1315 24 AUG 2000, Krakow, Poland (Hex 17358)
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"You would not believe the crap people keep in their desks. Coffee mugs, empty wrappers and a danish that is five years over its expiry date. Almost like a war came up and people forgot about it. We found the building and won the lottery. Relatively clean, dry and not inhabited by crazy cannibals looking for a snack. We cleaned it out good and didn't need to shoot anyone in the process. A good day by my standards."
The first order of business is to find a place to stay. Iov has taken a hit and needs some R&R time (rest and recovery, in this case. No one has time for vacations anymore), meaning it has to at least be semi-livable. The team could try to find lodging within the city but putting up 10 people will quickly become expensive. I have a family of five, now with an additional girlfriend for my son, so I know how it feels. ;-)
The easiest and cheapest way would be to move into an abandoned building. There are enough empty buildings in the city that you can just move in. The only kinks in the plan are what you will find in the building and can you keep it. That only time will tell. Finding the base will also give us the possibility of trying out the new base building rules (Thank you again, Free League), so off we go.#
The group will want to be too far on the outskirts, as they will need to enter the city often in order to trade and find the spook they are looking for. Living too far out also means you will only occasionally benefit from any ORMO patrols that may pass by. You are on your own (again).
A good spot would be in the neighborhood of Nowy. The central storage facility for food is nearby and an abandoned block is centered on some of the main streets. There is a battalion HQ and several checkpoints nearby, which means there is a definite ORMO presence in the area.
Finding and Detailing a Building
Finding a building is easy in Krakow. There are a lot and this should not be challenge to the characters. How to determine what he building is a challenge. Luckily I have been solo roleplaying for a while and I have a lot of tools to help me. One of them is a set of post-apocalyptic city geomorphs I found online a long time ago. There is an article about it here, but the original site seems to have gone offline. :-(
The principle is simple, randomly roll a tile number and its orientation. Select a building there and determine the details about it. So, let's get to work. The tile roll is 61, resulting in us selecting tile #31.
It does not seem like much, but it could be home. It is a little too cluttered? Maybe but let's have a suspension of belief and say it is not the main street but a small side streets. In Germany, these are very common in large cities.
The next step is the orientation. The tiles are all set to North initially but a roll of two sets the orientation to East and we rotate the tile by 90°. Now we need a frame of reference for the map grid. There is a large semi on the street and we can google the average length of trucks or use this http://fess.su/news/dimensions-and-sizes-of-trucks. I am going to use the length of approximately 14m or about 1.5 hexes. Using this as a guide, in Gimp we add an additional layer with transparent hexes, color in some buildings and we are ready to explore the building in the center of the geomorph.
An important factor in occupying the base is to determine the stability of the building and the geomorph document also gives us a random table and the roll of 77 tells us the building is intact. That is really a stroke of luck for the group. A finally roll of 94 reveals that the building used to be a broadcasting station, mostly likely abandoned after the general chaos, EMPs and the loss of power. Still, it is a roof over the heads of the characters but is anyone else home? There is a table for occupancy and the roll tells us the building is unoccupied. Lucky breaks are common today, it seems.
Now the team needs to clear out the building so that they can occupy it. Potato will keep watch on the PKM while Logan tends to Iov. The rest are humping garbage. We need a Stamina roll to clean it out and Robinson will make the roll, assisted by the others. He does not have Survival but Stamina and will receive a maximum of +3 for being assisted by the others.
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Task: |
Survival Roll to clean out the building |
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Ability Die: |
Intelligence C (D8) |
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Skill Die: |
-- |
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Modifiers: |
+3 assisted by the others |
= +3 |
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Mod. Ability Die: |
Intelligence A (D12) |
[+2 Steps, total = +2] |
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Mod. Skill Die: |
Additional Die D (D6) |
[+1 Step, total = +1] |
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Ammo Die: |
-- |
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Roll: |
7,2,-- |
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Result: |
1 Success |
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The second roll is for Stamina.
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Task: |
Stamina Roll to clean out the building |
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Ability Die: |
Strength B (D10) |
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Skill Die: |
Stamina D (D6) |
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Modifiers: |
+3 assisted by the others |
= +3 |
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Mod. Ability Die: |
Strength B (D10) |
[Unmodified] |
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Mod. Skill Die: |
Stamina A (D12) |
[+3 Steps, total = +3] |
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Ammo Die: |
-- |
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Roll: |
4,6,-- |
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Result: |
1 Success |
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After a shift of work, the team has some quarters in the Free City of Krakow. As far as facilities are concerned, the building has a small Workshop, representing the repair facility of the radio station, with tools and equipment. Otherwise the building is an office building type of structure with a large radio antenna on the roof.
Just a note regarding random rolls: some out there would argue against the allowing random rolls to influence the structure of the game and I do agree with that in part. On the other hand, in solo roleplay, an important aspect is keeping it interesting, followed quickly by being honest with yourself. The random roll is a great tool, as you cannot know what is coming and you have to find some way to react to it, as you would when your GM throws you a curve ball at the table. You can whine and all or look for some way to move on in the game.
Gather a tool box of random generators and such and use them often. You may have to re-purpose some of the tables but in the end it will make your solo roleplay that much more enriching.
Take cover and keep rolling. Redleg out.
