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Author Topic: Campaign Rules  (Read 2023 times)

Darrian Wolffe

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Campaign Rules
« on: February 20, 2017, 01:35:07 AM »

Attached is the PDF containing the basic campaign rules, as well as the character creation and random unit generation rules.  Inside the PDF are links to the MechWarrior 3rd edition RPG book, and a few supplementary PDFs to help you generate a lead character.  This is a second-draft document, but it's complete enough to allow you to create Lance Leader characters and your attendant wingmen, and generally generate a workable player force.  Most - if any - changes will be simple clarification, or tweaks on how the gameplay will work.

In the next 24 hours, I will be posting a guide doing a step-by-step character creation and player force creation, so you can follow along.

........

The core summary of this campaign is that we will be playing a mercenary group, starting play in 3044, when a trickle of advanced tech is starting to show up (as per the TRO 3039 retcons).  Each player will be solely responsible for the upkeep of their personal 2 or 4 Mech lance.  Full StratOps AccountTech rules will be in play, with the notable exception of Maintenance checks being monthly instead of weekly plus "every time you use the Mech".  Each player will receive money each in-game month to buy parts/ammo, each player will have to account for their technical support hours to make repairs, and when it's time for the unit CO to choose who to deploy on a combat mission, you'll have to report to the CO the condition of your unit.  Not all player commands will take part in each mission; the CO is capped on the number of player units which can be deployed at one time, but all player units will be deployed regularly (at *worst*, 1 game in 3).

This system will hopefully walk the razor's edge of allowing us to have large, 1-table group battles, while simultaneously being scale-able to the number of people who show up.


.......

The final note I have is that while I am GMing the beginning of this campaign, I expect this to be a rotating GM position.  Once this unit is built, its relevant stats can be entered into the MegaMek add-on campaign system called "Against the Bot".  This campaign system will automatically generate contracts based on the unit's relevant statistics, and will automatically generate random and mostly-balanced missions, which means I won't need to spend several hours per week playtesting OPFOR settings.  Once we have a handle on how this should all work (after the first two contracts, at lengths of 3-5 games each), I can step aside and let somebody else plug the numbers into a new contract and generate new missions, letting the computer do the hard work for us.  

However, this procedurally-generated campaign system means that this will only have a narrative insofar as it's an emergent storyline.  That is, the story will be what you make of it; there is no inherent underlying storyline like there was in the Wars of Reaving or the SLDF campaigns.  Fair warning.  If you choose to play only OPFOR, that is your call; it's relatively easy to add additional player unit into the merc company as we go.  If you'd like to be a player, you need to commit relatively firmly to 8 games/year (we generally have 10-11 games).  If you want your PC to pretty much ever be in position for CO duties, that's a much stronger commitment to both attending games and to checking the boards regularly.  While most major unit decisions will be done with a group vote, the CO will be a tie-breaker and will likely need to weigh in often when two players have mutually-conflicting goals (especially about spending money).

« Last Edit: March 22, 2017, 02:48:41 PM by Darrian Wolffe »
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2017, 01:05:15 PM »

Changelog

Updated PDF to 1-1 version. - 2/20/17
-Corrected "every 4th skill point" to "every 3rd skill point"
-Included Trait increase XP costs
-included Edge increase XP costs
-Included Wingman Edge purchase/increase XP costs
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2017, 07:21:53 AM »

Changelog

Updated PDF to 1-1a version - 2/21/17
-Corrected download links for Affiliations, Lifepaths, and RPG rules
-Updated RPG rules from a poorly-scanned version to a nicer, easier-to-read version.
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2017, 12:49:36 PM »

Clarification

During Lifepaths and Event Rolls, don't worry about timeline-specific fluff.  For example, if you get a lifepath result of "War is Hell and fighting the Smoke Jaguars was Satan's Sauna; heavy combat gives you the following....", the important part isn't that you fought Smoke Jags.  You were in extremely heavy combat somewhere and you got those bonuses; that's all.

The only time the timeline really matters during lifepaths is restricting which lifepaths you can take in the first place.  For example, Trueborn Creche is a lifepath that is illegal.  As would be going to the Canopian Institute of War in Stage 3, because it doesn't exist for ~20 years.  Otherwise, don't sweat this stuff too much.
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2017, 12:53:54 PM »

Changelog  - 2/22/17
-Corrected "every 3rd skill point" to "every 2nd skill point"
-yes, really.  The cost for raising bonuses from +3 to +4 is much higher than I remembered, and forget about going beyond that.  The point isn't to start everyone's PCs out at 5/5s.  Chalk this up to not having doing in-depth to MW3e chargen in close to a decade.
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2017, 01:21:28 PM »

Regarding customizations for Lance Leaders:

Use the column appropriate for the affiliation you first deployed out of school for.  For example, a Capellan character who goes through Sian Institute of War and his first Stage 4 path is Tour of Duty: Inner Sphere would be considered to have deployed for the Capellans, and thus is limited to the Capellan Confederation column of the chart in terms of being able to customize his unit with new technology.

FRR counts as Lyran, but add 2 years to all values (something available to Lyrans in 3035 would be available to FRR characters in 3037).  St. Ives counts as FedSuns.  All Periphery/Bandit/Independent World characters use the Periphery column.

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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2017, 06:18:57 PM »

Since I've had some questions about custom Mechs, well-equipped, and the above chart:

Well-equipped (2) means that you will get 1 pieces of SLDF-era gear in your warehouse.  Well-equipped (6) would be 3 pieces of gear.  DHS are not "equipment", but an XL engine is.  Each piece of gear can be switched out to get you 10 tons of F/F armor instead.  Note that nobody can refit a Mech with Endo, and that nothing on the random charts has Endo Steel.

Unless you have the Custom Vehicle Trait, you'll have to roll for your Mech on your affiliation's random chart.  Once play begins, you can choose to have your Techs mount the SLDF-era gear from Well-equipped onto your Mech, or save it for later.  Your call.  That's a customization, and it'll work just like normal customization (including Tech rolls and time required).  

Custom Vehicles are still bound by faction availability for parts (see above chart).  A FedSuns custom Mech in 3044 couldn't mount an ERLL, because the Suns can't get them until 3045.  If the FedSuns PC had an ERLL from Well-equipped, he can have his Tech mount it only his Mech after play starts.

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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2017, 06:42:54 PM »

Changelog - 2/27/17

Add "Strategy" to the list of tracked skills for Lance Leaders.
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2017, 02:49:59 PM »

Changelog - 3/22/17

Updated Rules PDF to version 1-1b.
New version includes all previous changelog entries, plus all known Mech Quirk Rules.
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2017, 01:29:00 PM »

Changelog - 5/23/17

-1) Evidently, the "selling things" portion of the rules was excluded from the PDF.  Here are the rules for selling things:

Selling Components: You can sell your unused parts for 25% of their purchase price, +5% per MoS on your Lance Leader's TN 7 Negotiation check (caps at 50%).  Failure just means you have to sell them at 25% - there's no "backsies", though.  If you're selling them, you're selling them.  

Selling Mechs and/or ASFs: An undamaged Mech is sold for 50% of its retail price, +1% per MoS on your Lance Leader's TN 7 Negotiation check.  A Mech which is damaged in any way but is not crippled is sold for 30% of the retail price (+1% per MoS in the same way).  A Mech which is crippled is sold for 15% of the retail price (again, +1% per MoS).  Failure on the check works the same way as for components; once you're selling it, you're selling it.

Selling other vehicles:  An undamaged vehicle is sold for 50% of its retail price.  A damaged but not crippled vehicle is sold for 25% of its retail price.  A crippled vehicle is sold for 10% of its retail price.  Negotiation checks are not used.

-2) Clarification - when you reclassify a MechWarrior as "light" if they were a Medium pilot, it ADDS the classification, it doesn't replace it.  That is, once you've spend your XP classifying a Medium Mech pilot on Lights, they can pilot both Lights and Mediums.  I was using the military definition of "reclassification" (ie, changing your Military Occupational Specialty), not the colloquial one, and I understand why that was confusing.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2017, 01:31:45 PM by Darrian Wolffe »
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #10 on: June 04, 2017, 03:34:15 PM »

Changelog - 6/4/17

-1) Reclassifying your pilots has been changed to cost 15 XP, not 40.  I was unsure on the rate of XP gain, and now that I've seen how fast people are gaining XP in practice, 40 was far too high.  15 XP is between 3-5 games at the rate we're playing (ie, about 1 contract), whereas I can get a pilot ~10 XP per game under the same rules playing on MekHQ which is what I based the original costs upon.  15 XP is still a significant number, but isn't completely overwhelming the way 40 is.  Other XP costs remain unchanged at this time.

-2) BV cap for all players (new and veteran) is raised to 5,200 BV2.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2017, 05:01:58 PM by Darrian Wolffe »
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Darrian Wolffe

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Re: Campaign Rules
« Reply #11 on: June 05, 2017, 08:18:04 PM »

Changelog - 6/5/17

-1) Tech experience.  Techs gain +1 XP for rolling a 12 on a repair check.  Techs gain a number of XP equal to the MoS on a customization or refit.  Increasing a Tech's experience level costs 10 XP to go from Green to Regular, and 20 XP for each successive experience level.  Once a Tech is Elite, their skill TN may be descreased to a 4+ for 30 XP, and 3+ for another 30 XP.  The skill caps at 3+.

-2) Mandatory Retirement.  Non-PC personnel will automatically retire upon reaching 60 years old, unless paid a $500,000 CB bonus.  They will then be willing to work until age 65 (no contract-baseed rolls needed), and will retire at 65, period. 
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