The year is 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. The brutal conflict has captured the eyes of the world, as young men are sent into the mysterious, beautiful jungles of Vietnam. The U.S. Marines lead the charge for the invading American forces, the war growing unpopular in America as many of its brave young souls are pulled away to engage in a war halfway across the world. Songs of protest fill the radio as the bodies pile up in the horrific conflict. Nevertheless more young men enlist to fight, while others are drafted into battle, plucked from their homeland. As napalm burns the fields more helicopters full of soldiers fill the skies. This story will center on one particularly unlucky squad of Marines, who encounter unspeakable horrors behind those typical of war as they are pulled further into a conflict which none of them truly prepared for.

Welcome to the 7th Marine Regiment's 3rd Battalion, soldier.

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The setting is pretty self explanatory, having been explored in a multitude of films and television shows, as well as personally experienced by millions of veterans. This roleplay desires to further explore the conflict, detailing the brutality and horror of the bloody war whilst injecting a healthy filling of supernatural and paranormal thrills. These fictional elements will add more unpredictability to the tale, while our squad's journey will serve as its backbone. The storyline will be linear in its scope, with plenty of twists and turns. The player characters will all be part of an American infantry squad of Marines, their relationships and personalities adding further thrill to the story. My ideal composition of the squad is a mix of backgrounds, perhaps some of them are fresh faced young men while others are soldiers on their latest tour of duty. Historical accuracy is not of high importance here considering the supernatural elements which will implemented. It is going to get pretty dark and violent.

The roleplay will begin with the squad's first mission together, as what starts as a simple search and destroy evolves into much more. As the survival and sanity of the soldiers is threatened by the growing horrors around them. The main inspirations for this roleplay are classic Vietnam films such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon as well non Vietnam War centered miniseries like Band of Brothers and the Pacific. Psychedelic music will be weaved into the IC posts to further raise the surrealism of the story. Player suggestions and ideas are more than welcome to make the experience more enjoyable for everyone involved.

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• 1. Absolutely no god modding, meta gaming or anything of that nature.
• 2. Simply put, don't be a jerk to other players. Your character can be a jackass but OOC wise please play nice. Any OOC disputes will be solved firmly and finally by me.
• 3. This is an advanced level RP which means advanced standards. IC posts should be a few solid paragraphs long, when in doubt quality > length.
• 4. Every character is a normal human being which means death is a possibility. I won't be going out of my way murdering PCs left and right but its more if your character does something stupid expect repercussions. For example trying to take on two dozen enemy soldiers solo is an ideal way to have your character killed.
• 5. Suggestions and ideas are always welcome.
• 6. If you lose interest please let me know. It happens. Perhaps I can use it as feedback or try to change it to keep you interested. Likewise, if you apply but are not accepted do not give up hope. If someone drops I very well might message you and try to get your character in.
• 7. This ain't going to be a rapid moving RP, as I am a busy man irl (as well as other RP wise). It's going to be chugging along but have no fear of being left behind.
• 8. GM word is law.

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• Squad leader, Staff Sergeant (My character)
• Team leader, Sergeant
• Automatic rifleman armed with an M60
• Grenadier
• Rifleman
• Rifleman

There will be another NPC fireteam which our squad will lose communications with shortly after the start of the RP. Even if your character is not accepted for one role I may still like the character and ask you to convert them to another role. Please post your CS to be judged on the OOC, if you are accepted then I'll ask you to move it to the Characters' tab.

Tell me if you want anything changed

@Maglar Accepted! Welcome aboard Private. You can post it in the character’s tab.

@Edie If you could expand the personality and backstory a bit more it would be perfect. Let me really get a feel of Andrew and all that he has gone through. While we don’t have a radio operator listed I could easily turn that into one of the riflemen.

Hey OP, quick question. Would you mind if I claim the grenadier slot? I've got a CS in the works.

Would be interested in filling the automatic rifleman position. I'll whip a sheet soon.

Age: 23

Place of Birth: Miami, Florida

Physical Description: Caucasian male standing around 5' 9" with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair; cut in a fade that grows into a spiking mess at the top. Relatively clean shaven and built moderately when stood next to his peers.

Squad Role: Grenadier

Rank: Private First Class

Equipment: Boonie hat and fatigues, Bandelier across the chest, Fulton Flashlight, M18 smoke grenades (x3 white) (x1 red), E-tool, Purification tablets, Canteen, Small towel, Colt m1911a1, M16, M79 grenade launcher, a green yoyo with Attitude Is Everything engraved on the side with a winking smiley face in the middle.

Skills: Agile, has an eye for ranging distances, has picked up the local language but is shotty at best, not half bad with a yoyo

Flaws: Hard of hearing, has almost zero tact, can be a tad selfish sometimes, and possesses a big mouth.

Fears: Mass amounts of fire, inexperienced officers

Personality: The reasons for his general attitude can be found below, but as far as this section goes, Richard's most prevailing trait is his neutrality on most things. Don't confuse this for acceptance, as he's very quick to point out the problems in most cases. He's blunt with his opinions, and due to certain past experiences, he doesn't care how high a rank hears them. When it comes to procedure he feels the same way, his one goal is to do his job and get home. Now this doesn't mean he'll gun down civilians because one "might" be Vietcong, he's not a broken man that'll cross any line, but if someone tells him to secure an asset that is clearly lost...yeah good luck. The only exception to his policy of self preservation is human life. He will NOT hang out his comrades to dry, not after his first platoon, and conveniently enough he usually has to break protocols to do this.

Furthermore, his stance on the war itself is almost non-existent. Is it good? Is it bad? In Richard's mind it doesn't matter, they're all involved and the only way out is to play the game. Keep in mind though, he's playing the game so that HE wins, not his superiors. Some might accuse him of being unpatriotic or a boot licker, as both sides don't approve of his lack of a stance, but in the end he sees the idea of them being "good" or "bad" as irrelevant. It's just something else to worry about on top of surviving.

Personal History: The Barnes household was split from the get-go, a condition that persisted for as long as Richard could remember. On one side, there was his father, a dive master operating out of a small shop along the Miami shore. He was foiled by the boy's mother, an officer of the law who continually patrolled the city's twilight district. Though it was true that they completed each other, they always seemed to but heads more than most marriages. The onset of the war in '65 didn't help.

Between the two were three brothers, with Richard being the youngest. Both of his brother's were the results of his parent's previous marriages, the oldest from his father's ex-wife and the middle child from his mother's ex-husband. Richard had the "privilege" of being the only child that could call both his parents biological, which also placed him in the center of quite a few family disagreements. For most of his life he was the middle man, as his older brother would side with dad and his middle sibling with mom. Whenever the adults got to criticizing one and other, their "proxies" as Richard liked to call them, would step in and only add to hostilities.

This gave Rich plenty of opportunities to practice the art of moderation, which usually consisted of him being as blunt as possible to both parties involved. In his head the idea was simple, "they'll either all see reason or just rally around being pissed at me," if the result was the ladder, it never lasted for more than a day or two at a time. This was the routine, and it worked surprisingly well, but nothing is ever truly a cure-all. Even before US troops were officially in country, the topic of the conflict in Vietnam strained his parent's marriage immensely.

At the end of the day, the debate was more a clash of lifestyles and ideology than anything else. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes couldn't have been more different in that regard. "Thank god college was right around the corner," was all Richard could say, as it seemed his usual style of diffusing hostilities just wasn't working. Thankfully the "proxies" were too occupied to weigh in, as Rich's older brother enlisted in the Marines right after high school and the middle one went to study nursing. It seemed Richard was all that was left between his mom and dad...until one fateful day.

Death has a funny way of shuffling one's priorities and whether through a mixture of desiring vengeance, wanting to end the war, or simply seeing an out the US government lost one Barnes brother and gained another. Leaving a confused set of parents behind, Richard was trained and soon found himself in Southeast Asia. He quickly learned the attitude of his platoon, and was surprisingly relieved. There was no more room to slug it out over the politics, they were in country and the only way back was to do their jobs. Instead, the bickering focused on more universally agreeable topics, like why the contents of the heads had to be burned so close to their tents. It seemed that no matter the background or ideology of the individual, most slid right into the established mind set. Being apart of a united group was new to Rich, and he soon found himself missing home less and less.

He should have learned his lesson the first time, because fate quickly reminded him that nothing lasts forever. It was a simple mission, search and destroy enemy caches within a set of villages. Unfortunately, the brass never counted on insurgents coming to retrieve they're supplies on the same day as the operation. What was meant to be a relatively unopposed search and seizure became into an extended firefight. Locked in a stalemate, air was requested, a godsend if the lieutenant coordinating the strike had known his distances better. Long story short, no fire is friendly. With the platoon practically wiped, Richard was circulated into his current unit.

If I may say, these are beautiful. Y'all really knockef some character creation out of the park

I agree, I've been a bit lackluster with my backstory, I'll try and think up more interesting things to add.

Everyone is looking good! I’ll do some reviews Sunday night. I unfortunately cut my hand pretty gnarly at work today but it shouldn’t slow me down too much.

But if we get a flood of applicants then I might have to slow down the process and do like a first then final reviews system.

Ooof, hope it heals alright op.

I’m chugging through my own character’s CS basically one handed. I will finish it monday then commence sheet reviews!

@Lady Selune Lou is an interesting character, he should have an intriguing rapport with John. Both men being on their third tour of duty. Accepted! Our Automatic Rifleman slot has been filled.

@Bronco Also accepted! We got our explosives guy.

For those keeping track we still need a Team leader as well as another rifleman. I am considering adding another rifleman slot due to higher interest than expected. For those who were seeking a role which has been filled have no fear, you're more than welcome to adjust your CS to an available role and apply for one of those. My own CS for our staff sergeant has also been finished.

If things continue to go swimmingly then the IC may be up this weekend, latest being next tuesday.

@Heat

Woo! Definitely one of the Fortunate Ones here :)

I'm gonna drop the RP, I was working on a sheet and ended up having to change his role twice and just lost interest I guess.

@The Ghost Note well I appreciate you letting me know. Good luck with everything!

@Edie how are the sheet revisions coming?

I have discovered a genuinely fantastic fact. During the Vietnam War, US Army Intelligence made a tape of spooky ghost noises to try to scare VC.

Ah yes, operation Wandering Soul