The Solaris Olympiad Series...campaign background.

I've been thinking about this campaign and how to bring a few things into it.  It have finally come up with the back story as to how we will play this out and more importantly who will be declared the overall winner at the end.


First was a couple of issues that I had to deal with...
1) How to allow and limit the players to just one faction choice.  The thought is to keep a player as a representative of just one faction rather than a free lance Solaris mechwarrior.  Why?  See #2

2) I wanted to represent all factions.  If we were just going to play as regular mechwarrior from solaris...That would cut out most of the Clans, Comstar and the Word of Blake.

3) We will be playing "Grand melee" games using cards for initative.  I have Two 6' x 4' tables and am building the terrain so that one solaris map will fit on one of those tables.  We will either split the players that show up so that there are half on each table, or throw them all on one table (12+ players), probably a little of both over the course of the campaign.

4) How to deal with some players being in different weight class mechs.  To deal with this we will be playing in the unlimited class.  So as players advance, and gather more C-Bills they can get bigger mechs.  So what if a player does really well the first seesion earns a boatload of C-Bills and buys an Assault mech?

• The players will have to be self governing.  If one player does get pretty far ahead as far as Mech size goes, it will be in their best intrest to work together to bring him down.
• Set the starting C-Bills at 4 Million.  So a 3050 Hunchback or a 3025 hunchback is available.  Having a head capping weapon available to someone from the start (or re-start should their character die) levels the field a little.
• The floating crit rule...Any mech can potentially drop any other mech with a single round.  Floating crit, head, cockpit, or CT, 3 crits, all engine...

5) How to let more than one person play a certain faction should they want to?  Well I figure limiting the Houses to three slots should make everyone happy.  Everyone else will get one slot.  Actually I'd be surprised if all three slots from one house does get filled with our 12 players.  Does this mean those on the same faction are on a team?  Not at all, think of it like the Sprint Cup series.  Where Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordan, and Dale Jr. may all drive Chevy's.  At the end of the day they are the ones trying to win the cup and will do what they have to in order to beat the other guys.

Here is my solution to the above issues...  The Solaris Olympiad Series.


   So Why would different factions be coming to Solaris, with only a single mechwarrior (or 3 in the case of a great house)?  Then throwing them in a battle where they potentially might be in a light mech against Assault mechs.  On top of that in a free for all, where it they could be facing another 12 mechwarriors at the same time?  I'm calling it the Solaris Olympiad Series.  A spin on the Martial Olympiad tournament that we used to play that pit faction based forces in lance against lance battles. 

   The gamemasters of Solaris have invited all the factions of the known universe to send forth mechwarriors for this series.  They are to start with just 4 Million C-Bills.  With those C-Bills they can buy their starting mech and will battle all the other entries over the course of a year.  They are allowed to join stables, get sponsors, and buy better mechs with their winnings.  C-Bills will be awarded for their actions on the field of battle.  Their C-Bills will be closely monitored by the Solaris gaming commission to ensure no outside support is given.  It is the mechwarrior alone who must earn the C-Bills to advance and defeat the other challengers for the championship of this series.

Here are the details on how to win....

• We will be playing this Campaign one session per month for a year.  
• Each session might have multiple battles, if time allows. 
• A battle might be a free for all, a Tag team with a random partner, or even an even split of all the players into two teams.
• While C-Bills will help, it will not be the determining factor as to who wins the series.
• The Mechwarrior with the highest FAME after the 12th game session will be declared Solaris Olympiad Champion and be awarded the Solaris Olympiad Cup.