BCCS Idea Thread for me, Not for any in Rel's playgroup!

[Riggs]

I can't get everything in the subject line, but this thread started because I needed to stop hijacking another thread and get ideas from Old One and Henry who have run campaigns in at least part of BCCS system. All are welcome to contribute of course.

My future campaign has these parameters:
1. Purely BCCS rules with house rules, no hybrids with other systems in general.
2. Focus on Northern Empire history, so players need only have knowlegde of Book 1 should they choose to re-read. Setting will likely be in the East, in the direction of Tally, etc.
3. Setting is post-Battle of Charm but before the exodus south, so the Lady is still in charge but we have the nice mystery of which Taken are dead or not.
4. Players are not in the Black Company, but have heard some rumors/stories

ok, now a lot of this is sounding board, and I'm open to any thoughts or advice to help the newbie DM in the BCCS world. I'm open to anything, like "you gotta try this" or "beware of this combo or snafu we tend toward" etc.

Thanks in advance

 

[Riggs]

Pre-campaign one-off idea

Ok just to get this started, I have a gaming group that is fairly familiar with at least the books of the North, so that is good.

I have and have read all the books and have played a mage in a BCCS hybrid game by Old One and with Henry and spoke with them about the system prior, so that is why they are named, etc. I have the only BCCS book.

Ok I see three big things that my group needs to 'get the hang of' to play effectively in the BCCS format:

[1]Surprise round/combat is deadly
[2]Magic is different
[3]Combat at the different levels is different

So what I decided I will do is work up a one-off with pregens to let each player who wants to taste each of these three situations. So I will do part of the adventure on the Character level. Next, I'll switch around the pregenned characters and do something at the Company level, then again the mix and Army level. In this way, the players taste the levels of combat/mechanics and each can try out a mage/officer and all can taste how easy it is to kill and die. As a more subtle thing, they also get to see how command feats work and the treasure flow (low GP and magic, more SP and quality items) etc. (Note, I'll swap out pregens at each stage with new pregens, not simply a hand to the left deal, so they can now have officers with command feats when at the Army level. Also I'll plan to spend more time at Char level than Army, say)

What I hope to gain from this is:

1. The players choosing what effective level of combat/play they prefer so they can better choose feats/classes/skills
2. Who might like to play a mage
3. To knock off any hard edges or surprises when some die. Pregens sit better dead than PCs

This one-off will likely have 0 to do with the campaign--but could!

Feedback from the group has been positive with this idea.

Thoughts?

 

[Henry]

All right, a few things I learned from my two games of it:

1) The surprise round is indeed deadly. The groups' collective jaw will hit the floor the first time one of them is "surprised to death." For our group, all it took was watching the results to the NPCs they snuck up on for them to get the idea.

2) The Massive Damage Threshold, is deadlier to the NPCs than the PCs, on average, because of how high it is, but I underscored the point of wariness in our combat when some of the NPC allies in their company died from gut wounds, arms lopped off, etc. You guys, having been former Rolemaster players, will appreciate that crit chart's
simplicity compared to a Rolemaster or HARP. Similar lethality for less investment.

I'm going to attach the Simple rules document I made up for our game to this post. WARNING: You need to amend the "Advantage" and "initiative" rules I used, as well as a couple of the results on the crit chart, if you want to use it as RULES-WRITTEN. However, it will give you a helpful start for a handout for them.

3) Mages should have some sample pre-done spells done for them, so they can throw some stuff on the fly without having to worry about making spells from scratch.

Also attached are some of the sample NPCs for my one-shot. NOTE the Mage, Judge, and what I did for the second sheet for him - included about 10 or 12 sample spells organized by time and drain.

4) Give your people time to rest between encounters - more specifically, I mean try to avoid any "battle after battle" scenarios or "the clock is ticking" scenarios unless dramatically appropriate. As you well remember in our Gameday one-shot, the way healing worked sharply curtails the amount of pushing onward a party can do. The more they push onward relentlessly without stopping, the more hopeless they'll feel. They'll have maxxed hitpoints but be paper tigers.

5) For the main campaign, have them make up two PCs ahead of time. Even if they play craftily but the dice are against them, they won't have to invest as much time in rebuilding. If this doesn't set well, be ready to mitigate debilitating wounds instead of gut-wounds and amputations. In fact, you could make that a function of Action point expense. What I would encourage, is for them to not worry about playing a character with an injury. Part of the dark charm of those books was how people would be missing an eye, or missing a finger, or have some wicked scar, and yet they go on! You could house rule that, unless they're missing both arms, or missing their whole leg, or something, then by the next session, or next level, what have you, they've learned to compensate for their loss.

6) Since you know the Annals, you should have a much easier time with plots and scenarios. The best scenario I'd suggest is a series of two or three session arcs, with a month or so of gametime in between, especially after a character death. That way, roster changes are easier explained, if someone wants to create another character for replacement.

Man, I'd love to get Robert Schwalb Or Owen Stephens in on this to give some advice. They wrote the thing.

 

[Riggs]

Thanks a ton, Henry!

I agree, and will be looking over your attachments. Gotta run take the kids out for some fun and energy burn, but I'll be a-pondering.

 

[Old One]

Riggs,

Sorry I won't be at the next NC Game Day...but here are a couple of random, non-ordered thoughts/questions...

(1) What level are you planning to start them at? Assuming they are survivors of Charm, I might suggest level 3 (or even 4).

(2) I am assuming you are going to have the on-going PCs be Black Company, yes? If so, I suggest a band of new(er) recruits that have joined the company since it followed Soulcatcher north across the Sea of Torments. It could be a hodge-podge that was picked up during the retreat south from the Fortress at Deal/Roses/Meystrikt before the final showdown at Charm.

(3) As far as setting, I would suggest somewhere to the east...perhaps around Rust or even the Kingdom of Tally. These are "off-stage" for pretty much the whole series of novels, so you can pretty much have a free hand in creating "stuff". Actions the PCs take won't have much of an impact on the "real" timeline in the novels and you will be able to use the action in the novels as a back drop for what is happening in the east.

(4) As far as mission...a couple of things come to mind. First, some of the rebel leadership escaped the Battle at Charm and scattered to the four winds. One cell fled east and a detachment from the Company has been tasked with tracking them down and eliminating them (since the Lady doesn't trust the few remaining Taken). Not wanting to send any of the "old" hands on such a mission, the Captain cobbles together a team from the more recent recruits, puts them under the command of a seasoned NCO and sends them off. Another way to go - one you already mentioned - is trying to track down a "fallen, but not really" Taken (I would think about reserving this for later in the campaign, however...eventually setting up one of the Taken as an arch-nemesis). Finally, it could be something less glamorous, but with the ability to pull lots of different elements together...like being sent to a remote monestary (I still like the east) to research the True Name(s) of one or more of the surviving rebel leaders. From this humble start...you could pull in rebels (trying to protect the names), rogue Taken (trying to also find the names and/or the Lady's True Name), mercenaries/bounty hunters after the rebels, a secret order of Zealots dedicated to resurrecting the Dominator (and, of course, using the monestary as their HQ)...all kinds of fun stuff.

For the last one-shot: Since I just finished re-reading Xenophon's Anabasis again, I would switch the order of your "practice" rounds. I would take them through the "magic is different" and the "combat at different levels" scenarios first, but save the "surprise sound/combat is deadly". I would have them make up their PCs after the first 2 "practice" rounds...but then give them the detachment leadership for PreGen's as the last iteration. Have the head of the column (with the PreGen NPCs) get ambushed by rebels, bandits, bounty hunters, renegade imperials, or somebody else with a grudge against the BC and really pound them in the a$$. At the end of the encounter...when the detachment leadership is dead and/or dying...then you start the campaign...2,000 miles away from home with no leaders, what do they do . Of course, I tend to be an evil bastard like that !

Let us know how else we can help!

~ OO

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hey.

I really like every element of the BCCS mass combat system with one caveat:

I can't figure out how to run individual characters against squads or companies. In the book this level of combat happens pretty frequently, Limper vs. the Company comes to mind, and the BCCS says you should be able to do it but I can't figure out how.

Basicly, I can't figure out how a company scale unit does character scale damage and I can't figure out how a character scale unit does company scale damage.

If I could I would declare this best ever and use it exclusively.

 

[Riggs]

Dr. Strangemonkey: I don't know I haven't read that closely yet since this is all future for me. I would recommend the green ronin forum and post under the Mythic Vistas header.

Old One: Thanks! And I'll be putting my campaign ideas here Monday likely.

I can say a few things though:

I don't know what level to start them, I was thinking of letting my pre-gen creation dictate that for me, since if I think they are soft I might go up a level or so. 3 sounds good maybe.

As for time, this is post-Charm but these guys weren't there. And they are not the Black Company. I plan to have them know of them (Charm news and rumors surrounding Lady) but they get to name their own. However, I do like your method of leaving them at the start with a big ol bruise

Location: I had planned for the East, lots of open areas there so sounded good to me.

I kinda like the idea of having this band part of an existing Company (I'll name them) and they get hired to help destroy the fleeing rebel groups and then after an ***-kicking, they can then decide if they want to try and regrow their Company or start a new one they can name...

Lastly, just because I don't think I was clear, my top three things to impart are Magic is different, surprise kills and multi-level combats, but the segments I was planning for the one-off were more based around the combat levels. At each level, pre-gens are passed out and roles rotated and levels experienced from Character to Army and that way they can surprise me maybe with a desire to do a campaign at an Army level as all Mages

I'll let the surprise round fall as it will, and the magery thing will get felt as pre-gens change hands.

But this is a good time to solicit opinions on that format. Imagine the night in thirds roughly, with Character, Company and Army levels each with a third (but really, I think the Army level won't take a third and Company a bit less and mostly Character) and each time they get new pre-gens to use so each can try magic if they like, etc. Oh and one will have healing skills so they can bemoan how limited that can be. I'd let them choose their initial pre-gens so the one that wants to play a mage gets it the longest to try it out.

I'll take Henry's advice and map out several basic and useful spells for the mages with all the math so they can see it/modify from there.

 

[Old One]

Hey.

I really like every element of the BCCS mass combat system with one caveat:

I can't figure out how to run individual characters against squads or companies. In the book this level of combat happens pretty frequently, Limper vs. the Company comes to mind, and the BCCS says you should be able to do it but I can't figure out how.

Basicly, I can't figure out how a company scale unit does character scale damage and I can't figure out how a character scale unit does company scale damage.

If I could I would declare this best ever and use it exclusively.

DSM,

The section you are looking for is on pp. 140-141 of the BCCS Book, "Character Scale Actions within Company Scale". Basically, it gives PCs 4 rounds of actions per "round" of Company Scale actions...although I don't think they get to affect Company Scale if they chose to act in Character Scale.

I see the dilemma, however, since you really can't "mix" the scales...hmm...

~ OO

 

[Riggs]

Campaign Thoughts 1

Ok I said I would try to add my current musings and ideas for a campaign to flesh out the parameters a bit to help you help me.

I mentioned wanting to play in the East, and my notes say Rust is the border of said area and all further east than that, such as Heart, Tome and Were. If anyone knows why any of these towns are good or not good for some reason (like it's in a null zone, or has a giant Taken bath house or something )

I also do not want to introduce a Taken right away, but will have one or more involved at some point. I figure that of the Taken that are not confirmed dead and do not show up later in the South, I have Nightcrawler, Bonegnasher, The Faceless Man and Moonbiter to work with and no continuity issues. I'll choose one or more later.

A few plot ideas to base from:
1) A Taken has escaped Charm and seems to have successfully fooled The Lady into thinking they are dead. Empire-building time in the East, and based on the model known to them, they hire mercs and mooks to help. A solicitation to enlist them is sort of in the Soulcatcher/Beryl format where it seems reasonable or lesser of two evils. This thread seems contrived and like the book for the first run. I thought of this while trying too hard to keep the feel from the book, but I figure to drop this idea in later or not at all.
2) Born from the ruinations happening up to and including Charm, several cults and doomsayers have sprung up. One such cult involves communion with the dead. This cult is a facade by a mage looking to achieve 4th magnitude. His method involves reviving a slain Taken and then becoming Taken himself. The trick for him is, he will keep the revived Taken on "life support" and have already ordered his servants to cut life support after 10 days of reviving him (thus getting the mage around the 'cannot harm your master' rule. As usual, this idea is not flawless and gets the mage in trouble. What the party experiences is working for a driven 'priest' for name lore, etc. and hen suddenly working subtly for a Taken, then directly for one later, for them to decide how to proceed.
3) During a hired raid of spies, the party comes across some decent loot, and some magical. some bit of something (say amulet for fun here) is of value (pretend +1 AC or +10 Magic Use). So someone keeps it. A few nights laer, strange disembodied dreams happen and after that, during the day the wearer catches glimpses from another perspective that are nowhere near his place. The amulet is causing this, as it is part of a conglomerated magic item, and it occasionally lets the wearer see through the eyes of another wearer. The item is evil and intelligent and wants to be reassembled. I had originally thought to use this as a starter since I could have the thing have 10 parts and one mage had like 6 or 7 of them already and hunt down the company to get the other parts. The player might realize the perspective is close, or of a town they had been in, etc. Eventually, they defeat the mage, have all the parts and the Captain assembles it with the help of the party mages and the amulet subjugates the Captain. After some highly-questionable orders and risks outside his normal character, the Lieutenant decides it's time to confine the Captain, and they fight and both die. Now the Company is without leadership, and some of the old brothers leave after a squabble or depression, etc. Time for new officers!

A few random ideas as well:

1) Since magic treasure is limited, I was going to reward them more with crafted items, magic boons and lore, and also reward XP for anything metagame to crete immersion, like a paited mini with the colors or a standard bearer mini or such.
2) I will have all of them write up backstories that only I know (why they are here, etc.) and from that I will give them a Comany name (based on a quirk, a story thread or appearance or skill) and they can veto that but not edit it, since you don't get to name yourself IRL.
3) Oh and I plan to allow them at least a few different contracts to take whenever they are unassigned so they aren't feeling railroaded. I also want them to get the feel like the BC did of "yeah we picked this mess, but it's still a mess" once they are in a contract.

ok this is too long now, so I'll stop

 

[Old One]

Riggs,

A couple of random thoughts...

My favorite saying as a DM is "Wheels within wheels within wheels". Deception and misdirection are two huge factors in the BC universe, especially for a Taken that has recently escaped the Lady's clutches and is intent on building its own kingdom in the East, so I am going to posit a different angle on this.

The initial employer of the Company is an old merchant concern that has fallen on hard times. The recent return of a prodigal son has re-energized the trading coster and it sets about re-establishing old trade routes and engaging merchantile rivals in small, back-alley wars through the cities of the East. This would be perfect for small unit actions - guarding caravans, bullying unwilling merchants, etc. I kinde of liken it to Merchantile Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries...Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice, Siena all duking it out. This of course, leads to lots of employment opporunities for mercs.

The real set-up, however, is that the Taken has run across an ancient manuscript that describes an ancient weapon/foozle/whatever that was broken up by the Lords of Light (a cabal of sorta good wizards) long ago and secreted/incorporated into a number of mundage objects (works d' art, furniture, the heriditary crown of the merchant king of Ade, that type of thing).

The merchant house is the cover for the Taken to start recovering and assembling said artifact. Initially, the missions will be fairly mundane, allowing the PCs to get their feet wet in the BCCS world...but as time goes on, they will start running across other power groups looking for/fighting over the same seemingly mundane items.

This is where you bring in the wizard and agents...he/she knows about the Taken (but not the artifact) and will try to capture the Taken to fuel his/her own rise to the 4th magnitude. You can have a doomsday cult and/or "good cult" that finds out about the Taken and is determined to bring about their own apocalypse or thwart the Taken (and since the Company is working for the Taken...they are fair game). You can make the "good" cult nice and honorable, so killing them sets up a nice moral dilmemma.

As the Taken starts to assemble more parts of the artifact, the typical meglomania starts to take over and the Company/employer relation begins to change. A nice twist might be for the Company leadership to discover the truth and try to defect with the company to a rival merchant house/city.

This, of course, leads to a bad end for the Captain/Lieutenant (who, of course, didn't tell the rest of the Company why they were defecting) at the hands of the Taken's other agents. Of course, they make it look like a rival merchant house set the Company up...to keep focus off the Taken. Clues to the defection might be in the Annals, which are stolen by Taken agents.

If you really want to muck things up...have the Lady be perfectly aware of what is going on (she planted the manuscript, let the Taken escape and has been following the progress through a mole in the company ranks). She will let the Taken assemble most of the weapon and then either show up to take it or send another Taken to retrieve it.


Wheels within wheels within wheels...!

~ OO