The Ravings of Demented Rabbits

Transcending the Role

Much to say, and it's all me and roleplaying games. So those of you what don't play em, sorry. But just for Whir, I played MW3, and you didn't, so nyah.

So this last Sunday I got invited to play in the D&D campaign that Rema (who runs the MW:DA games I'm in) runs, and Griselda (of RBCiv fame, and who I think has been lurking here without saying hi... ;)) plays in, along with a couple of the other MW:DA folks and another guy I didn't really know. Needless to say, I accepted. Please, don't twist my arm too hard... ;)

The character I come up with is a diplomat/spy type rogue, grew up in the streets but is now a merchant, and REALLY hates racists, of whom there are a lot in the town he grew up in. ("Think of Auchester as kind of like Salem, where all the Aryan meth-heads live, and Reme as like Eugene, all pot-smoking artists and stuff") So I'm in Reme, fleeing like mad from Auchester. Didn't actually play much, which was ok, because I was new, and I had had like 4 hours of sleep and was pretty out of it. So I watched. Holy shit are these people a riot. Couldn't. Stop. Laughing. Finally I do get in with the party, we do a bit of in town stuff, go shopping and the like. All of a sudden, I get shot in the neck with an arrow of elf-slaying (I'm a half-elf, here, folks), drop to 5 hp, and am knocked out and bleeding. Fuuuuuuuuuuck. So the rest of the party is chasing this assassin guy, whereupon Gris' cleric heals me and I'm up and chasing him too. Through alleys and such. When we last left off, I was leaping down a manhole, all alone, to beat this guy down single-handedly. Remember that he's much higher level than I am, and packs uberarrows. But my Wisdom score isn't exactly rock-solid, here.

Good times. Can't wait until next time.

So today Cole, Jason, and I played some Mechwarrior 3rd Edition. For those of you hopelessly confused with the difference between that and MW:DA, MW3 is a roleplaying game, MW:DA is a tabletop miniatures wargame. No, that didn't help at all, did it? But don't worry. I'm a professional.

So the premise is Our Heroes are Capellan soldiers out to turn a backwater militia planet into a full-scale regimental base. In late 3067.

Our cast:

Cole: Infantryman/Tank driver/technician officer. Nominal group leader.
Cole: VTOL pilot/doctor.
Jason: Death Commando that can do ANYTHING. Pilot mechs, battle armor, aerospace fighters, you name it. Currently in a suit of IS standard BA. Only problem? He's amnesiac and doesn't remember half his skills.
Jason: Fat Bob the computer tech. Drives a Raven 4L of all things, which is an electronic marvel with stealth armor, and is a bit...perverted.

Now, for those of you not in on the storyline, late 3067 is when the Word of Blake Jihad hits. Now, these people worship toasters, but they've got nice tech. And they're fanatics, but they're smart fanatics. So they hang out for a time, watch the base, and...move in in the middle of the night.

Now, Our Heroes were kinda smart. Fat Bob parks his Raven right outside the HQ, and there's some decent security measures set up. Most of which fail because the Wobbies were watching, but it was a try. So the Wobbies come in in Tornado PA(L)s and Purifiers (stealth suits, in other words, armored ones, bad news), and start blowing up barracks full of guys. Only the Death Commando and the officer wake up, see a couple of these guys, and it all sort of furballs from there. The DC goes and gets on his BA suit and proceeds to kick ass, while the doc and the tech are gunning/grenading down Wobbies from the building. Fat Bob manages to get out to his Raven and get it started up. About 6 infantrymen make it out of a firefight with another 4-pack of Tornados.

The doc gets grenade fragments in the head and drops, whereupon the tech hauls him up and leaps out the window, then heads around back. Meanwhile, the Raven is gunning down PA(L)s and Purifiers left and right because no matter how cool you are a battlemech-class laser HURTS, and getting kicked...ow. Meanwhile there's a showdown between a Tornado with a laser rifle, and the Death Commando. Poor Mr. Tornado can't get through the battle armor with his laser rifle, whereupon the DC shoots him down with his machine gun and uses his corpse as a club to beat down a couple other guys.

About this time Fat Bob checks his sensors and realizes there's an Overlord dropship coming up the way with 6 aerospace fighters in support, and there's also 4 more Purifiers coming down the way, unhurt. So Our Heroes, carting the wounded doc, along with six infantrymen and three mechwarriors who happened to be in the building but mechless because the WoB commandos blew them sky-high, run over to the thus-far unhurt helipad, wheel out the doc's specialized MASH chopper, and try to make their escape...

"Anybody know how to fly this thing? No? Crap."

So they slap a Stimpatch on the doc, wake him up, and get him to fly the VTOL while they patch him up with his own gear. And as they're getting the hell out of Dodge, wondering where a good spot to go would be, they notice huge flashes of light and mushroom clouds rising over the two nearest cities.

Final Bodycount:

Our Heroes: 4 dead Purifiers, 15 dead PA(L) suits of 8 and 16 going in
Evil Dudes: 1 mechwarrior, 12 assorted tank crews, 4 VTOL crews, 6 aerospace pilots, 78 assorted infantrymen, unknown but very large number of civilians.

In the 31st century, life is cheap. Battlemechs are expensive.

("Crap! The SRM-carriers haven't got very many reloads on them!")

(with the corollary "Hey, how many clips have you got for that rifle?")

Hello, and welcome to the Jihad. Enjoy your stay. Nobody else will be.

Posted by Dwip at September 17, 2003 4:59 AM