Infinite Worlds: alternatives to Sleepout

[Kyle Aaron]

I actually played this as a little scenario. The character represented me, someone who is an experienced outdoorsman, and a lowly-trained soldier. Abilities like Soldier [1] - 9 (hey, it was years ago now, and I wasn't very good in those days anyway!)

The scenario was that we knew that at some point we'd be woken in the night to go. So I kept a pack full of useful gear ready. Soldiers do that during training, anyway. When you're in barracks, you have all your clothes cleaned and ironed and neatly laid-out in wardrobe and dresser, you have your pack packed with sleeping bag, hoochie, water canteens, metal fold-out stove with hexxy tablets, etc. You have your webbing hanging on the side of the wardrobe, this has got two water bottles, a 10m rope rolled up, bayonet, two bandages taped on, etc.

The only thing you don't have is ammunition and food - those are issued to you when you go out into the field, or on the firing range. Everything else is ready to go.

So it'd be five minutes to get up, put your pants, shirt, hat and boots on, then your jumper and jacket, webbing over that, set of spare pants and shirt into rucksack, rucksack on back.

Any soldier beyond their first week of basic training can do that. People on this Infinity Patrol training, same deal. It's just having your gear sorted out and in the right place.

In the rpg scenario, as I knew it was coming, I packed away food here and there, high energy stuff like chocolate bars. I told the people in my team to prepare in the same way. Of course I failed my default Leadership skill check, so they ignored me!

When we were out in the field, they started listening to me. All but one person had at least a jumper and some snack bars. We had radios, and checked in with the authorities twice a day. Anyone whose people got injured so that they had to be helicoptered out, the whole team failed.

The important part wasn't the equipment, but the skills - Survival, Perception, etc. More important still was keeping the team together. There's one guy's less confident? Give him a responsible position. "Hey mate, your job is to take care of this person here, this one who's just in their shirt and pants and boots and seems to have the flu." There's another guy who's overweight and greedy? He can be stores guy, responsible for holding onto the gear. Work on developing them as people, trust them, work as a team.

There was no time limit, so I concentrated on having the team arrive safely and healthy. We were the second team in, but the other team took two weeks to recover because they were half-starved and frost-bitten.

It's not a scenario where you're dumped naked in the icy wilderness. If you have your caca together, you'll survive.

[draknoir2]

Sounds like fun to me. If they've been properly trained, it's a good test.

And as site commander I used to sleep with my M16, Beretta, and Kabar handy.

[Ed the Coastie]

Originally Posted by draknoir2

And as site commander I used to sleep with my M16, Beretta, and Kabar handy.

My wife occasionally teases me because -- even after a few years now of full-time civilian life -- I still sleep with my jeans/shirt/sneakers/etc laid out on the dresser and a webbelt with canteen, flashlight, and knife within easy reach beneath the bed. (Right after we were married, nearly 14 years ago, she insisted that I stop sleeping with the webbelt hanging from the bedpost and the knife under my pillow.)

I can be up, dressed, and kitted out in three minutes easy and in under five if I put on my boots and grab my knapsack (first aid kit, tool roll, two MREs, basic survival gear, and some other useful stuff) from behind the bedroom door.

[Qoltar]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

How many points does it cost for a character to habitually have this level of preparedness?

I don't think it should be "extra points" - wouldn't that fall under that mega-skill Soldier! ??

Hell, If I'm the GM ...I'd just chalk it up to reasonable quirks as befits a soldier that absorbed the lessons of their training well.

- Ed Charlton

[Qoltar]

Originally Posted by draknoir2

Sounds like fun to me. If they've been properly trained, it's a good test.

And as site commander I used to sleep with my M16, Beretta, and Kabar handy.

Oh..okay - that means I'm going to adjust the Character sheet for the GURPS:TRAVELLER universe version of you. Although with equivalent weapons to what you've mentioned.

I'll have to check if thats already on there.


- Ed Charlton

[Qoltar]

As a side-note to this thread .... I now have to drop a local tavern into some future "Infinite Worlds" campaign.

Cincinnati had a nightclub for years that was called : Sleepout Louies'




- Ed C.

[Kaldrin]

Originally Posted by Cowd

I guess for "my" version of IW, I'll just have Patrol monitor their every step and bail them out and flunk them in disgrace if they can't make it.

I think you're missing the point of the test. It would be as much for the team as for the individual. You usually have a sqaud or at least pair of people going out on these kinds of things.

When one person gets a wounded they don't leave him behind. The whole unit takes it on the chin and takes turns carrying that guy even though it slows them all up. Same would apply to things like hypothermia and frostbite. You watch each other for the signs and take steps when they show.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Cowd

I guess for "my" version of IW, I'll just have Patrol monitor their every step and bail them out and flunk them in disgrace if they can't make it.

Why "flunk out in disgrace"? Flubbing the Sleepout just means they don't have what it takes to be elite agents. That doesn't mean all that time and expense of training should be flushed.

The rank and file of Infinity is probably stocked with Sleepout "washouts" - prople who have the training, the skills, the know-how, but lack the necessary on-your-toes drive needed for full heroic Agent status. The entire US Army is not composed of front-line troops, and MI-5 and the CIA are not staffed entirely by Secret Agents. You'll need someone to do the rear-echelon work who can think (at least in the planning room) like a field agent.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

How many points does it cost for a character to habitually have this level of preparedness?

How much Soldier skill do you want? In my campaign, I'd say, "Roll against Soldier. Critical success means you get everything, and I do mean everything -- even warm-weather gear you won't need and ammo that wasn't supposed to be issued, if you want it. Success means you get normal kit for the environment, plus whatever food and ammo is slapped in your hand as you're punted from the helo. Failure means you have warm clothes and a random item of kit, but that's all. Critical failure means you're in skivvies and clutching a blanket." I suppose that automatic success on this one special Soldier roll would be a Shtick perk: Shtick (Always seems to have his kit right there when he needs it on waking up).

In the field, where the kit is already there, it's not even that complex. If the player says he puts X here, Y there, and carries Z, then his PC does the same. No need to roll dice or spend points.

[Kaldrin]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Do all former soldiers with good skills keep this level of preparedness in civilian life, and disperse the kit only as their skills deteriorate? Does no-one but a soldier keep ready for an instant response? (Or do, say, boy scouts and rural fire service volunteers have Soldier skill?) Or do you consider it an advantage of too small and infrequent use to be worth even 1 point?

What does the soldier skill have to do with preparedness outside the realm of being a soldier? A soldier prepares his situation for entirely different purposes than a boy scout or fire service volunteer.

It might be worth a perk like Kromm listed, but otherwise I wouldn't charge that much for it.