Quote:
Originally Posted by CDAT
This I think is one of the issues with my local group. Most of us are Veterans, but we can not make our skill sets accurately in the game. For example we have one of our guys who was an Airborne Combat Engineer, I started as a Tanker, but finished as EOD. We both have Demolitions training, but our skill sets are VERY different, EOD is the military subject matter experts in Demolitions, we spend a year in school learning about them, up to and including Nuclear weapons, but we do not clear minefields, drop bridges and stuff like that. Engineers (as much as they might like to say they can) can not disarm explosive devices safely. So if we were to try and make someone who mostly fit what we did, he could sort of do it (no real option for airborne if other than infantry). But I was left with the Support Arm, and it is just about useless to try and make any real life MOS skill set. So I guess what I am seeing is that most of the guys I know want to play something that looks at least somewhat like there experiences, this was even worse if you make someone not ground based (the Navy vets in our group none of them ever fired anything larger than a M14, or fixed stuff for there job, but get Heavy Weapons 2, and Mechanic 1).
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That’s why I prefer a points buy system for character creation. If you have a pool of points that you can spend on any skill set that at least partly addresses the sort of issues that you’re referring to, up to a point at least. Another option is the specialisations that they had in 2013 that allowed you to focus on a specific area.
WRT how much of an impact IG rank and OOC military experience have, personally I think this depends on each individual's gaming group and whether you’re playing face to face or playing by post online. Face to face I’d imagine it’s probably not an issue - everyone knows each other, presumably gets on with each other, and can read each other’s body language.
Online it’s not always like that. You’re bringing together a random group of people who may not all know each other at the start of the game, and while the GM can lay out his vision of the game, not everyone hears the same message. As I said earlier, when it's done well rank doesn't cause any problems. But when it's done badly - usually when one player thinks they are somehow entitled to tell other players what to do - it can wreck a game pretty quick. In general I don't think most gamers want to play a game where they're told what to do all the time. If people's perception of a military game (any game with a hierarchy really) is that that's what's going to happen then I think that's a barrier.