Game: Twilight: 2013 (93 Games Studio, 2008)
My Experience: Well, my name’s in the credits, so at least I got that going for me.
Lieutenant Commander Owen McNeil, M.D., Horse Surgeon
Owen’s folks owned a ranch in southern Wyoming, raising and training working horses for the region’s outdoor industry. Owen worked the family farm until his early twenties. When the economy took a turn for the worse, he and his folks sat down at the kitchen table to run the numbers. There just wasn’t enough business to support the three of them, but if Owen found another source of income, his folks would be able to make it on their own. Probably.
Owen enlisted in the Marine Corps. He’d always had a knack for math, and the Corps weaponized it, making him an artillery forward observer. He spent four years guiding nonconsensual landscaping efforts before deciding this wasn’t quite what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Mustering out in his late twenties, Owen enrolled in college, leveraging his G.I. Bill benefits for tuition assistance. His original plan was to go back to his roots as an equine veterinarian, but after his father’s second heart attack, he shifted tracks from pre-vet to pre-med.
Owen was in his last year of med school when both of his parents died in a traffic accident. Owen drowned his grief in whiskey and powered through. A week after graduation, he put everything he owned in a storage locker and disappeared.
Seven months later, Owen walked into a hotel in southern New Mexico, burnt and bearded from a through-hike of the Continental Divide Trail. Two days after that, shaven and showered, he walked into another recruiting office.
With prior enlisted service, Owen had little difficulty jumping through the Navy’s direct commissioning hoops. He’d just received command of a battalion aid station attached to a Marine infantry battalion when the world started to go crazy…
Traits
Attributes
Awareness 8
Coordination 6
Fitness 6
Muscle 6
Cognition 8
Education 8 (degrees: biology, zoology)
Personality 6
Resolve 8
Coolness Under Fire 7
OODA 5
Skills and Qualifications
Animal Husbandry – Professional (8)
Aquatics – Competent (4)
Artillery/Guided – Competent (4)
Climbing – Competent (4)
Command – Professional (8)
Driving – Competent (4)
Electronics – Novice (1)
Fieldcraft – Professional (8)
Forensics – Novice (3)
Hand-to-Hand – Competent (4)
Hand Weapons – Novice (3)
Instruction – Competent (4)
Language (English) – Native (6)
Longarm – Competent (4)
Medicine/Surgery/Veterinary – Expert (29)
Mounts – Professional (8)
Persuasion – Competent (4)
Seamanship – Novice (1)
Sidearm – Professional (8)
Support Weapons – Novice (2)
Tactics – Competent (4)
Age: 41
Rads: 57
Survival Points: 5
Thresholds
Head slight 1, moderate 4, serious 7, critical 11
Torso slight 1, moderate 7, serious 14, critical 21
Limbs slight 1, moderate 7, serious 11, critical 14
Fatigue slight 3, moderate 6, serious 10, critical 14
Loads
Combat 16 kg
March 23 kg
Emergency 47 kg
Damaging 94 kg
Equipment
Apparel and Pockets
fatigues, mild weather (MCCUU, camo appropriate for campaign location)
combat boots
helmet, ballistic
dust goggles
cigarette lighter, disposable
compass
EMT shears
headlamp
sunglasses
wristwatch
hand flashlight
Armor and Pouches
plate carrier vest w/ level III front and rear trauma plates
medical pouch x2 [IFAK x2]
holster [M9]
quad rifle magazine pouch [30-round STANAG magazine in each]
pistol magazine pouch x2 [15-round M9 magazine in each]
gas mask carrier [gas mask]
utility pouch
hydration bladder carrier [2-liter hydration bladder]
Primary Weapon
M4A1
30-round STANAG magazine
sling
reflex sight, magnification-1, unpowered
Rucksack
medic pack w/ attached patrol pack
GP tools
surgical tools, basic
first aid supplies x5
surgical supplies x2
burn cream x2
clotting agent x3
IV fluids, 1 liter
disposable syringes x100
local anesthetic, 10 doses
total anesthetic, 5 doses
broad-spectrum antibiotic, pill, 15 doses
antidiarrheal, pill, 5 doses
pain reliever, mild, 20 doses
pain reliever, strong, 10 doses
potassium iodide, 1 dose
sedative, mild, pill, 10 doses
sedative, strong, pill, 10 doses
stimulant, strong, 10 doses
atropine autoinjector x2
pain reliever autoinjector x2
stimulant autoinjector x2
canteen, 1-liter
toilet tissue, 2 rolls
shelter half
sleeping bag, temperate
personal hygiene supplies, 1 month
batteries, small, 4-pack
Contacts
4 Information (2 regular, 1 experienced, 1 veteran)
2 Reinforcement (1 green, 1 veteran)
4 Service (1 regular, 1 experienced, 1 veteran, 1 elite)
4 equipment dice for the team pool.
Apparel, armor, and M4A1 come in at exactly his march load of 23 kg. Adding his ruck puts him about half a kilogram under his emergency load. He’ll need mechanized support or a pack horse for any real endurance in the field.
Notes and Afterthoughts
Man, coming into this book after not cracking it for a few years, I have a new appreciation for just how badly I overengineered so many things. I still like the conceit of selecting starting equipment by encumbrance, though.
Owen’s life path phases were:
1 (age 18-22) – Farming.
2 (age 22-23) – Military Indoctrination (Marine Corps training package + Artillery option). Enter as Private First Class.
3 (age 23-25) – Forward Observer. Passed promotion, Lance Corporal.
4 (age 25-27) – Forward Observer. Failed promotion, remained at Lance Corporal.
5 (age 27-29) – Undergraduate University.
6 (age 29-31) – Undergraduate University.
7 (age 31-35) – Medical School.
8 (age 35-36) – Direct Commission (Navy, Doctor option). Enter as Lieutenant.
9 (age 36-40) – Medical Corps. Passed promotion, Lieutenant Commander.
10 (age 40-41) – Twilight Warfare.