A thread for some OOC discussions
This message was last updated by the GM at 17:19, Sat 30 Dec 2017.

Da passiert nix? oder sehe ich das falsch?

Warts ab.
Bub und Helmut lassen sich bitten

Jetzt fehlt uns nur noch der Helmut! :-)

Here's an interesting and creepy article I found doing some research for my character concept:

https://www.popularmechanics.c...doned-nazi-hospital/

I lived in a converted ward of an 1830s mental hospital for 5 years it was a fantastic place to live :)

https://www.google.com/search?...mgdii=yZrj0JkDuFcKHM
This message was last edited by the player at 19:45, Sat 20 June 2020.

Oh wow.  That's like being haunted IRL XD  Seriously that's cool.

It was fun.

They even had a museum that housed all the old equipment and treatments they used on the patients it only opened oneday a year and you had to book a place.

My wife always refused to go but I went twice..... Wouldn't have wanted to be crazy in victoriana times though

To be fair, you didn't need to be crazy to end up there in Victorian times. As far as I understand it, it was enough to be "hysterical" for women.

Yes and there were examples of the treatments for it in the museum to :(

You can make any rolls you think are useful in a situation without waiting for me. Basically, if you think you might need to roll, just include it.

Hello everyone. Looks like I'm on the other side of the world from everyone else....

For now, at least :-)

What time zone is everyone in?
Ralph is on the US West coast, Lena is in the center (I think).
I'm in Central Europe. Arthur?

London, England

Indeed, Central Time Zone!  You got it in one!

lol apologies for double post, but does Lena know who Eva Braun is, because she's famous now, but I don't know how much they knew about her at the time.

Lena might know something from a spy dossier but I'm not sure how much to assume.

From an OOC perspective, Wiki might be a good source for ranks.

Waffen SS ranks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...nia_of_the_Waffen-SS

Ranks and insignia of the German Army (1935–1945)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...rman_Army_(1935-1945)
Link isn't behaving.....but it'll get you close enough.

Hey that's pretty neato.

I just knew the SS had its own structure but I won't pretend to be an expert on it, in other words I know just enough to know how ignorant I am.  A lot of people seem to think literally every German soldier was a member of the Nazi party and they were all commanded directly by Hitler (though Rommel gets mentioned if they're bit more historically literate).

I guess it's victors' pop culture and small reference pools writing the history as people seem to think the Axis forces (and the Russians) were this monolothic army rather than a complex array of many different commands with their own Byzantine hierarchies.

Also props for a shout out to the Battle of Peleliu!  Though he was Navy (he was a gunner) and not Marines and to my best knowledge definitely not part of that particular episode, my grandfather was nevertheless in the Pacific Theater and I feel like everyone focuses on the European theater so much (and that everyone ignores the eastern front).  One of these days I keep telling myself I need to get his service record and actually find out some details, because he did not like to talk about the war.  At all, especially not to his grandchildren.  I can't say I blame him.

I guess it's because Hollywood knows Nazis are such recognizable villains and everyone's afraid of a negative depiction of Japan, but who knows.

In reply to Lena Vogt (msg # 19):

You should check out “The Pacific” it shows how brutal those battles were. The term ‘Jap’ was used a lot. It is also used a lot in ‘Midway’ which really does show case how brutal it was.

While there is some criticism there is a book about the Eastern Front called ‘The Forgotten Soldier’.

In 1943, Eva's position was still a secret. There may have been some whispered rumors, but amongs the general population, Hitler was see as the "ultimate bachelor".

I will put that on my list.  There's actually a really good memoir by E.B. Sledge too.

https://www.amazon.com/Old-Bre...kinawa/dp/0891419195

lol dammit, I have to give you that one Warmaster.  Here's a chance to end the war and there's nothing I can do to take advantage of it XD

Oh, did I not mention the short sword dripping with poison that's in convenient reach when Hitler kisses your hand?

Oh, well. Too late.

Hello, comrades! New player jumping in. Hope to see you in the game soon, and not on the wrong side of my scope. :)

In reply to Yelena Malkin (msg # 25):

Hi there and welcome :)

Welcome to the weirdeness

My general rule - if it's weird, shoot it in the head.

Also works for Nazis.

Oh I completely missed that.  Hi new victim player!

I just hope you don't shoot nurses... in German uniforms...

A nurse, even in German uniform, seems like low value target, yes?

Red Army does not have bullets to waste. Is why we use snipers. One shot, one kill, yes?  Your SS officer friend, on other hand...

And thank you all for the warm welcomes!

You know the best part of this whole thing may be that I'm learning some great German words, like fünfhunderfünfundfünfzig.

English doesn't have good words like that.  Words like syzygy, floccinaucinihilipilification, and quintessance are wacky and all but they'll never be half as cool as trantüte.

You are learning these excellent German words and I am learning about Eastern Front. Some of the interesting things:

https://mashable.com/2016/07/30/soviet-women-snipers/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Uranus

There's more, of course, but you will need to learn later.

I look forward to shooting Nazis in heads.

And by the way, this-



-is excellent word.

Let us see how many ways I can say 'good-bye' to the sniped during this game, yes?

---

And seriously, earlier today I commented to our esteemed GM that it's amazing how often coming up with backgrounds for characters causes me to do research and learn new things. In this case I knew that there were a decent number of Russian women that were snipers in WWII (though I didn't realize it was in the 2,500 range), but I certainly learned a bit more about them. Particularly Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko

That's one of the things that drew me into gaming, oh so many years ago.
The research you do. Like you really want to wield a sword two-handed and do extra damage and the GM would say know, and lo and behold - all of a sudden you sit there learning about sword-wielding techniques of medieval Japan.

Since we got now four players and I think you're more or less ready: How about we start with the actual mission? We can keep the Preludes going in parallel, too. Yelena's has just started, but Arthur's is pretty much done already. Lena is getting there, too.

Fine by me!

torschlusspanik

Fun fact: A lot of people think it's Torschusspanik, not Torschlusspanik. Completely different thing, though.

Sorry for the dely, folks - just spent 15 hours behind my laptop, working through customer requests.
Give me a day or two!

In reply to Warmaster (msg # 38):

I’ve been running and playing in games here since 2006 and RL (real life) comes first.

Also, this has given me time to watch some WW2 documentaries on Netflix (at least the episodes on the Eastern Front). And read The Communist Manifesto.

You're all doing better than me.  I had a weird dream I was back at work (I haven't been in the office for months now due to the 'rona) and instead of  having a regular meeting it was a meeting to plan to kill Hitler.

Hopefully your dream was set in, like, 1935? From what I can tell, once 1942 rolled around, his military decisions did far more good for the Allies than the Axis. Seems like he got lucky with France and then bungled every important decision the rest of the way. Almost surprising he was eventually allowed to shoot himself.

The Communist Manifesto is interesting, btw. And not terribly long. At some point I'll need to ask my mother why she had a copy of The Portable Karl Marx among her old books.

I raised several objections:

• Hitler was already dead for well over 7 decades - ignored, because it doesn't matter if he's dead he needs to be killed now
• We're in America and Hitler would be in Germany anyway even if we were contemporary - I was told we'd wait until America passed underneath the bracket holding the globe, jump up and catch it, then hold on until Germany came underneath us.
• We needed some kind of superweapon to possibly hope to destroy his fortified installation - talk began about how to acquire the ability to fire death lasers from space on Amazon

Those would have been my answers to your objections as well. Silly American.

Alright, I'll be "finishing" up the prelude threads, but as I mentioned in two of them, I'll leave them open when we move on to the actual main mission.

If you have an idea for a short story or scene that happened between the end of your prelude and before the start of Chapter 1, just add it there :-)

Arthur, Ralph and Yelena were privates or low-level NCOs during the Preludes. Your experience will have gained you the chance for a promotion or two.

Each of you three please draw three cards.
2-10 does nothing (rank wise)
Jack, Queen or King will gain you a promition by one rank.
Ace or Jokers gain you a Battlefield commission.

Any Clubs net you a distinctive wound of some sort.

Lena: You draw too. While you won't get promoted, we'll treat this as interludes for you.

07:24, Today: Yelena Malkin drew the 3 cards: QD, 3C, 5D using a deck of 54 cards.  Rank-up?

Looks like I will be Mladshiy Serzhant Malkin (Junior Sergeant) in 1945?

Mladshiy Serzhant Malkin indeed!

I see how it is, everyone hates the spy.

11:07, Today: Lena Vogt drew the 3 cards: QS, 8C, KD using a deck of 54 cards.

And here I am disappointed Solomon didn't say "Oh yes this is her."  And slide over the picture of Lena with Hitler XD

Ah, that would have been  quite good!

Yeah, but to be fair they wouldn't do that.  If Solomon were captured and he had that picture on him, it would compromise the spy.

The story of Lena’s wound should be interesting!

Poor Yelena isn’t as pretty as she used to be.

Just makes her mor dashing!

Well, at some point in the last three years, you acquired a Luger pistol from an officer. And an unlikely ally in the Widow Blocher, who lives across the hall in your building, your only neighbor on the floor.

Everybody wants to get their tax return in... I'll be mostly unavailable until after the US tax deadline in a couple of days.

I filed mine in April!

Well, expats get an automatic extension to June anyway and with the EIP a lot of them are now desperate to file their returns.
And they all come to us three days before the deadline. Because of course.

Lol. Why plan ahead when you can do something at the last minute?

Sounds like a couple long days ahead of you. Good luck!

As we like to say around here: "There's plenty of time to do your taxes at the last minute."

As an accountant myself I did mine back in February (I think).

I am curious, Warmaster, is your deadline midnight your time? Or midnight somewhere in the US?

I know quite little about expat tax filing (though slightly more than nothing).

Technically, the deadline is midnight in California (ie, the official deadline of the IRS).

We stopped accepting extension filing requests around 10 pm local time (so 9 hours before the official deadline) - there's only so much you can to with a brain on sleep deprivation, and the closer you get to the deadline, the less responsive the IRS interfaces become. They're basically under a denial of service attack.

I get that taxes may not be the most fun activity to do (although many of our customers say that it's almost fun with our app :-) ) and they may be complicated, or you may not have all the numbers yet because France won't give you your final French taxes tally until August... but could you, maybe, *not* try to file an extension at the last moment?

After a week of working 16-18 hours straight, I do get a little cranky :-)

Yeah, particularly extensions which I would think are relatively straightforward and could be filed at any time.

Sounds like a fun week. Hopefully you are now catching up on sleep (among other things).

I help some people with their returns (free, and I have to be careful about what I do I could get into licensure issues) and I am constantly amazed by people being unwilling to file the 6 month extension when they tell me they're having problems getting records.

"Just file it now, it won't hurt a blessed thing and it might save you headaches later."

Them:

Alright, getting back into it - We've got a few commanding officers that would be run by me as NPC. But they could be secondary characters, too, if anybody is interested?
We have one for the British squad, one for the US squad and one for the Soviet company.

I'm fine either way.

I could take on a secondary character. Either the Americans or the Brits.

In reply to Warmaster (msg # 66):

My CPU is having issues. Hopefully the hard drive isn’t fried. Until then I am limited to posting on my iPhone.

I'm still here just a bit busy irl though not like our Warmaster

Hi there still here :)

23:23, Today: Warmaster, on behalf of Ralph Jenden, drew the 3 cards: 7C, QC, QS using the Deadlands system.  Promotions?

23:23, Today: Warmaster, on behalf of Arthur Randel, drew the 3 cards: 3H, 6S, 3C using the Deadlands system.  Promotions?


So no further promotions for Arthur... but two for Ralph. You'll be a Master Sergeant!

Oh well having too many stripes make you a target and Arthur's already got a big red cross on his medical kit lol

You got Max Lewis, overall commander of the US & UK squads.

Sounds good! Do you want us to start posting in the Chapter 1 thread at this point? Or do you have more setup in mind?

Note that I'm unable to post anything as Max right now. I think Group 0 access is needed?

You can start posting in Chapter 1 - See if you can post as Max Lewis now. It should work...

Seems to work!

Can I just call in artillery or air support? Or does anyone in the squad have mortar or sniper rifle with sufficient range?

You don't have snipers, and artillery or air support may just as well destroy the bridge.

I was planning to wait for input from the other PCs. Are they still with us?

Arthur is likely on vacation, haven't heard from Randal in a while...

Sorry on holiday from Friday so should actually be able to post more

Been trying to clear the projects on my desk and hand things over to others to look after while I'm away

No worries, it happens! I haven't heard from Ralph, so we'll ghost him as needed. If you got an idea for how to cross the bridge...

I had issuess accessing the site all weekend long. Sorry about that.

Me too. It made me very sad. But I'm happy to see it operational again!

Yeah it wasn't just you it was down for everyone.

Willmann, Graumann... I hope you all appreciate my creativity when it comes to NPC names.

I am loving the contrasts here

Everyone else:  Tactical maneuvers!  Small unit tactics!  Street to street fighting!

Lena:  Bureaucracy, being the world's worst nurse, and bull shitting people!  XD

We all do what we can for the cause, comrade.

lol here is hoping there are no unimportant parts in a panzerabwehrkanone  (another fantastic German word)

I'm adding the BPO company as a character to Zholdin; that way you have access and can roll for them if needed.

So the way I'm reading it, the soldiers can each fire twice without a penalty on their turn, that right? (Due to rapid fire and rock'n'roll)

Also, there are two soldiers that can be assumed to fire a Thompson SMG, and I can have as many grenades tossed as makes sense. I'm thinking three? That's an athletics roll, right?

I think the other thing I need to know is how many men are in each group of soldiers.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Tue 06 Oct 2020.

You got a total of 22 men under your command - 12 in the US Squad and 10 in the British.
You got six folks with you on this side of the river (inluding Arthur) and the rest is now on the bridge.

And yes on all counts!

And, to be clear, the Americans and Brits aren't supposed to even be in the city, are they?

Although a captured bridge is a captured bridge?

Berlin belongs to Mother Russia.

The Western Allies are about 150km to the west of Berlin at this point, mopping up other pockets of resistance.

Yeah this is a bad place to be an American pretending to be a German.

Just use the secret code word, comrade!

Oh, wait, you don't know it.

Keep your head down!

Hi guys apologies for disappearing for some reason the game fell off my games list..... All sorted now so will post later after I've caught up

And, just to be clear, I'm waiting for Arthur to jump in before posting again.

Let's give him another day or so, otherwise, we'll move on.

(Might need to get a couple more players in....)

Apologies meant to post over the weekend.

Never leave your wife alone with an unlocked tool kit.

Got home from my parents to find my wife dismantling the stud partition wall between the kitchen and dining room to make it one large kitchen diner.

So my weekend has been taken up with making it all look good.

Will post tonight please continue without me if you want to post today I'll catch up later

Uh, let's hope that wasn't a load bearing wall... :p

no worries we'd been talking about doing it for a while and we are both architects so we knew it was just a stud partition not structural..... its just my wife tends to be a bit compulsive and I have to finish things off that she starts :)

Man, Lewis is cold.

:)

They could have made other choices. There is also some irony in Germans hiding behind the Geneva convention...

I (and Major Lewis) are waiting to see if any others want to jump in here. I'm just posting to make sure we're not all waiting for each other and then nothing happens.

Sorry for going AWOL on all y'all, real life interfered hard.

Since we've been waiting for a while, I'll give everybody one more day to post something and then move the story along.

Hopefully with less real-life interference now! :-)

Zholdin and Yelena should see that gibberish in the last message clearly, while Lena, Ralph and Arthur should not.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:13, Wed 09 Dec 2020.

Works on my end!

Might want to set up a German language too

I already did :-)

Nope, total gibberish to me!

In reply to Warmaster (msg # 109):

lol then add Lena to it!

In fact I am guessing we're missing some assignments based on Zholdin's problem

Hmmm... how about now?

I misread the setting - the language groups are in rows, not columns. So I assigned you to language groups 1,2 or 3 - but I set the groups as 1, 5, and 9...

*clears throat*

[Language unknown: And ro evarai Ai prüo ruthe
Rat nderesver ing thi Isho trüet noev
Sti it Tinardomestrpro
Ivelo foalol Eau ter Sanect'forsom
Leashi e heringtinencion eieeei nt ateof
Lo ntiessant the ouar Beer utüad eiro
Nteng m Icastieen-icaeen
Peis nande a ntnt was t vir eklefo

o Haslesourtioeen
Ckhi elwaes Ss ur Neellldi
Thuwhiera ionwi weüss Thu ratll chine Inio
Wandck linratainsta ilio Traithsti
thu Llndul'tariil vorureintate
Oneundeve pe lahehe, acun ev p eeäit
Allone reableenc pe e Dayillintnot
Ere m Asomncpoer

ul Eüivareäul
Romthaera rut som ekfißt Sencnd
Ardntiort een asüou Ichbutnde Aieve
Hat ma sehe taßnc Erssonnotpro
Om Icaicaantart wasrearat ovethaart ndeiourut
Ce müconousain ndrat prmiis atwisahe
Himias sttiou whi p Larreaorefor
Sta o Semoacutec

p Caivmocharlo he
Nilieifoth terut Hasort'thidayoullar i
Ntmoan di iüin wawaiv Conainter
Ivnttata prnaut ndeentsta Noniek
Encterles Onpoul een itckce Atacsi
Wi, eion eästi beio nilise
Osnce o ilprpa asfihe ieanal
Reoles a Ithintonethuman

n Estconeau Andundoul
Sanßre actofo Antcomfor unüu Resallted
Etmi'elishiul strproenc icaruttha ll
Pa reund nauses Müingwas-onstedugh
Aineer virareted adri ouneenith Tralinwhi
Ca ecpa Derhi p Iüatinteyin acadpl
Nti mi Werpresonterame ousvirromnte
Tritwe be il fi iltawe wiha earwerder]

Ayup, good to go!

Excellent!

Ok... looks like everyone's at least in the same vicinity. Then we'll move along.
Since it's been a while since we started, don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have about the mission or your purpose!

Sorry, things have been hectic with the holidays, and it being the end of the year.  I'll get a post up later today!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

'Twas the night before Christmas, the stars shining bright,
The sentry was walking, his left, then his right.
His rifle it swung from his shoulder with ease,
his head kept alert from a chill in the breeze.

The troops were all nestled and warm in their racks,
while he stood his duty, his feet making tracks.
For he, in his helmet, with his rifle at side,
had just settled down in that 12 to 4 stride.

Then what to the shock of the sentry appeared,
was a little green sleigh pulled by camouflaged deer,
With a little old driver in dress blues and sword.
the sentry just stood there not saying a word,

He watched in amazement with eyes all aglow,
as the reindeer, in silence, pulled the sleigh low.
With a wink from the driver, a tip from his cover,
the sleigh like a huey, just pulled up and hovered.

The sentry was startled, bewitched, and in doubt,
but duty prevailed and these words rang out:
"Now wait a minute - halt who goes there!?"
but the little man smiled, "You've nothing to fear,

"For as sure as it's christmas, and as sure as you're here,
I've stopped on my route just to bring you good cheer!"
"Now attention to orders!" he said with a flair,
Then read from a page that he held in the air:

"For attention to duty while walking your post,
on the day of the year that we cherish the most,
here in this place on this solemn occasion,
I thank you, Marine, on behalf of the nation!"

He saluted the sentry, and cut sharp and clear,
then he took up the reins as he called to his deer,
"On Belleau, on Iwo, on An-Hoa and Chosin,
on you named-for-places both hell-hot and frozen!

And he called out once more as he sped out of sight,
Merry christmas, Marines, carry on and good night!"

Ha!  I like that.  How appropriate!

Also, watching Inglorious Basterds today.  It's a Christmas movie because I say it is!

Also...

Haha I have to ask, how close is Lena to Klaus right now, like arm's length or a few yards/meters away or what?

apologies for not posting I did my back in before christmas so been laid up in bed for a few days on painkillers ......feeling a lot better if a little tender

will catch up and post later

Don't worry, the pace is always slow around the holidays. But I'm hoping it'll pick up a little :-)

I should be back on track by middle of next week. Happy New Year, everyone!

Hope everybody had a good start to 2021 and remains in good health!

I'm just disappointed the simulation didn't reset.

I keep wondering when things will stop getting worse.

We don't seem to have hit bottom yet.

I'm still alive and still plan to post, soonish.

And just to be clear, the Russians have seen what appear to be German (soldiers?) playing football. Yelena is in an excellent sniping position overlooking the grounds. As the men she is supporting begin their assault, one of the footballers starts shouting orders. Yelena can tell who this is and should be able to put a bullet in him with relative ease, correct?

If that's all accurate, she will be taking the shot - please let me know appropriate modifiers (including Marskman benefits).

They're all wearing uniforms, but most of the players seem to be Hitleryouth. The man in the sling is an adult an right now out in the open.

So -4 for range, +2 Marksman, +4 for The Drop.

Can Yelena target whoever is firing the gun from her position? That would be her next target...

I had to face palm for calling the second most famous submachinegun in history a rifle, but that's what I get for updating in a hurry.

I actually did mean for Lena to call it a rifle IC to hide the fact she actually does know the difference.  I roleplayed too hard.

:)

Fortunately, unarmed nurses don't even make it onto Yelena's target priority list...

The shooter is just behind the edge of the overhanging concrete roof.

In reply to Yelena Malkin (msg # 133):

lol what about nurses who have an SMG they filched from teenagers so the idiots don't open fire on real soldiers and get killed

Eh, depends on who it's being pointed at.

Dang.

How about the Panzerfaust boys?

You could move to the window that faces East and lean outward. It's a bit uncomfortable (and dangerous, as you may fall if your spotter doesn't hold on to you), but might give you just enough of a vantage point.

Give me an agility roll and a Strength roll for your spotter - and feel free to give him or her a name, too.

Yeah...I don't think Yelena survived the war to this point by doing stuff like that. She will continue to provide support as she can. If there is a different sniping vantage point that might be better, she will consider moving. But it doesn't sound like that's the case.

"When our infantry comes to a minefield, they continue as if it wasn't there."

Wait, what are the Hitler Youth doing exactly?  lol not a sentence I thought I would ever say

I think two of them have managed to heave a Panzerfaust into something akin to a firing position. The one with the MP40 might be having a change of heart.

Yeah the post implies they handed the firearm over to Lena (who intends to unload it and throw it in the bushes or something once she's out of sight of them), but I'm not sure where they were going physically right after that happened.

If anybody can recommend a free and easy to use tool for battle map creation, I'm listening :-)

https://www.rptools.net/toolbox/maptool/

Righto, sorry for the absence folks, but between the end of the semester, and home life, things were... hectic to say the least.  I'll work on getting caught up on reading here in the next day or two, and then hopefully I'll be able to jump back in whenever is convenient.

In reply to Zholdin Yevgenievich (msg # 146):

Real life happens :-)

So, if anyone knows...

Unlike my character I do not speak a blessed word of German.  I assumed "magazin" is a borrowed word from English, and those are usually neuter, so it's die magazin and not das magazin or der magazin, am I anywhere near correct?  It's bothering me, haha

No help here - I speak exactly as much German as you.

It's *das* Magazin. Like, obviously. :-D

Huh, I never would have guessed.

"die" is the female article.
"der" is the male article.
"das" is the neuter article.

Unfortunately, it's not as straightforward as one might think.
a) not everything has a clearly defined gender, ie, most things.
b) not every gender has the right article.

While man, woman and boy are, quite logically, Der Mann, Die Frau, Der Junge - girl is "Das Mädchen".
It'd Der Tisch (table), der Löffel (spoon), die Gabel (fork) but das Messer (knife). A car is "das Auto" or "der Wagen" or even "die Kutsche" in more colloquial terms.

It's something you just gotta learn. And of course, it doesn't help that there are a few words that switch meaning with articles.
Like "Die Erkenntnis" is an epiphany, but "Das Erkenntnis" is a court ruling from the Austrian Supreme court.

And with that, I'll close today's German lesson. :-)

It's interesting.  Gendered languages always have lots of weird exceptions you can only learn by rote or experience.

Spanish is the language I'm most familiar with where I can name some of the exceptions, like it's el phantasma (the ghost), not la phantasma.  It's not los fotos (the photographs, though the local dialect uses it more in the sense of "the pictures"), it's las fotos.

Why?  No one knows lol

I learned Russian for a while, which also has genders, but they make the distinction between the grammatical gender and the natural gender.

I don't remember the specifics, but it could lead to some interesting twists. But, alas, my favorite was always the different S-sounds they have. It's really important to get them right, because you might tell someone you want to show them your butt or your garden. You might also promise your loved one to piss them a love letter. No judgement if you're into that kinda thing, but you may want to make sure they are too.

I think there's a U.S. East Coast Creole dialect where the same word, depending not on how you pronounce it, but how you stress it, where the same word means something like "tree", "door" and "he carries".  And they all sound nearly the same to someone who doesn't speak that language, haha

Languages are weird.  It's almost like we just started making weird mouth sounds and arbitrarily assigned meanings to them and other people were stupid enough to just go along with it.

apologies for the delay work has been hectic and yesterday had to arrange for the whole family to have a covid test......not that we have it just the area we live in in London has a high number of cases with the south african variant and the area has been targeted for mass community testing

Arthur right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsz2tJl8rg

Lena got the 666th post. You devil woman!

Which direction are you running? Away from the Allies, back into the stadium?

Exact opposite of that!

New player here, taking over OSS Agent and American Marine Ralph Jenden.

I love WW2, and don't mind the Weird parts in a game. I also love Savage Worlds, although I haven't played in enough actual games to feel like I really completely understand the system.

What is the short elevator pitch of what's going on right now, and what do you need Ralph to do?

Welcome to the game!

We are currently working on rescuing Miss Lena Vogt, who likely has some information of use to the allied forces. We are currently in the middle of a firefight between some, er, German irregulars(?) and the combined Soviet/Western Allied forces. The Soviets have most of the numbers and the initiative, but a small number of American/British OSI agents have joined the (likely unknown to them) BPO forces assaulting the German 'position' (it was a game of footy on the Olympic Stadium field).

Anything Ralph can do to help keep Ms. Vogt safe would likely fulfill his primary mission objectives for this scene.

You haven't identified Lena IC yet, but there is a panicked nurse running towards the allies, away from her "protectors".

I've added two players to the group, one taking over Ralph, the other one creating a new character that will replace one of the NPCs in the OSI Squads.
They'll both be dropped into the scene, most likely once the fight is over (as they'll start in the back.

Greetings all!

I am the other new player that Warmaster mentioned.

I'll be playing Julius Sykes, a professor of folklore and mythology, who has been tasked with helping understand the weird things that the Nazis are doing, whilst providing some weird of our own, in the shape of AB: Magic.

lol yes the 12 year olds given firearms unsupervised and deployed against real soldiers, I feel so safe

Great plan there you Nazi morons

oops tautology

Some of them are almost 15. Have some respect, woman!

Hey, Yelena, there's a video about you on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/bydv157P_dw

This looks wonderful - I will watch it later today. I think I mentioned that I did spend quite a bit of time researching the women of the Red Army before creating this character. But more is always better - and none of those were videos.

One of my favorite things about RPGs is the research it requires. Learning is so much more fun when it's about...having more fun.

I am enjoying reading and getting caught up on the story so far, and waiting for Ralph to be able to do something in this combat, Which may take a while. The late war setting of Berlin is reminding me a bit of a novel by Tim Powers, “Declare.” That’s high praise by the way, it’s one of my favorites.

Given relative positions and the information he's been provided, does Max recognize Lena at this point?

All you know is that there's a nurse running toward you. You got a name and a code phrase to verify her identity, though.

sorry been doing a few late nights for work so took a moment to post before I get back to it.

Lena apologies i might have taken a bit of a liberty in my last post :)

Arthur has the last action for the combat (if you can still call it that), but we're out of initiative now.
Max, Jules, Ralph, Yelena - you can move up if you want.

How far away from everything am I? Mainly wondering if there is much I can offer at this time?

In terms of combat rounds, you're at least 3 rounds away. But once we're out of combat (I'll give Arthur until tomorrow to respond, he's also in the UK), then time is more fluid and anybody will arrive at the stadium entrance as the plot demands :-)

I think I'm technically posting out of turn, but I thought I'd go ahead so I'm not holding things up.

I presume it is the Third platoon rather than the First that has encircled the German nurse and her captors?

Fixed that for you.  I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me mwahahahaha

Oh, d'oh! Fixed that!

Ironically, I've never actually had scrapple I'm far too Southern for that

I would try it though especially with apple butter

I might murder someone for that apple butter

I've had apple butter before. But nothing resembling scrapple. I somehow missed that option the one time I visited Pittsburgh.

I was summoned by talk of scrapple.  I do live in PA after all!  The universal answer anytime anyone not from around here asks about it is "it's a pork product".  Seems better than saying "everything but the squeal".

Apologies for the radio silence all, things have been insane here lately.  Found out we're resuming in-person teaching in less than a month, and I've been left scrambling to figure out how the heck that's going to work, and childcare, as of course, the toddler's daycare is still closed.  Oh and we've got a third on the way, entirely unexpectedly, so that's a thing too.

Suffice it to say, life has been pure chaos, but I've made a point of carving time out for gaming, so I should be returning to a regular posting speed here in the next day or two.  Apologies once again, and I appreciate y'all bearing with me.

No worries, I figured real-life threw you a curve ball and kept you busy. :-)

Really enjoying the interactions between the Russians and Allies!

That is like a Bugs Bunny curveball!

Russians and Western Allies are best of friends, right? Right?

lol nice let me know if I get anything wrong, I deliberately picked a state I've never actually been to.

Scrapple is one of those foods like menudo from what I can grasp, you can... kind of explain what it is but you really need to experience it, and you're never going to get it made properly in any restaurant.  It's one of those foods where the experts will argue with each other for hours and days on end about how to actually make it.

Also, does anyone actually know anything?  Lena has been sending reports, but God only knows if her dead drops and coded signals were actually being received by anybody.

lol Imagine being a spy in Berlin in Nazi Germany and risking your life to copy documents and draw diagrams and maps and write reports and encode all that nonsense into ciphers and sneak out with all that crap written on a piece of silk you stuffed into your underwear and pray you didn't get caught only to find out "Oh we quit picking those reports up like three years ago"

I didn't want it to seem like I'm avoiding the game, I'm just not sure what to post.

As Lena said OOC in the thread, without a timeskip for a debrief, I would be stood between the two commanders, shrugging shoulders saying "We don't know" between them both.

Perfectly fine, I'll skip ahead a little after lunch :-)

Sorry for delay I came down ill after lunch yesterday, feeling better but still recovering...

Oh, hope you feel better soon!

I think I'm on the mend, I ate six crackers and haven't felt the urge to vomit yet... progress!

Glad to hear you're feeling better!

While I want to give Arthur and Ralph a chance to chime in on the Pinned Down thread - if there's any re-configuration of your characters that you'd like to make, I'll allow some tweaks as needed. Just send me a PM.

Sorry folks, tax season is ramping up and between customers inquiries and hiring folks, I've had little time.

I do not miss having to worry about tax season.

Is the delay until May 17 good or bad, Warmaster? Almost seems like it might make the pain last another month...

Oh it's been a long time since I've been in that game, but I guarantee you it'll be as frantic as it ever was until then.  That's just the nature of the beast.

We're handling US expats only, so our season lasts until June 15th (they get an automatic extension) :-)

The customer inquiries are one thing, but we have tripled the team since last year, with number 28 starting April 1st. Onboarding them is what keeps me busy the most these days.

Sorry folks for keeping you waiting - we've been hiring a few people and getting their equipment ready and all that took up way more time than I expected. Should be back on track and we'll be moving this along now! :-)

No worries! Hopefully 'hiring' means less work for you (and thus more RPOL time).

That's the hope! :-)

Every time something comes up, I feel Julius needs more spells!

Speak Language could actually get some use in this game, though more for casting it on others than myself.

lol I was about to say everyone memorize the name on your uniform, that is your name now, but then I remembered that wasn't common practice yet in World War 2.

Somehow I'm thinking of Brad Pitt speaking the best Italian in Inglorious Basterds.

Hahahaha

The languages in this game are fun and have a lot more bearing on the plot than they do in a fantasy game where those issues are swept aside.  I seriously made my whole character bio to justify how the freak an American could possibly speak German in such a way to fool Berlin natives.

More spells you say?  Trust me, I know the feeling.

Yeah, I'm always glad whenever language actually comes up.  Adds to the world/roleplay.

LOL, I know the feeling. We didn't get a chance to chat further, but there is a reason Yelena speaks German. Though Lena might be able to piece that together at this point given some other clues.

Apologies for not posting lately my wife's auntie passed away 2 weeks ago and being the closest to where she lived have been dealing with the paper work and trying to arrange a funeral under covid rules.... not the best.

Will catch up over the next day or so and post soon. once again apologies for the delay

I'm so sorry for your loss.
Take the time you need, we'll be here.

That you Philly?

yes

Tis Zachariah!

Wonder if there is any other overlap?

No overlap from me...

If any other player gets anxious and wants to join the fun with the two Russians and Lena, you can sneak forward and see what's going on.

sorry need to take a few more days before I post. I spent Saturday night in extreme pain while I passed a kidney stone so am washed out and knackered

Feel better, mate!

Anybody else want to add something to the boat trip, otherwise, I'll move it along.

Nothing from me - It's very much been a case of not feeling value adding at this stage.

Well, Julius, if there's no value to add...come socialize with Yelena? We're on a scenic cruise, after all.

Julius, you must be a real stitch at parties.

That implies I go to parties :P

I just don't to let on too much.   I mean we've already let on too much anyway...

LOL oh Lena, useless is thy name here.  I'll... confuse it!

You could go for Support actions?

If you have something like Taunt you could go for a test?

Can't you shoot?

Support or a trick might be it.

lol what am I going to shoot it with

What did you do with your Luger?

Oh yeah I forgot I had that.  My brain doesn't like to brain very often.

I've been away as my mental health hasn't been great, and the longer I was away, the guiltier I got about not logging in, and it kept spiralling.

As such, I've decided that I'm going to step away from all my games and RPOL.

I hope you all understand, and wish you all the best of luck in your games.

This game keeps losing players. I'm fine continuing just with the Yelena and Lena, if you're up for it, hoping that Zholdin, Arthur and maybe Julius come back at some point as well.

What do you think?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:46, Fri 16 July 2021.

I'm up for continuing!

Yeah I'm still here and still in it.

lol we could do a Thelma and Louise WW2 version

Let's see if I can find a cliff in Berlin for the two of you to jump off from.

I'm looking for another player or two, but haven't found any takers yet.

All you can do is try!

Got two more players! Hoping for Yelena to check in, too.

Looks like she's still around but not yet able to chime in...

lol Lena being a fish out of water right now isn't going to solo this encounter, that's for sure

You went solo for the last few years... Now you're having qualms?

I wasn't trying to actually shoot them at that point... though if I'd had a gat when I met Hitler, totally would have taken the shot

I'm here!

Got any new blood? I'll post shortly.

Yay Lena's Russian Bestie (who's probably planning to kidnap her and take her to the Kremlin for torture) is back!

Excellent - I'll give the new people a chance to weigh in. One has a character concept to work with, the other not yet.

Hahahaha. Maybe.

A good question is what it is Yelena will do once there are no more fascists to shoot.

Dunno.  I'm just proud of Lena for understanding and applying the disproportionate effects of a sniper on enemy combatants' morale and tactical movement.

Write this down, it's the one good idea she will have in the entire campaign.

Hiyas! Anna here’s a Jewish partisan snatched up by the BPO as the Red Army pushed through Poland. There’s not much need for sabotage anymore; now it’s open season on the SS.

She’s not all that fond of the Soviets, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I suppose a sniper’s not a bad friend to have, right? A sniper with bullets.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Mon 13 Sept 2021.

A sniper with bullets…who also happens to be Jewish.

That will make you fit in rather easily - another member of the Soviet sniper corps, the BPO company has several women in their ranks.

Makes sense, although she will use bombs if a bullet might not be enough. No formal military training has left her somewhere between sniper and combat engineer.  But I can’t imagine the snipers couldn’t find uses for some extra demolitions know-how.

Also, being palled up with a Soviet-Jewish soldier might produce an interesting dynamic.

What does Max want to do? (Gentle reminder that Yelena is running a second character for now.)

And we got another player: Kapitan Konnikov is now no longer an NPC, but a PC!

Da.  Just readin the posts now to catch up and understand how this ruthless arsehole operates.

Now that I’ve gone through everything, and thoroughly enjoyed the read, I figured Anna may as well make her debut in medias res. And a taciturn one at that.

Is there any chance you could move to the map in “Into the Heart of Darkness” somewhere else and/or shrink it? I need to scroll across to read the posts and I just realized that the width of each line is the width of the image.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:05, Mon 20 Sept 2021.

Oh, sure, hold on.

Max is back with the larger group that was left behind, correct? I had kind of put him on hold when the PCs moved along. But perhaps I'm not remembering correctly.

Also, welcome new players!

GM - let me know if Yelena has a good answer to Anna's question.

Oh, duh, that was a very poor choice of words. “Crossroads” has two literal meanings and I was going for the far less common one. She isn’t referring to the junctions, but the roads themselves which are not visible from the current location. It was meant to be a sarcastic, rhetorical question and I did a very poor job of it.

I’ll blame Anna for not being a native Russophone. Yeah, that’s right, it’s her fault.

PS I actually can’t think of a succinct and unambiguous way to phrase it. “Side roads”? That doesn’t seem appropriate if it intersects with another major road. I don’t know how to drive so maybe that’s why.

No, Max leads the Western Allies:

PM

Wait... what the fuck, there's just someone there now?  I mean I need some kind of context here...

Me! Since Anna was attached to the Soviet sniper corps she would have actually been there the whole time as far I understand. I thought it appropriate to just appear in medias res, particularly since most of the BPO Spearhead have been silent NPCs anyway. And maybe give y’all something to react to.

And if she has indeed been retconned in like that, you would presumably also be aware she speaks German if that matters.

lol well I have no idea what's going on anyway after all that

I don’t blame you. The Russians like to strategize in Russian.

So yes, this is the situation - Anna is already with the BPO spearhead and has been here all along (I've updated the BPO Spearhead Character description to reflect this).

Anna's forte is demolitions, not so much a sniper like Yelena. But good to have in the fight. Ideally, Konnikov and the rest of the BPO company will join up with the spearhead, giving you some extra manpower for the assault.

Maybe let's discuss the plan here? :-)

Yeah I don't care what they're talking about Lena is going to remind them to move and fast

I didn't spend years hiding among this trash to let this opportunity just poof

Devushka, sure you are not Russian?  You would make good Russian, consider joining winning side after this.  We have vodka!

That plan being snatching the guy before the rest of the Company shows up?

Respecting the tactical plan, what weapons and explosives does the Spearhead have at its disposal?


This means the main force enters when it gets there, not us waiting for it to show up. I’m great at this. Two-for-two on ambiguous dialogue.

And, for the Russkis’ convenience, “orljónok” translates to “eaglet.”

an excellent question, I don't think we ever actually took an inventory

Anyway the plan was simple:

Split off a small advance force that could get in much sooner
sneak until we couldn't sneak any more
And then yes, go in and get our smelly boy, if we have to kill a few Nazis to do it, so sad (except not at all)

You still got Ralph Jenden with you, who's a demolitions expert. He's got some explosives with him - let's say two satchel charges and 1 pound of plastic explosives.

And you got plenty of grenades, obviously.

Okay, it seems like we have adequate resources to pull off taking out the picket or whatever you want to call that, especially if they're pinned down by a sniper.

Pin them down, roll in a few grenades, mop up the rest with rifles, obviously easier said than done but still

Alright, I'll get this set up later today, all y'all can give me some initiative rolls.

Anna did have a sneakier plan which was basically have a couple sharpshooters and a machine-gunner draw the Germans’ attention to the front then the rest blow their way through the west wall. Two satchel charges and one pound of plastic explosives boil down to dealer’s choice.

Scratch that entirely. It would take a lot more planning for Anna’s little scheme to work on that building.

At the risk of being contrarian or, worse, usurping Zholdin the concern was that every moment the assault is delayed is a moment the defenders have to prepare. So if we want to concentrate our forces there would be time waiting for Lena to travel from Yelena’s position as well as covering her en route.

If Anna can be critical then so can I!

Edit: Of course, if Yelena is going to be more marksman than sniper the whole debate is pretty much irrelevant.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:56, Thu 23 Sept 2021.

Anna, you want to take on the Nazis right now, just between the two of you? Or when you come back with the rest of the troops?

I was about to say “definitely wait,” but I kind of like the idea of the two of them alone. So, yeah, she would just need to go get the rest of the ammunition, rig the explosives, then turn a child into a suicide bomber.

Did the three of them bring any weapons besides dynamite and her Kar98k? And does she know what a Nebelwerfer is?

I'm trying to figure out if there's been anything for Yelena to react to at this point. I think the answer is no? But I might be missing something. My brain has not be working well of late.

As a slightly outside perspective... "prepare for" what?

They don't know the spearhead is there.  They likely think they have hours, if not a full day before the Russians invade Berlin (this area isn't even being shelled (of course that could change at any moment).

Reinforcements are a 'short stroll' away from the  Reichsluftfahrt-Ministry.  A more sensible plan is to wait until the larger force assaults the opposite side, then move in them "from behind" and take the interior, while the bulk of their forces are dealing with the larger threat of the BPO Company.





Unless I miss my mark, I believe the two of you are talking about two entirely differently threads/assaults.

If Yelena assumes position as a sniper then she will be fairly far away during at least the early stages of the assault. So if Lena goes with her it will then take time to travel to the building when the team is ready to enter, hence time that the defenders can use to prepare. Especially if Yelena stays put, which seems likely in mind.

I do like your approach, though whether we’ll wait or not is yet to be seen I guess.


Yup, that was in reference to Anna’s prelude. Nazis are about to die in the past and the present. If her plan works it is going to be glorious.

In reply to Semyon Yegorovich Konnikov (msg # 277):

That assumes we know more than we actually do.

You were supposed to be scouting, so light equipment only. Nevelwerfer: You haven't seen one in action, but it looks ominously enough.

Ugh. Had to deal with our immigration services who are basically refusing to file paper work. Now I got two employees who are no longer allowed to work because their work permits "expired" and got a third one I can't hire because her permit isn't done yet.

Fucking racist bureaucracy.

Anyway, I'll be updating in a bit!

As Anna said: Nazis are dying in the past and present. It is a good day.

So I take it you've lost teh other Players completely and we're down to only the three of us now?

Four, I think.

Four, yes - Anna, Yelena, Lena and yourself.
I rmailed the others, but only one of them came back to. Real life prevents them from gaming right now.

I'm fine with the four players right now, but I'll leave the game open for others to join.

Important: If you don't like the game or the direction, I'd rather have you speak out instead of slipping away. This should be fun for everyone! :-)

The RPOL attrition is real!

Sorry, Anna, Yelena, and Lena kinda blended into one name and I lost count (actually I think I was forgetting to count myself).

I should instead remember you as the Sniper, the Spy, and the Partisan.  Together with me, the Kapitan, we shall take this Kemmel for the glory of the Soviet Republic!

And yeah, I'd definitely discuss the game with you before leaving, I've never just ghosted on a GM.



This is fact.

Rolling for who's hit, getting....

09:59, Today: Warmaster rolled 6,6,6 using d6,d8,d7 ((6,6,6))

That's ominous!

That reminds me of the time when, many years ago, our game master wanted to spring a trap on us. We were in this dungeon, and there was this ornate door, we open it and as we're about to go through, one of us says (we were already pretty beat up by that time): "I hope there's not a bloody manticore waiting for us". The whole dungeon was sorta-kinda greek-themed.
The GM starts to stutter and frantically grabs the creatures book, flipping through it. He had, indeed, planned to spring a manticore on us. But now he felt like he couldn't since we ruined the surprise.

This, in turn, turned into a running gag. Whenever we'd be in a tense situation waiting for the big reveal, once of us would rattle off the baddies that would be worst for us at that moment, like "Hope there's not an ork horde or a snake pit or a pack of wolved or zombies behind that  door." And somebody else would go "Or a dragon!"

HAH!

Now see, as a GM, if that happened to me the surprise would be two manticores.


[EDIT]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

You almost got a spittake!  Mwaaa! /chefskiss.gif
[/EDIT]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:12, Wed 13 Oct 2021.

I summoned a werewolf! I would give my thoughts on the matter, but the esteemed Kapitan already gave them voice.

This could actually be the reason how you ended up with the BPO.
When the Soviets came through, they hear about the werewolf and Konnikov recruits you into the BPO, if only to make sure you're not shot by the NKVD.

I like it!

I would also say the fact that she and two others triple-handedly killed an entire castle of Nazis and its werewolf is a helluva résumé, but something tells me no one would believe it. I almost don't believe it!

Edit₁: Well, I think the werewolf died. Adam already did a bang-up job exploding a big, scary Nazi weapon so I have faith in him.

Edit₂: Pun not intended.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:41, Wed 13 Oct 2021.

Well, it's a ruin, that is now more ruined. So maybe half a castle?




Want to go back and check?

I feel this is like the moment in Back to Future where the people start to fade on the photo...

Nope. I hit Frightened on my Fear Table.

Just keep telling yourself that Adam* finished the job... and when meet the Nazi Wolfssoldat again, you can finish the job.


* Adam is the name of Frankenstein's Monster... so this was a bit of cinematic showdown no?

You stole the words from my mind! I was actually thinking that the encounter would have left her especially craving to kill werewolves and those that engineered them. Something more specific than "Nazis" and more distinctly supernatural. Not that she'd have any way to identify that werewolf in particular but, like you said . . .

Then there's provoking a desire for both revenge and a metaphorical atonement for her cowardice. Granted, this is a staggeringly stupid thing for her to want. And a staggeringly stupid thing for me to want her to want. But it's certainly a far more complicated motive, and "interesting" always beats "sane."

That was as an excellent wrap up for your Prelude, Anna!

Thanks!

*throws roses*

Rich man, poor man, beggar, thief.

If you are fascist* there's no relief.

*or associated with any country that follows a fascist political structure even if 'you' are not, in fact, a fascist yourself

Since this game is set in WWII I thought I'd share something I just learned about for anyone who's interested. The Battle of Castle Itter took place a few weeks after "present," and is easily one of the most bizarre stories I've ever encountered. See this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

This may be called Weird War II, but truth can be stranger than fiction.

PS Another tiny splash:

That was an interesting read, thanks for pointing it out.

Unfortunate that there were still battles with Nazi forces 5 days after Hitler killed himself.

Didn't they keep that a secret though?  I thought it wasn't widely known Hitler was dead for a little while.  Or am I drunk?  I admit it's been forever since I studied on that.

Even if they didn't I can see many officers disregarding that as "Allied propaganda" or thinking "now's my chance!" plus there's the general fog of war.  A lot of pointless battles have been fought long after the war was over (Battle of New Orleans for example).

Dönitz, his successor, was forthright about it, going on the radio to announce it the following day. Also to clarify that the Americans and the British were fighting on behalf of Bolshevism.

That's not to say no one was trying to keep a lid on it. It was simply the Soviets instead of the Germans, although I can't remember what the motive might have been. It seems like something you'd want to advertise. Maybe Stalin was afraid of making him a martyr? I'm already stretching my own foggy memory when it comes to Stalinist Russia.

Edit: I also have to keep reminding myself that Stalin was not nearly as unhinged as I had been under the impression of for a long time.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:39, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

Now that you say that, it sounds right.

I need to get an audible book on WW2 and refresh myself it's been too long.  Though to be fair, it's kind of a hell of a subject lol

Luckily I do have an excellent memory regarding the Battle of New Orleans. Did you know they converted alligators into cannons? I'm relying on that incredibly catchy song, because I can't remember much outside it. I'm sure it's entirely factually accurate.

Well I try to fit in a nonfiction book between fiction books, but the last few I've been over have been a biography of Abraham Lincoln, then a series of lectures on the Founding Fathers, so I've been in Revolutionary War/Civil War funk with some Alexander the Great in there.

History is one of those subjects that reminds me how freaking stupid I am lol

You're a cold one, tovarish Kapitan. Didn't even check to see whether the baby was a bomb or the bomb was a baby.

I passed the requirement to deal with that off to the Americans... they are the heroes of their story are they not?

I read that and my mind tried to sing it to the tune of "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch"

The Kapitan has his eyes on the mission.

It's too bad he's not a major-general, because then we could call him the very model of a modern major-general.

There's a "in Soviet Russia" joke in there somewhere.

You're a cold one, tovarish,
You really are ruthless,
You're stubborn as a jackass
You stomped upon the kulaks
Tovarish, you're a good Soviet
Tovarish, with the cunning of Brutus...




Yeah, it's a bit clunky, and no I'm not going to keep going... but "You're a cold one tovarish" does work!

I do not know this song.

"You're a mean one, Mr Grinch" is from the cartoon movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966).  I recommend watching the original rather the 2006 remake, it holds up and is/was an "American classic holiday movie".  I don't know if the Millennial and the Zoomers are as into it as they are the newer (and not quite as good) movie, so it may lose the "must watch" status in the next decade.

I'd link to the song, but I'm not sure if you want the English, German, or in it's original Klingon...
This message was last edited by the player at 16:02, Thu 28 Oct 2021.

Given how much it depends on rhythm and rhyme, I can't imagine it would have the same effect in Not English.  Not that some songs with a tight rhyming scheme don't have good versions in other languages, so maybe it translates well.  But they usually wind up having to change the meaning slightly to make it "fit".

So I will link it!  In English!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35WgpMq6e3o

So who wants to take control of the BPO Spearhead?
Anna or Semyon?

If Anna wants to focus on themself, I'll be happy to pick up the BPO Spearhead, besides they'll be rejoining the main BPO Company in a month or so anyway...

That's fine - draw initiative, then take your action and draw initiative for the next round.

Sounds good to me. I think you'll do a better job at it judging by how you've already RPed a CO.

I've also RPed complete bums, so let's not start putting airs on my capabilities just yet...  ;)

Vy vsjo sdelala pravil'no. [Language unknown: Sta O acmo T nceardhaswil peacosetre "ica thi ll ecttedand."] It's hard to tell since the internet rejects Russian transliteration like a bad liver.

In the dubious event that anyone is interested, during my efforts to translate that phrase I learned that the Russian second-person singular pronoun ty (ты) is strictly used in familiar, informal contexts. Otherwise you should use the second-person plural vy (вы).

You? Crap! I meant to type ye. That's the second-person plural in English. Thou is the the singular. Wait . . . so when do ye use you? This joke-lecture is getting out of hand, so who knows!

The fascinating thing about Russian is the layers of familiarity.


Like, take Semyon and Yelena.

If they were first introduced at work, they'd refer to each other as Gospodin (Mr.) Konnikov and Gosposcha (Ms) Malkin.
Once they get to have a formal work relationship, they may call each other by first name and father's name - Semyon Yegorovich. This would still be with the formal "you" - vy.

If they started a romantic relationship, they might switch to "ty" - the informal you - and be on a first name basis, Semyon. If they got even closer, they'd use one of the many diminutives, like Sema, or even Semchik.

For Yelena, it would be Lena or - if you were talking about a kid - "Lenochka".


So if Semyon were to meet a Russian mobster for the first time... and he gets real close in and tells him "You know how to keep a secret, don't you, Sema?", this would be extremely threatening.

Just sayin'.

For some reason I find the varieties of T-V distinction interesting. Especially with the nuance you just added. Luckily it didn't seem to need any declining, because it turns out Russian is absurdly inflectional. And, in retrospect, I should have just asked a Belarusian hyperpolyglot. Because I have access to one.

In other news, if an enemy knows a sniper's position then she is no longer much of a sniper. Yet a single bullet is about to whizz from the west with a fairly obvious source. You're welcome, BPO shiksa.

In other other news, the Allies have a babysitter! They seem to need one. Even in German uniforms our "Germans" won't seem much like Germans during this particular charge. You're welcome, NPCed OSI pishers.

Edit: Err, the Western Allies being the ones needing some babysitting. Y'know, like the bullet! This clarification is wholly unnecessary, but I felt compelled to make it anyway.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Mon 01 Nov 2021.

I do find other languages interesting.  But me no speak English good how me learn smart language

All clear on the Western(ers) front!

Who can really tell the difference between a Yankee and a Limey?

Speaking of nationalities, Anna secretly replaced her Kar98k with an SVT-40. It's a bummer to use a Soviet weapon to kill Nazis, but so ist das Leben. Aww, that's not right. Takova zhizn'. *sigh*

If it makes you feel any better, the Finns loved the SVT and probably killed more than a few Nazis with captured weapons, so there's that.

Unfortunately the Finns only killed about 1000 Nazis in total as far as I'm aware. They were allied with Germany until the Moscow Armistice was signed in Sept 1944. Though it's hard to be too judgmental since, like the name of that treaty implies, the USSR was trying to conquer them. Those SVT-40s were picked off of dead Russians. [Edit: Oops, you said that!]

Though they certainly didn't act much like German allies when it came to the Holocaust, with Jews enjoying rights to the extent of openly serving in the Finnish Army. Which led to a bizarre situation: there were also German troops fighting on Finnish soil. So there were effectively Jews and Nazis fighting side-by-side.

And it just occurred to me that, since there were also Jews openly serving in the Red Army, there may have been Jewish soldiers fighting each other on the Eastern Front.

PS If we're talking about Finland and Russian arms it's the Mosin-Nagant that comes to my mind. The famous sniper Simo Häyhä killed a few hundred Soviets with a Finnish variant.

PPS Aaand that's more than enough pedagoguery from me.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:51, Thu 04 Nov 2021.

I just remember reading 1000 years ago that when the Finns turned on the Nazis, the amount of resistance they put up was amazing proportional to their actual strength, but one of their problems was they didn't have enough small arms.  That may be wrong though I am not an expert on this subject lol.



Weren't a lot of those kills with a submachine gun?  Which to me is even more insane...

I am under the impression the only weapons the Finns did have in any meaningful number were small arms at the start of the Winter War, and not much ammunition to load them with. But who needs explosives when you can defeat Soviet tanks with Molotov cocktails?

When it comes to the Lapland War my knowledge is mostly restricted to the massive number of land mines the Germans left on their way out. As many Finnish civilians were killed after the war as Finnish soldiers were killed during it. But, then again, that's typically who land mines kill in the first place.

I hope we didn't use Yelena :-(

Ah, I'm used to being used.

:)

I'm here, just having trouble carving out time for RPOL of late. Should be back to normal next week. This week and weekend will be spotty.

Max's latest post makes me realize Savage Worlds really doesn't have a pinning mechanic.

Suppressive Fire is supposed to be a pinning effect, but they haven't really worked out a good solution in any version of the rules.

@Yelena: Yay! I  know that real life has a tendency to interfere, so all good!
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:30, Thu 11 Nov 2021.

... oh, and I'll just leave that embarrassing typo forever.

Yeah, I suppose the idea of rendering the victims Shaken is about as close as SW gets.  To be fair, that's not too dissimilar from how some other games handle it.

I guess it's a really hard thing to model, especially in a game that artificially divides a combat into discrete sequential actions.

First I'm hounding Yelena, then I'm slacking off. Sorry 'bout that. real life and all that. Getting the post for next round up now.

My preferred method is the way GURPS handles suppressing fire:  It's an AoE attack that has a "low" (just under 50%) chance of hitting anyone who enters the area.

I (in GURPS) also treat it as a Morale Test for NPCs to enter the area, which comes from some supplement GURPS, not the core rules.

But a -2 to all rolls isn't a bad way to represent "being extra careful to hug cover/too scared to properly pop out and take an action".


It happens bossman.  And it's post-Halloween, time gets all weird during the holidaze.

Happy Thanksgiving week to all the Americans in this game! :-)

And if you're not American, look on the bright side!

Thanks?  Okay?  I don't know, I don't celebrate holidays (at all), so... yeah.  I'm being strong-armed into giving up 6-8 hours of my day to endure someone else's children, their mediocre cooking (better than mine though), and inane political rants yet again... so...

Bright side I'll... ah...  hmm.  Let's see.  Oh!  I'll be forced to be outside in sunlight and intense humidity for a total of like 20 minutes.  Why does that bright side sound awful?

(Honestly, it makes other people happy so, yeah, I'll endure it for them and then stump back to my cave and 'pretend' to be a troglodyte till Christmas Day when I'm forced into it again, but maybe it'll be below 80 degrees and less humid by then.  There's that bright side...)

Where are you? 80 Fahrenheit at Christmas?