Vietnam War RPG

>>49923237

Grunt and Cuthulu by Arclight.

>>49923237
Go GURPS. It has a sourcebook for exactly that: Vietnam

>>49923237
My vote goes to CoC or the new Delta Green.

Campaign-wise, I suppose you just follow your players squad through the war, whether they are hardcore MACV-SOG operators or just general grunts. You could also run a game set during the Battle of An Lộc, so that players interested in fighting in and alongside tanks could do so.
In my own opinion, having your players be MACV-SOG would make it much easier due to the greater degree of freedom they would have, which is much more conducive to an interesting game.

>>49923644
I'm leaning towards making them MACVSOG though I have also considered making them grunts out on LRRP missions.

As for system, I'll look over my GURPS material and do some price checking on the Vietnam sourcebook for it.

>>49923237
Twilight: 2000 is basically Vietnam; it's from the old Cold War era, so while there are some things that would need to be adjusted to fit Vietnam (basically, drop the gear list) it is literally designed to handle Vietnam-style conflicts with a military focus.

In fact, I think there's even a Vietnam book for it, but it's been a while.

Delta Green is doing a Vietnam GUMSHOE expansion soon and MASHED is a Korean War game that just Kickstarted that would be easy to switch over.

Hilariously enough, Only War would probably work well.

>>49923237
Deluxe Revised Recon can be found on DtRPG.

>>49924974
Seconding RECON. It was designed for the Vietnam War and has some good mechanisms to make the PCs shit their pants.

>>49926959
What is its system like? Is there a reason I should shift from T2k?

>>49923237
>I know about Recon, but it is out-of-print, rare, and I just checked Amazon, secondhand copies are ungodly expensive
Gee if only it existed as a PDF
oh wait

http://www.mediafire.com/file/7715dc2vmqjb1w1/Deluxe+Revised+Recon.pdf
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/z8i8t83bysdwz/Vietnam_War

>>49927108
>Is there a reason I should shift from T2k?
T2K is good fun but it wasn't made for what you want, basically. Recon is THE Vietnam RPG.

File: hqdefault[1].jpg (26KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 480x360px

Semi-related question: If I wanted to do Vietnam IN SPACE what system would be best for it?

>>49929421
Traveller would pretty much be perfect

File: war-is-hell-vietnam-war.png.jpg (118KB, 1200x900px) Image search: [Google]

118KB, 1200x900px

>>49923237
Any game that has a decent combat system will do good for a Vietnam war setting. Interlock/Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS, BRP, the new Delta Green, Twilight 2000, Recon, they all work well for that. There are also some less known games like Carry - A Game About War and Grunt - Roleplaying in the Vietnam War that treat of the subject.

Personally, I have DM'd Recon and a modified Cyberpunk 2020 for Vietnam War adventures and both worked, though I must say that I preferred CP2020. The new Delta Green is also pretty damn good and offers a psychological aspect missing from other games that are more centered around combat. Thinking about it, I think that Kult could also be used, as it also has a system for dealing with the psychological aspects of war.

File: wjpg2-e1334693770679.jpg (128KB, 499x649px)

128KB, 499x649px

No one ever talks about Tour of Darkness.

>>49930055
Is it any good?

>>49930055
Came here to post this.

>>49930172
It uses the Savage Worlds system, so that question depends on how you feel about that.

Personally I like it a lot though.

is Apocalypse now a valid campaign?

>>49930180
Not a huge fan of SW. Apart of the system what is its main advantage over other games?

>>49930198
It has a pretty in-depth random mission generator, rules for calling in fire missions and air support, stats for pretty much any weapon or vehicle you'd be likely to encounter in 'Nam. By default the game assumes a supernatural element but that's fairly easy to ignore.

I'd say it's better than RECON, if only because RECON was made by Palladium and therefore has all of the editing mistakes and janky rules associated with Palladium's other systems.

>>49930224
>I'd say it's better than RECON, if only because RECON was made by Palladium and therefore has all of the editing mistakes and janky rules associated with Palladium's other systems.
Recon is completely different from other Palladium Games, its system is a fucking streamlined marvel compared to the rest. The Advanced Deluxe edition dealt with the numerous edit errors of the original too.

>>49930234
It still has a bunch, though.

Just one example, they list the M1 Garand as a bolt-action rifle.

File: Carry RPG.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>49930256
Hardly gamebreaking, sheesh. Never found it a problem when playing the game for years. But hey, OP might just as well play this at the end of the day, or actually CP2020 come to think of it.

Ignore 'nam and skip to the 90s war in America against blacks.

File: 1469285647030.png (4MB, 1800x2400px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 1800x2400px

>>49923237
>What should I do for a campaign set in 'Nam
Go squad based. Your party are all conscripts from different backgrounds (varying from fresh out of college students to veterans who have already seen a war or two) and your little group is tasked with capturing and holding key positions, organizing ambushes etc. Even if you want them to join a big offensive, have them play their own, isolated section within that big offensive.

As for tone, you can go one of two routes in my opinion: either emphasize the whole "war is hell" thing and make everything gruesome and have them run out of food and beforced to eat some gook's corpse for survival... or you can make it like some 80s action movie where the party is a glorious bunch of murderhobos that sails a speedboat upstream, uses some branches as a ramp to launch the boat into some gooks, jumps out at the last moment and shoots the gastank to blow up a Vietcong encampment. Now that I think about it, the party would probably be fitting as a group of special forces (if they're professional) or expendables (if they're murderhobos). Have them helicopter/paradropped behind enemy lines and watch them mess shit up.

Also, you're obliged to play fortunate son as well as other era-appropriate songs all the time.

Alternatively you can do something entirely different. The party are a bunch of Vietcong spies who have infiltrated South Vietnam and you're tasked with digging up as much information as possible about what the Americans are doing. You're moonlighting as prostitutes, taxi drivers, bartenders, chefs and pretty much any other kind of native that would spend a lot of time among the Americans. It'll be a very social and intrigue-centered campaign despite the literal war going on, and the most action your party will (ideally) see is an assassination or two. Not what you'd usually associate with the Vietnam War but in any war information is key, and a man never lies when drunk or with a woman he loves.