Straight outta Kalisz: SITREP-05
Forty-one days in WW III that never was.
We’re day 41 from the fall of Kalisz. Accurate time tracking in a sandbox matters. We have procedurally processed all 41 days, and I have witnessed weather, water/food levels, and injuries heavily influence decisions about where to go, what to do, and how long to rest. Twilight: 2000 has the best encounter decks (aka tables) I’ve seen and rules to escalate an encounter to a faction and build sites around factions. Everything you’ll read below likely came from an encounter card that I then worked into the current fiction, and we explored it. Also, for everything below, assume the players avoided three encounter cards.
The Ops Map
Podmiescie is our new base camp. Just off of 36, it was a farming community abandoned and used now by other war refugees. The cistern camp was getting pretty busy with stragglers. Our current camp roster:
- Tracy, Army Mechanic.
- Justin, CIA Spook
- Bard, Swede scout
- Janusz, Polish Army medic
- Antoni(NPC) is a slightly off casualty of war. Polish.
- Jakob(NPC) is a Polish reservist soldier, young and nationalistic.
- Anne(NPC), American kid.
- A Dog — not sure we named it yet, but it requires food and water too!
The neighbors are:
- Gregos, A Danish biologist with two trained dogs
- Brody and Derrill, A Russian and Frenchman that only come out at night.
- Some cranky old polish guy that avoids everyone.
- Some folks that hid in a wooded area across the street at night just watching. (Recently shot and left for dead )
The status of forces
Lou. There is a walled village far east of the camp of Polish folks. “Lou” is the point of contact. Through him, the characters trade goods and services for food and intel in a neutral-positive relationship. This started as a random card encounter and grew into a faction that started out RAW, and it’s a pretty grayish situation. The players hold their noses and turn slightly away at times when dealing with Lou and his people.
The Sniper Post. This is the new hotness in the game sessions. A 6+ member soviet team, with a sniper, embedded itself in the woods near a tactical north-south road. Something happened that broke up this group. The characters engaged and killed four team members, but not the sniper. We’re very cautious about the wooded area these days. Another encounter card weaved into our narrative.
Cannibal hunters. Found a group of these guys camped out, cooking a meal. They became extremely hostile when confronted. That’s all I’ll write about that.
Wired Castle (Off map, west). Discovered an old manor house with a tower. The property was barb-wired around the perimeter and patrolled.
Cistern(old camp). The characters spent a lot of time setting up a camp here at this location with clean, accessible water. The structure needed repairs but was dry and defensible. In the end, too many stragglers would stumble along the path to the structure bringing strangers right to the doorstep. This is still a solid source of clean water for the characters.
Barne’s America. Another encounter card that grew into a faction and then into a site. Remnants of an American army force “partnered” with a Polish civilian town. Major Barnes is the ranking officer of the army group. “Phil” works with her and represents the Polish people of the town. Yanush and Tracey found themselves detained by the army until they could check out the character’s “Story.” The situation on the ground here was …utilitarian, not great, and not ugly. The characters decided not to throw in with these folks and rescued Tracey and Janusz.
Road Block w/tank. Every so often, a tank group or trucks arrive at this location, men are swapped, gear is brought, and fortifications are built. Welcome to the brand new headache.
GM Notes
It’s late November game time. Last game, half a dozen polish soldiers joined the camp; there already wasn’t enough food. Oh, it’s possible Major Hayden, and his commandos could return — that’s another 5–6 stomachs. AND they rescued an “intelligence contractor.” See those powder kegs stacking up?
I miss “Phil.” He was a Polish ‘spook’ the players LOVED to hate on! I think he was just another NPC until a key, organic scene happened. He was asking a zip-tied Janusz general questions you might ask a stranger…while eating a fresh juicy grapefruit -that set my players off, and life was breathed into “Phil.”
I miss the dangerous cat-and-mouse games with ‘The world’s most interesting man.’ A Russian guy with his two teenage kids. They were survivors too, but not super friendly to the characters. It was an escalating hostility.
And I often wonder…what’s in that secured briefcase we found so many sessions ago and buried by the characters — you know, in case it’s got a tracker in it!
Urban Operations
Free League has opened its pre-order of Urban Operations with the PDF immediately available for download. Having just read it, it’s a massive box of new toys to add to your games! New combat options for fighting in cities and close quarters. Sniper rules that are deadly. And new cities and urban plots and a nice twist on WW III that never was mythos. I love it.
