Nationality of mercenaries

[StuartYee]

In an ATOW campaign revolving around PCs as mercenaries, is nationality important?

Suppose a Lyran Commonwealth citizen joins a merc outfit which later on is hired by the Draconis Combine. And lets say this Mercenary unit is hired for a raid into Lyran Space. Would this Lyran citizen be committing treason? Is it assumed that person becomes a DC citizen? Do they simply not have a nationality?

[Lorcan Nagle]

Given the formalised rules of warfare, I'd say they'd be safe unless they committed a war crime, at which point the ComStar Mercenary Review Board/MRBC (depending on which era) would step in.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

In an ATOW campaign revolving around PCs as mercenaries, is nationality important?

Suppose a Lyran Commonwealth citizen joins a merc outfit which later on is hired by the Draconis Combine. And lets say this Mercenary unit is hired for a raid into Lyran Space. Would this Lyran citizen be committing treason? Is it assumed that person becomes a DC citizen? Do they simply not have a nationality?

Would a Lyran merc be committing treason by working for the Combine to raid a Lyran world?

So long as he acts within the bounds of the rules of war (such as they are depending on the era), there's little legal danger.

With regards to slander and libel, sure he might be called 'a traitor'.  But mercs are (post Star League) respected as professionals.

[StuartYee]

Another way of looking at it, is if I create a character in ATOW, Bob Johnson who is a mechwarrior in a merc unit, how important is it to specify Bob Johnson's nationality?

[Acolyte]

For detailed fluff and background, if that's important to you. They'll have some skills (protocol and language come to mind) and possibly some contacts in the original faction. Depending if these things can come into play, it could be important.

   - Shane

[guardiandashi]

technically its actually kind of important, to specify origin nation, as it can affect a lot of things, either directly or indirectly, such as: a few base skill, trait, and attribute mods, equipment availability (not issued by the unit but "starting gear" initial combat units (vehicle, mech, fighter etc if not provided by merc unit) 

note I am not saying these are hard and fast rules but guidelines.

for instance it is not unheard of for a steiner or davion MechWarrior to have a panther or dragon mech but it is strange, and the mech is a lot more likely to have issues due to limited availability of "proper parts" this is definitely possible to rectify while the unit is working for kurita (if they allow you access to the suppliers) of course it works the other way as well

[Col Toda]

In Battletech ATOW being an actual Citizen as opposed to Civilian is a purchased trait.  A whole unit tends to favor one faction and that faction may be off limits for the whole unit. It is the very rare unit that is not mostly from one faction. In those that are not ; only those with " In for life " or Citizen or have a title might have conflicts of interests in the matter .  Many mercenary companies have multiple contracts and those assigned to those contracts will have legal team of the company influence the assignment .

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

  Mercenaries are held to a different standard -A Lyran mercenary hired to fight against Steiner wouldn't be scrutinized as much as a DC merc fighting against the Combine, although getting captured would complicate things for that DC merc.

  I'm GMing a campaign based upon my experiences in the military and after some of the players committed heinous war crimes against prisoners and civilians, they were quietly given a slap on their wrists and smuggled off-planet to avoid PR problems because as mercs they also had treaty agreements that protected them from acts committed while following orders. They committed atrocities while interpreting their orders in a very loose manner and it called those orders under question, so the hiring party was just as anxious to put out the PR fire.

  The above being said, a noble of a realm has a strict oath of fealty so as a merc, a noble could not maintain that oath if he was contracted to act against the interests of his sworn sovereign. That is, if we are to believe that the Feudal aspect is serious.

[MrJake]

In Battletech ATOW being an actual Citizen as opposed to Civilian is a purchased trait.

I was under the impression that the Citizen trait only applied to certain Houses, Capellan, for instance.