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Patrol - A Vietnam War Roleplaying Game

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From 1961 to 1973, the United States was involved in a war unlike any it had ever fought in its history. Millions of young Americans streamed over the Pacific Ocean to fight a war in a country they had never heard of, and thousands didn’t come back.

PATROL is a roleplaying game for 3+ players, set during the height of the Vietnam War. Players take the role of American GIs, ARVN soldiers, or their allies from Australia, South Korea and Thailand, tasked with executing an indeterminable and endless campaign of Search and Destroy across the countryside, faced with the perils of the deep jungle, the devious cleverness of the Viet Cong, and the blunders of a disconnected command structure. They’ll need every bit of their skill and determination to survive their tour with their body, mind and soul intact.

PATROL’s systems have been designed from the ground-up to be an immersive and informed game about guerrilla war, long-term missions and infantry combat. A unique d6 pool system allows for the introduction of complications and twists to any roll with simple skills and only a handful of stats. Thanks to the always-ticking clock, every action is fail-forward as time pressure is constant. A simple but powerful system of status effects and opposed alignments drive players into conflict with one another as, in their desperation, they become incentivized to act irrationally.

The game includes 12 player classes, over 150 pieces of equipment including firearms, grenades, supplies and period electronics, 28 vehicle profiles, rules for playing US Army, Marines, Navy and Special Forces, 9 different South Vietnamese anti-communist forces, Australians, South Koreans, Royal Thais, Montegnards, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, plus NPC profiles and guidelines for a wide variety of interesting factions and actors in the region.

  • Fast-paced, high-lethality gameplay using real world maps.
  • Highly accessible; just 3 stats, straightforward skills, and d6 pools.
  • Innovative morale mechanic challenges players to make tough choices.
  • Unique turn structure for realistic multi-day missions.
  • Simple but meaningful logistics, without headaches.
  • 200 pages of rules, guides and history.

This game is part of the Newstand Press collection RECRUITED!, games about military service and war.


RECRUITED!

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Reviews (7)
Discussions (35)
Customer avatar
July 18, 2023 12:55 am UTC
PURCHASER
any news on patrol second tour?
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C July 28, 2023 8:56 am UTC
PUBLISHER
it's under very slow progress due to overlap with other projects. the vast majority of the rules are written, but it needs editing, playtesting, and layout
Customer avatar
Brandon F February 22, 2023 4:19 pm UTC
Any chance of POD?
Reply
Customer avatar
Matthew H October 05, 2023 4:01 am UTC
Seconding this!
Customer avatar
Norman S October 25, 2022 12:13 am UTC
PURCHASER
New player trying to learn, (With Updates) - I'd like to write about how learning this system.
Sa dues I've been looking for a wicked Vietnam RPG to play and I'm pretty sure this is it; let's get on with it.

2022-10-23
The level of inventory tracking hit me like a shovel, but I got over it because to get the effect of difficult decisions you need complexities like: how many pockets do you really have for stuff?? As crunchy as it is there were some really unique decisions I had to make. Long mission = lots of food and water, ammo, then suddenly realize I don't have much room for anything else.. throw all my tools and ammo away and take several dozen grenades. [Inventory system good.]

Cool class system.

Then I got stumped on how tf do I do anything... how do I make moves... [Then went to bed.]

2022-10-24
There's a big part of the book for moves, I marched around, tried to sneak... stealth is idk right now.. started a combat and didn't know how...See more
Customer avatar
Dakota P January 17, 2022 9:13 pm UTC
PURCHASER
just saying from experience a moonless night should not give a stealth bonus. you cant see anything even under modern nvgs. biggest stealth buff should be a full moon and dawn/ dusk.
the biggest benefit night has is covering sound of movement not hiding visibility you cant see much in thick brush anyways. and night is far louder than day
Customer avatar
Aleksi M June 15, 2021 10:58 am UTC
PURCHASER
I felt bit stupid because I have some years - or actually twenty years of RPG's under my belt - but I did not quite understand how the injury rules work. There was talk about damage, injury and so on. But I did not (yet) understood, how many injury points NPC's do have and some weapons did not have damage. I also understood that some actions cause injury.

And if I understood correctly that all of the NPC's have 7 points of injury.

I am totally lost, but it is a good game! :D

Oh! I just found a gameplay video of this. I believe it helps!
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C June 15, 2021 12:28 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
All characters, PC and NPC, can take 5 points of injury. the sixth will kill them.

weapon damage is dependent on the actions used to fire them, though certain weapons get damage bonuses.

Damage and injury can be used more or less interchangeably for infantry.
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Customer avatar
Aleksi M June 15, 2021 4:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you so much for the answer. Will get this running soon and will be buying the second edition in the future, when it gets ready.

One question still to ask: every success on proficiency roll will deal a injury - which are over the "to hit" value? Meaning with the basic weapons.

Grenades had of course their own damage as for successes counts as how many "enemies" are hit.

Kind regards
Reply
Customer avatar
Aleksi M July 15, 2021 10:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh, just noticed. Got the answer by reading carefully the actions section.

Kind regards
Customer avatar
Ensley G July 16, 2020 4:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any update on the POD version? Would love to be able to get it in both formats.
Reply
Customer avatar
Pedro A September 01, 2020 11:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I would be awesome to have it available as POD again!
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C September 02, 2020 11:54 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I just haven't had the energy to work on it given my frustrations with the game RN, sorry. I'll try to get on it.
Reply
Customer avatar
thorsten G September 10, 2020 5:43 pm UTC
Do it! Or Red China will join Charly and then the brown stuff really hits the ventilator! And that won't be apretty sight! ;-)

And here - behold: I have some nice and clean €uros in my pocket ... could be yours. All of them (okay - NOT ALL! But some ...)
Reply
Customer avatar
Ensley G October 20, 2020 6:57 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hey, don't stress. No rush. I just like having things in print as well as electronic formats, but I can wait.
Customer avatar
Jeffrey S June 15, 2020 2:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
Many of the weapons available in PATROL have a modifier to their attack. What does this modifier change? Is it the number of dice you roll? Or successes you start with before your roll?
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C June 16, 2020 7:08 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The number of dice you roll.
Customer avatar
Robyn P June 06, 2020 2:52 pm UTC
Great product, I like it very much. It is harder than I thought to find players interested to play though. I'm trying to run a 100% online campaign now.
I purchased the digital and print version, it is really nice to have the printed book. I would buy it again in a heartbeat. Now if only I could play it more...
Reply
Customer avatar
Joseph Q August 30, 2020 4:19 pm UTC
Hi Robyn: I would be interested in playing this. Drop me a reply or email at joseph.quesnel@gmail.com

Reply
Customer avatar
Bradley T December 26, 2020 5:03 am UTC
Hi Robyn,
Are you playing this game online? I would love to join your group.
Brad
Customer avatar
Maurice R May 28, 2020 5:09 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello there! Very cool Product! I wanted to ask if you would like to translate it to german too? Would love to get my hands on your game and make it available for a bigger audience! Have a nice Day :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C June 09, 2020 11:48 am UTC
PUBLISHER
hey, sorry for only seeing this now! I would *love* that!!!!
Reply
Customer avatar
Maurice R June 28, 2020 9:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Cool :) Im gonna see how i can pull this off best, im back from holidays now and would be able to talk if wanted :D Cheers and i wish you good health and a good day:)
Customer avatar
Neil S March 26, 2020 5:16 am UTC
POD
Customer avatar
vladisl N November 29, 2019 10:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi. This game is really awesome! Can i translate it into Russian? (As well as trench raiders).
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C January 29, 2020 5:48 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Oh my god, I only just saw this. PLEASE! I would love it if you did!
Customer avatar
thorsten G October 10, 2019 9:51 pm UTC
From the comments it seems like that there was a POD option once. Any chance to see that again soon? I am a dinosaur - I like pages that I can touch ;-)
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C January 29, 2020 5:47 am UTC
PUBLISHER
I will be restoring the print on demand version soon.
Customer avatar
Erika C August 24, 2019 12:44 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I recently updated the PDF to a new version with some quick corrections and clarifications, as well as making it not deadname me anymore. The print version will be unavailable until I confirm everything is fixed satisfactorily.
Customer avatar
Quint N May 20, 2019 1:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
On page 197, the book mentions an expansion called Enduring Freedom and it is implied that there are more contemporary offerings in terms of equipment. I have been yet unable to find said expansion. Does it exist, and, if it does, where can I find it?
Reply
Customer avatar
Dan S August 19, 2019 7:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yeah i'm very interested in seeing a modern version of Patrol for conflicts like Afghanistan, Syria or South America.
Reply
Customer avatar
Timothy S August 26, 2019 7:18 am UTC
PURCHASER
Well "Patrol 2nd Edition (Revised Patrol) will be a priority of mine following my obligations on Flying Circus, so look forward to that!" was in the last email so.....

Maybe it's after 2nd Edition.
Customer avatar
Karsten L August 18, 2018 7:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just got the book and I am disapointed about the quality of the print. All pages are somewhat warped at the bottom. Everything is good visible and readable, so I will keep the book.
Reply
Customer avatar
Erika C September 07, 2018 6:57 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I'm really sorry to hear that. Unfortunately I don't control anything about the printing itself, but you can probably contact DTRPG and get another.
Customer avatar
Nick R March 09, 2018 12:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is one amazing book, easily worth the price (even if you never play the game) for its great background information on the military, infantry warfare in general, Vietnam and the period, and GM advice! Very well written with simple explanations, fantastic for those with no knowledge and providing plenty of insights for those more familiar with the subject.
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File Last Updated:
August 24, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on October 24, 2015.