Replacement

You’re fresh off the train from boot camp and new to the unit. To make things worse, the training didn’t take as well as it should have. Most of your squad are reluctant to befriend you because they don’t think you’ll last very long. The newbie is never dealt cards on the first round of any combat (he’s always “surprised”). In addition, he subtracts 2 from Notice rolls to detect ambushes or booby traps, as well as most Common Knowledge rolls related to the theater of operations. To top it off, the poor guy gets the worst duties in the platoon—latrine detail, filling sandbags, KP, and digging graves, to name a few.

Of course, a newbie doesn’t stay new forever. The reason the Hindrance is so awful is that it can go away. After each relatively active month of service, the hero makes a Smarts roll at −2. If the roll is successful, he drops one group of penalties— either the Action Card penalty or the −2 to Notice and Common Knowledge rolls. He may roll again after another active month to rid himself of the other penalty, at which point he’s no longer a replacement. Not every soldier who steps off the train has this Hindrance—only those knuckleheads who take a little longer to adjust to the realities of war.