[TMW] The Dirty Half-Dozen (part two)

[Caesar_X]

After the group killed "Train", several of them put on the uniforms of the SS Major and the two corporals they had killed and started walking up the road towards the castle.  One of the corporals had gotten shot in the chest, so "Dirty" had to do a lot of crossing his arms over his chest when the Germans were around.

The group found the entrance to the castle which was guarded by several SS NCOs.  They tried the "Star Wars Gambit" and tied up the two soldiers who were forced to keep their own uniforms to bring them in as prisoners.  "Dogbone" had the SS Major's uniform on and did a nice job of intimidating the NCOs into letting them into the castle.

Once in the main courtyard, I described a large entrance ahead of them where there was a lot of activity from the vehicles that had passed them on the road unloading soldiers and equipment.  I also noted that there was a smaller door to their right.  One of the players narrated that an SS Lieutenant from the larger group broke off and started walking towards the "Major".  The group was afraid that the Lt. might know who the Major was and sound an alarm, but I rolled with it and had him announce himself as "Lt. Kompf", who had just arrived and was supposed to be the Major's batman, or personal valet.

The group wasn't sure what to do with their sudden ball-and-chain, but "Dogbone" said they would go in the smaller door to process their "prisoners".  It turned out to be a small stone radio room, occupied only by a Wehrmacht Sergeant who was ignoring them as he tried to get through on the radio while the storm raged outside.  As they were all standing in the room deciding what to do, I decided to pull out another Bang from my list.  I told "The Carnie" that there was a blackboard on the wall with several radio call signs on it.  But she also saw several seven-digit numbers on the board.  And they corresponded to the GI numbers of each of the characters and their dead US Major.  Except that "Dogbone's number was missing!  "The Carnie" took me aside and asked if she could use her "Slight-of-Hand" ability to try and remove "Dogbone's" pistol from his holster without him noticing.  I said that it was an opposed action and that there would need to be a conflict.  "Dirty" ended up helping by providing a diversion, and "The Carnie" got a good enough roll that she not only removed the pistol, but did it without "Dogbone" noticing.  Nice!

At this point, the group wanted to get rid of the pesky Lt. Kompf, so "Dogbone" sent him to the Major's quarters to fetch his riding crop.  While he was gone, they took the opportunity to get rid of the radio operator with a silenced pistol, but the first shot missed and there was a scuffle to stop the radio operator from raising the alarm.  When they heard footsteps coming back down the stairs, they quickly hit the radio operator's body under a table and "Dirty" (who was dressed in the blood-stained German uniform, stood in front of the body, crossing his arms nonchalantly as the Lt. entered the room.  But no riding crop.

I decided that it would be good to start moving things towards the main event, so the Lt. stammered to the Major that "The German wishes to see you immediately!"  "Dogbone", playing the SS Major, agreed.  And he asked the Lt. to lead the way while the whole group (including two US prisoners!) came along.  This was a bit much for the young Lt., and the group dispatched him and hid the body.

As they got up the stairs and walked down the corridor towards the room where the General was, "The Rat" said that he was stepping into a side corridor away from the others.  "The Wraith" was walking in front of him didn't have a problem with that, so off he went. 

The remaining group reached two large reinforced oak doors guarded by two SS Privates.  "The German will see you now", and they opened the doors to let the group in.  As the doors closed behind them, they saw a greatroom dominated by a huge blazing fireplace and a large wooden table.  As they rounded the alcove and into the main room, they could see the man they had come to kill, SS General Steiner.  He was sitting at the table drinking cognac and smoking a cigar.  And seated next to him was...a U.S. General??  The two were sharing a laugh and the party was thrown for a loop.

"Dirty" picked the perfect time to live up to his name, and he stepped away from the group, pointed his machinepistol at them and said, "Herr General, these men are impostors!"  "The Carnie" was sitting next to him at the gaming table and said "What?  You must be kidding me!"  Then she turned to me and said, "I'm going to kill him!"  At this point, a duel between the two seemed like to best way to resolve things.  So while they were blasting away, "The Wraith" (still dressed in an American uniform) pulled out a hidden gun and got into a duel with the US General, who he assumed was a turncoat.  "Dogbone" , dressed as the SS Major, wisely ran to the doors calling for the guards.  When they opened the doors, he ordered them inside and ran past them. 

"The Carnie" and "Dirty" needed two duels, but finally "The Carnie" was killed.  "Dirty's" victory was short-lived as the guards rushed in and stitched him head-to-toe with their machinepistols.  "The Wraith" killed the US General but was himself killed by the SS General.  The greatroom had turned into a bloodbath.

While the final scene was unfolding, "Dogbone" made his way down to a vehicle depot where "The Rat" had stolen a truck full of Nazi treasure and the game ended with the two of them driving out of the castle and presumable towards the Swiss border.

Wow, what a finish!  The entire game had taken 3 1/2 hours, including a break, and was action-packed from start to finish.  The players really grabbed onto the concept of "you gotta make your own fun here".  Besides the obvious disappointment of having a friend leave the table unhappy, I thought the session was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.  Here are some takeaways for me:

1. When giving out the Dark Fate cards, make sure you explain all of the cards to the players.  Especially if one or more of the players has played the game before.  I felt like the player who had played TMW before had a big advantage over the others as he knew what was going to happen eventually. 
2. "The Carnie" had the "Desperately In Love" Dark Fate, and she admitted after the game was over that she had a difficult time working that in at all.  After playing the game several times, this is the Dark Fate that I see the most problems with for that very reason.
3. The conflict resolution rules are very simple and nice, but I have some problems with the damage.  Several times we either had huge damage happening for a bad reason "a mook Taking Out a PC" or we had people fighting toe-to-toe and several rounds were necessary because we kept getting Chapter Wounds instead of something that would incapacitate the other character.  I'm not sure what to do about this, but wanted to bring it up as a concern.

I wanted to thank Timothy Klienert for answering my questions about the game and encouraging me to run this WW2 mod.  I can't speak for the others at the table.  But for me it really was like taking the best 20 minutes of a war movie and blowing it out.

Thanks,
Chris B.