The Planet Mercenary RPG -- "Schlock Mercenary, The Roleplaying Game"

[Destro_Yersul]

And now I've got mine. Showed up this morning. So far I'm liking the look of things. All the components seem to be pretty good quality, and I think that making the dice pips into bullet holes is a clever touch.

[Max_Killjoy]

Got mine today.

[Destro_Yersul]

I've had a look trhough the book now, and have some thoughts on that auto-success discussion from a while back. First, I don't think autofailure is that bad, even on the Teraport cages, since you can get a re-roll with a RiPP. If an auto-failure would be super disastrous, save a RiPP for it, and your chance of auto-failure goes from 0.4% to 0.002%.

That said, in a situation where your skill ranks + 3 are enough to pass the TN of a check, I think I'd say you can't fail - you just do the roll to see if you get Mayhem, or an Upgraded Success.

[Max_Killjoy]

I've had a look trhough the book now, and have some thoughts on that auto-success discussion from a while back. First, I don't think autofailure is that bad, even on the Teraport cages, since you can get a re-roll with a RiPP. If an auto-failure would be super disastrous, save a RiPP for it, and your chance of auto-failure goes from 0.4% to 0.002%.

That said, in a situation where your skill ranks + 3 are enough to pass the TN of a check, I think I'd say you can't fail - you just do the roll to see if you get Mayhem, or an Upgraded Success.

There's a lot to be said for that modification.

I get that they were going for a lot of chaos and uncertainty for the sake of generating "great stories", but it almost feels like everything -- verisimilitude, setting fidelity, any sense of investment in characters -- got tossed aside in that pursuit in a few places.

[Max_Killjoy]

A more radical change I've been contemplating. Flip Mayhem.

If you succeed, then you succeed. No random "yes, but..."

If you fail on a roll, however, then you can choose to draw a Mayhem card in exchange for... a reroll, automatic success, something.

[jindra34]

A more radical change I've been contemplating. Flip Mayhem.

If you succeed, then you succeed. No random "yes, but..."

If you fail on a roll, however, then you can choose to draw a Mayhem card in exchange for... a reroll, automatic success, something.

Mayhem flips aren't all negative. They actually balance out to be neutral to positive depending on the roleplaying skillls of your players. So I'd really think hard about this house rule.

[Max_Killjoy]

Mayhem flips aren't all negative. They actually balance out to be neutral to positive depending on the roleplaying skillls of your players. So I'd really think hard about this house rule.

There are certain cards, such as those that involve a character hijack, that have an outsized effect on my opinion... the other option is to take them out of the deck. As it stands, the potential for punishing success feels too high.

Making it a player choice takes away the random imposition of random effects, as well.

[Destro_Yersul]

Well, the system does already have a mechanic to cancel the cards you really don't want.

[jindra34]

Well, the system does already have a mechanic to cancel the cards you really don't want.

Indeed, people hoarding RiPPs for when you really need them seems like the only real strategy. Also this is a game where character churn (for lack of a better term) is to be expected.

[Destro_Yersul]

Well the thing is, the GM can cancel them too, and if the GM cancels one, every player gets a RiPP. The game is really about collaborative storytelling, so it's totally valid for a GM to cancel cards just because they would hurt the story.

[Max_Killjoy]

Well the thing is, the GM can cancel them too, and if the GM cancels one, every player gets a RiPP. The game is really about collaborative storytelling, so it's totally valid for a GM to cancel cards just because they would hurt the story.

I've tried to be more neutral about this on the reddit for the game, because Alan and Howard read that, and I don't want to be a total jerk, but for me personally, that "collaborative storytelling" focus has been a letdown in the game. The game is great, they got 98% of the way there, but every so often that "you're here to tell a story" thing rears it's ugly head, such as when players are implicitly told "don't get invested in your character, they're going to die and if they're not dying, you're playing the game wrong". And then there's the section where players who try to avoid PC death (because I guess the PCs don't have "survive" as a motive?) are told to go play a game with fuzzy cute kittens instead because they're not ready for PM RPG.

You probably should have warned players that the existence of a battlefield promotion mechanic in this game means that one or more of their characters may die. If you haven’t, then you may need to take a moment and do some people-hacking. Perhaps they’ll immediately twig to the fun of role-playing a death scene, a battlefield promotion, and an oath of vengeance.

Or maybe you’ll need to adopt your best drill instructor stance and give them a choice between girding up for a good death scene, or closing their books and switching over to a training-wheels tabletop RPG like My Little Kitten: Litterbox Adventure Magic. You may need to say something like: “Are you a dysfunctional family of hard-bitten, hard-hitting, hard-asses or not?” Something like that. Yeah. Play that up.

If you and your players do want to play MLK: LAM (“Milk Lamb” to fans and detractors alike), then please contact Planet Mercenary R&D immediately. We are gauging market interest now, and we would rather not begin testing anything on kittens until we know it’s absolutely necessary.

[ForzaFiori]

My sister got the Planet Mercenary book, and introduced me to schlock mercenary with it and the 70 Maxims. I've been hooked since. I'm working my way through the comic now, and trying to convince enough people to get a game going, but I have a couple questions/concerns that those of you who have run games might be able to help with.

I'm having some trouble figuring out some things with fireteams - namely, they seem to be able to attack and always deal damage, and yet dont seem to be targetable (or at least, they have no health that I've seen listed, and nothing in the rules ever even mentions the fact that they might be shot at in combat). Has this come up much in the games you've run?

Also, in a similar vein, when would a person ever use their fireteam for ablative meat as opposed to a grunt who is (in game terms at least), pretty much useless? Unless the story specifically mentions that your to far from your grunts, is there any major reason you've seen people do it?

[jindra34]

I'm having some trouble figuring out some things with fireteams - namely, they seem to be able to attack and always deal damage, and yet dont seem to be targetable (or at least, they have no health that I've seen listed, and nothing in the rules ever even mentions the fact that they might be shot at in combat). Has this come up much in the games you've run?

They can be shot at, have a defense of 5+combat iirc, and damage is handled the same was as ablative meat, with a coin flip live or die.

[Max_Killjoy]

10+combat skill, if the team is hit, pick one of the grunts in it, and do the coin flip.

Armor has no effect, a fireteam in custom heavy armor dies as easily as a naked fireteam.

Page 108.

[keybounce]

Yea, just look at the high rate of character churn in Schlock Mercenary, this is definitely a setting with short-lived characters that die a lot.

Hmm ... Maybe Jim should have played here. 5 characters in 5 sessions starting with Padme through Captain Antillies?

[Max_Killjoy]

Yea, just look at the high rate of character churn in Schlock Mercenary, this is definitely a setting with short-lived characters that die a lot.

How many named members of Tagon's Toughs, or other named characters, have actually died and stayed dead?

How many unnamed Toughs grunts have actually died, verifiably, "on screen"?

[ForzaFiori]

How many named members of Tagon's Toughs, or other named characters, have actually died and stayed dead?

How many unnamed Toughs grunts have actually died, verifiably, "on screen"?

Most of the characters in the PM games dont have illegal nanny bags that can repair/upgrade anyone, HMOs covering the costs of the meidcal care, or Kevyn working for their company to invent god knows what all they've had done to them. If you take out the people fixed by those 3 things, the number will drop significantly I'd imagine.

and I can't believe I missed the stuff about target fireteams like... 3 or 4 times reading the rulebook. I even actively searched for it before posting because I specifically didn't want to look like an idiot lol.

[Max_Killjoy]

Most of the characters in the PM games dont have illegal nanny bags that can repair/upgrade anyone, HMOs covering the costs of the meidcal care, or Kevyn working for their company to invent god knows what all they've had done to them. If you take out the people fixed by those 3 things, the number will drop significantly I'd imagine.

A lot of what's brought character's back is in the "gear" section of the game -- nanny bags, regeneration tanks, etc.

My general point is that the world we see depicted in the comic doesn't seem as lethal, or as lethal with finality, as the game text repeatedly asserts.

and I can't believe I missed the stuff about target fireteams like... 3 or 4 times reading the rulebook. I even actively searched for it before posting because I specifically didn't want to look like an idiot lol.

It's a little sidebar on the left on side of the page, not part of the main text.

[Destro_Yersul]

The game system doesn't seem that lethal, at least for PCs. Grunts are going to bite it all the time, or at least 50% of the time, but given the availability of nanny bags and cloning tanks and whatnot death in this system is set up to be less permanent than even D&D. It's kind of a weird thing to assert, but I guess they don't want people freaking out if their characters die.

[Max_Killjoy]

The game system doesn't seem that lethal, at least for PCs. Grunts are going to bite it all the time, or at least 50% of the time, but given the availability of nanny bags and cloning tanks and whatnot death in this system is set up to be less permanent than even D&D. It's kind of a weird thing to assert, but I guess they don't want people freaking out if their characters die.

They really push the "your characters will die, get over it" angle hard, to the point of making handling death one of their important parts of being a good player, to the point of outright stating that anyone who isn't cool with their character biting it at any time in any way should go play a game about fuzzy kittens.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yes, I know. You quoted it earlier. And I'm saying it's weird, because death is neither permanent nor especially difficult to avoid.

[Max_Killjoy]

Yes, I know. You quoted it earlier. And I'm saying it's weird, because death is neither permanent nor especially difficult to avoid.

It seems odd to the point that it seems to be that I must be missing something when I look at the rules and see a lot of ways to avoid or even mitigate death.

They mention a few other places that things came up in playtesting they didn't expect... I almost wonder if they had some bad reactions to PC death in playtesting.

[mangosta71]

I almost wonder if they had some bad reactions to PC death in playtesting.

Very possible. In most systems PC death is rare, traumatic, and final.

[keybounce]

Either they need to be like Jim in D&D, or else play some Paranoia ... heck, even Toon. Dying isn't the worst thing that can happen.

---

The flip side of that, of course: I invested all this time getting this character more powerful, able to do more things, and now I have to start over at level 1???

I think this is where "death = bad" comes from -- you go from a powerful figure able to do things to a near incompetent, barely-out-of-school wimp.

But in this game, how much does your character actually improve, given that equipment and training basically makes the individual's normal stats pointless / not even part of the game? When you make a new character here, what do you actually lose?

[mangosta71]

In the hands of a good roleplayer, there's a massive difference between a green recruit and a seasoned veteran that isn't reflected in the statblock. Mechanically is another matter entirely.

[Max_Killjoy]

There's also "emotional" investment in the character, which only gets deeper the longer they've been around.

The mechanics don't necessarily reflect it, but in terms of attitude about character death, they seem to have tried to hammer home "Don't get attached".

[Max_Killjoy]

I'll get to see how Howard runs it this weekend.

[LibraryOgre]

I'll get to see how Howard runs it this weekend.

Oooh, have fun!

[Max_Killjoy]

Oooh, have fun!

First GenCon ever, for me.

[Destro_Yersul]

Maybe you'll get a chance to ask him about the death thing. Have fun!