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

[The Shaman]

I use Babelfish, so any translations are probably a bit whacked.

This might help to make Marcel's cursing a bit more idiomatic. Be sure to poke around some of the links at the bottom as well.

I've been keeping it fairly mild because of the site rules on profanity (and in case Barak's kids are looking over his shoulder...) - I will slip in the odd merde or putain from time to time, though. I really don't think anyone's reading the game-thread but the five of us.

And Shaman.. Reading the point of view of the other side makes it hard to shoot them, you know that?

What's the French idiom for "moral quagmire?"

I think the Story Hour makes an effective lead-in to Life During Wartime - all four encounters that make up our first full adventure highlight the impact of the war on the different participants: soldiers, legionnaires, insurgents, and civilians, both pied-noir and Muslim.

Ahmed ben Salem is a composite based on a number of different FLN and ALN figures - there's really very little I need to do to make him a sympathetic character other than tell their stories through him. As with any story though, there are two sides...

 

[Bobitron]

Thanks, Mike! That will do nicely. Prepare for some hard cursing, gentlemen!

 

[Bobitron]

I really don't think anyone's reading the game-thread but the five of us.

And BTW, LOSERS! They are missing out like crazy. I still can't believe we haven't had at least a couple people beating down the door to join or become alternates.

 

[The Shaman]

I still can't believe we haven't had at least a couple people beating down the door to join or become alternates.

It took us quite awhile just to find four players - and you recruited знаток or we might've started with three!

It's an obscure conflict that not many people are familiar with. The player characters start as 2nd level buck privates. And there are no M60-and-minigun-dual-wielding-commandos or flying-robots-shooting-flame-out-of-their-eyes. :\

I'm grateful the four of you decided to take a chance on this one!

 

[Barak]

I've been keeping it fairly mild because of the site rules on profanity (and in case Barak's kids are looking over his shoulder...)

No worry for me.. The kids don't speak much, and certainly read virtually no french. And the french they do know, they learned from me, so no profanity there! It's sorta cool to be able to listen to music with lotsa swear words with the kids being none the wiser.

Talking of profanity though.. I have to constantly keep myself in check. In virtually every "real-account" type book I've read, soldiers swear a whole lot. And usually, the closer to the source, the more swear words, and the lower in the ranks, as well. The way I view Normand, he'd be cursing a -lot- more then he does, but.. You know.

What's the French idiom for "moral quagmire?"

Hmm. Can't really think of one at the moment, even though I'm well aware of the concept.

And yes, in virtually every conflict (well, there -are- exceptions!), it would be easy to find a way to "take" for either side. Heck, to be honest, being french-canadian, I'd probably be more on the side of the -algerians- in this conflict.. It's more that I've rarely had the chance to explose such aspects of humanity thorugh RPGs, and I greatly appreciate being given that chance.

 

[Bobitron]

Heck, I didn't know anything about the conflict either. The only thing kicking around in my head was that it was a French battle against insurgents, kind of like the US in Vietnam.I was just happy to see a professional-looking military campaign free of FX present itself.

I still have one other person interested, a military buff. He doesn't have any d20 Modren experience, but we have at least one possibility if needed.

 

[знаток]

What's the French idiom for "moral quagmire?"

That's interesting. I was just reading something about Stockholm Syndrome, and it could be argued that it applies to Ahmed's situation, though his dilemma seems more focused on himself than his captors.

 

[The Shaman]

I was just reading something about Stockholm Syndrome, and it could be argued that it applies to Ahmed's situation, though his dilemma seems more focused on himself than his captors.

I don't know much about the psychology involved, but what I do know is that the Vietminh went out of their way to target prisoners from the French colonies in North and West Africa for re-education - the viets treated them better and focused their program on them while in captivity, and in fact there were a number who later joined the ALN and cited the experience as a significant factor. Maoist doctrine was taught in the French Army as part of the counter-terrorism training that soldiers received, but for tirailleurs who returned and joined the ALN, it became a manual on how to fight the war against the French.

Maoist revolutionary doctrine was also the justification the French Army used for claiming that the fight against the FLN was 'containing Communism' and for employing torture as a counter-insurgency tool... :\

 

[The Shaman]

Heck, I didn't know anything about the conflict either. The only thing kicking around in my head was that it was a French battle against insurgents, kind of like the US in Vietnam.I was just happy to see a professional-looking military campaign free of FX present itself.

I wanted something that wasn't the usual WWII/Vietnam/Iraq-and-Afghanistan, a game where the players had fewer preconceived notions about the setting.

It's also a really rich opportunity to bring in lots of different kinds of characters through the French Foreign Legion involvement - there was no need to contrive a "international team" since that's exactly what the Legion already is! The 1st REP is also very much an elite unit at the center of the action throughout the war, so it's easy to write engagements and adventures that cover the range of experiences the paras encountered.

I still have one other person interested, a military buff. He doesn't have any d20 Modren experience, but we have at least one possibility if needed.

Good to know - thanks!

 

[The Shaman]

I believe I owe you all some experience points!

Each character gains 1100 XP for the engagement at Oued Baraba - you also get the group roleplay bonus of 200 XP each, for a total of 1300 XP per character.

We'll vote for the individual roleplay award at the end of Life During Wartime.

Since we're talking about experience, in addition to medals your characters will have the opportunity to earn promotions. Because I'm trying to keep a sense of verisimilitude about the game, promotions will come slowly - you'll be able to make a promotion roll each time you level up, but the DC increases with each promotion. The Promotion check looks like this:

Promotion Check = 1d20 + Charisma bonus + Reputation bonus + Profession ranks​

Also, there is a skill requirement for making sergent: your character must have at least 5 ranks in Knowledge (military science) and 4 ranks in Intimidate. (Ranks in Treat Injury are substituted for Intimidate for the medic - no one will promote Marcel based on his ability to browbeat his patients...).