Grunt

GRUNT

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Terror. Sheer blind terror sublimated and spat back out of the barrel of an M16. The fear and isolation. The desperation to get out alive - just to get out and get home. A green hell populated by a people ho despise you and want to kill you. Or maim you. Or send you mad. This is the Vietnam War. This is GRUNT.

GRUNT attempts to be historically realistic, claustrophobic and packed with a great deal of nervous tension. GRUNT uses six-sided dice. Players take on the role of members of an infantry squad, part of the famous 1st Cavalry Division, their missions are frought with danger: snipers, booby traps, jungle ambushes, rocket-propelled grenades, friendly-fire ... and stress. Always stress, building up to unbearable levels.

REVIEWS

Maxwell Lord: Andrew Savage: The rules are simple, but inspired. The tension mechanics and area fire rules mean the game can be played in a way that means the stress of jungle combat is central to the story rather than just being a 'shoot em' up'....READ REST OF REVIEW

Antonio M: This game is one of the best historic rules books I have ever read. By far the best post WWI, pre-terrorism war game I've read... READ REST OF REVIEW

Michael C: A fantastic title for those looking for a gritty Vietnam-era tabletop game. I'd highly recommend it... READ REST OF REVIEW

Maxwell Lord: Speaking of 'Nam, I think I'll cover Grunt, which is the best Vietnam RPG I've ever come across. Granted, I've only encountered two Vietnam War RPGs (this and the original, pre-Palladium version of RECON), but this remains one of the coolest little RPGs I've ever seen. So, without further ado: READ REST OF REVIEW

"We'll move out at midnight or a little after. Make sure you bring enough Claymores. And for Christ's sake don't forget the firing devices. Also, tell every man to carry a couple of grenades. No freeloading. Let's get some kills."
If I Die In A Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien

What is a mission? In GRUNT it is a structured scenario based around the combat activities of an air cavalry squad. Generally, most games will involve the player characters participating in a mission, although there will also be times when the game can focus on events out of the field, or on R&R.
Much of the squad’s time will be spent in patrolling, humping the boonies, beating the bush, checking trails, crossing paddy fields, looking for the VC; effectively acting as bait, drawing VC gunfire so that they might then neutralize it. It's search and destroy, only later in the war the higher ups began to insist everyone use the media-friendly term 'clear and sweep'.

The GM creates the missions, and must pay particular attention to the effects that the scenario will have on the players. He is trying to illicit feelings of apprehension, of tension, or uncertainty and mistrust, as well as a degree of excitement and catharsis during the inevitable firefights. GRUNT is not a wargame, and a mission has to be more than just a series of combats linked together on a patrol route. There has to be story and meaning, but more than that, there has to be a dilemma. Implicit in that is choice. The Vietnam War was a war of staggering contradictions, a war where 'hearts and minds' aid programmes co-existed with body counts; where hundreds of men could die fighting to capture a hill, and the generals order it abandoned a week later. In GRUNT you always have choices - and they are always bad. This applies to moral choices just as much as tactical ones.

"‘Shoot, shoot’ people kept saying to me.
‘Where are they?
‘They’re over there’, they would say, pointing in the general direction of some trees about 150 yards away. So I would edge up over the top of a rice paddy dike and I would shoot at the tree line.”
NAM, editor Mark Baker

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