PATROL is a RPG system in development, in which the players take the role of soldiers during the Vietnam War; it's basically complete and the developer was looking for some blind playtests, and I figured that's something I could do and people here would be interested in (it most closely reminds me of a somewhat heavier version of Einsteinean Roulette.)
Thematically, it's not a particularly cheerful game - perhaps unsurprisingly - as the fact that there is a mechanical representation of "the creeping feeling that the mission is bullshit and there is no victory to be had" illustrates fairly well. The squad will probably get up to some of the traditional wacky Vietnam hijinks; that said, I'll do my best to avoid grimderp and you should as well.
It's very likely that PCs will die - it's suggested in the rulebook that PnP players have multiple characters lined up - so there's good space for a waitlist; I'm looking for a half squad for now, five players, but if more people are interested you can sign up as replacements, or to expand the squad if it seems like I can handle it.
Since this is a test game, please ask any questions and make any comments you have; the final game will come in a rulebook designed for PnP play, so the forum adaptation may be slightly awkward (especially the stringing along of mechanics) but any input would still be helpful.
Sorry for the lack of detail in some places, but I can't post the rulebook and it's pretty big anyway; I'll write up mechanics and information as they become relevant, and keep a reference in the second post. You can always ask for clarification. More information will show up in the reserved posts when I find time to format it.
Welcome to the US Army, and congratulations on your assignment to _242nd Infantry Bd.___.
Please fill out personnel form K (attatched) according to instructions as well as standard TRE, and
file with local administration immediately for transfer.
Failure to answer truthfully and to the best of your abilities is a criminal offense.
Name, age, place and enlistment (volunteer, consript, National Guard) of origin to be
filled out as on enlistment form, or alongside note of update form if necessary.
MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) to be filled out as selected on TCF. All specialist training
and equipment issued per MOS must be noted as normal in appropriate sections below.
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MOS is essentially class as it appears in most games; each MOS begins with certain free skills and equipment in addition to the general issue, as well as one Perk which those of other MOS cannot ever gain - unlike skills and equipment. Available MOS are listed below.
I'll explain skills in more detail once the mission starts and you have opportunity to use them, but essentially - this game uses dice pools, in which a certain number of 6-sided dice are thrown, with 6s counting as 'successes' and 1s as 'failures.' You must get more 'successes' than the difficulty of a check, or than an opposed roll does, to succeed - and getting more 'failures' than 'successes' usually imposes extra harmful consequences regardless of the check result. Having a certain skill means that actions it applies to count both 5s and 6s as 'successes' - a big help.
Weapon skills always have a range attatched, which just indicates at which range band the skill applies.
Items you can start with are detailed in the set of spoilers in the next post (which may not yet be posted), but essentially they either help you on checks or let you do certain things. They also have a weight (very important) and an XP cost (you can spend XP to get new items after each mission.)
All MOS also get issued an Assault Rifle (or Battle Rifle for Marksmen).
Riemen are the bread and butter of the infantry and form the backbone of every Squad. Riemen don’t have any fancy equipment or special duties, so they can focus all their efforts on the important things; digging holes and killing the enemy.
Whether with an assault rie or a battle rie, Riemen provide general security for your operations. They make a good MOS for new players still learning the ropes, characters who want to focus on leading the team, or for NPC squadmembers. Riemen are generalists, so they beneft from an even mix of all their Attributes. As consummate team players, Riemen are well-suited to the Pragmatic alignment, and can spend their XP on more or less any skill or equipment to esh out the team.
Generalist: Riemen add +1 to all their Attributes after they have been set, and reduce the XP
cost of increasing Attributes by 1.
Skills: Assault Rie (Close), Battle Rie (Close),
Equipment: Tactical Vest
The Radio Telephone Operator, or RTO, has the vital job of carrying, maintaining and using the team’s radios, their only link back to the rest of the Army. Through their radio, the RTO can request air and artillery support, reinforcements, extraction by helicopter, and keep Command updated.The RTO is easily capable of being the most lethal member of the party, as they are responsible for
coordinating the supporting fre that gives the US military such an edge. Players who like playing powerful magic-users in other roleplaying games will enjoy playing the RTO; they spend their batteries like mana to call down destructive powers from the heavens. Being an RTO is a very intellectual and technical job, so they generally lean hard on Vigilance. Their default equipment and the batteries to run it can be very heavy and they tend not to be the strongest physically, so RTOs should spend their XP on Skills instead of more heavy gear.
Frquency Jockey: Radio Telephone Operators have the unique ability to perform Adjust Frequency
Actions as Free Actions, as well as one Negotiate Actions with friendlies over the radio per turn.
Skills: Electronics, Forward Air Controller, Forward Observer
Equipment: Portable Radio Telephone
In Vietnam, the standard light machine-gun used by US forces was the M60, known affectionately as the Pig. Thus, the men who carried it were Pigmen. The Pigman is tasked with keeping the enemy pinned in place while the rest of their section manoeuvres, and represents a disproportionate amount of the Squad’s lethal power. In a frefght, the Pigman can lay down as much frepower as two or three other soldiers, pinning the enemy in place with ease. He is the toughest and most lethal shooter on the team in a straightforward package, akin to a barbarian or warlord in a fantasy RPG. The Pigman needs to carry both a very heavy weapon and a lot of ammo for it, so is reliant on Fortitude, though a Profciency Pigman can be very lethal. Because of their Perk, they sort of inevitably get tasked with carrying all the spare odds and ends for the team.
Brawn: As long as they are under their Weight Limit, Pigmen count Weight above 40 as 40 for the
purposes of their Movement Speed (that is to say, aren't slowed down additionally.
Skills: Light Machine Gun (Medium)
Equipment: Light Machine Gun, Bipod
The Vietnam War saw extensive use of personal grenade launchers, valued for their ability to project the lethal power of explosives long distances in infantry-scale combat. These weapons became so common they effectively replaced the light mortars of earlier conicts. Grenadiers provide a lot of utility to the team, offering many different possible paths for escaping a situation using their wide variety of explosives. If you like the puzzle-solving aspect of RPG combat, the Grenadier is probably for you. Grenadiers are often the heaviest hitter on a highly mobile team, so they need good Profciency to safely land their explosives and good Fortitude to carry them. As your grenade launcher is very heavy, but you can quickly burn your ammo for it, fnding a good backup weapon is vital, so you can still contribute to fghts that don’t warrant high explosives.
Ordnance Appropriation: Grenadiers are allowed to Police any variety of Grenade as a free
action as many times as they like during their Turn.
Skills: Grenade Launcher (Medium)
Equipment: Flashbang Grenade, Grenade Launcher, Bandoleer
War in the jungle required an entirely different kind of soldier, unfamiliar to the line infantry of past wars. Point men are the soldiers who range ahead of the patrol, being the frst to encounter the enemy. These men must be hunters, survivors and killers without equal, stalking the jungle as predators. Point is a position with a lot of responsibility. It’s on you to sniff out traps and ambushes, and to turn the tables on the enemy. If there’s a tunnel, you’re probably going into it. You’ll often be working alone and ahead of the Squad. If you like playing rogues and assassins in other RPGs, take Point. Your Vigilance is your single most important attribute, but you need a good mix to stay competitive. You aren’t going to be standing up and fghting, so you need to be able to evade, ambush and sneak. Don’t rely too much on fancy equipment; invest in Skills and upgrading your Attributes, and run as light as you can.
Hunter: The Point can make Observe Actions targeting the tracks of other units to determine
facts about the unit that left them.
Skills: Stealth, Detect Trap, Observation, Equipment: Machete
The Marksman is responsible for long-range, direct fre combat, serving as the squad’s observer and assassin. It is their job to identify and kill members of the enemy force who pose a particular threat, such as offcers, weapon crews, and, in
many cases, other snipers. Marksmen are the characters most likely to score a kill whenever they shoot, but at the same time they are simply unable to survive a stand-up fght. A good Marksman needs to be both a team player and have an understanding of when they are outclassed.
Marksmen live and die on their Profciency; no other stat truly matters for them. Vigilance will allow them to spot targets from farther away, but Fortitude will allow them to carry vital supplies, backup weapons, or maybe even a heavy anti-tank rie, but none of that matters as much as hitting every shot they take.
Force Multiplier: If a Marksman is undetected by their target when they make a Precision Fire
action, they get one automatic Success.
Skills: Battle Rie (Long), Bolt Action Rie (Medium, Long)
Equipment: Telescopic Sight
Flamethrowers, frst used in the First World War, are terrifying weapons, both to use and to have used on you. Though easily capable of working an enemy out of a fortifed position, either by roasting them alive or convincing them to run before that could happen, the Vietnam War was the last major deployment of these weapons; they were becoming increasingly obsolete, not to mention a PR nightmare.
Of all the MOS, the Firebug is both the riskiest, and the one with the potential to personally cause the most havoc. If you are here to burn things and kill people and you don’t really care for anything nuanced or complicated, the Firebug is your dream job.
Firebugs don’t need a lot of Profciency to do their job, but they’ll need Fortitude to carry those big fuel tanks, especially because they’ll need to ditch their backpacks. They are a good match for the Righteous alignment.
Controlled Burn: When rolling damage for any incendiary weapons, Firebugs can choose one
struck target and roll three damage dice for them, using only the highest result.
Skills: Flamethrower (Close), Pyromania
Equipment: Flamethrower, Backpack Fuel Tank
In modern warfare, the rie is actually quite far removed from the primary lethal instrument of the infantry. No, the job of the rie is to provide security for the heavy-hitters; mortars, recoilless cannons, rocket tubes, tripod machine-guns, infrared missiles and other, more bizarre foot-mobile artillery. The soldiers who command these weapons are Gunners.
The tools gunners use are complicated and diverse; but all of them are heavy and awkward. Gunners, more than any other characters, are reliant on other characters or NPCs carrying and setting up gear for them. As a result, they are not well suited
for Special Forces type games.
Gunners need Profciency above all else. They can have their friends carry their gear and watch out for them, but when they fnally fre, they must hit their targets.
Weapon Mastery: Before the start of their Mission, the Gunner can select any one of the following
weapons and two Weapon Skills related to it; Heavy Machine Gun, Mortar, Small Recoilless Rie,
Automatic Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, or Anti-Air Missile Tube. They will receive both
the weapon and the associated skill for the duration of the mission.
Skills : Observation
Equipment: Flare Gun
Wars are won or lost on intelligence, and the Intel MOS represents the front line of this battle of the minds. They are tasked with collecting vital data and disrupting enemy attempts to do the same. Some of them are formal intelligence specialists, some simply the designated soldier in the platoon responsible for prisoners and important papers, and a few may even be serving
two masters, working in secret for the CIA or other classifed organizations.
The Intel MOS is a natural ft for dedicated roleplayers, as your primary weapon is your mind, your skills and your charisma. They are also a good pick for leaders, if your group has that kind of dynamic. Intel soldiers will need a high Vigilance and a
wide variety of skills, as they’ll be the public face of the party. Because they don’t need much equipment for their job, they are free to carry the tools needed to fll in missing combat roles as well.
Likeable: Intel characters are naturally disarming. They can use Negotiate Actions for the
specifc purpose of gaining somebody’s trust. Unless they subsequently betray their trust or
hurt them, they get 1 Automatic Success whenever they Negotiate or Interrogate that person,.
Skills: Diplomacy
Equipment: Phrasebook, Camera, Hallucinogenics are -1 XP
The Medic is a soldier trained in emergency medicine. The Medic monitors the health of the team, treats the wounded, and helps sick locals where they can. In the modern age, all Medics are armed, even if it is just to protect their patients.
As a Medic, the team will rely on you a lot to keep them alive and fghting, and will need to protect you, so if you want to feel important the Medic is a good MOS. They serve the same role as clerics and healers in other RPGs, and if you are wary about the game’s subject matter, the Medic lets you push back directly against the grim atmosphere.
Medics need both the smarts to treat their patients, and the strength to move them, so it can be a good idea to dump Profciency entirely. As their job involves helping their teammates, civilians, and sometimes even enemy soldiers, they are a natural ft for the Idealistic alignment.
Stabilization: When a Medic uses a Treat Injury action on a target, regardless of it is was a
success, the target can roll 3 dice and pick the highest for their next Ongoing Damage roll.
Skills: Trauma Care, Medicine Equipment: Medical Kit, Opiates are free
A military involves a massive effort in logistics, construction, transportation and management, and the tip of that spear is the combat engineer. Tasked with building and destroying in equal measure, the combat engineer has the training both for the relatively safe use of destructive device and the can-do attitude to rebuild what war so reliably destroys.
In PATROL, Engineers are the consummate defensive class. They make their most dramatic mark on combat before it begins, laying and removing mines, digging trenches, cutting down trees, laying wire and disguising their positions. If
you like preparation and careful planning, you should consider the Engineer. After combat begins, however, Engineers tend to
fade into the background. A good engineer doesn’t need much Profciency, because they’ll have made their presence felt before shots are fred.
Get it Done: Engineers automatically score double successes for Prepare Position and Modify
Position Checks, and grant +1 automatic Successes to everyone else in the Unit making those
checks at the same time.
Skills: Repair, Drive (Utility Car, Truck, Bulldozer), Defuse
Equipment: Tool Kit, Wirecutters, Traps and Demolition Charges as Free
Alignment should be recorded as determined previously. If you are uncertain of alignment profile,
consult the BMS for the standard 9-point metaphysical evaluation (Personnel form P)
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Your character's alignment is a general description of what they believe in; it's not a complete picture, but a general guide. It also determines how your character gains Victory Points on missions, besides completing objectives. VPs represent not actual victory but the sense of it, of having agency, security, morality within their part of the War; they counteract Fatigue [mental] accumulated during missions, and any excess becomes XP for character customisation.
Most soldiers are probably Pragmatic, but as Main Characters you're expected to be more diverse.
Idealistic - Devoted to All
Idealistic characters are morally upstanding, conscientious people. They hate war, have little desire to hurt anyone, and would rather help the locals where they can. They are the bleeding hearts and fools who endanger the squad with their sentiment.
Pragmatic - Devoted to Friends
Pragmatic characters just want to do their job and go home. They fight because they have orders to and because they want to protect their friends. They are the uneager, soft followers who are losing us this war.
Righteous - Devoted to Cause
Righteous characters believe in the Cause and will die to advance it. They fight because they believe the war is just, God is on their side, and their enemies are monsters. They are the idiotic blowhards who are squandering everything we have built.
Egocentric - Devoted to Self
Egocentric characters want to survive and get ahead by any means necessary. They only look out for themselves and work with the squad only to increase their odds. They are the backstabbing sociopaths that make things miserable for everyone.
Attributes should be recorded as determined in the TCE (consult the Personnel Office if you are
uncertain). Soldiers with any scores below '5' or a total score above '24' should contact the
Personnel Office for evaluation.
Attributes apply to all sorts of things in PATROL, from dice pool size to sight distance and weight capacity; there are 3 - Fortiude, Vigilance, and Proficiency. You can divide 24 (or less) points between the three, but no attribute score may be below 5.
Fortitude - Physical Conditioning
Represents your general level of physical fitness. Fortitude affects how much you gear you can carry and how fast you can move, and is also used for checks that require physical exertion, such as melee combat or preparing a position.
Vigilance - Mental Alertness
Represents your situational awareness, your intelligence, and your charisma. Vigilance is used to detect hidden things, and likewise to hide yourself, for negotiating with civilians, the enemy and your own bureaucracy, and for the use of electronics.
Proficiency - Technical Prowess
Represents your familiarity and skill with the methods of modern warfare, both in its technical and tactical aspects. Profciency is used for making attacks with frearms, heavy weapons and grenades, and for driving vehicles and operating machinery.
One thing to note is that your Fortitude + 10 is your Weight Limit; carrying any weight above it slows you down beyond its normal effects and causes Exhaustion status effects. You should be sure that either your starting gear is below that point, at least ignoring gear you're willing to discard (Flak Vests and Field Jackets are popular ones.) For reference, the weight of the General Issue gear + a rifle is 25, not counting MOS gear and anything else you buy, but your Webbing Belt doubles the effect of your Fortitude on WL and your Military Pack increases it by 12. It matters that those are separate in case they get lost or damaged.
Note all training certifications passed, both in Basic and Specialist training as well as based on
in-service experience.
As mentioned, Skills increase the number of success possibilities on each die, therefore making you actually likely to pass checks and making dice pool size relavent. Each soldier starts with some standard skills (below), as well as some extras based on their MOS and whatever others they buy with their starting XP. Skills are detailed in the next post, to be put up as soon as I get them formatted in plaintext.
Standard skills:
Assault Rifle (Medium)
Battle Rifle (Medium)
Guard
Grenade (Frag)
Prepare Position
Basic Medical
Note all notable General-Issue and specialist equipment assigned to you, even if it has not been
issued, as well as any notable personal equipment or other notable equipment acquired in duty.
Equipment inventory should be updated whenever possible in off-duty time.
Items, as noted above, have certain weight and XP costs. After missions, any 0XP items can be exchanged freely, and others bought for XP. You can also discard items whenever you want, to reduce your carried weight or for other reasons - but you have to pay the XP cost to get another.
Characters may also swap equipment acquired by one of them freely, to avoid weight limits or for other reasons. You also cannot carry more than your Weight Limit in items between missions; you can pick up items during missions, or start with more weight by buying items, but after each mission is done you must pick items to discard to get back down to the Weight Limit. It's a mobile war and the characters don't have permanent posts or vehicles; you can only truly own the things you carry.
One thing to note is that your Fortitude + 10 is your Weight Limit; carrying any weight above it slows you down beyond its normal effects and causes Exhaustion status effects. You should be sure that either your starting gear is below that point, at least ignoring gear you're willing to discard (Flak Vests and Field Jackets are popular ones.) For reference, the weight of the General Issue gear + a rifle is 25, not counting MOS gear and anything else you buy, but your Webbing Belt doubles the effect of your Fortitude on WL and your Military Pack increases it by 12. It matters that those are separate in case they get lost or damaged.
The items listed here are only the ones from the rulebook; it's expected that everyone has various little things, notably an accurate map, compass, and watch, but most items are ignored mechanically. All items will be detailed in the next post.
Any nonstandard skills or equipment, or other updates to form K, should be completed as frequently
as possible.
Each character also begins with 12 XP, which can be used to improve attributes, get new skills or equipment, or simply banked for later use.
It costs 3 XP to learn a new skill, and the XP cost of equipment is detailed in its profile in the equipment list. The cost of raising attributes depends on the current attribute score:
| Attribute XP; | Cost for +1 |
| <9 | 1 |
| 9-12 | 2 |
| 13-16 | 3 |
| 17+ | 4 |
Name:
Age:
Rank: Private
Outfit: 242nd Infantry Brigade
MOS:
Origin: (place and either Volunteer, Conscript, National Guard)
Alignment: (Idealistic, Pragmatic, Righteous, or Egocentric)
VP:
Long-Term Fatigue:
XP:
Fortitude: Effective/Base (same at this point)
Vigilance: Effective/Base
Proficiency: Effective/Base
Weight: Current/Capacity
Skills:
- Assault Rifle (Medium)
- Battle Rifle (Medium)
- Guard
- Grenade (Frag)
- Prepare Position
- Basic Medical
Equipment:
x1 Fatigues (US Army) - WT 2
x1 Footwear - WT 2, prevents move-speed penalty
x1 Steel Helmet - WT 2, prevents penalty to defense against explosives
x1 Field Jacket - WT 2, protects from Exhaustion effects of cold weather
x1 Flak Vest - WT 4, 1/6 chance of negating an injury from weapons fire
x1 Poncho - WT 1, reduces Doubt effects of bad weather by 1
x1 Webbing Belt - double Fortitude's contribution for Carrying Capacity
x1 Military Pack - +12 Carrying Capacity
x1 Entrenching Tool - WT 2, +3 to Prepare Position, Reinforce Position, Set Trap, +2 to Melee
x1 Flashlight - At night, when activated: removes darkness-based stealth on targets within 10m, removes own stealth entirely, can send signals 1000m)
x1 First Aid Kit - Consume to use a Treat Injury action
x1 Gas Mask
x1 Knife - WT 1, +5 to Melee, +2 Injury dealt in melee combat
x1 Dog Tags
x1 Assault Rifle - WT 3, Capable of Suppressive (+3) and Precision (+3) fire at all ranges.
Status: (I swear I will explain this later)
| F | E | T | H | A | I | D |
| 0 | | | | | | |
| 1 | _ | | _ | _ | | _ |
| 2 | _ | | _ | _ | | _ |
| 3 | _ | _ | _ | _ | | _ |
| 4 | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| 5 | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| 6 | _ | _ | _ | X | _ | _ |
| 7 | _ | X | _ | X | _ | _ |
| 8 | X | X | X | X | X | _ |
Incomplete characters or questions are welcome.
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