General Ballroom and I have decided to turn our hitherto random pick-up games of Chain of Command into a campaign using the excellent At the Sharp End supplement.
At some point we'll need to work out the ladder were going to use, but to start with its time to muster the men and give names and backgrounds to all the officers.
At the Sharp End has a complete system built in for doing exactly this, do you end up with proper characters rather than just little expendable metal men.
Here's what the dice and a little imagination came up with.
Lieutenant Michael J Wilson, is 26 and hails from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Though his father's family are descended from Dutch immigrants his maternal grandmother was a Menominee native American, a heritage Wilson is proud of. He let home at sixteen to work in construction traveling across the country building skyscrapers and factories. At the age of 20, seeing storm clouds gathering in Europe he volunteered to join the army. Starting as a simple private his quick wits and mental strength have seen him rise steadily through the ranks. He's already seen service in North Africa where he sealed his rise to Lieutenant and is itching to bring the fight to the krauts in Europe. His rise through the ranks and skills mean his men respect his leadership.
Platoon Sergeant Robert "after E. Lee" Patterson, known to the men as 'Red', is 26 like his Lieutenant and a tough no nonsense former truck driver from Memphis.
Corporal Luke Masterton is, at 23, the youngest officer in the platoon. Newly arrived he grew up on his father's farm in Kansas, bookish and short his experience managing his father's farmhands stands him in good stead.
Corporal Vincent Jefferson III is a tall thin 26 year old who jumped at the chance to leave the drudgery of working as a ledger clerk for an oil company in Houston in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.
Finally Corporal Sidney Tusk is a 27 year old barrel of a man who used to be assistant manager of a small town bank in Vermont.
These then are the men who will lead me to victory against the dastardly Germans!
Looking forwards to reading more.
ReplyDeleteI found playing in CoC - mainly against the James's - that it does change your approach to game play. You are a lot more wary of your losses unless it really matters.