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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2099329" data-attributes="member: 26473">I'm currently running two Modern games.The first is our tabletop game, Netherworld, a modern fantasy campaign. The basic premise is that an ancient order of necromancers is searching for immortality and the adventurers accidentally interfere with one of their experiments in progress. The adventurers spent the first part of the campaign searching for a missing girl, the necromancers' "test subject," and now they're trying to cure the girl of the necromancers' treatment - of course, the necromancers are trying to kidnap her once again so they can complete their latest terrible experiment. Then there's the top-secret "super-soldier" program that wants to learn more about the necromancers at the same time the necromancers are trying to steal the bio-engineers' secrets - the adventurers are just discovering that they now have two enemies rather than one.So far this game has involved short, brief, intense firefights, sometimes with strange undead creatures (my favorite is a homebrew monster called a vermin husk, an undead human that bursts open if struck by piercing or slashing weapons and disgorges monstrous jumping spiders - this encounter took place in a museum and made a real mess of the place), sometimes with the minions of the necromancers - one of the necromancers' lackeys attempted to kill the adventurers with his car, feigning "road rage." The adventurers are not paramilitary-types: one is a private detective (Tough 3/Bodyguard 2), one is a chemist (Smart 4/Field Scientist 1), and one is a professional photographer (Dedicated 3/Charismatic 2) - they all carry pistols of one kind or another and know enough to use whatever cover is available (something I drilled into them when we started), but they're not going to make even a passing fair imitation of a SWAT team.The second is our play-by-post game, Wing and Sword, which is a modern military campaign set in Algeria in 1956. The characters are all Foreign Legion paratroopers assigned to counter-insurgency operations. The first adventure is in progress here on the boards at ENWorld - click on the "FREE TOUR!" link in my signature and follow the link to Chat et Souris, our adventure in progress.This adventure is a training drop that goes awry when the paras find themselves playing cat-and-mouse with a company of guerillas in the Saharan Atlas - they had a brief fight when they landed, then they later ambushed a squad of fellaghas (insurgents) and beat back a counter-attack. Now the legionnaires are retreating to a more defensible position as the enemy regroups, hoping the air cover they were promised arrives before the paras are overwhelmed by their numerically superior foe.In this game I'm using something I call "tactical advantage" - there are certain junctures where one side or the other can gain tactical advantage. In this adventure the paras gained the advantage by discovering the guerillas on their DZ - this means the legionnaires knew about the insurgents but the insurgents didn't know about the legionnaires, giving the insurgents a -2 to all initiative rolls for the remainder of the encounter. This is a strategic benefit that will be built into each engagement, and may have different benefits depending on the specifics of the encounter.In more practical terms the paras actually lost some of this advantage when one of their comrades was seriously wounded and taken out of action (HP below zero) - in the tradition of the Legion, no one is left behind and now they must retreat while carrying an unconscious member of their section, which has reduced their firepower and speed. So far they've put the hurt on the guerillas, forcing them back with an effective crossfire (I'm using Cool checks to handle morale for the attacking insurgents), but the bulk of the enemy is now about to bring its strength to bear on the outnumbered and isolated legionnaires...</blockquote>

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