ScrapYard Armory

I love the Chaos Campaign Warchest system.  The simplified campaign accounting rules help you to spend more time playing games and less time crunching numbers.  Who wants to work out the cost of every repair and ammo reload when what you really want to do is blast a PPC crater into an opposing ‘Mechs chest?

At the end of the Chaos Campaign rules PDF (available online for free), there is a Campaign Record Sheet that can be used, if you like, to help keep track of your unit’s progress.

I hate to be blunt, but I can’t help it.  This record sheet was designed by someone who has obviously never played through a Chaos Campaign before.

For every track, there are six lines for Options Used, seven lines for Objectives Gained/WP Earned, and a measly four lines for Downtime costs.  On the example record sheet, we can see how the developers imagined this record sheet be used.  It is all very self explanatory.

I have read through both Starter Books, Jihad Hotspots 3070 and 3072, and very few use more than three options or three objectives.  The most I found was the odd track that used four.

Why would they devote so many lines for something that will never actually be used?  Wasted space.  Meanwhile, with only four lines of downtime costs, you can’t possibly fit all the information you’d like.  There are missions that have you running two or more lances of ‘Mechs into combat.

I’ve been abbreviating up to now.  One line for ALL repairs, and one line for ALL salvage, and one line for ALL post track purchases.  It sucks because if there were more lines I could tell the story of my campaign much easier.

I went ahead and warmed up my PDF editor and made some changes.

Chaos Campaign Record Sheet Upgrade (PDF, 72KB)

I left only four lines each for Options and Objectives and put the balance under the Downtime Costs.  I’m already using these for my Wolf and Blake campaign.  With the added detail, I hope to be able to look back on these later on and remember the campaign.

Wow, I remember that Strike mission I ran!  What a disaster.  I almost lost my Griffin and Uziel in that mess.  I was lucky to get my pilots out alive!

We are crafting stories here when we play linked battles with characters and Battlemechs with names and unique quirks.  Make them memorable.  Hope you find the new record sheet useful.