Thursday, May 15, 2008

Rolling, rolling, rolling / Though they're disapproving / Keep them doggies moving / Rawhide!

Caravan Group Assets:

Stats:

MechanicalElectronicsMedicalFoodstuffsMercantile
3/+1
2/+1
1/02/02/0

Crew
Vehicles: Transport
Vehicles: Heavy Gears
Equipment: HG Weapons
Equipment: Small Arms
Equipment: Other
Cargo and Wares Rules


VEHICLES


Transport:
8 x Longrunner caravan trucks (with 2 spare solar tarps)
1 x Camel Flatbed Truck
1 x Antelope Jeeps
1 x Springer Truck
1 x Behemoth Heavy Gear transport
1 x Mother Barnaby Heavy Gear transport
1 x Elan Buggy
8 x Jackrabbit (or equivalent) Motorcycles, 1 per Longrunner

Green Gang compound: Motorcycles, Elan Buggies, Antelope & Springer Trucks, 2 5ton trucks, Camel Truck.


Heavy Gears:

Strike Squadron: Primary pilots listed

1 x Tiger "Gun" - Gade Vonyran
1 x Blitz Iguana "Scrapnel" - Sam Tarmalin
1 x Warrior III "Corsair" - Ari Mendelbaum
1 x Jager "Barbie II: Barbie's Revenge" - Benevole "Torch" Dolbeau
1 x Spitting Cobra "Lex Talionis" - Kain DeLacroix

Reserve Squadron:

1 x Bear "Cheesebox" (HAC, LGM, 2 x MRP/18) - Josephina Dragushan
1 x Warrior III "Scrap" - Kelly LeBeau
1 x Hunter "Bulldog" - Peter Smit
1 x Hunter Recon "Honey" - Ethan Dunn
1 x Sidewinder "Vagabond" - Konnor Riles
1 x Warrior III (stowed)

Other:

1 x Ferret "Moby Dick" - Karin Hassan/Tessa Lin
2 x Ground Hog Work Gears
1 x Tiger chassis, mostly stripped


EQUIPMENT


HG Weapons:
1 x Rucker RT-15 15mm VLAC (200 rounds of ammo)
5 x Paxton PR-25 20mm LACs (900 rounds of ammo – clips of 60)
3 x Paxton MR-25 30mm MACs (120 rounds ammo – clips of 40)
1 x Territorial Arms 45mm Fragmentation Cannon (40 rounds frag ammo)
1 x Paxton 106mm LGPC “Little Joe” Snub Cannon (3 rounds in one clip)
2 x Vogel-9 MRP/18 rocket packs (72 rockets)
1 x 52mm Paxton RP-111 LRP/32 rocket pack (64 rockets)
3 x 52mm Paxton RP-109 LRP/16 rocket packs (96 rockets)
30 x M2-A Hand Grenades
5 x Mk. IV APGLs with 60 grenades
1 x Target Designator R:2
2 x ECM 1 Suites from Warrior IIIs


Green Compound Booty:
Additional ammo for all Ballistic Weapons except Artillery, Field Guns, VHAC
Rockets for all except HIRP, HATM, 1 ATM only
Recoilless for all except HBZK
All Support except HFM, HGM
No Advanced weapons
All grenades except Haywire
Vibroblades and Axes


Small Arms:
26 x 7mm Assault Rifles (various manufacture, approx. 100 rounds each)
22 x 7mm Assault Carbines (various manufacture, approx 100 rounds each)
6 x 11mm SMGs (120 rounds each)
2 x 9mm SMG
15 x 11mm pistols (30 rounds each)
10 x 9mm pistols (30 rounds each)
7 x 9mm heavy rifles (50 rounds each)
2 x 7mm SAW
1 x 9mm LMG (400 rounds)
1 x 24mm Anti-Gear Rifle (10 rockets)
1 x 140mm rocket launcher (6 rockets)
1 x Rocket Launcher w 12 rounds
Grenades: All except Nerve Gas
Explosives: Plenty
5 x Directional Mines

Also: Light and Medium Flak, Medical supplies, Water, Food, Luxury Items, Survival Equipment, Geological and survey sensors/equipment.


Other:

SDpzk-16 160mm Heavy Field Mortar (8 shells) (towed)
Video recorder
Personal computer x 3
Camouflage netting (desert): enough for three Longrunners to be covered entirely.
2 x Spare Solar Collector Tarps


CARGO AND WARES

Here is a new idea I have for simplifying and streamlining caravan operations. Rather than presenting an exhaustive list of goods currently held in the Longrunners or on the back of the Camel, I have begun thinking about categories of goods and purchasing power as skill levels.

There will be five categories of caravan goods: Mechanical, Electronics, Medical, Foodstuffs and Mercantile. Each category is represented by a skill level. This represents the “inventory power” of the caravan to generate a specific item. Rolling the skill vs. a given difficulty number and succeeding by an MOS of 2 or more means that the caravan has the item. Failing means that the caravan does not currently have the item. Getting an MOS of 1 means that the caravan can get the item through bartering or via a short voyage to another location, within reason. One cannot find a Naval Support Aller just three days away with an MOS of 1. A successful Bureaucracy, Haggling or Business skill roll vs. the same threshold will lower the threshold of the “supply skill” roll by the MOS of the character’s skill. This represents the caravan providing goods for individual PC use and had better not be abused.

Naturally, specific items that are found/bought/sold in the game are not considered part of the skill setup. So buying ten motorcycles will not affect your overall inventory power, because it’s not abstract. That being said, increasing your inventory power requires a successful Business, Haggling or Bureaucracy roll, vs. a threshold equal to the next level, plus 2. So, Level 1 = threshold of 3, level 2 = threshold of 5, level 3 = threshold of 7, etc. It also requires a raw cash infusion equal to the square of the new level multiplied by 10,000 Marks/Dinars, and XP equal to the level as a simple skill (level 3 needs 9 points). The XP can come from anyone who is a full-time member of the caravan.

The day to day operations of the caravan are a mini-game:

For every trading stop a caravan makes, a d6 is rolled, with each number corresponding to one skill (except for 6, which is a special case). 1: Mechanical, 2: Electronics, 3: Medical, 4: Foodstuffs, 5: Mercantile. This indicates which inventory skill is used for this trading stop. That is, what the kinds of things that the people you’re trading with want. A roll with that inventory skill is made vs. a given threshold, and an MOS of 0 indicates breaking even. MOF’s represents losing money overall, and MOS > 0 indicates making money. Every skill has a “system shock” rating of 5, and every failure is a -1 on the System shock. At -5, the inventory skill loses a level. Haggling, Business or Bureaucracy skills can be rolled vs. 6 to mitigate this by 1 point, thus staving off real problems for as long as possible.

A result of 6 on the first die roll is treated as “roll twice on this table.” Happy high stakes caravanning!

2 comments :

Heavy Josh said...

The caravan mini-game is entirely optional by the way. I just thought that by presenting things in an abstract way for you all, there'd be an incentive to take at least some interest in the trading that's going on as you move from place to place. However, I am quite happy to roleplay all caravaning and keep it very simple.

Heavy Josh said...

The Tiger chassis has been picked pretty clean, though there is still potential for it. Gun required near-total reconstruction after the duel against Liam Cross in the Sidewinder.

Also, looking at everything in your cargo bays, it looks like it's time to start selling things. There's just too much stuff here.

I'll see what's available for trade.


 
Hermes 72 - Heavy Gear RPG - Most artwork Copyright 2002 Dream Pod 9, Inc.