So.. when an assigned commissar has an "accident".. ?

By Vrashk, in Only War Game Masters

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So, the first claw of the 25th mechanized pride of the Lions of Valora just secured the objective in "Against the savages".

However, the same autocannon volley that took down the nob managed to blast off the commissars arm as he was in melee. What does the comissariat think of friendly fire taking out one of it's agents? He's not dead, "just" lost an arm and we decided that the fate point would just save his life, since losing an arm is cool.

My current working theory is that in all the chaos, flames everywhere, the panicked medic screaming over the comms, chimaera at tactical speed, photon-visors being blinded by the flames, only the melee expert next to the comissar (whom the comissar has his eye on..) and the gunner really know what happened, the close combat expert also has a bit of a.. tense relation to the gunner which outranks her.

I think that would make for good intrigue


I assume that if everyone knows what happened, it would be fate point time for at least the sergeant and the gunner to avoid court martial? I'm not entirely sure on the commissariats policies on the matter however.

Any thoughts?

Edited by Vrashk
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If the Commissar suspects it was friendly fire, I'd most certainly expect consequences. He might contact the regiment's Commissar General and have the entire platoon arrested and interrogated to ascertain just how deep the "treachery" goes. This would surely also depend on the Commissar's opinion of the unit, though: if the soldiers are known for loyalty and bravery, it could be possible to convince the investigators that it actually was merely negligience of duty, so that at least only the one gunner would have to lose their life.


On the other hand, if the injured Commissar has previously clashed with the PCs (or NPCs) and/or the regiment has a bad reputation, the entire platoon might come under suspicion. In this case, I'm not sure Fate Points should actually help, as it's a bit silly to "survive an execution". Rather, the game might shift into an AWOL scenario where the entire platoon just runs for it, and either goes all A-Team and becomes mercenaries, or tries to assume new identities by looting the uniforms of another regiment and then joining a third one as "survivors", although this scenario would only be possible in a larger warzone with sufficient chaos and armies.


Thirdly, the campaign could switch into a Penal Legion game where the entire platoon gets summarily sentenced to transfer into a unit of expendable assault troops. Effectively a death sentence for the characters, this could make for an interesting game for the players, as you could tap into the whole Last Chancers atmosphere. If anyone wants to reroll their character to make use of their new regiment's traits, you could add decimation as another part of the sentence.


Or, alternatively, maybe the Commissar just doesn't know. In this case the situation would basically devolve into a roleplaying challenge between the individual characters, as they try to convince one another of either ratting out the gunner for the sake of the unit, or to keep quiet because they are family. And all the while the Commissar is trying to get an idea of what happened, like a Damocles Sword floating over everyone's heads. As you said, lots of potential here, too. :)

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As per the usual, Lynata has it largely covered. ;) (God it's been a long time since I posted instead of just stalking all the posts that pop up in my emails.) If the commissar truly doesn't know what happened then it creates some great opportunities for inter character tension. (I.E: If your group is mature enough not to take this beyond the table, have them discuss what to do for X amount of time and then each hand you a note with what they plan to do. If one person rats them out, that creates an excellent opportunity for the squad to fall to more infighting as they try and figure out who the rat is.) If you take that route however, I sincerely advise you to consider the maturity of the people who play with you. Don't want any real infighting! As for Commissariat policies, I should imagine that shooting AND severely wounding the Commissar would result in very brutal punishment. I don't recall details but I remember something in the uplifting primer about the punishment for harming a superior officer being skinning the criminal alive and stabbing out their eyes?

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Thanks for the input! I'm very much inclined towards the interpersonal intriguing approach. It makes for a good story and drama! The Damocles sword is whether whoever replaces his arm points out that the wound most probably didn't come from a choppa'

This was actually just supposed to be a one-off event (people living all over the country) otherwise I probably wouldn't have included a commissar in the cast, but everyone roleplayed way beyond expectation and are screaming for more, so we're going to try to set up some basic maptools and play online. Still a pain to gather 6 players though.