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What I want from a campaign

ffefan

SOC-1
I ran a Traveller campaign where my set up was "man who would be king", the situation was ripe for the PCs to build their own empire. They would have to negotiate, threaten, grant boons, dispense punishment but they would, in the end, jump start their own little empire

And they wanted to find the 'dungeon' to loot, or be assigned 'runs' (they had played Shadowrun...)

I was in two Traveller games and, despite my being noble, albeit low ranking, my main function was lookout while doing B&E

After reading Agent of the Imperium, I am adapting the Game of Thrones RPG to use in a campaign. There are great rules for intrigue, conniving and persuasion

What's this to do with IMTU? Well, IMTU I want to run a legacy. I want characters to plan, to cavort, to use their wiles and social standing to impress those that stand against them, to not being in the loot and grab but, as per Walter White, in the mpire building business

And not just run murder hobos... in space
 
So you want a Traveller version of the ACKS? Pocket Empires or World Tamer's Handbook could be places to start. Maybe even Imperial Squadrons.

While many of the adventures, patron seeds, amber zones, and whatnot published for CT did feature unsavory and outright illegal activities, the lack of XPs and levels meant "murder hobos" were never really Traveller's style.
 
I ran a Traveller campaign where my set up was "man who would be king", the situation was ripe for the PCs to build their own empire. They would have to negotiate, threaten, grant boons, dispense punishment but they would, in the end, jump start their own little empire

And they wanted to find the 'dungeon' to loot, or be assigned 'runs' (they had played Shadowrun...)

I was in two Traveller games and, despite my being noble, albeit low ranking, my main function was lookout while doing B&E

After reading Agent of the Imperium, I am adapting the Game of Thrones RPG to use in a campaign. There are great rules for intrigue, conniving and persuasion

What's this to do with IMTU? Well, IMTU I want to run a legacy. I want characters to plan, to cavort, to use their wiles and social standing to impress those that stand against them, to not being in the loot and grab but, as per Walter White, in the mpire building business

And not just run murder hobos... in space

First, you need to spell out in advance to your players what you are planning to do, and then get them to buy into it.

Second, the objective of a game is to ensure that the players have fun and enjoy the game. Whether or not you have fun it not material to the players.
 
ffefan,
It sounds like you're on your way to a solution.
I am curious... what did you say to the players before the game began?
Both in terms of the overall game... but also
a) what specifics about the setting did you offer?
b) how did you present the information to the players?
 
I like Mongoose 1st ed. Supplement #12 ( "Dynasty" ) and #15 ( "Powers and Principalities" ) for these kinds of ideas.
 
Unfortunately, I have yet to identify a set of rules mechanics that covers what I'd be interested in: build-a-merc-unit-and-change-the-course-of-history, ala Hammer's Slammers (the broader story of Alois Hammer).
 
Unfortunately, I have yet to identify a set of rules mechanics that covers what I'd be interested in: build-a-merc-unit-and-change-the-course-of-history, ala Hammer's Slammers (the broader story of Alois Hammer).

Have you checked out the Starvation Cheap supplement for Stars Without Numbers? I think it does a good job of handling this. Many of the elements work at the military campaign level are essentially modular and could be applied on top of other RPGs.

Of course, what elements -- in one manner or another -- you wanted reflected or modeled a certain way, might nix it as being what you're looking for.
 
Unfortunately, I have yet to identify a set of rules mechanics that covers what I'd be interested in: build-a-merc-unit-and-change-the-course-of-history, ala Hammer's Slammers (the broader story of Alois Hammer).

Track down a copy of Gunpowder God/Down Styphon by H. Beam Piper for some ideas. That should give you plenty of ideas.
 
Have you checked out the Starvation Cheap supplement for Stars Without Numbers? I think it does a good job of handling this. Many of the elements work at the military campaign level are essentially modular and could be applied on top of other RPGs.

Of course, what elements -- in one manner or another -- you wanted reflected or modeled a certain way, might nix it as being what you're looking for.

Track down a copy of Gunpowder God/Down Styphon by H. Beam Piper for some ideas. That should give you plenty of ideas.

Thanks for the suggestions! :)

I was mainly considering the various editions of Traveller. There is a gap in scale between CT Mercenary and Striker, which go up to battalion-sized units, and T4's Pocket Empires (and the successors thereof). The much-maligned economic rules in Striker don't (to my recollection) cover the full support and logistics requirements ("Lawyers, Guns, and Money") necessary for regimental and larger formations, while Pocket Empires, etc. cover a larger economic scale and do not explicitly scale down that far.

It is a niche campaign format. I'm not all that surprised that it was never explicitly covered in any Traveller edition.
 
I want to add that Starvation Cheap, like the rest of Kevin Crawford's work (Stars Without Numbers, Red Tide, Scarlet Heroes, Godbound, and others), is unabashedly focused on Player Character play.

In other words, it explicitly abstracts many elements that are above or outside the concerns of the Player Characters, letting the system adjudicate many outcomes that aren't in the purview of the PCs and move on to the ground level, PC-focused play.

For example, the system that handles large scale military operations isn't anything at all like the system of Striker. Force values are total in an abstracted scale, a few die rolls are made, and we find out the outcome (unless the Referee already knows what it will be, of course.) The focus is on the choices, actions, and reactions of the PCs to these events.

This may or may not be what you want! So I wanted to be clear about that.
 
I want to add that Starvation Cheap, like the rest of Kevin Crawford's work (Stars Without Numbers, Red Tide, Scarlet Heroes, Godbound, and others), is unabashedly focused on Player Character play.

In other words, it explicitly abstracts many elements that are above or outside the concerns of the Player Characters, letting the system adjudicate many outcomes that aren't in the purview of the PCs and move on to the ground level, PC-focused play.

For example, the system that handles large scale military operations isn't anything at all like the system of Striker. Force values are total in an abstracted scale, a few die rolls are made, and we find out the outcome (unless the Referee already knows what it will be, of course.) The focus is on the choices, actions, and reactions of the PCs to these events.

This may or may not be what you want! So I wanted to be clear about that.

Thanks for the details! That sounds very playable.

My interest is inclusive of the operations and logistics of larger (regiment and up) merc units (aka "Lawyers, Guns, and Money"), lawfare, PSYOPS, civil affairs, regime change, wars between regional powers (for Traveller, this ranges from nations on balkanized worlds up to wars between neighboring individual worlds*), etc. So the PCs would be key leaders, on the battlefield and/or off, whose roles in the unit would include any of the above. This would not preclude more "conventional" military roleplay scenarios as well, such as SpecOps, small(er) unit combat, etc.


*I know... Imperial Rules of War in the OTU. IMTU or IYTU, such may or may not exist.
 
Usually linked to how far the sinews of war will stretch.

The point of hiring mercenaries, besides removing the issue of abstract loyalty with concrete self interest, is to have short victorious conflicts, bypassing the need to maintain large national standing armies.

There will be few high tech permanent mercenary outfits above the battalion level, especially one with integrated combined arms and organic supporting units.

There's the Hessian option, where a well trained national army is rented out to off set costs, or even for profit.
 
Usually linked to how far the sinews of war will stretch.

The point of hiring mercenaries, besides removing the issue of abstract loyalty with concrete self interest, is to have short victorious conflicts, bypassing the need to maintain large national standing armies.

There will be few high tech permanent mercenary outfits above the battalion level, especially one with integrated combined arms and organic supporting units.

There's the Hessian option, where a well trained national army is rented out to off set costs, or even for profit.

I am looking for guidelines for those few - even a singular exception is sufficient to "change the course of history" through PC action at that scale. Again, consider Hammer's Slammers as an ur-example.
 
Let me strongly second SWN's Starvation Cheap for your needs and also add the Factions section from SWN's core rules for the "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" angles you wish to explore.

From the first time I read SWN's core rules I found the Factions section absolutely fascinating. Factions can range in size from single trade ships to regional hegemons, are rated for size, wealth, cunning, and other attributes, are given goals, and can then vie against each other in through economics, espionage, legal, military, and other means.

The Factions system is designed to create an "active" or "living" history full of plots, events, and incidents the players can either effect or be effected by.
 
Let me strongly second SWN's Starvation Cheap for your needs and also add the Factions section from SWN's core rules for the "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" angles you wish to explore.

From the first time I read SWN's core rules I found the Factions section absolutely fascinating. Factions can range in size from single trade ships to regional hegemons, are rated for size, wealth, cunning, and other attributes, are given goals, and can then vie against each other in through economics, espionage, legal, military, and other means.

The Factions system is designed to create an "active" or "living" history full of plots, events, and incidents the players can either effect or be effected by.

Then I will definitely check it out. Thanks!
 
I'd commend reading atpollard's game here. The Marine I'm playing went off the plan a little; instead of destroying a meson gun he captured the planet. I have to admit it's been a fun ride!
 
I'm still working on trying to finish the first Hammer Slammer story, but my guess is it's more of an allegorization, which tends to indicate the military details tend to be secondary to the plot.


I take it that you're reading the original short story collection? The one with short essays explaining the setting, technology, and so forth? Drake did pattern the arc of Hammer's career after the same condotierre you use as a forum name.

Drake's a lawyer. His undergrad degree with in the classics. He served in Vietnam between college and law school, specifically around the "Parrot's Beak" during the invasion of Cambodia. From the first, his Hammer stories have borrowed events and incidents from classical history. In the later Hammer novels and in the RCN series Drake has stated in his forwards which bits of classical history sparked his imagination.

Drake also started out as a horror writer, quite a well regarded one too. In many ways, I think he still is one. I do now his work is much more than the "gun pron" label many apply to it.

Mongoose published a guide to Hammer's.

A particularly poor one sadly.

The Hammers have been portrayed in both mini and board wargames. IIRC, there have been a few RPG attempts too. None were satisfactory.

Mongoose's version fails for many reasons, the primary being that it changes the Hammers to fit Traveller rather than changing Traveller to fit the Hammers.
 
There are several sources that do give what seems their table of organization.

I'll take a position and speculate that a regimental combat team is about as large as you can get independently, as there may be political and internal security reasons not to expand beyond that.

The Slammers are armour heavy, Falkenberg's Legion is primarily light infantry, but later revisions give it a more balanced force.

Condottieri, probably under a different title, will accept contracts for large scale deployments of disparate mercenary units, and try to create some cohesive field force out of them, whether brigade or close to divisional size. They'll be responsible to their paymaster for the behaviour of troops under their command, and to the troops for working conditions and wages.
 
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