Casting Shadows

This efficiently short seed is for Catalyst’s mechwarrior RPG, A Time of War, and should work well for character groups of mercs or merchants.

The seed
The contract for your company’s ground-based, fixed storage space has been terminated, and local conditions are not conducive to easy protection of your turfed goods nor the procurement of new storage.

Planting the seed
This seed can best be planted in an economically and politically unstable environment for groups with goods or materiel in storage worth more than they can afford to lose, and encompassing more than they can easily move. Waiting to use a seed like this until the group is setting up in a new area is probably better than making this the primary focus of a new series of sessions. Unless you want to begin with combat from the first scene, it would be best for this seed to focus on pure storage space where the site owner provides security and facility for the stored goods.

The details

The company discovers that their lease is up and that their goods have been (or are, if you prefer) carted out and dumped on the street. Theirs is not the only storage space affected, so there is a lot of noise from fellow victims, lots of attractive loot for potential thieves, and lots of confusion.

Resources are tied up, traffic routes are congested, and tempers are flaring. Freight haulers are raising their rates, and law enforcement is wading in demanding that things get sorted out now or sooner. None of this gets at the root of the problem, and all the onus is being put on the owners of the displaced goods, rather than on the storage facilities.

What’s going on

The tenor of your campaign will have a huge influence here, but essentially, a major player is making planetfall within the next few days and the way must be cleared for their arrival and their very big footprint. This might be a major merc company, or a prestigious unit from a Great House. Everything in their path is being cleared, but no announcements are being made. 

As the day grinds on, it will become clear that residents are also being displaced to make billets for support staff, infantry, and so on. Hotels are being emptied, private homes and businesses, and public areas such as parks are being turned over for the newcomers’ exclusive use.

Through all this noise and confusion, the character group must protect their investment, find new digs, and maintain their source of revenue in light of this massive and unexpected change.

Enjoy~