Welcome to Operation Market Storm!
“On the eve of July 1897 the lower Gothic state, nested at the heart of our proud continent Roma Europa, entered into a state of war with their enduring higher Gothic neighbor, unabashedly sullying the amicable efforts of their recent Gothic ancestors and threatening to diminish the budding spirit of peace and trust among God’s nations.
Rest assured that this disgraceful treachery will not go without opposition from the Free states. Verily, for as I write this now the arsenal of a united Commonwealth and her true allies, those bold states, who without the natural defense of a sea, situated on the land of Roma-Europa, selflessly commit themselves to the cause of peace, whose names are called Francobasque and Bosohungary, are being swiftly rallied to contend with the hasty offense against the low Gothic state, not in the spirit of greedy expansion as our ancestors might have acted but rather of rebuking and liberation.
Our beloved Prime Minister and his wartime cabinet have since made travel to the pastoral lands of Francobasque in order to calculate the details of our country’s and fellow countries’ brave and righteous venture.”
-Sir Martin Garner, July 2nd 1897, 3 years before the advent of the Royal Commandos
Welcome to Operation Market Storm, a game of world war set in a grown-up, industrialized and colonized high fantasy world with geography equivalent to our own and with political geography and history highly reminiscent of our own but much, as you might imagine, a lot less equivalent. The technology is mostly equivalent to our technology of WW2.
You are a small team of English Royal Commandos, a special operation assault and reconnaissance unit with autonomous operation capabilities and trained for airborne deployment. Your mission is the identification and destruction of Lower Gothic supply and command elements from behind the enemy lines with minimal communication with allied command. Simple, right? Maybe not so much, ever since you completed basic you’ve seen one too many black cats and broken mirrors to believe that’ll be the case; you’ve got a bad feeling. Perhaps, you speculate, there is a more nefarious, malicious plot behind this war, something truly evil of global consequence. Or maybe your cigarette rations just aren’t large enough.
Gameplay Overview:
This game is meant to be a co-op 5 player adventure/mystery game (I mean RTD) with open world elements where players advance the plot through deciding upon and executing missions to ultimately (if you don't suck) uncover a terrible wartime plot, these missions will usually involve a lot of combat. Interactive NPCs are a huge part of the game and players are expected to interact with them in character to advance the plot or otherwise affect game-world events in dramatic ways.
The game will progress in chapters, a chapter concludes when something that constitutes as a major plot point happens, at which I will ask players for opinions about the game, players will select additional skills for their character and I'll make any mechanics changes that I feel are necessary for the game and then the game will continue. It is recommended that you read at least the combat mechanics before skipping down to the other sections.
Out of Combat Mechanics:
During out of combat turns there generally are few rolls. During these out of combat moments you are expected to talk to NPCs, explore, decide on where you are going to next and procure the weapons, ammo, NPC allies and if needed vehicles for the next fight. I will try to be efficient with these turns so you are allowed to make every elaborate actions and should declare every action you want to do that is not dependent on the result of another action you are making that same turn.
NPCs are a huge part of this game and you are expected to interact with them a lot through dialogue. Personal intrigue is ripe in the world of Operation Market Storm and this is something that can be leveraged to uncover new leads, influence plot and cause drastic events in the greater game-world. NPCs generally all have some vision for themselves and will act in a way to satisfy that vision, if you manage to figure them out then you’ll likely find a way to influence them. Dialogue alone is a powerful tool to influence NPCs in this game. These interactions are meant to be open-world in nature so if you decided to kill a monarch you can expect some pretty drastic plot changes.
Dialogue and simple exploration/’looking around’ actions will be answered outside of the normal rolls. This way dialogue can progress quickly and players can get all the information they think they need without having to wait for everyone to post and me to roll/write the turn for everyone.
Not every interaction with NPCs requires dialogue. You don’t need to provide dialogue if you are requesting usual services (like calling for reinforcements, or buying things, etc etc) and even important dialogues can be replaced with simpler actions. However if you choose to use a simple action to replace dialogue in a case where the result is unclear the dice decides your fate (example: begging a MP to let your teammates out of confinement).
Combat Mechanics:
As a team you share one health value (the sum of every players individual health values and allied NPCs). This health refreshes after combat. Your team is defeated and retreats when you run out of health. The enemy also has a shared health bar but they will also have specific health values (mgs, snipers, tanks, etc) so that you can focus specific targets. The shared health of enemies is not always equal to the total enemy health.
In a combat turn a player declares an action. Actions are a mix of contextual actions and attacks. When attacking you declare what weapon you are using, a target and the amount of bullets (or punches/slashes etc) you are firing. Each ‘bullet’ constitutes one dice. Dice are rolled, number of hits are calculated and multiplied by the damage of the weapon you used. (normally one). The first die of an attack gets +1 to hit and weapons will list the values at which they hit at at specified ranges (short/med/long). Range is contextual and you’ll be able to move into the range you want to in a single turn and fire in most cases.
Allied NPCs are completely under the players control during combat and I’ll try not to make exceptions to rule. The catch is that you cannot submit NPC dialogue (I do that) and NPCs relations with you can be adversely affected by things you make them do in combat.
The number of shots your team fires and damage your team inflict are added and compared with the number/amount your enemy fired/dealt at/to you. This sum is the fire superiority value of your turn. Whichever sides’ is higher deals 2x damage next turn. This bonus damage is ignored for the purposes of calculating the next fire superiority value. I should probably note that ammo is tracked and is not unlimited. The belt/clip/mag size is the logical maximum you can fire in one turn. If you try to fire more you'll get RTDed, meaning that I'll roll a six-sided dice and decide how it works out.
Contextual actions are ones that are not covered by the above mechanics (basically everything except attacking with a weapon). These are very important and should be used to gain an advantage. At the most basic level these are actions like moving to cover, moving closer to an enemy etc. These actions are automatically fulfilled if they are reasonable and would have obvious outcomes.
For contextual actions that fall in the regions covered by the mechanics but have no existing mechanics I will come up rules for on the spot (during the roll). These are generally special attacks that rely on context, examples being trying to explode munitions near an enemy, or say jumping out of building on top an enemy. At the end of the chapter I might formalize some of these made up rules if I think they are extra relevant.
For contextual actions that have zero relatable mechanics and would have no obvious result (like building cover in combat, hiding, first aid, distractions, wrestling, etc etc) I will roll a single six sided die (after reciting the appropriate RTD scriptures, preforming the proper animal sacrifices and praying for the souls of the dead RTD saints of course) and fate will decide the relative result of your action. The results will be contextualized. Example: if you roll a 1 trying to prepare some cover in combat you don’t suffer spontaneous human combustion instead you just prepared some really abject cover. Expect to make a lot of these kind of actions (cause its cool).
There is no formal limit to what you can do in a turn but I'll cut off your action if I feel it is too long.
Cover blocks a specified number of hits, but never the first shot (you can still miss the first shot though). Anything can be used as cover and the number of hits it protects will be discovered after you’ve be hit while in the cover.
Characters do not have a stat line in this game; instead they have ‘skills.’ Skills are either extra mechanics exclusive to a character (say the ability to knowledge check) or simple roll modifiers. Weapons can also have their own ‘skills’ which give them special properties and certain items (say armor) confer ‘skills.’
Here are some example abilities:
Sniper: +1 to first shot with a bolt action.
Artillery strike: Call in a 3 dice attack on any target in sight does 2xd6 damage. Must have radio to activate. (this isn’t an ability you would start with, this would be something you get in the context of a mission).
Runesword: this sword ignores armor abilities.
Light armor: subtract one damage from every hit from a pistol, unarmed or submachinegun attack.
Two-weapon: you can attack with two different weapons per turn. (this one seems a bit OP to me)
Social Intuition: you can preform intuition checks against NPCs to discern information about them.
Basic Historical Knowledge: you can preform history checks to discern historical context about things.
These ones are pretty lame, but I hope you get the idea. Unique is good for abilities as they are supposed to add extra dimensions to the game.
Setting:
The setting is elaborate but it is not without loose ends (mainly because of the scope). I’ve spent lots of my personal time figuring it out and thinking up history and whatsits; however, I don't plan to cover it all. If you have questions ask but you really don't know much of the stuff to play the game.
Book1: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE NATIONSTATES OF THE EURO-ROMA CONTIENT:
I. Perhaps the most prominent state moving into the 20th century is the English monarchal state. The English state heads a collective commonwealth spanning from the new world all the way to Hindu and the farther east. A prominent naval power with an elite, highly trained army, in the form of the so-called English Regulars. England is blessed with a large skilled labor pool, expansive economic holdings and a long documented history that extends deep into the so-called dark ages. England is also home to the largest elf population and the famous and highly historically prominent griffin. The average Englander is an educated middle classmen in line for a professional job that reads a bit more than the average continental denizen and who might dream of romanticized adventure. (You note to yourself that this account is not contemporary, the English Regulars are no more, they were ground out of existence in the early stages of the war)
II. Francobasque is a historic world power with history comparable in breadth and documentation to that of England. A highly pastoral land, with a renowned city culture and a strong military history. It was the Franks who dismantled the proud Gothic Reich-state and split it into its contemporary states of Low Gothia, High Gothia and Bosohungary during the war of the second coalition. They are historic enemies of Gothia and an artifact of this rivalry is a fortified, long defense line along their borders and their express interest in the fighter plane.
III. Gothia, the once proud Reich-state was cleaved in two by Francobasque and then it had its political power base cleverly dismantled and dispersed. Gothia has a rich anglo history originating with the gothic migrants who stomped out old Roma society. Even despite these setbacks the monarchy of Low Gothia, were most of the old leadership ended up, has been successful at revitalizing the state into a booming colonial super power. Gothia is renowned for having the largest orc population and griffin population. Leadership in Gothia is highly monarchical and hold the militaristic virtues of intuitive and ingenuity in high regard, while High Gothia’s leadership was picked by Francobasque and abides a republic type government. Both Low Gothia and High Gothia are comparable commercial, production focused societies with booming sciences. They are named for their relative elevations. Low Gothia is northern, boarding the Baltic sea, while High Gothia is inland in the middle of the continent. (This history neglects the lead up to the current war, you note. Of course this was written before that time.)
IV. Bosohungary The third state carved out of the Gothic Reich-state. Bosohungary also had its leadership appointed by Francobasque and from since its recent formation has held fast to England and Francobasque by necessity (this was the design of Francobasque) to hopefully deter Low Gothic and Moscovian expansionist ambition. With the aid of its allies Bosohungary has sought to swiftly upgrade its production and military.
V. Italy is home to the high catholic Vatican city-state which is the crux of high catholic influence in Euro-Roma. While most of this influence as deteriorated it remains a potent center of Euro-Roma influence. Italy is a monarchal power which has focused on increasing its production and views itself as the true inheritor of the Roman legacy.
VI. The states of the Iberian Peninsula, collectively called the Iberian Kingdoms, are the remnants of a historically powerfully Iberian monarchal state. The authorities of these states are known for their aristocratic and high catholic leanings. One of these Iberian Kingdoms stands out among the rest. Originally the seemingly nonsensical purchase of a wealthy aristocrat, the State of Leon is a mysterious black box state known for its charismatic aristocratic monarch Ramon Canoez who has ruled the state for hundreds of years without aging a year. It has been decried by its neighbors as an evil state that harbors fugitive practitioners of the black arts and maleflicium. (The Iberian States leading up to the war were ravaged by fierce civil war between republicans and tradition monarchists. An abundance of foreign military tech was first used here and it also was the place where the first griffin, a Spanish owned one named Mateo, was killed by a fighter plane. That single event startled the Euro-Roma continent, especially Low Gothia who had historically invested considerably in maintaining themselves as the premier griffin power.)
VII. Moscovia is the eastern most state of the Euro-Roma continent. The absolute monarchy made great pace modernizing its economy and transforming much of its historically steppe population into a urban work force; however today Moscovia is under considerable internal pressure in the form of powerful socialist rebel factions who seek to overthrow the Tzar. Most iconic of the eastern Moscovian land is the Giant. These are giant human like beings who practice nomadic living. They are too simple to integrate into urban social living but are considered a valuable military asset, particularly in artillery branches.
((If you find yourself appalled by my treatment of historical, political or cultural themes see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post.))
Also see my post about AMERIQUE (america) on pg3 that I'm also to lazy to link..
Book2: THE INTELLIGENT RACES OF THE EURO-ROMA CONTIENT:
I. Humans: The most prominent race of the Euro-Roma continent is the human, they are counted in the thousands of millions whereas other races, namely orcs and elves, are each contained in figures of mere millions and in some states petty hundreds of thousands. They are bipedal, diverse in appearance and ability (more so than other races) and also in profession. They are the standard by which other races in this book will be compared.
II. Elves: Fair, intelligent, slender, beautiful; the elven race is perhaps the most mysterious and supposedly ancient of the Euro-Roma races. The typical elf lives comfortably as business owners, professors or government administrators, avoids lengthy interactions with other races, disdains violence and is regarded by his non-elf associates as slightly vain, slightly haughty, annoying secretive and, most irritatingly, good at everything. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, I do not mean to paint the elf with a single stroke, there are many counter examples to this generalization such as elven the film stars who embrace human publicity or elven charity works and doctors who have expressed personal annoyance with their fellows attitudes towards other races. Though, one seemly universal trait of the elf is ambition.
III. Orcs: The orc, numbering a few hundred-thousand, is fully athletically superior to the other intelligent races of the Euro-Roma continent. Standing an average of a foot higher than a man, with a leathery, burnt-red skin and course dark hair, they are machines of muscle and are extremely adept in the motor arts such that they can rapidly master any motor art. When trained (and motivated) their dancing, calligraphy and fine art skills handily surpass that of the classic elf geniuses. The typical orc is laconic, associates strongly with their family, is constantly sought for military service (often in highly trained, highly equipped orc only units) or jobs that require advanced motor skills such as illustrators or fine circuitry jobs and is regarded by non-orcs as simple, apathetic but pleasant. Of course, they are often, outside of those that they interact with regularly, feared as the descendants of the most ruthless and physically undefeatable minority in all of history. Orc women resemble their counter parts more closely than most intelligent races. They are physically comparable, the main difference being a sliming of the face features and, unlike humans and elves, only develop breasts during gestation.
(Since most of this information is highly familiar to you, you decide to skim some of the remaining pages picking up only the headlines)
IV. Centuars
V. Giants
VI. A discussion on Imps
VII. A discussion on vampires and the supposed werewolf.
…
Book3: THE BASIC FORMS OF MAGIC ON THE EURO-ROMAN CONTIENT:
Magic has shared many meanings and connotations over the span of Euro-Roman history. Today it is a word that has come to have little meaning for the average Euro-Roman and its use pertains mainly to discussions about the great sage-seers, oracles, elves of history or simply the weather control assembly, which is most prominent magical institution of the state. Publically, for better or worse, magic has become a topic of non-interest. This book is designed to give the reader a historical overview of magic and introduce them to the ways that magic is used today.
In the early 18th century (1700s) the historian and leading magic academic Rudolph Hetcher proposed that magic can be more or less contained in the following definition; magic is the application of approximate physical and/or mental ritual for extraphysical consequence. Now immediately you might object, citing the enchanted forests of England or your grandfather’s sword of burning sparks that rests above your fireplace. Don’t these swords and forests enact magic without ritual? Yes they do, but that isn’t neglected by Hetcher’s definition. Instead he assumes that all these objects of extraphysical consequence inherited their magic from a creation or ‘imbuing’ ritual.
This definition makes a pretty powerful claim. It suggests that nature and magic are separate, that magic is not the product of natural law but rather ritual and also it suggests (to great dispute) that all magic has definite historical and ritual origins. Now, whether or not these claims are all true is little consequence to this book whose humble purpose is merely to introduce the topic. So without further ado let us discuss the forms of magic in and about the Euro-Roman continent.
All forms of magic can be categorized as either subversive or oversive. Subversive magic is the more common form and its examples are unlimited lots of which you will no doubt be familiar with. These are such things as the weather affecting magic of the weather control assembling which enacts elaborate rituals to sway the weather, the palm reading of the corner woman whose effect is to discern vague notions of the future or your mother’s rabbit foot charm which she made you wear during sports. These are magics which affect causality and do not have immediate, discrete or highly physical consequence such as precognition, seed magic (also called butterfly magic or causality magic) and charm magic.
Oversive magic is the billowing fireballs and the smashing, blue swirly stuff you drooled over as a youth. This kind of magic takes great discipline (and for learners great stamina too) to enact and is any kind of magic that has overt physical consequence whether it is immediate or delayed. This kind of magic is the kind that the street performer uses to light your cigarette and that was used to make your grandfather’s sword. Oversive magic is difficult to master and has declined in prominence due to the fact that its utility, which is only afforded at the cost of long study and practice, and has over time common technology has come to overlap its utilities; its military potential has also declined for this same reason.
Book4: THE COMPARATIVE HISTORIES OF MAGIC, FOLK MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT ON THE EURO-ROMA CONTINENT:
The history of magic is topic of great interest to historians, magicians and magic academics alike. It origins are greatly disputed but its use and practice can be observed in almost every Euro-Roman cultural history.
No discussion of magic can avoid the topic of the elves. The elves’ magical history is as ancient as the history of the elves themselves and even the earliest available records of elven society record a mastery and practice of magic on a scale and magnitude completely unattained by other races and cultures. Verily, early accounts of elven society recounts that even the elven child could enact various subverse and overse magics as easily (and often easier) as they could speak. Records also account great elven masters who could conjure forests, thunder storms, great fiery masses with almost no effort and who spoke about magic with great understanding. Of course much is still unknown to us about the expanse of magic in elven society and what is known is gleaned only from records made public by the Elven Council and Elven Assembly in England.
Ancient Gothic traditions recount powerful practitioners of folk-magic who had tamed and mastered the creatures within the forest and through the wombs of animals and women gave raise to new creatures. These so-called druids were recounted as laconic characters of mystery who conjured strange herbal brews, lived among animals, spoke in precognitive riddles and who dominated the forests with extranormal presence. But for the common Gothic tribesmen magic was passed down in the form of charms, deity worship and simple subversive rituals which varied greatly between families and tribes and had questionable effects. However as Gothic society feudalized and centralized these druids withdrew and quickly faded into legend.
Norse traditions of Scandinavia recount of a powerful norse king who gathered distant norse sages and charged them with the task of taming the dragon. After many attempts the sages, known to us now as the Drakslavia or Dragon sages, devised a month long ritual which interlinked the lifeforce (it is still disputed as to what that exactly entails) of a man to that of a dragon. This ritual was performed by groups of sages throughout norse history to this day and remains a tightly guarded secret. Norse tradition also accounts of deity worship, subversive ritual and charm magic similar to those of the continental Gothic tribes.
England, the states of Iberia, Moscovia, Francobasque and Italy all have comparable magic traditions that aren’t quite as distinct as the before mentioned. During the early middle ages and feudal times these Euro-Roman cultures experienced folk-magics that focused around basic charm magic and basic subversive magics. As these states consolidated and centralized they began to attract magic talent and before for long it was commonplace for a ruling court to include a weather council whose concern was to influence the weather to avoid crop failures and also an astrologist to warn of future dangers and to predict the success or fail of certain dangers.
As High Catholicism spread across Euro-Roma certain magic practices were outlawed. Namely these were necromancy and witchcraft. Necromancy was magic that sought to raise the dead or create new life; it was often considered a dangerous practice that had a price in life. Witchcraft was magic that was achieved by forming contracts with evil spirits and again was considered damaging to life. Even today these fields of magic remain largely unexplored do ethical questions associated with their rituals.
Character sheet:
Name:
Race: (Human, Elf, Orc)
Appearance: (physical only, you’ll all be in uniform at the start).
Bio: (My suggested on how to write a bio for this game is to skim through the setting 'books' and find things you like and turn them into a character idea. Don't be afraid to make things up like places, people and local histories. Their is no requirements for the bio but I will correct overt setting contractions.).
Abilities/skills: (Two combat and one out of combat, consult the Combat mechanics section if you have not, write the premise of what you want if you not sure what mechanics it should incur. Talk to me about ideas.)
6/5 Players.
I’m hoping this doesn’t become a problem and can’t imagine that it will considering that this game will quickly move away from global-historical and political themes and zero into the romantic character focused realm of fantasy adventure but in the case that it does…
DISCLAIMER: I realize that my combining and bastardization of historical themes has the potential to be offensive but I want to make something clear: my treatment of history and my liberal borrowing of historical themes from various cultures is not indicative of presumed personal authority over matters of history and culture nor does is it reflective at all of my opinions about specific matters of history and culture. This game does not seek to promote any sort of global historical narrative or message. Everything in this thread is expressly for the purpose of entertainment and events and themes in the game-world are only to be interpreted in the context of the game-world. That being said, if something is bugging you about the way I handle certain cultural topics please message me and I will likely change it.
Author
Topic: OPERATION MARKET STORM: TURN 7, Mission 1: Ich gebe auf! (6/5) (Read 17555 times)