Anyone with some RL experience of the military out there?

[S'mon]

My military experience is limited to a couple years defending England in the Territorial Army Reserve, so I'll not comment on skills except to agree that for green troops physical fitness is emphasised, along with ability to service & maintain one's rifle, and drill to obey orders unquestioningly, more than rifle accuracy. We got quite a lot of training in simple squad tactics like Bounding Overwatch and assaulting through a position (assumed that attacker will have 3:1 superiority, of course IRL this is often not the case - in the Falklands War 3000 Paras & Marines unsupported by artillery or air power attacked & defeated 8000 Argentine conscripts in entrenched positions. Weapons drill was geared much more to ensuring that guns remained serviceable and that we'd point & fire them in the right direction, it seemed to me - volume of fire more than accuracy. Combat training was almost always at night, so Blind-Fighting feat might be appropriate?

Re levels - this will depend on general NPC level distribution for your game, eg in Traveller20 the 'average' NPC is 6th level. I use (adapted from Traveller: The New Era):

Novice/Conscript: 1st
Trained: 2nd
Experienced: 3rd
Veteran: 4th
Elite: 5th
(Major Heroes/Villains: 6th+)

This is the level of the 1st 50% of the unit. 25% 1 level higher, 12.5% 2 levels, 6.25% 3 levels, etc. So at the very top of the scale, an Elite SAS Company of 100 men would have something like 50 5th, 25 6th, 12 7th, 6 8th, 3 9th, 2 10th, 1 11th, 1 12th.

 

[Aries_Omega]

Soldiers

If it's about Cavalry...no...not horses...they go to pieces around land mines. If it's about Cavalry I can help you. I served in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and later I was a Cavalry Instructor. I taught both driving and dismounted (read...on your feet) recon. I can tell you generally we are lighter on the dismount (since most heavy scouts are on M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles (use google to find out more) or on HUMVEE's) and actually carry a great deal of ammo, water and rations since we are far away from anyone that can resupply us. Also we tend to do more things at night. Not that we sleep all day and are up all night but at times in my personal experiance it seems we stop and hold an area during the day and move at night more.

On a note of things I noticed about my fellow 19D's. Most scouts are people watchers in some way. Most of us look around and in minutes figure out things quickly. A good number of us are info junkies and either watch lots of CNN, History Channel and Discovery Channel or read voraciously. Also most of us see VERY well at night. No..really...I am not kidding. I noticed that I do see color a bit duller then others but black, white and gray are more vibrant. I asked my doctor about that and he told me that the human eye has two types of cells, one called rods the other called cones and one senses color and the other is for night sight and most of the scouts he saw had more of one then the other hence why most of us see well in the dark.

I dunno if any of this is helpful but ask away at whatever you want to know and I will help you the best I can on it.

Aries

"Brave Rifles, Blood and Steel, Aaieeyah!"

 

[Turanil]

Okay, it appears that Blind Fight feat is a must, at least for commando types. Speaking of this I would ask something, because in relation to d20 Future. Here, the Helix Warrior prestige class (thus a soldier) are genetically improved, thus get Darkvision 60 ft. at 2nd level. While reading it, I thought it was utterly stupid, and that in the future we can expect to have glasses enabling to see well in the dark as part of mundane equipment. Now, it happens that in RL, military types can already have access to such kind of equipment. Or I am mistaken (I tend to read too many gaming books it seems ). So if that's so, would there be a reason to prefer having the natural ability to see in darkness (especially if it wastes a feat) rather than special equipment?

Otherwise, in response to another post: I consider that basic people will average the 3rd level. I have gone with the idea (where my NPCs threads are concerned) that Green Troops are 2nd level ordinaries, while Veterans are 4th level ordinaries. Now, maybe there is a better world to use than Veteran, that I wanted to equate with "experienced", while not being "commando" (characters of 6th to 10th level).

 

[The Black Kestrel]

No Fast levels? I figured, since they use guns and spend a lot of time crawling from bush to bush hiding...

Actaully you'd be suprised how little stealth training for infantry is emphasized. It's more tactics and weapon skills.

Do you mean armored cavalry, or old-style cavalry? Tough is a good choice precisely because of the Ride skill

I was thinking modern Armored or Dismounted Cav. Aries Omega makes a couple of good points in his post.

Yeah, I know it's somewhat metagaming, but based on my research, tactical training is considered a lot more important than inspiring your soldiers (and leadership in the army meant tactics and communications, I believe).

Yeah half my reason was the Plan Talent as well, the other being the requirement for a 4-year degree be to be a commisioned office in the US Army.

Aries Omega,

I was in the 2nd ACR. Toujours Pret!

 

[S'mon]

Otherwise, in response to another post: I consider that basic people will average the 3rd level. I have gone with the idea (where my NPCs threads are concerned) that Green Troops are 2nd level ordinaries, while Veterans are 4th level ordinaries. Now, maybe there is a better world to use than Veteran, that I wanted to equate with "experienced", while not being "commando" (characters of 6th to 10th level).

I personally wouldn't make every Royal Marine Commando or US Special Forces trooper level 6+, mostly 'cos of the iterative attacks are a pain. But if the typical NPC level in your game is 3rd (rather than, say, D&D's 1st), then that might be reasonable - like I said, in Traveller20's it's 6th, which seems needlessly high to me (and makes generation & combat a pain). For classes, infantry would be all or mostly Strong & Tough I'd think. Officers might have Charismatic. Some support roles might see Dedicated & Smart characters. Fast I think would be very rare, as noted. Even Special Forces emphasise endurance abilities (Tough) over gun-fu style antics - in war the environment is often the greatest enemy; but Fast levels might be appropriate for elite anti-terrorist units like Delta Force & British SAS where training emphasises clearing buildings extremely quickly while minimising civilian casualties.

 

[Turanil]

Ah, even in my D&D game I put average people as 3rd level. In any d20 game (I would do likewise with T20) I propose this:

--1st lvl. : young adult (starting age of PCs) or whimp.
--2nd lvl. : average 20-25 years old NPC, or older lazy people with no incentive or necessity to gain more experience in their field.
--3rd lvl.: average 25-40+ years old NPC, with reasonable experience in their field.
--4th / 5th lvl. : people who stand out, more ambitious, more serious about their job, etc. The master crafstman, the military officer, etc. fall into this category.
--6th and above lvl. : exceptional people.

IMO commandos are okay at 6th lvl., but since I also got a 10th level commando NPC for my thread, I just labelled it an "elite commando". They would indeed remain rare, but would be nonetheless interesting to use occasionally for high level heroic adventures. After all, this is what this thread is for: providing the much various kinds of NPCs so the DM may have something to pick up in most situations. Only special villains cannot be covered (they usually fit in a specific campaign), however their lieutnants can be contributed. These two threads are not there just for low level commoners and ordinaries!

FANTASY - D&D: Interested in a bunch of free NPCs ready to use? Get and contribute!:
D&D 3.5 / 100 NPCs Thread.

SCIENCE FICTION: Interested in a bunch of free NPCs ready to use? Get and contribute!:
D20 Mod-Future / 100 NPCs Thread.

 

[Salcor]

Definately a good idea making military NPCS, but I would Highly recommend to do this that you pick up the Blood and Guts products. They provide the best way to make military members. A good place to start is the PDF product soldiers. It provides basic advanced classes that will lead to the other prestige classes provided in the base Blood and Guts book.
I, myself, and a helicopter pilot for the United States Air Force (and a commissioned officer). At on point I tried to make myself as a D20 Modern character, and I could barely make myself 3rd level, with 3 occupations. (I like the occupations, but I do find the a little limited). Anyway, I agree what has been said here. Todays officers get training in Tactics, Strategy, communication, law (what is legal in war), and ethics. Although how good the officer is at is how much they payed attention in class. For pilots I would suggest 4th level as a minimum level, just do to the level of training.
Once again I suggest to get the blood and guts soldiers pdf product. I only have two gripes with it, one is that the specialist class (your logistic, comm, etc) doesn't have class skills listed (told Chuck about this already), and the other is that the airman class is very focused to combat aircraft, when the majority of pilots in the US military are transport pilots of one type or another. I would recommend changing Air Superiority ability to Defensive manuevers bonus (adds to the aircrafts defense). I have some other ideas, but I have to work them out a little more.


Salcor

 

[Turanil]

Well, I have bought enough stuff for quite some time, so no more product anytime soon.

However, I would be glad if you could make one or two NPCs of pilots. They could be really useful to PCs that must fly somewhere but don't know how to pilot.

Otherwise I will keep your advice and make them 4th to 6th level.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Okay, it appears that Blind Fight feat is a must, at least for commando types. Speaking of this I would ask something, because in relation to d20 Future. Here, the Helix Warrior prestige class (thus a soldier) are genetically improved, thus get Darkvision 60 ft. at 2nd level. While reading it, I thought it was utterly stupid, and that in the future we can expect to have glasses enabling to see well in the dark as part of mundane equipment. Now, it happens that in RL, military types can already have access to such kind of equipment. Or I am mistaken (I tend to read too many gaming books it seems ). So if that's so, would there be a reason to prefer having the natural ability to see in darkness (especially if it wastes a feat) rather than special equipment?

Nightvision goggles inflict a -4 penalty to Spot due to the reduced visual area.

Otherwise, in response to another post: I consider that basic people will average the 3rd level. I have gone with the idea (where my NPCs threads are concerned) that Green Troops are 2nd level ordinaries, while Veterans are 4th level ordinaries. Now, maybe there is a better world to use than Veteran, that I wanted to equate with "experienced", while not being "commando" (characters of 6th to 10th level).

I think in D20 Modern they assume the average NPC is 2nd-level, but 3rd to 4th-level isn't particularly unusual. (Eg security guard, 2nd-level. El Al security guard, 4th-level.)

my experience is this,
your green soldier's physical sklls (climb, jump) will be higher than their shooting/fighting skills. A green, will probably have endurance before weapon focus.

your typical butterball (2nd lt.) will have a higher administration-like, knowledge history (military), and physical skills, than tactical knowledge.

In short, new soldiers are usually just strong then/and tough
Veteran lifers are more likely to be dedicated/charismatic than strong/tough
offiers try to tend toward charismatic, but tend toward smart/dedicated
NCOs keep on with tough, but usually add in some dedicated/charismatic

I need to change the regular soldiers, then, but I don't think Tough fits the commandos. They already have Endurance and, honestly, aren't any tougher if you shoot them. (The trouble for their enemy, of course, is shooting them. Commandos try to use surprise, naturally.)

Actaully you'd be suprised how little stealth training for infantry is emphasized. It's more tactics and weapon skills.

That Toronto Star article got it wrong, then.

Could I get three questions answered:

Is Tumble an appropriate skill for parachuting?

Officers - really Charismatic? Everything I read about training suggests the opposite. Are any of you here officers? That would clear this up fast, I believe.

What sort of armor? Light-duty vest? Tactical vest?

 

[S'mon]

Officers - really Charismatic? Everything I read about training suggests the opposite. Are any of you here officers? That would clear this up fast, I believe.

Certainly in the British army* many of the officers and some of the NCOs I've met seemed highly Charismatic. They have an undefinable 'thing' about them that makes you want to follow them into battle/over the top/on other foolhardy venture. Not everybody in the modern military has this of course, but I'd expect that successful officers in combat arms especially often will (and I was in Signals, a support arm where you'd expect to find more pen-pusher types, I saw very few).

*US may be different, there seems less of a gap between officers & other ranks, although officers tend to be better educated, they may not inculcate the same mystique. I did know online one guy in the US who definitely had that mystique though, I think he was an officer in the US Coast Guard!