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[Egan_BW]

POWER &&& PULSE: Mission 1
CHARLIE FOXTROT

Google Doc with character options
OOC + Suggestions + Rules Thread


Westrealm, Mewlo badlands.
3PM local time, 1345 Rosetime
2 Months after first contact

Over the baren hills, a shooting star is spotted by a detachment of Starhammer. Unfortunately their mage leader has recently passed away due to natural causes. Nevertheless they decide to investigate the crash site.

Mayday! En route to an infiltration, a Shuttle Rig carrying a Haemic Corp squad encounters a fatal failure and undergoes a controlled crash. While most of the passengers survive, the Tech Gear riding under is crushed, killing the pilot.

Spoiler: mission rules (click to show/hide)

This mission has no hero units. You may not choose a class with a cost of (Hero).
There is no limit to the number of players.
However, you may not respawn in this mission.

You may pick the Mission-specific classes APC Driver or Crashed Shuttle Rig Driver

Starhammer's mission will be successful with the capture of enemy personnel and technology. Their mission will fail or be a pyrrhic victory if they lose too many troops.
Haemic Corp's mission will be successful if they survive without too many losses, whether by fleeing or defeating the enemy. Their mission will fail if the enemy is allowed to scavenge their technology.


At mission start the teams will be in LoS to one another. There's no cover besides the downed shuttle and the APC.
Technology to capture includes the mostly intact shuttle and any personal equipment for a lesser value.

Spoiler: mission-specific classes (click to show/hide)

(0AP) APC Driver
The operator of a spring-powered Armored Personnel Carrier. These machines are sometimes difficult, but highly valued for protecting combat personnel in the open.

Armored Personnel Carrier
MP5 Submachine Gun
Toolbox

(0AP) Crashed Shuttle Rig Driver
You are a Driver, the less experienced counterpart to a proper Pilot. Your link to your machine is closer to an animal rider than a pilot's second skin, but you have ambitions to climb the ranks and claim a Frame for yourself some day. Unfortunately, your current machine seems to have crashed.

Shuttle Rig (wrecked)
NCQ Personal Defense Weapon “Chitterchok”
Repair Kit

That's it, we're nearly ready to roll. Remember that you're not allowed to pick a (Hero) class for this mission, and to state your faction outside of your character sheet so that players of the opposite faction don't mistakenly check it. No peeking!

[syvarris]

Natives team.

Spoiler: sheet (click to show/hide)

Advancement Points: 0
Favor Points: 0

Name: Vracks
Physical Description: A thin wiry man, wearing an old camouflage uniform and boonie hat.  Perpetually has a stick of valencine in his mouth, a smokable and chewable drug which is known for sedative and minor hallucinogenic effects.  It's very popular in his hometown.
Personality: Calm, kind, and extremely relaxed.  Partly due to his drug of choice, partly just because he's a mellow individual by nature.  Tends to take life in stride, optimistic and care free about things no matter how bad they get.

Faction: (Haemic Corp for mechs, Starhammer for mages)
Class: Combat Engineer
Traits: Steady, Deadly, Magic Incompatible
Health: Fine

Equipment:
Shovel
Sack of Bombs
Mortar Tube

[Egan_BW]

Choices are valid, though your shield and sword enchantments won't function with being Magic Incompatible.

[Radio Controlled]

Will try to come up with a charsheet later if/when I find the time. What's the deadline, egan my boy?

Also, I'm giving RC and Leng 2 FP each for their help. Thank you.

Aww shucks, you shouldn't have.  :blush:

syv being mage

This is some top 10 anime betrayals material right here.   

[King Zultan]

Haemic Corp

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Advancement Points: 2 AP
Favor Points: 0

Name: Billy Bob
Physical Description: Looks and smells like a homeless man
Personality: Probably not sane.
Backstory: Nobody wants a hobo around especially one that stabs or murders people that get close to him, so into the army he went.

Faction: Haemic Corp
Class: Penal Conscript
Traits:
 Positive: Aware, Tough
 Negative: Bastard
Health: Fine

Equipment:
 Flak Vest
 Remote Shock Collar
 Double-Barrel Shotgun

[Lenglon]

Starhammer (aka the natives, aka the mage team), Faction.

Spoiler: Erin (click to show/hide)

Advancement Points: 2
Favor Points: 2

AP cost: 0

Name: Erin
Physical Description: A small-ish woman with long-ish dark hair in a ponytail and purple eyes, she is very direct in conversation, going from objective to objective with very little smalltalk. She has some old scars on her left arm that seem indicative of regular injections in that area, but they've mostly faded, with no recent exposure. She wears gloves the vast majority of the time, and walks slightly hunched over anytime she isn't paying attention to her posture. She actually enjoys the feel of wind, goes running for fun routinely, and would go skydiving if she could afford to do so.

Although normally a gun warrior, she's currently been retasked to be an APC driver for this mission.

Faction: Starhammer
Class: APC Driver
Traits:
     Deadly
     Athlete
     Frail
Health: Fine
Equipment:
     Armored Personnel Carrier
     MP5 Submachine Gun
     Toolbox

[syvarris]

syv being mage

This is some top 10 anime betrayals material right here.   

Still gonna do mech if I get to play a hero unit.  Or regardless, really.  I mostly chose mage because this mission seems unpleasant to be mech on.  Choose the winning side, and all!  :v

[Dustan Hache]

Haemic Corp. time to PMC!!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Zerek.
Physical Description: Blonde haired, brown eyed, and a bit on the overweight side.

Faction: Haemic Corp
Class: Driver.

Traits: Merciful, Fast reflexes, Aware.
Health:Fine

Equipment:

It Shuttle Rig (wrecked)
NCQ Personal Defense Weapon “Chitterchok”
Repair Kit

[Egan_BW]

Will try to come up with a charsheet later if/when I find the time. What's the deadline, egan my boy?

Saturday.

[Radio Controlled]

((Gonna do this now to avoid missing the deadline.))

Declaring for the correct faction best faction Haemic Corp. 

Spoiler: Charsheet (click to show/hide)

AP: 1
FP: 2

Name: Mahsun Al-Adzan
Physical Description: Tanned, tall, skinny, dark eyes and a non-regulation beard.
Personality: A hard man with exactly zero patience for magic nonsense.
Backstory: Grew up in a family stemming from a hidden enclave of refugee stowaways who came aboard the ship when it passed by their planet. For them, the magical arcane beasts that roamed the lands had great cultural and religious significance. Well, until the spacemen killed them all, that is. It's all ancient history to Mahsun either way, who has a family to feed and his comrades to look after.

Faction: Haemic Corp
Class: Rifleman
Traits: Deadly, Fast Reflexes, Magic Incompatible
Health: Fine

Equipment:
Ceramic plate armor and helmet
SQ Infantry Rifle
Frag Grenades

Also, GM dearest, I've some questions that are mech-faction-related for you, if you don't mind:

Spoiler: Starhamsters no peeking! (click to show/hide)

It says we have to avoid them looting our tech to win, but also that us escaping is a win. So what is it that we should protect/escape with then? Is it the crushed tech gear that they could loot? The crashed shuttle? Because if it's these, and since we don't have anything to salvage them or transport them, we kinda have to defend them and fleeing isn't an option. Or would it be enough if we recover like the databanks/central computer or something and escape with that? I mean, there's no stipulation for us having to preserve the tech only prevent its capture, so boobytrapping/outright destroying would be advantageous, but seems rather mean and anti-game so dunno what you'd think about that.  :v

Secondly, in our mission briefing it just says we were downed (presumably over hostile terrain?) but no mention of hostiles spotted. Can we start the mission assuming the enemy is incoming and prepare accordingly, or should we play it as not knowing that to avoid metagaming? If so, I think saying we'd set up a watch/patrol to avoid getting ambushed in enemy terrain would be reasonable behavior and not meta?

[Lenglon]

Starhamsters no peeking!

But the mission hasn't even started yet! if it's a mechanics or systems question shouldn't that be visible? I'm all sad now.

also, I suspect that without hero units Haemic is going to have the advantage, simply because they're able to get better gear for their footsoldiers. with hero units, I still feel like Haemic is going to have the advantage, because I don't think starhammer foot soldiers have a way to hurt mechs, but mages can still get shot just like anyone else.

[Radio Controlled]

But the mission hasn't even started yet! if it's a mechanics or systems question shouldn't that be visible? I'm all sad now.

((Heh, aww, sorry. It's mostly a mission-specific clarification that should primarily affect mechbois, but if egan thinks it's fine and not sensitive he can answer/reveal the question in the open and that's fine for me.))

((Actually, that reminds me I had another question I forgot, and this one is for both sides so best to ask in the open: Egan, can players assume to have radios to talk to their allies and coordinate, or should we try to account for distance and avoid doing so? It's mostly a quality of life thing I think.))

also, I suspect that without hero units Haemic is going to have the advantage, simply because they're able to get better gear for their footsoldiers. with hero units, I still feel like Haemic is going to have the advantage, because I don't think starhammer foot soldiers have a way to hurt mechs, but mages can still get shot just like anyone else.

I mostly chose mage because this mission seems unpleasant to be mech on.  Choose the winning side, and all!  :v

((Hmm...  :p 
Well, you do have an APC this time, so maybe take a cue from the game Planetside and turn the mech grunts into so much roadkill. 

Either way, if it turns out the mage grunts are underpowered then Egan can always buff them a little. Seems like framebreakers are meant to be a potential threat to mechs though and are affordable at 1 AP. I would agree that another 2 AP cost mage-aligned grunt could be nice and give more options. Maybe something you could request with FP if you have a cool concept for it?))

[Lenglon]

I would agree that another 2 AP cost mage-aligned grunt could be nice and give more options. Maybe something you could request with FP if you have a cool concept for it?))

...

Spoiler: Idea (click to show/hide)

 2AP Combat Engineer
Although Starhammer doesn't have the fancy mechs and space lasers of Haemic Corp, they do still have some quick-and-dirty ways to accomplish mundane demolition work in a combat environment. These specialized soldiers have one job. It's to pick one big problem, and make it go away.

Shovel (good hard steel and a good edge to the blade make this do good work in all situations)
Backpack of explosives (this backpack is rigged as a satchel charge, and carries a wide collection of mines, breeching charges, grenades, barbed wire, expired Apoth vials, and general unstable nastiness. It has on-demand access to most any kind of bomb you want as long as you have it, or satchel mode can be activated and you'll have about one turn before it goes off, devastating the area as everything inside goes boom all at once. It is especially powerful inside enclosed spaces, where the compession wave will likely be lethal by itself)
Mortar Tube OR HMG (emplaceable heavy anti-infantry weapons, these cannot be fired without being set up, but once emplaced are a major threat to infantry that are caught out in the open.)

edit: honestly, this idea could be made available to both factions with barely any adjustment. It makes senese for both of them.

[Egan_BW]

Egan, can players assume to have radios to talk to their allies and coordinate, or should we try to account for distance and avoid doing so?

HC has radios, SH have cellphones. Not going to list as equipment for every class but they're there.

It says we have to avoid them looting our tech to win, but also that us escaping is a win. So what is it that we should protect/escape with then? Is it the crushed tech gear that they could loot? The crashed shuttle? Because if it's these, and since we don't have anything to salvage them or transport them, we kinda have to defend them and fleeing isn't an option. Or would it be enough if we recover like the databanks/central computer or something and escape with that? I mean, there's no stipulation for us having to preserve the tech only prevent its capture, so boobytrapping/outright destroying would be advantageous, but seems rather mean and anti-game so dunno what you'd think about that.  :v

You seem to have already stumbled on a good way of completing the stated objectives. Can you think of any others?~
Taking out the computer equivalent would count for some but there's lots of other stuff to salvage. No bonus points for bringing stuff back intact.

Secondly, in our mission briefing it just says we were downed (presumably over hostile terrain?) but no mention of hostiles spotted. Can we start the mission assuming the enemy is incoming and prepare accordingly, or should we play it as not knowing that to avoid metagaming? If so, I think saying we'd set up a watch/patrol to avoid getting ambushed in enemy terrain would be reasonable behavior and not meta?

Don't worry about it. You start out in combat. You're likely going to always start in combat since not doing so last game didn't work out well.
Also, the crash was due to a malfunction.

[syvarris]

also, I suspect that without hero units Haemic is going to have the advantage, simply because they're able to get better gear for their footsoldiers. with hero units, I still feel like Haemic is going to have the advantage, because I don't think starhammer foot soldiers have a way to hurt mechs, but mages can still get shot just like anyone else.

I mostly chose mage because this mission seems unpleasant to be mech on.  Choose the winning side, and all!  :v

((Hmm...  :p ))

((Haemic is definitely stronger in terms of footsoldiers. They get a 1 AP healer, and two proper 2 AP combat classes, while Starhammer gets the framebreaker and a 2 AP class that's explicitly unreliable and unarmored.  And their equipment seems to have less versatility, though it's RTD so I expect a gun to just be a gun.

I don't like the wincon for mech in this mission.  You both need to not die, and ensure mages don't get your tech, when you have a giant lump of tech sitting there.  It's a defense mission where you need to destroy your own fortification and flee; in effect, your wincon is actually "kill all enemies without taking heavy losses", while ours is much more flexible.  That being said, wiping a two-person team isn't so bad, but I expected more players on both sides.))

Edit:  Oh.  Ninja GM.