Table of Contents
Welcome to James Kemp's Wiki
This is a collaborative web platform that allows people to edit1) the web pages to provide additional content for some of the stories I have written and the roleplaying games that I am involved in, whether as a player or GM.
There are several namespaces operating slightly different wiki subjects. These are, in no particular order:
- Skyss - Story Background - a fantasy novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2016.
- Perfects - background for the near future story and some police roleplaying that I ran in that universe
- Theocracy of Daprav - A D&D campaign that I ran with Glasgow University Games Society around 2002-3.
- Jim Wallman's Universe - a roleplaying by e-mail campaign that I play in, this is an unofficial wiki and none of it is canon unless Jim says it is.
- Interstellar Freelance Unlimited - subset of the Universe pages covering the activities of a mercenary company that we are currently roleplaying every Full Moon.
- Earth Imperium pages. These cover the activities of the Government of the Solar republic (aka Earth Empire) in Jim's Humanity Will Prevail campaign, including the Earth Imperium News Items.
- Free Worlds Alliance - covering the activities of another emerging polity in the Humanity Will Prevail campaign. Mostly contributed by Eric Moroney.
- Universe Background - page collecting the various bits of background info that have come up in various e-mail discussions for the campaigns set in Jim Wallman's Universe.
- Master map of the Universe (6Mb PDF, as at 3212).
- Delta Green - some roleplaying campaigns about horror and conspiracy. The main one was set in Berlin in 1953.
- Free games rules - a collection of free rules for wargames and other sorts of face to face games that I have designed or run.
- Wargames rules - I'm not just a player of games, I also do rules for them from time to time as well as one-off games. A primary outlet for this is through Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.
- Other free rules - at the moment just those for the 1689 (Orange or Lemon? and Bonnie Dundee, respectively about the debates in the Scots Parliament and then the military campaign of Viscount Dundee during 1689) and The Other Side of the COIN (about what makes people become insurgents). All games that I have have produced for Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.
- Background for a near future universe where I have written some fiction and also run some roleplaying games in.
Comments and complaints to me at webmaster@full-moon.info please.
James Kemp
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Berlin 1953 - The Golden Gate
Background
It is late spring 1953 and Berlin 1953 is still in the process of reconstruction, although these days it can afford to occassionally stop and enjoy itself. That's just as well because if it couldn't then the The Golden Gate would be very much out of business.
The Story
Starting from the beginning (almost) and possibly including some things that not everyone knows about (so if so please play as if you don't know about it unless told by one of the characters that does). Narrative
The story centres on “The The Golden Gate” an upmarket club which caters to every need. The drinking den plays music and is host to a number of working women who are more than willing. The club sits in the middle of Berlin 1953 close to the Potsdammerplatz and the sector boundaries between the British and Soviet sectors. The area surrounding the club has been subject to the RAF's urban redevelopment and has yet to be re-built.
In the recent past there have been some Murders, discoveries in the basement including some Tunnels. There has also been an aura of mystery around one of the new girls.
Session Calendar
You can see the dates that we intend to play sessions on the Roleplaying in Merstham page.
Earth Imperium of the Solar Republic
see also Rob Cooper's pages at http://solar-republic.net/frameset.htm
The local pages cover some of the background from Rob's pages, some new material and also what the Earthers have been up to since Turn 69 in Jim Wallman's Humanity Will Prevail play by e-mail game.
Current Affairs
Personalities
Background
Bounce Into Action: Morale
The morale of the soldier is the greatest single factor in war. **(Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery)**
Overview
Every unit has a morale number. This is determined in advance of the game and then used, with modifiers, to determine whether or not units will do what the player wants when the situation becomes difficult.
Morale checks roll 1d6 and roll less than the modified morale number to be successful.
This is only tested when one of the conditions mentioned below is reached, once morale has been tested once for a particular condition then it should not be tested again for that group.
Group morale
Group morale applies to the entire player command. If there are multiple players on the same side then each player's troops form a separate group.
When any of the following conditions apply then morale should be tested:
- two or more casualties4) (or 25% of group if more than eight members)
- 50% casualties (at -2)
- 75% Casualties (at -4)
Score 6 or more on 2d6 to carry on. If morale is failed the group will withdraw in good order, recovering any casualties and/or fighting their way back to their own line.
If morale has to be tested for more than one group then do so in the following order.
- all attacking groups first from biggest to smallest
- all defending groups second from biggest to smallest
Individual Stand Morale
Test individual morale when any of the following conditions apply:
- coming under fire for first time
- attempting to enter enemy position
- first-time in hand to hand combat
Roll 1d6 for each5) individual/stand or group (i.e. a group all inhabiting the same space). Modify the dice roll if any of the factors below apply.
| Situation | Modifier | Situation | Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Officer leading by example 6) | +1 | Wearing HMA | +2 |
| Each enemy casualty in sight (walking wounded or worse) | +1 | In HoverBus | +2 |
| Under small arms fire from close range or indirect fire/grenades | -1 | In APC | +1 |
| Each friendly casualty in sight (walking wounded or worse) | -1 | Enemy in HMA/APC | -1 |
| Visibly outnumbered (i.e. more enemy than friends in view) | -1 | Enemy Tanks | -2 |
| Melee threatened with edged weapon | -2 | Unarmoured | -1 |
| Officer taking morale | +2 | Under air attack | -3 |
| NCO taking morale | +1 | Enemy weapons can't kill | +4 |
.
| Result | Resulting Individual Morale |
|---|---|
| 3+ over | Attack the enemy. |
| morale number or more | No restrictions, carry on with whatever they wanted to do. |
| morale -1 | Move no closer to seen enemy. May stand where they are and fight. Will not enter a known fire-swept zone unless leaving an enemy trench while under attack from within the trench. |
| 2 or 3 Less | Retire in good order to nearest cover. If no enemy in sight then count as ‘move no closer’. If there is no cover, or nowhere to duck into within a tactical move distance, then stand and fight. |
| 4 or more less | Surrender to nearest known enemy (even if not in sight initially). |
Definitions for Morale
Fire Swept Zone
This is any area that has been fired upon by the enemy in the previous turn, either by direct fire (including being under a MG dangerous area) or by indirect fire or grenades. Generally it should represent a greater danger to the figures than the area they currently inhabit.
Casualties
For group morale purposes any losses from the stands in a platoon or company count towards the percentage losses.
In individual morale only those casualties that are physically co-located with the troops in question and that can be seen count for determining the morale modifiers. All visible casualties count for this purpose regardless of whether or not they were recent or from the same unit as the enemy. Destroyed vehicles do not count, although wounded/dead crew members do if they are visible.
Bounce into Action
This is a provisional title for a series of games set in Jim Wallman's universe for medium to small actions involving infantry, vehicles, air and space assets.
design criteria
- quick battles (about two hours playing time to a decisive finish)
- it should cope with orbital and air activity in support of the ground action
- it should cope with things too big for 'Starship Soldier' and too small for 'Plan A' in a way broadly consistent with both rulesets
- logistics and morale should have an appropriate impact
- it needs to support a campaign approach as typified in the Full Moon IFU campaign
- capable of playing with multiple players on each side (min two each)
Level of Resolution
This should be two-down from the main action level. The size of action that we are most likely to play with these rules might have an infantry company of up to 100 supported by up to eight tanks. On the air front there are only likely to be two or three combat capable craft on each side with perhaps one side having some shuttles to conduct a landing from orbit.
Orbital
There could be orbital reconnaissance or even weapons platforms, the latter being most likely to be of similar capability to artillery. There might be some attempt using shuttles, pacifiers or marines to deal with orbital platforms.
Stuff happening purely in orbit should be abstracted and turned into a quick lookup table with a set of factors and some way of working out how long it will take.
Shuttles should be dealt with as individual air assets when they come into play to land/evacuate ground force elements.
Orbital weapons platforms in support of the ground forces should be treated the same as artillery. Orbital reconaissance should remove any hidden movement, or at least make it more likely that units are acquired and placed on the table top even when there is no direct line of sight to enemy ground forces.
Air assets
These should be very few in number. Each aircraft or shuttle should be individually represented.
Ground Vehicles
Infantry
Infantry should be shown in groups dependent on their primary function and level of equipment. Crew-served weapons should be a single stand each, Special Forces in pairs, regular ground forces in four man fire teams and unarmoured militia with assault rifles in sections of eight. This should allow more flexibility for the better armed (and by extension better trained) troops and also make each stand slightly more comparable in terms of firepower.
Commanders
All commanders should be individual figures to allow a separation between the commander and the troops under command. Only those commanders at platoon level and above (except for HMA troops where the section commanders will also be included) will be separately represented.
Commanders include key NCOs and other specialists (e.g. medics, demolitions experts etc).
Time slice
For the purpose of working out all the other times in the rules I am going to use a ten minute time slice. This doesn't mean that all that time will be used by units for moving, firing or doing anything else, it is merely a choreographic abstract to allow all the bits to notionally fit together.
Technology
There is a huge gulf between the most and least able.
At the bottom end you can have a people's militia with untrained people armed with hunting rifles and the like through to infantry in Heavy Mobility Armour that can run at 40Km/h, shoot explosive slugs and are almost impervious to assault rifles.
With vehicles there is also a range from civilian wheeled vehicles up to the well armoured hover tank that can largely ignore ground conditions, move at road speeds across country and can shoot accurately on the move.
In the air there is also a wide range of capability, although this is more down to specialist aircraft rather than great technological differences. Largely that is because the air assets all represent controlled military hardware of one kind or another.
Bounce Into Action: Firing
Infantry Firing
All infantry firing, except Small Arms Air Defence (see below), uses 1d10 per stand firing. Officers (and other individually based figures) provide a positive modifier to a stand they are grouped with rather than an additional dice. If there are sufficient individually based figures in the same place to be the same size as a stand would be then they may fire collectively as if they were one stand.
Infantry Firing Modifiers
Weapon Range Bands
Air Defence
This covers both Air to Air and Surface to Air. Orbital to Air is not allowed except for very slow aircraft.
The probability of an aircraft being hit depends on its speed, manoeuvrability and loiter time. The modifier for each of these three is added together to get the basic hit number required. This can then be modified by the pilot ability.
Aircraft Speed
Aircraft have one of three speeds Fast, Slow, Very Slow. Some aircraft types may be capable of more than one speed, if so this should be specified when their posture is chosen.
The relevant hit numbers are:
| Firing from | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| target | Surface | Fast a/c | Slow | Very Slow |
| Fast | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Slow | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Very Slow | 4 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
Aircraft Manoeuvrability
Like speed there are three versions of this, Good, Medium and Poor.
The relevant hit numbers are:
| Firing from | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| target | Surface | Good | Medium | Poor |
| Good | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Medium | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Poor | 4 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
Loiter Time
The longer an aircraft spends in a danger zone the more likely it is to get shot down. Aircraft fall into two groups, those that can loiter in the target zone and those that need to make several passes. Fast aircraft always make passes rather than loiter.
Fast aircraft on their first pass get -2 to being hit by air defence. On any subsequent passes there is no modifier to the hit probability. This represents the AD systems having a longer range than the missiles usually and aircraft will normally stay within range of the sensors while they are turning for subsequent passes. The short time spent in the defended area counter-acts this partially.
Those aircraft that can loiter get +1 to the hit probability for each turn that they remain in the Air Defence umbrella. This also applies to any fast aircraft that are dogfighting outside the ground force area.
Resolution
Once the hit number is worked out roll the hit number or less on the dice to hit the aircraft. If the dice roll is less than a quarter of the hit number then the aircraft is immediately shot down, otherwise it is damaged.
| AD System | Range | Dice | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy SAM | 50 Km | 1d6 | always hits on a 1 |
| Vehicle SAM / Air to Air Missile | 20 Km | 1d10 | Misses if hit number below min roll |
| ManPAD | 10 Km | 2d6 | Misses if hit number below min roll |
| Multi-Cannon | 2 Km | 2d6 | Misses if hit number below min roll |
| SLA 3 | 2 Km | 2d10 | Misses if hit number below min roll |
| SLA 2 | 2 Km | 1d100 | Can only damage aircraft |
| Small Arms | 300 m | 1d100 | Cannot damage Pacifiers, only damage to others |
Where there are multiple air units on 'Air Defence' then the order of firing is by manoeuvrability, then pilot ability, speed, or highest die roll if all factors are identical.
