Military Experience

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by weswood

I've thought about trying to get together the people here in Texas for a game. There's several of us on the board, but the logistics would be prohibitive. Right now I couldn't afford a trip to San Antonio for a couple days.

You don't want to come right now anyway; it's already hot and drippingly-humid.

[Graebarde]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'm curious as to why T2K appeals to vets- especially combat vets- when it can only ever beel a pale approximation of the real military experience.

I spent most of 11 years in the Army, cira 68-79, the first five in infantry with tours to the SEA War games, and my second tour due but was abruptly sent to Korea with 135 other grunts at the Overseas Replacement Station. It was out of the frying pan into the fire too.. as we did have combat one night against infiltrators.

Anyways, why would a vet want to play T2K? For me it was a release.. call it therapy for lack of a better terminology. I ALWAYS approached the game from a perspective of playing out scenarios that could TEACH the younger guy. ie. basic tactic can be passed on, IF the person is receptive. I tried to never come on too strong, unless of course you have an idgit that will NOT listen to advise and then whines when he gets to build up another character while the game goes on around him, only to loose that character in the next encounter.. some guys NEVER learn. T2K is a game of SURVIVAL. I had a hard-core HoG when I first played, yet managed to survive for ten years with the same character in his campaigns around Poland.

The ONLY guys that bothered me were the ones that had absolutely NO idea what it entailed to be SOF and wanted to play an operator, AND be a COLONEL as well, because that's what he rolled up of course, and it IS only a game.. (same guy that kept getting killed... think his record was five in one session). But to his credit, he FINALLY did 'settle down' and some wisdom seemed to seep into his cranium.

What I enjoy is creating character's, realistic characters, with detailed backgrounds... which is much more useful in PBeM than FtF I might add.

T2K is a stess release, and teaching medium for me. At least I hope SOMEBODY learns something useful from it.

Grae

[weswood]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

You don't want to come right now anyway; it's already hot and drippingly-humid.

I'm 30 miles east of Houston, on the bay and surrounded by rivers and swamp. I know about the heat and humidity. I was talking to a coworker yesterday, bitching about the heat. I asked him, "John, we've both lived here more than 30 years. Why are we still griping about it?"

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by weswood

I'm 30 miles east of Houston, on the bay and surrounded by rivers and swamp. I know about the heat and humidity. I was talking to a coworker yesterday, bitching about the heat. I asked him, "John, we've both lived here more than 30 years. Why are we still griping about it?"

Isn't bitching part of the essential nature of humanity? In the military they actually teach you to be on the lookout for a soldier that never complains -- it's a sign that something's really wrong with them.

[jester]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Isn't bitching part of the essential nature of humanity? In the military they actually teach you to be on the lookout for a soldier that never complains -- it's a sign that something's really wrong with them.

Like the old saying is,

"Don't worry when they are bitching. Worry when they stop bitching."

[weswood]

This is true. Hmmm, maybe I should mess with my co-workers by NOT bitching

[Mock26]

I am a military enthusiast with 6 1/2 weeks of military service. Yep. You read that right, 6 1/2 weeks. I joined the United States Marine Corps in early 1990 and headed off to Parris Island in May of that year. Halfway through basic training one of my drill instructors saw me behind my bunk with my hand pressed against my stomach and he ordered me off to sick call the next day. From there I was sent off to the hospital for further tests and they came back positive for ulcers. USMC policy is an automatic discharge if you develop an ulcer within 180 days of enlistment (or at least it was back then, do not know about it today). Unfortunately by the time I was fully clear of ulcers my life had changed enough that re-enlisting was not at the top of my list. Oh well, such is life. At least I can look myself in the mirror and say with truth that I did not quit. And looking back upon it I can say that I enjoyed my time in Basic quite a bit.

There were two bright points with my discharge. The first was after the doctor gave me the news. The doctor was a psychiatrist and when he told me I was being sent home I actually started to cry, so he left me alone in the office for a few minutes. He did not shut the door all the way and some dumb-ass drill instructor happened by, saw me crying, and decided to be a dick. So he started in on me being a cry baby. I turned around, stared him right in the eye, and then started to smile. He was about to go off on me for staring him in the eye when he realized why I was smiling. The doctor, a major, had come up behind him! That was a dressing down that I will never forget as long as I live or until dementia sets in!

The other bright point was watching one of my drill instructors, Drill Instructor Sergeant Cathey, punch in the door of his wall locker and here him mutter about losing a "top recruit" while being unable to get rid of a "lazy f**ker" who did not want to be there.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Mock26

The other bright point was watching one of my drill instructors, Drill Instructor Sergeant Cathey, punch in the door of his wall locker and here him mutter about losing a "top recruit" while being unable to get rid of a "lazy f**ker" who did not want to be there.

The military is full of those -- f***kups who do just well enough to not get kicked out, while there are others that go balls to the walls and sometimes have their good ideas not work out, to their detriment, usually because of the aforementioned f***kups.

[B.T.]

I've opted for "other", because I was a conscript in a "high readiness unit" (But to be fair - you cannot compare 80ies Bundeswehr to military organisations that were really meant to fight!) of the Bundeswehr, studied history with a strong emphasis on military history, and have a quite good knowledge about military issues of the 80ies to 90ies.

In my own group I am the only GM. We have two other guys, that served with the Bundeswehr: one was a reserves officer candidate in the "Jäger" branch, the other one was a member of the signaling korps.

No one in the party has combat experiences!

The "military" persons sometimes are a really pain in the @5$3 - "The standard procedure would be ..." - "This is not realistic!" - "A PfC would never say that to a commanding officer!" and so forth.

I think, T2k is escapist entertainment. If someone has military experience, he can bring in valid information. But, in my point of view, it was never meant to be a precise simulation of actual fighting!

Whenever a party plays a fantasy RPG, no one would argue: "You have never met a dragon/elve/orc/god, so you can't say, what a dragon/elve/orc/god would do!" But in T2k the two "soldiers" always try to come up in such a way.

When my ongoing adventure is over, I'll try to minimize the player groups size and get rid of the people with military experience!

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by rcaf_777

Just wonder what I would classed as

And yes I know I am a REMF however say what you well, just remember the coffee and sticky buns in the headquarters RULE, and Fridays is steak night, enjoy the rations and mud.......

What would you be classed as? Lucky SOB?

LOL

No seriously, would never dream of calling a fire mission on headquarters because I'm tired of their smart ass atitude!

[dragoon500ly]

Most fun I've had in T2K was playing a game during an admin halt, one of the Spec4s tried the "My character has max strength and I'm going to run in sand, loaded down with my M203 with a dozen mags and 30rds 40mm, and I'm carrying the M240, 600 rounds of link, and the platoon radio, while wearing NVGs....

The downside of playing T2K with a bunch of NCOs was that we really did make him load up with all that shit and show us how well he could do in RL!!!!

[bobcat]

combat vet myself. served in iraq as an FO with tenth mountain. funs times were had. too bad i couldn't get a game going there.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Most fun I've had in T2K was playing a game during an admin halt, one of the Spec4s tried the "My character has max strength and I'm going to run in sand, loaded down with my M203 with a dozen mags and 30rds 40mm, and I'm carrying the M240, 600 rounds of link, and the platoon radio, while wearing NVGs....

The downside of playing T2K with a bunch of NCOs was that we really did make him load up with all that shit and show us how well he could do in RL!!!!

It sounds like Poetic justice...lol

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Most fun I've had in T2K was playing a game during an admin halt, one of the Spec4s tried the "My character has max strength and I'm going to run in sand, loaded down with my M203 with a dozen mags and 30rds 40mm, and I'm carrying the M240, 600 rounds of link, and the platoon radio, while wearing NVGs....

The downside of playing T2K with a bunch of NCOs was that we really did make him load up with all that shit and show us how well he could do in RL!!!!

drop the 40mm, the M240, the radio(thank god), and the running and throw a can of 5.56 linked into my ruck to make up for it and i've done it.(though me and the 240 gunner were looking for something, nay ANYTHING to unload a few belts at)

[Panther Al]

If you want a good laugh and you have a guy who recently screwed up, have him pull the tracers out of the 7.62 link prior to tank gunnery, all eleven thousand rounds of it. Having both done it and had my idiot driver do it, I can tell ya its good for a laugh (or something).

[Targan]

Bumping this to give new members the opportunity to contribute.

[qwerty1971]

19 year army lifer with time spent in infantry and MI with 333 months in iraq. i just love rpgs ever since i rolled my first dice in D&D. I do not play much anymore due to work and 4 kids, but i still collect the stuff. i loved t2k when i first saw it in the mid 90s. it is not perfect, but has enough baseline where you can add stuff on your own and make it fit.