Session Report — Fire in the Heart of Ordan 2
A session report for a sci-fi mech campaign.
The year is 2597 AST.
With the invention of Jotun, twenty foot tall bipedal war mechs, the Frontier has freed itself from the yoke of the fascist One Earth Alliance. But peace was not meant to last.
Earth was destroyed.
The bastards that did it call themselves “The Ventiri.” They tried to do the same to Mars, but a brave few souls stopped them and destroyed their dreadnought. Despite the victory, our losses were significant.
Now the Ventiri have regrouped and invaded Ordan, a metropolis world and headquarters of Dretyl Armory. The Frontier Militia is sending all nearby forces to engage.
The campaign uses a new tactical ruleset I made and host online. It’s basically Lancer but solving all of my personal mechanical gripes with it. I will update the rules over the course of the campaign and then release them for free online.
There are six player characters:
- DEADEYE, a sniper jotun. Piloted by “BULL”.
- OBELISK CORVID, a shield generating jotun. Piloted by “ECHO”.
- SOLAR WOLF, a CQB jotun in a man-sized frame. Piloted by “DIZZY”.
- MARA, a sword-wielding jotun with active camo. Piloted by “GLASS”.
- DEDP 709, a jotun with an experimental drone platform. Piloted by Finè.
- WHALE, a massive jotun with a mini orbital cannon. Piloted by “STARFISH”.
The session began with the players analyzing data collected by the Ventiri forces in the first mission. They concluded that the Ventiri were seeking something from the museum the PCs had received a distress message from. They boarded a bullet train straight there.
Summary
The players arrived at the museum plaza to find another pilot, “ECHO” surrounded by Ventiri forces. They rushed to assist, clearing out the assault and “destroyer” trolls. “DIZZY” confronted goblin forces in the museum itself, discovering a critically injured goblin staring at “Untitled (Yellow and Blue)” by Mark Rothko. Later in the battle, two powerful flame units called “Scorches” entered the field and wreaked havoc on the group. We ended the session with a distorted radio call from Sgt. Bo indicating that all Ventiri forces are heading to the PC’s location and he was coming to pick them up and that they need to protect the nearby landing pad.
Player Actions
- “BULL” destroyed several assault trolls with his plasma cannon and took extensive damage from the Scorch unit.
- “ECHO” struggled while under a huge barrage of attacks, but effectively shielded herself and allies from multiple attacks.
- “DIZZY” eliminated goblins within the museum and discovered a keycard. Its purpose will become clear next session.
- “GLASS” dealt the most damage to the destroyers with her massive arc sword. Although, one powerful attack from a destroyer dealt a wound to GLASS’s Jotun.
- Finè used several support drones to put out fires on ally mechs and restore them to full health. However, some of these limited drones were destroyed.
- “STARFISH” charged a magnetic rail cannon several times. Each fire destroyed at least one mech, and damaged many others in the radius around it.
Rulings I Would Change
I wouldn’t change any rulings in this session, but I did need to clarify the flame rules.
Rules I Will Change
There were some difficulties with understanding how fire damage and shields worked. Flame was more of a condition rather than an attack, so it wasn’t clear if it damaged shields or bypassed them. I am changing the rule so that the weapon performs an attack that interacts normally with shields, but leftover damage triggers the flame condition.
End Report
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the next session report where my players discover just who has been asking for their help. It should be out sometime in the next two weeks.
The Dolent Chronicle is an RPG blog produced by Dante Nardo. If you liked this post, please consider sharing it on whatever doomed planes you reside.