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Old 02-11-2017, 11:25 AM   #31
Icelander
 
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Default Re: Chuck Norris Movie-Setting?

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
I remember reading about it in the mid-to-late 80s with the usual bullshido fluff.
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You need a defector. Someone played by a large bald character actor with a huge moustache.
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There was an international association in 1968, so not necessarily, but yes the Chuck Norris movie world would have maybe Michael Ironsides or Rutger Hauer as the former Spetnatz instructor.
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Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
And part of the deal with defectors to justify the pay they get afterwards is teaching this is what the OPFOR uses. So it makes perfect logical sense. Either that or he runs a ethnic restaurant and teaches a few promising students on the side to keep from getting out of shape.
Combat Sambo it is. A bombastic immigrant running a 'Spetznatz dojo', complete with colourful advertisements in Soldier of Fortune and Black Belt magazines, will be assumed, but probably not encountered in play, as CW3 Vargas, the character who learned neck-snapping is an NPC villain and he learned it some three decades or more before the game is set.

Incidentally, how do Warrant Officer promotions work? Does every WO1 become a CW2 in two years unless he indulges in carnal relations with a pooch, figurative or literal? And ditto for CW2 to CW3, except that takes five years TIG?

I assumed Vargas would have made CW3 before The Incident based on when he got his warrant, but if there is real competition before the promotion board and promotion to CW3 is not all-but automatic with time-in-grade, there are enough red flags with his personality and history to freeze him at CW2, even if he hadn't been proven to violate any regulations before his bust in 1999.
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Old 02-11-2017, 12:08 PM   #32
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Default Re: US-born master of Kachin Bando in the 70s to 90s? [Dell'Orto]

Warrant officers are different and somewhat arcane in every branch.
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Old 02-11-2017, 12:41 PM   #33
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Default Re: US-born master of Kachin Bando in the 70s to 90s? [Dell'Orto]

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Warrant officers are different and somewhat arcane in every branch.
Without necessarily assuming specific familiarity with Army Special Forces warrant officers*, which strikes you as more plausible, that a Callous, Charismatic Bully with Overconfidence, Lecherousness, Selfish and maybe Sadism (15 or less), but Tough Guy Talent 3 and skill 14+ in all relevant skills, would rise to CW3 or that he might have managed to become a warrant officer on the strength of his superb technical skills and a genuine mastery of HUMINT operations in Latin America, but that his career stalled at CW2 and he was facing the possibility of having to retire in 1999?

Vargas was very good at hiding his personality flaws using decent Acting and exceptional Fast-Talk (skill 18 or 20 with Charisma). He also had Administration 14 and Savoir-Faire (Military) at 15 or so. But he'd have been a bad senior NCO and a bad unit leader, because while he had decent Leadership skill and could be inspiring in combat, he ultimately didn't care about his men or their morale.

*Being American and having served in US armed forces puts your experience and familiarity several levels higher than mine, the GM's or any of the other players, however.
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Old 02-11-2017, 09:42 PM   #34
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Default Re: US-born master of Kachin Bando in the 70s to 90s? [Dell'Orto]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warran...(United_States)

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In the United States Armed Forces, the ranks of warrant officer (grades W‑1 to W‑5; see NATO: WO1–WO5) are rated as officers above the senior-most enlisted ranks, including all candidates, and cadets and midshipmen, but subordinate to the officer grade of O‑1 (NATO: OF‑1).[1][2][3] This application differs from the Commonwealth of Nations and other militaries, where warrant officers are the most senior of the other ranks (NATO: OR‑8 and OR‑9), equivalent to the US Armed Forces grades of E‑8 and E‑9.

Warrant officers are highly skilled, single-track specialty officers, and while the ranks are authorized by Congress, each branch of the uniformed services selects, manages, and uses warrant officers in slightly different ways. For appointment to warrant officer one (W‑1), a warrant is approved by the secretary of the respective service. For chief warrant officer ranks (W‑2 to W‑5), warrant officers are commissioned by the President of the United States and take the same oath as regular commissioned officers (O‑1 to O‑10).

Warrant officers can and do command detachments, units, activities, vessels, aircraft, and armored vehicles, as well as lead, coach, train, and counsel subordinates. However, the warrant officer's primary task as a leader is to serve as a technical expert, providing valuable skills, guidance, and expertise to commanders and organizations in their particular field.
Well according to this he could have stayed a WO-1 the entire time <shrugs>

The wiki goes into "technical babble" on the increasing narrow focus of duty the higher up a WO gets in the army.
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Old 02-11-2017, 09:55 PM   #35
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Default Re: US-born master of Kachin Bando in the 70s to 90s? [Dell'Orto]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warran...(United_States)



Well according to this he could have stayed a WO-1 the entire time <shrugs>

The wiki goes into "technical babble" on the increasing narrow focus of duty the higher up a WO gets in the army.
You can't. Up or out means that failure to be promoted within a certain time frame means that a soldier can't re-enlist. I'm not sure how quickly someone would be forced to retire if he failed to be promoted from WO1, but I very much doubt that someone could spend ten years at that rank.
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Old 02-11-2017, 09:58 PM   #36
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Default Re: US-born master of Kachin Bando in the 70s to 90s? [Dell'Orto]

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You can't. Up or out means that failure to be promoted within a certain time frame means that a soldier can't re-enlist. I'm not sure how quickly someone would be forced to retire if he failed to be promoted from WO1, but I very much doubt that someone could spend ten years at that rank.
Warrants aren't enlisted anymore, they have warrants. Also they are often immune to up-or-out due to the very nature of the rank existing to preserve technical expertise in the service.
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Old 02-11-2017, 10:14 PM   #37
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Default Use of Kachin Bando in play

Incidentally, Chase Taylor (my PC) has now subdued six guards at Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane, without killing any of them. He did hurt some of them pretty badly, especially a guy named Ball whom he suspects of sexually abusing a patient.* Broke a few ribs, smashed his face in, gave him the mother of all concussions.

Taylor also beat up a former patient who was living down in the tunnels under the asylum. Wandering around naked, chewing on a terrified orderly when we ran across him. Hairy, misshapen and grotesque. His skin was just a mass of scar tissue and there was even an embedded fingernail buried in an old wound that had healed imperfectly. Didn't talk, just bellowed like a bull and knocked his piece of pipe into walls.

We dubbed him the 'Minotard', but Dr. Michael Anderson (another PC) told us that his name was Terry and he'd been a patient here some twenty years ago. Apparently, Dr. Edward Vanderbert, the mysterious mastermind behind Project Jade Serenity and the various unethical experiements that led up to it, had tried some experiemental 'treatments' on Terry.

It didn't really seem like a good idea to grapple someone more than seven feet tall weighing in at over three hundred pounds, so Taylor hit him in the leg and wrist with a metal bar from a hospital bed. Had to hit him a few times, but finally got his left leg to quit on him on the third strike to the same point on the shin and broke his left wrist with another swing as he was falling down. Then Taylor tried to grapple, grabbing the Minotard's remaining arm to use as leverage for a Stamp Kick to the head. 9 CPs, all ready to be spent for extra damage.

Fortunately, the stamp kick missed, so Taylor still hasn't killed anyone in front of the federal agents chaperoning him. And when we broke off the session, he'd just choked out a guard in front of the armoury.** Now Taylor has an M9 pistol and so does Special Agent Daniel O'Toole (the third PC). And we're about to open the armoury. We have high hopes that it will contain longarms.

*A patient Taylor used to have feelings for, before she was locked away there, and whom he feels really guilty about not having done more to help.
**The other guard he was playing cards against was by that time already on the floor, gasping for breath after taking a baton to the solar plexus.
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Old 03-27-2017, 05:28 PM   #38
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Default Hobby Martial Art for Character Growing up in San Jose, CA (b. 1982)

When making an NPC, Adeline Wong (b. 1982, San Jose, CA), who is a Special Agent (1811) of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) branch of the Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a random roll indicated that Ms. Wong was a fairly serious amateur at some type of martial art.

Other rolls have established that Adeline Wong is ST 9; DX 12; IQ 12 (Per 11; Will 11) and HT 10. She does not have Fit, though she may have done so in her twenties (she'll turn 35 this year) and her law enforcement duties are not tactical in nature. Wong was born in San Jose to Chinese-American parents, both of whom were bilingual. She speaks Cantonese and English fluently, Mandarin and Spanish fairly well, having both learned them as AP electives and had some friends who speak them.

Wong has a bachelor degree in Accounting and a Masters in Finance and before she became a federal agent, she spent some years working in investment banking and as the CFO of her husband's startup company. It was the failure of that startup and the loss of all her savings invested in it, including her equity in the house, that led to her to look for an alternate career. She joined the HSI in 2012.

I'm looking to spend maybe 10-30 points on Wong's hobby, which doesn't make her world-class or anything (for one thing, her stats aren't world class), but might allow her to survive if she's attacked and grappled without having her sidearm drawn. She might have been better at her chosen style once, but probably practises just once or twice a week by now. Still, that's 15-30 years of practice, probably on average 2-3 a week over that period.

I suppose Wong is marginally more likely to be interested in a Chinese martial art than a Japanese, Filipino or an Indonesian one, but she's really just an American and has never even visited China, despite having learned the language. She might have had friends who were into kickboxing, judo or bjj or her parents could have signed her up for classes in pretty much anything for the health benefits or to help her with self-discipline.

Does anyone have suggestions for what martial art style it might be likely, interesting or representative for Wong to have studied in San Jose during the 90s?

Wing Chun is stereotypical, but it also seems to be fairly popular in San Jose and the skills taught could actually be useful to Wong in her newest assignment, thus making this background possibly relevant in game terms, always a plus.

The American Kickboxing Academy in in San Jose. What style would she have learned in GURPS terms if she attended self-defence classes there and eventually graduated to taking MMA classes for fun?

Other suggestions?
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Old 03-28-2017, 04:25 AM   #39
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Default Martial art for a Navy SEAL (b. 1989, Lubbock, TX)

Some new characters are being introduced in the campaign. These include a squad (half-platoon) of Navy SEALs and attached intelligence specialists from the Black Squadron of DEVGRU.

SEALs used to train in Close Quarter Defense (CQD), which sets off all kind of red flags, as it is the proprietory invention of a man named Duane Dieter, who also sells training videos. Googling seems to show that it is legit, that Dieter actually had the training contracts with SEALs from the 90s until 2011 and that many people who have taken the courses, but have experience with other combatives, consider the style effective.

Now, since 2011, SEAL hand-to-hand/combatives training has been in MMA, with operators encouraged to practice at gyms and MMA instructors training SEAL trainers.

Most of these operators will have taken combatives courses as part of their basic and ongoing military training, but more for purposes of aggression, self-confidence and physical development than any expectation that they would be used in the field. Some, however, will be interested in martial arts and even spend their off-duty time practising or even competing. With MMA-style training, one might expect that proportion to go up, as this is a popular and growing sport and SEALs are mostly healthy young men with an interest in various sports.

In any case, out of 8 SEAL-qualified operators, a random roll determined that one of them was a martial artist before becoming a Naval Spec War operator and/or regularly practises a martial art for fun (or other reasons). His name is Mack Gibson, he was born in 1989 in Lubbock, TX.

Gibson is an assaulter, the youngest SEAL in his platoon and as much of a dumb redneck as one can be and still manage to get into DEVGRU (which means he is not that dumb in comparison with most ordinary people and, in fact, is pretty good at accomplishing most tasks put in front of him).

In fact, many of his team mates consider him too stupid to be a SEAL, let alone part of Black Squadron, which does intelligence support. It does help, however, that Gibson is unquestionably courageous and tries very hard.

Does anyone have a suggestion what Mack Gibson might be into?
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Old 03-28-2017, 01:16 PM   #40
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Default Re: Hobby Martial Art for Character Growing up in San Jose, CA (b. 1982)

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Other suggestions?
If she was at all interested in getting some philosophy behind it or just hobbying on the cheap*, there are Wah Lum Temples in San Jose... They teach Tai Chi and Kung-Fu.

They also do an after-school program for the younger kids, and at least locally are free for Latchkeys kids (partially subsidized by the county school system as part of the Latchkey program).



* They focus on a more "traditional" study system, so some students in return for lesser cost or free lessons do extra chores around the temple helping to maintain it (like coming by on weekends to weed the gardens or scrub/paint walls or fix the plumbing).

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