Hello Dumpshockians,

I am gearing up to run a campaign for my old SR group. We played SR2 and SR3 for a total of about 8 years but haven't lived in the same place for the past 5-6 years. Anyway long story short we'll be back together for a few months this winter/spring and I'm trying to put together a mercenary campaign. I have some ideas in mind already, but before I share (and bias people) I was wondering what kinds of things you sick twisted freaks can come up with.

I'm pretty open to anything. Any global setting or merc-related themes would be fine. We will be playing SR4 and I have every book published to date (except Wake of the Comet... somehow I missed that one). The campaign will need to be multi-part but "time limited" because we will only have about 12 sessions over 3 months (about 1 session a week) and I'd like to resolve the plot before we all go our separate ways again.

So... any ideas?

Blackhawk Down. You mercs are contracted to remove a rebel leader, after a few successful runs snatching or killing is LT's (could even use the, dec of 52 concept) their transport gets shotdown and they have to fight their way out ala the Warriors.

dec of 52?

Do you mean "Deck of 52"?

As far as BHD is concerned- there are at least two guys in the group who would claim that as their favorite movie of all time, so the response could be mixed...

yeah deck of 52 is what I meant, keyboard is wornout. Or you're mercs could be brought in to work against organized crime in a city.

You could always send them after the coordinates in Dunks will.

Mission ideas.

1. You have to escort a group of supplies in the Golden Triad area in northern Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand. Payment will be 100,000 nuyen on successful completion of the mission.

2. The Medelin cartel needs information about patrols in the Florida Keys. You need to be able to penetrate the UCAS Coast Guard and find that information. Payment will be an initial 100,000 nuyen with an added 100,000 nuyen for any further information that the Medelin cartel would consider important.

3. An Air France Boeing 767 from London Heathrow to New York carrying a VIP has to be hijacked and landed at an airstrip off at Greenland. A second group there will escort the VIP to a secure location. Payment will be 50 10,000 nuyen UCAS bearer bonds once the VIP has been handed over.

4. A husband hires the group to kidnap his soon-to-be ex-wife and hold her until the divorce proceedings are over. Mercenaries will be paid in jewelery evaluated at 250,000 nuyen.

5. John Oguike is heading up a coalition government in Sierra Leone. Recently large oil deposits have been found in the region. Mercenaries have been hired by UCAS to assassinate Mr Oguike before he can form his government and sign a lucrative contract with Chinese nationals. Payment will be in uncut diamonds evaluated at 500,000 nuyen on successful completion of the mission.

6. A small country in the South Pacific with UCAS interests is looking for trained operatives as military advisers in training troops and leading the fight against terrorists. Payment will be 200,000 nuyen per mercenary per annum.

7. Tribal disputes in the Kashmir region over local elections have caused Khan Abdul Ghilzai the need to hire mercenaries to conduct terror/counter-terror operations against local Hindi rivals. Payment will be in gold bullion, estimated at 350,000 nuyen.

8. The wife of media mogul Alexander Abrahamov needs to hire mercenaries to kill Abrahamov's mistress and their son. The mistress is held in a secure mansion 20 kilometers east of Moscow. Payment of 150,000 nuyen will be transferred to an off-shore escrow account once the mission has been completed successfully.

9. Albanian national Rexhep Muzaka needs skilled drivers and security to check his security routes into Europe and possibly discover possible EuroPol undercover agents in his organization. Payment will be 350,000 nuyen in equipment after successful completion of the mission.

10. The client wants to offer an introduction to your team, the client needs information about Secret Service Agent Joan Summers to build up personality profile. Also needed are all biometric data Ms. Summers. It is imperative that you remain undetected. A successful mission will be awarded a sum of 100,000 nuyen broken down into certified credit sticks.

First off, I can hear the moans from around the globe already.

Rules I have in Mercenary games:


1. They pay well.

2. Most missions are politically motivated.

3. Feeling like righting wrongs in the world? Join the peace corps. Leave morality in your other pants.

4. If it can't fit in a rucksack, you are not mercenaries, you are running a soup kitchen.

5. Don't like the job? Fine. All your new friends leave you. Find your own way back through hostile country where you don't speak the dialect.

6. You piss on a client and suddenly all your friends now have added you to their terrorist list. If you are lucky there might even be a reward for your capture alive.



7. Did I mention they pay really well?

Snip.



These two sound more like expensive shadowruns than mercenary jobs, and even more like jobs to be hired out to mob hitmen doing side projects.

But that's just me. YMMV

Remember that it's not just things like diamonds, precious metals or mineral deposits that can be incredibly valuable. Quite a few people have been theorising for the past few years that the next major round of conflicts will be over the control of water supplies, which in the scheme of things is even more vital to human survival. So Country/Warlord A hires your group to knock over or at least seize control of the water supplies from neighbouring Country/Warlord B. There's been a whole history of fun over things like this or countries deciding to dam a river and use it for irrigation purposes which pisses off countries further downstream that could lose out.

Someone hires the mercenaries to help them take over a country that's fallen into anarchy. In one of my old games the Sultan of Zanzibar brought in mercenaries to drive out the gangs and warlords from Dar-es-Salaam and reclaim the city and the Zanj coastal area.

In a similar vein maybe some rich guy decides he likes the idea of having his own country and hires them to pacify a small backwards country that's broken down into anarchy and install them as President for Life. Will they be a benign dictator, a ruthless despot squeezing every last nuyen out of the destitute locals or somewhere in between?

We did a merc campaign in CFS while it still had the Japanese occupation army in place.

I think merc campaigns work well with a more intimate setting. Running the Yucatan was pretty popular with my group, they enjoyed being "The evil VC/Mujahedeen/Rebels" striking from the forest in lightening raids to disrupt supply trains and of course... you know... make off with some wizz Azzie gear (woohoo! Rockets!). An entertaining twist would play it from the other side, mercs are brought in by an Azzie general to hunt Yucatan rebels and do other sinister work.

Faction play was popular in these settings. Representing the rebs as less than a unified front and the Azzie's as the same really gives the players some serious rope to play with. Usually enough to hang themselves with

Stolen from a game I was trying to pimp:
=>Valkyrie 1-7 SR4, ~400-450 bp. A variant on the Merc game it focuses on a Yucatan rebel medical unit that provides battlefield evacuation. Think of it as "Doctor's With Guns But Without Borders". It's not all warm and fuzzy humanitarian of the year work of course. Lot of those Azzie's and rebs have cyber in em and the war makes it hard to import that sort of thing... probably get a good price on what you can salvage. Players are well trained but poorly supplied and authorized to make a profit wherever they can. They'll be less rolling opposed social rolls to negotiate and more plotting to knock over Azzie supply convoys.

The other thing is to highlight scarcity. Sure they can spray APDS everywhere but with all the shooting they do... those costs add up.

There's always the standard contract work in hotbeds like Africa. Countless small-time warlords and dictators need forces to prop up their rule. And what with the prevalence of natural resources, they may actually have the money to pay decently well. But for good info on mercenary campaign ideas, check out Fields of Fire or SOTA 2063.

Thanks for the ideas so far, people.

Chrysalis- as always some great ideas. I always love the dark seedy stuff you come up with, though these seem more suited to one shots. Any ideas for campaign story arcs?

Doc- There will definitely be some faction play involved. I also like "scarcity" as a theme. There are a few places I can think of where that will come into play.

Like I said, I have some rough ideas in mind, which I would be happy to share later, but I don't want to bias people just yet. I'm really looking for fresh new ideas, themes and such.

I stole the scarcity thing from that really old flight sim from Origins back when they still existed and made awesome games. You flew an F-16 and had to buy your missiles between missions... the best gear cost like hell and it caused me physical pain to pull the trigger when cash was tight.

I like the idea of players spending the first couple of games building their web of in country contacts up and making them happy so they can get access to good gear for cheap. I think the other key is to break players out of the traditional SR mindset of "Wait for J to call, make the meet, do the job, get paid" and start looking at things as mercs which play by very different rules. Sure orgs might pay them to do a run and accomplish some specific goal but they'll also plug them into doing whatever random bullshit they don't want to waste their actual soldiers on. Players can either take those shit jobs or... you know... make their own happiness by manipulating their environment for fun and profit. That way you can nest missions within missions.

Hm... an example:

The mercs are hired to run convoy security from point A to point B for faction Alpha. This doesn't pay very well, just enough to make their operating expenses and write paychecks for everyone. But it's steady work and faction Alpha insists that performance will be rewarded with more challenging jobs.

During the mostly quiet convoy runs they stop repeatedly in a series of villages. As they get to know the people in these villages the soon realize that they aren't exactly happy with faction Alpha's treatment or occupation. They're resentful not actively hostile. Player could do any number of things here:
1. They could antagonize the natives because they're huge assholes.
1a. The also realize that an increase in violence along the route will allow them to renegotiate the terms of their contract.
2. They could make friends with the natives and win their hearts and minds for faction Alpha.
3. They could make friends with the natives and win their hearts and minds for themselves.
4. They could make friends with the natives and sell their loyalty to faction Bravo who has been looking for an "in" to this area.
5. They could totally fabricate a conspiracy amongst the natives against faction Alpha and offer to "take care of it" for a nominal fee.
6. What the players actually decide.

Another Idea:
-Training Day. Mercs are hired by a faction to train some militia Green Beret style. Depending how the players go about it and how much loyalty they inspire, they might be able to turn these militia folk into new contacts for later in the campaign. Alternatively they might do the minimum required, train them poorly, collect their paycheck but cripple the faction. They might do either of these options for their own reasons. Should be a good opportunity for roleplaying, a fair mix of combat, and of course plenty of places to drop hooks for future adventures (What are the villager hiding in those tunnels under the temple? Why aren't there any adults here? How come our bosses are paying us to train people who obviously aren't loyal to their cause? etc etc).


Beyond faction play I'd definitely play up the interpersonal relationships that the team can build with NPC's. Maybe they're paid to escort a field hospital forward but things go pear shaped early on. The catch is that their contracts don't cover these new developments so they can walk away and still get paid. If they decide to gut it out (perhaps even risking their paychecks by "violating orders" to withdraw) they'll of course be nice guys and all that. But they'll also have an entire field hospital indebted to them for not leaving them hanging (perhaps literally). If they do bounce on the hospital they'll have probably earned some real enemies. Of course it shouldn't be as cut and dry as "Oh yes! Save the good doctor people!" it'd be awful but interesting to throw in some spin like they're selling organs out the backdoor or conducting unethical experiments for all the right reasons. Sure being a merc is all about getting paid but you have to look downrange too, getting 50% some alpha grade cyber or having some people who'll stick you back together is probably worth more than the few grand you were going to be paid for the job.

PCs very rarely can ever leave anything alone. You keep telling them to leave it alone the more they pick at them.

Mission 3.
After hijacking the plane mission creep sets in and they have to land the plane in Iceland. Holy hell to Greenland that tests all their skills.
The client is setting up a nuclear weapon and the individual is a nuclear chemist. They end up doing more runs for the client as they collect detonators and equipment that may or may not be used for a nuclear weapon. This involves an around the world dash as they collect the information.

Mission 6.
This mission can be based loosely either on Indonesia now or then on an entire campaign book for CP2020 called Chrome Berets. Some changes have to be made, but it should be easy to port into Shadowrun.

Today is supposed to be my computer/Internet free day so I will leave it at that. I will come up with some actually good campaign ideas by the end of this week.

Doc Taotsu, I remember that game, what was it called again. I liked the story in the manual where the pilots were hired to attack someones private island to repo is unlimited credit card.

There's an old computer game from ca. 1995 called Wages of War. You can get it from Amazon. It is a mercenary simulator set in the near future (ca. 2001) You take over MERCS, Inc and wage war for fun and profit. You hire mercs from a rolodex, lease weapons and gear from catalogs, train, pruchase intel, set up travel plans, and even get to negotiate contracts! Of course it takes a little doing to get it working, and the graphics are kinda boring, but it is a fun game and almost completely port-able into a Shadowrun Mercs Campaign. Though I do really hate that accountant.

It's killing me to, I just can't remember the name... all I know is that it was one of those games that required a pentium to play on back when pentium cost more than my current gaming rig. Pentium 90 if I recall... man that was a fast chip

Desert Strike maybe? Nah that was the helo game...

Ah! Strike Commander! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Commander

I remember that you actually ran out of fuel and had to repair battle damage. One of my earliest "awesome moments in gaming" was when I ran out of gas after getting shot all to hell and had to glide in real time (you could skip ahead if you had a full tank) all the way back to my base for a manual landing.

Full of awesome.

If you want the best video game inspiration for a mercenary campaign just play the Jagged Alliance series (and if you want to play only one play Jagged Alliance 2 with the unofficial community patch).

More of a comment on how you might like to play.

If you're doing military action I suggest getting a big markerboard or something cheaper that can fuction as one. I've had great fun with those. You can get ones with grids and there are also ones that roll up.

I'd have models for the characters and some other things. But what the markerboard lets you do is draw in the buildings and things.

If you want plans ahead of time big rolls of paper could be good too.


So anyway I'd suggest making it tactical and don't be a wuss about the threat level! If they're doing stuff involving militaries big guns and lots of full auto are going to be floating around. If some characters aren't perma burning edge to stay alive now and then you probably are being soft. This isn't about punishing them, it's about giving them a credible challange. They'll appreciate succeding at a mission when they realize that unlike most D&D (and sadly Shadowrun) games that a bunch of 5th graders couldn't have pulled it off.

From personal experience i recommend AGAINST using models and what not (although whiteboards are awesome). Merc combat bogs down very easily as pitched battle can develop in a heartbeat. Our final "ULTIMATE COMBAT" in my vaguely merc game turned into three hours of calculating who had the most interlocking fields of fire and... yeah it was boring as hell for us. Some people might like us but they novelty wore off for us after the first hour.

The hardest thing about a merc game, in my opinion, is to keep combat interesting. For me the key was to highlight the so called "Hammer and Eggshell" nature of SR combat (except for 18 body trolls). If players let themselves get bogged down in a pitched battle they're just asking to get pounded by airstrikes, artillery, magical horrors etc. Highlight terrain, weather, interpersonal conflicts...

Fear. Oh yes, there should be fear.


Some Themes to Abuse:
9 Common Elements Of A Battlefield:
Continuous Operations
Communication Breakdown
Confusion
Casualties
Isolation
Fear
Homesickness
Individual Discomfort and Fatigue
Violence

Elements That Allow Individuals To Overcome These Elements:
Morale
Motivation
Profficiency
Espirte de Corps
Discipline

It might depend on which edition you are playing in too. Some editions are more survivable than others.

Thanks again for the ideas ya'll. I'm definitely going to adapt a few these themes for my game.

sunnyside: I like using google map images and photoshop to throw things together. See here for examples. Usually I print these off on graph paper, slip em into a clear sheet protector and go to town with some dry erase markers. And tactical is no problem. Thats kind of what my players like anyway.

toturi: we'll be playing SR4.

Hi Method,

I was thinking about campaigns and that is really dependent on what kind of game you wish to play.

I have contained two possible campaign ideas:

Characters are former members of the UCAS military. They have been hired through a subsidiary of Ares to lend support to local guerrilla forces in the Yucatan. They will be responsible for mission creation, training of troops, to setting up supply routes to carry out strategic objectives:

1. Train the guerrilla troops into becoming a credible threat against Aztechnology oppression in the region
2. Win the hearts and minds of the local populace through gifts, promises, fear, and intimidation.
3. Become self-sustainable through the use of financial means. Sections inside the UCAS government will assist in the acquisition of materiel needed once beyond the borders and once the proper financial incentives have been met.
4. Destabilize Aztechnology presence in the region.
5. Liase with corporate interests in the region and maintain rapport with them.

This is a very simple campaign skeleton to which you can add information about the Yukatan conflict with a lot of help from books and adventure ideas from the Vietnam War.

***

Characters are former members of military forces and ex-convicts. Their responsibility is to assist in the construction of a device which has been laid to rest since the cold war. The theatre of operations comprises of the former Soviet Satellite States.

1. Collect information from East German archives about the project
2. Inspect assembly facilities in Kronstadt for clues
3. Break into Soviet weapons development archives under Gorky Park.
4. Discover key components shipped to warehouse 323 60 kilometers east of Moscow and extract them by plane.
5. Kidnap Yuri Markov, former assistant to the chief engineer of the project, and current technical adviser to the President of Uzbekistan.
6. Discover secondary underground storage facility in the Sakhat Republic.
7. Assemble device.

This is very much a da Vinci code style of game, where the PCs collect information and parts finally leading them to its construction. It could be from the more mundane neutron bomb to the more bizarre alien device.

Personally I find this kind of construction quite weak. The alternative could be a game where they go from university students, to being trained, to forming a sleeper cell, to carrying out several terrorist attacks. However, this might also be something players may nto be interested in.

Do they want Rambo or do they want cultural issues, moral dilemmas, and drama?

Actually that can go for any game if someone things having a gang involved is a good idea.

Advice on that.

-large groups can be handeled abstractly because the Runners should spend their time hidden from them. If they're out in the open they should have all burned edge to avoid death fast enough.

-give them specific jobs on the field against limited foes. Works well for scouting units fighting it out.

-break stalemates. This goes for regular games to. People won't just sit on opposite sides of cover. Eventually a banshee or something will come by.

-Standard Lazy GM theory. A single tough foe is easier to handle than more, weaker, foes.


Finally, and the best piece of advice in my opinion if you've got a group that can handle it is to make them think fast and act fast. Their character has approximately the equivalent of 3 seconds to decide what to do, don't give the player longer (unless they have an appropriate skill like small group tactics, I give them a hair longer).

Also expect dice to be hitting the table while they're telling you what they're doing if possible (if they can juggle the mods right).

Also you may want to queue up rolls. I.e. write out or print out sheet(s) of rolls. When you need them just read off the rolls you need instead of having to mess with dice. Wonderfully useful when a number of people are shooting at once.

I would get insperation from todays mercs in Irak..

Check out the shadowcompany documentry, along with the blackwater dokumentry, it explains alot about modern mercs imho and is quite interesting..

Basicly, lotsa merc work is securing facilitys or areas, sometimes plain guard dutys, sometimes it is taking down insurgents/guerillas.. And more often
than not the employer of mers is "the goverment of the day"..

Check it out.. lotsa interesting storys etc.. and it has gotten me to really think about dusting off my old "Black lagoon" ripoff instead of playing out the
Denver story arc.. =)