[The Lost Patrol] WWI Patrol

I often get some bit of info stuck in my head. When it combines with another bit of info, I start thinking of a game I'd like to run sometime. So these Lost Patrol posts will be about some short campaign ideas I have.

I had a thought while I was waiting for my lunch to microwave at work. A patrol of WWI British soldiers is thrown into a Planescape or Everway-esque setting. I have no idea where this thought came from.

But the image of .455 Webleys and trench clubs vs. spears and swords, or .303 Enfield Rifles and sword bayonets vs. magic and dragon breath had me thinking.

The PCs would be the (surviving) members of the patrol, obviously. The game would start during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. The patrol is ordered to advance to No-Man's Land and into German territory through the woods around the village of Passchendaele.

They'll encounter a couple of Germans in the first few hundred yards of advance and have a quick fire-fight. Then they proceed onward through the woods, hoping to link up with their company.

The sounds of battle will fade, slowly, into the distance and then the PCs will notice that the trees are different, gradually. After a while, there will be no sounds of the war, no airplanes flying overhead, no machine gun fire, no shelling, no gas attacks.

The map won't be right and the compass will point another way, then back again, then go in circles. That coupled with the eerie feeling that they're being watched and the feeling of being totally lost should be a good start.

Being stalked and eventually attacked by a wild and very large (with red, glowing eyes) wolf or two who are really hard to kill will get their pulse going.

Then they'll see a small shack in a clearing ahead.