Fallout: Boneyards (Chariots of Steel playtest / New Vegas Sequel Quest!)

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CHARACTER SHEET
  • Informational
    • NAME: Xiuyuan "Alderesh" Yang
    AGE: 41 | GENDER: Male
    CURRENT STATUS: No injuries, 0 RPM, 7 STRESS

    HARD​
    KEEN​
    CALM​
    DARING​
    -2​
    +3​
    +4​
    -2​

    MOVES
    Breadwinner
    Fen Yang: She's having a hard time at work/school and are unsure about their future​
    (*)(*)( )​
    [-1 Stress Per Routine!]​
    Bronwyn Yang (aka Browny): They're struggling with long-form Warflu and need expensive meds to kick it. Fortunately, you've managed to send some.​
    (*) (*) ( )​
    [-1 Stress Per Routine!]​

    Get It Done: Each Routine, hold 3. Spend that hold to get a partial hit on any check before rolling.
    Old Reliable: The tank gains +2 Integrity, +4 Safety and +3 Reliability for ground vehicles, and removes Unreliable and gives +1 to Attack for a firearm.
    Domestic Bliss: When you're at 0 stress, take +1 ongoing to all rolls outside of air combat. You're not in air combat. Haha. Holy shit. Really, Erika?

    GEAR
    Cortex Comrade, a miniaturized personal computer which uses a persistent heads-up display to help workers perform their tasks… or soldiers target the enemy.
    A bandoleer with three smoke grenades.
    A super stimpack, purchased with your own money. Just in case.

    MASTERIES
    Getaway Mastery: Passive (Every move you take adds +1 Handling in ground vehicles.)
    Can't Miss: Reduce your Speed penalty to shooting by -3. When your vehicle attacks at Knife range, +1 AP. At Melee range, +2 AP.​

    VICES
    Cannabis
    Reading
    Music

    TONK
    A9 "Wander Home", M7 Oliver
    Speed: 4 | Torque: +2 | Handling: 23
    Armor: 4/2/1 | Integrity: 25 | Safety: 3
    Reliability: 0 | Fuel Use: 7 | Stress: 1

    SPECIALS
    Festooned with Hatches: Every position on the tank counts as having a Hatch, and any member of the crew can leave from any side or fire personal weapons in any direction.​
    Gun Stabilizer: The addition of a gun stabilizer reduces the movement penalty from the vehicle's own Speed by 2.​
    Linked: All crew positions have an intercom.​


    TANK CREW
    Yang: Commander | Type: Closed | Visibility: +1 | Escape: +2
    Drives-Fast: Driver | Type: Closed | Visibility: -1 | Escape: +2
    Trudy: Main Gunner | Type: Closed | Visibility: -2 | Escape: +1 |
    1 F. Cannon (AP/HE) | Hits: 1/6 | Range: Long/Extreme | Damage: 24/3 | AP: 4/0 | Specials (Both): Reload 1, Artillery, Heavy 4, Awkward -5 vs Planes. HE Shells gain burst​
    Arcs: Fore, Rear, Left, Right​
    1 WMG | Hits: 6 | Range: Long | Damage: 2 | AP: 1 | Special: Rapid Fire (always on rapid fire because there's no penalty while in a vehicle), Braced, Heavy 2​
    Arcs: Fore, Rear, Left, Right​
    Dora: Bow Gunner | Type: Closed | Visibility: -2 | Escape: +1 | Engine Access!
    1 LMG | Hits: 4 | Range: Long | Damage: 2 | AP: 1 | | Special: Repaid Fire (see above), Braced​
    Arcs: Fore​
    Mask: Loader | Type: Closed | Visibility: -2 | Escape: +1 | Assists Cannon Shooting

    TANK PLATOON

    H2 "Mighty Mighty Man", M2 Dumont - Armed with an MG
    Sergeant Baalaji: Commander/Gunner
    Private Iron Moth: Driver

    P9 "Lil' Mo Action", M2 Dumont - Armed with a Cannon
    Corporal Aubrey Angel: Commander/Gunner
    Private Caitlyn Smith: Driver

    INFANTRY SUPPORT

    Sergeant Christina Morales: Squad Leader

    Corporal Arnold Brick: Second in Command

    Lance Corporal Betty "Doc" Tracy: Medic

    Private Gordon Xavier: LAW Man

    Private Nosejob: LAW Man

    Private Samantha Yeager: LAW Man

    Private Michael Burnside: Sniper

    Private Thomas Barker: Rifleman

    Private William Barker: Rifleman

    Private Gwendolyn Price: Rifleman

    Lance Corporal Zǐhán Quin: Rifleman
     
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  • Informational
    • Wait, we rolled 13, which +2 Torque, +4 Calm, and +1 for being unstressed would add up to 20, wouldn't it?

    I don't think we can add +s and -s to rolls sadly, so any kind of bonus or penalty has to be added up separately.
     
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    Adastra said:
    Wait, we rolled 13, which +2 Torque, +4 Calm, and +1 for being unstressed would add up to 20, wouldn't it?

    I don't think we can add +s and -s to rolls sadly, so any kind of bonus or penalty has to be added up separately.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The 16+ for this move is choose one. If you had a bulldozer, then you'd choose -1, hence why your light tanks earlier got to act with impunity!
     
    1.0: A Fair Trial
  • Threadmarks
    • You grit your teeth. A bullet pings off the turret, right where you'd be, and your balls try and crawl up into your belly. But you square your shoulders, force yourself to not think about the lead whipping through the air, and throw the hatch open. You peek out, helmet feeling like it's paper thin and not enough for the world beyond your tank.

    Through the dirt kicked up by your treads, you can see that there's just one AT gun, perched in the lower levels of the shop, manned by crew scurrying to load in some more rounds - they have Legion tunics, though a few look like they are just in loincloths. The second and third level have Legion in them - their rifles flashing hatefully at you and the other tanks as they work to keep up as withering rate of fire as they could...considering they only had bolt actions. Their MGs, though, were a bigger risk.

    There was one in the window right above the AT gun, another on the left corner of the building, third floor.

    You snatch one of your smoke grenades from your vest without thinking and chuck it ahead of you. It begins to hiss and cough, spurting greenish smoke into the air, filling the space between you and the building with opaqueness. Bullets whip through it, but none are precisely aimed at your head.

    Which.

    Well.

    That was the point, wasn't it?

    Your hand went to your radio. "Get us into some cover, I don't want an AT round in the ass, Fast! Baalja, Angel, get your tanks into cover, I want that AT gun SILENCED!" You grunt as Drives throws the Wandering Home forward, her treads biting into the ground and her front armor bashing through some detritus as she drives into a bit of cover to the side of the road, narrowly avoiding the cloud of smoke. You can just barely see the building through it. "Morales, get your kids out there and suppress the building - keep your heads fucking down."

    The Legion gun roars again, like thunder in a stormcloud.

    The shot whips through the open space between you and nearly clips the radio antenna off Lil' Mo Action as she takes up her position. Perched precariously out the open hatch, Angel flips off the cloud and the general direction of the AT gun. They entered into the windward edge of the cloud and their light cannon thomped - and then the front of the building exploded near where you'd see the AT gun positioned.

    Well.

    Time for you to open up. The front machine gun started to bark as Dora squeezed on the machine gun's trigger, Trudy putting the coax to work as you gripped your mounted pintle and started to hose down the building too. Pings and flecks of plaster and wood start to dust the air, but the Legion are shooting back. You barely notice as the bark of NCR service rifles add to the din.

    Whump.

    The sound is almost like the air itself has been split by whatever had gone off. You are...lucky...you suppose, enough to be looking in the right direction to see one of the Legion on the second story turn into a red cloud of mist. You risk a glance away from the building to see that the sniper from Morales's squad has parked himself in the rubble off the road and...well, he's using a goddamn Hecate.

    You don't want to give the Legion any rest.

    "Smoke on that AT!" you shout.

    "Smoke," Mask croaks and slams the shell into the breach. Trudy calls out.

    "Smoke, on the way!"

    The cannon roars and you feel the backwash slap your face. The entire building blooms with a grayish cloud, billowing out of the windows and...then…

    Quiet.

    A shocking sudden quiet, filling the air as you realize that the entire squad is hunkered down. Even Brick has managed to bury himself in the rubble. You tense, readying for the Legion to start shooting again. There's what feels like a minute of agonizing silence as you hunt for a target, something to shoot.

    Movement. You almost hose it down, but pause as you see it shuffling forward.

    It's a Legion centurion, stepping into the light, his face clenched in agony that you can see, even from this distance. There's a pop from your side as an infantryman takes a hasty shot, which snaps against the pillar near him. He stumbles against the windowsill, flips, then hits the ground head first. His neck snaps with an audible, celery crunch, and you can see someone had stuck a bayonet in his back and into his lungs.

    A second later, Legion start to come out of the building, their hands lifted into the air, their heads hunched forward, tensed, as if ready for you to start machine gunning you down. The first person out has a white glove on their right hand, a red glove on their left. No. No, wait.

    That's blood. You trigger your radio.

    "Hold fire, they're… they're surrendering, I think," you said nervously. "But stay in cover, and keep your fucking guns on them."

    The other Legion have white gloves on, which do make their surrendering easy to spot, if no easier to understand. You'd been taught in training, Legion didn't surrender. They came running at you with fixed bayonets, with spears. This might be a trick. This almost certainly was a trick.

    "They're surrendering?" Dora asked into the intercom. "Perfect. They'll make stationary targets."

    "Wha- Dora, no!" you protest, along with everyone else in the tank. She lets out a little electric whine.

    "You never let me have any fun."

    Having figured that if they hadn't been shot, they probably aren't going to be, more Legion troops emerge from the rubble, stumbling over themselves. Several of them are dragging wounded friends and most of them are coughing from the acrid smoke still billowing from the building. Among them is a smaller figure in a blue jumpsuit and black leather jacket who you quickly realize is a young teenaged boy, blond, maybe thirteen, who looks completely in shock.

    "Holy shit, they're White Gloves!" Angel snarls over the radio.

    "Jesus Christ, are you kidding me?" Morales said tensely, and you could see her peeking up over the top of the rubble with her walkie-talkie in hand. "Surrender? That's fucking rich."

    Vaguely, over the ringing in your ears and the roar of your engines, you can hear the infantry screaming insults and curses and threats as the dejected crowd stumbles forward. They're fucking pissed, you can tell. You look down, covering your mic.

    "White Glove?"

    "Cannibals," Mask croaks out.

    You feel the sudden urge to machine gun them rush up through your veins. Cannibals? Fucking people eaters? But you force the instinct down, no matter how intense it is. You...are not them. You're not going to shoot some surrendering people, no matter how monstrous they are. No matter how many stories you'd heard, growing up.

    In theory, the NCR would at least give them a trial. You think...that kid looked like he might not have been old enough to be held responsible. Cannibal kids tended to get a better rap from the law, it wasn't like they could choose what their parents served them or what their parents did.

    Maybe not from anyone who learned their past.

    "All right, everyone," you say. "Keep it together. Do we have anyone here who speaks Latin? We'll call them over two at a time and secure-"

    A machine gun ripped up. The lead White Glove fell, blood exploding from their head, and for a second, you think it came from Mighty Mighty Man, but the streak of red and the angle of the tracer makes you jerk your head to the side. You can't see what fired it through the rubble on your left, but you can...you think...was it another MG position?

    Your eyes narrowed.

    No.

    It's not another MG. You can hear the rumbling of an engine and, briefly through the windows of the building to your left, see a low, sleek, deadly looking tank reversing down the road - one you've never seen before in your life. But it's main gun looks big.

    And it's colors are Legion.

    It disappears behind a concrete pillar as another burst rakes the retreating White Gloves, heading back into the building. Two of them stumble and fall and don't get back up.

    ---
    WHAT DO YOU DO?

    [ ] Write In

    A useful map, too!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Let it go for now. Hasty pursuit is just asking to fall into a trap. As it is, we still have prisoners and a position to secure, and artillery to assault. Chasing a mystery tank can wait.

    Plus, it's…y'know, heading away from the arty we're here for. Screams Diversion to me.
     
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    [X] Let it go for now. Hasty pursuit is just asking to fall into a trap. As it is, we still have prisoners and a position to secure, and artillery to assault. Chasing a mystery tank can wait.
     
    I like how the Legion is supposed to, in theory, subsume into itself all tribal and ethnic identities and completely obliterate them under the larger credo of Mars and Caesar and being witnessed all shiny and chrome. In theory.

    I think we can assume that whoever is commanding that Legion tank is not a White Glove.
     
    [X] Let it go for now. Hasty pursuit is just asking to fall into a trap. As it is, we still have prisoners and a position to secure, and artillery to assault. Chasing a mystery tank can wait.
     
    [X] Let it go for now. Hasty pursuit is just asking to fall into a trap. As it is, we still have prisoners and a position to secure, and artillery to assault. Chasing a mystery tank can wait.

    We really do not want to try hunting a TD in this sort of environ, its just asking to catch a AP round to the side or rear from that low slung bastard
     
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Dec 7, 2021 at 10:05 AM, finished with 5 posts and 4 votes.
    • [X] Let it go for now. Hasty pursuit is just asking to fall into a trap. As it is, we still have prisoners and a position to secure, and artillery to assault. Chasing a mystery tank can wait.
    Click to expand...


    All righty, roll me a 1d20-4!
     
    1.1: Walls Are Suggestions to AT Rounds
  • Threadmarks
    • You frown. The idea of running your tanks into the ruins that the Legion tank is retreating into doesn't strike you as a great way to get everyone out alive. And you have no idea if the AT gun's surviving crew has decided they'd rather get back into their 'allies' good graces by putting a high velocity slug through your side armor. So, you put your hand to your radio.

    "Morales! We're going to cover you, but your boys need to make sure Legion doesn't get that AT gun back up!"

    "Yes, sir," she says, and you mutter to Drives-Fast.

    "Put us forward, armor plate at the corner. We'll watch for them, but not chase," you say, pointing, and she nods, then pauses.

    "Wait, Xiuyuan, that might be a mine," she said, forgetting rank in the moment, and you realize that to drive forward and help secure the building, you'd need to either move around and go into the rubbled buildings to either side of the road, or drive along an area that might as well have a sign up saying 'Danger: Mines.' Or, you suppose, 'Periculum, Pedicas!' if you wanted to be accurate to the Legion.

    "We can clear you a route," Baalaji says over the radio, and Mighty Mighty Man pushes up ahead of you, the dozer blades lowering into the rubble and sweeping through the gap. It takes about a minute and a half of tense scraping, braced expecting an explosion, but nothing other than some scrap metal was turned up.

    Ahead, you can see that Brick has wriggled to the edge of the crossroads and is sticking his helmet out on a stick, then peering out with his own head. Other soldiers sweep rifles across the street. He gestures, and Morales' voice comes over the radio.

    "They're gone, we're clear for a dash," she says.

    You tense, expecting machine gun fire, watching as Brick and three of his riflemen run up behind him, the rifleman with their shotguns drawn. Brick shoulders into the door, and begins to shout in muffled Latin. You hear more clamoring - but no gunshots.

    "Backed off up the road heading north," Morales continues. "Just caught sight of it leaving around the corner, just for a second,"

    "Kind of hypocritical, shooting guys for surrendering and then retreating," Dora observed. Drives-Fast inched the tank closer to the corner, until you could just peek the barrel around.

    You turn your attention . "I guess they were-"

    WHUMP!

    The wall beside you - really, more of a ruined expanse of plaster and drywall and overgrown bits of weeds - explodes with a spray of dust as a metal, armor piercing slug blows through it. The shell whines off, hits the wasteland about two hundred meters off, skips, hits again another hundred meters away, then buries itself a few meters beyond that, leaving a series of dust plumes. You duck as dust and concrete patter off the tank's roof. When you emerge, you see through the two-foot hole blown not six feet from your head that the Legion tank apparently doubled back south and had tried to put a shot blind into through the building..

    Its treads begin to hastily grind as it backs up into the rubble, taking advantage of the rubble field that sits west of the baseball diamond. You lose sight of it again in the dust and haze of the day.

    "Did anyone see it?" Angel's voice comes over the radio. "Shit! Where the fuck is it?"

    "I didn't see it," Baalaji said, his voice tight, both light tanks turning to put their front armor to the west. Drives Fast does the same.

    "I don't want to go hunting in that," Angel muttered over the radio. "Isn't this why we have the boots?"

    "There's ten cannibals in here we're still disarming," Morales snaps, her voice tight. "None of them speak fucking English." Then, muffled. "Oh, well, then, start translating kid?" There was a pause. "No, you cannot talk to my fucking superior officer!"

    "It's stupid. If it keeps trying to inch forward to attack, we'll get it. We have turrets," Trudy said, perched by her scope. "Suicidal."

    Your eyes track along the rubble field, looking for any sign of the tank, but with Wandering Home's grumbling engine, the distant rumble of artillery, the clamor from inside the building, and the thundering of your own heart, you can't even hear them.

    "But they might take one of us with them," you pointed out.

    ---

    What do you do?
    [ ] Write In


    Map Update!

     
  • Threadmarks
    • Ayyyy, rolls saving our asses once again.

    Meanwhile…hmm.
    [X] Hunker down and stay on watch for this asshole while your squad gets their work done. If he doesn't show up, split the squad and see if one half can get that AT gun manned and reoriented west, while the other half takes the tracks and MMM east to scout the path to the arty. If he does show up? Well…we've got these guns for a reason, don't we? Load AP, of course.
     
    That White Glove kid might know something about the mystery tank? Maybe he can make himself useful to us?
     
    Was the smoke WP, by any chance? or was the shooting enough to make them give up? Or was the smoke asphyxiating them enough to make hunkering down impractical?

    Also, didn't we see one of those tank destroyers earlier, wrecked by the side of the road? Unless it's a different type of vehicle.
     
    So, we're up against some kind of tank destroyer, possibly un-escorted since any additional infantry haven't made an appearance, in a bombed out city. They know the terrain better than us and may have prepared positions or set up traps, but at the end of the day we have them outnumbered and have a wider range of capabilities to work with and are more able to fight on the move or respond to danger from an unexpected direction than they are.

    I am not anything like a subject matter expert here. But one thing I do know is that well equipped infantry in an urban environment can eat a lone tank for breakfast. Which on the one hand means that sending our armor ahead after it is extra risky in case they've got more guys somewhere else, but on the other hand means this really is what we have boots for. And I also know that Wandering Home presents a both a big threat and a big target to them relative to everything else, and as long as they keep their gun and frontal armor pointed at us it isn't pointed somewhere else, and as long as there is a building in the way neither of us is likely to do much to the other beyond presenting a threat that can not be ignored.

    I'm thinking maybe we should keep it occupied by sending a shell in its general direction (maybe using Get It Done to make it that much harder to ignore?), move one or both light tanks into the intersection facing left to provide vision and support, and send some of our infantry left to work their way into a building and see if they can put a LAW into the side of that tank. Maybe keep the prisoners covered by MMM's gun so no one tries to pull anything when we split our infantry. I welcome any suggestions if anyone has anything better.

    [X] Plan Boots For This
    -[X] Wandering Home shifts to get the best armor angle possible on the enemy tank, then fires at it through the building. Goal is more keeping it occupied than anything else. Use a Get It Done hold if that would help.
    -[X] Little Mo' Action advances into the intersection angled left to help out the infantry if there are any more nasty surprises. If the tank comes back that way, they try to put a shot into the side armor if they have a good one, but top priority is backing up to put cover between it and them.
    -[X] MMM puts Wandering Home between it and the enemy tank and keeps the prisoners under its gun so no one tries anything.
    -[X] Split the infantry. Some stay to secure the prisoners, the rest move left with the goal of hitting the enemy tank with their anti-tank weapons from the cover of the ruined buildings.
     
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    Inquiring Mind said:
    snip
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    I like most of it, but I think it'd be better to have the infantry wait until they're finished instead of trying to have MMM play prison guard. That way we shouldn't have to split the squad in half.

    Also thinking about it a bit I'm not sure it *is* a tank destroyer. All we know is it's low and has a big gun, and we don't know for sure if it has a turret or not.
    It might even be one of these:
    DragonCobolt said:
    And even then, their new scrap tanks are much better. Not even... Scrap." Trudy said. "Standard patterns, cast armour. We think they're making them in the old H&H Tool Factory. At the Necropolis, where we blew all our good shit shooting holes in bulldozers covered in sheet metal, and now they have proper ones. Plus these new tanks with five inches of frontal armour."

    "Aries," Mask croaked.

    "Yeah, that's what they call them. Rams. Our gun's no good against them from the front. We have to get around the sides, rear if we can, otherwise we just bounce off," Trudy said. "That's… what's what got Sarge hit. We unbuttoned after flanking one to make sure we got it, and one of their snipers shot him in the back."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Tank might be buying time itself, though. Might be an idea to have the light tanks go up to the stadium to make sure our new howitzer isn't trying to scarper.
     
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    Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Dec 8, 2021 at 10:26 AM, finished with 10 posts and 4 votes.
    • [X] Plan Boots For This
      -[X] Wandering Home shifts to get the best armor angle possible on the enemy tank, then fires at it through the building. Goal is more keeping it occupied than anything else. Use a Get It Done hold if that would help.
      -[X] Little Mo' Action advances into the intersection angled left to help out the infantry if there are any more nasty surprises. If the tank comes back that way, they try to put a shot into the side armor if they have a good one, but top priority is backing up to put cover between it and them.
      -[X] MMM puts Wandering Home between it and the enemy tank and keeps the prisoners under its gun so no one tries anything.
      -[X] Split the infantry. Some stay to secure the prisoners, the rest move left with the goal of hitting the enemy tank with their anti-tank weapons from the cover of the ruined buildings.
      [X] Hunker down and stay on watch for this asshole while your squad gets their work done. If he doesn't show up, split the squad and see if one half can get that AT gun manned and reoriented west, while the other half takes the tracks and MMM east to scout the path to the arty. If he does show up? Well…we've got these guns for a reason, don't we? Load AP, of course.
    Click to expand...


    So using the "rules" like some kind of square, you can't use get it done!

    You can roll 2d20 and take the lowest (cause you're shooting through a wall)
     
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