IKRPG 2 : Mission 1, Let's Get This Party Started!

Briefing
Just North of Corvis, on the Thornwood side of the Black River, the Khadoran military have set up a forward base that has been designed to house a huge number of soldiers and warjacks for a future assault on the city.  With the ceasefire and the recent events in the Thornwood interior, it has been left with a skeleton crew of Winter Guard and one low-ranking officer to oversee it.

It cannot be allowed to exist.  Ceasefire or not, destroy it.

The Mission
The fort is a mere ten miles North of Corvis, due East of Fort Rhyker.  It has been designed as a temporary structure, with no real attempts to keep it from sinking in due course (the Cygnaran military may suspect this, but they wouldn't have confirmed it - the buildings are reinforced down to about ten feet and your players could PROBABLY try to burrow under if they have the gear and desire to find out if a cave in of swamp mud counts as crushing or drowning).  The area around the fort has been cleared of all trees out to 300 feet, although there are patches of sparse rubble which a bit of timing COULD allow small or average sized characters to run between without being spotted.

The frt itself is currently being held by a total of 25 Winter Guard, split into one Lieutenant (Katya Roshanov, if your players care.  They probably won't), 2 Sergeants, 2 Corporals and 20 Privates.  2 Privates man each of the Guard Houses and the Gate House at all time on six hour rotations, with the 10 who had just had watch on a 6 hour rest.  Every few hours, either the Lieutenant or one of the Sergeants will do a round of the guard posts.  The Corporals work twelve hour shifts each in the Steamjack Storage facility.

A-D = Guard Houses, 3 Stories Tall.  2 Privates with Blunderbuss and Axe.  Each building has assorted living implements such as a deck of cards and other assorted game boards, a telescope and around 10-20 Koltina.

E = Main Barracks, 3 Stories Tall.  10 Privates with Blunderbusses and Axe and 1 Corporal with Rocket.  The building contains five hundred Blunderbuss rounds, ten spare axes and ten spare Winter Guard uniforms (one size fits all.  So long as you're not a Gobber, Trollkin or Ogrun).  It also has several letters to and from the guard's families in Khadoran and on a Detection roll of 15 or higher, the players will find a loose floorboard concealing a stack of rather expertly realised, if borderline treasonous, sketches of several high ranking female officers (mostly Lieutenant Katya Roshanov, but also a few of Forward Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff and one that may be Empress Ayn Vanar) in compromising, if occasionally physically impossible, positions.  An extended search will uncover approximately 3-400 Koltina.

F = Steamjack storage, 2 Stories Tall.  1 Corporal with Rocket and Kolya, the Kompany Juggernaut.  The building also has huge piles of coal and tools for mechanikal engineering.  It also has several rockets and even a few additional warheads for Blasting Pikes.

G = Officer's Quarters, 2 Stories Tall.  1 Lieutenant with Blunderbuss and Axe, 2 Sergeants with Blunderbuss and Axe.  The building has ledgers, encoded orders and a chest containing the soldier's pay - 2000 Koltina.

H = Gate House, 3 Stories Tall.  2 Privates with Blunderbuss and Axe.  Much like the Guard Houses, the Gate House has a deck of cards and other assorted game boards, a telescope and 15 Koltina.  It also has a "Guest Book" that details the visitors the fort has had since it was built.

All the while the players remain stealthy and take out the individual groups without sound, they will be fine.  If a melee takes longer than a round or a gun is fired, the remaining guards will descend on the location, with the officers, the Winter Guard in the Guard/Gate Houses, the Corporal in the Steamjack Storage and Kolya turning up after a minute and the remaining Winter Guard turning up in ten minutes.

Loot
Guest Book - While mostly useless, this could be used to pin down several high ranking Khadoran military officials.  The CRS would pay out about 10 Crowns per player for it.
Koltina - A Khadoran gold coin.  Worth about half as much as a Crown (.5 gold each) in Cygnar.
Ledgers and encoded orders - Probably worth a LOT to the CRS.  Worth at least 100 Crowns per player as a bonus if they're brought back.
Tastefully realised erotic art - If Sly finds out you've got this, he'll offer 50 Crowns per player for them.

In addition to their monthly pay of 200g, completion of this mission will net a bonus of 100g for each character.

Stats
Privates - Basic Winter Guard stats.  1 Health.
Corporals - Winter Guard Rocketeer stats.  1 Health.
Sergeant - Basic Winter Guard stats, +1 to all stats.  1 Health.
Lieutenant - Winter Guard Lieutenant, +1 to all stats.  'Jack Marshal.  10 Health.
Kolya - Juggernaut with 1 box removed from the Hull of each column.

IKRPG 2 : The House Rules!

OK, so firstly, a proviso - I'm running this game with several people who have never played the Iron Kingdoms before, and one person who has never roleplayed at ALL before, so I'm trying to keep this campaign more or less within the books.  That said, there are a few ideas I want to throw in...

Character Creation
Unless a player really wants to switch out abilities, I'm running this straight from the book - you pick a career and you copy down all the abilities!  I'm using the Unorthodox Engagement Team Adventuring Company (don't even know what it does, but it sounds awesome...) but, apart from that, fair game.

The exception is spells - a spellcaster can switch out any of their spells for any other COST 1 or 2 available to their career.

None of this is technically house rules, I'm just setting down the guidelines and this seems like the best place to put it.  My blog, my rules, people!

'Jacks
Steamjacks can't take nearly enough damage to be the terrifying force of nature they richly deserve to be, so I'll be taking steps to ensure that they can survive more hits than a player character.  I may change this later but, for now, I'm only adding in one rule;

When attacking a steamjack or warbeast, all damage after armour is halved unless it is from another steamjack or warbeast, or it has the Armour Piercing special rule.

Requisitions
As a military campaign, my players shouldn't have to rely on their own funds for gear.  Not only does it not make sense, but it limits the cool toys they can play with.  As such, I've come up with a vague system of social rolls to help my players get toys - ALL rolls should be roleplayed out a bit, but it doesn't need to be Shakespeare.

'Mundane' items (basic weapons, armour and military gear...) are free - you want a military rifle and some Trencher armour, you get it!  Ranged weapons come with 25 rounds.  Obtaining more than is necessary (a character has two hands, they PROBABLY don't need an axe and two rifles...) requires a roll.

'Specialist' items (non-standard weapons, fitted armour and other gear) are discretionary.  If they're necessary for a mission (assassinations will probably need a decent scoped Heavy Rifle...) they're free but, if they want something that makes less sense ("No, you don't need the mini-slugger for the stealth mission...") a roll is in order.

Specific Mechanika requires a social roll.  More general mechanika will probably be granted as the campaign goes on as the players are promoted and make allies (or just make it themselves...).  The granted Mechanika will be that character's personal property, and will be considered fully charged before each mission.  The same goes for any warjack in the division's stable.  The stable currently consists of an Ironclad, a Charger, a Lancer and two Hunters, although this will increase throughout the campaign as I get more models the division is reinforced.

As far as the actual roll is concerned, I'm working on the basis that each player will make out a list of what they want and then make a roll against a target number of 10 plus the following modifiers;

Each mundane item after the third. +1
Each specialist item after the first. +2
Each piece of specific mechanika. +5
Each 'jack after the first for the team. +5
Character is pulling rank or attempting to intimidate. +2
Character has made an effort to get to know Father Brown in the campaign (cancelled if they ever try to pull rank or intimidate him). -2

Even if they fail, all is not lost!  They are still allowed all mundane and specialist items that are needed and, if they HAVE to have something, Sly can accidentally lose it for the duration of a mission for a tenth of it's cost and the assurance that he'll get it back - abusing this service will mean it stops.