Because folks keep linking to the OSSR.
This chapter, the last section in the book (except for a writeup of the dwarven city-mech of Nedderpik), is all about the campaigns. It goes into various aspects of the setting and How They're Good for Adventuring. At least it's not getting insultingly specific; the first one goes into how many opportunities are open to characters on mechs or who own their own mech.
It also mentions that in "Mech Warrior" campaigns--groups which are focused on fighting other mechs--that normal fighters are virtually useless, unless they're specced out for archery.
Heh heh heh, Someone finally said 'fighters are useless' in an official book!
Anyway, it goes at length about how characters could acquire their mechs, and even points out that Jump and Reduce Person are nice for mech-invasion and theft, and second-level spells are even better, and mentions that you better plan accordingly for players who want to play boarders who bypass controlling a mech or a piece of a mech in exchange for just ripping into one and attacking it from the inside. So at least the authors here acknowledged player psychology and advised people to plan accordingly.
I have to give Goodman Games credit for benevolence, they're not out to punish players for thinking that a casting of Web on a mech's engine can screw it up, and they even suggest getting fluid on what skills and feats characters can start with: Like letting everyone has Mech Weapon Proficiency if the campaign's mech-piloting-heavy, instead of making the party fighter pay out a feat. It's kinda refreshing.
Anyway, it goes on about adventures based on the lunar rains--a lot more scanty than the section on mechs--and then about the deific war going on, which is also a lot more vague. They can't all be winners, I suppose.
Then it gets into political possibilities of campaigns. City-mech politics can be a thing players can make a difference in, and even kingdom-founding. If you're the most powerful badass in an area, and people do what you say in exchange for you kicking ass on their behalf, you effectively rule said area.
It does a have a fairly neat paragraph on the generational tensions of dwarves. In traditional dwarven culture, the oldest and/or the most skilled fighters ruled, a rule by the experienced and like a lot of old people they assume that because they're older they have more experience. The Gearwrights and the groups they spawn, though, don't care about your age, it's how you think. So some of the old clan stalwarts simply can't understand the argument that this young dwarf is put in charge over older dwarves (because she knows how to make a mech walk over rough ground, or because she designed a self-loading cannon which is cheaper to build than the old designs and has some ideas about making cannons that shoot things that don't need to be propelled out by vented steam). And they can't understand the young 'uns not respecting the idea of settling grievances in the old time-honored way of axes and a clear space about forty feet wide.
It also suggests dungeon-crawl heavy campaign--you know, lots of ruins around, tons of magical stuff lying under rubble, you get the idea, can do a lot of traditional D&D dungeon crawls, except know you're playing as a guy with a metal right arm.
Now, after a run of several pages of some sensible suggestions, they finally trip up: The tension between the new steam tech and the old magic. And says stuff like 'spellcasters might find themselves ostacized on a city-mech.'
Which is fucking dumb. Just a few pages ago it made it clear that an inventive spellcaster is a boon to know and a curse upon mechs--casting Web in the engines, all that--and it's a setting thing that magic is still very effective at solving problems. The idea of any institutionalized hostility or unfriendliness between spellcasters and steamtech, in a setting where the cultural values have shifted to valuing effectiveness above all, is just plain stupid and doesn't make sense.
I shoulda worn an oven mitt before reading this, my face stings a bit.
Well, okay, there's still holdouts old enough to remember the old days, but the idea of the new organizations being unfriendly to spellcasters...eesh.
I'll post this up, even though I'm not through the Campaigns chapter. Next up: Adventuring on a City-Mech