DAY 15 – MAY 2nd 2000
LUBLINIEC, POLAND – DAY
The group is proceeding in a staggered column down Lisowicka road, now well inside the town’s borders. The road is mostly surrounded by unkept fields of tall grass, the occasional high untrimmed hedge obscuring some abandoned house and a broken sidewalk along its northern side.
CITY TRAVEL [click to expand]
The group is entering Lubliniec from the N-W, and needs to travers town all the way to the south, where the barracks of the 1st Special Operations Commando (1st SOC from now on, for brevity) are located.
It’s a good time to apply Urban Operations Rules for city travel. I’ll consider the town as an area of limited control – i.e. when drawing an encounter, replace any military faction on the card (US, Soviet or local) with the faction controlling the area (Urban Operations, page 24).
City travel is measured in stretches (10-15 minutes) with the players able to march 200m per stretch. Typically, you’d draw an encounter card for every stretch; the Referee can of course tweak this as needed.
On the map below I traced the route my group is going to take from city limits to the barracks on the southern edge. I measured 14 200m increments for their total in-town travel. As per the rules, this would amount to 2,5 to 3,5 hours and up to 14 encounters.
It’s a bit too much if you ask me….
Here’s what I’m house-ruling:
- There will be 3 encounters along their path, with at least one being a checkpoint manned by the 1st SOC
- I will therefore draw 2 encounter cards and if none of them is an encounter with a military faction (which would be the 1st SOC as per the Area of Limited Control rule), then the third encounter will automatically be.
I think I makes sense, as the group will mostly be on main roads with a higher chance of patrols and checkpoints.
I’m of course using the Urban Operations encounter cards deck.
First encounter:
- 5♥ POLICE: local police or militia (as many as the PCs) stop the characters with routine questions about their business. If the characters look suspicious, or are caught lying, the police try to bring them to the local court-house or other HQ. The group itself isn’t that large, but they can call on reinforcements.
The faction listed on the card is Police/Militia, which I’ll substitute with the 1st SOC.
The road is littered with potholes and one can tell where tanks have moved up and down, the marks of their thread deeply sunk into the dark asphalt. Occasionally they pass by the husk of a burned-down car that has been pushed off the road, and in between the tall grass they can spot some crosses here and there, made with white planks, marking the graves of people lucky enough to have had somebody to bury them.
As they are getting closer to the town’s center, they can see some tall, squared buildings in front of them, and a slight bent in the road up ahead.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE – FIRST ENCOUNTER [click to expand]
Four men are a bit too few for properly manning a checkpoint on a main road such as this one, so I’m thinking the road sees little traffic and what the 1st SOC has set up is more akin to an ambush. They don’t intend to actually ambush travelers, just to have the surprise factor on their side.
Following this line, I’ll go for an opposite RECON roll. The 1st SOC gets a +3 for having plenty of time to prepare their position (+2) and wearing camouflage (+1). They plan on acting when the enemy is at roughly 30-40 meters, which means a distance modifier of 0. They roll as a group, with their least skilled member having INT C and RECON D:
- 1st SOC rolls RECON [D10+D10] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 5 and 2)
It makes little sense, as they have had plenty of time to set up. I’ll re-roll:
- 1st SOC rolls RECON [D10+D10] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 1 and 3)
Okay, I’ll assume their least skilled member is very green, and has picked the most obvious spot to hide.
ALEX is keeping watch for the group; he doesn’t need to roll and spots the patrol. Encounter distance in Ruined hexes (or Built-Up hexes) is 2D10 meters, which I’ll double on account of the lightly built area the players are traversing, and the ease in spotting the awaiting party.
- Encounter Distance 4x [D10+D10] = 4x [4+1] = 20 meters
NASCAR turns his head from looking at a crooked lamp post, just in time to see ALEX’s left hand shoot up in a fist right next to his head. He instinctively takes a knee, slightly raises his M249 and moves his finger on the trigger, his eyes now scouting ahead both sides of the road.
On his left and slightly behind him, DONNA crouches down while covering the rear sector, her M16A1 already raised in front of her eyes, with her head looking back every once in a while, to understand what’s happening at the front of the formation.
Front and left in the formation is LED, who also takes a knee while raising his M4 carbine “talk to me” he says just loud enough for ALEX to hear while scanning front and left with his eyes.
ALEX is still standing, having just moved his right hand to get his finger on the trigger. He appears to be crouching down, but stops and straightens his back again.
“Pokaż się” he shouts “pokaż się, albo pomyślimy, że masz złe intencje” [Polish: show yourself; show yourself or we will think you have bad intentions]
Silence follows.
“Pokaż się” yells ALEX once more.
“Stop where you are!” comes a male voice from the tall grass, speaking with a pronounced Polish accent.
“Already done, pal” comments NASCAR to himself.
“Who are you?” asks the voice from the grass.
“We’re passing by, just walking on the road…” says ALEX maintaining his calm “you on the other hand…”
“Kim jesteś? Answer, or we will open fire”
“I see a Polish uniform, 2 o’clock” says ALEX quietly. LED’s eyes dart to the right side of the road.
“We come from Dobrodzień” shouts ALEX “we are looking for the 1 Pułk Specjalny Komandosów”
“Or an opportunity for target practice” comments NASCAR raising his SAW just slightly.
LED stands up, his carbine pointed at the ground “we’re Americans”
The torso of a man appears above the tall grass front-right of the group, a shaved face under Polish steel helmet, holding an AK-74. “Stay where you are, weapons down, and no sudden moves” he says firmly, his voice different from the one they’ve heard before.
“Alright” says LED “you got it” he then turns his head “guys”
NASCAR and DONNA both lower their weapons.
The man briefly looks at the newcomers, then whistles twice.
A female soldier appears to the right of the group, about 25 meters from NASCAR, then another younger male gets up from exactly where ALEX was looking at. Finally, a third man emerges from the tall grass and joins the first as they move cautiously towards the group.
The two men approach the group. In their thirties, in relatively good shape, freshly shaven, lightly equipped and carrying properly maintained AKs.
“Americans, uh?” asks the first man.
“Jestem Polakiem” says ALEX “but they are Americans”
“Are you in charge?” asks the man.
ALEX shakes his head and points at LED.
“We are looking for the 1st Special Operations Commando” says LED.
The man turns his torso showing the shoulder patch insignia “you found it American”
LED nods “I am Lieutenant O’Donnell, US Army; we are looking for your commander, Lieutenant Colonel LUCJAN BRANIECKI”
“And why is that?”
“We understand you have a… situation with a group of Soviets. We would like to land a hand if we can”
The young man, who’s gotten closer, says something in Polish but is quickly shut down.
“You marched all the way from Dobrodzień just to help us?” asks the man incredulous.
“Believe me, we will both benefit from solving this problem” says LED.
“You will need to convince me”
“No”
“No?”
“We will need to convince your commander. That’s it” says LED calmly. “Now, I think we have established we are not the bad guys, so how about you take us to Commander BRANIECKI?”
“You think all strangers who come here go and see Podpulkownik BRANIECKI. You will have to give me something more”
LED thinks briefly “your Commander spoke a few days ago with a man from the 1/116th US Armored Cavalry. His name is John Blue Elk, big guy, goes without a helmet. He was leading a convoy to Dobrodzień, passing just North of your town. They talked about the situation with the Russians”
The man turns to his comrade “sprawdź to”
The second man gets a portable radio from his combat webbing and moves slightly away while talking.
“We will see if it checks out”
“Good, and please pass the word, I don’t want to start over with every patrol we meet in town”
“You Americans really come here from Dobrodzień just to help us?” asks the man.
“Yeah, but I told you, we will benefit from landing a hand”
The man with the radio says something in Polish while nodding.
“Your story checks out American, I’ll tell you how to get to our barracks, and warn of your arrival”
“Good, and thank you”
“There is just one formality” says the man.
“Go on” says LED anticipating what’s coming.
“There is a… contribution, asked to anybody that enters town”
“Really?”
“A small token of appreciation for the service we provide to the town”
LED takes a step forward, closing the distance from the man “let me get it straight: we are about to meet your Commander, to propose we help him getting rid of a band of Soviet deserters while getting back one of your men they have taken hostage, and you are asking for a contribution? When I see Commander BRANIECKI, do you want the first thing I tell him to be that you tried a shakedown?”
OPPOSITE PERSUASION ROLL [click to expand]
Time for an opposite PERSUASION roll. The players are getting a meeting with the Commander of the 1st SOC, so the result will only tell if they have to bribe the patrol or not. Equal numbers on both sides, nobody is injured or under pressure, so they both roll without modifiers. The Polish soldier has EMP C and PERSUASION D, and he needs more successes than LED to get his contribution:
- LED rolls [D10+D10] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 4 and 3)
- Polish Soldier rolls [D8+D6] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 7 and 5)
I don’t really want to give this guy the satisfaction, so LED pushes his roll:
- LED push-rolls [D10+D10] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 8 and 2)
Contribution avoided.
HINDSIGHT: rules-wise, I made the wrong call here. As a player, you get to decide whether an NPC (i.e. the Referee) has persuaded you; there shouldn’t be a roll to decide whether you are persuaded or not. A roll is required for actively persuading someone. In this case, LED is trying to persuade the Polish soldier to forgo the contribution, and a draw means LED is not successful. Also, his Psy Ops specialty should come in play (+1 to his roll). I can’t change what has already been, but I can definitely learn from it.
The Polish man ponders for a bit “you know, this time we can skip the formalities”
The group is instructed to proceed on the same road, then turn South where there is a bridge over a small river, then straight South to the barricades. They will find a checkpoint at the bridge, whose soldiers will be informed of their passage.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE – SECOND ENCOUNTER [click to expand]
As planned, I drew a second encounter card, to take place in the second part of the in-town travel.
- 4♥ THE SMELL OF VICTORY: A dozen car wrecks, all burnt out, with charred corpses inside. The cars were hit by a napalm attack some weeks or months earlier. The corpses in the cars are such a depressing sight, that it causes 1 point of stress. The wrecks are beyond repair, but they can be scavenged for parts. There is plenty of scrap around (scrounging +2)
All players receive 1 stress point.
I didn’t dramatize this scene, and in hindsight, it could have been a great scene to spend a few hundred words on.
I just applied stress and have LED roll for (SURVIVAL) scrounging (though DONNA has the Scrounger specialty, LED has the best combination of INT and SURVIVAL) helped by DONNA to get (+2 bonus included) to a 2D12 roll.
- LED rolls SURVIVAL [D12+D12] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 3 and 2)
They have already taken a stress point, so I’m not going to push it.
Normally, scrounging take a full shift when searching in an hex, but my players are looking on this one street that seems to offer a lot of potential finds, so I house-ruled they only spend 15 minutes there.
FINAL COMMENTS
Having already an objective in mind for my group, I approached the rules for city travel introduced by Urban Operations as a bit of side-mechanics. I wanted my players to get where I wanted them to go, and hoped to spice up their urban travel with a few (hopefully) minor, non-consequential encounters.
In that sense, I got lucky and had my first drawn encounter with the 1st SOC, courtesy of the Area of Control mechanic (also introduced in the Urban Operations expansion). From there, the path was laid down towards the unit’s HQ.
I’m writing this closing comment a few months after playing what I dramatized, and I am now reconsidering the potential of city travel rules: a town/city can become a hub of explorations, interactions with NPCs, ground for clashes between factions, a place of intrigue, offering dangers and opportunities in equal amounts.
You may stretch this to the point where a city map replaces the travel map, areas replace hexes, former parks are now open terrain areas, and built-up areas become your new forests, made of concrete and rubble. Combat occurs at such short distance, it may as well match the lifespan of your ink and paper alter-ego.
A single city, sufficiently vast and detailed, can be the setting of an entire T2K campaign.