Torn Victor [Recruitment]

[TheOneRonin]

Originally Posted by ammulder

I'm interested in the genre... I would potentially play a face type, born to military parents on one base, grew up on another base each year, always had to learn a new language and fight the alpha male in the new school, and etc. Eventually figured out how to unruffle feathers well enough to fit in smoothly with the crowd du jour, but no matter what never really cut out to be a civilian... I was looking at US Army Special Forces + Intelligence and Face and the rest TBD.

That sounds great! I can't wait to see your build.

Anyway, I have two concerns. The more important one is that it seems like you might be looking for a greater level of detail/realism that I'm comfortable with. As in, I'd like to say "I check around the corner for enemies in the hall" instead of "this turn I Step and Wait to the next 15-degree arc of corridor" and then we proceed to discuss whether Move and Wait was a maneuver allowed by the rules or strongly implied or got an official or unofficial nod by the editor... In any case I don't have the supplement books you recommended.

No worries on that note. I don't expect the players to be experts in GURPS rules minutiae, nor do I expect you all to be tactical experts. Your characters are, and know what maneuvers are the best choices for when, or at least have the skills you can roll against to tell you what to do and when/how to do it.

I'm fine with translating the narrative into the mechanical. And the supplements help refine and define some things, but they don't fundamentally change any of the rules in the basic set. They aren't REQUIRED...I'll try to fill in the blanks when necessary.

The less important one is can you tell us roughly where the mission(s) will take place? Because OOC I would like to work on a background (palette of languages & familiar locations) that will likely be relevant, and IC I assume those in command would staff the operation with those with the pertinent skills for it to succeed...

One thing unique about this particular team is that they will represent a wide array of cultural expertise. The reason behind this is that your enemy is operating on multiple continents and across many different countries. The team needs a lot of languages and a lot of cultural familiarities to be able to operate effectively in the same locales as your enemy.

One thing that may help is looking at the different US Army SF Groups and their Areas of Operation. While some SF guys will change groups throughout their career, most of them stay with the same SF group they started with, even if they end up changing Teams, Companies, and/or Battalions.

1st Special Forces Group: Oriented towards the Pacific. You'll see a lot of teams focusing on Southeast Asia...specifically the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and others. China, Korea, and Japan are also some areas of focus.

3rd Special Forces Group: Oriented towards Sub-Sarahan Africa. Lots of South and Central African focus. For the purposes of this game, if you go with a 3rd Group specialty, I would focus on South Africa and some of the more populous and urban regions.

5th Special Forces Group: Oriented towards the Middle East, Central Asia, the Persian Gulf, and the Horn of Africa. Obviously, you'll see a lot of specialties in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the other 'Stans. These guys also often work with SEALs on curbing Somali Piracy.

7th Special Forces Group: Oriented towards North/Central/South America and the Caribbean. Spanish and Portuguese will be the predominant languages, and these guys do a lot of counter-narcotic work with allied nations.

10th Special Forces Group: Oriented towards Central/Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and North Africa. You'll see more Russian and Ukrainian specialties than anything else, but Egypt, Libya, and some other hot zones of activity fall in the AoA for this group.

Also, most guys across all of the SF groups have done multiple deployments to Afghanistan/Iraq, even if that area is not part of their Group's cultural area of expertise.

Its not odd at all to find a 10th SF guy who is fluent in Russian, speaks conversational Serbian, and passable Dari.

Or to find a 7th Group guy who is a native Spanish speaker, fluent in Portuguese, and speaks conversational Arabic.

[ammulder]

Some build questions:

• The base build and lenses (e.g. US Army Special Forces) use a cost of 5 for an Accented language -- shouldn't that be 4?
• If I buy Cultural Adaptability or Language Talent advantages, can I lower the cost to account for the cultural familiarities and/or languages that would have been cheaper in the base build/lenses?
• Do you have limits or guidelines on the acceptable points of advantages vs. other things?
• Would you allow the Shtick Perk described in the base rules: "your clothing is always spotless, even after combat or swimming the Nile"? Perhaps not exactly realistic, but cinematically appropriate for the Face.... :)
• For the 10 points of disadvantages, would you allow Struggling (1/2 income) -- not as in jobless or in debt, but as in just can't hang on to money -- always spends it or gives it away in dumb ways, never saves/invests, etc. (I'm thinking: he can always get a girl to agree to a date, but can only manage to take her to Taco Bell...) Otherwise I fear it'll be Intolerance + Overconfidence, and really, how distinctive is that? :)
• For the USASF/Intelligence MOS Specialty, I only count +14 points (listed as +18). The total as is adds up to +16, and also you've listed the Acting skill bump as +4 but it looks to me like it should instead be a total cost of 4 for skill 14 so the difference for the specialty should only be +2 (the base is already 2pts for skill 13).

[fifiste]

Happy new year everyone! I'm working on my character. I stumbled upon the fact that TA-vitals is marked in your base(massive) template as 4CP-4levels, though vitals are -3 and GCA will also only allow me to apply 3 levels at most to this tehnique.
Wouln't it be possible to post GCA files for this massive template?

[Adina]

All right back again.

Close protection isn't really how I see him. I'm thinking he's the 'smart guy'. And I was looking for a non-FBI Federal LE agency*. I'm considering a couple of background options.

Regardless of background details his lens choices would be:

1. Marsoc
2. Advanced Medic
3. Criminal investigation

He's a city mouse, a quietly devout (not fanatic) Catholic/Orthodox, with a calm, even temperament who never moves faster than he thinks necessary.

The obvious option is to have him join the FBI after he leaves the Corps.

The other option (and the one I'm leaning towards) is to have him be from NYC and be half Ukrainian. Then join the NYPD and their ESU.

*Partly because the FBI agent is a bit of a cliche and partly because the FBI and CIA have a reputation for not getting along.

Do you have a list of CF's worked out? What about languages? If you haven't seen it PK has alist of modern languages in his MyGURPS house rules thats worth a look.

[TheOneRonin]

Originally Posted by ammulder

Some build questions:

• The base build and lenses (e.g. US Army Special Forces) use a cost of 5 for an Accented language -- shouldn't that be 4?

Yup...that's an oversight. Accented Language should be 4 points, not 5. Thanks for pointing that out.

• If I buy Cultural Adaptability or Language Talent advantages, can I lower the cost to account for the cultural familiarities and/or languages that would have been cheaper in the base build/lenses?

You can basically refund the points spent on the familiarities and/or Languages in the template. Keep in mind that those are close to cinematic advantages, and while they are allowed, they need very good supporting background to legitimize them.

• Do you have limits or guidelines on the acceptable points of advantages vs. other things?

Not exactly sure what you are asking. Let me know what you are looking for. If it fits well with the background and narrative base I am setting with the story (and is within the point values), then I'll probably approve it.

• Would you allow the Shtick Perk described in the base rules: "your clothing is always spotless, even after combat or swimming the Nile"? Perhaps not exactly realistic, but cinematically appropriate for the Face.... :)

I might be willing to do some sort of variant of that, but it's a little too cinematic as is for this game. Let me think on it.

• For the 10 points of disadvantages, would you allow Struggling (1/2 income) -- not as in jobless or in debt, but as in just can't hang on to money -- always spends it or gives it away in dumb ways, never saves/invests, etc. (I'm thinking: he can always get a girl to agree to a date, but can only manage to take her to Taco Bell...) Otherwise I fear it'll be Intolerance + Overconfidence, and really, how distinctive is that? :)

It's not a terrible idea, but I'm not sure how meaningful it will be in this kind of campaign. 95% of time spent "in game" will be "mission time". I wasn't planning on doing very much "downtime/at home/off of work" stuff during the campaign. The CIA will make sure that the team has enough cash to execute it's mission...beyond that, personal salaries are probably on this side of irrelevant. I might be able to come up with something like "Is sometimes irresponsible with cash", but it would be worth less than 10 points.

• For the USASF/Intelligence MOS Specialty, I only count +14 points (listed as +18). The total as is adds up to +16, and also you've listed the Acting skill bump as +4 but it looks to me like it should instead be a total cost of 4 for skill 14 so the difference for the specialty should only be +2 (the base is already 2pts for skill 13).

Good catch. I meant to improve Acting to 15, which is 6 points. That brings the Lens back up to 18 points, where it should be.

I've revised the base template and lenses dozens of times, so there may very well be some more errors. Let me know if you catch any more.

[TheOneRonin]

Originally Posted by fifiste

Happy new year everyone! I'm working on my character. I stumbled upon the fact that TA-vitals is marked in your base(massive) template as 4CP-4levels, though vitals are -3 and GCA will also only allow me to apply 3 levels at most to this tehnique.

Another error. Maxxed out TA/Vitals should be 3 points, not 4. So basically you get another two points to spend however you like.

Wouln't it be possible to post GCA files for this massive template?

I don't have the GCA. Is it a free download?

[TheOneRonin]

Originally Posted by jmurrell

A
The other option (and the one I'm leaning towards) is to have him be from NYC and be half Ukrainian. Then join the NYPD and their ESU.

I really like this, even more than the FBI angle.

Do you have a list of CF's worked out? What about languages? If you haven't seen it PK has alist of modern languages in his MyGURPS house rules thats worth a look.

I was going to use the same CF's that Kromm uses for his Secret Agent campaign:


-Anglo (the U.K. and its English-speaking former colonies, including the U.S.A.)
-Central Asian (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and so on)
-East Asian (China, Japan, Korea, etc.)
-Eastern European (the former Soviet Bloc)
-Latin American (Mexico and parts south)
-North African (from the Mediterranean coast south to the Sahel)
-South Asian (dominated by India)
-Sub-Saharan (specifically as contrasted with North African)
-West Asian (from the Mediterranean east to Iran)
-Western European ( “the Continent”)


I'll dig around for PK's house rules, but I'm not sure why we wouldn't use real life languages as they are.

For those of you going the US Army SF route, here are the current languages taught during the SF Pipeline:

• Spanish
• French
• Indonesian
• Arabic
• Mandarin Chinese
• Tagalog
• Russian
• Persian Farsi
• Korean
• Thai

There are many other ways to pick up other languages, including both training and immersion. But that should give you some ideas for starters.

[fifiste]

Originally Posted by TheOneRonin

Another error. Maxxed out TA/Vitals should be 3 points, not 4. So basically you get another two points to spend however you like.
I don't have the GCA. Is it a free download?

Ah ok. Ill just drudge on and note myself two extra points its going to take some time though. I'm thinking of an mechanic/driver type from former Warsaw Pact country*.
GCA should cost about 15 bucks right now in Warehouse 23, but I'd say that it'd be probably too much of a bother to create files etc. if you start out with it right now.
But for the general future I'd might say it is a pretty good tool although it needs quite a time to get to know it.

*Maybe he knows the half Ukrainian guy then somehow?

[ammulder]

Background

Carter Murphy grew up on one base after another. His father never wanted to leave the good ol’ U.S. of A., which naturally meant the Air Force fed him a steady stream of overseas assignments. While his dad just grumbled and filled Carter with stories of the greatest country in the world, his mom took it a lot worse. She never quite caught on to foreign languages or cultures, and spent her entire adult life lonely or depressed. During a long stint in Japan (moderately hostile to gaijin to begin with), she eventually turned to pills.

Carter and his older sister were better off, learning early how to fit in with the locals wherever they landed. His vaguely middle-eastern appearance, the full dose from his sole Syrian grandparent, always seemed slightly but not terribly out of place. The problem for Carter was school. He was always bundled off with the other military kids, who were inevitably just a little bit older. They never really trusted the little guy who always hung out with the locals. At first it was just cold shoulders and curses, but once he got a little older, Carter ended up fighting his way through one school after another. It wasn’t until his late teens that he grew some muscles that actually showed, and managed to turn his social talents toward his peers. When at long last he combined smooth, attractive, and not to be trifled with, he finally managed to fit in all the way around.

This left him in a pretty good position, until The Overdose. The single event that crushed his cozy life. His father was reassigned to a domestic training unit — receiving his lifetime wish, far too late. He turned into a bitter old man, angry at the Air Force, angry at the foreigners he blamed for his wife’s death, angry at Carter for fitting in when his mother couldn’t, angry at himself for not quitting the Air Force before it was his only possible career. Carter's sister transferred to a faraway college and basically fled the family.

Carter tried to stick it out, but it was never going to last. While his upbringing left him with an enduring love for every single over-the-top aspect of the USA, from politics to capitalism to military, he found it incredibly boring to actually live in the place. Add in his home life, and he signed his Army papers before the ink on his diploma even dried.

With his innate strength and fitness, natural command of languages, and familiarity with cultures around the world, Carter was a natural for Special Forces. He quickly found his way to the Intelligence MOS, and was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group. While he’s served multiple tours in Afghanistan, his routine stomping ground ranges from Russia to the Middle East.

When his friends want to harass Carter, they call him “Maverick” — both because his dad was a flyboy, and because he can take on personas as easily as Tom Cruise. (If he protests, they claim had to give him a nickname, because even his first and last names are interchangeable.)

Service History

1980: Happy Birthday!
1998: Joined Army under 18-X special forces enlistment
2000: First deployment with 10th Special Forces Group
Nov 2000: Redeployed to Afghanistan to seek evidence that Bin Laden ordered the USS Cole bombing. A successful raid on an al-Qaeda camp nevertheless produced no conclusive evidence.
Oct 2001: Deployed to Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden during the initial anti-Taliban invasion. Raids on multiple camps only came up with mid-level lieutenants.
Sep 2002: Counter-insurgency near the border with Pakistan. Lost friendly forces to IEDs. First completely solo infiltration of an enemy camp, posing as a Syrian weapons dealer. (Long Fictional Account)
March 2003: Deployed to Djibouti, on loan to the 5th Special Forces Group, for intelligence/security in preparation for and during the move of the initial US forces into Camp Lemonnier
Sep 2004: Deployed to Chechnya to protect and facilitate CIA agents who were evaluating the Chechen warlords and separatists. Given his specialty and suitability for undercover operations, he was encouraged to consider the CIA (for which he would need a bachelor’s degree).
Aug 2006: Deployed to Russia to stop a believed al-Qaeda/Chechnya operation to recover a WMD from Kapustin Yar. Never saw the enemy or the WMD, but did end up fighting a bunch of Russians.
Aug 2008: Deployed to Georgia as part of a team of military advisers in the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War. Involved in sporadic fighting against Russians occupying South Ossetia.
Feb 2010: Deployed to Egypt/Libya to kill members of the Islamist Group who had returned to violence after being released from prison (based on intelligence from local informants)
Dec 2010: Received Bachelor of Arts (public policy and leadership)
2011: Joined CIA as Case Worker. Assigned to handle agents in/around Libya during/following the Arab Spring.
Oct 2011: One of his supervised agents meets with "Libyan rebels" to coordinate the capture of Gaddafi in Sirte. They turn out to be Gaddafi sympathizers, killing the agent. Carter knows he would have gotten out of the room, had it been him in there instead of his agent.
Nearly simultaneously, Anwar al-Awlaki is killed by a CIA drone strike. For a moment, a faction within the CIA argues this is definitive proof that the only role of human agents is to provide the location information for camera- or missile-equipped drones. Two weeks later, al-Awlaki's son is accidentally killed in a separate drone strike. It becomes clear that drones are not the solution to every problem and there must be a larger, not smaller, role for ground operatives.
2012: Joined SAD; SAD training
Feb 2013: Deployed to Libya to resume operations after the Benghazi attack. While the shipment of SA-7s to Syrian rebels underway at the time of the attack was completed, additional weapons transfers were either underway or promised and required follow-up.
Feb 2014: Deployed to Crimea to oppose Russian influence in the developing crisis. Assisted the Ukraine government in a show of goodwill and an attempt to sway them in favor of joining the EU and/or NATO (moving intelligence-gathering and actual military forces that much closer to Russia)
2015: Present Day

[ammulder]

The language rules are here (click on #13 for the justification):

http://www.mygurps.com/index.php?p=i...v=0#houserules

Finally, do you want specific builds posted here or sent privately or something? I'm about down to "only ten points over." :)