NIGHT WITCHES AIRFIELD

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ON THE BORDERLANDS
A STRUCTURED INTRODUCTION

This document consists of a series of scenes that walk a group through the
first Night Witches duty station­—Engels Airdrome. Starting as raw recruits,
the characters will gradually form up into a competent combat section ready to
be shipped off to war. Along the way, the group will learn about these women
and the dangerous world they live in.
To use this you’ll need a copy of Night Witches, nature playbooks, a move sheet,
and the first duty station handout.
Let each player control a discrete part, rotating this responsibility as you
proceed. Everyone should follow the prompts when it comes time to build a
character. The final two parts—six and seven—include complete missions and
full integration with the rules, so if one player has read the book it might be
best to defer facilitation to them toward the end.
Each part consists of a series of prompts with one of three symbols:
This symbol represents actual instruction. Each is a point of
entry into either building a character or engaging with the
rules of the game.
Read these sections out loud. Feel free to paraphrase! These
paragraphs are colorful transitions and scene-painting. If they evolve
into scenes that’s fine, particularly if those scenes allow the players
to engage with moves and learn about the world.
Dialogs between non-player characters and the player’s new recruits
are important. They allow you to share background information and
build up personalities within the regiment that you can return to.
Each includes a list with check-boxes for your reference. Try to hit all
the relevant points but don’t feel constrained.
The document is formatted with a wide margin so you can take notes and
write down names, facts and observations. Hopefully you’ll build up interesting
relationships and situations to explore further as you undertake this exercise.
PART ONE: PAGE 2 OF 10

SARATOV, RUSSIA
Explain that you’ll be gradually building both characters and
situation as your young women transition from fresh recruits
to seasoned pilots and navigators ready for combat.

We’ve arrived at Saratov, a city at war. The darkened streets are filled
with soldiers but we are still civilians, in our best clothes. Patriotic
marches in celebration of the 24th anniversary of the founding of the
Red Army and impassioned speeches by Comrade Stalin and Marshal
Zhukov fill the air. “The day is not far distant when the Red Army
will thrust back the brutal enemy and the red banners will fly again
victoriously over the entire Soviet land.”
With a Red Army Air Force transit voucher in hand, we board a
ferry across the Volga with a hundred other hopeful, enthusiastic,
and confused young men and women. One woman stands out in the
crowd—dressed in a splendid uniform with sky blue shoulder boards
with a medal pinned to her chest. We haven’t yet learned to know
either her rank or what the medal signifies, but we know we want to
be just like her.

Explain natures and hand out the playbooks. Have each player
choose a nature and then choose a name, look and background.
Ask each what the other recruits see when they look at her.
She’s not in uniform - what sort of clothes does she wear? Has
she brought any luggage? What sort of shoes does she have on?
What can we tell about her from her demeanor?

Choose a player for the officer to strike up a conversation with. Roleplay

a short dialog. Make sure you deliver the following information, but
keep it short.
†† I’m Captain Evgeniya Lobodeva of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment.
†† The 588th is one of three regiments being formed by Major Marina
Raskova, the famous air hero. We focus on night harassment and will
do the most difficult, dangerous work.
†† We’re glad to have competent new recruits. We’ll be flying outmoded
biplanes under cover of darkness in all weather conditions.
†† The war situation is bad—even Comrade Stalin says as much. Our
winter stopped the Fascists fifty miles from Moscow, but the spring
muds have blunted our counter-offensive. Now things are very
uncertain. Personally I aim to change that.
†† Step lively, obey your section leader and squadron commander,
and you’ll get your chance to kick the Hitlerite bandits right
in the balls.

The ferry bumps up against the dock in Engels and suddenly everyone
is all business—shouting, pushing, rolling trucks and equipment off.
Time to get moving!
PART TWO: PAGE 3 OF 10

LOGISTICS AREA SIX

Across the Volga, Engels Airdrome is still 4 kilometers away. While
a truck is waiting for Captain Lobodeva and the other soldiers in
uniform, we are told to walk. Hopefully we wore sensible shoes.
The skies overhead are filled with airplanes—sleek new Pe-2 bombers
shining in the sunlight, stubby, aggressive-looking Yak-1 fighter
planes, and plodding old Po-2 biplanes. These look ridiculously out
of date, and their tiny engines sound for all the world like sewing
machines. As we near the Airdome, footsore and hungry, we see for
the first time how massive and busy it really is. There are hundreds
of planes here, and hordes of Soviet aviators—many of them women.

Orient the players to the day side of Duty Station 1. Collectively

answer the questions and draw the Engels Airdrome.

When we reach the main gate of Engels Airdrome, a Fourth Air

Army military policeman reviews our papers and tells us all to
report to Sergeant Kataeva in Logistics Area Six and request the
following items:
Service uniforms, flight boots, one week’s rations and directions
to the 588th’s trainee barracks
We’re told to repeat this list. Go ahead and do that right now,
let’s hear it.
After some fumbling around and vague directions from harried,
impatient mechanics, we find Sergeant Kataeva.

Choose a player for her to have a conversation with, once she is done
screaming at a hapless private. Roleplay a short dialog. Make sure
you deliver the following information, but keep it short.
†† I’m Masha Kataeva. Who the fuck are you? Scratch that—I’ve seen
your type come and go. You’ll be down in fucking flames in a fortnight
and I am not going to get to know you.
†† What do you want? Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you
skinny bitches—I am not your mother and I don’t have any boots or
fucking field rations, so go choke yourselves.
†† Let me tell you what we’ve got and you can fucking pick from that,
all right? We’ve got some nice used men’s uniforms that won’t fit.
We have a God-damned airplane in a packing crate and no time to
assemble it. We’ve got endless fucking shovels for some reason. Ask
me for anything else and I will shit on your mother.
†† Before I find you suka’s some nice lady boots, I think I’ll focus on
acquiring a couple of Shvetsov M-11 engines and all the shit that
breaks on those fuckers—cylinders, heads, gaskets, pumps - Jesus and
his whoremonger apostles—gages, canvas and canvas dope, control
wire and surfaces, wheels and struts, bomb release mechanisms, I
could go fucking on, sister. I don’t have shit.
†† You better go see Senior Lieutenant Petrova. Ask for her in the 588th’s
barracks—just keep walking that way until you see the shitty place
no decent woman in her right mind would call home.
PART THREE: PAGE 4 OF 10

588TH TRAINEE BARRACKS

We take our new uniforms and head for the barracks, enduring some
cat-calls from leather-jacket-clad male pilots on the way. When we
arrive, a woman no older than any of us is waiting to greet us. She
shows each of us to a cot and tells us to put on our new uniforms.

Explain Roles and have every player choose one. Ask them
to choose a starting rank and then assign stats. Ask each
of the recruits how their Role and stats are obvious to the
casual observer.

Choose a player for Petrova to have a conversation with. The training

begins before we’ve even got our trousers on! Roleplay a short dialog.
Make sure you deliver the following information, but keep it short.
†† I’m Senior Lieutenant Petrova. What’s your name? Where are you
from?
†† We’ll be dividing you out into pilots and navigators based on
aptitude, but you will both be qualified for either seat. Pilots in front,
navigators in back.
†† These airplanes are simple. Fuel and oil are gravity fed, so don’t fly
upside-down. An air cooled engine. No oil filter, just a mesh screen.
Open cockpits.
†† Many things can go wrong. Flying at night is strange and challenging.
†† Memorize your cockpit layout. Down and to your left: Throttle, fuel
mix lever, fuel cutoff switch, carburetor heat and elevator trim.
Left dash switch bank: Pitot heat, master battery, panel lights, two
magneto switches. Gages—Fuel, altitude, airspeed, heading, attitude.
Climb rate and engine RPM. Oil pressure and temperature. Fuel
pressure gage. Cylinder temperature.
†† I’ve reviewed your files and you are quite a mixed bag, aren’t you?

As Senior Lieutenant Petrova, ask each player one question, for example:
†† What did you do when your first flight instructor failed you because
you were a woman?
†† What did you lie about on your regimental intake form?
†† Why did you want to join the 586th Fighter Regiment so badly?
†† Who do you routinely see from your brother unit, the well equipped,
all-male 218th night bomber regiment, and where, and why?
†† Who do you know in your sister unit, the photogenic media darlings
of the mostly-female 586th fighter regiment, and how do you feel
about her?
†† Who do you know in the 4th Air Army Logistics and Supply
Commissariat, and what favor do you owe them?
†† Who do you know occupied territory, silent since June of ‘41?
†† Whose funeral did you miss by volunteering for flight training?

Senior Lieutenant Petrova, satisfied with our answers, tells us that

the Major is waiting on the flight line, and we file out to meet her.
PART FOUR: PAGE 5 OF 10

FLIGHT LINE, ENGELS AIRDROME

The regiment’s Po-2’s are in formation on the f light line, each
fragile craft lovingly tended by a pair of mechanic-armorers. Senior
Lieutenant Petrova forms us into rough order and salutes a stern older
woman with gold shoulder boards—the Major. Next to her is Captain
Lobodeva, who we met on the ferry—her Chief of Staff - along with
several other officers. The Major looks us over.
“Comrades, welcome to the regiment,” she says, “I am Major Yevdokiya
Bershanskaya, your commander. I will expect you to comport yourselves
at all times as natural-born Soviet airwomen. We will fly these”—and
she points to the biplanes behind her. “The Polikarpov Po-2 LNB. A
simple two-seat canvas-and-wood biplane has been determined to be
ideal for our mission by the great operational minds of the Fourth
Army Air Force, and we are certainly not going to doubt their wisdom
in this matter. Let’s talk about that mission, shall we?”

Choose a player for Major Bershanskaya to speak to. Roleplay a short

dialog. Make sure you deliver the following information, but keep it short.
†† What’s your name? Did you train with a Comsomol flying club
or a glider school or as part of an agricultural technical academy?
†† There are three places you can put a bullet that will break the Po-2:
The small fuel tank, the compact engine, or the pilot. Anything else
just passes through and you keep flying. And, honestly, the pilot
doesn’t count because you have a spare.
†† There is no radio in a Po-2. Individual aircrews communicate with
hand signals or by using a speaking tube, and communication between
planes in the same section is by flashlight, flare or hand signal. We
will work together so closely, night after night, that you will be able
to read another plane’s intention by instinct.
†† The Po-2 is not a fighter but a bomber. Each wing has six attachment
points for FAB-50 fragmentation bombs. The release mechanism
for these bombs is unreliable. In the event of a hanging bomb, you
navigators need to climb out on the wing and release it manually.
When FAB-50s aren’t available, we will drop sawed-off railroad ties.
†† Since our mission profiles rarely have us flying above 1200 meters
and weight is at a premium, parachutes are not standard equipment.
†† Formation drill at 1700; I expect you to be crisp. It is now my pleasure
to administer the oath of a Soviet soldier and induct you into the Red
Army Air Force Fourth Air Army.

Have all the players stand, and stand yourself. Administer the
following oath:
I, [NAME], promise to rise to the defense of my Motherland, the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics, as a fighting man [sic] of the Worker’s
and Peasant’s Red Army, I promise to defend it bravely, skillfully, with
dignity and honor, sparing neither my blood nor my life itself for the
achievement of total victory over our enemies.

Major Bershanskaya dismisses us and Captain Lobodeva congratulates

us, pointing the way to the mess tent so we can finally get some chow
after a busy morning. She tells us that classroom instruction begins
tomorrow at dusk, in Classroom F.
PART FIVE: PAGE 6 OF 10

CLASSROOM F
The following morning we find yourselves in a crowded tent configured
as a classroom. The pungent smell of aviation gasoline permeates
everything, and the roaring of aircraft occasionally interrupts a lesson.
Our first class is on political consciousness for aviation troops, and
is conducted by two women in the grey tunics of NKVD officers. The
NKVD is the Soviet secret police, and her officers are not to be trifled
with. Two are attached to every regiment.
“Good morning Trainees, “ says the ranking officer, “I am Captain Olga
I. Barsukova and this is my Deputy, Lieutenant Svetlana Sheremeteva.
Our job is to encourage your continued development as politically
conscious and socially engaged Communists. But we must never forget
that we are also military officers with security responsibilities within
the regiment. ”

Choose a player for Captain Barsukova to single out, after consulting

her notes. Roleplay a short dialog. Make sure you deliver the following
information, but keep it short (albeit long-winded!). Barsukova can
drone on a little.
†† What’s your name, Comrade? Where are you from? Would you say that
enemies of the people - the bourgeoisie of course, but also aristocrats,
religious figures, social parasites, eggheads, nationalists - are these
dangerous elements any less a threat than the Fascists?
†† We’re all here to protect the regiment, But think carefully about
“helping your friends”, comrades. Military personnel who fail to report
treason are themselves subject to ten years imprisonment.
†† When I find a counter-revolutionary I will arrest her. If I find someone
undermining or weakening the external security of the USSR by
means of slacking or wrecking, or parasitism or aiding the enemy, well
that is treason, my friend. Section 58-1B clearly states that treason
by military personnel incurs an immediate death sentence. Should
the offender run away, the same statute allows for the imprisonment
of her relatives for five to ten years.
†† Listen, I want you to have success here so I will warn you about
section 58-14, which deals with counter-revolutionary sabotage.
Conscious non-execution or deliberately careless execution of defined
duties, aimed at the weakening of the power of the government and of
the functioning of the state apparatus, is subject to at least one year of
imprisonment, and under especially aggravating circumstances, up to
the highest measure of social protection: execution, with confiscation
of property. I burn for the opportunity to hang a saboteur. I hope we
understand each other.
(continued on next page)
PART FIVE: PAGE 7 OF 10

CLASSROOM F (CONTINUED)
As Captain Barsukova, ask each player one question, for example:
†† What did the Germans take from you?
†† Were your parents actually guilty?
†† Why does the NKVD already have a file on you, and how did you get
around that black mark to join the regiment?
†† What does the Marxist-Leninist struggle against the forces of reaction
mean to you personally?
†† When you were last disciplined, by whom, and what was the reason?
†† When did you get a favor because of your gender, and how did you
pay it back?
†† What would you be doing if they didn’t let you fly?
†† What happened the last time a crowd of brother airmen wolf-whistled
at you?

After handing out some inspirational literature, Captain Barsukova

dismisses us. We have thirty minutes to wolf down some kasha before
classroom instruction in land navigation with Senior Lieutenant
Petrova begins.
PART SIX: PAGE 8 OF 10

FLIGHT TRAINING
After a week of monotonous classroom instruction under the tutelage of
Captain Barsukova and Senior Lieutenant Petrova, we are formed into
a three-aircraft section as part of the training squadron. Each section
has three pilots and three navigators. Which of us volunteered earliest?

Decide who it is. If somebody chose the Role of Zealot, it’s a

good bet they volunteered as soon as they possibly could after
the war started.

Congratulations, you are the provisional section leader and responsible

for the deportment and proficiency of the five women under your
command. Give everyone a post—pilot or navigator—and assign
them to individual planes. The reserve plane is a beat-up reserve of
dubious airworthiness.

Ask them to assign tail numbers to their four airplanes. Any

number between 001 and 200 is fine. Make sure everyone notes
the composition of the training section on the back of their
nature playbook.

Finally we are ready for our first training flight. We’ve all flown before
in civilian life, but now we will be expected to fly as a team, under
difficult and possibly deadly circumstances, with precision and courage.

Orient the players to the night side of Duty Station 1. Check

off the first mission and run the night flying exercise - ask
the section leader to brief the airwomen, run the mission,
then debrief. Since there is no initial mission pool, it is likely
to go poorly. Senior Lieutenant Petrova will not be pleased
if so. Regardless, explain how mission pool works and why
it is valuable.

A month has passed—it is now March 1942. We’ve been flying

relentlessly, every night, for thirty straight days. We are exhausted but
the pace only quickens. The Red Army Air Force has been decimated
and is slowly rebuilding. The time has come to begin tactical training
and skill building to bring the regiment up to 4th Air Army standards.
(continued on next page)
PART SIX: PAGE 9 OF 10

FLIGHT TRAINING (CONTINUED)

Ask each player an introspective, personal question, for example:
†† When has your sexuality gotten you in trouble?
†† When has your sexuality gotten you out of trouble?
†† In what ways do you dress or look like a woman?
†† In what ways do you dress or look like a man?
†† Whose picture will you tape to your plane’s dash?
†† Who in the regiment evokes the strongest feelings from you, and why?
†† When we search your footlocker, what surprising thing do we find?
†† What did the Soviet state take from you?

Present some vignettes of daytime life around Engels Airdrome.

There can be direct challenges from men from the 217th or
218th, news reporters from Pravda, mechanical problems,
whatever seems interesting based on what has already been
established. Make sure there are opportunities to build mission
pool based on the character’s interests and personalities.
When night falls, check off the second mission and run
the mock bombing run—ask the section leader to brief the
airwomen, run the mission, then debrief. anyone participating
in this mission deepens ties and earns an advance—mark it
off and fill in a Regard slot. Explain why Regard is valuable.
PART SEVEN: PAGE 10 OF 10

COMBAT READY
April, 1942. After another month of grueling training, the pace has
become frantic. Supplies are becoming rarer as the combat situation
becomes more and more uncertain. The regiment’s airplanes are
suffering, and pressure from our staff officers continues to mount.
Not only are we expected to become excellent pilots and navigators,
we are also expected to be model Soviet airwomen, perfect in every
way. Something has got to give.

Present more daytime vignettes, seasoned with desperation

and failure. They may need to scrounge or repair. Captain
Barsukova will be looking for shirkers, wreckers and
saboteurs. Word might go out that anyone performing poorly
will be cut from the regiment. As before, make sure there are
opportunities to build mission pool based on the character’s
interests and personalities.
When night falls, check off the final mission and run the live
bombing run with “aggressive” opposing forces from the all-
male 217th Fighter Division under D.P. Galunov. After the
debreif, anyone participating in this mission learns a harsh
lesson and earns an advance - mark it off and choose a move.

That’s it—play time is over. Senior Lieutenant Petrova informs us that

word has come down from the Major that tomorrow we will be shipping
out for the Caucuses. Sergeant Kataeva has travel vouchers for the
ferry and a train from Saratov departs tonight. We’ve been assigned
to 2-Squadron where we will comprise A-Section. Good luck, and we’ll
all meet again in Trud Gornyaka.

Change to Duty Station 2, choose an initial GM,

and continue playing!