Champions of the Empire

[Laseas]

Game: Champions of the Empire Campaigns
Campaign: Gamma Company
Adventure: Behind Enemy Lines
Number of Openings: 4
Email Address: slinn@mn.rr.com

Champions of the Empire Website: http://www.ChampionsOfTheEmpire.com

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You are a Soldier in Gamma Company, 7th Infantry Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Brigade. At the start of the Fifth Frontier War against the Zhodani, the entire brigade, over 4,000 soldiers was dropped off on Thengo Prime, a sparsely populated Zhodani world in the Thengo system. The mission was to secure the planet as part of a greater offensive against Zhodani worlds in the Chronor subsector.

Gamma Company ... not all battalions have a Gamma Company but the 7th Infantry Battalion does (or did). Gamma Company meant one thing: mutants. Battalion commanders loved having a Gamma Company. Gamma Company was always sent in first. Need to capture that well-fortified ridge? Send in Gamma Company. Need a platoon for a suicide mission? Draw them from Gamma Company. The soldiers of Gamma Company are expendable. After all, they're just mutants.

Things went bad from the very start. No sooner had the last of the drop ships departed the system than it became obvious that this "sparsely populated planet" was heavily defended by the Zhodani. And why not? It was an almost perfectly Earth-like world and the Zhodani are just as physically human as are the Vilani and the Solomani. Of course they would seek to hold this world! FTL communications satellites, so thoughtfully left behind by the departing ships of the imperial fleet so that the 2nd Infantry Brigade could maintain communications with headquarters, were destroyed by Zhodani patrol craft who had kept their presence hidden until the imperial ships had departed.

Then the attack began. Seven days and nights of hell...

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There are six of you left. Several months have passed since that horrific week of non-stop bloodshed. There might be other Gamma Company survivors elsewhere on the planet but you know that most of them are dead. The 7th Infantry Battalion was one of five battalions that made up the 2nd Infantry Brigade. It's not believable that all 4000+ soldiers are dead. Many were probably captured. Others might be hiding, alone or in small groups, in the mountains, forests and deserts of this world which, under other circumstances, might be considered a paradise world. Up until now, you goal has been simply to survive to live another day. Sargeant Pa'Etterson, the ranking member of your small group, has made it a priority to try to reunite with other members of the brigade, but so far without success.

That was until yesterday, when a Zhodani fighter aircraft somehow managed to spot your small team. Now the sarge is dead, leaving only five of you left. Five surviving corporals out of an original company of 107 soldiers of Gamma Company.

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The game is a mix of Champions and Star Hero set in the Traveller universe. Characters are built like Champions characters on 200 points, plus up to 70 points in disadvantages. You will also start with 25 points in military equipment which you may choose from the equipment list on the website or build with Champions powers and submit to me for approval. See the Character Generation Rules for more infomation on building your character. However, because of the nature of this campaign, certain concepts will be restricted. Your group is isolated from the rest of the empire on an enemy world. Character concepts that would negate this feeling of isolation will be restricted or not allowed.

All characters should start with Professional Skill: Soldier and Weapon Familiarity: Small Arms or Beam Weapons.

All characters must also start with at least 7 points of Mental Defense (with no limitations). It is the mental defense that has allowed your group to avoid being found up until now. If you start with an EGO of less than 10, then you should increase the Mental Defense so that EGO + Mental Defense = 17 points or greater. If you have an EGO that is higher than 10, you should still have at least 7 points of Mental Defense.

The following skillsets might also be appropriate for the team:

Technician: Mechanics and Electronics
Medic: Paramedics and KS: Medicine
Radioman: Systems Operations and Language: Imperial Radio Codes
Heavy Weapons Tech: Weaponsmith and Weapon Familiarity: Emplaced Weapons, and/or Energy Weapons, and/or other uncommon modern weapons.

That doesn't mean that everyone in the team should have all of the above skills. It means that one person in the team is a technician, another is a medic, etc., though there could, of course, be some overlap.

It's unlikely that an army corporal would have any spaceship skills (e.g., Starship Pilot, Astrogator or Starship Engineer) but if you have a strong concept that supports having one or more of those skills, then I will allow it. Just make sure that you have the prerequisites for those skills (see the Rules section, under Skills, of the website).

Experience points can be earned quickly in this campaign. EXP are awarded at the end of each month and very active players can earn up to 5 EXP per month. The rules for spending EXP are fairly liberal except that you have to have a good justification for picking up new skills (usually having someone train you) and acquisition of new powers is controlled (see rules for Latent Powers).

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Before submitting a character for this campaign, please read the Character Generation Rules. You should also glance over some of the other information in the rules section of the website (especially under Powers, Skills and Talents), and read some of the turns for the Black Moon campaign to make sure that this is really the type of campaign that you want to play in. Champions-type combat does happen but role-playing happens a LOT more often.

Champions type combat is usually resolved via IRC (Internet Relay Chat), using a diebot for die rolls, rather than by email. Such IRC sessions are generally scheduled on weekdays starting in the evening (around 8 or 9 pm Central time) and last for about 3 hours. It usually takes two such sessions to resolve a given combat. The sessions are normally scheduled on consecutive nights. Not all players are able to make the sessions, of course, in which case the other players will generally play the characters for the people who are missing. The IRC sessions generally occur about once every 2 to 3 months.

Posting frequency can be fast and furious at times. At the very minimum you should plan on two posts a week and, when things get hot and heavy, it's not unusual to have a dozen posts in a single day. Make sure that you can commit to this kind of frequency before submitting. Obviously players do need some down time occasionally where they might be out of town for a week or two, or busy doing something else for a few days but, as a general rule, expect a fairly high turn frequency.

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If you are interested, please send me your character concept and, ideally, a brief story about your character.