Players

There are five players currently enrolled in this game. I think it worthwhile for the reader to have some idea of who they are, so you have an idea of the diversity of players I'm running with. I'm afraid I'll have to use pseudonyms to protect my player's privacy as best I can while still being able to distinguish them from their characters.

One of these players, we'll call him Morgan, has been in every MechWarrior campaign I've ever run except for the fifth. He's at least as well versed in the history of the universe as I am, and has read many more of the novels than I have (although I think I'm ahead of him on the Sourcebooks.) Fortunately, he understands that the moment game starts canon becomes, if not expendable, at least something that won't stand in the way of the players having a good time. He tends to play fairly absurd character concepts, but plays them straight and somehow manages to make them fit. He's by far the strongest MechWarrior and BattleTech player in the group, and one I can trust to pick up on subtle plot developments and explain them to the rest of the playerbase.

The next player in the primary party, we'll call him Bert, has never played MechWarrior on a table before, but has played BattleTech, BattleForce, and is a big fan of the various software incarnations of the franchise. He is by far the most excited person for this campaign to be running, and often needs to be reigned in a bit when he gets going on a topic, and starts webbing out to other topics in a rant that threatens to consume hours if unchecked. Fortunately, he realizes he does this and stops as soon as I say something gentle.

The final current player in the primary party, Henry, has never played MechWarrior or BattleTech before in any capacity, and is in this game largely because it is now replacing the D&D4E game I was running prior to this. He is rolling with the new system, and largely has to go on historically my 10-minute briefing on the history of the Inner Sphere as most relates to the game I plan to run, and the introduction in the A Time of War book. The more-or-less 20th century feel of the majority of the universe has helped greatly with his gaining a rapid intuitive understanding of the system.

In the "ground party", i.e., the resistance, there are two current players. The first, I'll call Cameron, is very similar to Henry -- he has almost no experience with the universe at all. He is, however, an outstanding roleplayer, and one I can trust to make sure the non-combat parts of the plot and story get explored in the level they need to be. He is an actor, and thrives both on playing his character and driving the story forward. He is also playing a non-tactical combatant (he has only personal combat skills, and little to speak of there.)

The final player, Anthony, has also been in all but the fifth of my campaigns. He is also much less enthralled by the 'Mech-scale combat portion of the game, but finds the logistics and coordination part of the game to be very fun and interesting. Because of that, I placed him in the ground party that's entering the game later (which also helps his schedule over the next few weeks) and brings him in about the time the main party's 'Mechs and Vehicles are degrading past effective use and the campaign really becomes about infiltration, resistance, and more sneaky intelligence-like games.

So that's the who of this game. Tomorrow, we'll talk Character Creation.