In my recent d20 campaign, the heroes have started toying with the idea of starting/joining a mercenary company. I, being young and inexperienced have no idea of how how a mercenary company would work legally so i would appreciate any and all input.
P.S. I apologise for any grammatical, spelling or assorted communication errors
Well, first off real mercenary companies, sometimes also known as "security contractors," aren't allowed to engage in actual combat...
I'd probably play the "rule of cool" card on that one though.
There's some kind of treaty in the UN that prevents mercenaries (or "security contractors") from actually fighting. Of course Blackwater (which now calls itself something else) - a security contractor - has blurred that line more than a couple of times.
I'm with Narukogami on the rule of cool thing, though. Perhaps the team is recruited by a larger "Security" company with the means to run a covert op, or connections in the UN to make sure no one will look into their operations?
Lots of options, really. I'd suggest asking your players what they want out of this game premise and work from there. Do they want to be the Good Guys, or do they want to be Mercenary Bad****?
If they're just looking to kick ass and earn money, then you can easily put them to work in places where the law just isn't up to the task of knabbing them: South America, Central America, the Carribbean, most of Southern Africa, large hunks of South-East Asia, large hunks of Eastern Europe.
If they want to operate in the wealthy Western world (North America, Western Europe, Australasia), or the secure Asian world (Japan, urban China, etc.), then they'll need some kind of legal status. They could also play the Big Bad Outlaws, like the A-Team or Burn Notice, and have an active relationship with the police/FBI/RCMP/Interpol/whatever be part of the game.
Talk to your players. Figure out what they want.
Edit: I cannot F'ing believe that I can't type the word "Bada$$e$" without getting bleeped, over the second part of the word, but I can type "ass" in the singular, and everything's fine. What the F, WotC? "Ass" is no a F'ing swear word. Differentiating between the singular and the plural is just idiotic. What if I want to refer to multiple donkeys?! What the F do you expect us to do with that? Sweet and sour Jebus on a F'ing pogo stick, this is so stupid...
Nice thing about running a merc campaign is that it is very easy to provide adventure incentives AND regulate player wealth.
for the earlier you just pay them and the latter you decide how much to pay them.
Thank you for the clarification there. This well help me a lot knowing these things.
You could rent/borrow a copy of the game 'Mercenaries 1&2' or 'Army of Two' either PS2/3 or X-360 version and get a few ideas from there...
A few ideas off the top of my head
1) The group as stated could join a pre-existing company and be the noobs sent in to get the job done... lousy intel well NPC saves them/etcetera...
2) The group starts their own company being hired by existing corporate companies to handle jobs where members of their company cannot be involved
3) Drop them into a neighboring country which is then invaded and they're hired by the government/dictatorship to handle the enemy with bounties on the enemy chain-of-command ala Mercenaries... you could assign payouts for enemy vehicles destroyed and soldiers killed and deductions for the aid of artillery by the country. Throw in the whole black marketeers to sell that tank or crate of weapons from the last raid
4) The group is forcibly abducted and forced to fight for a country but they escape from whatever camp the are in or in route to the facility.
I like this from the 101 Future Weapons thread if you Have the PL base in your campaign; basically the group has to retrieve the designator from some radical militia/terrorist group before they use it... it could be a grand finale for the campaign if you want
Hammer of Dawn (PL6-7)
The threat of this weapon lies not in the man-packable tagging/designator device itself, but in the satellites high above the planet's surface. In fact, both the tagger and the satellite are referred to as the "Hammer of Dawn".
Damage: 20d6
Critical: N/A
Damage Type: Fire
Range Increment: 50ft
Area: 5ft
Size: small
Weight: 5lbs
Purchase DC: 32 (+3Mil) (or none, priceless)
Special rules: The Hammer of Dawn is perhaps the most powerful ally any soldier can have. It is also, unfortunately, one of the more unreliable ones at the same time. The Hammer of Dawn is absolutely useless unless a satellite component is overhead. That said, many heavily-attacked bases have satellites maneuvered into geosynchronous orbit in order to make the best of their firepower.
Either the GM decides when a satellite is within range, which the players should be aware of (unless other circumstances are at play), or a percentile die may be rolled at the beginning of an encounter. If the percentile die is in the 90-100% range, the Hammer of Dawn may be used for as many minutes as the difference between 100 and the number rolled (minimum of 1). If it is any lower, the Hammer of Dawn is not accessible for a number of minutes equal to the difference between 90 and the number rolled.
Painting the Target: The Hammer of Dawn does not get an immediate response from the satellite, as it has to find the target first. The user of the Hammer of Dawn must first paint the target as a ranged touch attack, and keep the laser trained on the target (attack action) for three rounds in order for the satellite to fire.
When the satellite finally does fire, it deals 20d6 per round (reflex DC10+painter'sBAB for half) to anything within the 5' radius it effects. The Hammer of Dawn satellite can only fire for three rounds before spending 2 rounds cooling for each round spent firing. The painter may choose to "guide" the Hammer of Dawn, moving the area at a speed of 10' per round. Whether or not the Painter chooses to guide the Hammer of Dawn, he must spend his attack action every round that the satellite is firing.
GM advisory: This is a plot weapon, something the general himself assigns to the party when the enemy's mecha legion or star port must be wiped out by yesterday, and the PC's are the only guys able to carry out the job... don't give to disruptive players. >_>
In the event that your entire party consists of disruptive players, it may be necessary to rule that the Hammer of Dawn system also incorporates IFF systems and fail-safes to stop the satellite from slagging a friendly structure or vehicle.
Hmm, I agree on a lot of points. The campaign is PL 6 for the record and the PCs are after this end so they have a cover for their operations. Really it's just a way of them going out and fighting the baddies while also staying within the boundaries of the law.
Also, my campaign does not feature energy weapons, or orbital death cannons (although that would be amusing).
"Security Contractors" aren't allowed to engage in OFFENSIVE operations, but they are allowed to be armed for defensive ops. For example, Blackwater (now 'Xe', I wonder if that has any relation to the old South African "Executive Outcomes" firm?) pretty much did base guard duty, convoy protection and executive protection details for State Dept folks. As such, they were allowed to return fire, but weren't used to 'go after' bad guys.
That works very well, Johannixx, thank you very much for this information.
well, technically
a howitzer loaded with behive Cannister munition is a defensive weapon.
sure folks say flechettes are no good against buildings,
but they are not considering when you can roll the cannon right up to the building and thump a 155Cannister at a wall from 40' away
When Backstabbist defends a convoy, he includes the SP Artillery defense
To get work done the higher ups in a mercinary company would have to be good at politics, atleast the behind closed doors. Usually the type of stuff they do should be hush-hush any way, to keep the players interested if for no other reason.
Monster hunters could easily be government contractors (federal). Mostly because they do things that has questonable legality, and definitelly needs some probable deniability, from magic to genocide. The mercs can take the fall if anything ever gets out.
The WIC, from Sunshine Temple's The Return, makes good at keeping a profeshonal demenor and still doign the monster hunt: