WWII, Vietnam or Korean war starting equip/weap and careers?

[TyCaine]

Does anyone have WWII, Vietnam or Korean war starting equipment / weapons lists and careers?

My group is looking for a change in setting, and rather than looking at another apocalyptic setting we're looking at either WWII, Vietnam or Korean war settings.

Can anyone help me out or point in the right direction?


T.C.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I'd personally go with Vietnam for a few reasons that basically come down to more modern technology and the ability to have some spooky encounters in the dark, misty jungle - and I don't mean supernatural in that sense but I'm thinking of the PsyWar Op "Wandering Soul" http://www.psywarrior.com/wanderingsoul.html

There was a location in the Ia Drang/Chu Pong area called by the Vietnamese, the Forest of Screaming Souls. It's mentioned in “The Sorrow of War” by Bao Ninh, there were many North Vietnamese/Viet Cong troops killed in the forest and it was believed that because their bodies had not been properly buried, their souls haunted the jungle. The book is a must read if you want to see the war from the other side. I think you can get the book on Google Play and from Amazon for Kindle and so on, there's a review of the book here http://www.independent.ie/entertainm...-26327792.html

Then there's the story of the strange radio transmission believed to have been from a French GCMA unit (mobile commando forces) hiding out in Vietnam that was received by US forces when they were fighting in Vietnam... about 10 years after the French had supposedly left.
There used to be a page about it at http://www.alliedcoldwarvets.com/GCMA.html but the domain has lapsed.
This website has some information from the dead website, http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=2291
You’ll have to go down to a comment by Cannoneer No. 4 dated November 4th, 2009 at 19:42 It’s about two thirds down from the top of the page and the text is in italics.

Here's a list of equipment used in the Vietnam War that includes infantry weapons, vehicles and aircraft: -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon...he_Vietnam_War

Another MASSIVE benefit you have if you set the game in Vietnam, is that you have people on this forum who had relatives serving in that war but better yet, you have veterans of that war on this forum as well.

[unkated]

Korean War site: http://www.koreanwaronline.com/arms/arms.htm

Has weaponry for both sides. A lot of this equipment is described in the T2K Infantry Weapons and Heavy Weapons books.

WW2... LOTS of possible sides, and lots of possible equipment. And, again, lots of the weapons are available in the T2K Infantry Weapons Guides.

Other equipment, you can find descriptions of a lot of items (search for WW2 Equipment Infantry <nation>)

I'd suggest limiting to an area, and limit yourself to those combatants. (For example "Stalingrad" and look for German and Russian equipment, or "Philippines" and look for re-War US and Japanese equipment...

Uncle Ted

[LT. Ox]

By the way The Setting (Viet Nam) has one or two very good things going for it, as far as gaming goes, and that is size or make that scope.
You can avoid the heavy mechanized mass unit actions and while snipers were out and about in the other arenas Viet Nam was the place the teachers of our modern units learned their stuff. Pretty much the same for Special Ops, Special forces and Seals.
Small unit Actions were the norm so that makes it a bit nicer to scale into your table top war ground.

Just my two cents

[rcaf_777]

Check out the RECON RPG Books I have the Deluxe Revised RECON. Its a Vietnam RPG. The Deluxe Revised RECON has lots of information on the setting, equipment units ect. Thier is also a few Merc Adventure too.

[TyCaine]

Thank you everyone so much! I'll take a look at all the sources mentioned.

The weapons lists can be matched against what's in the Infantry Weapons guide, and the same for many of the vehicles, so I should be able to pen some lists together of what's available similar to the Twilight lists...

One thing I was wondering (bearing in mind I haven't had the chance to review all those links yet) is whether there are any 'standard issue equipment' lists available? For Twilight you have a standard kit each person will have at the start of the game, plus whatever you can purchase, just wondering how I would go about figuring such a list out for the different eras, and does anyone know (from direct experience or from stories they've heard) what the likelihood of the soldiers in any of the eras being able to buy their own kit would be, and should it be figured out similar to Twilight era or not?

In Twilight the players can also purchase stills, vehicles and so on, in the more regimented eras of WWII, Korea or Vietnam I can't see how that would work, certainly not for the bigger stuff, but what do you all think?

[LT. Ox]

laugh and I am not gonna share
Sorry that was kinda stupid ...but fun.
Would you like a list of what a US Army enlisted man received on?
1.) Arrival at Basic training
2.) Advanced individual training or AIT
3.) Jump school
4.) Ranger school
5.) Officers Training School
6.) Jungle school
7.) In country
8.) Separation
The various schools added little to what was the normal issue and I did not have experience with any other schools of any duration other than listed. Things like CBR (Chemical biological and Radiological) Riot training etc. were not deemed sufficient to issue and gear for other than class room work or field exercise.
As I was an Officer I can say the individual weapons were allowed with Co (Commanding Officer) permission this often had to go as high as Brigade. I carried a Browning Auto 12 that had been reworked by one of our armorers. I know of others that would get a different side arm as many personnel of that period distrusted the Issue 1911 unless heavily reworked.
I know that enlisted personnel were to carry only that which they were authorized, that was commonly over looked by officer in the field same with ammo loads. You carried what you thought you would need and most guys I know started heavy and sorted down after a short period of time.

Well let me know what ye want I am here a lot and do not mind laying it on.

[TyCaine]

Thanks for the offer, and the details! it's greatly appreciated!

I think what I'm looking for is basic kit for initial deployment, the group is planning on playing a (mostly) fresh squad who are just now in country, they haven't had the experience yet of what they should or should not try and carry.

They will mostly have just their basic issue equipment with little additional purchased (though based upon ranks, and I intend to have one or two with a little more experience, or at least a little more time in the military, I may consider a few additional weapons or pieces of kit, nothing huge).

I intend to talk through training a little to build up stories of how some have become friends (or enemies) and how the unit has bonded together, to help with the character generation but the actual game start will be as they arrive in country with their standard issue kit.

If anyone knows how such kit would differentiate between the services (and i understand it would mostly be the same, or equivalent, just looking for anything that might be included for some), and also if anyone knows how such kit would differentiate between WWII, Korea and Vietnam that would be better yet.

Did that make sense?

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by LT. Ox

laugh and I am not gonna share
Sorry that was kinda stupid ...but fun.
Would you like a list of what a US Army enlisted man received on?
1.) Arrival at Basic training
2.) Advanced individual training or AIT
3.) Jump school
4.) Ranger school
5.) Officers Training School
6.) Jungle school
7.) In country
8.) Separation

Can I get that

[LT. Ox]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

Can I get that

Let me have until this time tomorrow.
It will take that long for my pre-dementia mind to drag out the memories.

Really I have a letter somewhere that I sent my Mom while in OCS (Officer Candidates School) and learned I would get a three hundred dollar one time allotment for Uniforms and equipment.

[TyCaine]

No rush, as far as I'm concerned, will be glad with whatever you can provide!

Thanks in advance!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

In regards to US characters for a Vietnam setting, there's a good list of suitable basic equipment that was done for The Morrow Project RPG.
The main page for the site I'm sourcing these from can be found here: - http://www.thesupplybunker.net/morrow.htm
Note: A lot of the information on the site is done up as either plain text docs or pdfs.
The specific ones for a Vietnam setting are as follows but you might have to check when some things became available as they weren't issued until late -70s e.g. the PRC-68 radio: -
1970s-80s US basic webbing list http://www.thesupplybunker.net/pdf/s...975_-_1988.pdf
1970s-80s era US military radios
http://www.thesupplybunker.net/Morrow/radio.txt

[alexei]

I've done several WW2 and Vietnam campaigns so I will try to attach some of the gear info I use.

The Word docs are US WW2 equipment info. I use excel spreadsheets for my character sheets and equipment lists. I pulled gear sheets for US and German WW2 out and put them in one file. I also included the inventory sheets I use for US WW2, German WW2, and Vietnam because those might have extra items. There is also a Soviet inventory sheet that I used when I created an OPFOR sniper and commissar for a Stalingrad campaign, but Russian gear info is hard to find so I don't have much for that.

The US equipment weights are in pounds and ounces. The German and Soviet info is in kilos.

I use the 2013 system for weapons. I don't know if any of that would benefit you, so I left it out. I pretty much use standard 2013 character generation, but I reduce the education requirement to enter the military and rads don't apply. Some skills (like Computer) don't really apply in WW2 either.

For my US WW2 campaigns I usually follow the after action report for whatever unit I am portraying. German WW2 is tougher because I have less detailed info.

For Vietnam I use fictional units, but most of the USMC command chronologies (AAR) are available online. I just used Google maps when planning out the missions and firebase locations. I recently found the 1:50,000 maps (circa 1965) online, so I will be using those next time.

I have quite a bit of historical background and TO&E info, so if any of that would interest you let me know.

[LT. Ox]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5yMla0D83A this is filmed at Fort Ord Cal.
it was shot one week before I entered Service In September of 1966 I took my first Eight weeks at Fort Lewis but later had AIT at Ord and still later was an instructor there.

[TyCaine]

Thanks so much, everyone, for the information!

I'm digging through it now!

[Ancestor]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

Check out the RECON RPG Books I have the Deluxe Revised RECON. Its a Vietnam RPG. The Deluxe Revised RECON has lots of information on the setting, equipment units ect. Thier is also a few Merc Adventure too.

I ran a RECON game back in high school (much of my campaign was based on the movie Platoon, the TV show Tour of Duty, and several of the 80's Vietnam Memoir books such as Chickenhawk-aka incredibly cliche!).

I do remember they had a random encounter table. I was hurting for material so I took the chance...and against all odds the dice rolll brought my PC LRRP into direct contact with an entire NVA Regiment! Fun times!

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Ancestor

... against all odds the dice rolll brought my PC LRRP into direct contact with an entire NVA Regiment! Fun times!

Wouldn't be the first time - look up Battle of Long Tan.
Same sort of overwhelming odds were faced by Australians in the opening stages (and pretty much the entire following campaign) of the fighting along the Kokoda track in New Guinea in 1942. Note this (and at Milne bay around the same time) was the first time anyone had managed to halt the Japanese advance anywhere, and was done by Australians, and Australians alone.

[Ancestor]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Wouldn't be the first time - look up Battle of Long Tan.
Same sort of overwhelming odds were faced by Australians in the opening stages (and pretty much the entire following campaign) of the fighting along the Kokoda track in New Guinea in 1942. Note this (and at Milne bay around the same time) was the first time anyone had managed to halt the Japanese advance anywhere, and was done by Australians, and Australians alone.

I will! Thanks for the reference as I love military history and have a personal connection to that theatre. My late grandfather jumped into New Guinea to fight the Japanese. He only talked about it with me once in his life. He spoke very highly of your countrymen! After I joined the Army he gave me the blanket that he bought during that campaign. The tag says "Australia 1943" and I've taken it with me whenever I've deployed throughout my military career.

[Legbreaker]

I've got a sort of personal connection with Long Tan myself. Our battalion padre was an infantryman in 12 platoon, D Coy. Barely 4'10" (less than minimum height actually, but somehow still managed to enlist), covered in tattoos and swore enough for any ten other soldiers. Found god about 15 years later and never looked back. Great man like all the Vietnam vets I served with.

Kokoda would make for a great Twilight style campaign. Initially the Australian forces were just a handful of inadequately trained militia (39th Battalion) but were reinforced by veterans of the middle east, hurriedly recalled and thrown into action. Facing them were 10,000 of Japans finest.

The withdrawal over the Owen Stanley ranges was beyond hellish with everything you can think of conspiring against them - terrain, weather, disease, starvation, lack of ammunition, no air or artillery support, and barely any automatic weapons (at least in the hands of the 39th). Still, they fought the Japanese to a standstill then pushed them back all the way to the northern coast of New Guinea at Buna and Gona.

They didn't stop there though even though they'd suffered appalling casualties and virtually every man was suffering malaria (it was a point of honour that no man would report sick unless their fever was over 40 degrees C (103F). They kept fighting until the Japanese positions, which had resisted the American forces pitted against them (in some cases the American soldiers had flat out refused to advance), were completely eliminated.