The Squad Diary Blog

This blog is the "War Diary," if you will permit; of a World War II role-playing campaign game. The game being played is Behind Enemy Lines, published in 1986 by the Companions. As with the case in all role play games, real live human beings are assembled at a table, playing the roles of characters that they generated as 'alter egos.' The Game Master [GM] (myself) generates a plot line, or outline of events that the players will become involved with, and the players then create the 'action,' or 'dialogue' to fill in the plot or event points. A helpful analogy to understand what role play is about is to think of it as a novel where all you have is chapter titles, with a handful of character names, or event words as an outline for each chapter, but nothing else. The Player characters then act, or role play their actions and reactions to the NonPlayer characters provided and acted by the GM, or the events detailed by the GM. The GM then moves the plot along, sometimes along its expected path, as the GM planned it, often, along a slightly deviated path, and in some other cases along a widely divergent path. The point is to tell an interactive story, in which the players get to be the 'Hero's.'

In this particular case the players have taken the roles of young men in 1940's America, who in some cases were drafted, in other cases volunteered for service in the United States Army. Historical role play is somewhat different than Fantasy Role Play in that there are a certain number of facts which cannot be changed. Equally however, there is a wide area of historical reality which leaves room for "what-ifs," it is in this level of the historic framework that the players (The Squad) operates. As the GM I present them with historic facts, sometimes a broad framework, such as training time at a particular base in England in 1942; sometimes in a much smaller part of their universe. "You lucky devils have been selected to go on a secret mission to enemy territory." In the former case, the Squad will be provided with only a few historic details, to add 'flavor' (i.e. realism) t0 the game, and may in a four hour game session play days or weeks of game time; while in the latter they might play hours or even minutes of game time, down to very specific detail.

Please note, for those of you who have run across this blog, and are new to Role Playing or War Gaming, (historical Role Play is a hybrid of the two) we are not in any way 'warmongers' or 'glorifying war.' In our case we strive to be realistic, which (in my opinion) video games are not; we strive to deal with the realities of rationing, refugees, and death. In our games if a character dies, he/she is dead. Not like video games where you get back up.... Anyway, what I mean to say is that we are trying to honor the generation that answered the call, by learning in as first hand a way as possible (at least unitl we do develop time travel) what was experienced by that generation; and paying them a respect - as imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

What will follow, is firstly the backgrounds of the player characters; all of these backgrounds were generated by the players themselves and are remarkabley detailed in all cases. These backgrounds are vital to the game as they invest the player in the character far more than a pixel generated soldier on a screen. The backgrounds also allow the GM to tailor situations that the Squad may encounter to the characters abilities... to provide challenges that require 'thinking and sweating' rather than 'brute force and ignorance.' As an aside one of the most important things about role play is its possibilities as a creative problem solving exercise; too often that is ignored, and its about brute force, and violence is the answer. Well, realistically; violence is never the only answer, rarely the right answer, and often the wrong answer. However, on those occasion where it is the right answer or part of the correct answer to an issue, you better get it right.

Moving on, I will present the character backgrounds, and my hope is that you will eventually hear from the characters themselves in the After Action Reports, War Diary entries, or letters home, that you might have seen from those veterans who fought in World War II.

I should also say, that while the historic events the Squad will be faced with are factual (at least up to the point of their involvement) all the characters are fictional and any similarities or near similarities to any persons living or deceased is purely accidental, and in no way meant to denigrate, attack, defame, slander or libel; in any way, shape, or form. Again we are attempting to extol, and elevate, in our own way.

On to the characters... oh a little context. In the World War II United States Army, the Squad is the smallest tactical unit. On paper, its 12 men, lead by a Sergent (the Squad Leader), with an a Corporal (the Assistant Squad leader), and ten men that make up the body of the Squad. Eight carry rifles, the other two members of the Squad were the 'fire support,' one carries a rifle with a Grenade launching attachment, the other the Browning Automatic Rifle, or B.A.R. In reality the Squads were often under the authorized strength and this is the case in our game. The Squad is short five riflemen. With that context, on to the Squad.