Talk:To Ruska with Love
A note/warning from the GM. This game will not follow the usual adventure format.
I am going to try an experiment in large scale military tactics in a foreign land. This is to enable characters to utilise otherwise unplayable military scientist abilities. (Battlefield formulating and implementing battlefield level tactics, involving from hundreds to tens of thousands of troops. Logistics, the ability to organise and control a military organisation. Strategy overall campaign level command of a military force. Winter War will probably extend this to include: Siege, conducting or defending against siege actions. Naval tactics involving from one ship up to fleet actions. Skirmish tactics involving from one to fifty troops, includes guerrilla and resistance tactics, and operating behind enemy lines.)
In the winter games I tried a combination of email instructions and fortnightly evenings to consolidate individual efforts or achieve set tasks that had been identified previously. This was to facilitate the playing of spy courtesan and assassin scenarios which although requiring some joint effort involved a fair amount of individual action and decision making and planning.
This seemed to work well with only one player expressing surprise at the amount of leeway afforded the characters and the minimum of steerage from the GM.
I am hoping to expand on this model with this session and see if it works and most importantly check to see if it is enjoyable for the players concerned or at least worthwhile to the characters involved.
Axis 16:07, 13 Dec 2006 (NZDT)
Weather
On Friday night I was talking to a guy who lived in Novosibersk for 16 years. There is a 2-3 week period in May when it shifts from -10 to 30 Celsius. At this time areas not covered by snow are bone-dry fire hazards - he has memories of beating out fires approaching his home, resting in the snow under the trees, then returning the fight the fires. In January/February, it's below -30C, and too cold to ski, as the pressure of the skis won't melt the snow to allow one to slide. Oddly, ice-skating isn't a big thing there. The distances are huge, and the isolation absolute. The woods continue on for ever, and people just disappear into the local woods and are never seen again. Novosibersk is about the latitude of Kuznetsk, one of the more southerly, and thus warmer places.
Is this like Ruska? If so, come first snowfall, it's all about sleighs and troika over the snow, blizzards, and river boats staying in the middle of the flow to avoid freezing in. No large-scale manouvering can occur below about -10C without large casualty counts from the weather. We build, train, and fortify, waiting for spring, and see how many of the enemy has died over winter. I assume it's not as severe on Alusia?
Andreww 14:43, 1 Apr 2007 (NZST)
Just in case it is of assistance
Russian Winter The information that I think is particularly relevant is the fact that with no seas to hold the suns heat it is far colder than just about anywhere else on the planet (barring the poles) Central Russia being ~45 degrees colder than Canada or Northern Europe at the same latitudes. Of course this is at the dead of Winter not Autumn.
Mandos 11:14, 3 Apr 2007 (NZST)
- Thanks Mandos. We are also thinking about what preperations we should make for Winter, and trying to work out what we (and the other sides) will be able to do, so it's all useful. --Errol 11:32, 3 Apr 2007 (NZST)
