When I was developing Fear of the Dark rules I used to play a lot of ww2 and weird ww2 scenarios.
I really like to play ww2 but as a Call of Cthulhu enthusiastic, it wasn't strange that evil creatures and paranormal entities appear on the battlefield.
Of course, the weird part of the scenario is optional, as many of my games were strictly ww2 skirmish scenarios without a weird component. But for me to turn towards a weird version of ww2 was the most natural thing.
I want to show you a weird ww2 scenario that I played using Fear of the Dark rules. Well, not exactly the same rules as it is more combat oriented, so, it had a few rules to make it more tactic. Those rules weren't included in the game system as the idea was to make it a more narrative oriented game.
The scenario: Night Raid
This time I wanted to test a patrol and stealth system, and the truth is that I really like how it worked, with a few tweaks I can adapt it to the way I play (or the way I like games to be).
So I designed a scenario in which our men have to make a night stealth raid into a Nazi-occupied town, in order to locate an experimental tank and blow it up.
First I will make a battle report telling you how everything went, and at the end I will make a small comment about how I made the scenario.
So, we return to weird ww2 along with Sergeant Reickhart and his squad of brave men fighting nazis and monsters trying to make it alive to fight another day.
Sergeant Reickhart is summoned by a captain in the command tent, there he sees several maps and photos of a town, as soon as he enters he sees how one of the present command hides several photos that were on the table in a folder.
"Sergeant, come in and take a seat... I know things are being difficult, but I am afraid that they may become even more difficult... We have had access to information by which a nazi force is being strengthened in the town of Ladon. It seems that they have a new experimental armored light tank brought from the very heart of Germany... We have maps of the town and thanks to members of the French resistance we will be able to make your way to the town itself... "
"your mission will be to make a stealth night raid, locate the experimental light tank, place several explosive charges on it and make it explode before it can even be tested on the battlefield... the lives of many allied soldiers depend on that light tank does not get to be used"
Once the mission is assigned, the sergeant and his men are given bags with explosive charges, and they are taken to the surroundings of the enemy lines, where, hidden in a french resistance truck, they go inside Ladon itself.
Once in the town, the experimental light tank seems to be in the industrial warehouse or in the courtyard nearby, two guards patrol the area; In the darkness of the night I decide to deploy my six men force in three blocks (three blocks of 2 men each), one of them with a sniper, whom I will try to put in a high position.
My men advance taking positions while avoiding the two guards, and after several attempts I get my sniper to take a privileged position to protect the advance of my group.
After several turns of waiting, the guards who patrol the area, turn the corner and one of the streets where the warehouse is located is unprotected, so two of my men advance in the dark to the door of the warehouse... to discover that inside there are four German soldiers talking while smoking a cigarette.
Fortunately, my men go unnoticed and are not seen by the Nazi soldiers.
I decide that I better go around the warehouse, but the guards who are patrolling have different ideas, and while one continues to advance, the other remains in his place, making that my men cannot advance without revealing their position.
Until finally, after so much waiting, a guard appears behind my men, seeing them in the distance and asking aloud "Who goes there?"... So the only option I have is just let all hell break loose...
I advance towards the guard who has been standing for several turns smoking a cigarette to kill him, and it is my second man who shoots him down, killing him and revealing the light tank standing in the yard next to the warehouse, although perhaps it is not the kind of light tank that they expected.
Once the gunfire has started, the sniper kills the guard who has discovered my men, and Sergeant Reickhart runs towards the light "tank" to place the explosive charges, and once next to it, he finds a harmless technician making minor adjustments to the "light tank".
The sergeant decides that he will take that German technician alive with him, since his knowledge will be of great help to the high command about these experimental "armor".
As Sergeant Reickhart places the explosive charges, all hell breaks loose in the street, German soldiers come out from the warehouse, shooting down two of our paratroopers, and only being stopped by our sniper.
More Nazi soldiers come out from the surrounding buildings, who are stopped by our two men (hiding behind some boxes) and the sniper.
Finally, the sergeant manages to place the explosive charges in the "light tank"and runs off with the nazi technician. In his flee he finds two nazi soldiers who are killed by the sergeant. While fleeing from the place, the roar of the explosion is heard behind...
Once the "light tank" has been blown up and the technician has been taken from the place by the sergeant, the rest of the team decides to flee away, and our beloved sniper plays a very important role, freeing the way out for our men.
Once almost all of our team is off the game board, the sniper leaves his position and flees from the table the best he can, to meet later at a designated point with the rest of the unit.
I have no words to express my gratitude to this loyal man, who will be entitled to a medal for his actions today.
Once outside the town of Ladon, hidden under a bridge waiting to be picked up by the French resistance truck, the Nazi technician starts to talk about the new situation that the world is living...
As he explains, some months ago there was some kind of experiment going on in Berlin, but something went wrong...
It seems that nazi scientists opened a "door" or torned a "veil", he doesn't know how to explain it properly, but since then nothing is as it used to be...
Monsters, creatures, paranormal entities... Call them what you want... Things are fucked up, as if it weren't enough with the horror of war...
Since the Reich started studying the occult in order to win the war nothing is certain, and we just live until the next dawn...
While the technician pronounces these words, Sergeant Reickhart sees the sun rise over the horizon, while he listens as the French resistance truck approaches to get them out of there...
HOW TO MAKE THE SCENARIO
Well, the first thing is to determine our warband, in this case it was a Hero (Sergeant Reickhart), an Ally and 4 Extras (one of them with a sniper rifle), the characters work right the same as in Fear of the Dark.
After that we have to set the gaming table, for this we must place Objective points, Plot points and the guards...
As Objective points we have the experimental light tank, which will be in one of two possible locations: the warehouse or the patio next to the warehouse (they will be revealed when they are in line of sight of a miniature), we will also place six Plot points that the players can check during the game (they must spend an action to check them).
When a character has LOS with any Objective point we will roll in a table with 1d6 (1-3 4 nazi smoking a cigarette, 4-6 the light tank, and if the first Objective point are the nazi guards, you won't roll a die for the second Objective point, it will be de light tank.
When a character checks a Plot point you make a roll die on a chart made for the scenario that tells you what your men find in that plot point...
(in red the Objective points and in green the Plot points)
The area will be guarded by two soldiers who will patrol the area, circling the warehouse and the yard. When they reach the end of the street (A) we will place them at the beginning of the other street (B) , as if they had turned around.
Each turn we will roll a die for each guard, with even he will advance 5", with odd he will remain in the same place without moving...
And we will deploy our forces on the opposite edges to where the warehouse and the patio are located, choosing the deployment zones at random, there are four deployment zones, for each group in which we decide to divide our men we will roll one die (if they roll the same result, they will deploy together).
In my case, I divided my men into three groups and I got a 1 and two 4, that's why I deployed that way.
And when the alarm is raised, I predetermined a few buildings from which enemies may appear (most of the buildings, in fact), and every turn I rolled on a table that states how many enemies, appear and the buildings they appear from.
This would be a general overview on how the scenario is made and how it is played.
I hope it helps on how to organize things when thinking on playing solo.
See you in the battlefield, my friends...
Stay safe...
