Mercenary Ideas in Canon?

[Leitz]

I'm building MTU and starting with a mercenary game in a couple months. Would prefer to do something like Spinward marches, Imperium, standard Canon at least until the game day starts. That way there's little to change in the back story and interested players can do whatever research they want and I don't have to worry much about writing up scads of detail.

What sorts of ideas does the Imperium have on mercenary groups? What ideas do you have to make the game more interesting for the players?

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

 

[Cryton]

Mercenary groups are actually quite common in the 3I. Their services are used bu MegaCorperations as added security and sabotage actions against other MegaCorperate interests, or what have you.

On any number of worlds planetary governments (especially on gov code 7 worlds) use mercs for nearly any tickets you can imagine. Security, extraction, aniti- terrorism, putting down rebellions, as support in Gov vs Gov actions, even as front line troops when the mercs can bring a high tech advantage to the field.

Mainly this is due to the 3Is hands off policy concerning planetary governments, and so long as what ever warfare they are involved in does not effect 3I interests (trade/the starport/the local 3I nobles land grant) and so long as they dont engage in black war tactics, the sky is the limit to what they can be involved in.

 

[Dragoner]

I'm building MTU and starting with a mercenary game in a couple months. Would prefer to do something like Spinward marches, Imperium, standard Canon at least until the game day starts. That way there's little to change in the back story and interested players can do whatever research they want and I don't have to worry much about writing up scads of detail.

What sorts of ideas does the Imperium have on mercenary groups? What ideas do you have to make the game more interesting for the players?

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

Broadsword is what immediately comes to mind, but there is also the continuing war against the Ine Givar on Efate.

 

[Leitz]

Broadsword is what immediately comes to mind, but there is also the continuing war against the Ine Givar on Efate.

Wow, I wasn't even aware of them. Can you tell I've been out of the loop for a long time? A Google search lead to several web pages.

Very cool, thanks!

 

[aramis]

The JTAS CD has several merc missions in the marches. Adventure 8 is essentially a Merc ticket.

DA5 Chamax Plague/Horde can be used as a pair of merc missions, too. There's an adaptation to a Striker-adjudication merc mission in JTAS.

 

[Leitz]

I have spent a few minutes reading the IG stuff and plotting the demise...err...glory of the adventurers. Fortunately for me only one player so far knows much of the OTU but I'll have enough curves to throw that he may be surprised.

I will probably get the CT CD for Striker and LBB Mercenary. While MgT isn't bad I'm going to need Striker for Morale and wound levels. The JTAS tickets are probably a good idea as well, funding allowing.

 

[Dragoner]

Wow, I wasn't even aware of them. Can you tell I've been out of the loop for a long time? A Google search lead to several web pages.

Very cool, thanks!

Sweet.

PS: The CT disk is worth every penny imo.

 

[aramis]

Sweet.

PS: The CT disk is worth every penny imo.

So is the JTAS disk.

 

[Orr]

Striker II has some missions in it, but they're either TNE era or focused so I don't know if they'd be of much use without a bit of rework.

 

[MCEvans]

CT Supp 6 has 16 tickets in the back and Ticket 3 is a counter to the one in Bk4 :devil:

 

[Orr]

CT Supp 6 has 16 tickets in the back and Ticket 3 is a counter to the one in Bk4 :devil:

That counter ticket is a good reminder that every ticket and Amber Zone can easily be made into it's Bizarro counterpart.

 

[Leitz]

PS: The CT disk is worth every penny imo.

So is the JTAS disk.

Soon as the budget allows!

 

[Dragoner]

Soon as the budget allows!

What I did, was save up and go for the 443 deal and bought the CT, JTAS, Apocrypha 1 (FASA stuff) and Apocrypha 2 (Judges Guild plus a lot of extras such as articles from various other magazines like the Dragon); for the dollar spent, this will give you an enourmous amount of material, by far the best deal in gaming.

 

[Leitz]

Well, I'm not sure the budget allowed since I just lost my job, but the set (CT, A1, A2, JTAS) has been ordered. There is a lost part of me that finds comfort in the old CT stuff. There is a modern part of me that wants to use Traveller as an excuse to do more programming.

Now to plot the destruction of the PCs in Efate:Worse than Death!

Leitz

 

[Dragoner]

Sorry to hear about the employment situation; though the disks will definitely give you a huge amount of reading material. I have seen as well that there seems to be even more 3rd party Traveller material that isn't on the disks, CT had more stuff than one could imagine, I started buying it in '81 and didn't see half this stuff.

 

[Leitz]

Okay, as I have no artistic talent what-so-ever I've started to use Joomla as the Content Management System for the website portion of the game. So far the Library Data, Characters, House Rules, News, and Game Forum links work.

Whoo-hoo! Once I have this a bit better I'll try and write up how to use Joomla and phpBB for anyone that wants to do so for their own games.

BTW, the game does have space open. We're posting slowly, so there's still some time to get things going.

 

[SpaceBadger]

What ruleset are you using? In CT you'd want Book 4 Mercenary, which explains quite a bit about the whole mercenary system, hiring, repatriation bonds, some sample mercenary tickets (jobs), etc. GT has GT: Star Mercs which fulfills the same function. I believe that MgT has a Mercenary book also, but have not seen it myself.

 

[Leitz]

SpaceBadger, we'll be using CT book 4, "Mercenary", as well as parts of Striker. I also need to look through SnapShot to see if that adds anything for close combat. The team is forming up nicely and it looks to be an interesting troupe.