Missions and Employers
The fundamental unit of the structure of your adventures is the mission. You are part of a mercenary group, sworn protectorate, or agent of a governing body or shadow cabal. For one reason or another you have decided to risk your life on a daily basis to do somebody's fighting for them. That reason is up to you, but no matter the reason, you'll satisfy it only by completing missions.
Most employers do little to no mercenary work in-house. Rather, merc companies provide rapid staffing solutions that involve shipping you off to the hands of employers, who call the shots on any given mission.
Most missions are simple. Your employer will outline your task, provide you transportation, materiel for any fighting you'll need to do, and documentation for clearing your action with other units.
The Grandsons of Korhol might hire you to reclaim any valuables left behind in one of their outposts abandoned in a zerg raid. They give you blueprints of the outpost, a map of the surrounding area, telemetry for insertion, and a best guess for hostile activity. What you find inside might change the parameters of the mission: the presence of an overwhelming and unknown organized military force using the base would be cause to abort, or at least to ask for more pay.
You will always have a briefing to setup the parameters of the mission, but even the brightest and most knowledgeable employer probably has higher priorities than whatever cleanup job falls to your hands, and so it is rare that you missions will be outlined in full.
You can also seek out specific jobs if you find they suit your fancy. Your mercenary commander has many jobs at any given time that you may be asked to take part in, or actively seek out. Success at certain jobs will also go on your record and employers will look to that to decide whom to hire.
To seek out a job, work with your DM to create a mission. Such a mission might tie into your character's background. For example, perhaps your father is one of the Grandsons of Korhol and left a family memento behind in the outpost. Perhaps the military force that occupies the base is a known slave trading company that once had you in their employ. Missions can also relate to individual goals. Maybe you have secret information that the outpost architect stashed a treasure beneath that will make you all fabulously rich. Individual missions give you a stake in a campaign's unfolding story and give your DM ingredients to help develop that story.
A campaign is a collection of missions that tie together. Even if the only common thread is your own involvement, together you form an overarching story. Perhaps there's a rival squad in your same company who keeps crossing your path. Maybe the same employer keeps using your squad for jobs as a twisted grooming exercise for some ultimate goal. A hidden hand could be at the center of all the horrors you've witnessed. Your missions may parallel the progress of a deadly disease. Any of these would involve a series of missions and tie in to a campaign.
Bosses
There are various levels of authority and deciding between whose orders to follow can become involved. This section provides some guidelines for the kinds of decisions you'll have to make, and provides examples of archetypical decision-makers.
The deepest level of boss is your secret thrall. Even the other members of your squad perhaps only suspect what your private motivations are. Your thrall is a blackmailer, mindslaver, personal friend or family member, voice in your head from mental illness, mole handler, or other powerful, personal authority that by its nature needs to remain in the shadows. Your thrall is a deep-set feature of your character, and helps make your missions more interesting: putting an additional layer on any tactics check to divine what an authority would think.
You are a mercenary working for a company that rents out your services. Your commander provides you with jobs by handing you off to an employer. Each member of your squad is part of the same company of mercenaries, and your commander will remind you that ultimately, all your pay comes from them and you work for them.
Your mercenary company has clients, one of which at any time will be your employer. Your employer will usually work you into a command structure of their own. After being handed off from your commander, you'll be instructed to follow employer's orders (up to a point).
Consider a situation where your thrall demands you collect the missing uraj crystals whenever you can for reasons they refuse to tell you. Your commander insists that you never accept money or other payment directly from a client: only the company pays you. Your employer sends you to clean out a base, and without telling your commander offers to pay you under the table to bring them the uraj crystals without telling anyone. And there they are in your hands, no one sees you with them.
Duin the Sniper is attuned to individual rights, a selfish person, or simply beloved of his thrall, and is inclined to secret away the uraj crystals and present them to the council at a later time. If possible, he would keep his discovery a secret even from his squad until such time as he can report the find and make the delivery.
Rakkor the Demo looks out for number one, supports individual rights when it helps him, and doesn't mind getting into trouble. Rakkor would keep his discovery a secret until he could arrange a trade with his employer or some other, higher bidder to maximize his take.
O-hij the Medic is honest to a fault, believes in collective rights, and dislikes his thrall for their shadowiness and secret hold on him. He keeps the crystals a secret from his employer but not his squad because his explicit orders did not make mention of them.
How would you react in this situation? If you cross your employer, they might not hire you again or may send someone else after you to kill you and collect the loot. Bite your commander and you face known sanctions and punishments, which vary from company to company. Fail to satisfy your thrall and who knows what they'll do. Hide too much from your squad and they will grow to distrust you.
You might even come up with an alternative that would satisfy everyone. Or no one. The fun of a shared adventure is seeing how your decisions affect things later, thinking through tough calls and exploring alternatives. All of the above scenario involved no dice rolling and—after the setup—took no in-game time. Your decisions in scenarios like this one will lead to encounters, and during the encounter you will know what hand you had in leading to it.
