"Space 'Nam" A viable story for this non-official event.

[Heckenshutze]

I was thinking, to settle this here and now and make the Space 'Nam history officialy among the USCM, so any marine player that's older enough for the thing can add it to his/her dossier. I was thinking on an operation in a Jungle-Like planet were a human settlement was taking place and got attacked by a terrorist group (CLF) that used Guerila Warfare tactics and old-vietnamise traps.

But I need a story, a start and a finish.. But I feel that an event this high and this popular among each marine player deserves to be written or at least discussed with the marine community.

Let's be serious, the objective of this whole thing is to make Space 'Nam an "official" operation prior to the events of the xeno infestation that took place on LV-625, Big Red, Ice colony etc. So we can add it to our dossiers or at least keep the same history among us all.

[WinterClould]

I feel like the ideal Space 'Nam is one that almost perfectly mimics OTL Vietnam . It should have a similar set up to ours, follow almost the entire chain of major events and end in just the same way in a very "History repeats itself" kinda way.

While you can place it in a lot of 19 year time spans between the founding of the USCM and now, I feel like getting it as close to current year as possible is important so as many people as possible can say they were there. It should at its latest end around the time the M41A Pulse Rifle is invented, no more then two years after. Space 'Nam was fought with the M16 after all so we cant have that getting in the way. So our highest starting date is something like: November 1st, 2152 with an end date of: April 30th, 2171, almost 2 years after the Pulse Rifle is invented but we can just say it took to long for any reasonable number to get there. This Space 'Nam is 15 years in the past, not impossible for any 35 years old to have been involved in the tail end of it. The first marines fought on the ground 9 year and 5 months into the war so were lookin at our first non-PO vets starting their fight no earlier then 2163, 23 years in the past. So you could be 42 and have been there from start to finish. PO mains or Command staff that are Ex-PO can lay claim to bombing things even earlier

Big problemo with my timeline right there is Tientsin. That was kinda a HUGE deployment of marines that happens during 2165 2 years into the first deployment of marines in my Space 'Nam so that might throw a light wrench into staying 100% true to copying our Vietnam. We could skip the whole part of the war that didnt have any American ground forces involved and shave off nine or so years from the start or end date.

Just ugh, some ideas I have on Space 'Nam. If anyone elses feelings on it are different or you agree with any of what I say Id love to hear any of it.

[Recounted]

I can kinda see this spam nam event as somewhat establishing why your character acts the way he/she is now aboard the Alamayer. A lot of retrospective points that occured one being that a brother or friend died in space nam of what whatever year. Pretty interesting

[Steven Sneider]

They were in the trees man!
Or were they the trees?

[Nubs]

maybe i should write a story for this?

[Bronimin]

No one is going to pay attention to what you say happened in Space 'Nam nor when you say it happened. There will always be 18 y/o PFCs who say 'this reminds me of my service in space 'nam' and when moderators start bwoiking them for 'lore inconsistency' that will be the death of the server. It's a grimderp bit of history that happened some time ago on every SS13 server except baystation (which went out of its way to scrub it). Let it go, it's a waste of time.

[4thsurviver]

I like Space Nam being as vague and shadowy as possible. I like people bringing it up in wildly inconsistent ways. Maybe some people say they fought other humans maybe others aliens. I like everyone disagreeing what Space Nam was and correcting each other as they tell their individual tales. Space Nam was something that happened but no one agrees what actually happened and can prove they were there.

They were in the trees man!
Or were they the trees?

This is exactly what I mean. I like two marines talking about Space Nam and it going like this.

[Nickvr628]

So much Agent Orange, nobody remembers what the hell actually happened!

[Heckenshutze]

It shouldn't exist the need to enforce the history or make a rule about it, because it's an event outside of the Alien lore and doesn't affect the gameplay at all. It's an IC issue prior to the events of the Xenomorphs. If a 18yo PFC Chad Stone starts yelling his adventure in Space 'Nam you could just shut his mouth up because he's actually lying about the event. We make the story, without player names so we don't create new snowflakes and make it a Post-it topic, then, we establish that everyone with a certain forum account time can call themselves a space 'nam veteran, since it's supposed to be an event which took place years ago, without enforcing it. In the end, the main idea of this is to make the space 'nam thing a reality, an old operation that went horribly wrong and everyone ended with some serious PTSD or bad flashbacks of it.

We don't also need a COMPLETE, DETAILED story for it, since, we still want to mantain Space 'Nam as a vague and dark event like stated above, but at least make an introduction of what happened / how happened and why happened and leave it to every experienced player to add for himself a little of the history and share it among other marines. Gather all the ideas, pick the better ones and make one big prelude-ending of a vague event.

[Blade2000Br]

Space nam does not compute.

Please, explain this fictional and complicated lore so I can create a fake history bout it!

[Heckenshutze]

Space nam does not compute.

Please, explain this fictional and complicated lore so I can create a fake history bout it!

It's a vague, basic, unofficial and non-related operation that took place years ago before the events of the xenomorph infestation that's RPed among grunts with small narrations of how bad the operation was, other players likes to RP some PTSD because of that.

[Karmac]

I like space nam because it's never fully explained in detail or makes any sense at all, it's just something you can talk about with marnies and make up whatever you want about it, don't ruin my space nam by telling me how it happened ok thanks.

[misto]

the predators were at space nam too. sneaking around and doing their thing. its canon

[Hulkamania]

The less "facts" you have about Space 'Nam the better. Keeping it as this weird ambiguous thing adds to the fun. It also helps everyone tell their own stories about it and no matter how absurd, ridiculous, or out there it is you can still be like "Damn, what a senseless war"

[BobaFett07]

so now I can put that My character's father was a PO in space Nam and he inspired me to become a PO.

[taketheshot56]

"I was just three weeks outta Parris Island, I was excited finally getting my first unit assignment, 1st brigade 3rd battalion 'Hounding Hawks' I was just a kid.....they packed up the entire unit cryo'd us and the next time I woke up was 2 years later over that godforsaken jungle world, tau ceti 1b, a small moon but it would change all our lives forever...."

[solidfury7]

There already are conflicts similar to Vietnam in the lore.

It's just not named something so dumb as "Space Nam"

[RobBrown4PM]

What about just focusing any efforts in to creating a viable map and scenario where the CLF is the main opponent. From there you can call it what ever you want, and develop the lore as need be.

[lgmmrm]

What about just focusing any efforts in to creating a viable map and scenario where the CLF is the main opponent. From there you can call it what ever you want, and develop the lore as need be.

This.

I'd enjoy a bit of space guerilla warfare now and then.