PATROL

Military Roleplay
in the 20th Century

DEREK CHAPPELL
 Credits
PATROL was a labour of love by the author, but many others deserve credit.

Editors
Ryan Chiong
Joe McNeil
Beau LaManna
Linda Park

Playtesters
White Mice - Chris Ammerman, Beau LaManna
Wallaby Squad - Churba, Victor Frost, Nelson
Sparky Squad - Samdamandias, Ingo Krause, Thomas Clapp, Logan
Squad C.o.S.a.R

Special Thanks
The 35th Infantry Regiment Association,
the Sufficient Velocity Forums and IRC,
Kit Hohler, for fact checking,
MJ12 Commando, for fixing the vehicle system,
Gareth Lazelle, for game design advice,
Sandro Cacciotti, for the theme song,
all of my Patreons and fans for putting up with my delays,
and Joe F. Martin, for writing the original RECON.

Photo Credits
The sources for the art in this book were derived from the public domain, primarily
from the Department of Defense. They were sourced from the US National Archives,
Pintrest, and Wikimedia Commons.

The cover, “Hitchin’ a Ride”, was painted by Frederick Lin, and was sourced from a
photo taken in 1967 by Roger E. Surprenant of the US Army. The photo is used with the
permission of the 35th Infantry Regiment Association.

Scott5114 created the Roundel arrow graphic, and Gareth Lazelle created the symbols.

Influences
PATROL’s main influence was ADVANCED RECON, originally written
by Joe F. Martin, and its second edition REVISED RECON by Erick
Wujcik, published by Palladium Books. In many ways, PATROL was
envisioned as a spiritual successor to that wonderful game, and I
hope that it lives up.

PATROL took inspiration in tone from Oliver Stone’s Platoon and

Micheal Herr’s Dispatches. In particular, the game attempts to relay
newstandpress.tumblr.com the arc of Platoon’s plot in its game structure, and the alignment
system is based on Elias, Chris, Barnes and O’Neil respectively.

Version 1.16 Other major inspirations include Gustav Hasford The Short-Timers,
the CBS series Tour of Duty, J. Micheal Orange’s Fire in the Hole,
and Robert Tonsetic’s books Forsaken Warriors and Days of Valour.

2
Index
Introduction 8
• Allies
• Support
• Common Support
• Hostile Forces
30
30
31
31
• Basic Training 8 • Rules of Engagement 31
• Ground Rules 9 Combat Rules 32
• Rolling Dice 9 • Firearm Combat Range 32
• Resolving Attacks 32
Example of Play 10 • Ambushes & Taking Cover 32
Character Creation 12 •
•
Firing Blind
Defensive Fire
32
32
• Personal Info 12 • Crossfire 32
• Standard Issue 13 • Suppression 32
• Service Rifle 13 • Hand to Hand Combat 32
• M.O.S. 13 • Melee 32
• The Rifleman  14 • Heavy Weapon Rules 33
• The Radio Operator  14 • Extended Combat Range 33
• The Pigman  15 • Artillery 33
• The Grenadier  15 • Multi-Part Weapons 33
• The Point 16 • Multi-Crew Weapons 33
• The Marksman  16 • Emplaced Artillery
• The Firebug  17 • Deviation & Scatter 33
• The Gunner  17 • Guided Weapons 33
• The Medic  18 • Munition Rules 33
• The Intel  18
• The Handler  19 • Casualties 34
• The Engineer  19 • Wounded 34
• Ongoing Damage 34
• Psychological Profile 20 • Armour Saves 34
• Attributes 20 • Blast Effects and Fire 34
• Customization 21 • Incapacitation 34
• Assigning Rank 21 • Stunned 34
• Code of Conduct 22 • Death 34
• Desertion 35
• Oath of Enlistment 22 • Capture 35
Basic Rules  24 • Arrest 35
• Objectives 24 • Missing 35
• Turns 24 • Combat Example 36
• Turn Sequence 24 Status Tracks 38
• Actions 24 • Gear Status 39
• Overwatch 24 • Firearm Tracks 39
• The Roundel 24 • Electronic Charges 39
• the Map 25 • Taking Doubt 40
• Distances 25 • Doubt and Fatigue 40
• Units 25 • Doubt Guidelines 40
• Units and Player Actions 25 • Doubt Guideline Chart 41
• Detection 26 • Fatigue 42
• Visual Detection 26 • Victory Points 42
• General Awareness 26 • Alignment VP Chart 42
• Tracking 26
• Stealth Ratings 26 • Narcotics 43
• Addiction  43
• Equipment 27 • Overdosing 43
• Equipment Types  27 • Hallucinogenics Chart 43
• Enemy Gear 27
• Liquids 27 • Fatigue Example 43
• Radios and Telephones 27 Environment 44
• Movement Rules 28 • Map Features 44
• Move Speed Chart 28
• Fortitude Requirements 28 • Time 44
• Enemy Presence 28 • Structures 45
• Contact 28 • Small Structures 45
• Trap Rules 28 • Structure Toughness 45
• Defensive Positions  45
• Interaction Rules 29 • Defensive Obstacles 45
• Communication Basics 29 • Large Structure 45
• The Language Barrier 29 • Room-to-Room Fighting 46
• Weapon Up 29 • The Date 47
• Warning Shots & Small Violence 29
• Trading & Bribes 29 • Conditions 47
NPCs 30 Vehicles 48
• Vehicle Basics 48
• Squadmates 30 • Vehicle Profiles 48
• Taking the Bullet 30 • Passengers and Crew 48
• NPC Restrictions 30 • Operating a Vehicle 48
• Battle Buddies 30 • Vehicles and Damage 49
3
 • Crew and Damage 49 • Free World Helicopters 96
• Using a Vehicle as Cover 49 • Free world Boats 99
• Vehicular Homicide 49
• Generic Planes 100
• Aircraft 50 • Free world Support Planes 101
• Altitude 50
• Aircraft Basics 50 • Communist Vehicles 102
• Dropping Bombs 50 • Communist AFVs 103
• Vehicle Example 51 • Communist Tanks 104
Dogs 52 • Civilian Vehicles 105
• Dog Profiles 52 Field Manual 106
• Commands 52 • Military Basics 106
• On Industrial War 107
Animals 53 • The role of Infantry 107
• Horses 53
• Pack Animals 53 • About You 108
• Elephants 53 • Why You’re Here 108
• Tigers 53 • About Your Enemy 109
• After-Action Report 54 • The Kill Ratio 109
• Accusations 54 • The Red Menace 109
• Recommendations 54 • Garrison Duty 110
• Resolving Reports 55 • Out in the Bush 110
• Real Bases 111
• In Between Missions 55 • Going on Leave 111
• Spending your XP 55 • Military Culture 111
• Negative XP 55
• Trauma 55 • On the March 112
• Reducing Trauma 55 • Walking In a Combat Zone 112
• Getting Short 55 • Start Digging 113
• Advanced Entrenchment 113
Skills 56 • Love your Rifle 114
Actions 58 • Misconceptions 115
• The Gun, A History 115
• Equipment And Personal Actions 58 • Fully Automatic 115
• Radio Actions 59 • Man Portable Repeaters 116
• Movement Actions 60 • Surviving a Firefight 117
• Awareness Actions 62 • Shoot First, Questions Later 117
• Medical Actions 63 • Pull the Pin and Throw 118
• Fortification and Structure Actions64 • Danger - Mines! 119
• Body Armour 119
• Interactions 65 • Neutralizing Targets 120
• Combat Actions 66 • Casualties & Treatment 120
• Vehicle Actions 69 • Taking Prisoners 121
Equipment 70 • The Big Guns 122
• Medical Equipment 71 • Armour Support 123
• Load Bearing Equipment 71 • Whirly Birds 124
• Flying a Helicopter 124
• Communication Equipment 72 • Types of Helicopters 125
• Electronics 73 • The Air War 126
• Wearable Items 74 • Air to Ground Warfare 126
• Armour and Lifesaving Gear 75 • Fast Movers & Bomb Trucks 126
• Rideable Equipment 75 • Bombing Hanoi 127
• Supplies 76 Vietnam 128
• Liquid Carriers 77 • A Brief History of Vietnam 128
• Narcotics 77 • People and Language 129
• Firearms 78 • Culture and Religion 129
• Special Firearms 80 • Notable Places 129
• Recoilless Rifles 81 • Saigon 129
• Da Nang 129
• Grenades 82 • Hue 129
• Grenade Types 82 • Hanoi 129
• Grenade Launchers 83 • Laos and Cambodia 130
• Melee Weapons 84 • Laos Tripartite Government 130
• Item Modifiers 84 • Cambodian Civil War 130
• Weapon Supplies 85 • Other Neighbours 131
• Heavy Guns 85 Glossary 132
• Artillery 86 • Acronyms 132
• Heavy Munitions 87 • Military Terms & Slang 133
• Traps and Mines 88 • US Marine Terms & Slang 135
• Explosive Gear 89 • Civilian Period Slang 136
• Vietnamese Loan Terms 137
Vehicles 90 GM Guide 140
• Free World Tanks 92 • What do I do? 140
• Free World AFVs 94 • The GM is a Player 140
4
 • The GM is a Referee 140 • ...AS Aussie Special Forces 171
• The GM is a Narrator 141 • Royal Thailand 172
• The GM is Not The Boss 141 • ...As Queen’s Cobras 172
• The GM is Not a God 141 • Mercenaries 173
• Your First Session 141 • ...As Western Contractors 173
• Styles of Play 142 • ...As Local Mercenaries 173
• Full Myth vs Improv 142
• Closed Map vs Open Map 143 Communists 174
• Playing Narratively 143 • Viet Cong 174
• Using the Timescale 143 • Wartime Changes 174
• Fair Unfairness 144 • Charlie’s Tactics 175
• Making Sense of PvP 144 • End of the Road 175
• Non-Player Characters 145 • Playing V.C. 176
• Making a Strong NPC 145 • Controlling the VC 177
• Quickly Generating Characters 145 • Basic V.C. Organization 177
• Friends and Comrades 146 • Tactics and Tricks 177
• The Vietnamese 146 • Arming the V.C. 177
• Vietnamese Name Generator 147 • Viet Cong NPCs 178
• Enemy Forces 147 • North Vietnamese Army 180
• Tips & Tricks 148 • Second Hand Stock 180
• Charts 150 • By the Book 180
• The Weather 150 • All Out Aggression 181
• The Wind 150 • Heavy Hitters 181
• Forage Chart 150 • Last Army Standing 181
• Pocket Finds 150 • Playing NVA 182
• Village Attitude Table 150 • ...as NVA Regulars 182
• Supply Drop Mishap 151 • ...as NVA Armour 182
• Specific Injury Generator 151 • ...as North Vietnamese Navy 182
• Shortcuts 151 • Using The NVA 183
• Random Hits 151 • NVA Infantry Organization 183
• Crowd Mechanics 151 • NVA Support Elements 183
• Resolving Off-Screen Fights 151 • NVA Vehicles 183
• NPC Veterancy 151 • North Vietnamese NPCs 184
• Interesting Missions 152 • The Pathet Lao 186
• Game Tone 154 • Using the Pathet Lao 186
Free World Forces 156 • The Khmer Rouge 186
• U.S. Military 158 • Using the Khmer Rouge 186
• The Space-Age Soldier 158 • Red Chinese PLA 187
• Special Forces Lead the Way 158 • Using The PLA 187
• Conventional Force 159 • Soviet Union 187
• New Techniques 159
• Search and Destroy 160 Third Parties 188
• Losing the Home Front 160 • Pacification Strategies 188
• Vietnam’s Minority Populations 189
• Playing Americans 161 • Urban Living 189
• ...As US Marines 161
• ...As US Armour 161 • Civilian NPCs 189
• ...As Special Forces 161 • Civilian Profiles & Rules 189
• ...As US Navy 161 • Montagnards 190
• American NPCs 162 • ...As Isolated Montagnards 190
• ...As FWF Irregulars 190
• South Vietnam 164 • ...As Integrated FWFs 190
• Humble Beginnings 164
• Stepping Up 164 • Third Party NPCs 191
•
•
From Bad to Worse
Rangers Never Surrender
165
165
Timeline 192
• Falling Apart 165 • Early Days 192
• Playing ARVN 166 • Escalation 192
• ...As Regulars 166 • Tet and Aftermath 193
• ...As an Interpreter 166 • Vietnamization 193
• ...As Rangers 166 • Last Days 193
• ...As Armoured Cavalry 166
• ...As Popular Forces 167 Equipment List 194
• ...AS Regional Forces 167
• ...As Irregular Militia 167 Skill List 199
• ...As National Police 167 PATROL 200
• ...As VNN Sailors 167
• ...AS ARVN Armour 167 Turn Roundel 200
• ARVN NPCs 168 Printable Status Tracks 201
• South Korea 170
• ...As Tiger Division 170 Printable Character Sheet 202
• ...As Blue Dragons 170
• ANZUS Pact 171
Printable Status Chart 203
• ...As Diggers 171
• ...AS Aussie Armour 171
5
6
 PATROL “Patrol went up the mountain. One man came back.
He died before he could tell us what happened.”
- Quoted in Dispatches from the Vietnam War, Michael Herr
In 1961, the United States began an intervention
in the Republic of Vietnam, a small post-colonial
military dictatorship formed from the partition
of the former French colony into communist
and nationalist halves. The young nation was
in crisis, wracked by widespread poverty,
corruption, inequality, religious tensions, and
the insurgency known as the National Liberation
Front, or Viet Cong, a movement backed by by
North Vietnam, their much more industrialized
Communist neighbour.
Intending to harden the young nation into a
bulwark in South-East Asia which could act as a
counter to communist influence, the United States
dispatched advisors to train the nascent ARVN,
followed by special forces to assist in combating
the insurgency, and then regular military units.
By 1965, there were nearly a million US troops
in the country, and the United States rapidly
awoke to the sudden realization that they were
embroiled in a war spiralling out of control.
Vietnam had been under the rule of colonial
masters for a thousand years; the Chinese, the
French, and the Japanese. There was a desperate
desire for independence, ideological among
the educated classes and for simple survival
in rural areas which had suffered too long
under distant and uncaring governments. The
Southern government was seen as a transparent
continuation of the colonial government,
putting into power the same officials who sold
out the Vietnamese people over generations, and
the incoming American forces were seen as little
different from the French and Japanese.
Over the next decade, as the conflict dragged
on through multiple attempts at ceasefire and
negotiations, violence engulfed the country at
all levels. It was a conflict rife with controversy
from its very roots. The South Vietnam that the
United States and their allies were propping
up was a brutal military dictatorship, while
North Vietnam was a ruthless single-party state
which purged thousands of their own citizens.
The Viet Cong and Free World Forces alike
displaced and killed tens of thousands in back
and forth campaigns across rural Vietnam, and
bombers dropped millions of tons of ordinance on
population centres.
7
Both sides engaged in terrorism, forced
relocation, and attacks on civilian populations.
US troops and Viet Cong insurgents alike spent
days, weeks and sometimes months at a time in the
jungle, battling the elements and each other while
taking out their frustration and desperation
on the civilian population. The United States
deployed shocking incendiary weapons and toxic
chemical defoliants to root out the Vietcong, and
cities burned as the NVA forced their way south.
These atrocities were not new or unique to the
history of warfare, but for the first time, the war
was recorded and broadcast on colour television.
With local forces unable to keep up with the
demands of anti-guerilla warfare, the United
States and its allies took primary responsibility
for fighting in Vietnam, engaging in sweeping
Search and Destroy missions across the country.
This manpower-intensive process led to multiple
expansions of the draft of US citizens, involving
ever-larger numbers of US troops. The popularity
of the war plummeted as it was transformed from
police action to a nebulous, extended war of
attrition, and the United States was wracked
with protests and a growing counter-cultural
movement. Veterans threw away their medals in
disgust and young men burnt their draft cards as a
succession of US Presidents issued increasingly
hollow reassurances and promises.
Eventually, this growing anti-war sentiment and
lack of progress led to a gradual withdrawal of US
forces. By 1973 a ceasefire was called and foreign
forces pulled out, leaving an unprepared and
under-equipped ARVN to fend for themselves. The
ceasefire was broken in predictably short order,
and 1975 would close with Vietnam reunited at
terrible cost, as NVA tanks rolled through the
streets of Saigon, the last helicopters taking
off from the US embassy just minutes ahead of
advancing enemy forces.
The war claimed over a million lives, perhaps as
many as three million, more than half of whom were
civilians. Millions more were displaced, and
many fled the country during and after, creating
a refugee crisis that would span decades. Over
three million US citizens served in Vietnam,
and nearly 60,000 died there. The war profoundly
affected an entire generation in both regions.
Introduction
PATROL is a game about soldiers, set in the
Vietnam War. You and your friends take control
of Americans stationed in-country who engage
directly with enemy guerilla forces. Under a
merciless sun and the jungle canopy, you carry
out your missions and do your best to survive the
brutality of war both mentally and physically,
while invariably contributing to it.
PATROL is a game which depicts human beings in
positions of extreme stress and the desperate,
primal actions they take when they are torn
from the niceties of civilization. The themes it
tackles are not comfortable ones, and the game
may not be suitable for all players. If you are
looking for a light-hearted action-adventure,
or if you feel the themes of the game might be too
uncomfortable to confront, you might be better
off playing something else.
Likewise, PATROL is not written with the intent
of creating a fully realistic experience, to
accurately model firearms or military equipment,
engage deeply with realistic tactics, strategy
or infrastructure. Equipment is generic and
abstract, the structure and order of the military
is simplified, and missions are exaggerated
for dramatic effect. The consequences for the
characters participating in these events are
what is important.
Finally, PATROL is not a power fantasy. It is
not about the glory of war or the fetishization
of military hardware. The players are regular
people extended beyond their limits, rather than
elite special forces. It is not a game that is won
or lost; it is a game about cost. It is about being
pushed to the brink, and what we do in the dark.
8
Basic Training
If you’ve never played a Roleplaying Game before,
you’ll need a quick primer before we go any further.
A roleplaying game is a structure placed around
a game of make-believe, which uses rules and dice
to resolve conflicts in a fair and unbiased way.
Anyone with an imagination can tell a story, but
with the right framework, a roleplaying game can
empower you and your friends tell a better, more
meaningful story.
The players of PATROL each takes the role of
a character. The player describes what their
character does, speaks for them when they talk,
and shapes the story with their actions. This can
be done in the first-person (“I advance down the
road.”) or in the third-person (“Bill advances
down the road.”); different groups have different
conventions, and either way is valid.
The soldiers controlled by the players are known
in the rules as Player Characters, or PCs.
One player in the group does not directly control
a character. Instead, they tak on the role of the
Game Master, or GM. The GM acts as a combination
narrator, referee, and master of ceremonies. They
provide a mission for the players, set the scene,
and play all the characters that aren’t played by
other other players (The “Non-Player Characters”,
or NPCs), like allied forces, civilians and the
enemy. The GM is not your opponent; they’re there
to provide a world for you to explore, interact
with, and confront.
The game is played in a series of Missions, which
are scenarios where the players are presented
with one or more Objectives and a series of
obstacles along the way. Events advance in Turns
in which the GM sets the scene, players describe
their actions, and consequences are determined.
After a number of turns, the mission ends, there
is some final resolution and bookkeeping, and
the scene is set for the next play session and the
next Mission.
PATROL is played with a map of the area the players
are fighting over, using real-world distances.
These maps can be derived from any source, so long
as they have a scale. You can use period maps of
sections of Vietnam, internet mapping services,
old road maps, or even rough drawings in pencil
showing terrain and landmarks. Bigger maps are
better, as they allow distances to be measured
more accurately, but don’t worry too much about
precision as long as everyone can generally
agree on where everything is.
Finally, you’ll need character and condition
sheets, pencils and tokens, and the timekeeping
roundel. Eight, ten or twelve-sided dice can
be used to make random hits easier to assign. A
good way to track the time in the game world is
to punch it into a calculator with each turn so
everyone can see it.
Ground Rules
It is important to establish a few rules from the PATROL is played with the classic six-sided die,
start that will apply throughout your games,
in order to make playing a straightforward and
fair experience. Some of these are more like
guidelines while others are hard and fast rules,
but you should always keep them in mind.
Your Character is Yours
You and you alone have control over your
character; nobody can make your actions for you,
put words in their mouth, or make stuff up about
them without your approval. That includes the
GM! This goes both ways; you only control your
own character, so while you can make suggestions
for other people, they always get the final say.
Bad Things Happen
Vietnam fucking sucks. Things don’t always go as
planned, good people get hurt and die, and often
it isn’t even really their fault. That’s the nature
of war. When you sit down to play PATROL, you have
to be willing to accept that. If you character
gets hurt or dies, that’s how the dice landed. Go
take a break, get a snack, and write up another
character.
No GOing Back
Likewise, you can’t take back actions you
performed just because it didn’t go your way. Once
you’ve made your choice, that’s what happened.
If dice have been rolled, the results stand. If
something goes badly, take it as a lesson for next
time.
Off Limits
The Vietnam War is one of the low points of the
20th century for a reason, so while it should
be recognized that PATROL can stray into some
pretty dark and uncomfortable territory, it’s
important to set some boundaries. Before the
game, the players and the GM should have a frank
discussion about what sort of themes are and are
not acceptable to explore. PATROL is a serious
work, but it’s also a game; ideally it shouldn’t
traumatise the participants.
Give the GM some Room
The GM’s word is not absolute; it shouldn’t
override the basic function of the system. These
rules exist for a reason, and you should follow
them for the best experience. That said, it is
important to trust your GM; don’t tolerate them
if they are being a tyrant or just ignoring the
rules, but don’t rush to call them out over every
little thing either. If they fudge a few numbers
or make a ruling you don’t agree with, let it slide
in the moment.
Put your phone away
Seriously. The game requires you participate.
Rolling Dice
known as d6s. If you are asked to roll 3d6, you
roll three dice. You will need a lot of dice; we
recommend at least twenty, but more is always
better. It is best if you find smaller ones to make
rolling them easier, and a tray to roll them in.
If you are asked to roll a d3, just roll a d6 and
divide the results in half, rounding up.
When you roll a dice in PATROL, it is almost always
in the form of a Check; a determination of whether
the character can accomplish what they have set
out to do, and what unexpected consequences
might arise.
To resolve a Check, you roll a number of dice
equal to your character’s relevant Attribute,
plus any bonuses from the Equipment they are
using, if applicable. Any 6s rolled are Successes,
and any 1s rolled are Failures. All the other dice
are discarded.
When rolling a Check, you can always roll fewer
dice than the maximum number you could roll.
However, you must always roll at least 1 die.
If you character has a Skill which is relevant for
the Check you are taking, rolls of 5s also count
as Successes. The Skills section will give you a
guideline as to what Skills apply to what Checks.
Checks have associated Difficulties, which
represent how challenging it is to accomplish
your goal. Some Checks don’t have a Difficulty;
instead, the Successes you roll have an effect on
their own.
If you get a number of Successes equal to or
greater than the Check’s Difficulty, you pass. If
you don’t, you don’t, and things don’t work out.
Additional Successes above and beyond what
was required often have greater effects, so you
always want to get as many Successes as you can.
If a Check is Opposed, when you make it, another
character also rolls a Check at the same time. The
Difficulty of your Check is equal to the number
of Successes they rolled.
Failures do not necessarily stop you from
passing a Check. Instead, if you manage to roll
more Failures than Successes, your roll is FUBAR.
A FUBAR roll can still pass a Check if it has
sufficient Successes, but it also means something
has gone wrong. For common Checks, there is a
FUBAR Penalty listed, usually either inflicting
a negative effect on your character or damaging
a piece of equipment. Some Actions may have
consequences for Failures independent of FUBAR
rolls as well.
9
 Rich: “You do a quick headcount and you think
Example of Play
Amy, Tom and Sarah are playing a game of PATROL, and
there are about twenty, all told. There’s
presumably some very young kids and infants out
of sight in the huts.”
Rich is their gamemaster. Amy is the team leader,
a Pragmatic Point, Tom is the team’s Idealistic
Amy: “Alright, second question. Is anyone armed?”
Medic, and Sarah is playing a Righteous Intel
character. To keep things simple, they are just
Rich: “Not that you can see, unless you count some
using their own names for their characters.
farming implements.”
The group are starting the second day of their
Tom: “Never discount farming implements! Sarah,
mission, hunting for an elusive NVA artillery
you should see if you can strike up a conversation
piece in the mountains. They plan to talk to local
with somebody.”
villagers for clues.
Sarah: “Yeah, I’m going to do that. I take out my
Rich: “Alright, the sun is just cresting over the
phrasebook and try to find somebody important
trees as you begin your descent down the path
to ask if there’s been any communist activity.
towards the village. Amy, as you reach this point
That’s a Communicate action, right? I have Local
on the map...”
Language, this should be easy.”
Rich moves a corresponding game piece.
Sarah rolls her dice, to middling results.
Rich: “You notice, barely visible in a sunbeam,
Rich: “You pick out a wizened old man who looks
a tripwire across the path. It’s connected to the
like he might be some kind of elder or something
firing trigger of a claymore that points straight
and do your best to ask if there’s been any Viet
at you.”
Cong activity. You stumble through the sentence,
and the guy claims he doesn’t understand and he
Sarah: “Crafty Charlie bastards must have known
doesn’t know what “communist” means. Some of the
we were coming.”
other villagers are crowding around as you try
to talk to him.”
Tom: “Isn’t this path used by civilians? We should
remove this before somebody gets hurt.”
Sarah: “Urgh. Useless locals. Hey Tom, have you
got anything you want to do this turn?”
Amy: “We can just step over it and keep going,
right?”
Tom: “Is there anyone in the village who is sick I
can help with Treat Sickness?”
Rich: “Yes. If you want to remove it, you’d have
to stop here, spend a turn to defuse it, and then
Rich: “Not that you can tell.”
move on.”
Tom: “Alright then, I’ll just Rest this turn.”
Amy: “Well, we’re on a bit of a tight schedule,
so we should probably leave it, but I’m going to
Sarah: “Okay, good. Communicate isn’t getting us
leave a signal flag behind in case we come back
anywhere and I’m starting to get worried about
in a hurry, and if we don’t, at least the civilians
these villagers, so I’m going to take out my pistol
will see it. Can I do that?”
and hold it to his head till he tells us something
useful.”
Rich: “No problem. Alright, you spend ten more
minutes working your way down the path and you
Tom: “What the hell Sarah!?!”
arrive in a tiny, nameless Vietnamese hamlet. The
people eye you suspiciously, and parents quickly
Amy: “No, I get it. The village is clearly in on
pull children into the huts and out of sight.
it, Tom. The briefing said they use that path
Nobody comes to greet you, but you can feel eyes
every day; they had to have known about the mine.
watching you from every window.”
Better to just get this over with before they can
warn somebody.”
Tom: “What a friendly bunch.”
Tom: “...fine.”
Amy: “I’m going to make an Observe Check to gather
information about the village.”
Sarah rolls her dice, and a bunch of ones come up.
Amy rolls a handful of dice, coming up with two
Sarah: “Oh crap. Fubar.”
6s.
Rich: “Oh boy. You pull your pistol to threaten
Amy: “Alright! Okay, so, first of all, how many
the guy, but he pulls away in a panic, and as a
people are in the village?”
reflex you pull the trigger. You accidentally

10
shoot him, right in the leg, right in front of
everyone. People jump and scream and panic, and
you’re fairly sure only your guns have kept them
from rushing you. Good news is, you also got
enough successes to ask him a question.”
Sarah: “I tell him that he best tell me where the
commie gun position is, or I’m taking out the
other leg.”
Rich: “He tearfully admits that there’s a big
artillery cannon located halfway up the river,
near a ravine, and points towards it.”
Tom: “Christ. Sarah, I just took two points of
Doubt from that. Okay, I’m going to use my turn to
bandage up his leg, and then we’re leaving.”
Rich: “Tom, you get a Victory Point for that.
Alright, if that’s it, show me where you want to
move.”
The group spends several turns moving upriver,
stealthily infiltrating and staying out of sight.
While advancing, a team of V.C. moving ammo up
the path nearly walks right into them. The V.C.
stop just 60m away and hit the dirt.
Amy: “Aw crap, they saw us. Let’s take them out,
then push on quick to the gun before they can set
up a defence. I’ll fire some precision shots with
my rifle.”
Sarah: “I’ll suppress them with my SMG.”
Tom: “I want to save my ammo, so I’ll use my pistol.”
Everyone rolls some dice for their attacks.
Rich: “Between your shooting, you manage to
incapacitate two of them and wound the other two
lightly. Both of those drop their wheelbarrows
and run away down the road.”
Sarah: “Awesome! Does that count as a fight,
because I want my Victory Points!”
Rich: “This was a bit too one-sided to count.
Maybe start a fist fight with the wounded?.”
Amy: “Sounds good, you can finish them off later.
Let’s advance up the road!”
Tom: “I’m not going. I’m going to stay here and
stop that guy’s bleeding. I need the VPs after all
the crap I’ve been through today.”
Sarah: “Fine, we don’t need a medic for killing
V.C. anyway. Up the road we go!”
Rich: “You advance up the road only to find that
the rearguard of the unit were waiting. You spot
them here, and so you have to stop at Contact and
take cover.”
11
Amy: “Ah crap, didn’t we just do this to the other
guys?”
Tom: “It’s called karma, you should look it up.”
Sarah: “Can it, hippy, we’re 200 meters up the
road, how can you even hear us? Okay, this isn’t
the end of the world. They’re terrible shots. We’ll
just retreat back up the road after they shoot.”
Rich: “...and shoot they do. Sarah, bad news, you’ve
been hit for 2 Injury. Roll a shock check.”
Sarah: “I knew I shouldn’t have ditched my flak
vest, but at least I passed the roll. I’m still
conscious, but I’m not doing great.”
Rich: “Well, it’s your turn, and by the way, its been
six turns on the roundel so take an Exhaustion
and a Thirst.”
Sarah: “I’m too wounded and suppressed to have any
chance of hitting, so I’m going to dig a shallow
hole in the ditch to protect myself.”
Tom: “Okay, I know my friends are in trouble up
there, so I’m going to go help. I’m going to advance
up the road.”
Amy: “No, wait a minute, I’ve got a better idea. I’m
going to scream out in pain and stop shooting.
Sarah, you do the same. Then, with my action, I’m
going to prepare to throw a concussion grenade
using overwatch for when they enter close range.”
Sarah: “Oooh. I get it. Yeah, let’s do that. But here,
use my incendiary grenade instead. I’m probably
not going to get to at this rate...”
Tom: “Playing dead is against the Code, you
know...”
Sarah: “Private Wet Blanket reporting for duty!”
Rich: “Alright, you both make a show of falling
into the bushes, and after a few minutes and some
probing shots that come pretty close, you hear
footsteps as people approach through the bushes,
within 30 meters.”
Amy: “Bombs away!”
Rich: “You easily catch the enemy in the blast of
white phosphorous, and all three of them drop to
the ground screaming. Actually, Amy, you manage
to catch some shards too, and go rolling around
in the dirt trying to put the fire out.”
Amy: “... and I failed my shock test, too. Looks like
I’m out. Tom, it’s up to you now.”
Tom: “A medic’s work is never done...”
Character
Creation
Before anyone can go off on Missions, each player
will need a character. The relevant information
about your character is contained on your
Character Sheet. Ensure every player has a copy,
and fill it out as you proceed through this
section.
Your character can be any kind of person you
like, within the limits of reason. They can be
a well developed character with an extensive
backstory, a simplistic cypher for interacting
with the rules, or even a fictionalized version
of yourself. This last option will make for
something of a personal game, if you let it.
Before anyone makes their characters, the group
should discuss any themes they wish to explore
in their game which affect character creation. A
more historically-oriented game would not have
female or openly LGBT combat soldiers, but a group
might choose to overlook such petty details.
The year can be a very important part of your game.
A campaign set in 1965 will see most players as
professional volunteers, unaware of the nature
of the conflict and confident of quick victory,
while a game set in 1971 will see most characters
as draftees entering an unpopular war and
feeling like part of a losing battle.
You should also settle on your branch of service.
The assumption in this book is that player
characters are members of the US Army, but the
group could agree to play US Marines, local
recruits in the ARVN, or soldiers from nations
like Australia or South Korea.
If the GM has a campaign ready for you, they will
often provide most of this information, but you
should feel free to voice any concerns, ideas
or opinions you have, so long as you are not
disrupting the flow of the group.
Because PATROL is not shy about killing player
characters suddenly and frequently, it can be
helpful to make a spare character or two, just in
case something dreadful happens. Try to shake
things up with subsequent characters; even if
you are playing the same role, changing some of
your Skills or your Alignment can go a long way
to giving your new character a different feel and
opening up roleplaying options.
The Character Creation rules here apply
primarily for US Army ground forces. If you are
playing Marines, Special Forces, ARVN troops,
NVA or V.C., or a different scenario entirely, the
rules might be a little different.
12
Personal Info
This section covers identifying information
about who your character is as a person and a
soldier. Fill out this part first.
Your character needs a given name and a surname.
Go around the group in a circle and assign
everyone’s character a nickname; players do not
have a say in their own nickname. Your Rank will
be handled before you deploy.
Your Serial Number is an 8-digit number used to
identify you within army records. The first digit
indicates if you were a volunteer (1), National
Guard (2) or a draftee (3). The second shows the
state you were inducted in.
# States
1 ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT
2 NY, NJ, DE
3 PA, MD, VA, D.C.
4 NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN, MS, LA
5 OH, WV, IN, KT
6 IL, MI, WI
7 MO, KN, AR, IA, NB, MN, ND, SD
8 TX, OK, CO, NM, AZ
9 WA, OR, CA, ID, MT, WY, UT, NV, AK
10 Hawaii
The remaining numbers consist of six random
digits. If you are National Guard or came through
the Hawaiian Department, use five digits instead.
Your age, gender and origin simply provide some
basic information you can use to flesh out your
character. The average age of soldiers serving in
Vietnam was 22, but infantrymen were generally
younger, often only 18 or 19. If you are playing as
US military, all characters will be male, but both
Vietnams had female fighters in militia units.
Roll 2d6 for your simplified Blood Type, vital if
somebody needs a transfusion.
# Blood Type
2 AB+ (Universal Recipient)
3-5 A+ or B+ (Positive)
6-8 O+
9-11 A-, B- or AB- (Negative)
12 0- (Universal Donor)
Your GM will provide your Outfit, your military
unit. You might belong to, for example, the 18th
Infantry, 2nd Battalion, Able Company.
Finally, your Helmet Scrawl is a slogan, symbol
or pattern marked onto your equipment, a small
avenue of self-expression. Are you hoping for
Peace or Born to Kill? A quick prayer or a calender
counting the days until you can go home?
Standard Issue M.O.S.
All members of the US Army are put through a Basic At this point you must choose your Military
Training Course and issued a standard set of Occupational Specialities, or MOS. This is your
equipment. As such, all characters start off with job in the Army; if you had a business card, your
the following Skills and Equipment; mark them MOS is what would be written on it.
down on your sheet.
Skills Each player character has an MOS, and once you’ve
made your selection, it can’t be changed. You can
Assault Rifle (Medium)
select your MOS from the list on the following
Battle Rifle (Medium)
pages. With the exception of Rifleman, your Squad
Basic Medical
can’t have more than one of any given MOS.
Guard
Hand Grenade
You should discuss as a group which players
Prepare Position
should take which roles on the team, depending on
Equipment Weight your mission and how you want to tackle problems.
x1 Fatigues (US Army) 2 (Negated) Though a party should generally be able to scout
x1 Footwear 2 (Negated) ahead, fight at different ranges, attack with
x1 Steel Helmet 2 heavy weapons and support one another, there is
x1 Field Jacket 2 some overlap between what various MOSs are good
x1 Flak Vest 4 at, so don’t feel overly pressured.
x1 Poncho 2
x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity) Your MOS comes with additional starting Skills
x1 Military Pack 4 (+15 Capacity) and Equipment, which you receive at no cost. In
x1 Entrenching Tool 2 addition, each MOS has a Perk associated with
x1 Flashlight 1 it, a special bonus that makes you better at your
x1 First Aid Kit 1 speciality than anyone else, even people that
x1 Gas Mask 2 use your equipment. Don’t worry about the rules
x1 Knife 1 associated with them yet; the perks will make
x1 Dog Tags 0 sense in the context of the rules as a whole.
Total Weight 21
Once you’ve made a selection, mark it down in the
MOS field, and add the Skills and Equipment from
This isn’t quite a full accounting of everything your MOS choices to their respective sections of
a soldier would expect to carry. On average, your Character Sheet. Your character can’t change
American soldiers in Vietnam carried 90 pounds MOS once they’ve been assigned, but they can gain
worth of equipment into the jungle; there just additional skills and equipment over the course
isn’t space to list all of it. of the game.

For the purposes of gameplay, you can assume that

every character is also carrying a map, a working
timepiece, a compass, a lighter, bug spray, small
utility tools, a mess kit, toilet paper, a notepad
and writing implements, elastic bands, a pocket
knife, a wallet, condoms, a fair length of rope,
personal hygiene items, and so forth. Likewise,
the game doesn’t bother tracking stuff like
sunglasses, bandanas, facepaint, or political
buttons. Only the big military gear matters.

Service Rifle
In Vietnam, the M14 Rifle was frequently used
instead of the M16; most troops trained on it
instead of or in addition to the M16, and the M16
had something of a reputation among US troops
after they had found a pile of dead Marines at Khe
Sahn with their jammed M16s disassembled beside
them.

At character creation or between missions, you

can choose to take either an Assault Rifle or a
Battle Rifle into combat. Whichever Service
Weapon you choose to take will not cost you XP.

13
The Rifleman
Riflemen are the bread and butter of the infantry
and form the backbone of every Squad. Riflemen
don’t have any fancy equipment or special duties,
so they can focus all their efforts on the important
things; digging holes and killing the enemy.

Whether with an assault rifle or a battle rifle,

Riflemen provide general security for your
operations. They make a good MOS for new players
still learning the ropes, characters who want
to focus on leading the team, or for NPC squad
members.

Riflemen are generalists, so they benefit

from an even mix of Attributes. As consummate
team players, Riflemen are well-suited to the
Pragmatic alignment, and can spend their XP on
more or less any skill or equipment to flesh out
the team.

Generalist: Riflemen add +1 to all their Attributes after they have been set, and reduce the XP
cost of increasing Attributes by 1 XP, to a minimum of 1 XP.
Skills Equipment
Assault Rifle (Close)
Battle Rifle (Close)

The Radio Operator

The Radio Telephone Operator, or RTO, has the vital
job of carrying, maintaining and using the team’s
radios, their only link back to the rest of the
Army. Through the radio network, the RTO can keep
Command updated, or request air and artillery
support, reinforcements, and extraction.

The RTO is easily capable of being the most lethal

member of the party, as they are responsible for
coordinating the supporting fire that gives the
US military its edge. Players who like playing
powerful magic-users in other roleplaying games
will enjoy playing the RTO; they spend their
batteries like mana to call down destructive
powers from the heavens.

Being an RTO is a very intellectual and technical

job, so they generally lean hard on Vigilance.
Their default equipment and the batteries to run
it can be very heavy. As RTOs tend not to be the
strongest physically, they should spend their XP
on Skills instead of more heavy gear.

Frequency Jockey: Radio Telephone Operators have the unique ability to perform Adjust Frequency
Actions as Free Actions, and Negotiate with friendlies as a Minor Action.
Skills Equipment
Electronics Portable Radio Telephone
Forward Air Controller
Forward Observer

14
The Pigman
In Vietnam, the standard light machine-gun used
by US forces was the M60, known affectionately
as the Pig. Thus, the men who carried it were
Pigmen. The Pigman is tasked with keeping the
enemy pinned down while the rest of their section
manoeuvres, and represents a disproportionate
amount of the Squad’s lethal power.

In a firefight, the Pigman can lay down as

much firepower as two or three other soldiers,
pinning the enemy in place with ease. He is the
toughest and most lethal shooter on the team in a
straightforward package, akin to a barbarian or
warlord in a fantasy RPG.

The Pigman needs to carry both a very heavy weapon

and a lot of ammo for it, making them reliant on
Fortitude, though a Proficiency Pigman can be very
lethal. Because of their Perk, they inevitably get
tasked with carrying all the spare odds and ends
for the team.
Brawn: Pigmen get +5 Strength.
Skills Equipment
Light Machine Gun (Medium) Light Machine Gun + Bipod
Tactical Vest

The Grenadier
The Vietnam War saw extensive use of personal
grenade launchers, valued for their ability
to project the lethal power of explosives long
distances in infantry-scale combat. These weapons
became so common they effectively replaced the
light mortars of earlier conflicts.

Grenadiers provide a lot of utility to the team,

offering many different possible paths of escape
from bad situations using a wide variety of
explosives. If you like the puzzle-solving aspect
of RPG combat, the Grenadier is probably for you.

Grenadiers are often the heaviest hitter on a

highly mobile team, so they need good Proficiency
to safely land their explosives and good Fortitude
to carry them. Your grenade launcher is very
heavy and you can quickly burn your ammo for it,
so in fights that don’t warrant high explosives
you’ll need a good backup weapon of some kind.

Explosive Safety: Grenadiers negate 1 Failure on any Grenade they are throwing.
Skills Equipment
Launcher Grenade Grenade Launcher
Rifle Grenade Bandoleer

15
The Point
War in the jungle required an entirely different
kind of soldier, unfamiliar to the line infantry
of past wars. Point men are the soldiers who range
ahead of the patrol, being the first to encounter
the enemy. These men must be hunters, survivors
and killers without equal, stalking the jungle as
predators.

Point is a position with a lot of responsibility.

It’s on you to sniff out traps and ambushes, and to
turn the tables on the enemy. If there’s a tunnel,
you’re probably going into it. You’ll often be
working alone and ahead of the Squad. If you like
playing rogues and assassins in other RPGs, take
Point.

Your Vigilance is your single most important

attribute, but you need a good mix to stay
competitive. You aren’t going to be standing up and
fighting, so you need to be able to evade, ambush
and sneak. Don’t rely too much on fancy equipment;
invest in Skills, upgrade your Attributes, and
run as light as you can.

Hunter: The Point can make Observe Actions targeting the tracks of other units to determine
facts about the unit that left them.
Skills Equipment
Stealth Machete
Detect Trap
Observation

The Marksman
The Marksman is responsible for long-range,
direct fire combat, serving as the squad’s observer
and assassin. It is their job to identify and kill
members of the enemy force who pose a particular
threat, such as officers, weapon crews, and in
many cases, other snipers.

Marksmen are the characters most likely to score

a kill whenever they shoot, but at the same time,
they are simply unable to survive a stand-up
fight. A good Marksman needs to be both a team
player and to have an understanding of when they
are outclassed.

Marksmen live and die on their Proficiency; no

other stat truly matters for them. Vigilance will
allow them to spot targets from farther away and
Take Aim, Fortitude will allow them to carry vital
supplies, backup weapons, maybe even a heavy
anti-tank rifle, but none of that matters as much
as hitting every shot they take.
Centre Mass: If a Marksman Takes Aim, their Precision Fire Action that Turn inflicts +1 Injury
on the target if it hits.
Skills Equipment
Battle Rifle (Long) Telescopic Sight
Bolt Action Rifle (Medium, Long)

16
The FireBug
Flamethrowers, first used in the First World War,
are terrifying weapons, both to use and to have
used on you. Though easily capable of working
an enemy out of a fortified position, either by
roasting them alive or convincing them to run
before that could happen, they were becoming
increasingly obsolete, not to mention a PR
nightmare. The Vietnam War was the last major
deployment of these weapons;

Of all the MOS, the Firebug is both the riskiest,

and the one with the potential to personally
cause the most havoc. If you are here to burn
things and kill people and you don’t really care
for anything nuanced or complicated, the Firebug
is your dream job.

Firebugs don’t need a lot of Proficiency to do

their job, but they’ll need Fortitude to carry
those big fuel tanks, especially since they’ll
need to ditch their backpacks. They are a good
match for the Righteous alignment.

Controlled Burn: When rolling damage for any incendiary weapons, Firebugs can choose one
struck target and roll three Injury dice for them, using only the highest result.
Skills Equipment
Flamethrower (Close) Flamethrower
Pyromania Backpack Fuel Tank

The Gunner
In modern warfare, the rifle is actually quite
far removed from the primary lethal instrument
of the infantry. No, the job of the rifle is to
provide security for the heavy-hitters; mortars,
recoilless cannons, rocket tubes, tripod machine-
guns, infrared missiles and other, more bizarre
foot-mobile artillery. The soldiers who command
these weapons are Gunners.

The tools gunners use are complicated and diverse;

but all of them are heavy and awkward. Gunners,
more than any other characters, are reliant on
other characters or NPCs carrying and setting up
gear for them. As a result, they are not well suited
for Special Forces type games.

Gunners need Proficiency above all else. They can

have their friends carry their gear and watch out
for them, but when they finally fire, they must hit
their targets.

Weapon Mastery: Before the start of their Mission, the Gunner can select any one of the following
weapons and two Weapon Skills related to it; Heavy Machine Gun, Mortar, Small Recoilless Rifle,
Automatic Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, or Anti-Air Missile Tube. They will receive both
the weapon and the associated skill for the duration of the mission.
Skills Equipment
Observation Flare Gun

17
The Medic
The Medic is a soldier trained in emergency
medicine. The Medic monitors the health of the
team, treats the wounded, and helps sick locals
where they can. In the modern age, all Medics are
armed, even if it is just to protect their patients.

As a Medic, the team will rely on you a lot to keep

them alive and fighting, and will need to protect
you, so if you want to feel important the Medic is
a good MOS. They serve the same role as clerics and
healers in other RPGs, and if you are wary about
the game’s subject matter, the Medic lets you push
back directly against the grim atmosphere.

Medics need both the smarts to treat their patients,

and the strength to move them, so it can be a good
idea to dump Proficiency entirely. As their job
involves helping their teammates, civilians, and
sometimes even enemy soldiers, they are a natural
fit for the Idealistic alignment.

Stabilization: When a Medic uses a Treat Injury action on a target, regardless of it is was a
success, they reduce the target’s Ongoing Damage by 1.
Skills Equipment
Trauma Care Medical Bag
Medicine Opiates are free

The Intel
Wars are won or lost on intelligence, and the
Intel MOS represents the front line of this battle
of the minds. They are tasked with collecting
vital data and disrupting enemy attempts to do
the same. Some of them are formal intelligence
specialists, some simply the designated soldier
in the platoon responsible for prisoners and
important papers, and a few may even be serving
two masters, working in secret for the CIA or
other classified organizations.

The Intel MOS is a natural fit for dedicated

roleplayers, as your primary weapon is your mind,
your skills and your charisma. They are also a
good pick for leaders, if your group has that kind
of dynamic.

Intel soldiers will need a high Vigilance and a

wide variety of skills, as they’ll be the public
face of the party. Because they don’t need much
equipment for their job, they are free to carry
the tools needed to fill in missing combat roles
as well.
Likeable: Intel characters are naturally disarming. They can use Negotiate Actions for the
specific purpose of gaining somebody’s trust. Unless they subsequently betray their trust or
hurt them, they get 1 Automatic Success whenever they Negotiate or Interrogate that person.
Skills Equipment
Diplomacy Phrasebook
Camera
Hallucinogenics only cost 1 XP

18
The Handler
Search and Destroy has a unique set of requirements
that tax regular infantry, opening up roles for
many unique specialities. The US military first
used military dogs in jungle warfare in the
Pacific, and the program came into it’s own in
Vietnam; the dogs could sniff out enemy forces or
explosives with much greater effectiveness than
any person or piece of tech.

K9 Handlers are a unique MOS that works directly

with an NPC character in the form of the Working
Dog. As your dog is your primary concern, you need
to be something like a mix between an officer, a
scout and a medic, so this isn’t an MOS for a new
player.

As a K9 Handler, you’ll be spending most of your

XP on commands for your dog, so whatever is left
should be used to ensure you can keep up with your
animal. If you are hunting for bombs, be ready to
defuse them; if you are working with a war dog, be
ready to follow them into the bush.

Man’s Best Friend: K9 Handlers are accompanied by a Working Dog, a kind of special NPC. The
Working Dog will only obey the K9 Handler. Rules for Working Dogs are located on page 52.
Skills Equipment
Command: Recall Whistle

The Engineer
A military involves a massive effort in logistics,
construction, transportation and management,
and the tip of that spear is the combat engineer.
Tasked with building and destroying in equal
measure, the combat engineer has the training
both for the relatively safe use of destructive
devices and the can-do attitude to rebuild what
war so reliably destroys.

In PATROL, Engineers are the consummate defensive

class. They make their most dramatic mark on
combat before it begins, laying and removing
mines, digging trenches, cutting down trees,
laying wire and disguising their positions. If
you like preparation and careful planning, you
should consider the Engineer.

After combat begins, however, Engineers tend to

fade into the background. A good engineer doesn’t
need much Proficiency, because they’ll have made
their presence felt before shots are fired.

Get it Done: Engineers double their Successes for Prepare Position Actions, and grant +1
automatic Successes to everyone else in the Unit making the Action. The Engineer can also use
their Vigilance instead of Proficiency for the Set Trap Action and trap attack rolls.
Skills Equipment
Handyman Tool Kit
Drive (Utility Car, Truck, Bulldozer) Wirecutters
Defuse Traps and Demolition Charges are Free

19
Psychological
Profile
The Psychological Profile section of your
Character Sheet gives you some insight into the
moral values of your character and what they
believe is important, summarized by selecting a
single Alignment.
Your Psychological Profile is not a complete
picture of what your character believes, or
why, but gives you a steady guideline for their
behaviour. It is more a basic assessment of what
is most important when the chips are down. Two
characters who share the same belief systems
might still have different alignments.
Idealistic
Devoted to All
Idealistic characters are morally upstanding,
conscientious people. They hate war, have
little desire to hurt anyone, and would rather
help the locals where they can. They are the
bleeding hearts and fools who endanger the
squad with their sentiment.
Pragmatic
Devoted to Friends
Pragmatic characters just want to do their
job and go home. They fight because they have
orders and they want to protect their friends.
They are the uneager, soft followers who are
losing us this war.
Righteous
Devoted to the Cause
Righteous characters believe in the Cause
and will die to advance it. They fight because
they believe the war is just, God is on their
side, and their enemies are monsters. They are
the idiotic blowhards who are squandering
everything we have built.
Egocentric
Devoted to Self
Egocentric characters want to survive and
get ahead by any means necessary. They only
look out for themselves and work with the
squad only to increase their odds. They are
the backstabbing sociopaths that make things
miserable for everyone.
When you have made your choice, just check off the
appropriate box on your sheet. Your Alignment
will help determine how Vietnam will change you,
and what you do in response.
Your Alignment is not fixed. Over the course of
a campaign, you may come to change Alignment as
your worldview shifts.
20
AttriButes
Your Attributes are the statistics that form
the basis of the problem-solving portion of the
game. They summarize, roughly, your character’s
physical and mental abilities as they are relevant
to combat.
The three Attributes in PATROL are Fortitude,
Vigilance, and Proficiency.
Fortitude
Physical Conditioning
Represents your general level of physical
fitness. Fortitude affects how much you gear
you can carry and how fast you can move. It is
used for checks that require physical exertion,
such as melee combat or preparing a position.
Vigilance
Mental Alertness
Represents your situational awareness, your
intelligence, and your charisma. Vigilance is
used to detect hidden things, to hide yourself,
for negotiating with civilians, the enemy
and your own bureaucracy, and for the use of
electronics.
Proficiency
Technical Prowess
Represents your familiarity and skill with
the methods of modern warfare, both in its
technical and tactical aspects. Proficiency is
used for making attacks with firearms, heavy
weapons and grenades, and for driving vehicles
and operating machinery.
At this stage, you can freely assign your
Attributes, with two restrictions.
• You cannot have less than 5 in a given Attribute.
• All your Attributes added together must be equal
to or less than 24.
Your Attributes are not fixed values; they will be
adjusted during your missions by Status Effects
and circumstances, and they may be raised or
lowered over time. Your Attributes, after they
have been modified in this manner, are referred
to as your Effective Attributes. Your Effective
Attributes are the ones actually used for tests;
your Attributes on your character sheet (Your
“Base Attributes”) act as a baseline.
Different military forces might have different
standards and training programs which would
result in different starting attributes. For
example, a Special Forces unit might allow a
higher total Attribute count, whereas a guerrilla
force might take what they can get with lower
minimum values.
Customization
Once you’ve determined your Attributes, you
choose Skills and Equipment, beyond the ones
you got with your MOS. You can also upgrade your
Attributes further.
Both Skills and Equipment are purchased with
the same stat, Experience Points, referred to
throughout this book as XP. You have 6 XP to spend
at Character Creation.
Upgrade Attributes
You can spend some of your XP to upgrade your
Attributes, rounding out your character further.
The specific costs for upgrading your Attributes
are contained on page 55, “In Between Missions”.
Skills
Skills represent special expertise your
character has which allows them to more
proficiently engage in certain activities. A
character without a Skill attempting an activity
will achieve less and be more likely to make
potentially disastrous mistakes.
The Skills and their applications are listed on
page 56. Each skill costs 3 Points.
Equipment
Equipment represents everything your character
has managed to carry with them. Different pieces
of Equipment costs different amounts of XP; the
various Equipment, their uses and their costs
can be found on page 194, with detailed rules for
each piece in the Equipment section.
Equipment has Weight, and characters have a
Carrying Capacity, how much they carry and still
operate normally. To figure out your Carrying
Capacity, check page 27. You cannot carry excess
weight between missions; you only own what’s on
your back.
Before a mission, you should be stocking up on
free equipment like food, water and ammunition.
You’re gonna be using up a lot of it!
Characters can freely swap equipment with one
another at character creation; if you have XP to
spare but are running out of Weight, you could
purchase Equipment for a teammate with the
opposite problem, or you could carry some heavy
equipment or spare ammunition for a friend.
You can ditch any extraneous gear you were
issued to make room. This won’t give you any XP
back, but it can free up some space. Take note;
you can always get any Standard Issue or MOS
equipment back between missions at no cost, but
any equipment that you purchased with XP which
you ditch, use up or lose has to be repurchased.
21
Assigning Rank
The military is built on a rigid hierarchy of
rank, from the highest general to the lowliest
private. There are only five ranks that matter for
PCs in PATROL.
Officers
Officers are the ones nominally in charge of
this show. They have their own set of ranks and
special insignia, but you call them all “sir”.
The officers are the ones who send you into
this mess, whether they be green lieutenants,
who don’t know a thing, or major generals, who
can’t even remember being out in the field. In
PATROL, player characters are generally not
officers.
Sergeant
Sergeant is the highest rank available to
PCs. The Sergeant is responsible for leading
the Squad and exercising authority over the
Squad’s actions. There can only be one Sergeant
per Squad.
Specialist
Specialist are tasked with leading detachments
and act on behalf of the Sergeant when he
cannot be present personally. They are usually
adept at operating more or less on their own.
Private, First Class
Private First Class doesn’t have any particular
responsibilities or command authority, but
they are better paid and trusted to manage
lesser Private soldiers.
Private
Private soldiers are the lowest rank. They
have no authority and have to do all the crappy
jobs. In all likelihood, you are a private.
After the Squad is assembled, the GM should,
either randomly or maliciously, select a member
of the Squad to be promoted to Sergeant. The other
ranks can be filled out appropriately according
to the composition of the Squad, especially if
there are any NPC Squadmembers.
The job of the highest ranking character on
the Squad is to settle any disputes over group
actions which everyone must participate in, such
as movement. They also have a degree of authority
over Allied NPCs, and are usually in charge of
any NPC squad members.
Out in the field, ranking characters hold no
actual authority, but players are encouraged to
defer to them during disagreements to it keeps
the game going. As for NPC officers, disobey them
at your own risk.
Code of Conduct
All soldiers are expected to follow an extensive list of rules and regulations. Violating these rules
will obviously result in sanctions and punishments being imposed. However, as the saying goes, it
isn’t cheating if you don’t get caught; and out in the field, the only witnesses to any violations you
might commit are your squadmates.

Obviously, this book doesn’t have room for the entirety of the military law. Instead, we’ve boiled it
down to ten easy to remember rules. As ignorance of the law is does not excuse violations, everyone
should recite these rules together before you begin your campaign.

1. I will obey any lawful order from officers to the best of my ability.
2. I will obey the Rules of Engagement during missions.
3. I will not deliberately bring harm to civilians or their livelihoods.
4. I will not abandon my weapon under any circumstances.
5. I will not deliberately bring harm to my squadmates or allies.
6. I will not fire upon surrendering enemy soldiers or wounded.
7. I will treat prisoners with respect and safeguard their well being.
8. I will not show cowardice or surrender while there is hope.
9. I will not feign surrender or injury to deceive the enemy.
10. I will leave no man behind.

Oath of Enlistment
Once you’ve gone through training, got your gear, and learned the rules, it is just about time to ship
out. There is just one thing left to do. Everyone should stand and recite the following.

“I, _____, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution
of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear
true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the
President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,
according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me
God.”

22
Selective Service Form
Personal Information
Fill these fields to the best of your abilities. Misleading answers are a criminal offense.
Name Age Serial #
Rank Blood Gender Origin
MOS Outfit
Helmet Scrawl

Psychological Profile
Check one in the approved fashion. If you are unsure of your Alignment, refer to your recruitment
officer for a standard 9-point metaphysical evaluation.

Idealistic Pragmatic Righteous Egocentric

Your psych profile will be tracked on this form and duplicated for record-keeping.
Victory Experience
Trauma
Points Points

Readiness AttriButes
Distribute 24 points. You must achieve a score of at least 5 in all categories to be approved.

Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency

Training Schedule
Each Skill costs 3XP. Weapon qualifications are not valid without range indicators.

Equipment Registration
Items outside of the approved list are contraband.
/

Awards
Listing commendations which were not issued is a violation of military law.

Property of the US ARMY

23
Basic Rules
Each Mission begins with a Briefing, goes
through a series of Turns where characters make
Actions to effect the outcome, and then ends with
an Epilogue.
OBjectives
The core of a Mission is the Objectives. The
Objectives are a list of conditions the Squad is
attempting to fulfil. Objectives are how PATROL
regulates game tone, see page 154 for guidelines.
When you complete an Objective, you get a number
of Victory Points, set at the start of the Mission.
If you fail, you lose that many VPs. Sometimes,
though, you’ll be assigned optional Objectives;
you’re rewarded for completing them, but don’t
lose anything if you don’t.
Turns
Your Mission consists of a series of Turns, which
regulate the passage of time and break down the
actions of everyone in the group. Turns are “I
go, you go”, with the PC’s side going first, then
Hostiles taking their move. A typical turn would
look like this.
Turn Sequence
Player Turn
• Advance Status Effects
• Perform Actions
• Reset Player Suppression to 0
• Assess Fatigue
Enemy Turn
• Enemy Actions
• Reset Enemy Suppression to 0
Civilian Turn
Though a dozen Turns can be resolved in a single
sentence or a single Turn can take up most of
the session, each individual Turn typically
represents 30 minutes of in-universe time. Under
normal conditions, this leaves 2 Turns per hour
and 48 Turns in a day, though a GM can choose to
vary the time which individual Turns represent.
These long turns reflect the reality that much of
war is spent waiting. It helps if you think of the
events of a Turn not as a single action, but as the
overall purpose or result of a series of events.
In short, time is how PATROL punishes failure.
Actions
Every Turn, players get to make a single Regular
Action which establishes how your character is
spending this time. These Actions are selected
from the Action Chapter on page 58. In addition to
their single Regular Action, characters can also
perform any number of Free Actions any number of
times, and any given Minor Action once.
24
When characters perform an Action, they simply
check if they meet the requirements to make the
action, and then follow the instructions given.
When an Action involves a Check, the conditions
of the Check and the result of failures or FUBAR
rolls will also be listed. Characters resolve
their actions in the order they are taken, through
movement actions will occur simultaneously so
members of the Unit are not left behind.
To perform an Action, characters generally need
to be within 10m of what they are interacting
with. They can use a Shift Minor Action (page 61)
to move into position for these Actions.
Overwatch
Any character can declare that, instead of taking
their Regular Action for the Turn, they are
going to use Overwatch. Basically, this means the
character hunkers down and waits for specific
events to occur before acting. The Action they
take will interrupt somebody else’s turn when
the trigger event occurs.
When you want to use Overwatch, declare what
action you are going to use, and what event
will trigger that Action. A good example of an
Overwatch Action is to hold your fire until the
enemy passes nearby.
You can only declare one potential Action for
Overwatch, and if the trigger comes to pass, you
must take the action no matter what. Be careful
about declaring that you’ll shoot anything that
moves if you have friends in the bush!
The Roundel
PATROL is, in large part, a game about scarcity.
Limited resources of ammunition, food, water and
other supplies are a constant issue. To make these
issues pressing, time plays a factor.
Normally, tracking these kinds of things is
irritating. It is easy to forget when to tick off
status effects or when an event is going to take
place. So, to simplify matters, PATROL is played
with a special sheet called a Roundel, which
consists of a 12-part circular chart.
Take a token and place it at 12 o’clock. Every
time the Turn advances, move the token one
section clockwise. The chart is labelled with
the intervals at which the most common Status
Effects advance. These will act as a reminder to
enact these Status Effects.
The Roundel doesn’t care how long the Turns
actually take. If you had 4 turns of intensive
firefight in a 30 minute period, you advance the
Roundel 4, not 1. Status Effects kick in at the
same time for everyone. Even if you arrived by
helicopter on the last turn, if this is the turn
where Exhaustion and Thirst advanced, you must
take the status effects.
the Map Units
The map is probably the single most important The interactive groups of individuals on the
physical element in PATROL. Most of the rules
ultimately boil down to the relative positions
of characters and objects, and that can only be
tracked properly on a map, so it is important to
ensure your map is suitable for play.
There are two ways of using the map in play. The
GM can keep the game map private, so the players
have to rely on the narration, or the map and
gamepieces can be public for everyone to see.
For more information, see the GM Guide section
“Closed Map vs Open Map” on page 143.
At the very least, a map needs a scale for distance
and a compass rose for direction. The best maps
have a grid system, markers for elevation, and some
way of telling terrain apart. Not surprisingly,
actual military maps work best!
PATROL uses the cardinal (North, South, East and
West) and intercardinal (Northeast, Southeast,
Northwest and Southwest) directions on the
compass whenever directions need to be described.
Using colour-coded gamepieces or writing
directly on the map can help you keep track of
everything. If you are playing over the Internet,
collaborative image editing or generic tabletop
game programs can be very effective.
Distances
As in the real-world US Military, all distances
are measured in metric; meters and kilometres (or
“klicks”). Exact distances aren’t to be worried
about; close enough really is good enough. If
there is any dispute about distances, the GM
settles it.
The smallest distance increment that PATROL
concerns itself with is 10 meters; any distance or
area smaller is to be rounded to 10m for the sake
of simplicity. Any group of characters or objects
within 10 meters is effectively considered to be
in the same location.
Covering Distance
When characters move, they cover all the distance
between their starting point and their end point.
Treat them as having been present along their
route for the entire length of the movement; they
may spot something in the middle of their trip
that they would not see from either end, they may
be ambushed from an Overwatch action, they might
run into a mine, or so forth.
Because of this, nobody is ever committed to
finishing a move they started. Characters can
always pause at any time along their route to
make Minor or Free Actions, ask for more detail,
or simply because they changed their mind.
25
field in PATROL are known as Units. A Unit is
everyone within 10 meters of one another. This
unit is treated as occupying the same space for
the purposes of the rules. This is not a formal
categorization; it is a loose guideline for
sorting geographically-distinct groups of
people.
As this could potentially make Units of thousands
of people as long as there was an unbroken 10
meters between them, some common sense will need
to be used to keep things straightforward, such as
using 10 meter “chunks” of a crowd to form Units.
Units can be made out of civilians or opposing
forces; even two groups involved in hand-to-hand
combat are a single Unit. A person on their own is
considered a Unit in PATROL. The only exception
to this rule is vehicles. Every vehicle is always
its own Unit, even when within 10m of people or
another vehicle.
The Unit(s) that the Player Characters belong to
is known in the rules as the Squad.
Units and Player Actions
A Unit effectively the nebulous zone where a group
of people moving, talking and fighting might
occupy over a short period of time. Exactly where
people are in that group is irrelevant; the game
never tracks things like walking order or the
tactical formation of the soldiers. Characters
in a Unit are like electrons around a nucleus,
occupying a probability space.
Though it is important that individuals never
go out on their own, splitting the party is a
legitimate action in PATROL and should not be
discouraged. Laying down fire from multiple
locations, “leapfrogging” and spreading out to
divide enemy fire are all important tactics.
Most of the time, Units don’t really factor into
actions; individual actors are free to make
their own Actions without consideration for
what others are doing. If any Action allows or
requires the participation of multiple members
of a Unit, however, all members should commit
before anything is resolved.
Generally, if a Unit is moving together, they will
simply travel at the speed of their slowest member
so they can stick together. This isn’t mandated by
the rules, however, so anyone can choose to move
faster and break up the Unit.
In short, Units are a way of conveniently grouping
together characters for the purposes of the
rules. It should never be treated as inflexible or
binding when it doesn’t make sense in the fiction.
Detection
Avoiding being seen is a large part of modern
combat, so it is important to know what a character
can see at any given point in time.
Visual Detection
On flat ground, characters are aware of everything
around them within their Vigilance x 100m. This
awareness is passive; characters retain this for
the entire length of a turn, even on the move. That
means they’ll spot anything interesting, like
small terrain features, people and potential
threats within that range.
In terrain that obscures vision, sight range drops
considerably. Sight range drops to Vigilance x
10m inside these areas.
These aspects can compound with one another. If
there is a forest within 700m, then a unit with 6
Vigilance cannot see things even to the edge of
the forest. A unit with 9 Vigilance can see the
forest, but cannot see any more than 90m inside.
Even if the forest is only 50m deep, the unit
cannot see more than 90 meters past the edge of
the treeline.
An exception comes with altitude. If you have a
height advantage of at least 10 meters, you can
see over the top of dense terrain. Characters
on low ground cannot see through high ground
unless they are standing on higher ground. The
highest points of an area are a solid wall on the
map as far as vision is concerned.
Units automatically share information; if one
character sees it, the entire Unit sees it. Losing
sight of something is more difficult that failing
to notice it in the first place. All Units can
retain vision on things they’ve already spotted
out to twice their normal detection range.
General Awareness
Just because a character is aware of the existence
of something doesn’t mean they know much about
it. GMs should inform players of things they see
in vague terms; “A small group of people moving
through the trees, carrying weapons” rather than
“5 Vietcong fighters with AK47s.” The Observe
action can be used to gather further information.
Players can gather information from more than
visual information. There are many audio cues;
the sound of footsteps, or animals quieting
as men move through an area. Characters can
hear gunshots and explosions out to about 10
kilometers.
Smell is an important and often underrated
avenue for presenting information. The jungles
of Vietnam overflow with various olfactory
sensations.
26
Wind direction is also important and can be
used to relate information to players who are
downwind from places, people and events.
The most distinct scent is smoke; burning villages
and vehicles will be obvious from several klicks
away. The distinct smell of cordite from recently
fired artillery, the funk of a placid lake, or the
stench of a day-old corpses are other scents that
soldiers might pick up on from up to a kilometre
away, if the wind is right. You’ll also pick up on
recent weather and signs of living like cooking
fires, industry, or latrines.
Players should always feel free to ask the GM
“What do I hear?” or “What do I smell?”.
Tracking
When people and vehicles move, especially
off-road through dense terrain like jungle,
they leave tracks behind. Soldiers also have a
tendency to litter the ground behind them with
spent ammunition casings, empty magazines,
food wrappers, extraneous equipment, and the
occasional body.
Any group of 3 or more people, or any wounded
characters, will leave a trail that can be followed
by the average soldier. A trail effectively lasts
as long as the highest Vigilance of the person
tracking it, in Turns; a Vigilance 8 character
will notice the trail of unit which passed through
the spot up to 8 Turns previously. For larger
groups, add the number of people being tracked to
the tracker’s effective Vigilance. A vehicle adds
a tenth of it’s Weight to the tracker’s Vigilance.
Stealth Ratings
The Stealth Rating is an aspect of characters or
objects that makes them more difficult to spot.
For the purposes of view distance, Vigilance
counts as being 1 less for every point of Stealth
Rating. If something has a higher Stealth Rating
than your Vigilance, you’ll not find it even if
you walk directly over it.
For example, a character with a Vigilance 5 would
normally spot another from 500m away. However,
they would only spot a character with a Stealth
Rating of 3 if they were 200 meters away.
Only the lowest Stealth Rating in a Unit is used
for detecting Units. However, members of a Unit
with a higher Stealth Rating will generally
remain unseen. This can give an observer an
inaccurate impression of the hidden unit.
Various effects can increase a unit’s Stealth
Rating. Most commonly, night conditions will
raise the effective Stealth Rating of a unit.
Conversely, firing a weapon will cause a unit’s
Stealth Rating to immediately drop by 5 points.
There are no negative Stealth Ratings.
Equipment
The modern warfighting equipment you use has
many characteristics, but the one you are most
acutely aware of is Weight, an abstraction of both
the mass and awkwardness of an object. To manage
the problem of carrying loads, characters have
Strength and Carrying Capacity.
Your Strength is how easily your character can
manage the loads they lug around. Your Strength
is equal to twice your Fortitude.
Your Carrying Capacity is the limit of what you
can physically carry on your person. By default,
your Carrying Capacity is 10. Webbing and
backpacks will increase your Carrying Capacity
by giving you more spaces to store things!
You physically cannot carry more than your
Carrying Capacity; you don’t have the space on
your body for it!
You can carry other characters who have consented
or who is Incapacitated. A human body is Weight
10, plus their Equipment.
EquipmenT Types
Equipment comes in types, all of which work a
little differently.
• Equipment is for generic gear.
• Wearables are items you wear!
• Backpacks, Webbing, Helmets and Armour are
exclusive; you only benefit from one of each.
• Clothing and Footwear are also exclusive, and
don’t have Weight whilst you wear them.
• Supplies are consumable equipment, like food,
medicine and ammo.
• Firearms, Blast Weapons, and Melee Weapons are
kinds of weapons.
• Modifiers are Equipment that attach to weapons
to give them extra functionality.
• Traps and Grenades are types of explosives.
Enemy Gear
The weapons, grenades and ammunition your
enemies carry is not compatible with your own;
you are not trained for them, they use different
standards, ammunition sizes and tools, and they
are frequently in unknown condition. Thus,
pieces of equipment not compatible with your own
is marked with an (E) for Enemy.
An E weapon cannot use non-E ammunition, and
vise versa. If you want to become proficient in
a piece of enemy kit, you need the Enemy Weapon
(Type) Skill, in addition to your Weapon Skills.
The E label is relative. If you were playing Viet
Cong, then Free World Forces equipment would
be Enemy, and your own would be unlabeled. The
origin of Hand Grenades, mines and traps never
matters.
27
Liquids
Liquids are not discrete items. Instead, special
Equipment is used to carry generic units of
liquids. These units don’t have Weight; at best
a container might weigh differently if it is
completely empty or ‘full’. You cannot carry
Liquids without a carrier.
PATROL has two relevant kinds of liquid; Water
and Fuel. If you mix them, you just ruin both. Some
containers cannot carry some kinds of liquid.
You can always choose if a container is full or
empty before you depart.
Water you acquire from wells, taps, rain traps and
other reputable sources is Clean, but water from
rivers, puddles, lakes and other field sources is
Dirty. If you add Dirty Water to any container
carrying Clean Water, the Clean Water is turned
into Dirty Water.
You can drink Dirty Water, but you must
immediately make a Fortitude Check requiring
successes equal to how much water you drank. If
you fail, the water removes no Thirst, and if you
FUBAR, you take Exhaustion equal to the number
of Failures you rolled.
Fuel represents gasoline, butane, or napalm used
for vehicles, lighters, flamethrowers, lanterns
and stoves. If a Wearable container of Fuel is
destroyed by an attack, resolve a Throw Grenade
Action with a Molotov Cocktail on the Unit. The
To-Hit difficulty is 1, rolling the Fuel in the
carrier as dice. The wearer is always hit first.
Radios and Telephones
Out in the field, your only link to your allies
is often through the cutting edge technology of
your portable radios and telephones.
Radios are wireless communication devices.
Radio receivers can pick up messages, and radio
transmitters can send them. The radios you use
are generally both.
If you want to contact somebody with a Radio
Transmitter, you‘ll first need to use an Adjust
Frequency action to dial them. Your connection
will be broken if you stray farther in klicks
than your Successes rolled.
Telephones are another method you can use to
keep in touch. They can’t be jammed or intercepted
from a distance, so they are very secure. You also
don’t need to manage their power consumption, as
telephones have very light requirements; they
might be sound-powered, hand cranked or simply
very light on their batteries.
However, telephones have to be linked to one
another with electrical wire to work. Running
wire through the jungle is dangerous business
and once set they are a prime target.
NPCs
A Non-Player Character, or NPC, is any actor in the
game world who is controlled by the GM instead of
by one of the players. They represent comrades,
enemies and civilians alike.
Squadmates
As there won’t always be enough players to make
for a sensible number of soldiers for a Mission,
oftentimes the player’s Squad will be buffed out
with NPC Squadmates.
All NPC Squadmates are drawn from the profiles
provided in faction portion of the GM Guide,
filling out your Squad with, for instance,
American GIs or ARVN Regulars. If you need to fill
gaps in the Squad, you can apply the MOS templates
to some of them for extra skills and equipment.
Taking the BUllet
The PCs are, like the protagonists of a movie,
generally a little faster, smarter, or luckier
than those around them. When a Player Character
is hit by random fire, they can elect to allow an
NPC in the Unit take the hit instead. The GM will
then pick an NPC target. This rule can be waived
if you are running a truly grim game.
NPC Restrictions
You should think of NPC squadmates as extras and
bit roles, not as main characters. They might have
names and the occasional line, but the events do
not pivot on them or their presence.
NPC Squadmates should never take the initiative
from the players. They shouldn’t perform
meaningful Interactions with anyone important,
and they will generally act at the direction of
the PCs. However, they aren’t controlled by the
players directly and they aren’t robots. They
will refuse suicidal orders, run away if they get
scared, and fight back if betrayed.
NPC Squadmates don’t need to get Victory Points,
and they don’t write Reports. They have Alignments,
but only to give them a basic temperament.
Battle Buddies
A good way to pad out a squad lacking the numbers
for a Mission is to assign each player a Battle
Buddy. A Battle Buddy is an NPC who acts as a
minion for a player, supporting them closely and
following their lead.
A Battle Buddy is broadly under the control of
another PC, but they must still act under the
restrictions placed on NPC characters, and the
GM can take control of them in extreme cases.
They let some of the boring work be offloaded to
an NPC; a Battle Buddy can act as a spotter for a
sniper, a loader for a machine-gun, a stretcher
bearer for a medic, and so forth.
28
Allies
Usually, the players won’t be operating alone.
There will be other units on the field, and they’ll
be operating inside a chain of command.
Most often, the Squad will be part of a platoon of
2-3 other squads they work closely with, lead by a
lieutenant that acts as immediate supervision. As
these officers are usually very inexperienced,
the leaders of these various Units are effectively
in charge, so each squad more or less does their
own thing.
Allied soldiers work much like the team do,
but it isn’t important to track all the details
about them if you are just interacting with
them loosely. They have their own objectives and
priorities, and may have varying opinions about
the PCs, especially if they are part of another
branch of service.
The Squad don’t have unlimited ability to contact
anyone they please. Other units typically operate
on different radio frequencies, so tuning in to
other units is often a lot of work. The Squad will
have an easier time if they have direct contact
with air, artillery, or armour operating in the
area, but they often won’t have this luxury.
Support
Free World Forces in Vietnam had a nigh-absurd
collection of artillery, gunships, medivac
copters and strafing aircraft itching to be set
loose. These are by far your greatest advantage.
Players should know what is on-station and
what isn’t, when helicopters can or can’t get to a
location, and what kind of guns are able to lend
their support. Almost everywhere in Vietnam
falls under the potential coverage of at least
one firebase’s artillery pieces, but they might
be busy, and players should know that.
They should also be made aware of their place
in the hierarchy for calling on such support.
If the players are the only allied forces in an
area, they likely have everything at their full
disposal and will not have to do much to convince
the higher ups to unleash the ordnance.
Conversely, if operating under a larger force,
the Squad may not have the authority to call for
support directly, and will need to go through
their superiors or convince somebody with
Negotiate actions to lend them support.
Support doesn’t operate on any particular
special rules; they just use the regular profiles
for soldiers, guns and vehicles operated by NPCs.
This makes it easy to know how long it’ll take
before a helicopter can arrive, what kind of guns
are in position, and so forth. Just resolve it like
you would anything else.
Common Support
Artillery
In most of the country, the players will have
instant access to Medium Artillery from the
nearest firebase. More forward positions might
have to rely on Pack Howitzers flown in for the
operation. In desperate situations, they might
have to rely exclusively on the mortars their
platoon carries with them.
Calling in artillery should never be terribly
hard, but these positions usually have a
fairly limited amount of ammunition on-hand,
especially far out into the field. The gunners
will keep the Squad appraised.
Utility Helicopter
The other commonplace support element the
players will have on-call are utility helicopters
in a resupply and medical evacuation (Medivac)
capacity.
A Medivac chopper is a transport with medics
aboard that will quickly take wounded to nearby
field hospitals. These same helicopters are
generally how replacement characters rejoin the
action. There are always Medivac helicopters
standing by, so they are generally dispatched the
turn they are called for.
Resupply might take longer, as they need to get
the materials together, and it might be more
difficult to get flown in. They might not always
get your order right; check page 151 in the GM
Section “Resupply Issues”.
Choppers are reluctant to fly into dangerous
areas; they are very vulnerable to ground fire.
Generally, you’ll need to push pretty hard for
a resupply flight into hostile territory, while
Medivacs will fly in all but the most dangerous
circumstances.
Gunship Support
Helicopter gunships are not as easy to call in as
utility choppers; there are less of them and they
require a lot more support. The best the PCs can
usually hope for is guiding the fire of a gunship
already in the area.
Close Air Support
Coming from jets and ground attack planes
operating in airbases in and near the country,
as well as from Naval aircraft carriers, close
air support is both devastating to the enemy and
quite difficult to get. The flyboys won’t get out of
bed for any target smaller than an NVA regiment.
The squad doesn’t generally have the authority to
get planes launched, but they may be able to get
planes already in the air redirected, or guide a
preplanned strike more precisely.
29
Resupply Air Drop
If you’re somewhere that helicopters can’t go,
like a dangerous V.C. stronghold or on black ops
in a neighbouring country, you probably can’t
get a helicopter to get supplies to you. However,
its generally possible to get a large air drop of
supplies brought in by plane.
If mission circumstances justify it, a resupply
air drop can get you as much as 50 Weight of gear
in a drop crate, but this isn’t an easy operation.
They need to get a cargo plane, gather materials,
pack a crate, make a flight plan and launch, which
will generally take them a few hours, minimum,
before the plane is even launched.
The crate will suffer from the same resupply
issues as helicopter resupply, and will land
5d6x100 meters from wherever the drop was
planned, worse in bad weather.
Hostile Forces
Your enemies in PATROL are known as the Hostile
Forces; these could be the Viet Cong, the regular
North Vietnamese Army, isolationist villagers,
ARVN traitors, rogue Western units, violent
French holdouts or just hill bandits.
These NPCs function under the exact same rules
the players and Allied forces do.
Quick Enemy Status
Full enemy status charts are a hassle and not
worth it most of the time. Other than Injury, you
can usually get away with just giving each enemy
Unit a single track from 1-5. Everybody who
dies and every 3 hours they spend unable to rest
fighting the PCs, track advances by 1. They give
up, retreat or surrender at 6.
Rules of Engagement
The Rules of Engagement, or ROE, dictate how the
Squad is allowed to use force during the Mission.
Obeying the Rules of Engagement is Rule 2 in the
Code of Conduct and is very important!
The most permissive ROE is a Free Fire Zone. The
military has decided that everything in the
area is a hostile. You can freely call for air and
artillery to be fired blindly at grid squares.
In most battle zones, the ROE is Offensive. If you
see a weapon or an enemy uniform, light them up,
but you need to confirm your targets beforehand.
You’ll need eyes-on or good evidence before air
and artillery is unleashed.
The most limited ROE is Restrictive. You may
not fire unless fired upon, you aren’t allowed
to plant any mines or booby traps, you can never
fire blind, and every artillery or air strike
will require an observer.
Movement Rules Enemy Presence
Troops move more cautiously under threat of enemy
Movement is governed by a few universal rules fire. If you can see an enemy within a kilometre,
regarding where and how fast you can move. any Full Moves you could normally make become
Half Moves instead. Moves that are normally Half
Move SpeeD Chart Moves or Shifts are unaffected.
Your Move Speed is determined by your Load.
Subtract your Strength from the Weight of what You cannot move through enemy Units. If you move
you’re carrying, and that’s your Load. into direct contact with an enemy Unit through
Speed Load Full Half Shift Swim any means, you must stop and fight them in hand
10 - 1500m 750m 325m - to hand. This may give the target a chance to make
Defensive Fire (see page 32).
9 <0 1000m 500m 250m 1
8 <5 900m 450m 225m 2 The only exception is if either party is unaware
7 <10 800m 400m 200m 3 of the other even at 10m; one unit sneaking past
6 <15 700m 350m 175m 4 another, or a unit passing over a hidden one.
5
4
<20
<25
600m
500m
300m
250m
150m
125m
5
6
Trap Rules
Mines, claymores, trip flares, crossbow traps,
3 <30 400m 200m 100m 7 and spikey pits dug in the ground all fall under
2 30+ 200m 100m 50m 8 the category of Traps. They come in three types.
1 - 100m 50m 25m 9
Contact Traps are created out of Mines, and are
Terrain, equipment, or weather can modify your probably the most common form of trap. They go
speed. If you had a Load of 12, you would move at off if a Unit comes within 10m of a Contact Trap
Speed 5. If you then walked into a Speed Down 3 without detecting it.
thicket, you would reduce your Speed to 2.
The second is a Booby Trap. These traps are rigged
The top and bottom Speeds on the Move Speed Chart to go off if somebody tampers with them. A Booby
only come into effect with modifiers. Trap is set on bodies, discarded equipment,
vehicles, doors, and so forth, and goes off if you
PUshing Yourself make an Action involving them.
If you need to move faster than your current Move
Speed, you can Push Yourself. Increase your Speed The third type of Trap are Command Traps. These
by 2 for the next Action, then take a point of traps consist of the trap itself, the detonator
Exhaustion and Thirst. You can Push Yourself for used to set them off, and a length of Electrical
as many points as you can handle. Wire connecting the two. If all three parts are
present, the trap goes off when the Detonate Trap
Mixed Movement Modifiers Action is used.
You will often find a Move causing you to pass
over multiple pieces of Terrain. Aways use the People can muck about with Command Traps after
lowest Speed value for your whole Move. they are placed. A common example is infiltrators
turning a claymore around to face enemy
You can break down your Move into Half Moves. So positions. This is a Set Trap Action, rerolling
if you were speed 6 but had to cross a Speed Down 2 the Stealth Rating of the Trap.
stream within 200m, you could take a Speed 4 Half
Move, then a Speed 6 Half Move on the other side. Setting off Traps
When a trap goes off, roll a d6. On a 1, the trap is
Fortitude Requirements a dud or otherwise nonfunctional, and everyone
For every point of Fortitude below 5 you drop, your gives a sigh of relief. Otherwise, boom!
effective Move Speed decreases by one category.
You cannot move at all if your Fortitude is 0. Traps that make attacks, like Claymore Mines,
use the Proficiency of the person last person to
Contact interact with them. Most Traps don’t make attacks,
If your movement makes you aware of a previously however; just resolve the effects immediately.
unseen enemy within 300 meters, or if you set off
a Trap, this is Contact; you drop everything to If there are multiple traps planted in the same
prepare to fight. location, they’ll all go off if one does.

On Contact, your Move stops immediately at your Grenade Traps

current location, and everyone must make an Evade Grenades can be set as both Contact Traps and
Action. If you make Contact at less than 100m, you Booby Traps. They automatically hit 1d3 members
can instead make Blind-Fire Suppressive Fire. of the struck squad for their listed effects.
30
Interaction Rules
Interactions are any action that has you talking
with another group of people in order to get
something done.
Communication Basics
In order to interact normally with people,
you need to be within 10m. If you have time to
prearrange hand or light signals, you can use
those within visual range, but otherwise you
won’t really be able to Interact.
Just repeating the same thing multiple times
rarely gets better results. A given person can
only be the target of the same type of Interact
action once per Turn.
The Language Barrier
In PATROL, there is no ability for player
characters to become fluent in Vietnamese,
French, or the various languages of ethnic
minorities spoken in Vietnam. The best they can
do is get an elementary understanding of common
words, use a phrasebook, or attempt to work
through an interpreter.
This is a deliberate choice; American soldiers
are foreigners, detached from the world of the
Vietnamese. Because of the insurmountable
cultural and linguistic gap, they cannot
comprehend their struggles or understand their
positions as a statement of basic fact.
Players should never be able to have a direct,
in-character conversation with a non-English
speaking character in a game of PATROL. Every
interaction, be it with ARVN units, local
villagers or Viet Cong fighters, must be crude and
filtered through a mutual lack of understanding.
Unless a character has a phrasebook, the Local
Language skill, or an interpreter, characters will
automatically fail any attempted Interactions
with non-English speakers. They simply have no
way to relay information.
There are a few universal exceptions to the
language barrier. The most ancient of these is
the words soldiers use to end hostilities; most
NVA soldiers know the English for “I surrender!”,
just the way most Americans know “Toy dau hang!”
means “I give up!”
31
Weapon Up
When interacting with hostiles, or potential
hostiles, you can perform an Interaction “Weapon
Up”. You keep a weapon trained, stay out of sight
or stay in cover, protecting yourself at the cost
of clear communication and trust.
Before you roll your Interaction, you can declare
you are staying Weapon Up. Add +1 to the Difficulty
needed for the Action. At the conclusion of your
Action, or if they try to use an Overwatch Action,
you are allowed to Attack, Evade, or Flee.
Warning Shots & Small Violence
Before you roll a Negotiate Action, you have
the option to use one of these Actions. They are
mutually exclusive; if you use one, you cannot
benefit from the other.
While these actions can make your upcoming Check
easier, they will not endear you to the people you
use them on. Overdoing it may see your victims
striking back.
Players should be made to articulate exactly
what they are doing to their victim when they use
a Small Violence Action.
Trading & BriBes
Oftentimes, it helps if you can back up your words
with something material that the other party
wants. It helps that Vietnam is an unbelievably
corrupt place, thanks in no small part to the
uncontrolled flood of foreign money pouring in.
Offering a Bribe or Trade can give you an
automatic success in a Negotiate or Interrogate
Action, but only if the person both wants the
item and is receptive to being bribed. Offering
insulting bribes can make the Check even harder.
Medicine, ammunition and weapons are in high
demand among rural populations, while local
militia and ARVN are always looking for US
gear. Surredering enemies often want medical
treatment and clean water. Desperate people will
settle for food. Just about any character will
accept tabacco as a bribe.
Idealistic or Righteous characters are less likely
to take a bribe, while Egocentric characters are
more receptive, as well as much greedier.
Combat Rules
Fighting is the core of the soldier’s job. You need
to know how if you want to survive.
Firearm Combat Range
The range to a target will provide the Difficulty
for an attack, referred to as the “To-Hit” Value.
To-Hit can never be lower than 1.
Distance To-Hit Deviation
Close <50m 2 -
Medium <250m 3 25m
Long <500m 4 50m
Extreme <1000m 5 100m
Unless otherwise noted, small arms can fire to
Extreme Range, but beyond their listed effective
range the To-Hit value goes up by 1.
Resolving Attacks
To make an Attack, you choose a weapon and an
Action (see page 66-67). A weapon can only be used
by one person in a Turn. Typically, an Attack is
a Proficiency Check against the target’s To-Hit.
Hits are usually distributed randomly. Assign
each member of the squad a number and roll a dice
for each hit to see who is struck. The same person
can be struck multiple times in one attack.
In cases of mixed To-Hit values, use the lowest
value, but characters with higher To-Hit Values
are exempt from being struck by attacks that
would not have hit them as individuals.
Ambushes & Taking Cover
When a unit is aware of threats, they Take Cover
against them. A unit unaware of danger has their
To-Hit lowered by 1. After they are ambushed and
attacks are resolved, the target Takes Cover and
their To-Hit is restored to normal.
Firing Blind
Blind-Fire increases the To-Hit by 1. It can be
made as Suppressive Fire, Throw Grenade, Blast
Attack and Bombard Actions against targets you
cannot directly see, but can locate by sound,
sensors, intelligence, suspicion or tracer fire.
Defensive Fire
If a visible enemy Unit tries to move to or through
your position from more than 100m away, and you
are not in Hand to Hand combat, your Unit can
make free Suppressive Fire Attacks against them
at Close Range, as if they were in Overwatch. If
they are Pinned Down, they stop at 50 meters.
Crossfire
With the exception of indirect bombardment
weapons, if the line of your fire comes within
10m of another Unit, you count them as part of the
Unit you are shooting at for assigning hits. Only
use the target’s To-Hit values, though.
32
Suppression
Suppression reduces both a unit’s mobility and
lethality. For every point of Suppression, the
target’s Proficiency is reduced by 1, and their
Move Speed is reduced by one category.
When fired on, if the combined total of your Doubt
and the Suppression you’ve taken is greater than
the size of your Unit +3, you are Pinned Down.
While Pinned Down, you cannot make any Regular
Actions except Evade and Flee.
Suppression is always inflicted on whole Units,
even with mixed To-Hit values. Suppression is
removed at the end of Turns.
Hand to Hand Combat
Hand to Hand occurs when a character ends their
Turn within 10m of a hostile and they are both
aware of each other. When two units fight, they
break down into individual Melee. Each member of
the acting side randomly picks an enemy target.
Anyone not made a target then randomly selects
a member of the attacking side. Each group of
characters fighting forms a Melee.
Each side of the Melee decides what outcome they
want to inflict on their target. If they win, these
effects are applied to all opponents in the Melee.
• Lethal: Losers take 1d3 Injury.
• Subdue: Losers are Stunned.
• Drive Off: Losers make a Flee Action.
Carrying a handgun in addition to your melee
weapon gives you a bonus to Melee resolution.
Everyone in the Melee then makes their Check. Add
up the Successes; the side with the most Successes
wins.
Melee
You fight the enemy hand to hand.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty
Length Regular Opposed
Requirements
A detected hostile within 10m.
Effects
Pick a weapon and roll Opposed Fortitude.
Successes
If you have more Successes then your
opponents, you win the melee. Every excess
Success negates 1 Failure.
Failures
Take 1 Injury for every Failure.
FUBAR
You lose your Melee Weapon and/or handgun.
If you outnumber your opponent in the Melee,
every extra person on your side gives 1 automatic
Success.
Always take a point of Exhaustion after Melee.
Heavy Weapon Rules
The Vietnam War saw a bewildering array of
advanced heavy weaponry deployed by both sides.
Weapons like heavy machine-guns, mortars,
howitzers, rocket launchers missile tubes and
cannons tore the landscape apart.
Extended Combat Range
Heavy Weapons can often fire farther and more
effectively than smaller weapons, so they may use
the extended To-Hit chart. These weapons usually
have a Minimum Range, inside which they cannot
strike targets. As the difficulties at longer
ranges are so high, typically Fire Assist actions
are necessary simply to roll enough dice.
Distance To-Hit Deviation
Firearm <1 km <5 - its Weight, rounding up to the nearest 100th.
Near <5 km 6 200m
Far <15 km 7 300m
Maximum <25 km 8 500m
Blind Fire at Extended Combat Range doubles the
To-Hit value instead of adding +1.
Artillery
Artillery are large guns. They usually “count as
their own Wagon”, meaning that, if multiple people
or animals, or a single Vehicle, collectively
contribute carrying capacity to pull it, they
count as half their listed Weight.
When an Artillery piece isn’t being moved, it is
not “equipped” by anyone; it can be used by anyone
within 10m. A given artillery piece can only be
fired once per turn.
Multi-Part Weapons
Many weapons are Multi-Part; they break down
into smaller pieces for easy use. This means the
weapon consists of multiple pieces of Equipment,
which can be carried by different individuals to
more evenly divide the weight. All the components
of a weapon must be present in the same Unit in
order for any member to use the weapon, and they
must be assembled with an Assemble Weapon Action
before they can be used.
33
Multi-Crew Weapons
Some weapon profiles will list a number of
assistant positions, showing the maximum people
who can provide Fire Assistance. All weapons
can technically be operated by one person in a
pinch, and only one person can actually fire such
a weapon at a time.
Emplaced Artillery
An Artillery piece being used or carried by a
Unit is part of that Unit and can be treated as a
character in appropriate circumstances. Though
it shouldn’t be factored in for small arms or
grenades, other artillery and cannons will
destroy an artillery piece if they inflict 5 or
more Injury to it. An artillery piece takes up as
much space in a Defensive Position as 1/100th of
Generally, ammunition should be managed behind
the scenes; a chain of men can unload a few dozen
shells from a truck in a Turn without issue.
Deviation & Scatter
When a weapon makes a Bombard attack, it hits
every unit within a “Scatter” distance. This
distance is a radius around the initial target,
and is determined by the Deviation at the range
to the target. The Deviation is multiplied by
Failures rolled to create the Scatter range.
Guided Weapons
Weapons are starting to be introduced that can
correct their path in flight. If you are Skilled
with a weapon that is Guided at the range you are
firing it, you succeed on 4s, 5s and 6s.
Guided Bombard weapons also negate 2 Failures.
Munition Rules
Most artillery consist of the weapon itself, which
determines factor of the attacks they make like
range and attack bonuses, and the ammunition they
fire. The effect the weapons have on their target
are derived from the profiles of the ammunition
consumed when fired.
Munition rules are listed on page 87.
Casualties
A casualty is anyone eliminated from the fighting
by any means, temporarily or permanently.
Wounded
At the end of any Turn where you took Injury, you
must make a Shock Check.
Shock Check
You try to hold it together...
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Injury
Length - Skill -
Requirements
Manditory when Injury is taken.
Effects
Roll a Fortitude Check.
Successes
If you meet the Difficulty, you are not
Incapacitated. For every excess Success,
negate 1 Failure.
Failures
Take 1 Ongoing for each Failure.
FUBAR
Roll 2d6.
2 - Crippled. Reduce Fortitude by 1d6.
3 - Blinded. Reduce Vigilance by 1d6.
4 - Concussed. Reduce Proficiency to 1d6.
5+ - Reduce a random Attribute by 1.
If you do not meet the Difficulty, you are
Incapacitated.
Characters who are very badly injured may be
replaced. If your character is medivac’d with 3+
Injury or long-term complications, add their VPs,
XP and +5 bonus XP to your next character.
Ongoing Damage
For each point of Ongoing Damage you have, roll a
d6 at the end of each of your Turns. Every 1 your
roll results in 1 Injury, taken immediately.
If you take Injury from Ongoing Damage, you
will need to roll a Shock Check, but ignore the
Failures on this Check. While you have Ongoing
Damage you take twice as much Thirst whenever
the Status Effect advances.
Armour Saves
Equipment may give you an Armour Save. Under the
conditions listed in the gear, roll a d6 for each
point of Injury taken. If you meet or exceed the
target on the die, that Injury is negated. You can
only ever roll one Armour Save per Injury.
Blast Effects and Fire
When you take Injury from incendiary, fire or
phosphorous weapons, 2s count as Failures as well
as 1s on that Turn’s Shock Check. Additionally,
1 random Wearable Item is destroyed for every
Injury you take, rendered unusuable by the flames
or removed to contain the fire.
34
Incapacitation
You can be Incapacitated by failing your Shock Roll
or having 0 in all Attributes. An Incapacitated
character is unconscious, in shock, or simply too
weak to do anything meaningful.
While you are Incapacitated, you cannot perform
any Actions except Revive Person, targeted on
yourself. You do not have to roll this Action.
More than a few soldiers spend a lot of time
thinking about how they would act if they got
shot. However, none of them really know until it
happens. If you get Incapacitated during combat,
roll a d6 on this table to find out how you react.
# Results
You just drop like a sack of bricks,
1 completely silent and unnoticed. Your body
has a Stealth Rating of 2d6.
You start screaming hysterically. Everyone
2 within 500m can hear you.
Unless you are in a Defensive Position or
somebody stops you with a Drag Person or
3 Treat Injury action, you wander off 2d6x10m
in a random direction in shocked delirium.
You slump over and spend a few minutes
4 sobbing. You can still talk to your buddies
for the next turn, but otherwise you’re out.
You barely feel it. You sit down and calmly call
5 for a medic, then slip into unconsciousness.
You don’t even notice the wound at first.
6 Take your next Turn before keeling over.
Stunned
A character who has been Stunned, such as by a
flashbang grenade, cannot make any Actions on
the next Turn. They are effectively Incapacitated
for the duration for any relevant purposes.
Death
When a character Forfeits on Thirst, Hunger, or
Injury, they are KIA (Killed in Action). The XP of
the dead character, including XP earned in this
mission, carries over to the next character.
Dead characters leave a corpse, which is treated
identically to an Incapacitated character. If
the body is returned to base, that player’s next
character gets +5 XP on creation.
Every member of the US military carries a set of
dog tags around their neck. If a player’s body
cannot be recovered but their tags are, their
next character will get +3 XP.
If neither a character’s remains or their dog tags
are recovered, they are MIA (Missing in Action)
instead, and use the rules on the opposite page.
If a character receives 5+ Injury from a single
source, they do not leave a body to be recovered.
Desertion
Almost 50,000 US servicemen deserted during
the Vietnam War, but the vast majority did so
either on US soil or in staging bases in Germany,
Japan, and Thailand. However, there are around
40 confirmed cases of men who deserted their
posts in Vietnam, and an unknown number of MIA
soldiers who may have deserted.
Characters can desert on their own or in a Unit.
To desert, a character simply has to make it out
of visual range of any allied forces, and then
declare their intention to desert. The characters
are then declared MIA on the spot and removed from
play. All the normal rules for going MIA apply,
but, when you create a new character, if at the
time of desertion you had more VPs (including the
VPs earned for deserting) than you had Fatigue,
you gain the difference in bonus XP on your new
character. You gain no other XP for any source.
Capture
Characters, both soldiers and civilians, who have
declared their surrender can voluntarily become
prisoners once they come within 10m of an enemy
unit. Until they actually become prisoners, they
are treated as regular characters and can make
actions normally; their intent to surrender is
not binding.
Once a character has been made a prisoner, they
take their actions on the Turn of the faction who
have taken them prisoner. Prisoners have no hard
restrictions on the actions they can take, but
generally their captors will enforce rules on
them. A prisoner stops being a prisoner once they
leave the visual range of their captor’s faction.
To manage prisoners, they will often be
Restrained. This requires a Police action and no
special equipment. This prevents the character
from performing actions other than moving with
their Captor, Resting, being given supplies to
consume, or Escape Restraints. Restraints can
include a blindfolding a target or securing to a
stationary location so they cannot move.
If a PC is taken captive and not recovered by
their faction by the end of the mission, they are
listed as a POW. Create a new character, who will
inherit any XP the prisoner would have received
from the last Mission.
35
Arrest
It’s one thing to violate the rules deep out in the
bush, where it can stay a secret between you and
your comrades. It’s quite another to attract the
attention of the MPs on the field.
Violating the Code of Conduct or going against
orders in the presence of superior officers or
military police will generally result in your
own side coming to arrest you. The MPs will
generally give you a warning to stand down and
drop your weapon, and once you do they will take
you prisoner, just like enemies would.
However, the Vietnam War has something of a
manpower shortage, so you’ll probably be put back
on the field in short order, one way or another.
You will, however, lose all the VPs you got during
the Mission. If your crimes are particularly
egregious, however, like deliberately killing
friendlies, your character will probably spend
the remainder of their life behind bars, so you
should roll a new one.
Missing
Sometimes, soldiers just go missing. The way this
usually happens is if a character is separated
from the group and cannot return at the end of
the Mission, missing their extraction chopper or
never showing up at the rally point.
The US Military maintains a policy of “No Man
Left Behind”, but due to the nature of warfare in
Vietnam this didn’t always work out. The limited
diplomatic contact with North Vietnam and the
irregular nature of their war effort made it
difficult to tell if soldiers were taken prisoner,
killed in the field without witnesses, deserted,
or actually cut off from the lines. At the time of
writing, there are still some 1,488 US soldiers
unaccounted for.
Characters who are listed as MIA do not get any
bonus XP for their next character, but characters
who are actually missing may turn up again as
prisoners or hostages, or maybe living in a local
village or as a wild man out in the jungle. It’s a
good plot hook, if nothing else.
Combat Example
Laura is running a game of PATROL for Vincent,
an RTO, Luke, a Pigman, and Katie, a Firebug. They
have a gaggle of eight NPC riflemen on their side,
and have been tasked with taking a fortified hill
from the North Vietnamese Army. They spend the
night infiltrating an enemy position to launch a
dawn assault, supported by a pack howitzer.
Laura: “From your position, you can see the
hill above as dawn breaks. You see the smoke of
campfires drifting over the trees, but you can’t
see anyone specific.”
Katie: “Vincent, you could try firing now to maybe
catch some of them with scatter shots?”
Vincent: “That just seems like a waste. I’ll
infiltrate up close with four of the riflemen and
spot directly.”
Katie: “I want to tag along! I’ll get up closer to
the action that way.”
They breaks off from the unit and Infiltrates up
to the base of the hill, spotting a shallow trench
with an NVA unit some 500m up the hill.
Vincent: “Alright, I get on my radio and use 2
Charges to broadcast to the howitzer to fire at
that unit.”
Laura: “Roll your Spot Target, then roll Bombard
for the gunners. There’s 2 Assistant Gunners,
so reroll your discarded dice twice on that
Bombardment.”
Vincent: “How many dice for the Bombard?”
Laura: “16. 7 for the gunner, plus 9 for the three
Assistants.”
Dice come tumbling down, and we end up 7
Successes and 3 Failures. Laura assigns hits and
rolls damage. Several NVA soldiers on the hill
are killed, and the GM rolls damage in secret
for unseen NVA units. However, Vincent’s unit is
within the Scatter distance, so a few shells land
near and injure 3 riflemen.
Vincent: “Oops. I guess that’s why it’s called
danger close. I’ll try to patch them up while you
guys move forward.”
Laura: “Up on the hill, the NVA are actively
searching for you now. One of them uses a Sentry
action...”
She rolls some dice.
Laura: “... and successfully sees Vincent’s unit.”
Vincent: “Aww crap.”
36
Laura: “The survivors of the bombardment fire
down onto you from the trenches. The bombardment
has suppressed them a bit, but they’re still pretty
competent. You guys are likewise suppressed for
4 points. Vincent, you’ve been hit for 2 Injury.”
Vincent: “That’s more injury than I can handle
right now. I’ll let an NPC squadmate take it.”
Katie: “This is really bad. With this much
suppression, we can only crawl if we want to move,
and the enemy is still half a klick away!”
Luke: “Okay, I got this. I can’t see the enemy, but
if any of you have enough Proficiency left to
fire, shoot at the enemy unit.”
Katie: “Oh, so you can follow my tracers!”
Laura: “Yep! That’s really clever of you. You and
the riflemen?”
The two squads blaze away. They even score some
hits, but no Injury because of the enemy’s trench.
Luke: “Okay, NVA turn. Thanks to the multiple
attacks from Luke’s machine-gun, these guys in
the trench are completely pinned down!”
Katie: “Oh boy, my time to shine! I’m going to ditch
everything but my flamethrower, tank and machete
to gain some speed, and then I’m going to charge
those bastards with the rifleman.”
Katie rolls a successful charge thanks to her
Bloodlust Skill, and pounds up the hill.
Katie: “Do they get Defensive Fire against me?”
Laura: “Nope! They’re pinned down, so no regular
actions.”
Katie: “Okay, so I get to make my flamethrower
attack before I start melee, so I roll my blast
attack. Close range and 3 Successes, so I hit 2 of
them for 1d6 Injury each!”
Laura: “Ouch, there’s only three soldiers left.”
Katie: “Alright, I jump into the trench here and
get stabby. Let’s do this.”
Laura: “Okay. You and the rifleman attack one NVA
soldier each. The last one attacks... you, Katie. So
one Melee with the NVA gunner and the rifleman,
and one Melee with you against those two.”
Katie: “Bring it on! I just got 4 Successes and 2
Failures for a lethal attack.”
Laura: “Combined, your opponents only got 2
Successes. You cancel out your failures, so you
block their attacks and roll damage against
those two...”
37
STatus Tracks
In order to track the condition of your character
as they progress through the Mission, PATROL uses
a mechanic called Status Effects. Each Character
has a Status Effect Sheet. This sheet is used to
track the compounding mental and physical wear
your character is subject to over the course of
the game.

A well rested, fed, equipped and motivated soldier

has no Status Effects, so this is where you start
at the beginning of the Mission, unless there are
extenuating circumstances.

When you first acquire a Status Effect, place a Exhaustion

token on the first coloured box on the Status
Effect chart. If you Status Effect is Advanced
by a certain amount, move your token towards
the bottom by that much. If you have a number of
Status Effects removed, move the token up the
chart by the same amount.
You can acquire Status Effects in various ways,
from combat, failed rolls, or simply the passage
of time. As many Status Effects are removed by
Supply items, and as consuming Supplies is a Free
Action, just remove the relevant Supplies instead
until the character runs out, or they chose not to
consume them for whatever reason.
Your Status Effect sheet looks roughly like this.
Status Effects
Exhaust Thirst Hunger Injury Doubt
1 2
3 4
1 1 1 5 6 Hunger represents the distraction of gnawing
1 2 2 7 8
2 4 3 10
3 6 4 12
4 8 5 14
16
Inside each box is the Fatigue each Status Effect
generates. This is explored in more detail on
page 42.
Each Status Effect comes with a Penalty. This
effect is applied for each instance of that Status
Effect you have. For instance, Exhaustion places
a -1 Vigilance penalty on your character, so a
character with 3 Exhaustion is subject to a -3
Vigilance penalty total.
When you have accrued enough of a particular
Status Effect to reach one of the black boxes,
an additional penalty, called the Forfeiture,
is immediately applied. You never want these
penalties happening to you!
38
Gained: Every 6 turns, pushing yourself.
Removed: Resting, Stimulants
Penalty: -1 Vigilance
Forfeiture: Incapacitated. Until you Revive,
you are treated as taking Rest Actions.
Exhaustion represents the weariness and ache
that accompanies long operations, sapping the
soldier of their attentiveness.
Thirst
Gained: Every 6 turns, pushing yourself.
Removed: Drinking water.
Penalty: -1 Fortitude
Forfeiture: Death
Thirst tracks effects of dehydration on the
soldier as they weaken under the hot sun.
Hunger
Gained: Every 12 turns.
Removed: Eating rations.
Penalty: -1 Proficiency
Forfeiture: Death
ache of an empty stomach as it eats away at the
soldier’s will to fight.
Injury
Gained: Violence, accidents, overdose.
Removed: Medical attention.
Penalty: -1 to all Attributes
Forfeiture: Death
Injury abstracts the terrible wounds that
modern weapons inflict on the human body.
Whenever you take Injury, you must immediately
make a Shock Check (see page 34)
Doubt
Gained: From Alignment
Removed: Tobacco, from Alignment, Narcotics
Penalty: -1 to Opposed Negotiate
Forfeiture: None
Doubt, the creeping suspicion that the mission
is bullshit and there’s no victory to be had, is
a disease that spreads among fighting men and
robs them of their will.
Gear Status
In addition to your personal statuses, various
pieces of your gear have their own Status Tracks.
A paperclip on the side of a Track card will easily
track your position for each piece of gear. These
Status Tracks are transferred when the gear is.
These Status Effects do not inflict Fatigue, at
least not directly, but running out of reloads
will often inflict Doubt.
FirearM Tracks
Firearm Tracks are an abstract of the ammo
your soldier has immediately on-hand, ready to
load and fire quickly. Other than Feed weapons,
Firearms start the mission with a full Firearm
Track; you only need Spare Ammo to reload.
Firearms are divided into three track types,
indicated in their Equipment Type. The Light
Machine Gun can switch between Standard or Belt.
• Standard Firearms use a 3-slot track with a
forfeiture. If you hit that Forfeiture while
firing, add +1 to the To-Hit Difficulty; you ran
out of ammo at an inopportune moment!
• Firearm - Belt uses the 2-slot track. Every time
you run off the end of the track, immediately
consume the relevant Supply and go back to the
top. You can run through the track multiple
times in a single firing action.
• When you fire, roll a d6. If you roll equal or
less than the number of times you cleared the
track, you must either consume a Spare Barrel
or wait a Turn before shooting again.
• Firearm - Feed uses no track. Every time you
fire a Feed Firearm, use up 1 unit of ammunition.
Firearm Belt Feed
Unless otherwise stated, Firearms are fed with
Spare Ammo. When you consume the relevant Ammo,
you restore the Firearm Track back to the top.
39
Electronic Charges
Equipment dependent on batteries use a system
of Charges. There are 2 Battery Tracks used for
electronics; the Large Track has 12 slots, and the
Small Track has 6 slots.
Large Small
When you get to the lower portion of the chart,
you are Low on Power. This generally only affects
Radios, and it negates 2 Successes on your Adjust
Frequency and Scramble Signal Actions, as
your radio’s transmission range is decreased.
This will reduce your range even for current
connections.
By changing out the batteries, you restore your
equipment to the top of the Track.
All equipment consumes charges differently,
as listed in their equipment profiles. Some
electronics have such long battery life it isn’t
even tracked, while Radios in particular consume
Charges in a specific way.
• Adjusting Frequency uses 1 Charge.
• Transmitting a message uses 2 Charges.
• Scramble Signal Actions uses 3 Charges.
• Intercept Transmission Actions use 3 Charges.
While transmitting, you can consume additional
Charges for bonus Successes. A dedicated Receiver
uses up 1 Charge every Turn it is used. You can
turn it off to save power, though you won’t know
about incoming messages.
Any Electronics mounted on a Vehicle regains 2
Charges every Turn the vehicle is running, as the
engine acts as a generator.
Taking Doubt
In terms of Fatigue, Doubt is the most important Different soldiers take Doubt differently. While
Status Effect, as each point causes so much
Fatigue. Managing your Doubt is vital to keeping
your overall Fatigue low.
The chart opposite provides guidelines for
assigning Doubt based on Alignment. Positive
numbers are Doubt gained, while negative numbers
are Doubt removed. This chart is not exhaustive;
Outside of the prewritten possibility, Doubt can
always be handed out at GM discretion.
The GM should generally allow players to inflict
Doubt on themselves beyond their Alignment
penalties, if they believe it is appropriate to
their character. To help encourage this kind
of action, the GM should keep track of these
circumstances, and remove Doubt from those
players if an event occurs in opposition to those
situations.
A soldier with a phobia of snakes, for example,
would take Doubt in an encounter with them, but
will be quite relieved when a nest of them is
destroyed by an ally.
Doubt and Fatigue
As Characters gain higher Fatigue, they become
desensitized to the horrors of war, and are more
affected by the small joys they can find.
As characters take more and more Fatigue, the
GM should issue less Doubt. A good rule of thumb
is for every 5 points of Fatigue, events should
inflict 1 fewer Doubt.
This might result in actions that would formerly
have issued Doubt to soldiers remove it instead.
This is intended. The exclamation point (!)
included indicates penalties that should never
result in removing Doubt, while the Asterisk (*)
indicates a value that should never be modified
at all.
This can also make the distractions your soldiers
find more meaningful and have a larger impact.
A rocking USO performance can mean nothing to
fresh troops while snippets of a song distorted
by the radio means the world to a worn soldier.
40
Doubt Guidelines
the guideline chart is helpful in assigning this,
it doesn’t cover every eventuality.
Idealistic
Idealistic characters take Doubt from needless
violence, from suffering around them, and from
civilians being hurt, particularly if they are
personally responsible.
They tend to get Doubt removed when fights don’t
happen, when the enemy retreats without violence,
and when they aren’t placed in a position of
responsibility to act against the enemy.
Pragmatic
Pragmatic characters take Doubt from seeing their
comrades injured and killed, complications or
delays in the mission, or lack of support. Friends
dying for unclear objectives will quickly sap a
Pragmatic character of their will to fight.
On the other hand, when things go well for their
team and nobody they know gets hurt, Pragmatic
characters tend to rally. Nothing gives them
more of a boost than an easy mission where the
objective is seized and everyone can go home.
Righteous
Righteous characters take Doubt when they are in
a position where they cannot fight the enemy, or
when allies fail to hold up to their standards.
They are invigorated by victory and violence
committed against the enemy. Nothing is better
to them than the smell of napalm and the sight of
the opposition driven before them.
Egocentric
Egocentric characters have their faith in the
war pivot on how much danger they are in; they
feel better about any situation when somebody
else is taking the risk.
They only care about themselves, so they only take
Doubt when they are hurt or miserable, and they
don’t give a damn about the mission or anyone
else’s welfare.
Doubt Guideline Chart
Event Idealistic Pragmatic Righteous Egocentric
Squadmate killed or badly wounded. 1! 2! 1 1
Witness a member of an Allied Unit killed
or badly wounded. 1! 1! 0! 0!
Enemy Unit retreats or gives up. -1 -2 -2 -2
Witnessed a person executed, or an enemy
killed with a flamethrower. 1! 1 0 1
Failure to pass while Executing. 4! 3 2 3
An allied unit or a Squadmate flees or
deserts. 1 3 4 3
Flee from combat. 0 1 3! -2
Kill an enemy in hand-to-hand combat. 2! 1! -1 2
You are singled out for a dangerous task. 1 2 0 4
A squadmate refuses to fight, aids the
enemy, or betrays your side. 0 3 3 1
A civilian is badly wounded or killed by
the actions of your Unit. 3 1 1 0
Accidentally fire on friendly troops. 2 3! 1 0
Have a magazine run dry in the middle of
a fight, thus discarding the attack. 1* 1* 1! 1*
Running out of ammunition entirely in a
combat zone. 1* 2* 2* 2*
Running out of Batteries or losing your
Radio while isolated from your allies. 2* 2* 1! 2*
The enemy attacks your position with a
flamethrower. 2! 2! 2! 2!
Your unit is relieved from a hazardous
or stressful duty. -2 -1 1 -2
Another unit is sent ahead of your own
into a dangerous situation. 0 0* 1* -1
Get through an encounter with the enemy
without any of your own getting hurt. -1 -2 -1 0*
Friendly armour arrives to assist. -1 -2 -1 -1
A motivating speech from a commanding
officer before battle. 1 -1 -2 0*
Gaining the respect of a commanding
officer or rival unit. 0 -1 -2 0*
You are thanked wholeheartedly by a
local for your efforts. -2 -1 -1 0*
You make an aggressive move against a
position and the enemy is already gone. -2 0 3 -2
No bodies are found after an artillery
bombardment. -1 1 1 0*

41
Fatigue
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in sollicitudin thefinibus.
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Your Fatigue can only increase, not decrease, on theante,
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fringilla grant Victory Points in
congue.
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Class of these
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they took charge of their own destiny for betterfaucibus. vehicula volutpat. Phasellus tempus purus at
or for worse. Victory Points are not necessarily In anyconsequat
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Nullam Fatigue
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AligNment
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potenti. Nam tristique metus ornare, pellentesque ipsum lobortis eget. Interdum et
interdum massa vel, placerat velit. Sed nisi malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus.
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sapien, tincidunt vitae semper sed, sagittis a
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42
Fatigue Example
Rym the Egocentric Point, Emily the Idealistic
Medic and Scott the Pragmatic Intel have all had
a hard mission and racked up a lot of Fatigue.
They’re sitting in the burnt out remains of a
village after a tough fight.
Emily: “Ah jeez, I can’t go back to base like this. I
have, like, ten Fatigue I need to negate.”
Scott: “You can’t negate ten Fatigue!”
Emily: “Well, I can make a start. There are some
survivors in this village, so I’ll go patch them
up. That’ll get me a single Victory Point, at least.”
Scott: “I might as well help, because that’ll get me
3 Victory Points for assisting you. I’m completely
out of ammunition so I’ve got so much Fatigue...”
Rym: “Oh man, me too. They don’t know that, though.
I’m going to point my gun at them and take them for
everything they have.”
Scott: “What the fuck dude.”
Narcotics
Drug use has always been a part of warfare, but
the Vietnam War saw an explosion of illicit
substances in the hands of fighting men. Narcotics
are one of the ways soldiers manage Fatigue.
All drug durations and outcomes should be rolled
in secret by the GM.
Addiction
Addiction is a risk one has to face with drug
use. At the end of any mission where you used any
Narcotic, roll 1d6. If you roll lower than the
number of Narcotics you consumed, you become
physiologically or psychologically dependant
to one of the drugs you took, your choice.
Addicted characters take 2 Doubt every 12 Turns
if they don’t get their fix in that time. You can
spend 10 XP to remove an addiction.
Overdosing
Abusing drugs is dangerous business. While it is
difficult to consume enough alcohol to pose an
emergency health risk in a war zone, and you can’t
overdose on marijuana or LSD, all other drugs
have rough potential effects on their users.
Keep track of all the Uppers, Downers and Opiates
you’ve taken over the last 24 hours of game time.
Whenever you take an Upper or an Opiate, roll a
Fortitude Check, with the Difficulty set to the
number of drugs still in your system. If you fail,
you OD and take 2d3 Injury. On a FUBAR, you are
Incapacitated.
43
Rym: “Hey, I’m just looking out for number 1. If
they didn’t want to get robbed, they shouldn’t
have built their village where we were dropping
all that napalm. Now hand it over.”
Emily: “Well, we’re not participating in this
atrocity, and we’re definitely reporting you when
we get back to base.”
Scott: “... actually, I’m going to go along. These
guys were probably helping Charlie anyway, and
I get even more Victory Points for helping Rym.”
Rym: “Now you’re getting it. Just figure out what
gives you Victory Points, and do that as much as
possible. It’s how I live my life.
Emily: “That’s a pretty good philosophy. I think
I’ll start following it right now.”
Scott: “How so?”
Emily: “Well, it says here ‘Forcefully stop
comrades from committing war crimes’, and I’ve
still got a loaded gun...”
Hallucinogenics Chart
# Result
Bad trip. You whimper and scream
1 uncontrollably, and 1 Failure is added to
all your actions.
Paranoia. Any newly spotted character will
2 been seen as an enemy, and harmless actions
will seem less so.
Completely tripped out. You are treated as
3
having 0 Vigilance. The GM will give you
no information except surreal images and
non-sequitors.
Peaceful state of mind. You generally fail
4 to perceive weapons or hostility and see
friendly intent in everyone you meet.
Burst of inspiration. The GM gives you
insight into the motivations of characters
5
around you, and you can tell instantly if
anyone is lying.
You see beyond the veil, so your effective
6
Vigilance is doubled.
Imagery
You see the world in cloaked in unnatural
1
darkness.
2 You see all movement as crawling insects.
You see dancing prisms of light and
3
formless shapes.
The world seems washed out and unreal,
4
like a painting.
5 Colours seem too intense to be real.
Everything is seen as God-like figures and
6
golden light.
Environment
Every game starts with the Briefing, during
which the GM lays out the Mission the players
will undertake. During the Briefing, players
will be presented with the Map that the game will
be p[ayed on, giving them a chance to understand
what they will be doing in a greater context.
Map Features
When presenting the Map, the GM should lay out
major areas and landmarks, naming each location
and giving a brief description. They should be
ready to answer any questions the players have.
If there are any villages in the area, the GM
should tell the Squad a little about each one.
Are the occupants friendly or hostile to Allied
forces? Does the military have a prior history
with them? Are they armed?
Local villages are typically given code-names
by American forces. Designating villages with
numbers, American city or state names, or the
phonetic alphabet can be easier for English-
speaking players to remember.
It is important to decide now what part of the
map features what terrain. Different areas on the
map can be marked with colours, patterns, or by
circling areas. Clearings should be highlighted,
roads established, and hills marked. Don’t be
afraid to write on your map before or during play.
Mechanically, PATROL uses only a small number of
terrain types to represent everything that isn’t
flat ground like fields, scrub, or dirt roads.
Terrain can be conditional. For example, rain can
turn Flat Ground into muddy Difficult Terrain.
Steep hills are Flat Ground if you are descending,
and Difficult Terrain if you are going up.
44
You can, and should, overlap terrain types. The
deep jungle is Difficult, Obscuring Terrain.
The dense streets of Saigon are Hard Surface and
Obscuring Terrain, but the ruins of Hue would
add Broken Ground and Difficult Terrain to the
mix. A Swamp mixes Shallow Water and Difficult
Terrain. Use as many as you need!
Difficult Terrain
Thickets, forests, rubble.
Speed Down between 1-3.
Obscuring Terrain
Forests, tall grass, corn fields, reeds.
Reduced visibility.
Dead Ground
Rice paddies, open streets, flat mowed lawns.
Units cannot take Cover.
Broken Ground
Rock outcroppings, concrete ruins, craters.
Add +1 to To-Hit of Infantry in area.
hARD Surface
Concrete, asphalt, packed earth, bedrock.
Defensive Positions are twice as Difficult to
create. Vehicle Speed Doubled.
Easy Trails
Cobblestone, roads, maintained clearings.
Speed Up 2.
Shallow Water
Creeks, tributaries, ponds, rice paddies.
Speed Down 2. Ground Vehicles cannot cross.
Deep Water
Ancient lakes, fast rivers, the ocean.
Make a Swim Check, normal visibility.
IMpassible Terrain
Ridgelines, cliffs, large structures.
Generally impassible, blocks vision.
Structures
The landscape of Vietnam is dotted in buildings
of all sorts, from rural grass mat huts, wooden
houses on the outskirts of cities, modern
structures in urban areas , old French plantation
houses, trenches and bunkers of all sorts.
Small Structures
Huts, shanty-town hovels and other buildings
that generally occupy less than a 10x10 meter
space are Small Structures. Small Structures
do not block line of sight; a moving person or
a group of people can mostly see behind them
through parallax effect.
Being inside a Small Structure gives you a Stealth
Rating of 5, representing how difficult it is to
identify people inside the structures. You can
further hide yourself inside a structure with
Conceal Actions and such. Tough Small Structures
also reduce Injury against incoming attacks like
Defensive Positions via their Cover stat.
If a person opens up a Small Structure, this
Stealth Rating is immediately negated for the
intruders. Explosives thrown inside a Small
Structure will only affect those inside it.
Structure Toughness
This chart is a guide for destroying structures
with Arson/Fire Injury or Blast Injury. Add +1 to
the Burn difficulty if it’s been raining.
Type Cover Burn Blast
Grass Hut 0 1 3 doors and windows. Squares on graph paper will
Wooden House 0 2 5 do. If there are multiple stories, you need to
Old Stone 2 5 8 mark where the stairs or ladders are.
Modern Building 1 4 6 Rather than using distance, everything inside a
Concrete Bunker 4 - 8 Large Structure is measured in Rooms. Each Room
Defensive Positions
Defensive Positions are structures representing
foxholes, slit trenches, bunkers and so forth. A
Defensive Position is made of a Capacity, Level,
and Stealth Rating.
The Capacity is how many people can fit in
a Position. If too many people try to enter a
position, roll Melee to determine who makes it.
The Level of a Position determines how hardened
it is. Each Level negates 1 Injury that the
character would otherwise take from an attack.
Defensive Positions made in the field are capped
at Level 3. Defensive Positions of level 4 or more
also count as Small Structures.
Finally, the Stealth Rating of a Defensive Position
is automatically applied to the occupants, and
conceals the defensive position itself.
45
Defensive OBstacles
Defensive Obstacles are how PATROL represents
modern fortifications like barbed wire and tank
traps. Anti-Infantry (AI) and Anti-Vehicles (AV).
Obstacles take up a 10x10m space, though they may
be laid out to provide a continuous line.
AI Obstacles will cause Speed Down 3, reduce the
To-Hit of anyone who passes through by 1, and will
prompt a Cross Obstacle Action, though infantry
can cut it, blow it open, or lay down on it with a
Crush Obstacle Action. AV Obstacles simply stop
vehicle movement dead.
Large Structure
A Large Structure is any building which...
• Is a complete structure still mostly enclosed.
• Has more than one room separated by a wall and
connected by one or more doors.
• Is not composed of large, empty spaces; an
open aircraft hangar doesn’t count as a large
structure.
Large structures include upper-class housing,
apartment blocks, old French plantation manors,
office buildings and the insides of large ships.
They block line of sight, and are impassible
terrain if you don’t move through them directly,
though you may be able to scale them.
Large structures use their own internal maps. The
map doesn’t need to be detailed; all you need to
know is where rooms are relative to one another,
and how they are connected to one another with
is essentially its own Small Structure with its
own doors, which conceal people from other rooms.
Characters can move freely between any rooms as
Shifts, and can make attacks out of any room on
the outside of the structure outward. Even if
there are no windows, troops can generally hack
loopholes in the walls. These outer rooms also
give +1 Cover; Large Structures are typically
built tougher than smaller ones. As with all
attacks after Shifts, characters need to stay
in the room they were in when they made their
Attacks, but can otherwise act normally.
Large Structures are destroyed room-by-room;
blast attacks will destroy the Room they are
targeted at, though an attack that inflicts twice
as much Blast injury as the Room’s Blast limit
will destroy adjacent rooms as well. Fire will
destroy a room, then spread to adjacent rooms via
doors and stairs. When half a structure’s Rooms,
or an entire lower story has been destroyed, the
Structure collapses.
Room-to-Room Fighting
When a unit Breaches a Large Structure and
starts moving inside, the regular turn structure
is put on hold while Room-to-Room Fighting is
resolved. You want to have everyone who is going
into a large structure in position to Breach at
the same time, because they might not get a chance
to once Room-to-Room Fighting has begun.
During Room-to-Room Fighting, the regular
rules of play change slightly. Everyone in a
Room is considered one Unit, and Suppression is
ignored in Room-to-Room. Additionally, the Turn
structure is temporarily suspended.
Room-to-Room Fighting is a series of short
turns, called Steps, that take place inside one
regular Turn.
The Breaching team goes first, selecting one
option from this list.
• Move to an adjacent room.
• Attacks or Interactions.
• Use a Free Action other than listed here.
• Set up Overwatch for the next Step.
• Leave the building.
• Another Regular Action, then end their Turn.
Then it is their opponent’s Step. Go back and forth
until nobody can take a Step or all hostiles (from
any perspective) have been neutralized or driven
out of a building.
Tunnel Complexes
To insulate themselves from air and artillery
attack and move in secret, the Viet Cong dug huge
tunnel complexes all over the country, and were
more than happy to take advantage of Vietnam’s
extensive natural caves.
A Tunnel is treated like a Large Structure in
most respects, but is subject to some special
rules. Most notably, it is much more difficult to
move in. Every time you make an action during
Room-to-Room fighting in a tunnel, you must
roll a Tunnel Crawl Action. (See page 64) This
Check uses the Weight of your gear (not including
your clothing and footwear) as its Difficulty, so
the more you take into a tunnel, the harder it is.
Every room in the tunnel has a Width factor. A
tiny crawlspace might be 0 or 1, while a full-
sized hallway might be around 8. The average
tunnel should be 3-5. Subtract the tunnel Width
from your gear’s Weight when you make your
Tunnel Crawl roll. You don’t need to roll if your
Difficulty is 0 or less.
A tunnel’s entrances can be geographically
separated from one another, and unless otherwise
marked, all rooms in a tunnel are isolated from
the outside; you can’t shoot in or out, unless they
are special bunker areas.

You can move into adjacent rooms if there is a

door, stairway, or other appropriate venue to do
so. Movement distance is not tracked.

Firing from one room to another is resolved as

Close-Range attacks. You can see through doors
and windows, allowing you to make attacks
normally, but you can also use Blind Fire to
shoot indiscriminately through walls into other
rooms.

Crossfire still exists, and bullets pass easily

through partition walls. Draw a line on your
paper to see which rooms are affected, and factor
those characters in to your hit allocation.
However, the walls and objects in the way will
start to pile up, so every room past the first
you shoot through acts like 1 level of Defensive
Position, reducing a point of Injury. You can stop
counting crossfire after 3 rooms, or if there are
sufficiently thick walls at any point.

Grenades and heavy weapons can all be used as

normal. Blast weapons other than flamethrowers
will blow holes through walls when fired at them,
hitting everything in the rooms on either side.

If a character decides to make a Regular Action

that is not on the list or end their Turn, they
will take no more Steps this turn, and will resume
Room-to-Room fighting next Turn.
46
Time Conditions
The time period the mission will take place is The GM must also use this time to lay out the
critical, as the nature of the conflict changes
drastically in the change between day and night.
During the day, Free World Forces effectively
rule the country, with aircraft easily capable
of preventing troop movement. At night, rural
Vietnam becomes Charlie’s country.
Remember to advance time each turn, and keep
track of the time of day. Characters are all
presumed to be wearing timepieces.
Day
Default Conditions. All normal rules apply.
Dawn/DUsk
+2 to all Stealth Ratings.
Waxing/Waning Moon
+5 to all Stealth Ratings.
Moonless Night
+7 to all Stealth Ratings.
Full Moon
+3 to all Stealth Ratings.
In total, a full day has 22 Night turns, 22 Day
turns, and 4 Dawn/Dusk turns.
As Vietnam is very nearly equatorial, day and
night are always the same length. Dawn is from 5
am to 6 am, and Dusk is from 6pm to 7pm.
Likewise, the lunar cycle is simplified. Each
phase of the moon lasts 7 days, and goes in the
order Night, Moonless Night, Night, Full Moon.
The GM should specify the phase of the moon at
the start of the mission, and how long it will be
until it changes.
Lighting may not always be totally consistent. A
city at night is brighter than a dark jungle, for
example. Some buildings will be lit up at night,
while unlit tunnels will be dark in mid-day.
Stealth Ratings can be adjusted accordingly.
The Date
A solid date should be established. Little details
like what day of the week it is, how far into the
tour it is for the soldiers, and any holidays, both
American and Vietnamese, that might coincide
with the mission can help give a sense of reality
to the world and get players invested.
GMs should look up any historical events
that might have happened on the same date;
introducing an issue like a pending election, a
music festival, or a recent major protest can give
players a jumping-off point for roleplaying.
47
conditions of the Mission and give a weather
forecast for the relevant period of time. Of
course, some of this information might be
inaccurate,, but it’s better than nothing.
While Southeast Asia is a distinctly tropical
environment where wet jungle is dominate and
snow falls only rarely, at the highest altitudes,
rules for desert and snowfall are included here
for completeness, alternate campaigns, and the
possibility of nuclear holocaust.
Clear Skies
Default Conditions. All normal rules apply.
Cloudy
Night conditions count as Moonless Night.
Aircraft Altitude To-Hit modifiers doubled.
Thick Fog
As Cloud, but Reduced Visibility in all Terrain.
Heat Wave
Thirst advances every 3 Turns instead of every 6.
Cold Snap
Without appropriate shelter or protective
clothing, Exhaustion advances every 3 Turns
instead of every 6. Characters who Rest or are
Incapacitated take Injury every 3 Turns.
Blizzard
As Cold Snap and Cloudy, but Speed Down 2.
Visibility restricted to 10 meters. +2 to Flight
Difficulty.
Sandstorm
As Heat Wave, but Speed Down 2. Visibility
restricted to 10 meters. +2 to Flight Difficulty.
Drizzle
As Cloudy, but take 1 Doubt while without
shelter. Remove it when the rain stops or you
find shelter.
Thunderstorms
As Cloudy, but take 3 Doubt while without
shelter. Speed Down 1. Precision Fire will only
reduce your Stealth Rating by 2.
During rain, and for 6 Turns after, add +2 Difficult
per person to any Prepare Position Action.
Another vital piece of information is the
direction of the wind, along the eight compass
points. This is relevant for detection by scent
and for the spread of fire. Charts to change the
weather and wind are on page 150.
Vehicles
Though the jungle is not friendly to most vehicles,
modern war still demands their inclusion.
Vehicle Basics
A Vehicle is any multi-person transportation
that moves under its own power. Bicycles, horse
carts and motorcycles are all equipment, but a
jeep, a tank or a motorboat are all vehicles.
Ground vehicles only work on land, Helicopters
and Planes fly, and Boats only work on water.
Amphibious vehicles treat water as Difficult
Terrain.
Vehicles have weight. Bigger vehicles can even
tow or carry smaller ones! Don’t count the weight
inside a vehicle if you are towing it.
Vehicles are much more visible than infantry.
Unless they are Concealed, they can be seen 10
times further away than infantry. All surface
vehicles have Flashlights in the form of
their headlights. At night, if they have their
headlights off, a vehicle is restricted to Combat
Speed.
Vehicle Profiles
Vehicles have profiles, just like characters.
Speed tells you how fast a vehicle is. The first
number is Maximum Speed, while the second is
Combat Speed. Vehicles are limited to their Combat
Speed in Difficult Terrain, and crew cannot make
Attacks if they move faster than Combat Speed.
The two Fuel numbers are how often (in Turns) 1
Fuel is consumed, and how much fuel is carried.
Vehicles consume Fuel if they were active at all
since the last time they used Fuel.
Storage tells you how much Weight worth of gear
you can stick in the trunk or hang on the outside.
You need to Retrieve this stuff to use it.
Armour protects a vehicle and makes it more
difficult to damage. If a weapon doesn’t have
Penetration equal or greater than the Armour,
the attack is completely ignored!
Toughness is how robust and reliable a vehicle
is. It’s rolled for vehicular Shock Checks.
48
Passengers and Crew
Vehicles have “slots” for characters to occupy.
Each unique set of slots has a short profile.
The Role of the slot tells you what it does. The
Driver chooses where the vehicle goes, Gunners
shoot, and Loaders use Fire Assist actions for
Gunners. Passengers are just along for the ride.
The second is the Type; if the slot is In or On the
vehicle. In vehicles without armour, everyone
will just be On the vehicle, but you can be Inside a
vehicle like a tank. People Outside can’t interact
with those Inside unless they have an Intercom
Telephone and the vehicle is stationary.
If it is an Inside position, Visibility comes into
play. This is a cap for the occupant’s Vigilance
for the purposes of awareness, viewing range, and
Observation. If you pop the hatch, the Visibility
factor ceases to matter.
If there is a plus sign next to Visibility, the
slot has a hatch which can be opened. This allows
a character to open the hatch and be “On” the
vehicle for certain purposes, including vision.
Finally, the slot’s Capacity is how much Weight
total can occupy the slot, ie: the operator’s 20
Weight and their stuff. You can also fill this
slot with half this Capacity in gear.
Each slot has a list of equipment controlled
from that slot. For example, a slot might have the
vehicle’s main gun, radio, or smoke dispensers.
Gunners who control multiple weapons can fire
all of them as one Action at the same target. If you
have multiple guns, you can sacrifice 1 ammo and
give up the attack to range for your main guns,
reducing To-Hit by 1, to a minimum of 1.
If a piece of equipment is marked with a plus
sign, you need to unbutton the hatch or be riding
On the vehicle to use it; a character riding atop
a tank can use the commander’s pintle-mounted
hatch gun, for example. Multi-part weapons do
not need other components to work on a vehicle.
You can interact with or perform actions on
anybody sharing a vehicle with you.
Slots will sometimes provide additional storage
space. For example, a Gunner or Loader slot could
have space for ammunition. This can only be used
for the listed kind of storage.
Operating a Vehicle
The Driver or Pilot of a vehicle uses the Operate
Vehicle action to move the vehicle from place to
place, moving up to their Speed and choosing a
compass direction to face at the end of the move.
Gunners fire weapons using the appropriate
action.
Vehicles and Damage
Every time a Vehicle takes a hit from a weapon
that can pierce its Armour, it takes Damage. When
a Vehicle takes Damage, it must immediately roll
a Shock Check, using its Toughness value.
If a vehicle fails to get as many Successes as
Damage taken, it is Disabled. Disabled vehicles
cannot be operated, though any external weapons
like pintle machine-guns will still function.
Always use the basic To-Hit values against
vehicles; they don’t take cover!
If an attack Disables a vehicle, the Damage from
that Attack will be the Difficult to repair it.
Vehicles never take Ongoing Damage. If you roll
FUBAR on your Shock Check, roll 2d6.
Roll Results
Track or wheel blown off. The vehicle is
2-4 immobilized.
Eliminate one gun from the vehicle at
5-6 random.
Fuel leak! The vehicle loses 1d3 Fuel
7 every Turn until repaired.
Fire! Everyone who is riding Inside the
8+ vehicle must try to bail out. If they are
unable to do so, they burn to death.
If a vehicle takes as much Damage in a single
attack as its Toughness, don’t bother rolling; the
Vehicle is Catastrophically Destroyed, reduced
to a completely unrecoverable, burnt out ruin at
best or simply shards of twisted metal at worst.
Characters who are On a vehicle are subject to
Suppression. Characters Inside a vehicle ignore
normal Suppression rules, but must either Button
Up or Bail Out if they hit 5 Suppression. Vehicles
themselves don’t take Suppression.
Tanks are always most thickly armoured up front.
Attacks that come from 90 degrees or more to either
side count their armour as 1 less. Characters
Inside vehicles with Armour ignore chemical
attacks so long as the hatches are closed.
Crew and Damage
Characters who are On a vehicle have a chance
of being hit by attacks directed at the vehicle.
When attacks are made, treat them as being part
of a Unit with the vehicle, so roll to see who
gets hit by the attack between the vehicle and
each of the characters riding On the vehicle. No
matter what you actually roll, the vehicle itself
is always hit; you are just checking to see if the
characters On the vehicle are hit as well.
Characters who are On a vehicle if it is
Catastrophically Destroyed are also killed, but
they generally leave bodies behind. Crew Inside
such a vehicle are not so lucky.
49
Though being Inside a vehicle protects you, if an
attack pierces that armour, there is a chance you
will be hurt or killed.
For every point of Damage taken by a Vehicle, a
random member of the crew Inside the vehicle
takes 1d3 Injury. So if a vehicle takes 3 Damage, 3
hits are distributed. Roll Shock Checks for these
Injuries immediately, as it may be relevant if the
Vehicle catches fire.
If a person Inside a vehicle has opened a hatch,
they can be struck by an attack as though they
were On the vehicle. To represent the relative
safety of a hatch, these character count as being
in a Level 2 Defensive Position.
Using a Vehicle as Cover
Infantry within 10m of a Vehicle are not part of
the same Unit; a Vehicle is always its own unit.
However, it the vehicle is friendly, and bulky
enough, they can use it as cover.
Infantry who move within 10m of a friendly or
disabled vehicle can declare they are using
the vehicle as cover. To do this, they must pick
a compass direction, indicating how they are
positioning themselves to use the vehicle.
Against any attack coming from that direction, or
adjacent compass directions, the Unit counts as
occupying a Defensive Position of a Level equal
to the vehicle’s Armour.
Vehicular Homicide
If you move through a Unit, you can attempt to run
them down. The driver makes an Operate Vehicle
check, opposed against the Fort of everyone in
the Unit. Infantry who get lose the Check take 1d3
+ 1/100th (rounding up) your vehicle’s Weight in
Injury.
Defensive Positions still reduce these Injuries.
However, if you have a vehicle with a Weight
over 300, a driver can collapse foxholes as they
cross them by turning in place, spending 50m of
movement allowance. This kills 1d3 occupants.
When running people down, unarmoured vehicle
takes 1 Damage for each struck target and stop in
place. You can only try to run down a given Unit
once per Turn.
Any incapacitated, immobilized, restrained or
consenting characters run down by a tank or
similar are instantly killed.
You can ram other vehicles or buildings if you
start your movement at least 100m away. Roll
1/100th of a vehicle’s Weight + Toughness, or a
structure’s Blast for each participant. Each 6 is
1 point of Damage taken by the other. Armoured
vehicles succeed on 5s. If a Building takes more
Damage than their Cover, it collapses.
Aircraft
Aircraft come in two kinds in PATROL; helicopters
and planes. You’ll mostly be interacting with
copters, but occasionally planes will be relevant.
Usually when they dump bombs onto people.
In almost all respects, aircraft are vehicles.
They have profiles like vehicles and operate
similar to them in all respects.
Altitude
To represent the various levels an aircraft might
be flying, they have Altitude Bands, which make
it harder both to hit and be hit by weapons and
set the difficulty for parachute jumps.
Falling from any higher than Treetop is instantly
lethal; Treetop will just inflict 1d3 Injury,
providing you fell from a copter. Falling from
a speeding plane at Treetop will still kill you.
Altitude To-Hit Deviation Jump
Landed 0 - - where one character can both move and shoot at
Treetop +1 20m -
Low +2 50m 3 Many planes have co-pilots. These are basically
High +3 100m 2
Distant +4 500m 1 same turn. They might also operate weapons.
Each Altitude band also corresponds to a range
band. Treetop is Close, Low is Medium, and so
forth. You cannot hit a Distant plane unless your
weapon can fire to at least Near range.
Shooting men on the ground is like shooting fish
in a barrel. At Treetop height, Door Gunners and
Passengers with small arms reduce their To-Hit
against ground targets by 1, and they ignore up
to 2 points of Defensive Position. Use common
sense, though; you can’t fire a rocket launcher or
flamethrower from a helicopter!
Aircraft can transition up or down one altitude
band in a Turn. All aircraft have a “ceiling”
which they cannot fly higher than.
To mitigate the difficulties of attacking
aircraft, use Overwatch actions such as “Fire
when an aircraft comes close to our position.”
50
Aircraft Basics
Aircraft Speed, like vehicle Speed, is presented
as two numbers. These two numbers are the
Minimum and Maximum Speed of the aircraft, as
unlike ground vehicles, Aircraft don’t encounter
Difficult Terrain (Well, they might, but this is
usually the end of the aircraft.)
All aircraft which aren’t Landed, even
Helicopters, must move at least the Minimum
speed from their starting location in a turn.
Your turn must end with you at least this far away
from your starting location. Additionally, the
Turn an Aircraft first takes off, they can only
move their Minimum Speed as they gain altitude.
Aircraft ignore the Combat Speed rules; they can
always attack with their weapons at any speed.
Usually, the pilot of the aircraft also controls
the guns. This means that aircraft pilots are one
of the very few circumstances in the entire game
the same time.
second drivers; they can take over flying the
plane for the pilot, but they both can’t fly on the
Aircraft have a Difficulty associated with their
operation. Though this is usually very low, you’ll
need to roll this every turn while piloting, or
your aircraft loses one level of Altitude from
your mistakes. If you are flying close to the
ground, this can mean disaster.
A disabled aircraft is generally doomed. If the
pilot is still conscious, they can try to steer the
aircraft into a controlled descent; make a Check
using the Jump Difficulty of your Altitude. If
you are successful, you crash land “safely”. If you
fail, you just crash, and everyone dies. A FUBAR
means everyone takes 1d6 Injury on the landing.
A Helicopter can land in any 10x10 area of clear
terrain, or test Toughness to try to cut a hole
through the trees, Difficulty 2. It crashes if
it fails. A Plane must land at an established
airstrip of some kind, or it counts as a crash
landing as above.
Dropping Bombs
A speciality of aircraft is dropping bombs on
things. A Bomb is a Shell from the Munitions
which is dropped instead of shot!
Dropping a bomb is basically a Bombard action.
The range of this attack is 0; you are passing
overhead whatever you are attacking. The attack’s
To-Hit Difficulty and Deviation is derived from
your Altitude. If you drop more than one of the
same kind of bomb in an attack, it counts as second
shot in the same Bombard Action.
Vehicle Example
Jordan and Chris are playing in Juliet’s game
as ARVN tankers in an M42 Walker Bulldog, with
Jordan controlling the driver and commander and
Chris the gunner and loader. They are tasked with
supporting an infantry platoon and driving an
NVA mechanized unit out of a valley.
Juliet: “The platoon leader’s radio crackles, a
report from the squad in the valley. An NVA unit
has been sighted moving down the main road, two
trucks with infantry and a light tank, with two
squads of infantry ranging ahead.”
Jordan: “That’s our cue. We should probably saddle
up, so my guys get into their tank.”
Chris: “As do mine. This is going to be awesome.”
Jordan: “My commander is going to leave the
hatch open so he can talk to their guys and use
the pintle gun. He’s going to offer the LT and his
radioguy a ride on the tank to get in good with
him, just in case.”
Juliet: “He graciously accepts, and his assistant,
radioman and two riflemen pile on. Everyone else
files behind the tank to move out.”
Jordan: “Alright, let’s get moving. We’ll drive to
the bend in the road at infantry walking pace so
we’ll be able to see them coming down the road,
turn to face them, and shoot them up.”
Juliet: “You grind your way down the road,
conversing with the lieutenant. As you come to the
edge of the road, you can see down in the valley,
and there, about four hundred meters away, is the
enemy convoy coming more or less straight at you.
They can’t see you yet in the treeline, but they’re
coming.”
Chris: “Alright, I’m going to put some high
explosive into the truck at the back, and then
shoot the light tank with anti-tank. Lets start
with the truck.”
Chris rolls, and a great many sixes come up.
Juliet: “This is a Blast Attack against a vehicle,
so those extra Successes are bonus damage there
for when you roll that, but it also means a bunch
of extra hits on the guys on the vehicle.”
Chris rolls damage.
Chris: “I don’t think it’s going to matter much. I
think I just turned this truck into scrap metal.”
Juliet: “Indeed you do. It goes up in a massive
fireball, Catastrophically Destroyed, so nobody
on or in it is going to be in much shape to do
anything.”
51
Jordan: “Okay, great, but what about their tank?
I don’t want it shooting back at us, we’re not that
tough!”
Juliet: “You’ll need to wait. Their gunner had
an overwatch action to fire at any threats that
appeared, and you just became visible after that
shot. So the turret tracks around and it kicks a
shot your way.”
Jordan: “Oh crap.”
Juliet rolls her dice, and then damage.
Juliet: “You hear an almighty clang against the
outside of your vehicle from it’s shell that makes
your ears ring and you are all buffeted about, but
the armour holds. I just need to roll the scatter.”
Jordan: “Oh no, my hatch is still open. My
commander guy might get hit!”
Juliet: “Well, you don’t fortunately, but the
platoon leader isn’t so lucky. The shell ricochets
off the leading edge of the turret and takes his
head straight off.”
Chris: “Gross. Well, it’s payback time.”
He rolls again. An appreciable number of successes
come up.
Juliet: “The attack punches through the tank’s
armour and leaves a smoking hole. A few seconds
later, something catches fire inside the tank. The
top hatch opens, but only one crewman escapes.”
Chris: “Well, that’s what you get.”
The battle continues for a few turns, with the
remaining NVA forces trying to push up on the
ARVN position. Despite the best efforts of the
tank, they are gaining ground and it looks like
they’ll be overrun.
Jordan: “Alright, those NVA guys are getting a
little too close. I’m going to shut the commander
hatch, and I think we should didi out next turn.”
Juliet: “On their turn, you hear something
clattering across the hull of the tank, moving
towards the turret. There’s banging on your
hatches, and then something cracks outside.
They’ve planted a bomb! It pierces the armour and
wounds... the loader for 2 and the driver for 1.
Roll your Shock Check, and crash helmets if you
have them.”
Jordan rolls for the tank, and not a lot of sixes
come up.
Jordan: “Okay, well, good news and bad news. The
good news is, the tank isn’t on fire. The bad news
is, we just got downgraded to bunker...”
Dogs
If you play the K9 Handler class, you are
accompanied by a Working Dog, an NPC with their
own profile which follows your Commands.
Dog Profiles
Your dog is an NPC character just like human
characters, though with a few restrictions. Dogs
don’t have the Proficiency attribute, as they
don’t use equipment.
When you create your character, create a Working
Dog profile as well. They’ll need a name, and will
receive a rank one higher than their Handler.
Divide 18 points between Fortitude and Vigilance,
minimum 5 in either stat. Their MOS is Dog.
All Dogs have the following Skills: Observation,
Guard, Aquatic, Bloodlust, Melee (Teeth), Fleet
Footed, Stealth. They cannot learn more Skills,
but their handler can spend XP to upgrade their
Attributes.
Dogs can only ever carry one piece of Equipment
at a time of up to 5 Weight, and they cannot use
any equipment they pick up, just carry it around.
They can’t wear items, fire guns, or anything like
that. They obviously cannot communicate with
humans, but are capable of indicating direction
or signalling a threat.
Dogs have Teeth, giving them +3 in Melee. Their
sharp sense of smell lets them follow the Tracks
of a Unit twice as long as others.
Working Dogs have a Status Effect sheet, and they
get hungry, thirsty and tired like any other
character. However, their Doubt is always the
same as the Doubt of their handler, rather than
being handled independently.
Working Dogs all have the same Alignment, which
is “Loyal”. Their only goal is to please their
handler, and they are completely devoted to them.
Their behaviour will usually echo the Alignment
of their handler. Dogs do not receive XP.
All Working Dogs will instinctively defend
themselves or attack anyone who attacks their
handler. They are trained to be wary around
anything that might resemble a mine and to
signal to their trainer, so the Dog finding a Trap
is treated the same way as any other member of the
group doing the same.
Sadly, most of the service animals used in the
Vietnam War were left behind when US forces
pulled out, due to fears that the dogs could be
a danger to handlers and civilians back in the
States. Protests from animal rights groups and
veterans saw this policy discontinued for future
conflicts.
52
Commands
By default, a Dog will just follow their Handler
closely, keep their ears open for anything
dangerous, and defend themselves and their
handler in melee. If they get hungry and are not
fed, they will usually Forage on their own. If
you want your dog to do any more than that, the
handler needs to use Commands.
Commands are a kind of Skill that, rather than
affecting your Checks, allows you to give orders
to your Working Dog. Like Skills, they cost 3 XP
each to teach your Dog.
Commands are recorded on the sheet of both the
Dog and the Handler. If a Dog should be replaced
with another, it’ll only cost the handler 1 XP to
train the new Dog in a Command the Handler knows.
Commands need to be delivered verbally, so the
Dog generally has to be part of the same Unit.
Even with commands, Working Dogs will not leave
direct line of sight with their handler if they
can help it.
Recall
The Dog will try to return to the same Unit as
the Handler. Usually given by whistle.
Fetch
Order the dog to leave the unit to retrieve a
piece of equipment from the ground or a corpse,
then carry it back to the Unit.
Guard
The Dog will act as a sentry until ordered
otherwise, using the Sentry action every turn.
Maul
Order the dog to leave the unit and charge
at a person. The Dog will attempt to subdue
the person without killing them with a non-
lethal melee attack. They will then guard the
prisoner until you catch up.
Kill
As per Maul, but the dog goes for the throat.
Find
If you have a piece of equipment that belonged
to somebody, your dog can point you at him.
Essentially, you can Track just that one person
specifically now.
Go Home
You tell the dog to get back to your base or
landing site as fast as they can, perhaps while
carrying something. This can be a good way to
deliver a message in an emergency, or get a dog
out of danger.
Animals
In addition to military Working Dogs, players can
Elephants
The Asian Elephant is native to Vietnam, and is
used by locals as a kind of organic bulldozer. A
expect to encounter a number of other animals, prosperous village’s elephant is probably their
both wild and domesticated. Vietnam is a heavily most valuable piece of equipment. Early in the
impoverished country still heavily dependant on war, both sides used them as pack animals; the
animal power for farm labour and transportation. North used them to pull loads across the Ho Chi
Mihn Trail, while the South used them for patrols.
Animals are NPCs without a Proficiency attribute,
like dogs. Some are hostile, some have utility, Elephants have Fortitude 30 and 8 Vigilance.
and some are both. Most small creatures like They can carry or pull up to 200 Weight, with a
snakes, monkeys and insects don’t have profiles; maximum of 3 riders. Thanks to their huge bulk,
they can just be added to scenes for character. they inflict double injury in Melee, and receive
-1 Injury from all sources.
If your mount makes a Regular Action, that counts
as your Regular Action for the Turn. Non-Dog The equipment they carry doesn’t really add much
animals, and characters riding animals, always to their existing bulk, so Elephants always move
count their To-Hit values as -1 as if they were at the same pace.
unaware, as they can’t take cover very well. Weight Full Half Shift Swim
- 500m 250m 100m 2
Horses
Though cars, bicycles and scooters have almost
entirely displaced horses in Vietnam, you’ll still
Tigers
Probably the most feared creature in Vietnam,
see the occasional rural militia patrolling on
tigers are silent predators which stalk the bush
horseback, and the creatures are somewhat common
throughout the country. For the most part, tigers
in the boonies, pulling wagons or lending muscle
leave humans alone and vis versa, but every once
power to farm machinery.
in a while a tiger gets the taste for human flesh.
Rumours of a man-eating tiger on the loose can
A Horse has Fortitude 15 and Vigilance 7. They can
lead to something of a cease fire on the front
carry up to 100 Weight in the form of riders and
lines as both sides try desperately to hunt down
their gear, equipment stowed in saddlebags, or in
the murderous beast.
a Wagon. They use the following move speed chart.
Weight Full Half Shift Swim Tigers are Fortitude 10 and Vigilance 10. They
<10 2000m 600m 300m 1 move 600m over any terrain, losing 100m for every
point of Injury, and always Infiltrate. Their
11-25 1500m 500m 250m 2 Swim Difficulty is always 1. Their claws give
26-35 1200m 400m 200m 3 them +5 in Melee, they have natural Tiger Stripe
36-55 700m 300m 150m 4 camouflage, and the skills Aquatic, Stealth,
Melee (Claws), Fleet-Footed and Bloodlust.
56+ 400m 200m 100m 5
Tigers are lethargic during the day and hunt at
Horses make Half-Moves instead of Shifts when night. All tigers are shy of direct human contact,
Charging on flat ground. Fire or 3+ Injury will but man-eating tigers will often stalk a group
spook them and cause them to Flee. as they move. During the day they will attack
stragglers or isolated humans, and at night they
Pack Animals will attempt to attack when the group is asleep,
Mules, oxen, and similar creatures are common quickly killing and dragging off one victim.
in rural Vietnam. These creatures generally
don’t take well to being ridden, or don’t provide
enough benefit to be worth tracking, but they are
great for moving equipment. Treat them as horses
for the purposes of carrying or pulling Weight.
Weight Full Half Shift Swim
<10 1000m 500m 300m 1
11-20 800m 400m 200m 2
21-30 600m 300m 150m 3
31-50 500m 250m 100m 4
51+ 400m 150m 25m 5

53
Epilogue
A Mission concludes when the player characters
have been extracted from (or have otherwise left)
the mission area and returned to their base or
outfit. After turning in their broken equipment,
getting treated for their injuries, and getting a
well deserved shower and rest, the members of the
Squad are expected to turn in a Report.
After-Action Report
After-Action Reports are how the Army keeps track
the progress of the war, and so are utterly vital
to the process. It is also how acts of gallantry
and violations of military law are ascertained.
Thus, it is of critical importance that everyone
drafts a Report. Everyone should take a small
piece of paper and a pencil and fill their reports
out in silence. Communication or collaboration
during the writing of reports is not tolerated.
In PATROL, you of course don’t have to summarize
any of the events or objectives you tackled during
your Mission; fortunately for you, your character
does all the heavy lifting on that front. All you
need to do is write about your comrades in two
ways; Accusations and Recommendations. These
can only be done for your squadmates; you cannot
give yourself recommendations, or turn yourself
in, for that matter.
Reports can be written at the table, in which case
everyone should write them quietly on a piece
of paper, but if you’ve run out of time at the end
of the day, you can relay your reports through
email. This method also allows more time for
private scheming and negotiation, not that you
should be doing those things for official Army
reports...
If your character was KIA, MIA or taken prisoner
during the Mission, you don’t get to write a
report. If you played multiple characters, only
the last one you played gets to make a report.
Accusations
An Accusation is a note in your report that a
member of your Squad has broken the military
Code of Conduct during the course of the mission.
The military recognizes that this is a very
serious affair, and that it is difficult to report
the wrongdoings of your comrades. However, we
are fighting a battle of hearts and minds and it
is important to hold our own accountable. False
reports will not be tolerated, but substantiated
reports will be rewarded in order to incentivize
honesty.
To make an Accusation, simply name the offender,
and indicate which rule they violated. You can
make any number of Accusations.
54
Recommendations
A Recommendation is a note in your report of the
unusual heroism or superb conduct of a member of
your Squad, putting them in for a decoration to
recognize their contribution.
Identify up to 2 squadmates and then choose
the awards from the list below that you believe
they deserve. You can write Recommendations for
deceased characters.
Purple Heart
5 Victory Points
You should recommend a Purple Heart for
members of your squad who are badly wounded
in the line of duty. Give this to the member
of your Squad who pulled through despite
the odds.
Soldier’s Medal
5 Victory Points
You should recommend a Soldier’s Medal
for acts of courage, leadership or empathy
outside of a direct combat situation. Give
this to the member of your Squad who made a
difference without using their weapon.
Bronze Star
6 Victory Points
You should recommend a Bronze Star for
initiative and intelligence in engaging
with the enemy. Give this to the member of
your squad who used their brains to get
ahead, and got away with it.
Silver Star
8 Victory Points
You should recommend a Silver Star for
ruthlessness in persecuting the enemy.
Give this to the member of your squad who
consciously took actions that resulted
in extraordinary destruction of enemy
equipment and personnel.
Distinguished Service Cross
10 Victory Points
Automatic Promotion
You should recommend a Distinguished
Service Cross for extreme gallantry and
courage in the face of the enemy. Give this
to the member of your squad who lead from
the front and took bold action at every turn.
Congressional Medal of Honour
20 Victory Points
Double Automatic Promotion
The very highest honour the United States
Military can issue, you should only
recommend a Medal of Honour for extreme
selflessness, courage, and persistence.
There is a reason that most Medals of Honour
are issued posthumously.
Resolving Reports
In order for a Report to have any effect, it has
to be substantiated; more than one member of
the Squad has to make the same Accusation or
Recommendation in their Report.
Therefore, Reports are cross-referenced. For
Recommendations, if two or more people have
made the same Recommendation, award the medal!
The only exception is the Medal of Honour; every
member of the Squad except the recipient must
recommend that medal for it to be issued.
If a deceased character receives a medal, then
that player’s next character gets half the VPs
(rounding up) as Experience Points during
character creation.
If an Accusation is substantiated, then the
accused character is in trouble; all the Victory
Points they got for this session are split up
between the accusers instead.
If an Accusation is not substantiated, the accuser
loses the VPs for completing Objectives on the
mission, though they keep any extra VPs.
In Between Missions
The only thing left to do is to see what effects the
mission has had on the members of the Squad. This
means figuring out how much XP everyone got, or
conversely, how much they lost.
Surviving a Mission and getting back to base
grants you 3 XP. Everything else has to be earned
through your actions on the field.
The XP you earn is equal to the difference between
your Victory Points and your Fatigue at the end
of the Mission. If you have more VPs than Fatigue,
you’ve come out of the experience stronger, more
aware, more skilled and less inhibited. You are a
better soldier, if not a better person.
Spending your XP
Before your next Mission, you can spend your
bonus XP for new Skills and Equipment, exactly
like you did during Character Creation, or to
improve your Attributes.
The XP cost to improve an Attribute varies
depending on your current Attribute score. It is
generally easier to improve lesser skills.
Attribute XP for +1
<8 1 Getting Short
9-12 2 After you’ve served a few Missions, you and the
13-16 3 the end of their tour. Run one last mission as a
17+ 4 short-timer. If they make it home, transfer all
55
In between missions, you can always trade in any
piece of 0-XP Equipment for any other piece. This
lets you rearrange your kit to suit new Missions.
You can also keep any gear you took on the field.
Negative XP
If you have more Fatigue than VPs, your character
degrades as hardship takes a toll on them. You
must make up the difference in XP by reducing
your Attributes or losing a Skill. You can also
voluntarily take an addiction to a Narcotic,
worth 4 XP.
You may retire a character if any of your
Attributes falls below 5.
Trauma
Fatigue doesn’t just go away. As your character
experiences more Missions, they gradually
become hardened to the world, represented with
Trauma.
Trauma is effectively a new minimum Fatigue
value for your character. No matter what your
Status Effects are, your Fatigue always counts
being at least this value for the purposes of XP
calculation and the VP chart.
At the end of your Mission, add 1/4th of your
Fatigue (rounding up) to your Trauma value. Your
Fatigue then returns to 0.
If your Trauma ever reaches 12 or higher, you’ll
be removed from duty as a psychological casualty.
Roll a new character.
Reducing Trauma
If you are accruing too much Trauma, you can get
rid of it in two ways. First, you can spend XP to
get rid of it. Every 2 XP spent removes 1 point of
Trauma.
Alternatively, after any Mission where you
received fewer Victory Points than Fatigue, you
can remove all your Trauma by changing your
Alignment. A character can only change Alignment
once in a campaign, though there may be special
exceptions at GM discretion.
This change in Alignment can represent many
things, like a Idealistic character losing their
faith in God or Humanity, a Righteous character
becoming disillusioned with their cause, or
an Egocentric character having a painful
revelatory moment.
GM might decide your character is approaching
their XP and VP to their replacement.
Skills
Aquatic
You’re as at home on water as on land.
Applies to Swim Actions.
Basic Medical
You know just enough about the human body to
probably not kill the person you are trying to
help.
Applies to the Stem Bleeding Action.
Bloodlust
You want nothing more than to get to grips with
the enemy.
Applies to the Charge Action.
Cold Blooded
You’ve shot a lot of people, and the only thing
you’ve ever felt is recoil.
Applies to the Execute Action. Off-limits to
Idealistic characters.
Camouflage
You know the basic principles of keeping
something hidden; use lots of branches and lots
of green paint.
Applies to the Conceal Position and Conceal
Vehicle Actions.
DEfuse
You’ve got the iron will it takes to stare down
several pounds of explosives and make the call to
cut the red wire.
Applies to the Disable Trap Action.
Diplomacy
You always seem to know just what to say to get
what you want out of a conversation.
Applies to Negotiate and Opposed Negotiate
Actions.
Drive/Fly (Vehicle)
You might not have your license, but you can make
this vehicle do what you like. You know the gas
and brakes, or the ups and downs for aircraft. The
gentle, controlled downs, hopefully.
Applies to many Actions related to the chosen
vehicle. Specify a vehicle when taken.
Eagle-Eyed
Your keen eyes can distinguish between a weapon
and a farming tool, or a bomb and a piece of debris
on the side of the road.
Applies to Search and Observe actions.
Electronics
You know your way around the dials and
frequencies, encryption and moon-bounce. As long
as you have batteries, the signal can’t be stopped.
Applies to the Adjust Frequency Actions.
56
EScape Artist
You can break these cuffs.
Applies to the Escape Restraint Action.
Enemy Equipment (Type)
You understand your way around various Soviet
and Chinese weapons nearly as well as their
American counterparts and are well aware of
their quirks.
You treat this type of Enemy Equipment as your
own for the purposes of Weapon Skills.
EnGlish/French/Korean
You know enough of the language of the Westerners
to get by.
Select one. Works like Local Language for
Vietnamese speakers.
Explosives
You love nothing more in the universe than
explosions. The bigger, the better.
Applies to the Blast Attacks rolled with Mines
and Claymores, and the Throw Grenade attacks
used with Satchel Charges.
E-War
You have the latest NSA-approved training in
electronic surveillance techniques.
Applies to Intercept Tranmission Actions.
Fleet Footed
You know when you’ve overstayed your welcome.
Applies to the Flee Action.
Forward Air Controller
You know the skies better than the flyboys
themselves. Thanks to you, supplies will never
fall far and ordnance will never fall close.
Applies to rolling any checks for aircraft,
including Spot Target.
Forward OBserver
You can walk mortar fire across anything. Hell,
you can make it tap-dance.
Applies to the Spot Target Action for artillery.
(Type) Grenade
You have a good throwing arm, and you know to
pull the pin, then throw.
Applies to Throw Grenade attacks, at any range,
using the listed type of Grenade (ie: Hand,
Rifle, Launcher or Rocket) of any type.
Molotov Cocktails use the Pyromania skill,
and Satchel Charges use the Explosive skill.
Handyman
You can, with a wrench and a little elbow grease,
make anything work (or stop working) with ease.
Applies to the Repair, Sabotage Vehicle and
Pry Hatch Actions.
Guard
You have the capacity to stay awake and the basic
ability to pay attention to things around you,
traits that are both vital and shockingly rare.
Applies to the Sentry Action.
Interrogate
You have a hacksaw and you are running out of
time. They don’t start talking in the next few
minutes, you can’t be held responsible.
Applies to the Interrogate actions.
Jump Training
You’ve taken off in more planes than you’ve landed
in.
Applies to Parachute Actions.
Local Language
You know your way around some of the basics of the
lingo used by the villagers in this area. Enough
that you can get basic concepts across, at least.
Select if Vietnamese, Indigenous or other.
Applies to Communicate Actions. Allows
interactions with non-English speakers
without the use of a phrasebook or interpreter.
Medicine
You’re basically the town doctor for your unit
and the locals. You’ve treated malaria, handed out
a variety of multicoloured tablets and maybe even
played midwife a few times.
Applies To the Administer Care and Transfusion
Actions.
Melee (Weapon)
You aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty.
Applies to Melee fighting with this weapon.
Prepare Position
You know all about cover vs concealment, moving
piles of dirt, and you’re considering a doctorate
in South-East Asian pedology after the war.
Applies to Prepare Position.
Pyromania
You have friends who live in your head. They tell
you to burn things.
Applies to Arson actions and Throw Grenade
with Molotov Cocktails. Inappropriately
lighting fires gives you 1 VP.
Scrambling
You know how to get exactly the right frequency
of incredibly infuriating white noise into the
receiver of every radio for miles, and sometimes,
you even use it for useful purposes.
Applies to the Scramble Signal Action.
57
SCuBa Certified
You’re as at home on water as on land.
Required to use SCUBA gear.
Silent Killer
You’ve learned how to kill up close and silent,
close enough to feel their last breath.
Applies to the Assassinate Action.
Stealth
You know how to remain unseen and unheard, even
on the move, and remain still and quiet even as
boots fall within inches of you.
Applies to the Conceal Self Action.
Survivalist
You know which mushrooms are safe to eat, and
which are fun to eat.
Applies to the Forage action.
Tolerance
You’ve done things to your body that would
probably kill a lesser man.
Applies to the Fortitude Check taken when one
uses Narcotics.
Tough Nut
You’ll crack eventually, but it’ll take you a while.
Maybe long enough for help to arrive.
Applies to Opposed Interrogate actions.
Trapper
You know how to set up a mine to go unseen and to
do the most damage possible, and where to set it up
to ensure it finds a worthy target.
Applies to any Set Trap Actions.
Trauma Care
You are a trusted first responder who can clamp
an artery, apply a tourniquet and treat a sucking
chest wound well enough for your patient to get
to a real doctor.
Applies to the Treat Injury and Revive Person
Actions.
TUnnel Rat
You have many skills related to moving through
tight underground spaces... the best of which is
probably your small stature.
Applies to the Tunnel Crawl Action.
Weapon (Range)
You’ve trained hard with this weapon. You can
disassemble and reassemble it blindfolded and
know its every quirk. There are many like it, but
this one is yours.
Applies to any Attack with this weapon at
the listed range, as well as any Clear Action
involving this weapon. Does not apply to the
Enemy versions of weapons.
Actions
Equipment And Personal Actions
Rest Quick Retrieve
You take five. You pluck something off the ground.
Attribute - Difficulty - Attribute - Difficulty -
Length Regular Skill - Length Minor Skill -
Requirements Requirements
Not in Melee or being fired upon. Within 10 meters of loose equipment, consenting,
Effects restrained or incapacitated characters, or
Vigilance to 0. After 2 successful consecutive bodies.
Rest actions, remove 1 Exhaustion. Don’t take Effects
Exhaustion if you’ve Rested 2+ turns in a row. You can pick up a single item as per a Police
action.
Manage Equipment
You take a drink from your canteen, trade off Escape Restraints
some gear, and drop some excess load. You slip your cuffs.
Attribute - Difficulty - Attribute Fortitude Difficulty 2
Length Free Skill - Escape
Length Minor Skill
Requirements Artist
None. Requirements
Effects Restrained.
As a Free Action, you can drop, trade or activate Effects
any item. You can also consume an item and apply Roll a Fortitude Check.
the listed effects. Successes
You manage to pry off your restraints.
Though this is a Free Action, you can only FUBAR
consume 1 piece each of food or drink per Turn. You hurt yourself trying to pull loose,
causing 1 Injury.
With the consent of another character, or if
they are Incapacitated, you can Manage other Clear
character’s equipment or use their supplies on You get your weapon back in working order.
yourself or them.
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty 1
Police Length Regular Skill Weapon
You manage fallen equipment, wrangle prisoners, Requirements
and take the gear you need off the dead. A jammed Firearm.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty - Effects
This action restores a weapon to working order
Length Regular Skill - after a FUBAR roll. Make a Proficiency Check.
Requirements Successes
Within 10m of equipment, consenting, restrained If you achieve Minimum Successes, you
or incapacitated characters, or bodies. restore the weapon to working order.
Effects FUBAR
You can take the Equipment from up to 2 people, You destroy the weapon attempting to fix it.
pick up discarded items, apply Restraints to a
person, and/or pick up a person or body. Dispose
You destroy a piece of equipment to deny it to
A body weighs 20 + Equipment. the enemy.
Give Command Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Variable
You give an order to your canine. Length Regular Skill -
Requirements
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty -
Holding the equipment.
Length Regular Skill - Effects
Requirements Make a Fortitude Check. You can destroy up to 2
Within 10m of your Working Dog. x Successes Weight of gear in one turn. Larger
Effects pieces of gear might require some intervention.
Select a Command from your list. The dog will
then attempt to perform that action.

58
Radio Actions
Adjust Frequency
You tune in to talk to somebody far away.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty KM to Target
Length Regular Skill Electronics
Requirements
Not in Melee, a working radio transmitter.
Effects
Choose a target radio and make an Vigilance
Check. Each character targeted makes their own
Opposed Vigilance Check.
Successes
If you pass the Check, you establish contact
to the Target through the Radio.
FUBAR
One way signal. You can transmit to the
target, but they can’t respond until you
reestablish the connection.
The difficulty of the Check is your distance
in kilometres from the target. The number
of Successes you roll is the total number of
kilometers you can move away from your target
before the connection is broken.
Add +2 Difficulty to contact units you haven’t
got a frequency for and +2 for enemy radios.
Intercept Transmission
You surreptitiously tap into enemy channels
and listen to their chatter.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Opposed
Length Regular Skill E-War
Requirements
A working Radio Backpack.
Effects
This action can be used to intercept signals
being sent and received by another radio. Make
an Adjust Frequency Action to connect to the
target radio, then make an Opposed Vigilance
Check. The target is not aware of the inception;
roll their Check in secret.
Successes
If the interceptor gets more Successes, they
are able to hear all communication that
passes over that radio. This may require a
Communicate Check to understand foreign
language transmissions.
FUBAR
If you are intercepting, your effort is
revealed and the target is made aware that
you are attempting to intercept their
transmission. They do not necessarily know
if you succeeded.

You can also use this Action to tune in to You will continue to passively intercept
various radio channels and even TV audio, if transmissions until you make another Radio
you want to passively listen to some music or Action or they Adjust Frequency.
commentary.

ScramBle Signal
You flood the airwaves with an overpowering
signal to prevent the enemy from making radio
transmissions.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1
Length Regular Skill Scrambling
Requirements
A working Radio Backpack.
Effects
This action can be used to prevent the use of
radios near your location. Make a Vigilance
Check.
Successes
Every Success negates a Success on Adjust
Frequency actions for radios within 2 km.
FUBAR
Welp, you accidentally burnt out your radio.
You can repair it with 2 Successes on a Repair
Action.

This will also reduce the range of radios

within 2 kilometers with existing connections
by 1 kilometer for each success, potentially
causing a drop in connection.

59
Movement Actions
march Infiltrate
You move at a brisk pace that strikes a balance You move stealthily through the undergrowth,
between exertion and ground covered. doing your best to stay out of sight.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty - Attribute Fortitude Difficulty -
Length Regular Skill - Length Regular Skill -
Requirements Requirements
On foot. On foot. Were not fired on last Turn.
Effects Effects
Make a Full Move. Makes a free Conceal Action on yourself. You
can then make a Half Move.
Quick March
You move at double-time, sacrificing awareness Contact Distance is reduced to 100m. If you
for speed. Attack on Contact, it will not be Blind Fire.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty - Walking Fire
Length Regular Skill - You put down a volley of fire as you move,
Requirements covering your advance or retreat.
On foot. Attribute Fortitude Difficulty -
Effects
Length Regular Skill -
Make two March Actions in a row. Reduce
Vigilance by 5 until next turn. If you make Requirements
Contact, you stop, but do not get free Actions. On foot, open terrain, a visible target, a weapon
capable of Suppressive Fire.
Flee Effects
You run like the devil was chasing you. Choose a target and make a Half Move. You can
make one Suppressive Fire, Throw Grenade or
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty - Blast Attack Action along your move.
Length Regular Skill Fleet-Footed
Requirements Increase the To-Hit difficulty by 1, and reduce
On foot, enemy visible. your own To-Hit Difficulty by 1 next Turn.
Effects
Make a Fortitude Check. Ignore Contact and
Cross Wire
Suppression. Your effective Vigilance is 0 You attempt to crawl through barbed wire.
during the move. Attribute Fortitude Difficulty 2
Successes Length Free Skill Stealth
Make 1 Shift away from the enemy per Success.
FUBAR Requirements
Discard 1d6 Weight in Equipment. On foot. Not Pinned Down.
Effects
Charge The Action is rolled when you cross an Anti-
Infantry Obstacle. Roll a Fortitude Check.
You charge at the enemy and give him what-for.
Failures
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty - Reduce your Stealth Rating by 1.
Length Regular Skill Bloodlust FUBAR
Requirements You get badly cut on the wire. Take 1 Injury
On foot, enemy visible. for every excess Failure.
Effects
Make a Fortitude Check. Ignore Contact and If you fail to get enough Successes, your move
Suppression. stops at the Wire. Roll again next Turn.
Successes
Make 1 Shift towards the enemy per Success.
Crush Obstacle
FUBAR You lay down on the wire so others can cross.
Reduce your To-Hit Value by 1 for incoming Attribute Fortitude Difficulty -
Defensive Fire. Length Minor Skill -
If you make it to Melee range, you can make a Requirements
single Suppressive Fire, Throw Grenade or About to cross an Anti-Infantry Obstacle.
Blast Attack Action at the target Unit before Effects
you resolve Melee. Stop your move. Your Unit can ignore the
Obstacle, but you are Stunned next Turn. Roll a
Difficult Terrain negates 1 Success. d6 for everyone crossing and take Injury on a 1.

60
Crawl
You get on your belly and move as far as you can.
Trap Actions
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty -
Set Trap
Length Regular Skill - You lay down some stakes or barbed wire.
Requirements Attribute Proficiency Difficulty Variable
On foot. Length Regular Skill Trapper
Effects Requirements
Make a Shift Move, even if Pinned Down. Not in Melee, on foot, on dry land, and armed
with a trap or the appropriate equipment.
Shift Effects
You move a short distance to do something. This action places a Trap on your current
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty - location. Make a Vigilance Check.
Successes
Length Minor Skill -
Every Success adds +3 to the Stealth Rating
Requirements of the Trap.
On foot. Not Pinned Down. Have not Moved. FUBAR
Effects The trap goes off while you are setting it,
Move up to your Shift Move Speed to perform an with you as the target. Good job.
Action. You can then move back to your starting
location, or any point in between, providing Disarm Trap
you did not make an Attack Action.
You lay down some stakes or barbed wire.
Swim Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 2
You try to keep your head above water. Length Regular Skill Defuse
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Swim Move Requirements
Not in Melee.
Length Regular Skill Aquatic
Effects
Requirements This action disables and removes a Trap at your
In Deep Water. current location. Make a Vigilance Check.
Effects Successes
If you enter Deep Water, roll a Fortitude Check If you get the minimum Successes, the trap
at the beginning of your next turn. is disabled. You can add it to your own
Successes Equipment, modify it, or destroy it.
You can move 100m for every Success equal to FUBAR
or exceeding the Difficulty. The trap is activated as you try to disarm it.
Failures Oops!
Take 1 Exhaustion fighting the current.
FUBAR Detonate Trap
You drown and die. Roll a new character.
You lay down some stakes or barbed wire.
Characters above their Carrying Capacity will Attribute Proficiency Difficulty -
FUBAR immediately. Length Free Skill -
Parachute Requirements
A detonator and an active command trap.
You pull the cord and hope for the best.
Effects
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Jump Roll a d6. On a 1, it’s a dud. Otherwise, the
Length Regular Skill Jump Train. explosive goes off!
Requirements
A parachute, a long drop.
Effects
Roll a Proficiency Check. The difficulty is set
by your Altitude.
Successes
If you pass the Check, your parachute opens
and you don’t die!
Failures
You drift 100m for each Failure in a random
compass direction.
FUBAR
You land roughly and possibly in a tree. Take
1 Injury for every excess Failure.

61
Awareness Actions
OBserve Search
You carefully scrutinize the situation. You scrutinize an area carefully.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty To-Hit Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1
Length Minor Skill Eagle Eyed Length Regular Skill Eagle Eyed
Requirements Requirements
Not in Melee. Not in Melee.
Effects Effects
Target a location, group of people or vehicle A Search Action is effectively a Sentry action
and make a Vigilance Check. targeted against a person, vehicle, item or
Successes small structure within 10 meters.
Each Success meeting or exceeding the target Successes
grants you a single question about the Each Success adds +3 to your Vigilance
landscape, the number, armaments, location, against the Stealth Rating of objects on or
activity or intent of a Unit. The GM must around your Target.
answer these questions truthfully. FUBAR
FUBAR Your clumsy search results in property
For each excess Failure, the GM can lie on destruction, injury or intense discomfort.
one of your questions. Raise the difficulty of future Interactions
with these people by 1.
Add the target’s Stealth Rating as Failures.
The GM should roll this check for you; if you A person can Search up to 3 people, locations or
suspect the GM is lying, you can ask the same items per Search Action.
question again, using up one more Success.
Conceal
Sentry You try to stay out of sight.
You set up camp and keep a watchful eye for Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1
oncoming threats. Length Regular Skill Stealth
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1 Requirements
Length Regular Skill Guard Not in Melee.
Not in Melee. Effects
Effects Target yourself, a piece of equipment, or a body.
Make a Vigilance Check. Successes
Successes Every Success adds +3 to the Stealth Rating
Add +2 to your Vigilance per Success until of your Target. If targeted on yourself, it
the beginning of next Turn. lasts until you take another action.
FUBAR FUBAR
You fall asleep. Treat this as a Rest Action. You break noise discipline, alerting
everyone within 100m.
Take 1 automatic failure per 2 Exhaustion.
You can also use the Action to hide an item
Forage of Weight 1 or less on your person or at your
location. The item’s Stealth Rating will persist
You hunt for water or food.
until you use it next. You can only hide 1 item.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1
Length Regular Skill Survivalist When in water, you can add +1 to your Swim check
Requirements to attempt to Conceal yourself as a Free Action.
On foot, not in Melee.
Effects
Make a Vigilance Check.
Successes
Every Success grants 1 Grub, Punji Stick, or
Arrow. 2 Successes can grant 1 Clean Water.
Failures
Every Failure grants 1 Dirty Water.
FUBAR
You found the fun mushrooms! Roll Fortitude
as if you drank Dirty Water. On a failure,
apply the effects of a Hallucinogen.

6262
Medical Actions
Treat Injury
You do your best to manage a wounded person.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Injury
Length Regular Skill Trauma Care
Requirements
Not in Melee, consenting or restrained Target,
a First Aid Kit. Stem Bleeding
Effects You do your best to keep as much blood inside
Target a person with Injury, consume a First the patient as possible.
Aid Kit and make a Vigilance check.
Successes Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1
If you roll as many Successes as target Basic
Length Regular Skill
Injury, remove 1 point of Injury or end all Medical
Ongoing Damage. Requirements
FUBAR Not in Melee, consenting or restrained Target.
Malpractice. You inflict 1 Injury on the Effects
target. Target a person taking Ongoing Damage and make
a Vigilance check.
Treat Injury can be performed on yourself, but Successes
increase the Difficulty by 1. Each Success equal to or greater than the
requirement reduces the target’s Ongoing
Revive Person Damage by 1 next Turn.
You slap someone back into awareness and get
them on their feet. This action can only be used on a given person
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Injury once per Turn. Stem Bleeding can be performed
on yourself, but increase the Difficulty by 1.
Length Regular Skill Trauma Care
Requirements Transfusion
Not in Melee, an Incapacitated person with at You move some blood around.
least one Attribute above 0.
Effects Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1
Target an Incapacitated person and make a Length Regular Skill Medicine
Vigilance check. Requirements
Successes Either Blood Plasma or a live person of a
The target is no longer Incapacitated. compatible blood type.
Effects
While Incapacitated, Revive Person actions Target an Incapacitated person and make a
targeted on yourself are the only action you Vigilance check.
can perform. Do not apply your Skill. Successes
Negate this many Ongoing Damage as long as
ADminister Care the Transfusion lasts.
You do what you can for the sick. FUBAR
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Injury You somehow worsen the bleeding on the
patient trying to get the IV in. +1 Ongoing.
Length Regular Skill Medicine
Requirements The transfusion will last until the patient, the
Not in Melee, consenting or restrained Target donor or any third party in contact chooses to
within 10m with a sickness or infection. end it, or the Patient or Donor make more than a
Effects Half Move on foot.
Target a person make a Vigilance check.
Successes Characters must have the same general blood
Each success gives you and your Unit a type as their donor (Positive, Negative or O+),
spendable +2 to Interactions with friends though O- can donate to any character and AB-
and family of the target. can accept any donor.
Failures
You cause some discomfort for the target, The Donor will gain double Thirst as though
negating a success. they were taking Ongoing Damage, and will take
FUBAR 1 Injury after 6 consecutive Turns donating
You make an embarrassing misdiagnosis. Your blood.
treatment inflicts 1d3 Injury.

63
Fortification and Structure Actions
Prepare Position Enter Structure
You move some earth around. You kick in a door.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Variable Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Door
Length Regular Skill Prepare Pos. Length Free Skill -
Requirements Requirements
Entrenching Tool, on solid ground. Contact with a Structure or Tunnel entrance.
Effects Effects
Plan the Capacity and Level of the Position you Pick an entrance way.
are creating. Multiply the intended Capacity Successes
to be created by the Level, then multiply this If you meet the minimum Successes, you open
value by 2. That is the Difficulty. the door.
FUBAR
To modify an existing position, use the Your entrance is clumsy and hesitant. In
difference between the current Level and the Small Structures, the occupant is allowed one
intended Level to calculate Difficulty. Add new Action before you enter. In Large Structures,
Capacity as if you were digging a new position. the other team gets the first Step.

Everyone building the position should roll a In any case, you open up the structure and
Fortitude Check. Add all the Successes together. expose whatever is inside the immediate room.
If you wish, you can then go inside.
Digging a Position requires consecutive Turns
of Regular Actions equal to the Difficulty. TunneL CRAWl
Every Success in excess of the Difficulty You worm your way underground.
reduces this time by 1, to a minimum of 1 Turn.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Weight
Conversely, if you fail to roll enough Successes, Length Special Skill Tunnel Rat
the number of Turns it takes to complete goes up Requirements
by the difference. Inside a Tunnel
Effects
If a character leaves before the position is Roll when you take an action inside a Tunnel.
finished, remove their Successes. If a new Subtract the tunnel Width from your Weight for
character join, roll their Check to reduce the difficulty.
time, but divide their Successes in half. Successes
If you meet the Difficulty, the action goes
If work is stopped early, sacrifice one for each ahead.
Turn left. FUBAR
• 1 Capacity in the Position Even if you pass the Check, your Turn ends.
• 1 Level of the Position
If you fail, the Action fails and your Turn ends.
Conceal Position
You use foliage, netting and debris to hide a Arson
fighting position from watchful eyes. You burn this motherfucker down.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Capacity Attribute Proficiency Difficulty Burn Rating
Length Regular Skill Camouflage Length Regular Skill Pyromania
Requirements Requirements
A Defensive Position or stationary Vehicle. In contact with a Structure.
Effects Effects
Raises the Stealth Rating of a Position or Roll a Proficiency Check. Add the Successes of
Vehicle. Roll a Vigilance Check. Use the target everyone taking the Action together.
Capacity as Difficulty. Combine Successes from Successes
everyone taking the Action. If you meet the Difficulty, the building
Successes catches fire. Small Structures or Rooms will
Every Success equal to or in excess of the burn down in 1d3 Turns, inflicting 1d3 Fire
Difficulty adds +1 to the Stealth Rating of Damage to occupants each Turn.
the position, up to 5. FUBAR
You light your own dumb ass on fire for 1d3.
Use 1/100th of a Vehicle’s Weight as the
Difficulty. If a concealed Vehicle moves, it You can consume a unit of Fuel for +1 Success
loses this Stealth Rating. and +1 Failure.

64
Interactions
Talk Negotiate
You talk, to your friends, to the enemy, to God, You attempt to convince some folks to do things
or maybe just to yourself. your way.
Attribute - Difficulty - Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Opposed
Length Free Skill - Length Regular Skill Diplomacy
Talking in your native language without trying Requirements
to convince somebody is always a free action. Somebody to talk to.
Effects
Communicate Target a character or a Unit and make an
You try your best to make yourself understood Vigilance Check. Each character targeted makes
in the alien language of the locals. their own Opposed Vigilance Check.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty 1 Successes
If you get more successes than the target, you
Length Minor Skill Language convince them!
Requirements FUBAR
A person who does not share your language. You have seriously pissed off whoever you are
Effects talking to with your presumptive bullshit.
Roll a Vigilance Check.
Successes This check can be used to convince English-
For every success, you can ask 1 question, speakers of complex position or challenge
understand 1 answer, or accurately convey a their orders. With speakers of other languages,
simple concept. it can only be used to convince characters of
crude positions, such as to surrender or get out
When NPCs talk to the players, one PC will make a of the way. You may need to make an additional
free Communicate Check in order to understand. Communicate action to get across more complex
Locals are under no obligation to answer your concepts before trying to convince them.
questions honestly or follow your orders.
When attempting to resist a call to surrender,
If your questions can be answered without Doubt removes one dice from your Vigilance for
language, like by pointing or binary yes/no Opposed Negotiate actions.
answers, the answer consumes no Successes.
Interrogate
Warning Shot You make somebody else talk for a change,
You fire a shot into the air. whether they want to or not.
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty - Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Opposed
Length Minor Skill - Length Regular Skill Interrogate
Requirements Requirements
A Firearm. About to roll a Negotiate Action. A captive audience.
Effects Effects
Consume 1 Ammo. Gain a bonus Success on your Target a prisoner or some other powerless
Communicate roll. individual and roll an Opposed Check vs their
Fortitude, with the Tough Nut Skill applying.
Small Violence Successes
You use pain and force to get your way. Each Success grants you a single question
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty 1 that the target might know about. The GM
must answer these questions truthfully, to
Length Minor Skill Special
the best ability of the character.
Requirements Failures
About to roll a Negotiate Action against a The target can tell one lie for each failure.
target who cannot fight back. FUBAR
Effects You’ve gone too far and caused a point of
Roll a Fortitude Check. Injury for each excess Failure. On the plus
Successes side, if you got enough Successes, the target
Get +1 Successes on your Negotiate Check. cannot lie to you.
Failures
Inflict 1 Injury for every 2 Failures. When interrogating targets who do not share
your language, you may need to make Communicate
Resolve the Shock Check immediately, before the actions to understand what they are saying. Of
next Action. If you have 10+ Fatigue, 5s and 6s course, you don’t have to if you don’t care.
are Successes and 1s and 2s are Failures.
65
ComBat Actions
Suppressive Fire Throw Grenade
You fire rapidly and hope you hit something, or You wind up and throw a lethal fastball.
at least keep their head down. Attribute Proficiency Difficulty To-Hit
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty To-Hit Length Special Skill Grenade
Length Regular Skill Weapon Requirements
Requirements A Grenade and a target.
A loaded Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire. Effects
Effects Choose a Grenade, target a Unit and make a
Choose a weapon, target a Unit and make a Proficiency Check. Your grenade is consumed.
Proficiency Check. Successes
Successes Every Success meeting or exceeding the
Every Success meeting or exceeding the Minimum Successes is one hit on the target
Difficulty inflicts 1 Suppression. Unit. Resolve the effect of the Grenade, as
listed in its profile, on the targets struck.
For every multiple of the To-Hit, a member of Failures
the target Unit is struck for 1d6-1 Injury. Collateral hit! A random character within
Failures 50m of the target Unit (not including the
Consume 1 Ammunition for each Failure. target Unit) is struck. This can include
FUBAR members of the Unit which threw the grenade.
Jam! Discard your attack. You’ll need to FUBAR
take a Clear action before you can fire this You drop the grenade, it lands poorly, or it
weapon again. is thrown back by an enemy. Treat your own
Unit as the target Unit.
Suppressive Fire always inflicts a minimum of
1 point of Suppression. When throwing at a Structure or Defensive
Position, only count your Failures if you fail
When using a Belt weapon, roll 1d6. If you roll to meet the To-Hit. If you hit, the blast is
equal or under the times ammo track was cleared, contained by the structure. Grenades will not
use a Spare Barrel or wait a Turn to shoot again. scatter outside of a room if thrown inside.
Precision Fire Throw Grenade can be used as a Minor or Regular
You carefully pick your targets. Action. You can do both to throw two grenades in
one Turn.
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty To-Hit
Length Regular Skill Weapon Blast Attack
Requirements You lay down punishing fire with a cannon,
A loaded Firearm capable of Precision Fire and rocket launcher or flamethrower.
a visible target. Attribute Proficiency Difficulty To-Hit
Effects
Choose a weapon, check one mark on its Length Regular Skill Weapon
Ammunition Track, target a Unit and make a Requirements
Proficiency Check. A weapon capable of a Blast Attack. Not in Melee.
Successes Effects
If the Difficulty is met, a hit is scored and Target a Unit and make a Proficiency Check.
the target Unit takes a point of Suppression. Consumes 1 appropriate ammunition.
Successes
For each hit, a random member of the unit Every Success meeting or exceeding the
takes 2 Injury, plus 1 additional Injury for Minimum Successes is 1 enemy hit by the blast
each excess Success. and 1 Suppression inflicted on the Unit.
FUBAR FUBAR
Jam! Discard your attack. You’ll need to Each Failure in excess of your Successes is
take a Clear action before you can fire this a friendly within Close Range of the target
weapon again! caught in the blast.

If your attack hits, you can opt to take an
additional shot. Discard your Failures from
your dice pool and roll the attack again,
against the same Unit, at +1 Difficulty.
You may continue to make additional attacks
until you miss, run out of ammunition, jam, or
run out of dice.
66
Resolve the effect of the Heavy Weapon, as listed
in its profile, on the targets struck.
Against Vehicles and buildings, Successes
matching and exceeding the target is +1 Damage,
to which the damage of the weapon is added, as
well as an extra Hit that might strike the crew
On the Vehicle.
Take Aim Execute
You take your time to carefully line up a shot. You put a bullet in them at point-blank.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Suppression Attribute Proficiency Difficulty Alignment
Length Minor Skill Weapon Length Variable Skill Cold Blooded
Requirements Requirements
A loaded Firearm and a visible target. A Firearm or Melee Weapon.
Effects Effects
Use before you make an attack Action. Target Restrained, Incapacitated or consenting
Successes characters within 10 meters.
For each Success, choose 1 bonus on the first FUBAR
shot of Precision Fire Action this Turn. You lose your nerve. Nobody dies.
• Choose which member of the target unit
you hit. Unless you FUBAR, the targets die.
• Add +3 to your attack. Difficulty is based on Alignment; 4 for
• Reduce the Injury Reduction of the Idealists, 3 for Pragmatists, and 2 for Righteous
target’s position or cover by 1. and Egotists. Add +1 to the Difficulty for
FUBAR Civilians, and +1 for every additional person.
Reduce your To-Hit by 1.
If you do not pass the Check, take Doubt in
Add all points of Suppression you’ve taken accordance with the Doubt chart on page 41.
as Difficulty. If you fail, you cannot make a
Regular Action this Turn; you miss your chance. With a Firearm, add +3 and use an ammo.

Evade Assemble Weapon

You make yourself the smallest target you can. You scramble to get all the pieces in place for a
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty - heavy weapon, and calibrate it to fire.
Length Minor Skill - Attribute Proficiency Difficulty -
Requirements Length Minor Skill -
First Action in a Turn, aware of an enemy. Requirements
Effects All the parts of a Multi-Part Weapon carried
Increase your To-Hit difficulty by 1. All other within one Unit.
Difficulties this Turn are +1. Take 1 Doubt. Effects
The character contributes one piece of the
COntain Blast weapon. A single individual can only contribute
You jump on a grenade to save your comrades. a one weapon part for an Assemble Weapon Action.
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty - Fire Assistance
Length Special Skill - You aid a comrade in the operation of their
Requirements weapon, calling targets or loading rounds.
A grenade has been thrown at your unit, after Attribute Proficiency Difficulty -
hits are assigned but before damage is rolled.
Effects Length Regular Skill -
Take the grenade damage x2. Negate effects of Requirements
the grenade on the rest of the Unit. A member of your Unit with a weapon that has
open crew positions.
Assassinate Effects
You kill silently, from the shadows. Before a member of your Unit makes an attack,
you can declare you are using a Fire Assistance
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty 2
Action to aid them in firing.
Length Regular Skill Silent Killer
Requirements This will have the following effects.
A Melee or Silenced weapon and a detected • Add +3 to Effective Proficiency.
hostile within 10m who is unaware of you. • Your Ammunition can be used.
Effects • For Blast Attacks, make an additional attack
Choose a target and make a Proficiency Check. If roll and consume 1 more ammunition. This can
you pass, the target is killed outright. be against the same target or different one,
FUBAR and can use different types of ammunition.
You make a lot of noise. The sound carries • For Bombard Attacks, fire an additional piece
200m for every additional failure. of ammunition. (See page 68)
• When making a Suppressive Fire Action, add
If you fail, your target is made aware of you. +1 to the automatic Suppression inflicted by
the weapon, before hits are distributed.

67
Spot Target
You guide munitions to the target.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty To-Hit
Length Regular Skill Variable
Requirements
In contact with a gunner, not in Melee.
Effects
Target a Unit and make a Vigilance Check.
Successes
With sufficient Successes, you spot the
target. The gunner treats your vision as
their own for attacking that target. Every
additional Success negates 1 Failure for the
Bombard Action.
FUBAR
Map misread! Negate 1 Success for every
excess Failure you rolled.
For fire by artillery, tanks or heavy weapons,
use the Forward Observer Skill. For bombers or
gunships, use the Forward Air Controller Skill.
Subsequent Spot Target Actions made from the
same location are at -1 Difficulty to a minimum
of 1. You lose this bonus if you move.
For cautious fire, call Danger Close! Every
excess Success negates 2 gunner Failures, but
gunner To-Hit goes up by 1.
To saturate a grid square, call Immediate
Suppression! Excess Successes reduce gunner
To-Hit by 1 (to a minimum of 1) instead of
negating Failures.
As a last resort, call for Final Defensive Fire!
The To-Hit of the Bombard Action becomes 1 no
matter the range. The attack is centred on you.
68
Bombard
You fire a weapon at a distant target.
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty To-Hit
Length Regular Skill Weapon
Requirements
A Bombardment weapon and a target outside of
the minimum range. Not in Melee.
Effects
Target a Unit or location and make a Proficiency
Check. Consumes 1 piece of ammunition.
Successes
Every Success meeting or exceeding the
Difficulty is 1 Hit and 1 Suppression on
every Unit within Scatter distance of the
Target.
Failures
Multiply Deviation by Failures to get total
Scatter distance.
FUBAR
Uh, oops. Centre the attack on the Unit who
made the Spot Target Action.
Attacks always Scatter at least the base
Deviation of the Range Band.
You can fire on targets called by anyone in
contact with you, but without a successful Spot
Target Action shooting targets you can’t see
will be Blind Fire.
For each character using a Fire Assist Action,
consume an additional piece of ammunition
to reroll discarded dice (Any not Failures or
Successes). Extra shots can use a different
Ammunition type; keep these Successes separate.
Resolve shell effects in the order they were
fired; if the first set of Successes weren’t
enough for a hit, those shells won’t do damage,
even if subsequent rerolls manage to meet the
Difficulty.
Vehicle Actions
Operate Vehicle Repair Vehicle
You push the buttons, steer the wheels and You attempt to patch up damage done to a vehicle.
press the pedals to make a vehicle go. Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Damage
Attribute Proficiency Difficulty Variable Length Regular Skill Handyman
Length Regular Skill Drive/Fly Requirements
Requirements Within 10m of a vehicle (or other mechanical
Be in the driver’s seat. equipment) that has been Disabled.
Effects Effects
The vehicle does what you want it to. Do not Target a location, group of people or vehicle
roll this check if the Vehicle’s Difficulty is 0. and make a Vigilance Check.
Successes
Add +1 in Difficult Terrain, and +1 if you are If you get sufficient Successes, the vehicle
under the effects of Narcotics. is no longer Disabled.
FUBAR
For ground vehicles, when an Operate Vehicle For each Failure in excess of Successes,
check is failed, move 1d3 x 100m in your choose you increase the difficulty of fixing the
direction, then the vehicle and all the occupants vehicle by 1.
make Shock Checks as the vehicle crashes, with
a difficulty equal to your Failures. SaBotage Vehicle
You disable a vehicle before it can reach the
Flying vehicles lose 1 Altitude when this Check fight or be stolen by the enemy.
is failed.
Attribute Vigilance Difficulty Armour
Mount/Dismount Vehicle Length Regular Skill Drive/Fly
You take up position in or on a vehicle. Requirements
An unoccupied vehicle.
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty -
Effects
Length Minor Skill - Make a Vigilance Check. If you are successful,
Requirements the vehicle is Disabled on the spot.
Be within 10m of a stationary unoccupied or
friendly vehicle, or be within a ground vehicle Pry Hatch
moving within it’s Combat Speed. You force your way into a closed vehicle.
Effects
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty Armour
You enter a vehicle and take up an unoccupied
position on or in it, or you leave the vehicle. Length Minor Skill Handyman
Requirements
Bail Out A crowbar and a vehicle with a closed hatch.
You take up position in or on a vehicle. Effects
Make a Fortitude Check against the vehicle’s
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty 1
Armour.
Length Minor Skill Drive/Fly Successes
Requirements If you get sufficient Successes, a hatch on
A fast moving vehicle, flying aircraft or the vehicle (your choice) is opened.
armoured vehicle which has caught fire. FUBAR
Effects If you open the hatch, a member of the crew
Roll Fortitude. If you get enough Successes, can make an attack against you with any of
you escape. If you don’t... you don’t. their weapons.

Heads Up/Button Up Hot Box

You poke your head out for some fresh air, or You drop a surprise in an open hatch.
slam the hatch closed. Attribute Proficiency Difficulty -
Attribute Fortitude Difficulty - Length Minor Skill -
Length Minor Skill Drive/Fly Requirements
Requirements A grenade and a vehicle that has Inside crew
Sitting in a vehicle Slot that can be opened. slots which have been opened.
Effects Effects
You either pop open the hatch, or close it. The grenade is consumed. Roll a Throw Grenade
Simple enough! attack against everyone in the vehicle.
Failures will also hit the vehicle crew.

69
Equipment
Entrenching Tool Crowbar
This foldable shovel is the most important tool Just a handy thing to have around in general,
a soldier carries. It gives him a chance against Crowbars are particularly useful for opening
bursting explosives, and is pretty handy at tough containers like crates or tank hatches.
close range if you swing it hard enough.
Type Equipment
Type Equipment Weight 2 XP Cost 2
Weight 2 XP Cost 2 When Used...
Required for Prepare Position actions. • Allows the user to pry open hatches for a Hot
• +3 to Set Trap Box Action.
• Counts as a Melee Weapon. • Can use as a Melee Weapon, +2.
• Gives +5 to Lethal Melee. Allows the user to pry open Hatches for a Hot
• Inflicts +1 Injury in Melee. Box Action, or open locked doors.
Binoculars Toolkit
Used by spotters, officers and scouts, binoculars Most soldiers learn to carry small items like
have remained unchanged for decades. a pliers, but combat engineers and mechanics
often carry a full toolbelt into combat.
Type Equipment
Weight 2 XP Cost 2 Type Equipment
+5 to Observation. Weight 3 XP Cost 3
When used...
PhraseBook • +5 to Repair and Defuse Trap Actions.
The Vietnamese language might as well be • +3 to Sabotage and Arson Actions.
Martian for US soldier, and interpreters are • Consume a Battery to give +4 in Interrogation.
few and far between. A handy booklet for some
of the more common words and phrases is a good Wirecutters
start, though. Heavy, full-sized wirecutters come in handy for
a variety of tasks, the most important of which
Type Equipment is quickly cutting away brambles of barbed wire
Weight 1 XP Cost 3 fence for those following behind.
Allows Interactions with non-English speakers.
• +2 to these Interactions. Type Equipment
Weight 2 XP Cost 2
Whistle When used...
Whistles are a time-honoured piece of military • ...as part of a Crush Obstacle Action, the
equipment, useful for sending prearranged user takes no Injury.
signals long distances. • Destroys Electrical Line as a Free Action.
• Gives +3 to a Sabotage Vehicle Action.
Type Equipment
• Gives 1 free Success in an Interrogate
Weight 1 XP Cost 1 Action, and 1 Injury to the Target.
Can send prearranged signals up to 500m.
• K9 Handlers can assign a Whistle a Command. Flashlight
The modern military flashlight has a 90 degree
Flare Gun bend, and comes with a red filter so it can
Flare guns are useful both for signalling in an cast a beam that won’t ruin night vision. Many
emergency situation, and illuminating an area; discarded them because they were just about the
a parachute flare can provide near-daylight best way to draw enemy fire.
conditions over an area for several minutes.
Type Equipment
Type Equipment
Weight 1 XP Cost 2
Weight 1 XP Cost 1 When activated at night as a Free Action...
When fired as a Free Action... • Removes the nighttime Stealth Rating bonus
• Removes the effects of Night conditions in a within 10m.
100m Radius. • Reduces your Stealth Rating to 0.
• Overloads all night vision devices in that • Can be used to send prearranged signals up
radius for 2 Turns. to 1000m.
• One-Use. Choose flare colour when fired. • Overloads any night vision devices in your
Flares can be seen up to 10 km away. Unit for the turn.

70
Medical Equipment Blood Plasma
When bleeding was bad, particularly when it
First Aid Kit was internal, emergency transfusions were
The first rule of combat first aid is that you often needed.
always treat a soldier using their medical
equipment rather than your own. That way you Type Supplies
know they can use your own kit if you get hit. Weight 1 XP Cost -
Consume to sustain a Transfuse Action for 3
Type Supplies Turns.
Weight 1 XP Cost -
Consume to use a Treat Injury Action.
Stretcher
Most of the time, stretchers were improvised
Medical Bag out of whatever was handy; ponchos, jackets or
Though you treat wounds with the first aid kits tent canvas. A proper stretcher, however, allows
the victim carries, a medical bag with spare a casualty to be moved much more safely.
supplies and reusable extras comes in handy.
Type Equipment
Type Equipment Weight 2 XP Cost -
Weight 3 XP Cost 3 When used...
When used... • Allows 2 Characters in the same Unit to share
• +3 to Treat Injury Actions carrying 1 other Character, splitting their
• +3 to Stem Bleeding Actions Weight between them evenly.
• Required to make a Transfusion Action.

Load Bearing Equipment

WeBBing Belt Military Pack
Probably the most important thing a soldier Robust backpacks are key for carrying large
owns after his shovel and rifle is his webbing, amounts of spare equipment, but are also very
the reinforced belt that carries his equipment bulky and are usually dropped once the shooting
and ammunition in special pouches. starts.
Type Wearable - Webbing Type Wearable - Backpack
Weight - XP Cost 3 Weight 4 XP Cost 1
Add +10 Carrying Capacity. Adds +15 Carrying Capacity.
Tactical Vest Civilian Basket
Special load-bearing vests and rigs are often Civilians in Vietnam and many other poor
employed that allow soldiers to load themselves countries carry their valuables in baskets
down with easy to grab magazines. balanced on their shoulders, heads or bicycles.
Type Wearable - Webbing Type Wearable
Weight - XP Cost 3 Weight 2 XP Cost 1
Add +5 Carrying Capacity. Adds +5 Carrying Capacity.
• Carries up to 5 Spare Ammo which do not • Adds +5 to the Check to Conceal an item on a
count towards Load or Carrying Capacity. person.
• Limit 2 per Person.
Bandoleer
Simple loose straps slung over the body can be Wagon
used to carry grenades much more easily than a Be it a purpose-built trailer for a jeep, a
belt around the waist. horse-drawn buggy, or a hand cart, wagons of all
shapes and sizes are a common sight in Vietnam.
Type Wearable - Webbing
Weight - XP Cost 3 Type Special
Add +5 Carrying Capacity. Weight 20 XP Cost -
• Carries up to 5 Grenades which do not count Items or characters can be put in a Wagon.
towards Load or Carrying Capacity. • A Wagon can hold up to 100 Weight.
• Wagons can be pulled by Characters, Animals,
Haversack or a Vehicle.
Small backpacks are valuable for light troops. • Divide the Weight of everything carried in
the Wagon by half, not including the Wagon.
Type Wearable - Backpack
• Wagons drawn through Difficult Terrain
Weight 2 XP Cost - count as twice their regular Weight.
Add +10 Carrying Capacity.

71
Communication Equipment
Portable Radio Telephone Field Telephone
The PRC-25, known derisively as the “Prick”, Radios were useful for mobile troops, but you
is the same radio they put on the dashboard of could jam or intercept them, and their reliance
command vehicles, just with backpack straps. on batteries could be a problem. Old fashioned
It’s heavy, temperamental, devours batteries, wired telephones were still widely in use,
and has revolutionized infantry warfare. especially by the NVA.
Type Wearable - Backpack Type Equipment
Weight 6 XP Cost 5 Weight 6 XP Cost 4
Radio transmitter/receiver. Transmitter/Receiver.
• 2 Automatic Successes to Adjust Frequency. • Operates without Charges.
• Large Track. • Allows Interactions with characters with
Field Telephones connected to this one with
Handheld Radio Telephone an Electrical Wire.
Looking something like a large brick with an • Can connect to 1 Telephone or Switchboard.
antenna, the “walkie-talkie” can transmit • Cannot perform radio actions.
messages a short distance, though it burns out • Must be set up in a stationary location.
its battery in very short order.
Telephone Headset
Type Equipment A must-have for any tunnel rat, this compact,
Weight 3 XP Cost 5 bite-activated headset trails a telephone
Radio transmitter/receiver. wire that acts as both a way of communicating
• Small Track. outisde the tunnel, and a breadcrumb trail to
find your way out.
Helmet Radio Receiver
A small, helmet-mounted antenna with a speaker Type Equipment
directed at the ear. They were experimented Weight 1 XP Cost 3
with in the early 60s. It can’t transmit, but it Telephone transmitter/receiver.
was intended for private soldiers who don’t • Acts as a Field Telephone that can move.
have anything useful to say anyway. • Comes with 1 unit of Electrical Line.
Type Equipment Field Switchboard
Weight 1 XP Cost 5 If you want to operate multiple telephones,
Radio receiver. you’ll need one of these. Destroying them can
• Everyone in the Squad has the same frequency cripple an artillery battery.
and can be contacted with a single Adjust
Frequency Action. Type Equipment
• Small Track. Weight 6 XP Cost 4
Can be connected to up to 8 Field Telephones
Signal Booster with Electrical Wires.
Basically a tripod-mounted array of metal, • The operator can perform Adjust Frequency
this system picks up and projects signals from Actions as a Free Action to allow any
much farther away. Absolutely vital for special connected Telephone to talk to any other
forces on deep deployments. connected Telephone.
• Also acts as a Field Telephone.
Type Equipment
• Does not use Charges.
Weight 6 XP Cost 4
When assembled like a part of a Multi-Part Electrical Line
Weapon... Lay this out to make calls between telephones,
• Doubles the effect of extra Charges spent. or to your claymores.
• Only works while the user is stationary.
Type Supplies
Transistor Radio Weight 2 XP Cost -
Want to listen to music out in the field? You Lay out while moving. (Up to a Half Move)
could pick up these incredibly compact radios • Covers up to 500 meters.
in Japan to listen in to AFR and Hanoi Hannah. • Can link telephones and switchboards,
explosives and detonators, or microphones
Type Equipment
and control units.
Weight 2 XP Cost 1 • Laid wire counts as a Unit for incoming
Radio receiver. artillery scatter. It will be instantly
• Large Track. destroyed if hit.

72
Electronics
Camera
By the 1960s, anyone, even a draftee, could
easily own a camera, so day to day life and
atrocity alike were documented in photographs.
Type Equipment
Weight 1 XP Cost 2 • Allows one-sided Interactions to be
Can take a picture once per game per Camera as
a Free Action.
• If you photograph somebody breaking the
Code of Conduct, your camera counts as a
second witness during the Epilogue.
• Pictures taken of documents count as a
second copy.
You must still have the camera for the benefits
to take effect.
Starlight Scope
The first night vision equipment was born in
the last days of WW2, and has been enhanced to
the point where it is now mostly portable and
can be mounted on a rifle, carried by hand or
mounted in bulky goggles.
Type Equipment
Weight 2 XP Cost 6 • On a 6, the People Sniffer gives a false alarm
When used in Sentry or Observation actions...
• Reduces the Stealth Rating given by night
conditions by 3.
• Small Track, uses 1 Charge per Turn.
Lineman’s Phone
A Lineman’s Phone is a special device that can
be patched into a telephone line, allowing the
user to listen in without cluing them in.
Type Equipment
Weight 3 XP Cost 4 an area. Connected to transmitters or telephone
When in contact with Telephone Wire...
• Allows the user to instantly pass an
Intercept Signal Action applying to all
Telephones connected by the wire.
• The wiretap lasts until the character moves.
• The Lineman’s Phone can be left behind for
other characters to use to continue the
wiretap.
Cassette Deck
The brand new magnetic tapes were popular in
Vietnam. They weren’t great yet for music, but
audio letters to the troops became popular, and
they were useful for intel workers.
Type Equipment
Weight 1 XP Cost 2 • Up to 4 Intruder Detectors can be connected
Can take a recording as a Free Action.
• Recording non-English language for later
translation.
• Voice recording can be used to verify a
statement or confession.
• Use to record/listen to a letter/music to
remove 1 Doubt. One Use.
73
Loudspeaker
If you want to talk to somebody over the gunshots
and the distance, this is the way to do it. You
can play music through it to spice up an assault.
Type Equipment
Weight 3 XP Cost 2
Used with Interactions.
performed at ranges of up to 250m.
• Counts as performing “Weapon Up”.
• Can be used with a Cassette Deck to play
music. This can inflict or remove 1 Doubt in
appropriate circumstances.
People Sniffer
A backpack connected to an air hose, the people
sniffer looks for traces of human beings through
the chemical signature of sweat, gunpowder, and
urine, and so can detect the presence of hidden
enemy positions. Sometimes.
Type Wearable - Backpack
Weight 8 XP Cost 4
When activated as a Free Action...
• Gives Compass Direction to hidden enemies
within d6x100m.
in a random direction.
• Makes a loud ticking noise that can be heard
for 300m.
• Small Battery Track, uses 1 Charge per Turn.
The range die should be rolled in secret by the
GM every Turn.
Intruder Detector
Super-sensitive microphones with a control
unit linked to a receiver by telephone wire, the
Intruder Detector allows remote monitoring of
lines, they would be seeded along trails to
create a record of activity, catch infiltrators,
and even coordinate blind artillery fire.
Type Equipment
Weight 1 XP Cost 2
When planted with a Set Trap action...
• The Intruder Detector is connected to a
Radio Transmitter or Field Switchboard
with an Electrical Wire.
• Transmitters can be set to transmit activity
to any radio.
• The Intruder Detector will detect anyone
moving within 100m, and vehicles moving
within 500m.
• It is sensitive enough to pick up voices.
to one Transmitter or Switchboard.
• Radio devices connected to the Intruder
Detector use up 1 Charge every 6 Turns and
transmit continuously.
Wearable Items
Footwear Fatigues
The Americans wore advanced boots of rubber and Olive or khaki fatigues are standard issue for
canvas that somehow never managed to stand up all soldiers these days. Using drab colours
to the jungle, while the NVA got by with Soviet for minimum visibility, fatigues are usually
surplus and rubber sandals. festooned with pockets and made from hard-
wearing materials that can withstand a great
Type Wearable - Footwear deal. If you aren’t wearing a helmet, you usually
Weight 2 XP Cost 1 have a soft hat with your uniform.
By default, the rules assume every Character is
wearing footwear. Type Wearable - Clothing
• Characters without Footwear are at Speed Weight 2 XP Cost -
Down 2 at all times. Identify the wearer as belonging to a military.
Will also carry rank and unit information.
Poncho • Rank and Unit patches can be removed as a
A garment worn overtop your clothes that, if Manage Equipment Action.
worn properly, will keep a soldier completely
dry in the rain. Unfortunately, nobody has ever Camouflage Fatigues
figured out how to wear it properly. Most US soldiers just wear regular olive
fatigues, with proper jungle camo reserved for
Type Wearable special forces, but many ARVN wear tiger stripe
Weight 2 XP Cost 1 full time. Some US soldiers on long patrols
-1 Doubt taken from adverse weather. would beg, borrow or improvise to break up
• Can be used to cover bodies. their silhouette.
Dog Tags Type Wearable - Clothing
These small, oval plates engraved with personal Weight 2 XP Cost 4
and medical information let responders know Fatigues. In appropriate environments...
your blood type. They also allow your body to • +3 Stealth Rating.
be identified if you die. Experienced soldiers • Comes in Woodland, Desert and Tundra.
soon learn to tape their tags together to reduce
noise, and put an extra set in their boots. Civvies
For the locals, this is usually silk clothing
Type Wearable in black or white, referred to derisively as
Weight - XP Cost 1 “pyjamas”. Americans usually opt for patterned
Can be recovered for XP bonus on subsequent short-sleeves or t-shirts, with cloth shorts.
characters. Lists a character’s Blood Type.
Type Wearable - Clothing
Sniper Suit Weight 1 XP Cost -
A mat covered in long grasses, leaves and strips
of canvas, these wearable blinds are hot and Wetsuit
heavy, but can make the user almost completely A neoprene suit insulating and streamlining
invisible. the wearer to make swimming in cold water both
Type Wearable easier and less likely to give you hypothermia.
Weight 5 XP Cost 5 Type Wearable - Clothing
When worn... Weight 2 XP Cost 3
• +5 Stealth Rating when stationary. Increases your Move speed by 1 Category while
• If worn, cannot make Full Moves. Swimming.
• Overrides Camouflage Fatigues.
Field Jacket
Scuba Tank
Reinforced field jackets do a good job of keeping
A relatively new invention, this wearable out the cold and a barely acceptable job keeping
compressed air tank allows the user to breathe out the damp.
for extended periods of time underwater.
Type Wearable
Type Wearable - Backpack
Weight 2 XP Cost 1
Weight 8 XP Cost 3 Prevents the Exhaustion effects from the Cold
When used in water... Snap weather event.
• Negates FUBAR effects in Swim Checks. • Field Jackets issued by military units will
• +5 Stealth Rating. contain the same rank and unit information
Lasts 3 Turns. as their Fatigues.

74
Armour and Lifesaving Gear
Steel Helmet Chicken Plate
You wear a helmet in a warzone for the same Issued to the crew of low-flying aircraft,
reason you wear one at a construction site; “Chicken Plate” consisted of heavy ceramic
there’s lots of dangerous things that can fall front and back plates that could actually stop
on your head. When you’re in a hole, a helmet rifle bullets, though they were extremely heavy
will save your noggin from the shrapnel and and awkward to wear, beyond what was generally
pressure waves of bursting bombs. practical for infantry.
Type Wearable - Helmet Type Wearable - Armour
Weight 2 XP Cost 1 Weight 10 XP Cost 3
By default, the rules assume every Character is Body Armour.
wearing a helmet. • 5+ Armour Save.
• Characters without a helmet count their No save vs fire or Heavy Ammo weapons.
Defensive Positions as 2 levels lower
against explosive attacks.
Parachute
If you plan on exiting a plane while it’s still
Flak jacket in the air, you’ll need one of these.
First issued to airmen in WW2, and then to
soldiers in Korea, a flak jacket is a mix of Type Backpack
nylon layers and plates of fibreglass or steel. Weight 10 XP Cost 3
They aren’t much against bullets, but can slow Required to use Parachute action.
shell fragments. • One Use Only.
Type Wearable - Armour Life Preserver
Weight 4 XP Cost 3 Naval crewmen, and anyone operating on a boat,
Body Armour. are recommended to wear life preservers. It’s
• 6+ Armour Save from small arms fire. quite difficult to swim with combat boots and a
• 5+ Armour Save against explosives. load of ammunition weighing you down.
No save vs fire, melee or Heavy Ammo weapons.
Type Wearable - Armour
Crash Helmet Weight 3 XP Cost 2
Used by vehicle crews to protect their skulls Reduces Swim Difficulty by 3.
from the myriad of threats inside a tank. This
can include being knocked around by enemy
Gas Mask
fire, but is mostly for when they bump into Troops still had to carry their filter masks with
closed hatches and low ceilings. them into Vietnam, though it was very common
for them to be “lost”. Still, getting caught in
Type Wearable - Helmet a cloud of CS gas without one is... unpleasant.
Weight 2 XP Cost 3
Type Wearable
Gives a 5+ Armour Save against...
• Weapons fire penetrating vehicle armour. Weight 2 XP Cost 1
• Crash landing aircraft. Reduces the effect of gas to -3 Vigilance.

Rideable Equipment
Bicycle Motorcycle
Sturdy bicycles were the workhorse of the Ho Motorcycles are excellent tools for couriers
Chi Minh Trail, and were commonly used by and scouts, and some special forces use them for
messengers, civilians, and off-duty soldiers. daring raids.
Type Equipment Type Equipment
Weight 8 XP Cost 3 Weight 16 XP Cost 6
Doubles movement rate on Paved Ground. Triple movement rate on Paved Ground.
• Only has Weight off of Paved or Flat Ground. • Only has Weight off of Paved or Flat Ground.
• Uses 1 Fuel after 3 Turns of using its
movement bonus.

75
Supplies Development Kit
Containing some simple medicine, clean
Rations bottled water, candy, propaganda and maybe
Keeping soldiers fed is always a difficult some worthless South Vietnamese currency,
proposition, as carrying enough C Rations was development kits are prime bribery material
often impractical. for most locals.
Type Supplies Type Supplies
Weight 2 XP Cost - Weight 1 XP Cost 1
Consume to remove 2 Hunger. Can be used to bribe civilians. Are generally
valued.
Grub
Army Rations are non-perishable and easy to Spare Battery
prepare in a way regular food distinctly isn’t. Electronics need to be powered, but battery
technology is not all it could be. Most
Type Supplies equipment is charged either through blocky,
Weight 2 XP Cost - non-rechargable 4 pound batteries, or large
Consume with a Rest Action to remove 1 Hunger. racks of cell batteries.
Care Package Type Supplies
You got something nice from home! Maybe it’s Weight 2 XP Cost -
some of your mom’s cookies, or the baking output Consume to recharge electronics.
of a “support our troops!” organization. • Can be used with Tool Kit to give +4 on
Interrogate Actions.
Type Supplies
Weight 1 XP Cost 2 Camo Netting
Consume to remove 1 Hunger and 2 Doubt. Made from irregularly cut strips of cloth
strung across a web of string, camo netting
Tobacco quickly breaks up the silhouette of a position
The idea that smoking might not be good for you or vehicle, hiding it from sight.
is still rather novel.
Type Supplies
Type Supplies
Weight 2 XP Cost -
Weight 1 XP Cost 1 Consume for 2 Automatic Successes in a Conceal
1 Tobacco is automatically consumed every 12 Position Action.
Turns to remove 1 Doubt.
Leaflet
Chlorine Tablet PsyOps works with local officals to produce
These little pills could turn almost any a dizzying array of comics, newspapers and
water drinkable, if disgusting. Soldiers used pamphlets for every conceivable topic.
powdered juice crystals to mask the taste.
Type Supplies
Type Supplies
Weight 1 XP Cost -
Weight 1 XP Cost - Consume to place or hand to another character.
Consume while drinking to treat Dirty Water as • Automatically conveys a simple concept as
Clean. 5 per 1 Weight. per a Communicate action.
Signal Flag • You can choose the meaning of the Leaflet
when you use it.
Brightly-coloured signal flags let the folks
• 5 for 1 Weight.
coming up behind you know of danger.
Death Card
Type Supplies
A rumour went around that the Spade in a deck
Weight 1 XP Cost 1 of cards was a symbol of death in Vietnamese
Consume as a Free Action to remove the Stealth culture. It wasn’t true before, but it is now.
Rating of a detected Trap or object within 10m.
3 per 1 Weight. Type Supplies
BarBed Wire Spool Weight 1 XP Cost -
Consume to place.
The fastest way to bring an infantry advance to
• Collect 1 VP when placed on a slain enemy.
a halt is some barbed wire across the road.
• Inflicts 1 Doubt when found on the body of
Type Supplies an ally.
• 5 for 1 Weight.
Weight 2 XP Cost -
Consume to use a Create Obstacle Action.

76
Liquid Carriers Flamethrower Fuel Tank
A backpack-mounted setup with one or two
Canteen pressurized containers, these heavy steel
In Vietnam, canteens came in two kinds. Regular tanks carry the fuel needed for a flamethrower.
soldiers usually had metal or plastic classic Contrary to popular belief, if you shoot a
types, but special forces used collapsible flamethrower tank, the fuel just leaks out.
canteens that prevented water from sloshing
about. Type Wearable - Backpack
Weight 10 XP Cost -
Type Supplies Carries 10 units of Fuel.
Weight 1 XP Cost - • When empty, weighs 4 Weight.
Carries 2 units of liquid.
Barrel
Collapsible Carrier Got to carry an unreasonably large amount of
Basically a sturdy plastic bag with a handle, liquid? A barrel is how you do it. Obviously,
water carriers aren’t typically carried by soldiers don’t carry these around, but trucks
soldiers in the field, but instead used for tend to be loaded with them.
resupply. It’s awkward when full, but you can
store it easily when empty. Type Supplies
Weight 25 XP Cost -
Type Supplies Carries 60 units of liquid.
Weight 6 XP Cost - • When empty, weighs 10 Weight.
Carries 10 units of Water. • Carrying one counts as carrying a person.
• When empty, weighs 1 Weight.
Jerry Can
An ingenious way of carrying liquids easily,
Jerry Cans were invented by the Germans in WW2
and copied by everyone. Usually used to carry
fuel, but they can carry water in a pinch.
Type Supplies
Weight 6 XP Cost -
Carries 12 units of liquid.
• When empty, weighs 3 Weight.

Narcotics Opiates
Morphine is God’s gift to the wounded soldier;
Uppers it makes the pain go away and replaces it with
Amphetamines have long been used by soldiers, an uplifting feeling. Heroin was an epidemic;
often at the quiet approval of their leaders. as much as 40% of American troops were addicts.
Type Supplies Type Supplies
Weight 1 XP Cost 2 Weight 1 XP Cost 2
When consumed... When consumed...
• Lasts 2d3 Turns. • Lasts 2d6 Turns.
• Negate the effects, and Fatigue, of all points • Negates Fatigue from Doubt and Injury.
of Exhaustion and Injury for the duration. • Reduces Fatigue to current Status Effects.
• Prevents use of the Rest Action for twice the • Reduce all Attributes higher than 4 to 4.
duration of the effect after it ends.
• Makes the user Skilled at Shock Checks.
Hallucinogens
LSD had just hit the mainstream at the height
Downers of the Vietnam War, and it was a favourite of
Many soldiers turned to depressants like soldiers looking to escape the treacherous
cannabis and alcohol to cope with the hardship boredom.
of the war and constant overstimulation.
Type Supplies
Type Supplies Weight - XP Cost 2
Weight 1 XP Cost 2 When consumed...
When consumed... • Takes effect in 1d3+1 Turns.
• Lasts 2d3 Turns. • Last 5d6 Turns.
• Reduce Proficiency and Vigilance by 1. • Take no Doubt from any source.
• Negates 3 Doubt until effect ends. • Roll on Hallucination and Imagery tables
every 3 Turns.
77
Firearms
Assault RIfle
The assault rifle is a recent revolution in small arms design, combining
the best aspects of full rifles and sub-machine guns in a single package
for maximum versatility. These weapons can represent the M16 for Allied
forces, or the AK47/AKM assault rifles for the communists.
Type Firearm Weight 3 XP Cost 4
Medium-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive and Precision Fire.
• +3 to All Attacks
Battle Rifle
These category represents the previous generation of automatic and
semi-automatic rifles like the M14, M21 or M1 Garand for the FWF and
the SKS/Type 56 Carbine, SVT-40 and SVD Dragunov for communists.
Type Firearm Weight 3 XP Cost 4
Medium-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive and Precision Fire.
• +2 to Suppressive Fire
• +4 to Precision Fire
Pistol
Representing a wide range of revolvers and automatics, pistols are
invaluable for officers, special forces, and the desperate. Americans
refer to all these weapons as “45s” after their 45 calibre M1911s.
Type Firearm Weight 1 XP Cost 3
Close-Range Firearm capable of Precision Fire.
• Consume 2 Ammo for +2 Damage from Lethal Melee results.
• Maximum Range of Medium.
Machine-Pistol
Special Forces looking for a backup weapon love machine-pistols,
automatic weapons about the size of regular pistols. Green Berets love
the Mac-10, while NVA special forces used the Polish PM-63 RAK.
Type Firearm Weight 1 XP Cost 4
Close-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire.
• Consume all Ammo and inflict 1d3 random Injury to Melee opponents.
• Maximum Range of Medium.
Submachine-Gun
Submachine-guns rapidly fire pistol rounds, excellent for spraying
down a location without particular care for accuracy. The Americans
used the Swedish K and the M3A1 Grease Gun, the Aussies preferred the
Owens SMG, and the communists used the MAT-49 and the PPSH-41. Both
sides used the famous Thompson SMG; the V.C. hand-made their own.
Type Firearm Weight 2 XP Cost 3
Close-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire.
• +6 at Close.
• +3 at Medium.
Bolt Action Rifles
Once the service rifle of militaries around the world, bolt actions
require a manual action between shots, which makes them slow to fire
but accurate and powerful. In Vietnam the FWF primarily used the
Springfield .303, while the communists used Mosin-Nagants, French
MAS-36s, and Japanese Type 99s.
Type Firearm Weight 4 XP Cost 4
Extreme-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive and Precision Fire.
• +6 to Precision Fire.
• Treat 1s, 2s, and 3s as Failures for Follow-Up Shots.
• -2 to Suppressive Fire.

78
Shotgun
Pump-action shotguns have been an American military staple since WW1,
used as a sidearm by field troops or kept as an emergency stash in bases.
Type Firearm Weight 2 XP Cost 3
Close-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire.
• +5 to Attack +1 Injury at Close.
• Never jams, no attack penalty for running out of ammo.
• A Clear Action must be used to reload.
• Maximum Range of Medium.
Light Machine-Gun
Squad machine-guns fire belts of rifle rounds but are portable like
rifles, allowing this firepower to be carried around easily. The US uses
the M60 “Pigs”, while the communists use the RPK and RPD.
Type Firearm - Special Weight 5 XP Cost 6
Long-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire.
• +5 to Suppressive Fire, inflicts +1 Suppression.
• You can choose to use the Magazine or Belt ammunition track.
• Room for 1 Assistant when loaded with a Belt.
CarBine
Light rifles firing cut-down cartridges were popular with special
forces early in the war, and as sidearms for vehicle crews. The venerable
M2 Carbine was widely used by US and ARVN alike, while the communists
had custom cut-down versions of a variety of their own weapons.
Type Firearm Weight 2 XP Cost 3
Medium-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive and Precision Fire.
• +1 to Suppressive Fire, +3 to Precision Fire.
• Uses the Battle Rifle Skill.
Auto CarBine
Special forces, paratroopers and mechanized troops use cut-down ARs
with short barrels and lighter rounds for convience inside vehicles or
close quarters. These can represent the Colt Commando or the AKS, as well
as a variety of post-war weapons.
Type Firearm Weight 2 XP Cost 4
Medium-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive and Precision Fire.
• +4 to Close Attacks, +3 to Medium, +1 to Long.
• Uses the Assault Rifle Skill.
Anti-Tank Rifle
Anti-tank rifles are almost entirely obsolete, but some clever snipers
use them as heavy, long-ranged sniper rifles. Some Americans used
specially converted .50 Cal M2s fitted with rifle stocks and sights,
while the NVA used small numbers of PTRD-41s.
Type Firearm Weight 6 XP Cost 6
Extreme-Range Firearm capable of Precision Fire.
• +6 to Precision Fire. +2 Injury, 1 Armour Penetration.
• Treat 2s as Failures for Follow-Up Shots.
• +1 AP at Close Range.
• Fires Heavy Ammo.
Gyrojet
An experimental weapon tested in the Vietnam era, the gyrojet is a gun
that fires tiny rockets. Its reliability and accuracy leave something to
be desired, but it’s unbelievably light, silent and has few moving parts.
Type Firearm Weight - XP Cost 4
Long-Range Firearm capable of Precision Fire.
• +1 Injury for every Range Category past Close.
• Fires Microrockets. Built in Suppressor

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Special Firearms Flamethrower
Flamethrowers were loved and loathed in equal
Crossbow measure by those who used them. They were
Crossbows are a historic weapon of the dangerous to everyone in operation and horrific
Vietnamese people, and still seen out in the bush weapons to witness used, but were just about the
with villagers and militia. It’s not exactly an most efficient tool available to infantry for
assault rifle, but it’ll still kill you. clearing fortified positions.
Type Firearm - Feed Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 3 XP Cost 3 Weight 4 XP Cost 4
Close-Range Firearm capable of Precision Fire. Firearm capable of Blast Attack at Close Range.
• -2 at Close and -5 at Medium. • Inflicts 1d6 Fire Damage.
• Does not reduce Stealth Rating to fire. • Ignores Defensive Positions and Terrain.
• Maximum Range of Medium. • Against vehicles, roll 1d6. If the result
• Fires Arrows. exceeds Armour, the vehicle catches fire.
• Maximum Range of Close.
Medium Machine-Gun Operator must carry a Fuel Tank. Use 1 Fuel for
Tripod-mounted machine-guns operated by each Failure.
teams could make a hell of an impact, but they
were in an awkward spot during the era; not Incendiary Projector
worth their weight for infantry festooned The classic flamethrower was soon replaced
with automatics, and not as good as a heavier with an aluminium-based incendiary compound
machine-gun on vehicles. fired from a multi-barreled rocket launcher.
Type Firearm - Belt Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 6 XP Cost 6 Weight 6 XP Cost 4
Medium-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire. Firearm capable of Blast Attacks.
• +6 to Suppressive Fire • Inflicts 1d6 Fire Injury.
• +2 Suppression • Ignores 2 Levels of Defensive Position.
• Room for 1 Assistant. • Can fire twice as one Action.
• Extra Parts: 3 Weight Tripod. • Maximum Range of Medium.
• Fires Rockets.
Heavy Machine-Gun
Firing bullets as big around as your thumb, a Minigun
heavy machine-gun will go through just about Electrically powered gating guns capable of
anything short of a tank. While the US preferred firing a blistering 50 rounds a second were
to keep these weapons on vehicles, the NVA just coming into their own in Vietnam, and the
favoured using them in large infantry teams. Minigun was the smallest.
Type Firearm - Belt Type Firearm - Belt
Weight 8 XP Cost 6 Weight 6 XP Cost 6
Extreme-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire. Long-Range Firearm capable of Suppressive Fire.
• +6 to Suppressive Fire • +12 to Suppressive Fire
• +2 Suppression • Does not Overheat.
• +2 Injury, 1 Armour Pen, +1 AP at Close. • +3 Suppression
• Fires Heavy Ammo • Miniguns use the 6 slot Charge track,
• Room for 2 Assistants. consuming a Charge every time the ammo
• Extra Parts: 5 Wgt Tripod, 3 Wgt Ammo Box. track is cleared.
• Extra Parts: 3 Weight Tripod, 3 Weight Ammo
Water-Cooled Machine-Gun Feed, 5 Weight Motor.
Older-style medium machine-guns use a sleeve
around the barrel carrying water, which, while Man PortaBle Air Defence
bulky, allows the weapon to fire more or less This weapon represents the advanced FIM-43
non-stop for hours. Redeye and the Soviet SA-7 rocket launchers,
weapons that used infrared tracking to strike
Type Firearm - Belt low-flying aircraft.
Weight 8 XP Cost 6
• Counts as Medium-Machine Gun. Type Firearm - Feed
• Requires a Jerry Can filled with Water. Weight 6 XP Cost 6
• If it Overheats, consume 1 Water instead. Firearm capable of Blast Attacks against Aircraft.
• Extra Parts: 3 Weight Tripod, Jerry Can. • Inflicts 1d6+2 Damage. Penetrates 3 Armour.
• Maximum Range of Long.
• Targets at Treetop and Low Altitude.
• Uses IR Missiles as ammunition.

80
Rocket Launcher
This represents the Super Bazooka used in
small numbers by US forces early in the war and
the RPG-2, an early design equipped only with
anti-tank warheads.
Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 5 XP Cost 3
Firearm capable of Blast Attacks.
• Does 1 Damage.
• Ignores 2d3 Armour at Close.
• Ignores 1d3 Armour at Medium.
• Maximum Range of Medium.
• Fires Rockets
DisposaBle AnTi-Tank Weapon
The US mostly abandoned the idea of reusable
rocket launchers in favour of the “Panzerfaust”
style one-shot rocket launcher in the form of
the M-72 LAW; the Light Anti-Tank Weapon. Just
fire and forget.
Type Firearm - One Use
Weight 3 XP Cost 3
Used as the Rocket Launcher, One Shot Only.
Recoilless Rifles
Recoilless rifles are artillery cannons with
a special baffling on the breach that lets them
fire large shells without meaningful recoil.
Though underrepresented in fiction or mistaken
for rocket launchers, they were and are a vital
military tool.
Small Recoilless Rifle
A valuable infantry support weapon, this item
represents man-portable versions like the 57mm
M18, the 75mm M20, and the 75mm Type 52.
Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 8 XP Cost 6
Firearm capable of Blast Attacks.
• Fires Recoilless Tiny Shells.
• Room for 1 Assistant.
• Maximum Range of Extreme.
81
Tow Missile
The most advanced defensive weapon of the era,
a TOW Missile fires a guided missile linked
to the firer by a long length of trailing wire,
allowing the missile to be flown accurately
into the target.
Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 6 XP Cost 6
Firearm capable of Blast Attacks.
• Guided Weapon.
• Does 2 Damage and ignores 2d3+1 Armour
• Inflicts 1d6+2 Injury.
• Maximum Range of Near.
• Fires Wire Missiles.
• Room for 2 Assistants.
• Extra Part: 5 Weight Tripod
Recoilless Rifles fire modified Heavy Munitions,
weighing l more Weight to represent the added
bulk of their baffling. Recoilless shells come in
all varieties except Illumination and Leaflet.
Large Recoilless Rifle
The nature of recoilless rifles means that very
large models firing projectiles over 100mm can
be mounted mounted on utility cars or tripods.
Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 10 XP Cost 6
Firearm capable of Blast Attacks.
• Fires Recoilless Small Shells.
• Room for 1 Assistant.
• Maximum Range of Extreme.
• Extra Part: 3 Weight Tripod.
Grenades
In PATROL, all grenades operate under the same
general rules in terms of their effects, and are
divided into three types. All of these grenade
types cost the same amount of XP.
In more historical games, the GM may restrict your
access to some kinds of grenade. For example, your
launcher grenades for your M79s probably don’t
include anti-tank grenades, while the launcher
grenades for enemy RPGs probably don’t come in
any type but anti-tank, and maybe concussion.
Fragmentation Grenade
Fragmentation Grenades are the most common sort
of grenade. When they detonate, their explosive
charge converts the heavy metal casing into a
hail of high-velocity metal fragments. They are
quite dangerous, but not always reliable, as the
pattern of fragmentation can be inconsistent.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost - Grenade available in all varieties.
Grenade available in all varieties.
• +5 to Throw Grenade Attack.
• Inflicts 1d6 Injury.
• Inflicts 1 Suppression for every struck
character.
• Does not cause Injury to characters in
Defensive Positions.
Concussion Grenade
A common, if often overlooked, variety of
grenade, Concussion Grenades use a light
casing, often cardboard, with a heavy explosive
charge inside. The resultant blast is small and
contained, but will stun or kill anyone caught
near the blast.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost - • Inflicts 1d6 Injury.
Grenade available in all varieties.
• Inflicts 1d3+1 Injury.
• Inflicts +2 Injury inside Structures.
• Ignores 1 level of Defensive Positions.
• Does not inflict Collateral.
Stun Grenade
Stun grenades are basically small concussion
bombs that use a tough, perforated casing, so
when it detonates there is just an extremely
disorienting flash and eardrum-shattering
noise.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost - • Inflicts 2d6 Injury.
Grenade available in all varieties.
• Only works on targets inside a Defensive
Position, Vehicle or Structure.
• Stuns struck targets.
• Does not inflict Collateral.
82
Grenade Types
• Hand Grenades are the common sort which are
used in standard Throw Grenade actions.
• Launcher Grenades can only be used with Grenade
Launchers.
• Rocket Grenades only work with RPG Launchers.
They have +1 Weight, +1 Armour Penetration and
inflict +1 Injury if they inflict any at all.
• Rifle Grenades can be used by any character who
has and can use an Assault Rifle, Auto Carbine,
Battle Rifle or Bolt Action Rifle. They work
like grenades fired from a Grenade Launcher,
but have +1 Weight.
Anti-Tank Grenade
Anti-tank grenades are typically impact-
detonated and shaped like a dart, with a shaped
charge on one end. It arcs into the target and
the detonation drives a spike of molten metal
through the armour.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost 1
• Against Vehicles, Penetration equal to
Successes, inflicts 1d3 Damage.
• Against buildings, 1d3 Damage.
• +2 To-Hit against Infantry.
• Can only strike 1 infantry target.
• Struck Target takes 2d6 Injury.
• Ignore Collateral hits.
Defensive Grenade
Modernized frag grenades like the M67,
introduced in 1968, have a much-reduced
wounding radius without impacting lethal
power, making them safer to use for the operator.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost -
Grenade available in all varieties.
• Inflicts 1d3 Injury as Collateral.
• Inflicts 1 Suppression for every struck
character.
• Does not cause Injury to characters in
Defensive Positions.
Satchel Charge
Basically a messenger bag full of high
explosive, a satchel charge is used to destroy
vehicles and bunkers in one go.
Type Grenade
Weight 5 XP Cost 2
Grenade available as a Hand Grenade.
• Inflicts 1d6 Injury as Collateral.
• 3 Armour Penetration.
• 2s count as Failures while throwing.
• +3 Injury vs Structures.
Smoke Grenade
Smoke grenades create a nice thick cloud of
smoke that can obscure your movements or blind
a position. With the addition of a dye, it can
also be used to mark a position.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost - Grenade available as a Hand Grenade.
Grenade available in all varieties.
• Strikes an entire Unit if any member is hit.
• Affected Units can only Blind Fire and can
only be Blind Fired upon.
• Reduces the To-Hit difficulty of the Unit by
1 for Aircraft looking for the smoke.
• Will fill up to 3 adjacent rooms in a structure
or tunnel, showing exits and windows.
• Does not inflict Collateral.
Incendiary Grenade
• As a Minor Action, strike your own unit
automatically, also removing 5 Suppression.
Smoke grenades come in a variety of colours.
CS Grenade
Tear gas was a favoured tool of the US war effort.
There was few better ways to flush out the V.C.
out of a tunnel or thick grove.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost - Failures for the purposes of FUBAR.
Grenade available as Hand or Launcher.
• Struck targets have all Attributes halved.
• Struck targets must either Move next turn
or take a Shock Check, Difficulty 1.
• Automatically strikes all characters inside
a Small Structure, room or 3 tunnel rooms.
Molotov Cocktail
Stuff a beer bottle full of gasoline and light
the rag on top and you have yourself a party.
Burns people out of holes, tanks and huts.
Type Grenade
Weight 2 XP Cost -
• Inflicts 2d3 Fire Injury.
• 2s count as Failures.
• Does not inflict Collateral.
• On FUBAR, you hit yourself and only yourself.
• Ignores Defensive Positions and Terrain.
• Against Vehicles, roll 1d6. If the result
exceeds Armour, the vehicle catches fire.
These grenades were much hated because there
were few safe ways to use them. The explosion
carries fragments of white phosphorous high
into the air and lets it fall into foxholes.
Type Grenade
Weight 1 XP Cost 2
Grenade available as a Hand Grenade.
• Inflicts 2d3+1 Fire Injury.
• 2s cause Collateral hits, but do not count as
• Ignores 1 Level of Defensive Position.

Grenade Launchers
Grenade Launcher
A Grenade Launcher is a weapon that launches
small explosives farther and harder than a
soldier could throw them. This represents the
M79, the M203 underbarrel launcher, and the
multi-shot, pump-action China Lake.
Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 3 XP Cost 4
Firearm which modifies Throw Grenade actions.
• Fires Launcher Grenades.
• Allows Throw Grenade Actions at Medium
Range.
Automatic Grenade Launcher RPG Launcher
The American Mk19 automatic grenade launcher Where the west settled on bullet-style grenade
is basically like one of those machines that launchers, the Communists invested more
shoot tennis balls, except the tennis balls are heavily in developing the Panzerfaust into
highly explosive grenades. a variety of infantry support weapons. These
weapons are heavier, but hit a lot harder.
Type Firearm - Feed
Type Firearm - Feed
Weight 8 XP Cost 6
Weight 4 XP Cost 4
Multi-Part Firearm.
• Acts like a Grenade Launcher. Firearm which modifies Throw Grenade actions.
• Allows 3 Throw Grenade Actions in one Turn. • Fire Rocket Grenades.
• Extra Parts: 3 Weight Tripod, 2 Weight Feeder • Allows Throw Grenade Actions at Medium
Range.

83
Melee Weapons Machete
A large, heavy knife designed to have a lot of heft
Combat Knife behind the swing. It is an indispensable tool
When it comes down to it, almost every basic for jungle living, chopping through underbrush
tool and weapon is essentially a variation on or limbs with roughly equal efficiency.
the knife. The standard combat knives used by
soldiers are great for digging, opening cans, Type Melee Weapon
cutting wood, slicing clothing, eating, medical Weight 2 XP Cost 3
work, whittling and, in a pinch, stabbing. Melee Weapon.
• +6 to Melee.
Type Melee Weapon • Inflicts +3 Injury if you win Melee.
Weight 1 XP Cost - • In jungle, a Machete in a Unit will reduce
Melee Weapon. the Speed Down value of Difficult Terrain by
• +3 in Melee. 1. If everyone has a Machete, reduce it by 2.
• Inflicts +2 Injury if you win Melee. • Machete Movement will triple the amount of
time your Trail is visible.
Club
Be it the primitive weapon of some mountain Garrotte Wire
folk or the bludgeon used by an MP to keep order, Basically a sharp wire with two handles. Placed
the simple weaponized stick has never gone out around the windpipe, it’ll cut and crush with
of style. one motion.
Type Melee Weapon Type Melee Weapon
Weight 1 XP Cost - Weight 1 XP Cost 2
Melee Weapon. Melee Weapon.
• +3 to Melee. • +2 to Melee.
• Can be used in nonlethal Melee. • +5 to Assassination.

Item Modifiers Suppressor

A suppressor is a shroud that slows the escape of
Modifiers are equipment that are applied to
equipment. The modular nature of modern weapon gas, turning the loud bang of gunfire into the
accessories didn’t really exist in the 1960s, so slightly less loud “clack!” of metal on metal.
modifiers applied to weapons cannot be removed. Type Modifier
Weight 1 XP Cost 3
Telescopic Sight Firearm Modifier.
A telescopic sight (or “scope”) allows the user • Reduces Stealth Rating modifier for firing
to more precisely aim their weapon at a longer weapon by 3.
distance, and place their shots when they would • Reduces Effective Range by 1 Range Category.
otherwise have to make rough guesses.
Under-Barrel Mount
Type Modifier The Vietnam War brought about new advances in
Weight 2 XP Cost 4 the art of strapping a gun to another gun, like
Firearm Modifier. the XM148 and M203 grenade launchers.
• Double Effective Vigilance for Take Aim.
Type Modifier
• Functions as a set of Binoculars.
Weight - XP Cost -
Bipod Firearm Modifier for Assault Rifles, Auto
A bipod is just a forked platform for stabilizing Carbines, Battle Rifles, and SMGs.
a gun, usually set up to fold away when not in • Combines two weapons into one.
use. They are a must have both for sniper rifles • Pick 1: Grenade Launcher, Shotgun, Flare
and machine-guns. Gun, Crossbow.
• The new weapon weighs 1 less than the total
Type Modifier Weight of both components.
Weight 2 XP Cost 3
Firearm Modifier.
Extended Magazines
• +3 to Take Aim Extended magazines were popular in the jungle;
• +1 Suppression on Suppressive Fire Actions. some official, and some homemade.
• Can replace the Tripod on multi-part
Type Modifier
Suppressive Fire weapons. This reduces the
weapon’s bonus Attack Dice by 3. Weight 1 XP Cost 3
Firearm Modifier for magazine guns.
• Use the Small Charge chart for ammunition.
• Reloading costs 2 Spare Ammo.
84
Weapon Supplies Wire Missile
The most reliable way to control a missile in
Spare Ammo flight is to connect it to hundreds of meters
GIs would typically carry upwards of ten spare of uncoiling wire and send electrical signals
magazines, plus a belt for the squad’s machine- down it as it flies.
gun.
Type Supplies
Type Supplies Weight 4 XP Cost 1
Weight 1 XP Cost - Used as ammunition for TOW Missile tubes.
Resets Firearm Tracks.
IR Missile
Heavy Ammo These cutting-edge infrared missiles cost more
The rounds fired by heavy machine-guns aren’t than your education. If it comes down to saving
like the ones used by regular small arms; they yourself or saving a crate of them... well, your
are much larger and heavier. sacrifice won’t be in vain.
Type Supplies Type Supplies
Weight 2 XP Cost - Weight 4 XP Cost 2
Used as ammunition for heavy machine-guns. Used as ammunition for MPADs.
Spare Barrel Micro-Rockets
Extended machine-gun fire can burn out a A gyrojet rocket is like a tiny rocket ship, but
barrel, causing it to warp or even catch fire. instead of going to the moon it kills people.
Type Supplies Type Supplies
Weight 2 XP Cost - Weight 1 XP Cost 1
Used by overheating Belt weapons. Used as ammunition for Gyrojets.
Rocket Arrows
The rockets for a bazooka or similar weapons A sharp stick can be just as deadly as a bullet if
aren’t actually terribly heavy, but they are it hits you somewhere soft.
bulky and kind of a pain in the ass to work with.
Type Supplies
Type Supplies Weight 1 XP Cost 1
Weight 2 XP Cost - Used as ammunition for Crossbows.
Used as ammunition for rocket launchers.

Heavy Guns
Autocannon
Standing in for the diverse variety of repeating
Heavy anti-tank Cannon
anti-air guns, the autocannon can shred light Representing the cutting-edge of main battle
targets and helicopters. tank cannons, like those used by the T-55 and
Patton tanks, capable of punching through any
Type Artillery armour with ease.
Weight 90 XP Cost -
Type Artillery
• Capable of Blast Attacks to Extreme range.
• Fires Tiny shells. Weight 150 XP Cost -
• Failures consume shells. • Capable of Blast Attacks to Near range.
• Room for 2 Assistants. • Fires Medium shells.
• Counts as its own Wagon. • Room for 1 Assistant.
• Counts as its own Wagon.
Light anti-tank Cannon
Standing in for all the smaller calibre tank
Rocket Pod
cannons used by vehicles like the M41 Walker Used to represent the rocket systems of
Bulldog and PT-76 tank, this gun is quite helicopter gunships, rocket pods use rapid
sufficient against most targets. bursts of projectiles to saturate a large area
in fire.
Type Artillery
Type Artillery
Weight 120 XP Cost -
• Capable of Blast Attacks to Near range. Weight 150 XP Cost -
• Fires Small shells. • Capable of Blast Attacks to Near range.
• Room for 1 Assistant. • Fires Small shells.
• Counts as its own Wagon. • Can fire as many times as it has Shells.

85
Artillery Heavy Artillery Cannon
Representing the 155mm American and 152mm
PortaBle Mortar Communist weapons, these huge artillery pieces
These tiny mortars, representing the US 60mm are called to level bases, collapse tunnels, and
mortar and similar weapons, are a platoon’s best shell cities into oblivion.
friend. You can carry them anywhere, drop them
in a hole, and boom, instant fire support. Type Artillery
Weight 500 XP Cost -
Type Artillery • Capable of Bombard Attacks between Long and
Weight 5 XP Cost 6 Far Range.
• Capable of Bombard Attacks to Extreme Range. • Fires Massive shells.
• Fires Tiny shells. • Room for 4 Assistants.
• Room for 1 Assistant.
• Extra Parts: 3 Weight Tripod
Long-ranged Artillery Cannon
Specifically representing the 130mm M1954
Medium Mortar Soviet artillery piece, the longest range
These guns, representing the 81mm mortar and artillery gun in mass production. This weapon
counterparts, are the common company-level was a constant thorn in the sides of US forces,
mortars and the bread and butter of infantry firing from beyond the retaliatory range.
fire support.
Type Artillery
Type Artillery Weight 400 XP Cost -
Weight 6 XP Cost 6 • Capable of Bombard Attacks between Long and
• Capable of Bombard Attacks between Close Maximum range.
and Near Range. • Fires Large shells.
• Fires Small shells. • Room for 4 Assistants.
• Room for 2 Assistants. • Counts as its own Wagon.
• Extra Parts: 3 Weight Tripod, 3 Weight
Baseplate
Pack Howitzer
The Pack Howitzer is an American light
Heavy Mortar artillery piece, so named because it could be
These heavy mortars are barely infantry- broken into smaller parts that could be carried
portable, usually mounted in a half-track truck by mules. Though the US didn’t use a lot of mules
or gun carrier. They hit real hard and fire a in Vietnam, they loved these weapons as they
wide variety of rounds. The American version is could be carried by Hueys or towed by jeeps. The
known as the “Four-Deuce”. NVA fielded some too, acquired by the Chinese.
Type Artillery Type Artillery
Weight 12 XP Cost 6 Weight 300 XP Cost -
• Capable of Bombard Attacks between Medium • Capable of Bombard Attacks between Medium
and Near Range. and Far Range.
• Fires Medium shells. • Capable of Blast Attacks out to Near Range.
• Room for 3 Assistants. • Fires Medium shells.
• Extra Parts: 12 Weight Rotator, 12 Weight • Room for 3 Assistants.
Baseplate • Counts as its own Wagon.
• The Pack Howitzer can be disassembled into
Medium Artillery Gun 6 components, each weighing 50 Weight; the
Representing the 105mm artillery gun and Tube, Carriage, Wheels, Breech, Trial and
their 122mm Communist counterparts, Medium Axel. All parts must be present to fire.
artillery pieces are the most widely-used
artillery pieces on both sides. Rocket Artillery
Rocket Artillery covers a variety of weapons;
Type Artillery the larger XM3 Rocket Launcher arrays on
Weight 400 XP Cost - helicopters, the rocket pods of aircraft, and the
• Capable of Bombard Attacks between Medium artillery rocket racks favoured by communists.
and Far Range.
• Fires Large shells. Type Artillery
• Room for 4 Assistants. Weight 300 XP Cost -
• Counts as its own Wagon. • Capable of Bombard Attacks from Medium to
Near Range.
• Fires High Explosive Medium shells.
• Must be Cleared to load new shells in.
• Can fire as many times as it has Shells.

86
Heavy Munitions Size X Y
Artillery, aircraft bombs and mortars are Tiny 1 50m
endlessly flexible weapons. Small 2 100m
Shell Sizes Medium 3 200m
Artillery in PATROL uses a scaling chart of Large 4 350m
values depending on the size of the shell. Just Massive 5 500m
replace X and Y in the profiles below with the
corresponding value on the chart.

High Explosive Dummy Shell

The most basic and common sort of shell, HE is Shells without explosive filler are a safer way
simply as much explosive as can be packed in. of making ranging shots.
Type Heavy Munitions Type Heavy Munitions
Weight X XP Cost - Weight X XP Cost -
• Inflicts 1d3+X Injury, X-1 Penetration. • Negates 2 Failures worth of Scatter Distance
for subsequent shots if there is a spotter.
Shaped Charge
These weapons burst into a directed explosion Beehive
on contact to cut through bunkers and armour. Modernized old-school canister rounds, firing
hundreds of metal darts like a giant shotgun.
Type Heavy Munitions
Weight X XP Cost X Type Heavy Munitions
• Inflicts X Injury, 1d6 Penetration. Weight X XP Cost X
• Does no damage to infantry. • Close to Long Range Blast Attacks only.
• +X to Attack, inflicts 1d6 damage.
Armour Piercing • Converts Bombard weapons to Blast Attack.
Replaces the explosive payload with a dense
penetrating head to cut through steel. Leaflet
Carrier shells packed with leaflets allow an
Type Heavy Munitions entire area to be plastered in propaganda.
Weight X XP Cost -
• Blast Attacks only. Type Heavy Munitions
• Inflicts X Injury on one Struck Target. Weight X XP Cost X
• Does 1 Damage vs. Vehicles. • All struck units receive a flood of Leaflets,
• X+1d3 Armour Pen, -1 at every range past Medium. the content chosen by the firer.
Incendiary Carrier
WP and napalm are a workhorse of the US war Carrier shells can also be used simply to convey
effort and a constant PR blight. objects to the field.
Type Heavy Munitions Type Heavy Munitions
Weight X XP Cost X Weight X XP Cost X
• Inflicts 2d3 Fire Injury on Struck Targets. • Carries X-1 Weight in Equipment.
• Ignores X Levels of Defensive Position. • Cannot fire other shells in the same action.
Smoke Illumination
Shells that act as giant smoke grenades that can Shells that turn artillery into big flare guns.
provide cover for entire units.
Type Heavy Munitions
Type Heavy Munitions Weight X XP Cost X
Weight X XP Cost - • If they hit, they light up everything within
• Works exactly like a Smoke Grenade. Y distance like a Flare Gun.
• Affects all Units within Y of Units that were
hit directly.
Cluster
Bombs filled with dozens of tiny bomblets.
Chemical
Smoke shells can also be used to carry tear gas. Type Heavy Munitions
Weight X XP Cost X
Type Heavy Munitions • Inflicts Xd3 Injury.
Weight X XP Cost X • Anyone moving inside Y distance of the
• Struck Targets are affected as per a CS target has a 1/6 chance of setting off a Toe
Grenade. Popper each Turn.

87
Traps and Mines
Blast Mine
Close enough to the standard sort of land
mine, these small, cylindrical mines have good
effect both on people and unarmoured vehicles,
equally capable of blowing off a leg or a wheel.
Type Trap
Weight 3 XP Cost - Weight
Contact Trap which will detonate for any Unit
• Inflicts 2d3 Injury, 2 Penetration.
• Inflicts 1d3-1 Injury on the rest of the Unit.
Non-Metallic Blast Mine
Rather than the traditional metal casing, many
modern mines are made out of plastic or wood
to fool metal detectors. Though harder to find,
these mines are less lethal without a metal
shell to turn into shrapnel.
Type Trap
Weight 3 XP Cost - • Inflicts 1 Injury.
Contact Trap which will detonate for any Unit
• Inflicts 2d3 Injury, 1 Penetration.
• Inflicts 1d3-2 Injury on the rest of the Unit.
• Minesweepers bonus does not apply.
S-Mine
Bounding shrapnel mines, known as “Bouncing
Bettys”, use an explosive force to throw
themselves upwards to waist level before
detonating into a hail of ball bearings right at
crotch level. A lower-tech version is basically
a frag grenade mounted on an elevated stake.
Type Trap
Weight 3 XP Cost - • Inflicts 1d3 Injury on one Target.
Contact Trap which will detonate for any Unit
• Inflicts 1d6-2 Injury to the Unit.
• Do no Damage to Vehicles.
Trip Flare
It’s dead simple; just a flare connected to a
tripwire as a warning system.
Type Trap
Weight 3 XP Cost - Weight
Contact Trap which will detonate for any Unit
• Acts as a flare gun centred on the unit that
sets it off.
88
Anti-Tank Mine
Anti-tank mines combine a heavy directional
blast with a heavy trigger to take the tracks
off a vehicle and fill the interior with lethal
spalling.
Type Trap
3 XP Cost -
Contact Trap which will detonate for Vehicles.
• Inflicts 2d3 Injury to the Unit.
• Penetrates 2d3 Armour.
Toe Popper
A lovely little US mine about the size of a tuna
can, the toe popper was a minimum metal mine
that did exactly what it’s name implied.
Type Trap
Weight 1 XP Cost -
Contact Trap which will detonate for any Unit.
• FUBAR Shock Checks automatically Cripple.
• Minesweeper bonus does not apply.
Punji Stake
The most famous Viet Cong weapon, a punji
trap is just a covered hole lined with sharped
stakes. These stakes are covered in poisons or
feces, so even if you just get a small cut there
is great risk of infection.
Type Trap
Weight 2 XP Cost -
Contact Trap which will detonate for infantry.
• Requires an Entrenching Tool to create.
• Inflicts +2 Failures on the Shock Check.
Crossbow Trap
Crossbows are easy enough to make in rural
areas, and simple to set off. Pointing one down
a path connected to a tripwire can not only kill
or injure, but the trap can be reset with ease.
Type Trap
3 XP Cost -
Contact Trap which will detonate for infantry.
• Makes a Precision Fire attack.
• Can be reset as a Free Action with an Arrow.
• Can be made with a Crossbow.
Claymore Mine Demolition Charge
As iconic to the Vietnam War as the Huey, the A hefty bundle of TNT or C4 that must be carefully
Claymore mine is a flat mine on a platform that, laid, a demolition charge is used to blast apart
when detonated, sends a storm of ball bearings buildings or obstacles in one go.
over a hundred meters distant in a giant
shotgun blast. The huge potential kill-zone Type Trap
and the relative safety made a favoured tool. Weight 5 XP Cost -
Command-Detonated Trap.
Type Trap • Does 2d6 Injury, 2 Penetration.
Weight 3 XP Cost - • Does 1d6 Injury on all targets within 50m of
Command-Detonated Trap. the detonation site.
• Specify a target direction when placed. • Instead of collapsing adjacent rooms, it
• When detonated, makes a Blast Attack... will bring down the whole building.
• Against Units within Medium Range in a
100m path along the target direction.
Blasting Cap
• Against Units within Close Range in the A tiny, low-velocity explosive, blasting caps
opposite direction. are simply designed to set off other explosives.
• Does 1d6 Injury. They can be used to create improvised bombs out
of other materials.
Fougasse Barrel
A small barrel packed with gasoline, with a Type Trap
grenade or blasting cap at the bottom, a Fougasse Weight 1 XP Cost -
transforms the environment into a firestorm. Command-Detonated Trap.
• Will detonate other Traps when fired.
Type Trap • Will also detonate unrelated explosives in
Weight 8 XP Cost - the following manner.
Command-Detonated Trap. • All Grenades will count as S-Mines.
• Affects all units within 1d3x10m. • Every 10 Units of Fuel will count as a
• Does 2d3 Fire Injury. Fougasse Barrel.
• Destroys foilage inside the blast zone. • Every 3 Weight in Spare Ammo will cause +1
Injury from shrapnel.

Explosive Gear Detonator

You’ll need one of these if you want to blow
Bangalore Torpedo something up. Pull the trigger three times to
Basically long, interconnected tubes with be sure.
an explosive at one end, the bangalore is an
engineering tool that allows explosives to be Type Equipment
placed inside dangerous areas, such as under a Weight 1 XP Cost -
line of barbed wire or inside a minefield. Used as a Free Action.
• Can be connected to multiple explosives,
Type Equipment but all will detonate at once.
Weight 3 XP Cost - • You cannot connect a Detonator to a new wire
Consume as a Minor Action to... after using it to explode an explosive in
• Instantly destroy 10m of Obstacle. the same Turn.
• Instantly defuse any Trap within 10m by
detonating it from a safe distance.
Thermite
• Attack a Structure within 10m with the If you’re going to destroy something, might
effect of a Concussion Grenade. as well do it right. Thermite is a chemical
compound that burns so hot it instantly melts
Minesweeper or cuts through steel.
Metal detectors use magnetic fields to detect
metallic objects without making contact with Type Equipment
them, allowing buried mines to be found safely.. Weight 1 XP Cost 1
When used as part of a Dispose action...
Type Equipment • Gives 5 Automatic Successes.
Weight 5 XP Cost 5 • Instantly disable 1 Artillery piece.
Used as a Free Action while moving. When used as part of a Sabotage Action...
• Increases the user’s Vigilance by 5 for • Gives 3 Automatic Successes.
detecting Traps. When used as part of an Enter Structure Action...
• Only works at Half or Shift speed. • Automatically opens any lock.

89
Vehicles

4x4 Utility car 6x6 Cargo Truck

Representing the jeep for the Americans,
Land Rovers for Australians and... basically
anything with four wheels for the Communists.
You typically want to avoid driving these
sorts of vehicles into combat, but it happens.
Covering the common American M35 two-and-
a-half ton, it’s larger 5 ton cousin the M939,
and their many Communist counterparts like
the ZIL-157. This is how most soldiers and
gear gets from A to B.

Type: Ground Weight: 60 Type: Ground Weight: 100

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

15km/500 6/5 25 12km/250 4/5 5
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
0 8 0 10

Driver x4 Passenger Driver x2 Passenger (Cab)

Type On Type On Type On Type On
Visibility - Visibility - Visibility - Visibility -
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30

Trade 2 Passenger slots...

x12 Passenger (Bed)
- For a Medium Machine-Gun: 5XP
- For a Heavy Machine-Gun: 8XP Type On
- For a Large Recoilless Rifle: 12XP Visibility -
Add up to 1 Passenger Med. Machine-Gun: 4XP Capacity 40

Add Radio Telephone for Passenger: 3XP

Mount up to 2 Passenger Bed weapons...
- A Light Machine-Gun: 5XP
Sandbags can be added to the bed to give 1
- A Medium Machine-Gun: 8XP
Armour against Traps and the Passengers a
Level 1 Defensive Position bonus. This will
Add Radio Telephone for Cab Passenger: 3XP
increase fuel use to 4 and reduce speed to
10km/400.
Sandbags can be added to the bed to give 1
Armour against Traps and the bed Passengers
Independent of Storage, a Utility Car can tow
a Level 1 Defensive Position bonus. This will
a Wagon up to 60 Weight, another vehicle of up
increase fuel use to 3 and reduce speed to
to 60 Weight, or a Pack Howitzer.
10km/200.

Independent of Storage, a Cargo Truck can tow

a Wagon up to 60 Weight, another vehicle of up
to 60 Weight, or a Pack Howitzer.

90
Gun Truck
To protect their convoys, American supply
units converted some of their cargo trucks into
rolling fortresses. These gun trucks would
be painted gaudy colours and have slogans or
titles on the side for easy identification.
Armoured Personnel Carrier
The M113 and it’s counterpart the Type 63
ferried troops in the relative safety of an
armoured compartment, or on top, in case they
hit a mine. The ARVN cooked up ways to use
them as deadly combat vehicles as well.

Type: Ground Weight: 150 Type: Amphibious Weight: 160

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

10km/150 3/5 5 10km/600 3/5 25
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
1 10 2 10

Driver x1 Passenger (Cab) Driver x1 Commander

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 6 Visibility 6 Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 20 Capacity 20
Radio Telephone Radio Telephone

x2 Gunners x4 Passengers x10 Passengers x6 Passengers

Type On Type On Type In Type On
Visibility - Visibility - Visibility - Visibility -
Capacity 40 Capacity 40 Capacity 35 Capacity 40
Hvy. Machine-Gun Can’t use as Storage

Only one of the weapons on the back can fire on
any given Unit per turn.
Upgrade a Heavy Machine-Gun...
- To an Automatic Grenade Launcher: 5XP
Trade 1 Passenger slots for a Gunner slot: 5XP
Gunners and bed Passengers benefit from a
Level 2 Defensive Position.
Add a weapon to the Commander slot...
- A Medium Machine-Gun+: 5XP
- A Heavy Machine-Gun+: 8XP
- A Flamethrower+: 6XP
Add 2 Med. Machine-Gun+ for Passengers: 10XP
Replace all Passengers with...
x3 Gunners (In) with a Heavy Mortar: 10XP
x1 Gunner (On) with a Minigun: 10XP

Add Mine Protection (+1 Armour vs Traps): 8XP

Add Radio Booster: 3XP.
Add Driver Starlight Scope: 3XP

91
Free World Tanks

M41 walker Bulldog M48 Patton

An obsolete light tank, the US handed these en
masse to the ARVN, who were desperate for any
kind of armour. The ARVN often painted them
in bright colours or with snarling animal
motifs for intimidation.
An American Main Battle Tank, the M48 Patton
was used by American forces as their main
battle tank. M67 “Zippo” variations with
flamethrowers were used; they used a fake gun
so you couldn’t tell until it was too late.

Type: Ground Weight: 400 Type: Ground Weight: 500

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

12km/1km 3/15 25 10km/1km 2/16 25
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
4 10 5 10

Driver Commander Driver Loader

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+ Visibility 3+ Visibility 0
Capacity 20 Capacity 20 Capacity 20 Capacity 20
Radio Telephone Starlight Scope 10 Med. Shells

Gunner Loader Gunner Commander

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 3+ Visibility 0 Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+
Capacity 20 Capacity 15 Capacity 20 Capacity 20
Light Tank Cannon 15 Small Shells Starlight Scope Starlight Scope
Med. Machine-Gun Heavy Tank Cannon Radio Telephone
Med. Machine-Gun Med. Machine Gun
x6 Passenger x1 Passenger
Type On Type In x8 Passenger x1 Passenger
Visibility - Visibility 0 Type On Type In

Capacity 40 Capacity 15 Visibility - Visibility 0

Can’t use as Storage Can’t use as Storage Capacity 30 Capacity 15

Intercom Telephone Can’t use as Storage Can’t use as Storage
Intercom Telephone
Add a weapon to the Commander slot...
- A Medium Machine-Gun+: 4 XP M67 Zippo
- A Heavy Machine-Gun+: 6 XP - Delete Loader and internal Passenger slot.
- Replace Heavy Tank Cannon with Flamethrower
Add Driver, Gunner or Commander Starlight - Add 15 Unit fuel tank to Gunner position.
Scope: 2XP Each

92
M551 Sheridan
An experimental tank with a multipurpose
launcher that fired both missiles and shells,
light enough to be carried by helicopter and
amphibious. The recoil of the cannon tended
to knock out the electronics.
Centurion MK5 tANK
A popular British heavy cruiser, the Centurion
served as the battle tank for Australian
forces. They were bigger and tougher than all
their counterparts; one tank was subject to
atomic testing and still served in ‘Nam!

Type: Ground/Boat Weight: 300 Type: Ground Weight: 650

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

15km/750 3/15 20 8km/1km 2/15 30
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
3 8 5 12

Driver Commander Driver Commander

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+ Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+
Capacity 20 Capacity 20 Capacity 25 Capacity 25
Starlight Scope Starlight Scope Grenade Launcher Radio Telephone
Grenade Launcher Radio Telephone 3 Smoke Rounds Med. Machine-Gun
3 Smoke Rounds Hvy. Machine-Gun+
Gunner Loader
Gunner Loader Type In Type In
Type In Type In Visibility 3+ Visibility 0
Visibility 3+ Visibility 0 Capacity 25 Capacity 20
Capacity 20 Capacity 15 Heavy Tank Cannon 10 Med. Shells
Starlight Scope 6 Medium Shells Hvy. Machine-Gun 5 Ammo
Pack Howitzer 2 Wire Missiles Med. Machine-Gun 2 Hvy. Ammo
TOW Missile
Med. Machine-Gun x10 Passenger x2 Passenger
Type On Type In
x8 Passenger
Visibility - Visibility 0
Type On
Capacity 40 Capacity 15
Visibility -
Can’t use as Storage Can’t use as Storage
Capacity 40 Intercom Telephone
Can’t use as Storage
The tank’s Kettle can convert 2 Dirty Water to
If you roll 3 or more Failures firing the TOW
1 Clean Water per turn.
or Howitzer, your TOW Missile loses the Guided
feature. Gunner’s HMG can only be used to range the gun.
93
Free World AFVs

M706 Commando M42 Duster

The Cadillac Gage Commando, or “Duck”, was an
armoured car used for security duties. You’d
see Air Force pukes and MPs driving this thing
around the cities, and they occasionally got
their hands dirty escorting convoys.
Built from the chassis of the M41 Walker
Bulldog, the M42 Duster is an autocannon-
armed anti-air artillery vehicle. Without
many targets in the air, they were used as
anti-infantry weapon platforms.

Type: Ground/Boat Weight: 400 Type: Ground Weight: 400

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

20km/300 4/15 30 12km/600 3/15 15
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
1 7 2 8

Driver Radioman Driver Commander

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 6+ Visibility 6+ Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+
Capacity 20 Capacity 30 Capacity 20 Capacity 20
Grenade Launcher Radio Telephone Starlight Scope Starlight Scope
3 Smoke Rounds Radio Telephone

x4 Passenger Gunner x2 Loader

Type On Type On Type On

Visibility - Visibility 3+ Visibility 0

Capacity 40 Capacity 20 Capacity 15

Can’t use as Storage x2 Autocannon 30 Tiny Shells

Add up to three... The Gunner and Loader are both recessed into
- Light Machine-Guns: 3 XP the hull, offering them Injury reduction equal
- Med. Machine-Guns: 4 XP to Armour.
- Hvy. Machine-Guns: 6 XP
Add a weapon to the Commander slot...
Replace 2 Passenger slots with a Turret... - A Medium Machine-Gun+: 4 XP
- Heavy Turret: Autocannon, 12 Tiny Shells - A Heavy Machine-Gun+: 6 XP
- Light Turret: Minigun, 8 Spare Ammo

If a Turret is added, remaining Passenger

slots become In Gunner/Loader slots with 6+
Visibility and 30 Capacity.

94
Military Bulldozer
In particularly troubling areas, the US
resorted to simply bulldozing down as much
jungle as they could to deny Charlie a place to
hide. Defending a bulldozer as it cuts a path
is an excellent mission objective.
M50 Ontos
Greek for “The Thing”, the Ontos was, believe
it or not, a real vehicle. Designed as a tank
destroyer, it turned out to be an incredible
infantry support machine, and the Marines
used them until they fell apart.

Type: Ground Weight: 400 Type: Ground Weight: 250

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

3km/500 2/15 10 12km/500 3/10 10
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
1 10 2 7

Driver x2 Passengers Driver Loader

Type On Type On Type In Type In
Visibility - Visibility - Visibility 3+ Visibility 0
Capacity 30 Capacity 40 Capacity 15 Capacity 15
Radio Telephone 15 Medium
Recoilless Shells
The Military Bulldozer has a large dozer blade
mounted on the front which serves several Gunner
purposes. The Dozer Blade bonuses only apply Type In
if the machine is moving at Combat Speed. Visibility 4+
- The Dozer can make Prepare Position actions
using the driver’s Proficiency + 10. Capacity 20
- Bulldozers never take Damage from attempting x6 Lrg. Recoilless
to crush Small Structures and Rooms of Large Med. Machine-Gun+
Structures less than 1 story tall.
- The Dozer counts their armour as 4 higher
In order to reload, the Ontos must stay
against mines.
stationary and Unbutton for 1 Turn, and at
- Bulldozers can convert terrain to Flat
least 1 character must spend 1 Turn outside
Ground in a 10m path behind them.
the vehicle reloading it.
Armoured Bulldozers gain +1 Armour and
Add a weapon to the Gunner slot...
convert their Driver slot to an In slot with
- A Medium Machine-Gun+: 4 XP
visibility 5.
- A Heavy Machine-Gun+: 6 XP

95
TITLE
Free World
FONTS Helicopters sollicitudin velit vel consectetur. Maecenas
ornare odio eget maximus egestas. Pellentesque
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et
elit. Nulla sollicitudin mi sed pulvinar ornare. malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Ut sagittis
Aliquam mollis enim eu fermentum consequat. ultricies neque a vulputate. Aliquam et dignissim
Quisque metus augue, tristique sit amet tortor libero, vel hendrerit orci. Aliquam et sagittis
eget, accumsan placerat orci. Donec non fringilla mauris. Duis accumsan ut urna non commodo. Nam
turpis, nec congue enim. Fusce convallis sit amet ac libero id ante convallis cursus in ut est.
lorem et cursus. In vitae ante et massa convallis
feugiat id ac quam. Aenean tincidunt turpis nec Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing
tellus luctus, in sollicitudin orci finibus. Duis elit. Nulla sollicitudin mi sed pulvinar ornare.
nibh ante, congue id mi vulputate, convallis Aliquam mollis enim eu fermentum consequat.
scelerisque augue. Phasellus sollicitudin eget Quisque metus augue, tristique sit amet tortor
nulla vitae vulputate. Phasellus eu ante viverra, eget, accumsan placerat orci. Donec non fringilla
volutpat massa non, fermentum erat. Ut rhoncus turpis, nec congue enim. Fusce convallis sit amet
turpis ut lorem tempor fermentum. Sed pharetra lorem et cursus. In vitae ante et massa convallis
tellus in orci gravida auctor. Sed nec eros at feugiat id ac quam. Aenean tincidunt turpis nec
ipsum fringilla congue. tellus luctus, in sollicitudin orci finibus. Duis
nibh ante, congue id mi vulputate, convallis
Class
OH-6aptent
Cayuse taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent scelerisque augue. “Huey”
UH-1 Iroquois Phasellus sollicitudin eget
(Slick)
per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. nulla vitae vulputate. Phasellus eu ante viverra,
Known
Nam ac universally as theSuspendisse
sodales tortor. Loach, this potenti.
tiny, The single best known vehicle of the war, the
volutpat massa non, fermentum erat. Ut rhoncus
extremely light helicopter was used
Proin id accumsan diam. Donec ullamcorper as a Huey could go anywhere and do anything. The
turpis ut lorem tempor fermentum. Sed pharetra
scout and observation platform, ultralight
vehicula volutpat. Phasellus tempus purus at transport model could carry a whole squad,
tellus in orci gravida auctor. Sed nec eros at
transport,
massa and, with
consequat a few upgrades,
bibendum. as a small
Nullam vel odio ut casualties, rations, munitions, supplies, or
ipsum fringilla congue.
gunship that could get right into the
odio tincidunt malesuada. Aenean vulputateaction. even light vehicles and artillery.
ullamcorper tincidunt. Mauris maximus urna Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
Type: Helicopter Weight: 150 Type: Helicopter Weight: 200 torquent
porta tellus malesuada, sed gravida felis per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.
ultrices. Low
Ceiling: Integer Difficulty:
faucibus posuere2 elit, quis NamCeiling: Low tortor. Difficulty:
ac sodales Suspendisse1 potenti.
pellentesque ipsum lobortis eget. Interdum et Proin id accumsan diam. Donec ullamcorper
Speed
malesuada Fuel
fames ac ante Storage
ipsum primis in faucibus. Speed Fuel Storage
vehicula volutpat. Phasellus tempus purus at
250/5km 2/15 15 massa500/10km 2/15 Nullam vel5 odio ut
consequat bibendum.
Donec non est nunc. Phasellus ornare ex a eleifend odio tincidunt malesuada. Aenean vulputate
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
vehicula. Suspendisse nec enim porttitor, ullamcorper tincidunt. Mauris maximus urna
pretium odio 0 nec, sagittis ante. 5
Aenean et nibh porta tellus0 malesuada, sed gravida7 felis
eget metus fringilla consectetur nec id magna. ultrices. Integer faucibus posuere elit, quis
Pilot
Suspendisse Co-Pilot
potenti. Nam tristique metus ornare, Pilot
pellentesque Co-Pilot
ipsum lobortis eget. Interdum et
interdum
Typemassa In
vel, placerat velit. InSed nisi
Type malesuada fames ac In
Type ante ipsum primis
Type in faucibus.
In
sapien, tincidunt vitae semper sed, sagittis a
Visibility 9 Visibility 9 Visibility 9 Visibility 9
quam. Ut gravida euismod justo sit amet sagittis. Donec non est nunc. Phasellus ornare ex a eleifend
Capacity
Duis vitae mauris30eu tellus
Capacity
fringilla30ultricies Capacity
vehicula. 30
Suspendisse Capacity
nec 30
enim porttitor,
et vitae felis. Radio Telephone pretium odio nec, sagittis Radio
ante. Aenean et nibh
Telephone
eget metus fringilla consectetur nec id magna.
Etiam gravida vitae lectus a feugiat. Pellentesque Suspendisse potenti. Nam tristique metus ornare,
- Add running boards: 3XP Pellentesque sit amet x4 Passengers x8 Passengers
faucibus pulvinar dapibus. interdum massa vel, placerat velit. Sed nisi
felis vitae metus varius porta id accumsan ante. Type On Type In
sapien, tincidunt vitae semper sed, sagittis a
Runningquis
Aliquam boards
augue add external
in lacus posuere spots for
vestibulum quam. Visibility -
Ut gravida euismod Visibility
justo -
sit amet sagittis.
commandos to ride and fire off the sides.
at id massa. Morbi quis velit sapien. Mauris Duis vitae mauris
Capacity eu
30 tellus fringilla
Capacity ultricies
30
efficitur accumsan sapien tempor hendrerit. et vitae felis.
x6 Passenger
Aenean ut leo molestie, pulvinar justo sit amet,
ultricesType
nulla. On Aenean facilisis ornare mi at Etiam
Add gravida vitae lectus
up to 2 doorguns forathe
feugiat. Pellentesque
On Passengers...
molestie. Pellentesque
Visibility - faucibus pretium blandit. faucibus pulvinar
- Add Light. dapibus. Pellentesque
Machine-Gun: 3XP sit amet
In laoreet
Capacity pulvinar
35 nunc, vel tempor felis felis vitae
- Add Med.metus varius porta
Machine-Gun: 3XP id accumsan ante.
dignissim nec. Nullam in ante at augue tempus Aliquam quiscannot
Door guns augue both
in lacus
fire posuere vestibulum
on the same unit.
accumsan at eget arcu. Quisque commodo metus at id massa. Morbi quis velit sapien. Mauris
dapibus eleifend cursus. Donec euismod dui vitae efficitur accumsan
If the Huey sapien 4tempor
is carrying hendrerit.
or fewer people
justo
Underpharetra fringilla
Pilot/Copilot necadd
control, quis
up ante. Proin
to two... Aenean ut leo molestie,
or equivalent gear, itpulvinar justoto
can be used sit amet,
lift a
tempor quisMachine-Gun:
- Add Hvy. diam quis eleifend.
3XP Cras et nulla vel ultrices
vehiclenulla. Aeneanpiece
or artillery facilisis ornare
up to 200 mi at
Weight, a
purus
- Add ullamcorper
Minigun: 6XPtempus. molestie. Pellentesque
prepacked crate of the faucibus pretium
same Weight, or blandit.
2 Large
- Add Rocket Pods with 6 Shells: 5XP In Bombs.
laoreet pulvinar nunc, vel tempor felis
Phasellus viverra lectus vitae ultrices aliquet. dignissim nec. Nullam in ante at augue tempus
Curabitur nec urna eu enim lobortis vehicula. accumsan
Replace at eget arcu.slots
2 Passenger Quisque
with acommodo metus
Loudspeaker
Etiam dictum urna eget ipsum pharetra faucibus dapibus eleifend
and Tape Deck,cursus.
a PeopleDonec euismod
Sniffer withdui vitae
double
id placerat urna. Pellentesque vestibulum justo pharetra
effective fringilla
range, or a Largenec quisBomb.
Smoke ante. Proin

96
tempor quis diam quis eleifend. Cras et nulla vel ultrices nulla. Aenean facilisis ornare mi at
purus ullamcorper tempus. molestie. Pellentesque faucibus pretium blandit.
In laoreet pulvinar nunc, vel tempor felis
Phasellus viverra lectus vitae ultrices aliquet. dignissim nec. Nullam in ante at augue tempus
Curabitur nec urna eu enim lobortis vehicula. accumsan at eget arcu. Quisque commodo metus
Etiam dictum urna eget ipsum pharetra faucibus dapibus eleifend cursus. Donec euismod dui vitae
id placerat urna. Pellentesque vestibulum justo pharetra fringilla nec quis ante. Proin
sollicitudin velit vel consectetur. Maecenas tempor quis diam quis eleifend. Cras et nulla vel
ornare odio eget maximus egestas. Pellentesque purus ullamcorper tempus.
habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et
malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Ut sagittis Phasellus viverra lectus vitae ultrices aliquet.
ultricies neque a vulputate. Aliquam et dignissim Curabitur nec urna eu enim lobortis vehicula.
libero, vel hendrerit orci. Aliquam et sagittis Etiam dictum urna eget ipsum pharetra faucibus
mauris. Duis accumsan ut urna non commodo. Nam id placerat urna. Pellentesque vestibulum
ac libero id ante convallis cursus in ut est. sollicitudin velit vel consectetur. Maecenas
ornare odio eget maximus egestas. Pellentesque
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et
elit. Nulla sollicitudin mi sed pulvinar ornare. malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Ut sagittis
Aliquam mollis enim eu fermentum consequat. ultricies neque a vulputate. Aliquam et dignissim
Quisque metus augue,
UH-1 Iroquois tristique
“Huey” (Hog)sit amet tortor libero,
CoBra velGunship
hendrerit orci. Aliquam et sagittis
eget, accumsan placerat orci. Donec non fringilla mauris. Duis accumsan ut urna non commodo. Nam
By piling on thick armour around the engine Highly advanced and deadly area suppression
turpis, nec congue enim. Fusce convallis sit amet ac libero id ante convallis cursus in ut est.
and crew compartment and then attaching guns gunships, the “Snake” was revolutionary, but
lorem et cursus. In vitae ante et massa convallis
to every surface that would take them, a “Slick” too advanced for the war they were fighting.
feugiat id ac quam. Aenean tincidunt turpis nec Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing
became a “Hog”, a deadly flying artillery piece Body counts dropped significantly when they
tellus luctus, in sollicitudin orci finibus. Duis elit. Nulla sollicitudin mi sed pulvinar ornare.
spitting fire in all directions. replaced Huey patrols and their door gunners.
nibh ante, congue id mi vulputate, convallis Aliquam mollis enim eu fermentum consequat.
scelerisque augue. Phasellus
Type: Helicopter sollicitudin
Weight: 200 eget Quisque
Type: metus augue, tristique
Helicopter Weight:sit
250amet tortor
nulla vitae vulputate. Phasellus eu ante viverra, eget, accumsan placerat orci. Donec non fringilla
volutpat Low non, fermentum
Ceiling:massa Difficulty:
erat.2 Ut rhoncus Ceiling:
turpis, Low enim. Fusce
nec congue Difficulty: 1 sit amet
convallis
turpis ut lorem tempor fermentum. Sed pharetra lorem et cursus. In vitae ante et massa convallis
Speed Fuel Storage
tellus in orci gravida auctor. Sed nec eros at
Speed Fuel Storage
feugiat id ac quam. Aenean tincidunt turpis nec
ipsum500/10km 2/15
fringilla congue. 5 tellus1km/12km 2/15 orci finibus.
luctus, in sollicitudin 5 Duis
Armour Toughness nibh ante,Armour
congue id mi vulputate,
Toughness convallis
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent scelerisque augue. Phasellus sollicitudin eget
per conubia1 nostra, per inceptos 7 himenaeos. 1
nulla vitae vulputate. Phasellus eu6ante viverra,
Nam ac sodales tortor. Suspendisse potenti. volutpat massa non, fermentum erat. Ut rhoncus
Proin idPilot Co-Pilot
accumsan diam. Donec ullamcorper Pilottempor fermentum.
turpis ut lorem Co-Pilot/Gunner
Sed pharetra
vehiculaTypevolutpat.
In PhasellusTypetempusInpurus at tellus inType
orci gravida
In auctor. Sed necIneros at
Type
massa consequat 9bibendum.
Visibility Nullam vel
Visibility 9 odio ut ipsum Visibility
fringilla congue.
5 Visibility 6
odio tincidunt malesuada. Aenean vulputate
Capacitytincidunt.
ullamcorper 30 Capacity
Mauris 30
maximus urna Capacity
Class aptent 30sociosquCapacity
taciti 30
ad litora torquent
porta tellus
Minigun malesuada, sed gravida
Radio Telephone felis per conubia
Rocketnostra,
Pod per inceptos
Minigunhimenaeos.
ultrices. Integer
6 Hvy. Ammo faucibus posuere elit, quis Nam ac12sodales tortor. Suspendisse
Small Shells potenti.
Auto G. Launcher
pellentesque
Rocketipsum
Pod lobortis eget. Interdum et Proin Radio
id accumsan
Telephonediam. Donec ullamcorper
10 Ammo
malesuada fames
8 Shellsac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. vehicula volutpat. Phasellus10tempus purus at
Grenades
massa consequat bibendum. Nullam vel odio ut
Donecx2non est nunc. Phasellus
Passengers x2ornare ex a eleifend
Passengers odio tincidunt malesuada. Aenean vulputate
You can swap the Gunner’s Grenade Launcher
vehicula. Suspendisse nec enim porttitor, ullamcorper tincidunt. Mauris maximus urna
Type On Type In and ammo for a second Minigun and ammo, or
pretium odio nec, sagittis ante. Aenean et nibh porta tellus malesuada, sed gravida felis
vis versa.
eget Visibility -
metus fringilla Visibility
consectetur nec -id magna. ultrices. Integer faucibus posuere elit, quis
Suspendisse
Capacity potenti.
30 Nam tristique
Capacitymetus
30 ornare, pellentesque ipsum lobortis eget. Interdum et
Half the Small Shells for the Rocket Pod can
interdum massa vel, placerat velit. Sed nisi malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus.
be swapped for a Minigun and 15 Ammo, or an
sapien, tincidunt vitae semper sed, sagittis a ravida vitae.
Autocannon and 15 Tiny Shells.
quam.
Add upUtto
gravida euismod
2 doorguns justo
for the Onsit amet sagittis.
Passengers...
Duis
- Addvitae
Med. mauris eu tellus
Machine-Gun: 3XP fringilla ultricies
US Marine versions are called “SuperCobras”.
et
- vitae felis. 6XP
Add Minigun:
They replace the Gunner’s Minigun and Grenade
Door guns cannot both fire on the same unit.
Launcher with a Gatling Autocannon mount and
Etiam gravida vitae lectus a feugiat. Pellentesque
25 shells. The Gatling Autocannon can fire 5
faucibus pulvinar
Add Co-Pilot dapibus.
Automatic Pellentesque
Grenade Launcher sit amet
and
Shells per turn instead of 3.
felis vitae metus
12 Grenades: 10XPvarius porta id accumsan ante.
Aliquam quis augue in lacus posuere vestibulum
at id massa.
Upgrade RocketMorbi quis
Pod to velit
Rocket sapien.with
Artillery Mauris
4
efficitur accumsan
Medium Shells: 8XP sapien tempor hendrerit.
Aenean ut leo molestie, pulvinar justo sit amet,

97
CH-34 Choctaw/SeaBat
Known as the “HUS” to the Marines it carried,
this was used in place of the Huey by the Corps
in the early war. It was well loved by them
because it’s reliability meant one was always
on station; “Get me a HUS” meant “Help me out.”
Ch-47 Chinook
These gargantuan twin-rotor transports
could carry just about anything you could
imagine; a platoon of infantry, a village worth
of refugees, crates, fuel tanks, artillery
cannons, trucks, tanks, other helicopters...

Type: Helicopter Weight: 400 Type: Helicopter Weight: 500

Ceiling: Low Difficulty: 1 Ceiling: Low Difficulty: 2

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

500/8km 2/15 5 600/10km 1/15 15
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
0 7 0 9

x2 Pilot x16 Passengers x2 Pilot x40 Passengers

Type In Type On Type In Type In
Visibility 9 Visibility - Visibility 9 Visibility 3
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 25
Radio Telephone Radio Telephone Med. Machine-Gun
Med. Machine-Gun
Add up to 2 doorguns for the Passengers... Med.Machine-Gun+
- Add Light. Machine-Gun: 3XP
- Add Med. Machine-Gun: 3XP The two passenger Medium Machine-Guns are
Door guns cannot both fire on the same unit. door guns; they cannot both fire on the same
target. If somebody is using the third gun, the
Seabat Stinger: Replace 8 Passenger Slots with ramp gun, all passengers are exposed. Replace
Rocket Pod, 2 Light Machine Guns, 6 Shells and any of these guns with a Minigun for +4 XP.
16 Ammo .
If the Chinook is carrying fewer than 10
If the Seabat is carrying 4 or fewer people and passengers or stowed gear in those slots,
nothing in the passenger Capacity, it can be it can be used to lift a vehicle or artillery
used to lift a vehicle or artillery piece up piece up to 500 Weight, a prepacked crate of
to 150 Weight, a prepacked crate of the same the same Weight, or 4 Large Bombs.
Weight, or 1 Large Bomb.
ACH-47A Guns A Go-Go: Reduce passenger slots
to 25 and lift weight to 300. Add the following.
- Automatic Grenade Launcher, 15 Grenades.
- Rocket Artillery, 12 Shells
- x2 Hvy. Machine-Guns, 15 Ammo
- x2 Autocannons, 15 Shells

98
Free world Boats

Patrol Boat, River Patrol Craft, Fast (Swift Boat)

A fibreglass-hulled, jet-powered light
patrol boat, the PBR was the workhorse of the
brownwater navy. They were light, fast, and
carried enough firepower to sweep the shores
clear of any infantry threat.
Slightly larger aluminium-hulled patrol
boats, these vehicles had the extreme speed
needed to blaze past defences or react to events
upriver. They made excellent transports for
troops, supplies or special forces.

Type: Boat Weight: 400 Type: Boat Weight: 800

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

12km/1km 6/15 30 12km/1km 6/25 45
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
0 11 0 15

Driver Gunner
Driver Gunner
Type On Type On
Type On Type On
Visibility - Visibility -
Visibility - Visibility -
Capacity 40 Capacity 30
Capacity 40 Capacity 30
Radio Telephone x2 Hvy. M.Gun
10 Heavy Ammo Radio Telephone x2 Hvy. M.Gun
10 Heavy Ammo
x4 Passengers
Radarman Main Gunner
Type On
Type On Type On
Visibility -
Visibility - Visibility -
Capacity 60
Capacity 40 Capacity 30
x2 Light M.Gun
x1 Hvy. M.Gun Radio Telephone x1 Hvy. M.Gun
x1 Auto G. Launcher Signal Booster x1 Medium Mortar
Radar 8 Shells, 10 Ammo

Both Gunner Heavy Machine-Guns attack the x12 Passengers

same target at the same time.
Type On
The two Light Machine-Guns cannot target the Visibility -
same unit. Capacity 60 Replace Light. M.Gun
with Auto Grenade
The Gunner and Driver positions offer Level 1 x1 Light M.Gun Launcher: 3XP
Defensive Positions to their occupants.
The Radar can detect all aircraft and large
ships on level water within 10 kilometres as
featureless blips.

99
Generic PLanes

Jet Fighter Prop Raider

The planes flown over Vietnam were second
and third generation jet fighters, like the
F-4 Phantom, the MIG-21 and the A-6 Intruder.
Though they engaged in their own dogfights,
US jets were mostly used for ground attack.
With uncontested control of the sky, the US
military began to see a role for propeller
planes which could drop bombs with extreme
precision, using the tough A-1 Skyraider and
the sleek A-37 Dragonfly in this role.

Type: Airplane Weight: 800 Type: Airplane Weight: 800

Ceiling: Distant Difficulty: 2 Ceiling: High Difficulty: 1

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

10km/500km 1/6 6 3km/250km 1/10 6
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
0 8 1 10

Pilot Co-Pilot Pilot

Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 9 Visibility 9 Visibility 9
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30
Minigun, 10 Ammo Radio Telephone x2 Autocannon
20 Shells
Jet Fighters can go Supersonic in an
emergency, immediately consuming 3 Fuel to Choose 4...
arrive anywhere in the country in one turn.

Ejector Seat: Pilot and Co-Pilot can both - 1 Medium Bomb

Parachute if one of them is still conscious.
Choose 2 Co-Pilot Weapons...
- 2 Large Bombs
- 2 Medium Bombs, Guided
- 3 Air-to-Air Guided TOW Missiles
- Rocket Artillery, 12 Shells
- Drop Tank: Add +3 Fuel
- Gun Pod: x1 Autocannon, 15 Shells
Single-seater Jet Fighters are also available.
The Pilot and Co-Pilot roles folded.
The Radar can detect all aircraft and large
ships on level water within 15 kilometres as
featureless blips.
- 2 Small Bombs
- 1 Rocket Artillery, 6 Shells
- 1 Rocket Pod, 12 Shells
- 1 Minigun, 5 Ammo
- Mine Dispenser
- Drop Tank: Add +5 Fuel
The Mine Dispenser is a one-use weapon that
scatters 1d6 Blast Mines when used. Randomly
determine a compass direction and place each
mine Xd6 x 50 meters from the drop location,
where X is the plane’s Altitude.

100
Free world Support PLanes

Propeller OBserver Spooky Gunship

The use of propeller planes to act as scouts,
command vehicles and radio relays was a major
part of anti-guerrilla operations. They could
loiter over a problem area far longer than a
gas-guzzling jet fighter.
It turns out if you mount a bunch of miniguns
onto the side of a cargo plane, you create an
extremely powerful anti-guerilla weapon
that can tear up acres of jungle at a time and
circle over a combat area.

Type: Airplane Weight: 500 Type: Airplane Weight: 1200

Ceiling: High Difficulty: 1 Ceiling: High Difficulty: 1

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

2km/200km 1/15 25 1km/150km 1/25 60
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
0 6 0 14

Pilot Observer x2 Pilot x4 Passenger

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 9 Visibility 15 Visibility 9 Visibility 9
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30
Radio Telephone Radio Telephone
Signal Booster
x1 Gunner x1 Observer
The Propeller Observer can be equipped with... Type 1n Type In
Visibility 6 Visibility 15
PSYOPS: The Observer gains a Loudspeaker and
Tape Deck. It can carry 2 Massive Bomb filled Capacity 30 Capacity 30
with Leaflets. x3 Miniguns
30 Ammo
Close Support: The Pilot gets a Minigun and
the Observer gets 4 Small Bombs of any type.
Trade 1 Minigun and 10 Ammo for...
- Autocannon and 10 Shells.
Tank Hunter: Pilot gets 6 Disposable Rocket
- Heavy Anti-Tank Cannon and 5 Shells.
Launchers.
You can only mount 1 AT Cannon per gunship.
Chemical Detector: Observer gets a People
Sniffer with double effective range.

Scanner: Add a Radar, which can detect all

aircraft and large ships on level water within
20 kilometres as featureless blips.

101
Communist Vehicles

Soviet Armoured Car KAtyusha

The NVA employed a variety of Soviet armoured
cars to limited effect during the war. Most of
them ended up being patrol vehicles hunting
for downed airmen as they were difficult to
move south.
A Russian innovation of the Great Patriotic
War, a Katyusha consists of a truck chassis
mated with a large rack of rocket artillery,
making for a deadly, mobile, long-ranged
artillery piece.

Type: Ground/Boat Weight: 400 Type: Ground Weight: 120

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

20km/500 4/15 30 1200/250 5/15 15
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
1 5 0 10

Driver Radioman Driver x1 Passenger (Cab)

Type In Type In Type On Type On
Visibility 6+ Visibility 6+ Visibility - Visibility -
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 40 Capacity 40
Radio Telephone

x4 Passenger Mounted on the back of the Katyusha is a Rocket

Type On Artillery system holding 8 Rockets. It can be
fired by anyone in contact with the Katyusha
Visibility - providing it stays still during the turn it
Capacity 60 shoots.
Can’t use as Storage

Replace 2 Passenger slots with a Turret...

- Light Turret: Hvy Machine-Gun, 8 Spare Ammo
- Rocket Artillery, 3 Shells

Uparmoured: Reduce speed to 16km/500, add +1

Armour and 3 Toughness.

Independent of Storage, an Armoured Car can

tow a Wagon up to 60 Weight, another vehicle
of up to 60 Weight, or a Pack Howitzer.

102
Communist AFVs

ZSU-57-2
A Soviet anti-air vehicle comparable to the
M42 Duster, the ZSU-57-2 accompanied North
Vietnamese armour everywhere during the
later stages of the war, as it could ward off
ARVN helicopters.
PT-76
A cheap and fast amphibious light tank, the
PT-76 was less effective than many of its
counterparts, but could be built by anyone
in large numbers. The ability to ford rivers
made it invaluable in Vietnam.

Type: Ground Weight: 400 Type: Ground/Boat Weight: 400

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

12km/500 3/15 25 10km/800 3/15 20
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
2 10 3 8

Driver Commander Driver Loader

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+ Visibility 3+ Visibility 0
Capacity 20 Capacity 20 Capacity 15 Capacity 15
Starlight Scope Starlight Scope Radio Telephone 15 Small Shells
Radio Telephone
Gunner x4 Passenger
Gunner x2 Loader Type In Type On
Type On Type On Visibility 3+ Visibility -
Visibility - Visibility - Capacity 15 Capacity 40
Capacity 20 Capacity 20 Light Tank Cannon Can’t use as Storage
x2 Autocannon 40 Tiny Shells Med. Machine-Gun

The Gunner and Loader are both recessed into

the hull, offering them Injury reduction equal
to Armour.

103
Communist Tanks

T-34/85
One of the weapons that won the Great
Patriotic War, this was the original battle
tank of North Vietnam. They never really had
the opportunity to deploy it aggressively in
large numbers, but they fielded them.
T-54/Type 59
Designed in the closing days of the Great
Patriotic War, the T-54 was a terror for NATO
military planners. It was cheap, deadly, and
between the original and the Chinese knock-
off it is the most manufactured tank ever.

Type: Ground Weight: 400 Type: Ground Weight: 500

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

13km/700 3/16 25 12km/1km 3/16 25
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
3 11 4 11

Driver Commander Driver Commander

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+ Visibility 3+ Visibility 5+
Capacity 15 Capacity 15 Capacity 12 Capacity 15
Radio Telephone Radio Telephone
Med. Machine Gun+ Med. Machine Gun+

Gunner Loader Gunner Loader

Type In Type In Type In Type In
Visibility 2+ Visibility 0 Visibility 3+ Visibility 0
Capacity 15 Capacity 15 Capacity 15 Capacity 12
Light Tank Cannon 10 Small. Shells Heavy Tank Cannon 10 Med. Shells
Med. Machine-Gun Med. Machine-Gun

x6 Passenger x1 Hull Gunner x6 Passenger

Type On Type In Type On
Visibility - Visibility 0 Visibility -
Capacity 40 Capacity 15 Capacity 40
Can’t use as Storage Med. Machine Gun+ Can’t use as Storage
Intercom Telephone

Add external fuel tanks for +10 Fuel. In Add external fuel tanks for +10 Fuel. In
the event of a Fire, add +1 to the Bail-Out the event of a Fire, add +1 to the Bail-Out
Difficulty. Difficulty.

104
Civilian Vehicles

Civilian Car SampaN

A variety of cars, mostly of French make, putter
through the streets of Saigon. In the rural
areas, however, they are almost unknown, and
a sure sign of an important official or rich
aristocrat.
The traditional riverboat of the Vietnamese,
a sampan is a small wooden boat with a shelter
in the centre, driven by poles. Many of the
people of Vietnam’s rivers will live their
entire life on one of these.

Type: Ground Weight: 60 Type: Boat Weight: 150

Speed Fuel Storage Speed Fuel Storage

18km/150 1/10 25 3km/200 - 25
Armour Toughness Armour Toughness
0 5 0 4

Driver x3 Passenger Driver x3 Passengers

Type On Type On Type On Type On
Visibility - Visibility - Visibility - Visibility -
Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30 Capacity 30

Independent of Storage, a Civilian Car can tow As the Sampan is propelled by a driver, the
a Wagon up to 50 Weight, another vehicle of up driver takes 1 Exhaustion every 3 turn they
to 60 Weight, or a Pack Howitzer. operate the boat.

An Outboard Motor can be added to the Sampan,

raising the speed to 6km and sparing the
driver. Fuel becomes 1/10.

Items hidden on a Sampan have +3 to their

Stealth Rating.

105
Field Manual
If you want to roleplay as soldiers, you might
need to know something about soldiering. This
section is intended to give you a little overview
of what soldiers do and why.
This basic training guide assumes you know just
about nothing about the army, the weapons they
use, or modern combat, but by the end of it you
should be more than ready to serve your country
as a make-believe soldier with dice.
Military Basics
The military is an organization whose mission
statement is to win wars and advance the interests
and causes of their nation through violence. They
are a branch of government and a bureaucracy
that must continue functioning even as their
components and employees are eliminated and
concerted efforts are made to destroy them. As the
retirement of small numbers of individuals are
capable of effectively destroying companies and
bureaus in civilian life, the military employs
many unique strategies to be able to continue
functioning in war.
Discipline and the chain of command is paramount
in the military, and is the element that is most
removed from the way that civilian life functions.
In civilian life, not listening to your boss might
get you fired, but in the military, its a crime.
For the military to function, soldiers must obey
orders from their superiors immediately and
without question.
To facilitate this, militaries have a very rigid
hierarchy of ranks and seniority. Soldiers
are divided into three categories, called the
Enlisted, Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO),
and Officers. Each has a different role and is
subservient to the groups above them.
Enlisted soldiers are Privates and Specialists,
and the Lance Corporals in the US Marines. They
hold no authority over anyone, and their only
concern is to follow the orders of the people
above them and get the job done.
Above them are the Non-Coms, the NCOs. They lead
a very small number of men, and their job is to
keep them organized, motivated and following
the rules. They don’t make plans or dictate
tactics, they just ensure they are executed. NCOs
are usually promoted from soldiers among the
enlisted men.
The officers are the people who come up with the
plans. Officers don’t typically spend time as
enlisted men first; rather, they went to a special
officer school, usually hold a degree, and are
generally upper-class.
106
They then work their way up the officer hierarchy.
Junior officers, like lieutenants and captains,
lead units on the field, coming up with tactical
plans on the spot for soldiers to execute and
leading men. Senior officers, like Brigadiers
and Generals, are old men who come up with the
strategic plans for large armies.
There are a lot of protocols between officers and
enlisted men, to ensure they can both do their
jobs. Officers aren’t supposed to be friends with
their subordinates, and are isolated from them.
Bases have officer clubs where officers spend
their downtime away from the enlisted. When you
meet an officer outside of a combat situation, you
are required to salute them, and hold that salute
until they return it, unless it is impractical or
you are indoors. You are also required to call
officers “Sir”, or by their rank.
The army is divided into nested sets of units,
with plenty of redundancy, for organization
and to make the chain of command clear. Every
military on earth has their own organisational
quirks, and much ink is spilled figuring out how
they all equate to each other.
In the US Army, generals command divisions, which
are made up of a number of regiments, commanded
by colonels. Regiments can be thought of as your
“team”, with special insignia, nicknames, flags
and mottos.
A regiment is divided into battalions, commanded
by a Lt. Colonel. Battalions are generally the
smallest field unit for organisational purposes.
They consist of somewhere between 300 and 1000
men, plus a number of in-between officers, called
majors, who act assistant commanders. In the US
Army, there are independent battalions which
are treated as regiments in and of themselves,
as the US Military is organized primarily at the
division level instead of the regimental level
like most nations.
The battalion is made up of a number of companies,
about 100 men lead by a captain. Each company is
broken into platoons, batteries or squadrons,
depending on the type of unit, each lead by a
lieutenant. NCOs are distributed within those
units to coordinate small squads of men or the
crews of individual guns or vehicles.
When losses are taken from among the higher
ranks, the men below take up the duties of the men
above them. To square this with the hierarchy,
acting ranks are used; a lieutenant might be
acting as a captain until a replacement arrives.
If replacements aren’t immediately to be had, or
promotions need to be handed out quickly, brevet
ranks are used. This is a kind of quick field
promotion that lasts until the craziness dies
down and it can either be confirmed or reverted
with no loss of status.
On Industrial War
The infantry is the public face of the army. When
people picture a soldier, they see an infantryman
in their heads. Recruits are generally divided
between those who desperately want to be
infantry, and those who desperately want to be
anything but. The reality is that most soldiers
are not infantrymen. Most of them are really
truck drivers, road layers, and office workers.
In order to understand why the infantry so
important, we’ll need to talk about the military
around them.
The closest approximation for what the military
is in civilian terms is a very large construction
conglomerate. That sounds very strange, but it
holds up in a lot of ways. They both have a lot
of necessary support infrastructure for each
person doing the actual work, they both utilize
a lot of machines to get the job done more easily,
and both require helmets at the jobsite.
The only difference is the construction company
builds houses, and the military kills people.
Like the construction company, the military is
industrialized. It used to be that building a
structure was the work of a few trained experts
directing the unskilled labour of dozens or
hundreds of people. Now, you have machines, like
cranes, backhoes and bulldozers, which handle
the heavy lifting with just a few operators.
Likewise, the military has gone from a large
mass of people who can be used for various tasks
to a small number of specialized operators who
use machines to kill people. Machines like
artillery, bombing aircraft, missiles, and tanks.
Most of these operators never see the people they
are killing; they simply input numbers and press
a button, and some seconds and a few miles away
some people are filled with shrapnel. If you
want a name for these people, you might settle on
“death technician.” It is they, and not infantry,
who do most of the work of winning wars.
107
The role of Infantry
In our extended construction company metaphor,
infantry are security guards. Just as people
might come to break or steal the machines at a
construction company, the other side generally
wants to destroy your war machines. The infantry
are the people who prevent this from happening.
They aren’t destroying the enemy wholesale, like
artillery, or driving through their battle lines,
like armour, but they are vital for victory.
Destroying the enemy military is only step one
of winning a war. The second step is occupying
or defending ground, and defending or minding
the people who live on that ground. Without it, a
military operation is just a lot of firecrackers
and a lot of bodies without any progress made.
An excellent example of what infantry do is the
island-hopping campaigns of the Pacific Theatre
of World War 2. Most Japanese soldiers would be
killed by naval artillery and the country itself
would be bombed into oblivion by aircraft, but in
order to win the war men with rifles had to land on
the islands themselves and extract the Japanese
soldiers from it, one way or another. Otherwise,
ports and airfields wouldn’t get built, which was
the real objective of the fighting.
Infantry mostly fight in self-defence. If you are
confronted by the enemy during your duties, it
is kill or be killed. Your life and the lives of
your comrades are much more important than the
lives of the enemy. “You did what you had to do.”
To help cope with this, the enemy is dehumanized;
thinking of the enemy as less than human makes
it much easier when you are forced to kill them.
Many American soldiers came to resent the kill
ratio-driven missions during the Vietnam
War. It became very difficult to reconcile the
contrary messages that the lives of the enemy
were worthless, and that trading ten of them for
the life of your comrade was worthy.
About You
Let’s take a minute to talk about the American
Soldier of the modern age.
As a young soldier in the army of the nebulous
mid-to-late 1960s, you are a member of the
generation born in the immediate aftermath of
the Second World War, during what would become
known as the “Baby Boom”, a massive expansion
of the US population as a result of the strong
economic upturn, rapidly expanding housing
market, and the general post-war euphoria.
As a youth, you learned to duck and cover under
your desks if the unthinkable happened. You
heard about satellites and men in orbit through
the radio and, if your family was rich enough
for a television, you knew the Mickey Mouse Club
theme song by heart. You grew up alongside the
Civil Rights movement and watched your parents
react to the death of President Kennedy.
As you were growing up, your parents and teachers
probably talked to you about your “military
obligation”. All young men are registered into
the Selective Service, a conscription system
which fills gaps in the military’s structure that
can’t be filled by volunteers. As you wouldn’t get
to pick your branch of service or influence what
job you got if you were drafted, young men were
encouraged to volunteer instead to ensure they
ended up where they wanted to go.
As the war in Vietnam worsened and the draft
expanded, your military options were probably
at the forefront of your mind during high school.
Getting into the Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force,
while safer, was a lot more difficult than the
Army or Marines. If you went to college you could
get a deferment, but you might not qualify. You
could sign up for the National Guard, but some of
them got shipped over anyway.
In short, there wasn’t really a way to ensure you
weren’t going to go to Vietnam. On the other hand,
that might have been okay with you; a lot of young
people, raised on stories about the horrors of
communism, were quite eager to get a chance at
taking the fight to the Reds. Either way, when
your 19th birthday rolled around, either you
went out and volunteered, or you tried your luck
against the draft and lost.
When you get drafted, they send you a card in
the mail telling you where to show up. If you
don’t arrive to be inducted, you’re breaking the
law. Some people, “draft dodgers”, ignored their
letters anyway, hitting the road or fleeing
to Canada to avoid Vietnam. You might have
considered it, or you might consider those guys
cowards.
108
Why You’re Here
According to the radio and television broadcasts
you’ve seen of the various presidents who have
been in office since the war began, Americans
have deployed soldiers in Vietnam to combat
something they call Domino Theory.
The Theory goes like this; communism is an
international threat that has no borders or
limits. The people in Moscow and Beijing who push
it onto other nations arrange things so that each
nation that falls to communism works to push
over their neighbours as well. If North Vietnam
conquers South Vietnam, then Laos and Cambodia
will fall to communism, and then Thailand and
Malaysia, then South Korea and India, then Japan
and Australia, and the thing you know there’s Reds
in Mexico pushing into Texas and California!
Now, you might believe this wholeheartedly,
or not really believe in the details but agree
with the premise that communism needs to be
confronted. There’s horror stories from Eastern
Europe, South America, and Asia about what
happens when communism takes root; talk about
purging dissidents, burning books and crushing
poverty. If you’re religious, the state atheism
enforced in communist nations and the violence
they practice against clergy and believers is
reason enough to take up the sword.
On the other hand, you might have some more
cynical beliefs about the war. Maybe it’s all just
a way of showing Soviet Russia that the United
States isn’t afraid of fighting communists, or
maybe you think the American Empire has decided
that Vietnam is its next colony. Perhaps you
think the entire war is about lining the pockets
of defence contractors with a never-ending
conflict, or that the White Man in Washington has
conspired to pit Black against Yellow.
You might also believe there’s no reason at all,
and it’s all just some cosmic joke.
About Your Enemy
That’s why you’re here, but war is a tango that
takes two. Who are you fighting, and why?
Your comrades refers to your enemy as the V.C.,
Victor Charlie. The Vietnamese you work with call
them Viet Cong. They call themselves the National
Liberation Front. In any case, they are a guerilla
army that lives out in the rural parts of Vietnam,
and they’re fighting to unify Vietnam under the
rule of their communist leaders in Hanoi.
You don’t know too much about Charlie because you
don’t see much of him. They live out in the jungle
in tunnel complexes, or blend into the civilian
population when they aren’t fighting you. Anyone
you see in the villages could be V.C., waiting for
your unit to pass by before retrieving a hidden
weapon and shooting you in the back. Most of the
time, all you see of Charlie is tracers zipping
through the foliage, or corpses lined up after a
firefight.
You do find a lot of evidence of the enemy lying
around, though. The Viet Cong love to build
deathtraps out in the jungle, laying mines,
digging pits lined with spikes, and rigging
crossbows into trees. You could easily be killed
by a trap set by long-dead enemy fighter.
Depending on when and where you’re fighting,
Charlie can be organized in all sorts of different
ways. In some places, they’re just small bands
raiding villages and throwing grenades into
passing trucks. They’re basically just bandits
with a cause.
In others, the Viet Cong are like a big rural
military, with thousands of soldiers organized
in divisions and ranks and giant tunnel complex
bases buried out in the boonies. They wear
something almost like a uniform, they have
proper officers, and sometimes really scary gear
sent by the North Vietnamese Army.
The NVA, or Nathan Charlie, that’s on a completely
different level. North Vietnam has a whole proper
army of fanatics just itching to invade the South,
but the presence of the Free World Forces means
they can’t manage a proper war, because there’s
no way the military of a backward shithole
like Vietnam can compete with the US army, the
greatest military machine in history.
Instead, a lot of them take off their uniforms
and sneak down into the south through Laos and
Cambodia to fight as Viet Cong, providing them
experienced soldiers and officers. As things
heat up in the war, the NVA is getting bold again.
Uniformed battalions are entering the country
again, with artillery and armoured cars. You’ve
even heard terrifying rumours from the Marines
in I Corps that they have tanks and helicopters.
109
The Kill Ratio
Your mission in Vietnam is to kill or capture as
many V.C. as you can. This isn’t like your dad’s
war, where they could roll in to liberate Paris
or yank an island out from under the Japanese
garrisons. The V.C. won’t stop until they’ve won
or they’re all dead, so...
The thing is, Charlie is really brave and hardy,
but he’s not a terribly good fighter compared
to you guys. They don’t have your training or
equipment, and it shows. According to your
commanders, Americans kill about ten or twelve
V.C. for every soldier they lose. If Free World
Forces can keep that up, the enemy will run out
of fighters before America runs out of patience.
You’re not entirely sure if you can trust that
kill ratio; you think command probably pads it
out a bit by counting some of the civilians who
get caught up in your firefights, or making
assumptions about the effectiveness of artillery
and airstrikes. Still, the fact that Charlie keeps
in the fight despite knowing how one-sided it is
can be pretty unnerving.
Some of your comrades take this body count
business very seriously, and aren’t too
discriminating in whose bodies they count. Some
people came over here twisted, and a lot more got
that way by being in the war too long. Life is
cheap in Vietnam, so nobody really seems to care.
The Red Menace
On the other hand, Charlie isn’t exactly a bastion
of morality either. Your commanders call them
terrorists, because most of their tactics are
about using fear to force South Vietnam into
compliance. They plant bombs in crowded city
streets, assassinate teachers, doctors and
preachers, and kill anyone who won’t help them.
Sometimes, when you hear about war protests on
the radio, you want to take some of those students
you hear about back in the States, the ones who
say the V.C. are brave freedom fighters against
American Imperialists, over here for a few days.
Maybe they’ll change their minds about the baby
killer thing after they see what Charlie does to
villages that don’t toe the party line.
This is part of the reason that fighting the V.C.
is such a nightmare. On the one hand, they’re a
huge threat to the rural people of Vietnam. A lot
of people are scared of them and a lot of people
hate them, and you often help people relocate to
fortified villages that can keep them safer.
At the same time, though, any one of those villagers
could be Viet Cong, and there are villages who
don’t seem to care about their atrocities and
provide them aid, or simply don’t help US forces.
ere’s no way of knowing who you can trust.
Garrison Duty
As a regular infantry solider in Vietnam, you and
your unit will most likely be posted to a firebase,
properly known as Fire Support Bases or FSBs.
These are a kind of fort out in the rural parts
of the country that acts both to extend artillery
coverage over the entire warzone and as a base to
launch patrol missions from.
The size of a firebase could vary considerably,
with some just temporary piles of dirt to house
a platoon of soldiers and some pack howitzers,
and others near the front line garrisoned by
entire battalions. Most, however, house six
heavy artillery guns, a helicopter detachment,
engineers to build and maintain the place, a
medical staff, and a company-sized infantry
force to act as a garrison.
Firebases tend to go through a lot of abuse.
They are the face of the American occupation
in the rural areas, so they tend to catch a
disproportionate amount of mortar and rocket
fire, not to mention snipers lurking just outside
the wire. NVA regulars or large forces of V.C.
sometimes get it in their head that they should
make a run at a firebase and overwhelm it with
shock and sheer numbers.
To protect against these hostile actions,
firebases are ringed in barbed wire and have
containment walls of dirt, called berms, built up
around it. Behind the berm are firing positions,
machine-gun nests, and watchtowers. All the
foliage in the area will be cut or bulldozed back
several hundred meters to provide clear lanes of
fire, and mines may be placed in problem areas.
This makes firebases a tough nut to crack for an
infantry force.
For most of your tour, the firebase is home.
There’s a number of buildings inside the wire,
hastily built to withstand enemy fire. Your room
is a small bunker, dug about waist-deep in the
ground, with raised sandbag walls and a canvas
roof, which you share with slightly too many of
your fellow soldiers given its size. You sleep
on a portable air mattress placed on a raised
aluminium frame, with spare clothes or a bag full
of socks as a pillow.
Your duties on the base are divided into two
segments. Garrison duty is your day-to-day
routine, basically doing everything that needs
doing to keep the base going while staying present
to repel any enemy incursions. That means a lot
of digging and carrying for the engineers, long
hours watching nothing happen on sentry duty,
and, worst of all, collecting and burning the
refuse from the garbage pit and latrines.
Still, garrison duty is practically heavenly
compared to the nightmare that is going on patrol.
110
Out in the Bush
Just sitting in the base doesn’t get the war won;
Victor Charlie and his big brother Nathan are
out there, beyond the wire, moving supplies and
raiding villages and setting up weapon caches.
Its simply not possible to watch the whole country
at once, so instead you go out on patrols in the
hopes of catching a percentage of enemy activity
and, by doing so, make it more difficult overall
for the enemy to operate.
A typical recon patrol involves a platoons of
soldiers, kitted up for combat, leaving the wire
either on foot or in a helicopter and walking
a beat around the surrounding countryside,
basically looking for trouble. They are usually
out to investigate known patterns of enemy
activity, checking on hotspots like popular
trails. It is also important to visit villages to
remind civilian populations of US presence, look
for enemy hiding among them, and ask around.
If your officers have direct evidence of enemy
activity, like a recon report, they might also
send you out for a combat patrol with the direct
purpose of ambushing the enemy. This’ll often
involve two platoons; one to attack, and one to
block their escape.
Patrolling is incredibly nerve-wracking because
it is both extremely dangerous and unbelievably
boring. It is physically and psychologically
demanding and the tension is suffocating. You
stand a fairly good chance of encountering
the enemy or their traps, but likely not in any
concrete way. There might be some gunshots up the
line and the zip of bullets going overhead, but
in all likelihood you personally won’t see who is
responsible and it’ll be over before it started,
leaving you to deal with the aftermath.
How long a recon patrol lasts varies immensely.
If you’re lucky, your officers just want a better
look at some very specific thing, so you’ll be back
inside the wire by sundown. If you were lucky,
though, you wouldn’t be in Vietnam, so your
patrol will probably last a couple of days. At
night, you set up claymores around your position
for security and get as much sleep as you can on
the ground, providing you aren’t on watch.
A few days into these patrols, you might start
to realize that this is how Charlie lives every
day, and that he doesn’t have a fancy base with
a bed and fresh supplies and a shower to go back
to. That’s about when you start to understand how
a bunch of rural yokels from an impoverished,
backward nation like Vietnam could be giving
the US military so much trouble, and your level
of respect for and fear of the V.C. jumps up.
When you finally get back to the FSB, suddenly
that air mattress in a damp bunker will seem real
welcoming.
Real Bases
Not every infantry soldier is assigned to a
firebase, and not everyone assigned to a firebase
stays there. Command is constantly shifting
troops around based on their own obscure logic,
meaning you might end up serving in quite a few
places.
Many soldiers end up garrisoning larger military
bases, like divisional field headquarters or the
large garrison bases outside of Saigon. These
are a bit further removed from the fight than the
firebases, being huge, sprawling complexes with
many layers of security. Things here are a lot
more established.
Instead of a bunker, you sleep in a hooch, a raised
wooden structure with screen doors and working
lights. You’ve something approximating a real bed
and there’s a real kitchen, which makes garrison
duty a lot more bearable. It’s a lot safer, too; its
much harder for the enemy to get into range to try
something, not that they don’t try.
You still have patrol duties, and these patrols
can be even longer and more elaborate as there are
a lot more troops and helicopters laying around
to throw at them, but once it’s over you return
to something almost resembling normality. A
common, if rather surreal, sight is to see a group
of men come back from a week out in the bush, their
fatigues brown with mud and sweat, elbowing past
the gaggles of rear-echelon types on their way to
hot chow, a long shower, and as much sleep as they
can get away with.
Going on Leave
Though soldiers are on-the-job 24/7, they also
accumulate leave over time, kind of like sick
days that they can use with the permission of
their commander. After a few hard patrols, your
officers might give you some time off. This would
often involve shipping soldiers in their command
down to “safe areas” inside Vietnam for a day or
two, usually at a beach in some well-secured part
of the country, where the troops would basically
have a ridiculous barbecue beach party, get
blackout drunk, and then stagger back to the war.
During your tour, every soldier was also entitled
to five days of leave in Bangkok, Hong Kong,
Penang, Manila, Singapore, Taipei or Tokyo, or
seven days in Hawaii or Sydney. Of these, Bangkok,
a city flooded with Western money and catering to
just about any fancy a soldier might have, was far
and away the most popular with single soldiers.
Soldiers on the larger bases could often swing
day passes, allowing them a chance to head into
Saigon, Dai Nam, or one of the camps established
outside the army bases to hit up the bars and
brothels. The MPs and SV Police were often tasked
with retrieving soldiers out past curfew.
111
Military Culture
The first thing you might notice is that everyone
is very concerned with the time. Soldiers have a
one-year tour in Vietnam, and they count every
single day of it in obsessive detail. You’ll see
improvised calenders inside hooches, or scrawled
onto helmets and flak vests in black pen, every
day gleefully marked off. Any given soldiers can
tell you to the minute how long they have left
in-country.
When a soldier starts approaching the day when
he gets to go home, he is said to be “short”. The
“short-timers” are treated with the utmost
respect by everyone around them, because the
irony of somebody dying just before they get out
is too much to handle. Short-timers don’t walk
point, don’t get to volunteer for anything, and
their comrades will pull whatever strings they
have to get them out faster.
Of course, the army knows that losing its veteran
troops within a year is a bad deal for them, so
reenlistment officers are constantly buzzing
around the short-timers, trying to convince
them they are better off staying in the army. The
animosity between field troops and the re-up
brigade is quite serious.
On the flip side, newcomers, “cherries” or “FNGs”,
are widely resented, as their inexperienced
idiocy tends to get others killed. If you’re new,
you get all the dirty and dangerous jobs. Not
surprisingly, you were most likely to die in your
first two months. As officers serve six-months
field duty, then six months desk duty, the worst
FNG is probably your platoon commander.
This time obsession connects to the incredible
superstition of soldiers. Every unit has a long
list of conversation topics, gestures, foods,
orders and people who are bad luck or good luck.
Soldiers don’t have many avenues to express
themselves verbally, but they do have an ample
supply of black markers, time, and nothing to
write on but their own gear. As a result, you tend
to see a lot of slogans and art drawn crudely
onto helmet covers, flak jackets, ponchos, and
backpacks. Two favourites are the “Though I walk
in the valley of death/badass motherfucker”
quote, which is so common as to be utterly cliché,
and “born to X” slogans; Kill, Die, Love, Fuck, etc.
Among soldiers, there is a strong racial divide
in socialization. Though the military was
integrated shortly after the Second World War,
and segregation laws were slowly struck down
over the course of the decade, there was still a
strong social divide between black and white.
Though this barrier usually broke down a little
after the unit had seen combat, the constant
influx of new troops kept the division strong.
On the March
Soldiers, even soldiers in a modern army, spend
a lot of time walking. Learning strategies for
moving from place to place quickly, safely and
sustainably is one of the most important skills
that basic training seeks to drill into soldiers.
Left to their own devices, a group of untrained
people trying to move together tends to be
something of a mess. People move at different
rates, causing slowdowns and interruptions and
spreading the group out over the trail. This in
turn makes communication difficult. When this
happens to a group of soldiers on the march, it is
referred to as getting “strung out” and it can add
hours to a journey.
When they teach you to march in basic, what they
are teaching you is how to move on a beat, with
everyone stepping in time with one another.
Though important for general discipline and
presentation, this training also teaches soldiers
to move at a single pace. That hugely simplifies
crowd management, and allows large numbers of
people to move at maximum speed and be organized
when they arrive at their destination.
Overland marching is how infantry throughout
the ages have got from A to B. In simple terms,
you and your unit all get together on the road
and start walking in time, and some hours later
you all stop, or break into combat movement.
Historically, you might have maintained such
a march even under fire, only breaking it a few
hundred meters from the enemy. In the modern age,
however, you never do this kind of march in sight
of the enemy. Usually, an overland march will just
carry you to a base or staging area.
The US Army is a very modern organization, which
means that it is motorized. Motorized means that
the “infantry” actually have trucks and cars
assigned to them, so their overland marching is
typically a drive instead. Nothing in war ever
goes to plan, though, so you should be prepared to
march if something goes wrong. Because it will.
112
Walking In a Combat Zone
Once your overland march (or drive) has brought
you into a combat area, its time to start walking
differently. You break up your marching column
and you start moving to fight.
The first and most important thing to do is to
maintain a decent distance between one another.
This serves two purposes. It makes it harder to hit
any one soldier, and it also reduces the number
of casualties the unit will take from blasts or
rapid-fire weapons. The ideal is a “five meter
spread”, just enough space to be able to easily
keep track of one another, while still leaving
your formation more open air than soldier.
When you can, move in dips in the ground, and stay
off worn trails. Move behind hills, never atop
them where you’ll leave an obvious silhouette.
Don’t make yourself an obvious target.
When you’re moving in a potentially threatening
location, there’s a number of different formations
you and your comrades can assume to move about
the area safely. The most basic of these in jungle
warfare is called Mobile Overwatch, and it’s what
US soldiers employed primarily in Vietnam.
Leading the Mobile Overwatch group is the Point,
who ranges somewhat ahead of the unit. The Point
finds safe paths through the jungle for the rest
of the team, checks for traps, and investigates.
By moving alone, the Point can set his own pace
to a degree, moving more quietly and quickly
when he needs to. As the Point moves alone, the
enemy knows that ambushing him will blow their
surprise, and if his group is ambushed, he can
double back and flank the enemy.
Behind the Point moves the rest of the team.
You move single-file, slightly staggered, each
man able to see the man in front of him, and
each watching a different section rather than
dividing their attention watching everything
around them. The first guy, the Overpoint, watches
his left, the next guy watches the right, and so
forth. The last guy in the unit, the sweep, cleans
up your trail and keeps an eye out for anyone
shadowing the unit.
If the Point spots an enemy moving towards the
group, you can quickly break the unit into what’s
called an L-shaped ambush. In simple form, this
is what it sounds like; you form an L-shape beside
the trail and let the enemy come close before
opening fire. The L shaped ambush can be hastily
prepared simply by having the front half of the
group break off the trail to one side or another,
which is why your machine-gunner and other
support elements typically walk near the rear of
the unit. The L-shaped ambush doesn’t leave a lot
of places for your enemy to go, and also ensures
you won’t accidently shoot one another, as you
would if you surrounded your foe.
Start Digging
Artillery is the way that most people die in
a warzone. A bursting 105mm shell can kill or
maim a dozen people at once from out of the blue.
Artillery also exists in the form of cannons and
mortars carried by opposing enemy infantry, who
are keen to use them on you. As an infantryman,
artillery is your greatest fear. If you just sit
around, it can be more or less guaranteed that
some shrapnel will find you and open you up in
short order.
When an artillery shell explodes on contact with
the ground, most of its deadly power comes from
the fragments of its casing which are ejected to
either side, skimming low across the ground at
high speeds. These fragments are large, irregular
and leave cruel wounds indiscriminately across
the bodies of soldiers. A solid defence is to simply
lie down and let the fragments pass overhead, but
you don’t always have forewarning, nor does it
protect you from all the elements of the blast.
Fortunately, a better defence exists against such
weapons. Holes.
By digging down and keeping your body beneath
the contour of the earth, the deadly high-speed
shrapnel fragments will pass over your head,
sparing your tender flesh. The thick earth will
also help protect you against the pressure of the
blast wave when a shell strikes nearby. If you
dig deep enough, and cover your shelter with a
tarp, you can even have good odds of surviving a
nuclear blast!
Now, a hole in the ground is still open to the
sky, so there’s still some risk. Obviously,
nothing will save you if an artillery shell lands
directly atop you, but there’s not much you can
do about that. Another problem is things falling
atop you through the open hole. You generally
want your hole to be as narrow as it can be to
minimize that, but chunks of shell, rock and
earth are still going to rain on your head with
regularity. This is why you wear a steel helmet;
it wards off the falling shell fragments which,
while slower and less deadly, will still cause
you considerable harm if they land on you. Your
helmet also protects your body and brain from
the overpressure wave of nearby explosions; the
expanding air from a shell impact can literally
beat you to death otherwise.
On top of all that, a good hole can protect you
from bullets, too! As gravity is the enemy of the
marksman (more on that later), you can greatly
improve your odds of survival by reducing
your vertical profile. You do this when you lie
prone, but this is even better because you aren’t
extending your body across the ground, and you
can duck back into the hole for more complete
protection. Thirty-six inches of dirt will stop
a rifle bullet dead, so a hole is just about the
best cover you can have.
113
Advanced Entrenchment
Now, in military parlance there are many kinds
of holes. There’s shallow ones you carve in the
ground quickly, to lower your prone form under
the earth. These are good for sleeping, and are
known as “Shell Scraps” or the rather morbid
“Ranger Grave.” There’s the foxhole, which is
your traditional one-man hole in the ground, dug
shoulder-deep. If you’ve got a two-man job, like
operating a machine-gun, or an officer and his
radioman, you can dig a slightly bigger foxhole
the two of them occupy. A slit trench is a long
foxhole for a whole group, or to link multiple
foxholes together.
Though your average foxhole is just a pit in the
ground to keep you safe, if you have time (and in
war, you always have time, right up until you
don’t) you can improve it in a myriad of ways.
For starters, a good foxhole has a slight slope
in the floor with a sump, which is a narrow, deep
trench in the bottom, usually a few feet deep.
Water will drain into the sump, keeping you dry,
and if somebody throws a grenade into your hole,
you can kick it into the sump to protect yourself.
Sandbags can be laid around the hole, especially
around back, to provide additional protection.
You can dig a little deeper and add a firing step,
which will be both a comfortable place to sit and
to stand when shooting. You can dig elbow holes
for your arms when you’re in the firing position,
and pile the dirt a bit thicker around the edges
to provide more cover. You can lay logs down to
provide overhead protection, maybe with a tarp
to keep the rain out. If you put some foliage atop
and around that, you’ve hidden it from the enemy.
If you need to fight at night, and you should
generally assume you’ll have to, you can use local
resources to make the job easier. During the day,
define your fields of fire, and then place a stick
point up out of the dirt at where your target
area starts and ends. That way, you can feel where
you should be shooting, even if you can’t see.
Likewise, you can use a forked branch as a crude
bipod, stabilizing your weapon and providing
you with a direction to shoot in the dark.
Finally, you can do some specialized things with
your foxhole. If you leave it flush to the ground
and place a camouflaged cover atop it, you’ve
created a spider-hole; you just wait for Charlie
to pass by, then you pop up out of it and attack him
from behind. Of course, Charlie loves to do this
in return. When you aren’t in a spider-hole, it
becomes a rather nasty fall trap for anyone that
treads atop it. If you line it with some sharpened
bamboo, you’ve got yourself a good old-fashioned
tiger trap, one of Charlie’s favourite tools. The
V.C. take it a step further, smearing the spikes
in venom or human faeces to try and induce an
infection in victims.
Love your Rifle
At the heart of a soldier’s job description is
killing people. Most of that killing will be done
with artillery, bombs and mines, but the infantry
have to do it too, sometimes. You could use a knife
or a particularly large rock, but it’s a lot easier
to use a gun.
Guns come in many shapes and sizes. As a general
rule, if it fits in your hand, its a pistol, and
if its long and has a thing to put against your
shoulder, its a rifle. If its somewhere in between,
its a carbine.
At the most basic, a modern firearm consists of
a barrel, an action, and the cartridge which is
loaded into the weapon. The cartridge is a brass
tube filled with explosives, called propellant.
On one end is the projectile, called a bullet, and
on the other end, a tiny blasting cap, called the
primer.
When you pull the trigger, the action of the
weapon snaps a needle-like press called a hammer
against the back of the round. The shock of this
impact sets off the primer, causing the propellant
to ignite and burn very rapidly. This explosion
forces the bullet off the end of the cartridge,
into the barrel and then out of the end of the gun
(the muzzle) at high speeds. The bullet is followed
by the expanding gas from the explosion, which
comes out the end in a flash of fire and a puff
of smoke. In accordance with Newton’s Second Law
of Motion, the user experiences the gun pushing
back against them with the same force, which is
called the recoil.
To prevent the bullet from tumbling in midair,
the barrel is lined with small, twisting grooves,
called rifling. The bullet catches against these
grooves and is forced into a spin, so it comes out
the barrel rotating at high speeds. This rotation
is called spin stabilization; it makes it much
more difficult for the bullet to tumble in the
air, keeping it more accurate.
Guns are much more nuanced machines than
popular culture would have you believe, and
it is a lot harder to hit a person than you’d
think, presuming you can even see them. It’s not
just point and click; there are a huge number of
factors involved that govern if the bullet you
fired from your gun strikes the target or not.
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Though gunfights in movies always seem to occur
at arms length, in reality your average firefight
takes place at over a hundred meters distant,
though jungle firefights can be murderously
close. Take a dime and hold it out at arm’s length;
that’s about how big a human being is at 100m. Now
imagine that dime moving around, ducking and
diving between the trees and sticking to dips in
the ground. That’s what you need to hit.
To make things more complicated, bullets don’t
fly in a straight line, but instead curve with
gravity, far more dramatically than you might
expect. Except at the shortest ranges, you are
effectively trying to get the bullet to fall into
the target. Rifles have adjustable sights that
you can use to angle your shots, but the gradient
doesn’t tend to be very fine and there are many
other factors involved, so even if you have the
target dead in your sights, you’ll tend to over or
undershoot your first few rounds.
Experienced shooters soon learn to compensate
and get a feel for the performance of their
weapons. A trained soldier can hit a man-sized
target at 200 meters with the first shot with
fair reliability, given time to aim. In combat,
however, time isn’t on your side. What you do
instead is shoot a lot of bullets, and hope one of
them hit.
During the Second World War, there was a study
conducted by US Army combat historian S.L.A.
Marshall which claimed that, even in direct
combat, 75% of soldiers would not fire their
weapons with the direct intent of killing enemy
soldiers, and frequently wouldn’t fire at all.
The US military took his study to heart, and
implemented programs to try and encourage their
troops to shoot without hesitation, no matter
what the situation.
The only problem was that S.L.A. Marshall was
basically making it up. His methodology was
garbage, where it existed at all, and both
logistical reference and veterans of the Second
World War had long disputed it, but it sounded
good to upper officers and confirmed many of
their self-serving biases.
This resulted in considerable overcompensation
on the part of US training methods. Thinking
the main problem would be to get troops to pull
the trigger at all, it was drilled into soldiers
that, when in doubt, you shoot, regardless of
circumstances. US Soldier entering Vietnam
were trained to be trigger-happy even before
they encountered the realities of the conflict
there. All too often, the problem was not getting
men to start shooting, but getting them to stop.
They managed to fire about 52,000 rounds of
ammunition for each enemy casualty.
Misconceptions
Popular culture will have given you a very
different image of what a sniper is than the
reality. Most of the “snipers” you will encounter
are just lone individuals with rifles taking
potshots at you or your vehicles as you pass by.
What makes them deadly is primarily the element
of surprise, as it gives them the chance to hit
somebody before you start moving evasively,
hugging the ground or firing back.
Likewise, silencers don’t work like they do in
the movies either. There isn’t a quiet “fwip”
sound, but something more akin to a staple gun
being used as the metal of the gun clacks against
itself. Most silencers are used not to keep an
operation secret but to protect the hearing of
the user, especially indoors.
Pedantic gun people get very annoyed when
you confuse the terms “magazine” and “clip”. A
magazine is the reservoir of bullets inside a
gun, from which new rounds are loaded when the
gun’s action is cycled using a spring. It takes its
name from the magazines in a ship or fort where
powder and cannonballs would be stored. Most
magazines on modern weapons are detachable, so
you can take them off and place a new one in.
A clip, by contrast, is literally a clip that holds
together a number of bullets, like a money clip.
They hold your bullets until you are ready to use
them. Though a lot of people will try to make this
difference out as critical, in reality you can
usually tell what people are talking about in day
to day life through context.
The Gun, A History
The historical service weapon for the better
part of fifty years was the magazine bolt action
rifle, which fired full size rifle rounds one at a
time. The rounds fired by these weapons are quite
powerful, very accurate out to a full kilometre.
and capable of passing through most cover.
In between each shot, you turn or pull a mechanical
bolt manually, opening the chamber to eject the
remains of the round and then closing it again
to move the next one in place. With a magazine of
extra shots, you could put a lot of lead down.
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Contemporary with these were semi-automatic
pistols. These used a spring-loaded mechanism to
reset a sliding action that ejected one cartridge
and loaded another from the magazine after each
shot, so you could just pull the trigger multiple
times for multiple shots with no other work
needed. Pistols fire very small rounds; this is
to keep the weapon small, control the recoil,
and allow the spring to work. Big pistols rather
defeat the purpose!
Fully Automatic
At around the same time the magazine bolt
action rifle was coming into service, the fully
automatic machine-gun was being perfected. Most
work by using the expanding gases they drive the
bullet out of the barrel to reset the mechanism,
firing as long as the trigger is held, though some
early models are recoil-operated.
The machine-gun ended once and for all the
debate between the bayonet and the rifle, as it
could easily destroy any formation of troops in
minutes. The Maxim gun was the British Empire’s
ticket to colonial domination, and it continues
to play a vital part in warfare.
Machine-guns are not without limitations. They
consume so much ammunition that they are fed
fifty or a hundred bullets at a time on a leather
belt or metal chain. In action, a machine-gunner
often has a loader to help feed new belts.
Machine-guns are also very heavy, and difficult
to control when firing rapidly, but the biggest
problem is that the friction and heat generated
from firing so many bullets will soon cause the
barrel to heat up and warp.
To solve the problem of overheating barrels,
machine-guns use a few different methods.
Actively encouraging cooling is important; most
machine-guns have baffling around the barrel
filled with holes, which encourages the flow of
cool air against the surface of the barrel.
This usually isn’t enough, so air-cooled guns
typically have barrels that can be rapidly
removed and replaced with a spare when they
get too hot. A good gunner will try to change
the barrel as often as possible to let them cool,
but in an intense firefight you can end up with
warped or worn-out barrels that have become
inaccurate, or worse, dangerous. You’ll often
seen machine-gunners with thick gloves or oven
mitts so they can handle the blazing hot barrels
of their weapons.
If you really need to get serious, you can put
a jacket of water against the barrel to act as a
big heat-sink; the Vickers, Maxim and M1917
Browning machine-guns did this and as a result
could fire just about endlessly. This also serves
to make a weapon quite heavy and immobile.
To help control machine-guns, they are usually
mounted on support frames, usually tripods.
These are very unwieldy, so calls rapidly went
out for smalle frames. Barrel-mounted bipods
were soon mated to miniaturized machine-guns
to create the first “light machine-guns”, which
could move up with the troops and were usually
fed with magazines.
At the same time, machine-guns firing even bigger
bullets were coming into existence, weapons that
could hit from extremely long range and even cut
vehicles to pieces. The shot from a .50 calibre
heavy machine-gun is as big around as your
thumb and will travel through a car engine block
without stopping!
During the later years of World War 1, when
infiltration and assault tactics were getting
more sophisticated, armies started to demand even
smaller machine-guns. To satisfy this demand,
the submachine-gun was invented. These carbines
fire pistol rounds very rapidly at rather short
range, and soon became standard for assault
troops. Everyone except the Japanese fielded
large numbers of submachine-guns during WW2.
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Man Portable Repeaters
Just before the Second World War broke out, there
was many attempts to create a semi-automatic
rifle that fired a full rifle-round with each
triggerpull. The recoil action was too intense
for the traditional method of semi-automatic
fire, so the attempt was centred around using
the same gas-operated systems of a machine-gun
in rifle form. There were several successes, but
the most prominent was the M1 Garand, the weapon
the United States deployed in the Second World
War, making them the first with a semi-automatic
service rifle, though the Soviet Union and
Germany soon followed.
After the Second World War, improvements lead to
select fire automatic rifles that fired full-sized
rounds; called Battle Rifles. Though powerful
and precise, rifle rounds simply are not suited
to personal automatic fire due to massive recoil,
making the full-auto option nearly useless. Thus,
in the 1960s, a transition was made to another
weapon developed in WW2, the Assault Rifle.
Assault Rifles are the ultimate compromise
between all previous service weapons, rendering
the large variety of weapons a military would
previously issue obsolete, at least for general
line troopers.
An assault rifle fires a special cut-down round,
a cross between the smaller pistol or carbine
rounds and the full-sized, full power rifle
round, at both automatic and semi-automatic
rates, and sometimes in fixed bursts. This makes
for a flexible weapon that gives the user a fair
analogue to both a rifle and a submachine-gun in
one package. In most circumstances, the average
soldier needs nothing else.
The two iconic infantry weapons of the war were
the American M16 and the Russian AK-47. The
M16 was a plastic-framed wonderweapon, light
and accurate, but the early batches and their
substandard ammunition soon lead to problems.
The M16’s reliability issues were soon corrected,
but not before an incident near Khe Sanh and the
subsequent Congressional hearing tainted the
weapon with tales of jammed guns found next to
the bodies of fallen Marines.
The AK47 was infamous for its extreme hardiness,
as you could fill it with just about everything
short of concrete and it would still fire, but for
Viet Cong and NVA infiltrators, it was difficult
to stay supplied with Soviet Bloc weapons and
ammunition.
As a result, both sides extensively looted from
one another. American troops were looking for
something reliable, and the V.C. looking for
something they could reliably get ammunition
for. They also built, begged, borrowed, or stole
any weapoon that might give them an advantage.
Surviving a Firefight
Obviously, to survive a gun battle you want to do
as little getting shot as possible. New guys don’t
know how not to get shot, and that’s why they get
killed so disproportionately.
First and foremost, you should endeavour not to
be seen. Now, you might get told during training
that the enemy cannot shoot what he cannot see,
but this is patently untrue. Even if the enemy
doesn’t know exactly where you are, they’re going
to be firing at anything that moves or anywhere
that might conceal a hidden soldier. This is where
we learn about the difference between cover and
concealment.
Concealment hides you from view, while cover
actually protects you against bullet impacts.
Not all concealment is cover, and not all cover
is effective concealment. Knowing the difference
will save your life.
The first thing you should know about cover is
that there isn’t actually very much of it around!
Rifle rounds will pass straight through a lot
of things you might have considered effective
cover, like cars, steel sheeting, smaller tree
trunks, wooden fences, and many walls. Soldiers
in urban environments will frequently load
steel-tipped armour penetrating bullets which
will punch through brick and concrete like
paper. Even cover that will protect you against
small arms fire will be utterly impotent against
a heavy machine-gun, which can pass through a
truck, engine block and all, from end to end.
You still want to get behind something solid in a
firefight, because it’ll protect you from smaller
rounds and hide you from sight, but generally
speaking the best cover you have is the ground.
If you can’t dig, find a dip in the ground or a big
rock and get your body behind it. If you can’t do
that, get out of the line of fire and get prone to
make yourself a smaller target.
A firefight is all statistics. There’s a chance
that any piece of lead thrown your way can hit
you, so your job is to make that chance as slight
as possible. If you have to move, move quickly and
between pieces of cover. Never emerge from cover
in the same place twice in a row. Expose as little
of yourself to the enemy as possible.
That said, you must weigh this caution with
effectiveness. If you aren’t shooting back, you
aren’t placing pressure on the enemy. This will
allow the enemy to reposition, getting a better
angle on you. If this happens, your chances of
getting shot goes up tremendously. You’ll have
to take the small risk of leaning out to get
some shots off to prevent the larger threat of
being outflanked. This is where you learn the
effectiveness of suppressive fire.
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Shoot First, Questions Later
Knowing the mechanics of shooting isn’t enough.
You need to know how fire is employed on the
battlefield to achieve your ends, and what you
can do to maximize your chances of hitting the
enemy and not getting hit in return.
This is a good place to remind you again that
your personal firearm is not the tool that will
kill most of the enemy. You carry it primarily to
defend your life and make you a threat. Even in an
infantry-scale firefight, a large proportion of
casualties are going to be inflicted by mortars,
recoilless rifles, and grenade launchers.
Your rifle, and those used by your comrades, has
another role to play. The heavy weapons will
have minimal effects if the enemy can move or
return fire to counter them, but you can limit
the options of your opponents by firing on them.
The zip of bullets flying and the sharp crack of
impacts on concrete will drive the enemy down
and prevent them from acting against you. This
effect is known as suppression.
Suppression is the core of your role as an
infantryman in a pitched battle; you suppress
the enemy so something scarier than you can come
around and kill them.
When two units shoot at each other, the one
that gains the upper hand will quickly turn
that advantage into complete domination of the
firefight as enemy fire slacks off. This is known
as fire superiority. American forces practice
what they call the Mad Minute; opening a firefight
with the sudden and overwhelming application of
firepower from everyone the moment a potential
threat is identified.
That’s why it is so important to shoot first and
keep up a constant tempo against the enemy until
they are destroyed. However, you are starkly
limited in your ability to do so by your weapon;
your magazine is only so big, you only carry so
many spares, and in any case your weapon will
overheat and stop functioning after a while.
Even your squad machine-guns will run through
their belts and barrels before very long. You must
destroy the enemy quickly at that point.
Even if you don’t have heavy weapon or armour
support, you still have many options. You could
withdraw safely if your position is untenable
or you can advance on the enemy to gain greater
advantage. To do this, you leapfrog; your
riflemen move forward under the protection of
your machine-gunners, then they lay down fire
while the machine-gunners advance.
If the enemy is wise, they will soon retreat once
you begin to encroach on their flanks with this
action. If they don’t, you can launch an assault
with close-range fire and grenades.
Pull the Pin and Throw
At close range, ducking out to shoot can be
unaceptably risky. That’s where grenades come in.
Grenades are small bombs that are thrown by hand
or launched from a rifle or launcher. Broadly,
grenades are divided into two types; offensive
grenades, which can be thrown farther than their
blast radius, and defensive grenades, which are
the opposite. Because you can’t throw a defensive
grenade a safe distance, you need to use them from
behind defensive cover, hence the name.
When assaulting an enemy position, grenades
can be used to soften the target; when you get
in close, toss a few among the enemy, into their
holes and through the windows of buildings they
are defending. The grenades will either kill
them, force them into the open to be cut down, or
drive them back and disorient them long enough
for you to follow up.
On the defensive, large radius fragmentation
grenades can reap a heavy toll from enemy foot
assaults. You can throw them into areas your
line of fire can’t cover, to discourage movement
in an area, or directly at incoming soldiers to
potentially kill or injure many of them at once.
The grenades you use on the defensive can be much
heavier and set off much closer to yourself than
the ones you use while attacking the enemy, as
you can duck back into your hole after throwing.
In urban warfare, grenades are among your most
useful and lethal instruments. Any risky corner
or potentially occupied room can be “scouted”
with a grenade, reducing the risk to yourselves.
Grenades are also excellent against enemy
bunkers, vehicles and trenches; a classic tactic
to neutralize deeply-buried enemy bunkers is to
climb atop it, find a ventilation pipe or chimney,
and drop a grenade down it.
Grenades have been used in warfare for hundreds
of years. Vietnam’s first exposure to the weapons
would have been weapons used by the Song dynasty,
ceramic or iron spheres packed with gunpowder
and lit with a paper fuse. Similar weapons saw
use in Europe not long after, and “Grenadier”
soon became associated with elite troops. The
Americans grew used to the weapons during their
Civil War, when both sides used specialized,
dart-shaped impact grenades.
118
Most modern grenades work by having a fuse in an
internal chamber inside the grenade, which sets
off the explosives within. The fuse is ignited
with a striker connected to a hinged handle,
called a spoon. The spoon is held in place with
a safety pin. When the operator pulls the pin out
and releases his hand from spoon, a spring pushes
the spoon off of its hinge and engages the striker,
lighting the fuse.
Grenades are among the most indiscriminately
dangerous tools the infantry use. Their fuse times
can often be wildly inconsistent, and getting
them to land where you want is quite difficult.
They do not reliably produce casualties either;
something as simple as uneven ground will rob
a grenade of most of its lethal power, and there
are many ways you can mitigate the effect of
grenades, from kicking them into grenade pits to
throwing them back. If you’re looking to earn a
posthumous Medal of Honour, jumping atop a live
grenade will usually do it.
Soldiers sometimes talk about “cooking” grenades,
letting the spoon come off and the fuse burn for
a short time before throwing, to minimize the
chance that the enemy can throw back. No army on
the planet recommends doing this, and several
ban it. Not only might you blow yourself up, but
if you get shot with a ticking grenade in your
hand, you just doomed all your buddies.
Rifle-launched grenades were very popular in the
Second World War; they used a specially designed
grenade and a shroud that attached to the front
of a rifle, driven off the end either with a blank
cartridge or a live round to fly some distance
away. While effective enough, these had a fairly
limited range and middling accuracy at best.
The Imperial Japanese had a device that Americans
called a “Knee Mortar”, a super-light mortar that
could fire a hand grenade by using a special
propellant base. This weapon could flexibly
launch a variety of explosives more quickly
and deadly than the American equivalent. The
Americans worked on the concept and developed
a more dedicated weapon for the same purpose,
firing smaller, lighter shells to reduce the
recoil and allow it to be fired from the shoulder.
This weapon is the M-79, a weapon that gives
every infantry squad sudden, potent explosive
power against a variety of targets.
The Russians haven’t been slack on that front
either. They’ve equipped their allies with their
own Rocket Propelled Grenade series, developed
based on the German Panzerfaust. These use a
short-burning rocket to chuck a projectile from
a cheap shoulder tube. They’re supposed to be used
against tanks, but the V.C. have taken to using
them as a poor-man’s mortar, an ambush weapon,
and a direct-fire grenade launcher. Their only
real drawback is low accuracy over 100 meters.
Controlling the Battlefield
Digging holes, shooting bullets and throwing
explosives aren’t the only tools you have to
control the nature of the battlefield.
Soldiers often carry smoke grenades, which use a
slow-burning material loaded with a dye to create
a large cloud of impenetrable smoke. Providing
it isn’t too windy, a thrown smoke grenade will
quickly envelop a large area, blocking line of
sight and allowing units to advance or manoeuvre
behind the screen in relative safety. A smoke
grenade throw into or near an enemy position,
especially around a tank or in front of a bunker’s
firing slit, can likewise blind the enemy while
you move. Finally, smoke grenades coming a
variety of colours, so you can use them to signal
to allies or mark a location to aircraft.
Combat engineers frequently lay out coils of
barbed wire to block off areas. If you’ve never
encountered barbed wire, these steel wire
fences are covered in small thorns that catch on
clothing and can cut skin. Trying to move through
barbed wire is slow going and very physically
demanding, so US bases are often ringed with it, or
it is used to create roadblocks. You can get over
or under it with some effort, so to detect such
efforts, you can hang empty tin cans on strings
from the wire. When somebody bumps up against it,
the can rattles against the wire, alerting you to
the infiltration.
The most effective way to control the battlefield,
however, is mines.
Danger - Mines!
In regular warfare, mines are what is called an
area denial tool. Mines are not primarily used
for their lethal effects, but rather to deter the
enemy from entering certain areas. The classic
warning signs placed around a minefield don’t
really reduce their effectiveness; the point is
that, for very little cost or effort, a field of land
mines can effectively cut an area off to enemy
operations.
In conventional war, the main benefit of a mine
going off is that a unit must then stop and begin
the painful task of clearing the other mines from
the area, or else find another way. In guerrilla
war, however, mines become a part of the strategy
of attrition. Instead of laying minefields, the
guerilla lays mines one or two at a time on roads,
jungle paths, inside buildings or just randomly
around the countryside.
These mines do little to disturb the overall
strategic operations of the enemy war machine,
as they are too sparse to effectively contest an
area. However, they act as a constant thorn in the
side of the occupier by killing or injuring them
in ones and twos at almost no risk to the person
planting them.
119
The V.C. use a variety of homemade traps as well,
including the aforementioned pitfall and stake
traps. These are as much to ward off tigers as to
kill Americans, though.
If you are operating in an area you suspect
might be trapped, you must move cautiously
and attentively. Scan the ground for any signs
of disturbed earth, suspicious foliage, or
tripwires. If you encounter a mine, make its
location obvious in whatever way you can, and
leave it for the experts to deal with.
Oh, just as a note, real land mines don’t go “click”,
and you can’t save yourself by not lifting your
foot. If you step on a mine, it just goes off.
Body Armour
As already mentioned, soldiers wear steel helmets
to protect their heads against fragmentation.
This helmet might stop a pistol round or a
glancing shot from a carbine bullet as well,
though you shouldn’t count on it. Many soldiers
will ditch their helmets if they don’t expect to
be spending much time in foxholes being shelled.
Another good use of your helmet is as a helicopter
seat. The V.C. love taking pot-shots as passing
helicopters, and their bullets will pass right
through the aluminium floor of the helicopter. If
you don’t want to get shot in the undercarriage,
pop your helmet under you, and hopefully it’ll
stop the reduced-velocity round from doing some
unfortunate damage.
American infantry, and many of their allies, are
issued a flak vest, originally designed to help
protect aircraft crews against the fragments from
anti-air artillery. It weighs around 8 pounds
and is made of out of nylon, though the slightly
heavier Marine variation has some fibreglass
plates for added protection.
These vests will not stop a bullet. Direct hits
from just about any rounds will go right through,
though it might stop a ricochet or a light round
at long range. What it does do a good job of
stopping is fragments. Your vest is actually quite
effective at protecting your vital organs against
the fragmentation effects of hand grenades, land
mines and mortar blasts.
The downside is these vests are heavy and
uncomfortable in the heat. A lot of soldiers have
a habit of wearing them hanging open, defeating
the purpose, and many more ditch them entirely.
Neutralizing Targets
Let’s start out with a quick warning on this
section. This is about the ways that trauma is
inflicted on the human body from bullets and
shrapnel, and the processes of incapacitation
and death. If you’re squeamish, please skip it.
While bullets and bombs are lethal, no mistake,
few things are immediately lethal. Between the
natural hardiness of human biology and the flood
of adrenaline that accompanies combat, the body
can take a lot of punishment before giving in.
Add on the use of pain suppressing narcotics in
combat, a reality throughout history and on all
sides of conflict, actually putting down enemy
soldiers before they can get you back starts to
become problematic.
When you get shot, the thing that kills you tends
to be blood loss. Having ragged holes ripped
in your body by pieces of metal leads to fairly
rapid bleeding. Loss of blood pressure will lead
to unconsciousness in short order, which will
effectively remove an enemy combatant from the
fight. However, short is not instant, and instant
is what you need when you are confronted with an
enemy soldier at close range.
Short of a bullet striking the brain or spinal
cord directly, the time it takes to incapacitate
a target varies immensely. This is where we start
getting into the messy business of stopping
power, the ability of a projectile to put a target
down rapidly.
Hits to vital organs, especially the heart and
lungs, are ideal, because they cause rapid
denigration of the ability to oxygenate blood. A
person struck in these areas will very quickly
weaken and collapse, which will reduce their
ability to attack you before they expire.
Bullets that strike thick bone, like the pelvis
or the long bones, will also have a very strong
effect, as this will cause the bullet to lose a
lot of velocity, transferring its kinetic energy
very rapidly. This will shatter the bone, destroy
large amounts of tissue, and inflict a lot of pain,
hopefully leading to the target going into shock.
If you have a large enough bullet, a third
important mechanism is hydrostatic shock.
Liquids are non-compressible, so when a bullet
suddenly strikes the body, blood is violently
displaced, causing pressure on neighbouring
areas. The effects overall are disputed, but it is
known that large rounds can cause neurological
damage from strikes anywhere in the body.
Finally, there are psychological effects. If
somebody goes down in one shot, they have probably
fainted from shock. You don’t even always have to
hit them to get this effect!
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To maximize your chances of survival at close
range, you need to hit your target many times very
rapidly in vital areas. Don’t get fancy; just aim
for the middle of their body and keep pulling the
trigger until they stop moving. If your weapon
runs dry and the enemy is still standing, either
get out of there or get physical! Your rifle’s
barrel and butt are both lethal striking tools,
and you also have your knife, shovel, and bayonet.
This is one of the reasons that you switch your
weapon to fully-automatic fire at close range; its
much safer to hit an enemy soldier eight or nine
times than once or twice, even if both situations
inflicted lethal wounds.
Don’t assume that because an enemy is down that
they are out, either. Shooting enemy wounded
is generally frowned upon, though that doesn’t
really stop anyone, but if you refrain from
doing so the very first thing you should do after
shooting anyone is to take their weapon away,
just in case. If you see a body with a weapon, you
should assume they are still a threat.
Casualties & Treatment
For every soldier that dies in combat, somewhere
between two and five are wounded. This ratio will
seem higher on the battlefield as not all wounds
are immediately lethal.
Wounds are not all of the same severity. Many will
be minor wounds with fairly negligeable effect
on a soldier’s ability to fight, especially while
the adrenaline is flowing. This might be small
shrapnel wounds, a bullet grazing the flesh, or,
most frequently, some kind of environmental
injury sustained while moving around the field,
like cuts from broken glass or welts from jumping
prone onto rocky ground. As long as they have
somebody look at the wound after the fight, these
folks will be fine.
If somebody takes a real hit and is either rendered
incapable of fighting on or keeping up with the
unit, this is a problem. These soldiers will need
treatment, and quickly, or they won’t make it.
However, if every time somebody got hit another
stopped shooting to jump to his aid, the enemy
would effectively neutralize two soldiers for
every one they shot. As volume of fire is so very
important, this cannot be allowed to happen. If
the enemy is bearing down, you need to focus on
the fight.
What you should do is get the wounded soldier out
of immediate danger. If they’re outside of cover,
grab them by a strap and pull them out of the line
of fire. If you’ve got time, begin emergency first
aid, with an eye on keeping them stable until
the medic arrives. See if you can identify the
wound, remove clothing from around it, and apply
pressure to slow the bleeding.
During a large battle, there’s generally a chain
of medical treatment in place. The field medic
arrives and does what they can to stabilize the
soldier and reduce their pain. Then, the casualty
is further evacuated by dedicated stretcher
bearers to a casualty collection point where a
more experienced medical officer can assess them
further. If they are wounded badly enough, they
are loaded into an ambulance and brought to a
field hospital. The worse shape they are in, the
farther back they end up being sent.
As an American soldier in Vietnam, you generally
have access to helicopter medivac. Rather than
slow your patrol down carrying wounded, your
radio operator calls for a helicopter to come and
collect your wounded, ferrying them directly
to an advanced military hospital like a flying
ambulance. There, they receive cutting-edge
treatment with all the latest techniques at the
hands of full teams of surgeons and nurses. This
system was so effective that it was soon noted that
a daily commute on the interstate outside of LA
had a better chance of killing you than fighting
in the jungles of Vietnam. Not coincidently, there
were soon civilian helicopter ambulances.
When soldiers die in the field, generally you try
to remove their remains from the combat area as
soon as possible. In previous wars, depending on
your area of operations, you might temporarily
bury them with a marker that would allow them to
be retrieved later by Graves Registration.
You might still have to do that in special forces,
but bodies can also be rapidly retrieved by
helicopter. After the fight is over, you would
move the bodies back to the landing zone to be
picked up. You should cover the body with a tarp
as soon as possible; it preserves their dignity
and your own morale, and leaving an uncovered
corpse is the height of bad luck.
As for enemy bodies, line them up to get a good count
of them, search them for supplies, identification
or intelligence, and then dispose of them however
is economical. If you’re not going to be using
your fighting positions anymore, rolling them
all into a slit trench and covering them over
will do. After a particularly large engagement,
they’ll get some bulldozers up to help with that.
Taking Prisoners
Prisoners are also a lot more common than
Hollywood would have you believe. Soldiers do
not want to die, and commanders generally don’t
want to see their units get wiped out. If they
think the fight is hopeless and they don’t have a
good option for escape, people give up.
In recent conflicts, more soldiered were taken
prisoner than killed by large margins. During
World War 2, it wasn’t uncommon for entire
divisions to surrender if they were encircled.
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A prisoner of war is entitled to a great many
protections and rights under international law.
However, the Vietnam conflict is not a war, it is
a police action.
There’s three kinds of surrender that goes on in
a war zone. One is the surrender of units, where
a commander orders their subordinates to stand
down in a hopeless fight. This is generally a
pretty honourable affair and it means nobody has
to get hurt, so this is generally appreciated by
most parties. However, this kind of surrender
generally doesn’t happen very often unless one
side is losing the war very badly.
Another is when individual soldiers surrender
on their own. Depending on the context, this
might involve deserting your own lines and
making your way to the enemy position, or
simply throwing down your weapon in the
presence of the enemy. How open your foes will
be to accepting this surrender is up in the air;
though you’re supposed to honour any signal to
cease hostilities, soldiers are not always that
charitable. Flamethrowers operators or those who
surrender only after running out of ammunition
don’t tend to last very long, and you might check
to see if a prisoner’s weapon is hot from firing
before allowing them to live.
The final sort of prisoner is are wounded who are
either captured on the battlefield directly, or
who fall into the care of a force when a treatment
area is overrun.
In any case, being a prisoner in the Vietnam War
was pretty terrible all around. North Vietnam had
prison complexes for downed airmen and captured
special forces which subjected prisoners to
horrific conditions. A-6 Intruder pilot Jeremiah
Denton, who was forced to appear on television in
1966 while a prisoner, blinked out T O R T U R E in
Morse Code to those watching. The Viet Cong took
some prisoners back to the North, but might also
kill you in terrible, painful ways and leave you
in the bush for your buddies to find.
If your own prisoners survived the trip back to
base without suffering a tragic fall from your
helicopter, the Americans would turn their
prisoners over to the South Vietnamese secret
police, who would torture them for information,
try them in mock courts, and frequently execute
them for treason. The survivors would be herded
indefinitely into prison camps.
There was a very successful amnesty programs for
the Viet Cong, called the Chieu Hoi program. Many
V.C. were forced to join, so they would desert
if they thought they could safely. The plastic
magazine wrappers used by US troops had “safe
passage” tickets for defectors to use. Many of
these former Viet Cong fighters ended up serving
in the South Vietnamese military or with the US
Marines as “Kit Carson Scouts”.
The Big Guns
As a member of one of the world’s most modern
militaries, you have artillery on tap. You carry
a rifle to protect yourself from the enemy, but
you carry a radio to get real killing done.
In a proper, organized war, entirely unlike the
one you are currently fighting, the majority
of artillery gets called in and directed by
specialized forward artillery observers attached
to your unit, who know the proper procedure for
calling in a bombardment on an enemy position.
However, when you go out into the bush with just
your platoon of dumb grunts and somebody figures
out what button to press to make the radio work,
its up to you to figure out how to call in fire.
This is why every soldier is trained in the art
of the Call for Fire procedure. This basically
involve a checklist of information that, if you
haven’t completely misread your map, should
result in the enemy spontaneously exploding.
The trick is getting it right without accidently
calling steel rain on your own head.
If you just kind of need artillery in an area to
prevent the enemy moving around too much, you can
skip the ranging shots and call in suppression
on a grid square, basically asking the guns to
set down artillery in a rough area while you do
something important. Suppression missions can
blunt an enemy advance or give you an opening
for an escape, so they are an important tool.
Immediate Suppression missions are a whole other
deal. That’s when you’re about to be overrun,
there’s enemy soldiers coming straight at you
full-speed and nothing you have can stop them,
and you need them all dead yesterday.
Immediate Suppression ditches all the fancy
stuff; you just tell the gunners where you want it
and then you get behind something, because until
you call them again and ask them to stop, every
gun in range is going to be shooting whatever
they can get their hands on as fast as possible
into the indicated area.
Needless to say, calling for Immediate Suppression
when you don’t need it is frowned upon.

For starters, your call for fire involves If this sounds incredibly dangerous to be
identifying yourself and getting in contact directing in the age before GPS, you are absolutely
with the artillery. Depending on the situation, right. On average, you’ll be misreading both your
the technology involved and the local chain position and your target’s position somewhere to
of command, you might be relaying your order the degree of 200-300 meters, which is when the
through intermediaries or talking directly to an term “Danger Close” comes into play.
artillery officer. Then you order your mission
type; what you’re asking the artillery for. When you’re very near to the target you are trying
to hit, around 600m or thereabouts, that’s danger
The artilleryman behind the lines doesn’t know close, and you should tell the gunners. They’ll
where you are or what is going on. He’s sitting not do very much differently, but it’s polite.
in the base by his piece, reading a magazine and
getting served drinks by pretty USO girls while
you bust your ass in the bush. His gun is just like
your rifle, just bigger. Just like you, he has to
adjust his sights to compensate for the effect of
gravity, but unlike you, he can’t see what he’s
shooting. When you ask for his intervention, you
have to act as his eyes and aim for him.

As you might imagine, aiming a gun from several

kilometres away is tricky, and is much more
of a trial and error thing than you might be
comfortable with. There’s multiple ways to guide
a gun, but generally speaking it involves giving
your location and elevation as best you can, then
giving the location of your enemy relative to
you so the gunners can plot it on a map. They then
convert that to distance and angle for their gun.

In most fire missions, the first shot taken is a

ranging shot, firing a single shell, often loaded
with smoke or illumination for safety. This lets
you know if the gunners are roughly on target or
not; you look where the shell falls, and then ask
the gunners to adjust by however many meters and
then “Fire for Effect”; load the good stuff and go
to town on the targeted location!

122
Armour Support
A tank exists at the intersection of three
important qualities. It has armour, allowing it
to ignore small arms and machine-guns. It has
all terrain tracks and an engine, allowing it to
move swiftly over most terrain, and it has a heavy
cannon, allowing it to destroy fortifications.
These features allow a tank to swiftly destroy an
enemy position, drive through it, and continue
on to exploit this advantage.
A tank’s heavy armour might not be able to stop
everything, but it means that a concerted,
specialized effort needs to be made to stop its
advance. This is a huge boon to the force deploying
the armour, as it allows the vehicle to be used far
more flexibly than infantry or lighter vehicles.
A tank is capable of making manoeuvres near and
through enemy lines without being much slowed
down; it is very difficult to suppress a tank with
small arms, especially a modern tank.
Vietnam isn’t really tank country. It’s
muddy, soggy, overgrown, underdeveloped and
mountainous, all things that don’t play well
with armoured vehicles. The degree of advantage
a tank provides is sufficient to try and get
them involved wherever possible, though. The US
deployed the M48 Patton, and the NVA soon caught
on and started getting their own from the Soviet
Union and China.
When the first reports of amphibious light tanks
attacking US Special Forces bases came out in
1968, suddenly every patrol north of Saigon
found a few extra pounds in their patrol loads
for a disposable AT missile or two. Tanks are
utterly terrifying to infantry; they are immune
to your weapons, faster than you, and carry both
machine-guns and artillery, the two things most
likely to kill you.
Despite this, infantry are still a major threat
to tanks. Tanks can have a difficult time keeping
track of infantry threats, as in operation they
are cramped, claustrophobic and deafening. Until
you experience it, its difficult to comprehend
how blind the tiny vision-slits and periscope
blocks leave you.
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Even the commander, whose job description
primarily centres of keeping track of what is
happening outside the tank, is cruelly limited.
Some members of the crew can’t see outside the
vehicle at all once the hatches are closed. This
gives people on foot a chance to attack a tank in
its weak points, especially if they get close.
Though a tank’s front armour is impervious to
any attack an infantryman can muster, their
side, rear, top and underside armour is all much
thinner. Their tracks can be blown off, their
periscopes and vision slits shot or blocked, and
their engines sabotaged. In these situations, a
tank can quickly be transformed from impervious
fortress to steel tomb.
A sealed tank in Vietnam is like a sauna, so a
tank’s crew will often leave a hatch open to
improve their situational awareness and get some
fresh air. In a guerilla warfare situation, this
mistake can be swiftly punished with a sniper
taking a shot at the exposed crew, or a grenade
thrown from a hidden location or a “civilian”.
Things like that are why tanks don’t go anywhere
unless accompanied by infantrymen in a support
role. These infantry protect the tank by keeping
enemy infantry away, while the tank destroys the
them with its awesome firepower. Tanks can also
carry soldiers on their backs to a fight, though
its is generally very unwise to try to fight while
riding one. Finally, the tank can help protect
soldiers by acting as mobile cover, launching
smoke grenades, and evacuating wounded.
If you drive a tank’s escorts away, the tank is a
sitting duck; there’s no way they can keep track
of hostile infantry moving around them, and
you can do all kinds of nasty stuff to the tank,
like hit it with rockets and grenades, set it on
fire, cover the vision blocks, and even pry open
hatches. There’s not much a tank can do when
overwhelmed at close range, so most tank crews
with either retreat or abandon their vehicle if
they are without support.
Whirly Birds
In Vietnam, helicopters are a prime resource.
There’s thousands of them flitting around the
country like oversized insects, carrying men
and supplies everywhere. Outside of the main
firebases at the DMZ and the bases immediately
around Saigon, the vast majority of everything
is carried by helicopter.
When the British fought in Malaysia in the 1950s,
they took some early helicopters with them, and
their flexibility and sheer usefulness in the
dense terrain was quickly noted by international
observers. The United States, already conceptual
enthusiasts of the helicopter after using them
to good effect in Korea for scouting and casualty
evacuation, redoubled their efforts and began
developing an air calvary doctrine, using
helicopters to rapidly mobilize and move large
numbers of infantry arbitrarily to different
battle areas and keeping them resupplied while
they disrupted the enemy line of battle.
Flying a Helicopter
Regular aircraft use their own forward motion
to drive air under the lifting surfaces, pushing
the plane upward. Helicopters place their wings,
their rotors, on a rotating shaft connected to the
engine, allowing the rotation to move air and
create lift in the same way. Then, by tilting the
rotor, the craft can lean into various manoeuvres,
move in any direction or turn in place.
Flying a helicopter is an incredibly complicated
ordeal. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong
and the controls require a lot of expertise and
more than a little dexterity. You need all these
controls because helicopters do not want to fly.
A plane could conceivably coast forward some
distance before air currents or engine torque
moved it into an aerodynamically-unfortunate
configuration, because aeroplanes make sense.
They are like birds; nature understands them.
By contrast, helicopters are kept in the air with
nothing but the operator’s will, an engine with
a rotating blade on one end, and the ground’s
rejection of their accursed geometries.
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Left to its own devices, the helicopter will
rapidly drift counter to the rotation of the
propeller, decreasing its cyclic velocity and
wobbling until the air slips out from under the
blades and it pitches into the ground. If you
aren’t actively wrangling the controls at any
given time, you are dead.
While helicopters can hover motionless in
one spot, this is very difficult to actually
accomplish. It’s actually considerably easier to
ascend or descend than to stay still. What will
typically happen instead is a “Huey Shuffle”,
where the pilot’s attempt to compensate for the
effects of wind and torque lead to the tail of the
craft swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
Hovering in one place is also very dangerous.
For one thing, you are providing a stationary
target in wartime, which is generally a bad idea.
Maintaining a flat altitude also requires a lot
of power, so if you do it near max load you’ll lose
RPM and eventually start sinking.
It doesn’t take much movement to get the machine
relatively stable. A helicopter can maintain
steady forward motion at speed with only
minimum pedal-massaging from the pilot, letting
the motion of air help keep it on the straight
and narrow. From this position the helicopter
can easily bank into turns just like an aircraft.
Helicopters generally spend most of their time
in the air flying more or less like a plane in
this fashion.
Another good reason to keep flying forward is
because if your engine fails while you’re doing
so, you can glide, letting your forward motion
move air through the blade to keep it spinning
and control your descent. If you’re stationary
when the engine fails, you will instead just fall
out of the sky like a brick.
Because the helicopter is capable of arresting its
forward velocity very quickly and controlling
its descend with good precision, it can land and
take off in very small areas. That’s where it’s
utility comes from in guerrilla war; it can ferry
people anywhere without preparation.
The “vertical take off and landing” is a bit of
an exaggeration in practical circumstances; a
helicopter will only be moving truly vertically
for a short time in the ascend or descent. It can
take a while for a helicopter to gain or bleed all
the momentum from cruising speed, especially
while loaded down, so you’ll often see helicopters
spiralling into or out of a landing zone.
Retaining momentum is one of the reasons that a
real combat drop isn’t a comfortable touch-down
that gives plenty of time for everyone to step off
the chopper. If the landing zone is “hot”, which is
to say, there are people shooting, the helicopter
will fly low over the area at a reduced speed, and
you jump out. Try to tuck and roll.
You do this because the aluminium skin of a
chopper will stop just about nothing in terms of
enemy fire, so the crew is very vulnerable even to
small arms. Lingering too long stationary on the
ground is how you end up with dead pilots.
Landing Zones, or LZs, are picked ahead of time by
scouts in the air or on the ground. They ideally
give the helicopter space to skim to a landing for
safety, plus having a bit of wiggle room in case
the pilot makes a mistake. Landing in arbitrary
areas is dangerous for both the helicopter and for
soldiers on the ground. However, in an emergency,
the helicopter can put those 14 meter weighted
rotors to work clearing some of the undergrowth.
Works great until you hit a particularly-thick
tree trunk, at which point your blades snap off
and go flying while your airframe makes a sudden
and probably lethal right-hand turn.
Types of Helicopters
Helicopters in Vietnam come in three general
sorts. Utility helicopters are general-purpose
workhorse vehicles that carry things and people
back and forth over the country, like flying
pickup trucks. When you need to get to a battle
area, a transport chopper brings you there. When
you need to get back, another picks you up. If
you need supplies, they drop them off. If you get
wounded, they fly you to hospital.
Scout helicopters a light, nimble little vehicles
that zoom in over an area to check for signs of
the enemy or keep your commanders appraised
of the situation. You see these buzzing around
constantly, monitoring and tracking the enemy’s
every move. These hated vehicles are one of the
main reasons the V.C. mostly operates at night.
Finally, gunships are helicopters that carry
weapons and act as flying artillery platforms. A
helicopter in the hands of a trained operator is
a steady firing platform and they can carry a lot
of bang for their buck, so a helicopter swooping
in to unload with miniguns, automatic grenade
launchers, rocket tubes, and bombs can devastate
a huge area in no time at all, from any angle!
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The UH-1 Iroquois, known universally as the Huey,
soon became the mainstay of the Free World war
effort in large part because the simple, flexible
craft could fulfil all these roles with little
modification, plus serve as a PSYOPS platform,
aerial firefighter, defoliant duster and just
about any other role the military could cook up.
Hueys, and most similar craft, have a fairly
typical layout. They have two pilots up front
and a cramped crew compartment with doors on
either side. Most of the time you fly with the
doors open for increased awareness, airflow,
and faster reaction getting in and out, though
you might close up at high altitude or if you’re
transporting supplies or wounded.
Most transport helicopters in Vietnam fly with
door guns, machine-guns or miniguns, hanging
off the sides. Door guns were probably one of the
most lethal instruments used in the war, as a door
gunner has a commanding perspective from the
air, more precision available than the pilots and
gunners of a gunship, and some of the heaviest
infantry weapons available.
A door gunner can fire down into spider-holes
and trenches, spot the enemy in concealment with
ease, attack from multiple angles, and they pass
over huge amounts of terrain with every sortie.
This not only makes for excellent fire support to
suppress and destroy enemy formations in battle
or hunt lone snipers, but allows the gunners to
make opportunistic attacks on targets they pass
by on the way to something else.
When the purpose-built Cobra Gunship began
replacing the doorgunner-equipped Huey Hogs,
there was a noticeable drop in enemy casualties.
These sophisticated gunships couldn’t get in
close where they could do real damage to the
enemy, so they ironically ended up serving in
a supporting role for scout choppers with door
gunners doing the real work.
The Air War
One of the overwhelming advantages the United
States has in the Vietnam theatre is there complete
lock on air superiority. Air Superiority is when
your side of the war can freely operate aircraft
and prevent the enemy from doing the same, and
the US maintains this superiority practically
uncontested.
Air superiority is part of what allows the
deployment of so many helicopters, as against a
fixed-wing aircraft, especially a jet fighter,
a helicopter is dead meat. However, no North
Vietnamese fighter plane has a chance of getting
past the DMZ without being intercepted, so Free
World Forces can make extensive use of all kinds
of weird aircraft in many different roles.
Air to Ground Warfare
Air to Ground aircraft support comes in three
varieties, scaled by how far up the enemy
logistics train the attacks are directed.
The big bombers you occasionally see thundering
overhead on their way to drop a few hundred
tons of bombs on Hanoi are strategic bombers.
Strategic bombing is any bombing intended to
destroy the tools nations use to sustain armies
in the field, defeating them at home instead of
by fighting their forces directly. It targets
factories, transportation infrastructure,
command headquarters, and resource extraction
industries to cripple a nation’s ability to
sustain their forces.
A variation on this approach is terror bombing,
which deliberately targets civilian population
centres to demoralize and kill supporters of
the enemy war effort. The line between strategic
and terror bombing is thin, as much war-vital
industry tends to be located in or near population
centres, and strategic bombers are not precision
instruments. Officially, the United States does
not conduct terror bombing campaigns, but tens
of thousands of civilians are still injured or
killed as a result of strategic bombing.
All aircraft strikes directed at military targets
in the field is known as tactical air support,
but this definition can be divided conceptually.
Some of this support is directed at enemy military
resources which are not yet in action, aiming
to destroy men and materials moving towards
the battle area, or soften an enemy defensive
position. For instance, a variety of aircraft run
raids on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, aiming to take
out supply carriers and moving troops as well as
destroy the infrastructure on the trail.
These raids blur the line between strategic
and tactical bombing; as usual, the academic
definitions are rather fuzzier on the battlefield.
126
The other form of tactical air support is Close
Air Support, or CAS. This is employing air support
directly on the battlefield against enemy troops,
in support of and guided by your own ground
assets. In other words, Close Air Support is like
artillery fire with observers, just with planes
strafing and dropping bombs instead.
Close Air Support is usually performed by small,
nimble craft which can quickly react to changing
circumstances, fly close to the ground for
precision, and drop a small amount of ordinance
exactly where it needs to go. As communication
and coordination improves, this kind of air
support can be used against smaller targets in
closer proximity than ever to friendly forces.
Fast Movers & Bomb Trucks
America and her allies use a variety of craft in
the Close Support role, to the point where their
increasing reliance on these tactics is starting
to become a serious political issue.
The US Army is not allowed to field fixed-wing
aircraft, a political divide made to prevent them
from encroaching on the territory of the US Air
Force. This means that the Army is reliant on the
Navy and Air Force to provide all their CAS assets,
which rankles them to no end. The development of
helicopter gunships is in part inspired by the
fact that it allows Army control over some air
support assets.
The Marines, of course, skip the entire issue
by virtue of being able to operate fixed-wing
aircraft.
The main arm of close air support used by the Navy,
Air Force, and Marines are jet fighters equipped
with bombs, called “fast movers” in military
parlance. These supersonic vehicles can arrive
at a trouble area, plaster it with bombs, and be
home to rearm in extremely short order. The one
used most commonly is the F4 Phantom.
The nature of guerilla war has opened up another
option for slower-moving, more precision
propeller aircraft which can loiter near units
in operation and swoop in to support them, as
well as comb over problem areas. The most common
of these is the A-1 Skyraider, which can fly low
and slow to ensure its ordinance arrives exactly
where it’s wanted.
CAS missions require extreme precision, which
is not possible at high altitudes. Unfortunately
for aircraft, dropping a bomb while very close
to the ground is dangerous; the bomb retains all
its forward momentum, so will generally still
be directly under you when it goes off. At low
altitude, and with a big enough bomb, the plane
can be caught in the blast or peppered with
shrapnel, dangerous to pilot and plane alike.
A variety of techniques are used to mitigate
this tendency. During WW2, dive bombers were
used, which drove straight at the target from a
high altitude before releasing their bombs and
pulling up. This meant they could drop from a
safer altitude and still retain their accuracy.
Dive bombers are now quite obsolete, however.
Their post-dive recovery leaves them too
vulnerable to anti-air fire, and their extreme
precision is better achieved by rockets. It
also simply isn’t possible to achieve the attack
profile of a dive bomber uses in a jet fighter; the
G-force from pulling up would be far too much.
Instead, modern ground attack planes use other
techniques to ensure accuracy. As mentioned,
rockets have become the go-to precision weapon
for use against armoured targets like tanks.
Another techniques is to use bomb designs
which are safer at low altitude. Bombs designed
to reduce their own speed when released by
deploying parachutes or airbrakes, and bombs
designed to tumble in the air when released, both
ensure the plane will be farther out of the blast
area by the time they go off.
Finally, incendiary weapons like white
phosphorus bombs and napalm provide a great
deal more safety for the operator while retaining
lethality. These bombs do not rely on a large
explosive to create a lethal radius, instead
covering the target area with burning materials.
These weapons have three other advantages in
jungle warfare. The first is that they are very
effective against entrenched enemies; napalm
soaks the target area, and the fragmentation from
white phosphorous, being low-velocity, will
drift back down into the holes of anyone inside
the blast area. Secondly, these weapons also
remove large areas of jungle, thus denying the
enemy a hiding place.
Third, and possibly most importantly, incendiary
weapons are terrifying. Napalm is a jellied
gasoline substance which simultaneously burns
at extreme temperatures and sticks to the target
like superglue. White phosphorous burns white-
hot, even when lodged in the body. Worse, neither
of these weapons have any kind of immediate
lethal mechanism; they both kill you slowly and
agonizingly. For these reasons, they are feared
greatly by the enemy, and by the friendly troops
nearby when it is called in.
Vietnam has seen the creation of another type of
Close Air Support in the form of gunships. These
are modified cargo planes with guns, usually
miniguns or large numbers of machine-guns,
which can circle slowly over a target while
subjecting them to withering high-angle fire.
127
The final, and most ludicrous, form of Close Air
Support came in the form of Operation Arclight,
a program to use B-52 heavy bombers to support
ground forces. These units could, in theory, wipe
out an entire enemy force in one go completely
without warning, flying so high that they
couldn’t be seen or heard. They were instrumental
in breaking the siege of Khe Sahn.
Bombing Hanoi
America is forced by a variety of factors to limit
their strategic bombing campaigns against North
Vietnam. Most of North Vietnam’s industry has
been moved north to near the Chinese border,
which means striking them risks angering the
Chinese. Similarly, strikes directly against
enemy population centres would be a PR nightmare
and risk destroying the credibility of the war
effort entirely.
Thus, more limited strikes were called for.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t entirely clear what
should be hit; the North’s war infrastructure
was heavily distributed as cottage industry and
there were no obvious troop concentrations to be
hit. Thus, for most of the war, the United States
ended up dumping record amounts of ordinance on
the same bridges, rail junctions, and supposedly
critical patches of jungle.
In response, the North Vietnamese set up one of
the world’s densest air-defence networks, using
advanced surface-to-air missiles provided
by the Soviet Union as well as their own small
air force. The constant battle between American
planes and Vietnamese air defence was just as
intense and confused as the war on the ground,
including such cat-and-mouse tactics as Wild
Weasel, deliberately exposing oneself to anti-
air fire to reveal the launch positions.
Of note is the air-to-air battles between US jets
and Vietnamese aircraft. Going into the war,
the United States was convinced that guns and
dogfighting were obsolete concepts in air war,
and that rockets and guided missiles would be
the absolute decider of any duel between planes.
Encounters with North Vietnamese jets using
dangerous, close-in tactics quickly disproved
this notion, leading to the foundation of the
TOPGUN air-to-air combat school.
Vietnam
The nation of Vietnam is a small coastal slice
of Southeast Asia, but it has a long and complex
history, beautiful geography and is home to many
cultures.
A Brief History of Vietnam
The birthplace of some of the earliest agricultural
civilizations, Vietnam is, much like Russia and
Afghanistan, one of those regions of the world
whose geography, conditions and people destroy
empires.
Vietnam, sometimes spelt as Viet Nam due to being
composed of two Chinese words (Nam meaning
“South”, thus making Vietnam “South Viet.”)
maintained an independent existence despite
the growing Chinese empire at their doorstep,
During this time, they weathered repeated
invasions until, in 111 BC, the Han Chinese
finally conquered the area.
For the next thousand years, Vietnam was in
a continuous state of revolt and conquest,
repeatedly throwing off Chinese rule before being
suppressed. Many of Vietnam’s great cultural
heroes, such as a the Trung Sisters, originate
from this period.
In 938, with China fragmenting politically,
Vietnam finally won its independence, gaining
a new king and defeating a Chinese army sent to
reclaim it. A thousand years of Chinese rule had
destroyed much of their traditional culture,
but the kingdom of Dai Nam rebuilt, conquering
the Champa people to form what would become
the southern portion of Vietnam and clashing
repeatedly with the Khmer and Chinese empires.
They even defeated a Mongol invasion!
128
In the 19th century, Europe began to take an
interest in Vietnam, especially France. Catholic
missionaries had reached the population and
Catholism was spreading through the country.
Using the oppression of Vietnamese Catholics as
a pretence, the French began campaigning against
Vietnam in the late 1850s, and by the late 1880s
had successfully invaded or intimidated Vietnam
and the surrounding nations into submission,
creating a colonial region known as French
Indochina, still ruled by a puppet Vietnamese
Emperor as a protectorate.
During the Second World War, the Japanese took
control of Vietnam, ruling through the French
colonial government. In response, a man named
Nguyen Ai Quoc, also known as Ho Chi Minh,
organized a resistance force from anti-colonial
and communist elements called the Viet Minh
Front. Initially a modest force involved mostly
in intelligence gathering for the American OSS
in hopes of future Vietnamese independence, a
famine leading to the abdication of the Emperor,
creating a massive power vacuum.
Realizing there was no time like the present,
the Viet Minh declared that Vietnam was now
an independent Democratic Republic under
Communist rule. When the British, KMT Chinese,
and French took exception to that, all hell broke
loose.
France has something of a complex about their
colonies. While the British reluctantly let their
Empire go after the Second World War, the French
are very adamant about keeping what they take.
The First Indochinese War was fought over France
attempting to keep Vietnam as a puppet state in
the form of a State of Vietnam ruled by the former
Emperor.
When the war went pear-shaped for the French,
they negotiated a conference over the issue
that repeated the Korean solution, dividing the
country into a communist north and a military
dictatorship along Western lines in the South.
People and Language
Vietnam is very ethnically-diverse country, with
a variety of different cultures and languages.
Around 85% of the population are Kinh, the people
known as the Vietnamese, who hold most of the
political power in the country.
The rural minority populations in Vietnam,
collectively known in the modern day as the Degar
and historically as the Montagnard, live mostly
in Vietnam’s isolated highlands. Relations
between Vietnam’s dominate populations and these
minorities are strained, with a long history of
antagonism and violence.
Vietnam primarily speaks the Vietnamese
language, along with a variety of minority
languages and Chinese. Much of the population
also speaks French.
Vietnamese is a tonal language, with a vocabulary
by heavily influenced by Chinese. Originally
written with modified Chinese characters, these
were replaced by modified Latin characters by
the French, using diacritic marks to represent
tone.
Culture and Religion
Vietnam is a highly community-focused culture
that highly values harmony, family and history.
Vietnam’s limited number of family names reflects
a strong importance placed on clanship.
Vietnam follows the Lunar Calender is and well
known for its various holidays and festivals,
most notably Tet, the Vietnamese new year.
Vietnam practices a variety of religions. As of
the 1960s, Christianity, mostly Catholicism, has
a solid hold on urban areas alongside Buddhism.
Many Montagnards are Protestants, a result of
American missionary influence in the 1930s.
Most of the rural population, however, practices
variations on an indigenous religion which
worship the than, divine spirits which embody
certain forces or govern spheres of the natural
world. This religion also borrows Confucian and
Buddhist elements.
A popular variation on this is Dao Mau, which
centralizes this pantheon of spirits onto a
mother goddess, which manifests throughout
history as a variety of heroic female figures,
including the Trung Sisters.
A related religion is the quite recent Caodaism,
founding the 1930s, which worships a bifurcated
deity divided into male and female aspects
called the Jade Emperor. This religion is almost
a melting pot of different Vietnamese cultural
influences, combining Christian monotheism,
Buddhist imagery, and aspects of folk religion.
129
Notable Places
Though the Vietnam War was mostly focused over
the ever-changing, overgrown countryside, there
were a variety of important locations in Vietnam
that were pivotal to the conflict.
Saigon
The capital of South Vietnam and the largest
city in either state, Saigon is the sprawling
centralized heart of the nation. The population
of the city has exploded as a result of both the
refugee crisis and the nearby Western military
bases, so the city is crowded and bustling.
Writers who lived in Saigon during the war often
described it as a city full of nervous energy. It
spent the war under siege, not always directly,
but psychologically, with the threat of Viet Cong
attack, government crackdown, or the encroaching
NVA forces always looming. Beset by criminals,
Western money, and the V.C., Siagon is a hive of
crime, terror, and vice.
Da Nang
A large port city and home to the busiest airport
during the war, Da Nang is isolated by the coast
and the mountains, making it extremely secure
against attack. Thus, it was the safest area in
the entire war, and the surrounding beaches were
often used by US forces for R&R.
Hue
The ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, Hue
changed hands more than once during the war. It
is known for the majestic ruins of the Imperial
City, a strong Buddhist presence, and for its
status as the country’s spiritual centre.
During the Tet Offensive, Hue was seized outright
by the Viet Cong, who massacred thousands of the
civilian population. Efforts by the US Marines
and ARVN to retake the city resulted in its
near total destruction, leaving little of the
monumental city standing.
Hanoi
North Vietnam’s capital and the historic capital
of the nation for nearly a thousand years, Hanoi
is a mirror of Saigon in that it represents a
disproportionately large concentration of the
power and wealth in its state. Though most of the
industry has been distributed rurally, or moved
farther north near the Chinese border to dissuade
bombing, Hanoi is still quite developed.
Built on the Red River, Hanoi is a central hub for
transportation both by boat and train. Due to the
threat of US bombing, which targets rail depots
and bridges inside city limits, Hanoi is dotted
with a variety of underground air raid shelters,
including small concrete foxholes embedded in
the sidewalks.
Laos and Cambodia
While the Vietnam War raged, both Laos and
Cambodia were dealing with their own civil
conflicts involving communist uprisings. These
wars are dizzyingly complex and involve many
moving parts, but it was often quite relevant
to the Vietnam War, so a brief overview of the
Communist forces involved is needed.
Laos Tripartite Government
Laos in the mid-1960s was a country so chaotic
it defies description. Massively divided in
ethnicity, geography, religion, politics,
language, and wealth, the nation was embroiled
in a decades-long, low-intensity civil war
between multiple factions throughout the
Vietnam conflict.
It would take another book the size of this one
to even begin to understand what was going on in
that country, but a brief, extremely simplified
overview follows.
Laos is an ethnically diverse former colonial
state. It’s poor, underdeveloped, and has basically
no infrastructure to speak of. The national flag
featured a 3 headed elephant, and it’s a pretty
good metaphor for how the mess of a government
worked, because from 1961 until 1975 the country
was effectively a monarchy, a military junta and
a Vietnamese communist puppet state all at the
same time.
When Laos was created in 1947, the French put a
King in charge, but conflict immediately broke
out between the military leadership and the
communist underground. To prevent this from
becoming yet another split state engaged in
civil war, a convention of nations was held that
managed to create a compromise government, with
right-wing, neutral and left-wing elements, all
vying for power with one another in both politics
and guerrilla war.
The Royal Army and the right-wing military
mostly keep to themselves, but the communists are
closely backed by the North Vietnamese, because
they need Laos to not interfere with the Ho Chi
Minh Trail. As a result, a large section of Laos is
effectively under North Vietnamese occupation
by their Group 559 logistics unit. In 1968, North
Vietnam launched a proper invasion, which
quickly knocked the Royal Army out of the fight.
Free World Forces were politically unable to
provide official support, but US Special Forces,
CIA-backed mercenaries and members of the Royal
Thai Army served as “unofficial volunteers” to
aid the flagging right-wing forces.
Not long after the Vietnam War ended, the Laotian
government collapsed entirely and the communist
forces, the Pathet Lao, took control. They remain
in power to this day.
130
CamBodian Civil War
The Khmer Rouges were the Communist Party
and resistance forces of Cambodia, another
of the groups backed by the North Vietnamese
government in hopes of turning the entire region
into solid allies, blocking off the movement of
Free World Forces and bolstering their own war
effort with men and material. Unlike the much
more subservient Pathet Lao, the Khmer Rouge
had their own strong ideas as to how a communist
country ought to be run, and they were much more
wary of Vietnamese influence.
In addition to nationalism and nostalgia for
Angkor Empire, the Khmer Rouge were advocates
of an extreme form of agrarian socialism which
might be recognized as a culturally-specific
form of communal-primitivism. Effectively,
the Khmer Rouge under their leader, Pol Pot,
believed that communism was the natural state of
agricultural human society, and that colonialism
and capitalism was enabled by technology, urban
living, and intellectualism.
Rapidly expanding from just a few thousand
fighters in 1967 to as many as a hundred thousand
in the early 1970s, the Khmer Rogue was the cause
of considerable panic among Free World Forces,
especially as, with NVA and VC help, they began
to overthrow the local government. President
Nixon called for bombing raids into Cambodia
with B-52s in an attempt to destablize anti-
government efforts, though it is to this day
unclear the effect this had. Eventually, with
considerable help from North Vietnam, the Khmer
Rouge overthrew the existing government in 1975
and took power.
Not long afterward, the killing started. The
Khmer Rouge practiced one of the most viciously
concentrated campaigns of genocide in world
history, systematically destroying roughly a
quarter of the country’s population on the basis of
ethnic origin, religious background, political
dissent, or engaging in “intellectualism”. Sins
like reading, writing, or wearing glasses could
get you condemned to death. The Killing Fields
of Cambodia are considered the worst genocide of
the latter 20th century.
Already dealing with an unsteady relationship
due to Khmer Rouge violence against Vietnamese
in Cambodia, a combination of political
disagreements and Khmer Rouge incursions into
Vietnam lead to war. The recently united Vietnam
invaded in 1978, disposing of the government
before painstakingly rebuilding the country.
The remains of the RAK formed a guerilla
resistance force against the new government and
the North Vietnamese occupiers, continuing to
fight resistance actions until the early 1990s.
Cambodia remains scarred by the war and the
subsequent regime.
Other Neighbours
Southeast Asia has a complex history of
colonialism and occupation. These countries had
a considerable part to play in the war.
Red China
The elephant in the room, the People’s Republic
of China looms large on the northern border of
Northern Vietnam, a slowly awakening industrial
and demographic giant whose potential power
acts as a constricting force on Western interests.
While the Vietnam War raged, China had just come
out of the Great Leap Forward, a disastrous attempt
to remake the entire country’s economy at once,
and in the middle of the Cultural Revolution,
a massive frenzy by radical groups within the
country to purge entirely all capitalist and
traditionalist elements.
Stinging from their experience in Korea, the
Americans believed that, if they pushed things
too hard, they could wind up in a second war
with the “ChiComs”. They believed that the
Chinese could, if sufficiently motivated, easily
mobilize and arm a force sufficient to drive out
all US forces in continental Asia, and while the
US could eventually beat the Chinese, it would
involve an effort mirroring the World Wars. In
reality, China had regressed considerably in
terms of industry and organization since the
early 1950s, and was in no state to fight anyone.
Japan
Japan fought across Southeast Asia during the
Second World War, battling British forces based
in India and integrating Vietnam into their
colonial “Co-Prosperity Sphere” Since then,
Japan has served as a US buffer against communist
interests in East Asia, and the bases there act as
a staging area from forces coming in to Vietnam.
The US occupation of Japan has heavily coloured
their image of Asian culture.
Thailand
Also known as Siam, Thailand is an unstable
monarchy currently allied with the United
States. In the 1940s, Thailand attacked the French
Indochina colonies with Japanese encouragement,
easily defeating the nation which had already
been eliminated from the Second World War by
German occupation. Less than a year later, the
Japanese invaded their ally. America refusing to
treat Thailand as an enemy nation, seeing them as
a puppet state, won great influence after the war.
Thailand provides both military bases and a
safe haven for US forces in Southeast Asia. Most
soldiers spend their out-of-country leave in
Bangkok, flooding the city with foreign money
and leading to an explosion of its black market
and seedier elements.
131
Burma
Burma has had a complicated history. During WW2
it was a British colony and a battleground against
the Japanese. Afterward, much of the north of the
country was controlled by the KMT nationalist
Chinese forces with American approval, which
only solidified the dim view the Burmese had of
Western political bodies. The country was then
plagued by separatist crisis and a weak central
government.
Burma has recently undergone a military-lead
socialist coup. The country has since done its
best to isolated itself from foreign influence,
and plays little role in the Vietnam War due to
its policy of Neutralism.
Malaysia
Having recently obtained independence in 1963,
Malaysia doesn’t directly have much influence on
the Vietnam War. However, it’s independence from
the British was in large part won by Communist
fighters, and the experience the British special
forces picked up fighting in the jungles there,
working in conjunction with early helicopters,
formed the basis for much of the small-unit
tactics used by Free World Forces, and the threat
of Malaysian Communism largely drove the
Australian entry into the war.
Korea
Ruled by the Japanese until 1945, Korea was
in many ways a template for Vietnam and the
problems it would face, and the lessons learned
there heavily inform foreign policy regarding
the conflict.
Like Vietnam, Korea was split into two parts, with
a communist government in the more populated
and industrialized northern regions bordering
China, and a military dictatorship in the more
rural southern half. Like Vietnam, North Korea
launched an invasion of the southern half to
reunite the country.
When international forces intervened on behalf
of the South Koreans, lead by the Americans, they
embarked on a large-scale conventional war that
shattered the North Korean military. However,
this offensive sparked Red Chinese involvement,
and the bitter, unpopular war that followed
quickly ended in status quo. Fear of involving
Red China in a conventional war has largely
dissuaded the United States from invading North
Vietnam.
Though Korea is still technically at war, the
two sides staring at each other over the DMZ, the
South Koreans have provided an expeditionary
force to Vietnam to fight alongside the Americans.
North Korea is at this point still richer and
more organized than the South, which is still a
dictatorship.
 • HE: High Explosive, used for both the artillery
Glossary
The military uses a lot of specialized language
shell and demo charges.
• HQ: Headquarters, where the commanders are.
“MHQ” indicates a mobile headquarters, like
that outsiders will find very confusing. With
one located inside a vehicle.
nearly half-century between the Vietnam conflict
• KIA: Killed in Action.
and the time of writing to muddle the speech even
• KP: Kitchen Police. Being put on duty in the
more, common terms of the era can be quite removed
mess hall, a common minor punishment.
from modern civilian speech!
• LAW: Light Anti-Tank Weapon, the name given to
US disposable rocket launchers.
Acronyms • LP: Listening Post, a small fighting position
The military loves acronyms, often past the point
with a few forward sentries.
where it really adds any clarity or brevity.
• LRRP: Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. A team
of special forces types who go on extended
• A-I-K: Assistance-in-Kind, AKA bribery.
observation patrols lasting days or weeks. A
• AA: Anti-Air. Often “AAA” or “Triple A”, meaning
member of an LRRP is a “Lurp”.
“Anti-Air Artillery.”
• LT: Lieutenant, especially your own.
• AAR: After-Action Report, a formal debriefing
• LZ: Landing Zone, a predesignated area for
in text.
helicopters to land and take off.
• AFVN: The Armed Forces Vietnam radio station.
• MACV: Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.
• ANZUS: Australia, New Zealand, and the United
The organization in charge of this mess.
States. The ANZUS Pact lead to a close alliance
• MFW: Multiple Frag Wounds. Used to describe the
of the three countries.
condition of casualties.
• AO: Area of Operation, where the fight takes
• MIA: Missing in Action.
place.’
• MPC: Military Payment Currency. US currency
• AP: Confusingly, either “Armour Piercing” or
inside Vietnam was illegal, so you’d get paid
“Anti-Personnel.”
in MPC and you could exchange it for real money
• APC: Armoured Personnel Carrier, a tank-like
when you went home.
vehicle that carries squads of soldiers.
• NDP: Night Defensive Position, a fighting
• APO: Army Post Office, the service that gets you
position dug to keep you safe while you sleep.
your letters.
• P: The (worthless) Vietnamese currency, Piaster.
• AR: Assault rifle, or used as short for “Army
• PAVN: The People’s Army of Vietnam. NVA was
Regulation” to say that everything is in order.
used by FWF official documents instead as a
• ARVN: The Army of South Vietnam.
propaganda tactic.
• ASAP: As soon as possible.
• PIO: Public Information Office or Officer, the
• ATC: Air traffic control.
folks who lie to the American people on your
• AWOL: Absent Without Leave, to not be on duty
behalf.
when you should.
• POW: Prisoner of War.
• BS: Border surveillance, the guys who track
• R&R: Rest and Relaxation.
incoming VC. See this entry in Civilian Slang
• RBF: Reconnaissance by Fire, a fancy way of
for the content of their reports.
saying shooting at something and then checking
• C&C: Command and control, slang for any vehicle
for bodies.
or location used to manage a mission.
• REMF: Rear-Echelon motherfucker, somebody
• CAS: Close Air Support, planes or helicopters
with a job behind the lines while you’re out
making strikes very close to friendly forces.
putting yourself in danger.
• CO: Commanding Officer, the guy you report to.
• RIF: Reconnaissance in Force; to stroll into an
• DMZ: Demilitarized Zone, an area between two
area with a bunch of your friends looking for
sides in truce. In Vietnam, this was the no man’s
trouble.
land between North and South.
• ROE: The rules of engagement.
• DP: Displaced person, or refugee.
• RPG: Rocket Propelled Grenade, a favoured
• FAC: Forward Air Controller, a radioman
weapon of the Soviet Bloc.
responsible for managing aircraft making
• RVN: The Republic of Vietnam.
strikes or landing in the field.
• SF: Special Forces.
• FNG: Fucking New Guy, green troops that have
• SOP: Standard Operating Procedure. Business
just arrived and still don’t know the basics.
as usual. Often used derisively when talking
• FO: Forward Observer. The guy responsible for
about something that’s gone wrong.
directing artillery.
• TAC: Tactical Air Strike, another word for CAS.
• FUBAR: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition,
• USO: United Service Organization, a group that
• GI: General Infantry. Also, Government Issue, a
provides morale-boosting entertainment to
blackly humorous play on the acronym.
soldiers in the field.
• GSW: Gunshot Wound. Used to describe the
• WIA: Wounded in Action.
condition of casualties.
• WP: White Phosphorous.
• GVN: Government of South Vietnam.
• XO: Executive Officer, the second in command.
• H&I: Harassment and Interdiction. Suppressive
artillery fire, usually shot blind.
132
Military Terms & Slang
The military has a confusing mass of specialized
terminology for both the unique concepts it
encounters and the equipment it uses. Here’s just
a curated sample of the official and unofficial
terminology the US Army employed.
• -san: Applied to any generic term to describe
or address a local, ie: “Mama-san” for an older
woman. Derived from the Japanese honorific and
a holdover from the US occupation of Japan.
• 50 Cal: Any heavy machine-gun.
• A-Team: The business end of a special forces
unit. The B-Team is their backup and the C-Team
is their support.
• Agency, The: The CIA.
• Airmobile: Like motorized, but with helicopters
instead of trucks.
• Ammo dump: A location where ammunition is
collected.
• Angel track: An APC being used as an ambulance.
• Arc Light: “Operation Arclight” was a program
to use the B-52 heavy bombers in a close support
role, so “arc light” was used generically for
any heavy support run.
• Article 15: Nonjudicial punishment. When your
commander makes you do pushups for talking
back without giving you a trial first, that’s
Article 15.
• Arty: Artillery.
• Ash & Trash: A helicopter mission moving troops
and supplies outside of combat areas.
• Automatic Ambush: The use of booby traps,
especially claymores, by Free World Forces.
Also known as a Mechanical Ambush.
• Backblast: The rush of expanding gas from a
rocket launcher or recoilless guns.
• Bad Guys: Euphemistic term for the enemy,
used quite commonly, especially in confusing
political situations.
• Band-aid: A medic or, dismissively, any medical
attention.
• Barrage: All the guns in a group firing at a
target.
• Baseball: Small fragmentation grenades.
• Basic: Basic Training, and what FNG’s apparently
missed.
• Beaten zone: The area you have zeroed in for
machine-gun fire.
• Beehive: A direct-fire artillery shell, like a
big shotgun shell.
• Believer: A dead soldier.
• Berm: The opposite of a trench, a raised area of
dirt used as fortification.
• Big Max: The maximum security section of Long
Binh prison.
• Big Red One: The 1st Infantry Division, named
for their simplistic unit patch. Derisively,
the “Big Dead One” and “Bloody One”.
• Big boys: Tanks and artillery.
• Bingo: The amount of fuel an aircraft has when
they only have enough to return to base. “I will
have bingo fuel in five minutes.”
• Bird Dog: A C&C plane for forward ATC.
133
• Bird: Any plane or helicopter.
• Blood trail: Evidence of wounded enemies.
“Following blood trails” was often the job of
infantry inserted after an artillery barrage.
• Blooper: The M-79 Grenade Launcher. Also
“Blooker” in some circles.
• Blue Feature: Water, due to being delineated
as such on a map. Usually used the context of
impassible terrain while planning a maneuver.
• Body Count: How many enemies were killed in an
engagement, and the goal of any encounter with
the enemy for US forces.
• Boonies: Any place more rural than you’d like.
Infantry, especially scouts, are “Boonierats”.
• Boot: Short for boot camp, and slang for new
soldiers.
• Bouncing Betty: Bounding shrapnel mines.
• Burn Case: See “Crispy Critter”.
• Bush: Used as a generic term for the field,
especially in reference to troops whose
location is unknown or unclear.
• C-Ration: Combat Rations, the barely edible
packaged food that sustained soldiers in the
field.
• Cherry: New soldiers, particularly those who
have not experienced their first firefight yet.
Derived from slang for virginity.
• Chopper: Helicopter.
• Commo: Slang for anything to do with radios or
signalling.
• Company, The: The CIA.
• Concerta Wire: Coiled Barbed Wire.
• Crispy Critter: Corpses left behind by
incendiaries.
• Dead Ground: An area without cover or
concealment.
• Dead Space: An area not covered by fire.
• Deep Serious: Radio jargon meaning “We’re
fucked.”
• Defcon: Defensive contact artillery, firing
heavy guns to drive off attackers.
• Dime Nickle: 105mm artillery fire.
• Dust Off: Medivac by helicopter.
• Early-Out: Having your length of service
reduced, meaning you’d get to leave Vietnam
early. The dream of almost all soldiers.
• Electronic Battlefield: The name given to the
vast array of sensors and detectors strung out
over the DMZ, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
to detect troop movements. Known derisively as
the “McNamara Line”.
• Eleven Bravo: Infantryman, derived from the
registration code of their MOS.
• Evac: Evacuate.
• Expectants: Mortally wounded casualties.
• Fast Mover: A jet fighter on ground attack duty.
• Firebase: A field fortification containing a
number of artillery pieces and a garrison, used
to provide an area of operations with artillery
coverage.
• Frag: Slang for fragmentation from explosives,
and for fragmentation grenades.
• Fragging: The act of killing one of your own,
usually an officer or NCO.
• Free World Forces: The self-appointed title of
the coalition of American allies in Vietnam.
• Friendly: Allies. Enemies are “Unfriendlies”.
• Friendly Fire: When your own side accidently
shoots at you. Also known as “Blue-on-Blue”.
• Fugazi: Something has gone terribly wrong.
• Ghosting: Wasting time.
• Green: Inexperienced soldiers.
• Ground Pounder: Infantryman.
• Grunt: Infantryman. Used both affectionately
and derogatorily, often by the same people.
• Gung ho: Eager to see combat.
• Gunship: A helicopter or cargo plane armed to
provide fire support.
• Heat Tab: A small object burned to heat C-Rations
without creating smoke.
• Horn/Hook: The handset of a radio telephone.
• Horse Pill: Chloroquine Primaquine, the weekly
anti-malarial drug.
• Hot: An area or situation which is actively
dangerous, especially one under fire.
• Hump: A word that describes the intersection
of marching and carrying, and so can describe
either or both.
• In-Country: Something happening in Vietnam.
• Insertion: The act of getting into a combat area.
• Iron Triangle: An area north of Saigon dominated
by the Viet Cong.
• John Wayne: A badass situation or person. “That
was some John Wayne shit!” Used increasingly
ironically with time. Also, the P-38 can opener.
• Jungle-Busting: Moving through the jungle
with tanks or bulldozers.
• Kill Zone: The area of an ambush or strike where
the enemy will take heavy casualties due to
concentration of fire or poor cover. Getting
“out of the kill zone” is your first priority in
a fight.
• Klick: Kilometre. The US Military is a metric
organization.
• Lifer: Somebody for whom the military is their
career.
• Lightning Bug: Helicopters with searchlights.
• Lit-up: Fired upon, especially when the
shooting is accurate or intense. “We got lit up!”
• Litter: Stretchers.
• Loach: An OH-6 Cayuse scout helicopter.
• Log Bird: A utility helicopter hauling supplies.
• Mad Minute: A sudden outpouring of mostly
undirected fire from a patrol or base on
suspected contact, with many men simply firing
because they see the others shooting. Named for
the practice drill.
• Main Force: Hardcore, full-time Viet Cong
fighters.
• Mass Casualty: An incident, like a firefight
gone poorly, that results in more wounded than
can be dealt with. A medic’s worst nightmare.
• Med Cap: Military medical personnel employed
as medical aid workers for civilians.
• Medivac: To remove casualties from the field by
helicopter.
• Midnight Requisition: Stealing from your own
supply depots.
134
• Mike-Mike: Millimetre. A grenade launcher
would be a “40 Mike-Mike”, a mortar an “81
Mike-Mike”.
• Million-Dollar Wound: A wound bad enough to
get you send back home, but not bad enough to
ruin your life.
• Monday Pills: Another name for horse pills, for
the day you’re supposed to take them.
• Neutralize: The go-to euphemism for killing
the enemy.
• Out-Country: Not ‘Nam, but still part of the war,
like Laos and Cambodia.
• Over the Fence: Operations which cross the
border into Laos or Cambodia.
• Penny Nickle Nickle: 155mm artillery fire.
• Platoon: A grouping of several infantry squads
lead by a lieutenant.
• Point: The person leading a patrol.
• Pop Smoke: To use a smoke grenade.
• Prep: Saturating an area in artillery or bombs
prior to landing troops.
• Prick: Radio telephone set.
• Puff the Magic Dragon: Nickname for AC-47
“Spooky” gunships.
• RPV: Remote Piloted Vehicle, early observation
and training drones.
• Rack: Cot Sleeping was “Getting Rack Time.”
• Rainbow Herbicides: A series of weed-killers
used to clear jungles and destroy North
Vietnamese crops, so-called as they came in
brightly coloured barrels. Agent Orange was
considered the most potent and was supposed to
be safe for human contact, but turned out to be
a carcinogenic mutagen. It was later revealed
that the manufacturer, Monsanto, had skimped
on the manufacturing process, and the Pentagon
approved deployment despite knowledge that
the batches were potentially dangerous.
• Recon: Reconnaissance. A “Recon Patrol” was a
group going out looking for the enemy.
• Red Legs: Artillerymen.
• Redball: A trail or road used for high-speed
convoys, named for the run used to resupply
American troops during WW2.
• Retrograde: Moving away from the front. Often a
euphemism for retreat.
• Rock & Roll: To cut loose and fire full auto.
• Rolling Thunder: A long, saturated artillery
bombardment.
• Ruff Puff: Regional Vietnamese forces.
• Salty Dog: Material lost to enemy action. If
your supply depot got hit, writing up excess
Salty Dog losses could cover previous shortage
or corruption.
• Sapper: Enemy infiltrator-engineers who made
daring raids into FWF bases.
• Science Fiction: Special Forces.
• Short-Timer: A soldier whose tour of duty is
almost up.
• Shotgunner: Door gunner.
• Sit-Rep: A situation report, a brief summary of
how bad things are.
• Six: Behind you. Also, radio jargon for
“commander” or “leader”, often used mockingly.
• Slick: Helicopter being used for troop
transport, especially Hueys.
• Small Arms: The guns carried by individual
infantrymen. Anything less than a heavy
machine-gun is “small arms fire”.
• Smokey Bear: A helicopter being used to lay
smokescreens.
• Snake: A Cobra helicopter gunship.
• Sortie: A one-aircraft mission.
• Spec-4: Specialist 4th Class, the enlisted rank
above Private First Class, attainable so long as
you weren’t a total screw-up. Used in Vietnam
instead of Corporeal, as it was an equal pay
grade but wouldn’t make a draftee soldier into
an NCO with authority.
• Spectre: The AC-130 gunship.
• Spooky: The AC-47 or AC-130 gunships, or
minigun-armed helicopter gunships.
• Stand Down: Rest period. Also “stay calm”, “shut
up”, and potentially “cease fire!”
• Sugar Report: Letters back home, especially to
wives or girlfriends.
• Tailgunner: The last guy in the patrol order,
also known as the Sweep or Tail-End Charlie.
• Thumper, Thump Gun: M79 Grenade Launcher.
• Tiger Suit: A set of camouflage fatigues.
• Tracer: A bullet with a chemical that makes it
glow or leave a trail, so you can follow the
trajectory of the round. FWF tracers are red
while Soviet tracers are green.
• Track: Any vehicle with treads instead of
wheels, including tanks and APCs.
• Tunnel Rat: Special soldiers trained to
infiltrate enemy tunnels.
• Ville: A hamlet or village.
• Wake-Up: The last morning that a short-timer
will spend in Vietnam before boarding a plane.
“10 days and a wake-up...”
• Wasted: Killed.
• White Mice: The nickname given to the Vietnamese
National Police for their white uniforms and
gloves.
• Willy Pete: White Phosphorus.
• World, The: Back home in the United States.
• Zapped: Hit by fire in combat.
• Zippo Raid: A mission to destroy or demolish a
village.
US Marine Terms & Slang
Because it wasn’t enough, the Marines have many
unique terms, often naval in origin and even
more laced with profanity than Army ones.
• Acquired: Stolen. Marine units were infamous
for snatching gear for other services to make
up for their own shortages.
• Actual: Used to indicate you are talking to the
unit commander directly on the radio, rather
than to his radioman. “This is Bandit Actual.”
• Amtrack: Amphibious tractor. The Marine’s
favourite vehicle, a mix of a tank, APC and boat.
• As You Were: Common order. Go back to what you
were doing.
• Boot: A new soldier. See “FNG”.
135
• Brig: Military jail.
• Busted: Demoted. “They busted you down to
private?”
• China Marines: 4th Marine Regiment, who were
stationed in Shanghai just before WW2.
• Cover: Hat.
• Corpsman: Navy medical officers who act as
Marine medics, and what you yell instead when
somebody gets hit.
• Deep Six: To dispose of by throwing overboard.
Also “Drop this line of conversation.”
• Devil Dog: Marine, used as a compliment.
• Gagglefuck: A group of Marines too close
together, not watching their intervals. Implied
to mean extreme incompetence. Combination of
“Gaggle”, a group of geese, and “Clusterfuck”.
• Gunny: Gunnery Sergeant, an important Marine
NCO position in charge of the company’s crew-
served weapons.
• Hashmark: A sleeve mark indicating four years
service.
• Jarhead: Marine.
• Kit Carson Scouts: A US Marine program to turn
VC defectors into scouts.
• Leatherneck: Marine.
• Lollygag: Waste time, stand about.
• Ooh-Rah: Affirmative reply or agreement. Also
the Marine battle cry.
• POG: “Person other than Grunt”, pronounced
Pogue. Any Marine who does logistics or other
rear-echelon jobs instead of fighting like real
Marines.
• PT: Physical Training, and the clothing worn
for it.
• Quantico: A Marine training base and where
anyone incompetent is fresh out of.
• Ratfuck: To take the best of something and leave
the rest for others.
• Rust Picker: Sailor.
• Scuttlebutt: Rumour mill.
• SeaBee: Naval construction engineers, a group
which lands with Marines to build bunkers and
airfields.
• Semper Fi: Always Faithful, the motto of the
Marine Corps.
• Shitbird: A real useless Marine.
• Shove Off: Leave.
• Smedly: An enlisted man who works in the
Officer’s mess hall. By extension, a kiss-ass.
• Snoop & Poop: Search and Destroy.
• Sparks: Radio Telephone Operator.
• TARFU: Things are Really Fucked Up.
• Ten Percenter: Incompetent Marine, with the
implication they’ll be kicked out of service.
• Terminal Lance: A Marine holding the rank
of Lance Corporal who, either due to lacking
standout competence or nearing the end of their
service, will likely not be promoted.
• Topside: Outside. Derived from the layout of
ships.
• USMC: US Marine Corps.
• Whitewall: Standard Marine haircut.
• Word: “What’s the word?” means “What are our
orders?”
Civilian Period Slang
What follows is a selection of common terms,
phrases and linguistic constructions which
were not exclusive to soldiers or the job of
soldiering in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The 60s gave us a lot of superlatives, words to
describe how something was good or great, as
well as a lot of words to describe emotions and
feelings generally.
You probably know most or all of these, as many
of these terms were formative or have come back
repeatedly, but they are included for completion
and to show what slang was emerging and popular
at the time. You’d be surprised what modern terms
didn’t exist even a few decades ago!
• BS: Bullshit. A very popular phrase to describe
anything the Army says, as it technically isn’t
profanity and thus can be used around officers.
• Bad scene: An unpleasant event or place.
• Bag: To acquire or steal.
• Beat feet: To leave. Alt; “Book it, Bug Out”.
• Bitchin’: Great!
• Blast: To have a good time.
• Blitzed: Drunk or stoned beyond reason.
• Bogart: To keep something for yourself, usually
a joint. Named for the actor and his habit of
letting a cigarette dangle off his lips.
• Boom-boom: Slang for sex.
• Boss: Something cool.
• Brother/Bro: AAVE term for a fellow black man.
• Bummed/Bummer: Something depressing.
• Candyass: A coward or wimp.
• Cat: Person, particularly a cool person.
• Cherry: A new, sleek or excellent car or piece of
technology. Contrast the Army version.
• Choice: Desireable.
• Crash: To sleep, especially when exhausted.
• Daddy-o: Originally a 50s term for a cool
person, now said only with dripping irony.
• Dibs: Declaring something your own.
• Dove: Anti-war person. Contrast with Hawk.
• Drag: Something boring or depressing. “That
was a drag.”
• Dude: A derisive term for a non-masculine or
useless man, slowly being reclaimed by surfers
and Californians to just be “regular guy.”
• Fab: Fabulous, awesome, sounds like a good time.
• Far Out: Cool, unusual, mind-expanding.
• Flake: Somebody useless.
• Flick: The in term for a movie.
• Fucking A: I agree.
• Gimme some skin: Shake hands. Note that the
high-five won’t be invented until 1977.
• Go ape: Lose control of your temper.
• Good Luck: Outside the obvious meaning, used as
a generic farewell between soldiers in-country
to avoid fatalistic implications.
• Groady: Something gross. Clothes you wore for
dirty work would be your “Groatees”, as would
your day uniform.
• Groovy: Cool/Fine with Me
136
• Hacked: Angry, pissed off, and the process of
vocalizing those emotions.
• Hang loose: Take it easy.
• Happening: Popular and exciting, busy. “This
place is really happening!”
• Harsh my Buzz/Vibe/Mellow: To disturb one’s
calm with a bad attitude.
• Hawk: A pro-war person. Contrast with Dove.
• Heavy: Any topic or conversation that is deep,
depressing or controversial, or unfortunate
circumstances. “That sounds heavy, man.”
• Hep: I understand, I agree. “I’m hep to that.”
• Hip: Cool, popular, in fashion.
• Hippy: A youth movement centred around a
disconnect from the liberal norm, the face
of the war protest movement and the sexual
revolution. Hippies wore facial hair, beads,
headbands and long hair, and they were the
popular whipping boys for more upstanding
types of all generations.
• Hipster: What hippies called themselves.
• Horn: Telephone.
• Jam: To leave. Not yet slang for music.
• Jelly Roll: Heroin.
• Lay it on me: I’m listening.
• Man, The: The establishment.
• Man: A way of driving home a statement addressed
at another. “You don’t get it, man.”
• Marijuana: The drug of the 1960s. You could
dedicate another whole book to related slang,
but it was known commonly as weed or Mary Jane.
• Mellow out: Calm down.
• Mod: In fashion, cutting edge.
• No sweat: No problem. Used by young people in
place of “Your welcome”.
• Ought: “Should“ is still not entirely accepted
commonly. Older or rural people would use
“Ought” exclusively, and it would be expected
in official documents.
• Outta sight: Awesome, incredible, unbelievable.
• Rap: To talk something out or explain. AAVE,
but not yet a genre of music.
• Right On: I agree.
• Righteous: Fantastic.
• Scratch: Money.
• Shades: Sunglasses, and a must-have for any
soldier.
• Skuzz: A creepy person. A “skuzz bucket” was a
gross object or place.
• Split: Leave, go elsewhere. “I gotta split”.
• Thongs: Sandals. Not yet underwear.
• Threads: Clothes, particularly nice clothes.
• Tight: To trust another. “We’re tight.”
• Tooling: Wasting time. “Stop tooling around.”
• Uptight: To be unable to enjoy oneself. The
description for anyone that doesn’t “get it”.
 Vietnamese Loan Terms
American forces picked up a lot of random
Vietnamese words and phrases from the locals and
incorporated them into their day to day.

• Ap: Hamlet.
• Ba Mu’o’i Ba: A Vietnamese beer brand and what
you’re probably drinking off-duty. Also known
as “33” or “Tiger Piss” and considered quite
terrible.
• Bac bac: Vietnamese onomatopoeia for shooting
or gunfire.
• Bac si de: The rice whisky brewed in rural
Vietnam.
• Bac-si: Doctor or medic.
• Bic: I understand!
• Boo-coo: Derived from French “beaucoup”, means
“big”, “many”, or “grand” depending on context.
• Chieu Hoi: An amnesty program for communist
guerrillas, and what VC would shout when they
want to surrender.
• Dae Cong: Meaning “Special Task”, these are the
VC special forces. They were employed as sappers
and shock troops in the Tet Offensive.
• Didi: Vietnamese for “to go” or “to leave”. Didi
Mow means “go quickly”. It’s usually chanted to
get rid of street kids.
• Dung lai: Stop or halt.
• Hooch: Nickname for the homes of rural villagers,
and by extension a word for any improvised
or simple building. “Hoochgirls” are locals
employed as cleaners and staff in military bases.
• Khong xau: No sweat, don’t worry. Literally “Not
bad.”
• Titi: Very small.
• Xin Loi: Sorry!

137
GM Guide
If PATROL is a movie and the players are actors,
then the Games Master is the director; they set
the timing for the effects and manage the extras.
Being a GM isn’t easy work, but without you, the
game can’t happen.
If you’ve never ran an RPG session before, don’t
panic. Just keep reading. If you’re an experienced
GM, you can probably skip the next few pages,
though a refresher never hurt anyone.
What do I do?
Alright, calm down. We can get through this.
Before you’ve done it, being a GM can seem like
an overwhelming, impossible job. It’s easy to
become intimidating by the expectations of your
players and the fear that you’ll “ruin the game”
for everyone else by not doing a good job.
Let’s back up a bit. There’s a lot misconceptions
and mythology about the role of the Game Master
and how they shape their games. In large part this
has to do with many games being very vague as to
what a Game Master actually does; historically,
you’d learn to play roleplaying games from other
people who already knew, and then you would
imitate their processes in your own games.
So, for a very long time the GM position had
attached to it a sort of oral tradition which
varied with different games and locales. If your
group is brand new, though, that doesn’t really
help you, and a lot of what got passed down are
somewhat harmful practices anyway.
So let’s talk about what a GM is, and what they
aren’t, and what you should do.
140
The GM is a Player
This right here is the most basic truth about the
GM role, and the one which is least propagated
by the discourse around the GM role. There’s
this idea that the players are the ones doing the
Roleplaying part, and the GM is the person who
manages the Game part. That’s nonsense; you are
going to be playing roles just like everyone else.
Part of what this means is that you shouldn’t
think of yourself as some kind of servant for the
players, responsible for their Fun. The fact of the
matter is, everyone gets out of an RPG what they
put into it. You as the GM can’t force the players
to have fun, any more than the designer of a game
system can. Your job is to act as a facilitator.
The game isn’t actually about you. You are not
the sole point of success or failure for a game
session, you are just playing a role in making
a story happen. That your role is a bit more
expansive doesn’t make you the single point of
failure. If you are prepared, follow the rules and
stay engaged, then you’ve done your job.
You are setting out to have fun, just like the
other players are. The same way that the players
shouldn’t have to put up with a GM whose actions
and attitude make the game miserable for them,
you don’t have to put up with players who are
disruptive or negative influences either. You’re
all in this together!
The GM is a Referee
A good way to think of your relationship with
the text of the rules is as a referee. When there’s
a dispute as to what should happen, you make a
call so that play can continue. Players (and
spectators) might disagree with the call that a
referee makes, but its best they make them quickly
so that play can continue. After the game is over,
what happened can be discussed and agreements
can be made for how to handle such situations in
the future.
How much you want to handle the managing of the
mechanical portions of the game is up to you. As a
guideline, its a good idea to make players track
their own items and conditions and roll the dice
for their own actions. PATROL has a lot of built-
in physicality, so you might take something away
from the players if you do the rolling yourself,
and pausing the game to let you work out what
happened while the players sit around will be
very disruptive.
Referees don’t tend to make up rules as they go,
and unless you really know what you’re doing
(and if you need to read this part, you don’t!),
you shouldn’t mess with the rules during play. If
you’re doing something differently for whatever
reason, tell everyone ahead of time.
The GM is a Narrator
The GM participates in the roleplaying aspect
of the game in large part by being a narrator.
Imagine the game you are about to run as being a
book with an ensemble cast. All the dialogue and
thoughts and actions of those main characters
are provided by the players, but the descriptions
of the jungles, the enemy, the setting and the bit
characters all come through in the voice of the
narration.
A huge part of what you do is set tone and
atmosphere for the players. You are their eyes
and ears, so give them feedback that keeps them
engaged. If you see somebody perk up when you
talk about something, elaborate. Encourage
them to ask questions about everything you say,
and then build on it or use those questions as a
bridge to asking what the players do next.
The GM is Not The Boss
This can be a bit hard to hear, but this is not
your game or your story. You are a part of the
collaborative effort that will be an interesting
tale and drive a good roleplaying experience.
GMs do not tell players stories which they wrote.
Rather, they bind together and manage a story
that everyone is writing as they go. It is not
your story alone and you are not in charge of its
every aspect.
The authority you have is over the world of the
game, and not over the other players. Don’t get
confused about that.
The GM is Not a God
There’s a lot of games that will tell you that the
only rule that matters is that what the GM says,
goes. These games will tell you that, as a GM, you
should ignore any rule or restriction that you
want if you feel it will improve the experience.
This is just about the worst advice you can give
a new GM.
These rules exist for a reason and were written
as they are to get good results at the table.
Games are complex, emergent systems that are
dependant on everything within them; if you
change something, you change everything else by
association. Therefore, unless you understand
the rules and why they exist, you can’t make an
informed decision as to why to ignore them.
Of course, there might be situations where you
don’t know what to do and you can’t look it up
quickly. There’s nothing wrong with making a
quick ruling under those circumstances and
looking it up later. Likewise, as you grow more
experienced, you’ll learn when you can let the
rules slide for the sake of roleplay. Now, in your
first games, is not that time.
141
Your First Session
Let’s walk through your hypothetical first game
of PATROL.
Your work should start before the game begins
proper. Ask the people playing what they want
from the game and if they have any preferences,
and take it into account. Make the players feel
like they have participated in crafting the game
before they sit down to the table.
Come up with a good hook for your mission,
something that will get the players interested
right away. Pick something straightforward for
your first game so things can’t go too off the rails.
From that start you can devise some interesting
complications for the players, challenges they’ll
need to face to get it done. Remember; there’s more
dangers available to you than just the enemy.
Find a good map and make two versions; one you can
show to the players and one with more details for
yourself. Print off the player map so they can see
it during play. Try to find or create a map which
has a good “obvious” route; either the players
will take it and you can engage them directly, or
they’ll avoid it and face other obstacles.
You should be ready before the players are.
Have everything they need; blank copies of the
character sheets, pencils for everyone to fill
everything out, and so forth. At the back of this
book are printable Equipment and Skill lists;
you should make a copy of those so the players can
quickly select their gear when they make their
character.
Explain the basic premise of the game quickly,
then begin guiding the players through character
creation. Ask them who they want to be and what
they want to do for the team, and then make
suggestions to guide them along. That’s why it’s
so important you know the rules as best you can.
Once you’ve finished character creation, go
straight in-character. Introduce them to the
environment and to their commander in the form
of the mission briefing. Don’t be afraid to ham it
up a bit!
Once you’ve explained the circumstances, ask
the players the Big Question; “What do you do?”
Whatever they want to make happen, facilitate
it. Use their impulses as a chance to explain
the rules for various actions and situations
on the fly. After everything is resolved and the
situation has changed, ask them again, “What do
you do?” At this point, you’re off to the races!
Once the game has finished, one way or another,
take a moment to talk with your players. Ask them
how they thought the game went, what they enjoyed
and if they’d like to play again.
Styles of Play
If you’ve run games before, you’ve probably
developed a style and a specific rapport with
your players. Your games will feel a certain
way, even across different systems. That’s great!
Everyone has different skills for roleplaying,
and figuring out what works for you and your
group is very important.
That said, PATROL might not play well with
your style as-is. It may be structured like a
traditional RPG, but it has a freeform emphasis
and influence from storygames. You can’t really
set up level-appropriate combat encounters that
create tense but controlled setpieces the players
emerge victorious from. If you try to railroad
players through something like that and use
anything resembling these rules, you’ll just end
up with a pile of dead PCs and players who’ll want
to go back to their fantasy game.
Despite the military setting, you generally want
to give your players a decent degree of freedom to
tackle their objectives. Show them the map, tell
them their goals, and let them figure out how to
get them done. If you are unused to freeform RPGs,
this’ll take some getting used to, but once you
learn how you’ll get better results.
If you’re not really sure how the game will play
out, try running smaller games with one or two
friends to get a feel for the system before playing
a “real” game with your full group.
Once you’ve worked out the basics of running
things, or if you’re experienced and ready to go,
read on in this section for some tips on adapting
specifically to the rules of this game.
142
Full Myth vs Improv
A longstanding debate in the RPG community is
between the “Full Myth” style, as opposed to the
more freeform, improvisational style.
In essence, the Full Myth is when everything
is plotted out beforehand. Every encounter is
planned, every NPC the players can meet has a
backstory and profile prepared, every monster
has a known location from before the game event
started. In PATROL, the Full Myth means that you
have full rosters of all the enemy movements, a
timetable for their movements, and all the traps
are placed before the players step onto the field.
Improv sessions are much more freeform, with the
GM more reactionary. You don’t know where the
sentries are, per say, because they’ll only run
into them depending on how much time is left in
the session and how they’ve acted. You can read
the table and use it to come up with ways to keep
players engaged, incorporate their feedback
with “Yes, and...” tactics, ambushing them when
distracted, and rewarding their clever plans.
Neither of these playstyles are right or wrong.
However, leaning too hard on either one can make
running your game unnecessarily difficult.
PATROL generally rewards the Full Myth style,
as it has strong systems for tracking equipment,
supplies, munitions and locations. However,
doing all that can be a real headache, and can
lead to your plot being bypassed entirely if you
didn’t think of everything. That can mean you did
a lot of work for nothing.
On the other hand, PATROL can break down a bit
during a fully improv session. Being a game
which pivots heavily on pinning consequences on
players, the “yes, and...” style of improv gameplay
can somewhat undercut the tone, and it can end up
feeling very arbitrary to players in a way that
saps some of their investment.
As with many things, a balance is often called for.
Instead of concrete details, you can create some
simple guidelines and rules for yourself that
will feel consistent to your players, but allow
you to make some adjustments for the pace of the
game. Remember, what really matters is what the
players experience; don’t make things worse for
them, and yourself, by straightjacketing yourself
with details they’ll never see.
For example, rather than “6 V.C. with assault
rifles moving up and down this path every two
hours”, and then tracking their exact location
every turn, you can instead know that the enemy
is on the path such that, when the players reach
it, the enemy will be moving towards them, and
the players can find signs of their presence. This
creates an interesting choice to either retreat
or set up a hasty ambush.
Closed Map vs Open Map
One of the biggest choices you need to make for
your game is if you are playing closed map or
open map. In short, do your players see all the
tokens moving around on the map and do their own
measuring, or do you handle all that behind the
scenes and just present them with narration?
Generally, players will want to play open map;
having more information will make them feel
safer and more in control. Having everything
laid out on the board gives them more time to plan
and a better idea of what is happening around
them. These reasons are exactly you shouldn’t let
them have that!
The official position of the rules is that PATROL
should be played closed map; only the GM should
be aware of the exact positions of everything.
This is because PATROL is not, for the most part, a
tactics game; one of the core thrusts of its thesis
is that the specific mechanisms of fighting are a
secondary part of the experience of soldiering.
The players shouldn’t spend their time on precise
movements or attempting to game the systems,
because it will ultimately detract from the
experience.
The players should have access to a map, but it
should have no gameplay information on it; the
players should try to work out where they are
and where their opponents are through context
and indication from the GM, without measuring
things out themselves. That way, players won’t
get carried away with the exact number of meters
between themselves and the target and play by ear
instead, focusing on what is important.
Playing Narratively
PATROL’s strong emphasis on the Turn structure
and the associated timeframe can be a boon in
structuring the story of your game, but it can
also trip things up for your players and slow
everything down considerably. If you pause and
resolve every turn individually, your game will
take forever and players will get frustrated.
This is especially true during movement. You
shouldn’t ask players where they want to go
with their turn’s movement allowance over and
over. Instead, ask them “Where do you want to go,
and how do you want to get there?” Bring up any
obstacles and potential events, then either move
them there or interrupt the move with an event,
advancing Turns as necessary.
Similar approaches can be used for Resting,
digging positions, and other rote tasks. Save the
player’s attention for important events instead
of stepping in every half-hour to micromanage.
Ideally, your players are only rarely confronted
with the artificial Turn structure, getting a
clean narrative instead as much as possible.
143
You shouldn’t require your players know the
Action list in order to play. Ideally, your
players shouldn’t need to know any rules beyond
what concerns their character’s status directly.
You should be able to handle their input at that
point and use their descriptions to figure out
their character’s Action.
If you can’t map what they want to do to an Action,
just assign an arbitrary difficulty, figure out
if their Skills apply, and have them roll a Check.
Pass, Fail and FUBAR should give you plenty of
material to make something interesting happen.
Think of yourself as an advanced text parsers
for a computer RPG; you can naturalistically
interpret their commands, but you want to try to
resolve everything through prewritten systems.
Using the TImescale
One of PATROL’s stranger divergences from typical
RPG structures is the long time period of turns.
At first, half-hour turns will not seem right.
The reason for these long turns is to remind
players that soldiers are not robots. They
don’t behave with 100% efficiency, and sticking
to the time increments lets you simulate the
conversation, missteps, false alarms, paranoia,
short shots, and dead time that follows soldiers
around with the slow pace of a cautious patrol.
It makes the war properly boring, without making
it boring for the players.
Though you can, and generally should, skip over
much of this time, you can also use it as a chance
to weave in some good narrative. It represents
a great chance to introduce the kind of surreal
imagery Vietnam War media emphasizes. Perhaps a
character notices a spider building a web while
they wait for the enemy to show, or you prompt
a group for a flashback to civilian life or a
conversation while on the march. You don’t have
to keep reminding people of the time; just keep
track as each turn goes on, and keep the players
updated as they ask.
This timescale won’t always make the most sense
in the moment, especially during intense combat
or conversations. In these situations, let the
time slide instead of the turns. It’s okay to do a
half-a-dozen 5 or 10 minute turns at the climax
of an intense fight, because what really matter is
the Roundel and Status Effects advancing.
So yes, it only takes you a few minutes to talk to
somebody or resolve a firefight at close range.
If it doesn’t feel like it should take an hour
and a half, it doesn’t! There could be a spurt of
short turns, followed by a few hour-long turns
of resting or agonizingly paced movement as
the soldiers, rattled by events, react and think
lethargically from the adrenaline crash.
Fair Unfairness
PATROL is a bit of a mean game for players. There
are a lot of ways to die, and generally, the sort
of heroics you might attempt in another RPG will
result in a posthumous medal at best.
Because this game has such potential to be very
unfair for players, it is your job as a GM to ease
the blow a little. Using the narrative to soften
the mechanics can give the players a bit of an
edge, and prevent them from feeling victimized.
An excellent example is using traps against
the players. Imagine a SR6 Blast Mine on a trail
which a group of tired PCs are trudging down. As
none of them currently have the Vigilance they
need to find the trap, as the rules are written
they should just walk into it, set it off, and roll
damage. While shocking, it will probably upset
the player whose PC just suddenly lost a leg out
of the blue.
With the aid of the narrative, however, you
can make this into an interesting encounter.
Describe to the players the path as they move
along, talking about how they all stick to the
right side of the trail to stay in the shade of the
trees, and the incessant buzzing of insects. Then,
as they approach the mine, you can give them
warning signs. Some shifted dirt, a disturbed
bush, some cut-down bamboo. If they don’t decide
at that point to stop and investigate, then when
they walk into the mine it’ll be their fault, and
they’ll learn for next time to be more cautious.
This will be far more effective at eliciting a
sense of paranoia from players; because they will
feel what happens to them is not arbitrary, they’ll
try to take precautions. If it was presented as
arbitrary, then it wouldn’t matter one way or
another, and they’ll likely stop playing out of
frustration.
Some other good warning signs for traps or
ambushes you can use include the animals and
insects suddenly going quiet or running away,
old craters indicating pre-ranged artillery
or mortars, smears of cosmoline on plants from
Soviet firearms, range marker indicators on the
backs of trees, or simply noting an area of the
path would be “good for an ambush”.
144
Making Sense of PvP
PATROL is a game as much about player vs player
conflict as it is a game of the party against the
world. Many aspects are specifically designed to
create wedge issues and encourage disagreement,
argument, and even violence between player
characters. The central narrative of PATROL is
not about military victory of a band of brothers,
but about that band shattering.
This is completely intended.
PvP conflict is a touchy subject in RPG circles.
Traditionally, it is seen as something you should
never allow to happen as a GM, a breakdown of
order in the group and the derailment of the
plot. For other games and other groups, conflict
between players is the draw in the first place.
PATROL is designed so that things break down
slowly along fairly pre-designed lines. There’s
little incentive to begin fighting with one
another right away, but if things go poorly nerves
fray and things come to a head. This controlled
decline averts one of the more frustrating
aspects of unplanned PvP, which is that it feels
arbitrary and unfair to the other players. There’s
concrete motivation for characters to engage in
action which is disruptive to the in-game goals
of the party, which apply both mechanically and
in-character. This consistency can help smooth
things over.
That said, do not mistake the natural PvP
inclination of this game for legitimately
disruptive behaviour. These rules exist to create
an entertaining story. If a player is clearly out
to ruin the fun of others, and you’ll be able to
tell, do not tolerate the behaviour. Don’t try to
“deal with it” inside the game or put up with it
for the fiction; stop the game and call them out.
When done right, the PvP in PATROL should create
animosity between characters, but not between
players. Try to find subtle opportunities for
players to make in-character actions that lead
to conflicts, but always let them take the plunge
themselves. Trying to force players into conflict
will not endear you to them, and it shouldn’t be
necessary given the game’s mechanics.
Non-Player Characters
As a GM, you are more than just a dispensary
of challenges and bad guys for the players to
overcome. You are their eyes and ears, the direct
link to the world they interact with.
As well as describing the environment around
the players, you have the vital job of playing the
NPCs the players encounter. Unless your players
are unrepentant psychopaths (which is behaviour
you should discourage), the players will probably
encounter more neutral, friendly or, at the very
least, not immediately aggressive characters than
they will enemy soldiers in a combat situation.
You’ve got to sell those characters.
Quickly Generating Characters
Most of the time, you’ll have a chance to come up
with your potential major NPCs ahead of time.
Sometimes, however, your players surprise you,
the plot goes off the rails, or you just have a
sudden need of a new character and you need to
make one up on the spot.
A good strategy is to play off the reactions of your
players. If they find something you do while you
scramble to establish a new character funny or
intriguing, whatever you’re doing is working, so
double down on that thing. If somebody blurts out
a fact about that character, run with it. Allowing
the players to participate in the introduction
will help get them invested.

Making a Strong NPC Failing that, you can roll for it. This is a d66
A good non-player character is unique, memorable, generator. Roll 2d6, with one d6 representing the
and feels like they have more going on then they 10s and the other representing the 1s.
do. On the other hand, they also need to be easy # Traits # Traits
to handle on the GM side; you can’t do too much
11 Deeply Religious 41 Sentimental
book-keeping with the random background extras
and bit characters the players interact with. 12 Way Too Eager 42 About to Retire
Finding this balance is difficult, and takes 13 Quite Competent 43 Drunkard
experience more than anything. 14 Drug Addict 44 Depressed
15 Demoralized 45 Competitive
A good trick to create a strong NPC is to create a
“Two-Tone Character”. In essence, you take a basic 16 Rich 46 Paranoid
stock character, like “Sympathetic Bartender who 21 Terrified 51 Grizzled
listens to the plight of the Heroes” and you add 22 Traumatized 52 Working an Angle
one additional strong character trait which you
23 Looking for a Fight 53 Emotionless
try to work in as much as you can.
24 Hippy 54 Greedy
For example, the Sympathetic Bartender is a very 25 Cowardly 55 Charming
well-worn character archetype, polishing a 26 Planning to Desert 56 Know-it-All
glass and willing to hear the characters out as
31 Skirt-Chaser 61 Very Patriotic
they have a beer. Players will barely even notice
a character like that, and definitely won’t 32 Fatalistic 62 Surfer Dude
remember him after the fact. 33 Very Dull 63 Weirdly Upbeat
34 Superstitious 64 Fitness Junkie
But maybe he’s Greedy, and every time he nods along
with the players he slides them another bottle 35 Very Attractive 65 Bloodthirsty
and allows them to run up their tab. Maybe he’s 36 Anti-War 66 Currently Lost
Bloodthirsty, and suggests over the top violence
as a solution to the character’s woes. Maybe he’s Play these character traits to the hilt. People
Clumsy, and breaks a glass while the player is won’t really notice a few comments here or
talking, turning the scene into a sudden rush to there, but an exaggerated presentation will be
bandage the bartender’s hand. noticeable. You usually haven’t got much time
with each NPC, so you’ve got to make the thrust of
Likewise, picture the classic “Unexperienced, their character obvious.
overconfident New Officer Who Leads the Unit into
Disaster.” You’ve seen this character and their If you have to run with a character for long enough
associated plotline a hundred times; everyone that these character traits would get obnoxious,
knows how it goes. you’ve usually got time to devise and introduce
some other twists as well. Just remember; more
But if that officer is actually kind and helpful character traits isn’t necessarily better. The
to his men, despite also sternly guiding them players can provide the conflicted, angsty dark
into certain death, the scene changes a bit. If souls with complex personality; you just need
he’s smarter then he first lets on and avoids some devices for them to bounce off of.
of the rookie mistakes, luring the players into
a false sense of security, that’s another good As for their profiles, you can use the premade NPCs
angle. A simple addition can make a character in the next section. These stat blocks are lower
seem multifaceted with almost no effort. limits; experienced troops will be stronger.
145
Friends and Comrades
Your players will spend a lot of time interacting
with other characters from their own military
organization. They share a culture and a language
with these people, and they need to have each
other’s backs, so this communication is the most
straightforward.
When you play these characters, you should try
to always speak in the first person, acting out
each role to the players. To make this easier for
yourself, try to have a small number of stock
characters who come back between missions; the
green junior officer, the gruff master sergeant,
the insufferable logistics officer, etc. That way,
the players build up an attachment to the world
that grounds them in the circumstances. They’ll
care a lot more when they’re waiting on the cocky
but friendly Lt. Webber with the Southern drawl
than if they just know an anonymous helicopter
pilot is on the way.
Little bit characters with funny quirks or
interesting voices can add a lot to the player’s
experience. Maybe every time the players call
for artillery, the same loud, partially deaf
artilleryman answers. You don’t know anything
about him, but he’s a familiar voice. Then, a few
missions in, you can meet him in person, maybe
even centre a little storyline around him, and
the players are already invested.
Not everyone the players know needs to be military
characters. They might be civilian consultants
and contractors, or members of other units that
the PCs only interact with in casual settings.
Maybe you can open a session with the PCs making
their phone call home to their families.
You need to be careful to remember your job when
playing these characters. Your task is to enable
the experiences of the players, not to swoop in
and solve their problems for them. Unless you are
very good, you can quickly ruin your player’s
experience by accidently placing too great a
focus on an NPC you like to the expense of the
player experience; the “GMPC” is a long-standing
gripe many players have about their games.
A good way to avoid the trap of the GMPC is that,
if you need to introduce a character who is a
real badass, like a special forces commander or a
celebrity, make them a real jerk. That’ll provide
incentive to get rid of them before they overstay
their welcome, and reduce the temptation to
reintroduce them.
At very minimum, your players should have a
rough idea of who their platoon officer, senior
NCO, and unit commanding officer are, and be able
to tell you something about their personality
from how you presented them. That way, they’ll
know who is ordering them to do all this stuff,
and they’ll have somebody to gripe about.
146
The VIetnamese
If you are playing Americans or similar, your
player characters do not speak Vietnamese. As
mentioned in the Interaction rules, encounters
between locals and foriegn soldiers are filtered
through a mutual lack of understanding and a
wide cultural gap.
Despite this, the players will have to interact
with the Vietnamese in non-combat situations,
frequently. They are here to win their hearts
and minds, they need to question them for
intelligence, they must search their villages
and disrupt their lives to do their jobs. How you
handle these interactions is very important.
As a GM, you probably want the players to feel
distant and detached from the villagers, ARVN
soldiers, and so forth. It’s a little unsettling,
but the player characters treating the villagers
like NPCs is a fairly apt representation of the
dehumanizing effects of war.
One of the core ways you can do this is to never
let the players converse with them directly.
Don’t play them in first person like the allied
characters; instead, describe the information
they tell the player in detached narration. “He
tells you they saw their boats a hundred meters
up the river.” Having an interpreter character
is another good option. Either way, the players
never really have a chance to have a conversation.
Another good way to handle this is to not give the
local characters names. The languages and naming
conventions of Vietnam are about as far detached
from American English as you can find, which made
it very difficult for many American soldiers to
remember the names of places and people, and most
of the time they didn’t particularly care, either.
This is to say nothing of the problems you might
have as an English-speaking player.
You can describe characters with archetypes; the
Village Elder, the Shoeshine Boy, the Peaceful
Monk, the Defiant Youth. These simplistic cyphers
will once again allow players to project their
own prejudices onto these characters, as well
as paint a quick picture of who they are for the
purposes of brief interaction.
A clever trick you can use if the players do ask
for character’s name is to turn it around on them.
“What are you calling them?” Encouraging your
players to create nicknames for characters they
encounter is both an authentic detail and one
that will encourage the players to be dismissive.
Once you’ve got your PCs dismissing the locals,
treating them as just information packets and
cardboard cutouts, you’ve given yourself a lot to
work with. You now have leverage to use when you
begin subverting these ideas, and the players
will never see it coming.
This is where the two-tone character premise can
come in handy. The simplest and quickest way to
begin messing with the players is to immediately
begin playing opposite their expectations with
these characters.
The serene old Village Elder told you about the
V.C. presence in the next village because he has
a long grudge with their leader, his brother. The
Shoeshine Boy is working with the communists and
informs Charlie of your movements. The Peaceful
Monk is next seen beating a government taxman
with a table leg. The Defiant Youth follows you
into the jungle with a gun hoping to help you
kill the communists terrorizing his village.
These simple switches have two great effects on
your players; they make them stop trusting their
first reads of these characters, and they make
them stop trusting you. The best thing you can do
to enforce the tone of this game is to muddy the
waters.
Once you’ve got the players on the lookout for
this kind of trickery, you can start playing
around with their expectations more. The player’s
characters are themselves getting more wise to
the situation, so they’ll start to understand
things better. A lot of them will start picking
up the Local Language skill, if you keep the NPCs
interesting, so they can get more out of these
interactions, so that’s the point you can start
introducing names and recurring characters.
Enemy Forces
Most of the time, you probably won’t have to come
up with much in the way of personality for the
hostile forces opposed to the players, as they
generally won’t interact civilly. Their skills
in combat are more important than their names or
personality for your game.
That won’t always be the case. There’s plenty of
circumstances where you might interact with an
enemy fighter outside of combat. You might take
a prisoner, or they might capture you. You might
be called to negotiate with a group during a
ceasefire, or you might run into a character on
the streets of Saigon who later turns out to be a
V.C. fighter. In these situations, it’s often a good
idea to come up with a quick personality for the
major players.
Exactly how you want to handle the level of
humanity displayed by your hostile forces is up
to you. It’s generally a good idea to try to strike
some kind of balance. Enemy soldiers obviously
aren’t going to like your characters very much
even outside a combat situation, but presenting
them as flat, cartoonish villains with no greater
motivation or desire than to cause pain and
misery is bad storytelling. On the other hand,
trying to make the enemy too sympathetic can very
quickly feel hokey, and maybe even undermine the
basic dynamic of the game entirely.

Needless to say, this is a good setup for more

intimate betrayals.

Vietnamese Name Generator

Vietnamese names are written with the family
name first. Vietnam has a very small set of very
popular names. 14 different surnames make up 90%
of the population. These 2d6 charts are weighed
accordingly.
If you have a group of enemy soldiers in some
Family Given (Male) Given (Female) situation where the players are forced into
2 Do 2 Thanh 2 Ngoc extended interaction, a good practice might be
3 Dang 3 Quang 3 Minh to have one central character in their ranks the
players can focus most of their attentions on.
4 Vu 4 Khanh 4 Thuy This eases the roleplaying burden for you and
5 Pham 5 Nguyen 5 Ngoc lets you concentrate on getting one character
6 Tran 6 Hieu 6 Tru right instead of dividing your attention.
7 Nguyen 7 Hoang 7 Linh
Another good strategy is to introduce a small
8 Le 8 Duc 8 Phuong number of strong personalities among the enemy
9 Huynh 9 Duy 9 Trang during the mission. Perhaps the villagers tell
10 Phan 10 Son 10 Anh you about a particularly frightening V.C. leader
11 Bui 11 Thang 11 Ngan known for particular atrocities, or intelligence
has a report about a charismatic enemy officer.
12 Ngo 12 Dat 12 Lan Though the players might never actually meet
them face to face, having a singular personality
Almost all women have the middle name “Thi”, or behind the enemy will act as a focal point and
perhaps “Dieu” or “Nu”. Men often have the middle memorable opponent that the players will be
name “Van”, or just about any other Male given excited to face, and they can give you an excuse
name, so just roll again. to have an enemy with tricks up their sleeves.
147
Tips & Tricks
Being a GM is more art than science. Here’s a few
concepts to think about while setting up your
games or trying to figure out where to go.
Play off your Players
You don’t have to do all the thinking yourself.
If you’re a good improviser, you can use clever
questions to prompt the players into giving you
information you can use to further the story or
deepen the setting. Leading questions are an
excellent way to get good material from players.
• At the start of the game, tell a player “Your
character is feeling unusually angry/sad/
happy today. What happened to make you feel
that way?”
• Everyone gets letters from home. Who is writing
to you? What did they say?
• “You go meet your commanding officer. Remind
me why you hate him so much?”
• “You’ve seen this prisoner before! What were the
circumstances?”
• “Up ahead is a detachment of the 33rd Airborne.
Why do you hate working with them?”
• “What happened on this path that makes everyone
in the unit fear patrolling it?”
Starting off Strong
Good sessions begin with a good hook. PATROL
assumes the players receive a briefing from a
commanding officer as to their mission, but that
doesn’t mean you need to start every mission in a
meeting having something explained to you.
• Start the briefing in the helicopter on the
way to the mission area. Before the briefing
is finished, the helicopter is forced to make a
crash landing, and the players need to figure
the rest out for themselves.
• Begin the game in media res; the players are
out in the bush and it’s night. Who is on watch?
After fighting off a daring night attack, reveal
the objectives.
• Begin the game by narrating that the players
have come to some dirty backalley in Saigon,
armed with pistols, and have just broken down
a door behind a seedy bar. One of them has gone
AWOL before a mission and is currently lying on
a dirty mattress, stoned out of their minds. Ask
the players who it is, and why?
• A popular NPC companion of the players is dead
or critically injured. Begin the mission by
asking “How did this happen? What were you
doing when it happened?” Use this as a starting
point for a flashback explaining events.
• After a few hard missions, the Squad is on leave
and underarmed when somebody bad happens.
Perhaps they are in a bar in Saigon as the Tet
Offensive begins. How do they survive and
return to their unit?
• After this patrol, somebody’s tour is up.
Everyone is buying him drinks the night before.
148
Introducing a Twist
Sometimes, a game slows down, and you can just
feel interest at the table flagging. That’s when
you introduce some sudden, cool complication on
the next turn that completely throws things for
a loop.
• If a fight is dragging on too long, the enemy
should retreat as soon as possible. Have them
leave behind some wounded, folks pretending to
be wounded, or a small rearguard.
• Alternately, have the enemy retreat with the
intent of luring the players into an ambush or
trap.
• You can also have your own side retreat! This
works especially well when the players are
winning; they suddenly find themselves having
to reassess the situation, and feeling like the
only people who give a damn about the fight.
• A gunshot rings in the air with an NPC as the
target. Sniper!
• When they come around the next corner, they
walk straight into a group of equally-oblivious
people. Are they friendly, enemy, civilian or
totally unknown?
• If the players clearly aren’t invested in an
objective, do something strange with it. Perhaps
they arrive at the enemy weapon cache to find
the V.C. guards already dead and a bunch of hill
people looting it?
• If a confrontation is too straightforward, use
civilians, terrain, or the weather to throw a
wrench into it.
• When talking to some locals, somebody turns
out to be related to somebody else. Involving
family politics in the conflict always raises
tensions.
• If all else fails, if there’s not enough going on
have the V.C. move in on the players and set up
an ambush.
Deus Ex Machina
It’s not pretty, but sometimes you need the hand
of God to sort out a problematic situation. These
things always work better if you provide some
plausible deniability beforehand.
• Tell the players a patrol went missing in
the jungle a few days earlier. This can just
be a flavour thing, but if the players get in
serious trouble, the “lost patrol” can emerge
in a flanking position, making it look like you
planned it all along.
• Tell the players up front that air support is
tied up in some big operation up north, and
have the sounds of rockets and bombs going off
throughout the mission. In a troubling spot, a
lone gunship buzzes overhead, having wandered
out of position, and the players have a chance
to contact them.
• If the player’s ever made friends with any
villagers, other units or allies, bring them
back as the cavalry.
Mission Complications
Overly straightforward missions can get very
predictable, very quickly. Throwing in a
spontaneous twist can help, but its better if you
plan them out ahead of time.
• Your extraction chopper is forced off or shot
down and you need to make your way to a poorly-
placed backup PZ.
• A major enemy offensive kicks off while you
are out on the mission. Suddenly, dust-off and
support is all rerouted right as your mission
gains a greater context and importance.
• Right as the players are about to finish
their objective, a helicopter carrying a VIP,
like a visiting US Congressman or a General,
crashes somewhere in the AO. Your Mission is
immediately scrubbed; go rescue them.
• The village you were supposed to meet your
informant in is completely deserted. The fires
are still hot. What happened here?
• A unit from another nation is operating in the
same area. Their methods are crude and barbaric
and they have undone some of your hard work.
Sort it out.
• A member of the local V.C. is actually a deep-
cover agent for the RVN secret police. You know
who it is and they know who you are, but if you
end up facing their unit you can’t kill them and
they can’t blow their cover.
• A flash-bang goes off inside the confines of the
transport thanks to a fumbling NPC. Everyone is
deaf for rest of the mission.
Side Objectives
Having other things going on during a Mission
can really spice things up and give the impression
of a larger war and a living, breathing world
beyond the immediate goals of the players.
• A reporter has been embedded in the unit. He or
she is one of those anti-war types, but they are
extremely respected. If you can change their
mind on the war with what you show them, you’ll
make your CO the happiest man on the planet.
• There’s a man-eating tiger on the loose and the
local villagers are terrified. If you can find
it, kill it. The V.C. are hunting it too, hoping
to win the locals over.
• As you pass through a village, a mother begs
of you to help her. Her pre-teen son has been
forcefully conscripted by the regional forces
or, worse, the V.C. Get him back.
• Command gives you a handful of spoofed enemy
mortar shells. When you drop them in the tube,
they blow up immediately. If you find an enemy
arms cache, mix them in.
• There’s an enemy officer operating in the
region. He has some vital information that
Intel wants. Take him alive if you can.
• During a task-oriented mission, you are offered
incentive to meet a certain bodycount.
149
Morale Quandaries
Having some “what do you do?” moments in your
game where there are no good answers is an
excellent way of cementing the game’s atmosphere.
• Players have been told to keep an eye out for
Montegnards are smuggling opium through the
region. The drug has devastated a previously
healthy community the players are attached to.
When confronted, it turns out they are using
the money to buy weapons to defend themselves
from the V.C.
• A model soldier and Special Forces vet deserts
and the players have to bring him back in. He is
suffering from PTSD and can’t spend another day
in the war. If you can even catch him, will you
take him back?
• You are tasked with transporting local
prisoners. They are clearly political prisoners
who haven’t done anything to deserve this
treatment.
• A village has been taking care of both ARVN and
V.C. troops after a firefight. They are marked as
enemy collaborators for this and you are sent
to take punitive action.
• You learn that two soldiers have been taken
prisoner and taken down separate paths. You
only have time to get one before they cross the
border into Laos. Which one do you follow? Do
you hop the border for the other?
Fun Happenings
This game doesn’t have to be all serious, all the
time. Tangential plots can give players a lot of
room to expand their character or simply have a
good time roleplaying.
• A gaggle of children have decided they are now
GIs. With sticks for rifles, they march behind
you when you pass through, salute, and insist
on following you out into the bush.
• A short-timer in the unit is cursed. Everything
goes wrong for him and the unit is convinced
he is a bad luck magnet that will keep the rest
of them safe. Get him through his last patrol
before he goes home.
• The players are invited to participate in a
local ritual. Your LT tells you to go along for
the PR. Things just keep getting weirder and
more intoxicated from there.
• A local girl has fallen head over heels for one
of the handsome soldiers guarding her village.
Initiate soap opera drama; her parents don’t
approve! Her grandparents try to set you up! She
has amnesia! How will you tell her apart from
her evil twin sister, the local V.C. commander?
• As a PR stunt, you’ve set up a movie theatre in
a local village. The local V.C. Main Force show
up, armed. They demand front-row seats.
• You are tasked with transporting something
utterly ridiculous, like sweaters or Christmas
presents. This turns out to be your most
dangerous mission.
Charts Forage Chart
What do you get when you go looking for food in
If you want to consistently and randomly effect the jungle? Roll here to figure out what your
the environment around the players without soldiers scrounge up.
giving in to the human temptation to make things
harder or easier for them, use these charts to # Forage
make some of your decisions for you. 2 Wild Buffalo
3 Carp
The Weather 4 Catfish
The weather in Vietnam can change on a dime. Rain 5 Hare
and start and stop like somebody turned a faucet,
6 Jungle Fruit
and the heat can quickly build to unbearable
levels. Picture the weather as existing on a 7 Edible Mushrooms
continuum as follows. 8 Squirrels
# Weather 9 Edible Tubers
1 Heat Wave 10 Waterfowl
2 Clear Skies 11 Deer
3 Cloudy 12 Wild Ox
4 Drizzle
5 Thunderstorm Pocket Finds
Just listing the military equipment you pull
After 2d6 Turns, roll 2d6 on the following table off a dead or captured V.C. is no fun. Here’s a d66
to determine how you should change the weather chart of fun stuff to find on the enemy.
based on the above chart. # Find # Find
# Change 11 Family Photo 41 US Flag
2-3 Move down 2. 12 Set of US Dogtags 42 Cartoon Watch
4-5 Move down 1. 13 List of Addresses 43 Human Tooth Necklace
6-8 Weather stays the same. 14 Sketchpad 44 Little Red Book
9-10 Move up 1. 15 Northern Newspaper 45 Antique Ring
11-12 Move up 2. 16 Deck of Cards 46 Pinup poster
21 VC Flag 51 Local Map
To bias the results, give the players a forecast of
the day’s weather on average. If the weather will 22 French Novel 52 NVA ID Papers
trend towards Hot, add a -1 or -2 to the roll. If 23 Decorated Canteen 53 Local Currency
the weather will be Wet, add a +1 or +2. 24 Safe Passage Ticket 54 Roll of Film
25 US Currency 55 Pen Knife
Roll the 2d6 again to see how many turns you
should go before rolling to generate new weather. 26 Valuable Watch 56 Can of Cosmoline
31 Whittled Totem 61 Letter Home
The Wind 32 Northern Flag 62 Sewing Kit
The wind in South Vietnam generally blows West 33 Anti-US Propaganda 63 Stolen Lighter
off the sea, with a slight bias Southward. Every 34 Bottle of Pills 64 Grenade Pin Necklace
once in a while, roll 2d6 on this chart to see how
35 Photo of Girlfriend 65 Human Fingers
it changes. A good rule of thumb is roll here the
turn before you roll for weather; players will 36 Eyeglasses 66 List of Names
learn to take a shift in the wind to mean a coming
change of weather. Village Attitude Table
# Wind Direction How are they feeling about the war today?
2 West # Attitude
3 Southwest Rabidly pro-communist. Will attack
1
4 South government troops and resist FWF.
5-6 Southeast 2 Secretly Pro-V.C.
7-8 East 3 Neutral. Treats everyone with hostility.
9-10 Northeast 4 Neutral, but friendly to everyone.
11 North 5 Quietly Pro-Government.
12 Northwest Rabidly pro-government. Have posted
6
pickets against the V.C.

150
Supply Drop Mishap
Loading and dropping crates full of military Shortcuts
essentials from high altitude is not an exact Here’s a few quick bends in the rules you can use
science. Whenever a Supply Crate is dropped, roll to keep yourself sane.
1d6. On a 1 or 2 (or higher, for more incompetent
militaries) roll again here. Apply the results Random Hits
to whatever relevant gear there might be in the You really don’t have to randomize all your hits.
crate, and reroll nonsensical results. Just pick the most dramatic target, and randomize
# Mishap only when its just PCs on the line or you want to
add an edge firing against a mixed unit.
The supplies land directly in enemy hands
2
instead. Oops.
Crowd Mechanics
The crate lands, but turns out to be filled In urban areas or other civilian crowds, rather
3
with hats. than try to track individual profiles, treat the
4 The crate is lost to the rough terrain. crowd as a large mass, like terrain. In fact, count
5 2d6 Weight of gear is missing. crowds as Difficult Terrain outright for the
The crate managed to land in a puddle or purposes of vision.
6
stream. All electronics are ruined.
If you’re wearing civilian clothes, you’ll blend
They send you the wrong kind of ammo, like into the crowd, giving you a +5 Stealth Rating.
7
the wrong size or type of shell.
Food is spoiled, water is contaminated, and When shooting into a crowded space, count every
8
purification tabs are already dissolved. 3 rolled while firing out of, into or through the
Any wearables are the wrong size, to the crowd at something else as hitting a civilian.
9 When firing into a crowd indiscriminately, count
point that they are totally useless.
The crate is good, but locked up. Use an Successes as well as 3s.
10
Enter Structure action to bust it open.
A crowd will rapidly disperse once shots are
If the crate contained any explosives, it fired, dissipating next turn if they can escape.
11 blows up in a massive fireball when it hits If forced into a narrow area, they will trample
the ground. 1d6 people in the rush, 2d6 in large crowds.
Everything is good, but wearables are the
12 wrong camo pattern. If you wear them, you Resolving Off-Screen Fights
reduce your Stealth Rating by -3. You can decide the outcomes of offscreen fights
by fiat, but if you want it up in the air, you can
use simplified rolling. When two NPC units fight
Specific Injury Generator each other, roll d6 for everyone in the squad
Wanna know where somebody got zapped? This is
shooting. 5s and 6s are hits. At longer ranges,
the chart for you! Add the amount of Injury taken
require 6s instead. Add or remove a few dice for
to the results.
cover or particularly skilled combatants.
# Injury
3 Just a Scratch For attacking vehicles, non-armoured vehicles
4 Shot in the Ass are disabled by small arms fire on a 6. For
armoured vehicles, roll 1d3 for each weapon
5 Shoulder Hit
bigger than rifle, adding +1 for any anti-tank
6 Broken Ribs weapons and +2 for heavy AT cannons. If their roll
7 Thigh Wound meets the target’s armour, the target vehicle is
8 Lost a Finger disabled. If it exceeds it, it is destroyed.
9 Broken Ankle
Artillery just neutralizes 1d3 or 1d6 enemies per
10 Kneecap turn, depending on distance and artillery type.
11 Neck Wound
12 Gut Shot NPC Veterancy
13 Sucking Chest Wound The profiles given in this book are for relatively
green troops of each type; perhaps not completely
14 Multiple Wounds. Roll twice. inexperienced, but not particularly elite either.
15 Right in the eye!
16 Total Decapitation. If you want to up the danger, you can simply
increase enemy Attributes. Adding +2 to all their
Attributes will make them hardened soldiers who
will present more of a challenge. An additional
+3 will make for a crack squad of killers that’ll
give the squad a run for their money.

151
Interesting Missions
The core of running a good session is coming up
with a good objective. There’s a couple of ways you
can go about this to create memorable campaigns,
but broadly speaking there are a few distinct
mission archetypes.
The Patrol
The kind of mission this game was made for,
The Patrol is a long-term, open-ended mission
whose objectives revolve around discovery. The
players set out with orders to find the enemy in
the jungle, and must figure out how to do that on
their own.
A good mission of this type has multiple
objectives, which the players are free to tackle
in any order. In a sense, you are simply cutting
the PCs loose in a playground of dangers and
opportunities and letting them figure things
out for themselves.
The more objectives you assign, the longer the
mission will run and the harder it will be on
the characters. This kind of mission can also be
mutated into The Job very easily, when the players
find evidence of something they must deal with
urgently.
• The players set out with instructions to
investigate five different villages for signs
of Viet Cong activity.
• The players must search a hostile valley for a
downed airman.
• The players are tasked with stringing telephone
lines between the base and a few nearby outposts,
and eliminating any enemy scouts who might
know the position of the wires.
• The players must escort a high-ranking general
or official through the war zone, showing him
only the positive aspects of the conflict.
• Sweep this road for any mines or traps before we
bring the VIP convoy through tomorrow.
The Quest
In the Quest archetype, the players are taking a
linear path to some distant goal. The trip will
be long and hard, and the players will encounter
a variety of different places, people and
situations which are somewhat disconnected from
one another. They are free agents moving through
somebody else’s war, seeing short vignettes of the
conflict, and life in war-torn Southeast Asia, on
their way to some grand destiny.
These linear missions should be extensively
planned by the GM beforehand, with each stop
on the journey having the potential to be a
miniature mission in and of itself. If necessary,
time pressure can be introduced to be keep players
from being bogged down, but having them stop and
experience each section is the point.
152
In The Quest, the destination is almost completely
unimportant; the journey is what matters. You
might not even play what is on the other side, or
make it so trivial as to be of no consequence. The
Quest is purpose-built for multi-session play;
it’s a campaign in and of itself.
The players will cover dozens or even hundreds
of kilometres and the mission will often take
several days, or maybe even several weeks. Quest
games are generally best suited for Special
Forces type characters, though they could also be
very interesting for indigenous characters.
• The players are a gun truck crew, escorting a
small convoy of trucks from the southernmost
tip of the country all the way up to Con Thein
firebase by the DMZ.
• The players are a group of isolated Laotian
hill folk whose village has been ransacked
by communist guerrillas. Hearing of the
great land of America, who are opposed to the
communists, a group of brave young people load
up with crossbows and supplies and move east as
emissaries. They return changed.
• Aboard a small patrol vessel, a mixture of
personalities make their way up the Mekong
into unknown territory to complete a secret
objective, putting in at various bases,
checkpoints and towns.
• As Saigon falls, a mixed group of South
Vietnamese make for the coast and their last,
desperate hope for escape.
• In the aftermath of Tet, a ragged squad of Viet
Cong trudge back to their village, intent on
throwing down their arms and returning to the
simple life.
The Citadel
There is something precious and vulnerable you
must protect, at all costs. The enemy knows you
are here and is going to be throwing everything
they’ve got at you. Survive at all costs.
These kinds of missions are great for when a group
wants non-stop action, but also have a chance of
victory. Defending an area or building gives the
defenders an advantage against numerically-
superior forces while also feeling desperate,
and last stands are popular in works of fiction
for a reason. This gives the players their best
chance to feel like heroes.
A good Citadel mission allows the players
multiple chances to pull back and reestablish
defences, feeling the noose pulled tighter as the
enemy closes in and the players are confined to
smaller and smaller spaces. This is also a good
chance to give the Structure, Defence and Trap
rules a workout. The players will appreciate the
chance to be the ones laying the mines instead of
stepping on them for a change.
• A huge enemy force is bearing down on the
firebase, intent on overrunning it. You’re low
on supplies and reinforcements won’t arrive
till morning, so make do.
• As the city burns, the players hunker down in
a multi-story building and have to survive
behind enemy lines until relief arrives.
• Tasked with defending a bridge, the shortcut
into the heart of friendly territory, the players
must hold off waves of attacking infantry and
armour.
• When their tank breaks down at the crossroads,
the crew have to turn their disabled vehicle
into a fortress.
The JoB
In The Job, the players are given a singular,
straightforward task to be accomplished
quickly and cleanly in the face of opposition.
Accomplishing the goal might not be simple, but
it is fairly binary and easily comprehended.
The Job is a tempted sort of mission because of
its simplicity. If there were more missions like
this, maybe this war would be going someplace. It
allows players to show off their unique skills
and feel like they are making a difference, and
so is great for using as a reward for a party who
have been through some tough times.
To counterbalance their straightforward
nature, these missions are often some of the most
dangerous. Players will be running into the
teeth of danger to do the impossible; it’ll be the
stuff of legends if they pull it off.
• A man in a nearby village is a high-level enemy
agent. Take him alive and get out before the
village knows what is going on.
• One of our agents has been taken prisoner by the
enemy. If you hurry, you can cut them off and get
them back!
• A tunnel complex has been found in the hills
near one of our firebases. Clear it out.
• An enemy general is investigating nearby
communist units. Neutralize him.
• An artillery pieces has been shelling us from
an unknown location. Find it, and destroy it.
153
The Battle
This is it. On the eve of a pivotal battle between
two titanic forces, a small squad of soldiers
prepares to do their part to secure victory.
The Battle is not easy to run. There’s dozens
of moving parts necessary to make it feel
authentic, and guiding the players through such
a high-intensity combat experience can be very
difficult. If you can manage it, however, it’ll be
legendary.
The Battle is a great mission option for GMs who
are good at invoking imagery. Columns of tanks,
the rumble of artillery, screaming jets and
buzzing helicopters, you can create a tapestry
of riotous imagery that the players can then
influence. The players can end up feeling very
small and insignificant... which might be for the
best.
• The main force of the enemy is on the way. You
have just a few hours to prepare a defence, and
then you’ll be leading the counter-attack!
• With the NVA shelling Sagion, the remains of the
ARVN’s armoured divisions prepare one final,
all-or-nothing push against the centre of the
enemy lines.
• Red China has entered the war and brought a
flood of soldiers and machinery through the
DMZ. Your squad is the vanguard of a desperate
flanking manoeuvre to cut off their supply lines
and slow them down long enough for Arclight to
destroy their lead columns.
The Escape
When things go poorly and the enemy is right
behind you, sometimes the only thing that matters
is to make it out alive. That is the core of the
Escape; the enemy is nipping at your heels as you
make your best time to somewhere safe.
If things go poorly in another mission, this can
be a logical followup. It is distinguished from
The Quest in its breakneck pace; you haven’t got
time to do anything but run as fast as you can,
fighting on the run and taking transportation
where you can get it. It can be exhilarating and
exhausting at the same time.
• Your helicopter shot down in hostile jungle,
the squad needs to get to a friendly firebase
before word spreads of their position.
• The Americans have announced a full invasion
of the North. As the remains of a shattered NVA
unit, fall back out of the kill zone.
• Their cover blown, a special forces team has
just a few hours to make it back over the border
before they are declared a rogue unit.
• You and your buddies are on leave in Saigon
when the Tet Offensive starts up. You need to get
to duty stations yesterday.
Game Tone
War is a riotous banquet of information, too
much for the eyes to take in or for the brain to
register. Nobody gets the complete picture, just a
choice cut of events and details that will forever
be the Real Story.
Just as there are many different perspectives
on the events of the Vietnam War, there are many
different ways to run a game of PATROL in order to
present certain experiences. Having a solid idea
of what kind of tone you are aiming for is a good
rock on which to build your campaign.
What you choose to tell players, and what you
choose not to tell them, are very important. You
simply cannot provide all the information that
is happening in a game; you can’t go into every
detail, provide every name, describe every sight
and sound and smell. You must be selective.
In short, are you running The Deer Hunter, The
Green Berets, or Apocalypse Now? None of these
presentations are fundamentally inaccurate,
just incomplete. Most games will probably be a
mix, with players drawing their own conclusions.
The fastest way to adjust the feel of your game
is by how many Victory Points you give them for
objectives. Try to predict how much Fatigue the
players will end up with if the mission goes
perfectly; that’s a good baseline for how many
Victory Points the players will get overall for
all their Objectives. For a regular game, this
will be somewhere around 6 to 8. If you want a
heroic and mission-focused game, add some leeway
to make winning the war more important. If you
want the game to degrade faster, be less generous.
154
War is Hell
There’s a strong temptation is to run PATROL as
an unrelenting, grim affair, a treatment of the
subject matter as a nightmare without end. War
with the tone of a horror story, as a machine
that consumes lives and spits out fie and death.
Your operations always happen at night, where
darkness allows the GM to manipulate the events
around the players for maximum impact. It’s not
a tank passing by; it’s a rumble in the dark,
diesel-smoke clogging your lungs, a flash of
fire and death when the cannon roars. The living
described as tools and assets, the dead as twisted
and charred beyond recognition.
The war is napalm and landmines and a callous
disregard for life everywhere. Friendly-fire is
as much a danger as the enemy, who is always just
beyond your reach. When you do finally get to
grips with them, all you really accomplish is a
line of poncho-covered bodies for your side and
a mass grave for theirs, and any civilian unlucky
enough to be in the way.
Your objectives can be straightforward, but
achieving them is not. Set the VP count for
objectives high, but the challenge even higher,
and see if the players give up. The enemy is clever
and devious but faceless and unseen, known
only as wizzing bullets and dark shapes and the
occasional corpse the next morning. Civilians
are greedy animals who tear each other apart for
scraps. Your allies are brutal and uncaring.
Fewer firefights, more mines, booby-traps,
suicide bombers, assassinations, and mortar
barrages while you try to sleep. When the rescue
chopper comes, if the rescue chopper comes, odds
are good somebody is waiting to shoot it down.
Don’t focus on the make or model of any equipment,
but emphasis the sounds they make and the effects
they have. Bullets wizz and mortars scream.
When a plane gets hit, it spirals lazily into the
ground and everyone braces for an explosion that
never comes. When a tank takes a rocket, there’s
just a flood of sparks, and then fire spreading
on the inside, glowing in the vision-slits, the
heat radiating too much to do anything but stare
helplessly as the metal pops and flexes and the
fists pounding on the hatches slows to a stop.
When your allies can’t get to grips with the enemy,
which is often, they take it out on the civilian
population instead. You quickly get the feeling
you are participating less in a war and more in
an extended and uncomfortably intimate crime
being drawn out over weeks and years. The human
cost is always at the forefront.
Things should never quite feel entirely pointless,
but instead should simply feel as if they weren’t
worth it, that nothing you accomplished could
ever justify what was sacrificed to achieve it.
Glory Boys
On the other hand, this is a game, and sometimes
you want to have fun and be a bunch of badasses.
PATROL is not naturally suited to doing this
by classic RPG standards where the players
are invulnerable superheroes, but it can do
something like it with a bit of adjustment and a
charitable GM willing to fudge the numbers.
If war is horror, than you get to be the monsters
and Charlie gets to be the blond running down the
docks. If war is a machine, then it is well-oiled,
lean and lethal and you have the controls.
The thing is, there’s always an element of this
attitude in every war, especially when your side
has the bigger stick, and America had the biggest,
meanest, most advanced stick money could buy
and a willingness to swing for the fences. War is
awesome in the Biblical sense, but the tools and
methods of modern warfare would blow anything
in the Good Book straight out of the water.
The Missions need to be all about the combat, the
simple and straightforward act of getting to
grips with the enemy and taking them out, with the
marching and the digging and the civilian aspect
minimized or excised. Your objectives should
always be clear and meaningful, and perhaps even
noble, and should more than compensate players
for hardship. The players should generally win,
but not too easily; it’s a struggle, but one where
the right side will come out on top. This will
also let players steadily make gains in the power
and agency of their characters.
Feel absolutely free to revel in the technical and
tactical aspects; call the weapons by their titles,
wow the players by putting them aboard the backs
of tanks or riding into positions plastered by
sleek gunships. Supplies, artillery and medivac
in abundance are always a call away no matter
what. The players get to use and appreciate every
piece of their equipment, because all the bits
where they would come to loath the burden of them
and discard them on some jungle trail is skipped
over in favour of presenting situations where
they are just what is needed.
Likewise, you might just want to shift the war to
black and white terms, so you don’t have to think
about the morality of your pincer manoeuvre and
can just bask in its effectiveness. The NVA and
V.C. are crackling villains and petty bullies, the
civilians need your help, and you are superheroes
with M-16s coming to the rescue. Its bullshit, but
we’re just playing pretend.
In a way, playing in this fashion is to indulge
the fiction built up around the Vietnam War by
its supporters, just as running a game of pure war
horror plays into the fiction of its detractors,
when the truth is always more complicated,
nuanced, and impossible.
155
Saigon Gothic
This is war through the filter of gunsmoke and
acid, a surreal trip through Southeast Asia
always on the edge of making sense, always with
reason just outside your reach. If war is horror
than this is cosmic horror, absurd and macabre
and dreadful and always unexplained. If war is
a machine, then it is a Rube Goldberg device and
nobody is really sure what it’s supposed to do.
Your unit keeps meeting CIA spooks, each with
different names and units but otherwise looking,
dressing, and acting exactly the same. You pass a
unit coming out of the bush wearing domino masks,
capes, and six-week beards. The 5 o’clock radio
announcement is exactly the same words every day
until you all mouth along subconsciously. Moving
up the road, your unit passes a jeep upside-down
in a ditch, a wheel rotating lazily even though
the vehicle is quickly turning to rust.
A clearing on your map is occupied by an ARVN
unit, dead in their holes, all in combat-ready
positions. At night, a PSYOPS helicopter flies
over, playing nothing but the sound of a baby
crying, distorted by the speakers and distance
and the trees overhead.
Don’t focus on the technical or tactical details,
but instead on small, bizarre vignettes happening
around the action, little moments of weirdness
and dark humour. Gunfights are always flashes
in the trees and lazy tracers drifting through
the night. Nobody has a name, just nicknames,
helmet-names, words scrawled on equipment. If
your characters have to ride a helicopter, it’s
invariably full, either of bizarre supplies
nobody could possibly want or need, or of corpses.
Conversations are clipped, observational, and
pointless. It’s a war about nothing.
Your objectives often make little sense and are
worth less than nothing, focusing the game on the
personal human drama of the characters. Everyone
on both sides is burnt out, strung out, and high
as a kite, two armies of zombies stumbling into
conflict with one another and stumbling out,
both convinced they got the better.
Give the soldiers bizarre restrictions handed
down by bureaucrats; no fire in these zones
past 6 o’clock, it’ll disturb the locals. Never
move farther east than this line under any
circumstances. Everyone is to wear their ties and
gas masks for this operation. The upper officers
are clouds of plans and buzzwords and timetables
wholly detached from reality, while the grunts,
borderline sub-verbal, express themselves in
trophies, scrawled marker, incoherent slang, pop
culture references, and profanity.
At the end of the day, there’s no explaining or
rationalizing anything that happened. The
experience is what it was, and that’s that.
Free World
Forces
The United States are not the only participant of
the Vietnam War. Obviously, the military of South
Vietnam played a large role, as did paramilitary
forces throughout the south.
A number of other nations contributed soldiers
under the “Free World Military Forces” banner.
Soldiers from the Republic of Korea sent over a
quarter-million soldiers throughout the war,
while Thailand, and the ANZUS Pact contributed
around ten thousand troops each. The Republic of
China, not wanting a diplomatic incident, sent
only advisors, and the Philippines sent “civic
action groups” with attached security.
Strategic OBjectives
Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV)
was the organization in charge of foreign
intervention forces in Vietnam and, in a
practical sense, commanded the entire war effort.
The first absolute priority of US forces and their
allies is to keep the North from overrunning the
South. For the most part, they achieve this just
with their presence, as the North doesn’t stand
any chance of defeating the US military in a
stand-up fight. As long as the US stays in the war,
this objective is in the bag.
Next on the priority ladder is the destruction of
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong military power.
The traditional way of achieving this would
simply be to storm Hanoi in an unstoppable wave
of advanced tanks and aircraft, but that runs the
risk of bringing Red China into the equation.
Having tangled with the Chinese communists in
Korea, the US Army was not looking for a rematch.
Besides, they weren’t interested in conquering
North Vietnam, just preserving South Vietnam as
a separate state.
Third, the foreign presence had to keep the
South Vietnamese government together and in
clear control of the country. This was harder
than it sounds, because South Vietnam was a mess
economically, politically, and ethnically, and
its rulers were, at least initially, far more
interested in power and wealth than actually
running a working country.
Finally, Western forces in Vietnam had a number
of humanitarian ambitions. At the time, the
United States was still very invested in the early
United Nations and goals of global development,
peacekeeping, and disease eradication. Even in
this bleak moments, there were a few optimistic
attempts as making the world a better place, even
if they often fell by the wayside.
156
Military Zones
In a more normal war, there would be several
active battle groups along a front line with the
enemy, with command responsibilities working
primarily through the units involved instead of
the territory. However, Vietnam is not a normal
war. There is no front line; the entire country is
a war zone. Thus, the country was instead divided
into four zones for strategic and military
purposes. These zones were named for the four
different groups of the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam (ARVN) assigned to each one.
I Corps was responsible for the northernmost
five provinces of South Vietnam, which meant
they had to bear the burden of fighting the North
Vietnamese Army head on. This part of the country
was a maze of base camps and fortifications under
constant threat of NVA probes and artillery,
probably the most conventional portion of the
war. In addition to the ARVN forces, the bulk of
the US Marines in Vietnam were stationed here,
later reinforced with US XXIV Corps, including
1st Air Cavalry.
II Corps was responsible for the middle portion
of the country, the Central Highlands. Once the
major NVA infiltration units were driven out,
this was where the war was quietest, though still
everpresent. Convoy drivers taking supplies
from airbases to the front line would travel
through III Corps, and the area was dotted in
special forces bases leading into Laos.
III Corps was tasked with protecting Saigon,
and this was where much of the hardest fighting
against large V.C. elements took place, inside the
so-called “Iron Triangle”. This was the area hit
hardest by the Tet Offensive, and where much of
the heaviest fighting for the US Army took place.
Finally, IV Corps was responsible for the Mekong
Delta, the main waterway into South Vietnam from
Cambodia and the most heavily populated and
productive portion of the country. With patrol
boats crisscrossing the waterways, this is where
much of the search and destroy efforts were
concentrated.
While different units nominally had different
responsibilities and were attached to different
Corps, detachments from every unit found
themselves all over the country in the ever-
changing circumstances of the war. For example,
the 1st Air Cavalry was initially deployed
to II Corps, but they were called to the aid of
Marine units in I Corps so frequently they were
eventually redeployed there outright. Elements
of units with special skills, or simply nothing
else to do, would be shuffled around the country
to wherever more bodies were needed for a task,
so it wasn’t unheard of to fight in more than one
sector over your tour.
157
U.S. Military The United States produced tactical nuclear
artillery and even an atomic bazooka, and studies
The Vietnam War was a war the United States was were conducted on how long infantry could expect
not prepared to fight. The real threat was in to keep fighting with radiation sickness. If the
Europe, where any day Soviet tanks might drive world was going to burn to a cinder, then by God,
through Germany and atomic bombers would come they’d own every charred inch.
screaming across the Arctic circle.
As luck would have it, however, the US military
A decade earlier the United States had come to would find their defining conflict of the
blows with a major communist power, fighting latter 20th century not locked in a titanic
Red China in Korea, and they were not eager to technological struggle for the soul of the world,
repeat the experience. To the post-WW2 mindset but in a dirty guerrilla war in the jungles of
of the United States, the communist fought with South-East Asia.
technical proficiency of the Nazi Germans and
the fanatical determination of the Imperial
Japanese.
Special Forces Lead the Way
The beginning of US involvement was through
intelligence services, as the CIA attempted to
This caused the United States to double down on
mold the new government to US interests. Soon
their values; overwhelming firepower, superb
after, new concerns saw the US Army’s Green
logistics, and an insistence on the individual
Berets, Navy SEALS, CIA spooks, Force Recon, and
superiority of men, equipment, and vehicles. If
a whole host of other agencies all pooling their
the United States could not match the speed at
resources into one body: Military Assistance
which other countries mobilized or the abandon
Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations
by which their opponents were willing to spend
Group, known by the slightly less obnoxious
lives, they resolved to win the war of attrition
handle MACV-SOG.
by stacking the deck in favour of each and every
one of their soldiers.
As the first boots on the ground, the job of
MACV-SOG was to turn scattered anti-communist
This meant providing soldiers with the most
militia into a fighting force that could stand
cutting edge equipment possible in weapons,
up to the V.C. and NVA, and to do whatever they
body armour, vehicles, and electronic equipment,
could to disrupt, kill, and terrify the enemy.
and supplying them in such abundance that they
Well trained in languages, combat tactics and
could hold any position indefinitely even in the
modern techniques, they dropped in with ARVN
face of nuclear war.
and indigenous forces right at the front lines
and arranged a trade; their knowledge of modern
The Space-Age Soldier warfare for the native’s survival technique.
The US infantryman of the mid-1960s was the most
well-armed, well-trained and well-supplied This resulted in units that could fight the
soldier in the world. Viet Cong on their own turf and using their own
tactics, following them where conventional units
He carried a cutting-edge new weapon called the couldn’t. They could turn the tables and fight a
M16, an assault rifle with lightweight plastic guerrilla war against the NVA just as easily. But
furniture, capable of both semi-automatic and these units required air support, and airplanes
fully-automatic fire. His squad carried grenade need bases...
launchers, machine-guns, and incendiary bombs.
He was one of the only soldiers in the entire
world who went to war with body armour, a padded
vest of nylon and fibreglass laminate which
could stop shell fragments. His squad carries
advanced electronics in the form of portable
radios and infrared sniper scopes. He had pills
for radiation and malaria, tablets that could
purify water, and flavoured powder that could
make it bearable to drink.

The US military was prepared for anything,

and prepared to try anything, to leverage
whatever advantage they could in the inevitable
apocalyptic conflict against communism.
Superpowered jet fighters and ever larger and
more dangerous tanks flowed freely from design
labs and factories. Experiments were made into
flying jeeps, jet packs, helicopters, and floating
rifle platforms.
158
Conventional Force
As soon as V.C. forces first attacked a US air base
in the South, the war was set for escalation.
Not long after, the United States dispatched
conventional troops to Vietnam to defend their
airbases. Watching the ARVN mismanage the
defence of the rest of the country, this cautiously
defensive arrangement didn’t last very long.
Soon significant assets from all four branches
of the US military were involved, and the United
States was knee deep in guerilla war.
Both the US Army and the US Marines fought on
the ground in Vietnam. Though these two forces
share much in the way of equipment, missions and
outlook, there are practical difference between
the institutions. Put simply, the Marines
consider it their job to win battles, while the
Army is concerned with winning wars.
The Army has a mandate to handle all aspects of
warfare on the ground and conduct operations at
every level, so they focus heavily on logistics,
equipment, and planning. The Army is filled from
top to bottom with technical specialists, drivers,
observers, and bureaucracy, but when it works it
is a well-oiled machine of destruction that can
roll over any other military in the world.
The vast majority of US troops fighting in Vietnam
were Army, and most of those were draftees,
legally obligated to serve for a period of time.
These draftees would, after training, spend 12
months in-country before shipping home. They
were still in the army, but their term of service
wasn’t long enough for another tour, so they were
effectively out.
Army soldiers were more than just mobile; they were
motorized, mechanized, and airborne, sometimes
all at the same time. Though different divisions
and units technically had different equipment
and transportation, it was all so organic and so
chaotic that most of these distinctions broke
down. It wouldn’t be unheard of for a soldier to
take a truck to the airfield, ride a helicopter
to the coast, catch a boat up north, and then come
ashore in an armoured vehicle.
By contrast, the Marines are something of an
elite subdivision of the American military,
in some ways similar to the political guards
used by many countries. Marines are primarily
concerned with fighting and winning in the here
and now, running as light as they can on supply
trains and trailing equipment and relying only
on themselves.
Marines make do; every single Marine, from tank
drivers to cooks, goes through infantry training
and can be relied on as a rifleman. The Marines
also operate the most diverse set of equipment,
being the only branch of the military allowed to
operate ships, fixed-wing aircraft, and armour.
159
In Vietnam, all the Marines were volunteers, which
gave them something of an edge in dedication,
but they suffered greatly from a great deal of
institutional blind spots and the pride of their
commanders. With only a few exceptions, Marine
units took proportionately higher casualties
week to week than the army, and frequently found
themselves in pointless, protracted operations
they refused to abandon. Two of the most murderous
meatgrinders of the war, the sieges of Con Thien
and Khe Sanh, were both essentially cases of the
Marine Corp clinging stubbornly to a location as
the NVA poured artillery fire on them.
New Techniques
Both branches were in the process of the
experimental implementation of a variety of new
technologies. Chief among these were helicopters,
which were invaluable in the dense jungle. Ground
convoys were vulnerable to ambush and the United
States was too dependant on large quantities of
modern equipment to function without them, so
air mobility was key to US operations in Vietnam,
allowing troops and supplies to be dropped
where they are needed and picked up right off
the battlefield with incredible efficiency. Ever
more powerful machines were soon ferrying not
just soldiers, but jeeps, boats, heavy artillery
cannons, and even tanks.
Another important innovation of the Vietnam War
was the firebase. Effectively, a firebase is an
old-timey frontier fort supporting a number of
distinctly new-fangled artillery cannons. Both
the Marines and the Army strung out an incredible
network of firebases across Vietnam, ensuring no
part of the conflict zone was outside the reach
of ordinance. Firebases were tiny islands in a
dangerous sea of jungle, and the helicopter was
the vessel used to move between them.
Where artillery couldn’t go or wasn’t sufficient,
air power took over. Though the Air Force
primarily concerned itself with the bombing
of Northern infrastructure and duelling their
opposite number in the NVA, both they and the
Navy provided invaluable close air support
from fixed-winged aircraft. Though jet fighters
provided most of this support in the early war,
a niche was soon found for low-speed propeller
planes in an anti-insurgency function, serving
as flying artillery platforms, observation
planes, and mobile radio relays.
Electronic warfare played a huge part of the
Vietnam War, with the newly formed NSA sending
agents to the jungle to coordinate huge EW
operations bent on tracking the V.C. through their
radio broadcasts, and using wiretaps to monitor
and catch traitors in the South Vietnamese
government. In many ways, Vietnam was a preview
of the Information Age, where intelligence and
technology permeating every level of military
operations.
Search and Destroy
The first major battle of the war was the Battle
of Ia Drang, where 450 US Army Air Cavalry
dropped close in on what was supposed to be 200
NVA soldiers. This turned out to be two and a
half thousand soldiers, resulting in a desperate
fight that ground that dragged on through the
night. Rather than a sobering lesson in the
inadequacies of their intelligence systems,
Command was shocked to learn they inflicted a
12-to-1 kill ratio on the enemy. This lopsided
result lead to the conclusion that this war could
be won by simple attrition at minimal cost. The
measure of victory would not be ground taken,
but body count.
The Search and Destroy mission was a simple
strategy. You pick a sector, and you put the boots
on the ground. These troops sweep across the
area, checking every inch of territory for signs
of the enemy, inspecting villages, questioning
civilians, and killing or capturing every hostile
they come across. You do it again and again until
the enemy is out of weapons, out of bodies, and
out of places to hide. Then you go do it somewhere
else, rather than wasting time and manpower on
occupation of areas that had been pacified. This
was not a task the South Vietnamese were up for;
it had to be done by US soldiers.
Search and Destroy made sense to the scientific
minds of the modern US army. It was measurable;
one could record the number of casualties
inflicted week to week and adjust the deployment
of troops to match. It was a far more concrete than
the nebulous “hearts and minds” strategies to
pacify the civilian population. These measures
were also far more popular with the South
Vietnamese government, who would rather see dead
communists than risk the rural people expecting
access to political process.
Search and Destroy also provided ample material
for the anti-war movement, with demonstrations
and Congressional hearings centred around
the destructive and invasive nature of the
doctrine. A powerful protest march was Operation
RAW, a simulated Search and Destroy mission,
undertaken by veterans, sweeping through New
Jersey and Pennsylvania.
160
Losing the Home Front
Throughout the conflict, the United States and
her allies managed to effectively squandered
their considerable advantages for reasons of
politics, ideology and misplaced doctrine.
The war they fought made sense to the command
structure, but was impossible to explain to
the civilian population, who saw nothing but
setback after setback. Successful campaigns of
pacification were abandoned and direct action
against the North was shot down for fear of
involving Red China. Bombing campaigns which
were, by the post-war admission of the Vietnamese
government, mere weeks away from forcing an end
to the war, were cut short for politics.
The Draft was another complicating factor. The
manpower-intensive nature of Search and Destroy
meant that there was simply no way a volunteer
military could keep up, so the US military relied
more and more on draftees. With three hundred
names a week on the casualties lists by 1968, the
threat of being ripped from civilian life to die
in a jungle halfway around the world for a never-
ending war nobody could adequately explain
loomed large in the minds of American youth.
For young people in America, Vietnam was less an
abstract political issue than it was a strange
sort of epidemic, with symptoms including draft
cards, buzz cuts, sudden overseas displacement,
and a startling rate of death and disfigurement.
The Peace movement encouraged young men to burn
their draft cards, equalling cooperation with
tacit approval for the war. Draft dodgers fled to
the countryside or Canada and soldiers deserted
in record numbers.
This attitude at home had a serious effect on
soldiers in-country, who keenly perceived
civilian opinion of the war, and of them. Morale
plummeted and recruitment standards dived. The
mounting pressure at home and the disintegration
of US morale eventually proved too much. Starting
in 1969, the Americans started slowly pulling out
of the country, leaving the ARVN to take up the
slack. By August 1972, the last American ground
unit pulled out, and it was the ARVN’s show.
Playing Americans ...As Special Forces
“Special Forces” refers to a whole host of
PATROL is already written with the intent that different units with diverse functions across
the PCs are playing US Army soldiers. However, all branches, too many to list here.
there are a myriad of different branches within
the US Military who were represented in Vietnam, Each character should select 2 MOS, gaining the
so here are some adjustments to the Character benefits of both. They have 30 Attribute points,
Creation process to account for those. with 6 as the minimum, and 16 XP for gear.
Skills
...As US Marines Assault Rifle (Medium) Hand Grenade
The Marines in Vietnam are proud, all-volunteer,
Battle Rifle (Medium) Prepare Position
and invariably end up in the worst spots. Their
Assault Rifle (E) Eagle Eyed
commanders believe they have a reputation
+4 Other Weapon Skills Silent Killer
to uphold as tough and uncompromising, and
Basic Medical Local Language
so the Marines are frequently dispatched
Guard Jump Training
into impossible situations while their pride
precludes them calling on the Army for help. Equipment Weight
x1 Camo Fatigues 2 (Negated)
If you play a squad of US Marines, then every x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
member of the Squad gets the benefits of the x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity)
Rifleman MOS in addition to their chosen MOS; x1 Flashlight 1
every Marine goes through extensive infantry x1 First Aid Kit 1
training and can be counted on as a rifleman x1 Knife 1
first and foremost. They also get the Aquatic x1 Dog Tags 0
skill. To represent their supply situation, all
Total Weight 3
items except free Supplies cost +1 XP to acquire.
However, don’t get too attached to any shiny gear.
All MOS are available to Marines. Their Medics
You’ll be out of contact for a long time; after
(Corpsmen) and Engineers (Seabees) are actually
your first Mission, all 0 XP equipment costs 1 XP
members of the Navy, so they also get Drive (Boat).
to replace. You also need to run light, so don’t
Marines speak an impenetrable jargon of their
pack too much.
own devising (see page 135) and do not take kindly
to being called “soldiers”.
Navy SEALS should also have Aquatic and SCUBA
Cert.
...As US Armour
If you still want to play Army, another option
is to play as the crew of an armoured vehicle
...As US NAvy
The Navy actually had a pretty substantial role in
instead of as infantrymen. While PATROL is not
Vietnam, both in their air contributions as well
as developed for vehicle warfare as it is for
as their “brown-water navy”. This is actually
infantry, it’s still quite doable.
something of a US Navy tradition, as they also
manned the combat riverboats of the Civil War.
The obvious way to do this is to make all the
players one member of a tank crew, but another is
You don’t have an MOS; you aren’t a Private, you
to have each PC play a tank commander, with NPCs
are a “Rating”. Rather than the normal Standard
playing their crew. This way, each individual
Issue, use the following. You still have 6 bonus
player still has independent agency.
XP and 24 Attribute points.
In either case, you should give your players their Skills
tanks, regular Attribute distribution, and the Handyman
following standard issue gear. Don’t bother with Aquatic
an MOS, though; just give each player a relevant Drive (Pick 1 Boat)
skill for their position. 2 Weapon Skills
Skills Equipment Weight
Handyman x1 Fatigues (US Navy) 2 (Negated)
Guard x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
Equipment Weight x1 Steel Helmet 2
x1 Life Preserver 2
x1 Fatigues (US Army) 2 (Negated)
x1 Flashlight 1
x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
x1 First Aid Kit 1
x1 Crash Helmet 2
x1 Dog Tags 0
x1 Flashlight 1
x1 Dog Tags 0 Total Weight 6
Total Weight 3

161
American NPCs
General Infantry
The GI, or Grunt, is the lowest form of life on
earth. This reclusive creature survives on a
diet of C-Rations and profanity, and lives in
warrens it digs in the mud. If encountered in
the wild, try to make yourself look big.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 7 7 6
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Hand Grenade, Guard, Prepare Position, Battle
Rifle/Assault Rifle (Medium).
Equipment
Generally, a GI carries an assault rifle, a
combat knife, dog tags, some frag grenades,
and as much ammunition as they can carry.
Otherwise, they carry as little other
equipment as they feel they can get away with.
Behaviour
GIs stick close to one another and follow the
lead of anyone who sounds like they know what
they’re doing. They don’t particularly want
to be here, so they won’t go out of their way
unless it is to protect their comrades.
In combat, GIs attempt to immediately drive
back the enemy with overwhelming firepower.
If spooked, they shoot first, call in artillery,
and leave the questions for somebody else.
Once they start, getting them to stop shooting
is usually the hard part.
American Tanker
The treadhead lives a sad little life inside
the confines of a steel box. He’s deaf as a post
and shouts everything he says. He’ll buy an
expensive motorcycle when he gets home to try
and recapture the feel.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 7 7 Incompetent Pragmatic officers take this
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
A relevant Drive or Weapon skill, Handyman,
Guard
Equipment
A crash helmet, fatigues and boots. Many will
carry a pistol, shotgun or SMG as a personal
defence weapon.
Behaviour
Tankers loath to leave their vehicles under
any circumstances short of fire in the
compartment. If they have infantry support,
they’ll aggressively advance.
162
Junior Officer
For the most part, your average junior officer
can’t catch a break. He’s just as inexperienced
as the men he’s leading, so if he’s smart, he’ll
limit his job to relaying orders from above
and staying out of the NCO’s way.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
8 7
Alignment
Any.
Skills
Hand Grenade, Diplomacy, Prepare Position,
Battle Rifle/Assault Rifle (Medium).
Equipment
A Junior Officer is equipped just like his
men, but will usually also carry a pistol as a
sidearm.
Behaviour
Junior Officers act in accordance with their
alignment and their level of competence. The
disposition of a unit generally mirrors that
of their officer.
Competent Idealistic officers use their
squads to full advantage, ordering their men
to leapfrog and lay covering fire. They’ll
always move to help civilians in trouble, and
generally don’t take the easy way out. They
work very well with other units, are beloved by
their men, and allow their NCOs to confidently
make calls in the moment. Incompetents are
simply overruled by their NCOs and hated
by their men for being soft, and usually get
rotated out of combat duty to dead-end jobs in
short order.
Competent Pragmatic officers try to let
support do as much of the work as they can, and
only ask their men to take on larger risks if
other soldiers are in danger. They never give
chase or fall for feints and are quite cautious.
cautious to the level of indecision, failing
to lead effectively and reacting predictably.
Competent Righteous officers keep their
troops aggressive and mobile. They push
their men to take risks and keep on the enemy,
making bold flanking moves and even charging
to overrun enemy positions. Incompetent
Righteous officers try stupid heroics that get
men killed, and are liable to get fragged.
Competent Egotistical officers mimic one of
the other types. Incompetents hide at the back
of the unit and send troublemakers to do all
the hard jobs.
Green Beret
US Special Forces have two main jobs; work
with indigenous forces and perform long-
range, long term missions. They’re arrogant
SOBs, but they know their stuff.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
10 10 10
Alignment
Any.
Skills
Hand Grenade, Guard, Prepare Position, a
variety of Weapon Skills (Close, Medium).
Equipment
Tiger Stripe fatigues, an Auto Carbine or
speciality weapon, a machete, and some mixture
of ammunition, grenades and explosives. They
run lighter than their regular counterparts.
Behaviour
Green Berets do their best to stay out of sight
and fight only on their own terms. They’ll
sneak anywhere they might be hostile and
prefer to take things slow.
If they must fight, they aim to quickly
destroy the enemy at close range with extreme
firepower, as well as mines and claymores.
Springing a sudden and violent ambush at
arms length using all the firepower they can
muster, they then either drive the survivors
back, close in to take prisoners, or fade into
the jungle if the ambush goes south.
As well as running on their own, Green Berets
can be found leading ARVN and Militia units.
Helicopter Crew
Helicopter pilots and crew chiefs are either
beloved by ground soldiers (if they are
currently providing supplies or a lift home)
or hated (if they are late doing those things.)
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 7 7 Some will have Local Language, Diplomacy or
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Pilots have a Pilot skill for their helicopters.
and weapon skills for their helicopter’s
guns. Door gunners have Weapon skills for all
machine-guns in Close and Medium.
Equipment
A crash helmet, chicken plate, fatigues and
boots. Flare gun. Maybe a pistol, machine-
pistol or carbine.
Behaviour
Helicopters want to spend as little time on or
near the ground as possible. If forced out of
their copters, they’ll follow the lead of the
ground soldiers and complain about it the
entire way.
163
American Pilot
Fixed wing aircraft pilots, be they Marine,
Air Force or Navy, have no time or respect for
the ants on the ground below, and everyone
knows it.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
6 8 7
Alignment
Usually Egotistic.
Skills
Pilot (Relevant plane), Weapon Skill (plane’s
weapons), Stealth, Fleet-Footed, Survivalist.
Marine pilots will also have all the standard
Infantry skills.
Equipment
Crash helmet, flight suit, boots, parachute,
combat knife, pistol with a single reload,
flare gun, and a coloured smoke grenade.
Behaviour
If a US pilot is shot down, they will immediately
go into survival mode. They’ll make full-speed
for the nearly firebase, or due East otherwise,
never stop to engage, and keep going as long as
they can in search of rescue.
American Nurse
Nearly 10,000 American women served as
nurses in the Vietnam War. They worked long,
thankless hours, 12 hour shifts six shifts
a week tending to casualties, working even
more after large battles.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
5 5 2
Alignment
Any.
Perks
The Nurse counts their Vigilance as double
for any medical rolls.
Skills
Basic Medical, Trauma Care, and Medicine.
Interrogate.
Equipment
Civvies in Western style off-duty, or a set of
Fatigues on-duty. Footwear.
If they are going out in the field for any
reason, they’ll get a helmet, fatigues, a
medical bag, a canteen, and as many first aid
kits and opiates as they can carry.
Behaviour
Generally speaking, Nurses don’t leave the
wire. Off-duty, some of them can be found
volunteering at local organizations. In the
event of an attack, they’ll try to get to the aid
station to help casualties, and will generally
react poorly to soldiers trying to operate
around them.
South Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, known in
short as the ARVN (pronouced “Arvin”), barely
existed at the beginning of American involvement
in the war.
Originally, the ARVN was little more than a
formalization of the various militia which
sprang up to battle communist militia. Like in
Korea, the Southern portion of the nation was
primarily rural, with most of the population
concentrated in the Mekong River Delta. It was
only through Western aid that the country’s
nascent military managed to hang on at all.
The earliest American intervention was in
the form of a small number of specialists and
US Marines sent to try and train these militia
into a fighting force that could stand against
the Viet Cong and the NVA. Some of these units
became irregular rural militia, and others were
folded into the regular army, but in any cause
it wasn’t enough to stand up against the united,
industrialized North.
Humble Beginnings
The ARVN effectively started with the central
government taking control of a variety of militia
raised both by rural villages and regional
governors. In the mid-1950s, American advisors
began making attempts to modernize and train
these militia, reorganizing them in imitation of
the structure of the US military.
The early ARVN was quite typical of poverty-
striken authoritarian states. Poorly managed,
politically shackled, and underfunded where
it counts, they were armed with a smattering of
French and Japanese weapons and their actions
and organization was a constant battleground
between various ministers and generals vying
for power. They had little ability to combat the
communist threat, and were in fact generally
about five minutes from shooting one another at
any given time. Many US advisors wrote the ARVN
off entirely and refocused their efforts on the
irregular forces.
164
Stepping Up
As the war with North Vietnam and the NLF heated
up, the ARVN were forced to adapt. The second
generation of militia joining the force, hardened
by combat with the communists, had little time
for political games, at least until they got their
own taste of power.
In 1963, President Ngô Đình Diem, the dictator of
South Vietnam since 1955 and avowed Catholic,
escalated a steady and destructive campaign of
terror against the Buddhist population of South
Vietnam, including banning religious flags
and symbols, chemical attacks on protestor,
and arresting or “disappearing” hundreds of
politician and religious leaders. As more than
half of the population of Vietnam were Buddhist,
this had the unsurprising effect of massively
destabilizing the country, destroying faith in
the government, and driving the rural population
further into the hands of the Viet Cong. The
situation was bad enough that the US privately
threatened to withdraw support.
Disgusted by the terrible management of the
situation, the mid-level officers and generals of
the ARVN staged a coup, assassinating President
Diem and his brother and taking control of the
government. Not only were US intelligence and
diplomatic services were well aware of the
planned coup, but they effectively approved the
action. From that point forward, the government
and the military of South Vietnam were one body.
Though this could have been a chance to whip the
ARVN into fighting shape, the government of South
Vietnam remained in flux for the next few years.
Eventually, the situation more or less stabilized
under President Nguyen Văn Thieu, a tyrant, but
a practically-minded one concerned primarily
with advancing the war effort. Soon the burden of
the war would be turned over to the incoming Free
World Forces, with the ARVN primarily relegated
to garrison duty for the back half of the decade.
The sudden influx of Western money and support
was probably the worst thing that could have
happened to them.
From Bad to Worse
The officials who lead the ARVN, with a few
exceptions, intended to let the Americans do
their fighting for them while they used the
Army to make a profit, gather political power,
or enforce their own ideals in the country. The
individual soldiers themselves were typically
undertrained, underequipped, and effectively
treated like dirt by their superiors. Most of
them were rural farmers before joining up, whose
isolation left them profoundly unexperienced
with the technological implements of modern war.
The ARVN was, put simply, a mess. Like the
military of most impoverished countries, it was
more or less corrupt to the core. Officers were
appointed for personal, financial, and political
reasons rather than by training or merit, so the
vast majority of the upper command structure was
either incompetent or shirking their duties for
their own benefit. The ARVN’s officers were drawn
from the urban elite of the country, who kept
their soldiers close to the cities rather than
stray out and engage the enemy.
This was not for lack of trying on the part of
South Vietnam’s allies, or its more experienced
military commanders. Many ARVN troops were well
equipped, using much the same gear that American
troops did, but often better adapted to the jungle
theatre. Expensive fully camouflaged uniforms
were common, even while the United States was
still mostly using plain olive green. They had
access to armour, their own air force, and much
the same weaponry as the richest nations in
the world. When put in the hands of trained and
motivated soldiers, the ARVN could match the
efforts of their foreign allies.
However, you simply cannot buy competence. Good
commanders could make for good units, but the
bulk of the ARVN remained useless.
165
Rangers Never Surrender
Generally speaking, you could tell how useful an
ARVN unit was going to be by what kind of unit
they were. If they were regular army or armour,
they were the dregs, led by officers who didn’t
want to see combat and composed of men who didn’t
want to be there. But most specialized units,
something like Marines. Paratroopers, Rangers,
or Mechanized, were usually reliable because
the people leading them wanted them to win and
the troops who joined them wanted to be winners.
These units tended to earn a lot more respect than
their counterparts among the regulars.
The Rangers were easily the best of the lot.
Initially trained by US Special Forces and formed
for light infantry and commando raids, as the
only effective branch of the ARVN they quickly
became the multirole elite corps. Ranger units
were immediately recognizable by their flare
for the dramatic; they worn sharply-tailored
versions of the standard Allied uniform in
camouflage patterns, spraypainted helmets with
the snarling tiger’s head on the front, and bright
yellow scarves for identification. They would
paint their vehicles in a mix of camouflage and
gouache colours, covered in pictures of beasts
or lined with grinning teeth. When Saigon fell,
many of the Rangers fought to the death.
The other part of the ARVN that held their own
was their Armoured Cavalry Squadrons, who
were clever, innovative, and fierce fighters.
Their main claim to fame is adapting the M113,
an aluminium-hulled light armoured carrier
intended to do nothing but ferry men into battle
and back, into a close-support fighting vehicle
by using armoured machine-guns, rockets, and
flamethrowers out the forward hatches. The
ARVN 3rd Armoured Cavalry Squadron of II Corps
remains one of the very few foreign units ever to
receive a Presidential Unit Citation.
Falling Apart
Going into the late 1960s, it started to be
clear that the United States could not hold
the line forever. Even before the process of
Vietnamization officially began, much of the
ARVN started making a concentrated effort to
pull their weight and solve their corruption and
disciplinary problems, aided by US support.
There were a lot of bumps along the way, with the
ARVN simply not up to a lot of the tasks, but it was
hoped that US equipment and training could make
up for a lot of deficiencies. In places, this worked
out; some units were on-par with their American
counterparts come the ceasefire, and the ARVN
air force was impressive both in the number and
quality of their aircraft and the skill of their
operators. But it would not be enough. When the
North reignited hostilities, the ARVN quickly
found itself out of fuel, ammo, and options.
Playing ARVN ...As Rangers
If you want to play elite ARVN troops, like
As the ARVN was such a fragmented, disorganized Rangers, make a 24 point, 9XP standard character.
institution, there are many different ways to
play and interact with them. Any one of these will Skills
make for a unique and interesting game. Carbine (Medium)
Assault Rifle (Medium)
South Vietnamese troops have no need of the Basic Medical
Local Language skill; you all speak Vietnamese Stealth
(or an Indigenous language, for Irregulars.) You Hand Grenade
can talk normally to Vietnamese civilians, but Prepare Position
making Americans understand you may be more Local Language (Indigenous)
difficult, requiring the English Skill. Equipment Weight
x1 Camo Fatigues (ARVN) 2 (Negated)
...As Regulars x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
ARVN troops function almost exactly like their x1 Steel Helmet 2
American counterparts. Before you spend your XP x1 Poncho 2
on your character’s extra gear and skills, roll x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity)
a d6 for each of the Standard Issue Skills and x1 Military Pack 4 (+15 Capacity)
Equipment. On a 1, supply or time issues means x1 Entrenching Tool 2
that you never got that equipment or training, so x1 Machete 1
strike it from your sheet. x1 Dog Tags 0
Total Weight 11
Otherwise, make a 21 point, 6XP character
normally. Take your MOS as normal, and don’t roll
Select a Carbine or Assault Rifle as your service
for your MOS skills and gear.
weapon. You’ll be sent on only the most dangerous
Skills missions, but you’re better prepared than anyone.
Battle Rifle (Medium)
Carbine (Medium)
Assault Rifle (Medium)
...As Armoured Cavalry
The ARVN were hard up for tanks in their fights
Basic Medical
with the much larger NVA, so adapting the M113
Guard
APC to fit an infantry support role to free up
Hand Grenade
their remaining vehicles was a clever solution.
Prepare Position
Equipment Weight To play Armoured Cav, use the ARVN Regular rules.
x1 Fatigues (ARVN) 2 (Negated) However, instead of regular MOS, you have the
x1 Footwear 2 (Negated) Cavalry MOS. This gives you Drive (APC), Handyman,
x1 Steel Helmet 2 Heavy Machine-Gun (Medium) and Medium Machine-
x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity) Gun (Medium).
x1 Military Pack 4 (+15 Capacity)
x1 Entrenching Tool 2 In addition, the Squad gets a vehicle to ride
x1 Knife 1 around in, either an M113 or an M706 Commando.
x1 Dog Tags 0 The members of the Squad can spend their bonus XP
on enhancing the vehicle using the guidelines
Total Weight 9
in their profile.
For service weapons, you can choose a Carbine,
Assault Rifle or Battle Rifle.

...As an Interpreter
With the GM’s permission, you can play an ARVN
interpreter for a player group of FWF troops.
As the interpreter is one of the ways the GM
can control what the players know and how they
respond, it shouldn’t be done lightly, but it’s an
option.

Just follow the ARVN regular character creation

rules for Regulars or Rangers as usual. Your
MOS is always Intel. As an interpreter, you
will be fully bilingual; you won’t have to make
Communicate actions to translate concepts back
and forth.
166
...As Popular Forces
The Viet Cong were not the only irregular force
that fought in the Vietnam War. South Vietnam had
its own militia force, called the Popular Forces,
or Ruff-Puffs by their US allies. Essentially a
sort of local self-defence force, the Popular
Forces helped keep order and fought the Viet
Cong on their own terms. As US troops started
withdrawing, these units increasingly became
attached to the regular army.
The best way to play the Popular Forces is simply
to play using the mechanics provided for Viet
Cong characters on page 176, but on the side of
South Vietnam instead. Just make the proper
substitutions; your gear is provided by the US
and the South instead of the North, and you do
less trap-laying and more patrolling!
...AS Regional FOrces
The ARVN had divisions known as the Regional
Forces, who were essentially controlled by
various governors instead of by the centralized
army command. They typically manned checkpoints
or undertook various dubious activities for the
political or financial advancement of their
leaders, and they were soon folded into regular
Army hierarchy to try and control them.
Play exactly like you would for ARVN regulars,
except your equipment doesn’t get to you on a
roll of 1 or 2 instead of just 1. To make up for it,
your leaders might cut you in on some of the cash
(and thus bonus VPs) for your generally-illegal
objectives, so maybe you can buy some new gear.
All Regional Force officers are Egotistical; the
good officer material went and joined the real
army instead. Generally, most Regional Force
soldiers are organized criminals working the
system or press-ganged rural know-nothings.
As the war drags on, the Regional Forces will be
incorporated into the Regulars.
167
...As Irregular Militia
To play as members of Special Forces trained
Civilian Irregular Defense Group fighters, use the
rules for Montagnards on page 190, specifically
the second and third level of integration, save
that you will speak Vietnamese.
By late war, most of these Irregular forces had
been folded into the army as Rangers.
...As National Police
The National Police of the Republic of Vietnam,
known by US troops as the White Mice for their
omnipresent white gloves and uniforms, were
responsible for keeping order in South Vietnam,
enforcing the (frequently unpopular) laws of the
government.
As White Mice, you have a hell of a job when you
go on a night patrolling. There are districts of
Saigon and other cities which are de facto V.C.
territory, not to mention extensive organized
crime, smuggling, drunk American soldiers,
terrorist bombing, corrupt ARVN officers, and
who knows what else.
Make a 21 point, 6XP character. White Mice
patrollers don’t get have an MOS, and they
generally don’t get access to military gear. For
service weapons, take either a Pistol or a Carbine.
Skills
Pistol (Close)
Carbine (Close)
Melee (Club)
Guard
Interrogation
Equipment Weight
x1 Fatigues (Police) 2
x1 Footwear 2
x1 Helmet 2
x1 Flashlight 1
x1 Club 2
Total Weight 9
...As VNN Sailors
If you want to play members of South Vietnam’s
inland naval forces, you’re best off essentially
using the same rules as you use for US Navy, but 21
point, Vietnamese speaking characters. Because
of the frequent attempt at sabotage, VNN Sailors
were frequently quite well armed, so everyone
has a Battle Rifle or Carbine.
...AS ARVN Armour
If you want to play the crew of a South Vietnamese
Walker Bulldog or similar, follow the rules for
US Armour, just with 21 point characters.
For flavour, ask the players how they have painted
their tanks to intimidate enemy forces.
ARVN NPCs
ARVN Regular
The ARVN Regular looks a lot like an American
GI, just a few inches shorter, a few pounds
scrawnier, and a few years of hardship meaner.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
6 7 6 7
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Hand Grenade, Guard, Prepare Position, Battle
Rifle/Carbine (Medium).
Equipment
A mismatch of olive and tiger strip camo, old
boots, beat up Battle Rifles and Carbines, and
a smattering of infantry kit and grenades.
They never have enough of anything.
Behaviour
ARVN soldiers are generally undertrained
and unprepared. Unless lead by an inspiring
officer, they’ll generally stay in their holes,
fire sporadically, and run away if the enemy
gets too close.
ARVN Section Leader
There’s only two ways you get a commission
in the ARVN; either you’re a rich somebody’s
son, or your competence is completely
unquestionable. There are way more of the
first than the second.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 8 6 defensive they will fight to the last man.
Alignment
Usually Egotistical.
Skills
Hand Grenade, Diplomacy, Prepare Position,
Battle Rifle/Assault Rifle (Medium). A mix of
other skills.
Equipment
Generally armed like their men, just with
newer, cleaner gear.
Behaviour
There’s two kinds of ARVN officers. The most
common are the sort who have their commission
for political reasons, and they are generally
useless. They lead from the back, use their men
as human shields, and maybe even abandon them
when the enemy gets close. They generally just
try to set up a defence line and they try no
novel tactics.
Competent ARVN officers behave like one of
the competent Western officers. They’ll use
their knowledge of the land to cut off the foe,
and their men will love them and fight to the
end. They usually prefer to stick close to US
forces, not trusting their own comrades.
168
ARVN Ranger
You see that skinny dude in the tailored camo,
beret, and neckerchief? Whatever you do, don’t
piss him off.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
8 8
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Frag Grenade, Guard, Prepare Position, Stealth,
Assault Rifle/Carbine (Close, Medium), Prepare
Position, Basic Medical, often Silent Killer.
Equipment
Most Rangers carry an Assault Rifle or a
Carbine, plenty of ammunition, and a machete,
as well as assorted grenades and explosives.
They carry no rations on patrol, preferring to
forage. A squad will generally carry a radio.
They wear tiger stripe fatigues and solid
boots, and either berets, Aussie-style hats, or
spraypainted steel helmets.
Behaviour
ARVN Rangers can usually be found on extreme
long-term patrols of dangerous areas, chasing
the VC back to their hideouts. As many Rangers
speak indigenous languages, they use it as a
form of radio code.
ARVN Rangers are daring and tough. They set
up close ambushes and press them to the utter
destruction of the enemy, and if forced on the
ARVN Interpreter
Speaking English and hanging out with the
Americans has given this ARVN soldier a few
advantages in training and gear.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 7 7
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Frag Grenade, Guard, Prepare Position, Battle
Rifle/Carbine (Medium).
Equipment
The Americans will generally fill in the gaps
of a good interpreter’s gear from their own PX,
so they have a full set of ARVN gear.
Behaviour
The Interpreter sticks with their FWF squad
as close as they can and follows their lead as
best as possible. They generally try to hang
back, due to their value to the patrol, and
they are never the first through the door. They
generally try to fire only in self-defence.
ARVN Commander
An older man in a freshly pressed uniform,
pockets filled with cash and chomping on a
smuggled cigar, barking orders at everyone.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
5 14 4 Fortitude
Alignment
Egotistical.
Skills
Diplomacy, maybe some English or French.
Equipment
An utterly ostentatious set of Tiger Stripe
fatigues whose decorations remove all stealth
value, solid boots, and a Pistol.
Behaviour
This profile specifically represents the
kind of useless, corrupt ARVN sleezebag who
is generally behind the sorts of illegal or
immoral schemes that your forces might come
across. This character will have no respect
for any rival ARVN or FWF, and is used to using
force, intimidation, or bribery to get his
way. He talks a lot, but is unused to personal
violence. The only thing he has going for him
is an almost supernatural paranoid sense.
His personal guard will use the statline of
ARVN Regulars with +1 to their Attributes and
full sets of Skills and gear. They are very well
paid and unlikely to betray their boss.
National Police
Nothing ruins a night of fun in Saigon quite
like the White Mice arriving to break up the
party and take the good drugs for themselves.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
5 11 4 Vietnamese is handled by these folks instead
Alignment
Usually Egotistical or Righteous.
Skills
Melee (Club), Guard, Interrogation. One member
of any squad sent to deal with Americans will
speak English.
Equipment
An all-white uniform with gloves, possibly
a Steel Helmet, and a club. In dangerous
situations, they will arrive with pistols and
carbines.
Behaviour
The White Mice mostly cluster around
checkpoints, searching travellers, waving
through officials, and beating minorities.
They generally leave FWF alone during the day.
At night, they will descend upon any FWF out
past curfew and try to drag you back to base.
They are incredibly corrupt, and willing to
overlook minor crimes for a price.
169
ARVN Crewman
The ARVN love tanks, armoured cars, and
artillery, and only wish they had more of
them. You have to be some kind of special to
get to operate that gear.
Vigilance Proficiency
6 7 6
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Drive or Weapon Skill related to their vehicle
or gun.
Equipment
Regular fatigues and boots. 1/3rd will carry a
sidearm, either a pistol or a carbine.
Behaviour
ARVN tanks and artillery is generally used
very defensively, sometimes even digging the
vehicles into place like bunkers. They will
stay in their vehicle even when it is unwise.
ARVN APC drivers are often very aggressive,
using their vehicles to batter through walls
or charge enemy bunkers, but their regular
armour units are usually are much more
cautious on the offensive and see little reason
to risk themselves. They will prefer to stand
and fire at enemy troops from a distance.
The ARVN use their artillery for large-area
bombardment as their command and control is
often lacking. They will fire as long as the
ammunition holds out to reduce risk to their
own troops.
Regional Militia
Sadly, most of the fighting done by the South
of the regular army.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
5 6 4
Alignment
Any.
Skills
Fleet-Footed. 1/2 chance of 1 Weapon skill.
Equipment
Civilian clothing and an obsolete firearm.
They are identified by a yellow pin, badge or
armband.
Behaviour
Regional Militia will stick close to their
villages. They will coordinate evacuations
of the village when it is threatened and then
set up ambushes for pursuing forces. If FWF or
trusted ARVN forces arrive, they will pull back
and leave the fighting to the professionals.
South Korea
It’s little known in the West, but the second-
largest contributor of troops to Vietnam after
the United States was South Korea, who sent
more than 300,000 soldiers from all branches of
service.
Playing Koreans
If you want to touch on a part of the war almost
completely unknown to most Western observers,
you can play Korean soldiers. Korean troops were
mainly deployed in II Corps, along the coasts in
the provinces of Bihn Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa
and Ninh Thuan.

The Republic of Korea deployed its troops very To represent their personal experience with the
differently from the other forces in Vietnam. They ravages of the communist threat, RoK soldiers
were careful, methodical and measured in their have the additional Perk Not On My Watch. This
actions, and wouldn’t commit to a mission without gives them VPs for Righteous results, as well as
considerable planning. They did not engage that of their Alignment; Righteous characters
in the piecemeal patrol deployments favoured get double VP.
by other Free World Forces; instead, they made
extensive use of intelligence resources before
committing to large-scale operations involving ...As Tiger Division
thousands of soldiers working in concert over an South Korean troops of the Capital Division are
operating area. 24 point, 6XP Characters with an MOS and the
following Standard Issue.
The results of these strategies were mixed On Skills
the one hand, whenever ROK troops deployed, they Battle Rifle (Medium)
got solid results, locating and destroying enemy Carbine (Medium)
strongholds and weapons caches with unerring Basic Medical
accuracy and consistently forcing engagements Guard
with enemy troops, netting a 10 to 1 kill ratio. Frag Grenade
On the other hand, these limited and cautious Prepare Position
deployments made them look indecisive and
Equipment Weight
allowed the enemy to run wild in their area of
operation without being checked. x1 Fatigues (RoK) 2 (Negated)
x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
The ROK troops gained a reputation as being x1 Steel Helmet 2
solid, brave soldiers, but lacking the initiative x1 Poncho 1
and aggression needed to win victory. x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity)
x1 Military Backpack 4 (+15 Capacity)
As an important aside, the ROK troops gained a x1 Entrenching Tool 2
reputation for ruthlessness in their persecution x1 Flashlight 1
of the war. Their commander, Chae Myung-shin, x1 First Aid Kit 1
had himself once been a guerrilla fighter, x1 Knife 1
commanding the rag-tag “Skeleton Corps” against x1 Dog Tags 0
North Korean fighters. Having experienced Total Weight 11
communist aggression first-hand, he and his
soldiers had no tolerance for their supporters. Select either a Battle Rifle or a Carbine for your
ROK troops were responsible for several brutal Service Weapon.
massacres of villages suspected of collaborating
with the Viet Cong. To represent the South Korean commitment to
preparation work, at the start of the Mission
each player should ask the GM one question about
the environment or enemy force which the GM
must answer truthfully. These questions must
be fairly specific; the GM can veto overly broad
or vague questions and make the players ask
another. Questions can include the location of
enemy patrols, ambushes or weapon caches.

...As Blue Dragons

South Korea has a Marine Corps modelled on their
American counterparts. ROK Marines have the
same difference from regular ROK soldiers as US
Marines have from US Army; they gain the Aquatic
Skill, take the Rifleman MOS in addition to their
regular MOS, and pay +1 XP for gear outside of
free Supplies.
170
ANZUS Pact
After the Second World War, Australia and New
Zealand came to the conclusion that their place
of prominence in the Commonwealth could no
longer protect them; threat of Japanese invasion
seemed very real and the United Kingdom didn’t
possess the force projection to do anything
about it. In response, the two nations signed
an alliance with the United States, the ANZUS
Pack, and threw themselves wholeheartedly into
backing US interests.
Playing Australians
Australian forces represent an interesting
alternate approach to playing PATROL. The
Australian troops in Vietnam fought very
differently from their US counterparts, some
would say more successfully, and in a way that
lends itself to an interesting approach.
To represent this divergent philosophy, all
Australian troops have the Take it Slow Trait;
any turn they do not move further than a Half
Move, at +3 to your Vigilance.

Worried about the spread of communism right

outside their front door, the Australians ...As Diggers
committed troops of their own to Vietnam, Australian infantry soldiers are 24 point, 6 XP
including armour, air, navy, and SAS components. characters just like US infantry.
New Zealand didn’t have the population or Skills
industrial base to send a full expeditionary Sub-Machine Gun (Close)
force, but contributed artillerymen and guns to Battle Rifle (Medium)
the Australian efforts. Basic Medical
Guard
Like the Americans, Australia first committed Frag Grenade
advisors and instructors to train the ARVN and Prepare Position
rural forces. As the war escalated, so did the Bloodlust
ANZUS commitment, with an infantry battalion
Equipment Weight
being sent in 1965. This was expanded to three
battalions soon after, plus air, artillery, SAS, x1 Fatigues (Australian) 2 (Negated)
armoured personnel carriers and a squadron of x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
Centurions in 1967. This commitment lead to the x1 Poncho 1
nation implemented a program of conscription x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity)
for 20-year-olds in 1965. x1 Entrenching Tool 2
x1 Flashlight 1
The Australian forces in Vietnam had a very x1 First Aid Kit 1
different conception of guerrilla war than other x1 Matchete 2
FWF. The Australian method could be summarized x1 Dog Tags 1
as “Slow and Steady”, making extremely careful Total Weight 8
sweeps of the operating area, with an eye of
driving the enemy out and securing their bases
As with US, characters Australian troops have a
rather than forcing engagements and destroying
choice between service weapons. At the start of
them. This approach made them quite feared by the
your Mission, select either a Battle Rifle or a
Viet Cong, as they were impossible to isolate or
Sub-Machine Gun.
draw into ambushes, but US advisors disliked the
overly cautious approach and low bodycount.
Otherwise, Australian troops are the same as
their US counterparts; the select from the same
The force was responsible for Phuoc Tuy Province
MOS, have 6 XP to spend at the start of the game,
in III Corp, though they were often redeployed
and operate under all the same rules.
around the area for their specific expertise.

...AS Aussie Armour

Make a 24-point character exactly like the US
Armour profile. You will be driving a Centurion
tank.

...AS Aussie Special Forces

The Training Units, SAS and other special forces
deployed by the ANZUS were some of their best
units, well respected and feared by their enemies.

Use the Green Beret profile, but trade Assault

Rifle skill for SMG Skill and add Light-Machine
Gun (Medium) and Drive (Utility Car, Cargo Truck).

171
Royal Thailand
Thailand contributed troops to Vietnam for two
reasons. The first was simply security; Thailand
was itself battling a communist insurgency, and
a united, communist Vietnam might seriously
bolster those forces. Secondly, the war offered
a chance for Thailand to train and harden their
troops, acquire and test new military equipment,
and request US aid.

Initially deploying a number of air transport

assets and some advisors for the South
Vietnamese Air Force, the Communist Party of
Thailand launching guerrilla action against
the government prompted an escalation of force.
A reinforced battalion of volunteers, the Queen’s
Cobras, was deployed to Vietnam and folded
into the US command structure. This unit could
field a thousand men and consisted of infantry,
Playing Thai Army
Thai soldiers offer a unique perspective into
artillery and armoured cars. the Vietnam War. A county with a near-local
perspective on the conflict, Thailand faced
By mid-1968, the Queen’s Cobras had been numerous hard questions about the ethics of
subsumed into a larger unit, the Black Panther their participation and payment.
Division, which eventually numbered more than
ten thousand men.
...As Queen’s CoBras
The Thai army was assigned to an area of Bien Hoa Thai troops stick close to the mold of their US
Province, bordering Saigon, as part of II Corps. counterparts, using most of the same equipment
Their specific posting was an area used by the
Viet Cong primarily for logistical purposes, Thai troops are 21 point, 6XP Characters with an
allowing the Thai to maintain the initiative MOS and the following Standard Issue.
throughout their assignment. Skills
Assault Rifle (Medium)
The Thai were heavily involved in PSYOPS Carbine (Medium)
campaigns against the Viet Cong, having a better Basic Medical
understanding than their Western counterparts Guard
of the local psyche. They would tape interviews Hand Grenade
with defecting V.C., then broadcast them by radio Prepare Position
or loudspeaker to encourage further defection,
Equipment Weight
showing that the defectors were not mistreated
and using the voices of their own comrades to x1 Fatigues (Thai Army) 2 (Negated)
deliver propaganda. Only once there were no more x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
defectors would the Thai troops move in with x1 Steel Helmet 2
violence. x1 Flak Vest 4
x1 Poncho 2
To help compensate the Thai government for their x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity)
assistance, the US government provided much of x1 Military Pack 4 (+15 Capacity)
their logistics, subsidized the purchase of their x1 Entrenching Tool 2
equipment, and paid Thai troops in the combat x1 Flashlight 1
zone directly. x1 First Aid Kit 1
x1 Knife 1
As a result of this policy, Thai troops ended up x1 Dog Tags 0
being quite well-off for people of the region. Total Weight 17
Thai soldiers eagerly hit up the American PX,
flush with cash, to purchase various modern
Select either an Assault Rifle or a Carbine for
wonders.
your Service Weapon.
Thailand also provided two other vital
As your Trait, you have Cash Rich; that American
contributions to the war. Almost all the heavy
subsidy is burning a hole in your pocket. You
US air assets in Southeast Asia were located in
always have +3 XP to spend on new Equipment
airbases in Thailand, away from the fighting.
before any mission, to represent you spending
Secondly, Bangkok served as the go-to destination
some greenbacks getting what you need.
for American personnel on leave.
172
Mercenaries
The Vietnam War was a modern conflict that
largely redefined the role of private military
contractors in Western service. With the
technology of warfighting getting ever more
complex, the situations growing more muddled,
hiring outside experts became a more and more
common practice.
During the Vietnam War, both the military and
the CIA hired and deployed large numbers of
mercenaries in a variety of roles and from a
variety of sources. The most prominent sector
involving private contractors were civilian
pilots of both fixed-wing and rotor craft who
delivered special forces and supplies into Laos,
collectively known as “Air America”. Intelligence
and technical contractors were also common;
military technicians would sign on with the CIA
and return to the country to operate the same
equipment for a lot more money.
However, any conflict zone will always have a
variety of soldiers of fortune buzzing about
looking for work. There were more than a few
Europeans serving as “security contractors”
protecting well-off French nationals who
refused to leave the country, as well as war
tourists, humanitarian missions and freelance
reporters. These troops would act as bodyguards
and muscle to ensure the safety of their clients
in the warzone, and might take work from criminal
elements in between proper jobs.
After the war ended, mercenary activity
continued in Southeast Asia, with CIA-backed
units performing various clandestine activities
all over the region. Many of these mercenaries
would go on to careers fighting in Africa or
South America.
173
Playing Mercs
If you want to play some Company Men in the
service of the CIA, you can roll up a squad of
mercenaries. This could be an ideal way of doing
a long-term freeform campaign.
To represent their personal stake in the action,
all mercs have the Trait Only In It For the Money,
which gives them VPs for Egotistical results,
as well as that of their Alignment; Egotistical
characters get double VP.
...As Western Contractors
Mercenary forces serving the CIA were usually,
but not always, ex-military, suckered in with
promises of a massive payout for relatively easy
missions. These soldiers are special forces on
the cheap, and much more disposable.
Mercenaries build 15 point, 36XP Characters.
You can take 1 or more MOS for 9 points each. You
have no Skills or starting Equipment other than
civilian clothes, and all 0 XP items cost 1 XP.
You should select a few unique skills or pieces
of equipment to represent the valuable assets you
bring to the table. Private Military Contractors
tend to be an eccentric lot with rare talents.
...As Local Mercenaries
Mercenaries like the special forces led Nung
forces are best represented with the Montagnard
profiles. While money was an important element,
there was a lot of politics and ethnic strife
caught up in that portion of the conflict.
That said, Western mercs might very well pick up
a local or two as guides and end up integrating
them into the company proper.
Communists
In PATROL, the primary antagonists are the
forces of the Second World; Communist-aligned
countries loosely allied with the Soviet Union
and Red China. The early Cold War features a great
deal of political and military manoeuvring as
19th century colonial bonds broke down and newly
independent nations found themselves pressured
to throw in with one side or another. Vietnam
was just one of the civil wars which erupted over
this question.
Communist ideology was wildly popular in
the urban areas of these immediately post-
colonial nations. It isn’t a coincidence that the
industrialized north of both Korea and Vietnam
ended up communist, while the rural south
defaulted to the typical military dictatorships
of poverty-stricken nations.
The war in Vietnam is many things to communist
actors around the globe. For the Soviet Union,
it is an equipment testbed and experimental
playground; the lethal anti-air defences that
will vex NATO military planners in the 70s and
80s were born in North Vietnam’s air defence
network. For Red China, it is an opportunity to
bloody the nose of western powers, flex their
industrial muscles, and remind the world stage
of their slumbering presence. But for their
supporters in both Vietnams, the communist
cause goes hand-in-hand with a burning desire
to finally free themselves of poisonous outside
influence and rule.
174
Viet Cong
For Western observers, exactly who the Viet Cong
were is subject to a great deal of misinformation
during and after the Vietnam War. Officially known
by North Vietnam as the National Liberation Front
for South Vietnam (Or just the NLF), “Viet Cong”
was a Vietnamese abbreviation for “Vietnamese
Communist”, and was applied as a blanket term
for militias, terrorists, or sympathizers to the
communist cause in the south. To members of the
US Military, this was shortened to the initialism
“V.C.”, which quickly became “Victor Charlie” or
simply “Charlie” in military parlance.
The Viet Cong had their genesis in the resistance
movement against both French and Japanese
colonial rule in Vietnam, the Viet Minh. The
experience and mind-set of the Viet Minh efforts
formed the basis of the Viet Cong. Effectively,
when North Vietnam began initiating hostility
against South Vietnam in 1959, they first used the
indirect method of encouraging and equipping
local resistance to the deeply unpopular and
corrupt South Vietnamese government rather
taking direct military action.
Both during and after the war, the popular view
among the anti-war movement in the West was that
the Viet Cong were a popular insurgency rising
up against an oppressive government, while
the pro-war narrative was that the Viet Cong
were primarily commando-like infiltrators and
terrorists from the North cynically masquerading
as home-grown revolution. The reality is, of
course, more nuanced.
The Viet Cong were carefully organized and
overseen by Northern interests, and the National
Liberation Front was considered an official
branch of the People’s Army of Vietnam, but they
drew their power from the very real grievances
of the rural people of South Vietnam, who didn’t
need much encouragement to battle an oppressive
government and their foreign supporters. The
National Liberation Front as an organization
held considerable power over the umbrella of
groups and people that made up the Viet Cong, but
they weren’t quite one and the same.
Wartime CHanges
Over the course of the war, the composition of
the Viet Cong varied considerably. Early on,
roughly 5 in 6 Viet Cong were members of local
“affiliate groups”, with most of the remainder
consisting primarily of advisors, instructors
and commissars from the North. These are the V.C.
which are most represented in American popular
culture, militia dressed in their signature
“black pyjamas”, which were simply the silk
civilian garments popular in South Vietnam,
colourful scarves that served as personal or
group identifiers, and armed with whatever they
could get their hands on.
Due to the CORDS program, during the lead-
up to the 1968 Tet Offensive the Viet Cong were
increasingly ineffectual and reliant on direct
Northern support. This meant that Viet Cong
forces were consisting more and more of Northern
infiltrators, and greater direct control had
been instituted, to the point that the NLF gained
a standard uniform of green fatigues and rubber
sandals. These fighters were trained in the North
and were often members of the NVA mustered into
guerrilla units to infiltrate the South and
replace lost, captured or defected local fighters.
There was never a definitive switch from one
“kind” of Viet Cong to the other. Though the rural
V.C. fighter of 1965 would be hard-pressed to
recognize the green-fatigued soldier marching
the streets of Saigon in 1975 as a member of the
same organization, fighters fitting both moulds
and anywhere in between were present throughout.
After 1969, the VC started calling themselves
the “Provisional Revolutionary Government of
the Republic of South Vietnam”, or PRG. For the
sake of simplicity, the Viet Cong are represented
in PATROL as two distinct groups; “Viet Cong” is
used for militia units, whereas “PRG” is used for
the late-war style paramilitary fighters.
Charlie’s Tactics
Generally, the Viet Cong were divided into full-
time members (“Main Force”), part-time members
(“Local Force”), and logistical elements (“Support
Force”), the last of which was mostly heavily
populated with Northerners throughout the war.
They were supplied with the cast-offs of the
NVA and any weapons they could scavenge, and
generally had to make do however they could.
Viet Cong tactics emphasised disruption, delays,
and attrition, using bombings, improvised
explosive devices, assassination, and small
raids against government targets while mostly
avoiding direct confrontation with Free World
Forces. These tactics were designed to keep the
technically superior FWF bottled in their bases
and urban centres, unable to police, control or
influence the rural areas, while also keeping
them constantly engaged, bleeding them of money,
force concentration and lives.
The Viet Cong mixed traditional insurrectionist
and light infantry tactics with large-scale
campaigns of terror. Violence against civilian
populations were always a tool in the V.C.
playbook, but as the war went on greater
organization and increased independence from
the local civilian population enabled the Viet
Cong to more freely engage in purges of disloyal
villages, massacres of civilian populations and
refugee camps, and ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Ironically, fear of Viet Cong atrocities were
probably the strongest force lending legitimacy
to the government of the South.
175
The Viet Cong were supported heavily by the
rural population, but what this meant could
vary considerably. Some operated as a kind of
municipal militia, of the sort raised by isolated
communities facing occupation since the dawn
of civilization, and they would be supported
locally by friendly villages. Others were more
like bandits, living in camps or tunnel complexes
in the hills and deep jungle and sustaining
themselves by taking food from surrounding
hamlets at gunpoint. Most groups were somewhere
in between, taking shelter in friendly or
intimidated villages while exploiting and
raiding others.
End of the Road
The final notable action of the Viet Cong was the
Tet Offensive, an organized, simultaneous attack
on thousands of targets inside South Vietnam
meant to spark a popular revolution and convince
the United States and her allies that little
progress was being made in the war. Particular
attention was paid to infiltrating cities,
formerly mostly isolated from the war, leading
to Viet Cong troops storming the US embassy in
Saigon and the infamous massacre in Hue.
Though an unprecedented psychological victory
for the North, the Tet Offensive was also the
death knell of the Viet Cong, whose ranks, already
thinning, were devastated by the attack and its
immediate aftermath. Their units scattered and
in retreat, the Viet Cong ceased to be an effective
independent organization, instead becoming
little more than a subservient paramilitary
branch of the NVA.
From this point, the Viet Cong played little role
in the remainder of the war, serving primarily as
a propaganda tool for the North. Those insurgents
that made it to the North were either folded back
into the army proper or reorganized into civil
defence units, and the National Liberation Front
primarily concerned itself with air defence and
anti-infiltration while the NVA took over the
bulk of the war effort. Many of the fighters who
originated in the South simply went home, no
longer actively supported by the North.
There is a popular, though unsubstantiated
theory that the Tet Offensive was at least in
part a deliberate effort by the North Vietnamese
government to drive the home-grown portions of
the Viet Cong to destruction, as they represented
a threat to the reunification of the country.
Though this is almost certainly untrue, it
reflects the reality that both the North and the
South saw the political participation of rural
Vietnamese as undesirable.
After the war, a great many Viet Cong fighters
found themselves without places to return
to, or incarcerated alongside other Southern
Vietnamese in reeducation camps.
Playing V.C.
If you want, you can absolutely play PATROL from
the perspective of the V.C. instead of American
forces. It’ll change the tone of your game quite a
bit, of course; rather than soldiers with orders
and the weight of a technological nation behind
them, you are self-motivated resistance fighters
mostly struggling to survive.
V.C. characters have 21 Attributes Points, with
a minimum of 5 still required in each of their
stats. You have 6 XP to spend.
Obviously, Viet Cong soldiers don’t have the same
training either. They don’t have MOS; instead, in
order to accurately represent some of the common
origins of V.C. fighters, you should select one of
the following three starting packages.
Rural Origin
You call South Vietnam home, and live out in the
rural portions of the country in a village. You
were compelled into action, perhaps fighting
the oppressive South Vietnamese government for
religious or ideological reasons, or taking up
arms against the Americans as occupiers.
Growing up in the boonies has given you a lot
of skills related to survival out in the bush,
but left you relatively isolated from advanced
technology and warfighting techniques.
Skills
Survivalist
Stealth
Fleet-Footed
Equipment
x1 Civilian Clothes
x1 Footwear
x1 Webbing
x1 Machete
Select one of the following as your main weapon:
Bolt-Action Rifle, Submachine-Gun.
As a Trait, you are Trusted Locally; the rural
people of Vietnam recognize you as kin. Get
1 automatic Success when working with local
villages.
176
UrBan Origin
You come from one of the cities of Vietnam,
probably Saigon, and have lived more like a
Westerner than the traditional lifestyle of rural
Vietnam. There’s good odds you’re a Christian,
you probably have at least some formal education,
and you likely held or perhaps even continue to
hold a paying job.
Your loyalty to the cause of reunification may
come from nationalism, family ties, or ideology.
For instance, many university students were
hardline communists, nationalists, or passionate
anti-colonialists. Your fellow V.C. may see you
as an outsider, but you have valuable skills.
Skills
Local Language (French or English)
Drive (Car, Scooter)
Select One:
Handyman
Electronics
Diplomacy
Equipment
x1 Civilian Clothes
x1 Footwear
x1 Webbing
x1 Pistol
As a Trait, you are Gainfully Employed; you
have some kind of income or stash of money, so
you are better able to acquire new gear through
purchasing or bribery. All Equipment costs -1 XP.
Infiltrator Origin
You come from the North, either a member of
the People’s Army, or run through one of their
training courses, and you followed the Ho Chi
Mihn Trail down south to join the war.
Skills
Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle (Medium)
Prepare Position
Sentry
Equipment
x1 Fatigues (Unmarked)
x1 Footwear
x1 Webbing
x1 Combat Knife
Select one of the following as your main weapon:
Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle.
As a Trait, you are Dedicated; you volunteered
for this position and are ready for the hardships
that come with it. You get 4 VPs just for surviving
a Mission.
Controlling the VC
As a GM, you’ll often be tasked with playing the VC
collectively against the players. You need to make
them convincing guerillas and a credible threat,
without using your information advantage to
make them too deadly.
Basic V.C. Organization
The V.C. are divided into Main Force, Local
Force, and Support Force units. Keeping this
distinction in mind as you play will go a long
way towards presenting a credible illusion of
guerilla warfare.
Support Force are very common, the backbone of
the VC efforts. Though they try to only be active
at night, you can sometimes catch them sleeping or
moving around, and disrupting them is generally
the goal of patrol operations.
Local Force are basically like militia. They live
in the villages as civilians most of the time,
but when the Main Force needs help or they see
an opportunity, they’ll dig up their weapons from
their hiding places and take to the field.
Main Force units are soldiers full time. They
live in their units outside of the villages, often
in hidden bunkers and tunnels. They will visit
friendly villages to rest, and try to intimidate
or raid others, but they mostly move around at
night for safety.
This gives you an obvious hierarchy for setting
up encounters. On the offensive, players might
run into Support Force, and the sound of battle
will attract Local Force who will come to protect
them. If the encounter goes poorly for them, the
Local Force will go get the Main Force troops to
back them up.
Alternately, the Main Force group might launch
an attack on the players, and then the supposedly
friendly village behind them reveals their
Local Force units. This situation is an effective
surprise, especially if the players were looking
for help from them, and will condition the players
to distrust the locals.
Main Force units work best organized into bands
of about a dozen. The locals will know about
these bands and can give you a good estimation
of their numbers and identity, if they trust
you. They’ll generally be part of a local network
under a commander which have loose contact with
one another.
Local Force units will usually consist of just a
few individuals in a village. Though everyone
in the village will know of their involvement in
the V.C., and may even resent them for it, they’ll
keep quiet rather than turn in their friends and
family.
177
Support Force units will be from outside the
region and will pass through the area quickly.
By the time the locals know about them, they may
already be gone. They will often try to travel in
the guise of civilians, but it may be difficult
given all the stuff they smuggle.
Tactics and Tricks
When fighting FWF troops, Viet Cong troops will
shadow patrols with a sentry to determine their
location and direction, then try to set up an
ideal ambush at a chokepoint or in rough terrain,
preferably an area near traps they have set up.
They will launch their ambushes at very close
range, trying to inflict as much shock and
surprise as they can in one go. They will then
use the confusion and suppression to make an
immediate escape, unless they are winning so
completely they can quickly overrun the players.
Novice V.C. might not always make the wisest
choices; they generally aren’t formally trained,
so they may make elementary mistakes like
surrounding the enemy on two sides before
attacking, accidently overshooting into their
own men. These mistakes will seem authentically
human, especially if used sparingly and spoiling
an otherwise perfect ambush.
Whatever you do, avoid having Charlie just charge
the players or wait out in the open for them. That
kind of behaviour will make it look like you
didn’t plan ahead, and will rob the players of a
sense of threat from the enemy.
V.C. troops will rarely surrender outright, but
if you isolate them or they get cut off, they might
come out calling for amnesty. When they retreat,
they’ll tend to leave their wounded behind,
because they cannot easily treat them, but they
know the Americans are both obligated and better
equipped to.
Arming the V.C.
In addition to their listed weapons, you should
give V.C. troops some extra firepower to spice
things up. Have them employ these weapons
sparely, as they don’t have a lot of ammunition for
them. Reward players for finding and destroying
weapon caches by removing them the inventory of
their enemies.
Generally, any squad of Main Force V.C. should be
carrying either a light machine-gun or an RPG
to give them some extra punch. In larger groups,
a single light mortar or heavy machine-gun is
also effective.
For a powerful small encounter, give a single
soldier an RPG and perhaps a bicycle for mobility.
They can take out a truck in a convoy and force
the players to dismount and give chase.
Viet Cong NPCs
Viet Cong Fighter (Novice)
A rural local, small and scrawny, dressed in a
mixture of silk clothing and surplus webbing.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
6 9 5
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Survivalist, Stealth, Fleet Footed, Tunnel
Rat, 1 Weapon Skill.
Equipment
A Battle Rifle (E), Bolt Action Rifle (E), or a
Sub-Machine Gun, 2 Rations and a 1 Spare
Ammo appropriate to their weapon. 1/3 chance
of a single Frag Grenade. They wear civilian
clothes, but only 1/2 will have good boots.
Behaviour
VC Fighters will try to ambush isolated Allied
forces they encounter, but will retreat if the
ambush lasts too long. These novices will often
bite off more than they can chew and generally
do a poor job of following up ambushes, even
effective ones, without encouragement from
veteran troops.
They will retreat at the drop of a hat, but will
rarely surrender. If the enemy retreats or is
wiped out, they will swiftly move in and loot
everything of value.
Viet Cong Fighter (Veteran)
You can tell this individual has been living
in the jungle for weeks.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 11 7 Fortitude
Alignment
Any.
Skills
Survivalist, Eagle-Eyed, Stealth, Fleet-
Footed, Tunnel Rat, Set Trap, 2 Weapon Skills
Equipment
Either an Assault Rifle (E) or a Battle Rifle
(E), 3 Rations and a 2d3 Spare Ammo (E), 2 Frag
Grenades. 1-2 chance of carrying a Pistol (E).
Behaviour
Uses the same tactics as the novice fighters,
but is much savvier, picks their fights better,
and knows the terrain. If the enemy aren’t in a
good spot to be ambushed, they’ll shadow them
and wait until they are.
Novice VC will defer to their experience and
authority, so they get first pick of the weapons
and loot. Unless they are Idealistic, they will
send Novices to do the dangerous tasks.
178
Viet Cong Sniper
VC snipers are a constant threat, lurking out
in the bush. Some of NVA trained marksmen, and
others are just clever and deadly militia who
happen to be stand-out shooters.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
6 10 9
Alignment
Any.
Skills
Survivalist, Stealth, Fleet-Footed, Tunnel
Rat, multiple Weapon Skills for their rifle.
Equipment
A Bolt Action Rifle (E) or a Battle Rifle (E), and
Scope. 3 Rations and a 3 Spare Ammo (E). Wears
civilian clothes and rarely a Sniper Suit.
Behaviour
Will move with a small escort of VC Fighters,
but frequently range out on their own as well.
They’ll try to find positions overlook roads
or small Allied positions in deep concealment.
They’ll wait to fire on high-value or isolated
targets, and will continue attacking anyone
who attempts to help the wounded before
retreating. If they drive the enemy from a
location, their bodyguards will clear the
bodies from the scene so she can reuse the
position.
Viet Cong Specialists
A hard-travelled looking guerrilla carrying
a roll filled with rice, ammunition and
explosives.
Vigilance Proficiency
8 7 3
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Survivalist, Stealth, Tunnel Rat, and one
of the following: Set Trap, Trauma Care,
Handyman, Prepare Position
Equipment
Wears civilian clothes. Will be carrying 3-5
Weight in Rations and Spare Ammo, and 5-10
Weight in traps or explosives.
Behaviour
VC Support will stay in villages or with
groups of Fighters during the day and will
move at night alone or in pairs. They will
visit nearby groups to get intelligence and
deliver food and ammo, go to supply caches to
restock, and look for opportunities to plant
their explosives. If confronted, they will run
and attempt to take shelter among civilians.
PRG Infiltrator
A lightly equipped fighter in green fatigues.
They wear no insignia, but have a distinct
military bearing.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 5 6 Fortitude
Alignment
Pragmatic or Righteous.
Skills
Survivalist, Stealth, Assault Rifle (Medium),
Frag Grenade, Prepare Position
Equipment
An Assault Rifle or Auto Carbine (E), both
Fatigues and Civilian Clothes, and footwear.
They will have a canteen and as much Rations
as they can carry. They will often have a
grenade or RPGs for their squad.
Behaviour
PRG Infiltrators will garrison local villages,
coming out to deal with patrols or incursions.
They will shadow any hostile forces they
encounter and engage them when their guard is
down. If they don’t feel like they are winning,
they will quickly back off.
If accompanying NVA forces, PRG Inflitrators
will attempt to flank FWF or sneak through
their lines to attack their support elements.
PRG Commissar
A well-spoken older man, he is either wearing
an NVA uniform or has one stored nearby. He
talks incessantly.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
6 9 6 Skills
Alignment
Either Idealistic or Righteous.
Skills
Stealth, Survivalist, Diplomacy, Observation,
Interrogation, Pistol (Close), French, possibly
English.
Equipment
Pistol (E), Propaganda Leaflets, and . Might be
carrying some Rations. He’ll normally dress
like the other soldiers, but he’ll have a fancy
uniform stashed nearby.
Behaviour
Commissars will run circuits between
villages, spreading propaganda, recruiting
militia for the Viet Cong, collecting “taxes”
and alternately debating, condemning or
executing dissenters, depending on the
relationship their village has with their
leaders.
They will be accompanied by PRG troops and
a number of clerks and agents, one of whom is
probably carrying a radio of some kind.
179
Dae Cong Fighter
The Viet Cong equivalent of special forces
were the Dae Cong, literally “Special Task”,
hardcore sappers and fanatics who threw
themselves at the toughest missions.
Vigilance Proficiency
10 14 12
Alignment
Righteous.
Skills
Survivalist, Stealth, Fleet-Footed, Tunnel
Rat, multiple Weapon Skills, Hand Grenade,
Explosives, Bloodlust, Silent Killer.
Equipment
A Sub Machine-Gun (E) or Auto Carbine (E),
camo fatigues, an entrenching tool, a garrote,
and a variety of ammunition, grenades and
explosives.
Behaviour
Dae Cong will attempt to infiltrate enemy bases
or fortifications before launching sudden
attacks. These attacks are suicide operations
and they are willing to die to take others with
them. They operate only at night.
Viet Cong Commander
An older guerrila who has fought the French
and Japanese. Their resolve is complete and
they are convinced history is on their side.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 12 7
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Stealth, Survivalist, Fleet-Footed, Tunnel
Rat, and probably several Weapon Skills.
Equipment
Wears civilian clothes, but will own a uniform.
They will carry an Assault Rifle (E) and often
a Pistol (E). They may carry a Gas Mask inside
their own tunnels.
Behaviour
VC Commanders will stay in their tunnels
and bunkers most of the time, coordinating
operations. If they need to leave to conduct
field operations, they will be accompanied by
two bodyguards at all times, one of which will
carry a Portable Radio Telephone. They will
never fight if they can escape, and they may
attempt suicide to avoid capture.
VC Commanders may leave their tunnels to meet
with NVA advisors or leaders coming down
to plan larger operations, or to inspire or
intimidate local groups. They are often known
by name and reputation in areas they operate.
North Vietnamese Army
The North Vietnamese Army (or NVA), known as
the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the North,
or Nathan Victor to the US troops, was the more
formal military arm of North Vietnam. The NVA
had two duties; to persecute a conventional war
against the South and Allied forces to their best
of their ability, and to supply the Viet Cong with
equipment and manpower. Which of these goals was
a priority to the NVA changed several times over
the course of the war.
Contrary to the popular image of barely-trained
conscripts charging headlong into Allied guns,
the NVA were well-trained, well-disciplined,
and highly motivated, their infantry having
some three years experience and indoctrination
in compulsory national service before several
months specific military training. Though this
was in excess of the sixteen weeks of training
the average GI experienced, lack of resources
meant this training was less thorough, focused
more on indoctrination and physical fitness
than technical prowess.
Second Hand Stock
NVA troops didn’t have the luxury of the endless
supply lines and advanced engineering of their
US counterparts. Instead, they needed to make do
with what they could beg, borrow and buy from the
Soviet Union and Red China, with much of their
war effort effectively relying on the charity of
their larger allies.
Your average NVA soldier wore a simple,
lightweight set of fatigues, dyed somewhere
along a continuum between olive green and khaki.
If they were lucky enough to have boots, they were
canvas knock-offs of French designs or worn-
through Soviet surplus, but many made do with
sandals, often homemade. They wore a helmet made
out of cloth and cardboard, and their webbing was
a simple set of pouches on an apron-like garment.
It was cheap and only roughly standardized, but
it got the job done.
They didn’t skimp where it mattered, though.
The standard weapon of the NVA was the AK-47,
or Chinese copies of the same, and the NVA made
sure to invest heavily in good machine-guns and
mortars. So even though they were scrapping the
barrel for things as simple as footwear, an NVA
unit could match the firepower of any Western
infantry platoon, man for man.
As for supply, NVA troops in the field got by mostly
on rice shipped from the north and whatever they
could forage. The inability to feed and resupply
large units in the field for very long meant that
the NVA typically left it to the V.C. to do most
of the fighting deep in the South, preferring to
stick close to the border or the Ho Chi Minh Trail
where they could be readily resupplied.
180
By the Book
The NVA worked closely with Chinese and Soviet
advisors at different parts of the war, drawing
from their experiences in the Great Patriotic War
and Korea and practicing their Deep Operations
doctrine. Thus, the NVA shared with both these
powers the military belief that wars are won
through the destruction of units and formations
rather than by inflicted individual casualties,
calling for shock action and large engagement to
stun the enemy and force them to make concessions.
This meant a focus on numerical superiority
during engagements, a willingness to trade
ground for time, and utter determination once an
attack was launched.
Like most Communist forces, the NVA placed a
great deal of focus on maintaining the initiative
during wartime, ensuring they could choose the
time and place of battles through aggression
and misdirection. In order to neutralize Allied
firepower advancement, NVA troops would attempt
to engage quickly and in close proximity to enemy
forces, and break off the engagement equally
swiftly if progress was not made. Mobility was
key; units had to always be ready to chase fleeing
enemies to avoid attracting supporting fire or
retreat if resistance was too heavy.
As a consequence of their political conviction
and their technical limitations, the NVA did
not shy away from taking losses and would
willing sacrifice units in a manner politically
unpalatable to Allied forces in order to gain
advantage. This involved the use of frontal
attacks to distract from other action, leaving a
unit in a vulnerable place to bait enemy forces
into a bad engagement, or having elements engage
in suicide attacks to disrupt important enemy
facilities.
All Out Aggression
This callous approach must not be mistaken for
stupidity, though it often was by US media and
observers. For example, the Chinese human wave
tactics, practiced by the NVA early in the war,
was seen as the result of the NVA having more
enthusiasm than intelligence. In reality, it was
a form of infiltration and mass misdirection,
where a large number of troops would be ordered
to advance on the enemy by cover of darkness and,
if they heard the sounds of battle ahead, find an
alternate path to work their way closer.
While a percentage of unfortunate units would
encounter enemy resistance and be wiped out,
often repeatedly on the same positions, this would
occupy the defenders while the majority of units
moved to close contact, eventually overwhelming
the enemy through the weakest points in their
line. This allowed a technically outmatched force
to organically determine and exploit weaknesses
in a defensive line by leveraging their superior
numbers and enthusiasm, without needing to rely
on incomplete reports by scouts or the primitive
communications equipment available.
In order to achieve these attacks, a great deal of
effort was spent on psychological preparation.
Communist troops would spend hours before
engagements psyching themselves up, officers
and commissars doing their best to whip the
troops into a fury. Combined with a lack of
communications equipment and limited command
authority on the part of the officer class, the
NVA could be tenacious and ferocious on the
attack, but they had a tendency to overcommit
and a much reduced ability to dynamically react
to changing circumstances. They were excellent
at overwhelming peer opponents and gaining
ground, but if they did not find swift victory,
their effective fighting ability was quickly
nullified. For this reason, against Allied forces
and the better ARVN units, the NVA won very few
victories and took very heavy casualties.
Heavy Hitters
The NVA operated under considerable technical
and logistical limitations throughout the war.
They were an almost entirely infantry-based,
with their fleet of trucks almost entirely tied
up moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Taking a
tip from the Imperial Japanese, they made heavy
use of bicycles instead.
Small numbers of armoured cars and Soviet
infantry fighting vehicles were used in limited
engagements and to lead attacks. Before 1968 they
possessed no tanks, and most of the armour they
eventually acquired were light amphibious tanks
of Soviet and Chinese manufacture. It wasn’t
until the 70s that the T-55 and Type 59 main
battle tanks saw service in the NVA.
181
The air war was even more one-sided. The NVA
operated few aircraft and fewer jets, and most of
these were quite obsolete. They operated only a
few utility helicopters and almost no gunships.
As a result, the North was constantly on the
defensive in the air. However, they benefitted
immensely from the Soviet Union using the
conflict as a test bed for their newly developed
surface-to-air heat-seeking missiles, and North
Vietnam soon developed a complex array of anti-
air defences.
The only area where the NVA held any real
advantage was in artillery. The best artillery
gun of the NVA was the 130mm M-46 Field Gun
Model 1954, which considerably outranged all
Western equivalents while being lighter and
equally lethal. Eliminating these weapons was
an important objective, as they could strike
friendly firebases from beyond retaliatory range
and hidden from aircraft by the jungle.
Last Army Standing
After the United States pulled out of Vietnam,
the NVA needed only a few years to rebuild before
relaunching the offensive into South Vietnam,
this time as a devastating mechanized force which
effortlessly steamrolled the conventional ARVN.
Modern Soviet tanks emblazoned with the yellow
star ground through the streets of Saigon, and
the Vietnam War finally came to a close.
It is said the NVA won the Vietnam War because
they wanted to win more than the US wanted them
to lose. This bears out in their record; they
effectively won no major victories against the
United States and they threw multiple offensives
south which stalled or were turned back, but they
never gave up and eventually won the war through
sheer tenacity. They might not have carried any
battles, but in the end, they didn’t have to.
North Vietnam suffered extensively from the
war. Hundreds of thousands of their citizens
died in bombing raids, US herbicide campaigns
destroyed their crops, and much of their military
infrastructure was completely levelled repeated.
Only raw determination kept them going.
The NVA underwent a great transformation over
the course of the war. From a glorified militia
and truck drivers for the Ho Chi Minh Trail to a
sophisticated military operating air and armour
in great number, in the immediate aftermath of
the Vietnam War they were able to quickly assert
effective control over all their neighbours,
defeating their former allies in the Khmer Rouge
when Cambodia spiralled out of control and even
fearlessly tangling with Red China over border
disputes. At the end of the war, the People’s Army
of Vietnam was one of the most hardened and well-
equipped militaries in the world outside of the
traditional European powers.
PlayinG NVA ...as NVA Armour
After 1968’s Battle of Lang Vei, when the North
You could play as the NVA against the South Vietnamese first deployed armoured vehicles
Vietnamese and Americans during the war, but in the form of PT-76 light tanks, North Vietnam
another option is to play as them during other began rapidly assembling armoured units and
conflicts from around the same period, namely the deploying them both down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
invasion and occupation of Cambodia against the and at the DMZ.
Khmer Rouge and against Chinese forces during
the Sino-Vietanamese War in 1979. Being a tank operator in the NVA was a difficult
task, because the other side held an overwhelming
...as NVA Regulars advantage in the form of air support. American
Create a 24 point, 3XP character. For a service bomber pilots were eager to drop ordinance on
weapon, select a Battle Rifle or an Assault Rifle. anything that might even vaguely resemble an
Skills armoured vehicle, so armour had to be used very
carefully, hidden during the day and moved only
Assault Rifle (Medium)
at night. But when it was used properly, these
Battle Rifle (Medium)
vehicles could quickly overwhelm American
Stealth
firebases, and even win battles.
Fleet Footed
Guard
Follow the usual rules for making NVA characters.
Hand Grenade
Your MOS is Tanker. As usual, you may spend your
Prepare Position
personal XP upgrading your vehicle.
Equipment Weight
Skills
x1 Fatigues (NVA) 2 (Negated) Handyman
x1 Footwear 2 (Negated) Guard
x1 Steel Helmet 2 Stealth
x1 Webbing Belt 0 (+10 Capacity) Fleet Footed
x1 Military Pack 4 (+15 Capacity)
x1 Entrenching Tool 2 Equipment Weight
x1 First Aid Kit 1 x1 Fatigues (NVA) 2 (Negated)
x1 Bayonet 1 x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
x1 Papers (Dog Tag) 0 x1 Entrenching Tool 2
Total Weight 10 x2 Camo Netting 4
x1 Papers (Dog Tags) 0
Take an MOS, with some changes. Total Weight 6
• The Grenadier MOS gets a Rocket Propelled
Grenade Launcher instead. Depending on the year the game is set in and the
• The Intel character is either the squad number of players, you might be driving a T-54
Commissar, or a liaison with the Viet Cong (Use a or a PT-76. You’ll probably be accompanied by a
Viet Cong profile instead.) sizeable force of infantry.
• The Gunner cannot use the Automatic Grenade
Launcher weapon. ...as North Vietnamese Navy
The Ho Chi Minh Trail wasn’t the only way the
Instead of Helmet Scrawl, you have Canteen Art, North smuggled supplies and manpower to the
chipped out of the paint on your aluminium South. A sea route along the coast of the country
canteen. The highest-ranking member of the squad existed, using vessels disguised as fishing
gets a free Whistle to relay orders. trawls to smuggle goods ashore at night and
move important people and prisoners back north.
Similar tactics were used to move supplies down
the Mekong.

Build a profile exactly like the NVA Regular.

Your MOS is Crewman, granting you the Handyman
and Drive (any Boat) Skill. You are still armed
with rifles and such, as you might find yourself
fighting off boarders or coming ashore to assist
in a mission.

The nature of your boat is more up in the air.

You could use a Swift Boat to represent a small
gunship with a disguise, or go for an actual small
fleet of Sampans.

182
Using The NVA
As a GM, the NVA represent the peer threat you
can throw at players, who can engage them on
something resembling an equal footing. They can
stand up and fight the player’s forces, employ
artillery and vehicles, and generally match the
players trick for trick, if slower and in less
sophisticated a fashion.
NVA Infantry Organization
NVA soldiers operate in 10-man squads, divided
into 3 “cells” of 3 soldiers, lead by a NCO. They
will carry a light machine-gun and at least one
rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Depending
on where the squad is operating, they may be
wearing their uniforms or be dressed in civilian
clothes.
If the players encounter the NVA on patrol, they
will probably run into a squad with several more
nearby for backup.
If a squad is fighting on their own, have the
NCO stick with one cell accompanied by the
squad machine-gunner, while the other two
riflemen cells advance on the player’s position
from different angles. The machine-gunner can
effectively suppress the players while the two
cells either move in close to use grenades or pick
off stragglers.
The cells will pull back if they take losses,
and the unit will retreat if the fight isn’t
immediately going their way. This cell structure
gives you an interesting and difficult battle
situation with no modification; the players must
split their fire and watch their flanks, but they
don’t need to wipe out the enemy to survive the
fight. If more squads join the battle, the cells
can consolidate into larger units and press the
attack more ferociously.
Squads are organized into Platoons of 3 Squads,
3 Heavy Weapons Cells, 1 Medical Cell, and an
Officer and his Command Cell. At any given time
this group will be somewhat under-strength;
hard living, disease and casualties keep the NVA
from operating at optimal efficiency.
Each Heavy Weapon Cell will be carrying either a
medium mortar or a heavy machine-gun; these act
as priority targets and mini-objectives for the
players during a fight. These teams will shadow
the main infantry force and set up quickly behind
them. They’ll try to dig in if they have the chance.
Though the medical team will be armed, they will
mostly ignore the fight and run about trying to
assist the wounded, pulling them away from the
fight. The Command Cell will stay relatively
removed from the fight to direct the men, and it
won’t be immediately obvious who the officers
are.
183
NVA Support Elements
A good objective to dispatch players on as part of
a larger battle is destroying or capturing NVA
artillery. The NVA have learned to spread out
their artillery batteries as much as possible to
reduce their vulnerability to air power, so their
guns will be located in twos and threes somewhere
away from the fight, with a small infantry escort.
Stealth is more important than active protection
for these pieces, so they’ll usually be well hidden
with netting as deep in the jungle as they can get
them.
Fortunately for the PCs, the NVA usually doesn’t
have the coordination to use the kind of
precision artillery strikes on small enemy units
that the FWF can employ. Rather, they use their
artillery exclusively to soften large enemy
formations. Thus, the PCs should only be subject
to NVA artillery attack as part of a larger group.
Similarly, players of special forces or alternate
history scenarios may be tasked with destroying
NVA anti-aircraft missile batteries. These
batteries will be well dug-in, with surrounding
entrenchments and garrison. It might be worth
noting to the players that many of these guns
will be manned by Chinese troops, maybe even
with a Russia overseer!
In any case, the only thing that the North values
more than expensive gear is expertise, so the
technicians that operate these machines are very
valuable. They’ll try to retreat immediately if
threatened, while their infantry escorts provide
a rearguard action.
NVA Vehicles
Introducing NVA vehicles is a good way to add a
complicating factor to any mission. The players
can beat a vehicle, but they need forewarning
and preparation to do so without being destroyed
in return. Knowing an armoured car or tank
is operating in the area will dominate their
thoughts until it’s destroyed. It’s almost a boss
fight!
NVA vehicles should be hidden under camo netting
during the day and only driven at night. They’ll
generally move slow and steady with their
headlights off. If the NVA uses vehicles to attack
something, it will often either in the early
morning, to cover their approach, or the early
evening, to cover their escape.
Unless your players are themselves in a powerful
vehicle or the objective is explicitly escape,
having more than one fighting vehicle in a
mission is simply too much.
Don’t forget about lighter vehicles, either! The
NVA use cargo trucks all the time, and they’ll
make very satisfying targets.
North Vietnamese NPCs
NVA Regular (early War)
A determined-looking man in a cardboard
helmet and a khaki uniform, out for blood.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
8 7 6 Fortitude
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Guard, Hand Grenade, Battle Rifle (Medium),
Fleet-Footed, Prepare Position
Equipment
A Battle Rifle (E), Webbing, Fatigues, a set of
Civilian Clothes, Entrenching Tool, Footwear,
2 Spare Ammo, 1 Frag Grenade and several days
food and water.
Behaviour
During patrols, NVA soldiers will always try
to engage first and ambush the enemy, and will
run if they don’t have the initiative. While
attacking, they will always try to have one
group moving forward while others lay down
suppressing fire. They will place a priority
on getting as close to the enemy as they can.
When they retreat from a fight, NVA regulars
will often break into the cells and scatter to
regroup later, making pursuit more difficult.
They will dig in atop hills to create defensive
posts to launch patrols from.
NVA regular (Late War)
A determined-looking man in a steel helmet
and an olive uniform, out for blood.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
8 7 6 8
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Guard, Hand Grenade, Assault Rifle (Medium),
Fleet-Footed, Prepare Position
Equipment
An Assault Rifle (E), Webbing, a Steel Helmet,
Fatigues and Footwear, Entrenching Tool, 3
Spare Ammo, 2 Frag Grenades and several days
of food and water.
Behaviour
Later-war soldiers have grown bolder and
more confident in launching large-scale
attacks, and much more skilled at countering
enemy tactics. They will use their superior
mobility to try to quickly flank enemy forces
and drive them into their guns.
If deployed alongisde armoured vehicles,
detachments will ride into battle atop them.
184
NVA Officer
An older man in a nondescript uniform,
scarred from previous conflicts, leading his
unit from the front.
Vigilance Proficiency
7 9 6
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic or Righteous.
Skills
Guard, Hand Grenade, Assault Rifle (Medium),
Fleet-Footed, Prepare Position
Equipment
Identical to their men. NVA Officers will
remove any identifying insignia before going
into battle.
Behaviour
NVA Officers are primarily charged with
directing and overseeing their forces.
Righteous Officers will lead from the front,
while Egocentric officers will stay behind
in safety. They will not order their forces to
surrender unless the situation is absolutely
hopeless.
NVA Officers and their command cells may
operate independently as advisors to the
Viet Cong. These officers know they are more
valuable than the forces they help organize,
and will avoid going into battle personally.
NVA Crewman
A North Vietnamese soldier tasked with
manning a gun or armoured vehicle.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 6
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic or Righteous.
Skills
Fleet-Footed, Drive or Weapon skills related
to their tasks.
Equipment
Uniform, Webbing Belt, 2 Rations, 1 Canteen
with Water, Footwear.
Behaviour
NVA crews of all sorts will avoid direct
engagement outside of operating their
equipment. If confronted directly, they will
immediately run and scatter rather than try
to fight as infantrymen.
If isolated or cut off with no easy way back
to their lines, the crew of a tank will always
abandon the vehicle rather than stay in the
obvious target too long.
NVA Commissar NVA Stretcher Bearer
A stern soldier in a regular uniform, watching A determined-looking soldier with a medical
their comrades carefully. bag, dashing off to recover casualties.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 9 6 8 9 5
Alignment Alignment
Usually Pragmatic or Righteous. Usually Idealistic or Pragmatic.
Skills Skills
English or French, Diplomacy, Eagle-Eyed, Basic Medical, Fleet-Footed, SMG (Close),
Interrogation Prepare Position, Trauma Care
Equipment Equipment
Though dressed and equipped identically to Though dressed and equipped identically to
their men, Commissars will carry a Phrasebook, their comrades, they will carry First Aid Kits
Leaflets, and a Pistol (E). and Submachine-Guns instead of rifles. One
Behaviour member of a cell will have a Medical Bag, and
NVA Commissars act as supervisors and will another a Stretcher.
keep a close eye on Idealistic or Egocentric Behaviour
officers, but will leave Righteous officers NVA Stretcher Bearers hang back and wait
to their duties and move between infantry for battles to begin, then concentrate on
squads. If their officer is killed, they will evacuating casualties from the battle zone
take command of the unit. They take a much and moving them as far back as they can. They
harder line against surrender than officers, will focus their efforts on those wounded they
and will typically try to get the unit out of feel they can treat.
danger to regroup.
Though they carry weapons, they will generally
Outside of combat, the Commissar leads his men not use them unless threatened directly.
in communist indoctrination, motivational
speeches, and critical thinking classes.
NVA SApper
An elite NVA soldier, specialising in attacks
probing deep into enemy lines and cutting
through enemy defences.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
9 9 8
Alignment
Righteous.
Skills
Stealth, Fleet-Footed, Tunnel Rat, multiple
Weapon Skills, Hand Grenade, Explosives,
Bloodlust.
Trait
Once in a Mission, NVA Sappers can cross Barbed
Wire as a free action.
Equipment
A Battle Rifle (E), Machine Pistol (E), fatigues,
an entrenching tool, a flare gun, and a variety
of ammunition, grenades and explosives.
Behaviour
NVA Sappers will use the cover of darkness
to infiltrate fixed enemy positions like
camps and bunkers. They will attempt to get
as far into the enemy lines as possible before
breaking cover, shooting anyone standing in
their way and destroying vehicles and ammo
dumps with their explosives. They will then
attempt a quick withdrawal, signalling the
retreat with their flare gun.

185
The Pathet Lao The Khmer Rouge
In the incomprehensible political mess that was The guerrilla fighters for the cause of Communism
Laos, the communist party there was militarily
represented with an organization known as the
Pathet Lao. Ironically, this organization spent
most of its life fighting for North Vietnamese
victory rather than seizing the Laotian
government, due to the considerable Vietnamese
interests in the country.
The Pathet Lao functioned similarly to most Cold
War-era communist militia; recruiting from
rural villages struck by poverty, motivated by
anti-colonial sentiments and resentment of the
relative wealth of the urban sectors, engaged in
low-intensity warfare while providing local
administration to sectors of the country the
central government weren’t bothering to keep
occupied. As Laos was such a fragmented country,
the Laotian communist party could easily govern
large sections of the country without much
threat from the other two-thirds of the nominal
government, so the Pathet Lao were under very
little pressure to make major gains against the
establishment.
Instead, these forces found themselves in a
fairly lucrative arrangement with the North
Vietnamese, assisting them in moving men and
material down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In exchange
for the security and manpower they provided, the
North Vietnamese looked the other way while they
skimmed a little off the top, keeping some of the
guns, money and drugs smuggled down the trail
for their own war effort.
Most of the Pathet Lao’s manpower on the Trail
came from a taxation scheme they had set up with
the villages they administered, whereby every
able-bodied adult owed the Communist Party
a period of labour every year carrying goods.
Joining the Pathet Lao itself would get you out
of this and other crushing taxation burdens, but
the lower levels of the organization is poorly
motivated and morale is generally low.
Using the Pathet Lao
If you want to include the Pathet Lao in your
game, you can represent them using the Viet Cong
profiles. They might be encountered during
Special Forces incursions into Laos, or as units
pressed into fighting inside Vietnam.
The Pathet Lao will be lead by North Vietnamese
Army officers and commissars, often in-uniform.
These officers generally treat the members of the
unit very poorly, so desertion and defection from
among the lower ranks is proportionately more
common than in the Viet Cong.
Irregulars from the Hmong people form the most
aggressive wing of the Pathet Lao, and can be
represented with the Montagnard profiles.
186
in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began as a popular
uprising and quickly became a strong military
force which seized control of the country.
The Khmer Rouge had much more radical goals and
motivation than the other communist forces in
South-East Asia. The philosophy of their most
influential leader, Pol Pot, was that Cambodia
had been destroyed by modernity and foreign
influence, and only by instituting a “Year Zero”,
a total reboot of society by creating an agrarian
economy and culture free of corrupting forces,
could the country become great.
Using the Khmer Rouge
American ground forces and the Khmer Rouge
fought only once, in 1975, so it is unlikely that
a FWF unit would encounter the Khmer Rouge
in a regular game. Likewise, given that this
organization was responsible for unspeakable
acts of genocidal violence, you probably wouldn’t
want to play as them.
However, it is conceivable that one might want to
play a post-Vietnam War campaign set in Cambodia
with the Khmer Rouge as antagonists. The players
might be mercenaries working for the CIA on
intelligence-gathering missions, or Vietnamese
troops either before or during the invasion and
occupation of Cambodia to destroy the Khmer
Rouge government.
To represent Khmer Rouge troops in these cases,
one might be best off using the profiles for PRG
fighters from the Viet Cong profiles. To represent
the frenzied fanaticism of these troops, give them
the Bloodlust and Cold-Blooded traits.
Khmer Rouge troops have little organization
or direction, acting at the behest of their
commissars and leaders. They whip themselves
into a frenzy and then make their way into
towns, looking for anyone who can be accused
of deviance. They are not skilled fighters or
tacticians by any means, but if they catch wind of
a foreign presence, they will pursue and engage
with extreme vigour.
Red Chinese PLA
Just north of Vietnam lies Communist China, the Soviet Russia had a lot of influence over the
world’s most populous state. North Vietnam’s
biggest supporter in the early 1960s, they became
more distant in the back half of the war due to
the Sino-Soviet Split, a series of ideological
and political divisions between the two largest
communist powers which saw Vietnam aligning
themselves more closely with Soviet Russia.
Nonetheless, Red China continued to support
the North Vietnamese, admittedly with much less
enthusiasm after 1964. This support took the
form of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, financial
resources, and advisors, as well as some 100,000
troops of the People’s Liberation Army who
primarily served in anti-aircraft units in the
North of the country.
Using The PLA
It is unlikely for FWF players to encounter
members of the People’s Liberation Army in a
regular, historical game. However, there are two
conceivable reasons the players might be pitted
against them.
The first is an alternate history scenario wherein
US action leads to the Red China committing
troops to Vietnam, suddenly bolstering Communist
forces with a massive infusion of manpower and
technology. The second is playing as members of
the Vietnamese People’s Army in 1979 during the
Sino-Vietnamese War.
In either case, you can use this profile for
Chinese troops, and otherwise use the tactics,
organization and gear as you use for the NVA. As
they are both using Soviet-derived equipment,
the NVA and PLA can share ammunition.
PLA Soldier
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 7 6
Alignment
Usually Pragmatic.
Skills
Guard, Bloodlust, Hand Grenade, Assault Rifle
(Medium), Melee (Bayonet)
Equipment
Assault Rifle, Chinese uniform, Webbing, Steel
Helmet, footwear, and 1d3 frag grenades.
Behaviour
PLA soldiers suffer from poor command control
as rank has been abolished in the PLA. They
will have a difficult time coordinating their
movements and actions. Mostly, they try to
keep up an aggressive tempo, always attacking
if they can.
Soviet Union
Vietnam War. They supplied billions of dollars
worth of equipment to the North Vietnamese, and
thousands of members of the NVA were flown to
Russia for training on advanced anti-aircraft
systems, armoured vehicles, and aircraft.
However, contrary to the swirl of rumours among
US troops at the time, the Russians never actually
committed troops to the conflict, save for about
3000 advisors that served almost exclusively
as technicians and overseers for anti-aircraft
missile batteries.
Using The Spetsnaz
All that aside, the possibility of pitting players
against an elite team of Soviet killers stalking
the jungle might be too good to pass up. There
could be a variety of justifications, such as
imagining the unit as part of some incredibly
secretive black ops unit, or setting the action
in Laos where a US Special Forces team must go up
against their counterparts from the other side of
the Iron Curtain.
At this point, you have already left the realm
of the historic, so it mostly becomes a question
of how far you want to take it. The most honest
way is probably to simply use the US Green Beret
profiles with appropriately swapped weapons
and the presence of RPGs instead of grenade
launchers. That will give a fairly down-to-earth
portrayal of Soviet special forces.
On the other hand, if you’re going to dip into
fiction, you might as well go all the way. Cold
War media in the West loved portraying Russian
agents as superhuman and their technology as
light-years ahead of the capitalist. If you’re
playing a looser, pulpier kind of game, that
might be exactly what is called for.
You could give these soldiers 35+ point profiles
and make them Skilled at their Shock Checks. You
could also dip into the modern-day equipment
available in the Enduring Freedom expansion to
give the Spetsnaz cutting-edge science fiction
technology. The sky’s the limit.
187
Third Parties
It is a tragic reality that, in war, civilians often
bear the brunt of the conflict. Approximately 67%
of the dead in Vietnam were civilians, though
this doesn’t include those who died in Cambodia
or Laos.
South Vietnam, being a predominately rural
and poverty-stricken nation, had most of
their civilian population spread out in small
villages and hamlets which ended up being both
metaphorical and literal battlegrounds between
the two sides. Winning the loyalty of the locals,
or simply intimidating them into compliance,
was the central goal of both sides.
The Southern government started at something
of a serious disadvantage in this regard.
Vietnamese nationalism was strong among much
of the population, and the government was
seen as a continuation of French and Japanese
influence over the country. The Catholic bias of
this government also didn’t sit very well with a
population that primarily practiced a mixture
of Buddhism and indigenous religions.
The North successfully capitalized on this
unrest by appealing to ethnic nationalism and
Vietnamese tradition and casting the government
of the South and her allies. Communist Vietnam’s
relationship with religion was more strained,
but they were more willing to appeal to Vietnamese
tradition and folklore than the Southern
government, who toed a Catholic party line.
Even with all the money, supplies and
infiltrators the North could muster, the Viet
Cong would fail as an organization without
support from the population of the South. It
would destroy their credibility as a force for
national unity and, without the recruitment base
and logistical support of sympathetic or strong-
armed villages, their ability to make war on the
South’s government would disintegrate.
188
Pacification Strategies
MACV tried several strategies to attempt to
sway the countryside of Vietnam to their side.
Pacification programs were probably the most
successful of these. These programs involve
working directly with the local population
through infrastructure development, food and
medical aid, and engagement with local politics
to sway individual towns over to their side.
Though derided by many as soft, feel-good
productions by the naively optimistic, these
programs worked. Villages engaged in this
manner would cast out communist supporters,
raise militia forces, and their rapid economic
turnaround both generated considerable tax
revenue and lead to increased purchasing power
and standards of living.
Unfortunately, the fact that they worked was seen
as a problem by the national government. South
Vietnam’s government had their power base in
the predominately Catholic urban middle and
upper class. Increased political participation
by the rural people, especially the minority
populations who FWF most readily recruited, was
seen as greatly undesirable, and more than once
the national government shut down attempts at
pacification programs.
Eventually, however, the pressure from the war
forced the government to allow these efforts,
and in 1967 they began the Civil Operations and
Revolutionary Development Support program, the
largest and most successful pacification effort.
Encompassing every province in the country, this
was a huge developmental and security drive,
including the controversial but extremely
effective Phoenix Program, which leveraged
intelligence assets and incentives for reporting
suspected communists to arrest or assassinate
large number of Viet Cong. Though successful,
these programs resulted in the conviction or
death of many civilians in the process. On the
civilian side, the program built irregation,
established secure roads, and vaccinated huge
swaths of the population.
The success of CORDS was such that, in many ways,
the Tet Offensive launched the year after the
project began had to be the last gasp of the Viet
Cong. The increased presence of local militia and
the closer scrutiny placed on the villages they
had used as bases meant they were rapidly running
out of their local support infrastructure and
relying increasingly on Northern manpower and
supply.
Though Tet rolled back some of the gains the
CORDS program made, this was short-lived. The
program remained hardy until the American pull-
out in 1973, at which point it rapidly decayed,
and it was rendered moot when the North invaded
and annexed the South in 1975.
Vietnam’s Minority Populations
Vietnam’s considerable ethnic diversity played
a significant part in the progress of the war for
a variety of reasons. For the sake of simplicity,
these minority peoples are universally referred
to as Montagnards (Highlanders) in this book,
though the reality was much more complicated.
North Vietnam’s appeals to ethnic nationalism
among the dominant Vietnamese peoples also
meant racially-motivated violence and terror
campaigns against minority populations.
The Viet Cong disproportionately targeted
Montagnard populations, sometimes wiping out
entire villages in acts of ethnic cleansing.
As a result, these groups were quick to throw
in their lot with the Free World Forces, though
they usually had no loyalty to the Southern
government either. The earliest special forces
operations in Vietnam effectively leveraged the
developing networks of minority populations in
Vietnam against communist forces, especially in
raiding the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
In addition to their activities with US special
forces, some ARVN Ranger units were made up
of Montagnards, and they formed a political
and military alliance called FULRO, known in
English as the United Front for the Liberation of
Oppressed Races.
Urban Living
Vietnam’s southern cities were broadly
characteristic of most recently post-colonial
urban centres, being drastically different in
character from the rural areas due to being the
nexus of western influence. In Vietnam, this gulf
was massive; most of the rural population lived at
substance or near-substance level farming with
traditional techniques, while city-dwellers
lived modern, face-paced lives in urban, semi-
industrialized environments.
Vietnam’s middle class was eviscerated by the
war, but corruption and localization of colonial
structures sustained an upper class who held
an economic and political stranglehold on the
cities.
The influx of western money caused huge spikes
in inflation and rapidly increasing cost of
living while, at the same time, floods of refugees
from the rural areas of the country poured in.
Many businesses catered to Western soldiers and
contractors, who could afford to pay a worthwhile
price, further increasing the gulf. Food prices
increased and employment plummeted, causing
much unrest.
As a result, the cities were under strict nightly
curfews, enforced by the South Vietnamese
national police.
189
Civilian NPCs
It is absolutely imperative to any game of PATROL
that civilians be caught up in the action. A
mission without civilians involved ceased to
be about the Vietnam War and becomes a military
fantasy story about soldiers fighting in a vacuum.
The opinions and allegiances of civilians is the
central issue of the conflict!
Civilian Profiles & Rules
All able-bodied adult civilians without special
training or conditioning share the same profile
of 5/5/1. They are not trained for modern warfare,
not familiar with the tools or techniques, and
not physically or psychologically prepared.
Of course, not all civilians are able-bodied
adults. For the sake of simplicity, in your average
group of civilians, a quarter of the population
will be under 15, and another quarter will either
be elderly or in some way disabled, a number
driven by the effects of disease, malnutrition,
and life in a war zone.
Child civilian characters will have a profile of
3/3/0. They Weigh 10 instead of 20. Infants have
no profile as they are incapable of independent
action, and they weigh 5 each. A human being can
carry two children or infants instead of one
adult. Typical elderly characters have profiles
of 4/6/1. However, some more infirm characters
may have lower Fortitude.
Civilians are not confined to villages and
cities; you can find them in the countryside
collecting firewood, hunting, working, or
visiting relatives. Civilians groups moving in
the jungle will talk loudly, whistle, or sing so
nobody will mistake them for soldiers.
How civilians treat soldiers will vary depending
on recent events and their political allegiance.
Friendly civilians will offer soldiers food and
water, approach them openly, ask for help, and
initiate conversation. Hostile civilians will
usually treat soldiers like they don’t exist.
All civilians will attempt to remove themselves
from conflict areas if they are able. They will
hide inside structures and, during fighting,
generally follow any order they can understand
issued by any armed soldier to avoid coming to
harm.
Civilians do not understand modern warfare and
do not know how to take effective cover. Civilians
do not increase their To-Hit values when aware
of enemy threats, as they are not trained and
do not make wise decisions. They can still make
Evade actions, however, and if accompanied by
soldiers in a ratio of at least 1 soldier to every 5
civilians, the soldiers can instruct them to take
proper cover and increase their To-Hit value.
Montagnards ...As FWF Irregulars
Throwing your lot in with US Special Forces
Though civilians are generally not playable, improves your modern warfighting skill
an exception is made for Montagnards and other dramatically. If you’ve had enough time to train
indigenous people who contributed fighters on with US Special Forces, add the following to your
all sides of the conflict. default profile.
Playing as Montagnards opens a wealth of Skills
possibilities for your games. An immediate 1 Modern Weapon Skill
possibility is playing the game more as a village Guard
simulator than a mission-based military game, Prepare Position
with the players acting as town leaders as well Equipment Weight
as the militia and trying to get their people
x1 Footwear 2 (Negated)
through the war as best as possible.
x1 Webbing Belt
A few Montagnard PCs can also spice up a special Total Weight 0
forces party. Maybe you only have one or two
players play as Western special forces, while the Take an SMG, Carbine, Battle Rifle or Assault
rest of the PCs take up roles as local fighters. Rifle as a service weapon.
Alternately, you could have everyone play as
Montagnards, and use the special forces as NPC
officers. ...As Integrated FWFs
As time and training went on, the Montagnards
Finally, the possibility exists of using became closer integrated into the FWF, gaining
Montagnards to offer a totally unique perspective better organization and equipment as they became
on the war, with the characters moving through a more regular part of Special Forces operations.
a conflict with no loyalties one way or another,
just trying to survive. If your group has become a strong element of
a Special Forces unit, take an MOS, and add the
following to your profile.
...As Isolated Montagnards
This character creation profile represents Skills
Montagnards operating independently of either +1 Modern Weapon Skill
side. Hand Grenade
Equipment Weight
Create 18 point characters, but add +5 to
x1 Camo Fatigues 2 (Negated)
your Vigilance by default to represent the
considerable survival skills you’ve learned. You Total Weight 0
also speak an indigenous language rather than
Vietnamese or any Western language.
Skills
Fleet-Footed
Survivalist
Stealth
Eagle-Eyed

Your people don’t have access to a lot of modern

technology. By default, you will possess either
a Crossbow and a Combat Knife, or a Machete. You
don’t even posses civilian clothes that would let
you blend in with Vietnamese population.

You have 9XP to spend on additional Skills, with

a few restrictions. You cannot start with weapon
skills related to any modern firearm or grenades,
or with modern techniques like SCUBA training
or parachutes. Obviously, you wouldn’t be able to
learn that stuff out in the boonies.

As for gear, you’ll need to earn XP to buy anything

other than your starting equipment. Due to your
isolation, all 0XP Supplies except Grub costs 1
XP instead.

190
Third Party NPCs
Montagnard Militia Western Aid Worker
You catch a glimpse of a man dressed in a A doctor or missionary working in rural
loincloth moving silently through the bush. Vietnam and getting in the way of military
operations.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
7 10 5 Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
5 6 0
Alignment
Any. Alignment
Skills Usually Idealistic.
Fleet-Footed, Survivalist, Stealth, Eagle- Skills
Eyed, 1 Weapon Skill Medicine, Trauma Care and Basic Medical,
Equipment plus Local Language. Count their Vigilance as
Crossbow and Matchete. 1/3rd will carry a doubled for medical checks.
captured firearm. Equipment
Behaviour A Medical Bag, some First Aid Kits, and a
Representing the local militia, these soldiers Backpack full of food, water and development
will shadow any combatant that enters their kits.
territory. If they see a chance, they will Behaviour
ambush and destroy Viet Cong units. This idealistic fool will find a way to make
things worse for you pretty much no matter
Montagnard Irregulars what, usually by unwittingly aiding the
An odd mix of traditional and military, a communists. They’ll probably be a belligerent
tribesman with a modern weapon and webbing. ass towards you as well.
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency Western Reporter
7 10 6 Either embedded in a military unit or
wandering the country freelance, these
Alignment reporters are always underfoot during
Any. important moments.
Skills
Fleet-Footed, Survivalist, Stealth, Eagle- Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
Eyed, 3 Weapon Skills. 5 8 3
Equipment
Alignment
Webbing, boots, and a random modern firearm
Any
with plenty of ammo. A small number will wear
Camo Fatigues, and a few will carry crossbows. Skills
Nothing notable for military work.
Behaviour
These troops will accompany special forces Equipment
units and follow their lead. Several Cameras. Freelancers will wear
civilian clothes, and often own a motorcycle.
Old Soldier Embedded reporters will wear boots, fatigues,
An elderly villager doesn’t want to leave a flak vest and helmet. They will often also
their home, and you don’t know if you can make carry Tape Recorders.
them go without violence. Behaviour
They want to be as close to the action as
Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency
possible, no matter what that means. They’ll
5 6 6 often be brave to the point of idiocy and put the
soldiers at risk trying to pursue their story.
Alignment
They will interview soldiers incessantly and
Often Idealistic or Righteous.
generally make themselves a nuisance.
Skills
Guard, 1 Weapon Skill. Normally, the reporter will not in any way
Equipment assist the war effort, though they might assist
An old bolt action rifle. in medical actions. If placed in an extreme
Behaviour situation where their survival is on the line,
Having fought the French or Japanese, this the reporter can be convinced to carry and
person has put down roots and doesn’t want to fire a weapon, use a radio, carry ammunition
go. They don’t want to hurt anyone, but they’ll or assist a gunner.
need to be talked down or put down.

191
Timeline
Vietnam was not a static conflict by any means.
The War had multiple distinct eras involving
differing levels of US involvement, different
South Vietnamese governments, and different
compositions of forces for every side, and it raged
on both before and after official US involvement.
Escalation
1965-1967
As the war kicks off properly, increasingly large
numbers of US forces are deployed to Vietnam
in hopes of stabilizing the region. Free World
Forces repeatedly fail to bring the Viet Cong to
battle, accomplishing little.

PATROL’s core rules nebulously revolve around Important Events

the pop-culture perception of the war effort
from the period immediately before, during,
and after the Tet Offensive, trading mostly on
iconic equipment and conditions even when it is
sometimes anachronistic. For the sake of running
games that are more firmly grounded in specific
time periods, you can use these optional rules to
add flavour to a campaign.
Early Days
1955-1964
The Vietnam War began almost the second the
country was divided, with both sides of the Cold
War quickly setting up shop.
Important Events
• 1955: Vietnam is partitioned into two.
• 1959: As the Ho Chi Minh Trail is established,
the first US servicemen die in a guerilla attack.
• 1960: The National Liberation Front is formed
and North Vietnam begins conscription for the
war.
• 1962: Agent Orange is first used to try to expose
the Viet Cong logistics networks.
• 1963: The Buddhist Crisis. South Vietnamese
President Diem begins a crackdown against
Buddhist religious expression. His poor
handling of the incident sees him overthrown
and assassinated.
• 1964: In the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, North
Vietnamese PT boats reportedly fire on the
destroyer USS Maddox in international waters.
The events and circumstances are widely
disputed. This leads to Congress approving a de
facto declaration of war in Vietnam.
• 1965: The first US conventional forces, Marines,
arrive in theatre to defend US airbases.
• The Battle of La Drang sees the US Army Air Calvary
pitted against a large North Vietnamese force,
convincing US commanders of the soundness of a
war of attrition.
• South Vietnamese troops push communists out
of the north of the country, reestablishing
control.
• 1966: The US launches Operation Crimp, their
largest offensive operation, to secure the area
around Saigon. The operation fails to locate the
local V.C. headquaters, and further operations
are even less successful.
• The NVA 324B Division launches an attack over
the DMZ and are repelled by Marines and ARVN
troops in Operation Hastings.
• Operation Cedar Falls, intended to drive the
V.C. out of the Iron Triangle, and Junction City,
intended to strike V.C. bases, both meets almost
no resistance and do little more than capture
some arms caches.
Game Modifications
• The M16 has been issued, but is suffering
reliability issues. With FWF Assault Rifles,
count 2s as Failures for the purposes of FUBAR
rolls, but not for consuming ammunition.
• All Electronics are now available, but cost +1
XP from their listed values.

Game Modifications
• As the M16 hasn’t been issued yet, American and
ARVN characters are restricted to the Battle
Rifle as a Service Weapon.
• Players should play US Special Forces, as
regular army has yet to arrive.
• Australia, Korea and Thailand have not yet
joined the war.
• The Chinook, Huey and Cobra have yet to be
fielded, and no tanks have yet been deployed.
• None of the electronics outside of Radios and
Cameras are available.
• Grenadiers receive Rifle Grenade training
instead of launchers.

192
Tet and Aftermath
1968-1970
After making some slow headway in late 1967,
Free World Forces, confident that victory is
at hand, are sent reeling by the Tet Offensive,
a massive, coordinated attack by the Viet Cong
accompanied by increasing aggression from the
North Vietnamese Army.
Important Events
• 1968: The Siege of Khe Sanh, a Marine base,
begins. It will last 77 days.
• The Tet Offensive is launched, coordinated
strikes across Vietnam against cities and
military targets. Though initially effective,
Viet Cong attempts to engage in open battle
see the organiztion destroyed in a manner of
months.
• In the Battle of Hue, US Marines and ARVN push
Viet Cong forces out of the embattled city. Mass
graves of civilians killed by the Viet Cong are
discovered.
• In the village of My Lai, Charlie Company of
the 20th Infantry Regiment massacres more
than 300 civilians with the tact approval of
their commanding officers. The event would be
covered up for more than a year.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.
Riots break out in bases around Saigon from
disillusioned Black American troops.
• 1969: Operation Menu, a bombing campaign
against NVA and Viet Cong targets in Cambodia,
begins.
• The Viet Cong, on their last legs, launch their
final offensive in late February. It is the last
major offensive by Communist forces launched
by guerrilla fighters.
• Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79, and Richard Nixon is
elected US President, promising to end the war.
• As National Guardsmen open fire on student
protestors at Kent State, the first peace talks
begin in secret.
Game Modifications
• This is the game in its default state. No
mechanical modifications are necessary.
Vietnamization
1971-1973
With American troops leaving the war, attempts
are made to bolster the ARVN to fighting shape.
Though results are mixed, other successes and the
destruction of the Viet Cong sees South Vietnam
the most secure it has ever been.
Important Events
• 1971: The ARVN launches operation Lam Son
719 to destroy communist bases in Laos. The
attack flounders from poor organization and
is then hit with massive counterattack. 9000
193
ARVN troops are killed, most of their armoured
vehicles are destroyed, and hundreds of US
helicopters are shot down.
• The ARVN use helicopters to capture Tchepone
in Laos. Soon afterwards, however, a disastrous
withdrawal is initiated.
• 1972: North Vietnam launches the Easter
Offensive, capturing large areas of South
Vietnam. Though the NVA tske massive casualties,
they hold much of this territory.
• Operation Linebacker II, a massive strategic
bombing campaigns, is launched over the year.
It will nearly cause the complete collapse of
North Vietnam’s war effort.
• 1973: The Paris Peace Accords take place and a
cease-fire is called. American troops leave the
country, and legislation is signed preventing
their return.
Game Modifications
• American troops are suffering serious morale
issues. Start everyone off 1 Doubt every Mission
to represent it.
• Western squads should be accompanied by ARVN
NPC Squadmates, representing trainee soldiers
learning the ropes.
• All Electronics cost -1 XP.
• American Firebugs should now start with
Incendiary Projectors, as the Flamethrower has
been phased out.
Last Days
1974-1975
The United States has officially pulled out
of the war and is retracting support for the
South Vietnamese government, revealing huge
systematic weaknesses in the bureaucracy and
economy that is causing the country to come apart
at the seams. Meanwhile, the North launches a
final assault on the South, backed up with waves
of air and armour.
Important Events
• 1974: The ARVN launches the Battle of Svay
Rieng, their last offensive of the war.
• The NVA begins preparing for a renewed
offensive.
• 1975: The North launches a massive offensive
against the South. Though some areas manage to
hold out for some time, by April Siagon falls to
the North Vietnamese.
Game Modifications
• Free World Forces have left Vietnam. The war is
now between the ARVN and the NVA.
• Ammo and fuel shortages have begun for ARVN
soldiers, so all Ammo costs +1 XP. Vehicles
should start missions with 3d6 shells and 2d6
Fuel instead of full compliments.
• ARVN Rangers gain the Perk To the Death. Until
they surrender or use the Flee action, they gain
+2 to all Attributes.
Generic Equipment
Item Weight XP Description
Entrenching Tool 2 2 Used to dig foxholes and place mines.
Binoculars 2 2 Gives a +5 bonus to Observation rolls.
Phrasebook 1 3 Allows and gives a bonus to Interactions with locals.
Whistle 2 5 Sends signals long distances, particularly to dogs.
Flare Gun 1 2 One-use, illuminates an area and sends signals.
Crowbar 2 2 Used to pry open hatches and doors.
Toolkit 1 2 Gives bonuses for repairing, defusing traps, etc.
Wirecutters 2 2 Destroys barbed wire and telephone lines.
Flashlight 1 2 Makes local searches easier at night and sends signals.

Medical Equipment
Item Weight XP Description
First Aid Kit 1 - Consumable supply used to treat wounds.
Medical Bag 3 3 Gives bonuses to treating injured characters.
Blood Plasma 1 - Universal transfusion supply.
Stretcher 2 - Allows two characters to distribute someone’s weight.

Load-Bearing Equipment
Item Weight XP Description
Webbing Belt - 3 Doubles your Strength.
Tactical Vest - 3 Halves the Weight of the ammo you carry.
Bandoleer - 3 Halves the Weight of the grenades you carry.
Haversack 2 - Backpack that adds +10 Carrying Capacity.
Military Pack 4 1 Backpack that adds +15 Carrying Capacity.
Civilian Basket 2 1 Adds +10 Carrying Capacity. Used to hide items.
Wagon 20 - Carries up to 100. Everything in it Weighs half.

Communication Equipment
Item Weight XP Description
Portable Radio 6 5 Transmits radio signals. 12 Charges.
Handheld Radio 6 5 Transmits radio signals less efficiently. 6 Charges.
Helmet Receiver 1 3 Uses charges to receive messages.
Signal Booster 6 4 Multiplies the effect of spent Charges on radios.
Field Telephone 6 4 Transmits signals to other telephones across wires.
Field Switchboard 6 4 Used to allow networks of multiple telephones.
Telephone Headset 2 3 A mobile Field Telephone with its own electrical line.
Electrical Line 2 - 500 meters of wire for connection bombs and telephones.
Transistor Radio 2 1 Simplistic radio receiver.

Electronics
Item Weight XP Description
Camera 1 2 Takes pictures for intelligence or reporting.
Starlight Scope 2 6 Gives night vision. 3 Charges.
Lineman’s Phone 3 4 Taps into telephone lines for spying.
Cassette Deck 1 2 Records and plays back audio messages.
Loudspeaker 3 2 Allows the user to project up to 250m.
People Sniffer 8 4 Backpack unit that detects hidden individuals.
Intruder Detector 1 2 A microphone connected to a transmitter for monitoring.

194
Wearable Items
Item Weight XP Description
Footwear 2 1 Without them, you are slower.
Poncho 2 1 Insulates you against bad weather.
Dog Tags - 1 Used to recover XP if you die. Contains your blood type.
Sniper Suit 5 5 Adds a considerable stealth bonus while stationary.
Scuba Tank 8 3 Makes swimming easier, safer, and stealthier
Fatigues 2 - Identifies you as a member of a military force.
Camo Fatigues 2 4 Gives you a Stealth Bonus in appropriate theatres.
Civvies 1 - What regular people wear.
Wetsuit 2 3 Speeds you up in water.
Field Jacket 2 1 Insulates you against the cold.

Armour and Lifesaving Gear

Item Weight XP Description
Steel Helmet 2 1 Without it, you are more vulnerable to explosives.
Flak Jacket 4 3 Gives a 6+ Armour Save.
Crash Helmet 2 3 Gives a 5+ save against attacks inside a vehicle.
Chicken Plate 10 3 Gives a 5+ Armour Save.
Parachute 10 3 Do not leave a plane without it.
Life Preserver 3 2 Makes you much less likely to drown.
Gas Mask 2 1 Protects you against chemical attack.

Rideable Equipment
Item Weight XP Description
Bicycle 8 3 Double movement rate on good terrain.
Motorcycle 16 6 Triple movement rate on roads. Uses fuel.

Supplies
Item Weight XP Description
Rations 2 - Consume to remove 2 Hunger.
Grub 2 - Consume with a Rest action to remove 1 Hunger.
Care Package 1 2 Consume to remove 1 Hunger and 2 Doubt.
Tobacco 1 1 Consumed automatically every 12 Turns, removes 1 Doubt.
Chlorine Tablet 1 - Purifies drinking water.
Signal Flag 1 1 Marks hidden objects.
Development Kit 1 1 Used to bribe villagers.
Spare Battery 2 - Used to recharge Electronics.
Barbed Wire Spool 2 - Used to create anti-infantry obstacles.
Camo Netting 2 - Gives a bonus when used to conceal positions.
Leaflet 1 - Used to convey ideas or ask enemies to surrender.
Death Card 1 - Used to mark enemy bodies for XP and intimidation.

Liquid Carriers
Item Weight XP Description
Canteen 1 - Carries 2 units of liquid.
Water Carrier 6 - Carries 10 units of Water. Weighs 1 when empty.
Jerry Can 6 - Carries 12 units of liquid. Weighs 3 when empty.
Flamethrower Tank 10 - Carries 10 units of Fuel. Weighs 4 when empty.
Barrel 25 - Carries 60 units of Liquid. Weights 10 empty. Carry 1.

195
Narcotics
Item Weight XP Description
Uppers 1 2 Perks up a character, until they crash.
Downers 1 2 Negates Doubt, for a while.
Opiates 1 2 Removes Injury and Doubt, makes you sleep.
Hallucinogens - 2 Wacky random effects!

Firearms
Item Weight XP Description
Assault Rifle 3 4 Flexible multi-purpose firearm.
Battle Rifle 3 4 Multi-purpose weapon for marksmen.
Pistol 1 3 Backup weapon great for taking out isolated targets.
Machine-Pistol 1 4 Backup weapon great at keeping people’s heads down.
Submachine-Gun 2 3 Light weapon fantastic at very close range.
Bolt Action Rifle 4 4 A very precise, very powerful weapon.
Shotgun 2 3 Close-ranged killer that saves on your ammo.
Light Machine-Gun 5 6 Heavy, brutal weapon for suppressing enemy squads.
Carbine 2 3 A light rifle as a backup or economy option.
Auto Carbine 2 4 A cut-down Assault Rifle for when every pound counts.
Anti-Tank Rifle 6 6 Capable of killing light vehicles and people alike.
Gyrojet - 4 An ultralight, silenced weapon with expensive ammo.

Special Firearms
Item Weight XP Description
Crossbow 3 3 Primitive silent weapon. Fires Arrows.
Medium Machine-Gun 6 6 Machine-gun with a 3 Weight tripod.
Heavy Machine-Gun 4 6 10 Weight in extra parts, fires Heavy Ammo.
Water-Cooled Mgun 8 6 Uses water to fire indefinitely. 3 Weight tripod.
Flamethrower 4 4 Converts Fuel into crispy critters at close range.
Flash Projector 6 4 A flamethrower but with long range. Fires Rockets.
Minigun 6 6 Fires Heavy Ammo. Has 11 Weight of additional parts.
MANPADS 6 6 Shoots down low-flying airplanes. Fires IR Missiles.
Rocket Launcher 5 3 Powerful tank killer. Fires Rockets.
Disposable RL 3 3 A rocket launcher with its own ammo, 1 shot.
Tow Missile 6 6 Long range rocket. 5 weight tripod, fires Wire Missiles.

Recoilless Rifles
Item Weight XP Description
Small Recoilless 8 6 Bazooka-like gun that fires Tiny Recoilless shells.
Large Recoilless 10 6 Fires Small Recoilless shells, 3 Weight tripod.

Grenade Launchers
Item Weight XP Description
Grenade Launcher 3 4 Fires Launcher Grenades out to medium range.
Automatic GL 8 6 Fires Launcher Grenades 3 at a time.
RPG Launcher 4 4 Fires Rocket Grenades out to medium range.

196
Grenades
Most Grenades come in Hand, Launcher, Rifle and Rocket form. Rifle and Rockets have +1 Weight.
Item Weight XP Description
Frag Grenade 1 - Inflicts heavy damage to enemies outside of cover.
Concussion Grenade 1 - Blasts targets out of fortifications.
Stun Grenades 1 - Stuns target.
Anti-Tank Grenade 1 1 Has a good chance of killing light vehicles.
Defensive Grenade 1 - A safer, but slightly less effective frag grenade.
Satchel Charge 5 2 Used to level fortifications and structures.
Smoke Grenade 1 - Signal positions in colour and blocks line of sight.
CS Grenade 1 - Choking gas incapacitates and forces enemies out.
Molotov Cocktail 2 - Burns targets, even in cover or vehicles.
Incendiary Grenade 1 2 Causes excruciating injury to anyone it strikes.

Melee Weapons
Item Weight XP Description
Combat Knife 1 - Gives a +4 in Melee and inflicts 2 bonus damage.
Club 1 - Gives a +3 in Melee, only in non-lethal fights.
Machete 2 3 Deadly in melee and clears jungle for you.
Garrotte Wire 1 2 Gives you a bonus both in melee and assassinations.

Item Modifiers
Item Weight XP Description
Scope 2 4 Gives bonuses to Taking Aim.
Bipod 2 3 Count as making an additional attack for Suppression.
Suppressor 1 3 Reduces the Stealth Rating penalty for shooting.
Underbarrel Mount - - Attaches another weapon to your weapon.
Extended Magazines 1 - Use the Small Charge track for ammo, use 2 ammo to reload

Weapon Supplies
Item Weight XP Description
Spare Ammo 1 - Removes all Ammo status effect.
Heavy Ammo Belt 2 - Used by heavy machine-guns and AT rifles.
Spare Barrel 2 - Used by overheating machine-guns.
Rocket 2 - Used by rocket launchers.
Wire Missile 4 1 Used by TOW missiles.
IR Missile 4 2 Used by MANPADS.
Micro-Rockets 1 1 Used by gyrojets.
Arrows 1 - Used by crossbows and crossbow traps.

Heavy Guns
Item Weight XP Description
Autocannon 90 - Fires Tiny shells rapidly.
Light AT Cannon 120 - Fires Small shells direct-fire.
Heavy AT Cannon 150 - Fires Medium shells direct-fire.
Rocket Pod 150 - Fires Small Shells in large volleys.

197
Artillery
Item Weight XP Description
Portable Mortar 5 6 Small artillery firing Tiny shells. 3 Weight tripod.
Medium Mortar 6 6 Artillery firing Small shells. 6 Weight in extra parts.
Heavy Mortar 12 6 Barely man-portable mortar. 24 Weight in extra parts.
Medium Artillery 400 - A smaller field piece. Fires Large shells.
Heavy Artillery 500 - A large-scale field gun. Fires Massive shells.
Long-Ranged Arty. 400 - Annoyingly long-ranged soviet gun. Fires Large shells.
Pack Howitzer 300 - A gun that breaks into 6 50 Weight parts.
Rocket Artillery 300 - Fires Medium shells in large volleys.

Munitions
Check the chart on page 87 for full details.

Traps and Mines

Item Weight XP Description
Blast Mine 3 - Standard multi-purpose mine.
Non-Metallic Mine 3 - Standard mine that cannot be detected by minesweepers.
S-Mine 3 - Bounding mine that hits a whole squad at once.
Trip Flare 3 - Sets off a flare exposing whoever tripped it.
Anti-Tank Mine 3 - Mine designed to only go off for vehicles.
Toe Popper 1 - Very small, hard to detect single-target mine.
Punji Stake 2 - Used to create labour-intensive pitfall traps.
Crossbow Trap 3 - Shoots an arrow at whoever set it off.
Claymore Mine 3 - Directional command mine that shoots a wave of shrapnel.
Fougasse Barrel 8 - Barrel of fuel that incinerates an area on command.
Demolition Charge 5 - Destroys entire structures on command.
Blasting Cap 1 - Used to create improvised command traps out of scrap.

Explosive Gear
Item Weight XP Description
Bangalore Torpedo 3 - Used to clear obstacles and traps instantly.
Minesweeper 5 5 Finds hidden mines when moving cautiously.
Detonator 1 - Connects to command traps with wire to set them off.
Thermite 1 1 Used to destroy gear, artillery, and locks.

198
Skill List Handyman: Applies to the Repair, Sabotage Vehicle
Aquatic: Applies to Swim Actions.
and Pry Hatch Actions.
Basic Medical: Applies to the Stem Bleeding
Guard: Applies to the Sentry Action.
Action.
Interrogate: Applies to the Interrogate actions.
Bloodlust: Applies to the Charge Action.
Jump Training: Applies to Parachute Actions.
Cold Blooded: Applies to the Execute Action. Off-
limits to Idealistic characters.
Local Language: Select if Vietnamese, Indigenous
or other. Applies to Communicate Actions.
Camouflage: Applies to the Conceal Position and
Allows interactions with non-English
Conceal Vehicle Actions.
speakers without the use of a phrasebook or
interpreter.
Defuse: Applies to the Disable Trap Action.
Medicine: Applies To the Administer Care and
Diplomacy: Applies to Negotiate and Opposed
Transfusion Actions.
Negotiate Actions.
Melee (Weapon): Applies to Melee fighting with
Drive/Fly (Vehicle): Applies to all Vehicle Actions
this weapon.
except Repair. Specify the vehicle.
Prepare Position: Applies to Prepare Position.
Eagle-Eyed: Applies to Search and Observe
actions.
Pyromania: Applies to Arson actions and
Throw Grenade with Molotov Cocktails.
Electronics: Applies to the Adjust Frequency
Inappropriately lighting fires gives you 1 VP.
Actions.
Scrambling: Applies to the Scramble Signal
Escape Artist: Applies to the Escape Restraint
Action.
Action.
SCUBA Certified: Required to use SCUBA gear.
Enemy Equipment (Type): You treat this type of
Enemy Equipment as your own for the purposes
Silent Killer: Applies to the Assassinate Action.
of Weapon Skills.
Stealth: Applies to the Conceal Self Action.
English/French/Korean/etc: Select one. Like
Local Language for Vietnamese speakers.
Survivalist: Applies to the Forage action.
Explosives: Applies to the Blast Attacks rolled
Tolerance: Applies to the Fortitude Check taken
with Mines and Claymores, and the Throw
when one uses Narcotics.
Grenade attacks used with Satchel Charges.
Tough Nut: Applies to Opposed Interrogate
E-War: Applies to Intercept Transmission Actions.
actions.
Fleet Footed: Applies to the Flee Action.
Trapper: Applies to any Set Trap Actions.
Forward Air Controller: Applies to rolling any
Trauma Care: Applies to the Treat Injury and
checks for aircraft, including Spot Target.
Revive Person Actions.
Forward Observer: Applies to the Spot Target
Tunnel Rat: Applies to the Tunnel Crawl Action.
Action for artillery.
Weapon (Range): Applies to any Attack with this
weapon at the listed range, as well as any Clear
(Type) Grenade: Applies to Throw Grenade attacks,
Action involving this weapon. Does not apply
at any range, using the listed type of Grenade
to the Enemy versions of weapons.
(ie: Hand, Rifle, Launcher or Rocket)

199
 PATROL
Turn Roundel
12 T +0:00

11 1
Z
Z
Z

T +5:30 T +0:30

10 2
T +1:00
T +5:00

9
T +4:30
3
T +1:30

Z Z
Z Z
Z Z

8
T +4:00
4
T +2:00

7
T +3:30
6 5
T +2:30
T +3:00
Z
Z
Z

Consume appropriate supplies on

the turn Conditions would be gained
(water for thirst, rations for hunger,
Mark Thirst tobacco for doubt) to avoid gaining
levels.

Mark Hunger During Heat Wave If you’ve rested 3+ consecutive

Turns, you don’t take Exhaustion.
Z
Z
Z Mark Exhaustion During Cold Snap If bleeding or giving blood, double
Exhaustion and Thirst losses.
Consume Tobacco,
You can share supplies (check the
else Mark Doubt Manage Equipment Action)
 Printable Status Tracks
Ammunition Track
This card tracks ammunition consumption
for magazine firearms. Reset it with spare
ammunition. Add +1 To-Hit Target if you forfeit.
Ammo Belt Track
This card tracks consumption for belt-fed
weapons. Roll 1d6 after shooting; you overheat
if you roll < times this chart was cleared.

3 2

2
1
1
Weapon:

Weapon:
RELOAD
OUT

Charge Track, Large Charge Track, Small

This card tracks Charges for electronics. It can This card tracks Charges for electronics. It can
be reset by spending a Battery. Radios operating be reset by spending a Battery. Radios operating
in the dark zone will get -2 Successes. in the dark zone will get -2 Successes.

12
11
6
10
9
5
8
4
7
6 3
5
4 2
3
2 1
Gear:

Gear:

OUT OUT
Selective Service Form
Personal Information
Fill these fields to the best of your abilities. Misleading answers are a criminal offense.
Name Age Serial #
Rank Blood Gender Origin
MOS Outfit
Helmet Scrawl

Psychological Profile
Check one in the approved fashion. If you are unsure of your Alignment, refer to your recruitment
officer for a standard 9-point metaphysical evaluation.

Idealistic Pragmatic Righteous Egocentric

Your psych profile will be tracked on this form and duplicated for record-keeping.
Victory Experience
Trauma
Points Points

Readiness AttriButes
Distribute 24 points. You must achieve a score of at least 5 in all categories to be approved.

Fortitude Vigilance Proficiency

Training Schedule
Each Skill costs 3XP. Weapon qualifications are not valid without range indicators.

Equipment Registration
Items outside of the approved list are contraband.
/

Awards
Listing commendations which were not issued is a violation of military law.

Property of the US ARMY

 Status Effects
Exhaustion Thirst Hunger Injury Doubt

1 2

3 4

1 1 1 5 6

1 2 2 7 8

2 4 3 10

3 6 4 12

4 8 5 14

16
PATROL
From 1961 to 1973, the United States was involved in a war unlike any it had ever fought
in its history. Millions of young Americans streamed over the Pacific Ocean to fight a
war in a country they had never heard of, and thousands didn’t come back.

PATROL is a roleplaying game for 3+ players, set during the height of the Vietnam War.
Players take the role of American GIs, ARVN soldiers, or their allies from Australia,
South Korea and Thailand, tasked with executing an indeterminable and endless campaign
of Search and Destroy across the countryside, faced with the perils of the deep jungle,
the devious cleverness of the Viet Cong, and the blunders of a disconnected command
structure. They’ll need every bit of their skill and determination to survive their tour
with their body, mind and soul intact.

PATROL’s systems have been designed from the ground-up to be an immersive and informed
game about guerrilla war, long-term missions and infantry combat.

• Fast-paced, high-lethality gameplay using real world maps.

• Highly accessible; just 3 stats, straightforward skills, and d6 pools.
• Innovative morale mechanic challenges players to make tough choices.
• Unique turn structure for realistic multi-day missions.
• Simple but meaningful logistics, without headaches.
• 204 pages of rules, gear and history.