Anti-Terrorist Team

[hoganbball23]

Hi all. I gm a big group and we are going to try our hand at a sci-fi anti-terrorist campaign. The world includes gnomes, centaurs, humans, dwarves, lizardmen and fey. The gnomes have incredibly high tech for information technology and travel (9-10+) but don't really like weapons development (TL 7 weapons). Everyone else through trade and reverse engineering lives at about TL6. The gnomes intend to leave via colony ship so the job falls to a group of gnome-loyal Dwarves to eliminate dissenters and protect the launch. So I need to assemble an anti-terrorist team with some role differentiation. I am happy to receive suggestions on books that would be good as well as actual ideas for the roles below as well as any roles I am missing. I already have High tech and Ultra Tech.

Anti-Terrorist Squad Roles:

Lieutenant:

Sergeant:

Explosives

Grenadier

Close Quarters

Sharpshooter:

Assault:

Communications:

Medic:

[Donny Brook]

What is the motivation of the terrorists?

[hoganbball23]

Stop the launch. When the gnomes leave technological advancement will screech to a halt and life quality will decrease significantly for everyone. The gnomes are always motivated by knowing more and feel the time has come for them to explore the vastness of space.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by hoganbball23

I am happy to receive suggestions on books that would be good as well as actual ideas for the roles below as well as any roles I am missing.

I'd suggest picking up GURPS Action 1: Heroes, Action 2: Exploits, and Action 4: Specialists. Action has the genre it sounds like you're aiming for covered, rules-wise. Action 2 has what you need for running such games, while Action 4 covers building characters from relevant "packages" of traits, smaller and more flexible than the templates in Action 1 (your selected mission roles don't really fit the templates, which is why I'm suggesting Specialists). You'll want Action 1 for its gear, and particularly for the rules on pulling Rank, which allows characters with Rank to get assistance from their organizations.

I can't think of a sourcebook that covers the fantasy elements, unfortunately, so you'll have to build those racial templates yourself. If you do go with Action 4: Specialists to build characters, I'd suggest trying to build the templates on 25 or 50 points - that will let them fit neatly into the existing packages in Specialists.

Originally Posted by hoganbball23

Anti-Terrorist Squad Roles:

Lieutenant:

Sergeant:

What's the difference between these two? They seem like they'd have a lot of overlap, to me. I realize they're different jobs in real life, but are the differences enough to support two different roles in-game?

Originally Posted by hoganbball23

Grenadier

Perhaps broaden this out to "squad support", and let them choose whether it's a grenadier, machine gun operator, or other similar weapon?

Another role you could include would be Driver/Pilot.

[VonKatzen]

I'd second Kelly's suggestion above, the Action series has some great stuff on the sorts of traits a cinematic/fantasy CT team might evince. The other end of the spectrum would be Tactical Shooting and Seals in Vietnam, many real life CT/Hostage Rescue teams are basically killing machines because the theory is that if you blow away all the bad guys they can't hurt anyone.

[Kromm]

I get the impression that the inspiration here was something akin to a U.S. Army Special Forces Operational Detachment-A ("A-Team"): detachment leader (a captain), detachment technician (second in command, a warrant officer), operations ("team") sergeant, intelligence and assistant operations sergeant, two weapons sergeants, two engineer ("demolitions") sergeants, two medical sergeants, and two communications sergeants.

The captain, warrant, and two operations sergeants would have fairly similar roles in game terms, boasting skills like Administration, Intelligence Analysis, Leadership, Savoir-Faire (Military), and Tactics. Yet it would be easy enough to create differences: The captain might have the highest Leadership and Savoir-Faire, decent Diplomacy, and the only Strategy skill. The warrant would have the highest Administration, a little Diplomacy, and specialist knowledge such as Expert Skill (Military Science). The operations and intelligence sergeants would have the best Tactics and Intelligence Analysis, respectively, as well as Teaching and a good Intimidation skill, and more Soldier than you'd expect. You could further differentiate by making one person good at acquiring gear (the warrant is the logistics guy, so perhaps add Fast-Talk, Merchant, and Scrounging), another trained in some weird technical area (say, Hazardous Materials), and so on.

The rest have obvious specialties, I think.

There's deliberate redundancy because (1) cross-training is essential in the event of someone being incapacitated, and (2) you want the capability two operate in two teams.

If I were running this, I'd have six PCs and six NPCs in two nominal teams that make up the detachment:

• PCs
  • detachment technician (Military Rank 3)
  • intelligence and assistant operations sergeant (Military Rank 2)
  • weapons sergeant (Military Rank 1)
  • engineer sergeant (Military Rank 1)
  • medical sergeant (Military Rank 1)
  • communications sergeant (Military Rank 1)
• NPCs
  • detachment leader (Military Rank 4)
  • operations sergeant (Military Rank 2 + Courtesy Rank 1)
  • weapons sergeant (Military Rank 1)
  • engineer sergeant (Military Rank 1)
  • medical sergeant (Military Rank 1)
  • communications sergeant (Military Rank 1)

That way, there would be relatively little redundancy among the PCs: one would focus on command, one on intelligence, one on weapons, one on engineering, one on medical, and one on comms. Making the leader and senior sergeant NPCs would also mean the PCs were relatively equal, which is important in many gaming groups . . . a lot of players hate to take orders from other players. And putting the NPCs leaders elsewhere a lot of the time would give the PCs more autonomy.

[Kromm]

If you want to use GURPS Action 4: Specialists as your starting point . . .

1. Enforce the rules under The Needs of the Many (pp. 7-9). Start with the Lean and Mean BAT (p. 7), enforce No Section 8s (p. 8), and use The Call of Duty (pp. 8-9) to require Code of Honor, Duty, and Sense of Duty. Duly Empowered (p. 9) might make Military Rank mandatory from the get-go, but I'd suggest instead invoking A Man of Wealth and Taste (pp. 33-34) toward the end of character creation.

2. Give people suitable modules. Here's but one set of possibilities:

Detachment Leader: Close-Quarters Battle, Command 2, Infantry Training, Mastermind 2.
Detachment Technician: Close-Quarters Battle, Command, Fixer, Infantry Training, Researcher, Theft.
Operations Sergeant: Close-Quarters Battle, Command, Infantry Training 2, Just That Good, Mastermind.
Intelligence and Assistant Operations Sergeant: Close-Quarters Battle, Command, Infantry Training, Intelligence, Interrogation, Recon.
Weapons Sergeants: Armory, Close-Quarters Battle, Heavy Weapons 2, Infantry Training 2.
Engineer Sergeants: Booby Traps, Close-Quarters Battle, Construction, Demolitions, Explosives Ordnance Disposal, Infantry Training.
Medical Sergeants: Academics, Close-Quarters Battle, Disease Control, Infantry Training, Medicine 2 (Doctor).
Communications Sergeants: Close-Quarters Battle, Communications 2, Countersurveillance, Electronics, Infantry Training.

3. Tie up loose ends (pp. 28-31). Optimize like crazy – if your team has to go through a rigorous selection process, they won't be low-attribute mooks!

4. Have people spend the Slush Fund (pp. 31-34) on Military Rank and basic cross-training – especially any of Electronics Operation (Communications), Explosives (Demolition), First Aid, or Guns (any) that are lacking or very low. If there are enough points in the Slush Fund, Jack of All Trades (p. 32) and Dabbler (p. 33) very much fits the cross-training ethic, while Medic! and custom Higher Purposes (p. 34) suit those dedicated to particular roles.