[Grimace]

I'm a non-veteran, but I've got a lot of friends who are veterans, some that are combat veterans. We played Twilight together, with me..the non-veteran, as the GM. Never had any problems with them trying to push an agenda. Though I tend to gather a whole lot of information from my military friends as well as from books, so I'm not quite as skewed as a GM who might only be periferally aware of stuff in the military.

My best friend used to play Twilight while in the Marines. Some other Marine ran the game. They used their real world military knowledge and altered things to fit what they knew to be true of the weapons and tactics rather than what was listed in the game. Thankfully when he played under me he didn't run roughshod over me and try to dictate how things "should" be. Then again, none of the other guys who had military experience or even combat experience really did that too much. A little, yes, but not too bad and not in an overbearing way. Maybe I lucked out.

I think the types of people who can cause problems are a veteran who may not have been in combat but has grandios ideas how awesome he would have been in combat gets into a game where the GM doesn't have very much knowledge about things and is just running the game as listed. I've seen those type of guys who think they're all badass but you eventually find out they never saw combat and don't really have a clue about how they would really handle it. I *know* I don't have any real, concrete feeling about what it's like in combat, but I've heard enough about it from people who actually HAVE seen combat to know that the blowhards who think they're all knowledgable and hot stuff in combat don't have any better idea than I do, but want to pretend they do. Put those people up against someone that might not be quite a military enthusiast and who might not have some basic knowledge gained by talking to combat vets, and you can have a military veteran run roughshod over the GM.

At the same time, though, I've seen military enthusiasts that want to think they know everything about combat as well. They can talk your ear off about the statistics of a weapon and the foot pounds of force of particular bullets, and the awesomeness of certain gear, but they don't know what it's like when a bullet whizzes by their ear and they realize the guy downrange wants to kill them. These guys think combat is clean and easy, just like the video/computer games and the "bestest" equipment will save them from anything. They just don't understand fear and hardship of combat and the randomness of being in the field with equipment. So these guys can equally run roughshod over a GM who doesn't understand things enough. If the GM is a combat veteran, he can put them in their place, but if it's just a typical GM who never went in the military and maybe only read about some stuff in a book, then the GM can get overwhelmed by these types of players just as easily as if it were "wanna-be" combat vets, cocky military vets, or overconfident military enthusiasts (basically, "gun nuts" or "gadget hounds").