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Post by the light works on Apr 1, 2024 13:40:37 GMT
they all sound reasonable, but it gave me the idea to have them try to take an ACTUAL vacation - and stumble into a situation.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 1, 2024 21:02:14 GMT
they all sound reasonable, but it gave me the idea to have them try to take an ACTUAL vacation - and stumble into a situation. Never underestimate the sorts of trouble that soldiers in foreign countries can get into while on a pass into town. Maybe, for example, have the party discover the hard way that the locals have put up with rotgut for so long most of them don't think twice about hardcore hooch; in contrast, any beer that isn't German is a novelty, while whine is for snobs and Sunday morning services. In the Marvel US comics, Wolkucocklandt (German, "Cloud Cuckoo Land") was a fictional Central European nation that was an ostensible US ally, but which had no native weapons manufacturing capabilities and so had to rely on the open market to arm itself. I'm using Austria as a parallel (meaning they can make their own small arms but have to purchase anything heavier than fleet vehicles from foreign arms merchants), and so while that the country has a rich cultural heritage and considerable business ventures going on in the major cities it's dirt poor and redneck rough once you get into the rural parts. In fact, according to Wiki the rural / urban divide in Austria is so great that they're practically speaking different dialects for how great the slag and jargon differ. So imagine the kinds of trouble a person can get into while on tour in Austria, and go from there. The comics had the nation of Borovia as their immediate neighbor, a former monarchy that became a Communist puppet state; I'm thinking of using Bulgaria as the parallel. In the comics a "circus" under the leadership of a dwarf named Orlovsky and a mysterious fellow named The White Clown was in fact a front operation for the anti-Communist resistance, with their goal being to locate Magda, the last known surviving member of the original monarchy. I could introduce that trio into the mix in a later mission, perhaps through a mission in which the party must escort them to safety.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 4, 2024 16:59:52 GMT
Possible end game for the campaign:
As a result of the incident where Captain Bergmeyer had to save the country twice, Brussels did an assessment and determined that if the Cold War became hot, W-Land would only hold out for 48 hours before the military and police crumbled before the onslaught. The establishment of the small Action Force facility and the handful of "modern" military vehicles the United States has presented them with to help replenish their forces has boosted the estimate to 72 hours.
Basically, Brussels sees W-Land as expendable, a bulwark for the Soviet Union to bleed itself on. The party members are, likewise, seen as expendable by NATO for one reason or another.
Every mission that the party is officially sent on is either for the purpose of hindering Cobra's abilities to operate in the region, for the purpose of strengthening the national defenses, or both.
For example, if they recover the Italian intelligence operative, she'll be seconded to Building Zed, and thus become another warm body who can hold a rifle.
If the party captures any vehicles, they'll be allowed to keep every second vehicle for Building Zed's arsenal; the rest will go to W-Land to help "modernize" its aging 1960s-era forces.
If the party wins over the intelligence broker, he'll help give crucial early warning.
Et cetra.
Depending upon what the party does, they can either lose the war or prevent it from even happening.
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Post by the light works on Apr 4, 2024 17:21:00 GMT
Possible end game for the campaign: As a result of the incident where Captain Bergmeyer had to save the country twice, Brussels did an assessment and determined that if the Cold War became hot, W-Land would only hold out for 48 hours before the military and police crumbled before the onslaught. The establishment of the small Action Force facility and the handful of "modern" military vehicles the United States has presented them with to help replenish their forces has boosted the estimate to 72 hours. Basically, Brussels sees W-Land as expendable, a bulwark for the Soviet Union to bleed itself on. The party members are, likewise, seen as expendable by NATO for one reason or another. Every mission that the party is officially sent on is either for the purpose of hindering Cobra's abilities to operate in the region, for the purpose of strengthening the national defenses, or both. For example, if they recover the Italian intelligence operative, she'll be seconded to Building Zed, and thus become another warm body who can hold a rifle. If the party captures any vehicles, they'll be allowed to keep every second vehicle for Building Zed's arsenal; the rest will go to W-Land to help "modernize" its aging 1960s-era forces. If the party wins over the intelligence broker, he'll help give crucial early warning. Et cetra. Depending upon what the party does, they can either lose the war or prevent it from even happening. seems like a reasonable end-of-campaign storyline.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 8, 2024 20:21:50 GMT
Back in the days before a certain fellow with a funny mustache, W-Land chose to build highways to help connect them to their neighboring nations instead of just relying on railroad, river, and narrow rural roads. These highways aren't anything fancy, just 2 - 3 lanes in each direction with a turn lane. But they get the job done.
In one part of the country, there's a T-intersection that has a truck stop on one corner and a hostel on another. The "t" leads off to one country, and continuing straight on leads to another country.
Officially, in honor of his actions, W-Land made Captain Bergmeyer the "lord" over this little area. The intersection and a chunk of land around it was hastily incorporated as "Utah City", with a handful of businesses large and small along the highway, plus city offices & facilities, housing, churches (including a large facility for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Bergmeyer's faith), public works, an elementary school, and so forth. A new military base was established in the area as well for joint NATO operations, and Building Zed is part of that base.
In reality, the town itself is basically a "propaganda" town, something to where the folks over in communist Borovia can see how nice, free, and well-off the West is. The base, meanwhile, is as much a site for the US Armed Forces Network to broadcast AM, FM, and TV in a way that the other two nations will get "free" media as it is a show of force, a bluff that NATO is protecting the region. Anyone with eyes, however, can tell that the base is as short-handed as the library is empty (capacity for 3,000 books, only has 100 on the shelves) and so will offer only token resistance if a full-on war happens. Plus, there is mixed sentiment in the region because the town is basically regarded as "Little America" and only a fraction of a percentage point of people in the country are Bergmeyer's co-religionists.
So there could be a few stories involving foreign spies disguised as truckers, dissidents trying to "spy" on the place, saboteurs trying to jam or bring down the AFN transmitters, et cetra.
As far as the town itself goes, I'm thinking a Carrefour (real-life French retailer akin to Wal-Mart) hyper-market, an Aldi's (real-life German grocery store) shop, a diner that specializes in American food, a 7-11, a Deseret Book (real-life book store chain that serves members of the LDS faith), a dedicated pharmacy, a dedicated bicycle shop, an appliance shop, and perhaps a few other stores (toy and games store? comic book shop? barber shop? dry cleaner? not sure).
This would give the party a town they can cause havoc in when not on assignment or duty but which has built-in plot hooks.
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Post by the light works on Apr 9, 2024 4:25:47 GMT
don't forget LDS missionaries getting into trouble.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 9, 2024 22:07:28 GMT
don't forget LDS missionaries getting into trouble. If the party decides to play as good guys, they'll be attached to the base and have the city as an "adventure town" where they can get up to antics between missions. If the party decides to play as bad guys, they can either try to attack the town (there's a surprise if they try to do a Leeroy Jenkins) or try to infiltrate it somehow. Either way, from where I stand creating such an "adventure town" makes sense.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 12, 2024 15:00:56 GMT
Based on the NPCs I have assembled and a few random rolls, this is what the Action Force peeps at Building Zed will start out with as far as combat vehicles go:
1 Sky Hawk V/STOL aircraft. This has two air-to-air missiles, two machine guns meant for dogfighting, and two light-end cannons (with only a few shots each) for strafing
3 VAMP wheeled combat vehicles, essentially the mid-point between the FMC XR311 and the Humvee. Each one has twin .50 machine guns in a rear-mounted turret operated from within the vehicle.
1 Snow Cat halftrack, which is ostensibly optimized for arctic combat. This has four anti-tank missiles, a type of "torpedo" mounted on a ski, and a machine gun pod mounted to where one of the two torpedoes should mount
1 RAM combat motorcycle. This has a gatling gun mounted on a sidecar, with the gun controlled by the driver
2 Devilfish combat boats. These are basically speed boats with machine guns and rockets.
4 PAC-RAT combat robots, each kitted out with four heat-seeking missiles
4 APCs, equivalent to Germany's Fox armored transports. One has been modified to serve as a mobile repair shop for the vehicle repair crew the team has, while the other three are set up as evacuation vehicles for the base's non-combatants.
1 Coastal Defender towed tactical platform, which has an assortment of ELINT equipment and a pair of radar-guided missiles
1 Road Toad towed recovery platform, which has a winch & hoist to recover vehicles and a pair of machine guns
If *you* all were appended to this team, what's the first type of vehicle you would push Captain Bergmeyer to either requisition or steal?
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Post by the light works on Apr 12, 2024 15:35:02 GMT
Based on the NPCs I have assembled and a few random rolls, this is what the Action Force peeps at Building Zed will start out with as far as combat vehicles go: 1 Sky Hawk V/STOL aircraft. This has two air-to-air missiles, two machine guns meant for dogfighting, and two light-end cannons (with only a few shots each) for strafing 3 VAMP wheeled combat vehicles, essentially the mid-point between the FMC XR311 and the Humvee. Each one has twin .50 machine guns in a rear-mounted turret operated from within the vehicle. 1 Snow Cat halftrack, which is ostensibly optimized for arctic combat. This has four anti-tank missiles, a type of "torpedo" mounted on a ski, and a machine gun pod mounted to where one of the two torpedoes should mount 1 RAM combat motorcycle. This has a gatling gun mounted on a sidecar, with the gun controlled by the driver 2 Devilfish combat boats. These are basically speed boats with machine guns and rockets. 4 PAC-RAT combat robots, each kitted out with four heat-seeking missiles 4 APCs, equivalent to Germany's Fox armored transports. One has been modified to serve as a mobile repair shop for the vehicle repair crew the team has, while the other three are set up as evacuation vehicles for the base's non-combatants. 1 Coastal Defender towed tactical platform, which has an assortment of ELINT equipment and a pair of radar-guided missiles 1 Road Toad towed recovery platform, which has a winch & hoist to recover vehicles and a pair of machine guns If *you* all were appended to this team, what's the first type of vehicle you would push Captain Bergmeyer to either requisition or steal? assuming the campaign has no likelihood of going to heavy armor, I'd want some reconnaissance drones.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 13, 2024 20:25:22 GMT
Decided to try and draw up another character last night using the official rules in hopes that I could figure them out now that I've read the manual through.
I got a West German helicopter pilot (I came up with a few on-the-spot random rolls for things like military specialty and place of origin...), so I ruled that the team now has a captured Cobra FANG gyrocopter as well.
The FANG has virtually no armor to speak of, and in fact the pilot is exposed. It does, however, have four air-to-air missiles (think Stingers), a machine gun, a bunker-buster bomb, and hand grips so that two soldiers can ride on the landing skis.
It's a knife-fighter that relies on speed to survive, but in the hands of a daring pilot even one FANG can do some damage before it goes down.
That being said, the team is largely shaping up as a "rapid deployment force" where everyone can either rapidly deploy to the front or rapidly evacuate non-combatants & set up a field command as needed.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 15, 2024 22:05:36 GMT
Plot twist ->
Over the weekend I came up with a random assortment of gender-neutral names, many of which are common across Western countries. I divvied the names up, assigning them to various support-level positions around Building Zed (kitchen staff, building maintenance / janitorial, quartermaster, signal, medical) in support of Captain Bergmeyer, the other NPCs (including a few non-combatants, like the company clerk and the command sergeant major in charge of the motor pool), and the party.
Then I remembered that I'm going to set the campaign in 1986.
I'm having it now that all of these individuals are in fact female service members who hail from countries that, as of 1986, didn't allow women in combat roles. So these ladies are individuals who wanted to serve and got slotted in these non-combat roles. Captain Bergmeyer found out about them, and decided to give them a fair shake to see what they've got.
On one hand, this is astoundingly progressive of him for 1986. On the other hand, I think you can imagine the speculation and buzz this would cause during that era, as well as all the trouble the party could get into this way.
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Post by the light works on Apr 15, 2024 23:20:49 GMT
that does hit right on the border between sexism and non sexism. so it does have possibilities.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 16, 2024 0:48:58 GMT
that does hit right on the border between sexism and non sexism. so it does have possibilities. People forget that the United States and several other nations didn't begin opening the combat arms branches up to women until the 1990s, so if I have a group of younger players this will be part of the culture shock. The actual G. I. Joe franchise was astoundingly progressive in the fact that in 1983 they had a female tank driver, even if she was packaged as the operator of the Wolverine missile track (imagine if the Alvis Scorpion light tank was equipped with 12 anti-tank missiles instead of its cannon) and so realistically she would have been in a fire support role instead of a direct combat role. As it is, the support staff being overwhelmingly female (the team's strategist, the team's ELINT specialist, the team's surgeon, and the command sergeant major in charge of the motor pool are male) would further fit in with the "group of misfits" atmosphere, and could plausibly have been allowed by high command on the basis of "it would give the combat arms lads something to fight for" given the attitudes of the era.
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Post by the light works on Apr 16, 2024 12:41:45 GMT
that does hit right on the border between sexism and non sexism. so it does have possibilities. People forget that the United States and several other nations didn't begin opening the combat arms branches up to women until the 1990s, so if I have a group of younger players this will be part of the culture shock. The actual G. I. Joe franchise was astoundingly progressive in the fact that in 1983 they had a female tank driver, even if she was packaged as the operator of the Wolverine missile track (imagine if the Alvis Scorpion light tank was equipped with 12 anti-tank missiles instead of its cannon) and so realistically she would have been in a fire support role instead of a direct combat role. As it is, the support staff being overwhelmingly female (the team's strategist, the team's ELINT specialist, the team's surgeon, and the command sergeant major in charge of the motor pool are male) would further fit in with the "group of misfits" atmosphere, and could plausibly have been allowed by high command on the basis of "it would give the combat arms lads something to fight for" given the attitudes of the era. I remember the era. it was an era of women who wanted to participate and other women who wanted to get equal glory without equal effort. and mostly men who wanted to protect the good ol' boys club.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 17, 2024 20:09:13 GMT
Hypothetical W-Land military ration:
freeze-dried main item (porridge with honey, ham & potatoes with peppers, orange chicken with rice and peppers, lemon pepper tuna with rice and peppers, beef & beans in tomato sauce)
free-standing sachet of instant coffee mix
free-standing sachet of lemon & barley tea mix
sachet of dried fruit, assorted
three-pack of shrink-wrapped rye bread
1 sachet each of nut spread, butter spread, and assorted jam
The story will be that Captain Bergmeyer and a few others worked with W-Land to develop rations that were lighter and not as bulky as the canned goods the country was previously giving its soldiers, but as W-Land didn't have any native companies capable of producing the flameless ration heaters the next best thing was freeze-dried main products, which a company in the nation is already producing. Plain water will still rehydrate everything, but it takes hot water to actually make it a proper meal. Field heaters, hot engine blocks, and so forth are easy sources of heat for a metal beverage cup, but beyond that it could be a bit of a challenge for each soldier to get enough hot water for the 2 - 3 rations they'll be given per day.
This includes the party, who will have to figure it out for themselves as well.
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Post by the light works on Apr 18, 2024 4:11:35 GMT
Hypothetical W-Land military ration: freeze-dried main item (porridge with honey, ham & potatoes with peppers, orange chicken with rice and peppers, lemon pepper tuna with rice and peppers, beef & beans in tomato sauce) free-standing sachet of instant coffee mix free-standing sachet of lemon & barley tea mix sachet of dried fruit, assorted three-pack of shrink-wrapped rye bread 1 sachet each of nut spread, butter spread, and assorted jam The story will be that Captain Bergmeyer and a few others worked with W-Land to develop rations that were lighter and not as bulky as the canned goods the country was previously giving its soldiers, but as W-Land didn't have any native companies capable of producing the flameless ration heaters the next best thing was freeze-dried main products, which a company in the nation is already producing. Plain water will still rehydrate everything, but it takes hot water to actually make it a proper meal. Field heaters, hot engine blocks, and so forth are easy sources of heat for a metal beverage cup, but beyond that it could be a bit of a challenge for each soldier to get enough hot water for the 2 - 3 rations they'll be given per day. This includes the party, who will have to figure it out for themselves as well. before the flameless heaters, our MREs came with a fuel pellet, which, could be burned in a simple stove, either made of folded metal, or field made.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 18, 2024 14:45:47 GMT
Hypothetical W-Land military ration: freeze-dried main item (porridge with honey, ham & potatoes with peppers, orange chicken with rice and peppers, lemon pepper tuna with rice and peppers, beef & beans in tomato sauce) free-standing sachet of instant coffee mix free-standing sachet of lemon & barley tea mix sachet of dried fruit, assorted three-pack of shrink-wrapped rye bread 1 sachet each of nut spread, butter spread, and assorted jam The story will be that Captain Bergmeyer and a few others worked with W-Land to develop rations that were lighter and not as bulky as the canned goods the country was previously giving its soldiers, but as W-Land didn't have any native companies capable of producing the flameless ration heaters the next best thing was freeze-dried main products, which a company in the nation is already producing. Plain water will still rehydrate everything, but it takes hot water to actually make it a proper meal. Field heaters, hot engine blocks, and so forth are easy sources of heat for a metal beverage cup, but beyond that it could be a bit of a challenge for each soldier to get enough hot water for the 2 - 3 rations they'll be given per day. This includes the party, who will have to figure it out for themselves as well. before the flameless heaters, our MREs came with a fuel pellet, which, could be burned in a simple stove, either made of folded metal, or field made. Aspic tablets work well enough IRL, but knowing the people I've gamed with in the past they're just too powerful a weapon to be left carelessly about.
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Post by the light works on Apr 18, 2024 15:22:57 GMT
before the flameless heaters, our MREs came with a fuel pellet, which, could be burned in a simple stove, either made of folded metal, or field made. Aspic tablets work well enough IRL, but knowing the people I've gamed with in the past they're just too powerful a weapon to be left carelessly about. I just remembered you're talking 80s setting, so flameless wasn't common, yet. maybe have it that the fuel pellets were discontinued for reasons (health/safety/too many people misusing them) and vehicles were supplied with a plug in one cup warmer - which may or may not still be in the vehicle/functional
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Post by ironhold on Apr 18, 2024 16:23:48 GMT
Aspic tablets work well enough IRL, but knowing the people I've gamed with in the past they're just too powerful a weapon to be left carelessly about. I just remembered you're talking 80s setting, so flameless wasn't common, yet. maybe have it that the fuel pellets were discontinued for reasons (health/safety/too many people misusing them) and vehicles were supplied with a plug in one cup warmer - which may or may not still be in the vehicle/functional Everything Joe was designed by American design teams, meaning that even *with* Larry Hama, a military veteran, writing the file cards and US comic book British-style heating surfaces were never even on the radar. And it was Hama himself, in the comics, who said that W-Land has no native combat vehicle manufacturing capability, meaning they have to purchase everything on the open market. I could rule that every squad of infantry or combat vehicle above a certain size gets its own electric heating surface, but again I've had players who would have found that too quaint a solution yet couldn't be trusted with aspic tablets, either.
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Post by the light works on Apr 18, 2024 23:15:23 GMT
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