A tabletop role playing game. To be played in the span of an evening. Up to five people. Four soldiers. One conductor.
If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Conflict, hardship and CHALLENGE will greet the soldiers. If failure is a question they roll two six sided dice. Six below is downfall. Seven too nine is positive but presents CHALLENGE. Ten above is triumph.
Never is the conductor to roll. The dice conjoined with the soldiers choices, decides their fates.
A mission has been given. A task is to be resolved. Duty demands it so. Mud will swallow you. Price might be blood.
The conductor present the soldiers continuous scenes. The soldiers act and react in said scenes. A soldier. A scene. No less than two.
The journey is hard. It only gets tougher. After each scene the soldiers remove one six sided dice from their collected pool of dice.
Five times a soldier is able to cheat death. The sixth is final. Track this with a separate dice.
A soldier might loose his life. The remaining gain determination. A single six sided dice is given to the remaining soldiers. Use it at any time. Only once per. CHALLENGE. Determination can only take them so far. Soldiers never roll with more than three six sided dice.
Defined by virtues. Throughout the journey, character will be tested.
Pick either VIGOR, GRIT or EMPATHY to be HEART to the soldier. Then pick the soldiers FAILING from the same three.
Whenever CHALLENGE, hardship or conflict corresponds to either a soldiers HEART or FAILING, add or subtract accordingly. A single numeral increase or decrease.
| Soldier | |
|---|---|
| Name | Schofield, William |
| Rank | Lance Corporal |
| Demise | ⚅ |
| Heart | Grit |
| Failing | Vigor |
| Equipment | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Water bottle |
| 2. | Entrenching tool |
| 3. | Rifle |
| 4. | Helmet |
| 5. | Bayonet |
| 6. | First field dressing |
| 7. | Letters from home |
| 8. | Goulash, Danish |
| 9. | Biscuits |
| 10. | Wristlet |
| No Mans Land | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Large pit. Water fills it. Bodies a strewn. Death and disease awaits any poor soul who falls in. |
| 2. | On spikes. Face ripped open by a grenade. Any goulash left spills from your gut. |
| 3. | Horse. Trapped in an old trench. Wild eyed. |
| 4. | Collapsed crawl space. Might lead to peace or death. Maybe both. |
| 5. | Oak tree. Split down the middle from mortar shot. The remaining embers provides dead warmth. |
| 6. | Dead German. German death. Bayonet still in hand. Ready to strike from the presumed grave. |
| Fields | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Dead horses. Dead men. Cavalry charge gone way of maschinengewehr. |
| 2. | Wheat. Tall. Might conceal danger. Might conceal from danger. Flashes of steel. |
| 3. | Palest birch. Lonesome bone. Plowed earth round it. Carvings in bark reveling intent. |
| 4. | Stump leg. Hand plow. Furiously hacking away at the black earth. |
| 5. | A7V Sturmpanzerwagen. Stuck in the mud. Turret seeking targets. One at a time. Like a wounded animal. |
| 6. | Sea of red. Poppies till the horizon. Young woman. Red flowers in hair. Berthier pointing. |