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Old 09-10-2017, 10:56 AM   #1
BlackFalcon_Che
 
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Default Modern Military Templates

Hi - first a wave and introduction! I'm new to learning GURPS in a series manner, despite having bought into Fourth Edition back when it was released. I'm an experienced GM but not with GURPS.

I am looking for help with a campaign idea. In short, I want to emulate a Twilight 2000 style nuclear apocalypse and have the players try to survive.

Does anyone know where I might look to find some appropriate 150 point character templates for modern military personnel, such as tank crew and infantrymen?

As a newbie, I am aiming to minimise the need for me to create stuff that might not work. Plan B is to run an After the End game set two generations later.
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Old 09-10-2017, 11:29 AM   #2
johndallman
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Welcome! There's a list of all the occupational templates in published GURPS products here.

Modern-day soldier templates are fiddly and sometimes contentious, but there's a good core one in Template Toolkit 1: Characters.

Edit: there's also a thread about a T2K implementation for GURPS here.

Last edited by johndallman; 09-10-2017 at 11:34 AM.
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Old 09-10-2017, 11:43 AM   #3
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Something you might find useful for this is Action 4: Specialists. It's intended to let you create action-oriented characters with a wide variety of specialized skill-sets. Those skill-sets include a wide variety of military specialities. You could have players take the "Basic Action Template" it provides (which is worth 100 points, and tries to make a character who's competent in action circumstances), and then take two of the 25-point specialization packages to cover their particular area of service.
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Old 09-10-2017, 02:28 PM   #4
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Thanks to all! Some useful pointers between you.

I thought Action was 250pt characters, so I'll take a look at the Specialist supplement. Also grabbed the T2K files in that thread.
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Old 09-10-2017, 02:55 PM   #5
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackFalcon_Che View Post
I thought Action was 250pt characters, so I'll take a look at the Specialist supplement.
Specialists is designed, it's true, to ultimately produce 250 point characters. But because of the way it's built, it's actually quite easy to produce less-expensive characters. Just stop tacking on specializations, basically! And you can probably adjust the Basic Action Template down a bit some as well, to have more points available for specialization. It gives everyone Luck automatically, for instance, as part of the general goal of being good for Action-style games. In a less-genre-oriented setting, you could drop that, cut another 10 points from other required traits, and then allow characters to choose 3 specialization packages, instead of two.
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Old 09-10-2017, 03:25 PM   #6
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Its worth noting all a soldier really needs is the soldier skill and guns (riffle). The soldier skill will let the soldier comprehend doctrine, dig foxholes, and use his radio properly. Guns (riffle) lets him hit targets with his riffle. That's all you really need, particularly for conscripts or privates.

Having said that, its worth pointing you towards the list of skills every adventurer should have. This isn't meant for soldiers, but it is pretty applicable.

And then you have specialties in the military. Those are probably actually the hard part.

If you have Gurps: Space, its templates translate to modern day folks pretty darn well.

If you're picking up specialists, it will stand alone, and it does a pretty good job. I do have a couple tweaks I like to make in military contexts:

In tactical driving, add "Tracked" to the list of specialties. Remove the perk, shadowing, and urban survival. Add Soldier [2], Tactics [4], and saviore-fairre (military) [1]. This creates a military driver.

I also like to add a "Weapons Crew" package. This is separate from "heavy weapons" because its focused around vehicle mounted weapons, and its a bit more skill based.

Freight Handling IQ/A [1], Tactics (IQ/H) [4], Soldier (IQ/A) [2].
16 points in: Artillery (Bombs, Cannon, guided missile, torpedo), Gunner (Cannon, Machine Gun, Rockets), or Electronics Operation (Electronics Warfare, Sensors)
[2] points in one of Driving (automobile, heavy wheeled, Tracked), Piloting (helicopter, high performance plane, heavy airplane), boating (motor boat), seamanship, or submariner.

Yes, it has a lot of options. But its shaped right!
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Old 09-10-2017, 06:27 PM   #7
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen View Post
Specialists is designed, it's true, to ultimately produce 250 point characters. But because of the way it's built, it's actually quite easy to produce less-expensive characters. Just stop tacking on specializations, basically! And you can probably adjust the Basic Action Template down a bit some as well, to have more points available for specialization. It gives everyone Luck automatically, for instance, as part of the general goal of being good for Action-style games. In a less-genre-oriented setting, you could drop that, cut another 10 points from other required traits, and then allow characters to choose 3 specialization packages, instead of two.
I agree. This works very well. You might also compare to a less Action-specific version that Kromm posted here:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=21
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Old 09-11-2017, 12:11 AM   #8
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Tactical Shooting has the Assaulter style, which fits most contemporary infantry training.
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Old 09-11-2017, 09:38 AM   #9
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Default Re: Modern Military Templates

Many thanks for all the suggestions - that's a lot to go on for starters!
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Old 09-11-2017, 05:38 PM   #10
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Default General comment on templates --

Be sure each includes some bit of Swimming. (I suspect all the military ones do.)

I speak from experience; I've lost some favorite characters through falling into water.
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