The Ravens Nest

I’ve seen some people here on Substack and on other forms of social media claiming they’re out to fight nazis and personally, I really want to help.

This comes after seeing an article echoing some sentiment about Substack being on it’s way out. The author claimed that they were turning off all paying subs because “substack has a nazi problem.”

Heard that before. Rolled my eyes at it before but this time, I really want to help and so, leave it to me to look up from the article, right at my shelf and I found solutions!

I’m not going to harp on the article, I’m going to actively help you find, target and kill Nazis and the best part? You’ll be blameless and your conscience will be completely free of any guilt because you won’t be guilty of anything. Nothing.

Nothing makes someone feel powerful like never leaving the chair, right? Great! You don’t have to! That’s the best news I have to offer you. I am giving you the uncanny ability to kill Nazis worldwide from where you sit. Doesn’t that sound like a great idea? You get to be morally-upright, true to your virtue and you never have to do anything of great effort. I don’t know about you but I’m signing up…

…but I repeat myself.

Operation Whitebox uses Original Fantastic Medieval Rules that have been homebrewed into a WWII setting and Operation B/X also uses a similar rules system to the Basic and Expert rules of the same game (hence, the term B/X) for the uninitiated and here’s where it gets cool.

For Operation Whitebox, it’s one book. You make your character and the Game Master (Or GM Emulator if you’re running solo) then tells you what the situation is, what’s coming at you and what you need in terms of dice rolls to succeed.

So, as promised, killing Nazis without guilt or legal troubles. You don’t even need to leave your home.

I know, I know, some of you want more immersion. I get that, I’m huge on immersion when it comes to my solo games because I want those sights, smells, etc in my brain for when I go posting them to Against All Odds later. I can relate.

First thing’s first, if you’re looking at Bolt Action, you’re spending far too much money. Get these instead.

Gear up, boys…we’re goin’ huntin’…

The 200 piece bucket ran me about $20 at a toy store and the only army missing is the Red Army. They put Germany’s current tri-color in there so …well…wait…now shit, they’re no longer Nazis. They’re just Germans now. I mean…just marching into Germany would be morally wrong, wouldn’t it?

Not Your Problem Anymore, Bucko! Waste ‘em! …with dice rolls…and try not to take damage doing it.

Toppling the Nazi Regime? You can do that.

Stealing Nazi Superscience stuff? You can do that too.

Dealing with Nazi Occultism like in Hellboy? Uh huh.

You can do it all with these games and yes, they’re games.

You didn’t really think that I was going to give you instructions on how to kill other humans, did you?

If you did…yikes. You really need help.

I did say that I wanted to keep this about gaming, writing, etc and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

For those of you who knew ahead of time that there was no way in hell I was going to be going on ad nauseum about a topic that has been a dead horse beaten into glue and gelatin, this comes as zero surprise but let’s keep it going. What if I need a battlefield? Do I need mats or something like that?

Nope.

Go to the Dollar Store and buy some wrapping paper. I’m not kidding. There’s a one-inch square grid on the back you can easily use to track movement. There’s your field. Use random stuff like empty boxes for buildings, terrain and cover. Put the toy soldiers back in the bucket when done and then toss the rest. Unless you want to take that stuff and craft with it, it’s pretty well disposable or recyclable. Your mileage may vary.

Gaming is also a great way to learn about history that isn’t revisionism. I do have one gaming supplement that I picked up off of a magazine rack a few years ago I can use for either game…National Geographic’s Atlas of WWII.

A proper Game Master could use that and draw it out The European and Pacific Theatre of Operations on that wrapping paper, use the flags to indicate forces and you’ve turned an RPG into a Wargame Hybrid.

Happy Hunting.