{"id":1068,"date":"2025-01-15T05:19:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T10:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:09:20","slug":"ccc2025-15-aleksey-sokolov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=1068","title":{"rendered":"Aleksey Sokolov"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Game:<\/strong> MechWarrior<\/em> (third edition – FASA, 1999)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Experience:<\/strong> I will admit to having owned the first two editions of MechWarrior<\/em>, and even having built characters in them, but I can’t recall ever playing before third edition. Back in the day, Little Sister ran a somewhat hyperbolic campaign in which I and Methrys were the primary players. We may have invented the new war crime of planetary-scale psychological warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sao-shao<\/em> Aleksey Sokolov, Electronic Warrior at Large<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Born to Capellan merchants, Aleksey Sokolov’s life as a citizen and servant of the state was planned well in advance. He was to attend an appropriate preparatory school, sit for the civil service placement exams, and settle into a good, safe, routine job as a bureaucratic functionary in the star nation’s government. That plan went straight to hell, though, when he fell in love with a girl from the wrong class of people. Aleksey followed her straight into the Sian Center for Martial Disciplines<\/a>. The relationship didn’t last, but Aleksey found himself succeeding despite his own expectations. His class rankings qualified him for Sian University’s Officer Candidate Program, followed immediately by MechWarrior training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After commissioning and qualifying as a MechWarrior, Aleksey expected to be posted to a unit on the Federated Suns or Free Worlds League border. Instead, he was offered the opportunity for additional military education – and, from there, a chance to serve the Capellan Confederation in a nonspecific role “particularly suited to his talents.” Having learned by now that a “no” would be a permanent blight on his record, Aleksey accepted, and found himself at the schoolhouse for the CCAF’s top-secret electronic warfare program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assigned to pilot an advanced-model Raven<\/em><\/a> BattleMech, Aleksey spent the next five years providing EW and crypto support for various covert operations on the Capellan Periphery border. This came to an abrupt end, though, when a well-meaning but clueless reporter compromised his identity and his unit’s mission. The reporter disappeared into re-education and Alexei was abruptly reassigned to a line unit on the Free Worlds League front. Four years of a stalled career and endless raids and skirmishes were enough to cement the fact that his career had irrevocably stalled. Neglecting his duties, Aleksey sank deeper and deeper into a gambling addiction. He’d wasted most of his savings before one lucky break enabled him to cut his ties. Resigning his commission and paying a staggering amount of bribes, Alexei obtained forged paperwork which titled his Raven<\/em> in his name and promptly hopped the first tramp freighter for a mercenary hiring center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Traits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Attributes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strength 5
Body 5
Dexterity 5
Reflexes 7
Intelligence 6
Willpower 7
Charisma 5
Edge 9
Social Standing 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic\/Capellan History +1
Academic\/Military History +1
Administration +1
Art\/Landscape Design +0
Bureaucracy\/Capellan +1
Career\/Military Scientist +1
Career\/Soldier +1
Comms\/Conventional +2
Computers +1
Cryptography +3
Disguise +0
Fast Talk +0
First Aid +1
Gambling +0
Gunnery\/Ballistic\/Humanoid +1
Gunnery\/Laser\/Humanoid +2
Gunnery\/Missile\/Humanoid +2
Language\/English +1
Language\/Mandarin +1
Language\/Russian +1
Language\/Scots Gaelic +0
Leadership +2
Martial Arts\/Gung Fu +0
Martial Arts\/Military +1
Navigation\/Ground +1
Perception +1
Piloting\/Mech +3
Pistols +2
Protocol\/Capellan +1
Rifles +1
Sensor Operations +3
Stealth +0
Strategy +1
Streetwise\/Capellan +0
Streetwise\/FWL +0
Swimming +0
Tactics\/Ground +1
Tactics\/Infantry +1
Tactics\/Mech +1
Training +1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brave
Commission (Rank 4)
Vehicle (2) \/ Custom Vehicle (2) \/ Owns Vehicle
Enemy (1) – relatives of the disappeared reporter who blame Alexei
Enemy (3) – Maskirovka agent who believes (correctly) Alexei never should’ve been allowed to leave Capellan service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Equipment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Immaculate Deception” – RVN-3X Raven<\/em> BattleMech
revolver w\/ 5 reloads
jumpsuit
ablative\/flak jacket
medical kit
military communicator
advanced field kit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

171 C-Bills
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Notes and Afterthoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So. Much. Lifepath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I actually rolled uncharacteristically well with most of Alexei’s life events, especially the early OCS opportunity. My intent had always been to try to build a Raven<\/em> pilot, but that suggested some interesting twists. The end result is, I think, a decently competent, if a bit old (he’s 39 at game start) mercenary MechWarrior with an interestingly checkered past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did take some liberties in selling off both positive and negative traits, but the “gambling debts” roll at the end of his final life path phase provided a decent story hook for explaining what happened there. Effectively, I traded Wealth and Well-Equipped in favor of Owns Vehicle and a bump up in his Custom Vehicle to ensure he’d have a Raven<\/em> (rather than risking a random roll that might result in an UrbanMech<\/em>). I also sold back his Vehicle advantage, taking him from a heavy- to a light-class ‘Mech, for the same reason. The earlier event of media compromise during his covert ops career phase also gave me a plot hook for buying off his In for Life disadvantage that normally would have come with that career – effectively, once his identity and affiliation were know, the intelligence community just didn’t have a use for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game: MechWarrior (third edition – FASA, 1999) My Experience: I will admit to having owned the first two editions of MechWarrior, and even having built characters in them, but I can’t recall ever playing before third edition. Back in the day, Little Sister ran a somewhat hyperbolic campaign in which I and Methrys were the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[26,116,60],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-characters","tag-btech","tag-ccc2025","tag-mechwarrior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}