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Hopefully not to many of my players on EU will see this...

We're in the initial stages of running the storyline on-site that tensions between Kingsdale and Whykin have finally come to a head and that all-out war between the two powerful city-state kingdoms is brewing. The CS, Federation of Magic, Tolkeen refugees and retribution squads, even Archie and the Republicans will be meddling in this conflict.

Three of the nine mercenary PC groups are already involved to one degree or the other and I'm looking for fresh ideas to entice the other six mercenary groups to get involved as well as adventure ideas to involve the PCs in the storyline.

In the SoT campaign I'm planning, the PCs will be searching for a Pre-Rifts Military Satellite control base, in order to take control of an abandoned military satellite capable to "shot from the sky". This military base is also coveted by the CS and a Tolkeen Mercenary (La Resistance?) group described in the SoT series.

If you are interested in the plot and what to know a little more, please PM me, as I don't want to post it all here where my player could read it

Hope this helps.

femfan wrote:You've got NINE PC groups playing in single campaign! Wow! Good luck with that.

I ran 42 PCs in an EPIC against the Splugorth colonies forming around New Brunswick around this time last year on-site. Though I had some problems with it, it wasn't the size of the groups but HOW I handled the game that was a tad lacking. Now that I've that experience to build on this one shall be even better, different, and BIGGER as EU has doubled in size since its 1-year anniversary.

bob the desolate one wrote:maybe evolve lone star have Bradfords freaks and dead boys reinforce whykin and when they mobilize they could draw the attention of saber lasare (i'm not sure if i spelled that right) hes been looking for a empire to form maybe with the help of mercator together with kingsdales forces and the warlords camp maybe they can form a bold new kingdom especialy if mercator offers them whykin when the dust settles

Once I figured out what you were getting at here it took me a second to figure out what made your idea seem...off somehow: DISTANCE. Whykin is far, far away from the Pecos Empire and the Pecos Empire would have to get through CS Lone Star to even get involved.

mobuttu wrote:In the SoT campaign I'm planning, the PCs will be searching for a Pre-Rifts Military Satellite control base, in order to take control of an abandoned military satellite capable to "shot from the sky". This military base is also coveted by the CS and a Tolkeen Mercenary (La Resistance?) group described in the SoT series.

That's a little more what I was looking for...interesting idea. Just ideas like that are enough for me to grab an adventure idea from and run with it. This may help after all, thanks mobuttu.

Back to the drawing board:

Three of the nine mercenary PC groups are already involved to one degree or the other and I'm looking for fresh ideas to entice the other six mercenary groups to get involved as well as adventure ideas to involve the PCs in the storyline.

The Game Master wrote:That's a little more what I was looking for...interesting idea. Just ideas like that are enough for me to grab an adventure idea from and run with it. This may help after all, thanks mobuttu.

My pleasure

Another idea:

Why not involve ARCHIE 3? Using his "alien" arms dealer cover, he is selling new arms to one or both kingdoms increasing inestability in the zone in order to deviate the atention from his own bussines in the east. PC will have to uncover the plot and find ARCHIE 3...(See sourcebook 1).

one pf the outside force like the CS or Fed. of magic could hire a group to go in and start trouble,

but the idea i like the most is have one group thats already involved have a rivalry with one of the groups thats not part to pull them in, or just get them caught up in a cross fire

mobuttu wrote:

The Game Master wrote:That's a little more what I was looking for...interesting idea. Just ideas like that are enough for me to grab an adventure idea from and run with it. This may help after all, thanks mobuttu.

My pleasure

Another idea:

Why not involve ARCHIE 3? Using his "alien" arms dealer cover, he is selling new arms to one or both kingdoms increasing inestability in the zone in order to deviate the atention from his own bussines in the east. PC will have to uncover the plot and find ARCHIE 3...(See sourcebook 1).

Had planned something similar, this looks like a nice twist too.

Legion wrote:As one of the players on the site, though not yet involved in the Epic, I had something to add:

Naruni.

I don't know if they have a designated role just yet, but I'm sure they'd love to "help" by offering slight discounts to outfit a merc unit to do some damage to the CS side of this conflict. Their ultimate goal might be to have these merc's cut supply lines and sabotage the CS to prolong the fight but also to keep the CS at an expensive and losing effort.

That's an angle worth considering. As the CS is playing no direct role in the conflict this would have to be limited in scope to the disruption of supply lines between Whykin and their forces in field (which do utilize some older CS gear), so with a little tweak that could be totally cool. Or perhaps you're envisioning the undermining of the CS indirect support of Whykin somehow?

Gm'd out an adventure based on that very idea a few years back.

Whykin it self prefers to stand on it's own and as such the CS would stay out of it directly.

What they did on the other hand was arrange for a surplus supply of CS gear (mostly older stuff) to get into Whykins hands as well as a few vollenters enlisted to help out the Kingdom (a reinforced battallons worth of ground troops and a small navel detactment including the Pre-Rifts Revenge class destroyer Conqueror as the flag ship). Considering the size of the river runing beside Kingsdale, that one was a no brainer.

Ether Whykin forces pushed the Kingsdale forces back into the city where the navy and troops attack from the other side to help destroy the city or if Whykin in trouble the CS "Merc's" attack with missiles from the ship and hit an run on Kingsdale supplies and rear guard.

They used the nominal cover of mercenaries and defectors in order to cover the CS involvement (half their gear was old CS issue, the rest a mishmash of NG, GAW including 12 Tomcats, and some new CS gear (some of the officers).

The 5 player characters (1 Psi Tech/Tundra Ranger, 1 Burster, a High Magi, and twin Titan Juicers) ended up discovering the CS hidden base as part of the plot and desided to take it out on their own in order to keep the war from getting out of hand.

The combined power of the Psi-techs abilities and High Magi (including the use of Negate Mechanic spell) rendered much of the Power Armor and robot vehicles useless. The Burster had snuck into the command center and weenie roasted the entire command staff, and the Twins (Da Pulp brothers as in Crush You and Grind You) played lets punt the infantry. (It did not help matters that the smart brother with an IQ of 9 and P.S of 50 was using a Boom Gun he ripped off (Literally) a Glitter Boy as his rifle and the strong one with an I.Q of 8 and a PS of 51 was using a Soul Drinking rune axe he beat into submission by banging his head against it till it gave up. It was getting a headache so it gave in).

It was an excellent adventure, and when it was over the Conqueror was being towed home, the infantry force was decimated, and the group thanks to the use of Telemechanics and Negate Mechanics walked out of their with 2 Deaths Head Transports and enough loot to arm a brigade worth of troops.

The CS covered up the incident (it was a rogue operation on the CS Navy's part, the group discovered later that the CS executed the captain of the Conqueror for his part in the failure, the rest of the crew and troops got away clean as they were only following orders) and the characters were able to walk away clean. (they even stole a Firefly Missile that the CS is convinced sunk to the bottom of the river and is lost to them).

Jefram_denkar wrote:Gm'd out an adventure based on that very idea a few years back.

Whykin it self prefers to stand on it's own and as such the CS would stay out of it directly.

What they did on the other hand was arrange for a surplus supply of CS gear (mostly older stuff) to get into Whykins hands as well as a few vollenters enlisted to help out the Kingdom (a reinforced battallons worth of ground troops and a small navel detactment including the Pre-Rifts Revenge class destroyer Conqueror as the flag ship). Considering the size of the river runing beside Kingsdale, that one was a no brainer.

Ether Whykin forces pushed the Kingsdale forces back into the city where the navy and troops attack from the other side to help destroy the city or if Whykin in trouble the CS "Merc's" attack with missiles from the ship and hit an run on Kingsdale supplies and rear guard.

They used the nominal cover of mercenaries and defectors in order to cover the CS involvement (half their gear was old CS issue, the rest a mishmash of NG, GAW including 12 Tomcats, and some new CS gear (some of the officers).

The 5 player characters (1 Psi Tech/Tundra Ranger, 1 Burster, a High Magi, and twin Titan Juicers) ended up discovering the CS hidden base as part of the plot and desided to take it out on their own in order to keep the war from getting out of hand.

The combined power of the Psi-techs abilities and High Magi (including the use of Negate Mechanic spell) rendered much of the Power Armor and robot vehicles useless. The Burster had snuck into the command center and weenie roasted the entire command staff, and the Twins (Da Pulp brothers as in Crush You and Grind You) played lets punt the infantry. (It did not help matters that the smart brother with an IQ of 9 and P.S of 50 was using a Boom Gun he ripped off (Literally) a Glitter Boy as his rifle and the strong one with an I.Q of 8 and a PS of 51 was using a Soul Drinking rune axe he beat into submission by banging his head against it till it gave up. It was getting a headache so it gave in).

It was an excellent adventure, and when it was over the Conqueror was being towed home, the infantry force was decimated, and the group thanks to the use of Telemechanics and Negate Mechanics walked out of their with 2 Deaths Head Transports and enough loot to arm a brigade worth of troops.

The CS covered up the incident (it was a rogue operation on the CS Navy's part, the group discovered later that the CS executed the captain of the Conqueror for his part in the failure, the rest of the crew and troops got away clean as they were only following orders) and the characters were able to walk away clean. (they even stole a Firefly Missile that the CS is convinced sunk to the bottom of the river and is lost to them).

Now that's what I'm talking about!
Whoo-hoo!
More fuel for the fire!
Thanks for the great ideas man!
Hope none of the involved players sees this

The Game Master wrote:

Jefram_denkar wrote:Gm'd out an adventure based on that very idea a few years back.

Whykin it self prefers to stand on it's own and as such the CS would stay out of it directly.

What they did on the other hand was arrange for a surplus supply of CS gear (mostly older stuff) to get into Whykins hands as well as a few vollenters enlisted to help out the Kingdom (a reinforced battallons worth of ground troops and a small navel detactment including the Pre-Rifts Revenge class destroyer Conqueror as the flag ship). Considering the size of the river runing beside Kingsdale, that one was a no brainer.

Ether Whykin forces pushed the Kingsdale forces back into the city where the navy and troops attack from the other side to help destroy the city or if Whykin in trouble the CS "Merc's" attack with missiles from the ship and hit an run on Kingsdale supplies and rear guard.

They used the nominal cover of mercenaries and defectors in order to cover the CS involvement (half their gear was old CS issue, the rest a mishmash of NG, GAW including 12 Tomcats, and some new CS gear (some of the officers).

The 5 player characters (1 Psi Tech/Tundra Ranger, 1 Burster, a High Magi, and twin Titan Juicers) ended up discovering the CS hidden base as part of the plot and desided to take it out on their own in order to keep the war from getting out of hand.

The combined power of the Psi-techs abilities and High Magi (including the use of Negate Mechanic spell) rendered much of the Power Armor and robot vehicles useless. The Burster had snuck into the command center and weenie roasted the entire command staff, and the Twins (Da Pulp brothers as in Crush You and Grind You) played lets punt the infantry. (It did not help matters that the smart brother with an IQ of 9 and P.S of 50 was using a Boom Gun he ripped off (Literally) a Glitter Boy as his rifle and the strong one with an I.Q of 8 and a PS of 51 was using a Soul Drinking rune axe he beat into submission by banging his head against it till it gave up. It was getting a headache so it gave in).

It was an excellent adventure, and when it was over the Conqueror was being towed home, the infantry force was decimated, and the group thanks to the use of Telemechanics and Negate Mechanics walked out of their with 2 Deaths Head Transports and enough loot to arm a brigade worth of troops.

The CS covered up the incident (it was a rogue operation on the CS Navy's part, the group discovered later that the CS executed the captain of the Conqueror for his part in the failure, the rest of the crew and troops got away clean as they were only following orders) and the characters were able to walk away clean. (they even stole a Firefly Missile that the CS is convinced sunk to the bottom of the river and is lost to them).

Now that's what I'm talking about!
Whoo-hoo!
More fuel for the fire!
Thanks for the great ideas man!
Hope none of the involved players sees this

I still have some of the old notes about the CS force if your interested???

Is this campaign taking place pre- or post-Tolkeen? If it's post-Tolkeen there are going to be a lot of disenfranchised, 'freedom fighters' floating around wanting to get a piece of the action or stick it to the CS and its allies. The black market may be offering stuff to both sides at a discount to spur sales. As someone else mentioned, the Naruni are likely to offer gear to Kingsdale at discounted prices. Where is the Juicer Army of Liberation? Where are the Cyber-Knights? What about some of Kingsdale's contacts in the magic zone? Lazlo? Dweomer? Pecos Raiders? On Whykins side, how overt would the CS be? Whykin will likely send agents disguised as regular mercs to join Kingsdale's forces to strike at them from inside.

Legion wrote:

Kelorin wrote:Is this campaign taking place pre- or post-Tolkeen? If it's post-Tolkeen there are going to be a lot of disenfranchised, 'freedom fighters' floating around wanting to get a piece of the action or stick it to the CS and its allies. The black market may be offering stuff to both sides at a discount to spur sales. As someone else mentioned, the Naruni are likely to offer gear to Kingsdale at discounted prices. Where is the Juicer Army of Liberation? Where are the Cyber-Knights? What about some of Kingsdale's contacts in the magic zone? Lazlo? Dweomer? Pecos Raiders? On Whykins side, how overt would the CS be? Whykin will likely send agents disguised as regular mercs to join Kingsdale's forces to strike at them from inside.

That one rings especially cool.

This game is post-Tolkeen, but aside from that I don't have a lot of details. It seems like with so many that would side with Kingsdale, even most of the PC groups involved in this fight want to do something on Kingsdale's side, Whykin might need more official and blatant help from the CS. That or they may be forced to find help elsewhere...

I recommend the use of Rifts Mercenaries and ether the Shadow Warriors or Armageddon Unlimited. Both outfits are tough enought to handle most players groups and especally with Armageddon Unlimited you got a force that can handle magical foes (Whykin may not like magic users but they probably would see it as the lesser of two evils (talk about really missing the boat), you fight for us and you can keep all the magic you get in addition to your paycheck.) (It could lead to some nice sub plots as well).

Mwahahaha!

I've actually already incorporated some of the above ideas into the campaign. Good to see devious minds think alike!

Some new ones here I hadn't yet considered, thanks for the ideas.

Still just looking for ideas, no stats or anything, just adventure/conflict hooks. Love what I'm seeing...keep it coming!

And if you want in on the action just click on the banner below to give EU a shot!

Just remember...Kagashi gets triple XP...Kagashi gets triple XP....Kagashi gets triple XP...

How long are your sessions?

RockJock wrote:How long are your sessions?

It's play-by-post.

www.Explorersunlimited.com has a single, unified world (Rifts Earth) in which all (100 or so) of the Rifts PCs play.

Check out the Explorersunlimited.com Sticky in the "Gamers looking for other gamers" forum here on the Palladium boards if you're curious, or just visit the site.

That makes sense. Somehow I missed that it was play by post.