Book 1: Mercenary Second Edition

[alex_greene]

Cadre plus indigenous troops and equipment would seem the striker economy package.

Basically, it costs less to just ship a whole bunch of weapons to the locals you want to recruit, set up training camps in the wilderness, go about the villages recruiting strong, young, disaffected men - and women - arm them to the teeth and train them to go and kill in the name of your paying client, rather than actually go in, boots on the ground. Let someone else do all the dying. That's a mug's game.

 

[collins355]

You probably would want to focus on Imperium military traditions and training, since I'd assume most of the activities would remain within it's nominal borders and against actors familiar with and trained similarly.

I have done a fair amount of that, spec'ing out the Imperial Army and such, to then use as a basis for other militaries. Here is a TOE of the unit shipped to Efate shortly before the Fifth Frontier War in the TNS blurb:

One thing about the Imperial Military, it has size, so that the Imperium can overwhelm smaller militaries. This can hide deficiencies, Rome had a tendency to be this way, with easy victories against the northern barbarians had dire import as to when they met the Parthians.

Dragoner,

not wanting at all to quash your creative juices. But, your TO&E for the 1197th illustrates the perils of this type of effort (and Mongoose already has enough problems with canon issues). You've given the 1197th sent to Efate Trepida grav tanks. The canon for these is that they were introduced in 1109 (see MegaTrav Rebellion Sourcebook among other references). So, they are highly unlikely to be at Efate prior to the 5FW.

Perhaps you have illustrated the 1197th as it was post-1109

 

[dragoner]

The canon for these is that they were introduced in 1109 (see MegaTrav Rebellion Sourcebook among other references).

Rebellion Sourcebook, page 86, writes they become standard issue in 1109, not introduced; the Trepida would have had to been introduced much earlier to become standard issue, as tank, maintenance and supply units would all have to been withdrawn to be trained with new equipment. The 1197th, being deployed, it would be assumed that it would have an updated TOE (though it doesn't say it shifted from a depot or not, but it is most likely, and SOP for units to received new equipment and training between deployments). This is one aspect where knowing how militaries work is beneficial, and I hope it is included in the v2 of Mercenary.

 

[locarno24]

going low berth appears to be an iffy proposition.

It could be worse, when you actually look through it.

~ You can bump the time increment down (taking longer) to make the check easier

~ You can assume (I certainly would) that military personnel are likely to have a positive END DM - if they know the unit uses low berths as standard, your recruiters will make sure you've got people like that.

~ A mercenary unit is likely to have a qualified medic immediately on hand. Again, double this for low berths.

~ Expert systems and/or autodocs are cheap enough to install if you're already buying a platoon or company's worth of low berths.


So the Low Berth Medic check gets a DM+1(END DM)+2(Medic Skill)+1(Taking more time)+1(Expert Medic Software), which means that even if there are no other bonuses floating around, you're talking about a DM+5, or a roll of a 3+ to succeed.

I know 1/36th casualties still sounds bad, but then that's the reality of a 2D6 system; it jumps from there directly to "no risk at all" - it's the same as making pilot tests when landing your ship; it's not like 1/36 of the landings in the 3I are crashes, is it?

 

[Condottiere]

Most militaries feel uncomfortable with five percent casualties, and very unhappy with ten percent (the casualties may feel worse). Though that's for single engagements during a campaign, not for a one-off battle.

It's one thing to have an allergic reaction at under three percent, it's another if it's inherently fatal.

 

[dragoner]

So if you die, there is no resuscitation? That's not how reality works, nor how we played it in the past.

 

[phavoc]

Here's some thoughts in regards to the sections:

Building a Mercenary Force

* It would be nice to see some verbiage and maybe even a chart/table that talks about differences in skill levels and their affected pay. Saying an infantryman costs Cr3,500/mo is ok, but it doesn't tell us much about the unit. If Rico's Roughnecks are considered an elite team, wouldn't their elite troops and commanders require an additional price associated with their higher skill level and reputation? Conversely, Yarmount's Raiders may have had a string of bad luck, forced to recruit green troops and are only really good for rear-area, low-risk jobs. In this example you might see a charge of Cr5,000 for the Roughnecks, Cr3,500 for 'average' troops, and just Cr2,000 for essentially mall security guys with auto-rifles. Explaining or at least discussing something like this would make it easier for ref's to add more flavor to the game (assuming they want to).

* Some variations in the TO&E of an organization would be a nice flavor too. Maybe some units prefer 3-man squads grouped into 8 squads per platoon. We know today that you can get specialized groups that run in non-standard platoon sizes. If this is to be a free-form discussion of organizing your units, giving people who've never been in the military some insight on why you want to organize along specific lines of troop clusters would be a nice add. Sometimes you may see units that are distinctly different and non-Imperial standard - and they still work out well. It's kind of boring to have cookie-cutter molds for everything.

Which would give rise rise to the definition of a company being 120-150 personnel, and then if it's considered "overstrength" it may contain say 20-40% more than standard. Plus some vehicle companies will have additional support guys to maintain everything, etc, etc.

* James Dunnigan wrote a book called "How to Make War". Buried inside is an interesting part of the war fighting that very few people understand. It's the supply line. In the book he breaks down roughly how much supplies and ammunition a unit will go through for non-combat, and varying levels of assault. Supplies are kinda boring, but depending on how you are running your game, getting that weekly supply ship in with it's 100 Dtons of supplies might be pretty damn important to you. Stocking up for an assault or defense is important, especially if your assault requires say a pre-attack bombardment and you only have 10% of the ammunition you need. Or you've been going through heavy fighting and the enemy managed to shoot down your resupply ship or destroy a resupply convoy. Then you can't fight offensively, just defensively to conserve your ammunition. I'd not want to go into the level of detail he writes about, but just having a rough guestimate of how many Dtons of supplies are required (and this includes the magical spare parts to fix the things that went 'Boom!') might be useful to some refs and players.

Equipment and Vehicles

* Not everyone is going to be able to afford top of the line GCarriers, or grav tanks. But a TL8 artillery company can play whack-a-mole with your TL10 infantry battalion from 150km away. It would be nice to see a good array of equipment with various TL requirements. Mercs are generally going to be equipped with decent gear, but they'll probably be hap-hazardly equipped depending on their pockets. I'm assuming the same sets of rules to build out a PC-equipped unit will also be usable to build out planetary defense units and the like? If that's the case then it makes a lot of sense to go into details about how the various TL's gear and vehicles work out.

* Hopefully there will be a balance discussion of offensive vs. defensive. Pretty much every weapon and scheme has a counter, or eventually will have a counter to it. Artillery used to rule, then out came counter-battery radar and all of a sudden you had artillery duels. Tanks have ruled the battlefield for a while, and infantry used to flee, but now they can take on tanks with a fair chance of surviving. Anti-tank missiles used to be the rule, but now we have defenses, and eventually there will be more point defense to shoot them down. Which means anti-tank missile might have to go to hypervelocity, or be extremely short-ranged where the tank doesn't get a chance to intercept (aka buzz bombs in Hammer's Slammers). Even the artillery shell or rocket on a ballistic trajectory can be upgraded with rocket-assisted-projectiles to give them longer range and randomized speeds to make it more difficult to be shot down.

 

[dragoner]

I was going to suggest some books, before being sidetracked with the Trepida thing (it's introduction date should be moved back to whenever the TL14 age of the Imperium is, it's too ubiquitous for being so new, considering the logistical footprint systems like AFV's have).
In the past I had memorized not only the LBB's but this:

plus the reading list and whatever our instructors threw on top of that.

Then again, maybe just:

The Authority of the Military Leadership

Military authority, directing the armed forces, is the matter of the authoritative power of the leading general.

If the general can hold the authority of the military and operate its power, he oversees his subordinates like a fierce tiger with wings, flying over the four seas, going into action whenever there is an encounter.

If the general loses his authority and cannot control the power, he is like a dragon cast into a lake, he may seek the freedom of the high sea, but how can he get there?
-Kongming

Enough would be to know some theory like economy of force: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_force

Principles of war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_War

and stuff like force majeure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure
Which applies not just to combat, but contracts, such as if the Imperial Marines arrive, the average merc isn't going to take them on.

Hortalez et Cie: http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Hortalez_et_Cie could also be detailed in how they are a mercenary clearing house.

One thing I really liked from the original was the morale rules.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I know that this is likely to be an unpopular opinion, but I'd recommend keeping the Mercenary book fairly generic and producing a companion volume about running military campaigns in the OTU. I feel that the core rules should be applicable to a wide range of SF settings while the Third Imperium product line should focus exclusively on the OTU as a campaign setting. Although most Traveller games are set in the classic 3I setting, some gamers prefer to create their own setting or use one developed by a third-party publisher. Ideally, the revised Mercenary book should be useful to these gamers as well. It would also be great if at least some of the material in the revised book is applicable to the 2300 AD setting.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I know that this is likely to be an unpopular opinion, but I'd recommend keeping the Mercenary book fairly generic

That is the plan

 

[CosmicGamer]

Matt, how about a 3I version for some of the generic books? More detail of how Mercenaries, Psions, Scouts, and so on operate within the 3I setting.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Low Berth Lottery - hard to win if no one dies.

2. I guess incorporate some parts of Striker, including the reasoning why military units tend to be structured a certain way.

3. Independent modules for specific scenarios and/or militaries or mercenary units? I don't know the economics of DLCs.

 

[phavoc]

Actually, now that it's been brought up, has any thought gone into making this a series of supplements, rather than trying to cram everything into a single book?

Having multiples would, of course, drag out some of the aspects of trying to create the entire platform in one fell swoop. But it would give the opportunity to put out better detailed, higher-quality issues.

 

[dragoner]

Generic sounds good to me. What will make me buy it is most likely the ironmongery and any ships, with the caveat that neither operate from different assumptions than the rest of the equipment and ships.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Matt, how about a 3I version for some of the generic books? More detail of how Mercenaries, Psions, Scouts, and so on operate within the 3I setting.

I don't know whether it is necessary to release a separate 3I version of each rules expansion, but it might be a good idea to release a 3I book right after the generic book that showcases how the new rules can be applied to the 3I setting. If this was done right, it would drive sales of both product lines.

One of the problems that an established game like Traveller faces is that major rules expansions such as Mercenary get no support - most 3I products use only the core rules because Mongoose (like most publishers) don't want to make it necessary for newcomers to pick up every book in the line just to make sense of a new release. But a single targeted 3I release linked to a rules expansion might be viable - for example, the Psion book might be accompanied by a book that discusses psionics institutes in the 3I and the Agent book might be accompanied by a book that discusses the intelligence agencies of the Imperium and its enemies (including the various subversive groups within the Imperial borders). Likewise, a new version of Mercenary might be accompanied by a book on the various mercenary companies active in the Spinward Marches or on typical military operations within the 3I.

If it's too risky to release a full book on topics that are dependent on an expansion the core rules, maybe a shorter PDF-only release would be a good way to go. I suspect the main problem with implementing this approach would be finding enough good freelance writers with a working knowledge of the 3I setting.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Matt, how about a 3I version for some of the generic books? More detail of how Mercenaries, Psions, Scouts, and so on operate within the 3I setting.

I don't know whether it is necessary to release a separate 3I version of each rules expansion, but it might be a good idea to release a 3I book right after the generic book that showcases how the new rules can be applied to the 3I setting. If this was done right, it would drive sales of both product lines.

One of the problems that an established game like Traveller faces is that major rules expansions such as Mercenary get no support - most 3I products use only the core rules because Mongoose (like most publishers) don't want to make it necessary for newcomers to pick up every book in the line just to make sense of a new release. But a single targeted 3I release linked to a rules expansion might be viable - for example, the Psion book might be accompanied by a book that discusses psionics institutes in the 3I and the Agent book might be accompanied by a book that discusses the intelligence agencies of the Imperium and its enemies (including the various subversive groups within the Imperial borders). Likewise, a new version of Mercenary might be accompanied by a book on the various mercenary companies active in the Spinward Marches or on typical military operations within the 3I.

That is what I meant.

Throw in some topic specific plot hooks and adventures too.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Matt, how about a 3I version for some of the generic books? More detail of how Mercenaries, Psions, Scouts, and so on operate within the 3I setting.

I think that is certainly information worth covering...

 

[Condottiere]

I don't recall if it's covered elsewhere, but one career option could be Megacorp's security forces or strike teams. Though that does seem to land more in the grey area of a paramilitary force between what's officially recognized as the army and a police force.

Another one would be the recruitment of natives to make up Sepoy regiments.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

I realized that my earlier question concerning a "Merc License" for military style ship weapons may have seemed a little out of place. Everything in the Mercenary Book has nothing to do with spaceships or anything else other than ground pounding.
But there are several Mercenary Ships, including the Broadsword.
Therefore I would request 1 or 2 additional specialization Careers to cover "Star Mercs"
Private Merc units doing convoy escort duty, security pickets around private deep space installations etc... should have their own sets of skills, advancements, similar to the ground pounders IMHO.

And all the legal questions.. (Can my Mercenary cruiser have a particle or fusion bay installed?)... can be covered in a chapter covering Star Merc operations. etc..

Thanks Mongoose Guys for your consideration of my request.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Matt, how about a 3I version for some of the generic books? More detail of how Mercenaries, Psions, Scouts, and so on operate within the 3I setting.

I think that is certainly information worth covering...

Can it be as separate book/s? Nobody I know uses 3rd Imperium (and I know a lot of 'Traveller' players).