I've recently started to run Mongoose's revised version of the 2300AD
campaign Bayern, after having obtained it in a Bundle of Holding.
Here are some notes I've made to add to the published materials. There
are no spoilers here, though there may be in future instalments which
deal with specific scenarios.
2300AD had a reputation back in the day as a very military
SF-flavoured game, but this campaign definitely isn't, and that's the
sort of thing I was in the mood for: so far at least, puzzly
exploration and investigation rather than who's got the biggest
bomb-pumped lasers.
This is still a Mongoose product, though, with all sorts of little
editorial errors, and cross-referencing isn't all it might be. Where I
use page numbers they'll be in the style BOOK:PAGE; thus p. B1:27 is
page 27 in the Mission Profile book.
There's very little about generating characters for the mission, just
a few notes on p. B1:27 (which pretty much comes down to "should have
spent at least some time in academic institutions"). I ended up
running a standard character generation process, but allowing players
to ignore any die rolls they didn't like. (Same applies to skill
improvement: normally you have to commit to an eight-week course of
study, then make an EDU 8+ roll to see if you got any benefit, but I'm
allowing each course to be an automatic success.) Primary crew tend to
have at least one skill at 4 or 5.
There isn't a single summary of the mission setup, so I wrote this to
give to the players:
The Bayern flotilla consists of four ships: Bayern herself, the
largest at 43kt and about 200 crew, with the specialised stutterwarp
drive systems needed to cross interstellar gulfs, and three smaller
ships each of about 4kt and 20 crew. These are Anton Dohrn, an
Initial Survey Vessel, usually running in advance of the main
operation surveying new systems for hazards and noting features of
possible interest; George Bauer, a Logistics Support Vessel, used
as a repair tender and for resupply mining operations; and
_Entdecker, a specialised Encounter Vessel, able both to land on a
planet and to fly FTL under its own power. Depending on the tempo of
operations, the ships fly separately or link up, the latter
particularly for the long crossings.
Primary player characters are assumed to be the crew of the
Entdecker, for whom no details are given. We know there are 20 crew
on board, but even the numbers are not consistent: p. B1:28 says that
each of the three smaller ships has a crew of 20, but Entdecker's
stats (p. B2:40) show space for 26, and the very basic crew roster (p.
B2:39) shows 24.
Expanding on the crew roster for likely skills led me to produce this
extended roster which may be useful in character generation. Most of
the crew positions are likely to be filled by former Navy or Merchant
personnel.
- Captain, Executive Officer, 2 × Bridge Officer: Leadership, Tactics
(Naval)
- 2 × Astrogator: Astrogation
- 2 × Flight Engineer: Engineer (Power and Stutterwarp)
- 2 × Pilot: Pilot (Spacecraft)
- 2 × Sensor Tech: Electronics (Sensors and Computer)
- 2 × Reaction Drive Engineer: Engineer (M-Drive)
- 2 × Stutterwarp Engineer: Engineer (Stutterwarp)
- 5 × Power Engineers: Engineer (Power and/or Life Support)
- Support: Steward, Engineer (Life Support)
- 2 × Scientist: Science (anything relevant)
Probably one of the power engineers is Chief Engineer for the ship.
Onward to new stars!