
"Attention, private! Pick a role for yourself and stick to it. Keep your head down and your feet dry.
Now, get your gear and proceed to your briefing officer.
Move it!"
So, begin by naming your character. Then pick a primary role in the squad. After that proceed to the next steps: Specialty, secondary role and archetype. Decide on an age between 19-21. Then roll your stats.
If you´re playing a 19 year old, your EDU can´t be more than 19 (13+6).
From there continue to skill points allocation. Beside ordinary CoC skills some extra skills are added in the next post.
You can use Byakhee character generator to help with the creation. Just pick 1990´s it will work just fine for the setting. When finished export the sheet as HTML and copy the contents to your post.
To make traceable rolls you should use Invisible Castle and pick the best out of two rolls for each stat. This grants you not ending up with too low scores in a stat. You have to register with the site to be able to comment in the comments box, which is preferred as you can explain your roll there.
Nam Squad
Role: Rifleman
Duties: Direct fire on targets, suppressing fire, maneuvering to hold terrain
Equipment: M-16 rifle, Mk 2 frag grenades, helmet
Role: Heavy Weapons Operator (HWO)
Duties: Direct fire and suppressing fire in support of maneuver
Equipment: M-60 LMG, helmet
Role: Heavy Weapons Support
Duties: Observation, Direct fire, carrying ammunition for the HWO
Equipment: M-16 rifle, lots of M-60 ammunition, binoculars
Role: Radio operator
Duties: Communications and repair
Equipment: PRC-25 radio, M-16 rifle
Rolling up the character
Any points above 15 in EDU will go into another slot. The promise is there but not enough time has been spent to channel the points to skills, yet.Roll 3d6 each for STR, CON, POW, DEX, and APP.
Roll 2d6+6 each for SIZ and INT.
Roll 3d6+3 for EDU.
As people tend to be in their prime in the 20´s lets put the extra points in STR, CON and DEX. Divide them equally. (Not above 18 in any of the stats...)
This suits the purpose of the game too. You need to be fit to survive in the jungle.
Besides the role description given before, the following should be considered. If you look at HWS John Dog tags, you have to choose what his Specialty role is.
Then there´s an option to pick a secondary role. Had he chosen to be a rifleman he could have picked MEDIC or SNIPER. Now as HWS he will have enough gear to carry as is.
He does have to pick an ARCHETYPE though. At the bottom of this page I´ve posted a mockup for JD.
The Speciality role is determined by
duty
equipment
skills
interactions.
The speciality comes with extra equipment and tagged skills.
Specialties
Specialty: Squad Leader (only one per squad...)
Command the squad, maintain cohesion
.45 M1911 pistol, leadership icon (whistle, stripes, attitude)
Command
interacts with everyone
Specialty: Point man
Lead the squad, watching for danger
...
Alertness , Stealth
the enemy, the next guy behind
Specialty: Tunnel rat
Enter tunnels and clear them of enemy forces
Knife, .45 M1911 pistol, satchel charge
Stealth, Demolitions
no one
Specialty: Joker
Disrespect the armed forces
...
Civility , Profession
Everyone (squad, NPCs, enemies)
Specialty: FNG (fucking new guy)
Afraid, lack confidence
Flak jacket, extra rations, double ammunition, medical kit
Civility , Profession
Ostracized
Specialty: Reporter
Record everything that happens
Camera, flak jacket
Communication, Observation
Everyone currently being interesting
Specialty: Blooper
provide long range indirect fire
M-79 grenade launcher (blooper)
Indirect fire
...
Secondary role in the squad
Any group without one or more of the following roles will be unfit to operate in the jungle.
Medic Only the medic is trained in patching up wounds effectively and has Medicine training in surgery. Will get +05% to First Aid rolls and +1 at HP gained when successfully using FA. Other squad members may have some first aid training but will pretty much put a band aid at anything that bleeds.
Has morphine and other medicinal drugs.
Sniper Only a sniper may have a starlight scope. Will get +10% to a shot at above 50 yards range. The scope is used at night battles and reduce darkness penalties.
Demolitions This role can set and disarm demolition charges. Has +20% to LUCK rolls when handling demolitions.
Archetypes
To determine the character further you could pick an archetype to play as. Most characters will be SOLDIERS but every squad will have some of the below archetypes.
Accuser: Nothing is your fault. When a branch hits you in the face, it’s because the guy in front
of you didn’t hold it. When your feet get wet, it’s because your boots are defective. When you
get hungry, it’s because you aren’t given enough food. And when more serious shit goes down –
well, you’re always in the right place at the right time. It’s not your fault that the gooks are so
goddam awful, now is it? When confronted by something that’s obviously your fault, you get
really pissed, and make every excuse in order to deflect the blame.
Brawler: Violence isn’t just the best answer, it’s the only answer. You’ve been so desensitized to
violence that you don’t even think twice about pulling the trigger – which can get you into
trouble when you’re dealing with the guys who are supposed to be on your side. You scare a lot
of people, which is fine. You’re also mortally afraid of getting capped. You’ve seen how easy it
is to kill a man, and your opinion is that he who shoots first lives longest. When put in a situation
where violence is obviously not a choice, or it’s going to get you killed, you freeze up.
Invincible: Nothing can hurt you. You’ve been out on hundreds of missions, and haven’t even
been scratched. You’re so smart, lucky and tough that you’re willing to do anything. You also
look down on lesser men. Those who show fear earn your contempt. You don’t want to baby
anyone – if they can’t deal with the life, that’s their problem, not yours. You’re just going to
keep racking up that kill count. You work alone – you don’t need anyone. If (and when) you do
get seriously injured or presented with impossible odds, you don’t accept it. Even if your guts are
all over the ground, you’ll try to keep going, because nothing can hurt you.
Warrior: You have a code of ethics. This isn’t necessarily something that will help you out in
the jungles of Vietnam. While willing and able to bring righteous retribution to your enemies,
you need to rationalize your anger to yourself, if no one else, in order to continue on. Others
don’t understand, and get in your way because of it. The strong, silent type, you suffer their
foolishness while trying to get everything to make sense in your own head. When presented with
a situation where you can’t justify your violence, even (or especially) if the violence is
necessary, you often drop the ball.
Companion: You don’t accept responsibility. You don’t feel that you can be in charge in
anything, because you’re sure that you’ll fuck it up. You put yourself in a position of
subservience, at the right hand of whoever gives the orders, to give yourself a layer of protection
from being put in charge of anything. The sad thing is, if you are put in a leadership position,
you’re lack of confidence self-fulfills, and you fuck it up. In any case, the other guys can’t stand
you because you’re such a suckup.
Soldier: You’re here to do a job, and you’re going to do it. You force yourself to fit into the
soldier stereotype. You fulfill your orders to the letter, regardless of the appropriateness to the
situation. You have little patience for anything, or anyone, the makes your job harder. You can
handle responsibility, but operate clearly within the lines. When confronted with contradictions
or obvious breaches of military procedure or rules, you have a hard time rationalizing it.
With these picks a character will have some flesh to the bone. Lets assume John Dog tags picks the following:
Role: Heavy Weapons Support
Duties: Observation, Direct fire, carrying ammunition for the HWO
Equipment: M-16 rifle, lots of M-60 ammunition, binoculars
Specialty: FNG (fucking new guy)
Afraid, lack confidence
Flak jacket, extra rations, double ammunition, medical kit
Civility , Profession
Ostracized
Soldier: You’re here to do a job, and you’re going to do it. You force yourself to fit into the
soldier stereotype. You fulfill your orders to the letter, regardless of the appropriateness to the
situation. You have little patience for anything, or anyone, that makes your job harder. You can
handle responsibility, but operate clearly within the lines. When confronted with contradictions
or obvious breaches of military procedure or rules, you have a hard time rationalizing it.
Beside these picks, John Dog tags has the EDU points to allocate to his skills.
That and to write up a background story.