RPG Saturday: Merc

Merc was a table-top role playing game wherein the players took the roles as mercenaries fighting in the bush wars in Africa, including the Rhodesian war. The game was apparently first published by Fantasy Games Workshop (FGU) in 1981 and must have continued to be published through at least 1983 because some of the material I have for the game was copyrighted that year. 

    In any event, the game did not achieve any great popularity, as evidenced by the fact that the video, below, was the only one I could find on YouTube. 

VIDEO: "Role Playing Games - MERC"
The Dusted Game Shelf (8 min.)

    Although sold and marketed as a role playing game, I feel that it falls in a grey area between RPGs and tactical war games. You don't have the full panoply of rules that you typically see in a role playing game because it focuses solely on combat and combat missions, but you have more freedom of action than you would have in war game. 

    My experience with the game is somewhat limited as we only played for a short time--the kid that owned the rule set moved. However, I had fond memories of the game and when I happened across a copy for not very much on a used RPG website a couple of years ago, I jumped on the chance and purchased a set. 

    My boxed set came with three 6-sided dice; a main rule book; a rules supplement; a single character sheet on card stock intended for photocopying; a couple sheets with frequently used combat and damage tables; a transparency (like for an overhead projector) with two different sized reticles printed on it; and a card stock sheet with a front and side view of a person on one side, and various combat vehicles on the back. (See the photos, below).

 

     The first book contains the rules of the game, starting out with rules for creating a mercenary character and picking a specialty: driver/pilot, demolition expert, heavy weapons expert, medic, interpreter/interrogator, sniper, etc. It then goes into rules on how much gear you can carry, common actions (and modifiers to success for each), movement and terrain, different types (and quality) of troops you might encounter, combat for different types of weapons (hand-to-hand, thrown weapons, small arms, sniping with a scoped rifle, grenades, and mortars. It also covered damage to vehicles. And, of course, the weapons that a Merc in the 1970s would have had access to or might encounter on their commie opponents. 

    While the normal small arms combat was a simple roll with modifiers to see whether you hit (and then subsequent roles to see exactly where you hit), the rules for snipers were different and this is where the transparency and human torso where used. For the sniper could select which part of the body to aim for. The appropriate human torso was used and the larger of the reticles was placed over where the sniper was aiming. Two dice were rolled and totaled, modifiers applied, and then the resulting number was compared against the numbers on the reticle. So, for instance, if I had aimed at the right ankle (which is where the reticle happened to fall when I was arranging everything for the photograph) a final sum of 0 or less (the center of the reticle) or a 2 or 3 would have struck the right ankle. A 5 would have struck the other ankle. 8, 12 and 16 were high and would have struck the right leg, and the other numbers would have been misses.  A similar method was used if a character was aiming at a specific part of a vehicle, except using the vehicle silhouettes. (The rule book says that the large reticle is to be used with the vehicles, but I believe this was a typo and it meant the small reticle).

    However, this also illustrates how slow combat could be in this game. Even without the sniper rules, you have to roll to hit, adding or subtracting modifiers to reflect distance, your movement or the movement of the target, if the target is behind cover or concealment (this game uses the British terms of soft and hard cover instead of concealment and cover). If you hit (or are hit) then the target location must be rolled: upper arm, lower arm, upper head, lower head, shoulder, chest, lower torso, etc. Once that is determined, you roll again to determine the severity of the wound which is generally expressed in points of damage, but could also be a "mortal wound" that instantly kills you for some hit locations. Furthermore, there are special effects for Hit Locations and wound severity. For instance a hit to the chest could result in no special effect, a a broken rib (so you can't run), internal bleeding (requiring a medic), or dying instantly. And as you accumulate damage, you risk losing consciousness on top of any other damage or effect. 

    There are also rules on different types of booby traps (including diagrams that look like they were taken from military manuals) and figuring out how they worked in game play. Finally, there is an example of how to play the game and a short scenario set in Rhodesia involving an attack on terrorists/guerillas that have captured a native village. 

   The second book in the box is titled "Supplement 1" and has some modifications to some of the specialties in the main rule book, rules on additional specialties (including "survivalist"), additional common skill checks, rules on poisons, and rules allowing you to incorporate airborne missions. Finally, there are a bunch more rules on using and maintaining vehicles. 

    Although the game was intended to take place in the African bush wars--there is a very definite Soldier of Fortune magazine vibe to the game--it could easily be modified for any type of small unit combat of the modern era simply by updating what weapons and equipment are available. 

     If all you wanted from a game was modern small unit combat, this would probably be a good game. If you want more or something different--surveillance and spying, treasure hunting, exploring, conducting a heist, hunting vampires, being a detective, surviving the radioactive wastes after a nuclear war--this game is not going to be it.