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- "He has a good heart, Logan does. He would try to save anyone and anything and that is what we love about him. He would give anything to save us and we know that. That is why no one questioned his decision to stop when we rolled up on that IED scene. He cannot do anything that goes against his principle that everyone can be saved. The marauders that showed up later did not seem to share his morals."
The rest of the shift is spent taking care of the wounded, scavenging and keeping an eye on those hills. Lot of travel lost, but that is who Logan is.
Record Keeping: 12l of alcohol used (142l of alcohol left for both trucks)
Evening Shift
With the onset of evening, it is will be too dangerous to travel in the night, as the crew does not have night vision. They will make camp instead, moving on at first light.
Weather: The weather remains cloudy but dry.
Light Conditions: Light
Activities: Like last time, Macron will stay on watch, this time assisted by Potato. Griff will go hunting. Logan will make camp, assisted by the POWs, Klasha will Sleep. Wally will scrounge, assisted by Robinson. Harris and Marshall are cooking, also assisted by the POWs that are able, if the campfire can be started.
Griff sets out on his little hunting foray, alone with his thoughts.
- Task: Find prey to hunt
- Ability Die: Intelligence B (D10)
- Skill Die: Survival C (D8)
- Modifiers: +1 Terrain (Open) Modifier = +1
- Mod. Ability Die: Intelligence A (D12) [+1 Step]
- Mod. Skill Die: Survival C (D8) [Unmodified]
- Ammo Die: N/A
- Roll: 10,2,--
- Result: 2 successes
Griff manages to find tracks of two different groups of deer. He chooses one and lets the other go for another day. Using the terrain table, I determine the initial range in hexes (2D10x4) = 48. I will be using my house rule below to handle hunting interactions:
House Rule - Closing the distance while hunting: When hunting, use the terrain table to determine the initial range of the encounter with the prey after you successfully locate prey. You can make a Recon roll to halve the distance. You may make several rolls, but each additional roll beyond the first imposes a -1 Modifier. Each successful roll halves the distance. Each success beyond the first may optionally be used to halve the distance again. If you roll one or more Mishaps, you have spooked the prey. You must make a quick shot from the halved range and you may not take any modifiers for aiming or telescopic sights. If you are successful, you bag the prey, if not your group goes hungry tonight.
Now, Griff will try to sneak up on the prey in order to get a better shot.
- Task: Stalk the deer
- Ability Die: Intelligence B (D10)
- Skill Die: Survival C (D8)
- Modifiers: None
- Mod. Ability Die: Intelligence B (D10) [Unmodified]
- Mod. Skill Die: Survival C (D8) [Unmodified]
- Ammo Die: N/A
- Roll: 10,6,--
- Result: 3 successes
Griff can get really close halving the distance three times (44 to 22 to 11 to 5), ending up at Close range. Now to bag the deer. He rests his weapon on its bipod and blends out the world before taking the shot.
- Task: Kill the deer
- Ability Die: Agility A (D12)
- Skill Die: Ranged Combat B (D10)
- Modifiers: +1 Sniper Specialty, +2 Telescopic Sight = +3
- Mod. Ability Die: Agility A (D12) [Unmodified]
- Mod. Skill Die: Ranged Combat A (D12) [+1 Step]
- Ammo Die: 1 Die
- Roll: 9,11,5
- Result: 3 successes
While I was doing this, I had a great idea for a house rule regarding the use of the ammo die that many have an issue with.
House Rule - Successes and ammo usage: When you roll more than one success in ranged combat, each additional success after the first can be used to reduce the amount of ammunition expended. For each success sacrificed, the amount expended can be reduced by half (round down, minimum of 1). Successes used in this manner cannot be used to cause critical hits. All successes may be used, regardless of source (Ability, Skill or Ammo die).
What does this mean for our hero? The M40A3 has a damage of 3 and 2 points are needed to kill the deer. Adding a two additional points of damage caused by the additional successes would cause a total of 5 points of damage (and a critical hit on an individual), more than doubling the amount of damage to kill animal and using a LOT of ammo to do so.
If Griff were to use the successes to reduce the amount of ammo twice (rounding down), he would kill the deer and use (5 to 2 to 1) round, simulating him killing the deer in one shot. This sounds more like the sniper he is and less like spray and pray.
Anyway, Griff bags the deer and brings back 5 rations of wild food, expending one round of ammo in the process.
Logan and the POWs attempt to set up a camp and make the wounded comfortable, both American and Soviet.
- Task: Make Camp
- Ability Die: Intelligence B (D10)
- Skill Die: Survival C (D8)
- Modifiers: +1 being assisted by the POWs = +1
- Mod. Ability Die: Intelligence A (D12) [+1 Step]
- Mod. Skill Die: Survival C (D8) [Unmodified]
- Ammo Die: N/A
- Roll: 2,5,--
- Result: Failure
The group still manages to make camp in an abandoned store front (generated randomly from the Modern Street Geomorphs) but we will need to generate a camp hazard. We roll a D10 on the camp hazards table and come up with (5) "Lice - A randomly selected character has caught lice. It itches horribly, and they get a rash all over their body. The victim suffers 1 point of stress each day and cannot sleep this day. A successful MEDICAL AID roll stops the effect."
This is terrible, as any parent with small, school age children can probably attest to. The idea that one can solve this problem sounds great, I just wish it was that easy, but will will still go with it. It says a random character, so we can leave the POWs out of it. They have enough on their plate at the moment. As it turns out, the victim is Wally, poor guy. Wally will get not sleep tonight and will need some attention from Logan tomorrow, but for now we note Lice on his character sheet.
With the fire burning and fresh venison, the cooks do their magic. Harris and Marshall and the POWs set about cooking the meal. We will a roll for every 12 meals, as per the Player's Handbook just to see the results. The first five rolls are the POWs, the sixth roll is the Russian wounded and the last roll is the characters. Yes, that is seven rolls and someone should reconsider making this a group roll, meaning failure would affect the entire group.
- Task: Cook the meal
- Ability Die: Intelligence C (D8)
- Skill Die: Survival C (D8)
- Modifiers: +3 being assisted by multiple people = +3
- Mod. Ability Die: [Intelligence A (D12) [+2 Steps]
- Mod. Skill Die: Survival B (D10) [+1 Step]
- Ammo Die: N/A
- Roll #: Roll: Result:
- 1 (POWs) 7,10,-- Three successes
- 2 (POWs) 3,3,-- No successes
- 3 (POWs) 7,2,-- One success
- 4 (POWs) 8,5,-- One success
- 5 (POWs) 7,8,-- Two successes
- 6 (Wounded) 12,4,-- Two successes
- 7 (Characters) 2,10,-- Two successes
One failure means that the group of 12 POWs must make a stamina check to avoid food poisoning. We can make a group roll for all the POWs.
- Task: Avoid food poisoning
- Ability Die: Strength C (D8)
- Skill Die: --
- Modifiers: --
- Mod. Ability Die: Strength C (D8) [Unmodified]
- Mod. Skill Die: --
- Ammo Die: --
- Roll: 4,--,--
- Result: failure
Logan will have his hands full. We can make the assumption that he spends his next shift taking care of the sick POWs, robbing him of his sleep.
Wally and Robinson are out scrounging, leaving no stone unturned.
- Task: Scrounge like the pack rat you are.
- Ability Die: Intelligence B (D10)
- Skill Die: Survival C (D8)
- Modifiers: +1 being assisted by Robinson = +1
- Mod. Ability Die: Intelligence A (D12) [+1 Step]
- Mod. Skill Die: Survival C (D8) [Unmodified]
- Ammo Die: N/A
- Roll: 2,3,--
- Result: Failure
Klasha takes a break from it all and sleeps for a bit.
Navigation: As the group is not moving, no roll is required.
Hazards: As the group is not moving, no roll is required.
Encounters: 2 of Spades (Rain of Ash). Actually like this one, although I do not believe it to be a realistic encounter (as most of the dust and ash would have settled by now), but I am not looking for a pure simulation. A cloud of radioactive dust and ash passes over the group but they are under cover of the storefront and the cloud passes over them (this time).
Record Keeping: The five rations from the deer are supplemented with rations received from the Poles, leaving one ration of Domestic food left over (which is scooped up by Griff). The group needs to get home by tomorrow or they are going to go hungry. Rations of clean water for the Soviet wounded need to be donated by the group, as there is not enough water for everyone. Still, for one more day, everyone has enough to eat and drink. That is at least something.
Night Shift
Weather: The clouds disappear and the weather becomes fair.
Light Conditions: Dusk
Activities: Everyone but Klasha beds down for the night (except Logan and the puke parade, not to mention Wally and his flea circus)
Navigation: As the group is not moving, no roll is required.
Hazards: As the group is not moving, no roll is required.
Encounters: 8 of Hearts (In Good Company). This is off-road encounter for both day and night. It will not apply, as the characters are not moving and is treated as no encounter.
Record Keeping: No record keeping is necessary. Wally and Logan are marked as Sleep Deprived after spending a busy night.
Another busy day and one day closer to their new home.
