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Laux the Ogre wrote:

All Other Names Taken wrote:6th level player characters
I am down with any form of super powered players and merc units, I want them to be bad azz not mediocre

Why bother with higher-level characters? Make 'em start at 1st level. That's how I would do it, but to each his/her own.

Well realistically speaking a mercenary would have several years experience in some army or another before freelancing.

Laux the Ogre wrote:

jedi078 wrote:

Laux the Ogre wrote:

All Other Names Taken wrote:6th level player characters
I am down with any form of super powered players and merc units, I want them to be bad azz not mediocre

Why bother with higher-level characters? Make 'em start at 1st level. That's how I would do it, but to each his/her own.

Well realistically speaking a mercenary would have several years experience in some army or another before freelancing.

Unless they dropped out of boot camp, won a fat-wad of cash at a poker game, and then decided "I should start my own damn army! Yeah, one that doesn't mind I'm an alcoholic".

The wannbe would be found out soon enough since PMC/Merc outfits only want people with experiance.

All Other Names Taken wrote:I plan on running a game soon where the players will be leading a small to start out mercenary band I want them to create.

Heres the limiters I have in place for my campaign as of now:

6th level player characters
I am down with any form of super powered players and merc units, I want them to be bad azz not mediocre

Ive been ruminating on some basic ideas that I want to share and im sure others have tackled this issue as well.

Starting Money for Merc Band: Im thinking of giving each player a total to make there unit(s) or a total for the entire merc band?

I will give you a calculation for an average merc-npc soldier that you could use.
First is to assume that 60% of your total maximum mercs allows for all of them to be uniformly equiped + a special weapon or two.
Pick a region; we'll use Northern Gun.
You're now buying all your products from them in-bulk (10% discount for 50+ units purchaced).
We'll assume that they decided on NG-A10 Body Armor (strong, but average piece of equipment); 36,000Cr x 60 x 0.9 = 1,944,000Cr
For Arms, each trooper gets one rifle, one pistol, and one vibro-knife;
Average weapons, NG-L5 Northern Gun Laser Rifle, NG-57 Northern Gun Heavy-Duty Ion Blaster, Vibro-Knife: 16,000+8,000+7,000 x 60 x 0.9 = 1,674,000Cr
Special Weapons (we'll use the 40K method of 1 per 5 soldiers); The NG-P7 Northern Gun Particle Beam Rifle fits nicely; 22,000 x 12 = 264,000Cr

Okay, so to summarize, we'll assume that they can equip 60% of their possible maximum with average weapons and armour, and afford a few "special" weapons.
Armour = 1,944,000Cr
Weapons = 1,674,000Cr
Special = 264,000Cr

Total = 3,882,000Cr

Note that this doesn't include many of the basic survival tools; I know there are a few survival-pack items provided by the various manufacturers, including Northern Gun, but can't seem to find the entries. We'll assume a cost of about 5,000 per soldier for an additional 5,000 x 60 x 0.9 = 270,000Cr
Totaling 4,152,000Cr

So to equip 60 soldiers with average equipment (with a location-based bulk discount) it costs over 4 million credits.

You now have an idea for a budget. If you want to have them better-equiped, give them more money. If you want them more poorly equiped, give them less.
If the players want better equiped soldiers within the budget, they will have less, and vice-versa.

All Other Names Taken wrote:Max Level for merc band and max per character: So the band can have a maximum of say...100 levels with on characters over the players level and only 10% of them can equal the players level + OR - 1 level.

Maybe insist that lower-level merc-NPCs must out-number the higher-level NPCs at all times.
That is, with 100 levels, if you have 10 fourth level NPCs, you need atleat 11 third level NPCs, etc... until all the levels have been used.

All Other Names Taken wrote:Maximum as well as a minimum number for the band: Should i set a maximum or a minimum number for the band? so they dont make a merc band of 5 super expensive super robots.

Why?
Shouldn't their success be a formula they work out?
That is, if they feel that 5 super-robots housing 20 characters is the best way to go, then let them.
Otherwise you might as well make the Merc-company for them.

That said, a budget can instead be substituted for an imposed limit.
Remember above that it cost more than 4 million credits to simply equip 60 soldiers with average equipment.
Those soldiers must also have transportation.
I will offer an easy solution and just give them a multiplier of the soldier budget for vehicles as well.
We'll go with 5 times the equipment budget for vehicles as an example; 20,000,000Cr.
This can afford a few suits of PA, a cheap Giant robot, and light MDC trucks to move in. Or they might opt for more powered armour, no giant robots, and ATVs towing artillery; think 20 BigBoss ATVs with a few GAW Howitzers.
This gives the band a more road-warrior feel.
Or they might go with no PA, and invest in APCs to move troops. While they won't be rolling in Mark-V's anytime soon, they can certainly afford 6 fully-equiped Iron-maiden APCs.

Whatever they choose though should be affected by cost and regional availability.

All Other Names Taken wrote:Scarcity of equipment: Id like them to be able to pick from the entire rifts/dimension books for gear, but i want some items to be rare, how do i address this? make them more expensive by a percentage? or as part of the creation make some charts for random rolls of avaiable rare gear?

If they're buying in MercTown, only Megaversal Legion stuff is rare (I believe). Everything else is reasonably "common" and available there.
Otherwise, assume everything is "rare" with the exception of the starting regions' equipment.
What I went with before is assuming that this Merc company got its start near Northern Gun. The Manistique Imperium (and thus Wellington Industries) are near there, making their equipment more common, while the NGR is across the Atlantic, making their equipment exceptionally rare.



Hope this helps.

Benefits of robots thread: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=113425

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Original Mercenaries sourcebook has mercenary group creation guides http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2 ... _Code=S800

Vampire Kingdoms has traveling show/carnival creation guides (used as cover for discrete Merc Groups mobile base of operations, etc.) http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2 ... _Code=W800

Merc Adventure Sourcebook has some interesting Merc write-ups implying some of the difficulties in running small Merc groups http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2 ... _Code=S800

Australia World Book has town creation guides if intending to have own stationary unique base of operations/town http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Merchant2 ... _Code=W800

None, some, or all could provide some insight/inspiration (if needed/helpful) for a PC Merc Company campaign.

VILLAIN NPC ARMY vs PC's NPC Army: (best used for the villain's army)

The main limiting factor for the following method is: EACH golem PERMANENTLY costs its creator 6 SDC!

The second main limiting factor is: golems are melee-only combatants.

An often used concept for building a small army is building double MDC iron golems using the Create Golem spell (BoM page 147). When possible will have them designed to appear to be something else such as a standard labor robot. Easiest repeatable method would probably be to have someone with art/sculpting or whittling/sculpting make a reusable mold of an actual robot you wish to have it look like. Obtain a perfect condition robot (even if borrowed/rented) to make the mold from. An earth warlock or earth elemental could probably make one just as easily.

The disguise is important so that opponents hopefully do not realize they are dealing with golems. Destroying them does not actually destroy them unless a special step is taken after they are reduced to rubble.

Ideal spell caster has tons of SDC (preferably hundreds or thousands) such as a Amaki (WB9:SA2), and so forth. The original CB1 also had high SDC versions of monsters: Minotaur, lesser giants, and so forth which have since become minor MDC versions. There are numerous ways to increase SDC that could be used as well (skills, bio-wizardry, etc). Once most SDC have been used up in the process could then obtain a MDC transformation of some sort such as the minor bio-wizardry one that gives you up to 300-ish MDC (BoM page 42). Every 600 SDC = 100 golems. So 1800 SDC minor giant or whatever = 300 golems.

Caster will also need to at least have access to 1000 PPE whether innate or external.

Though possibly NOT USEFUL as members of the PCs army in this case it could make for a simple melee-only NPC OPPOSING army to deal with which could easily be disguised as robots, earth elementals, etc.
- Ideally an encounter would require that they be fought at close range only (underground complex/maze/catacombs with a minotaur haha!, indoors, etc.).
- to require the underground encounter could have the NPCs invading a town by tunneling under it and popping up at night. The only way to find them is to travel down into the tunnels eventually locating the underground base. Golems or robots = no air requirements so any air is only being used by the NPC golem creator/controller and any living assistants, etc plus the PCs eventually.
- for possible plot twists and greater chance of recurring villain: NPC spell caster IS NOT the the golem creator. Instead has created unique spell that allows him to permanently take control of golems who's creators have died. {This spell is an obvious possibility that should actually be standard or incorporated into an alternate casting of Create Golem spell.} Instead it would not be standard but rather unique and unknown. As such the NPC could recruit a 'student' who he teaches Create Golem to and helps the student create as many of them as the student's SDC will allow. Then kills the student, takes control of the golems, puts them in storage and repeats process. That way if main villain is not killed / escapes he can start the process again at another location and be a more experienced enemy of the PCs.
- Could be used early on as effectively a low difficulty encounter and possibly a specific recurring villain IF the PCs don't realize that they are dealing with golems and use the special step after they are 'destroyed' to keep them 'destroyed'.
- If complemented with NPC traps, landmines, wards, tactics, etc could increase the difficulty to medium or higher.
- if key encounters use the actual robots instead of the golems it could be easier (or more difficult) to convince the PCs that the remainder are robots.
- interesting note: Golems have an IQ of 6. Making the smarter than some PCs

Clarified it to indicate that the info above probably best applies as either:
- a possible opposing NPC army
- an alternative PC controlled NPC army either as:
--- an initial army to allow the PCs to 'practice' running an army
--- a backup/reserve army
--- or a (temporary?) means of rebuilding an army in case their regular one gets wiped out
--- reusable shock troops / distraction tactics

As always if its useful that's great, if not just ignore it.

The operator controlling robots is always an interesting concept. Just note that there is an error in the RUE science skills listing for Operators (if you are using RUE). The Artificial Intelligence skill has been left off that list though under its description it is specifically listed as an Operator skill. It is a KEY skill for programming/running AI robots. Will also need Computer Programming and Computer Hacking skills if he's doing the work himself.

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Also the previous post has been updated.

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Good username by the way.

Decent thread on the non-combat and cover story/disguise for a particular mercenary company:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=113125

Laux the Ogre wrote:.

All Other Names Taken wrote:Starting Money for Merc Band: Im thinking of giving each player a total to make there unit(s) or a total for the entire merc band?

Not a bad idea, but easy to abuse. My players would just try to convert stone-age MDC D-Bees by promising them food and shelter after battles.

and if the GM doesn't play up the lack of skill of said D-bee's, this is a problem.
hiring a bunch of farmers or cavemen or whatnot to pad out your merc force might appear to be an econimical choice, but they'd still just be farmers/cavemen/whatnot with fancy gear. much less effective than even trained professionals.

Have each player be their own separate Mercenary unit, since you are starting small then each player would control a "Small-time Company or Squad" - this is a 8-12 man total unit. (Then times however many players you have)

This provides 80 points to buy features, and lets say they are a Independent Operative adding another 10 points. Perhaps a generous GM might even it out to 100 points...

So something like this -
B. Outfits: Specialty Clothing (20 pts)
C. Equipment: Electronic Supplies/Good Gear and Medical Equipment (15 pts)
D. Vehicles: Fleet Vehicles (10 pts)
E. Weapons: Advanced (20 pts)
F. Communications: Secured Service (10 pts)
G. Internal Security: Tight (10 pts)
H. Permanent Base: None
I. Intelligence Resources: None
J. Special Budget: None
K. General Alignment: Anarchist (2 pts)
L. Criminal Activity: None
M. Reputation: Unknown (5 pts)
N. Salary: Pittance (5 pts)

That should be 97 points



Or each player could specialize is a certain area -

Player 1 has the fighters/men-at-arms
Player 2 has the support (medical and gear)
Player 3 has the vehicles and fire support
Player 4 has the HQ, money, salary


In the alternative, you could use the Syndicate/Secret Organizations creation tables found in the Rifts Adventure Guide (which also has the Mercenary Creation Guide as well)

There's a lot of tweaking you could do to the system. If you have the Adventure Guide, take a look at the Syndicate organization rules - they use the same basic style but there's some difference.