Ultra Top Secret History of Project GI Joe

HISTORY

In 1939, President FD Roosevelt authorized the super top secret umbrella program called Project G.I. Joe. It's purpose was to create a large cadre of super-powered servicemen to be ready to fight if the U.S. gets into a war with the Axis Powers. The creation of Captain America was one of the sub-projects under Project G.I. Joe. Others were also created, accidentally or on purpose, by various other sub-projects over the decades. [See Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk in the 1960s when exposed to the radiation of the Gamma Bomb, the development of which was another sub-project under Project G.I. Joe].

This project was finally shut down in 1975 with the end of the US's involvement in Vietnam and the anti-military stance of Congress that crippled the military for the next decade. In 2025, Project G.I. Joe will be declassified, 50 years after its end, and this information can become available to the public.

The military, over the Project's 35 year history, had a number of above board programs that servicemen wanting to be the next Captain America volunteered for. The second Shield [see The Double Life of Private Strong #1, June 1959] was one such success. They also had numerous programs where they experimented on millions of servicemen and women without their knowledge or express consent.

They would add experimental serums to the battery of shots service folks would get when they entered basic training or when shipping out overseas. They exposed them to radiation. They added special additives to their rations. They exposed them to various gases while they were training in the tear gas chambers. They even tried magic or what they thought was magic. Any number of methods was tried and many resulted in medical problems in later life that the military denies culpability for [See Agent Orange debate]

[as an aside, when I was in Marine Boot Camp in the summer of 1980, it was taken as Gospel that they added saltpeter to our food to keep us from getting erections while in Basic Training.] Razz Razz Razz

After the attack on Washington DC, the current President [whoever that turns out to be] was informed of this old project by the military and informed by their medical and science advisors that they believed that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of these millions of previous servicemen and women might have had their DNA altered by these old events and with the knowledge of modern medical science their altered DNA could possibly be activated creating a new generation of super-soldiers. The President got Congress to approve a budget for a new Project G.I. Joe.

Every person who enlists or is commissioned is giving a blood test to search for altered DNA. If discovered, they are then asked to volunteer for the Project to see if they can acquire superpowers to combat the new menace to Earth.

The PCs would be a group of military folk, of the branch of their choice, fresh from training who get superpowers after volunteering for the Project. Sort of a combination of THUNDER Agents and the G.I. Joe cartoon. Their mission is to fight Advent and the dozens [hundreds?] of escaped supervillains who devastated the US.

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There will be special rules for creating your characters, including your rank. You choose your name, the branch of service - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Space Command - and then roll a die to determine your rank when you start, which can affect your age.

What I am currently thinking of is that everyone starts off as so:

Dex/Str/Body: 3
All other stats are 2.

Skills;
Military Science 2
Weaponry 2

Then 3 pts, actual not HP, to spend on rank and/or subskills that reflect what MOS [Military Occupational Skills] they had. So if a player wanted their character to be an Air Force Pilot or Space Force Pilot/Astronaut, they would buy the rank/advantage Officer for one point and then two points to spend on their appropriate pilot subskill. Helicopter pilot needs to be either a Warrant Officer or Officer, so they would have to buy that rank/advantage for one point and then two points into their specialty - rotary craft. Using the optional Vehicle/Weapons Specialization rule from BOH page 118.

For non-specialized MOS's, the player would roll 1d6, ignore a six and re-roll, and whatever number that comes up, that's their rank, E-1 to E-5. Also toying with the idea that if you roll a six, you could get Warrant Officer 1 or 2 or Officer rank O-1 or O-2. That would be rolling 1d4 to determine which rank. Open to suggestions there.

https://www.military-ranks.org/army

Ranks listed above with general idea of jobs they can do.

example:
John Smith enlisted in the army out of high school and the player rolls 1d6 [online dice roller used here https://rolladie.net/] and gets a 5. That means he has been in the Army long enough to obtain the rank of E-5 or Sergeant. It's a minimum of 36 months to reach the rank of Sergeant, so he would be aged appropriately. The player decides just to make his character a grunt and puts his three subskill points into Weaponry, Military Science and Medicine subskills, specifically subskill Firearms, subskill Field Command and subskill First Aid.

So at the start, he would look like this:

Sgt John Smith Age 21
Dex 3 Str 3 Body 3
Int 2 Will 2 Mind 2
Infl 2 Aura 2 Spirit 2

Skills:

Military Science 2 Subskill Field Command 1
Weaponry 2 Subskill firearms 1
Medicine 0 Subskill first aid 1

The subskills would kind of be like our Accuracy house rules skill, it adds to the base skill when it is used. So Sgt Smith would have a 3 when using a firearm but only a 2 when using grenades or any other non-firearm Weaponry skill. When commanding troops in the field, he uses a 3 for Field Command rolls.

And then he gets superpowers. Base 450 plus 50 for origin bonus [which is half-written already just fill in the rest] and another 300 points for disads for a total of an 800 point character. Though in truth it is a 800+ point character since you get the above stats and skills for free.

50 point origin bonus -
1. Player decides which branch of service they are in.
2. They can either buy a high rank for a point or roll randomly for their rank.
3. Spend their 2-3 remaining subskill points to fit their military specialty.
4. Come up with how the military helped them get their superpowers.
5. Name their hero. Their identities are semi-secret. The military command will know their ID but will publicly address them by their superhero name.


example of 4 and 5:

Sgt Smith gets an increase in his physical stats due to being exposed to a special gas that was mixed in with the normal tear gas that they train soldiers to learn to withstand long enough to put on their gas masks.

His physical stats are now:

Dex 9 [84 HP - the 7 he started with Dex of 2 = 74 HP]
Str 10 [96 HP -the 6 he started with the Str of 2 = 90 HP]
Body 10 [96 HP - the 6 he started with the Body of 2 = 90 HP]
254 HP spent so far, leaving him 46 HP to spend elsewhere such as his mental stats or other powers or skills.
He decides to call himself Sgt. Strong. The military makes him a special superhero outfit and introduces him to the world.

Looking this over, this will be a somewhat low level campaign. Teen Titans level I guess with damage in the 7-10 range at the start.

That's the idea anyways for character creation. Still using Project G.I. Joe origin I originally mentioned when starting to flesh this out. Every hero who gets powers for this game would be descended from prior service family member who was exposed to the various tests without their knowledge or permission in most cases, with their knowledge and permission in some.

Character Creation Rules - v1.1 revised


1.  All characters are in the US military branch of their choice.  They are either relatively new to the military or have been in for a few years but less than ten years.  Their rank, see point 3, will help determine how long they have been in.  One or more of their grandparents or great-grandparents were exposed [knowingly or unknowingly] or volunteered for tests to try to make super soldiers, like Captain America, when they were in the military.  This modified their DNA and your character acquires powers somehow because of this.

2.  All characters start with the following for free:

Dex/Str/Body: 3
All other stats are 2.

Skills:
Military Science 2
Weaponry 2

They will then have 3 Background Points [BPs] to spend on Rank and Military Specialty Sub-skills.

3.  MOS [Military Occupational Specialty]

a.  If characters have a specialized MOS that they want and it requires or they want to have an officer rank, such as pilot, they will spend their BPs [Background Points] to give them the proper rank and sub-skill[s] or specialized sub-skill[s] [see optional rule page 118 in BOH].  In this example, the player would spend either 1 or 2 BPs for the rank of O-1 or O-2 and the remaining BP[s] on the specialized sub-skill - Vehicles/Air - fixed winged craft.

b. if the character does not plan on an officer rank a d6 will be rolled; an officer rank is still possible. Add one to whatever is rolled. A total of 2-6 gives the corresponding rank of E-2 to E-6 that the character will hold at the start of the game.  A roll of 7 gives an officer rank.  A 1d4 will then be rolled to determine officer rank.  1-2 gives a Warrant Officer rank of W1 or W2 and roll of 3-4 gives an officer rank of O-1 or O-2 respectively.  They do not spend BP for this, giving them 3 BP to spend on their subskills. The character will have 3 subskills for free at rank 1. First Aid is strongly suggested as one of the background subskills as all recruits receive such training in that skill.

c.  https://www.military-ranks.org/army
This link gives you an idea of ranks in each service except Space Force, and what kinds of MOS jobs such a rank might do.  Navy and Coast Guard Warrant Officer starts with rank W-2 so a roll of 1-2 gives you that rank.  Air Force and Space Force do not have Warrant Officer ranks so a roll of 1-2 gives you the rank of O-1, roll of 3 gives you O-2 and a 4 gives you a O-3 rank[Captain].  Here's a link of possible MOSs for the Space Force - https://www.zdnet.com/education/computers-tech/space-force-cyber-careers/
d. The subskills would kind of be like our Accuracy house rules skill, it adds to the base skill when it is used. So Sgt. Smith, for example, would have a 3 when using a firearm [he has a subskill - Firearms 1] but only a 2 when using grenades or any other non-firearm Weaponry skill.

4. Spending your Hero Points.
a. Base 450 plus 50 for origin bonus, which is half-written already just fill in the rest.
b. A max of 300 points of disads for a total of an 800 point character. Though in truth it is a 900+ point character since you get the above stats and skills for free. [76 points in stats for free + skills and subskills for free]
c.  Use the character creation Factor Costs, not the Increasing Attributes Factor Costs when spending your points or when raising stats or skills you have started the game with.   Example:  Raising Dex to 6 would normally cost 42 HP but since you started with a Dex of 3, it will only cost 28 HP.  Dex 3 costs 14 HP, so 42-14=28.

5.  Name your character and create your costume idea.  The military and politicians would prefer you to give yourself a military or patriotic type name but the choice is yours.  
a.  You can use the names of Public Domain characters from the Golden and Silver Age if you want.  Assume that they existed in our world during the times their comics were published.  They retired or died shortly after their last published adventure.  You could even be a direct descendant of them.  WARNING!  If you cannot come up with a name for your character a Political Committee will name your character!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
b.  If you use rank in your name, it has to be the rank your character actually holds.  So not General America if you are a private, it would be Private America.
c.  Your character has a semi-secret ID.  Certain select people in the military and in government know who you are but to everyone else, just your hero id will be known.
c.  Everyone will be based at Camp Lehigh in western North Carolina.  It is a remote base in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains.  So most folks there will know who you are but not outside the base, generally.

6.  Decide how you got your powers.

7.  Powers and stats should max out around 8-10 for the start of the game.

Now you are ready to start with approval of the GM.

Happy Gaming!