Character Creation
Character creation for the campaign is pretty basic. Folks are starting with individual mechs and not lances, to keep mission times down and move the game along. We had our first full blown lance on lance mission and it took nearly 3 hours. We previously completed 4 objective missions in less than an hour each.
I don’t have any opposition to folks using A Time of War to create characters, but this will definitely remain a mech-based campaign, and not an RPG campaign.
Step 1 – Each player begins with the option to take a 45 ton mech with a (Green) 6/5 Pilot/Gunner rating. Alternately, they can trade 10 tons and take a 35 ton mech with a (Still Green) 5/5 Piloting/Gunnery, or a 25 ton mech with a 5/4 Pilot Gunner rating. As an FYI, the first group running through this campaign has a 6/5 in a Phoenix Hawk (45 ton) and a 5/4 in a Mongoose (25 ton), and the Mongoose has definitely held its own.
Starting mechs need to have been in production in 2791. You can find all sorts of mech resources at Solaris7, and I checked most of the mechs in the Battletech Introductory Boxed Set and their first production is all before 2800 (if I’m wrong someone please let me know). The game is low-tech to start, so be prepared to use just the basic weapons and equipment until you move out of the Periphery (if you ever choose to), the year advances to where new tech is available, or you get access to a good Intelligence/Procurement officer.
Each player starts with 1,000,000 C-Bills, and the lance as a whole starts with 5,000,000 C-Bills. That’s not really a lot of cash, so money will be very tight for at least the first 20-30 turns or unless you score some good salvage terms in your first contract.
Step 2 – Each player starts with 10 Experience Points to spend on skills. Experience is gained by surviving missions (+1) and per kill (+1). Experience can be used to improve Piloting/Gunnery or add perks to a character. I will continue to add new skills or balance the current skills with Exp cost as we use them. For example, the first change (the one player who already took the skill at cost 1 can keep it) was to change Tracker from 1 to 2 Exp. There were MANY times when the player was getting essentially a +1 gunnery, for a mere 1 exp.
| Online Game Perks | Benefit | Exp | |
| Weight Management | Transport costs are 10% lower | 2 | (Only 1 player can take) |
| Officer Duties* | Acts as an Officer of Regular Rank on non-encounter turns | 4 | (12 for Intelligence) |
| Officer Promotion | Acts as an Officer of Veteran Rank on non-encounter turns | 4 | (12 for Intelligence) |
| Officer Promotion | Acts as an Officer of Elite Rank on non-encounter turns | 4 | (12 for Intelligence) |
| Logistics | Reduced mission transport/drop costs by 15% | 2 | (Only one player can take) |
| Delegation | Can have an additional officer of the same type | 2 | Can take once for each officer type. |
| Contract Law I | +1 Category Reroll | 2 | Can take 3 times |
| Contract Law II | +1 Modifier to any category roll | 2 | Can take 3 times |
| Graft | Can pay 50,000 credits to add +1 to any Officer Roll | 4 | |
| Bribes | Can pay 100,000 credits to add +2 to any Officer Roll | 4 | (Must take Graft) |
| Shiny and New! – Light** | One-time; inherit random light mech | 4 | Can only take once per career |
| Shiny and New! – Medium** | One-time; inherit random medium mech | 8 | Can only take once per career |
| Shiny and New! – Heavy | One-time; inherit random heavy mech | 12 | Can only take once per career |
| Shiny and New! – Assault | One-time; inherit random assault mech | 16 | Can only take once per career |
| Offline Game Perks | |||
| Bat Eyes | No Night Fighting Penalty | 8 | (Must have Night Arrows!) |
| Edge | Reroll any one roll per encounter (attacker or defender) | 5 | |
| Explosives | Can place 3 standard mines in any defense scenario, or +3 in scenarios with mines | 2 | (Also allows mine acquisition) |
| Heat Management | On 8+, sinks one additional heat | 1 | |
| Higher Ground | +1 When firing from elevation 2 or greater | 3 | |
| Individual Weapon | +1 to hit, exact system (e.g. small laser, LRM 5) | 3 | |
| Leadership | Can command NPC’s in unit | 2 | |
| Leadership Override | Can command NPC’s against their better judgment. -1 Rep when used | 2 | |
| Lucky | Reroll one Determine Critical roll (either as attacker or defender) per battle | 3 | |
| Missiles/Lasers/Guns | +1 to one category of weapon (Missiles, Energy or Projectiles) | 5 | |
| Night Arrows! | Night Fighting Penalty for Ranged only +1 | 3 | |
| Overrun Combat | If initiative MoS is +2, One mech can move, attack and physical prior to enemy | 8 | Merc Supplemental p 73 |
| Combat Drop – Precise | Can choose target block for landing in a hot-drop. +1 to landing piloting roll. | 2 | |
| Combat Drop – Precise II | Can choose target row or column for landing in a hot-drop, No piloting roll for landing. | 2 | Requires Combat Drop – Precise |
| Combat Drop – Precise III | Can land in a specific 7 Hex Circle, and move once prior to initiative. | 2 | Requires Combat Drop – Precise II |
| Combat Drop – Engage | Can fire all weapons once prior to rolling initiative for round 1 (+1 penalty for drop) | 2 | Requires Combat Drop – Precise |
| Steady | -1 to Piloting when kicking or kicked | 4 | |
| Strategist | +1 to Reinforcement rolls | 1 | Can take a 2nd time for 2 |
| Tactician | +5% to Reinforcement BV | 1 | Can take 3 times |
| Terrain Advantage | +1 when fighing on one terrain type (pilot choice); hills, water, urban | 3 | |
| Tracker | No Penalty for targets in Light Cover | 2 | (First Light Cover only) |
| ** If your mech was destroyed in combat, you may choose the specific replacement. | Light and Medium Only. | ||
| To | Pilot/Gunnery | ||
| Skill Improvement | 5 | 4 | |
| 4 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 12 | ||
| 2 | 16 | ||
| 1 | 20 | ||
| 0 | 24 | ||
| Current Officer/Tech Duties | |||
| Mechanic, Mech* | Maintains and repairs Battlemechs | ||
| Mechanic, Vehicle* | Maintains and repairs Vehicles | ||
| Mechanic, Aerotech* | Maintains and repairs Aerotech assets | ||
| Medical | Can heal Pilot Damage and infantry losses | ||
| Supply | Can procure general items | ||
| Supply, Ordinance | Procures specialized weapons (Thunder LRM, Streak Missiles, Mines) | ||
| Personnel | Can hire personnel | ||
| Engineer | Can reverse engineer items and has minor fabricator ability. (+2 penalty) | ||
| Fabricator | Can fabricte components with appropriate facilities. | ||
| Administrative | Required for unit to operate efficiently. Can make contract rolls, make contacts. | ||
| Intelligence | Required for special missions, finding Lostech caches, adding satellite assets to unit. | ||
| *(Also gets one procurement request per turn for a specific part related to their specialization) | |||
| Dragoon Rating Modifiers | Experience | ||
| Survive Mission | 0 | +1 | |
| Complete All Objectives | +3 | +1 | |
| Defeat all Reinforcements (away missions) | +1 | +1 | |
| Per Kill (individual) | +1 | ||
| No Internal Damage | +1 | ||
| Fail Mission | -3 | ||
| Break Contract | -10 |