RP in the Dark Age

[ds9guy]

For those of you familiar with DA novels, what story lines seem the best jumping off points for adventures?

[Dread Moores]

If you're looking on the Lyran side, Malvina's incursion(s) make for some easy points to have an evil and vicious black hat. You can even introduce some real chaos amongst player groups there, as some may be Stormhammers (loyal to the Jasek, before fully joining the Lyrans again), Republic loyal forces on Skye, or straight up Lyrans.

Virtually any planet outside of the Fortress "walls" that was abandoned makes a great starting point. There's a number of viable places down near the Capellan borders, once they start their invasions as well.

There's a bunch more I can think of, but it might help if you narrow it down a little. Clan? Inner Sphere? Any particular faction?

[ds9guy]

I was asking more to see what interested other people....

For me, the novel line is filled with good stuff.  Imagine Shadowrun type stuff with Bannson's guys.  Also much room for espionage and stuff with the Comstar storyline (although we don't really know where its heading).

Good stuff with the civil war brewing both in the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns.
The Drive on Terra seems interesting too but that's just set up in the last book so we know very little. 

The chaos of all the fighting in Marik and Steiner territory of the last 5 books or so is ripe for interesting stories.
The same with the poor Republic...

[Dread Moores]

I think that's been a key change in the DA fiction that really interested me more than prior fiction. There has been more focus on the middle tier of characters, not exclusively the movers and shakers. You get books like Blood Avatar focusing on the view from the ground, and less of the Super Friends World Tour. You see folks like whathisname from Ghost War, dealing with events, influencing things...but all on a more local or regional level (same for many of the micro-faction leaders). That's a scale I prefer more (and referencing Shadowrun in that regard is a fine example of what I'm talking about), so it helps keep me more interested.

There's still the view from the top, but even a fair amount of that is told through secondary characters. You're not seeing an entire book devoted to the Archon screwing up, you're seeing the impact of those screw ups through the eyes of Roderick and Trillian. That's an approach I wholeheartedly support.

Edit: Just thought of another one I really enjoyed. The mess of the Combine's court, and Tormak's rise to power. There's some fantastic potential there to get a group wrapped up in that mess, particularly having members of the group working for some of the various factions as agents working at cross-purposes.

[Deadborder]

What he said.

I'm actualyl starting up an AToW game set just after Gry Monday. Promises to be interesting or, at least, a little different. Persionally, I can't wait for official RP support for the era.

[E. Icaza]

My game started before Grey Monday and the Blackout, although that event just happened in my game last week.  One of the characters is a ComStar Acolyte, who was assuring everyone that it was merely a temporary outage, until a few JumpShips showed up at the end of the session and said that similar things had happened at the worlds they had jumped from.  Also, one of the JumpShips jumped in at a pirate point and hasn't identified itself, so the forces on planet just went on alert.  The next session will at least partially be about dealing with the chaos and with PR damage control and maybe trying to figure out what is up with the silent JumpShip.

Added to this, there is a small band of raiders on the world attacking and disrupting mining operations.  Also, one of the players is the CO of the Triarii Protectors lance on-planet and got word from "a friend" that members of her family, most specifically her sister (also a PC), may be up to some shady dealings which are tied into this raid.  The PC sisters' family owns the largest mining operations on the planet, including at least two lances of IndustrialMechs,,  One of the bits of evidence that the "friend" sent shows that several shipments of weapons and ammunition ('Mech-scale and personal) intended for the militia forces have gone missing and that at least a lance of MiningMechs were pulled out of mining operations about a month ago... ::)

So far, it's been a lot of fun.  I chose the time period around Grey Monday because that was what one of my players was most familiar with since he collected and played DA/AoD up to Liao Incursion.  I'm also more familiar with that time since I read most of the novels up to Scorpion Jar.

I'm trying to run it more like Cyberpunk/ShadowRun than I am CBT, at least for now.

[Deadborder]

E, if i may ask, did oyur chracters use life modules in their construction? And, if so, did you "customise" some Dark Age-era ones yourself?

Even if my players won't be using LMs, I've been looking for suitable "faction" traits for my players. For example, a RotS citizen having "Compulsion/Devlin stone will return" or a member of Bannson's Raiders having "In for Life" (Because certainly BR are a group of Mass-murdering serial puppy kickers and hells yeah they're going to order you to do horrible, horrible things). For the most part, I figure the Successor States or the clans would use the pre-existing modles with minimal tailoring though.

[E. Icaza]

E, if i may ask, did oyur chracters use life modules in their construction? And, if so, did you "customise" some Dark Age-era ones yourself?

Even if my players won't be using LMs, I've been looking for suitable "faction" traits for my players. For example, a RotS citizen having "Compulsion/Devlin stone will return" or a member of Bannson's Raiders having "In for Life" (Because certainly BR are a group of Mass-murdering serial puppy kickers and hells yeah they're going to order you to do horrible, horrible things). For the most part, I figure the Successor States or the clans would use the pre-existing modles with minimal tailoring though.

They used Point-Buy, although I created a life module for the RotS.  I left the option to them, although I had half kit-bashed a RotS module.  It borrowed from the Fed Suns (Sarna March) module since that is where Acamar was at originally, although I let them choose their secondary language due to the relocation programs that Stone launched. 

Three of my characters are RotS born and the ComStar Acolyte is from Oriente.

[ds9guy]

Your campaign sounds like a great deal of fun thus far.

If you'll doing post backout stuff you might want to check out Target of Opportunity, the next novel after Scorpion Jar.  It goes into the Comstar response to things so it might be of interest to your Comstar player. 

It sounds like you have mostly Pcs of Comstar and Republic backgrounds.  It's a time of great upheavel and problems for both groups.  The Republic in particular is under great strain with the Great Houses getting anxious and eyeing the chance to take back lost territories.   

If things come down to mech combat do you plan it out with Battletech or Mechwarrior?  If your buddy still has his stuff that might be an option.   

[E. Icaza]

Your campaign sounds like a great deal of fun thus far.

If you'll doing post backout stuff you might want to check out Target of Opportunity, the next novel after Scorpion Jar.  It goes into the Comstar response to things so it might be of interest to your Comstar player. 

It sounds like you have mostly Pcs of Comstar and Republic backgrounds.  It's a time of great upheavel and problems for both groups.  The Republic in particular is under great strain with the Great Houses getting anxious and eyeing the chance to take back lost territories.   

If things come down to mech combat do you plan it out with Battletech or Mechwarrior?  If your buddy still has his stuff that might be an option.

That's the one with Tucker Harwell isn't it?  If so, I've read it and it is one of the few DA/AoD novels with characters that I loved.

As far as the campaign is going, it is a lot of fun so far.  For characters, I've got: 

A green-as-grass Mechwarrior Lt. fresh from the academy and in charge of a lance of Triarii Protectors on Acamar to show the flag.  She is also a native, so she has a "hometown girl done good" vibe going for her.  She is also strongly loyal to the RotS (Compulsion -2).

Her older sister, who has taken more and more of the reins of running the family business over the past couple of years and is being groomed to take over for their mother when she retires.  She is fairly ruthless and isn't particularly loyal to the RotS, but she has strong loyalty towards her company and her family (Compulsion -2 for both).

The ComStar Acolyte who is the liaison between the planetary govt. and the Order.  He is fairly jovial and a bit on the lecherous side (Compulsion -1).  Think a semi-sleazy, mid-level manager for a Madison Avenue advertising firm.

A BA trooper with a bit of a drinking problem.  He has some slight loyalty to the RotS (Compulsion -1), but he is mostly in it to fulfill his service requirement so that he can vote and own property.  He mostly wants to start his own ski resort and tourist business on Acamar.   :D


Also, the sisters discovered in their first adventure that the Enemy -3 that each of them had chosen was the Planetary Governor, who has a strong grudge against their family because she (the Governor) blames their mother for costing her the last election to the Republic Senate. 

[E. Icaza]

Well, the BA trooper got killed Sunday night, so there is a replacement character.  Since most of the rest of the party is very "social", my player made up a social character as well.  His concept was..."What if Paris Hilton, or someone like her, existed in the CBT universe?  Oh, and I want to be from the Draconis Combine."

So, I've got a character with minimal skills (except for Career/Media Whore +6 and the like), but has Wealth 10 and Extra Income 10.   :))

[Deadborder]

So, I've got a character with minimal skills (except for Career/Media Whore +6 and the like), but has Wealth 10 and Extra Income 10.   :))

That's... useful. I'm trying to imagine what they're going to bring to the team besides small dogs in handbags.

[Dread Moores]

Social skills? Insanely useful. Likely along with a talent for promotion and negotiation. That's a great way to net extra supplies and support.

[E. Icaza]

Agreed.  The campaign has been shaping up to be less 'Mech or combat action and more intrigue and the like.  Think Cyberpunk or Shadowrun at the MegaCorp level.  I was also initially skeptical of the idea until the player pointed out that, love her or hate her, Paris Hilton has been very successful at turning herself into a brand and getting lots of attention.  That sort of thing could be very useful in DA/AoD if you attract the right kind of attention.   ;) 

Also, having a lot of money never hurts.  And, from what I understand, small dogs in handbags are so 21st century.  Now it's all about pet surats dressed up in designer clothes.   :D