Just thinking about a new game start

[.45cultist]

I would like to as well.

The well done lists are mostly from a field military angle but civilians and bases have domestic food, a subject that can be expanded upon quite a bit. Condensed soup is an interesting subject, since it's sugested that one use an equal amount of water.

[LT. Ox]

C-rats.

The well done lists are mostly from a field military angle but civilians and bases have domestic food, a subject that can be expanded upon quite a bit. Condensed soup is an interesting subject, since it's sugested that one use an equal amount of water.

As one that carried my meals in cans, a whole lot of cans, I am here to tell you that they take a lot of room, are a major noise problem and the clean up disposal is also a major pain.
but it you have an old time steel helmet then the stews you can make are pretty tasty.
Carried two meals in a wool sock, well two cans of meals add in the dry stuff in the butt pack you tied off the socks for three, four or five days worth then attached them were ever they would fit.
Not only the meals but the load bearing gear is so much better now.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Haha, I remember doing the same sort of thing in the Aussie Army. We were using the US M56 webbing back then with Aussie ammo pouches for the SLR. The buttpacks were good pieces of kit, when we changed to the new Auscam webbing they continued to issue the buttpack (or as we call it, the bumpack). The main meals in our ratpacks were in tins back then as well.

As I recall it, the procedure at the time for the tins was to "burn, bash & bury" them once they'd been used - burn any remaining foodscraps out of them, bash 'em down flat then bury them deep.
That changed some years later when they figured that certain enemies could still locate the buried rubbish by either metal detectors or even sense of smell in some places, and we had to haul all the rubbish back with us.

[LT. Ox]

oh so true

Haha, I remember doing the same sort of thing in the Aussie Army. We were using the US M56 webbing back then with Aussie ammo pouches for the SLR. The buttpacks were good pieces of kit, when we changed to the new Auscam webbing they continued to issue the buttpack (or as we call it, the bumpack). The main meals in our ratpacks were in tins back then as well.

As I recall it, the procedure at the time for the tins was to "burn, bash & bury" them once they'd been used - burn any remaining foodscraps out of them, bash 'em down flat then bury them deep.
That changed some years later when they figured that certain enemies could still locate the buried rubbish by either metal detectors or even sense of smell in some places, and we had to haul all the rubbish back with us.

Dang burn bash and bury!!!

I had forgot that. Same same for us in Nam. I often wondered why we were so dang carful about trashing the country side just after I called in about forty rounds of Willy Pete.
here is another oldy but goody.
Det cord and c-3 not for the enemy but to heat rations and to cut trees.
Just do not stomp on that c-3 when it is burning, never did nor did I see any results just the idea that it might go bang was enough to let it burn out. a marble size ball would heat the canteen cup boiling hot.
good old zippo lighter and c-4.

[.45cultist]

As one that carried my meals in cans, a whole lot of cans, I am here to tell you that they take a lot of room, are a major noise problem and the clean up disposal is also a major pain.
but it you have an old time steel helmet then the stews you can make are pretty tasty.
Carried two meals in a wool sock, well two cans of meals add in the dry stuff in the butt pack you tied off the socks for three, four or five days worth then attached them were ever they would fit.
Not only the meals but the load bearing gear is so much better now.

The fruitcake could turn alcoholic according to a marine from that era.

[.45cultist]

As one that carried my meals in cans, a whole lot of cans, I am here to tell you that they take a lot of room, are a major noise problem and the clean up disposal is also a major pain.
but it you have an old time steel helmet then the stews you can make are pretty tasty.
Carried two meals in a wool sock, well two cans of meals add in the dry stuff in the butt pack you tied off the socks for three, four or five days worth then attached them were ever they would fit.
Not only the meals but the load bearing gear is so much better now.

Ramen is lighter, but the ones in foam containers have a shorter lifespan due to the eco-friendly styrofoam breaking down. The ones in plastic are more compact, one is included in the "Hunger Buster" ration in a Japanese ration book. the plastic bowl ones are more bulky, but some tasty options are there. Probably will have to measure water to get weight. If one eats two kinds of food, which weight applies I.E. 1kg domestic, 1kg wild food is eaten by a character.

[ArmySGT.]

Funny you should mention it but I too have been thinking about a new game these last few days.
I'm in the situation where I'd be advertising at my Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) for players and with that in mind, many of them are going to be 20- or 30-somethings with me and the game store owner as the oldest gamers at the table (him, late 40s, me 50). Fortunately for me, my FLGS has a game room so location is easy to sort out and I can pretty much count on the FLGS owner to be one of the players.

So with all that in mind I've been rethinking the start of a T2k campaign and with the type of players I can get (who are probably all going to be new faces to me with the exception of the FLGS owner), I'm thinking of going with a variation of D&D's tired old "You all meet in a tavern" trope.
In this case however I was thinking of having the PCs meet at a military evacuation point and have them be told that there are too many people to evacuate and because the world has fallen apart, the governments no longer truly exist and the military doesn't have enough resources to look after you anymore so you'll have to look after yourselves... "Good luck because from here on, you're on your own."

But given the majority of the players I'm likely to get, I'm specifically going to be pushing for a survival and rebuilding game rather than any "Keep fighting the nasty commies" type game and I'm also probably going to advance the timeline to 2020... Twilight: 2020. So my game would be something akin to the rebuild civilization mission of The Morrow Project game but in this case, the PCs have to recover all the cool gear themselves before they can start rebuilding... and they have to survive long enough to be able to get themselves into a position before they can even start rebuilding.

This is my current line of thought regarding a timeline to 2020, based on real events up to now (2015).
Russia continues to gobble up former Warsaw Treaty nations until NATO is finally pushed into doing something. Fighting is conventional but the Russians pay the Chinese to conduct cyber warfare against NATO until the point where the Russians start to default on their payments to the Chinese. The Chinese conduct cyber thefts against the Russian banks/treasury in retaliation. Russia and China go to war. Russia nukes the Chinese, the Chinese nuke Russia right back, Russian command figures "What the hell, let's use nukes on everybody and also chemical and bio weapons". World goes to hell in a handbasket.

So some troops that were dunkirked out of Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines

[StainlessSteelCynic]

So some troops that were dunkirked out of Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines

Why not The evacuation station idea was a quick & easy solution to getting all the PCs together in one place, but the evac stations could be anywhere the GM wants them.
To be brutally honest, I haven't advanced the idea much past Europe and my thought was to place the evac station somewhere near Kalisz (as a nod to the original game). I haven't given any consideration yet to the rest of the world but a campaign starting in the Philippines, Hong Kong or Singapore would be very good, especially if the game allows the Chinese to have increased their blue water navy (e.g. that aircraft carrier they've been playing with) and there's been major maritime operations and combat actions in the region.
Would make for an interesting mix of nationalities, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, British, US, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Korean - both sides, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, maybe even Burmese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Tibetan, Nepalese, Sri Lankan and Papua New Guinean.
And of course there's much greater chance for us Aussie & Kiwis to be throw into the mix!

[ArmySGT.]

There you go....... a free for all in the South China sea between China, Singapore, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and the Phillipines for surviving oil drilling rigs in the Spratly Island chain.

Corporate interests like BP and Shell are hiring armed private contractors with small boat and scuba experience.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

And interesting you should mention that because I recall the 2nd Ed. module* Operation Crouching Dragon was essentially that scenario (specifically involving the Spratly Islands).


* written for the Merc: 2000 alternate timeline and not Twilight: 2000 as such

[ArmySGT.]

Doesn't everyone become mercenaries when national armies breakdown after T2k

You can also run missions to supplies spotters or be spotters like the stay behinds that reported on Japanese naval or air assets in WW2.

Humanitarian missions moving medical relief supplies while protecting same from bandits or corrupt government officials.

The gone native troops who take up island or village life and want to forget the modern world while protecting their new home from bandits or drug growers.

Bataan like survivors running and gunning in an escape and evasion scenario from local forces.

Seals/UDT/Frogmen doing fast ashore sabotage and raid missions from a hastily converted diesel electric submarine.

[Bullet Magnet]

If one eats two kinds of food, which weight applies I.E. 1kg domestic, 1kg wild food is eaten by a character.

This is where math would come into play. As I recall (without looking it up in my books), a person requires 2kg of domestic food, or 3kg of wild food. So, with your example, the person has had a kilogram of each, or, half the daily "dosage" in domestic food, and then a third of the dosage of wild.
1/2 + 1/3 = 5/6. Personally, I think this could qualify as "close enough", especially if the character is not very large.