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[carry: a game about war IC/OOC] Talkin' Vietnam War Blues

simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered User regular
edited December 2009 in Critical Failures
carry: a game about war


There's a smell in this place that doesn't go away. It fills up your lungs and eyes, already sticky from the heat and the sweat that covers you all the time. Sergeant once said that killing people was about the best distraction from all your troubles - can't think about your girl back home when you're elbow-deep in some gook's guts, can't think about the letter's she's sending you that start off with "Dear John". Something about killing a man wipes the slate clean, he says. Then the flare goes up in the sky, and we can see the position we're meant to be assaulting, and I think I see their ey-

namwar.jpg

'carry' is a game about war. The Vietnam War.

It isn't a wargame, nor is it a combat simulator. You play soldiers who are fighting in that conflict, and how the war and the people, events and situations affects them. You will be put into situations and scenes where you will confront and come into conflict with some difficult issues, as well as difficult combat. Your objective isn't to win, but to survive as best you can - even if that means disobeying an order coming straight from your friend, your superior officer. In the end, the conflicts and clashing ideologies within the team will come to a head, and you'll be left wondering what happens next.

There are two kinds of scenes, squad scenes and combat scenes. In the squad scenes, you'll develop your character and interact fully with the other members of your squad, pushing your burdens and finding out what makes your character tick. These scenes can run a full spectrum of things, from interrogating a VC spy, to overhearing someone planning to frag your superior officer; from getting orders to clear out a Vietnamese village you have friendly relations with, to someone begging you to help spring their woman from an internment camp.

Conflict, on the other hand, is another set of things. In these scenes, the highest ranking officer will be given command over the unit, and the other soldiers have to decide if they agree with the order or not - and whether they'll obey it or not. However, you'll find that constantly agreeing and obeying orders will only get the squad deeper into hurt, as they and their friends are blown to pieces for doing exactly what the sergeant told them to do.

evacq.jpg

There are dice, and profiles, and stats, to some extent; we'll get to that later. I'm just covering some of the basic game stuff, to see what people think about it.

Character creation is different from what you might be used to in other games, in that there is a set cast. You do not make your character's name, age, rank or looks; rather, what you create is their Burden. This is what they're bringing to the conflict from outside of the squad, their own personal issue or problem.

Maybe your character has a wife back home, urging you to desert. Maybe your brother was killed in combat. Maybe you're ravaged by doubt and self-pity. Whatever it is, it's your Burden, the thing that makes your character interesting. But you? You only make one third of the Burden; once you write down the initial idea, another player writes an addition to it. This repeats again. In the end, you have a three sentence outline of your character's personal weight to carry.

Then you choose the soldier you'll be playing as.

There's a cast of sixteen soldiers, with their own backgrounds and starting profiles - you choose one to play as. The Burden you have, that comes into the process of choosing as well, since you want your Burden to match up well with what the character starts off like. If your Burden is that you hate to see others succeed, well, maybe you should choose a team leader, like Anaconda or Locker. But your Burden can also be an interesting counterpoint to your starting character; in the end, if it's interesting, it'll most likely work. Just use common sense.

As for dice... well, I'll get around to that in the next post, where I'll cover the actual mechanics of the game. For now, read through the mechanics, see if you're interested or intrigued by the concept of the game; if you are, then there are three things you need to post when you sign up:

a) Tell me if you have any military background. If you do, then what was it? What would you be bringing to the game from that experience?
b) This game can bring up heavy issues in play, the worst aspects of the Vietnam War. Tell me if there's anything (beyond the stuff which I can't bring up due to forum rules) which you'd really prefer not to have brought up in the game.
c) Write your starting Burden concept; just a single sentence, the more concise the better. If you need examples, there'll be some in the mechanics post.


I know that games often die on these forums due to player inactivity, or a general apathy towards posting; before you sign up, please ask yourself if you really think you can commit to one or more posts a day. If you can't, then I thank you for your time, but this isn't the game for you. This is also a narrativist-heavy game, so if you don't think of yourself as much of a writer, again, this isn't the game for you.

At the moment, I'll be looking for four people to play in this. Please, sign up with the stuff I mentioned in your post, especially (if only) the beginnings of your Burden.

On your feet, soldier. We've got a war to win.

THE SOLDIERS

Elmo "Saint" Smith (as portrayed by illgottengains)
Current Profile: Accuser
Was drafted as a Conscientious Objector to war.
But is finding part of him enjoys the thrill of killing.
He finds himself longing for darker and darker thrills.


David “Anaconda” Steinbeck (as portrayed by Egos)
Current Profile: Warrior
Secretly suicidal.
Entire family died just days before deployment.
If anyone finds out, he'll get a section 8 and be sent home - and that isn't part of the plan.


Daniel “Locker” Jones (as portrayed by Kias)
Current Profile: Accuser
Hears the voices no one else can hear.
Whether they are encouraging or comforting depends on the moods of those around him.
The voices say he's got a secret mission to find... It.


Ramsey “Ram” Capello (as portrayed by summeryclept)
Current Profile: Soldier
Sacrificed another soldier to save his own hide.
Never really liked that guy anyway.
Yet every night since that day, restful sleep becomes ever more elusive.

simonwolf on
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Posts

  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    CHARACTER CREATION

    Character creation can be summed up into three simple steps: making your Burden, choosing your soldier, and picking your dice. These are all easy to learn! I'll go through them step-by-step.

    Burden

    You Burden, like I said before, is what your character is bringing from outside the war, beyond what he himself is. This can run a whole gambit of ideas, but the main rule is that it has to be something that weighs heavily on your character. It could be a historical thing, it could be a personal thing. You just need to write down a single sentence, concise as possible, that starts off the Burden. Then we pass that Burden to the next person, and they write down the next part of your Burden. Just another sentence, again concise, that continues or expands on what you started.

    Here's some examples, fully fleshed out so you see the development process:
    "Has a wife and kid back home. Has a Vietnamese girl in Saigon. She wants him to leave his wife for her."
    "Has a history of failure. Riddled with self-doubt and hatred. Hates to see others succeed."
    "Doesn't want to die. Doesn't want to go to hell. Is faithful, and a sinner."

    Of course, if you feel like your Burden isn't quite good enough - maybe you feel it's weak in comparison to the ones other people have - you can just ask to change it, and suggest the change you'd make. If the table agrees that it's a good change, then we'll keep it. Nice, isn't it?

    Once this is done, and everyone's happy with their Burden, we move onto the selection of Soldiers to play as.

    Soldiers

    There's a cast of 16 characters in carry, each with their own individual appearance, general background, appearance, months in and starting profile. These are important things, but the months in and profile are both mechanical things you can read about a bit further down.

    There's the Sergeant, who is in command of the squad, and then there's the three five-man fire teams - Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. Your task is to choose one of these soldiers to play, and they take up the Burden you chose. Hopefully, your Burden will either match the character, or give them an interesting counterpoint. You want these guys to be as cinematic as possible - think of Full Metal Jacket and Platoon. You can read all the profiles in a pdf right here, but for ease of reference, I'll copy them down here, divided into fire teams.

    The Sergeant
    Ramsey “Ram” Capello
    Rank: Sergeant (Squad Leader)
    Vitals: Italian. 5’7”, 192 lbs. Brown hair, eyes. 32.
    Description: Ram doesn’t look like much until you see his eyes, but his hard, determined stare is enough to command respect from anyone. A career soldier, he does not take any shit. His serious attitude towards his duties, both explicit and expected, keeps him on the straight and narrow.
    Starting Profile: Soldier
    Months In: 10

    Alpha Team
    David “Anaconda” Steinbeck
    Rank: Corporal (Alpha Leader)
    Vitals: Caucasian. 5’10”, 185 lbs. Brown hair, hazel eyes. 28.
    Description: A lithe man, his call sign comes from his deceptively strong upper body and his well-developed wrestling skills. Anaconda is confident without being obnoxious, and probably the most popular non-com in the squad.
    Starting Profile: Warrior
    Months In: 8

    Elmo "Saint" Smith
    Rank: Lance Corporal (Alpha)
    Vitals: Scandinavian. 6’1”, 198 lbs. Blue eyes, blond. 23.
    Description: Elmo is anything but a saint. He always manages to dig up the substances that soldiers are not supposed to have, which makes him popular amongst his comrades. He falls over himself to stay in line when someone in command is around, to keep out of trouble. His own substance abuse has resulted in the injuries of squad mates in the past, but he keeps that quiet.
    Starting Profile: Accuser
    Months In: 6

    Julien "Jewel" Abromowitz
    Rank: Private (Alpha)
    Vitals: Jewish. 5’8”, 160 lbs. Brown hair and eyes. 19.
    Description: Stereotypically Jewish looks give some of the others plenty of ammunition for “good-natured” ribbing. Julien doesn’t like it, but most of the time is too intimidated to speak up. He wants to get along with everyone, but has a hard time doing so. Neither his upbringing nor his experiences thus far have given him the fatalism or confidence that he sees in the other soldiers.
    Starting Profile: Soldier
    Months In: 4

    William "Big White" White
    Rank: Private (Alpha)
    Vitals: African-American. 6’4”, 207 lbs. Brown eyes, shaved head. 25.
    Description: A black man from Alabama, he knows what living in fear means. The leveling effect that Vietnam has on racism means that he gets along just fine with his squad, but it doesn’t mean that he takes it easy. He’s a very good soldier, and is respected for it.
    Starting Profile: Invincible
    Months In: 5

    Shirley "Temple" Jenkins
    Rank: Private (Alpha)
    Vitals: Caucasian. 5’7”, 155 lbs. Blue eyes, blonde hair. 19.
    Description: The most recent recruit to the squad, he still looks and acts like a weedy college student. He doesn’t talk much and usually tries to get out of the way. He just wants to go home. So far, he has not done much to earn the trust of the others, and it shows.
    Starting Profile: Companion
    Months In: 2

    Bravo Team
    Rocky “Raven” Alongi
    Rank: Corporal (Bravo Leader)
    Vitals: Italian. 5’10”, 206 lbs. Hazel eyes, shaved head. 28.
    Description: Stocky and with a perpetual sneer, he oozes intimidation. Raven does not talk about his past, but he had plenty of scars even before arriving in Vietnam. He has been known to react to insubordination with violence, but he toes the line with his superiors.
    Starting Profile: Brawler
    Months In: 7

    Tommy "Skid" Bunting
    Rank: Private First Class (Bravo)
    Vitals: Caucasian. 5’6”, 150 lbs. Brown hair, blue eyes. 21.
    Description: Young, but extremely confidant, he tends to ignore his surroundings rather than deal with them. He always has something to say. Sometimes its right, but sometimes its dead wrong. As the smallest man in the squad, he’s often ordered to investigate Viet Cong tunnels and other dangerous places, leading to a fatalistic attitude.
    Starting Profile: Invincible
    Months In: 5

    Jared "Jesus" Trujillo
    Rank: Private First Class (Bravo)
    Vitals: Latino. 5’11”, 183 lbs. Brown hair and eyes. 22.
    Description: Jared gets his nickname from his shaggy hair and peaceful bearing. He doesn’t let very much rattle him, and seems a lot older than he is. He always has a kind word, even for the idiots in the squad. The fact that he’s the squad medic doesn’t hurt his popularity, either.
    Starting Profile: Warrior
    Months In: 6

    Willard "Coyote" Williamson
    Rank: Private First Class (Bravo)
    Vitals: African-American. 6’, 180 lbs. Black hair, brown eyes. 23.
    Description: Lanky and dreadlocked, Coyote’s nickname comes from his habit of howling when he gets excited. He has a lot of energy, most of it nervous, and can get on the others nerves fairly easily. However, the facts that he honestly does not notice how annoying he can be, and that he does well in combat, lets him get away with more than he should.
    Starting Profile: Companion
    Months In: 4

    Wendell "Professor" Kettridge
    Rank: Private (Bravo)
    Vitals: Irish. 6’3”, 226 lbs. Blue eyes, red hair. 23.
    Description: His nickname come from his Christian name and his glasses, not his big, stocky body. Probably the most muscled man in the squad, he is interested in little but telling dirty jokes, fighting, and staying alive. As the humper of the machine gun, the others usually let his behavior slide, even when they find it annoying, offensive or both.
    Starting Profile: Brawler
    Months In: 6

    Charlie Team
    Daniel “Locker” Jones
    Rank: Corporal (Charlie Leader)
    Vitals: Caucasian. 6’1”, 187 lbs. Black eyes, blond hair. 27.
    Description: One of the more remarkable members of the squad due to his ghoulish appearance, Daniel is both an exemplary soldier and well educated. His ambitions are much higher than dying in some swamp in Vietnam, and sometimes his fear of doing so comes out in strange ways.
    Starting Profile: Accuser
    Months In: 9

    Eddie “Cowboy” Riley
    Rank: Lance Corporal (Charlie)
    Vitals: Caucasian. 5’9”, 191 lbs. Blue eyes, brown hair. 20.
    Description: A farmhand from Texas, Eddie plays up his drawl and mannerisms just to stand out. He sees soldiering as an opportunity, not a dead-end. His arrogance and persistent winnings at cards often get him glares, but no-one has caught him cheating – yet.
    Starting Profile: Brawler
    Months In: 4

    Ryan “Deadwood” Alder
    Rank: Private First Class (Charlie)
    Vitals: African-American. 5’9”, 170 lbs. Hazel eyes, brown hair. 19.
    Description: An idealistic college student, his optimism is being steadily worn away by the harsh realities of the war. He tries to soldier on, but finds himself caring less and less about his own situation, let alone that of the other men. As his ideals fade, he finds refuge in the mechanical operations of his job.
    Starting Profile: Soldier
    Months In: 7

    James "Bull" Toren
    Rank: Private (Charlie)
    Vitals: Caucasian. 6’6”, 242 lbs. Brown eyes, shaved head. 25.
    Description: The build of a bull and the brains to match give Jim his nick-name. While Vietnam is a better option than a Chicago meatpacking plant, he still hates it, hates his own stupidity, and hates anyone who calls him on either. He’s gotten into more fights with his squad mates than with the enemy.
    Starting Profile: Accuser
    Months In: 3

    Efram "Chameleon" Osgood
    Rank: Private (Charlie)
    Vitals: African-American. 5’8”, 179 lbs. Brown eyes, shaved head. 21.
    Description: The best point man in the squad, he tends to blend into the background even when not on patrol. He rarely speaks, and makes his opinions known with actions, not words. Some in the squad find his silence ominous.
    Starting Profile: Warrior
    Months In: 7

    So, you pick a soldier, and they take on your Burden. What makes a good selection, though? Like I said, make some interesting counterpoints! Using the examples I had before:

    - For the Burden involving the woman in Saigon, I'd probably go with Bull, or maybe even Sergeant "Ram" himself. In both cases, the idea of an affair would be counterpoints to their general nature - for Bull, has his own stupidity wound him up in that situation? How is he going to face such moral issues when his basic plan is to punch away his problems? Likewise, Ram is a true soldier and dedicated to his duties, but his job and his personal life might be very seperate things.

    - For the Burden involving hating to see others succeed, I'd say one of the team leaders would be best suited, but that's just me! Almost anyone would be suited for that, even Cowboy - his swaggering bravado could just be a charade, covering up his inner doubts.

    - For the Burden involving faith and sin, there's quite a few I'd think of choosing! Chief among them would be Chameleon, Locker and Temple.

    Last, we choose dice!

    We put four dice forward - a d6, a d8, a d10, and a d12. Whichever person has the character with the least months in chooses one of these, the second person chooses one, and so forth. Once the dice pool is empty, it's refilled with another batch of the same dice. Once we reach the person with the highest amount of months, we go back to the person with the least number.

    This continues until the person with the least number of months has dice in his pool equal to his months. Once that's happened, the rest of the players fill their pools with whatever dice they want, up to their number of months. The GM fills his pool with dice equal to double the players in the game, and everyone is allocated their special Burden dice, which is a d6. You always have this dice, though it may change sizes throughout the game.

    When you're choosing your dice, you'll want to keep two things in mind:
    - your profile, which determines the size of the dice you can use in conflicts
    - the fact that whatever dice you choose don't stay in your pool forever; they get shuffled around, passed between players, even into the hands of the GM. A big dice will give you an early boost, but it'll also backfire when the person who gets it after you decides to use it against you in a conflict.

    simonwolf on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    MECHANICAL STUFF

    PROFILES
    Every character has a Profile, and will always have one. This profile not only gives you a basic idea of how your character deals with situations and their worldview, but also tells you what dice to use for your approaches in a conflict! In play, your way of dealing with a conflict is called an Approach, and your Profile intersects with each Approach to determine possible effectiveness.

    Throughout play, you'll need to change your profile in some circumstances - when you run out of dice in your pool, and when you successfully address a Burden. The first is far more common! You can see the wheel of profiles in that pdf I linked earlier. Most of this stuff, I'll cover later in the game, or in brief now and expanded later. For now, let's get the basics of profiles and conflict out of the way.

    There are six profiles, and each is different in its own way. Here's a brief rundown of each, so you get a better understanding of how the characters in the game work.

    Accuser: Whatever happens? It isn't your fault. If you're hungry, it's because you aren't being fed enough. If you get lost, it's because somebody didn't give you good enough directions. And when the shit hits the fan, well, you're always in the right place at the right time - not your fault the gooks are such bastards. Whenever you're confronted and in the wrong, you're always defensive, making every excuse to try and push the blame. You're only happy when you're spreading your misery to other people, and if you see a chance to do so? You take it.
    (V:d8, S:d12, H:d6, P:d10)

    Soldier: Vietnam is the best thing that ever happened, for some kids. Combat and military structure is strangely comforting, and you're here to do a job - and you're damn well going to do it.You make yourself into the stereotype of a soldier, following orders to the letter because it's your job. You don't have patience to deal with anyone or anything that makes your job harder, but your handle responsibility better than most. You have a hard time rationalising contradictions or breaches of military rule, which can make it frustrating to deal with people who don't see things your way.
    (V:d10, S:d8, H:d12, P:d6)

    Companion: Some officers see you as a perfect soldier, doing what you're told, when you're told, and never a scrap more. Other officers can't stand you, since you never accept responsibility. The men are the same way - some accept you as a drinking buddy and support you, others think you try too hard to be everyone's friend. In both cases, you don't feel like you can be in charge of anything, because you'll just fuck it up. But you know how to get out of this war - you just need the right guy to be friends with.
    (V:d6, S:d8, H:d10, P:d12)

    Warrior: You've got a code of ethics, principles and values that you stongly believe in and strive to uphold. It's just a shame that code rarely helps you in Vietnam. You're willing and able to bring retribution to your enemies, but you need to rationalise your anger with yourself, if no one else, in order to continue. Others don't understand, and they just get in your way because of it, while you suffer their foolishness while trying to make sense of it all in your own head. When presented with a situation where you can't justify your violence, even if it's necessary, you often drop the ball. You often suffer cognitive dissonance, trying to put your beliefs in alien circumstances.
    (V:d10, S:d6, H:d12, P:d8)

    Invincible: The other soldiers are worried about VC and their traps, but you're not, because you know nothing will hurt you. You've been on hundreds of missions and never suffered a scratch. You're smart, lucky and tough enough to do anything. You look down on lesser men, showing contempt to those who show fear. If they can't deal with the life, that's their problem, not yours. You work alone, racking up the kill count, since a partner would just slow you down. When you get seriously injured or faced with impossible odds? You just don't accept it and keep fighting. Because nothing will ever hurt you.
    (V:d12, S:d10, H:d8, P:d6)

    Brawler: Violence isn't the best answer, it's the only answer. You enjoy physically dominating others, and you've been in Vietnam long enough to be completely desensitised to violence, not even thinking twice before you pull the trigger. When you're dealing with people on your own side, this can get you into trouble. You're mortally afraid of getting killed, though, because you've seen how easy it is to kill a man, and he who shoots first dies last. If violence isn't the answer to a situation or problem, you freeze up.
    (V:d12, S:d8, H:d10, P:d6)

    Those little letter and number combinations are explained in the section on Squad scenes.

    PROFILE CHANGES
    During the game, there'll be times you need to change your profile, and this can happen in two ways:

    - If you only have your Burden dice remaining in your dice pool, you change your profile to one of the two profiles that are immediately adjacent to it. Consider the shift in the context of the game, the situation and Burdens you carry.

    - If you ever resolve a Burden, you immediately choose a new profile, which can be any of the ones listed.
    Whenever your profile changes, refill your dice pool with any combination of dice in the out of play pool, equal to your months in.

    Oh, and if your Burden dice is higher than a d6, you can lower it down a size to resist a profile change. Replace your Burden dice with one of the appropriate size, then refill your dice pool as normal.

    SQUAD SCENES
    These are scenes that involve everything except full on, guns-blazing combat. These scenes don't take place one after the other, like in many other games; they can be hours, days or weeks apart, like the scenes in a good movie. I'll always try to frame a scene to develop into a conflict, but depending on how it gets played out, it mightn't come to that. But when a conflict does start to happen, we generate stakes.

    Each player involved in the conflict generates their stakes; whatever you want to happen is your winning stakes, and what you stand to lose should be your losing stakes. Players will generate the winning stakes for their grunts, while the GM assigns appropriate losing stakes. Once stakes are generated, the players determine their Approach in the conflict.

    Violent: Confrontational and violent. Shouting, threatening, pushing, physical violence and using weapons all count as Violent approaches. You just want to come out on top.

    Subversive: Your approach to the conflict speaks to your own interests. It's not whether you win or lose, but how it sets you up for whatever your real aim is. Your stakes should be set up to match your real goals, which may involve "losing" the obvious conflict.

    Honourable: You view the conflict in terms of how it will impact your moral or ethical beliefs. Often, these conflicts will involve challenges you set for yourself, with other parties as a secondary condition. You want to succeed at the challenge to prove something to yourself or to maintain self respect, without caring about other effects it might have.

    Peaceful:
    You want to avoid violence and conflict. Often, this kind of approach leads to mediation attempts, or talking down someone more confrontational than you. This doesn't mean you're a pushover, it just means your aim is to solve the problem at hand, rather than necessarily win.

    Once all participants have chosen an Approach, everyone chooses one dice from their pool up to the maximum size allowed by their Profile and rolls it. As your dice is rolled, narrate what your grunt does, thinks, how the others see him, or anything else you find appropriate. The player who rolls the highest number wins their stakes, and every other grunt faces their losing stakes.

    Once your dice is rolled, immediately give that dice to another player, or the GM. The dice goes straight into that person's dice pool. If the GM has no dice at the beginning of a conflict, then all opposing grunts win their stakes without rolling, but they must immediately give the highest-sized dice in their pool to the GM.

    But it'd hardly be fun if one roll decided everything! Once everyone has rolled, anyone losing the conflict can elect to "push" the conflict in order to win. Declare you want to push. Others do not have to push, but if they choose not to, they cannot choose to push later, except if they use their Burden. You must choose a new Approach to push from. The GM narrates the conflict until this point, leaving the resolution open.

    If you choose to push with your Burden, use your Burden in your narration and roll it as normal, but do not give it away - you always keep your Burden dice. You cannot start a conflict with your Burden dice, unless you're attempting to address your Burden.

    Everyone pushing rolls their dice and adds the score to their original roll, then gives the dice to someone else at the table. Players can keep pushing a situation until they run out of dice or Approaches. Always narrate your action with the roll. Once everyone is done pushing, the conflict resolves, with the winning grunt winning his stakes, while everyone else faces their losing stakes.

    ACTION SCENES
    Action scenes are any kind of scene that involves the squad seeing combat, from a mortar attack to a set of booby traps in an abandoned VC tunnel. The GM frames the scene, the ranking officer gives orders, and the reactions of the other players characters drives the scene.

    The Ranking Officer is whichever Grunt possesses the highest rank, with ties going to the grunt with the higher amount of months in. Each round, the ranking officer gives each grunt a specific order, along with orders for the squad as a whole. The players of the other grunts then have to decide two things:
    - Do you obey or disobey the order? If you obey, then narrate your grunt following the order; if not, narrate what your grunt does instead.
    - Do you agree or disagree with the order? If you agree, give one of your dice to the ranking officer's combat pool. If you disagree, give one of your dice to the GM's combat pool.

    Players can agree and obey, agree and disobey, disagree and obey, or disagree and disobey. You may give away a dice of any size from your pool, including (once per scene) your Burden dice, which you get back after resolution. The GM then narrates the scene so far, and the consequences of the grunt's actions. The GM may call the combat scene to a close after any number of these rounds.

    Once the combat is closed, the GM and ranking officer have a pool of dice given to them by the other players. They may then, at their choice, add one of their own dice to their respective pools, but only one that is equal or less than the highest dice already in their combat pool. The two then roll their pools and add together the totals, with the highest total winning. A player who has thrown in their Burden dice may, at this point, re-roll their Burden dice to change the total of the pool it was in. After this is done, fallout is handed out.

    The winning dice pool subtracts the opposing dice pool from their total, and the remainder turns into the amount of Fallout points the winner of the conflict has to spend on the following effects. All points must be spent.

    - Wound a Fodder character (1 point)
    - Shell shock a Fodder character (2 points)
    - Seriously wound a Fodder character (3 points)
    - Shell shock a Grunt (4 points)
    - Kill a Fodder character (5 points)
    - Wound a Grunt (5 points)
    - Seriously wound a Grunt (7 points)

    Everything that happens to Fodder characters is background colour, but the GM decides whether their injuries counts towards the End Game. If the winner's pool contained any Burden dice, the winner must inflict fallout on each of the Grunts that contributed a Burden dice. This does not cost any fallout points.

    If a Grunt is shell shocked, the winner must inflict one of the following effects:
    - Move a d6 from the Grunt's dice pool to the GM's dice pool
    - Change his Burden dice from a d6 to a d8

    If a Grunt is wounded, the winner must inflict one of the following effects:
    - Move a d6 or d8 from the Grunt's dice pool to the GM's dice pool
    - Change his Burden dice from a d6 to a d8, or a d8 to a d10

    If a Grunt is seriously wounded, the winner must inflict one of the following effects:
    - Move a d6, d8 or d10 from the Grunt's dice pool to the GM's dice pool
    - Raise his Burden dice by one size.

    As you can see, this can result in a squad facing fallout despite following their orders to the letter. It might seem strange, but it's by design - in Vietnam, being a functional squad doesn't help your Grunts situation. The optimal strategy to avoid Fallout is to keep the dice pools even, which means disagreeing with orders, which sets up more intrasquad conflict later.

    RESOLVING YOUR BURDENS
    Burdens are carried, but they may also be set aside. While your Burden is a gestalt of its parts, over the course of play, you should come to a point where you feel that one of these parts needs to be dealt with head-on, for better or worse. If you ever feel your character is at a point where they could resolve part of their Burden, you must tell the GM you want a conflict for it. You select the individual Burden entry you're resolving. Unlike other conflicts, these ones have set stakes.

    If you win, you resolve your Burden and immediately change profile to any one of your choice (including your current one). You then re-fill your dice pool up to your months in with dice in the out of play pool, in any combination of size that you wish. Your Burden dice remains the same, and you mark that Burden entry as resolved.

    If you lose, your Burden dice goes up one size, and you fail to resolve the Burden.

    The first dice you roll in any Burden resolution conflict must be your Burden dice. You can push as per normal after that.

    Whether you win or lose, you gain a new entry to your Burden that should be generated out of the events in the game so far. So, if you win, you resolve part of your Burden but gain another; if you lose, you gain another issue to deal with. You will never have less than 3 Burden entries.

    THE ENDGAME
    This is when everything goes to shit. The pressure on the Grunts is too much, the squad's been destroyed, and their issues have pushed them to the limit. It is up to the GM to decide when the endgame occurs, but it will be triggered automatically if all the Fodder characters have been wounded, killed or otherwise evac'd.

    The scene is framed by the GM, and each player chooses a target; the grunt that their grunt has the biggest tensions with. Everyone must have a target, and multiple people can choose the same target. Each player then gives their Burden dice to their target. The players then roll the dice they were given, and add their number of unresolved Burden entries. Players who did not receive a dice simply add their unresolved Burden entries to zero.

    The person with the lowest number then narrates the Denouement of every player who gave him a dice; if the player was given no dice, he narrates his own Denouement. Once they're finished, the player with the next lowest total narrates, and so on. It's recommended each narration put the character in question in a worse or more tragic situation than the characters previously narrated for.

    Once all these Denouement narrations have been completed, each player gives their own character an epilogue. Go in reverse order from the Denouements.

    Denouements concern what happens to those characters in this scene. Those who Denouement narrates about those characters and what happens - what they do to who, and why. You can narrate the death of your target, or of yourself. The Burdens involved should contribute heavily to each character's Denouement.

    Epilogue is just that, what happens to the characters after they make it out. For those who didn't make it, what memories or legacy do they leave behind? Did the actions of these characters matter at all, in the long run? All of these are addressed in the epilogue.

    Once the epilogues are done, the game is over.

    simonwolf on
  • summerycleptsummeryclept Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    a) No military background whatsoever.
    b) Actually, no. Not a thing. Hit me with your worst.
    c) Wants the Vietnamese to win the war.


    Although... eh! I'm still not sure about the burden. Give me until the roster is full.

    summeryclept on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Hopefully I will get a full roster!

    But your Burden seems workable, I can think of a couple of second-tier parts to add on to it.

    simonwolf on
  • KiasKias Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    a) No military background
    b) No limits
    c) Hears the voices no one else can hear


    Just what I could think of for the time being, let me think more on the burden for specifics.

    *edit* updated the burden

    Kias on
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  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    It's a little long-winded, but it's a good start! You might want to pare it back a bit; keep in mind that most of the soldier have a set background as to whether they were drafted or volunteered for the war. You might want to make it more of a personal thing, like, "Wanted to be educated, not a soldier."

    simonwolf on
  • KiasKias Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Tweaked it a bit and will think on it as we get going. I saw a few profiles that match my idea, but basically I am going for a non-traditional college student (i.e. a bit older, work experience, didn't go from high school to college) turned reluctant soldier theme.

    I can keep the burden just about college/education dreams and let the other aspects of it come through depending on the profile I end up with.

    Kias on
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  • summerycleptsummeryclept Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Come on, people! Have you no sense of patriotism?

    summeryclept on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Pretty sure the Vietnam War is among the worst ones to be patriotic about, right up there with the War on Kittens and the Smileytown War.

    those poor clown bastards never saw it coming

    simonwolf on
  • TipharethTiphareth Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    This game looks amazing, however it seems a bit too heavy for me and a bit too challenging too. I wish you the best of luck though. And I'll definitely subscribe to the thread.

    Tiphareth on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    It's a bit of a heavy game, yeah! I understand the challenging part, since most of the game is based entirely on narratives, rather than having things decided with dice rolls. But thanks for the interest/subscription, and I sincerely hope I actually get some people wanting to play a game/end up loathing everyone they've played with.

    simonwolf on
  • EgosEgos Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    a)none
    b) none
    c) Character is secretly suicidal and his heroic acts are more disregard for his own life as opposed to pure heroism. He longs to die in a way others would deem worthy.

    Egos on
  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited November 2009


    A - None
    B - Bring it
    C - Killed an American soldier accidentally in battle.

    illgottengains on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Awesome! A reminder, guys, that your starting Burden is just a kick-off point, and shouldn't be fully fleshed out - "Longs for a worthy death", "Secretly suicidal" or "Puts heroism above his own life" would work for yours, Egos.

    Gains, your one seems fine and dandy!

    I'll give it another 24 hours, but if nobody else signs up, consider yourselves all drafted into this man's army.

    simonwolf on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    This sounds awesome

    I will watch with wide-eyed wonder while you guys do atrocities

    INeedNoSalt on
  • KiasKias Registered User regular
    edited November 2009
    Hmm, heya Simon, what do you think about a burden like:

    The voices tell me to do things

    -or-

    Hears voices no one else can hear

    I am not sure how appropriate they would be for the setting, but it seems more open ended than my first idea (allowing my fellow players to focus the voices).

    This idea may or may not have something to do with the Cthullu game I started playing in last week.

    Kias on
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  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Crazy people? In Vietnam? That's a real stretch of the imagination.

    It's nice and open-ended for the other players to come up with the next parts of, so yeah, it should work fine as a Burden!

    simonwolf on
  • summerycleptsummeryclept Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    I want to change my burden!

    Sacrificed another soldier to save his own hide.

    Does that work?

    summeryclept on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    That works fine!

    The main thing with Burdens is to make them concise and about the person's personal life, or something like that. So saying "sacrificed another soldier to save himself" would be fine, since there's all kinds of places you can expand that into. But going into detail about it on the first entry would be silly, but you didn't, so that is fine.

    simonwolf on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Alright, guys! I'm calling it closed.

    The order of Burden-creation is as follows:

    illgottengains
    kias
    egos
    summeryclept

    This means that you'll be finalising your Burden, then the person below you on the list (wrapping around, of course) will create the second part. Person below them will make the third entry.

    It's all pretty simple! Just keep the same things in mind that's been said in the OP about Burden creation:

    - keep them concise, with one main idea
    - expand on the previous entries, don't go down a new path
    - don't contradict anything already said in the entries


    Pretty easy, yeah?

    So, first things first - everyone, post your final edition of your first entry. Once you've done that, the second person in order can make their additions, and so forth. Once everyone's done with their entries, the person they've been written for gives their final approval, or asks if they can change one of the ones they've been given.

    When we've got that sorted, it's character selection time! But that'll probably come later, so for now, if you've got all three entries for your Burden, start thinking about what character you think will fit best, post who you're thinking of taking. There's no character selection order, nor is it first-come-first-serve. If two people are interested in the same guy, settle it like adults!

    simonwolf on
  • summerycleptsummeryclept Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Sacrificed another soldier to save his own hide.

    summeryclept on
  • EgosEgos Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    I think Secretly Suicidal seems the most encompassing.

    Egos on
  • KiasKias Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Hears the voices no one else can hear

    Kias on
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  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    yay

    Okay, lookin' good so far, just waiting on illgottengains. You all should probably start thinking about the Burden entry you're going to be following up on, think of something classy to add on.

    simonwolf on
  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    I'm going to switch mine up here last minute.

    Was drafted as a Conscientious Objector to war.

    illgottengains on
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    can I post here as an outsider? I hope you don't mind.

    am I correct in understanding that each player will end up with a 4-part burden, defined by their own starting bit and with depth added by the other three?

    INeedNoSalt on
  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Kias, I'm not sure which way to go with this but I get the feeling you are looking for something like And they keep telling him that he cannot trust a single soul out here if he wants to survive.

    illgottengains on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    can I post here as an outsider? I hope you don't mind.

    am I correct in understanding that each player will end up with a 4-part burden, defined by their own starting bit and with depth added by the other three?

    Kinda, but not really! Each player will wind up with a three part Burden, defined by their starting one and with the extra depth and additions made by the two players after them in the order I posted before. You were just off by one!

    Feel free to post as an outsider, I enjoy making clarifications.

    simonwolf on
  • summerycleptsummeryclept Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Alright, Egos - why are we suicidal? I say...

    Entire family died just days before deployment.

    summeryclept on
  • KiasKias Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Kias, I'm not sure which way to go with this but I get the feeling you are looking for something like And they keep telling him that he cannot trust a single soul out here if he wants to survive.

    Actually, I picked it because it is wide open, so anything you guys come up with is fine. But I think egos has my burden first and you have summeryclept.

    Leaving me with you! So, let me see.. Conscientious Objector, eh? I may need to think on this a bit.

    Kias on
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  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Kias wrote: »
    Kias, I'm not sure which way to go with this but I get the feeling you are looking for something like And they keep telling him that he cannot trust a single soul out here if he wants to survive.

    Actually, I picked it because it is wide open, so anything you guys come up with is fine. But I think egos has my burden first and you have summeryclept.

    Leaving me with you! So, let me see.. Conscientious Objector, eh? I may need to think on this a bit.

    oops. lol. I've got a nice migraine going on right now. Let's try that again.

    illgottengains on
  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    "The order of Burden-creation is as follows:

    illgottengains
    kias
    egos
    summeryclept

    This means that you'll be finalising your Burden, then the person below you on the list (wrapping around, of course) will create the second part. Person below them will make the third entry."

    I think I had it right with Kias.

    illgottengains on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Nooooooope.

    Notice when I say "person below you will be making the second part"? That means, the person below you makes the second part of your Burden. Which means you should be writing the second part of summery's, while Kias will make the third.

    You will be making the second part of summery's and the third part of Egos's.

    simonwolf on
  • KiasKias Registered User regular
    edited December 2009

    Was drafted as a Conscientious Objector to war.

    But is finding part of him enjoys the thrill of killing.

    How is this?

    Kias on
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  • summerycleptsummeryclept Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    some do me, someone do me

    me me me me me me me

    summeryclept on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    I like it! It doesn't contradict what the first Burden entry says, it adds some more depth - he came into this war as an objector, but now he's enjoying the bloodshed? What does that say about him as a person?

    So we're waiting on Egos and illgottengains to do their real second entry-writing, then we'll move on to the third entries.

    simonwolf on
  • simonwolfsimonwolf i can feel a difference today, a differenceRegistered User regular
    edited December 2009
    What is all that, you are being ridiculous, pick one concise entry and move on.

    Besides, you are following on from Kias, who was "Hears the voices no one else can hear" - your entry should follow on from that, expand it, something along those lines. You aren't blazing a new trail, nor are you contradicting what somebody has already said, you're giving more weight to it.

    simonwolf on
  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Ok, sorry for the delay. I've had company from out of state in town. Also, my bad, following directions was never my strong suit.

    Ok summery lets see what I can think up.

    I like that Kias. Not what I was thinking at all, but I think I can work with that.

    illgottengains on
  • illgottengainsillgottengains Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    Summeryclept - Never really liked that guy anyway.

    illgottengains on
  • EgosEgos Registered User regular
    edited December 2009
    simonwolf wrote: »
    What is all that, you are being ridiculous, pick one concise entry and move on.

    Besides, you are following on from Kias, who was "Hears the voices no one else can hear" - your entry should follow on from that, expand it, something along those lines. You aren't blazing a new trail, nor are you contradicting what somebody has already said, you're giving more weight to it.

    Ah sorry, thought we were adding a bit more to our own.

    Egos on
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