2019.07.17 Night Witches: Trud Gornyaka 1942

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.839 Everybody and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I recap the 2 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:10.320 tabletop RPG's I've recently participated in as a player or a game master. I'm 3 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:14.960 Jim Crocker and today I'll be talking about night, which is this is a 4 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:19.480 campaign that I'm running on the gaunt like gaming community, and right now we 5 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:25.280 are in the second duty station and that's Trud Gornyaka. It's one thousand nine 6 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:29.960 hundred and forty two and so far the war is not going very well for 7 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.359 the Red Army. So our intrepid Soviet air women are going to do their 8 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:39.000 part to try and help out with the cause. This is a campaign where 9 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:43.119 the plan is to play the entire war. We are running it in monthly 10 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:47.960 sessions. This is the third session that I've run in July. All run 11 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.359 a fourth and then it will keep going through August and through the rest of 12 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:57.719 the year as we play through the entire Great Patriotic War. As far as 13 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:03.799 players, Bethany was junior Lieutenant Gallia Sampson Nova, a hawk adventurer. PUCKET 14 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:11.159 was junior lieutenant. Dariat Dasha Yagarova, owl protector. Joey was junior Lieutenant 15 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:19.239 Paulina, Paulia Makarova, a Hawk leader, and Maria was sergeant Nina Ninochka, 16 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:25.040 Crisa Nova, a raven missanthrope. For folks not familiar with night, 17 00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:29.760 which is what would normally be a playbook in another PBTA game, is divided 18 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:34.959 into a nature, which is based on some kind of bird, and a 19 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:40.319 roll, which is the role that you serve within your unit. The nature 20 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:45.120 and roll combine to create a unique combination for each character. So this is 21 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:49.799 a game where it is okay to have players playing to the same nature, 22 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.400 but if they choose different roles, they're actually going to be really different characters. 23 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.359 So that's one of the really interesting things about this game. In this 24 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.719 case, with our session starting state, we end it on a bit of 25 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:06.120 a cliffhanger after a disastrous mission last week. So this session started with Galia 26 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:10.240 in the plane with a grievously injured pilot in the back seat. This is 27 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.599 one of the other player characters, and Dasha in the woods trying to find 28 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:21.360 her way back to the base because she gave up her seat to the injured 29 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:25.520 pilot. Meanwhile we've got two new recruits just arriving to witness all of this 30 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:30.400 chaos. Okay, so plot Synopsis Night, which is is a dense game 31 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.439 and a lot of stuff happens. I'm going to do my best to boil 32 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:36.599 it down, but there's a lot here, so just bear with me. 33 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:39.960 I promise it'll be worth it. So so the two new recruits arrived just 34 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:46.599 in time to see Galia's disastrous attempt to land with a grievously injured Nadya in 35 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:52.280 the back seat of her plane. But the injured pilot comes to as the 36 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:57.840 plane is coming in for a landing and panics botches the landing with her flailing, 37 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:04.199 so that it crashes, flips end over end and lands in the creek. 38 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:09.759 Nadia is just dead upon impact, but Gallia is miraculously largely unscathed, 39 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:14.560 just cuts and bruises. For a moment she's actually worried she's going to drown, 40 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:17.759 which would be a weird way to die after having just seen one of 41 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:22.759 the planes go up in flames and too of her pilots die as a result 42 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:27.080 of burns. But she manages to get herself out of the plane and just 43 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:32.400 walks away from the mangled wreck of her aircraft. The two new recruits head 44 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:38.360 to their tent baffled and shocked by what they've just seen. Gallia use the 45 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:44.240 subject of a six hour debrief with the major and the polar truck, the 46 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:47.879 political officer for their regiment, and the two of them are kind of playing 47 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:52.919 good cop bad cop on her, asking her why she landed her plane before 48 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:54.639 she got back to the base, this is a second time that that's happened, 49 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:59.759 and just trying to kind of find any inconsistencies in her story. Meanwhile, 50 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:03.360 the two new recruits are just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting and 51 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:09.400 they can't seem to connect and there's this awkward silence that just ends up lasting 52 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.919 several hours because they expect at any time that this officer is going to come 53 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:17.439 walking in, but she never does. Meanwhile, Dasha, who ran into 54 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:21.639 the woods to avoid a Nazi patrol who came by to check on the downed 55 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:27.920 aircraft, manages to luck her way into a ride from some farmers who are 56 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:32.519 often the countryside rounding up straight pigs, and she arrives at the base midafternoon. 57 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:36.399 She's whisked into an interview of her own, which gets Galia off the 58 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:42.480 hook to gather the new recruits and show them around. Everyone only gets a 59 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:46.360 few hours of sleep and at the evening meal, the Boulder of the two 60 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:51.800 pilots transferred from dsection demands that they'd be seated together in their own plane or 61 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:56.480 they will be trouble. Galia is not really in a mood to fight her, 62 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:00.000 so she swallows her pride and does as they ask. During the briefing, 63 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.800 up into the air they go and the mission turns out to be a 64 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:08.920 complete success. All of the pilots execute perfectly, they hit the target and 65 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:14.519 everyone returns home without a scratch. There's a lot of relief and everyone relaxes 66 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:16.879 at least a little bit, knowing that they're not going to have another long 67 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:21.040 interview and that they're going to be able to get some rest the following day. 68 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:26.839 So the next day, at breakfast, Lydia, who's the mousier of 69 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:30.959 the two new transfers, actually approaches the group and sits with them at breakfast. 70 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:34.839 Quietly, but she does sit with them, but Galia is attempt to 71 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:41.360 scrutinize her and figure out what her deal is is misinterpreted and she leaves embarrassed 72 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:46.920 and upset, just as the Deputy Pola truck morale officer, Lieutenant Shere Matova, 73 00:05:47.319 --> 00:05:53.879 comes in and she is all smiles and she button holds Nina with a 74 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.079 request, well, not a request, an order, that she sit for 75 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:03.959 an interview with Prov d who have requested that she provide a pilot to inspire 76 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:09.240 readers. And of course the lieutenant has looked at Nina's file and knows that 77 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:15.439 she is from an orphanage because her house was bombed by the Nazis, which 78 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:18.639 killed her parents. And now here she is, a pilot dropping bombs on 79 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:21.560 the Nazis herself, and she thinks that it's just going to be a great 80 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:27.519 store for Pravda. So sharmatovah makes some suggestions for Nina for how to prepare 81 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:31.199 and Galia tells her to think of it as just another mission. So after 82 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:36.920 breakfast, Paula goes scrounging and miraculously manages to hunt down a leader of vodka 83 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:42.279 that she promised to Dasha and exchange for Dasha telling her the story of what 84 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:46.720 really happened on that disastrous mission. And this leader of Vodka, it turns 85 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:51.160 out, is assembled from smaller portions by Nina's cook friend from the all male 86 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:56.839 to eighteen night bomber regiment. This is a young man who seems to be 87 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:00.839 a little sweet on Nina, who passes her extra food when he can sneak 88 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:03.160 over from the to eighteen to see her. So Nina goes looking to Galia 89 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:06.759 for advice and finds her talking to Olga. Now Olga is one of the 90 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:11.279 mechanics who is one of the few women on the base who is the same 91 00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:15.120 age as Gallia, older with grown children, and she is a whiz with 92 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:20.040 repairing stuff, but she's a little bit homesick and sentimental and she can kind 93 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:25.160 of go on if you get engage her in a conversation. So of course 94 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:30.439 Olga immediately seizes on this skinny little orphan pilot as someone in need of care 95 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:35.120 and maintenance. So when they finally manage to get away from Olga and Nina 96 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.600 Asks Gallia for advice and what this means and she's not sure what to do, 97 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:44.959 Galia makes a really interesting comment on being a hero, which is that 98 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.439 when you're doing the job in front of you, eventually it just sort of 99 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:53.560 happens. Given the situation that everybody is in, all you need to do 100 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:58.560 to be a hero is avoid dying and just keep doing what they tell you 101 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:03.160 to do, and eventually those circumstances will come to pass. So everyone crashes 102 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.680 out for sleep for the day and when time for the mission comes, they 103 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:13.160 load in and fly out, this time with Dasha doing the wayfinding and Paulia 104 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:16.759 being entrusted with the attack run. They find the target, but not before 105 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:20.319 Galia and Dasha are knocked around just a little bit, not too badly. 106 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:24.600 They carry off the attack run without a hitch, thanks to mission pool that 107 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:30.839 they had built up earlier in the day, although Paulia and Nina are marked 108 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:35.120 by the experience of making the attack run, with Pulia giving their plane a 109 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:39.840 nickname and personality, which is a lot of fun. It is the black 110 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:46.000 cat and it's lucky, and Nina unlocking a regard slot which she points at 111 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:50.720 Gallia, and all the planes returned home. Galia delivers a relieved debrief to 112 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:56.720 the lieutenant, ending fictional state. Everyone is on the ground and getting ready 113 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:00.879 for another day. Still in the war. It still sucks, but the 114 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:05.519 prospect of Nina's interview is definitely looming over everyone, not just Nina. My 115 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:09.879 favorite player moment was definitely when Pullia through caution to the wind and went scrounging 116 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:15.759 for vodka, despite not being great at it and the poor supply situation at 117 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.919 the base. She hit with box cars and that was the only way she 118 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:22.480 could have gotten a ten plus, and everyone got to cheer as she described 119 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:28.759 taking a big hit off the top of the canteen filled with liquor before returning 120 00:09:28.759 --> 00:09:33.440 triumphantly to Dasha with it in hand. My favorite chamming moment was when Vera, 121 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:37.720 the surlier of the two replacement pilots, overheard the Deputy Pol truck setting 122 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:45.000 up that interview and then said to the crew after she left, well, 123 00:09:45.159 --> 00:09:48.519 she'll have a story however it goes tonight, and you could have heard a 124 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:54.600 pin drop. It was just deliciously cold and I was really pleased to be 125 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:58.480 able to spit it out right off the top of my head right in that 126 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:05.000 moment. It definitely caused Gallia to question whether she should keep accommodating the demands 127 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:09.320 of the two transfers, and I am really looking forward to seeing if this 128 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.519 is something that is going to boil over in a future session. It was 129 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:16.759 pretty neat as far as missed opportunities. This was a pretty great session night, 130 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:22.159 which is a really tight game that drives play in exactly direction it wants 131 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.159 to go, so there wasn't a heck of a lot to choose from. 132 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:30.399 One thing it would have been interesting to role play more was the interview with 133 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:35.919 Gallia where she was being interrogated about landing her playing and what went wrong on 134 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:39.399 that disastrous mission. We ended up just resolving it with a tempt fate die 135 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:43.679 roll, which worked fine. That's why it's there. It's built into the 136 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:46.799 game, and then we just rolled on to the next thing and went through 137 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:50.200 the day because it was the major in the polit truck doing this kind of 138 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:54.399 good cop, bad cop thing on her. It would have been super boring 139 00:10:54.399 --> 00:11:00.960 for everyone else to listen to me play two characters just sort of asking questions 140 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.639 and talking to each other. That's the worst when your GM placed two people 141 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.799 having conversation with each other. I try to avoid that wherever possible. So 142 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:13.039 mostly I just skipped right over the actual interview. I really want to see 143 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:18.200 if in the future I could have a meeting with that apparatus of the state 144 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:26.080 where we can actually spend a few minutes conveying the surreal and utterly arbitrary nature 145 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:30.919 of exercises like that in the Red Army, in that totalitarian system. So 146 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:35.679 a thing I noticed tonight the game started with a botched wheels down roll. 147 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:41.480 There's like the first moments of the game. And this was after multiple missrs 148 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:46.679 last week that resulted in the deaths of three pilots. Just straight up killed 149 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:50.919 three pilots and the three harm grievous wounding of a fourth. Now, of 150 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:56.759 course that wounded character would have had to spend time in the hospital before she 151 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:00.919 was able to come back and be a pilot. So that player had already 152 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:05.600 made a new pilot. So anything that happened they're just determine whether that pilot 153 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:09.639 could be played in the future or not. So this game started right out 154 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:13.519 of the gate with yet another disaster, after kind of a straight hour of 155 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:20.320 them last week. But I paused for a moment and I suddenly realized that 156 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:26.360 the way harder move than just wiping out Galia and the plane and having everyone 157 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:28.960 start from scratch, with Bethany stadding up a new pilot too, was to 158 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:35.799 let Galia walk away clean from a horriffic crash that by all rights should have 159 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:41.639 just murdered her, even as it mangled the injured comrade that she had risked 160 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:46.039 a landing to get home safely. It kicked the session into this really strange 161 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:54.799 and wonderful place, with mechanics and other airwomen now kind of arguing heatedly about 162 00:12:54.799 --> 00:13:01.240 whether Gallia was cursed or blessed, and that leading Galia herself to be equally 163 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:07.840 unsure. And it just underlined that sometimes, not all the time, but 164 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:13.840 sometimes the hardest move you can make is letting a character survive and deal with 165 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:20.159 the fallout of being the survivor letting them just get out of it without a 166 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:26.159 scratch or maybe with just a few bumps and bruises, while everyone else pays 167 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:28.720 the price. And that is actually a thing that happens in war. Sometimes 168 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:35.519 will survive just by happenstance, by fate. Getting a chance to explore that 169 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:39.399 in the game the other day. That was pretty amazing. This was definitely 170 00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:43.320 something that is going to yield dividends for many sessions to come and I'm really 171 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.759 glad that I get a chance to see that in action and see really, 172 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.679 no kidding, just how well that worked. So that's all for this episode. 173 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:54.480 Thanks very much for listening. If you're enjoying the show. Do please 174 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.480 rate and review it wherever you found it. It really helps other people find 175 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:00.399 it. Check out the show notes for the Youtube video of this session. 176 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:03.840 We've got it up there, as well as where to find information on the 177 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.759 actual historical night, which is as always. You can follow me on twitter 178 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:11.679 at Jim Likes Games and buy games from me, including night, which is 179 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:15.919 at my website, Jim Lakes Gamescom, or find me a convention I attend 180 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.480 as a vendor. That's the best way to support the show. Now, 181 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:22.279 if you will excuse me, I am going to go play another game.