Well done, Michael Sands and gallant comrades.

Well done, Michael Sands and gallant comrades.

Well done, Michael Sands and gallant comrades.

Originally shared by Michael Sands

Tonight my Monday crew finished our Night Witches campaign. We fought through to the bitter end, not a single advance used to move duty stations early.

We lost three player character airwomen over the course of the war, and many others in the squadron and regiment too.

At the end, we toasted the survivors and told the epilogues we imagined for each woman. It seemed like most of them would never again have the freedom they had as aviators. Two of us fled to the west and ended up in the USA.

Over the course of the game we had four different GMs, which was a really nice way to give different perspectives and also helped give the duty stations their own special feeling.

It’s been a great game, and the feeling of making it through only makes me more in awe of the women who actually did it.

Thanks +Jason Morningstar and +Steve Segedy for such a great game!

Here are some guys who played a bunch of Night Witches and recorded it.

Here are some guys who played a bunch of Night Witches and recorded it.

Here are some guys who played a bunch of Night Witches and recorded it.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?action_edit=1&list=PLOTilBK2SqLPzEy-oS-vmOM5VbKI1RRTo

We’re working up a more formal FAQ but here are the questions and answers we have right now.

We’re working up a more formal FAQ but here are the questions and answers we have right now.

We’re working up a more formal FAQ but here are the questions and answers we have right now.

Training

Since everyone must make at least one successful Wayfind and Attack Run Move while in training to qualify for combat duty, what happens if my character … doesn’t?

Your character shows up at Trud Gornyaka without her combat flight certification, which is shameful and inconvenient. She’ll be a trainee, under the watchful eye of the overworked and under-staffed Regimental training officer, until she earns her wings.

Duty Stations

Are the questions in the Duty Stations meant to be answered by the group at the beginning of the Station, or should they be answered and discovered mostly during play?

You can mix those two approaches according to your group’s preferences. Do answer some though, to give the current GM something to work with.

Medals

You can only choose the “honor and pride” (gain a medal) Advance four times. Since medals are awarded in ascending sequence of honor and rarity, doesn’t that mean that characters can only earn the first four medals, ending in Order of the Great Patriotic War?

Every playbook offers four different medals within that sequence, always ending with the HSU. 

Sparrow is MV, OPW, ORS, HSU and Hawk is MV, OG, ORB, HSU for example.

Also worth noting that whole-Regiment medals and banners, achieved by surviving various duty stations, do not count toward either advancement or medal count and don’t raise your +medals score.

This also means you can award the Order of Battle Merit to a Sparrow as pure color, if the need arises. She’ll never earn it normally because it isn’t in her playbook’s sequence.

Roles: Dreamer

The Dreamer role doesn’t list an action for Advancement. Should it?

Yes. Unfortunately that bit was left out of the role’s description in the book. It is included on the playbooks however:

“When you change Duty Stations, advance if you shared a premonition and it came true.”

Roles: Zealot

On page 46, it says “Call out another player character you despise at a Debriefing and roll +regard. On a 10+ hold three; on 7-9 hold one. Spend your holds, one for one, to give your enemy -1 forward.” Arent’ the Germans the enemy?

In this case “enemy” refers to the person you’ve called out – a fellow airwoman your character has a grudge against. 

 

Night Moves: Vedomaya

If I want to help a plane I’m not Vedomaya-ing on, I can’t use my hold, so am I Tempting Fate?

The Vedomaya move just allows you to cover them – to draw danger onto yourself. otherwise, follow the fiction. Trying to help them is probably Tempting Fate. Under ideal circumstances you might even be able to Eyeball them. Maybe it is impossible to help at all. 

Do player characters have to be assigned as Vedomyye? Can anyone be a Vedomaya?

No one is required to serve as a Vedomaya, but it is a useful function and you’ll want to apportion the role tactically. Omitting it will lead to trouble. Both pilots and navigators can serve as Vedomyye.

Night Moves: Wayfind

If I’ve been assigned to navigate a mission for the section and fail my Wayfind roll, what happens?

You have two options: Scrub the mission and fly home or attack late and alone. Each other plane in your section has the same two options, and can choose however they like.

Night Moves: Attack Run

If I’ve been assigned to lead the attack on a mission for the section and fail my Attack Run roll, what happens?

You have two options: Scrub the mission and fly home or press on, Tempting Fate first. Each other plane in your section has the same two options, and can choose however they like.

Day Moves: Reach Out

Does the “change regard” option for the Reach Out move only change the Regard of the character making the move?

Yes, you are changing your Regard for another. Fictionally, by Reaching Out perhaps your feelings change during the scene. You hated them, now you fear them. You loved them, now you hate them.

Day Moves: Act Up

On a 10+, can you choose the same option more than once?

Yes, although it is a bad idea.

I put all the play aid files in a public folder here:

I put all the play aid files in a public folder here:

I put all the play aid files in a public folder here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/56qcg0tgntcnwuw/AAAhgv-cbxDmxtAoMxajhvwHa?dl=0

They will be updated but are functional. The onyl new thing is a name list. 

…the books are wending their way through the postalsphere.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/56qcg0tgntcnwuw/AAAhgv-cbxDmxtAoMxajhvwHa?dl=0

¡Qué mejor forma de comenzar la semana que con una nueva reseña en Runas Explosivas!

¡Qué mejor forma de comenzar la semana que con una nueva reseña en Runas Explosivas!

Originally shared by Juan Manuel Avila

¡Qué mejor forma de comenzar la semana que con una nueva reseña en Runas Explosivas! Hoy compartimos con ustedes nuestras impresiones sobre Night Witches, el último juego de Jason Morningstar sobre valientes aviadoras soviéticas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Interesting thought, the comparison with Space Alert (or Escape From the Forbidden Temple, etc – cooperative…

Interesting thought, the comparison with Space Alert (or Escape From the Forbidden Temple, etc – cooperative…

Interesting thought, the comparison with Space Alert (or Escape From the Forbidden Temple, etc – cooperative systems-thinking games) hadn’t occurred to me!

Initial sketches for the two new pieces from RST Longmore are completely amazing.

Initial sketches for the two new pieces from RST Longmore are completely amazing.

Initial sketches for the two new pieces from RST Longmore are completely amazing. Rich has the ability to take general art direction and work it up into dynamic, precisely composed pieces with energy and pathos. And that’s on top of his technical accuracy, which was absolutely essential to me for Night Witches. Dude knows how to draw an airplane, but he’s an artist. And a professional – always with accurate estimates of time, always on time, always ready to make adjustments, all with a great attitude. 

I can’t wait to show off his new work for the game! It’s so good. 

To whet your appetite, here is my initial art direction:

1. A trio of PO-2s with dashing stripes flying in bright daylight in peacetime, over fields of wheat or other idyllic landscape. Planes have “НКЗ СССР” or “Наркомзем СССР” written on the sides – they are agricultural crop dusters. The pilots are women – perhaps one’s hair flies free, and the navigators behind them are men, flight instructors. The women are ecstatic, waving to one another the men are taciturn.

2. Night. A PO-2 dominates the frame, a tangled upside-down wreck, barely recognizable. The pilot hangs upsisde down from her seat, dead. The navigator, helmet off, is pressed up against the wreckage, a Tokarev pistol in her hand. Silhouetted against the horizon, bathed in moonlight, seen through a gap in the wreckage, a pair of armed figures approach, their outlines indistinct but menacing.