XCOM: Enemy Unleashed

Game Master JDPhipps

Notice: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0
Wild: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1 Psssht. Hopefully someone else can pick out more than I can.

Gavril moves out with the others, and at the site of the last attack, he looks around, but doesn't pick out anything in particular of interest. While the others look more in-depth, he double-checks that his weapons are all loaded and ready to fire--safeties off with the threat of ambush.

Borax falls in line.

Notice: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 01d6 - 1 ⇒ (6) - 1 = 5
Raise: 1d6 ⇒ 1

And shares what he sees.

Notice: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4
Wild: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (4) - 1 = 3

"This was a very well planned and executed ambush," Rosa mutters. "Too well planned..."

Jacob raises an eyebrow atRosas's assestment, investigating himself the zone.

Notice: 1d8 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 21d6 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1

"I can't see s#@$e, but I knew it was an ambush! I told ya, there's much to this that damned terrorists! says the irish as he watches the possible escape routes.

While Jackalyn doesn't find much either, Kristophe manages to find the beginnings of a trail away from the actual site of the ambush. While the Norweigan loses the trail, it's enough for Borax to find his way into the secret communications outpost in the ruins of one of the nearby houses. "What in the hell..." Sergeant Mylls says, leaning down to look at the tracks in the dust. "They've been setting up mobile communications points, they must be in communication with whomever's leaking them the information about our scavenging runs. That explains why we didn't see a pattern in who was on the patrols, they didn't need to be in the field to give a signal in the first place." He shakes his head, cursing under his breath. "Still, it doesn't look like there's much of a trail out of here, so it doesn't seem we'll be hunting them down. Once we get within 100 meters of our designation scavenging site, I want you six to--" he stops, realizing he isn't actually in a position to give your squadron orders. "I think it would be best if you all split off from the main group, scouted for their location. That is, if you feel that's the best course of action."

Notice; Jackalyn: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0
Wild; Jackalyn: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0
Spending one of Jackalyn's bennies.

Notice; Jackalyn: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1
Wild; Jackalyn: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (4) - 1 = 3

Notice; Kristophe: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4
Wild; Kristophe: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 2

As a note, I'm going to do something I consistently do for other game systems that feature an Aid Another mechanic. Whenever you're in a situation where the whole group could feasibly aid another on a roll, I'll tally all the successes and add them as a +1 to the roll of whoever rolled the highest, with an additional +1 for every raise you score. It keeps things simple, and if you notice that a roll would put your group over a particular threshold, feel free to act as if you've hit it in your own posts without me commenting.

"If it's all the same to you, Sergeant, I'll stay with your group. If some of us move to scout, maybe find the enemy before they find us, that could be good, but keeping someone with the main group in case seems prudent." Gavril pats his Minimi and grimaces. "Extra firepower to hold them off might be just what we need to keep the squad alive. And we only need to catch one of the enemy alive to have a better lead."

"Yes, of course. If that's--if you think that's best, then... by all means, remain with me." While not angry, the Master Sergeant clearly feels a bit awkward when addressing you all as a group; he doesn't seem to be sure if he's really in command of you, if you're in command of him, or if the command structure for your squad is simply separate from his own entirely. "If any of you want to reach the salvage site with me and my men, you're welcome to; if not, I'd suggest splitting off before they see us all traveling together... we don't want to ruin our chance at taking them by surprise." Jackalyn nods slowly, agreeing with the master sergeant.

"I'll break off before we reach the salvage site, along with any others. We can take a wide berth around the area and search the houses for any sign of activity." She says, her voice flat.

Borax nods in agreement with the Master Sergeant, "Your suggestion is a good one, Sergeant. We'll break off once we're within 100 meters."

Rosa just nods. As long as she's able to keep an eye on the rest of the group, she doesn't particularly care if they scout ahead or if they stick together.

"Yessir, Sergeant, I serve better as scouting anyway. I'll radio y'all if I find any booby trap or rigged explosive... it's pretty standard for these guys. Speaking of which..." Jacob double checks his grenades and nade launcher before turning to his pals. "... when we brek off, let me advance ten meters or so before ye, don't want none of ye stepping on a mine if I can help it."

"Ja, you four scout around. Corporal Vasilescu and I will stay with the sergeant," Kristophe says, his thick accent making Gavril's last name almost indecipherable. "We're ready when you are," he says to the sergeant, who just nods and motions for the group to head out towards the scavenging site. The group continues on, and the sergeant eventually motions to the four-man scouting party that they're within range to break off on their own. They surreptitiously split from the rest of the group, with Jacob taking point to check for explosives. The Irishman doesn't find anything as they travel parallel to the main group, and soon enough they're within sight of their scavenging site.

That's two separate Notice checks, one depending on sound. In addition, everyone sneaking about should roll me a Stealth roll as well.

Rose stays near the group, her eyes darting around for any sighs of the likely ambush. "There's been a lot of movement through here recently, especially in to the buildings. I'd bet that they're in there if they're setting up." She stops and raises a hand for silence. "Voices..." she murmurs. "Inside that building." She points toward the correct structure. "And what sounds like a radio."

Notice the First: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Notice the Sound: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Although I'm not sure I should be making those, so I won't comment.

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 61d6 ⇒ 3

Notice Sound: 1d6 ⇒ 51d6 ⇒ 1

First Explode: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Borax relays to the group what he notices if he feels he can do so without giving away their position.

Stealth: 1d6 ⇒ 51d6 ⇒ 6

Gavril, you wouldn't notice the sound but you could potentially roll for the normal notice check and its raise. Borax, just so you know that with your seven and a success from Rosa giving you a +1, you do manage to get a raise on your original Notice roll.

Gavril notices the abundance of tracks here, and he cracks his neck while subtly speaking to the soldiers near him. "This is an ambush site. Don't be obvious, but be ready."

Borax radios the main group about the spotters and suggests they hold position. Borax turns to Jon, "What do you think about following these cables to the generator, shutting it off, and then ambushing them when they come to figure out what's wrong?"

Rosa chuckles softly. "Ambushing the ambushers. How... poetic. If they're confident enough to just send a few people to check on it, we can probably get the drop on them."

Borax nods, "Yes, I'm hoping Jon can figure out a way to reduce the power output without cutting it off. If we completely shut it off, they might get suspicious, but if we can drop the amps or spike the voltage, they might think it's just a malfunction."

Notice: 1d8 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 5
No point on rolling for the Notice one, as Jacob is half deaf from being too close to so many booms.
Stealth: 1d8 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 6
Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 2

"Ya mate, can be done easily. I'd rather temporarily disable it than totally wreck it, we could try to 'ride the wave' and at least know the direction where the transmission come." says the Captaen while he 'writes down' on his hand to help jis mental calculations.

"Make sure we crack them good, fast and silently. If we can send a prisoner to interrogate before proceeding we'll have a fallback plan, just in case things get shaky and I need to use the big toys."

"Right, let's see what we can find," Jackalyn says, her pistol and knife out in place of her rifle. The four of you make it to where the trail of the cables and footprints stop, heading into a building not far from your starting position. The voices you hear grow louder, and it seems whomever is inside is communicating with the riflemen spotted on the rooftops. While they don't spot you, you can see a guard outside the building, armed with an assault rifle. From what you can see through the broken walls of the building, two more guards wait inside with the person on the communications equipment; the generator is outside the main room, with the only guard that would immediately spot someone tampering with it being the one outside.

"I can take him out," Jackalyn says. "Once he's down, deal with the generator." She moves forward, and the guard fails to notice her approach, turning to look in the opposite direction as she reaches up and holsters her pistol and drives the knife into the man's neck. She clamps her free hand over the man's throat and rips the knife forward through his trachea, her hand muffling the short scream before she gently guides his body to the ground, no blood spotting her armor or clothing. She draws her pistol again, and motions to Jacob and the others. "Go, I'll cover you."

Inside the room, Jacob and the others can more easily see the generator. The machine is old and beat-up, but still barely running. Jacob could cause a short in the machine that would cause it to work intermittently, resembling a technological failure as opposed to sabotage.

Jacob, roll a Repair check... to break the generator.

Borax gives Jacklyn a nice-job nod as she eliminates her target. Borax whispers to the group,

"Let's grab the man's radio. If they ask what's going on after Jacob does his thing, we'll radio that the machine started smoking and to send someone. Anyone good at imitating voices?"

"Only voice I can immitate well is Ewan McGregor's. Unless these fellas work for the Jedi Council, I better get to work on that thing." says the iriah to Borax and Jacklyn "What? I did like the movies, judge me if you want." he adds before moving towards the generator.

Repair: 1d8 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 4

Well, that's a success. Two of them, actually.

Imitating voices would be... lying, I guess? There's no skill for that. I guess it works under Persuasion, if anything?

Jacob kneels near the generator and cracks open one of the panels, the men in the next room too busy to notice the small clang as it separates from the body of the generator. He clicks his tongue a few times, before stripping a pair of wires and rubbing them against one another. The wires spark and the generator shudders, belching a plume of black smoke from its innards. While still running, it stalls out once or twice fairly quickly. The dead man's radio crackles to life for a moment, the voice on the other side cutting out and overlaid with static.

"ما الذي يحدث هناك؟ هو مولد كسر أو شيء من هذا؟"

Do any of you speak Arabic?

I'm back!

Jacob's radio crackles to life. "Is the generator down? Over."

Common Knowledge: 1d8 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 2
Benny...
Common Knowledge: 1d8 ⇒ 71d6 ⇒ 5

Jacob spends a minute trying to remember the words and another one focusing on not sounding like an old irish speaking arab.

"آلة مكسورة، تحتاج لترميم." he says to the cracking radio.

"Just went down," Rosa mutters in to her radio at Jackalyn's question. "We're setting up to hit them if they take the bait."

"حسنا، إصلاحه. وقال إدواردز أنها سوف تكون هنا في أي لحظة، ومالك لا يمكن أن تعطيني إشارة مع هذا الشيء إلى أسفل. إذا لم نتمكن من الحصول على قطرة عليهم، وأطلقوا النار على كل شيء و." While Jacob can't really understand what comes through the radio other than a few words of Arabic--he picks up the words 'fix', 'Malik', 'signal', and 'shot'--but he does catch something surprising. While the name was pronounced with an Arabic inflection, he definitely hears the name 'Edwards' towards the beginning of what the man said. It's unclear who that might be referring to, but it's possible it has something to do with the information being leaked. Whatever the man said, he seemed to buy Jacob's quick explanation, as neither he nor the guards have headed out into that area of the building. At the moment, it appears the group can signal the bulk of their forces whatever they wish, or even take out the people at the communications array and use it for themselves.

Amongst the main group, Gavril and Kristophe hear Rosa's message over the radio. "They've found the communications array, they won't be sending out a signal," he says, nodding to the men. "We're ready when you are," he says back into the radio, signaling to the splinter group. "Let us know when and where you want us to break this charade, and we'll do it."

No, you didn't kill the snipers; Jackalyn spotted them (and depending on when you came back I was going to have her kill them before they rejoined the main group) and alerted the main group and those with you before killing the sentry outside with her combat knife. There aren't actually any rules for silencers in SW, which is odd, meaning you killing them would have alerted everyone. If we want to make them, the important question becomes video game silencers vs. real-life suppressors. We can talk about that in Discussion if people are interested.

Ah. In which case:

"I'm ready whenever you are. Be warned, though: as soon as the first sniper goes down, we're on a clock. My rifle isn't exactly the quietest. Do what you need to do and then get out ASAP. We don't want to be here when the SOBs come here in force."

Also, could you add me to the game again?

"Ya, well... I'm not sure we're gonna have a jævla choice about that. I'd venture a guess they aren't far from here, and the rotte drittsekks are gonna come for us in force the second you take that shot. They'll know their cover's blown." Kristophe sighs through the radio, his voice a bit despondent. "Still, everyone here knows it's coming. Let us know before ya take out the first sniper, we'll take cover'n be prepared for their attack. I can't see the snipers from here, so they won't have a bead on us either. I'd rather draw them to us then have'em scatter to the f*ckin' winds; easier to take a prisoner that way." The line is silent for a moment, and then the Norweigan's voice comes through again. "Be careful, and regroup with us as soon as you take out those rifleman. I don't need you lot getting pinned down when they come running."

You've been re-added to the game. Sorry, thought I'd done it already.

"Thirty seconds until I start making noise, everybody. Mark."

Jackalyn carefully lines up her shot with the enemy sniper while mentally counting down, and, at precisely thirty seconds, she pulls the trigger.

Shooting+Aim Bonus: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Barrett Damage: 2d10 ⇒ (4, 9) = 13

"Ready," Rosa says, flicking the safety off her SMG.

"Roger," Kristophe's voice comes through the radio, then ends with a satisfying click. Back at the main group, he starts giving commands in a stern but quiet tone. "Alright, show's over; we've got less than thirty seconds before those b*tches come pouring in like a river of faen," he says, pointing out positions of cover for soldiers to take up. "Move, move!" he says in a harsh tone, removing the safety on his shotgun and ducking behind the remains of what used to be the wall of a building. Sergeant Mylls takes up a position farther back on the opposite side of the street, signaling when he and some of his men are in position. Jackalyn hears the click of the radio again, five seconds before she takes the shot. "We're ready for them," Kristophe says, his voice cold. "Give them hell."

Even with the suppressor, the roar of Jackalyn's rifle echoes across the ruined city of Basra. For a second, the world is quiet; she watches through the scope as the bullet strikes the terrorist's skull, just below the eye, and he topples from the roof in an explosion of blood. She can see the other sniper's mouth moving, yelling into a radio, looking for her to take a return shot. "ما هي اللعنة؟ لكم اثنين، للخروج من هناك، والتحقق من ذلك! ما هي اللعنة يجري؟" The voice from farther inside the house breaks the silence, and soon the two guards break the doorway and spot the splinter group as they raise their weapons and get ready to fire. "أحمد هو أسفل، ونحن قد حصلت على الدخلاء!" While Jackalyn is outside and relatively protected from their fire, the three others are within the house with few places to take cover; they'll need to take them out fast.

On the main road, the troops hear the shots ring out, and raise their weapons towards their previous destination, ready for a fight. A few seconds pass before they hear the yelling; "اذهب، اذهب! لقد تم اختراق، واخراج الكفار!" they hear, seconds before the insurgents make their appearance. The first several are gunned down as they break cover, but the rest are smarter and take up positions in the alleyways before returning fire. After several second the air is ripe with the smell of gunpowder as volleys of small arms fire are traded between UN Peacekeepers and the insurgents.

Okay, so there's actually two initiative tracks here.

Gavril moves into position as the plan is set in motion, taking position in cover and triple-checking that his SAW is ready to fire. After the shot rings out, the enemy begins scrambling into view, and Gavril unloads with a volley of suppressive fire--they can get into cover, or they can get dead.

Shooting: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (8) - 2 = 6 Ace: 1d8 ⇒ 1 Total 7.
Wild: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (5) - 2 = 3
Damage: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 3) = 9

Even as he finishes the burst, the Romanian is up and moving, dashing into closer cover so he can close with the enemy for combat more his style.

Do we have any sort of map, or at least an accurate count of how many guys there are?

Gonna take that as a no.

Sebastian takes cover, hoping nobody is flanking their position.

"Well that went to hell quickly!" he says, popping over just long enough to take a potshot and then hunkering back down.

Shooting: 1d10 ⇒ 6
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Damage, AP 2: 2d8 ⇒ (1, 7) = 8

With the trap sprung and someone else paying for the bullets, Borax unloads on the mercenary who comes to check on the generator.

Shooting (3RB): 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 41d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
Damage: 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (2, 2) + 2 = 6

As soon as the men walk in to their trap, Rosa lifts her SMG and unloads straight in to the nearest insurgent's chest.

Too late to edit, so here's the rest of my attack, because I'm a moron and forgot how automatic fire works in SW

Shooting #2: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (3) - 2 = 1
Shooting #3: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (7) - 2 = 5
Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 4) = 10 Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 6 This guy dead: 1d6 ⇒ 2 Total: 18

Don't tell anyone, but i had to look up the rules before I posted as well.

I decided to just make mine a single shot because I didn't want to bother looking them up myself.

And I went with suppressive fire because I didn't feel like rolling a bunch of dice. What a bunch of proactive, go-get-'em alien hunters we are!

When it comes to maps, I have been running this game primarily in theatre of the mind; normally I will describe groups of enemies, but because of their position in cover at the moment it's not really possible for you to tell how many insurgents there are at the moment. Once you have more accurate numbers you can see, I will tell you.

As the two armed insurgents come through the door, Borax and Rosa open fire. Borax hits the first one through the door in the chest and he stumbles backward as Borax's bullets fly past his head and slam into the wall just beside him, and Rosa's automatic fire puts two bullets through his chest when he trips backwards over a power cable and falls to the ground. The second man catches several of Rosa's bullets to the chest and several of them pierce through the magazine carrier on his chest; as he drops, they see the small curls of smoke rising from his chest and the bullets within the magazine cook off. The man farther back in the hallway yells incoherently before the group inside hears the sound of footsteps from the hallway. They stop short of the door, and all is quiet for a second before a hand pops up from behind the doorway and a grenade sails through. While they all scramble to avoid the blast radius the communications operator seems to have cooked it as he ran and it explodes sooner than expected, and while their ballistic vests absorb some of the shrapnel still more fills the room and slices into the three operatives inside the building; Jacob's position behind the generator helps shield him from some shrapnel but ultimately doesn't save him from being injured.

On the main road, Gavril's volley of suppressive fire causes several insurgents to duck back behind cover for fear of being shot, but as one of them ducks back behind cover Sebastian's shot slams through his skull and he topples down on the rubble he was crouched behind. A few moments one of them pops his head out again although the other remains hidden, clearly fearing another volley of fire from Gavril's machine gun. As the huge Romanian charges forward several gunmen take shots at him. Both of their submachine guns rattle off rounds into the hulking soldier's torso but to not avail, as the rounds bury themselves into his Kevlar vest and don't even seem to slow Gavril down.

While hunkered down, Sebastian hears the rattle of submachine gun fire pound into the mortar and stone protecting his body and a few stray shots that fly past over his head, but is unharmed as well. While he has a minimal view of the battlefield, Gavril notices as in the hail of gunfire a few stray shots slam into the cover just shy of their fellow insurgents, causing some shouting in Arabic as they re-adjust to resume firing.

Fighting: 1d8 ⇒ 7
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5

For the first group, everyone but Jackalyn (as she's out of the blast radius) takes 14 damage--except for Jacob who takes 12 due to cover-- meaning everyone suffers a Wound. Jacob and Jackalyn are up, the man behind the doorway has Medium cover so you take a -2 to Shooting rolls against him. Also, just for clarification; Borax's shot hit and treated him as Shaken, only for cinematic purposes did he 'miss'.

For the second group, neither of you are injured... even though both of Gavril's shooters manage to ace on their Shooting rolls. You're a lucky man, Gavril. Also, two separate terrorists are now Shaken after suffering from being Innocent Bystanders. You get a new round of initative, so here you go:

Benny to Soak: 1d6 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 4
That... that works, I think. Been so long since I soaked to remember clearly.

Jacob mimics the insurgent and yells incoherently, but the irish is actually spewing blasphemies to the top of his lungs. "Ye fookin gobshite! The machinery could have gone off, you dumb bearded son-of-b$%**!" is the only thing the others managed to catch.

From behind his improvised cover Jacob grabs his grenade launcher and grins "Two can play this game, ya c~%#!" as two 'nades fly towards the hallway.

Double Tap +1, Drawing MAP -2
Shooting Double Tap: 1d8 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (6) + 1 - 2 = 51d6 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 - 2 = 1
Damage: 3d6 + 1 ⇒ (5, 3, 5) + 1 = 14

4/6 nades in the clip.
I would aim towards the hallway, but not too far. Just enough so I don't crips the fellas inside but the fokin idiot that tried to crips us gets his share.

And I just realised I forgot to buy the Throwing Skill. Pretty much keeping the tone of a mad irish who can handle bombs hella fine but forgets important stuff, like how to throw them.

"Grab yer guts and prepare, fellas!" he says to the other operators.

Alright, time to roll.

Jackalyn hardly blinks as the grenade goes off, even as dust and debris flies all around her. "Group one, do we have wounded?" she calmly inquires into the radio as she lines up her second shot, at the other sniper.

Shooting: 1d10 ⇒ 9
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Damage, AP 4: 2d10 ⇒ (5, 2) = 7

Been a while, so what happens when I get an ace on attacks again? I believe that I add another d6 to damage.

Ace Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Jacob, I think Jon is rolling Throwing into Fighting for this game--I know he often does with Savage Worlds. Of course, as you said, it's still fitting for Jacob if he can't throw grenades with much accuracy.

Gavril grunts as the bullets catch his vest, and he drops into cover shortly after that. He takes only a moment to check himself for wounds before moving up and onward again, this time without his machine gun. He draws his shotgun as he goes, as he slides into the next spot of cover, he fires at the nearest of the enemies.

Shooting with MAP: 1d8 ⇒ 5 A hit if they're only in light cover.
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Damage: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 3) = 13

That... that would actually explain how did I forgot to put points into actually being able to bomb stuff. Or Molotov it.

It was also part of GTG's houserules for the Fallout game. I actually forgot Throwing existed.