MAKING MARINES
“How many drops is this for you, Lieutenant?”
“Thirty eight... simulated.”
“How many combat drops?”
“Uh, two. Including this one.”
—LT. ELLEN RIPLEY, LIEUTENANT SCOTT GORMAN, AND PRIVATE JENETTE VASQUEZ
Either via draft, free will, or at gunpoint, you signed up for the Colonial Marines. Congratulations. Your recruiter probably gave you a pretty story about a paid education, learning a trade, traveling to beautiful new worlds, and getting off your boring ass colony. Probably even told you that the Americas haven’t been in an open conflict since the Dog War ended, almost twenty years ago. Definitely told you you’d get to shoot a nice big gun. Well marine, that last part is 100 percent true. The rest, well—lets just say those little gems ain’t as shiny as you thought. If you’ve signed up thinking you’re going to be taking on enemy platoons by yourself and slow motion running away from explosions like some goddamn action hero nonsense—just stop that shit right now. You’re embarrassing yourself and you are embarrassing the Corps. Modern warfare is a dangerous business. Once you step off that dropship and onto a battlefield, you’ll run into more ways to die than there are for you to stay alive. Just remember that war is more Nuts and Gory than Guts and Glory.
ON THE READY LINE
In a Colonial Marines campaign, most if not all PCs will typically be of the Colonial Marine career as described in the core rulebook. This chapter gives you more background detail and more options for Colonial Marines, to create a more varied group of PCs.
It’s possible to create Pilot and Officer PCs within the USCMC as well, but it can be challenging to play as pilots tend to stay on their ships and commissioned officers only command units of platoon size and up. A team of Pilots could work if the PCs belong to an EVAC fighter wing, but most missions would be aerospace combat based. Smaller units such as squads and sections are commanded by non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who count as Colonial Marines in game terms but can learn some Officer talents as well. More on that below. The players should ideally create their squad of Marines together, in a group. The normal rules for character creation apply, unless stated otherwise here.
| CREATING YOUR MARINE
How you create your Marine is explained in detail in this chapter. The summary below is a helpful overview. Grab a character sheet, a pencil, and follow these steps:
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| RECRUITMENT 101. In the Corps, the galaxy is your playground, and you get to see it all. Every assignment is a new planet, every mission is a new moon. You have trouble making friends? In the Corps, you will have no choice but to form life and death bonds with your squad—instant life buddies. Out of cash and worried about paying for that sleeping cage you rent? In the Corps, all that shit’s taken care of, baby. You’ve got room and board and all expenses covered—all courtesy of Colonial Administration. You earn money to send back home. Plus, you get to show the universe you are a goddamn patriot.
Still not convinced—I get it. What if I told you you’ll not only get all that, but also get to shoot one of these puppies—the M41A1 Pulse Rifle. Every rifleman gets one of their very own—go on, hold it. Feel the weight. She fires 10 millimeter explosive-tip caseless light armor piercing rounds and comes with her own over-and-under thirty millimeter pump action grenade launcher. You can really fuck up someone’s day with one of these. Sounds good, now, doesn’t it. |
THE BASICS
You need to work together with the other players to create your characters. Have a look at the command breakdown and decide on a unit size that fits the number of players—a typical group will be a squad, but a larger group might be a full section, while a smaller group could be just a single fireteam.
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY (MOS)
When the commander has been assigned, it’s time for everyone to choose their Military Occupational Specialty—MOS for short. Your MOS determines your exact job in the corps. You’ll find a number of MOS to choose from on page 54 and forward.
Talk to each other when selecting MOS. Look at the requirements of the standard four-man squad. It contains two fireteams, typically a Gun Team (a smartgunner and a comtech Marine) and a Rifle Team (two Marines who can select their MOS freely). One of those four will be designated squad leader. It is possible, also, that the section’s commander (a sergeant) might attach themselves to the squad, making five Marines in total. Squads can also be formed by swapping out one fireteam for an Assault, CBRN, or Recon Team.
Finally, it is also possible to create a Colonial Marine campaign that is focused on the two-man crew of a dropship, or the driver and gunner of an M577 APC or XT-37 FAV. The crew chief and AFV Marine specialties are provided for this.
THE COMMANDER: As the unit commander, you still need to choose a MOS. You won’t actually have this specific role any longer, but it determines your skill set based on what you did before you took command.
ATTRIBUTES
Allocate 14 points to the standard attributes of Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy as normal. Your MOS will indicate your key attribute, to which you can assign up to 5 points. For the other attributes, 4 is the maximum.
SKILLS
Allocate 10 points to your skills. You must allocate at least one skill point each to CLOSE COMBAT, STAMINA, RANGED COMBAT, MOBILITY, and the skills listed by your MOS. MOS skills can start at up to level 4. For non-MOS skills, 3 is the maximum starting level.
TALENTS
Choose one of the talents listed for your MOS. Some of these talents are new. If you’re an NCO, you can choose an Officer career talent instead of a MOS talent.
| JOINING THE MARINES
Most new recruits have an initial age of 18–23. Recruits are initially trained as Marine infantry riflflemen at Camp Pendleton, California, where the best will eventually graduate having mastered their Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). In their fifirst few months, a Marine holds the rank of private. Within a year or so, they will have been promoted to private fifirst class (PFC). Some will go on to become lance corporals. |
