ChalkLine's Desiderata

[ChalkLine]

What changes have you made to your game?

I went for a radical change to a more lethal system, but I also noted a few things that I personally didn't like too much about the standard game:
(Please note the following is simply personal preference)

- An over emphasis on special forces by many players.
I think this is frankly because players know 'skills = survival' and playing a spec ops gets you those skills.
To change this I just gave out a skill total that was the same for everyone and players got to choose whatever skills they liked within reason. I also made it clear that after four years alive in world war three the PCs were now as skilled as any special forces operator even if they were a lowly private in an infantry section.

- The ranks seem too high.
I've been in many a game where there are multiple colonels and sergeant majors. It just seemed silly even with the rapid advancement.
The campaigns I ran we did without rank tables and just had nearly everyone a private, one or two corporals and a sergeant plus one LT. This actually had a strange development where the privates became the main social group.

Typing this out I suddenly realised that I may have been heavily influenced by movies like Cross of Iron and Kelly's Heroes.