P.A.T.H.: Vietnam Play free

History sets the mission. You choose what follows.

365 days. One tour.

One soldier. The men beside him. A year that follows him home.

  • Free in your browser
  • Phone · tablet · desktop
  • Solo RPG · 365-day tour

An illustrated solo RPG with Bravo Company, 2/22 Infantry at Dầu Tiếng. Build your soldier, live the four shifts of each day, and keep the letters, photographs and memories of a 365-day tour. Free to play in your browser · Mobile · Tablet · Desktop · Mature wartime themes

In-game rewards

Play free. Earn these as you serve.

Two rewards you earn as you progress on your tour: the AFVN radio and the DEROS comic. You don’t buy them, you earn them by playing P.A.T.H.: Vietnam – Tour of Duty.

The Last Broadcast from Earth by The Unmeasured Hours
Free on AFVN.fm
Surfin' the Delta by The Delta Reverbs
🔒 Unlock in game
Hooch Jukebox by Various Artists
🔒 Unlock in game
Admission Extra by The Turnstile Union
🔒 Unlock in game
What the Auction Left Behind by Silas Rook and the County Company
🔒 Unlock in game
Blood Brothers by The Redline Sons
🔒 Unlock in game
Breakwater Run by The Breakwater Runners
🔒 Unlock in game
Coldwater Line by Jesse Cade and the Highballers
🔒 Unlock in game

Some of the 35 AFVN records you can collect

Reward 01 · Music

Unlock the AFVN radio

  • 16 programmes come on the air on their broadcast dates as your tour moves through the calendar.
  • 35 records by 33 bands arrive at mail call once you order them from the PACEX catalogue.
  • Free right now: the intro show, playing in the radio bar on this site.
Play free · start unlocking
See all the music on AFVN →
DEROS Issue 1 cover
#1 · day 32
DEROS Issue 2 cover
#2 · day 62
DEROS Issue 3 cover
#3 · day 93
DEROS Issue 4 cover
#4 · day 123
DEROS Issue 5 cover
#5 · day 154
DEROS Issue 6 cover
#6 · day 185
DEROS Issue 7 cover
#7 · day 214
DEROS Issue 8 cover
#8 · day 245
DEROS Issue 9 cover
#9 · day 275
DEROS Issue 10 cover
#10 · day 306
DEROS Issue 11 cover
#11 · day 336
DEROS Issue 12 cover
#12 · day 365

The full series · 12 issues, one for every month of the tour

Reward 02 · Comics

Earn DEROS, one issue a month

  • Finish a month of your tour and that month’s issue is yours to download and keep.
  • Campaign time, not real time: Issue 1 unlocks on tour day 32, Issue 2 on day 62, and so on.
  • Free right now: the first 10 pages of Issue 1.
See the DEROS rack →

How a day plays

Four shifts. Every day of the tour.

Every day of your tour is four shifts: Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night. A morning event sets the tone, and then you choose how to spend your time from the action board.

Dawn shift
Dawn · A morning event sets the tone.
Day shift
Day · Orders, work and the war outside the wire.
Dusk shift
Dusk · Sit with a man and hear his story.
Night shift
Night · Stand a watch, then sleep. The journal writes itself.

The action board

The day’s work. The human moments.

Major actions carry the duty. Minor actions make room for letters, weapon care, a photograph or a quiet conversation. As you get seasoned, more of them open up. Open any card.

Outside the wire

Other days the war comes to you.

A patrol, a road run, a night ambush, a battalion operation. Keep track of the men, the ground, the ammunition and the route back.

Patrol the Michelin
Patrol the MichelinPatrol the Michelin Rubber Plantation and keep track of the men, the ground and the route back.
Ride road security
Ride road securityMounted columns in M113s on the Dầu Tiếng–Tây Ninh road.
Battalion sweeps
Battalion sweepsSearch-and-destroy across the paddies. Fire comes from the far dike.
Fire Support Base Burt
Fire Support Base BurtNew Year’s night, 1–2 January 1968. The tracks fought hull-down until dawn.

The men beside you

Trust and bonds forged on the line.

You arrive a cherry. Over time you build relationships with your squadmates. Trust runs both ways, and it’s earned by what you do: stay with a man through a bad account, keep a promise, share the risk. Stand a listening-post watch together, make time for him at Bravo, and one day you each say it plainly: Buddy. Then the tour tests it. Men rotate home, get wounded, or are killed in action, and the new cherries who replace them have to earn it all over again while it’s your turn to become a veteran.

Open the dog tags to meet the fifty-five soldiers of P.A.T.H.’s Bravo Company: your squad, the replacements who will arrive during your tour, the officers and first sergeants, and the men who feed, supply and support the company.

What’s in the tour

A year, in a real unit.

01

1967–68 · real dates

Historically grounded

Real operations on their real dates: the Michelin Rubber Plantation, the Iron Triangle, Route 26, Fire Support Base Burt and Tết frame the campaign.

02

4 Stats · 16 Proficiencies

A real character sheet

Four Stats, sixteen Proficiencies, qualifications and cumulative Experience Points. Background, education, moral code and the dream that keeps you going all change what you can do.

03

Journal · photos · letters

A tour you keep

Your War Journal, the photographs you take, the letters you write and receive, and the Service Record that follows you home.

04

Stress · wounds · malaria

The war under the war

Stress and morale, wounds and evacuation, malaria and the Monday pill, jungle rot, and the things you can’t put down.

05

Weight is real

Your kit is yours

Draw it at the quartermaster, buy it at the PX truck, choose what rides on your webbing. Weight is real. Boots wear out.

06

Pay · mail call · catalogue

Pay, mail and PACEX

Save for DEROS, buy war bonds, send money home. Order from the catalogue after mail call.

The Field Desk · your tour on file

Your tour, recorded in minute detail.

Build your soldier, play the tour, and the Field Desk keeps all of it. Every event goes into your War Journal. Buy a camera and film, photograph your squad and fill your album. Order records by mail and play them in the hooch. Your Service Record grows with every proficiency, promotion and medal. Grounded in real history, and personal to everything you did.

  • Build a soldier with a life before the war
  • Play 365 days, four shifts a day
  • Record it in your journal and photos
  • Bond with the men beside you
Every day, four shifts screen from the game
Every day, four shiftsYour choices on patrol, on watch and back at camp play out as illustrated scenes, and the tour remembers them.
The Field Desk screen from the game
The Field DeskYour soldier’s desk: everything you own, earn, write and remember, one tap away.
The War Journal screen from the game
The War JournalThe events of your tour are written into your journal as they happen: patrols, letters, wounds and the men you lost.
Your photo album screen from the game
Your photo albumBuy a camera and film at the PX or by mail order, then photograph your squad and the places you pass. Every shot goes into your album.
Service Record screen from the game
Service RecordYour soldier on file: four Stats, sixteen Proficiencies, qualifications, experience and every promotion you earn.
Medals and ribbons screen from the game
Medals and ribbonsRecommendations work their way through the paperwork; what is awarded goes on your ribbon rack.
Kit & footlocker screen from the game
Kit & footlockerEvery item you carry, by weight and wear: what rides on your webbing and what stays in the footlocker.
The PACEX catalogue screen from the game
The PACEX catalogueOrder cameras, record albums, gifts and comforts by mail. They arrive at mail call.
Pay & savings screen from the game
Pay & savingsYour pay, your savings, war bonds and the money you send home.
Tour Calendar screen from the game
Tour Calendar365 days on the real 1967–68 calendar: operations, history and your own milestones.
AFVN on the dial screen from the game
AFVN on the dialProgrammes come on the air on their broadcast dates, and the records you buy play in the hooch.
Pocket Guide to Vietnam screen from the game
Pocket Guide to VietnamThe guide soldiers were issued, rebuilt page by page from an original copy.
Grunt’s Dictionary screen from the game
Grunt’s DictionaryThe language of the tour, learned as you go.

The tabletop RPG · V1.098

Bring P.A.T.H.: Vietnam to your table.

Four campaign manuals, built around P.A.T.H. Games’ own Lucky 8 narrative engine: a pool of eight-sided dice against a Difficulty, with Luck, Support, Rush, FUBAR and Trauma. Start with the Rule Primer, then use the Player’s Manual to build your soldier, the Narrator’s Manual to run the campaign, and the Vietnam Campaign setting to keep your game grounded in history.

Explore the four books in detail

Stay in touch

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Your tour starts 1 August 1967.

There is no score and no winning. The goal is to get through your tour, and to find out who you become on the way to the Freedom Bird home.

AFVN · SaigonTour of Duty · Onboarding
0:00 Unlock more music · PlayThe Last Broadcast on AFVN.fm ↗