Special Forces team - composition?

[molonel]

I'm trying to design a 3 to 4 session adventure to introduce my gaming group. I'm shooting for a high coolness factor, where they will play special forces type characters - Navy Seals, Delta Force, miscellaneous black ops types - and I'm going to make a set of characters for them to choose from, and allow them to make certain changes to customize. That way, they can focus on playing the characters rather than worrying about design and crunchy mechanics.

At this point, I'm designing a 4-man team. I plan to make them:

- Heavy Gunner
- Combat Medic/Technician
- Tactical Leader
- Scout and/or demolitians expert

Any suggestions?

 

[Vigilance]

Not to toot my own horn, but you will find a lot of info in Blood and Guts on just this sort of campaign.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1891&

There are also supplements with information about terrorism and british special ops

Chuck

 

[FraserRonald]

At this point, I'm designing a 4-man team. I plan to make them:

- Heavy Gunner
- Combat Medic/Technician
- Tactical Leader
- Scout and/or demolitians expert

Any suggestions?

Well, CAG (the Combat Applications Group also known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta or Delta Force) does operate in 4-man patrols (like the UK's SAS) so you could have this as a single patrol, with each operator having a particular specialty. If you wanted to have them all from different teams, my suggestions would be

Heavy Gunner: Army Special Forces (Airborne) Weapons Sergeant
Combat Medic: Air Force Pararescue
Tactical Leader: CAG or SEAL
Scout: CAG or SEAL There is also a new addition to US Special Operations Command, a group called Marine Detachment One, which might fit the bill.

I hope that helps. Now, if you don't mind me pimping a little, Blood & Guts from RPG Objects has prestige classes to cover everything save Marine Detachment One (as it is a very new addition to USSOCOM) and the Force Recon PrC should fit that quite well. And--stand back, further pimpin' happening--if your players would happen to like to play characters from the UK, you might want to check out Blood & Guts: In Her Majesty's Service, which I wrote, available at RPG Now.

Okay, that's all the selling I'll be doing today. Have fun!

 

[molonel]

I don't mind plugs for your own material. I'm actually putting together a list, based on a previous post I put here, and your suggestions. So far, I have Blood and Fists, and Blood and Guts. If I'm running an American special forces game, do you have any other suggestions? I already have the Big Bang Guide to Firearms (Revised) and Quickshots: Mission Alpha.

 

[Vigilance]

I would also get the Modern Player's Companions by Stan! They are really great books.

 

[Garnfellow]

I'm trying to design a 3 to 4 session adventure to introduce my gaming group. I'm shooting for a high coolness factor, where they will play special forces type characters - Navy Seals, Delta Force, miscellaneous black ops types - and I'm going to make a set of characters for them to choose from, and allow them to make certain changes to customize. That way, they can focus on playing the characters rather than worrying about design and crunchy mechanics.

I've working on a similar adventure myself. Blood and Guts, as mentioned before, is an excellent resource. I also have found GURPS Special Ops to be invaluable for background information.

 

[Atridis]

IIRC, US Army Special Forces (a.k.a. Green Berets) are organized into twelve-man "A-Teams" (hence the name of the tv show, back in the day). Each has 3 soldiers slotted into four specialties: Communications, Intelligence, Weapons, and Combat Medicine. Each is also responsible for cross-training the other men in his unit, and so every soldier has some proficiency in every field.

If you're looking to create a fictional unit made up of personnel from different services, a la Rainbow Six, consider that many spec ops units have specific roles and detail-oriented skills. Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, Air Force para-jumpers, Delta Force, Marine Force Recon and the 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a.k.a. "the Nightstalkers") all do different things. Heck, some of the best commandos today are in law enforcement: The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and units such as LAPD and Miami-Dade SWAT are among the elite in close-quarters, small-unit, urban combat.

Head into any decent-sized bookstore, and you'll find a ton of books about contemporary special forces. There's Blackhawk Down, of course; Bravo-Two-Zero, about SAS "SCUD-hunters" during the first Gulf War; That Others May Live, about the USAF para-jumpers. There's even an Idiot's Guide to Special Operations Forces, or something like that.

 

[FraserRonald]

While an Army Special Forces Alpha Team is an excellent idea, the size is prohibitive--unless the GM wants 8 NPCs. Granted, SF could easily detach a 4-man team for a special mission.

A couple of other possibilities are a joint task force or the CIA Special Operations Group. Task Force 121 that was operating in Iraq (and is rumoured to be moving to Afghanistan to hunt bin Laden) is made up of CAG, SF, SEALs and others (I've even heard that there are a couple of SAS operators involved). The CIA SOG often uses military special operations personnel. Another option is something like the Intelligence Support Activity, which I haven't really seen any substantial information on, but sounds very similar to the CIA SOG but run out of DoD.

In any case, no more gaming books suggestions, but I just had a few ideas I wanted to share.

Take care.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

I don't mind plugs for your own material. I'm actually putting together a list, based on a previous post I put here, and your suggestions. So far, I have Blood and Fists, and Blood and Guts. If I'm running an American special forces game, do you have any other suggestions? I already have the Big Bang Guide to Firearms (Revised) and Quickshots: Mission Alpha.

Well, I'd suggest the other 4 volumes of Big Bang that have been released. They all cover different weapons with very few updates to material in previous volumes appearing in the later volumes.