Ideas for missions?

[Locusthorde300]

Hi,

I'm starting a new game with friends and I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with mission ideas that tie into each other. The game centers around a group of independent mercs set a few years before the clan invasion. Except that I'm using the 3025 map. So, this isn't canonical. We all have medium mechs, a small dropship, and a crew.

The way I'm doing it is each planet will be campaign with quite a few missions each. Similar to how MW4: Mercs did it.

So far for Planet A; I have a 2 Convoy attack missions, with a scouting mission (that goes wrong when an Atlas appears).

Planet B; Just a convoy raid defense mission. I started making plot for planet A and forgot about this one.

[idea weenie]

You have pirate raids, objective raids, defense contracts, cadre contracts, etc to work with.

One idea might be playing the game from the role of a planetary governor.  Her job is to improve her wealth, and the best way to do that is to improve the planet (or tax the locals like crazy).  So she will need to have the planet defended, pirates tracked down (to rescue relatives/VIPs/parts), and if a certain part is only available on an enemy planet she will ask the PCs to go get it.

If the PCs can figure out a way to make more money in the process, go for it.  I.e. figure out what her planet might produce in excess, and keep some of that in the Dropship for sales.  If they are contracted to raid a planet that produces LRMs, see if they can arrange for a quick purchase from the local factory, but at factory sale price, rather than book sale price.  At the very least, buying them directly from the factory should be only half book price.

With a force of mainly medium Mechs, they don't have the speed for a recon, nor the mass for an assault.  This forces the players to plan their battles, getting to the right location quickly, hoping they can deal with the defenses, then getting out again with the loot (and protecting it).

If you want a generic overall plot, Mechwarrior 2nd edition had a random chart that you would roll for strategic events 3 months in advance, so you could slowly change the story being told to the players in response to the projected story line.


Also, what type Dropship do they have?  Leopard (small aerodyne), Union (medium spheroid), Mule (medium cargo transport), or?

[Locusthorde300]

You have pirate raids, objective raids, defense contracts, cadre contracts, etc to work with.

-snip-

If you want a generic overall plot, Mechwarrior 2nd edition had a random chart that you would roll for strategic events 3 months in advance, so you could slowly change the story being told to the players in response to the projected story line.


Also, what type Dropship do they have?  Leopard (small aerodyne), Union (medium spheroid), Mule (medium cargo transport), or?

'Cadre' contracts? I don't understand that word. :P

I think that could help me think a few things up, thank you.

I based their ship on the Leopard. Since I didn't know the ship layout, I designed one myself based off of how much space I thought it'd have.

[Acolyte]

Cadre is training the locals, pretty much. Or acting as the OpFor in some wargames.

There's always the "Find my daughter" missions for more roleplay. Or the "Who stole our only spare PPC?" You know, head tech found knocked out, parts missing from your stockpiles.

   - Shane

[Locusthorde300]

Cadre is training the locals, pretty much. Or acting as the OpFor in some wargames.

There's always the "Find my daughter" missions for more roleplay. Or the "Who stole our only spare PPC?" You know, head tech found knocked out, parts missing from your stockpiles.

   - Shane

Ooooh, okay. That could work.

What would be the setup to the kidnap mission?

[Acolyte]

Kidnap mission.... Hmmm that also works.... "Can you get that guy's daughter for me?" >:D

The usual setup is something along the lines either someone took the family member for leverage before a business deal or court appearance or the like or the daughter has run away and joined the "wrong crowd" - whether that means criminals or supporters of Kathrine Steiner (whoops, that's redundant O:-) ). Or maybe she likes mercs and daddy doesn't.

Your players can actually be on either side of this as they are mercenaries. They can be approached, usually by an intermediary, to meet with the client in some seedy bar/fancy hotel/client's home/boardroom/etc and are asked to perform the mission. They won't be told the nature of the mission until arriving, but some temptation will likely be provided. Promises of money are usual as are threats (I know your employer, I'm ComStar, my client is very powerful/connected, etc) but either way it should be clear that money can be made if they're discreet.

Then lay out what the client knows. Be sure you know what really happened and how they can discover it, then let them loose. They may knock on any contact doors they know about, set about bribing criminals and such forth and will eventually discover the hideout/location. Then, how easy or difficult it is to get her/him out is up to you. And do they want out? Maybe they've fallen for a cult leader and will pick up a gun to not go. Maybe they are a real hostage, but the crooks'll kill them if your group does anything overt.

Endless possibilities. You can even present one and have them find out it's something different halfway through. Nice little twists. Maybe she likes mercs and doesn't want to go - until the mercs realise how valuable she is. Then she's a hostage. And they'll kill her if you do anything overt.

Possibilities.

   - Shane

[Locusthorde300]

-snip-

   - Shane

That sounds great for a later mission. I'll have to keep that.

One of my PCs mentioned he wanted to have some "political intrigue" style missions. I'm not 100% on how to go about this though. I know a lot about mechs, not the IS factions.

[Wolverine]

I re-read the original paperback books in the 3025-3057 timeframe for campaign ideas, lots of good stuff in there
J

[guardiandashi]

That sounds great for a later mission. I'll have to keep that.

One of my PCs mentioned he wanted to have some "political intrigue" style missions. I'm not 100% on how to go about this though. I know a lot about mechs, not the IS factions.

the simple explanation for political intrigueing missions is to setup a set of objectives/plan where outright combat is a sign of FAILURE rather than success.

example look at generic politics or similar.

one example I would use is setup 2 or more "sides" give each side some basic goals and some tools to achieve those goals.

examples
group 1 has 10 million in money /assets they want 100 million (or more) within x years how do they go about getting it?
1 mining precious resources (gold gems germanium etc)
2 building up infrastructure and selling stuff
3 trading import/export
4 steal from the people get the money and run

group 2 wants to come to the attention of the house lord and get a tital or other reward

group 3 knows/believes there is a star league cache, warehouse, research base, or similar and wants to retrieve the contents

etc 

yes they can still resort to violence/combat to resolve things but in general that's a sign that things got out of hand.

[Locusthorde300]

-snip-

Okay that sounds feasible. What about between the different houses?

[Acolyte]

One of the best ways to set up intrigue is to take a look at the various political players (NPC's, not your group) in the area. Take a look at their motivations and goals and how they could go about achieving them. The players (your group this time) never need to find out the over arching whys of things and in many ways it's better if they don't. You know, and that makes the plot more consistant and real.

Make a short dossier for each power person in the area, their situation as it is now, their connections and their goals. Then give them each some motivations and flaws. Greed and vanity come to mind as does lust for power and regaining "face" after something in the past. Perhaps that last could factor in later after your players cause the loss of face in the first couple of missions.

In essence every scenario will have a winner and a loser. Winners will be happy, losers, well, won't and that can set up your next missions.

gardiansushi's given a nice example. I might steal it for my own game. O0

   - Shane

[idea weenie]

One of my PCs mentioned he wanted to have some "political intrigue" style missions. I'm not 100% on how to go about this though. I know a lot about mechs, not the IS factions.

One fun idea for political faction is the Mechwarrior Cabal in the Federated Suns.  Essentially you have a bunch of Mechwarriors who used their status as Mechwarriors to be nobles.  When commoners began to get issued Mechs, they began to make plans to kill them off, to keep the bloodlines pure.

So you'd have a cadre contract training local Mechwarriors, and a few of them are commoners (but have the right mind to pilot a Mech).  The next pirate raid coincidentally happens when they are doing field exercises, and the commoners are killed.  The PC will have to recognize the pattern (or listen to the right people during the funerals), and realize that commoners are coincidentally killed during the pirate raids.  From there, the players have to figure out how the nobles are getting access to the patrol schedules and communicating it to the pirates.

And blow up the pirates too, plus if you can get infantry/SWAT/SF aboard the Dropship to find out where they are coming from you can raid their base and recover any slaves.


One idea for the Aerodyne would be to make it a stretched Leopard, about 2500 tons in mass, but modified for additional cargo (i.e. no change in armor or weapons).  Make it need 2-3 extra crew, give it capacity for 2 additional Mechs, and 200 tons additional cargo to reflect that it is designed for long-endurance missions, rather than the quick raids the current Leopard is set up for.  The problem is the stretched Leopard is only 3/5 rather than 4/6, as it uses the same set of engines but has more mass to move.  If you design the ship in AT2r or Strategic Operations, and wind up with a few tons unallocated, you can use it as extra fuel tonnage, or the crew using the few tons for smuggling compartments.  If the tonnage is small enough, you might want to let the crew keep on smuggling, just make sure they are smuggling basic stuff, nothing illegal/immoral.


For basic political troubles, go with one of the local government people contacting the pirates to deal with rebels.  A local group has complaints about the government, the government official arranges the militia patrol schedule to take the away just in time, and the pirates hit that area to steal whatever they feel like.  There will be lots of investigation needed to spot the communication channel, and eventually to feed false or intercepted data to the pirates so the PCs are waiting to shoot them.

[Locusthorde300]

-Snip-

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   - Shane

These are great ideas guys! Thank you very much. :)

[guardiandashi]

I will go to one of the "classic" scenarios (decision at thunder rift)

side 1 house steiner owns the planet trelwan, wants to reduce their liabilities in the region to free up resources so that they can focus on kurita
assets income from planet, militia, carlile commandos a combined arms unit 1 lance of mechs, phoenix hawk, shadow hawk, some combination of 2 stingers or wasps (I can't remember details atm), a platoon of infantry, misc support vehicles and techs.

goal is to reduce liabilities in the region.

side 2 pirate force
assets (varies)
goal find a source of money/parts

side 3 kurita
resources .....
represented by duke Rycol
goal to get political power and get promoted to a district warlord


if you can find (read) the decision at thunder rift you know how it plays out, but there were multiple sides all with their own agendas and I didn't even get into the "locals" ie the people who lived on the planet.

if you are looking for ideas you can also look at history, current events, other games etc, just scrub off the "labels" and replace them with battletech people. and give them resources that feels right for your situation.

[Paul]

Political intrigue boils down to either attacking an opponent's resources, or their reputation. Their support is a resource, and it can be reduced directly, or indirectly, by harming the reputation of the target, such that his supporters have to think twice.

For a MW campaign, every problem has to be solvable by the resources they have. They have Mechs, and often there'll be significant temptation to use those to solve issues. There's nothing wrong with that, and it should be the right call for them most of the time. That's what the universe is about.
But intrigue missions can require a softer approach to an extent Mechs become useless.


The biggest advantage you have is that you can make almost anything up. Questions to determine:

1. Your target:
A. Is he a noble individual? Is he manipulative? Evil?
B. Is he rich for a noble? Poor?
C. Does he have large military assets at his disposal? Just small?
D. Does he have highly competent people on his staff? Or people who are dumb, or just in over their head?
E. Does he have corruptions that can be used against him? The answer to this is "yes" 99.9% of the time, even if he's noble, he may have made mistakes, or may have been inflicted with scandals beyond his control. So, decide which.
F: Does he have vulnerable dependencies? IE, family, loved ones.

2. Your employer:
A - F: All these questions have to be answered as well. But remember: he must have a reason to use Mercs, not his own assets.
G: Is he someone your players want to work for? Conversely, is the target someone your players would object to harming, even if not physically?
H: How much does the employer know about his target? Is his intel faulty anywhere?

Just answering those questions get you most of the way there. How much does your employer know, and what vulnerabilities might he want to target with mercs instead of his own people?

Always give your target an opportunity to try to sway the players.

Paul