Campaign Notes 5: The Beginning Is The End Is The Smashing Pumpkins Song

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So I had a session and, against all odds, it went well. Then again, this is my blog. Maybe it went terribly, and I'm lying! I can lie! I can lie all I want! How would you know, you rube, you absolute weenus?! That's right. Don't forget who is boss around here.

It's this guy.

Anyway, it made me realize that I never dove much into my PCs. Part of it was a subconscious desire to spare very real people the terrifying ordeal of being on the internet in even the smallest way. This place is hell, except no one is forced to be here and we can leave at any time and we have unanimously decided we aren't going to.

The other part is that they represent very clear and unambiguous levers for me to pull. That lack of ambiguity makes them, to me, pretty uninteresting for a post like this. I write to find out what I'm doing, after I've done it. My defense counsel says I should stop, but what does he know he was stupid enough to take me on as a client. Lmao idiot.

But it probably does deserve some mention. All the players were given--and took--the option to randomly generate their characters. MechWarrior: Destiny doesn't natively have that as an option, even though it lightly adapts the infamous lifepaths of previous BattleTech RPGs. It was dead simple to just assign the possible options for a character's "Life Modules" to die results.

We ended up with:

1. Ramses Chrysomenthes: A former Solaris VII pilot who had conspicuously rejected the ambitions her parents had for her. Also has a mortgage on her Mech that might be held by the mob. From her background, I had a very clear connection to the Magistracy of Canopus which actually ended up becoming relevant immediately in the adventure scenario (as you'll see later).
2. Rhys Gladstone: A Capellan-orphan turned criminal, turned mechanic, turned pilot. This player wanted to play an old goat, and he's definitely one. From his background I have some deep hooks within the Capellan Confederation.
3. Firstname Lastname: This player wouldn't make it to the first session, and hasn't yet updated their character's name. But we did flesh them out. They also ended up being a Solaris VII pilot; unlike Ramses their background was in the internecine Free Worlds League civil wars. Interesting threads there, most especially that her cause lost. Good hook.

Altogether, they answered what I wanted answered: Why are you a MechWarrior pilot for the Ninth Wave? That's all I needed, especially this early in the campaign. Their details are things I keep track of so I can opportunistically snipe them; some facilitators suggest gearing narrative/play more centrally around PC backgrounds. I'm sure that works for them, but I've always had better success using PC background as mortar rather than brick.

Idoú, éna paichnídi!

With only two of my three players present, my ambitions for the session got scaled back slightly. I anticipated hitting the following notes:

• Meet The Family: I wanted to get some scenes in where the PCs had opportunities to meet and form opinions about various NPCs who would recur through the adventure scenario.
• Stretch Your Legs: I wanted to give the players an idea of what future modes of play would entail; what it meant, for example, for their lance to be assigned to go on patrol.
• Slice of Life: I wanted to emphasize that there would be plenty of opportunities for player-directed engagement with the banal and the domestic. Characters were more than pilots, they were people. What does this person do?
• Fisticuffs: I wanted to try out some combat. I've previously mentioned I'm using a bit of a Frankenstein* of different systems (MechWarrior: Destiny for non-combat, BattleTech: Destiny for combat, Classic BattleTech for company management, and more). This session was a good chance to kick the tires.

How successful was I? Well afterwards one of the players dislocated my kneecap with a savage roundhouse kick and, while I was mewling on the ground, spit in my open mouth. Before you start making judgments, that's just how he expresses himself. His grandmother does the same thing, but in her old age it sometimes takes a couple kicks to get it right.

In truth, I think I hit all except "Stretch Your Legs". The players immediately glommed onto the main NPCs I'd been hoping they would (refer to Campaign Notes 3). During play, I ended up adding two more.

Major Bentley Nelson was the Magistracy of Canopus officer assigned to direct the Ninth Wave, per the contract. He was a foppish, pleasant man who was undoubtedly a "social officer". Their interactions revealed his lack of qualifications but, at least, some cognizance of that. He was perfectly willing to step aside and let others pull their weight. This allowed me to introduce Lt. Young as his "Ensign" adjutant. Gladstone immediately scoped that the Ensign was not, in fact, an Ensign, and Ramses' specific background let her identify that the Magistracy often sent soon-to-be-promoted officers back through the ranks. This was meant to reinforce the entire chain-of-command which would underpin the officer's new commission and worked very well as Young's cover story.

"The Works" was a local arms dealer they made contact with (via Gladstone's gutter-running instincts). They allowed me to introduce more details about Gangtok's local cultures; how those of Simon's Valley were insular, how Grossman's Peak was a good place to get lost etc. The players almost immediately started leaning on these characterizations to help winnow in where they thought the Directorate might be operating. Unqualified success, as far as I'm concerned. I even had the chance to seed the implication that, for reasons unknown to them, Officer Swing had already spoken with "The Works".

"Fisticuffs" was probably the sloppiest, but it was nonetheless very helpful. Insofar I got to kick the tires, I had a lot of help. The whole table joined in the kicking. I got a lot of usable data and feedback on my attempt to run BattleTech: Destiny in a theatre-of-the-mind style.

More succinctly, I'm a broken man but the bits of me which remain can still be ground into yet finer dust.

I may try to type up my "theatre of the mind" hack of BattleTech: Destiny, next time if I hate myself**.

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*Some people will say that Dr. Frankenstein was the real monster in that book, while others will say it's his creation. They're all wrong, the real monster is Lord Byron.

**I do.