[PbtA] Ross Rifles - Canadian WWI Game

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Voros

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With the explosion of online rpg design and publishing I like that people can pursue real 'niche' ideas. Ross Rifles is a PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) narrative style rpg set among Canadian soliders on the Western Front. As a Canuck I find the premise intriguing. And that is one pretty cover.

Action in Ross Rifles is structured around our mechanics of “gaining ground” in no man’s land – an objective based means of measuring success, scaffolding action storytelling, and visualizing the flow of war. This way, Ross Rifles effectively bridges the gap between highly structured, combat-oriented RPGs such as D&D and the reflexive, narrative-focused simplicity of Powered by the Apocalypse games.

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I always loved the chaotic, violent and blackly humourous WWI sequences in Robertson Davies Canlit classic Fifth Business (the satire of the 'hero's welcome' back home is also great).

There is a free preview of the rules and playbooks up on Drivthrurpg. It seems like the full game will be pretty ambitous and considerably more crunchy and tactical than the 'usual' PbtA game.
 
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Well there are three phases to the game, In the Trenches, Patrol and Over the Top.

I read the Preview and it has a much more tactical approach to combat that makes a lot of sense with the setting. Combat uses the standard PbtA 2d6, six or less is failure, 7-9 success with a complication or penalty, 10+ is success. You can take Harm up to four times before you die.

Apparently in the full version of the game they intend to have weather, terrain, etc to all have an effect on combat.

Playbooks so far are straight forward and based on rank, Private, Sergeant, Corporal, etc.

The Moves (a PbtA term that means special or standard maneveur, often defined by the phase or playbook) include Stormtrooper (Canadians were often referred to as Stormtroopers in WWI) or Lend a Hand.

The play seems heroic but realistic, the emphasis via Moves seems to be on the valour of the soliders and supporting each other. There are mechanics for Vigilance and Fatigue.

They've included a sample scenario, about the battle of Passchendaele.
 
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So to add to this. I was either recently listening to a podcast on the history of WWI or saw this link somewhere talking about Canadians in WWI.. Apparently the Canadians were real bastards during that war.

Interesting and certainly contrary to the modern stereotype of Canadians as peaceful and polite. Knowing from experience how rough and ready the Canadian working class can be (like many) it doesn't really surprise me.
 
Interesting and certainly contrary to the modern stereotype of Canadians as peaceful and polite. Knowing from experience how rough and ready the Canadian working class can be (like many) it doesn't really surprise me.
Don't kid yourself. Beneath that polite exterior lies the heart of a killer. They've secretly been sending waterfowl south of the border to kill and destroy anything they can find. They're dark dark people who should never be trusted.
 
I've always wanted to run a WWI campaign; I even wrote about half of a 'heart-breaker' style home cooked game (based loosely on Classic Traveller mechanics), but I am much more keen on the idea of a traditionally structured table top campaign roleplaying approach, and having the full sweep of global events open for play (as opposed to just western europeans getting blown up in trench warfare, which is iconic WWI but also incredibly limiting as a gaming situation).
 
Damn this looks awesome. Can you tell more about the playbooks, Voros Voros ? How about you describe some moves and stuff from, say, the Scout?
 
Damn this looks awesome. Can you tell more about the playbooks, Voros Voros ? How about you describe some moves and stuff from, say, the Scout?

I cover some of the mechanics earlier in the thread but I understand a lot of work has been done on it since so it could be pretty different. I liked enough of the earlier version to trust where it may have but I will review the new quickstart soon.
 
I wonder if the game could be tweaked to allow playing other parties in the war, like German Stormtroopers, Italian Arditi, Austrian Jagdkommandos, etc.

By the way, I've always heard the concept of special forces as we know today was born in WW2 with the British Commandos, but weren't those groups cited above also special forces in a way?
 
Ok, found this which answers my own question above..



So, shock troops were not really special forces. What they did was unconventional for the mass-maneuver armies of the time (small units, fireteams frog-leaping cover to cover, NCO initiative behind enemy lines, etc) but it has become the default for modern regular troops and operations. So, they were more like elite/specialized troops at the time than special forces proper, as they never did the kind of sabotage, irregular warfare, clandestine ops, long assignments behind enemy lines, etc. that are characteristic of modern spec ops forces.

Anyway, my curiosity still remains about the possibility to play all those different shock troops with Ross Rifles. It would be pretty cool.
 
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Ok, found this which answers my own question above..



So, shock troops were not really special forces. What they did was unconventional for the mass-maneuver armies of the time (small units, fireteams frog-leaping cover to cover, NCO initiative behind enemy lines, etc) but it has become the default for modern regular troops and operations. So, they were more like elite/specialized troops at the time than special forces proper, as they never did the kind of sabotage, irregular warfare, clandestine ops, long assignments behind enemy lines, etc. that are characteristic of modern spec ops forces.

Anyway, my curiosity still remains about the possibility to play all those different shock troops with Ross Rifles. It would be pretty cool.


I suspect they'd be interested in expanding the game in that way with a supplement or online release, one of the designers is a historian.
 
This game interests me but I sincerely doubt it's the kind of game that appeals to a larger market, it's incredibly niche. I don't particularly have time to game as it is, but if I pulled a group together it would be classic pulp stuff - swords n boards, lasers n space etc.
 
This game interests me but I sincerely doubt it's the kind of game that appeals to a larger market, it's incredibly niche. I don't particularly have time to game as it is, but if I pulled a group together it would be classic pulp stuff - swords n boards, lasers n space etc.
Lucky me whose group loves to try niche and experimental stuff. :hehe:
 
Yeah the great thing about the net, ease of publishing and KS is it allows these niche games to be made and seen by those who are more interested in something different.

I get that some groups would be hard to get interested in something this different but as I mostly game with newbies these days a game based on WW1 doesn’t strike them as much weirder than D&D and CoC (although GoT is a bit of a gateway drug to D&D, the actual play of D&D is lightyears away from GoT).
 
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