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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2753
Location: United States
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 Posted: 17-Apr-2011 20:04 Post subject: Testing a campaign idea |
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I might be starting up BTech again, but save for myself and one other player nobody from the last campaign is around anymore. Thus, I'm thinking a new campaign set in the same universe I've crafted; that legitimizes what the last group did, but doesn't bog the new folks down in details.
As such, my campaign idea is thus:
The party is a mercenary unit in the employ of the Outworlds Alliance. Owing to incidents taking place in the other campaign, the OA has been able to overhaul a portion of its military; the centerpiece of this is the first new batch of Chaparral artillery tanks in centuries.
After a series of successful planetary defenses, in part to the presence of the Chaparrals, the OA has decided to try and retake a (totally made up for this campaign) planet that used to be part of the nation but which they had to abandon due to unending pirate and bandit raids; the party was one of several small-time merc groups hired to be brute force.
The party, alongside two platoons of mechanized infantry, were to take what was once a key communications facility located atop a mountain and the small outpost that guarded the only road up there; once it was secure, the party would be free to hit any and all targets of opportunity within a certain radius.
However, everything went pear-shaped when one of the other merc units, a combined-arms team known as Occam's Razors, reported that they were engaging a Grim Reaper which was guarding their objective... in spite of the fact that the mech should only exist in the arsenals of Comstar and the Word of Blake.
Turns out that the WoB negotiated with the pirates holding the planet: the WoB would be able to maintain a series of "facilities" on-planet, and in exchange the pirates would get a fair sum of money.
Well, that report let the Blakists know that OA forces were coming dangerously close to capturing one of their facilities. Whereas the Blakists had been content to let the pirates defend the place, they mobilized their entire planetary arsenal in order to crush the invasion force. Occam's Razors dropped off the grid shortly thereafter.
Realizing that he was now facing far more than what he had bargained for, the OA force commander ordered a full retreat. Thing is, in the confusion the party and their compliment of OA infantry were accidentally left behind.
The party succeeded in taking their objective and hitting a few lone pirate tanks that came to investigate, but that's about it. They're now trapped behind the lines on a Blake-held planet, and there's no way of knowing whether or not anyone's actually going to come bail them out. The party must thus survive, and perhaps even continue the assault, all on their own.
(Most of the facilities are weapons caches that were being set up in advance of the Jihad. However, one of them - the one that the Razors blundered into - was being converted into a parts factory that would manufacture "common" parts so that the Blakist forces in the area would have a steady stream of repair parts. Thus, the Blakist over-reaction to the news that the facility was being hit: if it fell, the OA would potentially have access to advanced tech.)
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"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Wanallo
Federated Suns
Leftenant Colonel
Joined: 02-Jan-2004 00:00
Posts: 671
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: 19-Apr-2011 09:08 Post subject: Testing a campaign idea |
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Sounds interesting. While the old 'Invasion gone wrong' campaign is a little over used, it provides a good grounding and allows the GM to open up plenty of avenues.
Just a quick question. As the players units are a Mercenary outfit in the OA. Will they be using Pheriphery technology or a specific houses gear?
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Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them-Seneca
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2753
Location: United States
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| Posted: 19-Apr-2011 18:29 Post subject: Re: Testing a campaign idea |
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| Wanallo wrote: | Sounds interesting. While the old 'Invasion gone wrong' campaign is a little over used, it provides a good grounding and allows the GM to open up plenty of avenues.
Just a quick question. As the players units are a Mercenary outfit in the OA. Will they be using Pheriphery technology or a specific houses gear? |
I'm going to let the party create their characters as usual, but if they don't bring their own mech or vehicle with them then I'll assign them whatever comes to mind.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 21-Apr-2011 15:30 Post subject: Re: Testing a campaign idea |
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Perhaps there could be a little twist? What about letting the Blakists to follow the party? Hounding ever closer no matter what trick is used to throw them off. Well, you guess it, WoB operative in their midst relaying coordinates that lets the WoB to pursue the party with what meager force they may have (something that could be handled. WoB doesn't devote a full army to this, which is unknown to the party. Actually they'd chase the party in an ambush of pirate tanks and pick-up the remnants, but the pirates were occupied with the other invaders, which gave party some time, that is already running short).
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The dragon NEVER sleeps!
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2753
Location: United States
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| Posted: 22-Apr-2011 12:03 Post subject: Re: Testing a campaign idea |
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Basic premise:
At one point in time, the planet of Wakonda (props to anyone who gets the reference) was the breadbasket of the Outworlds Alliance.
Thanks in large part to the planet's science academy, which was comparable in quality to that of any academy in the Successor States, the populace had become an expert in doing far more with a lot less. The average farmer could do 4 - 6 successful crops a year, and with surprisingly low overhead costs they were quickly growing wealthy.
Unfortunately, the residents of the planet grew disdainful of "unpleasant" tasks. In time, the planet's defenders dwindled to little more than the ruling nobles, their personal bodyguards, and isolated militia; the people, unwilling to provide their own defense, instead used their largess to hire mercenary groups to provide their own security for them. To further the defenses of the planet, they invested in a series of communications arrays, radar towers, and other hubs to help coordinate the planet's defenses.
Sadly, this all ended tragically. When the Alliance government began to stumble and lose control of the outlying planets, the mercenaries guarding the planet began to realize that the writing was on the wall. Deciding that it was better to be alive than to be rich, one of the groups sold out the planet's defenders to a pirate band that was known to operate in the region. The local militia crumpled easily due to being so badly short-handed, the other mercenaries were completely out-maneuvered, and the nobles were quickly forced into hiding as they could no longer carry the battle on their own.
The descendants of the nobles still linger on the planet, and the current heir to the throne pilots a midnight black Panther against the pirates whenever he feels that he can have an easy victory. However, it is now impossible for them to retake the planet on their own; instead, they largely do it for the sake of show, as a way of encouraging the residents of the planet to keep resisting. (If the party does enough damage to the pirates and the Blakists, the nobles will join up)
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
General
Joined: 30-Apr-2002 00:00
Posts: 1833
Location: United States
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| Posted: 22-Apr-2011 19:40 Post subject: Testing a campaign idea |
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So are the players going to be fighting in the defence? or are you starting them off after its already happened? How large is the pirate force going to be? And this sounds 3025ish?
I'll admit to being completely jealous. I haven't played in so long now I have forgotten most of the rules. The group I used to play with broke up long ago and hasn't gotten back together in some 4 years.
As for the reference I keep thinking star wars, other than that its not ringing any other bells.
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2753
Location: United States
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| Posted: 22-Apr-2011 21:04 Post subject: Re: Testing a campaign idea |
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| Stinger wrote: | So are the players going to be fighting in the defence? or are you starting them off after its already happened? How large is the pirate force going to be? And this sounds 3025ish?
I'll admit to being completely jealous. I haven't played in so long now I have forgotten most of the rules. The group I used to play with broke up long ago and hasn't gotten back together in some 4 years.
As for the reference I keep thinking star wars, other than that its not ringing any other bells. |
3060s.
One of the plot points for the original campaign is that buried on Caph was a Star League cache that was in the process of being converted into a functional factory; the cache had an entire town sitting on it and was so far removed from the main population centers that nobody ever messed with it no matter how badly beat up the planet became because nobody wanted to bother going out that far to harass a bunch of religious types living in the middle of nowhere.
The original party, without even knowing it, ended up giving the people of that region enough time to finish the conversion and begin cranking out enough Star League-era machines to disembowel the rather large Blakist presence on the planet (the Blakists had created a bandit invasion hoax to justify landing a "peace-keeping" force).
So where would the current party come in?
The group who was "guarding" the cache has, as its ultimate goal, to reform the Terran Hegemony. Seeing the Outworlds Alliance as a potential ally, they gave them the schematics to produce the Chaparral artillery vehicle and the Arrow IV launcher that it uses in exchange for the OA's backing with the New Star League.
The OA was rather grateful for the design, as it helped boost the combat capabilities of their defense forces; the Arrow IV launcher is so powerful that it could even threaten the dropships used by the bandits.
Well, flush with victory thanks to their new toy, OA hired a bunch of mercs (including the party) and sent them - with a bunch of militia - to try and re-take one of their former planets. This is where the campaign starts.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2753
Location: United States
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| Posted: 25-Apr-2011 21:22 Post subject: Testing a campaign idea |
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Mission idea:
The party gets in touch with a merc unit known as Bang Bang; they, like the party, were inadvertently abandoned when the invasion force pulled out.
The remnants of the group have reformed and are making camp a few miles away from a farming community that has a rail yard.
The pirates, suspecting that the invasion forces might try for the rail yard, have upped security several fold. As such, Bang Bang is in a bind: they can easily take the town even with the increased guard, and they can easily swat away the patrols that are hunting them down, but they can't do both at once.
If the party agrees to serve as a protective screen, Bang Bang can roll into the town and sweep the defenders. Given the distance to the nearest outposts, they figure that they can easily have the town secured and have their own defensive fortifications in place before reinforcements can arrive. Once the town is secure, that'll be resources for both groups and another piece of land liberated.
Thoughts?
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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