Where is my game going?

[EricvonEric]

Just a couple of questions. If the bounty hunters are Coalition SF, why would they double-cross their own patrol like that by pointing them out to the PCs? Also why would they rescue the PC's after they ambushed their own men? Are they defectors? That would make sense and add another dramatic element to your campaign.

As far as the crime scene with the preacher and the children, I smell a set up. I don't think it would be the Mayor since he offered a bounty, although he could be up to something shady himself since he seems to want to keep this debacle under wraps. The horse lender? Maybe if he had some kind of vadetta againt the PC's employer, but that would only work if the bandits set the crime scene up to make it look like the PC's did it. They are professionals after all. But the cat's already out of the bag on that and everyone involved knows about the bandits. So scratch that. Back to the mayor. Maybe he hired the bandits to slaughter the orpanage for some reason and then hired the PC's to kill the bandits figuring that they will be overmatched i.e. no witnesses. If the PC's somehow do succeed the mayor still comes out squeaky clean, a win-win for him. I think that's your best bet for the identity of the bandits. The deeper details, such as the why's and the how's I'm sure you can come up with.

You just have to think of a good reason for the PC's to keep chasing the baddies all over the continent, something personal would be the most dramatic. As far as lessening their numbers, that's easy, you said that they went into dinosaur swamp so a few of them could have become h'orderves for the local populace. Sorry for the whirlwind of thought there; that's just how my creative process works. It sounds like you have a fun campaign going already, so I'm sure that whatever you come up with your players will have a good time.

[Noon]

Games like this suffer from PC's who don't really care about anything and just fell into the first job just cause the player sat down and kind of drifted into it himself.

Do the players want their characters pursuing anything?

[Spinachcat]

Who are the bad guys? What are they doing? Whats their motive? I want something good that will cause the players to travel around and see/do different things in North America

Use the Rifts as portals. Have the bad guys bounce through them so the PCs follow.

But you gotta figure out why the CS need the PCs and what the angle of the CS is all about because so far it seems very confusing.

I said the bad guys were professionally trained and numbered from 50-150. I feel I numbered them mistakenly way tooo high. Whats a cool way to shave off their numbers? Illusions? Undead? Ritual Suicide?

Number sounds fine. Remember that organizations aren't all combat guys, they have support staff, lackeys, flunkies and others who aren't warriors. The warriors in the bad guy organization should be about 1/3 to 1/2 the total.

How can I change the tempo from simply search-and-destroy these bandits..into more interesting scenarios such as -defend this town, save this person, raid this base, fight this war, destroy this monster etc?

Add an element of an unfolding mystery. Not crazy convoluted like Lost, but more like the Fugitive where its important to stop along the way and pick up clues in unlikely places and interact with the lives of those who might be able to help them.

Can anyone take my mess and turn it into a fun campaign?

You can!