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<blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 8765101" data-attributes="member: 6779310">I did have a couple encounters that triggered a, &quot;Pause, please,&quot; reaction...The gassed out village, and the war profiteering guys... The gassed out village is a stock random encounter. &quot;You find several families, warm, but dead. Not a wound in sight. Their dogs, cats...&quot;&quot;HOLD!&quot; X-card waving. &quot;I need a minute.&quot; A few minutes later, &quot;Continue...&quot; &quot;Their pets and farm animals all dead, too...&quot;&quot;BUTTON UP!&quot; the Doctor's player orders.Everyone mimes putting on the MOPP-masks/hoods...One asks, speaking through hands, &quot;Why button?&quot;&quot;Nerve Gas!&quot; T stops, looks at me, &quot;It is gas, right?&quot;I nod.The war profiteers... they tracked the crashed helo's parts from these pogues' hummer tracks... find them eating K rations and playing PS-2...As they started to negotiate, one of the players asks, &quot;Can we hold the scene? I'm ready to kill these !@@^((#s.&quot;&quot;Sure...&quot;&quot;STORE RUN!&quot; says another player.They found reasons to kill these asinine pogues... when they caught these deserters raiding a live friendly convoy...The reason? They needed time to mentally process the nature of war, as one of the PCs had bought the farm, these guys were a mile off, with radios on the freq, and sat there playing Tenchu: Stealth Assassins....Having their characters take gory hits? No problem.Having guys in the same uniform ignore calls for help? Set everyone's hackles on &quot;Hedgehog!&quot;While I recommend an X-card, as the horror moments will happen&nbsp; in a RAW campaign with good GM description, but may not be the ones that you expect. I expected the gassed village to be a bit rough on the chemist... but it was the teens that freaked at the animals being vaguely&nbsp; described.One thing my players really appreciated was that, when they killed the soviet female sniper, she had period&nbsp; supplies in her kit. Waste&nbsp; not, want not.... But that also made the sniper no longer seem just a set of stats, but a woman, with all the usual issues... So many chances to personify the enemy and the victims.To remind players that the Soviets are not Orcs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="aramis erak, post: 8765101, member: 6779310"] I did have a couple encounters that triggered a, "Pause, please," reaction... The gassed out village, and the war profiteering guys... The gassed out village is a stock random encounter. "You find several families, warm, but dead. Not a wound in sight. Their dogs, cats..." "HOLD!" X-card waving. "I need a minute." A few minutes later, "Continue..." "Their pets and farm animals all dead, too..." "BUTTON UP!" the Doctor's player orders. Everyone mimes putting on the MOPP-masks/hoods... One asks, speaking through hands, "Why button?" "Nerve Gas!" T stops, looks at me, "It is gas, right?" I nod. The war profiteers... they tracked the crashed helo's parts from these pogues' hummer tracks... find them eating K rations and playing PS-2... As they started to negotiate, one of the players asks, "Can we hold the scene? I'm ready to kill these !@@^((#s." "Sure..." "STORE RUN!" says another player. They found reasons to kill these asinine pogues... when they caught these deserters raiding a live friendly convoy... The reason? They needed time to mentally process the nature of war, as one of the PCs had bought the farm, these guys were a mile off, with radios on the freq, and sat there playing Tenchu: Stealth Assassins.... Having their characters take gory hits? No problem. Having guys in the same uniform ignore calls for help? Set everyone's hackles on "Hedgehog!" While I recommend an X-card, as the horror moments will happen in a RAW campaign with good GM description, but may not be the ones that you expect. I expected the gassed village to be a bit rough on the chemist... but it was the teens that freaked at the animals being vaguely described. One thing my players really appreciated was that, when they killed the soviet female sniper, she had period supplies in her kit. Waste not, want not.... But that also made the sniper no longer seem just a set of stats, but a woman, with all the usual issues... So many chances to personify the enemy and the victims. To remind players that the Soviets are not Orcs. [/QUOTE]

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