Author Topic: circinus federation roleplay campaign  (Read 3164 times)

durant

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circinus federation roleplay campaign
« on: 05 March 2017, 09:12:06 »
Hello to everyone !
I was silent from a long time... But I never stop to play battletech !
And I come to you for your idea about a circinian campaign in roleplay game.
My player team begin in 3025, 2 poor farmer from the circinian Backyard, lucky enough to work with tractors.
Since this they had volunteered to the circinian force (3030 and Mac Yntire (Little Bob) in the conquest in Dersidatz. They had tried to be black warriors but one was rejected by the academy (the other don't want to leave is friend). So they are inside the Circinian Lancer's (a little mixed company of mechs and tanks, playing to a sort of regulars unit) the occupation force for Dersidatz.
For the moment between pirate attacks (I have a lot of Band idea for them) Lothian guerrilla (very efficient, from the 343th hussars supporting the guerrilleros) and relation with their governor (an accomplished egoist and evil by pleasure personnality, Emil Xhosa) not too much problem.
Stormcrow has give to us with a very pleasing background :
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=36236.msg842173#msg842173
So I exploit his idea.
Thank you.
In our last roleplay party they had discover a destroyed mecha factory from the old time (not a starleague one maybe from Amaris build-up) They hide it from the governor and want to prevent the president before. And work now and secretly to put it in order (later) and happily they dream of circinian Battlemech army...
May be a handfull of model (include prototype) but they need a great engineer (with slobodan radocevic on circinus...), a lot of asstechs...

They know the great house because they play to computer games, but are ignorant about circinus destiny and Wob/comstar and Jihad...

Players are motivated ! They appreciate there freedom country and want to serve it !

all idea are welcome ! same for the future of the circinian federation !

« Last Edit: 05 March 2017, 09:15:08 by durant »
"je ne suis point venus dans un désert pour me rendre" général Marie-Pierre Koenig

idea weenie

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #1 on: 05 March 2017, 11:54:31 »
For the Mech Factory, one thing to look at would be transferring a Mech Bay from the Dropship to the factory building.  A Mech Bay can technically assemble an internal structure, attach the engines/myomers onto that, strap on the ammo packs, attach weapons, then cover the whole thing in armor in (IIRC) one month.  Even better, the Mech Bay is on board your Dropship so you have more control over who has access to it.

Your key limitation is getting all the parts.  Do you have a supply of Mech grade fusion engines and myomers?  Do you have access to Mech grade internal structure?  Ditto for sensors, weapons, and armor.  You might be better off just having an agent on a Merc recruiting world just buying Mechs as they become available.

Even if you get all that, you are still only producing for a small market.  A better idea might be using the shell of the building to produce local medical supplies.  The guerrillas will get bad press for attacking the factory, and the locals will be happier. Your goal should be making the locals not want to support the guerrillas, instead of building mechs to show them who is in charge.

If you are determined to produce Mech support systems there, I'd go with standard armor.  It is only 10k C-Bills per ton, so it is fairly easy to produce (based on a cost per ton comparison).  Every vehicle and Mech can use armor, so it is not a niche market (compared to producing LRMs, Medium Lasers, autocannon ammo, aso).  Even then, you will need access to carbon fiber production machinery (provides the necessary backstop), computer chip production (mech armor incorporates sensors to tell the pilot how damaged it is), and machinery to properly bind the armor together without damaging it (you don't want to melt the sensors or burn the carbon fibers in the armor during the process).

You also need dedicated engineers to figure all this out, plus OSHA specialists to make sure your work crew does not become a part of the industrial process.  Let the players know there are books available from the House technical schools, but they have to be friends with that House to get a copy.  For OSHA, let a Comstar Precentor mention about her safety inspection history, and see if the players can get the Precentor to stop by to make sure the facility is safe to work in.

Depending on the Precentor, Comstar may want to get the catering business at the factory.  Just a bunch of Acolytes working together to make food for sale to the workers (and listening to the gossip).

durant

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #2 on: 05 March 2017, 15:20:51 »
Yeah they had one old mannatee, they use it exactly for that, assemblage and repair. (it have no more the capacity to fly).

They have nervously stockpilled any part of mech they can, so they have a lot of derelict stuff, But without any specialist and no blue print (but in the factory computer maybe) and only three wrecked mechs (undiscovered) somewhere in the factory, I'm certain that they will not go too much far.

Their objective is not to produce for the market but for the Great Circinus Federation Army... (I appreciate this idea but honestly launching an industry like machs in circinus !)  :D

Dersidatz is a world with a nomadic and pastoral population in majority, with two factions (Lothian descended from taurians, and circiniens from a more complex background). This world is not advanced technologically. So to seduce this locals, it will be hard ! And the Lothian League is coming back in 3036 with a all-out assault, planetary revolt ! (so may be no more pseudo-factory)

Player are not very attentive to details they do a lot of travel to the site and rapped peasant for food production so everybody have now heard of this secret factory except the governor. But it's a detail he will die soon during the liberation.

The precenptor is a friendly comstar to the Lothian... So a safety visit is a good idea but before they need to produce something.
The date for now is 3036 and Lothian are on the back... Too soon for the wobblies but this idea about our van-food is pleasant.

Thanks.
"je ne suis point venus dans un désert pour me rendre" général Marie-Pierre Koenig

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #3 on: 05 March 2017, 16:06:21 »
Yeah they had one old mannatee, they use it exactly for that, assemblage and repair. (it have no more the capacity to fly).

They have nervously stockpilled any part of mech they can, so they have a lot of derelict stuff, But without any specialist and no blue print (but in the factory computer maybe) and only three wrecked mechs (undiscovered) somewhere in the factory, I'm certain that they will not go too much far.

Their objective is not to produce for the market but for the Great Circinus Federation Army... (I appreciate this idea but honestly launching an industry like machs in circinus !)  :D

Dersidatz is a world with a nomadic and pastoral population in majority, with two factions (Lothian descended from taurians, and circiniens from a more complex background). This world is not advanced technologically. So to seduce this locals, it will be hard ! And the Lothian League is coming back in 3036 with a all-out assault, planetary revolt ! (so may be no more pseudo-factory)

Player are not very attentive to details they do a lot of travel to the site and rapped peasant for food production so everybody have now heard of this secret factory except the governor. But it's a detail he will die soon during the liberation.

The precenptor is a friendly comstar to the Lothian... So a safety visit is a good idea but before they need to produce something.
The date for now is 3036 and Lothian are on the back... Too soon for the wobblies but this idea about our van-food is pleasant. 

The Manatee can also provide power, fresh water, some sewage processing, communications, sensors, and storage of critical items in addition to Mech production. 

For construction, let the look up the rules for FrankenMechs and see what they can do.

Providing medical supplies for the Circinus army is still a useful thing to do, and they can make money off that as well.  If they can make a good agreement with the locals, the Lothians might decide to let the PCs leave freely, instead of attacking.  If they get an excellent agreement, the Lothians might allow them to stay as guards for the facility (a nice long garrison contract).  If the Lothians announce their plans to kick the PC force out via weapons, the PCs can evacuate the factory and strip it of the critical machinery, making the factory useless.  So expect lots of pre-set Lothian forces watching the factory to make sure the players don't get surprised.  If the PCs patrol well, they might spot locations where observers were watching the factory entrances, in a sniper/spotter setup.

To seduce the locals, you'd have to go indirect route, buying meals from the Comstar food trucks, and Comstar buying the food from the locals.  If there is an attack at the factory, the guerrillas get the bad press of blowing up a medical factory, and as the factory gets repaired there aren't enough workers so Comstar doesn't buy as much food (making the local herders and farmers unhappy too).

If the PCs caused that much trouble to the locals, those PCs better be careful where they buy their food from.  Angry locals mean bad thoughts, bad thoughts lead to actions, and putting a thin dose of botulism on the food means sick PCs.  Potato salad?  Leave it out for a few hours extra then re-refrigerate it to cool it off, while the bacteria have had a chance to breed.  The local chef puts their food on the same surface that just had raw meat on it, causing cross-contamination.  Their tech purchases lubricants in town for the mechs, and it has microscopic quartz crystals in it to cause extra wear and tear on the inside of the engines.

Lots of ways to make the PCs unhappy if they bother the locals.

For getting them to pay attention to safety, you could always have one of their senior techs get injured inside the factory.  As the senior tech slowly recovers the players should realize that it could happen to others.  If they don't realize, have the factory foreman mention that production is down because all the workers are being too careful to avoid losing a limb as well.

jackson123

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #4 on: 05 March 2017, 17:59:23 »
Maybe product industrial mechs. Sounds like would be better.

Intermittent_Coherence

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #5 on: 17 March 2017, 06:22:46 »
Also it wouldn't be farfetched for a senior ranked officer or government functionary to try and kill them and take over the operation.

durant

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #6 on: 19 March 2017, 06:01:16 »
Industrial mech or medical supply are a good idea but if you care to my point of view, it's impossible ! I will no permit my player to change so much the universe balance !
The Lothian League will not leave my player in peace and they will find this factory (and later or sooner will destroy it) And if the Lothian league is not enough, House Marik is well connected and know for this project (spy everywhere with SAFE help) the 6th Horloff Grenadier is not far (on Sierra) and can strike and destroy them too, an major House can't leave alone the production from a little pirate kingdom like Circinus...

The player had bought food from the local Lothian, and now a lot of infantry and mechwarrior are sick, now my player give more attention to furniture, but don't take any attention for the Lothian resistance patrol.

About the governor (a very pleasant NPC to me, but not for my player) he is now aware of the factory and want to take the general command, he had advertise president Mac Yntire (so it is him now the official discoverer and not my player, why kill them ? alive they can be usefull again) and the first run of production is for the governor (his soldier are not sick) order from the president.

To end the Lothien army is stricking back with two full mech company an handle of tanks and two hundred soldiers... The next party they will find and strike at the little factory, and I hope now for my player to survive !

PS: they had find the 3 old mecha and have put them in order to fight, but I think it will not be enough.

Thanks for your idea, like you see I have used someone, like the factory idea from Stormcrow.

And as you see my english is a bit rusted... Sorry to Stackpole, Herbert, Asimov, Heinlein...
« Last Edit: 20 March 2017, 17:13:23 by durant »
"je ne suis point venus dans un désert pour me rendre" général Marie-Pierre Koenig

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Re: circinus federation roleplay campaign
« Reply #7 on: 20 March 2017, 17:49:50 »
If the first production run is for the governor, get him to put his troops to defend the location, or pay a nice up-front fee to the PCs for them to risk their assets.

If the governor puts his troops onsite, use them as meat shields so the PCs can get away.

If the governor pays the PCs up front, put the payment on/near the Dropship.  That should be among the things the characters do anyway, as this way if they have to leave, the nice stuff is already loaded.

I hope the PCs volunteered their Dropship to be the power source for the local town, so when they have to leave the Lothians are stuck with having to provide a power plant.  Otherwise, everybody in town loses electricity.  The local electric company is kept in business, they just hook up the electric grid to a transformer hooked to the Dropship.  The electric bill is still paid to the local electric company, and if the electric company chooses to make extra profit (since they don't have to maintain a power plant or buy fuel for it), that makes for more fun when the Lothians have to set everything back up.  If the Lothians don't arrive for a bit, the PCs can provide the accounting books from the electric company to the locals, so everybody knows who to blame for the profiteering.

The other fun would be if they had set up a basic food bank, and gave away the food they received to the locals.  When people complain about getting sick, the PCs can reply that all food has been purchased from local sources, and prepared using local labor.  As an aside, your medical staff can have fun trying to figure out what is the specific cause of the food poisoning, and rough ideas how to treat it (is it provided after cooking, before eating, etc).

But if the locals are providing bad food, yeah, the PCs might as well leave.  Have them purchase MRE's or vacuum-sealed food from off-world (and make sure it is not from the Lothian League), and prep to leave.  Heck, they might as well take out a giant loan from the governor and then abandon the planet since the governor likely won't be alive soon.  Their techs should learn everything they can from the factory, take good notes, but the PCs should be making it clear that with the governor taking over the factory the unit will be relocated.  If they can communicate that to the local Lothian resistance, they might be able to get away without firing a shot when the Lothian forces arrive.

 

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