# Subterranean Fantasy Fuckin' Vietnam A game concept closely related to [[The Long Stair]], possibly predating it. [This blog entry](http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/04/fantasy-fckin-vietnam.html) sums up the idea. > Fantasy fuckin' Vietnam. > > Some of you may remember the above phrase. A couple years back it took on a life of its own in classic D&D circles, hanging around just long enough to spawn a killer dungeon-style adventure and a great deal of vitriol about its ostensible offensiveness. > > As used it was supposed to signify the dead-at-any-moment life of old school dungeoneering. The kind of play where you inched along the corridor, 10-foot pole in hand probing every foot of the floor, walls, and ceiling for traps. The kind of play where losing a limb prying open the lid of a chest was as quick as a death by an arrow from your flank. It was the gaming mirror of then still-fresh cultural memory of the stress, paranoia, and grittiness of the Vietnam War. > > -- <http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/04/fantasy-fckin-vietnam.html> From [the originating thread](https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/necro-what-system-for-subterranean-fantasy-fucking-vietnam.407357/): > > Multi Pass said: > > > > So D&D is different now. Good. I can actually walk around feeling like a badass wizard hero now instead of a 4hp mook trapped in some subterranean fantasy fucking Vietnam. > > This quote keeps staring out at me from signatures. And I keep thinking… I'd like to play that game. Take the literary and film traditions about Vietnam. Turn the clichés of D&D into squad-based military fantasy. The jungle becomes the dungeon. Landmines become spike traps. Napalm becomes fireballs. And embrace the potential racism of the dungeon fantasy genre. Everything that's not on your side is an "orc." Most orcs are human. > > _The orc kid ran up to me. He was carrying a bundle in his arms. I'd followed orders, memorized the excellent prismatic spray. I was supposed to use it on anybody who approached, anybody who disobeyed the shouts to stay down. His eyes looked like imperial eyes. I couldn't do it. Couldn't flay him in rainbow colors. I waited for the boom._ > > _He stopped in front of me, and the blanket fell off the bundle._ > > *It was a goddamn pie.* > > This isn't a dungeon crawl, it's a dungeon war. The party are grunts, with beliefs, ideals, things they want to hold onto. But ten foot room by ten foot room, those things are tested, warped, stolen. > > _Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a quest, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice quest, and when it was over, I'd never want another._ > > What system would do a game like this justice? > > -- <https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/necro-what-system-for-subterranean-fantasy-fucking-vietnam.407357/> ## Meta ### Sources - <https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/necro-what-system-for-subterranean-fantasy-fucking-vietnam.407357/> - The originating thread - <https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/fantasy-fucking-vietnam-what-means-this/> - RPGsite discussion ### References - [[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]] - [[RPGnet]]