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Message no. 1
From: Lady Jestyr <jestyr@*******.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 01:36:41 +1000
>> Perhaps... It takes a LOT of work for a para-military game to work,
>> however, especially witha group of roleplayers. There just isn't much
>> opportunity to roleplay when the objective is to get in, kill target X and
>> get out again without being spotted.
>>
>Heh - sorry, I should have said "basis for a campaign". Have the
>players run a couple of missions, get comfortable with their chars and
>setting, then all of a sudden they run into problems. They make a
>little too much noise (or the security was tougher than they expected),
>but when they get chased to the designated pick up, there isn't anybody
>there.

Slipspeed was speaking from personal experience on this point, too - we
tried a campaign like this. It rapidly got boring, apart from one memorable
incident - which follows.

"Join the Army, they said. Dress Uniforms, they said..."

We were playing an experimental special operations unit, characters with
backgrounds from all over the military and law enforcement scene who were
still drawing pay from their primary 'employers' but were actually working
for this group secretly. We had an UCAS Ranger, a SEAL, a couple of
marines, two cops, an ex-British SAS guy, etc.

We were attending a military reception, where some high mucky-muck was
retiring... we were all weaponless, as guests rather than guards, and in
our dress uniforms. Just as the GM mentioned the Secretary of State being
there, I suddenly remembered the rumours of Egyptian terrorists he'd
so-casually mentioned earlier in the session. Several rapid swear-words
later, the guys were asking me what was wrong. The GM gives me an -utterly-
evil look, knowing I'd clued in, and just before I could say that my
character was going to stick near an armed guard, the Egyptian terrorists
break through the door.

They're in armor and carrying assault rifles. We're in unarmored dress
uniforms and weaponless. We did live - all but one of us, anyway.

Hence my character grumbling for the next few months... "Join the army,
they said... see the world, they said... DRESS UNIFORMS Vs. ASSAULT RIFLES,
THEY SAID!"

:-)

Lady Jestyr

- Eagles may soar, but turkeys don't get sucked into jet engines. -
jestyr@*******.com.au URL: http://www.geocities.com/~jestyr
Message no. 2
From: "Ojaste,James [NCR]" <James.Ojaste@**.GC.CA>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 12:49:29 -0400
Lady Jestyr wrote:
> >> Perhaps... It takes a LOT of work for a para-military game to work,
> >> however, especially witha group of roleplayers. There just isn't much
> >> opportunity to roleplay when the objective is to get in, kill target X
> and
> >> get out again without being spotted.
> >>
> >Heh - sorry, I should have said "basis for a campaign". Have the
>
> Slipspeed was speaking from personal experience on this point, too - we
> tried a campaign like this. It rapidly got boring, apart from one
> memorable
> incident - which follows.
>
Well, my point was that you needn't stick with the "veni vidi vici"
type of game - at some point something can go seriously wrong and
the world gets flipped upside down. Now the players aren't *in* the
military anymore (effectively). Perhaps somebody's chasing them
through the streets of Chicago, maybe they're trying to find out what
the hell happened - basically anything but "this is your mission today".

While I haven't run any *military* campaigns, I co-GMed a BGC AD Police
campaign for a while - after the first few sessions, the routine calls
were handled by gumbies while the PCs tackled the tough stuff. For
example, another dinner party story: ;-)

The PCs were supposed to be guarding the mayor at a reception. We
wanted to be discreet, but one of the chars was a Jackie Chan-type
film star in his spare time and insisted on wearing his helmet so as
not to be recognized (why he thought a film star would be out of place,
I couldn't say). So we decided to send in 2 PCs in full armour and 2
PCs in plainclothes. It wouldn't be politic to have the undercover
guys try to smuggle in guns, so we had the armoured guys each bring in
a pair of pistols. Simple, neh?

My char (undercover) caught the eye of one of the obvious guards and he
passed me a gun. The other undercover guy kept trying to get *his* gun
but the armoured cop decided to keep it. His brilliant idea was that
if trouble happened, he could surrender one gun then fight it out with
the other while they weren't paying attention. Right.

Well, armed terrorists crashed the party (a couple of ARs, shotguns, a
few SMGs and a bunch of pistols - a couple dozen terrorists in all).
Their objective was some comm gear downstairs, but since the hostages
were available... In any case, only the ARs could really penetrate the
ADP armour, so the undercover guys waited for the armoured guys to
open up (so the bad guys would shoot back and we could snipe at them
without drawing too much attention). The armoured guys gave up a gun
each.

One of the terrorists came and went about half a dozen times, grabbing
random hostages (followed by gunshots a couple flights down a few
minutes later). The armoured officer with the spare gun was lying down
looking out the window. Eventually, the undercover guys got fed up
and attacked the terrorists (the remaining armoured guy attacked the
baddies with a knife). There was enough cover that we survived, but it
was largely luck.

So much for making plans. :-P

James Ojaste
Message no. 3
From: GRANITE <granite@**.NET>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 17:10:51 -0700
> >> Perhaps... It takes a LOT of work for a para-military game to work,
> >> however,
> Slipspeed was speaking from personal experience on this point, too - we
> tried a campaign like this. It rapidly got boring, apart from one memorable
> incident - which follows.

Although you might make them part timers..Reservists or National
Guardsmen..That way you can work out hte best of both worlds..1
weekend a month and 2 weeks a year..

--------------------------------GRANITE
"Rock Steady"
===============================================
Lord, Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change,
The Courage To Change The Things I Can,
And The Wisdom To Hide The Bodies Of Those People I Had To Kill
Because They Pissed Me Off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ShadowRunner's Serenity Prayer
===============================================
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Kosh
What is best in life?
To Crush Your Enemies,
See Them Driven Before You,
And To Hear The Lamentation Of Their Women. -Conan
I Am The LAW! -JD
Jamais Arriere
Message no. 4
From: Spike <u5a77@*****.CS.KEELE.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 11:49:07 +0100
And verily, did GRANITE hastily scribble thusly...
|
|> >> Perhaps... It takes a LOT of work for a para-military game to work,
|> >> however,
|> Slipspeed was speaking from personal experience on this point, too - we
|> tried a campaign like this. It rapidly got boring, apart from one memorable
|> incident - which follows.
|
|Although you might make them part timers..Reservists or National
|Guardsmen..That way you can work out hte best of both worlds..1
|weekend a month and 2 weeks a year..

Is that all? Over here it's two weekends an month and a night a week...
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|u5a77@*****.cs.keele.ac.uk| Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a |
| | graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit |
| Andrew Halliwell | operating system originally coded for a 4 bit |
| Finalist in:- |microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that|
| Computer Science | can't stand 1 bit of competition. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ o+ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ |
|5++ X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! :( |
Message no. 5
From: GRANITE <granite@**.NET>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 20:34:48 -0700
> |Although you might make them part timers..Reservists or National
> |Guardsmen..That way you can work out hte best of both worlds..1
> |weekend a month and 2 weeks a year..
>
> Is that all? Over here it's two weekends an month and a night a week...

Yea..pretty much..But..it all works out to a lot of your personal
time spent wearing a uniform...38 days a year vs 96 days a
year..Those are minimum requirements..however, in many cases more
time is spent either voluntarily or without choice..it just works out
that way..I am sure that with 96 days a year your reservists are
better trained and probably have less extra time they must spend on
duty..
Either way it makes it quite hard to have a primary career..A friend
of mine had to quit the reserves because he could not arrange all of
his time correctly..and was having to use his vacation time in order
to make his tours come out right..it was kind of a mess..and turned
into a drain on his financial situation...
--------------------------------GRANITE
"Rock Steady"
===============================================
Lord, Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change,
The Courage To Change The Things I Can,
And The Wisdom To Hide The Bodies Of Those People I Had To Kill
Because They Pissed Me Off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ShadowRunner's Serenity Prayer
===============================================
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Kosh
What is best in life?
To Crush Your Enemies,
See Them Driven Before You,
And To Hear The Lamentation Of Their Women. -Conan
I Am The LAW! -JD
Jamais Arriere
Message no. 6
From: Spike <u5a77@*****.CS.KEELE.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 13:00:21 +0100
And verily, did GRANITE hastily scribble thusly...
|Either way it makes it quite hard to have a primary career..A friend
|of mine had to quit the reserves because he could not arrange all of
|his time correctly..and was having to use his vacation time in order
|to make his tours come out right..it was kind of a mess..and turned
|into a drain on his financial situation...

If he was doing it during his holidays, why was it draining cash?
If anything, a 2 week army camp should generate quite a nice lump sum.
(It's only 2 weeks a year, but there isn't as much to spend your cash on, on
camp...)

Added to that, the fact that over here, for every 'year' you're in over
here, you get a nice tax free bounty.

My first one was in april. 300 quid.
Next april it'll be closer to 500 or more.
(All you have to do is go on the weekends that are designated "Red days", do
the 2 week camp, and finish your bounty qualifying training. (NBC/First
Aid/Ranges/etc)

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|u5a77@*****.cs.keele.ac.uk| Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a |
| | graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit |
| Andrew Halliwell | operating system originally coded for a 4 bit |
| Finalist in:- |microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that|
| Computer Science | can't stand 1 bit of competition. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ o+ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ |
|5++ X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! :( |
Message no. 7
From: GRANITE <granite@**.NET>
Subject: Re: Join the Army, they said...
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 09:31:14 -0700
> If he was doing it during his holidays, why was it draining cash?
> If anything, a 2 week army camp should generate quite a nice lump sum.

Well...part of it had to do with having to use his accumulating
vacation time..eventually it was all used up and he was having to
use unpaid days..on those days his only income was the Guard..And he
made substantially less per hour while on duty with the Guard than
while on duty with the Sheriff's Dept..And then with the way the SO
figures overtime..if you use vacation time or sick time you lose your
overtime..so he would work all these hour of OT and then get paid
Straight time for them..And all when he was first starting out with
no seniority..it was difficult to say the least...

> Added to that, the fact that over here, for every 'year' you're in over
> here, you get a nice tax free bounty.

Nice bonus :)


--------------------------------GRANITE
"Rock Steady"
===============================================
Lord, Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change,
The Courage To Change The Things I Can,
And The Wisdom To Hide The Bodies Of Those People I Had To Kill
Because They Pissed Me Off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ShadowRunner's Serenity Prayer
===============================================
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Kosh
What is best in life?
To Crush Your Enemies,
See Them Driven Before You,
And To Hear The Lamentation Of Their Women. -Conan
I Am The LAW! -JD
Jamais Arriere

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