BattleTechnology sometimes receives suggestions from the preparedness groups who play the simulator games of BattleTech and Mechwarrior, suggestions to make the games more accurate, more true-to-life. These rules may be included in your campaign as they are written, used in whole or in part, or modified as appropriate to your campaign. These house rules come to us from reader Drew South, based in Hamilton, New Zealand on the original planet of Terra. Occasionally there comes a time when a referee for MechWarrior or BattleTech wonders what a non- player character would do when ordered to charge that Hunchback when the NPC is in a light 'Mech, while the players stand off and shoot the Hunchback. While this is not a problem when every 'Mech in the unit is run by a player, in a large campaign there is bound to be a NPC MechWarrior or two. The following is a rough collection of guidelines to determine characteristics of those anonymous people who the players will doubtlessly attempt to order around. There are three characteristics, which can be either chosen by the referee or randomly rolled. Courage: A rough indication of how brave the individual is. Care: A measure of how careful the individual is, and the degrees to which he or she takes notice of surrounding. Aggression: How capable the NPC is of violence in the course of carrying out duty. The die roll is on 2D6, with modifiers added to the number rolled. In the event of rolling a natural 2, roll a second time. If the second roll, including modifiers, totals 5 or less, then use the 2* result. If the second roll totals 6 or greater, use the 2-4 category. Courage Die Roll Result 2* Yellow 2-4 Chicken 5-6 Cautious 7-0 Brave/Bold 10-11 True Grit 12 Gung Ho 13+ Suicidally Brave Modifiers: Kuritan +1 Fanatic +1 Elite +1 (modify in their favor as applicable) Care Die Roll Result 2* Incompetent 2-5 Careless/Clumsy 6-8 Careful/Standard 9-10 Very Careful 11-12 Extremely Careful 13+ Paranoid Modifiers: Veteran +1 Elite +2 Gung Ho -1 Suicidally Brave -2 Aggression Die Roll Result 2* A Saint 2-4 Low/Soft 5-7 Average/ Ruthless 8-9 Mean/Brutal 10-11 Remorseless/ Vicious 12+ Psychotic Modifiers: Kuritan +1 Liao +1 Fanatic +1 Leadership or, just hold that Marauder back for a while, will you? When a player gives NPCs an order, if the referee thinks it appropriate, he may have the player make a leadership roll. Piloting and gunnery aren't the only skills of use on the battlefield! Modifiers to Target Number Modifier On Edge of Combat Loss Grouping +1 Orders Opposite to Inclination +1 Orders 1800 Contrary to Inclination +2 Considers Order really Stupid +1 to +2 Generally bad day +1 Very bad day +2 Strongly friendly to leader -1 Fanatically devoted to leader -2 Previously prepared position/ambush -1 Disobeying would endanger buddies -1 Everything so far has gone right -1 (confidence in leader) Leadership Roll Results Margin of Success Roll (for Mech Warrior II) Result Leadership Roll Made by: For Mech Warrrior / and Battle Tech) 4+ Total obedience, -2 to target number for all following orders until a failure occurs 5+ 2-3 Follows Order 3-4 0-1 Follows Order, keeps own safety in mind 1-2 -1 Supports in own style 0 -2 to -3 "Brzzt, brzzt, we seem to be having comm problems" (+1 to target numbers until a success is rolled) -1 to -2 -4 to -5 Out of control do their own thing (+2 to leadership target numbers until a success is rolled) -3 or less Back to BattleTechnology 20 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com