Wing and Sword: a d20 Modern military campaign [METAGAME]

[знаток]

I just finished watching the bonus discs and I agree about the bias issue. I definitely finished the movie (and especially the bonus discs, which I thought even better than the movie) feeling considerably more sympathetic to the FLN. The bonus discs were awesome. I didn't realize it was actually Yacef playing himself in the movie. The interviews are very telling.

 

[Bobitron]

Welcome back! I hope your trip went well.

 

[The Shaman]

Welcome back! I hope your trip went well.

We had a great time - the baby was a little fussy on the plane rides, mostly because she couldn't crawl around and got tired of being on mommy and daddy's laps. She had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, though.

How did your tabletop WWII game work out?

 

[Bobitron]

How did your tabletop WWII game work out?

We went through character creation on Wed, and will start this coming week. It looks like we will be able to get in 4-5 sessions of 3-4 hours. Time to get started on some German stats and basic mission outlines...

I think I am going to keep the guys with the unit for all the missions except one. Thanks for your advice! I ended up buying two pdf's; Hell on Earth 1939-1945 and WWII Heroes. WWIIH is a bit wacky- all the characters get Recruit as a base class, then heap on skill points and feats. It's a deadly system. I think starting US soldiers have like 8 feats (!) to balance it. I am using D20 Modern with a splash of Hell on Earth.

 

[Barak]

Hmm.. Since I sorta forgot, a belated WB, Shaman.

Oh, and just to make sure ya'll don't think I'm tactically stupid, I am aware that Normand's advice to Pyotr wasn't very tactically sound. I just figured he'd be a bit stressed at all those fells rushing their position, and would like to see their numbers go down a little, even though taking down the leader would be more tactically sound than slightly reducing their numbers.

BTW, maybe you did state it and I missed it, but can we get a rough estimate of the number of fells in the group rushing us?

 

[The Shaman]

BTW, maybe you did state it and I missed it, but can we get a rough estimate of the number of fells in the group rushing us?

Each of the rectangular infantry symbols represents a squad of about 9-12 fellaghas. That puts around fifty opponents about 200'-300' away from Normand's position.

Of course, the good news is that you only have to survive about twenty-five to thirty more rounds before your air cover arrives...

This reminds me of something else - the stated range interval for a hand grenade is 10', which means the maximum distance one can be thrown in the RAW is 50' (five times range interval for thrown weapons). That means you can't throw a hand grenade from home plate and hit the pitcher's mound (60'6" away) except by a lucky bounce. :\

Seems a tad short to me.

The old Top Secret game from TSR has hand grenades with a range of 100', but that's a little too far to chuck a pound of iron, so how does increasing the range interval for a grenade to 15' (max. 75') sound?

 

[Bobitron]

I know I could sure as hell throw a pound 75 feet. I agree the rules are a bit messed up in this respect.

The Army did a study and found the average soldier can throw a grenade about 30-35 meters. The German Stielhandgranate in WWII could be thrown about 120-130 feet.

Grenades also have a MUCH wider area effect than listed in any game I have ever seen, with shrapnel flying anywhere from 30 feet out to 100 in many cases. Nothing to mess around with, that's for certain.

знаток will probably have better insight on this, he has thrown them in the recent past.

 

[Barak]

15' is definitively better than 10', so no argument from me.. About the lethality, the problem is that grenades are normally very, very lethal. Heck, so are guns, although (I believe) to a lesser extent. Portraying them faithfully, however, would make for a pretty darn gritty game, assuming the fells have.. well, one of them. Point is, everytime you enhance the lethality of -anything-, you make the game much deadlier for the players, since they always face more opponents than any given NPC.

Talking of which.. I do wonder how the heck we'll survive this encounter, assuming we will. Seems to me that we might have to figure out a way to retreat safely or something.

 

[знаток]

Seems a tad short to me.

The way I read this, it makes a little sense to me. I don't know that I agree with a 10' range interval, but show me anyone that isn't a professional pitcher that can consistently HIT a target the size of homeplate at 50' and I'll be impressed. The key to that rule I think, is that grenades are an area weapon, and still very effective if you miss by 10-20' (15-30 degrees?). Fragmentation grenades obviously have an area of effect that will offset any moderate aiming error. In games I've played in the past, I think I remember something like a primary effect area of 5m radius, a secondary of 10m, and a distant third up to 20m with a small chance of minimal damage. That seems relatively realistic to me.
To be most realistic, I'd say have only the first increment be something like 30-40', then increase by ten thereafter. Then a game master would have to be wise about determining what a "miss" means. Maybe 5 degrees off target and 5' short or long per point below the DC?

 

[знаток]

Point is, everytime you enhance the lethality of -anything-, you make the game much deadlier for the players, since they always face more opponents than any given NPC.

Great perception!