So if you saw in the After-Action Reports subforum I'm in the early stages of a narrative campaign - and the next mission takes place on a Low Earth Orbit station against Clan Smoke Jaguar - Leopard dropships are flying up from the surface to bring refugees to a commercial transit station terminal to be transferred to a jumpship to get them out of the system. There's 4 dropships with 6 platforms, rolling a 1d6 every turn to determine where they land & unload.
That may not perfectly line up with the canon, but I'm basically trying to have an excuse for my players (who will be playing a mercenary company charged with defending these refugees) darting back and forth and getting lost in the confusion.
Now, I'm trying to come up with a few different gimmicks to keep things semi-random and keep my players on their toes. I'm a little new to some of these rules, I tried googling and digging around with little luck, so I have some ideas I wanted to throw out and see if there were rules for them already:
-My plan is for the players to escort these refugees through an industrial mining resource depot, with highly explosive silos of different materials laying around to get struck by stray fire, or even directly targeted by me (Clan Smoke Jaguar) or the players (Mercs) to try and dissuade the enemy, compromise an objective vehicle, etc. Would I be able to say, roll a 1d6, and get a different material with different effects on the board every time? I know this takes place in a low-gravity environment in low-orbit, but say, could I have it so only the directly surrounding hexes become compromised, or an even larger radius? Perhaps it releases a corrosive substance, a flammable substance, or something like ice to induce skidding?
-What would be the rules for unmanned kamikaze drones? This is something that didn't exist when the original Battletech rules were ginned up, but they're a reality now and I'd love to do something with that. Something to really keep my players on their toes.
-Do jumpjets get a bonus for being in a low-orbit environment?
-Are there simplified rules for orbital bombardment? My players are all going to be bringing mechs with jumpjets. What I want to do is have a CSJ warship/gunship come in and blow out some tiles to harass my players, really throw some wrenches in their plans. Not totally random, but enough to really give them some obstacles.
-Could a Battlemech pick up a vehicle in LEO and throw it off station, drifting into the black emptiness of space? Could a 'Mech push or kick another 'Mech off a platform and send it drifting into space, lost forever? (or at least until a recovery team finds it)
Much thanks in advance and any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.
