Title: Mercs!

Subtitle: When murphy shows up and shit goes to hell

I like 'For Fun and Profit: [Issue]" best.

And yes, my recommendations were lame, but meh, I suck with names.

Also, Fields of Fire mentioned a number of merc-oriented game shows, aside from Desert Wars. One was The Big Hunt, where Mercs track down horrible awakened mutants. We could cover this too.

Also, might we want to establish an IRC channel for our project?

Perhaps some people didn't read this, I'm posting again.
hermit already gave me his feedback, waiting more opinions before writing the second one.


I think the last time I used IRC was, uh..., 97?
Does this thing still exists?

Yes. It's actually reasonably popular, even.

We might also want a facebook page; I'm not on facebook though, so I cannot set one up.

I can neither use facebook or IRC from work

They get really upset about stuff like that around here.

Damn it, my stupid firewall is blocking googledocs this week :/

Wow. That is one paranoid company. Facebook mainly for attention in the community though, not for author communication (it's a little lacking in the privacy department for that).

Does your firewall acccept one-click hosters?

Not sure
but they'd need to be SSL. I know that flickr, and those filesharing sites get blocked.

That kinda why I liked the webforum
it's not blocked.

shoot me your email and I'll just mail you the documents then.

You already have my email

Stupid me. Files are out.

Oh, IRC is very much alive. Many open source and free software developers hang out at freenode for example. Their IRC servers have seen a steady increase of traffic in the past decade: http://freenode.net/history.shtml Other big ones are IRCnet or Undernet. Also all your "bad" internet people warez groups, activists, hackers and so on usually have their own IRC infrastructure. Anonymous coordinates via IRC for example. The charm of it all, admittedly, is that IRC reminds one of the good old times before society discovered the internet and took from us. You know these _other_ people you occasionally meet on the net now.

[lurk]
It wouldn't be anything.ca in a seceded Québec. catco.pq, maybe.
[/lurk]

This is why I want French-speakers helping me out. =P

Quebec suffix would be .qc (they already use .qc.ca and similar suffix).
In French, PQ is the short for "papier-cul." That is, toilet paper.

In Québec PQ has been used as the postal province code (poste Québec?). You're right, something like .qc or even .que would be more likely.

ok, somebody tell me what to dicker is supposed to mean . .

argue, discuss, come to an understnading over.

ok, i did not know that.
i thought it would be to bicker or to dick around . . maybe to differ . .

This is cool! Watching a group trying to overcome the non-communication issue prevalent in earlier official books. Except now the writers don't speak the same language!

It is pretty amusing
we've got Germans, Brazillians, Americans, French..

Useful roleplaying books that can serve as a starting point or organizational framework:

Battletech Field Manual: Mercenaries Revised The original also has a much different "feel".
GURPS Mass Combat
Traveller: Star Mercs:
Merc: 2000 (pretty crappy ...)
Traveller Book 1: Mercenary

Yeah. But still miles above Recon! from Palladium.

GURPS: Special Ops is also nice to read.

-- Make sure you get the 3rd edition version of GURPS Special Ops revised by Hans, however. It's already been largely overtaken by events since it was revised, but it's much better than the earlier versions. Hopefully he gets the time to completely revamp it. Make sure to pick up his GURPS Tactical Shooting when it's released

I have the 3rd ed

For books on shooting, I am quite content with books from Mr Suarez and Mr Howe, though.

-- Shadowrun has never really done "big guns" right, see the mess that Fields of Fire ended up being - despite being more a "big guns catalog" than a sourcebook on mercenaries

Useful References:
Dunnigan, James. How to Make War, Fourth Edition (Harper, 2003)
Richelson, Jeffrey. The US Intelligence Community, Fifth Edition (Westview, 2007).
FM 3-06 Urban Operations
MCDP1 Warfighting
MCDP2 Intelligence

The Marine Corps Doctrinal Pubs are excellent for introducing military concepts. They are easy to read, avoid complex jargon, and have great quotations

Here's some stuff on the elevator:



As it sits right in the middle of the war zone, chances are it'll at least take some damage. Maybe Amazonia wants to destroy it out of principle, human hybris and all that? at least, Aztlan should spend a lot of force to establish a no-go zone around it and secure it massively against terrorism.

Also of note: The War! Rules errors/irritations thread.

Do we have someone who will build some vehicles for the book? I'd need some ideas realized and the last time I did a vehicle I used Rigger 2 ^^

-- I can probably do the vehicles. There's no real "design system" but creating internally consistent and logical military vehicles shouldn't be too hard.

Will do so later today.

We should open up a new thread to discuss the title of the overall netbook series.

Yes. In case we get the own subforum, can we then move all the relevant threads to there?

I wanted to let Megu know that we /will/ be working on South East Asia.. but assuming we can get South America out by march/April, we'll be trying to get SE Asia out by End of summer.

Abs and I are working on collating what we already have of Caracas areas, we'll be talking with Isinghar and any other locals we can get our grubby mitts on to finish fleshing out the area. I think we'll be able to capture the attitude of the wonderful people there and futurize it in a most appropriate manner.

So lets talk other issues.

Are we going to do a War! You sank my Battleship! edition
Or
Are we going to split parts of it in the SE Asia and Carribean issues.

Shouldn't be a problem.

I think the Seven Seas deserves its own issue, or at least a good portion of one. We're talking about operations in the Persian Gulf, South China Sea, Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico, and even underwater arcologies in the North Sea, near Japan, or in the Pacific.

We're going to have to think about how they deal with:

Exploding Drone with signal masking and ruthenium coating?

For about 3k I can make a drone that will self-detonate on impact, that will probably SINK a smaller combat vessel. I can use probably 5 or 6 to sink cruisers and destroyers. How do they deal against that?

What about Water Spirits.
Should probably leave off that kind of arguing till we can have multiple threads.

Hahaha! Layout threads for each issue would be a plus, yeah.

I'm on board this too. Doing vehicles using Gurps Vehicles rules is a hobby of mine (I know, I'm weird)...

Certainly better than to accept the lackluster stuff from War!.

Edited.

Hey Hermit
I know you're upset.. and I share.. but lets actually avoid criticizing specific authors in this thread

we're still hoping to get our forum/subforums.

Yeah, I'm working on getting some raw material up right now with regards to SE Asia. It's going to take a long time to do right and refine, so I think that timetable sounds good.

Here is the basic intro section I've got so far. I'll probably add at the very least a section talking about various hilltribes, a section talking about corporations' take on and influence over the situation, and a section on particular likely battlegrounds.

http://rapidshare.com/files/439705874/Indochina.pdf

With Regards to SE Asia..
We want to include stuff about China, Vietnam/Laos/Thailand/Burma
Sort of the "Land War in Asia" episode.

I think we'll keep Indonesia, Australia, etc.. as part of the "In the Navy" or "Pirates of the 7 Seas" stuff.

I've edited my very first post on the first page and put in the Issue 1 Outline, and the overall Issue ideas.

Also, i don't know if you know this yet:
Frank seemed interested in the SE Stuff too and more or less asked for you to visit over there.

they've been arguing about it (or were before xmas break)

ah, did not see that.

-- The military personnel in War! have rather ... odd equipment setups, even for top-tier military forces. Creating a rational framework for what stats and equipment are applicable is a good first start, despite it being a rather controversial subject
-- Note that combat troops will be carrying more stuff, but only game useful stuff is pointed out. Here's a stab at a start:

Military Friends and Foes
Combat personnel that PCs will encounter can run the gamut, from administrative personnel caught in the wrong place and time, to experienced special forces killing machines. The following provide guidelines for adversaries and possible allies that the gamemaster can tailor to his needs. These templates use the rules for grunts and lieutenants described on pp. 280-281, SR4A.

Infantryman (Professional Rating 4)
This soldier is representative of most second-tier military personnel. Cross-trained to perform many tasks with a least a modicum of skill, and honed by by extensive simsense simulations, even a relatively inexperienced squad is a potent adversary. Individual specialists will have 1-2 more points in specific skills.

B A R S C I L W Ess Init IP
4 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 6 6 1

Condition Monitor Boxes: 10
Skills: Athletics Skill group 3, Dodge (Ranged Combat +2) 2, Etiquette (Military +2) 2, Firearms Skill group 3, First Aid (Combat Wounds +2) 1, Gunnery 2, Heavy Weapons 3, Parachuting 1, Perception 2, Throwing Weapons (Lobbed +2) 1, Unarmed Combat 2.
Weapons: Ares Predator IV, two Fragmentation Grenades, HK G12A4m, Knife.
Gear: Biomonitor, Full Body Armor, Military Helmet, Medkit (Rating 3), Simrig.

Infantry Lieutenant: Most military units will employ experienced troops to lead their combat personnel, responsible for motivating and directing those under their command . The lieutenant also operates the centralized tacnet (p. 125, Unwired) for his unit.

B A R S C I L W Ess Init IP
4 5 4 3 3 4 3 4 6 8 1

Condition Monitor Boxes: 10
Skills: Athletics Skill group 3, Computer 2, Dodge (Ranged Combat +2) 2, Etiquette (Military +2) 4, Firearms Skill group 3, First Aid (Combat Wounds +2) 1, Leadership 3, Parachuting 1, Perception 2, Throwing Weapons (Lobbed +2) 1, Unarmed Combat 2.
Weapons: Ares Predator IV, two Fragmentation Grenades, HK G12A4m, Knife.
Gear: Biomonitor, Full Body Armor, Military Helmet, Medkit (Rating 3), Simrig.
Programs: Tacsoft 3.

Edit: Added simrig to gear loadout. 3 sensor channels is hard to pass up and pretty much required for Tacsofts.

I see no reason for Signal >6. Apart from health issues, and weight issues, it just makes no sense. The part where military links really make sense is Firewall, because you do not want to be hacked in war.

Infantrymen are well served with a link of maybe 5/3/5/8. Officers maybe 6/5/7/7. Specops 8/5/8/8. 9 and 10 should be limited to exoperimental stuff or real hardcore government hacker squads/elite terrorist/syndicate hackers.

tzeentch?
The setup you have..
This is for Hightech Ares,S&K, CAS, UCAS style military right?

Also, why does the LT run the tacnet for his unit.
Would it not make more sense, for the TacNet to be run Operation Wide.. from say.. Command Central?

that's the other thing.
TacNets 1-4 don't take into account the idea that you could have tacsoft running on 20,000 men and drones, coordinating over a 100 mile front.

I mean, is there such a thing as StratNet?

IIRC, you currently have one guy in the squad with the gear to call back to Command so you can call in fire support. Since you've got squads on patrol several miles out, having one dude with the Signal 6 commlink (or just the satlink, hurr) is still going to make sense.