Merc Manual
From SSDC, Inc.
So, you want to be a Battlelord?
Welcome to the exciting world of a paramilitary mercenary. We here at Contrax would personally like to thank you for joining our corporation – which is the largest employer of mercenaries in the known worlds – and offer you congratulations. The life of a professional mercenary can be an illustrious and lucrative one filled with excitement and opportunity.
Over the next few months you will be trained in several skills and various forms of technology and equipment. This training is very important for it will prepare you for the myriad of missions and exciting encounters of a paramilitary mercenary.
Some possible missions include:
o Defending our mother corporation – Teledyne Systems’ trade ships in several galaxies
o Protecting terra-forming teams on any number of newly discovered planets and uncharted space
o Reconnaissance against the Arachnid presence
o And even exploring the Motarian Rift!
The rest of this manual will help you through your extensive testing and training. If you have any questions refer to this manual first and then your recruiting or training officers. Once again welcome and good luck, Battlelord!
G.S.A.S.S.
Contrax will be testing you in several different physical and intellectual characteristics – in order to best see how you can serve the corporation. We use the Galactic Standard Attribute Scoring System or G.S.A.S.S. to asses both your physical and mental prowess.
The G.S.A.S.S. is based on a previous analysis paradigm used by the human military during the late twenty-first century. It places each participant within a certain percentile of its population. For example, the strongest of humans would have a score of 100; meaning that he is stronger than nearly 100% of the members of his race – the top percentile of his race. If he was the least intuitive of his race he would have an intuition score of 1; meaning that nearly 99% of his race is more intuitive than he – the lowest percentile.
With the addition of new races and technology such as Ram Pythons and cybernetics the G.S.A.S.S. takes into account both scores above 100 and scores below zero (yes, it is possible to have a negative score in some tests). Some races have evolutionary predilections towards one side of the scale over others, but whatever your race and whatever your scores, Contrax will find a role for you!
The corporation will test your physical limitations through various forms of evaluation. Strength, agility, manual dexterity, and constitution scores will be evaluated through weightlifting, speed drills, target practice, endurance stress tests, and other means throughout your training.
Your mental capacities will be evaluated as well. These include your intelligence quotient, intuition, aggression, and charisma. Several I.Q. tests, hearing and sight exams, as well as psychological evaluations will give us a good sense of your intellectual potential and attitude.
Once we have these scores we will use accepted methods and equations to determine your potential for military leadership, persuasion, and bargaining to predict how well you will interact with your subordinates, peers, and supervisors. Lastly, your intellectual competency is finalized on a standardized trivia exam to see how much you know of the history and current events of our galaxy.
These tests, coupled with your training officers’ reports, will be included in your personnel files and allow us at Contrax to decide how you fit into the Contrax family.
What does this mean to the player?
To generate Vital Statistics see p. 71 of the Battlelords core rule book. Various methods can be used but we suggest Method 2 – which is rolling d% 10 times and dropping the two that are least desired. This gives you the most flexibility.
Percentile Dice (d%): When a percentile roll is called for; roll two ten-sided dice at the same time, after designating one die to be “high” and then read the result as a percentage such as 23, 99, etc. Many polyhedral dice sets now come with a “ten’s” die and a “one’s” die. Vital Statistics Check: when asked to make a V.S. check you must roll percentile dice equal to, or under your VS (plus or minus modifiers set by the B.M.)
Vital Statistics:
Strength – The measure of a character’s physical power, how much the PC can Military Press, Dead Lift and Squat. It also represents Maximum Encumbrance, Hand to Hand/Melee Damage Bonus and bonus for Strength-based Skill checks.
Manual Dexterity – Measure of a PC’s Hand-Eye Coordination. Also determines Ranged Combat Bonus and bonus for Manual Dexterity-based skills checks.
Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.) –. Measure of character’s ability to reason, learn, and comprehend. High IQ is vital to ALL matrix-users as it helps determine Starting Power Points. Also important for determining how many Occupational Skills a PC can learn. Also determines the bonus for IQ-based skill checks.
Agility – Measure of a PCs reflexes, quickness and balance. It is primarily used to determine combat initiative as well as the attack bonus for melee combat. Also determines the bonus for Agility-based skill checks as well as the Defensive Modifier that is added to an opponents total attack number used to hit a PC.
Constitution – Measure of PCs physical fitness, health and bodily resistance to disease, drugs and infection. Determines bonus Body Points, System Shock (ability to remain conscious after a critical wound), Resurrection Percentage (chance of being revived from death), Death’s Door (terminal limit of damage at which the body dies) and physical Survival Matrix Roll modifiers (SMRs are explained later).
Aggression – Measures a tendency of a PC to react violently under provocation. Gives a chance for a PC to go berserk or possibly become suicidal – that is becoming so aggressive as to think nothing of one’s own safety. In either event the PC doubles their number of Hand to Hand or Melee attacks per round and gain bonus to damage (+3 for Berserk, +5 for Suicidal). N.B.: Too low of an Aggression score means that a PC has a chance to panic under stress and react fearfully such as running or cowering.
Intuition – The ability to sense danger and discern the truth behind important clues. Also determines a character’s mental fortitude or resistance to mental attacks. This also modifies the PC’s ability to notice changes in the environment and thus is added to all sighting, hearing, and smelling checks.
Charisma - The measure of a PC’s physical attractiveness, charm, sense of humor and ability to play well with others. It is helpful in bargaining and persuasion as well as in determining the loyalty of hirelings. Note: All races have a +10 Reaction Modifier when dealing with members of their own race.
To generate Secondary Statistics see p. 74 of the Core Rule book.
Secondary Statistics Check: when asked to make a SS check you must roll percentile dice equal to or under your SS plus or minus modifiers.
Terrestrial Knowledge – Measures the chance of a character to have knowledge of a particular historical or current event, culture, or other bit of information regarding the universe or galaxy at large. Stat Generation: roll a d% and divide the result by 3, round up and apply appropriate racial modifiers. Each PC has a +25% Bonus while operating in their own quadrant and a +50% in home system.
Military Leadership – Ability to lead troops as well as ability to remain calm under fire and keep those around him from panicking. This also is important for determining rank and salary. Stat Generation: IQ + Aggression + Intuition, divide by 4, round up and add racial modifiers.
Persuasion – The ability to influence the decisions of others. Stat Generation: IQ + Charisma, divide by 3, round up and add racial modifiers.
Bargaining – Ability to drive a hard bargain and get the better end of a deal such as bickering with an arms dealer to get a better price on a weapon. Stat Generation: Persuasion -15, add racial modifiers.
Personal Statistics:
- Height and weight are obvious.
- Vision, Hearing and Smell modifiers are created by adding/subtracting the Mental Bonus from your Intuition score to the racial modifiers.
- Size Class is basically how big the character is. The larger the character, the easier she is to hit in combat. - Body points: Total damage a given body can withstand before passing into unconsciousness. Typically death occurs at -10 BP.
- Movement: X/X/X. The first number equals sprinting distance in meters/second. The second number is the distance a PC can walk in Km/Hour. The third number is the distance a PC can travel in one day, also in Kilometers.
- Number of attacks: Number of Hand to Hand or melee combat attacks available per round.
- Damage per Attack: Damage applied to each Hand to Hand attack. The strength bonus is added or subtracted to this damage.
Your role: determined by your G.S.A.S.S.
Many times our training is based less on a person’s race or gender and more upon her G.S.A.S.S. scores. Looking at various possible combinations of high scores, we invite you to decide how your strengths will best help the corporation.
Here are some examples of how someone’s scores will affect her role on a mercenary team. Based on the strengths as evaluated by your G.S.A.S.S.'s.
Strength + Constitution – Gunnery Specialist
A heavy gunner specialist is able to carry the heavy equipment and ammunition necessary for using these particular weapons systems for long periods of time. They focus their training on heavier personal weapons such as chain guns, pulse, and omega cannons. Many times they cross-train with vehicle mounted weapons systems.
Strength + Agility – Melee Weapons Specialist
One needs to be both strong and quick to both strike and dodge effectively. Many of our melee specialists have been training since their youth but that is not always the case. Learn to use anything from claws to light swords effectively in close-quarters combat. Other members of our melee training program trade high Agility scores for high Constitution scores which helps them survive blows they failed to dodge.
Agility + I.Q. + Intuition – Reconnaissance
Did you always like playing Hide n’ Seek? Lived for the thrill of the hunt? Running point on a hostile planet or scouting ahead of your team in the jungle requires one to be both fleet of foot and aware of their surroundings.
Manual Dexterity + I.Q. – Pilot
A pilot needs to have good hand-eye-coordination as well as the capacity to learn navigation techniques and theory. Many of our pilots focus on interstellar travel and/or flying smaller planet-side craft. Other vehicle specialists are needed as well. Whether driving cars, trucks or tanks, our pilots need to pass vigorous tests.
I.Q. + Charisma – Diplomat
It is always necessary to be able to “make the sale” in corporate negotiations. Whether you want to learn several languages or diplomatic techniques, we offer a wide range of training. We also have many exciting opportunities for travel around the galaxy making deals and offering contracts to various customers.
I.Q. – Specialist/Technician
Many of our employees choose to focus their attention and training on a select few skill sets. We’re always looking for medics, cyberneticists, computer programmers, and other specialists. Also, many of those males and females who wish to learn more choose to pick up secondary occupations to enhance their training and become more complete employees.
Matrix Controllers and Their Role
Some races have the ability to generate matrices. Based upon the type of matrices a being can use, each particular matrix controller can fill a specific role on a mercenary team. We are always looking for healers, energy controllers, and empaths to work with our teams. We offer the necessary training as well as a school of mentors for those matrix controllers who wish to learn more of their potential and how they can better serve Contrax.
Skills Training
After your physical and mental attributes are evaluated you will be placed into your role-specific skills training. Your aptitude in a variety of skills will greatly affect your rank, salary, and opportunity for advancement within the corporation.
Since you have decided that the role of a para-military mercenary is right for you we will focus much or your training on military-relevant skills such as weapons and combat training. The basic mercenary training program will ensure that our mercenary teams are prepared for any conflict that arises in the field.
Our basic training regiment includes:
