Running a Merc Campaign

[handority]

Hello gents, I have a few questions about running a merc campaign at my FLGS using FM: Mercs (Revised)

1. After I generate the contract and get the mercs transported to the planet, how do I generate missions?

2. What would be considered a balanced opfor?

3. How do I determine the number of missions required to complete a contract?

4. Are there tables for the above?

[Colt Ward]

The book should have random tables for #1, I do not remember if it exactly does.

#2-  Depends on your objective in the scenario . . . if its a fight but one that should be won with a bit of effort . . . 60-80% of the BV, maybe even or lesser tech, more armor and infantry as percentages than the player's force.  If its supposed to be even . . . well, 90% of the BV, maybe the opposition has a tech, number of units or composition advantage- something the players will be forced to overcome with problem solving rather than 'hey diddle-diddle, right up the middle.'  If its supposed to be a grueling 'survivor' fight . . . outnumbered, out-BV'd (110-115%), maybe less tech, maybe less skilled, waves of reinforcements, victory condition that negates some unit advantage the players have (cavalry unit?  escort the local prince's 3/5 assault back to its own lines).

#3-  Depends on the contract type and what the objectives negotiated were . . . IMO, you honestly have to have the scenarios in mind BEFORE you GM the contract negotiations.  It lets you set up the objectives with the success/fail follow on scenarios if they will be needed.

#4-  I know Combat Ops, Chaos March SB and a few other of the campaign dedicated sources had random size & equipment type tables.  I think some of those guidelines exist with the Chaos campaign system, but I am not totally familiar with it since it does not have the level of detail (spreadsheets) I like in unit operation.  With that said, I have used the scenario ideas from it, the MOs and the world events when I am crafting them to my own campaigns.  Especially now since I can damage and short change ammo in MegaMek.

[handority]

Thanks for the reply, but there are still several problems.

1. There are no tables... Nothing for determining encounters in any of the Merc field manuals. If a merc unit in my campaign is on garrison duty I have no way to determine if the planet is attacked, if attacked by who, or the composition of Opfor (Be numbers, class, or weight) without resulting to DM Fiat.

Some of the missions are straight forward (Like assassinate or raid) in objective but ambiguous in encounter.

Heck, I cant even use most of the supplied RATs in the core rulebooks as they would assign mechs with a high tech value while my merc players are stuck with lower tech ratings.

[Colt Ward]

Well, just use older era RATs or poorer nation RATs (periphery general!) to still get random but lower-quality equipment.

As far as attacked by 'who' . . . well, sometimes that can be the fun mystery when the players get hit.  Other times it will not be a mystery . . . if your working in the Capellan March in the '20s, pretty good odds those hostiles burning in are a Capellan raiding force.  Or say your in the Sarna March in '57- we know who started that ball rolling.

For the players to find out who they are facing, its a great time to send out that recon element to let your players do something besides slugfests.  Which nation and unit your facing SHOULD determine their response . . . fighting a Capellan reserve unit gets a different response from a Warrior House.

Do not be afraid to use some of the tables in other materials if they fit your needs.  As I cited, the Chaos March SB, Combat Ops book and others give you ways to randomly set the maps, randomly determine the opposing force, and can even give objectives.  I highly suggest you look into the Chaos Campaign tracks, its a free DL IIRC, it might help.

As far as if/when attacked . . . well, you will probably have to determine that on your own.  I think you might be able to use the creation combat track's random contract result (which ranges from being wiped out to your golden and salvage everything!) to at least set the tone for the engagement.  I also suggest you look at Fan developed systems, plenty of people are willing to share their scenarios and campaign planning if you look further down on the forums.

[TS_Hawk]

Whats timeline for your campaign?

[handority]

Sorry I forgot to mention but its 3062-3069.

So far the best I've been able to come up with is arbitrarily using the Tracks system found in Sword and Dragon / Chaos campaign for longer contracts and "one off" missions for the shorter contracts.

It seems I need to kill some more trees for all the notes and ad-hoc tables Im putting down on paper.

[Lt Dan]

The Total Chaos book has a range of missions and how to set them up in the front half, before going into the collected tracks.  We have used it loosely for a couple of missions and it seems to work well.  Think about buying it and using the info therein.

On a side note, our group has run quite a few merc campaigns.  The one thing you need is a creative GM who can think 3 steps ahead of just the battle and scope out not just a tabletop battle but a story.  Fluff adds to the game and if you want your players to invest in the games, give their units some colour.  Have things happen out of the blue, let them express their goals and think about ways of making it happen - but make it difficult or at a cost.  Maybe they just won't make it and will need to consider some other options.  Ultimately, the game requires organisation and thought from the GM and investment in time from the player.  If you give this, I have found you get a really good experience for the gaming group.

Regards.

[idea weenie]

Sorry I forgot to mention but its 3062-3069.

So far the best I've been able to come up with is arbitrarily using the Tracks system found in Sword and Dragon / Chaos campaign for longer contracts and "one off" missions for the shorter contracts.

So you are leading up to the WoB Jihad, in the original timeline?  Try giving them a few WoB sponsored missions against the Clans.  They have to damage X number of Clan Mechs, or remain in a specific location for Y amount of time (to cover a WoB operative who is hacking/downloading Clan computers), or grab Z amount of salvage (destroy at least n ProtoMechs, and use your mechs' hands to bring the remains back with you).

Or you can give them defensive contracts on Chaos March worlds, and the enemy raiders want to hit them over and over (since they are working for WoB, you can even have the Allied Mercenary Command attacking them).  Lots of opportunities to make the bad guys good, and the good guys bad.

You can even go with alternate forms of payment.  I.e. a company that produces armor might not be able to pay them in C-Bills that often, but they will get 5 million C-Bills worth of armor.

I.e. the contract options would be:
1) 10 million C-Bills
2) 5 million C-Bills and 10 million C-Bills in Ferro-fibrous armor

Of course, if you do this, the players will quickly want to buy a Mule or Behemoth Dropship, to carry all the stuff in.  The one person in the group that likes to play accountech will be happy though.

Off-hand, you could go with a rough table:
D6 - Result
1 - 50% your force strength, but roll twice on Special stuff
2 - 75% your force strength, roll once on special stuff
3 - 100% force strength, primarily fast movers
4 - 100% force strength,
5 - 125% your force strength, half of which is vehs
6 - 150% your force strength, but if you defeat them you get doubled contract payment

Special stuff:
1 - ASF support - opponent gets 1 ton towards ASF for every 10 tons in your force, rounded to the nearest 5 tons of ASF
2 - neutralized defenses - half of your minefields are actually disabled, or half your wall defenses, or half your heat sinks suddenly fail (apply in this order)
3 - hostile minefield - put 1 pt of minefield for every ton of enemy force
4 - Artillery support - opponent brought artillery, get 1 pt towards artillery damage for every 20 tons your force masses
5 - Infantry spotters - add one platoon of enemy infantry for every 50 tons you have.  Tech for enemy platoon will be 'equal' to what you are fielding.  If enemy infantry is lower tech, double for each 'level' (Clan -> Star League -> Anti-Mech trained -> basic weapons)
6 - Roll twice, but with a -1 to the die roll.

When I say 'for every XX tons', I mean add up your tonnage, and apply that as the total tonnage towards the enemy force.  So if you have 345 tons of forces that you field in battle (i.e. not the Behemoth that is carrying around everything), then the enemy force gets a 35 tons ASF in addition to their regular forces.

For artillery, that would be a total of 17 pts of damage, so a Thumper artillery piece would apply.

For that same force it would be facing 7 additional units of equal tech enemy infantry.  So if the player force had been up-teched to Clan, and it is facing a pirate force armed with Machine guns, SRMs, and/or laser rifles, that would be increased to 56 units of enemy infantry.

[Hellraiser]

Thanks for the reply, but there are still several problems.

1. There are no tables... Nothing for determining encounters in any of the Merc field manuals. If a merc unit in my campaign is on garrison duty I have no way to determine if the planet is attacked, if attacked by who, or the composition of Opfor (Be numbers, class, or weight) without resulting to DM Fiat.

Some of the missions are straight forward (Like assassinate or raid) in objective but ambiguous in encounter.

Heck, I cant even use most of the supplied RATs in the core rulebooks as they would assign mechs with a high tech value while my merc players are stuck with lower tech ratings.

Try to get ahold of the original Mercenary's Handbook, its 3025 era, and IIRC has all that your looking for in it.

[The Hawk]

On a side note, our group has run quite a few merc campaigns.  The one thing you need is a creative GM who can think 3 steps ahead of just the battle and scope out not just a tabletop battle but a story.  Fluff adds to the game and if you want your players to invest in the games, give their units some colour.  Have things happen out of the blue, let them express their goals and think about ways of making it happen - but make it difficult or at a cost.  Maybe they just won't make it and will need to consider some other options.  Ultimately, the game requires organisation and thought from the GM and investment in time from the player.  If you give this, I have found you get a really good experience for the gaming group.

IAWTC.  Unless there is some particular merit to randomness (like your players will complain otherwise), I think, handority, that your time would be better spent crafting a suitable force and plot rather than tables that will allow you to randomly generate a suitable force.  Without a huge investment in resources, probably the easiest way to do this would be to figure out where your mercs will be stationed and what they will be doing on their contract; who will attempt to interfere and what their goals will be; and then, what the OpFor's equipment will be to carry out their goals.  The MUL is a good way to figure out what factions have what equipment in what time periods.

As for creating a balanced OpFor, it's a learned skill, but as much as people will complain about it BV will probably give you a reasonable estimate.  Of course, if you expect the campaign to continue -- and depending on your GM style -- there may be some merit in the enemy force not being balanced so that your players don't get flattened.

When it comes to GMing, your imagination is the limit.  Tables are very useful for some stuff, but IMO, campaign development is not one of those things.

[handority]

Thanks for all the replies gentlemen. So far I've been using the "track" system out of Sword and Dragon to represent the missions generated under a contract (I have nearly 50 different Rats I can draw from right now). I find a certain amount of randomness keeps the game true to its roots (A simple Mission: Recon that "spawns" a lance of veteran heavies and an assault made a player play to the mission and bug out after scanning the opfor).

My next gag is determining experience. In Total Warfare, there is an overly simplified system for determining Experience gains. Can anyone recommend a better system of gaining experience and developing special skills? If so, what books do I need?

[markhall]

The Total Chaos book has a range of missions and how to set them up in the front half, before going into the collected tracks.  We have used it loosely for a couple of missions and it seems to work well.  Think about buying it and using the info therein.

This would be my advice too.
It also contains advice on op force selection for each type of mission based on a % of what the players side will be using for the game.
And has some very random tables for rolling on.

On a side note, our group has run quite a few merc campaigns.  The one thing you need is a creative GM who can think 3 steps ahead of just the battle and scope out not just a tabletop battle but a story. 

This also.
Nothing can wreck a game like the Players can.

(A simple Mission: Recon that "spawns" a lance of veteran heavies and an assault made a player play to the mission and bug out after scanning the opfor).

Just had a similar issue with our last mission. We could have fought but it in no way would have been profitable.

My next gag is determining experience. In Total Warfare, there is an overly simplified system for determining Experience gains. Can anyone recommend a better system of gaining experience and developing special skills? If so, what books do I need?

The Total warfare system is okay. But it can take a long time to up skills if you're not using your whole force each game.
Having used it in the past.
The rules in Total choas offer a quicker way to increase skills. But it can seem a tad too easy to up them.



And on your Warrior front. For the player force you might want to consider using for head removals or cockpits how about we use the critical cockpit damage rule from p.75 of tac ops.
Where you roll to see how badly hurt the mechwarrior is if the mech is decapitated.
Can keep a warrior you've become attached to around even if he takes an AC20 to the face.