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Originally Posted by 3catcircus
Yep - I'm familiar with Australia's military - specifically how in many cases everyone who is in a particular type of career track within the military may number in the single or low double digits and know each other. I especially like (at least in Navy), one can give two weeks' notice and leave for a different career. In the US, officers have a minimum obligation (and enlisted is one step removed from modern-day slavery).
I wonder if the v4 mechanics will support this type of situation - including forced conscription?
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The life path career generation factors in conscription without specifying 'forced' (I mean, you could argue that any conscription is forced inasmuch as it doesn't give the choice but I don't know if you mean something more extreme?)
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Originally Posted by Alpha Manual
THE DRAFT: If your final term before war breaks out was spent as a civilian, and if your character is not a local of the country where your game is set, your At War term will be spent as a draftee or volunteer in the military.
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It does give a degree of flexibility inasmuch as if you are playing a character who is a local of the country where your game is set you don't have to choose a military option for your At War Term (although presumably you can).
I haven't looked it up (I can't quickly lay my hands on my 2013 book) but it reminds me of the way the Last Year worked in that version.
I don't think it's explicitly stated in any of the Archetypes - you'd probably just have to choose a semi appropriate one (Gunner, Grunt, maybe Mechanic) and expand on it via your backstory, but that's narrative rather than mechanical.
WRT changing career, again I think Life Path will accommodate that mechanically, although if you use rules as written minimum term lengths will apply. So essentially your minimum time obligation is 1d6 (i.e. whatever you roll for that term. So you could spend a year as a military officer or six years dependent on what you roll). I suppose that's much the same as V2.2 and 2013, only the term lengths were fixed. (It's been years since I created a PC using v1 rules but from memory there was no game mechanic to cover how long you spent in a specific career field, it was narrative).
V4 Archetypes are again going to be down to what you decide as a backstory (I may have missed this, but I don't think the narratives even give a mechanical option - i.e. dice roll - to determine the character's age. It's entirely up to you.)