The Drop from Hell: Played on Roll20, an awesome internet service.
So, I recently got ONLY WAR. It's the latest RPG in the awesome Warhammer 40,000 gameline. A bit of a primer for those unfamiliar with 40k: It's 40,000 years in the future, humanity is ruled by a galaxy spanning theocratic empire where the standard of living is so shockingly horrible that total war makes a marginal improvement and where the standard side-arm of the elite special forces (who are 9 foot tall superhuman warriors that spit acid, have two hearts, and wear foot thick power armor) is a semi-automatic rocket propelled grenade launcher that fires .75 caliber mass reactive diamond tipped explosive bullets.
In Only War...you do not play those guys.
Instead, you play as a regular joe-dirt who volunteered to serve in the Imperial Guard. You're given flack armor, a laser rifle and then sent into the meat grinder by the billions to win wars of pure attrition. Which is the kind of thing you can do when your civilization has a population of 100 QUINTILLION PEOPLE.
So...
My PCs are gaurdsmen and guardswomen of the Padashen 1st, the first regiment raised from a world called Padashen, a gas giant that is famous for it's vast, floating cloud cities where the fabulously wealthy nobles of a dozen star systems go to relax. The planet was tithed for a regiment, and so the noble riff raff paid their servants to volunteer in their place.
Due to their experience with heights and personal aircraft, they were trained as droptroops: Soldiers armed with light laser-carbines and given gravi-chutes. Think like a combination between a jetpack and an antigravity field which lets you drop from orbit.
Their training was pretty harsh, but they were told they were going up against the Tau: A short, alien species that has been pushing up against human worlds, indoctrinating and subverting colonies left and right. They were told the Tau weapons were crappy, short ranged and weak. The Tau armor was pitiful. The Tau moral was weak. The Tau's training was sub-par, primitive.
Their regiment - alongside three others (A Talleran mechanized infantry regiment, a Mordian Iron Guard tank regiment, and the infamous/famous Tanith 1st and Only light infantry regiment) were going to go after a mostly human planet that had been taken and pacified by the Tau. Their regiment was to drop before the fleet moved into orbit and before the Tau detected them (hopefully). Then various squads would hit targets of opportunity: Free prison camps, blow up anti-orbit guns, hit supply depots, mine roads, that kind of thing.
After a bit of good natured ribbing and playing card games (The sanctioned psychic won...who'd have guessed) the troopship dropped out of the Warp and they were bustled onto a shuttle.
They were all green, mind you. Eager to fight.
The light went green and they jumped, all eight of them: 4 PCs, and their 4 NPC "cohorts" (basically, in Only War, each character gets a cohort that buffs their abilities and makes the squad feel bigger and more powerful. Also, if enemies roll doubles while opening fire on your character, your cohort gets hit instead. Two hits and a cohort is dead.)
So, the PCs roll their Operate: Grav-Chute tests.
The Sarge passed.
The Psychic passed.
The Sniper passed.
The Heavy Weapons...failed.
They land in a forest, each of them hitting dirt...but the Heavy Weapons guy catches a tree branch under his arm-pit and gets his arm ripped off. The Sarge does first aide with his radioman (woman, actually...Narine has a drug problem that she hasn't told the rest of the squad) and orders the rest of the squad to fan out.
The sniper takes up position near a road and spots a squad of human traitors - armed with local weaponry - doing a patrol. The traitor Sargent hears something and the sniper is forced to start things off with a bang: She underhands a frag grenade into the enemy squad, takes down three of them, and the rest of the squad opens up, gunning down the remainder, leaving only one of the traitors alive.
The last soldier, her squad blown to bits in about 5 seconds, throws up her hands and surrenders. The Sarge interrogates her...
Then the Sarge's player IMs me privately: "We're drop troops...we can't keep a prisoner."
And I say, "It's your decision, you're in charge."
He lets her say her last rites, then shoots her in the head.
The Sarge's player private IM's me again and confesses he is bawling his eyes out. His character throws up in the bushes a good way away from his squad. He orders them to move out.
The squad heads on, their moral low. They creep up on the Anti-Orbital gun they're here to disable and spot two pillboxes, both with large Tau made weapons in them. They sneak up, but one of the gunners spots them in the trees. He opens up.
The "weak", "Short ranged" and "underpowered" Tau gun rips the forest to bits, blowing trees in half, vaporizing whole trunks, and almost blowing the Sarge's leg clean off, pinning him.
The Heavy Weapons specialist - who is an INCREDIBLY tough guy, as he's doped up to shit and his socket is covered and patched - has his cohort, Tristriam Blake (a girl, despite the name) line up a shot. Tris manages to hit the first pillbox with a frag missile despite being chronically unlucky. The first pillbox goes down. The second is flushed out by the sniper and our psychic who uses his uncanny ability to SHOOT LIGHTNING OUT OF HIS HANDS to vaporize the enemy.
However, the A-O gun (which is a fortified building in and of itself) has an actual Tau Fire Warrior in command of it's defenses and he sets up a good fight, with men suppressing the squad, throwing down smoke grenades, trying to flank. The sniper picks some off, but the psychic's cohort and best friend is winged in the shoulder, while the Sarge takes a wound in the calf, but not a debilitating one.
They cut their way inside and fan through the building. They come on the Fire Warrior's office and the Psychic takes the lead, opening the door.
The Fire Warrior - as it turns out - is an older, retired warrior, not one of the frontline fighters. Basically, an administrator here to train their human lackeys. He's also very dedicated to the Tau's philosophy of self sacrifice and collectivism.
He's got a plasma grenade in his hands.
The blast blows him to bits, almost kills the Psychic (who manages to throw up a force field just in the nick of time), horribly burns the Sarge's chest and takes out Narine's - Sarge's cohort) eyes and smashes the vox.
They blow the A-O gun.
Now...as a recap.
The Sarge has 2nd degree burns on his chest.
His cohort is one wound away from death
The Psychic is about 5 seconds away from getting seriously hurt (he has basically 0 "luck" points left and the next shot will do critical damage)
His cohort is one wound away from death
The Heavy Weapons specialist is missing his left arm (still chipper)
The sniper is...
Wait, she's fine.
Still, the gun is destroyed...
Now they have to survive the next 24 hours it'll take for the fleet to finish dropping the other regiments!
And they haven't even MET the Tau drones.
Those buggers are NASTY.
But, the Sarge has something written down on his notepad: Find the DI who told us Tau guns sucked and PUNCH HIM IN THE NUTS.
Things that please me as a GM: The part is 50/50 men and women characters. Sarge is a man, his cohort is a girl. Sniper is a girl, cohort is a boy. The Heavy is a boy, cohort is a girl. The Psychic is a boy, cohort is a girl.
Don't know the PLAYERS gender, though, as this is the internet and I just know em by their handles. Still, coolness.