[WW] First WeirdWars Session

[mdsiii@nts-online.net (Matt Smith)]

I thought the list might be interested in a description of my first
Weird Wars session I ran last Sunday. Here goes!

I had not planned to run this soon, but when only two players could
make my group's weekly game, I decided to run an impromptu session of
Weird Wars. As we were meeting at my game store, there were three
bystanders I was able to talk into joining us, giving me a total of
five players. 

Character creation gave me five American soldiers, as follows:
Combat engineer sargent, armed with a flamethrower (veteran player)
Scout sharpshooter, a sniper wannabe (veteran player)
Medic (novice)
BAR gunner (novice)
Rifleman (novice)

I decided, despite the rulebook's recommendation, to start everyone at
1rst level. This left the players feeling appropriately vulnerable
and, down the line, will give them "I started at first level" bragging
rights. After loading them with extra, mostly explosive, equipment, I
loaded them onto three landing craft and sent them towards Omaha Beach
on June 6th, 1944.

One thing that struck me during the session was the difference in
roleplaying abilities between my two experienced players and the three
newbies. The sharpshooter's player soon had everybody in stitches with
his Whiny Hillbilly portrayal: "Sir, why ain't we attacking where the
Germans ain't" "Gotta be strong for my momma" while the engineer's
player had the gruff Sarge down pat: "Don't call me sir, I work for a
living!" The three novices' characters remained essentially ciphers
without noticeable personalities throughout. I seriously thought about
stopping the game and giving my How To Roleplay lecture, but I decided
against it because 1) I didn't have time and 2) My two veterans were
giving a better demonstration of roleplaying than any speech I could
have made.

The players got the full description of the landing approach: rough
seas, tangled beach obstacles, constant artillery and MG (machine-gun)
fire, sinking DD tanks and fellow soldiers dying like flies. The first
craft, with the sharpshooter and Sarge aboard, hangs up on a beach
obstacle with the swaying hull only inches from an attached mine.
Sarge rigs a improvised demo charge out of a satchel charge and a
Bangalore Torpedo and manages to blow the boat free without blowing
the mine. 

The second craft, with the Medic and the Rifleman aboard, hits a
sandbar and drops its ramp some 200 yards offshore in deep water. Sure
enough, our heroes step off and sink like stones under 60+ pounds of
equipment. The Medic gets his backpack off and makes it back to the
surface, where he has the choice of swimming to shore through a maze
of beach obstacles or through open water full of speeding boats,
bodies,and MG fire. Meanwhile the panicking, nonswimmer Rifleman is
unable to remove his backpack and starts to drown. He pulls his
bayonet and cut the pack loose, losing some hit points in the process
as he cuts himself as well. Surfacing, he manages to grab onto the
side of a passing landing craft and gets a tow onto the beach. The
Medic decides to swim in through the beach obstacles and is nearly
blown to bits when the surf slams him into a mined obstacle, but he
makes it to the beach. 

The BAR Gunner, the only PC in his landing craft, has the worst luck
of all. His boat makes it smoothly into shore and drops its ramp
directly into withering MG fire. He can see the beach through the
holes blasted through the ranks in front of him. The player has him
try to jump over the side. This fails miserably (even after he uses
his Bennie and re-rolls) and he takes a bullet and goes down. I decide
that one of the other survivors in the boat is an NPC medic who
patches the Gunner back to consciousness.

By "coincidence" all the PCs wind up on the same small section of
beach. Three of them, along with some NPCs, have made it to the
shingle ridge (a 2'-3' rise of pebbles and sand at the high tide
mark). Sarge is a little bit behind in a shell crater. The last to
move up is the Rifleman, who is passing by Sarge's crater when he sees
a line of bullet strikes moving towards him across the sand. I expect
the player to try a dive into the crater, but instead he charges
straight ahead. He takes a bullet and tumbles back into the crater.

Sarge, determining that the Rifleman is Not Quite Dead, picks him up,
drapes him across the flamethrower tanks, and makes a run for the
shingle. Bullets fly all around them but, miraculously, neither one is
hit (I rolled very badly). He flops down next to the Medic, who
immediately goes to work on the badly injured Rifleman.

For the first time all my PCs are at the same place. Ahead of them
some 150 yards is a low sea wall, only about 3' high but better cover
than their current location. Another 150 yards beyond that are the
bluffs overlooking the beach and representing the start of the French
countryside. From left to right along the bluffs are a draw (a gully
leading through the bluffs), a small bunker spitting MG fire, and
finally a MG nest crowning the bluffs on the far right. Interlocking
MG fire pins them down while random artillery and mortar fire tosses
American bodies around like rag dolls. It's clearly unsafe to just
hunker down and wait it out. What now?

The sharpshooter turns around and starts putting bullets into beach
obstacle mines, detonating them. "The more boats thut kin make it in,
the better!" he says. Sarge starts talking to a NPC 2nd Lt, an obvious
90-Day Wonder. He gives up when the officer pulls out an army field
manual and starts leafing through it by the light of the tracers. The
Medic and BAR Gunner start scrounging to replace lost and expended
equipment. The Rifleman, returned to consciousness if not to good
sense, decides to grab a dead soldier's body as a shield and charge
ahead.

Luckily for him Sarge had managed to come up with a plan by this time.
Simultaneously with the Rifleman's charge the rest of the PCs throw
grenades into the sand near the seawall, raising a cloud of dust and
sand between them and the MG positions. Then they advanced after the
Rifleman. It couldn't have worked better if they had planned it. The
Rifleman and his body drew all aimed fire, while the dust cloud
spoiled that aim and kept them alive long enough to reach the seawall.

More things were apparent from their new position behind the seawall.
There's concertina wire at the base of the bluffs, with a huge tangle
of the stuff blocking off the draw. The sharpshooter's binoculars
confirm that there's a minefield at the draw, and the Sarge suspects
there are more mines along the bluff. I make a point of mentioning
that the MG fire sweeping from the bunker dead ahead is remarkably
smooth and regular, almost machinelike. Cross fire comes from the MG
nest to the right. 

Sarge notices that the bunker is almost within the maximum range of
his flamethrower. He mentions this and the PCs come up with a plan...

The BAR Gunner, with the group's only automatic weapon, manages to
worm his way along the seawall to a position opposite the MG nest.
Several things then happen at once. The Gunner puts Suppressive fire
on MG nest, rolls well, and the cross fire stops as the machinegunners
cower behind their sandbags. The sharpshooter pops up and puts a round
into the bunker's firing slit (another good roll). He's sure he's hit
the German gunner but there's only a brief hitch in the metronome-like
fire from the bunker. During that brief hitch Sarge and the Rifleman
surge forward. Sarge triggers the flamethrower, rolls great, and
washes the bunker with fire. Bullets come out of the flames, trying to
cut the down Sarge. The Rifleman sees the approaching fire and throws
the (you guessed it)dead body he's carrying with him in the path of
the bullets. Of course the bullets go right through the body, but I do
rule that they'll do less damage if they hit. Sarge takes a bullet for
a minor wound. Fire from the bunker stops as the ammo inside cooks
off. Sarge then charges the suppressed MG nest and empties the tank
into it like watering a lawn with a garden hose.

With direct fire on this section of the beach gone, the American
troops clear the wire and mines from the draw and get off the beach.
When the PCs go to investigate the bunker, they are puzzled to find no
apparent exits. They lower Sarge from above to look through the firing
slit.

The first thing Sarge notices is a smell of ancient rot and decay,
quite unlike the fresh slaughter of the battlefield. When he can see
in, he sees the charred, withered corpse of the gunner, still behind
his weapon. The loader is also there, headless and burnt but still
moving- still trying to load the MG. Sarge freaks and puts a few
pistol rounds into the headless corpse, for no effect. It continues
its motions for a few moments longer before its arms fall off. Sarge
gets pulled up and so far has told no one about what he saw.

The session was over. Without bothering to count up points I simply
declared that everyone was now second level. Sarge and the Rifleman
were each awarded a Bronze Star (that 2nd Lt. was watching). A couple
of the privates made PFC and the Rifleman made Corporal. 

Not sure when or what I'll run next, but a good time was had by all.
Comments and suggestions?


Matt Smith