." "'But you just said you don't have enough medicine for these people. Let them come with us.'" "He seems skeptical. 'Suppose I did that. Suppose I released suspected partisans to a supposed foreign aid worker and American mercenaries. Do you have those resources?'" "'We do. I could help them.'" (She's very much lying) "He seems to be thinking it over very hard. The troops around him, look about confused and anxious, not following the conversation since you switched languages." "'Fine," he says, pulling off his cap and running his fingers through his thick black hair, "I will NOT have it said that the Soviet Union kills prisoners in their care and custody through depraved neglect. And, regrettably, we are... between medical resupply at the prisoner camp. Take the sick men.'" "'But the other men could have gotten sick as well, caught it but not have symptoms. We need to check them all out!'" (A LOT of pushed and opposed die rolling happened here.) "'Madam I am risking getting shot by giving you these men. You will take them and you will not return.' It is clear this is very much his last, best offer." And so, with barely enough to feed our trio we were on the road again with a half dozen very sick locals in our truck...  
Owlbear Camus fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jul 6, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 14:37
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:15 |
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Outstanding! I love gaming with my kids.
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Jul 6, 2022 15:20
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She was hooked in by the lifepath character generation. Absolute catnip for her. BTW I gave it a 50/50 that the CIA guy would be one of the sick prisoners. Alas, he was not. Are you the same Cessna who use to be an rpg.net mod?
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Jul 6, 2022 15:55
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Owlbear Camus posted:Are you the same Cessna who use to be an rpg.net mod? Yes, but I stopped modding a couple of years ago.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:04
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Man this is great! I was really down on the game after the Ukraine War started but this is so endearing that I might try to do something with it soon. Keep posting!
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Jul 6, 2022 16:15
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EdsTeioh posted:Man this is great! I was really down on the game after the Ukraine War started but this is so endearing that I might try to do something with it soon. Keep posting! Please do! I really want to get a chance to play the game at some point. lol
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Jul 6, 2022 19:18
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EdsTeioh posted:Man this is great! I was really down on the game after the Ukraine War started but this is so endearing that I might try to do something with it soon. Keep posting! Yeah, same here. We had just started a campaign about a month before the invasion, but afterwards it felt just a little too real to be fun. But what we'd played until then was really very promising, especially with the tactical combat striking just the right balance between offering a load of tactical options while still being fairly quick in actual play. Also we ended up using a WP grenade in an anti-personell role in one of our first combats. 
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Jul 6, 2022 21:26
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Perestroika posted:Yeah, same here. We had just started a campaign about a month before the invasion, but afterwards it felt just a little too real to be fun. But what we'd played until then was really very promising, especially with the tactical combat striking just the right balance between offering a load of tactical options while still being fairly quick in actual play. Also we ended up using a WP grenade in an anti-personell role in one of our first combats. You guys liked it overall though? I'm thinking about taking some aspects from it to use in Alien.
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Jul 6, 2022 22:09
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EdsTeioh posted:You guys liked it overall though? I'm thinking about taking some aspects from it to use in Alien. Yeah, mechanically it was really good as far as we played, it was just the setting that was an issue due to real world events. The rules and setting really encourage you to scrounge around and value every little thing you find, we really felt like kings when we finally managed to find some ammo for the continually dry HMG mounted to our Humvee. We only lightly touched on the crafting and basebuilding rules, but those too felt decently detailed while being smooth and unobtrusive. Last but not least the lifepath system is a fun way to flesh out character backgrounds and connections, though you'll probably want to houserule something to equalize things if any characters end up with significantly fewer bonuses than the rest. In our case we ended up with a couple of rookies whose lifepaths concluded a fair bit sooner than everybody else's, so to compensate our GM had them gain some additional XP in the first few sessions to represent them learning really quickly after being thrown into the deep end. Though I should note that the combat encounters we ran were based around all parties using ranged weapons, which also seems to be the focus of the combat rules. Close combat mechanics do exist but don't seem to be nearly as much of a focus, so I don't know how well that might translate if you want to e.g. have xenomorphs as your primary enemy. Perestroika fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 23:03
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Marshal Prolapse posted:Please do! I really want to get a chance to play the game at some point. lol Well, come down to the Dirty South™ and roll dice!
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Jul 7, 2022 14:38
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Has anyone messed with the Foundry VTT setup Free League is selling for Twilight: 2000? I have Foundry VTT and am thinking of getting a copy.
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Sep 16, 2022 16:48
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Cessna posted:Has anyone messed with the Foundry VTT setup Free League is selling for Twilight: 2000? I have it, haven't run a game but I poked around in it a bit. FL's support for foundry is pretty good and this is no different, all the art and text from the game has been imported along with essentially the same system you get from their other games. I run a Forbidden Lands game and that system support is very good, this feels about the same. You can see a lot of it in action in Matt Kay's series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk2TGa9iHXk
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Sep 23, 2022 09:19
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:15 |
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If you're playing something well supported in Foundry, it's worthwhile, though you have to run your own server for it, unless you're okay paying monthly.
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Sep 23, 2022 11:29
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