Ironnerd
09/11/15 10:43 AM
68.184.124.238
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Last night I dusted off MW 1st edition, sat down in the game store with some people I hardly know, and had a great time.
I actually have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition MW, but enjoy 1st the most. Granted it is missing a few things, but I'm actually okay with that. I write adventures for another gaming system, so coming up with on-the-spot fixes for missing rules makes GM'ing a bit more fun for me.
The players were really into the game and did some really wonderful Role Playing!
By the end of the session they had found a stash of Star League coins (I would think they are the equivalent to Spanish doubloons) some old water-damaged J. Edgars, Karnov with no wings, and six functional (but not battle-ready) 'Mechs (1 Jenner, 2 Valkyries, 1 Commando, 1 Dragon, and 1 Locust - all basic tech [no SLDF tech]).
They have even banded together to form a Mercenary Group; the "Broken Wings" - kinda cool for five people who didn't know each other at the beginning of the game, and had never played MechWarrior before.
I admit to going pretty easy on them - I wanted to stress Role Play at this point. They are actually quite wealthy at this point, but as soon as they try to spend some of those Star League doubloons they will attract a lot of unwanted attention. Doubly so if they try to buy mech parts or neurohelmets with those doubloons...  Also they are on a backwater world with no access to a dropship (or jump ship for that matter). So most of that cash will vanish if they want to leave the planet and engage in daring exploits in their new 'mechs.
Edited by Ironnerd (09/11/15 10:44 AM)
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ghostrider
09/11/15 11:17 AM
76.89.121.69
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Nice to hear someone enjoying playing the game.
Are you going to get together again?
If so, you can suggest a few changes to bring some of the other things like a few skills into the first edition rule base.
A suggestion if you haven't already set it up, but major a major world in the general area they are in is under attack or even fell to the enemy of the house that owns the planet. Raids against, or even the house is looking to reinforce the world may be the ticket off the planet, or even become employed as mercs. I'm sure you thought of that already, but put it out just incase you didn't.
I would assume this starts on the sun/combine border as the valkyries are davion and the jenner/dragon kurita. The lyran commando is interesting, but the kurita mechs are designs after the fall of the starleague. So I would assume the stash they found was another unit trying to make off with the loot and was killed for it.
Hopefully you can get something regular going from it. Keep us posted about it.
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Ironnerd
09/11/15 04:10 PM
68.184.124.238
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Quote:
ghostrider writes:
Nice to hear someone enjoying playing the game.
Are you going to get together again?
If so, you can suggest a few changes to bring some of the other things like a few skills into the first edition rule base.
Yes, we plan on playing every other Thursday evening (due to my work schedule). I will, however, have to skip the upcoming scheduled game night as I will be running Battletech at a local anime convention (anime Weekend Atlanta - about 20,000 attendees)
New Skills? Like "Gunnery Vehicle", "Piloting VTOL", "Gunnery VTOL", and Academy packages for Techs, VTOL crews, and vehicle crews? Maybe even gambling (under Rogue). The template is there, and it's a darn good one, so all I have to do is add new stuff to it.
Quote:
ghostrider writes:
A suggestion if you haven't already set it up, but major a major world in the general area they are in is under attack or even fell to the enemy of the house that owns the planet. Raids against, or even the house is looking to reinforce the world may be the ticket off the planet, or even become employed as mercs. I'm sure you thought of that already, but put it out just incase you didn't.
Pascagoula is about 2 jumps form Bryceland, which is where I set my Convention Battletech games. It's where Federated Suns, Draconis Combine, and Outworlds Alliance all come together. It is "farily likely" that their purchase of mech parts and MechWarrior gear using "doubloons" will attract some attention - probably in the form of vehicle-mounted thugs. I'm going to have them work their way up to their first mech-on-mech encounter. Maybe build their esteem up a little by saving towns from bandits, and driving off another - less savory - merc group attempting to make their new base on Pascagoula.
Quote:
ghostrider writes:
I would assume this starts on the sun/combine border as the valkyries are davion and the jenner/dragon kurita. The lyran commando is interesting, but the kurita mechs are designs after the fall of the starleague. So I would assume the stash they found was another unit trying to make off with the loot and was killed for it.
Dang... forgot about those points. It does have the makings of an interesting mercenary stash. It would also explain how the old drunk guy had the map - he could have been the last survivor of the lost merc group.
Thanks for pointing that out - I just grabbed random 'mechs from the rule book (which is a little touch and go on some finer points).
Quote:
ghostrider writes:
Hopefully you can get something regular going from it. Keep us posted about it.
Agreed! It is very tempting to put the adventures together as a story of sorts, but I don't know if I would want to inflict that upon anyone.
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ghostrider
09/11/15 08:21 PM
76.89.121.69
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The big issue would be recording what happens while trying to run the game.
Granted having a spot to put up stories might be an issue as well.
And I don't see why having a basic outline for a story would be bad. Publishing it for money would be an issue, but I don't see why you couldn't do it for promotional advertising on your skills to make a story. But I am not a lawyer, and do not know copyrights and such.
Though a point that might make the commando fit, is it was used in the starleague forces, and the taurrians actually make the commando as well, so it might not be difficult to put that into a fellow periphery states armed forces.
And if you are feeling evil, making them order parts to work on the mechs, might attract a few visitors as well. The story of the money will reach ears that will want to take it all. Damn greedy merchants and the house they work for.
Though I do suggest you do not break down the gunnery skills more then that, like them trying to do the ballistic/missile/energy weapons sub skills. I think that is a little too much for the short amount of skills you start with.
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ghostrider
09/12/15 08:19 PM
76.89.121.69
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Not sure when the valkyrie was made, but the jenner was built just before the leagues fall if I remember the fluff with it.
Using that information, you could use the base story that the star league wanted a working jenner to look it over, and had ordered a 'pirate' strike at a garrison that had one. They unit could have been fleeing the combine when they got caught and the dropship was downed. The davions, not knowing what was going on, immediatelly jumped the combine forces and the stash was lost to history.
There are a few scenarios you could use with this thought. One is the combine was making counterfiiet money and the unit grabbed them with the mech. They could have robbed a star league bank with the funds being sent as payroll to the forces stationed in the outworlds alliance. That may have been what they were being paid to grab the jenner. With a side thought of the league trying to get the davions and kuritas as each others throats by staging the raid.
Then you could use the outworlds alliance staging the hit to do the same with the two, and they erased all information about it to avoid someone finding out the truth.
Don't know why but those popped into my head while I was doing other things. Hope it helps.
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Ironnerd
09/13/15 12:40 AM
68.184.124.238
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Of the 'Mechs I selected
Valkyrie: 2787 AFFS (home-grown in FS at a rate of 130/year)
Jenner: 2784 DCMS (Pretty common - probably salvaged by Mercs operating in the DC-FS border area).
Commando: 2486 LCAF - but common enough to find its way into FS space.
Dragon: 2754 DCMS (Salvage use by AFFS, LCAF, and Mercs. Apparently a really common 'Mech)
Locust: 2499 they're everywhere...
So only the Commando and Locust would have been in use during the Star League era. It's more likely that the former Merc owners of the 'Mechs had simply gathered the 'mechs together from salvage. They probably found the stash of Star League coins on some other world, and brought it back to Pascagoula for safe keeping.
The problem is it's like trying to spend actual gold coins at K-mart, you will get unwanted attention, and may not be able to buy that t-shirt you wanted because the clerk has no idea of the actual value of a $5 gold coin (about $110). We'll never know what actually happened to the "Red Skull" company, since they are all now dead. It seems likely that some of it was sold off to collectors, and at least a few used the funds to retire. Others were probably killed by outsiders (or insiders) trying to get the treasure for themselves. One or two probably managed to hang on for a while - piloting 'mechs because it's what they loved to do - or because they could not imagine doing something else (let alone nothing) for the rest of their lives.
I'll leave it a mystery and see what I can do to the player-characters with this foundation.
I am going to make one change. My character was flying a Boomerang, but I don't want to have to mess around with Aerotech rules at this point, so he'll mysteriously switch to a VTOL (Ferret Cargo Variant), just as a matter of simplicity.
Edited by Ironnerd (09/13/15 01:06 AM)
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