Blood and Guts: questions and comments

[JPL]

Another fine product by Brother Vigilance. A few things I'm chewing on...

Q1. Looks to me like you could use a Special Forces Operations Sergeant class...prereqs would being checked out in all the other specialties [or maybe four of the five, and you pick up the fifth at first level], and rank Master Sergeant.

Q2. Were a few skills dropped along the way? Electronic Warfare, for one...maybe the Comm Sergeant prereq could be changed to Repair [8 ranks]?

Q3. Please clarify how the Teamwork feat works. The feat description says you must designate a specific unit, but the classes all say stuff like "Teamwork: U.S. Army." If each special unit requires a different Teamwork to get in the door, that could burn a lot of feats for the Ranger / Special Forces / Delta type guys. Then again, it's a pretty beefy feat in terms of benefits.

 

[Emiricol]

It's a good supplement, but I had the same question with Q3.

 

[Vigilance]

Q1: I like that idea and will consider it. There are some more BNG classes coming down the pipe from me soon (whatever that means- BNF II has been on the soon track for awhile now).

Q2: Doh! See what you mean. Electronic Warfare was folded into Communication Ops, with a feat to use it without a -4 penalty. I'd eliminate the skill ranks entirely and add the Electronic Warfare feat to the list.

Q3: It's not by unit, it should read branch of service. So Army is correct, and you would only need it once to work with Rangers, SF, and Delta.

Chuck

 

[JPL]

Groovy.

Another thing...for the classes with Jump School as a prereq, it might make sense to also make ranks in Paradrop a prereq. Technically, the current rules let you go to Jump School and become an Airborne Ranger...without actually learning how to jump.

Might throw in a Warrant Officer School feat, too. I believe all the A-Team executive officers are Warrant Officers who came up through the ranks [a switch from Vietnam, where they were 1st Lt.s]

Interesting...since Martial Arts Master has +1 BAB from first level on up, it's an excellent option for beefing up a BAB to qualify for the advanced classes. MOS's insure that the character can keep the ranks up on critical skills, and if you need some military feats, you can swap them in for your Martial Arts Master bonus feats. A fella could do a lot worse than take a couple of levels of Commando Training Master early on.

 

[Vigilance]

I dont disagree with that at all. My father was a WWII British Commando who killed more people with his knife and his hands than his gun.

Also, the best martial artist I ever personally met was at MacDill AFB in Florida, where he served as a HTH instructor.

Chuck

 

[Pagan priest]

Considering that the most "reasonable" path into the special forces would seem to be strong 3 / soldier X, and the soldier has a 3/4 BAB progression, I thought that the BAB requirements for the PrC's were a little high, compared to the level needed to get the skill ranks to the prereq ranks needed.

Also, somthing that I though was a rather significant error was the MRLS, which in real life fires large artillary rockets filled with 677 submunitions, dispersing over a .23 km square area, as opposed to a choice of anti-air or anti-armor missiles (as listed).

Still and all, worth the cover price. I'll be running a short campaign using the SEALs in the near future.

 

[Vigilance]

Actually, the fastest way into the special forces is straight Strong Hero until you hit the BAB requirement.

One of the purposes of the MOS feats is to broaden the skill range of the character, so usually Strong Hero is fine, in my experience of writing up NPCs for the game.

As for "most grievous error", that seems to be one of those things that if you ask 11 people you get 12 answers

The book is just shy of 100 pages, and I get email all the time, containing 1 sentence/sta that is in error, asking how I can sleep at night.

Mea culpa

Although I am an army brat and know more than I care to about some areas of military minutiae, I was not attempting to write an army technical manual at the expense of a good game, rather the opposite.

I could have researched a subject like this for 10 years, but I chose to research it for 2 months so I could write the game.

The book is as error-free as I could manage, but it is, like any game, far from error free.

Also, there were places where I delcined to make a new missile, because I didn't think a special operations book needed to be about missiles.

Lastly in some cases, I purposely "dumbed down" the lethality of certain military technologies so that they could be used without the GM furrowing his brow, grabbing his dice bag, going *roll roll roll*... "you're all dead".

So the technical deficiencies in the book run the gamut from a lack of time (which is definitely NOT just a Floyd song when you are a freelance writer), to pure dumb mistakes, to conscious rules decisions.

Chuck

 

[C. Baize]

Don't forget editing errors. Plenty of those in there, too.

 

[JPL]

Don't forget editing errors. Plenty of those in there, too.

Which will probably be corrected in time, as was done with "Blood and Fists."

Write 'em down, send 'em to Vig, and I'd wager he'll fix 'em.

 

[Pagan priest]

Actually, the fastest way into the special forces is straight Strong Hero until you hit the BAB requirement.

One of the purposes of the MOS feats is to broaden the skill range of the character, so usually Strong Hero is fine, in my experience of writing up NPCs for the game.

A difference in philosophy, I think of the base classes as something to get out of as soon as possible. It does cut down on the viability of multiclassing.

Also, there were places where I delcined to make a new missile, because I didn't think a special operations book needed to be about missiles.

And when you get down to it, is there really that big a difference between a missile that does 10d6 with a range incriment of 150 ft and one that does 11d6 with a range incriment of 160 ft?

Lastly in some cases, I purposely "dumbed down" the lethality of certain military technologies so that they could be used without the GM furrowing his brow, grabbing his dice bag, going *roll roll roll*... "you're all dead".

I like having my game books playable, even at some loss of reality.

So the technical deficiencies in the book run the gamut from a lack of time (which is definitely NOT just a Floyd song when you are a freelance writer), to pure dumb mistakes, to conscious rules decisions.

Hmm, which catagory does the lack of burst radii for various warheads fall into? I would guess that the non-inclusion of Special Forces Officer had more to do with time constraints and space limitations than anything else.