Welcome to the 'Nam
Why RECON?
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| The original 1982 RECON RPG |
Recently I got the notion to explore this RPG from the early 80s. The #riftbros were busy with an insane campaign and I was living vicariously through their online reports.
At one point I acquired the copy of "Advanced Recon", thinking this was similar to "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", where a complete RPG beyond the basic RECON game would be presented. I was disappointed to read the contents and slowly figure out that it was a supplement to some other publication from Palladium.
In any case that book plus the Palladium supplement on modern weapons sat next to the boxed set of the original Twlight:2000 for many years.
But now I was getting more and curious about the RECON game itself. Was there some magic here we left in the dust? Did it just need a good read through to pull up those gems? I wanted to find out.
The Deluxe Revised Recon version seemed to be an update that would make the original game, which was miniatures centric, palatable to "modern" RPG enthusiasts. I mean, it has "Deluxe" in the dang title, this has to be great.
We'll get into how great it is in a bit.
Muster
I decided to just put a flag in the ground and get things rolling.
Out of the players who signed up, 4 had previous military experience. I took a sample mission from the Revised rules as the briefing. The mission was to rescue downed airmen somewhere near the Laotian border in the NW of Southern 'Nam. The area was crawling with VC!
Of course, everything else was up to modification and trickery! These are BrOSR players, and the would stop at nothing to achieve Total Player Victory.
At one point a player requested a map of the area. Revised RECON says that maps don't really matter, but who was I to say no to this enthusiasm. I pulled up an old US Army grid map of the area in question and simply pointed out the areas of interest - where the aircraft was last located, airspeed, altitude, etc.
I really didn't understand why these questions were important until another player drew up a full blown mission plan.
You see one of the players is active duty pilot, so the image shows their estimate of probable crash areas, plus other indicators for infil landing zones, rally points, villages, and mission phase lines. WHAT HAD I DONE?
Would I be able to make this fun for people that knew way more than me about real military missions? We would find out!
Let's meet the team:
Georgios, a Greek "pigman", the team's light machine gunner
USAF Sgt. Wayne "Lys" McHenry, medio/RTO:
"D-Dawg da Pointman", medic/pointman
The Mission
The players are inserted by a slick and 2 Huey "heavy" support craft. The LZ (per the dice) is green, but possibilities include a "hot" LZ with enemy units already shooting or laying in ambush. I tell the players they are deposited at their desired landing zone per the map and then ask what they do.
The area is forested highlands with rocky valleys, and it's going to rain soon. The group moved to Phase Line Alpha, and we see that in this terrain they'll move about 2 kph, which makes tracking them on the grid map straightforward.
Before the game began I did spend some time generating a summary of rules of HOW to run the game. Revised RECON does a poor job at organizing the rules in way that makes for quick referencing in play. There are tidbits buried in different area, for example, this was found under a skill description:
There is no unified section for movement, Good luck trying to find it when you looking it up while playing!
I also summarized the firefight conditions onto a cheat sheet because there weren't intuitive to me. In fact Revised RECON ignores distance and cover as granular modifications to firearm accuracy. Instead, each firefight falls into one of 3 distinct categories - Turkey Shoot, Stand Up War, and Ambush. Turkey Shoot is when you surprise the enemy, Ambush is when you are surprised, and Stand Up War is everything else. Modifications come down to who is moving to cover, under cover, or something in between. Effective weapon range in limited to visibility, which in this mission was about 100ft due to the forest and heavy rain.
Once near Phase Line Alpha, thy found a trail that crossed their line of travel, which they crossed and continued east along the ridge line, pausing to check around for signs of the downed aircraft. The forest obscures almost all views, so this doesn't yield much. It's about another hour when they spot a section of the tree tops that have been chewn up. They find VC tracks in the area and follow those, which leads to the wrecked fuselage. Both ejection seats are intact and there are another set of prints, identified as the aviators, that lead away. It's also clear to the medic/RTO that one of the men is moving very slowly, possibly to due an injury, while the VC tracks appear to be made by rapidly movement.
The players elect to ascend back up to Phase Line Bountiful, then do another check around. Then they realize the VC tracks they just left might lead them towards their mission, so they backtrack. The tracks head into a ravine and turn north, running east of Phase Line Bountiful, winding northward along a river stream.
At 11AM they find 2 guerillas (Revised RECON has a skill "Detect Guerilla", and it obvious these guys are the Bad Guys), messing with a net in a river or standing watch nearby. At this point it's clear that Revised RECON doesn't actually tell you how to figure out who surprised who. You are just left to figure that out based on a couple of examples or lean on some other game (like AD&D). In any case, the little bit of the game that does indicate how to determine if a player character can "sneak up" is clear enough, and that's what the players do, drawing weapons on the 2 VC.
The VC claim to be locals, and when asked by Yan about a missing aviator in the area, the gig is up. Yan's interrogation check passes, and the 2 VC exchange enough body language to tip him off that they know where he is. The VC in the river panics and runs.
Note, again Revised RECON doesn't have any notion of morale or reactions, it's up to referee fiat. I figured that 4 Americans and this Chinese guy who slink out of the jungle, loaded with weaponry is obviously bad news. They have no hope of talking their way out, it's time to fight or flee.
Revised RECON also doesn't tell you the order of combat resolution. I'm assuming it's like Traveller - the shooting is simultaneous. The VC on the river bank grabs his AK-47 and fires 5 shots randomly while his buddy runs for his life down the stream.
The players are electing to fire their weapons, and this is a Turkey Shoot. The penalties are so bad for the lone VC gunner, he can only hit on a 5 or less on a d100 and of course there is 1 improbable hit on D-Dawg.
The 2 VC are shot to pieces that same combat turn. From further down the stream there is the sound of shouts, and more VC are approaching. The players prepare for another fight.
This time there is apparently a sniper taking blind shots through about 500ft of jungle, while 3-4 more advance long the river bank. The players move up as well to engage, while the Pigman began to lay down a hail of M-60 support fire into the jungle.
More sniper shots are sent towards the players and the pigman keeps up with suppressive fire, landing a hit in return. The VC coming through the jungle reveal themselves by firing full auto and charging, yelling and screaming. The player lob grenades and obliterate these guys, even taking minor fragmentation hits from being so close. Yan and Bulger close in on the snipers, killing one and taking another prisoner after some grappling and knife work.
She's not backing down, telling them what she thinks about them ("Imperialist dogs!") and even tries to appeal to Yan as a fellow Asian in the struggle against the white capitalist devils. Yan is of course a rabid anti-communist and laughs, continuing his questioning.
Behind the sniper locations is a small VC camp for about a dozen people. There is an impromptu bamboo cage is LCDR Harris, who has a badly broken leg. Between him and the captured guerilla, the players learn than Lt. McDonald was taken the same day away to the NW, probably towards VC supply lines in Laos. From there he will likely be taken to the People's Nam and held as a POW.
The players don't waste much time here but a debate about the prisoner ensues. There is risk in leaving her free and also in trying to bring her along. Finally, D-Dawg executes her with his pistol. Not everyone is happy about this but they set that aside for later. They do decide to hump up to the next ridge line to call in a medical evac for Harris. Luckily they are able to establish radio contact and summon the slicks back for an extraction.
It's noon when Harris is flown away. The players continue to follow the VC tracks and the trail they've discovered. By 1:30PM they discover another set of people coming the opposite direction on this trail. The players quickly setup an ambush. The lead VC on the trail as an Alertness (AL) of 98! This guy is obviously good at his job, which in this case is escorting an overweight VC party apparatchik through the jungle. The party man is carrying an oversized travel briefcase, including travel stickers and signs of long use. He clutches it tightly. I roll the AL for the VC, and he easily spots the ambush. He takes off, leaving the official blundering behind him on the trail.
The players manage to shoot and kill the fleeing guerilla and the official is more offended than worried. He doesn't seem to be worried about the Americans. He's upset that they don't respond to his demands to be told who they are and what they doing. The players want that briefcase, and they persuade the official with a solid knife pommel to the face to relinquish it. Inside are mostly communist party propaganda, morality play scripts, and also "tax" documents outlining the official's itinerary through a series of mountain villages from Go Dai and further east. The interesting thing is that the papers indicate villages that currently VC strongholds or not. This is an intel gold mine!
Again, the prisoner is dispatched, this time by Yan with his knife. That's the second war crime of the day. There are clear divisions now between the hard core team members and the idealistic ones who are growing uncomfortable with his handling of prisoners.
The players continue to follow the trail, which by now they realize is a VC thoroughfare. By 3:30pm they catch sight of a group of 4 VC and the missing aviator, who is taking pains to be as slow and deliberate in his captivity. The players sweep around and ahead and prepare to engage the group.
While the team begins to shoot, one players shouts to the aviator to "hit the deck!" It's a pretty quick firefight, and the guerillas are shot to pieces. There is a 1 grenade thrown back at the players but the roll is poor and the grenade missies completely. None of the other shots hit. Being on the business side of an ambush is deadly in Revised RECON.
There are multiple attempts to establish radio contact for an extraction, and this leads to climbing up to successive peaks. It's a ticking clock. The sun is setting soon and per the rules, every hour the referee is directed to check for random encounters (aka "contacts!"). None come up, and the players do manage to get a radio signal to base. The sound of rotors is heard 30 minutes later and the team mounts the slick with their aviator and RTB.
Rewards
The player earn 94 XP. I've decided to let the top ranked PC's player allocate these points. It's an even award, with 18 going to everyone, and a little leftover.
All around we enjoyed the event, but Revised RECON is a strange game. It feels like it didn't quite make the full leap away from the miniatures wargame to what it could have been. There are missing elements that as AD&D enthusiasts we take for granted. The rules are really poor at explaining the systems, you really have to be experienced with other games to extrapolate procedures for these uncertain area.
Would we play this again? At least one player mentioned that it would be fascinating to play a long term assignment focused on a platoon or company. I agree that would be interesting it play out. Maybe we will.
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