Previously before my attending Dragoncon 2013, which was completely awesome, I started a Battletech campaign using the rules in A time of War. I wanted to start a campaign with as much difference to any games I have played in the past. Since the new player Mark, had very little knowledge of the Battletech universe I let everything start at the character creation process. This worked out better for a clean slate idea as he didn't have anything he wanted in mind except to ride in a heavy battlemech. The character creation process was a long process to work out, in fact we had to use two sessions to work out all the kinks.
Building a character
With as much unbiased information from me Mark chose the Free World's League for his character's affiliation. His character is primarily a mechwarrior being the only request by me along with some ability as a dropship pilot as well. He also chose to make his character an officer before ending his first tour of duty. During the finalization of character creation I advised Mark to not worry about trying to get a battemech since he would most likely be assigned one to use anyway. Mark did express interest in a heavy mech where possible. With all of this in mind, the era was set to 3028 and the character placed in the 9th Marik Malitia. The 9th Marik Militia has an interesting background along with a home world ripe with opportunity in the future. Initially I wanted to begin a campaign in the new Dark Age era, but since Mark had no knowledge of the older versus newer technology I felt keeping tings simple and more readily available would work better.
Building a unit
Since Mark's character was essentially an officer in the 9th Marik Malitia, he was assigned to a random heavy battlemech. I used a a PDF of tables found on the Battletech forums called "3028-3050 Faction Assignment & Rarity Tables" for battlemech assignments. This particular PDF offers more expanded faction specific selection tables. I let Mark conduct the roll for his character's battlemech assignment despite being random which ended up being a Crusader CRD-3R. Mark was all to thrilled to receive the battlemech liking the variable weapons compliment it offered. Mark's character also holds the position of lance leader so the rest of his lance needed to be created.
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| Crusader |
To create the rest of his lance I used the available tables from FM: FWL for lance composition and again letting Mark conduct the roll a heavy lance was produced consisting of two medium battlemechs and two heavy battlemechs, one of the heavy battlemechs being Marks character's Crusader. I again used the PDF mention before for battlemech assignments and again letting Mark conduct the rolls producing a Phoenix Hawk PHX-1 for the first medium battlemech, a Wolverine WVR-6M for the second battlemech, and a Rifleman RFL-3N for the second heavy battlemech. Mark was very pleased on the results of the rolls seeing two units capable of large amounts of firepower at different range brackets along with two highly maneuverable sniper units. Another bonus would be the Wolverine 6M variant being a FWL variant carrying a large laser instead of an AC/5.
Mark named his character Lyndon Rayleonard. Lyndon is a regular of the FWL and in command of a lance of battlemechs which are part of reinforced company within the 9th Marik Malitia. Lyndon's unit is the beginnings of a new company being formed. Lyndon's command allows his unit more remote assignments to lessen their dependance on the parent company's resources in the future..
The Rifleman pilot, I named Jave Cobb. Jave is a regular of the FWL and is also Lyndon's right hand mechwarrior who stays at his side and follows orders to the absolute. Jave tends to keep the other members of Lydon's unit in line when necessary.
The Phoenix Hawk pilot, I named Klive Jacobs. Klive is a regular of the FWL and a hotshot pilot with a better understanding in communications systems than his battlemech.
The Wolverine pilot has yet to receive a name yet. The Wolverine pilot is partial officer material being transferred in to Lyndon's unit and placed second in command to Lyndon. His battlemech functions as a command battlemech, however his piloting skills are not on par with his regular gunnery status.
Lyndon's lance rides in a Union dropship for transport which his lance being the only units being transported besides the usual crew and support personnel.
Adding unit assignment
Lyndon's lance and their parent company are off their home world of Carbonis deployed to the west of the FWL to a planet encircled by moons with various amounts of resources. Their current role their is policing up some local pirate activity disrupting localize mining operations.
Mark and I generally meet every Friday evening when we can so I generally look forward to our game sessions. I try to mix in RPG elements as much as possible so I build my experience and challenge Mark's character. In fact to give me some time to learn more about the RPG aspect as well build and prep for their in the future I threw Mark right into the Battletech universe right away. I gave Mark a copy of the intro rules so he could learn them asap and learn the rules he did.
Look for an upcoming battle report. :)
Looking forward to the Battle reports. Adding the RPG elements can really make the games much more interesting. Instead of fighting till the last mech is standing, the players have to think about whether they will be able to repair or recover their losses and if they have to withdraw to survive the campaign. Some of the most enjoyable Battletech games I ever played were when we used our Mechwarrior characters.
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