carry, a game about war

The most telling aspect of carry is its subtitle. Most RPGs, as proud descendants of wargames, are games of war. carry is a game about war. The Vietnam war to be exact, but also war in general. The game doesn't focus on the combat; the focus is on how the combat affects the people in the war.

The cast of carry is set. To make your character, you start by generating a "burden" in a collaborative process with the rest of the players. Your burden is your defining feature, the thing that weighs you down, mentally, emotionally, and perhaps even physically. Creating a character involves pairing your burden with one of the members of the squad (who all have short, evocative descriptions already written). The other members of the squad become NPCs.

Each character has a profile, which determines how well the character does using different approaches to conflict resolution. Profiles shift throughout the game, with some restrictions on which profile can be changed to from any given profile, to generate character narratives that make sense. Profile, approach, how long the character has been in Vietnam, and the character's burden all factor into conflict resolution.

Conflicts are broken into two types: squad scenes and action scenes. Each has different mechanics that lead to distinct strategies and expose different themes of the game. Action scenes are particularly interesting since no matter what side wins, someone in the squad will be hurt -- the only difference is who gets to chose who gets hurt. In action scenes, the ranking player sets orders, and then each player decides if they follow the order and if they agree with the order, and both choices contribute to the eventual resolution of the conflict. Action scenes are not so much about winning or accomplishing some impersonal mission, but about surviving as best possible.

Like all great things, a game of carry has an end. As tensions mount, or once the squad is down to only the player characters, a final conflict determines what becomes of the characters, and the game ends with the narration of an epilogue for each character.

carry states three main influences: Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and The Things They Carried. Themes from all of these are reflected in the game, but The Things They Carried is probably the strongest, leading even to the name of the game. The production values of the book stay very close to the setting and theme, but the military-style organization and references may be hard to follow.

Just like the inspirations it cites, carry helps explore why we fight, and what happens to the people we send to war, all through the rules. The mechanics of the game work as well as the prose of The Things They Carried or the script of Full Metal Jacket in exploring life in the line of fire, but the game is brief, and that is probably its biggest shortcoming. Like many other indie games, it totals under 100 pages. Hopefully as games as an art form expand, we will see larger, more intricate games develop with the same impact as carry. carry packs a thematic punch, but it is designed to be played in a single session. Since the game brings up such great pieces as The Things They Carried, Platoon, and Full Metal Jacket, it almost seems to come up a little short. Not because carry doesn't build strong themes, or because it isn't mature enough to deal with the material, but because in only a few pages only so much can be addressed, and in only so much depth.

carry is not a game of war. It is a game about war, and the mechanics serve to give some insight into what war can be like for those involved, from the point of view of the people on the ground. carry is a game that may make players nervous, and it should. There is a tendency in RPGs to address serious issues through a lens of fantasy, but carry makes no compromises.