Friday, February 11, 2022

Barrett's Raiders

Regular readers will, of course, know about the House of Worms Empire of the Petal Throne campaign I've been refereeing for nearly seven years now. However, that's not the only campaign I'm currently refereeing. In early December, I started a Twilight: 2000 campaign, using the latest edition of the game published by Free League

Known as Barrett's Raiders, the campaign focuses on eight characters – seven Americans and one Russian POW – trying to make their way through central Poland in the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Kalisz (July 9–18, 2000). The battle was the last big push by NATO forces against the Warsaw Pact and it ended terribly for the West. During the ensuing chaos, the characters fled south in a HMMWV and LAV-25, making their way to a forest between Kepno and Złoczew before continuing southeast to the area between Kluczbork, Praszka, and Krzepice.
The characters in the group consist of:
  • Lieutenant Colonel Joseph "JD" Orlowski
  • Sergeant Andrew Alexander "Double A" McLeod
  • Sergeant Hiram "Dutch" Everts
  • Sergeant Tom Cody
  • Staff Sergeant John J. "Headshot" Miller
  • Sergeant First Class Jess "Cowpoke" Gartmann
  • Michael (a civilian intelligence agent who'd been posing as a Pole)
  • Dr Vadim Konosev (Russian captured before the Battle of Kalisz)
Though we've been playing for two months now, only three days of game time have passed. The characters have been doing their best to stay hidden and avoid conflict with Warsaw Pact forces still in the area. With the exception of an encounter with some scouts of the Soviet 129th Motorized Rifle Division, they've largely been successful, though it's increasingly clear that their luck can only last so long. 

A map captured from the scouts suggests that the Soviets have their own internal problems. Many of their troops have deserted and turned to marauding. The map also seems to imply a concentration of US forces in the town of Dobrodzień, but there's no way of knowing if it's true. Moreover, given the general breakdown in unit cohesion and discipline on all sides, is it any safer to hook up with even their fellow Americans? These are the questions that occupy Lt. Col. Orlowski as he tries to keep this little band alive in unfriendly territory.

Like the House of Worms campaign, I'll write occasional posts about Barrett's Raiders and how it's unfolding. That's in addition to my thoughts about the new Twilight: 2000 rules and my experiences using them. Thus far, we've been having fun and I have high hopes that the campaign will be a long one (though perhaps not as long as House of Worms – few are!). 

20 comments:

  1. This sounds really interesting... looking forward to more posts on this!

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  2. Exciting! I have extremely fond memories of the original and I also scooped the Kickstarter of the new version - yet to use it, though. Can't wait to see some thoughts from experience!

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  3. Interesting. I admit I never cared for the original (really the only GDW game that made me feel that way) and am somewhat baffled as to why the game's seen a modern resurgence, but there's certainly a lot of roleplaying potential in a "get out of Europe alive as thing fall apart" setup. Look forward to seeing how your group does with that.

    Have to ask, does the current edition character gen system skew toward creating sergeants somehow? Five out of your eight PCs are going to answer if someone yells "Sarge!" but there's not a private or corporal in the lot.

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    1. On the matter of rank, I think it's more a function of the archetypes the players chose for their characters. Had there been more grunts or mechanics, I suspect there'd also have been more privates and corporals.

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    2. Ah, I see. I take it the archetype you choose defines your rank, among other things?

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    3. I really like the new look of Twilight 2000 and how it has a more dystopian, less post-apocalypse feel to it.

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    4. I think the game is tapping into that large fanbase that's into films and videogames like " The Road" and "Call of Duty."

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  4. I'm a fan of the old game, and a partial fan of the new one. I look forward to your impressions on this game.

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  5. Why are they called Barrett's Raiders?

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    1. They're not. That's just the name given to the campaign and it's something of a joke. One of the characters is a sniper who uses a Barrett Model 82.

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    2. "Headshot" Miller, I'm guessing? Or is he just really lucky with hit location rolls?

      Or an actor, I suppose. :)

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    3. Actually, it's Michael who's the sniper; Headshot is Special Forces – or so he says. No one in the group knew him prior to the mad dash after the Battle of Kalisz and he's been quite tight-lipped about his past ...

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    4. The collapse of civilization is a fine time to re-invent yourself if that's what he's up to.

      The fact that the sniper is a spook rather than military suggests something shady was going on with him, but that's hardly surprising.

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    5. They should be singing this with a name like Barrett's raiders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwzRkjn86w

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  6. Also looking forward to more posts about this. Twilight 2K is one of those games that I always thought looked interesting in the hands of the right group.

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  7. More posts on this campaign please! I never played T2000 in the day, but it's always interested me, and I'm fond of the stuff Free League have been doing. It's also good to see someone writing campaign reports for one of the "lower tier" rpgs.

    (I mean that in terms of fame and popularity. You can find D&D campaign write-ups everywhere, so it's nice to see something different.)

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  8. Yes, more posts on this please. Never played the game before but nearly got the latest version...I just might!

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  9. I absolutely love TW2000 when it came out. I saw the original ads for the game in Dragon magazine, and rushed to my local game shop to buy the boxed set the day it arrived. Played it a ton during my last two years of high school, played off and on through military service, and played the 2nd edition into the 90s.
    Sadly, havent played in a long long time now. How would you rate the new ruleset against the original 1st edition? (my favorite edition)

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    1. The new edition is much less "fiddly" than 1st or 2nd edition (I never saw or played 3rd), with the rules being fewer and looser overall. That said, the new edition provides lots of useful resources for hex crawling and exploration, which is very useful to a referee who's doing a lot on the fly.

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