Now, it's a given that FGU is one of my favorite game publishers as I am a big fan of Flashing Blades, Bushido, and Daredevils and own Swordbearer, Year of the Phoenix, Villains and Vigilantes, Privateers & Gentlemen, Space Opera...and Merc.

I was rolling up some characters in Merc the other day and either I am misunderstanding something in the character creation rules or else they managed to publish a game where you can roll up a character's attributes and end up with a set of numbers that doesn't qualify for ANY of the "specialties" (a.k.a. classes or occupations)! Am I mistaken? Any Merc players or "Corporations" (a.k.a. GMs) out there that can tell me if I am missing something?

I played a fuckton of Space Opera and Bushido, but never got to try Merc. How is the system? What's it like?

It just so happens I'm bringing the boxed set with me to work today so I will try to answer your inquiry when I take a break later.

Okay, so I have three different-colored dice in my box, which I assume I put there as they don't look like the cheap kind that used to come in boxed sets way back when (game is copyrighted 1981). The only dice needed are regular six-siders, but it's advantageous to have at least two different colored dice because a lot of the rolls are read as results from 11-16, 21-26, 31-36, etc. That's how you roll up your Merc PC. You can also toss three dice for random age, height, hair color, etc. Physical and mental attributes (Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Knowledge, Intuition, and Prior Military Service) are generated with 2d6 resulting in 11-16, 21-26, 31-36, 41-46, 51-56, and 61-66. Prior Military Service is kind of neat because it generates "why the character is in the mercenary business." Based on your attributes, you check the list of Specialties and see what you qualify for. It seems possible through bad rolls to qualify for none of them, in which case I'd either just roll up a new Merc or let the player raise an attribute to the minimum required for a Specialty.

Stress Tests, Dexterity Tests, and Command Control rolls are 2d6 (11-66 results) and you need to roll under 36. Attributes modify your rolls. Stress Tests are sort of checks on your Merc's "coolness under fire" or other stressful situations. If you fail, you roll 1d6 for your Merc's reaction. Dexterity Tests are for avoiding obstacles, dodging traps, and so on. You get a bonus from your Strength for a climbing Dex Test. You can also fail a Stress Test and then succeed in a resulting Dex Test, like getting tangled in a booby trap, freaking out and trying to run due to the failed Stress Test, but making the Dex Test and jumping out of the way or ducking the trap or whatever. Command Control is affected by your Intuition attribute and Prior Military Service attribute, and is what you use to see how well your underlings listen to you and follow your commands.

Skill Tests are also 2d6 rolls (2-12 results) where you want to roll under 6. These rolls are modified by your Specialist skills plus things like Camouflage gets a -4 bonus for heavy undergrowth or -4 at night, whereas the person looking for you would get a Recon roll and may get +3 for binoculars (infrared at night) or +4 for any movement in the position where you are hiding.

All in all it is a very simple system. Everything a player needs fits on a one-sided character sheet with plenty of blank space.

There are a bunch of tables for different things like which way a grenade will bounce and modifiers for hand-to-hand combat and hit locations, but I recommend photocopying them and just referring to them when the situation arises rather than trying to keep track of them all at once as in my experience you seldom use more than a few in a given session. The game is pretty much class-and-level with experience-point-based advancement. Most scenarios will be assignments given that your PC is a Merc but there are some random encounter tables and reaction tables to spice things up. After all, what fun is a job where everything plays out as planned? Much more fun when the situation gets FUBAR.

There's a sample mission and example of play in the GM section as well as a cool bibliography.

There are also two Supplements for Merc, but I only have Supplement 1, which is just additional Specialties and equipment you may or may not want to incorporate into your game. I've never seen Supplement 2 but I read somewhere that it is a module for a mercenary campaign in Africa or something. Sounds pretty cool, but I can't speak to it more than that.

Merc, being an older game, is relatively bare bones as it assumes the GM will make judgment calls as needed and generate most of his own scenarios and elaborate upon the game based on his and his players' preferences. Which is how I like games to be. The entire RPG is 36 pages long. And it is lots of fun.

I got it partly wrong, it's actually not Supplement 2 but rather Campaign Book 1: Rhodesia.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1041[/ATTACH]

Should've titled this thread "Merc: The Game No One Else Plays," eh?

I always wanted to try it but never managed to get a copy.  

I do like Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes by FGU and liked Twilight 2000 e2.  But somehow, the gritty of Merc would have been cool.  It uses the overlays like Millenium's End right?

Quote from: David Johansen;967637I always wanted to try it but never managed to get a copy.  

I do like Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes by FGU and liked Twilight 2000 e2.  But somehow, the gritty of Merc would have been cool.  It uses the overlays like Millenium's End right?

Last I checked, FGU was still selling Merc on their web site in hardcopy boxed sets (including the overlay) and PDF. I'm not familiar with Millennium's End (?) but Merc uses a clear crosshairs overlay that you place over an outline of a full human figure in head-on or profile for sniper and sharpshooting operations. You roll 2d6 and add or subtract modifiers based on your Specialty and range and other conditions and use the resulting number to determine your hit location.

I can't believe I forgot to mention the sharpshooting/sniping rules earlier. I think they're fun.

Edit: Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes wasn't FGU but rather was Flying Buffalo. I've never read or played it. Can you tell me about it? Would it be good for "Tales of the Gold Monkey," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "Flying Freebooters" types of games?

I've not played Merc, but have run and played similar games in the past, like Recon. I'd love to play or run it again, but my players... well, with their tactics it would look like the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;967859I've not played Merc, but have run and played similar games in the past, like Recon. I'd love to play or run it again, but my players... well, with their tactics it would look like the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Ha ha, yes, the body count tends to be high. I've said in other threads that most of the time our PCs' worst enemies are themselves and their cunning plans. Next time I play Merc, I'll probably have everyone roll up three characters so they have spares ready to roll.

I have original-flavor Recon and the Palladium versions: Revised Recon, Advanced Recon, and Deluxe Revised Recon...so yeah, that's another I'd love to play more of. I'm apparently in that small minority of RPG players who would really rather not play a fantasy game if there's an alternative.

LOL Imagine if somebody published a game today where you played white mercs in 70's Rhodesia.

The Purple Swamp would BURN DOWN.

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;967874LOL Imagine if somebody published a game today where you played white mercs in 70's Rhodesia.

The Purple Swamp would BURN DOWN.

I'm sure it wouldn't matter what the campaign was as their mentality is man with gun = bad man and mercenary = bad man and other nuanced views of the real world.

Although burning down the purple swamp is by itself a good enough reason to write that game.

Edit: actually your mercenary wouldn't necessarily be white, he could be any background as long as he's doing the job and doesn't care who's writing the checks.

I'm thinking of running a game set in a fictional island dictatorship (shades of Cuba) with a Merc company paid by either corporate sponsors who want access to markets or materials or else a Western government or Western governments who want to overthrow the place due to ideology and to stick it to the Reds. Obviously all the money is laundered and the sponsors will have plausible deniability. All inspired by this book cover:[ATTACH=CONFIG]1049[/ATTACH]

Quote from: Dumarest;967639Last I checked, FGU was still selling Merc on their web site in hardcopy boxed sets (including the overlay) and PDF. I'm not familiar with Millennium's End (?) but Merc uses a clear crosshairs overlay that you place over an outline of a full human figure in head-on or profile for sniper and sharpshooting operations. You roll 2d6 and add or subtract modifiers based on your Specialty and range and other conditions and use the resulting number to determine your hit location.

I can't believe I forgot to mention the sharpshooting/sniping rules earlier. I think they're fun.

Edit: Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes wasn't FGU but rather was Flying Buffalo. I've never read or played it. Can you tell me about it? Would it be good for "Tales of the Gold Monkey," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "Flying Freebooters" types of games?

Flying Buffalo doh!  Anyhow, MSPE is a modern port of Tunnels and Trolls which is serious, deadly and fast playing.  You get skill points equal to your Intelligence score to buy skills from a list that's gradiated by Intelligence requirements.  Saving Throws are still 15+5 x difficulty level on 2d6 + Attribute + Skill doubles add and roll over.  Ranged attacks are handled with two tables that break down factors like range and movement to provide a target number.  Autofire is handled by dividing the number of shots by six and rolling d6s to determine how many shots hit.  There's decent if thin advice on running mercenary, spy, and detective games.  It's a bit Spartan but it works, though it's really lethal, joe average has 10 - 11 hp and a rifle does 7d damage.  Pick your fights wisely.  There's a decent selection of guns but if you want more, R Talsorian's Edge of the Sword Volume 1 includes MSPE stats for hundreds of firearms.

To those interested in the "Mercs in a Third World warzone" genre I highly recommend the brutal and gritty 1968 flick Dark of the Sun. A tragically unsung classic. Just don't get the official WB Archives DVD, it's from a censored print and chopped all to fucking Hell.

Also, MS&PE is a cool little semi-forgotten game. Eccentric, but cool. The cover is also one of the coolest pieces of RPG art of all time.