Draft Night. (Campaign Kickoff)

  I know I've posted a rough outline before of how to prepare for the 1st night of the campaign.  But here is a step by step on how it will go the 1st night.  If everyone shows we could have 14 players, how cool would that be!

• I will have a stack of Mechwarrior record sheets, please take one and a clipboard.
• I will have a table set up with all the Starter mechs that are available on it.
• Along with the Minis will be a stack of record sheets for the more common variants I think folks will draft. 
• I will aslo have the Faction mech lists printed out showing the cost of each mech and what TRO book to find them in.  
• The Computer will also be up to review this blog for faction details (Sponsors / Stables).
• The Whiteboard will have the faction slots listed for the faction draft.

  We will take a deck of playing cards.  Each player will get one card and we will write that players name on that card.  All the players will put their card into the "draft" deck.

   First will be the faction draft.   Being the host, and most likely knowing the most about Battletech, I'll take my card out and will have the last Faction pick after everyone else has picked.  We will shuffle up the draft deck then flip a card.  That player will then select his faction.  We will write his name on the whiteboard next to the faction he selected and then flip another card for the next player to do the same.  This will continue through the deck until all the players have a faction, with me picking last.  Feel free to take your faction mech list, but if you choose one of the major Houses you will have to share if another player joins you in also taking that house.

   Then we will reshuffle the draft deck, and move to the Mech draft.  Again I'll leave my card out and pick last.  The first card flipped will then get to buy his mech using the 4 Million C-Bills available to him.  When Buying his mech he must...

• Verify that the mech he desires is available to his Faction
• Check his factions special bonuses to see if they offer a discount on mech purchases.
• Select the mech from the table and subtract the purchase price from his C-Bill total.  Remember not having the correct mini results cost an extra 25% to purchase that mech.

  Now here is a catch.  If you have your own mini you can use that one rather than taking one from the table.  I know some of you have gotten the new 25th anniversary box which has some starter mechs that might be popular *Cough*hunchback*cough*.   So long as the mech is painted to a tabletop quality, you can use your own mini and no one else can select it. (Calling this the Dice-K rule...You bought the mini, no one else can draft it).  So we will go through the deck this way with folks selecting their mech as their card is flipped.  Again me picking last.

  Once everyone has picked I'll make sure everyone has a record sheet for the mech they selected.  Then everyone can spend their 10 Character Points (CP) on their mechwarrior.  As there are no Sponsors or Stables that you can join for 0 Fame we can move right to the first game.

  The first battle will be a Free for all, Grand Melee, Battle Royale...however you want to put it.  It will take place at the Marik arena known as "The Factory".  I'll have 15 starting positions marked on the map.  We will re-shuffle the "draft" deck with my card in there this time and players will get to chose a starting position as their card is flipped.  Once all the mechs are in place, we can start the battle.  We will erase the white board at this time.  ti will be used to keep track of In-game events that will earn you CP, fame and C-Bills.

  To encourage aggressive play...there are a couple of incentives.

• In games of 10 or more players, The First player eliminated will receive a 4 million C-Bill award.  The Second will receive 3 Million, the 3rd 2 million and the 4th 1 million.  Obvious suicide maneuvers will Disqualify you from receiving this award.  (Walking and turning your back to the only opponent you can see so he has short range numbers to hit with his AC20...for example).  Should two players be eliminated in the same phase, then the awards are combined and split by them (1st and 2nd players fall in the same shooting phase, then they each would get 3.5 million)
• In games of 5 or more.  The First player eliminated will receive 3 million, and the 2nd 1.5 Million.
• If you have not fired a shot at an opponent for consecutive three turns, you are disqualified from the match and can not considered for the "elimination awards" listed above.  Hiding in a corner and waiting for the field to dwindle down is not an option, get out there and fight.  
• There are circumstances where a majority vote of the players can overrule this Disqualification due to circumstances.  Say the last two mech remaining are in opposite corners of the map after finishing their last opponent.  They are both in Hunchbacks with an 18" max range and it will take more than 3 turns for them to get within 18" of one another.

During the game, certain things you do will earn you Fame, CP and C-bills.  You can see this list on this link...  In Game prizes

When you do one of these, you must write it up on the white board for all to see.  It will also help you calculate your C-bills, Fame and CP once you are eliminated from the game.

           
  There is also a reward for the last 3 players on the table.

1. The 3rd mech left standing will receive random mech one class lighter than the heaviest mech in the battle.  They can choose to take the roll from the lowest possible chart on their factions random mech assignment tables or from the Arena's Faction "F" chart.  Clan players must take the roll from the Arenas Faction table if the heaviest mech in the battle is an Inner Sphere medium or lighter. 
2. The 2nd mech left standing will receive a random mech the same weight class as the heaviest mech in the battle.  They can choose to take the roll from the lowest ranked chart on their factions random mech assignment tables or from the F column from the Arena's faction mech table.  Clan players may take the roll from the Arena's faction or from their clans second line mech table.  Remember Clan mechs are considered one weight class heavier, so the clan player must roll on the chart that is one weight class less than the heaviest. 
3. The Last remaining mech and winner of the battle will receive a random mech the same weight class as the heaviest in the battle from the "A" column of their Faction or the Arena's faction mech random tables.  Clan players may take a roll on their Front line Light mech table, rather than the Free Worlds League.   

• We will use this winners award bracket for all contests with 10 or more players.  In games with 5 or more players but less than 10 at the start (when split the group & we are using 2 tables) then only the#1 and #2 awards listed above.
• All of these rolls will use the tables found in back of the "Field Manuals - Update" book.
• If a mini for the rolled mech is not available the player may roll again.  They can take the chassis without the mini if they wish and we can proxy another mini for it.
• Arena Faction means the faction that owns the arena that the battle took place in.  For example the first night our battle will take place in "The Factory" which is the Free Worlds League (House Marik) arena, so the players can roll on their faction tables or on the Free Worlds League tables for mech selection.
• Sometimes, Clan mechs are listed on inner sphere random lists and vice versa.  The Draconis Combine tables for example have the Ryoken clan mech, listed on the Medium "A" table.  Should a player roll a clan mech on when rolling on an inner sphere chart, they may keep the roll.  However, should a Clan player rolling on the Clan chart roll and Inner Sphere mech, they may choose to re-roll if they wish.  Where the clan player has already moved down a weight class for the roll, it would be unfair to then stick them with an inner sphere chassis. 

Finally if there is more than one player eligible for an award, there will be a roll off to determine finishing position and who will get the award.  Meaning if the game is down to 4 players and 3 of them fall in the shooting phase.  The last remaining mech is the winner, and the other three must Roll 2d6 with the highest getting the 2nd place award, the next getting 3rd place, and the last getting nothing for 4th.

That's all for now.  Figure a July (Maybe August) kick off for this campaign.