This Page: Forward   Acknowledgements   Copyright   Game Related Links   A Personal Note 

This Article: Action at Röt Hafen   Callout   Sizing Up The Situation   Looking For Trouble 
Operation Harbringer   War in the Minor Key   Adler Tag   Choke Point   Charlie's Cat 
The Hunters   Caught in the Grinder   Nice Try   Flug's Rescue 

I am taking shameless advantage of my editorial status to add a forward to the Röt Hafen Saga. The work hardly requires a forward, but I think it deserves one. It is a large work (> 250,000 words) into which many an hour has been invested for no profit other than the joy of the work and the enjoyment of the readers. We present it here on stargrunt.ca with great pleasure, in its entirety. It has been modified to fit our presentation format and to correct the occasional typo or spelling error, but the content remains essentially pure and unchanged.

The Röt Hafen Saga is a story about some of the earliest Human-Kra'Vak interactions and gives us one possible view of the early stages of the First Intersentient War. It presents some ideas on the way that conventional and unconventional forces operate in the GZGverse and it gives us a little bit of a glimpse at one author's version of the Kra'Vak. It is, as most work created by the fans of the Ground Zero Games universe, non-canonical and unofficial. But it does represent one view of how things could be, and a compelling vision at that.

For the information of those who may not know him, Carlos is a United States Army Special Forces soldier who tends to spend large chunks of his time away visiting interesting places and doing missions which pretty much require an Elite RED-1 quality counter. But this day job gives Carlos a good feel for the military millieu and some neat ideas for how Special Operations might be carried out in the future. His experience also gives him a good feel for the kind of men that serve in these units and the way they carry themselves and how they should best be portrayed.

The interesting part of this work is not only that it obviously entertains a certain "reality", but also that much of it was played out at the game table, from small unit actions to large scale fleet battles, using Ground Zero Games rules (and of course the obligatory house mods!). This just shows what a motivated gamer (read: individual of questionable sanity) can accomplish. It also illustrates in some detail how one can put together a series of linked games to form an interesting campaign and how that campaign can be documented for the benefit of other gamers.

The question one might think to ask is: Which came first, the games that spawned the saga or the ideas for the novel which lead to scenarios? (more on this point later)

Readers should find this story gripping and action-packed. It is, as the old saying goes, "a page turner" (or perhaps, in the electronic world, "a button-clicker"). My hope is that each and every one of you will enjoy it as much as I did and that you will take the time to visit Los' website and drop him some positive feedback. He deserves it after this gigantic effort and he undoubtedly will appreciate it!

But, I digress. I'm good at that! Anyway, stop reading my work, go to the left side nav bar, and start reading Röt Hafen! (Of course, you should read the acknowledgements and copyright statement and visit the game links too, but you can do that later!).

Thanks to everyone who helped me through this project, too many to name. First off all to the readers, many of whom I don't know but who kept up a steady stream of emails for the past 18 months. This story is for you.

Thanks to all on the GZG mailing list for providing the motivation to start this and the encouragement to keep going. And in particular: Jon Tuffley for cooking up the great GZG series of games, Tom Barclay, Owen Glover (the real one) Brian Bell, Chris Deboe, Beth Fulton, Jon Davis, Marc Kochte, Will Keyser, Bob Makowsky, Tim Jones (for the great graphics) and everyone else who has sent me feedback, criticism, advise, graphics and help along the way.

All errors in this work are mine alone but everything done right is the sum of all of the contributions.

I'd also like to thank the real members of ODA 946 and other Company A guys I've served with. Together they provided the experiences that form the foundation for the action here, (especially Ken).

Special acknowledgements must be made to the people who contributes the images which helped realize the Röt Hafen Saga. These people include....

Two last people to thank: One is my beautiful wife Natalie. She put up with all these late nights of obsession and also helped with the proofing (I am going to go back and incorporate all the changes now as well as add more GZG-gming pertinent information) and the other is Kurt Wasserman. He provided close on-going technical support and also helped me game out many of these battles, acting patiently as the kra'Vak commander while fighting usually with one arm tied behind his back. Weaselboy is da man!

• Copyright Notice

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First, I refer readers to our site copyright notice here. Further to the general statement of copyright, Carlos has added his own statement which also applies (reproduced following my notes). The content of the Röt Hafen Saga is exclusively the intellectual property of Carlos Lourenco and our reproduction of his e-novel here is done with his written permission.

The Röt Hafen Saga, ©Carlos Lourenco, 1998.

Los' Notice:

I have written these stories for no other reason than pure enjoyment. The terms NSL, NAC and maybe a few others are copyright Ground Zero Games. Their use in the story is without permission and not meant as a challenge to said copyrights. If you plan to post it to your page GIVE ME CREDIT. ENJOY! These stories may not be used by anyone for profit or for sale. Copywright: Carlos Lourenco 1998.

The table below contains hyperlinks to various scenarios and other articles that relate to the Röt Hafen Saga.

I've know Los for at least three and a half years now. He is a great guy and through him I met Magic and K'rrt who are also great fellows. I've had the pleasure of gaming with Los, Magic and Kr'rt and GMing GZG-ECC tournament events such as Can-Am FMA Skirmish and A Grey Day To Die w ith Los.

Since first befriending Carlos online, I've enjoyed myself corresponding with him and find we share many views on our hobby and the world at large. Here is a picture of us (Los is the one on the left) at ECC III where we ran the huge Grey Day game.

The other thing I really like about Los (and Magic and K'rrt) is that they seem fundamentally unable to beat the Canadians at Can-Am Formula De. Perhaps they need some instructions on where the throttle is located or a course in the correct use of the gearshift? Or in Magic's case, there may be a need for a Halon system for his engine bay. The only American who has shown any ability beyond rudimentary in this particular arena is Jon Davis, as those who passed him tended to exit race in great balls of flaming debris. Our conclusion from this evidence is that Mr. Davis is, in fact, a Predator using a new form of cloaking technology (disguising himself as a Java programmer/wargamer geek) and not, in fact, an American.

Jon, we know what you really are... and we will be sending the 'W'-Files agents Skuller and Moldy to speak to you....

I am looking forward to seeing Carlos at GZG-ECC V and to playing many a future game with him and having his advice on military matters to the benefit of the quality of this website. His insights will continue to prove invaluable to myself and the GZG community as a whole.