In this post, Lt. Collingsworth expounds upon his squad leaders. They are all described in Platoon Forward terms-- for instance, Color Sergeant Smythe is obnoxious and a hedonist. These terms come into play when characters interact with each other.
As an example, Sergent Torrens is "amiable" and so gets a +1 on reaction rolls to other characters. So if he decides to ask for an auxiliary Lewis machine gun for a mission there is more of a chance he will get it than Color Sergeant Smythe, whose obnoxious behavior earns him a -1 on the same roll.
August 13, 1889
Father,
A
brief note before we land. I expect we will be sent on patrols
immediately so may not have much time to write for a while. Luckily the
dispatch boats are fairly regular to the part of Mars that we will be
patrolling (I can say no more for government censors).
I've had my first spot of bother with the troops.
While Platoon Color Sergeant Smythe is a competent NCO, he is also
obnoxious and a bit of a hedonist. I caught him and Sergeant Pip Torrens,
1st Squad Leader, squireling away rations for themselves out of ship's
stores. While Sergeant Torrens is as amiable as Smythe is unpleasant,
their hedonism and gluttony will get us into trouble with the company
supply sergeant if we are not careful and they have been suitably
reprimanded.
Second Squad Leader Sergeant Anderson is absolutely
addicted to machinery. He spends every waking moment prowling the ship
and drives the crew to distraction with his incessant questioning of how
things work on our aether ship.
And the last of my squad leaders is Sergeant
Barclay, a tough old Scot. I've watched him with the troops and his
aggressive nature immediately led me to place him as training Sergeant.
He will have to be watched in combat to ensure that his aggression
towards the enemy does not lead to foolhardiness. We can afford no
cries of "It shall be glorious" like that unfortunate Caldwell fellow at
the rescue of Gordon's column by the 5th Air Fleet.
Tomorrow we land! Best to you and Mother,
Lt Richard Collingsworth
Nice storyline, I'm interested in what happens next. I like your letter background but, to me, the text could have been blended into the paper more. Got me thinking of another tutorial post.
ReplyDelete@Sean - Any tutorial will be welcome. I didn't even try with this project, to tell the truth -- now that you've mentioned it, you've got me thinking about how to do it. It would be nice to have a process that looks good and is quickly applied. I've got the text for the next letter ready to go and need to re-shoot some pictures for the first battle.
DeleteThanks for the storyline comment. I'm interested in what happens next, too! THW games tend to do that and Platoon Forward is adding that extra little bit of interest to what happens between games. It's a great combination.