I've been running a nWoD campaign, a crossover that's been ongoing for several months and going quite strong - although I'd prefer alternatives to White Wolf's extremely clunky storyteller system, the reason why we use it is because of its simplicity and ease of which we could pick it up (well, that and I threw out most of the overcomplicated bloodline shit that we didn't care about anyways...) The game had to be heavily houseruled, but we've been able to iron out a lot of the problems. That said I had a couple ideas to PVP-balance other factions, especially Hunters to avoid running into some of the problems with a crossover game. Eventually, this sort of spun off into another faction that I figured I might try to build an entire game around. I decided to call it "Mercenary: The Asskicking" and portray it as a happy combination between heroic and gritty realism; something like The Expendables, or an eighties action movie. I would also want this to be playable in a crossover game, and provide challenging obstacles for players.
Step one: Name the PCs
We'll refer to them as the Squad, referring to them as a Fireteam if they're assembled to an a group of four, a team if they're assembled to a group of three, or partners if they're assembled to a group of two. Eight or greater will be referred to as a Squad.
Step Two: Write up a Six Person Group
- Officer. This player is in charge of command and morale welfare among the squad. As a team leader, he will most likely be making sure that the team remain together and co-operate together, and has many leadership abilities that assist the squad by lending them mechanical bonuses when they work together to accomplish a common goal. The officer does not outrank the rest of the squad in terms of combat ability or prowness, but instead is designed to direct the rest of the group to operate more efficiently in terms of teamwork.
- Agent. This guy represents a face to the group and handles most of their negotiations. While the Agent lacks combat ability and the survivability that the more combat-oriented classes do, Agents are good at communicating with outsiders, and operating independently and in cover if need be, and also have the ability to make sneak attacks capable of heading off encounters before they start.
- Engineer. Tech and support are the primary responsibilities of the Engineer, along with clearing or helping Heavy Weapons set up. Engineers keep the rest of the group's equipment in good shape, but the most important thing that Engineers bring to the squad are their ability to direct the battlefield, whether through planned setting up of traps, emplacements, or explosives. Engineers also assist the group with technology and often are the guys that will understand layouts in hostile territory. Lastly, Engineers have the ability to sabotage enemy equipment and vehicles.
- Heavy Weapons Specialists are literally the big guns of the squad. What they lack in grace or finesse, they make up for in the ability to throw out more damage dice against massed targets than any other class with their machine guns, as well as their combat survivability.
- Special Weapons Guy. Whereas the Heavy Weapons guy is good at taking on multiple foes with direct fire, Special Weapons engage indirectly, using their knowledge and proficiency of artillery and other large weapons to wreak havoc. While the fact that many of their weapons require more setup and takedown time, and more planning than the Heavy Weapons' guy to be used more effectively, when used correctly, the Special Weapons' guy's artillery, rockets, and grenades bring sheer mass destruction to the battlefield, and are also capable of holding their own in a combat situation.
- Commandos are the other stealthy class of the squad besides the Agent, and like the Agent are often trained in operating independently while still providing support for their group, but whereas an Agent is an infiltrator that hides in plain sight, the Commando prefers to remain hidden and use disruption tactics. While commandos are fairly even in terms of combat ability, their stealth expertise allows them to gain tactical advantages over a disproportionately large force, and in doing so, support their teammates.
Step Three: Write Up A Three Person Group
Party One: Officer, Heavy Weapons Specialist, Engineer.
Party Two: Agent, Special Weapons Guy, Commando.
Step Four: Write up a Simple Adventure and Examples of Play
A group of enemy militia have set up an encampment in a third world country, and are holding hostages inside, demanding an absurd amount of money for their safe release. While the raiders lack training and real military discipline, they have the advantage of superior numbers on their side in addition to having assault rifles, and vehicles. The encampment is protected by chain link fences, and has enough space inside for a barracks and a headquarters building.
To rescue the hostages, the players' elite mercenary squad is contracted to do the grunt work, to go in, break the hostages out of captivity, and escort them to a rendezvous point with the local army where they can be extracted.
Party One:
The engineer investigates the lay of the land, verifying the area is set in a thick, steamy jungle, and comes up with a plan to lay remote mines along a jungle trail while the Officer and Heavy Weapons specialist scout the encampment ahead using the officer's binoculars and find that the enemy has the equivalent of a small army; their raiders are well-armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and have converted a number of pickup trucks into armoured technicals by mounting hillbilly armour and machine guns on them.
At nightfall, the Officer and the Engineer infiltrate the base by having the Engineer cut a hole in the chain link and barbed wire fence using a can of acid, bypassing the sentries at the gate entirely, while the Heavy Weapons guy finds a place to dig in. The Officer keeps watch while the Engineer goes to where the Technicals are parked and uses his sabotage ability and hand grenades to wire the technicals to explode when their engines are turned on before running back to the road. He scatters any explosives he has left around the area.
The Heavy Weapons guy climbs up to a small hill that he and the Officer found earlier, or perhaps a building in the base itself, and sets up his machine gun. The Officer makes a beeline for the stockade where the hostages are kept, and urges them to revolt by using his special talent to inspire courage. As the guards come in to suppress the uprising, the officer shoots them, takes their AK-47s, and gives them to the hostages. The other enemies try to leave the safety of their barracks, but they are kept from getting too close to the stockade because the Heavy Weapons specialist has designated a kill zone in the area and fires his machine gun at them when they come out, pinning them down and breaking away their formations.
After the officer leads the hostages out to a pickup that he called in earlier past the Heavy Weapons guy's position, clearing a path through the guards for the hostages with his assault rifle and the help of some covering fire from the Heavy Weapons guy's machine gun, the Heavy Weapons guy advances to regroup. He covers the Officer and hostages by providing fire support, as the enemies, now getting over the initial shock of the raid, pursue the Officer and the hostages into the jungle. But the jungle is littered with the remote mines that the Engineer planted there earlier during the day. The enemies, not realizing this, run right into the mines and are blown up by the engineer, who has been entrenched in the area and is watching his traps, setting them off by command signals from the control panel the bombs are wired to. The Heavy Weapons guy remains behind as a rearguard to the hostages, using his machine gun to gun down any of the enemies that made it through the minefield or that were too close to be safely disposed of with explosives.
Realizing that their infantry are being slaughtered, but now with the officer and the hostages too far away to give chase on foot, the remaining enemies regroup inside the base and attempt to give chase in their vehicles, but the engineer has sabotaged them. The explosions on the vehicles completely takes out the last wave of enemies. The three mercenaries regroup, and head to the extraction point to be evacuated by friendly forces.
Party Two:
The Agent equips himself with a series of special spy gadgets, including hypodermic needles filled with a deadly, fast-acting neurotoxin. The commando gets his sniper rifle and goes to a hill near the base that gives him a good view of the compound, and observes it through his scope. He is able to find out that the raiders have built technicals. The Special Weapons guy requisitions a rocket launcher.
Posing as a hostage negotiator, the Agent takes a briefcase full of money to the leader of the raiders and demands to talk. The warlord is guarded at all times by two of the best guards. The Commando watches this through his sniper scope, with the Special Weapons Specialist standing by as a nearby spotter as a contingency plan in case something goes wrong. The agent stalls until nightfall, but the sum of money is too small and the Agent isn't able to talk the warlord into accepting the money for their release, but is able to talk the warlord into granting him a private audience. He opens a window for a bit of air in the warlord's stuffy room while making small talk to put him off guard. After the guards leave, the Agent kills the warlord by injecting him with the neurotoxin, hides the body inside the closet, and gets behind the door. When the guards come back, the Commando kills one by shooting him in the head through the open window with his sniper rifle, and the Agent kills the other by sneak attacking him from behind, using a garrote, then takes his uniform. As the Agent disposes of the bodies, the Special Weapons guy goes into the jungle and sets up mortars a short, but safe distance into the jungle nearby. Keeping careful track of the time, as it's about sundown now, he pre-sights the barracks and a number of other buildings inside the compound for artillery fire.
It gets dark. As the rest of the camp panics over the death of the warlord, the Agent calmly makes his way toward the stockade, casually making small-talk among the other guards in their native language to pass himself off. The Commando leaves his foxhole and heads in, using his knife and the darkness to sneak-attack the guards on his way, clearing a path for the team's escape later. After he cuts his way through the guards, pun intended, the Commando hides the bodies in a ditch. The Agent has pinned an inconspicuous identifier on his person, such as a red bandanna, to protect himself from friendly fire. To further ensure no mistakes, the two identify each other using an inconspicuous challenge that wouldn't draw attention if overheard ("Hey, you out there, you have a cigarette?" "Only the crappy import pieces of shit, bud.")
Once the Agent and the Commando have regrouped, they kill the guards around the stockade using their garrotes, poisoned needles, and knives. While this is going on, the Special Weapons guy breaks out the ammunition and readies the weapons he has pre-sighted, and watches the action in the base via a TV screen receiving live feed from a spy camera pinned to the Agent's clothes and through a pair of binoculars. Just as the alarm bell sounds when the night patrol realizes they've been double-crossed when they stumble across the body of the warlord stuffed into the broom closet, the Special Weapons guy starts the bombardment from his mortars, raining death on the enemy soldiers and causing widespread panic as the bombs begin to fall, and also providing cover for his teammates by lobbing smoke grenades around the area to prevent the enemy snipers from getting a bead on them until they reach the jungle. This buys time for the Agent and the Commando to scramble the hostages and run away through the path the Commando cleared earlier through the guards along the road, and start leading the hostages down the road to the extraction point.
Now with the realization they're under attack, the surviving guards scramble to their vehicles to respond. To cover his squadmates' and the hostages' retreat, the Special Weapons guy switches to the rocket launcher he requisitioned earlier, packs up his mortars, and goes over to a point in the road where the road is relatively straight, making the exposed trucks an easy target. When the up-armoured technicals come rolling through his 'kill zone,' he shoots each of them with the rocket launcher. The vehicles are bullet proof but the rocket launcher is designed to take down armour, and so destroys their vehicles and the pursuers inside. Once the Special Weapons guy has destroyed all the vehicles, he switches to his assault rifle and shoots down any survivors that make it out of the tangled wreckage.
Once all the hostiles have been neutralized, the team and the hostages proceed to the extraction point to be evacuated by friendly forces.
References and some Inspirations
The context and reasoning for these are still pending.
Video Games:
"Army of Two" and "Army of Two: The 40th Day" by EA Games
"Soldier of Fortune" by Raven Software
"Duke Nukem 3D" by 3DRealms
"Splinter Cell: Conviction" by Ubisoft
"Far Cry 2" by Ubisoft
The "Gears of War" series by Epic Games
"Call of Duty: Black Ops", "Modern Warfare" and "Modern Warfare 2" by Treyarch/Infinity Ward
Movies:
"Commando" starring Sylvester Stallone, 1985
"Rambo IV" starring Sylvester Stallone, 2008
"The Expendables" directed and starring Sylvester Stallone, 2010
"We Were Soldiers", starring Mel Gibson, 2002
the "Die Hard" series, starring Bruce Willis
"Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1987
"Black Hawk Down" directed by Ridley Scott, 2001
"xXx" (Triple X) starring Vin Diesel, 2002
"The A-Team"
Books:
"Black Hawk Down" by Mark Bowden
"We Were Soldiers Once… and Young" by Hal Moore
"In the Company of Heroes" by Michael Durant
Music:
Hans Zimmer, mainly for the Black Hawk Down and Modern Warfare 2 soundtrack.
Anything by Lamb of God
"10,000 Days" by Tool
"Total Brutal" by Austrian Death Machine
The song "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent
Obviously I've still got a lot more to do, but this is a start. I'll be working on the mathematics and the balancing issues as I go along, I figured I'd start with the premise of the game first. What do you guys think?
Any feedback's appreciated. Thanks.