I'm working on a homebrew campaign for AtoW. We are 4 players and myself as DM; 2 of us are familiar with the BattleTech universe, none of us have played A Time of War before. The campaign will take place entirely digitally via Roll20 due to the physical distance between us.
You know who you are: if you're reading this thread, get out!
Era: Third Succession War (April 3015)
Starting Location: Port Krin, Antallos
After the dropship on which the players had previously signed on is stranded in Port Krin, the crew is on the lookout for a new job. Without a big name or heavy machinery behind them, the players come across an independent job offer:
‘Seeking crew for salvage operation. Fair pay, no questions asked.
149,850 MHz’
There are practically no other jobs on offer in Port Krin for a crew of this size and equipment. Pirates hire through direct contacts, while the local security forces don't trust outsiders. Righteous corps and mercenary units don't hire nobodies in this pirate nest.
(I'm open to more reasons why this job is a perfect fit for the crew)
The first plot points are set in a semi-linear fashion so that the players (and I as an inexperienced DM) can get used to the setting and the game system, which is completely new to all of us.
Low-tech to keep the abundance of equipment under control and no clan or WoB nonsense to introduce the players to the universe a little more ‘gently’.
Start in the periphery for narrative freedom.
This forum has already given me a lot of inspiration. Thank you very much for all the creative ideas.
Our BBEG will be the non-canon syndicate ‘Black Talon’: a criminal organisation of the worst kind that is involved in every kind of machination you can imagine.
For some years now, however, they have been increasingly coming to the fore and gaining more and more influence across the system, even in the fringe worlds of the Outworlds Alliance.
This syndicate is developing M4-ND13 ‘Mindgrip’, an artificial, zombifying virus that makes people susceptible to simple commands and, in the worst case, completely robs them of their minds and any will of their own. Black Talon intends to use this dangerous bioweapon as a means of blackmail against planetary governments and possibly even Great Houses.
Black Talon will only gradually come to the fore as an antagonist over the first few sessions once we have become comfortable with AToW.
The players start with practically no equipment as stranded good-for-nothings on a pile of dust. I've already prepared a small quest that will give our crew a vehicle and an old dropship (a modified Ignis IFV and an old, abandoned Hoshiryokou-class DropShip).
What are some interesting plot hooks I could put in front of my players? We want to stay in the RPG for now and not go into the tactical scale.
I'm also always looking for interesting battlemaps for my encounters and constructive input from more experienced players or DMs for this system.
