I think it’s best before anyone joins that they understand what they’re getting into. This is a military campaign, not an adventuring campaign. The mindset here is going to be different. You are not a motley crew of adventurers out for glory and swag. You are mercenaries and militiamen assigned together into a unit to fight a war. In character one’s reasons for joining can be quite variable; patriotism, pride, money, adventure, etc; but ultimately the goal is to protect the nation of Lazlo from a dangerous enemy. I’m going to use an incident where a player and I butted heads to help illustrate the Dos and Don’ts.
     A while back the squad held an after combat debrief and one of the characters, Pickles, told Harris, his second in command, to suck his ass and walks away. Harris forcibly returns Pickles to the debrief where Pickles again tells Harris to suck his ass and walks away. Pickles is then charged with insubordination. Pickles tried to flee, but he doesn’t get far before he’s captured. His player tries to excuse his actions by saying that though Pickles was a militiaman he had a mercenary mindset. The player also added that he based how Pickles should act on the description of the Tolkeen Militia from the Siege on Tolkeen series. These are not valid excuses for a few different reasons. Pickles was a militiaman. By joining the Lazlo Militia he agreed to follow its rules and regulations, mercenary mindset or not. I’ll also add that I’m not sure if pissing off one’s client is part of a typical mercenary mindset. Everyone’s characters are being paid a salary for their time and for risking life and limb. At a civilian job if one were to tell his/her boss to “Suck my ass” odds are s/he would be fired on the spot. Why Pickles’ player thought it would fly here I honestly don’t know. I did also state in the character generation thread that the Lazlo Militia would be holding ones’ characters to a higher standard than the Tolkeen Militia.
     One of the bigger issues I think led to the conflict between me and Pickles’ player is the definition of militia. A militia is group of people whom band together for the common defense of their home, but for them soldiering is a secondary job, not their primary job. Because of this many people consider a militia to be inferior to a standing army. And it is true that a militia can be little more than a lynch mob, but there are militias out there that rival the U.S. armed forces in terms of order and discipline. Pickles’ player was thinking closer to the lynch mob end of the spectrum while I’m playing the Lazlo Militia closer to the U.S. armed forces end of the spectrum. I don’t expect ones’ characters to salute, begin and end every sentence with sir or ma’am, nor will we be conducting drills or uniform inspections. However the Lazlo Militia I’m running does have rules and regulations it expects its members to follow and uphold. The rules and regulations aren’t going to be anything surprising. Rules such as “Obey the orders of your superiors” and “Don’t slaughter innocent civilians for fun and/or profit.” One of the major subplots of the Siege on Tolkeen series is that the Tolkeen Militia barely had any control over many of its members. I am not playing the Lazlo Militia the same way. The Lazlo Militia I’m playing will be several orders of magnitude more professional. The same is true for any mercenary characters hired by the Lazlo Militia. Before signing that contract with Lazlo any and all mercenary characters would be informed that they are expected to follow the militia’s rule and regulations and that failure to do so can have similar consequences to a militiaman breaking the rules and regulations. Now that doesn’t mean one has to play a squared away A.J. Jarhead. If one wants to play a foul mouthed character that uses fuck as a comma, go ahead. Just so long as that foul mouthed character that uses fuck as a comma obeys orders. Basically there is a line between what would be considered acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior. I don’t think one has to be an Einstein to figure out where that line is.
     I realize that because of the restrictions that this military campaign may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I do believe that this campaign has something to offer the players and would be fun to play.

I happen to know the player of "Pickles". He is running 4 characters in my Tolkeen game. Tolkeen is fighting for their survival - so they enlist ass-holes, and demons. The mercenaries and demons know that they are desperately needed and wont get fired for telling their superior to suck body parts. It seems Lazlo is not as desperate and can afford to let them go.

The same player has just lost a PC for the same basic reasoning - but it was all in good fun and roleplaying. He tried to keep some loot for himself and got in an argument with another merc. Then a Tolkeen sergeant came to mediate - and the player blew off the sergeants legs and ran away from Tolkeen.

Mercenaries are often portrayed as scum. People taking dirty jobs, of murder, vandalism, sabotauge and theft for people who don't want to get their hands dirty. To expect these "scum" to suddenly whip themselves into soldiers is stretching it - but it seems Pickles was given chances to redeem himself.

I use mercs from movies and books to help draw my image of them. Han Solo from Star Wars seems to be as good-hearted as they come. He was still a jack-ass, but the rebellion needed him. Then the Empire hired their guys - and an officer was seen mentioning "bounty hunters? we don't need their scum." obviously referring to their dirty methods, and lack of discipline. Vader even had to scold one of them not to disintigrate the catch.

I personally think that player is one of the better roleplayers I have played with - which is why he had Pickles do all of that in the first place I am sure.
He plays both jack-asses and noble warriors just as well as each other.

So - I think Mercs should have more leeway than someone who has been trained in an army, and it would even be good roleplaying to have the mercs push-back to military discipline. Their lifestyles seem completely unmatched - but they are forced to work together in these stories.

     You make some valid points, if I may, I have some counter-points.
     Much like militias, the quality of a mercenary varies widely. They can range from psychopaths that merely want any excuse to kill, to a former soldier whom after several years or even decades in the armed forces decides to sell his skills. Lazlo is more interested in the professional end of the spectrum than the psychotic killer end. Now that doesn’t mean the mercenary characters need to have a background that includes prior service. There are three basic traits Lazlo is looking from the mercenaries that sign up. Firstly that they follow orders. Secondly that they don’t commit crimes. Thirdly that they can carry their own weight in the war efforts. Mercenaries are given a little more leeway when it comes to their behavior. We do have a Crazy in the squad and if you expect him to follow Lazlo Militia regulations to the letter you’re crazy! As long as he follows the three big rules he’s golden as far as the command is concerned.
     While conflict within the unit can make the story more interesting the Lazlo Militia isn’t interested in telling a good story. Its goal is to stop the Xiticix once and for all. It is in the militia’s best interest to keep the internal conflict to a minimum. It doesn’t need mercenaries/militia that disobey orders, cause embarrassment to the Lazlo Militia or shirk their duties. They have a difficult enough job ahead facing the Xiticix as it is, they don’t need internal problems as well. Obvious it’s impossible to drop the level to zero, but the Lazlo Militia would try to do everything reasonable to keep the internal problems to a minimum. If someone is causing trouble the militia would correct the problem as swiftly as possible. If that means KP duty, brig time, or discharging the individual then so be it.
     I do agree that Malfic was a good role-player. Up until Pickles turned subordinate I liked how he was played. He played Pickles as a gruff, fouled mouthed dwarf. He was fun. But he took it too far and tried to excuse it by saying that he was merely playing Pickles as a mercenary minded character. The problem is that Pickles was a militiaman, not a mercenary. In character Pickles would have known better than to tell a warrant officer to suck his ass. Malfic also tried to claim that he based Pickles’ behavior on the how the Tolkeen Militia was portrayed in the Siege on Tolkeen series, even though I did state in the character generation thread that I would be running the Lazlo Militia with higher standards. Granted I didn’t go into as much detail in that thread as I did in this thread, but that right there should have told him that basing Pickles’ behavior on the Tolkeen Militia might be a bad idea. Perhaps I should have noted Malfic and explained to him why what he was doing was a bad idea instead of having Harris fly off the handle as he did Pickles would still be playing with us. Perhaps not. I did give Malfic the opportunity to roll up a replacement character and he stated, politely, that he didn’t care for my style of GMing. Well the whole point of this campaign is to have fun and if you’re not having fun and I’m not having fun, what’s the fucking point? Hopefully by spelling things out a little further we can avoid these misunderstandings.
     One thing I would like to mention here is that I would prefer that players refrain from posting on this thread unless it directly relates to something I’ve posted. That’s not a dig against you, McCloud. Your post is perfectly on topic. I just don’t want this thread to get too long. The idea is for new players to read this thread to familiarize themselves on how I’m running this campaign. If this thread were to get too long it would discourage them from reading the thread entirely, defeating the purpose of writing the thread in the first place. If I feel a post is off topic I will delete it and repost it in the OOC thread.
     There are two other points that I will bring up for the new players’ edification. Everyone, militia and mercenaries alike, will be issued a TW Bug Zapper. This is a weapon from the Mercenaries 3: Merc-Ops book. I’ve made one modification to the weapon. In the book one directly pumped PPE/ISP to charge the weapon. My version is powered by a PPE-Clip. Everyone is issued one Zapper and four PPE-Clips. For those characters that are not mages or psychic I’ve added a PPE-Clip charger to the APC’s equipment list. It’s a home brewed item. One plugs the PPE-Clip into the slot and the charger collects ambient PPE to charge the PPE-Clip at the rate of 10 PPE/Hr. If the APC is on a Ley Line the recharge rate increases to 10 PPE/Rd. Here are the stats on the TW Bug Zapper:

     5d6 MD to most enemies. 7d6 MD to insect-like foes. 5d6 x 2 MD to the Xiticix. Victims need to roll vs. non-lethal poison or be stunned.
     Range: 600 feet (~183 m)
     24 shots/PPE-Clip

     The second point I want to bring up is when creating ones’ characters remember that they’ll need a vehicle of some kind. The idea is that this squad is a sort of advanced armored recon squad. The squad sets itself up in or near Xiticix territory, sends out you guys in smaller, faster vehicles to collect intel on the Xiticix hive, returns to the APC, and uses the data on the hive to plan the infiltration mission. Be sure when rolling up one’s character to give oneself a hover cycle, a robot horse, power armor, a jet bike, a jet pack, something. If one does select power armor, one is going to want a suit of power armor that will fit inside the Xiticix hive. Even most oversized power armors will fit inside a hive, but robot armors will not. Also one will want a PA that can either fly or climb very well. The Xiticix build towers with the entrance to the hive at the top of the towers. If one wants to be wearing the PA inside the hive one needs to select a PA that can get inside the hive. Also, when selecting a PA, remember that the squad’s mission is recon/infiltration. I’ve actually had someone ask to play a Glitter Boy. A Glitter Boy really doesn’t work too well in a recon/infiltration squad.

     I almost forgot. In addition to the TW Bug Zapper, everyone is issued the following gear:

     1 backpack
     1 ammo or bandoleer belt
     1 bedroll
     1 canteen
     1 communicator

     For some of you some items may be more useful than others. In any case, before joining this squad you were still issued this gear.

     I’m not sure if I made it clear, but for the new players’ information, there is an APC with a crew of four NPCs assigned to Recon Squad 125. The four NPCs are as follows:

CWO4 Simon Hawke- Driver of the APC and in command of the APC crew.

WO1- Robert Harris- Communications officer, co-pilot and tertiary gunner.

Staff Sergeant Tadayoshi Meboso- Psi-Tech primary gunner and field mechanic.

Corporal Scott Blood- Techno-Wizard secondary gunner and field mechanic.

     The following occurred when your characters first report to the squad:

Hawke orders Scott to show you the APC. Scott begins by having you stow your personal gear.
     “Most of the lockers here are overhead bins. I’ve opened up the bins you can stow your crap in. The closed bins have gear for the APC. We’ll go over that in a minute. Pick out a bin, put your crap in it and mark it with a grease pencil. Those are going to be your bins for the rest of your time here.
     “Over here, lining the walls are going to be your seats. They’re not really comfortable, but they beat standing up the entire trip. Barely. Take any seat you want at any time. You don’t need to put your names on the seats. When you want to sleep you can either sleep in them or you put your bedroll in the aisle and sleep there.”
     There are 24 seats total, 12 on each side of the APC. A few of you could stretch out somewhat comfortably on the extra seats, but not all of you.
     “Up here, by the cockpit are the two bathrooms. They’re just a toilet and a basin each. No showers or baths. The basin has running water, when it works, so you can wash your hands after you’ve done your business.”
     There are two restrooms, one on either side of the entrance to the cockpit. They’re about the size of the bathrooms on airplanes. So there’s really not much room to them, but it saves you the trouble of having to stop the APC to take a leak. If someone really wants to, they can sponge bathe in the bathrooms. The only other option is to find a stream or lake and stop there to clean up. Next to the bathrooms is a pair of small, plain water basins. That’s your drinking water. The APC has a fifty-gallon (~ 189 L) freshwater tank. The water tank feeds the water basins inside the bathrooms and the drinking water basins. The tank is automatically kept full by a few water condensers attached to the APC. Even in the driest of climates they can keep the water tank full, no problem. Up here, where you get considerable moisture, the tank is kept full without much effort.
     “Okay, now onto the more important shit. In this bin over here is the E-Clip charger.” Scott flips the door to the overhead bin and reveals the charger. There are ten obvious slots for the E-Clips. Next to each slot is a column of three LEDs. Right now all the red LEDs next to the slots are lit up. Scott explains, “Red light means there’s power, yellow means it’s charging an E-Clip and green means the E-Clip is fully charged. It takes twenty minutes to charge a standard E-clip, thirty for a long E-Clip and forty for a canister E-Clip. There’s enough clearance that you can shut the bin even when there are E-Clips charging.”
     Scott closes the bin and flips open the bin across from it. Inside is what looks like another E-Clip charger, except that it also has several green gems bordering it. Anyone with See Aura can see that the charger has its own distinct magical aura to it.
     “This is our experimental PPE-Clip charger. Same basic idea, except you put PPE-Clips this thing. It’s designed to siphon ambient PPE from the environment and direct it into the PPE-Clips. The one drawback is that it’s slow unless we park ourselves on or near a Ley Line Nexus. It takes six hours to charge an empty PPE-Clip. Still, it is a convenient way to charge PPE-Clips when you aren’t a mage or just don’t want to charge them with your own PPE or inner strength. And if we are near a Ley Line Nexus, they charge up in a matter of minutes. There’s no red light, but there’s a yellow and a green and they mean the same thing. Yellow for charging, green for done.”
     Scott takes the squad to the rear of the APC and opens up one of the bins. The bin is loaded top-to-bottom, side-to-side with MREs.
     “Here are our food stores. Yum, yum. MREs aren’t the tastiest stuff on the planet, but they’ll keep you alive. On an inactive day one is enough to give you all the nutrition and calories you need to stay alive. On an active of bug hunting you’ll probably need two. Most of these are made for humans or humanoid D-Bees. We have 600 MREs in these bins, enough to cover us for a little over a month. Not including the food rations I saw some of you stuffing into your own bins.
     “Now over here in these bins are the extra weapons and ammo. We keep some extra weapons in the APC in case anyone needs them. Nothing too fancy. Mostly conventional energy pistols and rifles and standard E-Clips. We do have two rocket launchers and a supply of mini-missiles to keep us happy.”
     Loaded in the supply bins are 12 Wilk’s 320 Laser Pistols, 12 NG-L5 Laser Rifles, 2 CR-1 Rocket Launchers, 120 standard E-Clips, 12 HE Mini-Missiles, 12 Armor Piercing Mini-Missiles, 12 Plasma Mini-Missiles and 24 Fragmentation Mini-Missiles.
     “In addition to the weapons we have several weapon cleaning kits and repair kits. I suggest you get familiar with them because ninety percent of our time will be spent doing nothing, so you might as well as make it somewhat productive nothing time.
     “Now over in these bins are the spare parts, replacement armor plating and tool kits that Tadayoshi and I use to keep the APC and your vehicles in good repair. You touch any of that stuff and I will break your arms. Are we clear on that? Unless we ask you for something, only Tadayoshi and I touch the stuff in the repair bins. We have everything neatly organized and packed away. The last thing we want is some shithead rifling through our stuff or dropping a delicate circuit board onto the deck. Stay out of there unless Tadayoshi or I tell you to get something from them for us.”
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:57, Tue 03 Oct 2023.

     Thanks. I almost forgot. The APC is a modified CS Mark V APC. The death head motif has been removed, the paint job has been changed to forest camouflage. The APC is also covered from fore to aft, top to bottom in gemstones. Those with the ability to see auras or sense magic will see that the APC radiates magic.

So that new players aren’t completely lost, here is a synopsis of what has happened earlier.

Mission 1:

     Recon Squad 125 was send into the hivelands to investigate a starter hive that had been reported in the area. While investigating the squad encountered a powerful necromancer that claimed that the hivelands were his territory and the Lazlo Militia was unwelcomed. He then attacked the squad with waterballoons filled with Xiticix marking scent and fired off a Globe of Daylight flare to attract the Xitixic’s attention. The necromancer slipped away, letting the Xitixic and Squad 125 slug it out. Squad 125 prevailed, fell back, washed off the stink and completed their mission to eradicate the starter hive. They returned to base and began to plan the next mission to find and neutralize the necromancer.

Mission 2:

     A Lazlo Militia company was assembled to find and confront the necromancer from Mission 1. The only clue as to the necromancer’s whereabouts was a strange ley line in the area. The ley line had the mystical properties more commonly found at a ley line nexus. Seemed like a good spot to begin the search. So the company set about to search the ley line. During the first night of the search everyone but Squad 125 and one militiaman from a different squad named Mestipen disappeared. Squad 125 rescued him from two giant, man-sized wasps that were chasing him. Upon examining the wasps’ bodies it was discovered that they were wearing TW collars around their necks and that these TW devices were controlling the wasps. The Necromancer then contacted Recon Squad 125 via radio and instructed them to move to a specific location by morning or the rest of the Lazlo Militia company members would be executed. Recon Squad 125 followed his instructions and shortly thereafter were teleported into the underground ruins of a pre-Rifts city. The city was later identified as Atikokan, ON, Canada. The Necromancer left a recorded message for Recon Squad 125, challenging them to find and free their comrades in three days, before the next full moon, or they would be building materials for his next zombie project. Recon Squad 125 split up and searched the city for clues for their comrades and the Necromancer’s whereabouts. They discovered the Necromancer and the majority of his minions were holed up in a hotel while their prisoners were held in a mental hospital. The Squad hatched a plan to free their comrades. They used an Earthquake spell focused on the Necromancer’s hotel and then launched a raid on the mental hospital, freeing their comrades and others that were unfortunate enough to be captured by the Necromancer’s minions. The hotel and several other building at or near the epicenter of the earthquake collapsed. Recon Squad 125 rounded up the surviving minions and learned that the Necromancer and his lieutenants were inside the hotel when the Earthquake spell was cast and likely were still inside the hotel when it collapsed. Recon Squad 125 sent a few members back to base to get reinforcements to secure the town.

Mission 3:

     About a month has passed since the Lazlo Militia had secured the ruins of Atikokan. An entire battalion; approximately 800 people; has been assigned to recover the artifacts the city has to offer. The progress is a bit slower than they would like. Besides being a necromancer, the previous troublemaker was also a Shifter. He also had several high-powered lieutenants working for him. There’s a giant wasp nest, a giant ant colony, plus the sewers and subways are crawling with various undead monsters and things stalking the streets. The recovery efforts are understandably slower than liked. Battalion Tango-152 has taken over the hospital as their base of operation. While a bit crowded it’s both the safest and cleanest building in the city. Plus there’s a parking garage for the various battalion vehicles. Throughout the month the battalion members have assisted the archeologists and the historians with the artifact recovery.
     The Lazlo Militia decided to purge Atikokan of the monsters and in a three part mission they took out the giant wasp hive, the giant ant colony and then corralled the remaining monsters into one area to finish them off. The mission was a success and with Atikokan monster free they reduce the number of militia members in the city and continued with their plans for defeating the Xitixic.

Mission 4:

     Base Aegis is moving to a new location for the next phase of the war. While some of the troops will be flown or teleported to the new location, others; including Squad 125; will travel via ground transport between Aegis’ old and new locations to see if there is anything of interest in the area, and boy was there!
     Squad 125 ended up inside a pocket reality dating back to the Great Cataclysm. The town of Onaping Falls was pulled into this reality on the day of the Coming of the Rifts, trapping all of its inhabitants inside. Squad 125 soon made contact with those inhabitants and learned that shortly after the Coming of the Rifts a paranormal investigator named John Lancaster arrived and determined that the epicenter of their predicament was the Smythe Estate, the former home of the town’s founder and after his death a converted museum. Over the next ~300 years people and monsters would wander into Onaping Falls but couldn’t escape or die. Anyone and anything trapped inside the Onaping Falls pocket reality didn’t age and couldn’t die no matter how grievous their injuries were. A couple of months before Squad 125’s arrival the Necromancer arrived with a force of Minotaurs and took the Smythe Estate. Most people that entered the mansion disappeared so no one wanted to enter the mansion to expel the Necromancer and his Minotaur troops therefore the town supervisor asked Squad 125 to enter the mansion and deal with the Necromancer and his Minotaurs. Also, John Lancaster and two others were inside and the town supervisor hoped that the squad could find and rescue them.
     Squad 125 was able to enter mansion safely, mostly, but no one was inside. After a long search the squad found a secret door in the basement and followed it down into a strange structure buried beneath the mansion. On the way down the squad found the imprisoned John Lancaster who explained the situation. A very long time ago an Old One teleported to Earth and got stuck here. As Old Ones go it was rather weak and young. Really more like a super powerful Alien Intelligence than an Old One. Onaping Falls’ founder, Will Smythe, discovered the slumbering Old Intelligence and was able to permanently bind it. He had planned to use the Old Intelligence to conquer the world but never figured out how to actually control it. Decades passed and eventually Smythe died leaving the Old Intelligence trapped underneath his mansion. When the Great Cataclysm occurred the Old Intelligence used the massively released PPE to try to escape and ended up creating the pocket reality instead, trapping anyone that was inside Onaping Falls with it. The Necromancer believed that he had found a way to fully release the Old Intelligence and control it. Squad 125 continued down the strange structure and arrived in time to watch the Necromancer finish the ritual to free the Old Intelligence. As thanks for being released the Old Intelligence immediately smashed the Necromancer flat as a pancake.
     Time to run away.
     With the Old Intelligence on their heels, Squad 125 made it back to the ground floor and John Lancaster activated a failsafe mystical device that Smythe had created in case the Old Intelligence escaped. It seemed to teleport the house and its contents to… Well, no one is sure where. Some dark and empty void and when the Old Intelligence rushed out of the house to escape it became trapped in that void.
     Shortly after that the pocket reality dissipated and Squad 125 found themselves back in the forest with some of the other people from Onaping Falls.

Mission 5:

     Time to finally engage the Xitixic where they live! The Duluth Hive is going down! The entire base is going on the attack! First thing’s first. The hive is ringed by several bases and outposts. Lazlo has determined the best route to take to reach the epicenter of the hive; the queens and the hatcheries; and any outpost or base too close to this route needs to be taken out. Therefore several platoons have been dispatched to eliminate the targeted outposts. Once they’re out of the picture several battalions will eliminate the targeted bases. Then it’s then on to the Duluth Hive!
     Sounds easy. What could go wrong?

     It’s been suggested that I post a description of the player characters in Squad 125 so that new players know who’s who. Good idea. Plus the most common question I’m asked by potential players is what type of character they should play and knowing in advance what we have will help answer that question for them.
     So here’s your Squad 125:

Chief Warrant Officer Two Meina- Squad leader. An escaped Tattoo Girl from Atlantis.

Sergeant First Class Shawn Furman- Second in command. Mind Melter from Lazlo.

Sergeant Zato- Third in command. Hatchling Royal Frill Dragon.

Specialist James Datillo/Weirdwolf- Temporal Warriors and Nightbane. Not from around here.

Specialist Ariella- Night Elf Faerie rescued by James and dedicated to serving him.

Specialist Roberto Dominguez Rivera- Combat mage. Specializes in using his magic to augment his and his squad mates’ combat prowess.

Private First Class Elias “Goggles” Stroud- Lazlo Ranger. (Based on the CS Ranger from the Coalition War Campaign World Book, he was just trained by the Lazlo Militia instead of the CS Army.)

Private First Class Beaumont Benoit- Grackletooth Body Fixer.

     So a few items to mention here. First, I will update the information as is necessary. Second, part of that is who is still playing. During every single mission I’ve had players quit, or just stop posting and ghosted me when I tried to contact them. If anyone stops playing I will post here who has stopped playing and are now NPC status. During a mission I will post actions for an inactive player so that the squad isn’t without their firepower. But as soon as I can I will dump them. Either by transferring them elsewhere or using them as sacrificial pawns; I’ve done both. Third, if a player has an idea for a character that isn’t exactly 100% how they’d be described in a Rifts book I’m fine with negotiating the details. Just bear in mind I am the GM and all details are subject to my approval. You don’t like it, then don’t apply to play here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:24, Sun 03 Mar.