A government in collapse. A world up for grabs. Millions of lives in the balance. And a mountain of cash for those brave, skilled, or crazy enough to take it. The work is usually difficult, often dirty, and always dangerous. If being a mercenary was easy, everyone would do it.
E P I S O D E I : B O R N T O L O S E
P R E M I S E:
The year is 3030, and Gawain’s Green Knights, a small mercenary command operating in the contentious Andurien region of the Inner Sphere, have found themselves in a situation. Originally under contract with the Capellan Confederation, they had been hired for garrison duty on the backwater border world of Espia, keeping the peace while the regular Capellan forces moved off-world to fight their hated enemies in the Federated Suns. It should have been easy money, chasing off bandits and looking good for photo opportunities while the local governor signed over fat stacks of cash until the regulars returned from the fighting.
Unfortunately for the Green Knights, things didn’t turn out that way. The Capellan Confederation lost their fight with the Federated Suns, and lost badly. While reeling from their disastrous war, the Capellan government withdrew its support from several border worlds, leaving Espia to twist in the wind. This resulted in protests, protests which became riots, riots which became a military coup. The new regime managed to seize most of the world’s military and economic assets….including the Green Knights’ Dropship, and the several million C-Bills the mercenaries were promised. Despite the local military seizing power, things continued to spiral out of control, erupting into a full-on civil war.
Now Gawain’s Green Knights are stuck without an employer, without a paycheck, and without a way off-planet. Between fanatical Capellan loyalists, opportunistic agents of the neighboring Free Worlds League, and radical Independents, the world is embroiled in a civil war which threatens to leave the entire planet in ruins. In the middle of this, Colonel Gaius Wayne and his band of mercenaries have to find a way out, either by finding the right client and rallying around their cause, or by grabbing enough loot in the chaos to pay for passage out of the system.
Whether they choose to fight for a higher cause, for the downtrodden caught up in the crossfire like them, for the money, or for each other, the only way out for the Green Knights is to fight their way through it. What remains to be seen is if they’ll still manage to get the money they were owed….or if any of them will be alive to spend it.
A B O U T T H E G A M E:
Disposable Heroes is an episodic sci-fi military roleplaying game set in the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe. Players will not need to be familiar with the wider lore of the setting in order to play, as the majority of the action will take place on a single locale (for this episode, the planet Espia), and details of the various factions and the broader history of the setting will be explained if and when they become relevant.
The GM and AGM, playing the roles of Colonel Gaius Wayne and of the opposing forces, will provide mission objectives and general orders, as well as describe enemy actions and give the occasional nudge to keep the plot moving. In general, these orders will be very hands-off, allowing the players more or less free rein over how they carry these missions out. In addition, the GMs will play the role of referee, enforcing the usual Guild rules and mitigating any conflicts that may arise, and determining how much the general lore is allowed to stretch and bend without breaking it.
A B O U T T H E S E T T I N G:
The Battletech universe is equal parts action-packed heroic pulp fiction, gritty hard-nosed war drama, grand sweeping space opera, and cloak-and-dagger political thriller. While the larger interstellar factions of the 31st Century are usually morally gray, each side has plenty of genuine heroes and villains to go around, and the conflict of characters is often just as important as the clash between Great Houses and their awesome mechanized armies.
The primary factions in the setting at large are the five Successor States, each ruled by a noble Great House which espouses an old-world culture: the Federated Suns (House Davion, primarily English), the Draconis Combine (House Kurita, primarily Japanese), the Lyran Commonwealth (House Steiner, primarily German), the Capellan Confederation (House Liao, primarily Chinese), and the Free Worlds League (House Marik, primarily Austro-Hungarian). Collectively, the Successor States and the worlds they occupy are known as the Inner Sphere. These states are mono-cultural, but multi-ethnic, meaning that a citizen of the Draconis Combine, for instance, could be of Asian descent or white or black or Middle Eastern or any number of other ethnicities, but would always be expected to speak and read/write Japanese and understand the tenets of traditional Japanese culture out of loyalty to the ruling Kurita family.
In between these huge interstellar empires and their constant battles are a number of smaller states known as the Periphery, shadowy organizations such as ComStar (who own the only existing technology allowing for interstellar communications), and countless mercenary companies that do whatever jobs these larger powers are willing to pay for. Mercenary commands can range from massive professional armies with enough skill and firepower to rival a Great House, to solo freelancers or tiny outfits that are little more than a pirate band with delusions of legitimacy.
After hundreds of years of unrestrained total warfare, the massive armies of the Great Houses have dwindled, the apocalyptic fleets of Warships have faded into distant memory, and both political expediency and strained resources have limited most conflict to the terrestrial battlefield. And in this theater of small-scale land-based combat, the Battlemech is king. As such, Mechwarriors are often held up as the new knights of the 31st Century, since they wield tremendous power that takes incredible skill and years of experience to master. Mechwarriors often have bombastic personalities, are prone to competitiveness, and will develop rivalries that can last lifetimes (lifetimes that are, just as often as not, cut spectacularly short),
The tone, aesthetic, and technology level of the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe can best be described as “mud and lasers.” Fantastical technology like faster-than-light travel and 20-meter-tall Battlemechs exist and are the focal points of most stories, but other common sci-fi staples such as aliens, nano-machines, and artificial intelligence either don’t exist at all, have been lost due to centuries of brutal warfare, or are simply too expensive and impractical to use. Computers are often bulky and slow, data is stored and carried in physical media like floppy discs and tapes, and hacking an enemy computer requires you to physically plug into it since the 31st Century equivalent of the internet is primitive and basic. In short, it’s the future, but it’s the 80s future.
TL;DR: take the hot-shot fighter pilots from Top Gun, the lo-fi cassette-futurism of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and the Machiavelian intrigue of Game of Thrones, and you’ve more or less got Mechwarrior.
For a more detailed dive into the lore of the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe, see the Lore Primer here.
R U L E S
- All official announcements and discussion will be made in the OOC thread. To avoid an overabundance of chatter, basic chat will be done in our Discord channel, which you can find here.
- This game is managed by two Gamemasters, @AndyC as the primary GM and @Pilatus as AGM. Any questions regarding rulings should be directed to them, but their say is final.
- In addition to the typical GM duties of accepting/declining character applications, resolving disputes, and answering questions regarding the game, the GMs will also be playing the roles of the Commanding Officer, the Opposing Forces, and other prominent NPCs. While the Commanding Officer will give general orders (i.e. “disable the enemy’s airfield”), the players will have total discretion as to how they go about it.
- Players have the option to play up to two characters, providing different roles (a Mechwarrior, an aerospace pilot, an infantry commander, etc).
- When creating your character, bear in mind the name of the game: ‘Disposable Heroes.’ While we encourage creating a compelling character, tropes that reek of ‘main character syndrome’ will likely not be accepted. I.e. no Chosen Ones, long-lost heirs of the Star League, or secret Clanners. In addition, while Mechwarrior can have its share of grim and grit, brooding loners are discouraged; this is meant to be a cooperative game, so make sure your character can function as part of a team.
- Explicit lore details in your character’s backstory are nice, but not required. If you are playing an ex-pirate, for example, you do not need to spend hours poring over Sarna to find the exact pirate band.
- If you do wish to incorporate more specific lore details into your character, I’ve created a Lore Primer for people who are unfamiliar with the setting. The Primer can be read here.
- When choosing your ‘Mech or vehicle, it must be one that is in regular service in the Inner Sphere by the year 3030. Extinct LosTech ‘Mechs, futuristic Clan ‘Mechs, and custom jobs are not allowed. In addition, for the early portion of the game, Assault ‘Mechs are off the table– the idea of the Green Knights being rag-tag underdogs falls through if everyone is stomping around in an Atlas.
- If you are unfamiliar with the various Battlemechs and other combat vehicles available, I have compiled a list of the most common and popular vehicles of the era as part of the Character Generator, which can be found here.
- Writing expectations for this roleplay are at least two well-developed paragraphs as a minimum per post, with three to five being the preferred standard. Fancy formatting like colored text and adding pictures is nice, but not required.
- During 'Mech combat, keep the results of your attacks open-ended (i.e. "Bob shoots his Large Laser at the enemy 'Mech," rather than "Bob's Large Laser blasts off the enemy 'Mech's head.") To capture the chaotic nature of combat (and the chance-heavy nature of Battletech itself), some elements of combat are going to be left to chance, as described below.
- You are required to post at least once per character within a fourteen (14) day period. There will be a post-check-in, once per week performed by the GMs in order to ensure the IC is moving consistently. Extensions will be given in extenuating circumstances. Please recognize your limitations before joining the RP; if you are unable to post once every two weeks, then it's highly likely that you do not have enough time to keep up with the RP. In the event that you do miss the deadline, your character will be listed as 'inactive'. After a further week of inactivity, your character will be expelled, and dealt with as necessary in the IC, whether killed or used as needed and then discarded. This whole process is simply easier if you just let the GM know if you're unable to keep up or simply have lost interest in the RP. If you find yourself in a plot with another player and they disappear, do your best to move on without them and quickly finish the arc to the best of your ability, or ask for the help of a GM.
M E C H A N I C S
Battletech is infamous for being a very rules-heavy, dice-dependent game, and while the GM is not going to require players to know these rules, 'Mech-on-'Mech combat is going to incorporate some dice for flavor. These are meant to be a tool for the storytelling, to replicate the chaotic nature of 'Mech combat, but the narrative will not be beholden to dice-rolling. We are not going to expect you to write out a post describing what you want to do, then say "you miss because the dice say no, lol."
Instead, dice mechanics will determine things like where on an enemy 'Mech your attack hit, or how many missiles in your salvo connect with the target. This is why the rules ask for you to keep combat posts open-ended; the GMs will read the players' posts to see what they are intending to do, will then determine the results, and post them as part of the opposing force's response. (i.e. Player: "Bob shoots at the enemy 'Mech with his Large Laser." GM: [rolls 2d6, with a result of 8, and consults the Hit Location table] "The Laser hits the 'Mech in the Left Torso") You'll always succeed at the thing you set out to do; the dice-- and the GMs' interpretation of them-- will just determine how much you succeed at it.
The enemy characters, however, will be determined by dice rolls entirely, hitting and missing as the rolls declare. The only instance where this will be overridden is in the case of lethal damage-- because this is a Casual game, the GMs will not kill a PC without the player's express permission.
C H A R A C T E R A P P L I C A T I O N
If you wish to either roll for your options or see a list of examples for inspiration, see the Character Generator here. You are allowed to pick options that are not on this list, provided they are within the limits described in the Rules.
For a detailed primer on the lore of the setting, click here.
Character Name:
Self-explanatory
Callsign:
What nickname does your character go by in combat?
Character Archetype:
Describe your character’s “high concept” in one phrase (ex: Hotshot pilot, Grizzled Veteran, Disgraced Hero, etc)
Character’s Guiding Motto:
What are the words your character lives by, that informs their actions and decisions? (ex: “Mind over muscle,” “Let God sort ‘em out”)
Character’s Fatal Flaw:
What character trait or element of their past keeps getting your character into
trouble? (ex: Short temper, Can’t resist a chance to show off)
Character’s Expertise:
Other than piloting their vehicle of choice, what are the three other main things your character brings to the team? (ex: Cyberwarfare, Knowledge of History, Negotiation) These are not the only things your character can do, but the things they do best.
Nationality/Allegiance:
In what nation was your character born? Are they a proud loyalist, an indifferent independent, a disillusioned expatriate, etc?
Background:
What kind of life did your character lead? Have they seen combat before? How long have they been with the Green Knights?
Battlemech or Vehicle:
What hardware does your character bring into battle?
1x Like
