Another change of focus

The Klondike Campaign that was the focus of this blog in 2012 died a horrible ugly death, mostly because I can't roll dice to save my soul, and Bruce's distribution of dice rolls looks like an inverted bell curve- which is really lucky or very unfortunate in a game where 2's and 12's matter.

However, we've got a new campaign running now.  It's being run by our good friend Steve K.  Right now the players are myself, Bruce, and JV.  My friend David was playing for a bit, but real life kind of got in the way so he had to drop.  We have a potential new player in Jason, who I just met for the first time last weekend; nice guy, fun to hang out with, I hope he joins on.

The story that Steve established as the boundaries of his sandbox is that one character's rich/former mercenary uncle died and left a 'Mech, a battered old Leopard class dropship, and some money to his only nephew.  The nephew decides to leave the corporate life and live the exciting life of inner sphere mercenary.  Crazy, I know, but it's the heart and soul of BattleTech, so we just run with it.  The rest of the characters fall into the mix and voila, we have a lance of Battlemechs and mercenary group looking to steal the stars.

Along the way, Bruce and I are teaching Steve the lore of BattleTech, and we're all leaning the campaign rules from Strategic Operations and Interstellar Operations.  Most of the posts will be fictionalized accounts of the ongoing story.  We'll round those out with some write ups about the development of the campaign, discussions of the relevant lore, some pictures of the painting of new units, tips and tricks for simple terrain, and some commentary on the rules.

A quick rundown of the players and their characters:

Neil I.- Frederick Theodore di Biasi. Nickname: Playboy.  Founder of the unit, a former corporate lawyer with a few years as a logistics officer during the 4th Succession War.

Bruce P.- Jonathan Wilkerson. Nickname: Wolfman.  Former lance commander for the 5th Syrtis Fussiliers. Drummed out of the AFFS when he turned in his Battalion Commander for mis-appropriation of funds.

JV- John Henry Kell (no relation). Nickname: Doc.  Former CCAF Mechwarrior that was kicked out of the service for "cowardice in the face of the enemy" when he refused to shoot Frederick's uncle in the back.  JV believes that, "If you aren't rolling to avoid shutdown, you aren't really playing."

Dave- "Bug"  We never knew much about Bug, but he was a trusted and charter member of the group.  His death at the hands of an assassin may serve as the glue that really brings this unit together.

Look forward to having everyone along for the ride.