Running The Star of the Mist – for the One Ring 2e

The Star of the Mist is the “starter adventure” included in The One Ring second edition core rulebook by Free League. I ran it with a group of only three players. It was also my first hands on experience with The One Ring as a Lore Master – having previously used the Adventures in Middle-earth ruleset (D&D 5e) a few years ago. This article contains my first impressions of the game and thoughts and advice on running The Star of the Mist.

The game was played as a one-shot during an evening, and we rolled characters and got through the adventure in around four hours – however, we didn’t get into the optional aspects of the adventuring site and I could have spent more time on the journey and intro, to enhance the atmosphere.

I used the information from the supplement Ruins of the Lost Realm several times to add context to the game and found it super helpful.

If you are unfamiliar with The One Ring (TOR) Second Edition, I’ve written a long review comparing it to D&D 5e for ease of reference. I’ve also written extensively about Adventures in Middle-earth, the D&D 5th edition version of TOR 1ed.

The Fellowship:

We created three characters from scratch in about 45 mins (I had printed an extra copy of cultures and weapons to speed things along). The players said it was easy to make meaningful choices and make a character with a clear focus, and the core rules were easily explained and understood.

Note that everyone just picked a name from the list provided in the core book, and it worked brilliantly to ensure that the style and atmosphere was kept, and it was quick.

Baranor, Ranger of the North, Warden

Ellahir, Elf of Lindon, Champion

Folko Truefoot, Halfing of the Shire, Burglar

…and the old pony Frido.

They picked Círdan as Patron.

First Impressions

Playing the adventure, we found that journey’s worked well, but felt as ‘a system’, and I would need to work more as Lore Master to make scenes or incorporate them into the narrative. It may also be a matter of getting used to the style.

The combat was fast and crunchy enough to be interesting.

Both melee-characters carried spears (which is unusual for RPGs), because they are very strong weapon choices in TOR. The Ranger even did a combo, where the spear got a very high chance of injury, but due to poor dice rolls, it didn’t work quite as intended for this game. Being new to the game, they didn’t coordinate to cover the key travel skills, and I did encourage it, but didn’t insist. If it had been for the start of a campaign, I would have made sure to have them focus on that or let them ret-con after the first journey experience. The consequences were that they took a long time to travel, gained lots of fatigue, and were almost wounded just by passing through the Shire.

Spears are awesome in The One Ring. They should be awesome in more role-playing games. Illustration from the core book.

The shadow points came much more into play than in my experience with Adventures in Middle-earth, which was great. It was one of my criticisms for the previous edition of the 5e rule-set. It actually ended with the elf running out of hope during the final encounter, and he would have had a bout of madness, had it not happened at the end of the evening or for a full campaign game.

Despite having tokens in the middle of the table, they forgot to spend their Fellowship Points, which only demonstrate that it takes a bit of practice to incorporate that mechanic.

The more narrative style, versus pushing minis on a grid for 5e, worked very well for us. I will get into why below.

Now to the adventure… SPOILERS from here on!

Running The Star of the Mist

I began the adventure on the beach at the Grey Havens where Círdan explained the task, while he was building a ship.

I used the bandits as the hook. Their mission was to scout out the trouble and the disappearing travelers, but I also added the rumour of the light at night and the history of the place – which the ancient elf would clearly know. The hook turned out to be a challenge in the beginning for me and ended perfectly.

The fellowship decided to go by the roads through the Shire, then turn south along the road to Sarn Ford, as a point for further exploration. I couldn’t find the rules for journey’s through a ‘green area’, but I’m sure I’ve seen them somewhere…

As mentioned, the characters weren’t well configured to cope with the hazards of the journey. I found it fun to improvise the hazards of the journey to make them make sense in the narrative. One was a hunting accident (Ups! Was that a sheep?!). Another was a team of horses stampeding while pulling a hay wagon, which almost wounded the elf, and Truefoot leading them astray into some marshy terrain at an attempt of a short cut. I could have create more scenes out of them, but I was mindful of our time.

Marked in red, you can see the journey the fellowship had. If they haden’t picked Círdan as their patron, I would have used Bree as the starting point in stead.

Fatigued, they arrive at the Sarn Ford, where I added the elven camp from Ruins of the Lost Realm (but without introducing the adventure hook), which meant they had a safe place to rest for a couple of days and burn off two fatigue points.

While at the camp, they see the light from the Star of the Mist. The elf rolls a Lore check and can convert it to a magical success, which he does with a point of hope. I turn that into a sort of vision, like Frodo seeing the Eye of Sauron at Rauros. Ellahir sees the crown and the jewel nailed to the skull of a human figure on top of the tower. They don’t know whether he is undead, but it is very enticing.

So far, they had been mostly concerned about the brigands, so that added additional motivation and understanding of the plot.

When back on their feet, they journey towards the Star and locate the brigand group.

Arrival at the Adventuring Site

When they come to the foothills, they can see the tower across the ravine, but I also describe it as being hidden in an unnatural mist (partly to further discourage trying alternate routes to get there). The fellowship also easily discover the brigand camp.

Here I missed the bandit leader foreshadwing Elwen’s presence, which would have caused the characters to ask questions about her, adding context and mood.

All of the characters are quite stealthy. Truefoot scouts the cave all the way across the bridge to see if they have any prisoners. He finds none, and they decide to bushwack the three brigands at night. They easily sneak up on the lone guard and subdue him, and then proceed to bag the other two.

They interrogate them and learn about the dozen who are off raiding. I also add some information taken from Ruins of the Lost Realm, which worked well. The leader tells them, that he works for the men on the Black Ship, and he use it to threaten them. Which of course doesn’t work on them, but hints to a wider conspiracy and a larger world. For a campaign, it would work even better.

The group binds the bandits together and bring them with them into the caves. They cross the bridge and find their stores and treasure. After securing the riches, they proceed into the Flooded Chambers.

I don’t think I understood the locations of everything in the Flooded Chambers quite as the designers intended. On the map below, you can see how I ran it. I certainly didn’t catch that the Marsh Dwellers and treasure was in the same place (although that idea makes sense, but isn’t communicated on the map).

They notice the person (dwarf) fleeing into a tunnel and go after him, but I describe the labyrinthine nature of the place. They retreat and then he strikes the bell. The six marsh dwellers attack, and would be a big challenge, I think, but the bandits act as bait. One character throws a knife to them, while they fight. But despite having a chance to free themselves and fight back, one bandit gets dragged off into the deep halls. They kill two other marsh dwellerss and the rest flee.

Having the bandits drag them off illustrate the danger, and it is always awesome to have minions or NPCs to attack to demonstrate lethality or potential dangers.

After resting a short while, they take the stairs. They decide not to open the sepulchers, and I think that goes well with the Middle-earth style gameplay.

If I were to run it again, I would put the House of Records into a smashed semi-open Sepulcher. I don’t think many players will “defile” the graves. That way, you get to deploy the backstory, which I always think is best to do, and not hide it behind a “condition” or roll.

Furthermore, I’m not sure it makes sense – as written – that the dwarf comes from the same hallway as the Marsh Dwellers. But making their lair more obvious would be beneficial, if they are to find some treasure.

Above ground in the mist, they find a place to bind the two remaining bandits. I add the Old Well from the list of expansion options. The orc skeleton adds context (but who would cover the well after he falls down there?).

They then explore the Accursed Halls, read the Black Speech (and gain shadow points) and now Lady Elwen emerge through the mist.

A battle ensues, but it is quickly resolved against the characters. A couple of poor rolls and then three failed Shadow Tests when she uses her Strike Fear ability means everyone scatter into the mist. Ellahir has a bout of madness at 0 Hope, and they flee down the stairs as they regain their courage, leaving the bandits to their fate.

We wrap up, with the players considering their mission a success, because they found out what the bandit threat was and gained a lot of knowledge and a bit of treasure.

Conclusion & Review

The game was definitely a success. The players described it as very atmospheric and something they would like to play again – the only caveat was from one player, who isn’t big on Middle-earth. He prefers Warhammer RPG, which I also love, but that is down to taste. He liked that rules, which worked well and smoothly and allows you to play a narrative game with enough crunch to make combat and drama interesting.

The journey rules they did find a bit artificial (though fitting the setting), but that may be partly my fault. Had it been a campaign game, or had I had more time in the session, I would have used more content from the Shire pack in the Starter Set, expanded a bit on the events as scenes and maybe added an encounter of some kind, to create a more organic experience.
On the other hand, they could see how your skill at Travel and other journey skills would determine what you can realistically set out to accomplish, and would force a novice group to break longer journeys into smaller bites. Compared to the 5e (1ed) version, they characters don’t have any abilities to hand waive or easily overcome problems (like the Wanderer’s Known Lands or Ways of the Wild class features), and that made the travel rules and skills more important.

The Tower of the Star.

I didn’t find the Flooded Chambers map super easy to decode. It is for example confusing that the improvised bridge isn’t there and that the bandit stash isn’t indicated on the map. I printed out a copy for the players and cut the names out. I don’t know why they didn’t explore more? Because it was unusual for them to have a visual they could investigate, perhaps?

The escaping dwarf made me think of a criticism I had of the D&D 5e adventures for the previous edition. Escaping villains happened several times in for example the Mirk Wood Campaign. The problem in a ‘combat with grid game’ like D&D is that players expect to be able to use their abilities to move faster and catch them on the battle map. This doesn’t happen in The One Ring, and as a more narrative game (with no movement stat) none of my players expressed any annoyance of this ploy.

The fight with Elwen was cool, and I had read online that she was too tough for a beginner group. That turned out to be the case. On the other hand, we did see a roll against the marsh dwellers with three additional ‘6s’ on attack, and a total of 20 damage, which would almost bring her to zero. So, with luck, she can be defeated.

One thing I think is really missing, is stats and more information on the Crown of Hadirion. It must be important to the Dunedaín! It should also have some form of wonderous power. But the adventure doesn’t say which. Or add any kind of history to it. I think it is a serious oversight, and would have been a nice box to add.

All in all, it would have worked well as the first adventure to a campaign. If that had been the case, I would have added the full details of Tindalin at Sarn Ford – and potentially run that first, depending on the characters – and added stronger links to the Black Ship and Tharbad. The Tower would have become a location that they would have returned to several sessions later, which would have worked extremely well – also with a couple of wonderous items at the right pace.

In hindsight, and with a full campaign ahead of me, I would work more on the hook and add more flavour along the way. But as mentioned, the ‘find out why people are missing’ mission worked super well. To add more ‘meat to that bone’, I would probably include a prisoner, meaning they would have another NPC to talk to. Perhaps someone the bandits want to ransom to a family in Tharbad (providing another hook into potential stories). It would also mean that they would feel a greater sense of accomplishment, without taking on the main threat.

We had a great time. I would be very happy to run a campaign in The One Ring 2e.

P.S. That Moria: Through the Doors of Durin expansion makes it even harder for me to stay away in the future.

Your handy guide to Free League roleplaying-games

Whether you love fantasy role-playing games, post-apocalyptic survival, horror, science-fiction, investigation or a combination of these, Free League has you covered. This article is a guide to inspire you and help you consider whether one or more of these games are for you and your table.

The Swedish publisher and game developer has built an impressive suite of role-playing games. Each of the games are explicit in their themes and moods and the individual games try to emulate and reinforce them using the ruleset. They also share similarities in design beyond simple dice mechanics, which makes moving from one to the other easy.

Most of the games use some variation of the Year-Zero game engine and most of them are multi-award winning and outstanding in their presentation and design.

All of them are less complex than Dungeons & Dragons, primarily because the characters you can play have fewer unique capabilities and there aren’t 200+ spells you need to consider (as a player or GM) – though a few of their games are fairly “crunchy”. On the other hand, the rules governing exploration or social interaction aren’t usually as vague as in D&D (and many other older RPGs).

Fria Ligan (Free League) is a Swedish table top game studio and publisher established in 2011.

I own, and have read, most of Free League’s games, and I have played many of them. In the following text, I will briefly go over what unites them and add a few lines about each game. The aim is to help you pick your next game experience.

They are all beautiful and well produced games, and naturally there are some that I personally prefer over the others. But you might prefer different ones for different reasons. Therefore, the games aren’t ranked.

For each game I will however rate its complexity on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most mechanically complex. This scale is an internal curve for the suite of Free League RPGs. It is not a comparison with other games like D&D, Blades in the Dark or Rolemaster.

NOTE: I don’t have any financial relation to Free League and I’ve paid for everything myself.

What unites the Free League games?

Beyond sharing mechanics (see below) there are some design choices which you can find in many, if not most, of the company’s games.

Emergent gameplay
Free League favor designs where drama and narrative emerge from exploration and a certain level of randomness plus the resulting player choice, rather than as pre-planned campaigns and designed narrative arcs (The Last Cyclade campaign and the Alien Cinematic Adventures being notable exceptions).

Twilight: 2000 use a set of regular playing cards to determine random events every day.

Mechanical abstraction of time and resources
The time inside the game is often divided into ‘shifts’ of six hours. The timeframe is used for travel, resting, crafting and in Bladerunner, for example, one character can follow up on one clue per shift, which encourages splitting the group. Resources like torches, rations or oxygen are often abstracted into a dice mechanic.

In Forbidden Lands, your consumeables are represented by a dice. For example, when making
a ranged attack you roll a D12 with a full quiver. On a ‘1’ your supply of arrows drop to a D10.

Exploration and hex-crawl
There are coherent rules for travel and exploring, tied in with the games’ use of skills, time and resources.
Many of the games come with big hex-maps, where the PCs are expected to venture forth and find fame or fortune, or simply need to explore in order to survive.

Forbidden Lands is one of many games that has hex crawling as part of its core mechanic.

Deadly combat & crits
Fighting in Free League’s games is usually very dangerous for the characters. Losing all your health doesn’t mean a character is dead, instead the character is ‘broken’ and a critical hit is applied. These crits can be instantly fatal, and frequently result in lost extremities or lingering penalties that need time to heal.

Most of the Free League games use a critical hit system. This is a part of the torso table from Twilight: 2000.
Access to effective medical care will often determine whether a character survives.

Mental damage on top of physical damage
Characters can become ‘broken’ not only from being injured, but also by stress or mental damage. Often there are also critical injuries tied to the mental damage. The exact mechanic differs from game to game.

In Alien, rolling a ‘1’ on your stress dice triggers a panic roll.

Downtime and base-building
Downtime is normally treated as an integral part of the game. Activities during downtime are often related to base-building, recovering from injuries, gathering resources or preparing for the next adventure (training, gathering information and so forth).

Constructing a head quarter or upgrading your starship is cool, and most of the games have base building integrated into the games’ down time mechanics. In both Vaesen and Mutant Year Zero, it is also a core part of the gameplay.

In Mutant: Year Zero, the characters must not just survive, but also improve their “Ark”.

Personal ties & social mechanics

The games have mechanized social ties and interactions, often combined with the experience system.

Commonly, players designate another character as their ‘buddy’ and another as their ‘rival’, and these ties are often reinforced with mechanical effects and experience points for eg: xp for putting your life at risk for your buddy.

The rules around social conflict are more rigorous than in Dungeons & Dragons and many other older RPGs. If you want something from an NPC and you win the roll, they must do it, or attack. Some games also feature a Command ability, where characters can even force other characters to do as they command (or suffer mental damage if they refuse) – or get them back up if they are mentally ‘broken’.

Some games also have personality traits or backgrounds that players can ‘activate’ to get a bonus.

The Officer career in the Alien RPG has access to the Pull Rank talent.

The Year Zero-Engine

All of the games use the YZ mechanics, except Mörk Borg, the One Ring, Symbaroum and a couple of others, which are published by Free League, but are designed by other indie game designers.

The system is a dice pool system, where you must roll at least one ‘6’ to succeed in a task. Typically, you add your attribute and your skill together in addition to tools or weapons you employ, which determines how many dice you roll. Most of the games use D6, but a few also use D8, D10 and D12 (still with the aim to roll 6+).

All the games feature a “push” mechanic, where players can reroll a test, but with significant consequences if the attempt still fails, and sometimes with the ‘push’ causing physical or mental damage.

There are normally four attributes: usually called Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy, which are determined at character creation and can’t be improved during gameplay.

The games feature 12-16 skills, with 3-4 skills associated with each attribute. The skills are kept at a high abstraction level. For example, ‘Manipulation’ typically covers all social rolls and Piloting will cover everything from motorcycles to starships (sometimes with options of more granularity).

In addition, characters have Talents – like Feats in D&D. These are special abilities that often come in two categories: a group which is tied to your archetype (class, if you will) and general talents, which everyone can buy with experience, like bonus to skill rolls in particular situations or with specific weapons, cyberware, the ability to reroll critical hits etc.

A few of the games also feature powers or magic of some kind.

The Games (Year Zero Games first, then non YZ games)

Alien

In this retro-science-fiction horror game you play colonists, space truckers or colonial marines who must face a cold, capitalistic, uncaring and horrific universe.

On top of the fearsome and deadly xenomorphs (and other nightmares), the characters can become embroiled in corporate plots and experiments, espionage and the conflict and warfare between the major political factions in the Alien universe. Or try to avoid them, while making their payments on their ship.

The rules are quite simple and use a stress and panic mechanic to underscore the key themes of the game.

Initially, the game may seem narrow, but it can work very well for a range of playstyles, including scary military science fiction, survival horror, corporate espionage and gritty, free trader, planet hopping adventures.

The explicitly ‘cinematic adventures’ published for the game are excellent for 3-5+ session dramas, where each character has hidden agendas that they need to achieve, often not aligned with all the other characters. Not many will survive through to the end of Act 3…

Because of the simple mechanics and well-known lore and visual style, it is a great game for first time role-players.

Play this game if you love gritty science fiction and horror.

“I loved it. An action packed rock’n’roll trip down paranoia lane, as if Jeremy Saulnier was given the task of directing an Alien movie.”

Martin Svendsen, playing Private Hammer in the adventure Destroyer of Worlds

Read more in my full review.

COMPLEXITY: 2

Bladerunner

This investigation heavy neon-noir game is the latest Free League game and based on the Bladerunner universe. You take the role as Bladerunners – elite police officers with a license to kill. Either as humans or replicants. It is designed for small groups (1-4 players), and takes place in 2037, about a decade before the second film of the franchise.

Characters (a variety of cops, like City Speaker, Doxie, Inspector and Skimmer) struggle not only with solving their case, but also with the morality of their actions and what it means to be human.

An interesting feature is that solving the case gets you promotion points, which you can use to get more talents. Whereas going against the rules, like letting replicants go, will earn you humanity points, which you need to upgrade skills.

The game is heavy on mood and lore and is great for character focused and RP-heavy games.

The starter set comes with an excellent adventure and some of the best props and handouts I’ve ever seen.

Play this game if you love character driven, role-playing heavy investigation games.

COMPLEXITY: 3

Coriolis – the Third Horizon

This far future occult space opera game has a distinct ‘Arabian nights’ atmosphere with planets teeming with life and the growing threat of the djinni said to come from ‘the dark between the stars’.

The game is set in a region of space that contains about two dozen systems connected by jump gates. You should expect to play explorers, pilots, zealots, mercenaries, spies and diplomats, normally with your own spacecraft. The Horizon has a significant spiritual aspect to the world in the form of Icons – saints that influence the world.

There are several supplements for the game and a big three-volume Mercy of the Icons campaign.

If you are familiar with older space opera RPGs, Coriolis is somewhere between Traveller and Fading Suns. Less spiritual than Fading Suns, but more than eg Traveller.

If you want a taste, I can recommend the actual play of the Mercy of the Icons campaign by Garblag Games.

Play Coriolis if you enjoy high adventure space opera games spiced with spirituality and the occult.

COMPLEXITY: 4

Forbidden Lands

The sword & sorcery-style fantasy RPG is designed with the Old School Renaissance mindset. It is a hex-crawl, open world focused game, where the characters frequently are rogues and sell-swords, more focused on personal gain than heroic deeds.

Survival and exploration are at the core of the system. Your equipment is key to your survival and will break (including arms and armor). Combat is swift and deadly, but ill-suited to encounter after encounter dungeon crawls.

As well as the regular humans, elves, dwarves etc., you can also play orcs, goblins and wolf-men. There are unique talents for each profession (class) which makes the various roles (eg Fighter, Minstrel, Rider, Druid, Peddler) distinct.

Unlike many older fantasy games, people and monsters don’t use the same mechanics. Each monster has fewer stats and a list of six “special attacks”, which makes fighting them feel unique and surprising, whether facing a harpy or a death knight.

Forbidden Lands can easily be used for a homebrew world. The system is simple enough that you can easily modify the spells and monsters.

The game is well-supported with two full campaigns and settings, two excellent adventure anthologies and an upcoming monster book and additional setting book.

Play Forbidden Lands if you love fantasy RPGs, but want something faster and grittier than D&D with a more rigorous exploration, base-building and resource mechanic.

COMPLEXITY: 4

Mutant Year Zero

This is the first game that employs the Year Zero engine (hence the name). It takes place in a post-apocalyptic future of an alternate timeline with robots, mutants and energy weapons. It is a cousin to games like Gamma World and Fallout.

It differs from the other games in that it has four books that can stand alone as their own games or work as supplements to the original game. Each of them is a complete standalone game with all the rules required, a setting and a campaign.

Play Mutant Year Zero if you enjoy a more ‘gonzo’ apocalyptic future full of weird mutants, crazed raiders, killer robots and fanatic cults.

COMPLEXITY: 3

Mutant

You are one of the mutants in “the Ark”. The Elder has forbidden you from exploring the ruins beyond the Ark, but food is running low and no one is able to bear children. To survive and prosper you must venture into the unknown and brave mutant creatures, the Rot and crumbling ruins to find grub, water and artefacts from the bygone age and develop the Ark while at the same time outsmarting and outfighting the rival gangs inside the Ark.

Genlab Alpha

You play a mutant animal, one of the genetic experiments of Test Area B35 “Paradise Valley”. The valley is fenced and guarded by the mysterious Watchers. Can you finally realize the dream of escaping your prison?

Players must explore the valley as mutant badgers, rats, bears, monkeys et al, protect their habitats and build the Resistance to the Watchers.

Elysium

Before the war that devastated the world, the three Titan Powers created sanctuaries to survive. You are one of their descendants living in Elysium. Players are all of one of the four noble families and Adjudicators, police and judges rolled into one. They are tasked with keeping the peace and go on missions to solve problems – secretly instigated by their own houses.

Uniquely, the game has a ‘strategic level’ where the players control each of the houses in their quest for dominance. All the missions were caused by the players through the strategic level. And during the actual gameplay, one player will be a traitor, who is trying to sabotage a successful outcome. However, when the team votes on who the traitor is at the end of the mission, whoever gets a unanimous vote, is judged as the spy!

This game feels like a mix of Judge Dredd and Paranoia.

Mechatron

Players are robots developing free will at the Production Facility Mechatron-7, who, now that they are detached from the hive mind, can go on their own missions.

The book is out of print, and I don’t own it, but the PDF version is available.

Tales from the Loop

In this ode to nostalgia, you play as kids in the 1980s, but in an alternate timeline, where humanity has discovered anti-gravity and sentient robots.
You play kids (10-15), who live near a big research facility, where odd things happen (including loose dinosaurs…).

The book contains two settings: a small town in Sweden and one in Arizona and a full campaign outline.

Characters fit one of the classic stereotypes (eg the jock, the computer geek, the hick and the trouble maker). The kids must struggle with home lives and school relations, as well as the strange going ons in the area. Adults are absent, adversaries or in a few cases allies.

The dramas can be very personal (eg violent step parent, alcoholic mother) as well as external.

The game handles “damage” differently than most games, as the characters can’t die, but they can get various detrimental conditions like “injured” or “upset“ or “scared”.

In its follow-up game, Tales from the Flood, you play teenagers, who can die.

Play Tales from the Loop if you want be a kid investigating weird science problems with your friends, while managing your personal problems and relations.

COMPLEXITY: 1

Twilight: 2000 (4th edition)

Twilight: 2000 is bleak dystopic post-apocalyptic survival RPG set in an alternate history, where NATO and Russia clashed in World War III at the end of the 2nd millennium. It features intensely human dramas and has a detailed survival and combat system.

It is designed as a player-driven hex-crawl game, where random events, rumours on the radio and the fortunes of war will help determine the course of the game.

The characters are soldiers of crumbled units and potentially a civlian or two, who must band together to survive. Players set their own goals for what ‘success’ looks like: fleeing west, creating a base and carving out a safe space for soldiers and civilians or roam around as mercenaries to get supplies until luck runs out?

Particularly with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this game hits very close to home, and it not for everyone, but it is an excellent design and can easily be converted for a “realistic” modern game, for example a ‘Walking Dead style’ zombie survival game (which is in fact also an upcoming Free League licensed RPG title).

The game has a solo-mode, which I’ve tried with much success.

Play Twilight: 2000 if you want an intense – and likely bloody – survival game, where each choice comes at a cost in fuel, ammunition or humanity.

Have a look at my solo game.

COMPLEXITY: 5

Väsen

In Vaesen, you play a group of humans gifted with ‘the sight’, who are part of a secret society, the purpose of which is to track down and combat Vaesen. Væsen means “creature” in Danish and Swedish, and these strange ‘vaesen’ are out of classic folk lore, like trolls, the Neck or Nisser.

The default game is set in a mythical 19th century Europe, and in the core game you are the inheritors of the crumbling castle Gyllencreutz, which works as your base, which you can explore and upgrade as the game progress.

Characters are typically hunters, doctors, priest, professors, soldiers and the like. The play-style is akin to Call of Cthulhu, but with a stronger ‘motor’ for campaign play.

The core book has Scandinavia as a core setting, but there is also a British isles sourcebook and there is help for customization for any region of the world.

Play Väsen, if you want to solve mythic mysteries in a world that is changing – where the old is being swept away by industrialisation – and protect humanity from the supernatural.

COMPLEXITY: 2

Non-Year Zero Games

Mörk Borg

The indie smash hit is a rules lite old school renaissance heavy metal fantasy RPG. You play weirdos, religious fanatics, murderers and scoundrels in a world that is ending. How will you go out?
It is intentionally very dark, funny and crazy, and the core book can be consumed in an hour.

As an example of the style, at the start of a campaign, the game master decides how often you roll for whether one of the portents of Nechrubel might happen, and at some point, you will roll the final sign, and the world ends. At which point you are advised to burn the book.

The rules are entirely player-facing, intentionally imbalanced and random, unforgiving and lethal.

The community around Mörk Borg is vibrant, with many independently publish supplements, as well as the new Cy_Borg core book, which use the same lite rules for a disturbing cyber punk game.

Play Mörk Borg if you want dreadful, plague ridden, decrepit, black metal adventures, where your chance of survival is neglible

COMPLEXITY: 1

Symbaroum

In this epic dark fantasy game, you explore the great Davokar forest, scheme for and against the many factions, and search for wealth, treasure and ancient secrets.

The rules use a D20 as the main resolution dice, but the rules are entirely player facing, so for example when a monster attacks a character, the player rolls to defend herself with a modifier depending on the stats of the monster. The mechanics have depth and versatility, but not the amount of spells and monsters that D&D has.

The setting and lore is excellent and very detailed. The core rules describe the war against the Dark Lords that drove the victorius Alberetor out of there ruined lands to the Ambria and the vast forest of Davokar, which is full of human and elven tribes, who don’t want the invaders poking into the darkness.

Characters are knights, theurges, sorcerers, treasure hunters and witch hunters. Most people are human, but also changelings, ogres or goblin. However, the player is free to build her character with the abilities and powers available. The archetypes are simply guidelines, not a “class” you adhere to.

The game is extremely well supported with several sourcebooks and a very long campaign. It also recently got a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition version.

Play Symbaroum if you want a well-supported epic dark fantasy game with plenty of monsters and magical treasures.

“Symbaroum won’t give you the crazy tactical grid combat of D&D nor will it give you the overwhelming creative wings you can get with a very narrative game. But it will give you a good solid framework that can act as an arbitrator but won’t try and tell you how to do everything. Attached to all of that is a setting that frankly might be worth the purchase of the books.“

Lennart Knudsen, Symbaroum game master

COMPLEXITY: 4

The One Ring RPG (2nd edition)

If you love Tolkien, or want a low-magic epic fantasy game, the One Ring is perfect. This game is a beautiful and faithful adaptation of Tolkien’s world into a role-playing game.

As a game, the One Ring is at the other end of the fantasy-spectrum from Mörk Borg. Characters are heroes opposing ‘the Shadow’ in the time-span between The Hobbit and the events of the Lord of the Rings.

You can create evocative characters that seem to walk right out of the source material (dour rangers, merry hobbits and stout Men of Bree).

Typically, the group will work with a patron – like Gandalf, Bilbo, Cerdain or (Aragorn’s mother) – and combat the growing shadow, recover ancient artefacts from lost ruins and reunite the free peoples against the threat.

The system employs a D12 as the main resolution dice, but with a number of D6 depending on how skilled your character is.

The game has a narrative focused travel mechanic, the threat of ‘shadow points’ if characters do unheroic things and rules governing “councils”.

In the starter set, you get a full source book on the Shire, and a chance to play Bilbo’s friends and relatives and help him explore one of his theories over a series of adventures (expect both much tea and lunches, as well as dangers, nosy Bounders and inn visits).

See my review for a full break-down of the game.

The game also have a D&D 5e version, called Adventures in Middle-Earth, which I played extensively in its first incarnation.

COMPLEXITY: 4

In Addition!

There are a couple of Free League Games, that I’ve had zero interaction with, which are Into the Odd and Death In Space. Both are “rules light” indie games, with very specific design focuses. Both look cool. But there are only so many hours in my life… 🙂

I hope one of these description inspired you to find a group or pick up the game to run it for your friends. I could play anyone of these games for months or years and I recommend all of them.

If you have questions or comments, don’t hesitate to comment or DM me here or on one of the social channels.

Twilight 2000: Episode 8 – Ambushing Commies

Five NATO soldiers have been left to find their own way home after the last – and failed – allied push against the Soviets in the fields of Poland in World War III. After fighting a group of marauders, they are restocked on ammo and carry a bit of fuel and must now find a way across the mighty Oder River to get to friendlier territory, but they’ve decided to rescue 30 civilian prisoners marching towards a cruel fate.

This is the eight episode of my solo-game of Free League’s Twilight: 2000 4^th edition post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. If you are new to the game/story, I suggest you start from the very beginning.

You can also read a description of the main characters and see their stats.

The game is published by Free League, and the art is from the 4th or 2nd edition (by GDW) of the game.

Short recap:

After being left on their own near Kalisz, the group flees in their camouflaged pick-up truck, which runs out of fuel near Syców. They try to find fuel or parts for an alcohol still in the town, but discover the ambushed remains of US troops. Among the casualties they rescue the wounded private Lee. They meet a local leader, who will aids them against the ambushers against a share of the loot. After a daring and successful dawn assault, they defeat the marauders with no casualties. But as the man they work with is dangerous and untrustworthy, with a lot of armed men at hand, they cut a quick deal, and hurry away with what they can carry – but a lot less than half the spoils. Driving towards the bridge at Brzeg they encounter three dozen prisoners being marched along the road and they decide to engage their captors.

Continuing Day 8…

The group has decided to lay an ambush. So, they lay an ambush, using the Waylaying rules. They don’t have 5-10 minutes, so they simply park the pickup behind a ridge and edge forward into a position along the road. 

The column shuffle towards them 300 meters away. They can see that the Soviet escort have one man on point about 20 meters ahead, with three people guarding the head of the prison column, four behind the column, including a lieutenant, and two making up the rear guard. 

The group manages to get into position after some effort (pushed roll). Perez helps Kelly hide his big gun. In essence, Kelly is worst at Recon, so he rolls for the entire group.

Kelly’s roll for ambushing is:

 -1 for 0 hexes away

+2 for foliage

+1 for camouflage fatigues 

+1 Help from Perez

All the characters begin the ambush prone. 

K is Kelly, Ki = King, P = Perez, L = Lee and Z is Zielinski. The column is moving from left towards right.

Round 1:

The Soviets notice nothing, and Kelly opens up with ‘the hog’ at almost point-blank range (-1 from the Soviets moving). He fires 7 rounds. None hit. It is evident that he hasn’t had a chance to sight the machinegun in. 

King throws a grenade at the rear group and hits but overstretches his arm (pushing). Both enemies are hit. But are not suppressed. 

Perez fires at the main group. He hits only one, the officer, but is fortunate that it creates a minor panic. The officer going down suppresses the others, who hit the deck. 

Zielinski hammers away, with the unfamiliar M-16 bucking in her hands (pushed roll). But she hits her hated foes and kills one in the front group and suppresses the others. 

Lee hurls a grenade. He again demonstrates his great pitching arm. The frag grenade lands right at the lead scout’s feet, blasting him and he collapses on the road, dead (2 damage). 

The two rear Soviet soldie are more seasoned as they get off the road and try to get into cover behind the big rock, but they fail to move the final distance (no luck on their mobility rolls).

Round 2:

Kelly unleashes another hail of bullets into the – now prone – Soviets. He throws a ton of lead at them at close range, and it is enough to keep their heads down, but the machinegun lives up to its reputation and jams (taking 3 in reliability damage!), bucking in his hands (one damage to Kelly). Unfortunately, the Soviet officer notices the jam (makes his CUF roll) and is ready to engage the enemy. 

“Fucking piece of shit gun!”

King fires at the two soldiers retreating for cover. -2 from the foliage, who drop to the ground under the hail of bullets. 

Perez shoots at the rallying officer in the rear. He hits him in the head, killing the officer outright despite his helmet (3 successes), which panics the remaining soldiers around him. 

Lee fires a couple of shots at the two lead soldiers but miss. Zielinski follows-up with her M-16 and fires enough hot lead to suppress them. 

When it is the Russian’s turn to act, all opponents remain suppressed, and one more is dead. 

Help now arrives from an unexpected angle. One of the prisoners jump the three guys at the rear of the column. It is a dark haired woman in her thirties. She throws some kind of crazy judo move and successfully grapples one of the Soviets behind the column, and he drops his AK 74. 

End of round two. The small irregular soldier icon in the middle is the woman who jumped in.

Round 3

The hog they recovered must be an unlucky gun. Kelly rush up and kicks one of the downed Russians, but only enough to inconvenience him (even with a pushed AA roll…)

Ahead of him, King sprints across the road and fires from the hip at the two retreating soldiers, but miss and fails to suppress them. 

Perez shoots at the third Russian, currently not engaged in hand to hand. He better not miss. He hits him in the arm. It is not a fatal hit, but enough to keep him out of the combat for a few seconds. 

Lee fires again with his pistol at the two lead soldiers. This time his aim is true, and he crits a soviet regular at the front of the cloumn in the leg, breaking his shin bone, and taking him out of action. 

Zielinski fires a burst at the last one of the lead team. She also has a double success, and as he has no body armor. The multiple hits rips into his torso, and he collapses, bleeding on the road.

The female civilian grabs the AK74, dropped on the road, and clubs the soldier with it, dealing two points of damage. 

It is now the Soviet’s turn. The one Kelly kicked turns his AK on him and fires at point blank range. He has -3 because Kelly is moving and it is an assault rifle. He misses, but Kelly must roll CUF, which he fails and drops to the ground, bullets zipping all over the place.

The soldier clubbed by the CIA operative tries to grab her, but she nimbly dances away.  

The two at the rear inside the bushes, have little situational awareness and they return fire at King. The most immediate threat (he is in shrub land and moving, so the attack is -2, but using the rules for multiple NPCS in the same hex, I only roll once with a +1, for a total of -1). 

They empty their guns at King, and he is hit for 3 damage. It is in the arm, and he receives a critical hit. It tears through his forearm, breaking the arm, and he drops his M-16. He keeps his cool though. The captain won’t let his team down! (double success on CUF). 

At this point, two more of the prisoners jump into the scrum and kick the gun out of the soviet soldier’s hands. 

Captain King is hit and a big brawl has broken out on the middle of the road.

Round 4

Kelly gets his bearings, and notices that his captain is in trouble.

“The Captain’s hit!” he roars.

King, bleeding and in pain, throws his final grenade and drops prone. He is no pitcher but manage (6 on a single D6) to land the grenade on top of the two Russians. Both enemies are now close to being out of action and suppressed on top of that. 

Perez moves cautiously north of the road, and down into hard cover, hoping to cover the Russian’s potential escape route. The team would really prefer that no one runs and alerts more Soviet troops.

Lee hears Kelly’s shout and sprints forward, heedless of danger. His fast feet gets him in front of the Captain. 

Zielinski also dash across the road and almost keeps up with the fleet footed Harlemite. 

The cvilian woman keeps struggling with the Soviet soldier, but is ineffective and damages the sturdy AK74 with her blow. But at this point, the rest of the Polish prisoners swarm the three Russians. 

Round 5

Kelly gets up and runs over to his captain and dumps down next to him. 

King doesn’t have time to bleed, so he pulls his .45 and fires a couple of shots at the two Russians, but hits nothing. 

Perez succeeds in his mobility check and moves far enough to get around the two enemies. He fires quick a burst at them (-2, because they are prone and he is moving, but is using a carbine). He hits one of the Russians and takes him out. 

Lee takes aim at the Russian, but holds fire. 

Zielinski shouts to the last Russian, ordering him to surrender, which he does. 

Aftermath

“Lieutenant, the Captain needs help!” Lee shouts.

The Polish officer rush to the Captain’s side, and examines the wound. It isn’t lethal, thankfully, and she cleans it and bandages it competently with much cursing (3 successes). In the background, the still living Soviet soldiers are being rounded up.

“Your arm is broken. But I manage to fix you up good,” Zielinski says.

The captain grunts in pain.

“True. Going to smart for some time. Would be good to give it a rest for some days.” She looks around. The dark haired woman who jumped the soldiers is on her way over. The rest of the civilians and Kelly are keeping a watch on the four surviving prisoners.

The woman says something to Zielinski in Polish.

“Her name is Anna. She says she wants to speak to you. Alone,” she translates.

Lee looks suspiciously at the woman. She is probably thirty, handsome and she has surprisingly nice teeth.

King winces and exhales, then nods. “Alright. She speaks English?”

The woman nods.

King signals to Lee to move away and Anna crouches next to him.

“Hello, Captain, and thank you,” she says in perfect American English. “I thought I was done for, but then you guys came along. Very good work. If a bit messy.”

King looks perplexed at her.

“I’m called Anna Gursky, but that is not my real name. I work for the U.S. government, and have been here covertly for two years. And I need your help.”

Twilight 2000: episode 7 – Aiming for Brzeg

Five NATO soldiers have been left to find their own way home after the last – and failed – allied push against the Soviets in the fields of Poland in World War III. After fighting a group of marauders, they are restocked on ammo and carry a bit of fuel and must now find a way across the mighty Oder River to get to… home? To Safety? To semi-intact NATO formations?

This is the seventh episode of my solo-game of Free League’s Twilight: 2000 4^th edition post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. If you are new to the game/story, I suggest you start from the very beginning.

You can also read a description of the main characters and see their stats.

Short recap:

After being disbanded at Kalisz, the group drives west in their camouflaged pick-up truck, which runs out of fuel near Syców. They try to find fuel or parts for a still in the town, but discover the ambushed remains of US troops, where they rescue the wounded private Lee. They meet a local leader, who will aid them against the ambushers, if they share the loot with him. After a daring and successful dawn assault, they defeat the marauders with no casualties. But as the man they work with is dangerous and untrustworthy, with a lot of armed men at hand. They cut a quick deal, and hurry away with what they can carry, but a lot less than half the spoils.

From a game mechanical perspective, the group’s unit morale has increased one level to A from B, but none of the characters gain personal CUF.

Further, King buys the survival skill at D-level and Kelly pays for mobility D (see last episode).

Continuing Day 6

The group hurries to where they hid the pickup and refuel it. They agree to drive for one shift, hopefully finding somewhere they can hole up for at least 24 hours to rest and repair. Looking at their map, they decide to drive south, as they consider the ruins of Wroclaw a difficult and dangerous place to cross the massive Oder River in their truck. 

The open terrain and country roads prove no obstacle to Lee (who worked in logistics), but King is unable to find the right road to where they need to go (Miles succeeds in his driving roll, but Charlie fails the navigation check to exit the second hex)

The group ends up going NW before going south, wasting fuel, before finding a place to camp.

In the evening shift, they make a great camp, although King finds it difficult to conceal it, stressing over finding foliage and moss to hide them (pushes survival, gains 1 stress).

Perez struggles through the edge of the forest they’ve camped at (pushing survival), and he manages to track a deer. With two well placed shots he bags dinner for the next couple of days.

While hunting, Perez hears an explosion not too far away and see black smoke rising (random encounter). He lays down the deer on the forest floor and investigates. Three Soviet soldiers lie dying in the wreckage of a UAZ-469 Jeep hit by a roadside bomb.

The pleading and mangled young Russian scouts are too much for Perez, and he runs back into the woods, where he picks up the deer and hurries back to camp (fails CUF, gains 1 stress).  

There is much praise in the camp, when he returns though, and they settle in for – what turns out to be – an uneventful night. He says nothing of the blown Soviet 4×4.

Lee is on watch during the night. King trusts him, but the rest assumes he gets the job because he is the FNG. 

The UAZ might have had fuel, but a failed CUF roll prevents Perez investigating the jeep.

Day 7

The next day the group can take stock and plan:

• They have acquired a good supply of weapons and ammo, although they would dearly like another anti-tank weapon. 
• They have water and food, and the nice big deer should sustain them all for an additional two days – if cooked properly… 
• They are all healthy, and even Lee should be fully recovered the day after the next (his critical wounds to the arms will have healed). 

They decide to spend the entire day in camp, resting, foraging, and doing on maintenance of their weapons, gear and the truck. The next day they plan to spend the last fuel to get close to the Brzeg bridge, and then see what they can see, and cross the river any way they can. They may not need to worry about fuel, if they can’t get the car across anyway. 

During the first shift, Lee does maintenance on the pick-up. He struggles with the unfamiliar vehicle, but gets the job done (pushes for success). 

They also do gun care (which several fail, but that isn’t a problem yet. Optimally, the best tech person should do it, but isn’t it more realistic that they do it individually?). 

The Polish landscape around Brzeg is flat farmlands and a big national forest.

King succeeds at cooking the deer. It turns out succulent and tasty, with Kelly’s help. The two men have a grand time making a good, concealed fire with a high enough temperature.  

Zielinski forages enough water to fill their canteens, and everyone feasts for lunch.

In the afternoon it turns cloudy, and Zielinski, King and Kelly go scrounging in the area. 

The trio come upon a small farm in a copse of trees. Untended fields full of weeds surround the farm and a window looks broken. King surveys the area with his binoculars, and when he sees nothing move, they approach.

Kelly takes point and creep tests the front door. It is open. He knocks. No answer. Kelly opens the door, and his nostrils are assaulted by the stench of rotting corpses. Moving in, he finds the corpse of a man, half his head blown all over a the yellow wallpaper, a shotgun lying at his feet.

Behind him King retches and Zielinski mumbles a prayer in Polish.

“Clear the rest,” says King.

Kelly nods, and they go through the rest of the house.

In the bedrooms, they find three more bodies: a woman and two kids. On a dresser there is an open box of shells.

“Jesus. He shot them all. How…” says King.

“Guess they were out of chow. Out of options. The Russians coming. Tough break,” says Kelly.

Zielinski swears long and vehemently in Polish, then says: “Can we burry them.” Her voice trembles.

“I’m sorry, my friend. We don’t have the time, even if we found the right tools. I’m really very sorry,” King says.

She wants to say something, wants to refuse, then she nods, sniffs.

“Ok, Captain. I’m going out for my last cigarette,” she says.

Kelly picks up the shells and the shotgun. It is a double barrel 12 gauge. He breaks it open, takes out the two spent shells and attaches the gun to his backpack. They also find some instant coffee in a cabinet and a radio (one electronic part).

They return to camp, just as it starts pouring down, but their camp was well made, and everyone keeps dry and warm.  

The second night there passes uneventfully. 

Day 8

The weather has turned from pouring rain into low grey clouds, when the group strikes camp. They enjoy a hot cup of Joe in the morning, which generates many sighs of contentment. Then they load up the truck and head southwest through the woods. Lee is the only one with slight damage, the remains of his wounded arm still hindering him with rifles. 

Perez is on watch, Lee drives, while King is co-pilot with the map. Zielinski and Kelly rest in the back.

This time, King reads the map correctly and puts them on a forest road leading south. Lee must make two driving rolls as he is driving off road into a forest area. (I believe I made a mistake here, as technically the hex is a road hex, but coming from the north, I still consider it a forest hex).

The young man expertly handles the pick-up (ace driving on first roll. 2 successes).

Further into the woods, he almost hits a deer but manages to dodge and avoid crashing into a tree (had to push the roll but made the second attempt). 

Later in the afternoon, driving on a logging trail, close to the main road, Perez spot 10 Soviet soldiers herding 35 local prisoners east along the road 300 meters away (random encounter), despite being in a vehicle and the Soviets being on foot.

Referees Note: The Soviet soldiers are from the under-strength 11th tank division, which has crossed the bridge, taken Grodków and are holding the bridge at Brzeg. They are facing the US 29th and 34th infantry divisions, heavily depleted, which are likely to be outfought due to their lack of vehicles. The civilians are political prisoners, as well as suspected saboteurs (the characters don’t know this yet). 

Lee quickly parks the vehicle behind a ridge out of sight and Perez and King creep up to have a look.  

King returns to the rest of the team and looks at each of them in turn.

“We’ve got a quick decision to make. Do we step in or stay low and let them pass?” he says.

“We must save. If not, those Russian dogs will kill them all, or worse,” Zielinski says in her accented English. 

Perez slides back down from the small ridge and rejoins them.

“They haven’t sniffed us. I count ten Soviets with AKs. No heavy guns. Let’s not push our luck. We can wait here and let them pass. That’s twice our number, and the kid still can’t hold a rifle,” he says.

Lee looks annoyed at him but says nothing.

“Lee?” King asks.

“I follow you, Captain. You say go; we go. If you say fight, I’ll happily fight them.”

King thinks a moment.

“I promised to lead you out of here. But we also came all the way here to do some good. Saving three dozen locals, might not change the war, but it will mean something. Kelly?”

The big Irish-man spits.

“I say fuck those commie fuckers. Dragging us all the way here for this bullshit. I’ll give them a taste of 7.62.”

“Alright, fuck it,” says Perez, and that settles it.

Unfortunately, the M-60 will live up to its reputation.

See how their ambush turns out in episode 8.

Twilight 2000 – episode 6 (Assault on the Marauders part 3)

Five NATO soldiers are assaulting a stronghold of former Polish police officers and criminals. Their goal is to secure the weapons and supplies these marauders looted from a massacred US unit. The five soldiers have been left to find their own way home after the last – and failed – allied push against the Soviets in the fields of Poland in World War III.

This is the third post just on the attack. If you haven’t read the previous posts, I suggest that you do! Or start from the very beginning.

NOTE: With the Russian invasion of Ukraine the setting and events of Twilight: 2000 seemed very close to real life, and it took me a while to separate the real horror of that war from this fiction. I’ve also returned to full in-person gaming, which reduced my time for other games. That said, I’m now ready to continue a few sessions over the summer, and I hope to see this story conclude with the team escaping west.

Short Recap

The group escaped Kalisz, but is out of gas for their pickup truck and under armed. While exploring the town of Syców they encounter a massacred US group and find young private Lee as the single survivor. In the town they agree with a local leader to join forces and take out the marauders who attacked the Americans. They scout their base – an abandoned factory – and assault it. PFC Perez is their “sniper”. He uses an old hunting rifle with a scope and Corporal Kelly blasts a section of a building with sleeping marauders with an anti-tank missile. The rest of the group blasts the door into the factory area and charge the factory. Inside, Captain King, the Polish Liason Officer Zielinski and private Lee battle the marauders, while Kelly attempts to get there and help them out, taking murderous fire from the factory windows.
Their allies are clearing the office building and a single ally fighter is firing at the marauders in the factory from an office window.

The previous events have demonstrated that using an underpowered submachine gun against opponents with kevlar body armor is a questionable idea.

The Action Continues…

The concrete dust was settling around Perez like a layer of snow on a winter morning. He could hear the stakato fire of the M60 continuing, but the hammering of bullets on the wall around him had stopped. The young soldier shifted slowly in the ruins and peeked across the street and factory grounds. Kelly was in the deep end of the shit hole, cowering behind a tree while the motherfucker on the corner of the factory building had an almost clean shot. “Not on my watch,” thought Perez. He expertly worked the bolt action on the rifle and crept into a new position, where he had a good line of sight and felt like he was out of sight of the M60 team on the roof. He took a deep breath and aimed…

Players Round 9
On the roof, Perez is finally back in the action, and with the final round of his hunting rifle, he wounds the marauder lying prone at the corner of the factory. It is a body hit, unfortunately, and he only takes one point of damage. The good news is that he no longer has Kelly in his sights, because he is suppressed.

Janusz’s fighter in the office building has gathered his nerve, and empties his clip at the marauders in the windows, wounding one slightly in the legs through the walls and suppressing both. 

Kelly is taking cover by the tree, hugging his M16 close and trying to be as small as possible, while the bullets hammer the old chestnut tree and he babbles to himself: 

 “Oh, shit! Oh, fuck! Stupid! Stupid! Oh, shit! Why the fuck did I do this?” 

Inside the factory, King orders Lee to return the favor and grenade the marauder who failed with the grenade throw. He then shoots the wounded and pinned marauder right in front of him. But he misses (terrible roll with snake-eyes, and no chance of pushing).

Lee helps his boss out by landing a grenade right where he asked him to. It doesn’t hit any of them, but they are thrown to the ground and suppressed. 

Zielinski is not in a great position, but she has LOS to the marauder King missed. He is in cover and prone in the semi-darkness, but hey, what can you do? She throws ammo at the problem and succeeds in suppressing him. 

The office building is on the lower left side. Perez is in a ruined building on the lower right side.

Marauders Round 9

The marauders outside don’t notice Perez’s single shot into the courtyard (I rolled a single Recon roll for them), but the brave fighter pouring fire at the factory is hard to miss, so the M60-crew on the roof shift their inept fire. They go through the last of their belt, but hit nothing but bricks and mortar. 

The last opponent in the factory windows has better aim with his looted M-16 and manages to suppress the fighter, but it gives Kelly and Perez time to breathe. 

The leader of the marauders, Mleczko, screams curses at his men, ordering them to push the invaders out, while he reloads his assault rifle. 

The second marauder, lying prone on the platform above the factory floor with the offices, aims and fires a shot towards Lee and hits, but the machinery he is taking cover behind prevents any damage (body hit). Because he can see his captain, he succeeds in keeping his coolness under fire. 

Players round 10

As he is not under fire, Perez reloads the rifle as a fast action (succeeds his ranged combat roll) and takes aim at one of the guys taking cover behind the factory windows. 

Kelly senses that the M60 needs to be reloaded, and he moves out of cover to get to the factory entrance, and makes it all the way into the factory with two successful mobility rolls (he’s big, but knows how to move!). 

“Friendly!” Kelly shouts as he barges through the door. He sees Lee and Zielinski covering behind the machinery and can barely make out King at the other side of the factory. 

“Glad you could make it!” King shouts back, while he reloads the shotgun (he fails his firearms roll). “Keep pushing!” 

Private Lee takes aim with his Glock and fires at the prone marauder nearby and hits him in the shoulder with a critical hit (12 on his A in Agility), shattering his elbow and taking him out of the fight. 

Zielinski moves back and into cover with Lee and fires a quick burst at the guy huddling at the partitioning wall. She is a poor shot, particularly on the run and in gloomy conditions, but she is peppering the wall with bullets and it keeps the marauder from getting back up.

Inside the front office building, the Janusz’s remaining fighters are done securing the rooms and begin to deploy to figure out how the Americans are progressing in the attack on the main factory building.  

Positions at the end of the player’s round 10. Lee and Zielinski er bunched together in the same hex.

Marauders round 10

With Kelly gone before they manage to reload ‘the hog’, and no clear targets, the team with the M-60 go into overwatch mode on the window where they know Janusz’s fighter is hiding. 

One of the wounded marauders in the windows pull back into the factory, since he is pretty sure that Kelly ran into the factory, and he is out of ammo, so he moves and reloads. 

One of the others Scan for Perez, but is unable to spot him in the ruins in the morning light. 

The second one also goes into overwatch against Janusz’s fighter. 

The marauder at the corner is slightly wounded and fails a coolness under fire roll, which means he does not have the courage to follow Kelly and attack him from behind. Further, it has been eerily quiet from the office building for a while, and certainly none of his allies have emerged from inside, and he scampers back, still prone, very quickly (a success on both mobility rolls with a D8! Fear is a powerful motivator.). 

Most of the fight has now moved into the factory. 

Mleczko calls for backup, and the final marauder, who was guarding the back exit joins them in the open area and runs down the stairs. 

The communist police chief fires a long burst down at Captain King from a prone position. He rolls a 10 + a 6 on an ammo dice. Three successes in all. A 2 on the hit location is another torso hit, but the wall and kevlar vest absorbs the four points of damage. King has courage under fire (6 on his D10 CUF) and keeps it together. 

The marauder firing from above keeps firing at Lee and Zielinski, but hits nothing. 

The final one, which was downed by a grenade in the last round gets back up and in near panic empties his rifle at Lee hiding behind the factory machinery. She hits him in his exposed head, and he takes another point of damage. But Lee is very encouraged by being together with his team and keeps fighting. 

The wounded marauder, who now has company at the factory floor, decides not to push his luck and stays put, until the other guy moves ahead (fails CUF).

Players Round 11

Perez has one of the M-60 gunners in his sights and pulls the trigger. He hits him in the face and blows half his head away, spattering his companion with tissue (aimed shot, pushed for two successes). 

Janusz’s fighter pokes his head out, but a single marauder immediately returns fire with what he has left in the mag. The M-60 remains silent, while the remaining gunner sits jabbering in cover pulling bits of skull and brain out of his beard. 

The fighter’s cover is hit, and he pulls back, shaken. 

Kelly’s boots stomp across the concrete, and he easily reaches cover behind an old forklift, and fires at Mleczko. It is a difficult shot (-1 from Mleczko being prone, -1 from the gloomy conditions of the factory and -1 from it being a quick shot). That is however no problem for the veteran, who hits the enemy leader in the head for 3 damage. He is wearing one of the captured american kevlar helmets, so he avoids a crit, but takes a point of damage. The lethal commander is however bolstered by all the fighters around him, and is not easily suppressed (as a major NPC he gets a CUF roll). 

King is the analytical and methodical type, and he aims his street howitzer at the marauder taking cover from Zielinski’s bullets, as he has no cover from King. He wounds the marauder gravely in the arms (3 points of 5 health). 

Lee rushes forward behind the next piece of machinery, and fires a quick shot at the wounded marauder to his right. He slides towards the machinery on his knees and bumps his wounded arms on the machinery, tearing open the wounds (1 point of damage from pushing), but one of his shots hits the marauder in the torso and takes him down. 

Zielinski hates the old regime and blasts towards Mleczko. With two sixes on the ammo dice, but no hit. This time, however, the old police chief’s courage fails him.

I think the two on the ground floor would surrender, while the rest flee in confusion out the back.

Marauders Round 12

Someone shouts, “Mleczko is hit!” in Polish and it breaks the resistance creating a chain reaction of events. 

The remaining marauders flee through the fire escape or throw up their hands in surrender. 

Aftermath 

Referee’s note: I could have run another round or two of combat to cement the results, but as a referee I would feel that the situation has been resolved and we could move on to a more narrative description of the aftermath, which speeds up the game considerably. 

A couple of marauders surrender, while most flee out through the fire escape. Mleczko is too scared to move and in the following minute the four soldiers can easily round up him, the two other prisoners and the wounded, disarm them and place them in a corner with Zielinski guarding them.

They don’t have a radio to contact Perez, which is a shame, because King would dearly like to get away before Janusz arrives with a superior force, as he suspects that he won’t be generous despite their victory. 

Kelly, Lee and King go to the foreman’s rooms upstairs, where they find most of the remaining arms and ammo from the slaughter of the Americans. There is more than enough for their small band leaving plenty for the Polish “community leader”. King grabs a bedsheet and puts it on a rifle and signals that the combat is done and when he is sure he won’t get shot, he leans out a window and shouts “all clear”. He then tells Lee and Kelly to gear up and get ready, and make sure that Zielinski also get some ammo too.

Kelly ushers down the remaining gunner from the roof and grabs the M60 before adding him to the group of prisoners. In the office there is a single additional belt for the weapon. Lee grabs an M16-A2, a kevlar vest for Perez and ammo and he stocks up on hand grenades and picks up more ammo for Zielinski. King exchanges his borrowed shotgun for an M16-A2 with ammo and a couple of grenades. They make sure that they don’t grab more than half, as they don’t want to give Janusz an opportunity to say they didn’t hold their end of the bargain. But in any case, there is more gear than they can carry. 

Zielinski is questioning the prisoners about gasoline. The old police car that was inside the factory was hit a couple of times and is not in great condition, but it does have some gas in it, she learns. 

At this point, four of Janusz’s goons arrive inside the factory. They strut over to the prisoners and (in Polish) begin taunting them. Perez arrives a minute later and discretely get a new kevlar vest on, picks up a couple of rations and so forth.

King is nervous and when Janusz arrives at the factory a few minutes later with another handful of armed goons, he positions Kelly and Perez casually on the walkway in front of the foreman’s office, so they – like the marauders before them, can cover the factory floor. He orders Lee to stick close to him and asks Zielinski to talk to her countryman, but also asks her to ensure that the Polish leader is both intimidated and happy – presenting the captured marauder as a gift. 

Janusz is a bearded, gruff looking man with steely gray blue eyes. He carries a revolver and probably wears body armor beneath his overcoat. The man eyes the bloody factory floor and does not miss the two heavily armed soldiers above them. His men also fan out, in a not very subtle threat gesture. Then Zielinsko welcomes him with a smile and explains that they indeed hit the jack-pot and there will be a greater share for Janusz, as they can’t possibly carry that much equipment with them – and that he gets his enemy alive – to do with what he pleases. 

Rules: Zielinski has the goal of convincing Janusz to let them all go with what they can carry, including half the gasoline, but leaving a lot more than half for him and his men. As Janusz has double the number of people on his side giving Zielinksi a -1. But as attacking the factory counts as ‘helping him previously’ Zielinski gets +1. Furthermore, because the offer makes sense and the group are clearly capable soldiers, which would in a fight inevitably cause casualties among Janusz’s men, weakening him (which I count as ‘presenting your case well’) Zielinski gets another +1 for a total of AA. 

She rolls a 4 and a 12, meaning two successes. 

Janusz smiles affably and pretends that he is their best friend. He talks about their fatherland and what a great victory it is for their community, and he even allows them to take all of the gasoline in the car (because of the extra success that Zielinski rolled). It has 30 liters left. 

This defuses the action and the team walks out of there heavily loaded with gasoline, guns and ammo and return to their hidden vehicle. 

I award five XP to all of the characters. 

King spends five and purchases Survival D. 

Kelly spends five and purchases Mobility D. 

Final note on game lethality: the reason why all characters survived this without critical injury or death is kevlar, cover and luck. I rolled many body and head hits and no arm or leg hits on the characters. Had I done so, it could easily have taken a character out resulting in a “death spiral” of failure. But that didn’t happen this time.

Next time we will see how far they get on half a tank of fuel…?

Twilight 2000 – episode 5: Assault on the marauders (part 2)

Five NATO soldiers assault a stronghold of former Polish police officers and criminals. Their goal is to secure the weapons and supplies these marauders looted from a masacred US unit. The five soldiers have been left to their own devices after the last – and failed – allied push against the Soviets in the fields of Poland in World War III.

Welcome to episode 5 of this solo role-playing campaign! I’m playing the post-apocalyptic RPG Twilight: 2000 in its 4th edition from Free League Publishing. This is episode will feature the second part of my first long battle. Due to the length of the encounter, I have broken the assault on the marauder base into three parts. This post is part two, which concerns the majority of the fighting.

Short Recap:

The group escaped Kalisz, but is basically out of gas for their pickup truck. While exploring the town of Syców they encounter a massacred US group and find private Lee as the single survivor. In the town, they agree with a local leader to join forces and take out the marauders, who attacked the Americans. The scout their base – an abandoned factory – and assault it. PFC Perez is their “sniper”. He uses an old hunting rifle with a scope and Corporal Kelly blasts a section of a building with sleeping marauders with an anti-tank missile.

My hideous Roll20 map of the factory area. The characters – blue team – starts at the lower right ruins. The orange squares are fortified positions.

If you are a new arrival, you can find an overview of the characters and the entire previous episode here:

The Characters
Episode 3

Rules Disclaimer: I made a mistake, when calculating modifiers. The two dice should always try to balance. I reduced one first instead. I guess I’ve got old habits I need to shed from playing Earthdawn for years! The outcome and balance of the battle might have changed because of that.

Suppression and critical hits: I used the proposed rules where most NPCs automatically fail suppression rolls and always are incapacitated or dead if they get a critical hit.

I regret not making a screen shot of the map after every single combat round, but I hope you can still follow the action.

Learnings

Playing through this encounter gave me a few insights, that I think are worth sharing for referees and players, who haven’t started playing yet, but want to know what they are getting into.

• Keep a list of modifiers handy – also for the players. There are many situational modifiers, and ranged combat is basically always modified by something. The only exception is two characters shooting at each other while standing still, at short range, in open terrain on a sunny day.
• Kevlar will save a character’s life. I rolled a lot of body hits and head shots, and it helped the characters, but it also meant that defeating marauders with kevlar vests was surprisingly difficult.
• Grenades are awesome. The ability to suppress multiple opponents, even if they take no damage, is a winner.
• Suppression is a central part of the mechanics, but in a game with actual players, they might not enjoy having their character suppressed for multiple rounds while they can only watch the action.
• I was halfway through the encounter, before I noticed that NPCs run out of ammunition on a 1 on the ammo dice. Afterwards, I wished I had counters for “need to reload” for the many bad-guys.
• Mobility is a great skill, to haul a character’s ass into cover over a big battle map or to throw grenades.
• Overwatch is more limited in use than I thought, because a character or NPC only covers on hex. It could also get meta-gamey, if eg the referee communicates to the players which hex is covered, because some players might elect to move around. Conversely, if the referee doesn’t say it, some players might doubt if the NPC was actually covering that exact hex.

The action continues…

“Go! Go! Go!” Captain King shouts as he leads the way out of the ruined building they were hiding in. The three soldiers run out into the dim early morning light. Dust is rising from the compound, where Kelly’s missile hit the office building. About 50 meters away, Janusz’s fighters are storming the windows of the office building with a ladder. Everything is going as planned…

King’s borrowed pump shotgun is bouncing on his back. He holds one of their few grenades prepared with duct tape as an improvised breaching charge. Lee is close behind him, as ordered. His Glock points towards the compound gate. The chin strap of the Polish helmet he borrowed gnaws into his flesh, but it could save his life. Zielinski concentrates on running. Her legs are not as young and strong as Lee’s and she is painfully aware of her own marksman skills and the qualities of her submachinegun.

Seconds later, they reach the gate…

Players Round 2: 

Kelly has the initiative. He grabs his M16, which was placed ready for action and gets up to a kneeling position behind cover and fires at the second rooftop guard, who is in his roof top fortified position of old bricks, corrugated iron sheets, old tyres and a couple of sand bags.  

The guard has gone prone, but from his elevated position Kelly can still hit him. The marauder’s head, arms and torso are behind a 2 point cover.

The modifiers pile up quickly:

• Target prone -1
• Elevated position +1
• Dim light -1 
• Quick shot -1 

Kelly is no marksman, so he fires a couple of bursts. If nothing else, he hopes to suppress the guard until Perez can take him out. 

Kelly gives it all he’s got (pushing) and hits the hapless marauder with three successes. The rifle takes one point of reliability damage though. He hits him in the body through the cover, and with the armor the damage isn’t enough to take him out of the fight. But the marauder is suppressed. 

Perez spends his slow action aiming through the telescopic sight at the guard on the roof, which means he can’t fire until round three. 

Over by the gate, King attaches a hand grenade to the door in the gate with some duct tape, pulls the pin and runs over to the rest of the team. Zielinski is in overwatch directed up towards the roof of the office building. 

The first of Janusz’s fighters climb up the ladder and smash a window (even more) so they can begin to climb inside. 

The grenade blows the metal door in the old gate, the lock is gone and it is now dangling on rusty hinges. 

Marauders Round 2

Most of the marauders are still coming out of their drunken stupor or are injured and dazed from the rocket attack. However, the guard in the prepared position behind the factory will get up after dropping prone, and begin to move around the factory to see what is what. 

Referee note:
Just like I would play it in a game with a group, the action inside the office building between Janusz’s fighters and the marauders, I will not run in detail. I will simply narrate the outcome of their assault, based on Kelly’s successful attack and the King of Diamonds I drew for the group’s “luck”. 

The red marker is for suppression. The big tan marker on the left is Janusz’s fighters.

Players Round 3

“I got him in my sight,” Perez says confidently, so Kelly storms off to join the rest of the team down the five floors of the ruined building. I rule that with a mobility check, he can get to the ground floor in two rounds. He succeeds.  

Perez pulls the trigger, and misses… 

The rest of the team vaults through the blasted door in order to get to the door across the yard in the factory building. Each action they can move two hexes and roll mobility to move farther. One hex per success. Lee wasn’t lying, and he gets all the way up to the factory wall. He is the least skilled among the team, but the one with the greatest natural abilities.

Marauders round 3

The guard on the roof is no longer suppressed, and he elects to shoot back at the guy sniping him. He gets up and fires a quick burst without aiming. He fires 11 rounds at Perez, and gets a 6 on an ammo dice, which means bullets hammer the bricks and debris around Perez, and he must roll CUF. He succeeds with a 7! 

The guard from the back moves alongside the factory towards the fight, and one marauder is awake enough to poke his captured M16 out of a factory window and fire at King. He gets a -2 penalty because of the dim morning light and because King is moving. None of the bullets hit, but King must also roll for suppression. Success! He is as cool as they come, and he keeps moving. 

Players Round 4

Kelly makes it safely to the ground floor.

Perez takes multiple simple aimed shots at the marauder, who is now half-exposed. Head shot! Perez has two successes and rolls a 6 on the to-hit table, which is a headshot. The marauder collapses. Perez has one round left in the rifle. 

King’s boots are hammering on the asphalt and he makes it to the factory door and he peeks through the window, but sees nobody (fails his Recon roll). 

Zielinski and Lee are quick enough that they can move to the door with their fast actions and use their slow actions to cover the two corners of the factory using the overwatch actions. 

A muffled explosion and gunfire sounds from inside the office building, where Janusz’s fighters are clearing the rooms. 

Marauders Round 4

The marauder in the factory window no longer has line of sight to King and his team, but he spots Perez killing his buddy, and fires at him. The range and the light hinders him, however, and the bursts have no effect. 

Inside, the marauder leader, Mleczko, is directing the defense and shouts for someone to get up on the factory roof and man the M60, while he sends a team to secure the ground floor of the factory.

The marauder running up the side of the factory pokes around with his AK-74 and Zielinski fires her PM-84 sub-machine gun at him, because she was on overwatch. She fires a long burst, and suppresses – without hitting – the marauder. 

The red lines I used to indicate which hex Lee and Zielinski covered with the Overwatch action.

Players Round 5

Kelly tries to run for the factory gate and cover. He almost gets there. 

Perez takes careful aim at the marauder in the factory window. 

King burst through the door right into the waiting arms of the marauder guard camped in the bathroom area. He is taking cover inside the doorway. The marauder rolls 2×5 and 2×3. Not even a six on one of the two ammo dice! It is probably one of the hung over criminals, who’s never really fired an assault rifle at someone charging at close range. 

King has his night vision goggles turned on, and returns fire with the pump-gun he borrowed. He blasts a couple of shots at the marauder, but nothing hits.

Outside, Zielinski and Lee switch initiatives (which characters can do, as long as they can communicate), and Lee lobs a grenade towards the corner where the marauder from the back of the factory is taking cover. The grenade lands perfectly (3 successes) and causes damage, but only two points, which are stopped by the marauder’s American kevlar vest. He is automatically suppressed, however, and prone, which could become important. 

Zielinski rushes in after King and fires her PM-84 at the marauder in the bathroom. She moves right up to the door, so he has no effective cover, but she does count as firing into close combat. She is a poor shot and simply sticks the gun into the doorway and hoses him. He is hit, but her SMG jams (two 1s on three ammo dice). He is also hit in the torso, and wearing kevlar, which means that the underpowered PM-84 is unable to penetrate. He is also suppressed, though. 

Marauders Round 5

Two additional marauders join the one in the factory windows, and they spot Kelly hauling ass towards the gate and open fire on him. Kelly is grazed on the arm and takes two points of damage, but with a 7 he makes his CUF roll. 

The third one, who has a better idea of where Perez is located, fires at Perez. But miss completely again. 

Two marauders also make it to the rooftop, but are not able to engage yet. 

Inside the factory, one goes into overwatch, while four marauders move down into position on the ground floor. 

Mleczko is commanding from a doorway, protected by the last of his goons.

Players Round 6

Kelly moves into cover by the blown door in the gate, and he actually has line of sight to the marauder Lee threw a grenade at, so he fires a quick burst at him. It is however at -4 (dim light, prone target, quick shot and medium range) and he misses. 

Perez has been aiming and fires a single shot at the fucker, who is hosing him from the window. But he misses again. 

Inside the factory, which is full of rusty machinery, old pallets, a fork lift, barrels and junk, King is afraid they’ll be rushed, so he moves up to one of the machines. Using his night vision, he sees a marauder in cover and he empties the shotgun at him. He mostly hits the big machinery the marauder is using as cover, but a single pellet manages to find its way past the kevlar vest, suppressing him. 

Zielinski’s gun is jammed and she calls for aid. 

Lee bets that Kelly can keep the marauder around the corner from attacking him in the back, and he rushes into the factory to help the Lieutenant. The lieutenant is desperately trying to unjam her submachine gun, while the marauder is scrambling for his gun. Lee steps into the doorway and fires six shots with his pistol at the marauder hitting him in the neck and taking him out of the battle. 

“Drop that! Take his gun,” Lee shouts to Zielinski and hands her the marauder’s M-16. She drops the pea-shooter and runs to the machinery which King is taking cover behind, covering the opposite side. 

Marauders Round 6

Most people, particularly untrained civilians, will avoid running into an area where someone are shooting and have a clear field of fire. This also goes for the non-military fighters on both sides of this conflict. 

The guy Lee threw a grenade at and Kelly shot at is no longer suppressed, but he remains prone and unloads a salvo towards Kelly (-2 total from medium range and dim light) instead of going after Lee. The bullets hammer against the metal gate and wall, but none are near Kelly. 

Two marauders move into the position on the roof and man the M60. 

In the factory windows, two of the marauders blast away at Perez while the third shoot down at Kelly’s hiding spot. 

The doorway, where Kelly is in cover is hit, as is the brick walls where Perez is shooting from, but no bullets penetrate. However, the sheer volume of fire directed at the two troopers, and perhaps the fact that they don’t know what is going on inside the factory, means that they are unable to continue returning fire (both roll a 1 on their CUF). 

Inside the factory, only the marauder upstairs in the office area has line of sight to King, Zielinski and Lee, due to the higher ground. Zielinski and King have cover, so he fires at Lee at medium range with dim light, but from higher ground. 

Lee is hit for three damage in the head. His borrowed helmet takes the worst and he is suppressed. 

Two of the marauders move cautiously forward. One of the marauders get LOS on King and fires a quick burst in the dim light, but is far off the mark.

The orange arrow shows Zielinski’s move.

Players Round 7

Both Kelly and Perez are pinned down. This is a problem.

However, while the rest of them sweep and secure the building, one of Janusz’s fighters has taken up position in on of the windows in the office building. He uses one of the captured guns to lay down fire on the marauders taking cover inside the factory building, hoping to suppress at least two of them.   

He is very successful, and actually hits one of the marauders, who takes damage and both are suppressed (they are in the same hex).

Being a Referee:  Janusz’s fighter in a window is me helping out the “players”. I mainly do it, because I drew the King of Diamonds, so they have luck on their side. It also seem plausible. But being civilians, I was also conscious of the fact, that they are unlikely to move across the yard into the factory, while under fire. They will stay in cover and shoot.

Inside the factory, King is very aware that they are in trouble, so he throws a grenade at the guy he hit with his shotgun, and is right on the money. The marauder takes another point of damage, but is saved by his vest. Both are suppressed, however. 

Zielinski inches forward around the machinery and has LOS on one of the marauders who was just grenaded, so she fires a burst at him. No hit. 

Lee has gone prone, but is otherwise a sitting duck. 

Marauders round 7

Outside, the two marauders on the roof man the M-60 and fire in Perez’s general direction (in this case, the second marauder simply gives the first one +1 on the roll, as per the rules). They don’t hit anything, but Perez is still pinned down, and now at two points of stress. 

The guard who isn’t suppressed in the factory window returns fire. One of the seven rounds penetrate the wall and wounds the fighter slightly, pinning him. He is however empty, and must reload. 

The final guy in the courtyard shoots at Kelly again, but with zero results. 

Inside the factory, the upstairs gunner keeps firing at Lee, but her aim is high this time, and he huddles beneath the bullets.

One of the few marauders with military training (I decide) isn’t pinned, and he lobs a grenade back at King. It is pretty dark however, and there are several obstacles. He is down to a D6 and rolls a 1! The grenade deviates north east two hexes (I roll a 2 and a 6). It is almost too good to be true, as the grenade is thrown at too high an arc, hits a beam and rolls to the feet of a hapless marauder. Two marauders are hit, and one of them has now been hit three times for one point of damage (shotgun blast and two grenades). He is close to bailing. 

The last marauder peeks around the corner and unloads at Zielinski. He empties his clip, but doesn’t hit her. She can still see Lee, and is not suppressed. 

Players Round 8

Perez is still keeping low with the M-60 hurling lead at him. 

Kelly is very aware that shit is going down inside the factory. He wants to help his friends and press the attack, so he storms across open ground to get cover behind the tree where he fires a burst at the guy on the corner. He isn’t the smartest guy on the team, but he has big balls (they all seem to have, including Zielinski, by the way). Kelly doesn’t hit the marauder, but he hits a lot of other stuff, and pins him (he has 12 rounds remaining in the magazine). 

King feels that the battle is close to turning in their favour. He runs across the open into cover at an opposite wall, which means the nearest marauder is caught in the open and quick fires his sidearm, as his shotgun is empty. The marauder is hit in the legs, and is now also at three points of damage. 

Lee charges into his captain’s old position and fires his Glock at the same target. He hits, but the cover soaks the damage. 

Zielinski returns fire at the guy at the corner. She is the poorest marksman of the team, but at least she is only getting -1 from the dim light. As the guy on the corner also has clear LOS to King, she wants to get him suppressed. With an 8 on her single dice, she hits him and manages to suppress him, but does no damage as the factory wall is stronger than a regular indoor wall, and absorbs the full damage.

I also recreated this situation, as best I could, to help readers visualize the action.

Marauders round 8

One of the two marauders in the factory window reloads. The second fires at Kelly, while the third keeps firing at the guy in the office, with no effect. 
Kelly however, is hit for four points of damage. Lucky for him, it is another body hit, and with a big tree trunk and kevlar between him and the bullets, it is reduced to zero damage. He does fail his CUF roll, though, leaving him in a precarious position. 

Furthermore, the M-60 crew isn’t sure if anyone is still alive on the other rooftop, so they shift their fire towards Kelly as well. They aren’t really trained in the GPMG and hit nothing. 

The factory marauders are under intense pressure. The marauder at the office area fires at Lee, but misses. Two are suppressed, and as a referee I rule that the dude who has been dinged three times in the last 15 seconds retreats further away into cover. 

Upstairs however, Mleczko senses that the battle inside the factory floor is turning against him, so he moves out of his secure position into partial cover behind the railing and empties his trophy M-16 in a long unaimed frustrated burst towards Lee.

This is another recreation of the situation. It provides a good overview of the status outside.

Next time…

The conclusion of the battle will be in the next episode. If you’ve followed this far, thank you for reading! I’m happy to answer any questions regarding my experience so far with the game.

Twilight 2000 – episode 4: Assault on the marauders

The five soldiers of the group are some of the detritus of war, after a Soviet counter-offensive in the aftermath of World War III scattered the last NATO offensive. Four American soldiers and a Polish liason officer have been thrown together and they are now trying to survive this hell hole. This is their story.

Welcome to episode 4 of this solo role-playing campaign! I’m playing the post-apocalyptic RPG Twilight: 2000 in its 4th edition from Free League Publishing. This is episode will feature the first part of my first long battle. Due to the length of the encounter, I will break assault on the marauder base into three parts. This post is part one, which deals with the group’s reconnaisance and preparation, rules and referee considerations related to it as well as the first round of the assault. The second part is the majority of the action and the third the conclusion of the encounter.

I’ve also added a page with the five characters and their stats (link below) – as requested by readers.

Short recap
Last episode, the team came upon a group of American soldiers, who had been caught in an ambush, slaughtered and stripped of their gear. Among the dozen bodies they managed to finde one survivor – private Lee. The Polish lieutenant Zielinski located a bar and tradepost, where they found the young private some boots, but they also met the dangerous owner, who offered to help them attack the marauders who ambushed the Americans and splitting any loot they found. The team agreed to the plan.

Read the previous content:
Intro and game considerations
The Characters
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3

The action takes place in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Syców.

Recon & the initial assault

The team spends two days with Janusz preparing for the attack, getting to know his fighters and trying to get Lee back on his feet. Perez borrows a hunting rifle with a scope plus two reloads, Lee borrows a Polish army helmet and King gets a pump action shotgun with two reloads. They will have to return them, when the job is done or include it in their share. 

King and Perez sets out every day for a tall ruined building fairly distant from the marauder compound, which they use as observation post.

Recon is a critical skill to have in the game, and the binoculars are a very valuable item.

Rules: 

For scouting the compound, I give King -2 from distance, +1 from Perez  helping and +2 from the binoculars (1 success). To keep out of sight, I give King +1 from fatigues and +1 from terrain (zero successes). The marauders get -2 from the long distance and roll a mishap. Defenders don’t push rolls in an opposed situation, but I give the players the benefit of not being detected, despite not being that well hidden, since I rolled a 1 for the guards. Perhaps the binoculars reflected in the sun, but the guard thought it was just a broken window or was too lazy to check it out? Had I not rolled a 1, perhaps the marauders would add a couple of guards or send a patrol to scout the building they used as observation post? 

In advance, I decided what 1 and success and 2 successes on Recon would mean respectively. In a ‘real life game’ if the characters rolled an unlikely 3 successes or more, I might improvise a great weakness for them to exploit.

• King can see that the marauder base has a factory at its center with a fortified position on the roof, where the marauders have placed a captured M60 machine gun.
• The front door of the office building is never used. 
• The office building is part of the outer wall, but has no windows at ground level on the outside. Therefore, outwards facing windows are at a height of at least 4.5 meters (15 feet). Another guard is posted in a fortified position on top of the office building. 
• A third fortified position with a guard is covering the back-area of the factory area.
• The fortified positions are made of old tyres, bricks and iron plates (armor 2).
• The wall is only about 10 feet tall, but has a single piece of rusty barbed wire running along the top and has glass shards cast into the top of the wall. 
• Sporadically, a two man patrol walks around the grounds.

King does not notice the guard on the ground floor inside the most commonly used door to the factory, nor the fact that they an RPG on the roof of the factory.

Across from the factory, there is a ruined apartment building, which is taller than the office building, but about level at the top with the factory roof. This will be the team’s staging area. 

As King succeeds a Recon roll both for his Intelligence and for his Tactics speciality, he guesses that the front door to the office building is mined or booby trapped. He also ascertains that the guards are pretty lax and they seem to be enjoying the spoils of their victory. And, as they are mostly non-military, he evaluates their ranged combat ability as meagre. He counts 22 marauders and a few civilians, mostly women coming and going. 

Back in the compound

Back at Janusz’s compound, Zielinski – aided by Kelly – succeeds in one Medical Aid Roll for each day, and the healing time for Lee’s critical hits are halved, which is enough to remove his “smashed nose” condition that gave him a penalty to Recon and Persuasion. His slashed arms will still take another three days before the penalties disappear. 

“How are you holding up,” King asks Lee, who is lying on a cot with a couple of blankets. The young man still sounds funny when he talks, but he is recovering quickly, according to Zielinski.
“I’m good, Captain.” He sits up. “It is warm and we got hot chow. I’m not sure what the meat was, but it was the best meal I’ve had in weeks.”
“How do you feel about joining us tomorrow? You still can’t hold a rifle,” King asks. The kid seems eager, but he isn’t exactly a combat veteran.
“I’ll use the pistol. I want to be there. Get even with those bastards. Perhaps I can get a couple of grenades? I have a mean pitching arm. I played a lot of baseball as a kid and some in college.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah. That and music. But the piano skills aren’t worth much over here.”
King smiles. “A piano playing, college educated, baseball pitching black grunt from Harlem. Now I’ve seen everything!”
Lee gives a weak smile. “Yeah. My great grandfather was Aaron Douglas and I got my name from my great grand uncle.” He looks embarrassed.
“Shit. Are you saying you are related to Miles Davis?”
Lee sighs. “Yes, sir.”
“Damn. And then you got drafted, right after college?”
“Yes.”
“That sucks… Have you ever fired your weapon at someone?”
Lee shakes his head.
“I’ve been shot at a few times. One time our trucks were strafed by a MiG. But no, sir, never shot at anyone,” he says.
“Besides a mean throwing arm, anything else I should know about?”
“I’m pretty good at languages. French. German. Picked up a bit of Polish.”
“I need all the help I can get, so I’m going to ask you to join us. Stay close to me. No heroics, mind you! Keep your head down and keep moving.”

With that decided, King goes over the plan with his team and Janusz’s fighters in the compound’s small yard, while Zielinski translates. They are a mean looking bunch, armed with a couple of Polish AKMs, shotguns and a bolt action rifle that could have seen service in the previous world war. Janusz is listening in a few steps away. He says nothing, but simply watches with his calm grey eyes.

The team’s plan

Overall, the plan is to hit the marauders at dawn and even the odds by taking out the enemies in the office building. By inflicting serious casualties and causing confusion in the opening attack, they hope to break their morale and drive the marauders from the factory. This is also why they all attack from the same direction – they want the marauders to have a clear path for them to flee.

• Perez will snipe the guard manning the M60 first, then focus his attention on the second rooftop guard. Afterwards, he will provide covering fire from the roof. 
• Kelly will fire their M136 anti-tank missile at the area, where they are told the marauders are sleeping/partying – hopefully causing several casualties. Subsequently, he will help engage the roof top guards, if they are still standing. When they are gone, he will join up with the assault team. 
• Janusz’s fighters will use a ladder to assault the office building through a window and clear the office building first. The defenders are hopefully dazed and wounded, which will make that part easier. When the office is cleared, they will help with the attack on the factory.
• King will lead Zielinski and Lee through the gate, blowing the gate door with a grenade, and making their way to the factory, where they will aim to cause enough damage and suppress the second half – and more dangerous part of the gang – until the entire team can join them and flush them out.  
• On a side note, Perez has lent his body armor and two frag grenades to Lee, as he needs it more in his CQB-situation. 

Exit strategy

King is anticipating some form of betrayal, either if his team wins, but has casualties, or if they lose the engagement and have to withdraw. Therefore, he plans with the team that their fallback plan is – if things go south – to flee back to the farm and the pickup truck and drive it West as far as the fuel will take them. Hopefully, away from any vengeful marauders.

Referee notes

The enemy leader, Mleczko, and his most trusted men are holed up in the area where the foreman and his staff used to have their offices. It will take them at least two rounds before they react to the assault. When the factory is attacked, half of them will fire from the windows and roof and a group of four will move down into the factory area, while one takes up an overwatch position from above.

Other elements, events includes:

• Guard at the ground floor door
• Guard slipping in from the back, trying to creep up on the characters 
• Encounter with the opposing patrol

Getting into position

A lot of the plan is dependent on the small force getting the element of surprise. The worst at Recon is Kelly, so he is the one who will have to roll. King and his assault team is hidden at the ground floor of the ruined apartment building, safely out of sight, ready to dash forward. 

Rules: 

Because the light is considered Dusk, the guards have -1 on their Recon rolls. Kelly gets +1 for his fatigues, +1 because he is making an ambush 6-20 hexes from the target and +1 from the terrain (debris). 

Kelly is sweating like he’s never sweated before hauling ammo for the tube. He has checked and re-checked the anti-tank missile and crept ever so slowly into position, lying still, waiting in cramped conditions for extended periods to get into position (in other words, he is pushing the roll!). He succeeds, as the Marauders have 0 successes. He gets up slowly with his missile, aims and fires. 

I‘m not a graphics designer (obviously). I used a variety of map elements and free hand drawing in Roll20 to make a serviceable battle map. The playes are the five blue tokens at the bottom. The orange squares are fortified positions. Janusz’s fighters are in a building at the lower left corner.
The key was that I could understand the action. One of the things I would add for my next big battle is an “out of ammo” token.

Game on!

To throw in some “fog of war” and “lady luck” I also drew a card to check if they had luck on their side or against them. I jotted down a couple of ideas for both situations, such as a marauder taking a piss right when the attack is going down, a patrol walking the perimeter, a guard smoking (making him easier to hit) etc. I drew a King of Diamonds, which is “Life Saving”. I rule that this means the marauders have been partying hard the night before, and will at least take a couple of rounds more to wake up and get organized, they may get penalties on shooting and will break more easily and other small things might turn in the player’s favour.

Rules: as this is an ambush that succeeds, the characters get the first six initiative slots and the marauders act last. 

Players Round 1

Kelly fires his anti-tank weapon (-1 from medium range, +2 from hitting a large target) and despite mortars being his speciality, he puts the blast right where it is supposed to go (2 successes) blasting a massive hole in the wall and laying waste to the room beyond. The explosion rolls between the buildings and the big Irishman whoops with glee before dropping prone into cover. 

There are eight marauders in the office building, six of whom were sleeping it off in the large room Kelly hit (I determined the numbers with D6+6 and D3+3). 

I wouldn’t want to bother with a detailed roll of the effect of the M136. It says in the text that it is effective against buildings, so it is, and whether Kelly remains unseen and hits is thrilling enough!

Perez has been slow aiming and takes a shot at the guard by the M60 on the factory roof. He is not wearing a helmet (the King of Diamonds plays in here), but is sitting behind cover, so Perez tries to shoot him in the head (called shot at -2). The civilian bolt action rifle has good range (range 10), but the light is dim (a total of -1 on the roll). He puts all his effort into it and hits the guard in the head, taking him out instantly (he rolled two successes after pushing it. The extra success turns into a point of damage which translates into a critical hit, and minor NPCs are out of combat after a critical hit). 

King, Lee and Zielinski spend their actions running up to the gate, before they can blow it next round. 

Janusz’s fighters run up with their ladder to the office building. 

Marauders Round 1

The explosion rolls between the buildings and a single loud shot rings out. The remaining guard on the roof was so drunk yesterday, that he wasn’t really awake when the group attacked (again, because I drew the King of Diamonds). Therefore, he isn’t ready to return fire until the next round (if he survives that long). He does drop prone.

Read more in the next episode…

When I publish this episode, I’ve already played out the entire combat, but it is a lot of text, and you will have to read on in episode 5 to see how the rest of the assault progress…

My five ‘Escape from Kalisz’ characters

Below you can find a short description and brief stats for the five characters that currently make up my group for my Twilight: 2000 Escape from Kalisz solo-campaign.

You can also read my initial thoughts about the campaign.

Captain Charles King

King went to community college on the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia and got a degree in electrical engineering. He subsequently joined the army to become an officer. He ended up doing intelligence work as a staff officer, but got stuck as a captain. Maybe his superiors thought he wasn’t aggressive enough, or maybe it was a race thing? King mustered out and became a manager at a power plant. In the meantime, his marriage had failed, and when the war broke out he was called up as a reservist. In Poland, he was attached to the Intelligence section of the 5th division. However, shortly before Operation Reset and the push on Lodz he was given command of an understrength company, basically a platoon and a half of maybe 50 grunts.

This is close to how I imagine King. The real man is US army Chaplain Matthew Zimmerman Jr.

The company suffered many casualties pushing towards Lodz and had to retreat with the rest of the division. 10 minutes before the game begins, the “battalion” has fought a rearguard action, and is soundly trounched: attacked by ground forces and hit with both mortars and a bit of artillery. When the defense breaks down the survivors scatter.

Charlie actually turned out to be a capable leader in his short stint as a company commander, despite his looks as a desk jockey. He is ashamed that he didn’t save more of his men, and considers his past a failure with two failed careers and a failed marriage. He is determined to save this little group. This will succeed!

He is 38 at the start of the game.

Attributes: Strength D, Agility C, Intelligence A, Empathy B
Skills: Stamina C, Driving D, Mobility D, Ranged Combat C, Tech C, Command B, Persuasion C, Survival D
Specialities: Quartermaster, Intelligence, Tactician, Ranger
CUF: B

Lieutenant Krystyna (Krysia) Zielinski

The 34 years old Second Lieutenant was a history teacher at a highschool in Warsaw before the war. But in 1997, when the Soviets attacked, she joined the Polish army as an officer. She got rudimentary training and ended up being in charge of handling conscript labour and security after the first nuclear attacks (she has 6 permanent Rads). For the last offensive, she is transferred to be the brigade liason officer between the Polish and the US. She is not an English expert, but knows enough to get along. Her dream is to find her mother, father and younger sister. They fled west after the invasion.

Attributes: Strength C, Agility C, Intelligence B, Empathy A
Skills: Driving D, Mobility D, Ranged Combat D, Survival D, Persuasion B, Medical Aid D,
Specialities: Biker, Historian, Teacher, NBC
CUF: D

Corporal Jason Kelly

Kelly is a young-ish working class Irish-American from Michigan. After high school he became a construction worker, but found the job tedious and decided to join the army in 1995. He deployed to Poland in 1997 and has fought in a mortar team the whole war. Before Operation Reset he was given the leadership of the team, which scared him. Kelly has never really found something he was the best at – or even great at – but given the chance, he could shine as a loyal survivor.
He has never been afraid of a good brawl, and is not the type to back down if people push him.

Attributes: Strength A, Agility A, Intelligence D, Empathy C
Skills: Heavy Weapons C, Close Combat D, Stamina C, Ranged Combat C, Survival D, Tech D, Mobility D
Specialities: Builder, Redleg, Brawler
CUF: B

PFC Juan Pérez

Juan came to Texas as an immigrant with his violent uncle and loving aunt and became a runner and spotter and messenger for a gang before he entered his teens. When he was arrested as a juvenile, he got the option to join a military school in return for a lenient sentence. He took that out, and when he was 18, he joined the army just as the war began to loom. He was sent to Poland in early 1998, and excelled in a reconnaissance role. He prides himself of his ability to handle this chaotic environment compared to all the soft Americans. He hates the cold though. Maybe he can get to Spain or Portugal, or somewhere else warmer?

Juan Pérez looks something like Danny Ramirez, I imagine.

Attributes: Strength C, Agility A, Intelligence B, Empathy C
Skills: Stamina D, Mobility D, Ranged Combat C, Recon B,
Specialities: Infiltrator, Rifleman
CUF: C

Private Miles Taylor Lee

Lee was a driver in the logistics section of the 2nd armored division, hauling supplies and materiel, but he ended up on foot with a dozen other stragglers in Syców, where they walk into an ambush. He is the only survivor and is found by King and his team.

Lee is a Harlemite, born and bred. He is 22 years old, college educated within music and languages, fit and smart. He was drafted right out of college as a grunt, despite his education. He lacks experience, but has a lot potential – if he survives long enough. His driving skills are also the best in the group.

Attributes: Strength B, Agility A, Intelligence B, Empathy B
Skills: Driving C, Mobility C, Ranged Combat D, Tech D, Persuasion D
Specialities: Musician, Linguist, Scrounger
CUF: D

Twilight 2000 – solo – Episode 3: Ambushed Americans

Four soldiers are fleeing a Soviet counter-offensive in the aftermath of World War III. The three American soldiers and a Polish liason officer were thrown together when the 5th US mechanized division was broken outside of Kalisz. The final radio call was: “You’re on your own. Good luck!” This is their story.

Welcome to episode 3 of this solo role-playing campaign! I’m playing the post-apocalyptic RPG Twilight: 2000 in its fourth edition from Free League Publishing. In the first part I go through the events of the game. At the end of the post I have a couple of more “meta-considerations” on how I’m running it solo and the rules. Episode 4 will feature my first big combat encounter.

Last episode, the team encountered Soviet forces, when they tried to get fuel from Ostrzeszów. They were discovered sneaking into the town, were shot at and had to flee. Driving off road, as well as a navigation error, cost them a lot of fuel. Ultimately, they camped at a ruined farm, where they hid their pickup truck.

Read the previous content:
Intro and game considerations
Episode 1
Episode 2

Sycow had about 10,000 inhabitants before the war.

Minor Spoiler Alert: Because I am using random elements from the core ruleset, you may encounter the same pieces of content as a player. Sometimes they aren’t what they seem, which can ruin the surprise. I am not using the big scenarios sites, however, so there are no major spoilers.

Day 3

Being less than 2 kilometers south of Syców, they again opt to approach town on foot in the early morning, hoping to find someone to trade with. 

Moving into the town, they suddenly hear sustained gunfire, but only for 10-15 seconds. Then it is quiet. The group sneaks forward. The noise has clearly scared any inhabitants into retreating to their hideouts. 

Perez peeks around a corner and pulls back quickly. 

“Shit man, they’ve been mowed down. Slaughtered!” 
“Easy now. Do you see anyone?” King asks. 
He peeks out again. 
“No hostiles that I can see. It is real fucked.” 
“Cover us,” says the captain and points to Perez and Kelly. They both nod and Perez takes up position as the captain and Zielinski runs forward into the street. Kelly follows behind the two officers and takes up position opposite of Perez. 

Perez is right. It is a slaughter. Around a dozen American soldiers lie shot up in the street between ruined buildings. A couple of them are still moving. They have been stripped of all their gear – even their helmets and boots. 

Zielinski and King move among the bodies. Most are riddled with bullets. One is still trying to crawl away, and Zielinski quickly moves closer and examines him, speaking to him gently. He has a bullet hole in his upper abdomen and blood is pouring from his mouth. He gasps for help. King steps over to help her save him, but before he gets there, the man is dead.

“He was bleeding internally. I couldn’t save him,” she says. She isn’t crying, but King senses her immense frustration. 

“They can’t be long gone. I don’t like this,” King says.

“Are you American?” someone suddenly says with a strained voice. It is coming from one of the “corpses”. They rush over to him, and a young African American man in bloody fatigues sit up. His nose is smashed and blood has run down his face. Zielinski helps the man to a better position and checks his wounds. A bullet has also torn one of his arms and the nose needs fixing, but the wounds aren’t lethal. She spends her personal medkit bandaging the wounds and cleaning them. 

“What’s your name kid,” King asks?

“Lee. Miles Taylor Lee.” He speaks with a nasal voice because of the nose. 

Where are you from?”

“New York. Harlem.”   

After treating Lee, Zielinski discovers another soldier still breathing. He is conscious, but can’t move his legs, and she determines that he has been hit near the spine. He needs treatment, and King wants them out of the vulnerable position, so Kelly finds a couple of planks and jury rigs a stretcher for the critically injured soldier. Unfortunately, when they move him, he dies. 

Rules: the rules for critical hits in Twilight: 2000 are brutal. 70% of the critical head and chest injuries are potentially lethal, and whenever you attempt to move a lethally injured, if you fail your medical aid roll (which Zielinski did, even after pushing) the wounded must roll Stamina or die. On a side note, a scene like this with new players would be great, because it demonstrates the lethality of the critical rules, without risking a PC death very early in the game (not that that is necessarily a problem). 

Boots & a brew

Inside a nearby ruined house, they question private Lee. He was a truck driver with the logistics section of the 2nd Armored Division, but ended up with a rifle and a group of stragglers on their retreat after the truck ran out of fuel. They were ambushed by about a dozen marauders and cut down. He played dead while they stripped him. Only his canteen is left. Lee can’t really move about in the ruins without boots or shoes at least, so King asks Zielinski to see if she can find someone to trade with for boots and maybe fuel. He also asks Kelly to give the kid the Glock they found, so he can defend himself, which the big Irishman reluctantly does. 

In the ruins of Sycow, Zielinski manages to find a bar and trade station. It is located in the basement of a semi-ruined apartment building and is well guarded. The basement has a large room with a couple of locals huddling close to a warm stove in a corner gossiping and drinking home brewed vodka. It is early – or maybe late? – for the small group. But someone is brewing alcohol…

In a room next to the bar she finds items for trade. The “store” is a counter with a system of shelves behind it. A woman looks to be the “shopkeeper” and a big Polish man with a sawn off shotgun is guarding the valuables, which includes a pair of polish army boots size 11. The woman at the counter wants 20 bullets for it. Appealing to her good heart and the fight for Poland against the aggressors, Zielinski manage to get her down to 15. When she asks about fuel, she is told that they might have some, but that they need to talk to Janusz, who owns the place. 

You don’t want to walk around war-torn Poland in your bare feet…

Zielinski returns to the team with the boots and relays the information. They help Lee move there and get him situated in the bar room with Perez aiding him and keeping watch. Perez spends 2 ammo to get them both a drink. It burns all the way down, but it helps with their morale and Lee and Perez both regain one stress, from the drink and being in relative safety. 

Rules: Stress is the “mental hitpoints” of the game, which you lose from getting shot at, rolling 1s when pushing INT or EMP skills or from horrific situations like experiencing the massacre of your friends. Losing all your stress points incapacitates you. Characters can be pushed back on their feet using the Command skill. Regaining stress from a strong drink isn’t according to RAW, but in this situation I felt it would be appropriate. 

In the trading area, the rest of the group gets a meeting with Janusz Kucinski. He is the leader of the operation and after they have talked for a while, with Zielinski translating, he has a proposition for them.

A mission, of sorts…

The people who ambushed the American soldiers are a gang of marauders, who occupy a small  abandoned factory on the edge of town. They are led by the town’s former police chief – a man named Mleczko – who was the Police Commander of the town during the previous regime, a vicious man, who is now trying to create a petty fief for himself.

The marauder gang is full of former criminals, ex-police and a couple of deserters. They are a menace to the town, and Janusz wants their help to assault the marauder base – ideally take out their leader – and break up the gang. He claims that they have a lot of equipment, probably also fuel, as well as the weapons they looted from the US soldiers. They have an old police jeep, but he hasn’t seen it for a while, and he doesn’t know if it is working. Janusz is willing to aid them with five of his “fighters”. His fighters are not military, and are not as well armed as the marauders, but he claims they can hold their own. If they succeed, they will split what they find – including the American gear – 50/50. Further, Janusz claims that he has some information for them, which he believes they will find valuable.

Janusz also briefly describes the enemy position. The factory is walled, has an office building – where many marauders are holed up – and a factory building with more marauders and the leader, Mleczko. On the roofs and inside the walls there are a total of three fortified positions. But he knows exactly where many marauders sleep in the office building, because he has talked to women who have stayed there. He is sure that an effective surprise attack will work, even though they will be outnumbered at least 2:1. 

King and the rest of the team withdraw to the bar and discuss their options.

Clearly, Janusz is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. The marauders are probably both a threat and competition, but does that matter, because their interests are aligned? At least until they get the loot, they will be allies.

The real question for the group is: is the risk worth the reward? Will they be able to pull it off without anyone getting killed? The facts are: they are almost out of fuel, have only a couple of days worth of food, aren’t particularly well armed and now have an extra man who is wounded to care for – who basically has no equipment. Their options are basically to start walking out of Poland with what they have, or to accept this risky undertaking. 

They accept, under a couple of conditions:

• They need time to scout the location, get to know the “fighters” a bit and perhaps get Lee ready to join them, and Janusz must feed and house them while they do so. 
• They need to borrow a rifle with scope and a shotgun or a rifle with ammo to increase the chance of success. 
• He can keep the vehicle, if they have one, but they have first dibs on fuel, up to the first 100 liters. 
• If the attack fails, they will all withdraw, covering each other, and part ways without anyone being in debt to anyone else.  

Janusz agrees. 

The world of Twilight: 2000 is full of not very nice people, but you have to trust sometimes. B/W art is from Twilight: 2000 2nd edition.

Can they trust Janusz?
I drew an Oracle card to help me judge how Janusz might respond, when the mission is done – for good or bad. You will have to check out the next episodes, to learn what card I drew…  I did allow the three characters doing the negotiations to roll a straight empathy roll, to ascertain his character. King certainly gets the vibe that he is a cold, very dangerous man, whereas Zielinski and Kelly aren’t so sure.

Game-considerations:

These events are evolving from the random encounter of the ambushed US soldiers and the motivations of the team. If the American with the wounded spine had survived, it would have brought interesting tension between the characters who don’t want to burden the team with “dead weight” and those who have more altruistic motivations.

The medical care rules is also something one might consider house-ruling. Obviously, an officer with some basic first aid training would not – in reality – be able to save someone shot so bad they require full surgery. You could rule that tending some of the worst crits requires the Field Surgeon or General Practitioner specialities. Or add a significant penalty to the rolls without proper equipment/specialities.

I’m developing the two opposing factions exactly as I would in a “real” game. With my gaming group, I am certain that they would “bite” on this opportunity for tactical combat and action with the promise of loot. I’m sure “realistically” a small – skilled but under-armed – team would balk at taking on superior numbers in a fortified position, even with surprise, as quite a few things need to go right.

As a side note, Twilight: 2000 is a game where you shouldn’t roll dice too often, because succeeding is hard. As soon as I had the idea that there was a rival of the marauders in town whom they could trade with, I didn’t need Zielinski to roll RECON or anything to find the trader. Traders want to be found – even in destroyed Poland! And, as a referee, I want them to find it. It is more dramatic to have this development, and it ensures that there is some “meat” to the plot. So why insert a roll that might fail? 

Rest & Experience:

This is what I consider the end of “session 1”. Each character, except Lee, gets three XP, Lee gets two. None of them risked anything in relation to their buddies, moral codes or big dreams to get more. Five XP is the minimum to buy anything at all, so no upgrades after this session.
As King and Perez had to roll Coolness Under Fire (CUF), I roll to see if they improve their CUF, which requires I roll a one. I do not. Lee succeeds his empathy roll and doesn’t suffer permanent mental trauma after being incapacitated by stress. 

Episode 4…

The next part of this series will feature a very long battle. I will probably break it up into two parts, as it is taking a while to play out. But I have already learned the following:

• Kevlar and cover are your friends! Or your enemie’s friends, depending…
• Grenades are great for suppression, and you want to keep your foes suppressed
• It can really suck not having a side-arm…

I look forward to sharing the action with you. I hope your next gaming session is great!

Jump to Episode 4…

Twilight 2000 – solo – Episode 2: A hasty retreat

When the 5th US mechanized division was finally broken outside of Kalisz, three American soldiers and a Polish liason officer were thrown together. This is their story.

Welcome to episode 2 of this solo role-playing campaign! I’m playing the post-apocalyptic RPG Twilight: 2000 in its fourth edition from Free League Publishing.

Last episode, the team fled in from the advancing Soviets in a pickup truck with half a tank of fuel. For the first day, they kept out of serious trouble and picked up some information from a couple of Polish hunters.

Read the previous content:
Intro and game considerations
Episode 1

Minor Spoiler Alert: Because I am using random elements from the core ruleset, you may encounter the same pieces of content as a player. Sometimes they aren’t what they seem, which can ruin the surprise. I am not using the big scenarios sites, however, so there are no major spoilers.

Day 2:

A chill, but sunny, April morning dawns in central Poland. With a concealed fire and a good camp, the team managed to stay hidden and warm in the camp a couple of kilometers from the small town of Ostrzeszow. The morning will be spent exploring the small town, which they decide to approach on foot, as a working vehicle could make them a target.

Their goal is a man named Cezary Pawlak, who has a distillery in town with his two sons. Ostrzesow was a town of more than 10,000 people, but is now probably home to less than 1/5 of that, and full of shelled buildings, burnt buildings, buildings riddled with bullet holes and roads clogged with rubble and car husks.

Going on foot, turns out to be a good decision. Advance Soviet forces must have reached the town during the night (this is another random encounter from the core rules). They have set up a roadblock at the main road into town about 300 meters (330 yards) from where the group approach the ruins. There are a dozen soldiers guarding the roadblock and they have a T-72 main battle tank positioned in the shell of a house covering the approach to the town. Going off road in the truck around the town would almost consume all of their remaining fuel, so the group agrees to circle around the town and sneak in from the northwest, but if they are discovered they will retreat to the truck and get the hell out.

One of these babies guard the main north road into Ostrzesow.

Perez leads them towards the ruins, but despite giving it all he’s got, a Soviet soldier keeping watch for stragglers from atop a ruin spots them and opens fire from a long range of about 120 meters.

Rules: I made a mistake here and had the best person (Perez) roll Recon for the group, and not the one with the lowest skill. However, as I understand it, two of the team would be able to use the Help action to improve that person’s chances. With the bonus from wearing fatigues, their dice pool would still be pretty good. In any case, the team got one success, and the Soviet soldier also got a single success in the opposed roll, which means the group is discovered.

Round 1:
The Soviet private gets to act first, as he discovered them (I rule). He fires his Avtomat Kalashnikova at the team. He gets +1 for firing from his elevated position, but -4 from firing at long range (-2), at moving targets (-1) which are partly concealed by vegetation and other terrain (-1), for a total of -3.

At that distance, the burst of bullets are off but the gunfire is sufficient to alert the rest of the soldiers nearby.

King orders the team to retreat at a run, retreating around 40 meters across the streets and long abandoned gardens.

A Soviet regular soldier has a B in Agility and a C in ranged combat.

Round 2:
The Soviet soldier gives them another burst at extreme range as a parting gift.
The private has clearly not had his vodka ration this morning, or is simply born under a lucky star, and both PFC Perez and King are hit. A bullet hits Perez in the head, but luckily the helmet takes the worst of the damage. King is hit in the back, where his kevlar also absorbs the brunt of the damage.

Rules: the Soviet rolls a hit with both his single success dice and one of the “ammo dice” he spends, sending a third of the lead in the magazine in their direction. King and Perez are both hit in locations where they wear armor, which subtracts 1 damage. An AK-74 does 2 points of damage, so the result is 1 damage on both. The Soviet could have spent the additional “hit” to increase the damage on Perez, but with his helmet it wouldn’t have been enough to score a crit anyway. Still, the one point of damage reduces King’s “hit points” by 25%.

Perez and King must roll for Coolness Under Fire. Both succeed. They can use the Unit Morale because they are within line of sight of the others. Therefore they are not suppressed and can continue fleeing.

They move an additional 40 meters and have now moved out of range of the Soviet soldier’s AK-74, and are impossible for him to hit.

Bedraggled and shaken, the team hauls ass and retreat back to their vehicle, with most of the morning gone.

Medical attention

“Can I see where hit is,” Zielinski asks King haltingly?

The captain is leaning on the hood of the truck, his chest heaving from exertion, and inwardly he is cursing himself for not keeping in better shape when he was in the reserves. Kelly leans his back heavily on the car and takes a swig of water, while Perez scans the fields beyond the small hillocks for any pursuers. 

“Sure,” King answers the lieutenant with laboured breath. 

Weather is determined each shift with a D6. On a 1 it worsens towards rain, on a 6 it moves towards fair.

With a wince, he takes off his combat webbing and the kevlar vest, then the fatigues and shirt. He has a black and purple bruise the size of a two palms on his lower back. Zielinski gently touches it, and he almost jumps from the pain.

She examines it more closely.

“Motherf… that stings,” he says with clenched teeth.
“Very big bruise. But not serious, no,” Zielinski says and washes the area with a bit of water and soap.

“Kelly, please take over from Perez, so the lieutenant can see to his wound,” King says, when Zielinski is done. Kelly stomps up and takes over the watch from the younger private.

Perez trots down with downcast eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I was sure we were out of sight. I should have spotted him.” 

“Nonsense. It is my fault,” says King. “I led you there. It is my responsibility. It was far too risky, with that kind of firepower nearby and no knowledge of how many reinforcements might be nearby.”

Zielinski says something in Polish that sounds dismissive. 

Then in English.

“You are both fools. We took a risk, but to get something very valuable, yes? Something we need. And, as you say in America, “shit happens”.”

King grumbles something, but says nothing. 

She gently lifts Perez’s helmet. He has a bloody scratch on the back of his neck.

“Look. Just a …” She searches for the word. “…Ricochet.” She turns over the helmet, so he can see. “Hit the lower side of the helmet first, and then down, giving you this little cut. You are very lucky, I think.”

“Yes, mam,” he says, and pulls a little crucifix from inside his shirt and gives it a kiss and mumbles a prayer, while the lieutenant cleans the cut and puts a band-aid on the scratch. 

“So far,” he mumbles as she patches on the band-aid.

“Should we stop chattering and get the fuck out of here,” Kelly barks nervously from the small hillock. 

“Absofuckinglutely. Let’s go!” King says. 

Rules: Zielinski attends to their bruises with success (which means they avoid risking an infection) and it turns out their armor is still functional (when penetrated, it risks becoming defunct – a 1 in 6 chance). Medical attention only heals 1 damage, if the character is broken (at 0 health).

On the off-road again…

They are now forced to flee around the town, off road, and the group tries to get to Sycow to the southwest. Their hope is that the Soviets don’t have enough troops or vehicles to pursue their small band.

Unfortunately, Zielinski is unable to find a road that leads west. Instead, she ends up driving south between the two towns hitting the east-west bound main road between Sycow and Kepno (because she fails her survival roll – but driving succeeds so no mishap).

They agree to head west along the road to get further away from the Soviet lead elements. If the Soviets are anywhere near as depleted as the 5th division was, they will have spent themselves in a couple of days, King is sure.

The pickup rumbles along, avoiding the odd obstacle until they reach a traffic jam, frozen in time. Almost every car holds skeletal commuters. They never made their destinations but instead died here, victims of a direct chemical attack or a wayward cloud from some battle. The most banal of ends. A few managed to crawl out of their vehicles and lay white and bony on the road. A bird’s nest crowns one boxy, European car. The road is entirely blocked, and the team needs to go back and down a side road for a while before hitting Sycow – costing precious fuel (this last part is from a list of random mood elements from the core game). 

King is listening in on the radio while they drive. Suddenly, he gesticulates.
“Stop!”
Zielinski stops, and King concentrates. The rest try to listen in.
“There’s an American soldier on this frequency. He says he is wounded. He is holed up in a ruined farmhouse. Must be nearby,” King says.
“Could be a trick – an ambush,” Perez says, still scanning the road and ditches around them.
“Could be,” King says and purses his lips.
“We should go and help him. He is comrade. No? It is what we would want from others,” Zielinski says.
“Kelly, what do you think,” King asks?
“Whatever you think, boss. We just gotta go in careful,” he says.

The captain contacts the soldier. He says his name is Donovan, and he is hurt. Hurt bad. But he can direct them to a farmhouse with a blown red roof and a burnt barn.
King spots the roof using his binoculars and they all drive there, but park at a safe distance. They sneak closer, but there is no sign of an ambush, and they locate the wounded soldier on a mattress in a bedroom. However, when they arrive he is dead. He has a civilian walkie-talkie, a Glock pistol with a full magazine, a kevlar helmet, a water and a food ration and a knife. King collects his dog tags, takes the helmet, gives the pistol to Kelly and the knife and walkie to Perez. Donovan’s insignia indicates that he was with the 2nd Armored Division, which advanced south of the 5th division. Perhaps there are more of them somewhere?

Rules: The radio message is from the game’s random radio chatter table. Here I used the “Oracle” mechanic and drew a card. It was a six of hearts – mildly helpful, according to the table. Therefore, I determined that the soldier would be dead – it would be quite useful if they were able to rescue him, and he would have a little useful equipment, but not much. Had it been a high black card, it would have been an ambush.

The bus

Having spent 2 liters of extra fuel for a walkie talkie, a pistol and helmet, they drive away towards Sycow. King is not unhappy though, as the pistol is probably good for trading. 

Before they reach Sycow, however, Perez spots a derelict bus parked in a large – mostly intact barn – next to a shot up farm. It looks to be in better condition than most vehicles, and they agree to park there for the night and make camp in the barn. The area is flat farmland, but they hope the ruined buildings will conceal them and it is a defensible position. They are down to 10 liters of fuel – or 1/10 of the tank. The bus and barn looks like prime scrounging grounds, and while King makes camp Kelly looks for parts they for example could use in an improvised still. Zielinski stands watch, while Perez sleeps in the barn before he has to go on watch at night.  

Kelly turns out to be a lucky scrounger. He recovers one vehicle spare part from the bus engine and an electric toothbrush inside the house (1 electrical part, worth 25).

When he enters the bus, he (almost miraculously) spots a viper lurking in its nest, and avoids an ambush. He acts first in initiative and clubs the viper with his rifle butt. He did however get quite the scare and he hammers fruitlessly at the creature. Fortunately for Kelly, the viper also miss. At this point King has joined the frantic corporal, who manages to hit and kill the snake just as he arrives.

“Holy, shit Captain. A snake. A fucking snake! I hate snakes!” 

When Kelly calms down, he searches the bus and comes out beaming. He’s found an intact baseball bat – which he keeps for himself. “Keeping this handy for close encounters,” he says.

The captain has concealed the pick-up with some old, mouldy sackcloth and a couple of pallets he found and makes a very small fire inside the barn in a metal bucket he punches some holes in.

It turns out that bashing the M16 into a bus has broken it (this is in fact a camping mishap that I interpret this way, as Captain King failed his camping roll). Luckily, the Captain is good with his hands and fixes the rifle, which raises Kelly’s estimation of him as not being a totally useless officer.

At nightfall, the weather turns from fair to cloudy. Perez takes the watch for the night, and the next morning both have effectively healed their bruises and stress.

That was the end of episode 2. Episode 3 will focus on exploring Sycow and trying to get their hands on fuel or parts for a still. The story takes a bit of a turn though, and a new character joins the team…