Military Concepts and Military Help

[Tzarii]

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Okay so I looked through and dug up data and found out a few things using my super military analytical skills.

1.  There is not much info on military concepts (other than the occasional former ranger shtick)
2.  There is not much info on how current, or former military characters/concepts could affect gameplay. 

So I am going to attempt to call out other former military members to help out in this arena.  Basically this will be done by posting what information we can (without getting into trouble of course) on some Military jobs and what they would be concept wise and how certain things are handled.

That being said I am going to put out some fairly simple concepts you can draw from that are a little uncommon and you can draw from edit at your discretion etc.  These are only ideas at this time.  Please don't kill me.  I have so much to live for.

I only know army and a few navy

All Army concepts should include the fact they know a thing or two about firing and maintaining a weapon, survival, and maintenance of the body.  Also in the trouble, certain areas the locals may despise them, they will likely trust authority a little more.  Also the person may be a little uptight

Former Sapper (add additional background on character like Sapper turned Sorcerer)
The US Army sapper is an elite warrior that has more knowledge of explosives in his pinky then some people will ever learn over two life times.  They can make explosives from scratch, know how much to use, and the best places to use it for, and create precision detonations.  Not only that, but they have  a physical training regime similar to an Army Ranger (only a larger focus on rucking around explosives)
Trouble:  First time there is even a little explosion your probably going to be the one who gets blamed.  Even if you were two states away.

Former Psy Ops:
You are the bastard son of George from Seinfeld and one of the fae queens when it comes to trickery. You can scare even the Nagloshii with the kind of insanity you can pull out of your hat.  The amount of BSing you can do has the Fey taking notes and you probably learned a few things from Old Scratch himself.  Hell a wizard might even have problems soul gazing you for answers. You know exactly how to play an audience.
Trouble: Well, you can shear a sheep over and over but you can skin him only once.  People will eventually stop trusting you.


Military Intelligence Systems Maintainer/Integrator:
You are so good at computers you can fix something Harry hexed, and probably make it run better. 
Trouble You are part of a really tiny community, making you that much easier to find. 

Honor Guard
You have unquestionable honor. You have done one of your countries highest honors and have incredible internal fortitude and a powerful spirit. Many others in the military look up to you.
Trouble  Sure all that is good, but this may cause you to fall prey on people who would use your morals against you.  Then again people might view you as uptight and aloof even for military standards.

Military Intelligence Analyst
You are viewed as an oxymoron by many and thats the way you like it, the less they know about you the better.  You have dived into some of the governments deepest secrets and are capable of making insane decisions and figuring out things much faster then some police.
Trouble That being said, you probably second guess when you shouldn't and you can be overly analytical not taking things at face value when you should.

Other military folks feel free to chime in post more or help out (cause I need sleep.)

[SoulCatcher78]

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/enlistedjobs/tp/armyenlistedjobs.htm
a handy list of combat arms jobs for the Army.  Lots of opportunities there for play (my fav being the linguist guys...yes sir, he keeps using the word for magic, must be a local superstition or something).

[toturi]

An idea is that there is an equivalent of "Special Investigations" in the military that is being run as a covert unit. You could adapt the Task Force Valkyrie concept from White Wolf to DFRPG.

[Drazha]

Military (any branch) cryptographer could be one. They have access to alot of secrets in the world and its there job to crack other peoples secrets to exploit them. Could go well in a game (cracking a wizards secret code in his journals for instance).

Lets see from the navies stand point you have boatswain's mate, gunners mates, engineer's of all sorts, damage control men (firefighters etc), master at arms (cops) etc etc. From a magical standpoint these jobs aren't that useful but for a pure mortal you can work them into a game.

Or you can always go the Seal, Delta Force, Devgru, Swcc, and black ops route for vanilla mortals.

All in all its going to be hard to fit some of the more common military jobs into a campaign because most of them focus heavily on technology these days. Especially if your involving the military in large numbers. Otherwise its the typical shoot first and ask later types that your going to be stuck with.

[toturi]

It should only be hard to fit those characters that use mortal magic in a modern military, since it is mortal magic that interferes with technology. A user of sponsored magic shouldn't be too hard. A were-form should be pretty easy to fit into the military.

[Tzarii]

Wow all this.  So far pretty good pretty helpful.

Special note for Former military officers: Recall.  You can be turned NPC at the outbreak of another war.  Your ass belongs to the US government.  Guess that free college idea wasn't so good afterall.
Upsides: Good with most weapons, steady under pressure, leadership skills, good with tactics and you can run fast to boot.  Since you went to college you will likely have some education in a certain area and be fairly good at it. 

Special note for former military people: Know your own.  Seriously, most former military people can identify other former military people or current military people with relative ease. That being said you will be easier to pick out also by other military.

Special note for former military people: Tactics.  Most former military people can at least retain how to enter a room properly and how to put themselves into a good firing position to get the best shot or put themselves in a key position.  Then again most people would be expecting that...

Likely scenarios:
Former Military guy going to college and bumps into the supernatural.
Former Crypto Officer pissed off at his military doing nothing but "observing and reporting" strange supernatural activity
Former CID turned detective gets put on a case involving the supernatural
Former Sapper is called in by local police to investigate a huge explosion that has no known cause
Former Seal defends the block against things that go bump in the night
Former Delta guy gets hired by an NPC to be a guard against "strange stuff" that has been going on lately
Former Fighter Pilot gets hired by mysterious clientèle to fly them somewhere fast for no questions asked
Former MI Analyst who is just getting out discovers some mysterious classified information that leads him to seek answers after he gets out

Thanks so far for helping with this guys lets see if we can put out a few more concepts...

[Deadmanwalking]

Special note for Former military officers: Recall.  You can be turned NPC at the outbreak of another war.  Your ass belongs to the US government.  Guess that free college idea wasn't so good afterall.

I'm not that informed on military matters, but this isn't necessarily true. For example, one of my players (who IS informed on military matters), is playing a British ex-SBS (Special Boat Services, explained by him to the very uninformed me as "the British equivalent of Navy SEALS") sniper, who was discharged after most of his unit was killed by Djinn in Afghanistan...and he reported what really happened and refused to change his story. While they were somewhat sympathetic due to his recent trauma and he recieves veteran's benefits and avoided being sent to an institution, there is absolutely no chance of him ever being recalled to service, since they view him as dangerously mentally unbalanced.

A similar story could easily do the same in terms of their chances of recall for another PC. As could many other things, actually.

[SoulCatcher78]

The typical military agreement (US) is for 8 years of service.  The first portion you fulfill after your initial sign up, the remainder is the period that they can recall you to service.  National emergencies might be the exception to this rule (and of course anything that you might want specifically in your campaign).  After the 8 years you are under no obligation to return to service.

[Tzarii]

I'm not that informed on military matters, but this isn't necessarily true. For example, one of my players (who IS informed on military matters), is playing a British ex-SBS (Special Boat Services, explained by him to the very uninformed me as "the British equivalent of Navy SEALS") sniper, who was discharged after most of his unit was killed by Djinn in Afghanistan...and he reported what really happened and refused to change his story. While they were somewhat sympathetic due to his recent trauma and he recieves veteran's benefits and avoided being sent to an institution, there is absolutely no chance of him ever being recalled to service, since they view him as dangerously mentally unbalanced.

A similar story could easily do the same in terms of their chances of recall for another PC. As could many other things, actually

.

I am in the army, I have seen it happen to two officers.  One of them served in Vietnam and got brought back in for the recent going ons in Afghanistan.  Granted it is extremely rare, (even more so now that quotas are surpassed) but it is a possibility. Granted this happens only to either higher ranking officers or ones that had previous duties that were low on personnel (like intell) granted I doubt that this would have any effect on anything your running, but still it could be something fun to note.

That being said, UK officers don't have the recall thing, they are lucky like that.


And yes 4 years active 4 years inactive reserve for most enlisted, pending medical issues, change in lifestyle (you make more money than the president) and after the 4 years inactive are up you are free.  For the most part they do not call you up however technically the war on terror in the US is a national emergency and people get recalled for it. 


Here is another

Scout Sniper
You are the very definition of the word sniper.  You are a patient, keen eyed, survivor, who can shoot a doorknob from more than 400 meters out.  You also know how to hide and how to scout terrain, not to mention lie perfectly still for days...
Trouble  Your skills are quite in fact too epic.  Scout Snipers are rare so if people some how turn up dead from long range gunshots, chances are you are a prime suspect.

[toturi]

Special note for former military people: Know your own.  Seriously, most former military people can identify other former military people or current military people with relative ease. That being said you will be easier to pick out also by other military.

Knowing your own should only apply to those "of your own". A US military person may be able to identify his former NATO colleagues but he might not be able to pick out an Israeli soldier or a Finnish soldier.

[Crion]

Knowing your own should only apply to those "of your own". A US military person may be able to identify his former NATO colleagues but he might not be able to pick out an Israeli soldier or a Finnish soldier.

Just a point of argument, but wouldn't a military person be able to at least identify others as having similar training? There's something about the way people walk and carry themselves that can give so much away: military training, martial arts training, country of origin, etc. While you may not be able to denote the exact point (in your example, the differences between Israeli and Finnish soldiers), I think it can be quite obvious to point out another soldier.

Again, just a thought, do with it as you will.


Interesting thread so far and helps clear up some cobwebs I've been dealing with when it comes to players and the military.

[ColdWinterWind]

Just a point of argument, but wouldn't a military person be able to at least identify others as having similar training? There's something about the way people walk and carry themselves that can give so much away: military training, martial arts training, country of origin, etc. While you may not be able to denote the exact point (in your example, the differences between Israeli and Finnish soldiers), I think it can be quite obvious to point out another soldier.

All things being equal, yes it's fairly easy for one military person to spot another.  I do it even now, with ex-military people.  However, with training or inclination, it is possible to blend in with the background population.  I'm from North Carolina, but I pick up the accent of whatever region/country I find myself in.  It's easier for locals to understand me, and I don't stick out as 'not from around here...'

I went into Army MI back in '74.  Left home with long hair, stayed gone for 6 months, came back with a buzz cut.  Nobody knew I was Army unless I told them.

[Tzarii]

Okay all good points.

If the person makes effort to remain unidentified (IE lets hair grow out and 86s the military lingo, while not telling them) they can remain unidentified. That being said I will have to bring up a quote from starwars: "Those blaster marks are too accurate for sand people" there are little tells in combat for former military. Really this would be largely up to the story teller. 

That being said, if there were Israeli soldiers tailing people I know in my platoon, we would know almost immediately. Not because we deal with them but because we know how they operate well that and that is our region that we look at.  That being said, Israel also has compulsory military service.  So it would be like "oh they are ex military." "How do you know"  "cause they are Israeli and didn't go through religious training." "oh"  

This does need to be clarified.

You can identify former and current members of Allied or Host (where the campaign is set) nation military and members of some other military powers if you had knowledge of that area.  For further clarification on the trouble -- the more prominent an army you were in the more likely other foreign military will identify you.

An example of this would be A US soldier is in a bar that is frequented by ex military types of all nations. He would likely identify other US troops, Canadian soldiers, UK soldiers, and Aussie soldiers.  He might be able to identify german soldiers (if he spent time in germany) Israeli troops (if he was in the region) South Korean troops (if he helped them before) Iraqi or Afghanistan soldiers (same) or maybe even a Russian soldier (remnants of the cold war.)  This same soldier would probably have trouble identifying a Swiss military man, a Finnish military person, Indian officer, Kenyan soldier, or a former Kazakhstani troop.  However due to military prominence and his american accent, it is more likely that most of the soldiers in the room could identify him as a member of the American armed forces if he was really overt.

So in short

Know your own applies to troops you know of and works on troops that know of you.  To further clarify a scenario

A former soldier and sapper who is contracted out by someone to penetrate a white court mansion, notices that the guards on the outside are operating using military stances for guarding and have the hair cuts to go with.  Additionally when the guards handle a pesky stalker by grabbing his punch and summarily breaking his arm and the sapper notices this is a military form, particularly Krav Manga. Upon further examination the level of comfort they have with Uzi sub machine guns, Desert Eagles as well as their uniform appearance and unusual call signs our hero can safely determine that these are former Israeli Special forces. Our former sapper realizes he is going to need one hell of a tester to get these guys to look one so he can get inside.