Modern Adventurers in War Zones; war correspondents and mercenaries

[Sword-dancer]

Originally Posted by Icelander

There's no such thing as Blackwater at the time the game is set, in 2011.

that was meant as an metaphoric example.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Other options:

Non-governmental organization (NGO) folks -- providers of medical, food, and relief supplies (blankets, tents, water filtration) for natural or man-made disasters. Lots of these types can & will operate in war zones -- IIRC at least two of the current ISIS hostages are such relief workers who came to Syria to aid the refugees. They would have to have high administrative ability; perhaps the 3rd Edition advantage "versatile" will work. I knew a guy who worked in Ethiopia during the early '80s famine. Had to be master of lots of stuff (admin, diplomacy, nutrition, some mechanical items) and jack of all trades.

Remember these people would have to have high Diplomacy and often Fast Talk skills -- they have to get the acquiescence of often-corrupt officials and local rebels to be there at all. They have no guns to maintain themselves. Some sort of Obsession or Higher Purpose disad would work too -- if you're not partially crazy why be there at all?

Very high emotional costs -- IIRC Catholic Relief Services assumes 12-18 months is the most you can realistically expect folks to endure the stress & disappointment of these kinds of situations. That fella I earlier mentioned -- he probably saved hundreds of lives a month, but had to watch more hundreds die because he just couldn't get enough aid for all of them. Messed him up quite a bit. Some kind of PTSD would be rational for a long service NGO veteran.

Foreign correspondents -- I actually met one of these guys many years ago. I was a formal party -- three-piece suits, evening gowns & tuxedos for some. This photographer, an Australian working for Agente France Presse, drifted in wearing a stained, torn field jacket, a three-day growth of beard, and a long-ashed cigarette dangling from his lips. Projected a great deal of "I don't give a [deleted]" attitude. He got away with it.

Of course, he had his camera.

So some guys do live up to the stereotype.

Some traits -- certainly Overconfidence, On the Edge or Glory Hound would be appropriate. Again, like NGO officials, they need lots of interpersonal skills to get into the high-hazard areas. Often you've got to charm people you loath, so Acting might be a good asset. You've also got to deal with many different types of folks, from your own nation's embassy employees to warlords to smugglers, etc.

On the flip side, often more "established" authorities will appreciate a journalist's or NGO person's knowledge of what happens outside the host nation's capital city, so you may find yourself being politely -- or not so politely -- questioned by various types.

Luck is always a useful advantage for the unarmed.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Luck is always a useful advantage for the unarmed.

Luck is good for rerolling a single Dodge. Serendipity is better for some sort of turn of events that will prevent combat in the first place.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Luck is good for rerolling a single Dodge. Serendipity is better for some sort of turn of events that will prevent combat in the first place.

Yep, Serendipity have been very useful in earlier games set in the same unforgiving setting, for allowing non-combat characters to not only survive the adventures alongside more adventurous souls, but also contribute useful 'instant contacts', lucky breaks and such things.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Foreign correspondents -- I actually met one of these guys many years ago. I was a formal party -- three-piece suits, evening gowns & tuxedos for some. This photographer, an Australian working for Agente France Presse, drifted in wearing a stained, torn field jacket, a three-day growth of beard, and a long-ashed cigarette dangling from his lips. Projected a great deal of "I don't give a [deleted]" attitude. He got away with it.

Of course, he had his camera.

So some guys do live up to the stereotype.

Where does this stereotype come from? Why is every other war correspondent Australian? Is... is it maybe just true?

Australians all sit down and decide what to do in life and once you've accounted for all those who become bartenders, there's a certain quota who must become either war correspondents or wildlife-wranglers?

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Some traits -- certainly Overconfidence, On the Edge or Glory Hound would be appropriate. Again, like NGO officials, they need lots of interpersonal skills to get into the high-hazard areas. Often you've got to charm people you loath, so Acting might be a good asset. You've also got to deal with many different types of folks, from your own nation's embassy employees to warlords to smugglers, etc.

Interpersonal skills are a good point and largely why I started to wonder about this. Contacts among war correspondents seemed tailor-made to be sort of unofficial intelligence operatives...

[Icelander]

Alarm, alarm!

I find that, as usual, I've left it until much too late to actualise finalise my game preparations, as opposed to throwing out a lot of ideas and wasting days on specific details of NPC history and motivations, neglecting the dozens of less detailed NPCs that the PCs will probably find themselves fighting.

And, naturally, my game is in 36 hours or so and I do actually have a court appearance and several meetings with clients and opposing counsel during the one and a half workday that are between now and the game. Also, sleep.

So, the situation is this:

A villainous group with deep pockets need to have a secure location within Nasiryah (along the Euphrates in south-west Iraq), as well as 2-3 desert locations out of it, protected from potential rivals. They are planning to use a Private Military Company / Private Security Company with extremely flexible morals for a lot of it, though some of the most sensitive work will have to be done using less skilled, but more ideologically reliably recruits.

In line with prior discussion in this thread, I would love if forumites would submit some potential mercenaries, with a few sentence bios, nationalities, looks, personalities and favoured weapons.

Thoughs on equipment, vehicles, communications, tactics and relationships with other power factions as well as the authorities are also welcome.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Just so.

On the other hand, I don't know French even at Broken, so I don't know the names of any news organisations other than AFP to drop as someone who has bought stories from a freelancer NPC.*

So I need to know what French newspapers, magazines and other publications would be likely to buy articles and publish them from a freelancer in Iraq. Who does their own foreign reporting these days?
[/SIZE]

Agence France Presse

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Agence France Presse

How viable is it to write feature articles of substantial length for them? I mean, obviously the character in question will send in as often as he can some short and concise news reports meant to be distributed through many individual media outlets, but he'd also like to be able to write the occasional human interest, investigative or analytic piece.

I've found that Le Monde and Le Point have been buying articles from war correspondents in Iraq. Interestingly, a real journalist from Poland had several articles published in Le Monde, which suggests that my fictional French-speaking Polish journalist will do the same.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Icelander

In connection with my ongoing campaign, I was curious about what sort of people PCs could meet in a warzone.* Both in GURPS terms and also in real-world terms, in that I'm trying to figure out what are common and plausible backgrounds for NPCs encountered.

Foreign and conflict zone correspondents
One of the most interesting groups are war correspondents, of course. Apart from those who arrive from Coalition countries or the US after everyone else leaves, and are embedded in MNF-I or USF-I units, what else exists?

Are there going to be hard-drinking war correspondents from lesser known news outlets having adventures, a la The Year of Living Dangerously?

How many war correspondents are actually Australian? I don't know why, but I always assume that in every group of bartenders and war correspondents, there will be at least one Australian. Is that way off?

Fortunately for gaming and fiction, real media assures me that there is such a thing as freelance war correspondents.

I'm quite interested in what their background tends to be. Where are most of them from? What skills useful to adventurers do they have in GURPS terms and where and how did they learn them?

What kind of Contacts can they plausibly provide? This role for a war correspondent is exceptionally well demonstrated by the character of Maddy Bowen in Blood Diamond (a case may be made for her advancing to full Ally).

Something that I wonder about is what companies are primarily paying them? For plausibility, who ought I have buying the writing, pictures, videos or research of freelance war correspondents?

There's Reuters, AP and AFP, of course. Are they paying enough for someone to survive, if he isn't a frequent contributor? And are they paying anyone who could be doing investigative reporting?

What are some non-English speaking news agencies that might buy articles that demand research and interviews?

If a given freelance war correspondent happened to be a native Polish-speaker who speaks French at Native (in GURPS terms) and English only at Accented, to whom could he most plausibly sell his articles?

Mercenaries
Private security contractors and even private military contractors are not mercenaries, in a very real legal sense, because they do not meet the international law definition for such. There will be plenty of contractors and some of them doing security work, yes, but those are not legally mercenaries.

On the other hand, if an entirely innocent organisation which is certainly not carrying out some diabolical scheme inimical to Goodness, Light, the PCs and the American Way, happened to need some honest-to-God, actual mercenaries, what would they find?

If we assume that any false positives, i.e. adventurous and not all-too-bright men who lied about their qualifications, are in the past for this hypothetical group, who might they have in their service now?

What is the background of someone who is prepared to pretend to be a contractor for a PSC or a PMC, but actually carry out illegal violent activities in the service of a criminal or sectarian agenda? And who brings a fairly high degree of technical know-how, as well as preferably some actual military experience, to the table?

An obvious recruit would be a less-than-principled member of a PSC or PMC, of course, in which case background would be identical to other contractors. But is there some background which would furnish a plausible mixture of high-quality training, sharp-end military experience and a subsequent career where someone knowledgable could know to approach the person for mercenary work?

Preferably, of course, for much less money than a former US or UK special operator would charge for something in that line.

I'm thinking about an elite force that are supposed to act as a cadre for what essentially amounts to a locally recruited militia, except that it's fairly lacking in religious or tribal loyalities and might just as well be described as a criminal gang. On the other hand, the organisers of this non-sectarian crime enterprise are well aware that local militias might object strongly to their activities and it would behoove them to have some very high-quality security at that time.

Is it entirely implausible and very much out of date to posit that veterans of the French Foreign Legion might conceivably possess some connections that might be leveraged into locating like-minded persons for recruitment?

What nations in the world might have bothered to train someone well 5-15 years ago in a variety of high-end military skills and even some security and espionage skills, but for whatever reason, cannot provide that person with the employment opportunities that he feels he deserves today?

*Apart from the locals and the soldiers of the combatants, obviously.

Moorehead was an Australian. He lived an adventurous life and Desert War is a travel log as well as war memoir. Pyle was an American as was Lowell Thomas. Claire Booth Luce was also an American as was Sulzberger who wrote Long Row of Candles.

Other possibilities besides journalists are general information vendors like cartoonists(Maudlin) or writers(Rebecca West). I don't remember whether she actually covered an ongoing war; she is most famous for a travel log about a dormant rather then active war zone.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Moorehead was an Australian. He lived an adventurous life and Desert War is a travel log as well as war memoir. Pyle was an American as was Lowell Thomas. Claire Booth Luce was also an American as was Sulzberger who wrote Long Row of Candles.

I'm quite interested in memoirs and books by war journalists, as they are excellent sources of local colour for roleplaying (Michael Herr's Dispatches is also a brilliant read, albeit about a different war).

I can't recall the name of the Iraqi War journalistic memoir I read by a young female reporter on her first trip abroad as a journalist, but it was heavily focused on daily life, loves and partying of the foreign journalism corps in Baghdad's Green Zone. In any case, in that memoir, as well as quite a few articles and other books I've read, there always seem to be Australian freelance photographers, photojournalists and foreign correspondents hanging around in every war zone. There's Michael Ware in Iraq, but I got the impression that Australians and New Zealanders are, in general, overrepresented in the field. I'll admit that could be confirmation bias, due to the cinematic trope of the devil-may-care Aussie or Kiwi war correspondent*.

*Not only the Year of Living Dangerously, but in general, in modern movies (such as Blood Diamond or Live from Baghdad, were there is always an Aussie or Kiwi (or three) in any foreign press corps in a danger zone.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Other possibilities besides journalists are general information vendors like cartoonists(Maudlin) or writers(Rebecca West). I don't remember whether she actually covered an ongoing war; she is most famous for a travel log about a dormant rather then active war zone.

In 2011, there is little active fighting in Iraq and almost none at all where the PCs find themselves. There is seething unrest under the surface and a lot of fault lines in politics and governance, but there are no actual battles in the streets.

Well, until one PC walked into a suicide bombing and another PC gunned down some eight to nine people in two cars in the street where it happened.* That was a battle in the streets, albeit a short-lived one.

*They were racing to the scene, armed with AKs and RPG-7s. He felt fairly confident that they were not innocent bystanders and was disinclined to allow them to start firing at him and his boss (potentially seriously wounded by an explosion and collapsing house).