Recruiting Clan Bondsmen

[grimlock1]

I haven't brought the idea up to my GM yet but I have a thought that I wanted to bounce off the group.

What are the odds of a Crucis March based security company w/ good connections in Lyran space and decent connections in Combine space, being able to recruit an Elemental Bondsman from a POW camp?  Time frame is 3052-3058.  The thought I have is something like this:  the bondsman's Trial of Position is to train my 4 man IS BA squad until each one can take a Clan Elemental, in comparable armor, at least 2 out of 4 times. Once the bondsman teaches my 4 chuckleheads to do that, they go from being a squad to a point with him in command.

[solmanian]

You'll have a better chance simply hiring a rogue/dark caste clansman.
1. It's one thing becoming a bondsman to the one that defeated you; you don't just go to anyone that wants you...
2. You don't just pick up a bondsman in a POW camp, like an abandoned puppy.
3. You could theoretically "buy off"/ransom/bail a clansman from a DC POW camp; it probably won't be legal, but can be done probably. But he won't be your bondsman, and have no obligation towards you since you didn't defeat him.
4. In clan culture mercs are scum. Security guards (AKA rent-a-cops), are second line scum. They're so far down the line of respect, you can't even find it with a map.

But not all is lost, just forget the "cheap labor bondsman" concept. Clansman are the best at what they do, and they know it; treat them accordingly. Offering him to train a unit that he will command, is actually a pretty good deal. Try downplaying the "security" aspect, and use fancy words like "elite crisis team" to emphasize all the ass he'll get to kick, theoretically. Being a Clansman POW, is to be non-person in clan culture, and the dracs are probably aint doing him any favours (might actually want to go to Davion and Steiner camps, since they're less likely to abuse their POWs, Dracs probably execute them on whims). Emphasize the "you can get back in the fight under my sponsorship, or you can stay and rot in this hell-hole", and that you'll give him independence in how he'll train and lead the unit. In the end it depends on the guy, some of them simply resign themselves to slow and dishonorable death, while other might be more adaptive and say to themselves "well that part of my life is over forever. What's next?".

[Atlas3060]

Agreed on the PoW/puppy analogy.
I guess you could make recruiting some Dark Caste an adventure in of itself.
Yes Clan Dark Caste are still Clan, but they also fell out of the structure somehow.

Maybe you found a Trueborn, not elite skills mind you, but tough enough for recruitment.
solmanian is right that you'll need to tweak your recruitment to their motivations.

Was he/she washed out? Offer a command or revenge on either their Clan or their hated enemies.
Do they just want to defend their people from Clan rule? (think Browncoats from Firefly)
Offer them a chance to live outside their sphere of influence.
Then again they could just want to bash heads in and get resources.

Then again if you do want to go the POW route, the motivations will have to bend or break that person.
"Fight for me or rot here" is a very good one. Some might absolutely hate their captors, offer revenge there!
"Yes the Lyrans have you locked up like a dog. What if I offered a better way? A way which allows you to turn some of those Lyran blues black and blue?"

You have a decent end goal: Elemental trainer to help your 4 man squad.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: "Why would a front line warrior reduce themselves to sibko nanny duty?"
That's probably how the warrior would see it. Even if these are 4 grown ups.
It was the early Clan Invasion after all.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

  As a GM, simply put, nobody recruits Clan Bondsmen. They are not for hire. I make my players "acquire" their bondsmen the old-fashioned way, by adhering to Clan dueling protocols and winning duels, which has cost at least one player his life and crippled another player. They knew the risks.

  If the players were just looking for a bottom-of-the-barrel Clanner, I could have them hunt down worthless, Dark Caste members but in challenges, the players have managed to take named trueborns as bondsmen, who have in turn collected more bondsmen. And yes, the players have acquired a number of Omnis, tech crews, tons of supplies and all sorts of toys by kicking Clanner butt on a regular basis.

  BTW, one of the players has a custom-designed Atlas that never been beaten in a fight, ever, no matter what I toss at it. He collects Daishis...

 

[Sir Chaos]

which has cost at least one player his life and crippled another player. They knew the risks.

 :o

Remind me never to play with you. The other GMs I play with never go any further than killing or crippling characters.

[Col Toda]

The above is correct .  The problem is that Clan bondsmen are great warriors but not great soldiers .  I hate getting mechwarriors as for me they are near useless .  The Tech Caste and  maybe infantry types Elemental and aersspace warriors   are of any use to me at all .  The mentality is not great . Any Mechwarrior Bondsman I got ; just gets to do some tech work until a few months pass in which I try to get them exchanged or repatriated to a Clan .  The Elemental was a case by case situation and the Tech cast I tried to keep .

[solmanian]

A spheroid taking clan civilians as bondsman is a basically slavery. When another clan takes civilians as bondsman, they simply become equal rights civilians of the new clan (relatively speaking). A warrior agrees to become bondsman, it's for a chance to resume being a warrior after redeeming himself by those who defeated him.

If your tech defeated their tech in a test of skill, it's one thing. But if you storm their resident and at the point of the gun tells them they're your property, does it really matter if they're clan civilians, or let's say lyran civilian? Unless you give them equal rights and pay as your spheroid techs, you're a slaver.

[Atlas3060]

When another clan takes civilians as bondsman, they simply become equal rights civilians of the new clan (relatively speaking).

They become isorla, spoils of war, meaning property in a sense.
In fact all bondsmen are property to the Clan taking them.
One can say all Clanners are property of the Clan, it is just some have better views when standing on the backs of their lesser.

But if you storm their resident and at the point of the gun tells them they're your property, does it really matter if they're clan civilians, or let's say lyran civilian? Unless you give them equal rights and pay as your spheroid techs, you're a slaver.

One could also say it was merely a Trial of Possession. At least that's how the Clan technicians could see it as.

Spheroids taking clanners bondsmen isn't that different from the slavery that comes from Clanners taking Clanners.
Within the culture of the Clan you serve the Clan, you are an agent of its will, a cog in the war machine. Property as stated earlier.

Yeah the Clanner techs probably do a better job than any average grease monkey in the 'Sphere.
They probably even know this truth as well.
But their culture browbeats them so much that if some guy with a gun says, "Now you work for me" chances are they won't put up much fuss.
This is all assuming they are fed, clothed, and given a ride to tinker because that's their job.

[solmanian]

I'm not trying to debate the morality of the clan caste system.

Let's say you visit a country that still has slavery, and than buy some slaves. When you return to your country, who hopefully doesn't allow slavery, the authorities will want to have something to say about it, especially if you're planning to bring your slaves with you.

Also, if you're sitting with your friends back home, and they ask you what you miss most, and you'll say "all the slaves I used to have״... Well, let's just say people can be judgmental.

[Atlas3060]

Fair enough we should pull away from the stickyness of that discussion in this thread.
It should be about giving grimlock1 ideas on how to incorporate bondsmen into gaming sessions.
The general consensus is bondsmen should be a big deal for Inner Sphere units.
Otherwise the value of such a situation becomes "boring" and as such loses impact.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

Unless you give them equal rights and pay as your spheroid techs, you're a slaver.

  My players realize that -An it is acceptable. They're the same crew with no qualms about torturing and killing IS prisoners...