Former Green Beret, Character Critique Options

[blindfox]

toturi, i think the idea of backwards-planning the skill is probably the best way to do it, but some of the skills you would drop i have to disagree with. most notably perception. this is probably the most important skill in any asymmetrical battlefield and cannot be overstated. dropping dodge makes sense though. outdoors and influence, however are a must, and no operator will trust solely on equipment in these areas. any grunt can tell you that the first thing to go down are comms and batteries always fail, hence redundancies in these events. while not as important in influence, they are a must for outdoors. and influence is absolutely essential in any COIN operation. aside from that, these are team-oriented operators and will rely on their teammate's specialties for the most part but they are, as you noted, cross-trained, just not as well trained in those respective areas as the specialists.

[toturi]

toturi, i think the idea of backwards-planning the skill is probably the best way to do it, but some of the skills you would drop i have to disagree with. most notably perception. this is probably the most important skill in any asymmetrical battlefield and cannot be overstated. dropping dodge makes sense though. outdoors and influence, however are a must, and no operator will trust solely on equipment in these areas. any grunt can tell you that the first thing to go down are comms and batteries always fail, hence redundancies in these events. while not as important in influence, they are a must for outdoors. and influence is absolutely essential in any COIN operation. aside from that, these are team-oriented operators and will rely on their teammate's specialties for the most part but they are, as you noted, cross-trained, just not as well trained in those respective areas as the specialists.

Why is Perception so important? Stealth. Because Stealth is an opposed test. Who has more dice wins more of the time. Otherwise, Perception is just another fixed Threshold test.

You are bringing RL into SR, of course, you can. But that assumes that SR equipment fails as much as those in RL. Also you are not relying on just equipment to boost dice, although it is often the quicker and easier way. Magic can also help. The adept Improved Ability power can help. And as an ex-grunt, I'd say most of the time, my equipment failed because I screwed up and didn't secure it properly and mine worked while my buddies' didn't because I squared my stuff away while they were out Friday night. Don't assume just because each guy only has a small dice pool, the team has a small dice pool, teamwork works.

[Wounded Ronin]

To the OP, I would STRONGLY recommend you read "SOG" by John Plaster, which you can get here: http://www.amazon.com/SOG-Secret-Americas-...m/dp/0451195086

Not only is it the most visceral and disturbing Vietnam War memoir I've ever read, but it gives you an idea of the kinds of things that went horribly wrong on some SOG operations, and some of the things which occurred which really could ruin operator's minds.

Towards the beginning, for example, one SOG man became a destructive alcoholic because after the VC had managed to basically roll his unit, they started trying to detect any hiding survivors by torturing the wounded to death on the spot. The man had to hide and listen to the screams and never recovered from his extreme sense of guilt.