Recon (appearing later as RECON) is a role-playing game wherein players assume the

role of U.S. military characters during the Vietnam War. It originally started as
more of a wargame with role-playing elements, like Behind Enemy Lines and Twilight
2000, and gradually evolved into a full role-playing game.

Contents
1 Editions
1.1 Original Recon
1.2 The Revised RECON
1.2.1 Advanced RECON
1.3 Deluxe Revised RECON
2 References
3 External links
Editions
Original Recon
The first edition was written by Joe F. Martin and published by RPG, Inc. in 1982
as a 44-page book.[2] A 44-page digest-sized second edition packaged with a
referee's screen was published in 1983 by RPG, Inc.[2] This edition introduced the
idea of easily created and disposable characters. Like Dungeons and Dragons, the
Mission Director (the referee or Game Master) used a Random Encounters table to
generate terrain and villages, create groups of adversaries for the players to
fight, obstacles to overcome, or problems to solve. Combat was resolved using
miniatures rules.

Recon is a mildly controversial modern military system of jungle combat in the

Vietnam war. The rules cover character creation, skills, recon teams, missions,
recruiting and debriefing, hand-to-hand combat, small arms and heavy weapons, and
terrain generation.[2]

San Succi (1982) was a map pack. It detailed a 16-block area in 1:72 scale for use
with 20mm or 25mm lead figures. It also contained a guide to the buildings on the
map, a Non-Player Character (NPC) generating system, and a vehicular combat system
(called ROADKILL).

Sayaret / Track Commander (1982) � was a supplement set during the Arab-Israeli
Wars (1967 to 1983). Players could generate Israeli soldier characters that could
operate as a commando detachment or a tank crew. It allowed the Mission Director to
run Israeli commando raids or tank battles.

The Haiphong H.A.L.O.: SOG Operations in North Vietnam (1983) - The first adventure
campaign, involved missions behind enemy lines in North Vietnam. It expanded
roleplay to include Army Special Forces, Navy SEAL, and Marine Force Recon commando
characters and detailed real-world airborne, sea, and amphibious insertion
techniques. Missions included reconnaissance, raiding, sabotage, assassination /
ambush, prisoner snatching, and search and rescue.

Hearts & Minds (1983) � The second adventure campaign, involved a cadre training
mission in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Characters are part of a Special
Forces "A" Team sent to train a group of Montagnard tribesmen into a fighting
force. They have to win the tribespeople over, protect them from reprisals, and
secure their area of operations. It included a random-generation tunnel complex
table.

Headhunters Ltd. (1984) - A variant contemporary adventure campaign where the

characters play veteran mercenaries working for the eponymous Mercenary Force. It
was announced in the gaming press but was probably never released before RPG Inc.
went out of business.
Platoon 20 RECON - A line of 20mm (1:72 Scale) lead figures for use with RECON.
They came 5 figures per set. They included the Vietnam-era American Army (Infantry,
Special Forces and Recondos), ARVN troops, Nung and Montagnard mercenaries, VC Main
Force and NVA troops. There were also Israeli troops and PLO terrorists for use
with Sayaret / Track Commander.

The Revised RECON

The Revised RECON
Revised RECON RPG 1986.jpg
Front cover of The Revised RECON,
illustrated by Kevin Siembieda
Designer(s) Erick Wujcik, Kevin Siembieda, Matthew Balent, Maryann Siembieda
Publisher(s) Palladium Books
Publication date June 1986 (1st edition)
April 1999 (Revised edition)
Years active 1986�present
Genre(s) Wargaming
Language(s) English
Website palladiumbooks.com
The Revised Recon was designed by Erick Wujcik and published by Palladium Books in
1986 as a 152-page book.[2] Wujcik's Revised Recon (1987) revamped the tactical
miniatures game Recon (1982) by Joe F. Martin; Wujcik needed to figure out how to
turn miniatures warfare into an RPG, and finally settled on focusing the game on
ambushes.[3] Because of its origins, Revised Recon was the only other Palladium
game aside from Valley of the Pharaohs (1983) that did not use Palladium's house
system.[3] Recon received just one further book, Advanced Recon (1987), which
involved a commando campaign set in 1960s Laos.[3]

The Revised Recon was a complete revision and expansion of this modern military
system, with rules rewritten for compatibility with the standard Palladium Books
game system.[2] It includes a fully illustrated hardware section, rules for playing
mercenaries, and several scenarios, plus guidelines for interfacing Recon
characters with other Palladium game systems.[2]

The second edition, Revised RECON, was released June 1986 by Palladium Books. Many
of the basic rules were kept the same, but author Erick Wujcik made an attempt to
"balance" them. This was achieved by reducing elements of chance or luck. For
instance, rather than randomizing the number of skills a character had, one could
select a number of skills based on his class. Another significant change was the
concept of a "minimum" skill level for weapon proficiencies. These were originally
decided by rolling percentile dice, which meant that a character could
theoretically have a skill level anywhere from 1 (meaning that he was a very poor
shot) to 100. However, in the revised edition, a low roll could be "bumped" up to
whatever the minimum skill level was for that particular weapon (usually 20�30).
Also notable in the revised edition was the substantial amount of information it
provided about equipment and vehicles. Whereas RPG Inc.'s version had only limited
information regarding guns, the Palladium edition had pages of gun statistics as
well as detailed descriptions of aircraft, seacraft and vehicles.

The new edition focused more on the fictional RECON world, which used OPFOR-type
nicknames for major nations. Countries included "Stateside", "Big Red", People's
China, Southern 'Nam, People's 'Nam, Lao, Buntar, Coluzia, Delancourt (a mixture of
Guyana and Belize), Sangria, San Isabel, San Marcos, Tragnar (a mixture of Cuba and
Haiti), Boorland, Chandracia (a mixture of the Middle East, Iran, and the Arabian
Peninsula), Ephor, Greenham Isle (a mixture of the Falklands and Lebanon), Sofi,
Grugashan (a mixture of Iraq and Libya), Iswandah, and Dakali.

Advanced RECON
Advanced RECON - introduced February, 1987 - was an expansion of the rules. It
allowed the creation of Special Operations characters, set the game world in the
historical Southeast Asia theater, and detailed a four-mission campaign set in
Laos. There were also sections on American and North Vietnamese tactics and
strategy, a section on period electronic equipment, a primer on the game world in
1965, a briefing on the Kingdom of Laos, and a briefing on military and government
agencies.

Deluxe Revised RECON

Palladium published a "deluxe" revised edition on April 1999. This integrated and
reprinted the content from both Revised RECON and Advanced RECON. It also
introduced new rules, focusing more on the characters' lives after the wars.

RECON bears the distinction of being the only active game series published by
Palladium Books that is not compatible with any of the other games in their
Megaversal system. However, Palladium provides conversion rules in order to bring
things in line with the rest of their role-playing game series.

References
"Recon RPG: Deluxe Revised PAL 0600".
Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games.
Prometheus Books. p. 256. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 159. ISBN
978-1-907702-58-7.
External links
The Revised RECON official discussion board at Palladium Books Forums of the
Megaverse
Recon role-playing games at RPG Geek Database
Recon role-playing games at RPGnet Game Index