So I am beginning ground work for an episodic, multi-session game to act as filler between other games. The idea I was going to run with was that the players are all in the same squad in a mercenary company. So that I can give the players roles that need to be filled so that they can plan their characters accordingly, I want to make sure I have a complete list of roles that need to be filled (and obviously one character can fill multiple roles).

The ones that immediately come to mind are: squad leader, heavy weapons, sniper, bne, hacking, awakened, demolitions, vehicle piloting, vehicle gunnery, and drone rigging.

PS I got the idea for this from another thread, thought it was a brilliant idea, and shamelessly borrowed it.

Medic.

- J.

Ahh yes, thank you!

http://everything2.com/title/how+to+proper...+insertion+team

I always liked that article.

Kinda depends on how many players you have... Also depends on what they're gonna be doing? A covert team probably doesn't need a HWG, whereas an assault team probably doesn't need a stealthy ninja-type.

For a simple, four player, get-shit-done team I'd go with:
Warmage Squad Leader (Magical and Charismatic...kinda goes hand-in-hand): Leader and magical support, maybe even healing?
LRSG (Long Range Support Guy): Sniper and Ranged Demolitions (Rockets'n'such)
HWG: Obviously HW, and Demo(gurnades), maybe some boom-sticks and other CQC stuff, and bullet sponge.
TGWADATW(The Guy Who Actually Does All The Work): Hacker, Rigger(this covers vehicles), Medic, Demo(plastique), Lockpick, everything else that is essential. Skill groups are his friends.

Assuming that it's a squad as part of a larger unit a squad doesn't need a sniper. A sniper is a precision shooter, if an infantry squad can see them they can kill them another way.

What you need varies, but typically you need a leader, some sort of automatic support weapon, some sort of area/indirect support weapon, and some guys to carry ammo for and keep people from sneaking up on the support weapons guys. Under certain circumstances an AT weapon/strongpoint defeat guy might be used.

Medics are typically assigned at platoon level, snipers are typically battalion assets. You might have a "marksman" at the platoon level, but he isn't a 'sniper'.

Paratroopers sometimes have a 'sniper' at the squad/section level. Paratroopers are a bit closer to the SR norm because the units tend to be structured to be a bit more self reliant.

As for medics - everyone is supposed to be able to do first aid, and the procedure is 'kill the bad guys, do first aid, then find a real doctor'

However with the vehicles and stuff, Mech infantry. Anyway the soviets had in a mech infantry squad

1 leader/vehicle commander
1 driver/mechanic
1 asst squad leader/gunner
1 machine gunner
1 grenadier
4 riflemen

Also had a anti tank rocket launcher on hand, and the 'grenadier' would operate the RPG-7 so beloved by Insurgents today. The riflemen would have 2 underslung grenade launchers between them - and some squads had 2 machine gunners and 1 less riflemen.

You need to clarify your "awakened" section a bit.

There are spell slingers, adepts, summoners, mystic adepts, etc. You'll want Astral Backup, so if you have an Adept of some kind with you, you'll need a Magician as well. I have to say that a Summoner would be far more beneficial overall. With one or two bound spirits your team just becomes that much more powerful and flexible.

And yes, everyone must be armed and capable with guns of some sort. Plus, a Magician can be the Medic too. But that's a lot of eggs in one fragile basket.

Squad leader, heavy weapons specialist, medic, astral support, technical specialist, rigger, scout, demolitions expert, logistics (ie, mule).

Don't forget the tacsofts!

From the original list you can combine some of them. Rigging/hacking go together well as both can sit back from the team entering a building. Similarly rigging/sniper both sit back from the main line and wait to act, whether with a Ranger ARMS or a rotodrone. I'd also mix electronic/b&E/demo and medic in one person. The meidc skills are gratis but otherwise their people who get you in with picking a lock, hacking it, breaking it or just blowing the whoel door off the fragging hinges.

All team members hsould have basic skills in shooting, unarmed combat, evasion and athletics. I'm trying to remember the particulars but I think SEAL and SAS teams work in groups of 4 where each man has a special skill I think it's a commander, communications, demolition and medic. It would also probably be that some teams are highly specialized. with all due respect to Hollywood (ha) I suspect you'd get teams that speialize in aquatic work and some for planes etc. sure htey can all handle hte basics but teams might be more psieclaized for a need. : We need someone on that boat, Team 7 is the best for that.

RL the worst losses suffered by the Navy SEaLs came in Panama when they were forced to work in a larger force than their usual cells and sent head on at an airfield. They were well outside of their comfort zone and in a situation-frontal assualt-that was not their style, but their commanders were over ruled by govenrment buearocrats. This was the action refered to by Steven Seagal's character when he confronted Tommy Lee Jones in the first "Under Siege" film.

Our own teams usually have a decker/rigger mix. A spell slinger and 2 samurai, extras then are more gillettes or a spy-ad or another long ranger sniper/rigger.

A squad isn't a stand-alone unit. It's about the smallest tactical element but it operates as an integral part of a platoon. It's not self-supporting or designed for independent operation. It operates under fairly close control and direction of the platoon leadership.

It is a small part of larger unit, and every squad is pretty much like every other squad and depends on higher levels for more specialized people and gear. If something isn't needed pretty much every time a squad goes into a fight it won't be in a squad.

For example, unless pretty much every mission requires someone in every squad to be a demolition expert there won't be a demolition expert as an integral part of a squad. if a demo expert is needed for a particular mission an engineer who is a demo expert will be attached and the squad leader will be responsible to get the engineer to the right place and time.

It depends on how the unit is structured, but I would assume the larger mercenary companies are structured pretty much like standard military. That is, most of your fire teams and squads make up your platoons. You're special weapons people (machine gunners, mortarmen and so on) are part of their own platoon. This is combined at the company level, which together (with HQ elements) form your battalions, which form your regiments, and so on. (It seems like most large merc organizations would use military structure because they're doing that job and because most of their personnel come from that background.)

On the one side of it a large mercenary corporation might be the size of a division; thousands of troops and logisitics and so on; on the other would be the "two men and a laptop" companies that bid on contracts and when they get on, have to go out and hire the staff. So how big the mercenary company is and the culture of the company is really going to determine how the game is set up.

If the company is small, you can get by with four basic roles:

The Leader
The Muscle
The Face
The Crazy Pilot

I'm just going to put my 2 in here:
From a military background you are best to have overlapping roles but the roles would be:
Communications
Leadership
Suppressive Fire
Precision Fire
Support (QM/Medics/Artillery/Magic(SR))

I would set up a squad with each person getting a standard equipment load (Assault Rifle, Basic First Aid, Rations, pup tent, personal kit, etc) and then give 1 guy (most likely the strongest) a LMG instead of an assault rifle, I would give everyone a basic comlink but one would have an enhanced comlink and have everyone slave to him (he/she could also fill the role of a drone rigger if needed but the main role would be comms), and I would probably give the sniper rifle to the mage (as I don't really want them in combat to start with being such a valuable asset). The squad leader would have the standard equipment load but may also take the role of comms (though not as a drone rigger as well) if it could speed up the issuing of commands. If the squad leader is also the comms guy I would have at least one backup comms guy that can take over if the squad leader suffers a bullet related death.

In a Merc group the key is overlapping roles as much as possible. The best person for the role is always the key person in that role but there should be at least 1 other person that can take their place if needed (keep your bus factor high). Don't get the idea in your head that someone will be there forever, as a US rifleman said to me once "Machine gunners don't die!"

Wow, the mage as the sniper is a really great concept. I had never considered that before, but it makes so much sense. Especially if the scope they use is an optical one.

Ah, Mojo, the Sniper-Mage...

I tend to think from a cost point of view and a mage is VERY expensive (training as a mage + training as a soldier) and as a commander I would never put my most valuable resources on the front line. Its why foot patrols are usually favoured over vehicle patrols (unless you can garuntee the vehicles will be staying on paved roads and not likely run over a mine).

Foot patrols are better for other reasons. Military at the sharp end doesn't give a damn about costs. For example, a FGM-148 Javelin costs about $80,000. They are mostly used to kill 'snipers'....

Oi Chums,

I'm sure it was mentioned somewhere in those posts but how independant is the unit? If operating far from Command & Control elements then a "Face" type for intel gathering and equipment aquisition would be pretty important role to fill.

I was intending the group to routinely be able to visit a quarter master at the headquarters prior to deploying for a mission, also as they earn money they can aquire their own firearms if they wish. There is potential that after they have run enough missions that they might get put into missions that require them to gather significant ammounts of intel and aquire additional equipment, however thats not how I intend it to be for the most part.

I would like to thank everyone for their input, I got a lot of good suggestions and advice.

I for one would say :

-1 leader.
-1 or 2 point men (scouts), preferably proficient in stealth / survival, possibly with silenced (actually the term is suppressed) weapons, like submachine guns.
-1 medic or first aid specialist (think ER orderly maybe, not brain surgeon).
-1 demolition / intel specialist, a tech whinie.
-1 or 2 SAWs, heavy support, such as light machine guns, maybe medium if they can handle it.
-1 comm guy (could be the intel spec).
-for the rest just use "regular" guys with assault rifles, preferably with underslung grenade launchers.

Use the standard makeup of a U.S. Marine company and adjust for magic and hacking/rigging, probably have them at a platoon level instead of a squad or fire-team level. Or, just add an extra platoon to the company and call it the Special Tactics platoon and add the mages, hackers, and riggers as Special Tactics squads that can be added to normal rifle platoons, just as is done with Heavy Weapon squads. Then, make your squad one of those Special Tactics squads with a squad or two of riflemen, grenadiers, and heavy weapons specialists to keep them alive. It makes your company a platoon heavy, and every platoon one squad heavy, Which, I guess actually ends up resembling an Army company more than a Marine company for the actual number of units, but the number of people still works if you use 3 man fire teams.

*shrugs*

So your company is:
3 Rifle platoons
1 Heavy Weapons platoon
1 Special Tactics platoon
+ support staff.

So, your platoon is:
3 Rifle Squads
1 Heavy Weapons Squad
1 Special Tactics Squad

Or, make a squad be:
3 Rifle teams
1 Heavy Weapons team
1 Special Tactics team

with 3 man teams, and keep the mortars and assault elements at platoon or company level. Giving you a 15 man squad to pad the number for NPC storyline (drama/action enhancing) deaths. I've run a few military/mercenary arcs and used this mix. YMMV. If you want a higher body count for extra drama raise the fire teams to 4 or even 5.

^^God, that sounds like an evil bureaucrat talking doesn't it?^^

Look here. This TOE will show you the unit makeup from a fire team to the whole Corps. Go half way down and look at "Ground Combat Elements."

@Tachi...

Unless the composition of a standard Marine Platoon has changed, your billets are a little off...

A standard platoon has 3-4 Squads (Depends upon T/O)...
Each Squad is 3 Teams of 4 plus a Squad Leader (13 Total)
Each Team has a Team Leader (M203), a MAchine Gunner (M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, LMG) and 2 Riflemen...

The Company is consisted of 3 Standard Platoons and a Weapons Platoon...
The Weapons Platoon has a 3-4 Sections/Squads (Depending upon T/O)
- A Mortar Section with 3 Guns (3 People each) and a Section Leader (10 People Total)
- A MAchine Gun Section with 6 GPMG (MMG) MachineGuns, Read M60's (2 People Each) and a Section leader (13 People Total)
- An Assault Section with 3 SMAW Teams (2-3 Men Each) to handle Assault and Demolitions (10 People Total)
When a 4th Section is added, it is usually an Assault Section...

For most Mercenary Campaigns, the Standard Marine Corps Squad Composition would work just fine... Indeed, everyone should be somewhat capable of First Aid, and have some skill in Intrusion... other skills to round out will always be appreciated (Parachute, SCUBA, Etc), as they will give you more options...

Mages/Drone Riggers/Hackers are Specialized Individuals that would be attached to the basic squad composition in most T/O.

Keep the Faith

Yeah, I know, I was fudging the numbers to try to fit in an extra platoon because I figured the hackers/riggers/mages would be best as a separate "Special Tactics" platoon that could be parceled out depending on mission. So you end up with a platoon with an extra squad of 'Special tactics" attached just like they'd have a weapons squad. It wasn't perfect, but It kept a squads total number about the same (16 instead of 13), though it increased the actual number of fireteams.

I had considered removing one rifle team from the squads and bumping it back to 4 man teams but that would raise a squad to 17 and I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that. Though, I guess if I'm already increasing a squad to 16, going to 17 isn't really a big deal is it?

I take it you think it would be better to have the hackers/riggers/mages people take rifleman slots? I realize every Marine is a rifleman, but thought it might be best to have them separate. *honestly curious, you're ex-mil right?*

Why would you put mages at the platoon level? Intelligence capabilities and other support units are rolled up to much higher levels.

Ideally you would also have your hacker/rigger at a higher level as well (along with medics, cooks, QMs, clerks, and even artillery). Most military charts do include attached assets (like communications) as part of their platoon level org charts (units that don't leave room for these attached assets usually don't last long as they tend to be highly inefficient).

I am indeed... Spent a lot of time on the ground...
Yes, All MArines are at the core Riflemen... but for special personnel, they would probably be attached as special assets (If needed), a mage here, a tech weenie there, a drone rigger on occasion... Most, if not all, Marine units are at heart ground pounders first then specialty second (with the exception of the Jet/Chopper Jockies)... even tankers and Artillerymen are trained as Infantry first... So you could make an argument for integration, but I would tend to stear away from that... they are much too valuable of an asset in my opinion, and generally occupy a much higher place in the T/O hierarchy.

I have seen augmented units over the years; I have seen enhanced Squads (with 4 teams as you indicated) and even reinforced platoons with an extra squad (when included with the extra team per squad, tha platoon becomes a true force to be reconed with); hell even reinforced companies with an extra platoon from time to time, though that isa pretty rare in my experience... they tend to just attach what is needed from higher levels when they are required, and they become the responsibility of the unit they are attached to...

As for the Mages/Riggers/Hackers, yes, I would probably attatch them as support specialists rather than build a whole squad out of them... it makes a whole lot more sense from the T/O perspective... Interestingly enough, every platoon in the Marine Corps has a medical corpsman attached to cover casualties. I see MAges/Riggers utilized in a simiolar fashion... in truth, I would see the Hacker as occupying the space for the Platoon Radioman, keeping tactical communications up and running, and providing the tactical coordination that is required for any efficient military unit... again, one per platoon, though like any good unit, there will always be a fallback if the primary is compromised in any fashion... as the primary radioman in my platoon, I had 2 alternates whom I kept trained and up to date, so that they could move into my position in case of injury or death... At least when I was in the Corps, it was an interesting situation, becasue the Radioman was the 3rd in Command of the Platoon as he had the majority of intel in an y gioven situation, behiond the Lieutenant and the Staff Sergeant... Which brings us to the other point I wanted to make, at least for the Corps... a Ground Pounder you may be, but everyone is trained to be able to take command if need be... and that is a powerful skill set in combat, if every one is capable of leading the unit in a time of crisis...

My 2 Nuyen...

Keep the Faith

You make good points, I may have to rewrite my notes for military/mercenary arcs.

Much Appreciated... Thanks

Keep the Faith

Exactly, every military unit at the battalion level and above on operations sprouts a sudden proliferation of odds and sods. Plus realistically on a battlefield the impact of 'counterspelling' is shite compared to 'divination' so you're going to want mages with commanders where you get to do both.

In a lot of cases, this is very true...

Keep the Faith

Yeah because it makes sense to group support teams together in peace time so they can benefit from scale then distribute them in war time to where they are needed.

Granted... No arguments from me... that is what attaching special units is all about after all... and even in peace time, they are occassionally attached to benefit from the individualized training that they can receive... it works out quite nicely in my opinion...

Keep the Faith

For a merc squad I disagree. Mercenary units unfortunately must always be organized as if they are at war and must always think of combined arms. The only exception for this rule is a merc unit that has organized itself to do a very specific task and is hired to only do that specific task. An example of this would be Blackwater which are specialized in escort and guard duties and don't carry heavy weapons because they are not needed.

We were discussing mercenary and military units, so I felt the comment was very relevant. I do note that blackwater groups together intelligence assets in a separate organization, so I also disagree with your remark about blackwater fully integrating its teams at all times because it doesn't.

See: Total Intelligence Solutions

This is also a very good point... the T/O of a unit will generally indicate the missions that it is capable of undertaking, regardless of whether it is a Military unit or Mercenary one...

Mercenary Units do tend to be structured more towards the combined arms end of things in a lot of ways, and this will probably have a direct impact upon how they structure their T/O anyways... Much Like a SEAL Team is structured differently than a Ranger Team or LRRP Team... each will be structured to their strengths, while minimizing their weaknesses...

Keep the Faith

There really are not any actual mercenary combat units that I'm aware of in the last decade or two, so on what evidence are you making this absolute statement?

In case it helps, I'm currently in a merc team campaign. We blow shit up. We don't do subtlety (it's a fun change of pace for us).

Core team consists of:
mage
rigger
physad (likes to snipe)
troll

part timers:
hacker
troll
mage

The hacker being only part time, is a problem. The other problem is that our only first aid is the heal spell.

Riggers/Deckers would be a more of a on-call personal since you don't always need them with you out in the field. And the Mojo slingers would also be on call for most outfits, except SEAL and small units that are operating behind enemy lines.

The most critical roles would be the general purpose foot slogger, they are the ones that the brass depend to get the job done. Dont see why that would change in the future either. A squad leader, corps men, and two or even three riflemen. Rifle men are great as they tend to be the most well rounded, not much they cant do. All a rifle man needs to expand his role is either a DMR modified weapon or grenade launcher. These days it seems that one rifle man at least has a extra gun with them for long range support, and with some of the new weapon systems now they just carry one gun with a extra receiver to make it a DMR like LWRC Saber to lighten the load and conceal there real role from the enemy. Riflemen are pretty much trained to be decent at most things like battlefield first aid, use of explosives and such.

So my list would be like this.

->Squad Leader w/ grenade launcher equipped rifle
->Corps Men
->Rifle Man
->Rifle Man
->Rifle Man w/ squad automatic weapon or DMR system

Not much out there that could present a to big of a challenge for such a team. And specialist could be attached on a per mission requirement bases.

->Sniper team (Two men, the shooter and the spotter.)
->Rigger (Seconds as electronics warfare specialist.)
->Hacker (Usually done from a remote location, but will come along if the place is off-grid.)
->Spell Slinger/Spirit Handler (I would see enlisted/comissioned spell slingers being more support roles instead of aggression roles, this is not always true as some magic can do shock and awe well but this would not be the case most of the time. Magical assets are expensive and rare, and a sniper is trained to pick out such assets above other targets.)

I'm going to make a huge assumption, and guess that the OP doesn't really want his squad doing standard marine type things. Storming beaches, CQB with a company providing security through the rest of the block. Because at that point 'rocks fall everybody dies' rapidly becomes 'BGs found out about you and call in an air/arty strike, one of you will probably die/get seriously hurt, roll full defence for diving into cover'. If that is what you want, a cog in a greater machine, then the trick is to out-source anything that isn't to do with pointing squad level weapons at the right person, in the right place at the right time (ie ARs, Grenade Launchers, L/MMGs, Rockets, basic comms/Tacnet, first aid or similar). Everything else is outsourced beyond the squad.

If, on the other hand, if what you want is more of a special forces team who operate away from that support network, what could previously be outsourced must be found in house.
Assume a team of 4-6 people, everybody is a specialist in one discipline: Leader, Pointman, Techie (Comms, EW, Rigger, Mechanic), Medic, Fire-support, Mage (less straight combat mage, more anti-magical threats). Everybody has basic skills across the other disciplines: everybody can stand up and lead/make tactical decisions if required; everybody can sneak/scout a little; everybody can use their own commlink/give basic instructions to drones/drive; everybody knows basic first aid and has medical supplies; everybody can use heavy weapons if required; yeah well keeping the mage alive seems to be important. Things like demolitions can be done by anybody, most of a SF squad should know how to put a bomb together, one should probably know enough to be-able to consider defusing them.

The pointman, medic, and fire-support are all 'squaddies' first and foremost, they're just sub-specialised into different fields. They're the meat of the team, take them away and its more fragile, add more and its more robust but has a larger footprint. A team like that doesn't fit into a neat organisation like squad->platoon->coy->bn where you mission is to take a town/guard a town with support just a short radio call away, but it works well for: we've heard rumours that the Enemy is moving forces through area Free-fire Zone; we need you to infil into the area, set up an OP and determine if this is true, you'll remain in the area once you have completed this for further tasking, also there is a communications line running along here, this is a target of oppurtunity - if you can you are to destroy it.

I know a former merc IRL (work with him). He is from Puerto Rico and served in Africa with a merc outfit from Europe. I was very curious and asked him a ton of questions that he tried not to answer. But, he was pretty forthcoming about his role of being the medic. He had some military medical training, but nothing on the professional level. He was simply the most qualified/experienced person available for the medic job, so it was assigned to him. He got a small bonus for filling the spot.

He told me that he spent most of his time helping out the native population in the area, who were living with basically zero medical support. He ended up also helping at least one village get some sort of pump running for a well. I asked him about patching up his fellow mercs, and he laughed and said "Yeah, I got so I could suture up four or five of our guys real quick." Seems that the mercs got into many more fistfights with one another than anything else.

He did say that when the company went out, he was armed (he signed up just to be a regular merc remember), but kept well clear of the action until things died down. He is pretty tight lipped about most of the details, but seems very honest. I had to basically interrogate him.
I got the idea that it did not pay well, and obviously the living conditions really sucked ass.

I imagine most smaller merc companies in Shadowrun would be just like this, and specialty positions would be filled by regular guys with some background, or sub-contracted out. I would guess that magic would be the exception, but the company rigger might just be the guy with the lowest rating Vehicle Control Rig because he raced motor-cross in high-school, and the company hacker could be that new kid who really wanted to be the ultimate haxxor growing up, but really isn't smart enough to roll with pros.

Let's just not forget that we are in 2070 or so, and the advent and generalization of skillwires.

If a corp is able and willing to use skillwires for mere menial workers at times, you can bet your ass that military units (mercs not so sure) could and would use it to "round" squads out with uncommon skills etc...

This is actually a horrible idea, as has been encountered by the distribution of special troops in the current US Army during the ongoing war (most notably Forward Observers and Medics) since it breaks up unit cohesion and means that these mages/riggers/hackers etc. will be being distributed to a unit they're not familiar with in exchange for being at a higher level.

Even in peacetime, you've gotta be with the unit you're most likely going to deploy with. It's better to be assigned to one platoon and have to be reassigned to a different one than to sit around on Battalion or Brigade staff living the good life until its time to get shot at.

That being said, I've often wondered what kinds of special assets would be at what level in the 6th world military forces... in fact, I'm gonna post a new thread about it lol.