Safe Harbor - Outer RIm

Jack and Nee returned to the ship after their meeting at the cantina to find Bobby George lying on the gangway to the cargo hold. He had a large knot on the back of his head and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth but he is breathing and regaining consciousness. Seeing he is still alive, Jack and Nee drew their weapons and headed up the ramp into the hold. The T1 loader droid sat idle in the back of the hold. After checking out the hold and finding no intruders they worked their way towards the cockpit. Nobody was their either. Jack pointed back toward the engine room and whispered to Nee "I wonder where Kari has gotten off to?".

They search the whole ship and don't find anyone on board. Jack tells Nee to check the security log with video while he gets Bobby back to the common area that also serves as the ship's medical bay. While getting Bobby settled in Nee comes tells Jack to check out the monitor. The security video shows Bobby being hit from behind by a Wookie and Kari being taken off the ship by two heavily armed thugs.

"That's not good" says Jack. Turning to Bobby he quips "lucky you're still alive."

Nee comes back on the intercom, "We got a message too, boss. They left a datapad by the security cam. They wanted us to see this. The message says to meet outside 'The Pit' at dusk if we want to see her alive." The Pit was a local dive on the edge of the spaceport and known hangout for the darker side of humanity.

[game mechanics] - using the Larger than Life rules to set up the story it was determined that Jack and his crew would have to retrieve an object. The capture of Kari was to set up the first meeting. The meeting at The Pit was to set up the travel scene. The Big Bad is a civilized native who wants to steal an object.

Next - the outcome of the travel scene.

5150 - Life in the Outer Rim

I decided to try some 5150 gaming for the weekend. The Crew consists of a small group of smugglers, I mean Independent Merchants, making a living in the outer rim. I'm going to use some of the LTL (Larger Than Life) rules to string together their adventures into an ongoing story. My star, Jack Logan, is a Rep 5 owner/pilot of a small freighter. Jack carries a rapid fire laser pistol and has the Sidewalk Demon attribute.

Jack's co-pilot is a Rep 4 Duros named Nee Bannis. I gave him the Runt Attribute as this race is not known for their melee skills (per the Star Wars Saga Edition rules). This is a racial trait so I also drew a random card and came up with the Transporter attribute. Nee Bannis carries a laser pistol.

Jack has also recently hired a ship's mechanic named Bobby George. He is of unknown quality (Rep 3) and has the Wary Attribute. Bobby carries a laser pistol.

Jack also took in a young refugee named Kari-an. She is Rep 3 and has the Medic attribute and carries a laser pistol.

The final member of the crew is a T1 Bulk Loader Droid that Jack inherited with the ship. The droid is useful for loading and unloading cargo as well as some other things.

Next will be the beginning of the adventure.

Once again real life has gotten in the way of gaming...

Now that Thanksgiving weekend is here I plan to try to get a game or two in this weekend. The FNG bug has gone for a while. Have the bug to some 5150 and WH:A&A again.

Hope to post anything by the weekend.

Avid

Team Lightning Deploys

We deployed before first light near the ruins of a Buddist temple. As the chopper lifted off we moved into the ruins to wait and see if Charlie had spotters out. We waited for 15 minutes and then keyed the radio twice to let the chopper know that we were all clear. We moved out in a single file back toward the east parallel to Highway 19. We moved across dried rice patties and through small clumps of bamboo. We were tasked with checking out the largest clump of woods just to the south of Highway 19. This was the largest area that Battalion couldn't easily recon by air. Buck and his squad were to be moving parallel to us one klick to our north. They were going to check out the village of Tho Loc. Their chopper dropped them off 1 hour before us. I knew Buck was in place and OK as we heard his team. Buck's mission was to sit on Tho Loc for the day from a distance while we swept south of the Highway.

I had Choi take point to take us to the woods, followed by Hagey with the M-60. I was next with Jones and the radio right behind me. Newberry and Gardener brought up the rear. As we neared the woods I moved up to take point. I had Newberry move up with me as I needed to see what field craft skills he had before we got into anything. We moved into the woods just as the sun was cresting the eastern horizon.

We stopped for a quick break once we were 100 meters inside the tree line. We secured the perimeter and alternated 3 on 3 off while we rested and drank water. While Newberry sat on a log sipping from his canteen he tapped the butt of his rifle on the ground. It sounded hollow "Sarge, I think I found something".

We cleared the leaves and branches off and found a small cache of weapons and ammo. Thinking back to Buck's training yesterday I grinned and told Newberry to give me a grenade and pay attention as class is in session.

Game Notes - the pre-dawn segment of the day resulted in an encounter that resolved into a small weapons cache. 5 rifles and 1000 rounds of ammo were located and booby-trapped.

LRRP Team "Lightning"

My LRRP team consists of:

(Star) SSG Belden - Rep 5, Attributes - Recondo (per UW = Born Leader, Pointman & Stealthy), Hard as Nails; Armed with CAR-15 and M1911 .45 pistol

SGT Gardener - Rep 5, Attribute - Brawler; Armed with M-16 and M1911 .45 pistol

Spec4 Jones - Rep 4, Attribute - RTO; Armed with M-16, carries radio

Spec4 Choi - Rep 4, Attribute - Language; Armed with M-16

Spec4 Hagey - Rep 4, Attribute - Pigman; Armed with M-60 and M1911 .45 pistol

PFC Newberry - Rep 3, Attribute - Grenadier; Armed with M-79 and M1911 .45 pistol

I have not assigned skills yet as found in UW.

Here is the area Team Lightning will be reconning in the upcoming batrep.

So it begins...

SFC Gaines stuck his head in my tent "Belden, LT wants you, me and O'Hara at the Battalion TOC in 10 minutes. Find him and meet us there. Looks like we have some work." I found Buck where I figured he would be, with 2nd squad training them on how to remove the fuse delay on a frag grenade to rig it as a trap for Charlie. That was Buck, always training his men.

"SGT O'Hara" I said "LT wants to see us." I always used Buck's rank in front of his men, just as he always did to me in front of 1st squad. "Corporal Summers take over the class" As we walked away from 2nd squad's impromptu classroom and towards the TOC Buck said "What's up Mike?". "Don't know" I replied "Gaines said to find you and get to the TOC. He said we might have work."

As we neared the TOC we passed a handful of newbies standing around outside the TOC. We entered the TOC and found LT Goreman and SFC Gaines with Major Williams, the battalion XO, Major McClebe, the Brigade S-2 and a captain I had not seen in the battalion area before all looking at a map. I like the XO. He was a forer enlisted soldier who earned his commission on the battlefield in Korea. He knew his stuff and he knew how to lead men.

The XO was already giving the briefing as we approached the map. He nodded to Buck and myself and continued "we need to set up a FSB somewhere along Highway 19. The VC are raiding the villages in the area and taking the rice. The FSB will support Battalion Operations in the area. Captain McKinney is the new CO of D Company. He will be in command of the FSB. Recon Platoon will be attached to the FSB until further notice." As the XO pointed to a spot on the map he continued.
"LT Coreman we need Recon Platoon to sweep through the area near the villages of Tho Loc I and An Thanh I where this road forks south off of Highway 19. Captain McKinney and Major McClebe conducted a fly over by chopper earlier today. I want Recon to do its own flyover this afternoon and then be prepared to be inserted by chopper tomorrow morning. D Company will be on standby as a reactionary force to back you up if there is any contact."

The XO looked at Goreman, Gaines, Buck and myself "Any questions?"

As we were leaving the TOC, SFC Gaines grabbed my arm and led me off to the side. One of the newbies was still standing by the TOC. "Staff Sergeant Belden, meet PFC Newberry, he is Brown's replacement." Brown was one of my squad members that went home last month with a purple heart.
"Grab your gear Newberry, lets get you settled in with the squad. SGT Gardener will show you the squad area. I got a chopper to catch in an hour." I said as we headed back to the Recon Platoon area.

Avidwaregamer's House - Reboot!

Real life has gotten in the way of my gaming and blogging. The Quest for the Idol will continue. However I've recently been bitten by the FNG bug. With the pending release of updated FNG I dug out my copy of FNG as well as FNG:UW and the free FNG:Operations. I'm planning on running a mix of the three. FNG:Ops is about setting up a Fire Support Base(FSB) in an Area of Operations (AO). On the squad level I want to follow the missions of a LRRP team assigned to support the FSB.

My FSB will be located in Bihn Dihn province in the II Corp region. Great maps of Vietnam can be found at:
http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/maps/servlet.starweb

My specific AO will be located in the Qui Nohn region
http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/maps/servlet.starweb


My ficticious unit is D Co, 127th Light Infantry Brigade.

Next time meet my 6-man LRRP team!