Campaign Play Brief

In a fantasy, cyberpunk dystopia, a handful of individuals find themselves becoming part of the mercenary culture - taking jobs for corporations, criminals, and civilians alike. 

Whether of shared tragedies, goals, or the unified desire to survive in a world bent on crushing that which refuses to stand in line - these mercenaries will make their mark.

Gameplay Premise

This campaign is a Semi-Sandbox Campaign which combines elements of high player agency and direction, a highly reactive and independent world, and the creeping burdens of survival and risk from over-arching threats which endanger their livelihoods.

The primary focus of the campaign will be the setting itself and the player characters within it, with a mixture of organic, player-action driven stories that follow a sandbox approach to the world with some larger, driving narrative plots in play to keep a perpetual goal on the horizon and a risk in the peripheral.

Agency

Held in the highest focus of the GM however in this story is the concept of Player and Character Agency. The world, the plots within it, and campaign at large has no guard rails, or even a singular railroad to find. The GM will attempt in every regard to only say no when the rules of setting or verisimilitude say it is impossible; otherwise, a character is free to attempt anything for better or worse, and the consequences shall play out accordingly without regard to desire or intention - whether this will end a plot-line early, or result in a character death.

The GM does however acknowledge that there are cases where a character would likely know something or have direction, and a player does not. Despite this focus, the GM will forever attempt to assist in cases where you as a player do not know what is available to them - if it is something your character would simply know, they will be told, and if it is not there will usually be a skill check or similar available to give some information or direction.

Storylines

The campaign's story design will heavily balance between four major provocations - character-driven, team-driven, setting-driven, and major-plots. Every session will at least touch upon one of these, if not all three, and will ensure that at any given time there are multiple directions to go and a general approach of freedom. 

• Character Driven: Ideally, every character will have some number of hooks or details in their history that suggest why the character is a Mercenary, what they stand to gain, or what they might lose. These give the character something to strive for and protect, and they are free to pursue this - even if they might need to persuade the rest of their team to help.
• Team Driven: The team has needs, and this is to survive in a world that holds their work to be on the fringes of legality, and exemplifies the example of life on the edge of success and failure. Reputations, resources, or simply affording a roof over the heads necessitates jobs, training, and seeking opportunities. Each character may be there for themselves - but succeeding as a team is their best chance of reaching their goals.
• Setting Driven: The world is one of opportunities and risks, and these can occur at any time - and it will be up to the characters as to how to engage with it, if at all. Whether it is of the scale of corporate manoeuvres, or simply a new police crackdown in the area. Players are free to pursue or avoid these opportunities at their leisure, and know the world will progress naturally with or without them.
• Major Plots: The GM will attempt to keep one, somewhat telegraphed plot in operation at all times. This gives the players something to fight and struggle against, and the knowledge that there is forever something going on that is worth their attention and might dare intercede with their other goals. Ignoring this plot at a given time is plausible, and sometimes delaying its focus to improve resources and tools is necessary - but the plot will forever progress... And may spell trouble if left untended.

A major component of this campaign will be managing these different inputs, and trying to prioritise them. Some of your team might be injured from the last run, provoking a need for individual care - but resources are scarce and a new job is needed, and one of your contacts whom was feeding you intel on the current plot has suddenly vanished. 

No one said being a Merc was easy.

Danger and Risk

These risks however are great, and the setting and story both are unified in their themes of danger, loss, struggle, and the inevitable challenge of maintaining life and morality in a series of situations and environments that demand otherwise. Characters can die, and the GM will give no protection or fudging in their favour or against them, and the world will similarly not adapt to accommodate the choices made by players or characters - the HTR teams will obliterate you from the skies if given reason, opportunity, and provocation; and the narrative's big-bad-boss can be obliterated with a headshot if those same opportunities are created, exploited, and drawn to conclusion, regardless of whether it is session 50 or 1.

There are some tools to help players and the GM keep things on track however in the face of extreme dice rolls, or situations that result from the gap between character and player understanding - this takes the form of the Destiny system, which players can invest in individually to grant themselves a bit more of a safety net.

Tone and Content

The play style will lean towards semi-realistic and high-consistency; while some goofing and laughs can certainly be had, and some over-the-top situations may occur, consider that this is a serious campaign in nature. The world is realistic — but the situations your characters are put into may be more exotic, and the feats they accomplish are akin to realistic action heroes. The silliness and hilarity exists in-universe when it naturally occurs, as it might in any world, but not because the rules of the universe, story, or consequence bend in its favour.

The campaign will feature some action — however, most situations will be beatable through numerous paths. Players hoping for constant rolling and combat may be disappointed — where those wanting to practice their role-playing, problem solving, creativity, and getting immersed in a world should enjoy this. Role-playing in of itself is not the main goal however, but for those of that bent there will be opportunities to do so both during sessions, and in-between sessions as desired.

Theme & Trigger Warnings

Some things make people uncomfortable — and dystopic fantasies hit on a lot of difficult themes, as do fantasy worlds with class, species, and functional differences in peoples. Below are some topics I, the GM, believe may come up naturally from time to time — however, if there is anything that is off-limits to a given player, the GM will be generally happy to make amendments. These can be made directly via Discord or anonymously via Email.

Character Design

Character concepts are largely free-reign, and as they are being made as GURPS characters, are not confined to pre-made classes or niches. Characters generally should be skilled rookies in power level, individuals with potential awaiting opportunity.

All characters will ideally possess some association with Mattok City, most preferably via Megastructure B7 as this is where the majority of the party have originated from - however a great deal of improvisation is permitted here.

Additionally, characters should have a legitimate and ongoing reason to work in this field: the life of a mercenary is a dangerous one, almost guaranteeing an early death, constant struggles, betrayals, and forever existing in the fringes of society. This can be anything from simply being unable to find any other option to survive in the world, financially or otherwise, some great moral opposition to engaging in the corporate model of the world, or indeed the great desire to proffer the proverbial and literal middle-finger to the world and burn their candle brighter and hotter than any other.