so, as we narrow this down, don't rush. i figure at this pace we will be ready by week's end.

second guessing your character is fine, come to me with any desires to alter or change completely for something else. as long as we are done by this weekend i am open to it.

everyone will have been attached to the 5th Infantry Division in some manner. it was the strongest and most prepared unit in the area for NATO so it became the umbrella organization for assembling NATO forces in the region. so, military characters would have been formed into combat units. intelligence career characters would have found a happy home (not really) working the fringes of this military force preparing for a battle. and civilians would have come from volunteers with pertinent skills or good intentions (and a desire to fight the soviets).

i will put together a list of basic equipment that everyone escaped with and any unit equipment on hand. if you guys can work together as a group to put fort a neat little how we came to be together story i will keep it in mind when developing group gear. plus i will through in some starting XP for the effort.

Okay, I now have a finished sheet for a sniper character, but I'm not 100% sure I won't scrap her in favor of a medic later this week. I'll commit to one or the other by the time the game starts, though. I'm open to any input on the decision.

Can't wait to get into the thick of the action with you all :D

Sean is also done.

While I won't bore you with the lengthy background, he served as a Captain in the Headquarters Troop of the 5th Infantry Division where he was mostly involved with Combat Support, organizing the Company who operated and maintained the computers and various C&C/IFF software for the Division.

Looking forward to getting started.

I'm going to have to try and piece together my character. Get ready to laugh or cry, or laugh and cry.

I got thoroughly drunk the other night, got home, decided that I'm going to put my character together and roll it up, etc, etc. I got most of it done in a alcoholic haze, but closed the screen when I was finished for the moment, drunkenly forgetting this is RPOL and it doesn't save automatically.

So the dice rolls still exist, but I lost all progress on where I had put my skill points placed and such.

Anyone else need a hand with anything?

I am also available and able to assist if anyone needs it.

ok, so everyone is made up except Thomas Carter and Lane has dropped. i will work up some gear shortly and we can begin working that out. remember to work on developing your moral codes, big dreams, and buddies.

also through some details together for group background. It only has to be enough info to cover the last few days or so to describe how you guys came together in the current situation. If you can pull that off i will toss in some beggining XP and fatten up the group starting gear.

Do we have any other Officers?

I am happy to have Sean available to help with a nucleus of the group background.

Being involved in combat support, and a unit normally helping to staff the Division Headquarters, I don't see it out of the realm of possibility that he was able to broadcast an initial message after the Division was shattered? Maybe something that others were able to home in on?

Just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Completely open to other scenarios as well.

Well Fedor is a Colonel, just not in this army.

Gretchen is a civilian intelligence agent, but she might have been attached to Sean's division for some reason?

Mike is a Sergeant.

It we run through the outline set up given to us by the GM:

- We're part of a group of about 100 people in the woods south of Kalisz.

- The group includes both soldiers and civilians.

- There may well be stores/valuable equipment at our location.

- It sounds like we've been here for a couple of days which is interesting in itself as if we had working vehicles I think that we would already have left the immediate area.

Based on that how about we have some damaged vehicles and are at a regimental repair depot which has been abandoned when the bulk of the troops here have fled. Over the last couple of days other people have congregated here, to the point that it's such a large number of people it's now to big and is more likely to attract attention. We're trying to get some vehicles working so that we can drive out of the area rather than walk.

Do we have a PC who is a competent mechanic?

And does that work as an idea?

I assume that Captain Cave is in command.

Although originally from Poland, Cecylia recently came back to the country with Fedor in tow. I could easily see reliable "locals" who speak both Polish, Russian, and English to be not entirely common, so I imagine Cecylia offered her service both as an interpreter and as liaison with the local militias. In that role, I could easily see her coming into contact with Sean and she might have been close at hand when the 5th ID shattered following the debacle at Kalisz.

I'm still finalising his background but Mike is a National Guardsman who has volunteered to serve overseas even though his unit hasn't deployed outside of the US. He's therefore a replacement who's been serving with the 5th ID for a while.

I mean, kind of common, there are two of us after all.

It has been suggested that we were doing intel work for the 5th ID as they were the best organized NATO force in the region.

Fedor is not a leader. If people do what he says it is usually because they are in fear for their lives. He doesn't particularly like that but he is aware of it.

The GM has compared him to Amos from The Expanse and that's not too far off. His moral code is "My friends matter, You don't" and all of the PCs will be his friends. He will literally go do anything for his friends. Kill, steal, eat at Whattaburger, anything.

I am still here but my character is not complete yet. I did roll mechanic as my starting specialty.

If Cecylia is already involved in Intel or espionage, perhaps Gretchen could be part of her small group?

Once the GRU started hunting down suspected collaborators, we could say they she reached out to any available help in her Intel circles and hooked up with Cecylia and Fedor in the chaos of the first few days?

I do like Mike's idea of starting our story at a Regimental repair depot. It makes sense to me, everyone ran in the opposite direction of the front in the wake of the renewed Soviet offensive, and while we have picked up a fair number of refugees along the way, the Depot is as far as we have made it before fuel got critically low.

It would also be a natural in for Alesky, who could have already been present when we rolled in.

This makes a ton of sense :) I like it.

sounds like you guys are honing in on something. great work.

I agree.

Sounds like we are getting close to a basic scenario.

But still plenty of room for people to jump in and make it their own.

Are there any other characters who are from the US 5th ID? At present it sounds like it's just Sean and Mike.

technically, you all are as far as the higher ups of the local NATO command authority are concerned. in the greater scheme of things, only about 25% of the 5th ID is actual %5th ID.

Looks like it's just us buddy.

-

Here is my suggestion, playing off what we have so far.

The 5th ID's headquarters outside of Kalisz proper is smashed, first by attack aircraft as the defense grid crumbles, and then dealt a killing blow by sustained artillery salvos.

Sean,and Mike if he would like, retreats south west with a convoy of vehicles down the 25 en route to Ostrow Wielkopolski to regroup. News of a Soviet armored column on the 477 delays the convoy on the outskirts of the city, where they are attacked by a small formation of Hind attack helicopters. This scatters the convoy entirely, with vehicle fleeing independently in all directions.

The small convoy Sean winds up with continues south west, get their wits about them at Adelnau, and then decide to take the back roads into the wilderness to get off of the exposed roadways.

After a long desperate night, creeping along poorly maintained roads under low light conditions, they hear friendly radio traffic from a NATO repair depo set up on the outskirts  of the small town of Krośnice. Krośnice was selected because of a large, vacant children's hospital from the late 19th century that was used as a housing assignment for the depo staff. It was also deemed to be far enough from critical infrastructure and the civilian population centers, a decision that proved far sighted.

The area surrounding Krośnice is rural, with many bodies of water just north and large stretches of forest to the west and south. It's approximately 60 miles / 96km as the crow flies from Kalisz.

I figure this allows us to use the depot as a starting point, including Aleksy, while having the sort of terrain our DM envisioned on hand surrounding the area. The inhabitants of Krośnice can make up the majority of our civilian refugees.

Our intel/espionage group can come up with a good reason for heading for the depot. A critical contact was trying to make it there for vehicle repairs? It was a good place to stop for the night? etc.

And we can wait for further from Carter, or he can jump in when he is ready.

Again, just throwing stuff out there. Would love to hear other opinions or ideas.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:05, Fri 06 Aug 2021.

oh, working up the equipment now. i am assuming that everyone is moving forward with the characters that the have in their Character Details. Everyone should be equipped reflecting their current role with the 5th.

working off of the backstory components already presented how does this sound?

You were all part of a small unit that was assigned the role of 'technical intelligence' with a specific function of verifying (vetting) intel that came in about the movements of the 541st Motor Rifle Regiment (Armored Scouts) during the battle. this was done by intercepting radio communications and triangulating transmission sources so that the unit could 'ghost' (as is stealthily shadow) the 541st Motor Rifles on the ground. it was feared that the 541st may have been a cover unit for a Spetznas (Russian Special Forces) unit assigned to use man-portable nuclear weapons against NATO forces in the event of a potential route.

during the battle your unit was unavoidably overrun by lead platoons from the 185th Guards Tank Regiment. Some intense night fighting followed and the remnants of your unit (you guys) managed to escape with some of the more sophisticated communications equipment and tools of the unit.

this is not a required storyline, merely adding some pertinent bad guys and a situation for all of you to fit into to create specific connections to one another. think of this as work in progress.

In reply to Sean Cave (msg # 48):

that is a neat line of thought, but i have to take Krośnice from you, i have plans for it in the immediate future that involve the human sacrifi...er, the action involving the player characters.

sorry to steal your idea Sean. i have been planning a little and you grabbed the town had as part of my beginning plot arc.

In reply to Sean Cave (msg # 48): & In reply to GM (msg # 49):

Combining these two together will work quite well I think. I'm about to go out but I'll have a go later on if no one has had the time already.

It sounds like Sean is the CO of this unit and we could make Mike the senior NCO of the infantry protection force.

My only question is whether the Soviets have working attack aircraft and Hind helicopters? In previous versions those weren't really active in this theatre due to availability of aviation fuel.