3 ESTUDIO SIMPLIFICADO DE LOS FUNDAMENTOS FÍSICOS
3.2 Criticidad, fórmula de los cuatro factores
When a grunt comes face to-face with the human horror of war, he is often forced to internalize that horror. He appears hardened, yet the inhumanity he is witness to or forced to participate in, create stress and turmoil within him. Hopefully, the player character can moderate the stress and function normally.
Horror Tests (2d6+Spirits)
Being a witness to, or participant in, a horrific scene requires a Horror Test. Roll 2d6 add Spirits and try to gain a result of 10+. If successful the event can be explained, rationalised or forgotten. If unsuccessful, then the event leaves a scar, add 1 point to the grunt‟s Stress total.
Stress is bad – and is always accompanied by a „condition‟, a behaviour that is generally not considered normal, that the PC uses to relieve stress. It might be fear of the dead, cowardice or over-reliance on religion. While the grunt has any stress points on his character sheet, he must have an associated condition.
The first time a character loses his cool (ie. fails the Horror Test) he suffers a random psychological response, his brain kicks off and the character involuntarily does one of a number of things. The GM can pick a response he feels is suitable, or he can roll a d6 and let the player roleplay the result. He only has this response once, the first time he fails the Horror Test. Every other time, whether he fails or succeeds, there is no response, and none is rolled for
(it is sublimated, and manifests on the character sheet as a stress points).
Reducing Stress Through Roleplaying
Why is stress bad? At the start of every mission the GM reviews the PC‟s stress levels. If any grunt ends a game with stress points remaining, then his Panic score returns to its original value for the entirety of the next mission. This is bad, and so during the game the player tries to lower his character‟s stress points, either during, before or after the combat mission. He does this by role playing a short scene where his PC can give free rein to his 'condition'. A GM should let the players take the lead in setting up and developing these scenes. Dice might be rolled and tasks attempted, or they can be purely descriptive. When a PC has such an „episode‟ he can reduce his stress points immediately by 1d6. This might be enough to lower his Stress to zero by the end of the mission – or it might not. It‟s certainly worth trying.
Those who fail to eradicate their stress in a game fail to internalise their fear and panic, which instead becomes real and physical. During the next mission, then, his Panic score is at its original value. The grunt is a nervous wreck and freezes in combat, or closes his eyes and prays – he‟s as useful as the greenest of the new FNGs!
1d6 Response
These are hard to define, never mind list. Classify them as 'Things Man Was Not Meant To See', things not shown in the 1950s war movies, things your father never told you about his time in Normandy. This list is a guide, certainly not definitive:
Mutilated corpses, of any side, army or creed. Reporter Tim Paige saw a dead GI from whom the VC had cut off the genitals and stuffed them into his own mouth: Horror Test.
Horrible wounds, with insides turned out; one GI about to join a convoy through the dangerous An Khe pass celebrated the night before with a local girl in his APC. She left a satchel charge behind that blew off his arms and his legs at the knee.
Body parts, sometimes in disturbing or incongrous locations. Mason, in Chickenhawk, recounts watching a grunt throw a human head into his chopper that rolled under the passenger seat: Horror Test.
Horrific death, dramatic, unexpected, explicit and just … horrible. Tim O' Brien, in his memoirs, remembers his squad following tracked APCs that came under fire and then suddenely went into reverse. One man lost a foot, another broke a leg, one man was squashed flat - all by the APCs there to protect them: Horror Test.
Torture. Watching your own platoon officer wire up the dynamo-powered base telephone to a suspect's gentials then power it up, makes you wonder if you're on the right side: Horror Test.
Ones own good deeds destroyed and laid waste. A doctor worked for hours on an Austalian soldier, and then a wounded VC in the same field hospital, woke up, went beserk and slit the Aussie's throat with broken glass: Horror Test.
Human suffering, beyond mere grief, including the abuse of innocents, wounded, and prisoners. For a bit of fun, a the driver of a jeep made a bet with the bored passengers that he could hit a local woman walking along the roadside, as she carried rice on a pole. He ran over her for fun, breaking her hip: Horror Test.
For Game Masters and players wanting to use these Traumatic Stress rules, it is important that they allow time for these episodes to be played out, more often in and around camp, on R&R, outside combat and out of the field, than in it. Note that these reductions in stress are only temporary! At the start of the next game they are returned to their original levels (and if the grunt failed a Horror Test in the last game, may even have gone up!)
Conditions
A list of conditions is given here. The GM may want to choose one that he thinks appropriate to a particular grunt, the player may want to select one, or perhaps they want to roll one
5 Cowardice Post Combat Shakes
6 Charm Indecisiveness
7 Temper Temper
8 Loner Addiction - Drugs
9 Nightmares Flashbacks
10 Fanatical-Body Count Fanatical-Body Count 11 Phobia-Being Alone Phobia-The Dead 12 Fanatical-Anti-Communist Phobia-Blood
Addiction-Drugs
An episode of drug taking, dealing and/or zonking out.
Cannot Kill
An episode where a face to face kill or aimed shot is refused, or a confrontation with authority.
Charm
An episode where the grunt irrationally puts his trust in a lucky talisman instead of a practiced procedure or piece of equipment.
Compulsive Gambler
An episode of gambling, sometimes over trivial, stupid or dangerous things.
Cowardice
An episode of cowardice, not uncontrolled panic, but calculated to avoid danger.
Fanatical-Body Count
An episode where the body count is important, keeping a tally, taking a souvenir, taking an ear … Fanatical-Anti Communist
An episode that displays extreme anti-communism, perhaps a confrontation or aggressive act.
Fatalist
An episode that shows how the grunt has relinquished free will to the military machine, or destiny.
Flashbacks
An episode of flashbacks, replaying an event from his tour of duty that resonates with his current situation, it will debilitate him, but not in a combat situation.
Guilt
An episode of guilt, soul-searching, extreme remorse and attempts to make amends for an action of the squad or the grunt himself.
Hears Voices
An episode where the grunt hears voices (of whom?), debilitating or confusing him Indecisiveness
An episode where a decision needs to be made (often in the field) but indecision cripples the grunt and could put the mission, even lives at risk.
Loner
An episode where the grunt should work as a team or with a partner, but where he removes himself, separates himself; this episode could also take place in camp, where his presence is needed at a party, meeting, briefing, etc.
Nightmares
An episode of nightmares, replaying an event from his tour of duty that resonates with his current situation; it might strike while in the field compromising the squad, or leave the grunt exhausted and unable to stay awake for guard duty.
Phobia-Being Alone
An episode of extreme fear and abhorrence concerning being left alone or the threat of being left behind, abandoned, lost or captured. The grunt may take extreme measures to ensure he is not left alone.
Phobia-Blood
An episode of extreme fear and abhorrence concerning blood, the grunt will take extreme measures to avoid seeing blood, touching it or being in a place where he is likely to see blood.
Phobia-The Dead
An episode of extreme fear and abhorrence concerning dead bodies, the grunt will take extreme measures to avoid seeing dead bodies, touching them or being in a place where he is likely to see them.
Post Combat Shakes
An episode of uncontrollable shakes takes the grunt following a firefight, this might occur in the field, or back at camp, and will be associated with a degree of confusion and upset and the lack of control. He is a nervous wreck, and might even take a -2 penalty on physical tasks for a while.
Temper
This is a common condition. The grunt will be struck by an episode of rage triggered by something that he would normally ignore or deal with peacefully. He might get into a blazing row over nothing, or get into a fight instead of an argument, or he might take his frustrations out on a Vietnamese that is in the wrong place at the wrong time. The player should be careful not to let the episode get too out of hand and get him into trouble with his superiors. In the field the grunt‟s squad-mates might be forced to rally round and cover-up for him. Be careful not to let this condition be used as an excuse to turn the grunt into a killing machine. The episode will be brief and probably more often confrontational than violent.
Stories: Eliminating Stress Permanently
Rather than have stress return at full strength at the start of every mission, it is preferable to try to reduce it permanently. This is done by building up good relationships, helping people and gaining „stories‟. A story is an anecdote from the grunt‟s past that reminds him that he‟s still human, that he has a life waiting for him back in The World. When a GM awards a story to a player character, the player concerned gets to make that story up , share it with the other players and write it on his character sheet. At any point thereafter, the player can ‘spend’ that story to permanently reduce another grunt’s Stress score. This is best done late in the game when a grunt finds he just can‟t reduce his stress levels before the mission ends. A spent story must be marked with an X; it cannot be used again.
Here are some sample stories.
“Anders crashed his dad‟s car the same day he passed his driving test”
“When Crow shot his first rifle in training the butt smacked him in the face and broke his nose”
“Feelgood built a hot-rod with his dad, but they never got the engine to turn over”
Stories are awarded at the end of a game after the PC has helped people, either Vietnamese civilians, comrades or even Viet Cong (perhaps wounded or vulnerable). Acts of compassion, empathy and trust can all lead to a story award. The story is typically unrelated to the incident of compassion, but at times it might actually have some resonance. Obviously in a war zone, opportunities to develop close relationships with local people, help them out, care and look out for them, might be scare. There may be the odd chance to help a fellow GI pull through a crisis and other chances might occur while on a mission, or on R&R.
Gaining stories is fun and should be encouraged, but the GM shouldn‟t award stories to every grunt at the end of every mission. It will take work to develop a relationship, and there just may not be the opportunities in a mission to do so. When a grunt gets killed in action, his stories die with him, and that can be the main reason that a character‟s loss is mourned.