Weird War - Mission Generation

For use with this
A soundtrack suggestion

Roll 1d6. On a 1-3, the mission is Behind the Lines. On a 4+, you are being sent to the Front. The Psychogeography haunts both.

Behind the Lines

The safety of trenches and occupied manors, barely haunted these days. The liberated villages and towns, filled with locals inured to grief, soldiers and bombs.
Trucks and bicycles.
Railways and guns.

Objectives

Friendly Groups

Locations Behind the Lines

Local Groups

Some are friendly.
Most are not. They appreciate liberation, but resent you for being the liberators.

Psychogeographical Features

Unless deliberately revisited, these should be replaced after use.

Encounters

To be checked once per reasonable unit of time. Roll d66 and consult the table below.
All may be spies - on a d66 roll of 11, they are working for the Enemy. They may be dangerous agents, view themselves as patriots, mercenaries or just simply hate you.

The Front

Fire has scraped clean the earth. The soil bleeds only poison - our weapons have left the wound infected.
You have already seen scores of friends die, limbs dangling from barbed wire.

Safety is a dark hole and a mask.

Encounters

To be checked once a day when waiting, hourly during active movement. Roll a d66 and consult the table below.
Where Soldiers are not specified as Friendly, they may be in the employ of the Other Powers.

The Psychogeography

The horrors of The Front are only amplified by in the Psychogeography.

The Deep Psychogeography

The shallows of the Psychogeography heighten and make the metaphorical literal.
The deep of the Psychogeography presents the alien vistas and wrinkles forgotten yet carried within. The obscene truth-trending-toward-fiction.
It can only be found with determined investigation and either the latest in para-scientific devices or the most ancient of religious practices.

CONSIM

The Observer will outline the situation. The small scale and rough differentiation means situations involving irregular forces and clandestine skirmishes more suited. It is recommended this is used as the combat resolution system for a more involved campaign.

Characters

Characters are made up of their equipment, training, morale and history.

Combat

Initiative

Deal 1 card to each meaningful combatant or cohesive unit for combat. (individuals, vehicles, squads depending on the resolution desired.)
Deal 1 additional card for any of the below factors which apply :

• has superior firepower
• has a prepared position
• has superior visibility
• has superior training
• has superior morale

For every 2 ticks of Suppression, combatants lose 1 card. For a pulpier game, player characters cannot be reduced below 1 card.

In the case of surprise or an ambush, no cards are dealt to the surprised side.

Once this is done, all cards are revealed - actions are taken in descending order of cards, with Aces high and the following suit rankings:

Spades > Hearts > Diamonds > Clubs. (i.e. Ace of Spades acts first, then King of Spades, and so on) .

Combatants with multiple cards take multiple actions. Each action should be concise, achievable within ~6 seconds. Longer than this requires the use of multiple cards, either splitting the action into constituent parts or ‘spending’ multiple cards at the lowest value cards rank.

Shooting

A combatant may choose to shoot as their action. Targets shot at take 1 Suppression.

If aiming to score kills, roll 1d10. Roll 6+ to hit a target out of cover.
Roll 7+ to hit a target in cover.
Roll 8+ to hit a target in good cover.
Trained soldiers add +1 to this roll. Elite solders add +2.
If a hit is scored, consult the following the table, modifying any rolls as directed by the weapon.

• STUN - target takes 3 additional Suppression. Target takes no cards next round. If already STUNNED, they are INJURED.
• INJURE - target takes 3 additional Suppression. Target takes one card less, and has been non-fatally shot. They begin DYING if not treated in 2d6 Rounds. If already INJURED, becomes DEAD.
• DYING - target takes 5 additional Suppression. They become DEAD in 1d6 Rounds without immediate first aid and serious medical attention after that. If already DYING, becomes DEAD.
• DEAD - target is DEAD.

If aiming to Suppress, roll 1d10 - on a 10, a hit has been scored, see above. Otherwise, target takes 1 additional Suppression.

Semi-Automatic and Automatic Weapons can be used to Suppress areas.

Firepower

Rather than an exhaustive cataloguing of weapons, we compare their relative power. Generally, newer weapons beat out the old - the rare cases where this is not the case should be obvious. Different types of weapon are more effective in certain conditions - the killing power of a sniper’s rifle is limited in house-to-house fighting.

Suppression

After being shot at, a combatant gains one ‘tick’ of Suppression. All suppression is lost once a round is spent without receiving any fire. For every 2 Suppression held, the highest card held for Initiative is lost.

Attacks from unseen foes add 2 additional Suppression. (e.g. Sniper attacks)

The use of dice to track total suppression is suggested.

Weapons

Small Arms

• Automatics gain +1 to hit and damage rolls.
• Semi-automatics may gain +1 to hit or damage rolls.

Others

Note - these effects stack.

• Explosive Weapons gain +2 to hit and damage rolls.
• Ground Vehicle Weapons add +3 to damage rolls and double Suppression.
• Air Vehicle Weapons add +3 to damage rolls and triple Suppression.

Suggested Research Topics

• Any War of Independence
• The Spanish Civil War
• Various Resistance Efforts during Nazi Occupation
• 1967 Opium War
• Laotian Civil War
• Various CIA-backed coups and counter-revolutions
• Chechen Wars
• Chaco War
• The Art of Not Being Governed - James C Scott
• The Politics of Heroin - Alfred W McCoy
• SDECE operations in Africa

Red Rock Funeral

A Scenario for use with ADF and Troika or whatever else you might want. I’m not your dad.

Where the red sand becomes red rock a settlement, Ignear, is tucked amongst the folds of stone. Their harvests of barrel-fruit cacti and hardy desert maize are fat - every year a glut.
The people of Ignear are offering a months worth of fresh water - a small fortune - to someone who is able to clear their path to the Graveslab - their ancestral burial site. They are keen to impress upon visitors the sacred nature of interment within this natural fortification - and how no outsiders are allowed to enter within. Those breaking this taboo must pay in blood.
The dead - Shamal - died when a rock fell and crushed their skull. May their water serve the village.

Travelling to the Graveslab from Ignear means either a three-day scramble over the jagged rock or a five-day journey around the stone, over the yellow-red striped sand.

The crags are infested with Rockborers. There is a 2-in-6 chance of attracting their attention each day. Once alerted, they will mercilessly harass the party, attacking at night, killing pack animals and the like.

The desert is wide open, the edge of the Thousand Sultanates visible from this borderland. Encounters are seen a ways off unless they are lying in ambush. Roll 2d6 per day and consult the chart below.

The Graveslab

The Graveslab, a tower of cave-ridden rock, stands in the centre of a clearing amongst the broken rock of the area. It is being used by a Rogue Warflock (only 15 remain) as a temporary base. They are led by Kresh - jovial despite the dire circumstance. They failed to complete their contract for one of the Thousand Sultans, and are here to lick their wounds. As such, they are not in a trusting mood, taking potshots with their looted laser weapons at unexpected guests. They could be convinced to parlay, but have no good reason to move on currently - especially whilst they are being pursued.

A member of the Warflock - Sett, the sniper - is a Nanite Sand agent. They are being directed to investigate the truth of Graveslab - the Sands know there is more here than meets the eye. Kresh is suspicious of a traitor, but cannot fathom a way to flush them out. One suggesting a good enough plan could begin negotiating favourably - if able to avoid offending Kresh by insinuating a traitor in the ranks.

The target of their mercenary contract - a warband of Slough Lizardlings (20 in number) - has remorselessly stalked them across the desert. They will be here in 1d6 days. They have massacred 2 villages for information, leaving their infamous limb-structures as a warning. Originally, they sought to recover a stolen religious icon, a mummified Warlord Head, from the Sultan who hired the Warflock. Now they have shifted targets. Without intervention, the Warflock will perish, killing 2d6 of the Slough Lizardlings. The Lizardlings will desecrate the tomb with the Warflock corpses, and destroy the secrets of the Graveslab.

Hidden amongst the surrounding rock is Tariq, a Technician of Esteemed Acquisitions. They know the truth of Graveslab, and were planning a theft. The Warflock has complicated this. If the party seem competent, Tariq may make contact using hidden notes smuggled into their camp, offering them a cut of the proceeds if the heist can be pulled off. If agreed to, Tariq will join them the next night, and explain -

The Graveslab is not just sacred - it is the secret to the wealth of Ignear. Within the sealed chambers are ancient machines, capable of extracting the water from a corpse and purifying it. Tariq wants to steal these machines and sell them to the highest bidder - almost certainly a Freshwater Grub in Shurupak. The journey there will take months with delicate, expensive cargo.

What Tariq doesn’t know is that these machines only operate due to control circuits hidden beneath the Graveslab. They are useless without this. If sold to a Freshwater Grub, assassins will be dispatched in revenge.

If the Warflock are told about the machines, they will entrench themselves and begin raiding the local area for corpses to turn into water. They will try and use this water to buy off the Slough Lizardlings - unsuccessfully.

If the people of Ignear are confronted about the secrets of Graveslab, they will bribe the party for their silence before dispatching assassins in 2d6 weeks.

How’s that for a starter adventure? Just combine and recombine the elements until you think it would get boring to add more.

Shooting Through Walls

If attempting to blast through walls in a facility or starship - or checking to see whats there - or dealing with a miss - use the following chart.

Stealth in Space

Roll 1d6 and Consult Below - Value or Above is Detection

Water Elemental

Gather rain on a hot, dry day.
Add 2 droplets of blood.
Forget the face of a sibling.

By these gifts you may breathe life into liquid.

2HD / AC as Unarmoured / 1d6 Damage
Unharmed by physical weapons.

Expanded, revised & collected:

US itch