Typical UCAS special forces squad, What's it look like? Options

[James McMurray]

I was just going to use two of the grunts and one of the lieutenants in War!, plus two McDonell-Douglas Nimrods for air support. Two nimrods is more than I'd expect a single team to have, but it's a special circumstance (they've been sent in to investigate a high threat magical anomaly). As far as power level goes the team feels right, but I'm no military strategist. Will that layout cover the roles of a full special forces squad?

Their role in the run is as either friend or foe, depending on how things go, what the PCs do, and where the dice land.

[BishopMcQ]

Here's a LINK to a thread from awhile back about military units.

Most squads should have more than three people, that size is a firing team. I'm used to seeing 6-12 people. You can also check the alt.War project. I believe they had a section on UCAS forces.

[Minchandre]

For special forces I'd tend to just use the Ghost entry in SR4A as a starting point and go from there, making whatever little tweaks are necessary to make them UCAS-er. Like, not all elves to start.

[LurkerOutThere]

If they are investigating a magical threat at the very least I would presume they have a support mage plus possibly a paranormal animal handler and hellhound(s).

[DWC]

And make sure they all have an Instruction skill of 4 or 5, specialized in either Technical, Physical, or Combat skills.

[Pepsi Jedi]

And either a big ol troll with a heavy machine gun/mini gun. OR... A dwarf with the same. GOTTA have that.

[CanRay]

The typical UCAS Special Forces would be like any other Special Forces unit, anything but typical.

[Method]

I think if you want a "friend or foe" scenario the challenge would be presenting the operators in a way that makes them seem accurate but still makes your PCs think they could take them in a fight if they had to. The reality is that a full Spec Ops unit built to accurately reflect their abilities would likely have most teams outnumbered, outgunned and out magic'd. Any smart runners are going to try to be their friends, which takes the dramatic tension out of the scene you are trying to build. On ther other hand, if your players become aware of the Unit before the Unit is aware of them, and if they think the Unit has adversarial motives, creatively working around the Unit (to avoid a toe to toe fight) can present a different kind of challenge.

But what I would recommend is using the dudes you've stated as a Spec Ops fireteam that is operating as part of a larger unit or platoon in the area. You can use radio chatter, fly overs by helicopters or fighter jets, or nearby artillery strikes (as appropriate for the setting) to give the PCs the impression that these guys have access to some serious support (which could make them great friends to have) but keep the immediate group small enough that the runners can reasonably match them in a fight (if they decide not to be friendly).

In other words, build the team's stats for the challenge you want to present to the PCs and use plot devices to do the rest.

[Minchandre]

The typical UCAS Special Forces would be like any other Special Forces unit, anything but typical.

Special Forces are not the A-Team. They're almost always composed of several professional soldiers, who usually have an assortment of auxiliary skills...but they are above all soldiers first. Special forces people I have known (including 3 cousins) have been pretty much normal people, and not nearly as exciting as you'd expect from Hollywood. The loose cannons and colorful personalities don't make it into SF, because their commanders need them to be reliable above almost all else.

[Abstruse]

One thing to keep in mind is that urban operating teams are almost always even numbers, with 4 and 8 being the most common. The reason for this is that no man is EVER left alone when clearing a building and they go room by room. The reason for 4 is in case they need to split up for some reason (such as a split in a hallway), they can split evenly and still have two men together. The reason for 8 (usually 2 teams of 4) is for the same reason but in case they need to split again. I don't know if this is common in the military, but it's how police and SWAT both operate.

[CanRay]

Special Forces are not the A-Team. They're almost always composed of several professional soldiers, who usually have an assortment of auxiliary skills...but they are above all soldiers first. Special forces people I have known (including 3 cousins) have been pretty much normal people, and not nearly as exciting as you'd expect from Hollywood. The loose cannons and colorful personalities don't make it into SF, because their commanders need them to be reliable above almost all else.

It's the auxiliary skills I was referring to. And their tendency of using equipment required for the mission at hand, rather than standard issue.

Sorry if I implied otherwise.

[Minchandre]

It's the auxiliary skills I was referring to. And their tendency of using equipment required for the mission at hand, rather than standard issue.

Sorry if I implied otherwise.

Sorry, I just realized how harshly my post came off. I didn't mean to come off so...mean, it's just something of a pet peeve for me. Seriously, though, Special Forces groups don't have as wide a variety of special skills as you might expect; in Israel at least the vast majority of their skills are trained according to a standard curriculum (for certain values of standard). Similarly, equipment is "spec ops standard issue", which is very homogeneous though it may be different from regular (e.g., Israel's Sayeret Duvdevan regularly trains with AK-47s and knives that push the limit to swords, but that doesn't mean that people can use their favorite gun in the field)

[Inncubi]

In risk of having more knowledgeable people scoff at this, I'll try to make a small team -no stats, just job description- that I see would be feasible for Special Forces in the 6th World:

-Officer in charge of squad: High intuition and cyber/bio that boosts mental stats. Decent shooting skills. Tactical skills. Some tech skills.
-Officer's right hand, second in command: High social skills. Tactical software. High Charisma. Decent shooting skills. Minor tactical skills. Navigational skills. Some tech skills.
-Medic: Biotech skill group. Make him a mage or adept, for synergy in attributes. Decent shooting skills. has a couple spirits, say 1 or 2 man (bound), 1 earth or air for scouting/support (Summoned), 1 fire or water (Summoned) watchers as well. Power focus (force 2 or 3) and a health spell focus (3) would do wonders. Sustaining is made by spirit favors.
-Sharpshooter /Scout: Sniper, or best gun in the group. Carries hig powered rifle. High perception and stealth skills. Has some drones (1 or 2) for surveillance.
-Communications Expert: High computer skills. Handles team tactical net with officer's right hand. Hacker profile with focus in Electronic Warfare. Demolitions expert, for synergy. useful cyber/bioware. Has some dornes 2 or 3, with a heavier payload than the Sharpshooter's.
-Riflemen (2 or 3): Grunts of the group. High shooting skills. Some cyber.
-Support: As riflemen, but carries heavy weapon (Light machine gun. Medium maybe?) Heavy armour. Strong, high body. Troll fits very nicely. Demolitions expert as well.

Skill sets vary according to campaign. In mine skills of 4 are quite high and appropriate. Same with attributes.
Orks are incredibly useful. For second in command, I'd say elf, some extra language softs depending on area of deplyment may be useful.
Troll is great for Support role. Rockets can be used by drones reliably, so team probably doesn't need to carry those and frees space and carry capacity for them.
Some skills are shared by team (Most would have first aid 1 or 2 and specialization in combat wounds, for example).
I go light on cyberware, usually no more than 2 points of essence loss. In some cases I go a bit higher.
most expensive gear: Commlinks and redundant communications gear. Programs can go in the range of 3 or 4's for common use programs. A couple agents help watch the net. High encryption: 5 or 6. This is essential. A lot of communications is done via text messages with attached data bombs (rating 4).
Each carries a satchel charge of 1 kg of explosives. This distributes weight.
Vary adept frequency according to needs, if more than 1 magical active, the second one carries a weapon focus. Hopefully at least one can astrally project. Depending on mission, extra reinforcements in the form of only astral mages with bodies far away, might be reasonable.

[CanRay]

I can understand where a reaction can come from, especially with people expecting things to be like in the movies. *Looks at Hacker Movies with the fury of ten thousand suns*

I also probably misunderstood the information I had on SpecOps and their "Special Weapons" as meaning personal taste, rather than "Spec Ops Standard Issue". A common problem when the only thing you have to go off of is written material.

[Pepsi Jedi]

lol I like the Hacker's movie. It doesn't have much to do with hackers but it's fun.

[CanRay]

*Goes back to my corner to rock back and forth and cry*

[Method]

I think when people hear "Special Forces" they imagine something more similar to the CIA Special Operations Group (aka "the activity").

[Epicedion]

I'd expect skillsofts to be supremely important for a spec ops team.

[James McMurray]

Thanks! I guess what I meant was a fire team, not a full squad. Basically a 4-5 man team whose magical support and one of their gunnery guys just got killed so they're down to 3.

Good idea with the skillsofts. I'll Rearrange the lieutenant some to have skillwires 4 and a veritable jukebox full of softs. The other two guys (at least according to War!) are adepts, so skillsofts wouldn't go over very well for them.

[Sixgun_Sage]

Special Operations units are essentially the same as other units with a higher degree of training and, often, better kit. That's not at all univeral but basically true and while SpecOps are supposed to be able to operate under a variety of circumstances each force has it's own specialty, cross training would likely be handled by a combination of skillsofts and low value auxillary skills with a greater focus on primary skills sets and a higher quality of ware. Remember that the more "elite" your role is in the military the more significant the government's investment in you is in terms of training dollars, when you look at it from that perspective it becomes more reasonable to assume your guys will either have significant cyber/bio/foci based enhancement. from a pure crunch standpoint dicepools 4-6 higher than their regular military counterparts should be expected but the big differance will come in with tactics. Regular fire teams act as parts of a whole, every member performing towards the group goal, SpecOps take this to an entirely differant level and you can expect them to take full advantage of Tacnets, especially with a couple of drones under the control of their fire team leader or combat hacker to provide complete battlefield awareness.




Yes, my players hate running against the military.