Planning a new campaign, thoughts?

[WargameHub]

I have a Sunday night Pathfinder campaign I'm running online (Google Hangouts).  The catch is we only have three players so if someone is out it's impossible to run. Even three is tough to keep balanced.

My plan is on the days where we are down a person I will run AToW campaign.  I prefer this universe anyway and Second Edition was my first RPG.

So far the two players character concepts are Indiana Jones and Han Solo.  I'm thinking a Lostech treasure hunter and a military shuttle pilot. 

Year: 3046
Location: Federated Suns toward the periphery

They have access to a:
Scout jumpship with a MkVII shuttle
Leopard dropship with a Phoenix Hawk, ForestryMech, two other industrial mechs or another industrial and vehicles.

They have been hired (or work form something like NAIS) to track down Lostech.

**edit to add that I haven't run or played AToW yet.  So any advice on setting up the campaign would help.

[Locusthorde300]

With them only having one combat mech I expect they won't run into trouble a whole lot. At least not in the beginning.

[WargameHub]

The mech's pilot would be an NPC tasked with dropship security and helping out with heavy lifting.

[monbvol]

Sounds like you've got the first hurdle taken care of: campaign focus.  More specifically deciding how to deal with in cockpit oriented characters with a mostly out of cockpit game system.

I'd recommend the reduced lethality rules for combat and letting your PCs have access to some of the better armors just so they won't be killed too easily.

A highly skilled Doctor NPC on staff is also recommended.

The good news is in the time frame of your campaign Comstar has lightened up on people recovering LosTech enough that you can still use them as major opponents when you want but you are free to make the main opposition pirates/competing LosTech prospectors.

[WargameHub]

Thank you, great points about Comstar and the doctor.

[monbvol]

Glad to help where I can.

A couple other thoughts:

If this is the first time for your players in AToW and you want them to generate their own characters I'd recommend the point buy method over module.  Still would recommend it if you don't have much experience generating characters yourself if you want to pre-generate the players' characters for them.  A bit less daunting and less likely to have the same skill twice at two different ranks without realizing it until near the end of character creation.

Since it is going to be web based it should be pretty easy for you to keep a copy of your players' character sheets on hand for your own use.  It is something I highly recommend because other wise it can be kind of easy to forget some detail that you can use to spring something on your players otherwise.

Edge can be easy to overlook but a very useful tool.

[Matti]

If some digging needs to be done, then appropriately equipped 'Mech is needed. One of the IndustrialMechs could be armed. So recommended 'Mech force could be:
Phoenix Hawk
LoggerMech (so it is called in TRO:VA)
ConstructionMech
CattleMaster or Marco (latter is just for this kind scenarios)

[Paul]

Nice setup! I think you're off to a great start, and your focus should allow you to come up with some really ecclectic problems for the players to solve, from pesky wildlife, to engineering problems to thieves/competitors/bounty hunters. None of which need to be 'Mech equipped to be a problem, which makes life easier for the GM.

One question: would it make more sense if both players operate the industrial Mechs? Seems like Han Solo will be doing very little when Indiana Jones is up to his hips in trouble, and vice versa? Maybe I'm not grasping your intent.

[WargameHub]

All players will be able to pilot the industrial mechs.  I'm thinking some of the dinosaur style critters with those old brain eating bugs would be fun (from my point of view).

This is what I sent the players.
-----------------------------------
Here is the concept (reference in blue is out of character)

The year is 3047.  (the clans didn't show up until 3050).

You have been hired by the New Avalon Institute of Science (NAIS) to investigate and old Star League ruin.  The 48,000 cubic meter facility was previously checked out about 40 years ago.  However a recent discovery of Star League records has the facility at 50,000 cubic meters.  2,000 m3 is a lot of missing space and could be a treasure trove of information.

They have also hired a Scout class jumpship with a Leopard class dropship.  The jumpship has a MkVII shuttle (Chris is the pilot).  There are two Aerospace fighters for cover and recon on the dropship.  Also stored on the dropship is one Phoenix Hawk battlemech (mechwarrior is an NPC) for defense. You will also have access to three industrial mechs.  A loggermech, a constructionmech, and a Marco.