The place for out-of-character discussion.

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Did we ever decide on the civilian vs. military leadership for the team?  I have been toying with a couple of ideas for a civilian team leader but I know Dave was looking at a military officer PC.

In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 2):

The idea, at present, is that the team is operating under the aegis of the Arkansas State Guard, which ultimately answers to the civilian governor. I've been deliberately vague about the hierarchy, OOB, and TOE of the guard, though, so that we have some flexibility in arranging these sorts of things. I believe that Dave has gen'ed up a preliminary team leader PC (ex-USAF, currently an officer of the ASG), so let's see what he has to say about this.

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Here's the link for my primary concept.

link to a message in another game

I'm more than happy to run that concept with a civilian team leader if Teg wants to go down that road. I  don't see that causing any challenges - presumably the civie would be in overall charge while Kirk would be more focused on the security aspects of the mission. In a nut shell, I'm keen to play that concept but she absolutely does not have to be the overall boss.

One thing though, she's a graduate of the USAF Academy and career AF officer so she wouldn't self identify as ex USAF now ASG. She would self identify as active duty USAF attached to the ASG for the duration of the current emergency. I realise that legally that may be a grey area but I figure that by this stage in the War lawyers wont be splitting hairs. In terms of the game I don't see it making any difference, particularly as this time round the Governor is not a jerk.

Okay.  I've been kicking around two concepts.  Which one I select will depend, in part, on how our mission is slanted (i.e., which candidate The Powers That Be would have tapped to lead such a mission).

If the mission is more infrastructure-focused, I'm looking at re-tooling the engineer concept I submitted for the New Mexico game.  Former Marine Corps combat engineer lieutenant who went back to school for civil engineering and went into the private sector.  At the time of the war, he was the city engineer for someplace that's now defunct due to a nuclear strike.

If the mission is focused more on continuity of government and re-establishing the rule of law, I'm thinking about someone who can represent the state in that respect.  I'll need to dig into Arkansas' criminal justice system a little more but I'm thinking a former district attorney or circuit court judge.  In either case, he'd now be operating under some sort of special commission from the state to give him statewide legal authority.

Addendum - going back to the Pharos thread, it looks like Spartan is leaning toward the engineer concept, so I can let that one go.

Other non-leader concepts I have floating around that would fill needed skill sets are:

Based on recent vacation experiences, the archetypal backwoods guide.  Primary mission role would be scout, with the terrain skills to get the team into and out of just about any area in Arkansas.

Public health physician.  Primary focus would be epidemiology, so this would not be a battlefield trauma specialist (mechanically, Medical focus would be Diagnosis).

I'm happy to find another secondary concept if you want a civil engineer as a primary.  So no worries there.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:41, Thu 05 July 2018.

I see the mission as being both, really- assisting local communities outside the state government's ZOC, in order to establish positive connections between said parties. It's about the state government trying to restore civilization with both carrot and stick. This could mean helping to repair a well or bridge, adjudicating a property dispute, delivering some mail, treating the sick or injured, or taking down a troublesome band of marauders- all of the above, really. I don't think that a PbP will work if its focus is on one or the other. Read on.

One thing to keep in mind as we discuss PC backgrounds, roles, and affiliations is PbP utility. I'd like this game to focus more on civil affairs than other T2K campaigns I've participated in, but I think we've all noticed how quickly lengthy non-combat episodes slow down PbPs, sometimes to the point of fatal entropy- even with this group. So, IMHO, a little action is a must.

In my vision for this campaign, the party will encounter various marauders. From time to time, combat is going to be inevitable. This doesn't mean that PCs can't be, technically-speaking, civilians, but it does mean that civie PCs should be  able, ready, and willing to fight when the time comes. A "pure" civilian character likely isn't going to last long where we're going.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 16:09, Thu 05 July 2018.

Are you thinking that these targets got nuked? Relatively speaking, they're both fairly small operations and it may be that, they won't be producing much in 5-10 years. If they were nuked, that adds to the problems that could be encountered in the AO. If they weren't, they're a potential prize for whoever can control them.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 16:08, Thu 05 July 2018.

Concur, and have you ever known me to build a PC without combat capability?  :)



I'm looking for potential alternative nuclear targets, as Blytheville AFB was closed in 1992.  Pine Bluff Arsenal doesn't have its chemical weapons stockpile, so it wouldn't be a particularly viable target.  Little Rock AFB is the C-130 training center but that's not really high-priority.  The only other sites I can find are Army Reserve and National Guard training facilities.

I'm tempted to ask for a nuke on Wal-Mart corporate headquarters as a target of high economic value.

Ah, thanks for catching that. I was unaware that Blytheville AFB was off the list. Well, El Dorado certainly fits the bill. Smackwater's pretty small though. So we could erase the bigger or the two and leave the smaller as a potential McGuffin.



Ha ha! Yes, please! I loathe WalMart. But, alas, I doubt it's worth a nuke.

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I've been toying with a career timeline for the physician concept.  He'd be former US Navy.  Finished med school and got his O-3 commission in 2007.  Served his internship at Naval Medical Hospital San Diego, then deployed to Helmand with the 24th MEU in 2008-2009.  He stayed with the 24th MEU through its Haiti earthquake relief deployment in 2010.  Went back to Afgahnistan in 2012-2013 as part of the PRT Kunar medical contingent, then finished out his service at Naval Medical Research Unit 6 in Peru.  At the time of the war, he was running the Arkansas Department of Health's Preparedness and Emergency Response Branch.  He's argued himself into a position with this team on the basis that it's pretty much what he did with PRT Kunar.

The engineer pitch is an Oklahoma City native who witnessed the Murrah Building bombing as a kid and grew up fascinated with explosions.  He wound up an Army combat engineer officer but got out as soon as he'd served his minimum service commitment because he was disgusted with the bureaucracy.  Trading one set of red tape for another, he went to grad school for civil engineering, got his PE, and eventually went on to earn a Ph.D from New Mexico Tech.

When the war broke out, he was running his own specialized engineering consulting firm in Little Rock and was a Pulaski County Sheriff's Office reserve deputy (mainly so they could use him for EOD and explosive breaching).  Realizing that shit was not going to be normal for a long time, he used his government connections to get all his surviving  employees hooked up with state jobs in the reconstruction effort, then started farming himself out to whatever project needed him.