Traveller: Mission to Mithril - RPG Review
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- Опубліковано 13 лип 2019
- A look at the Traveller adventure Mission to Mithril, by Mongoose Publishing. It offers combat, survival, a mystery, and giant worms, but we do have a couple areas that we can still improve.
You can find it here on DriveThru RPG: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
The Mongoose Publishing Store: www.mongoosepublishing.com/mi...
Amazon: amzn.to/2lm2ux7
If you want to support my channel, or are in the mood for some kickass urban fantasy about modern-day demon hunters, you can find my novels and audiobooks here: amzn.to/2Wtv01p
Guest starring Jack the NPC
"I thought you said it was A NICE planet!!!!"
I saw the cover picture with that "ice worm" and somehow ended up thinking it should be a moon of a gas giant. Nice and tropical with that worm being a "odd" palm tree. Then it goes into eclipse behind the gas giant and freezes over and the palm trees "wake up" ravenous as the "ice worms". They need to feed to survive the long winter night and at the end find a good place to plant themselves for the return to sunlight.
Due to the "winter night" glaciers everything has to be mobil or able to melt and drain away all the ice.
The players might wonder why such a "nice world" has all the people living in habitats deep under the ocean with floating space ports. But would they ask? If they try to land in the wrong season with major storms it could be "interesting".
Have to make a note to place such a system.
😇
The Thing? Jack, I think you missed the part about people investigating the ruins of an ancient civilization. This is the setup for At the Mountains of Madness!
The Thing at the Mountains of Madness. Have the Travellers all be of Norwegian decent. There will be no survivers.
As usual you add value to the product in this review and suggestions for running it. Thanks!
"A nothing part until you ain't got one?" Shiny
Dear Seth, Your excellent module reviews and RPG advice videos are always entertaining and a credit to the gaming community. Your guides to CoC have inspired my group to try 7th edition. Been a fan for a few years now. Thank you for all of the hard work to enhance our hobby.
Damn you Seth, now I need to do an actual session where people land on an ice world and it actually IS space John Carpenter's The Thing, that's too good a premise to pass on
Read the original John Wood Campbells "Who goes there?"
I ran this adventure today, implanting it into my Star Wars game. It went well, and culminated in a cool battle at the down port during a foggy night with snow coming down while the mercenaries and PC's were hunting each under around the base and beneath the ship in the darkness.
I just bought all the Traveler core books, a game my group has expressed ZERO interest in, solely on your reviews of "High and Dry" and this. Pretty sure I'll be able to bring them around :)
I told mine it was pretty much Firefly and they were all on board.
Requesting update!
BTW I am starting up , on-line , my next campaign homebrew with Mongoose Traveller ... frontier Belters and colony-building ... playing via Discord ... new players welcome ...
(Old invite code will be updated)
@@stevekillgore9272 i have absolutely no experience and don’t have tons of free time. Would you still allow me to play
@@tylerschoen5643 of course, try this
discord.gg/FvbkhWg2hV
What you described are the historical strengths and weaknesses to Traveller modules going back to the seventies. The "plot" is pretty weak and not well thought through. I always thought of these as a kind of "baseline" and deviated freely to fit my campaign, much as you did. However, these adventure usually contains some cool tools that supported sandbox style play. Sounds like Mission to Mithril has great tables you could use in any "ice world" adventure, regardless of what the mission is. Oh, Traveller, we love you for your imperfections.
I always wind up modifying the Traveller adventures even the old school , pre-built canned ones. They always leave a lot out that needs filling in by a GM / referee. Which is fine. Then you can make the adventure how you like it.
Professor Farnsworth: Great news everybody
Seth Skorkowsky : this thing is bad news
polar opposites
I'm finding a lot of Mongoose Traveller's Adventures are very wordly written and organized in ways that don't make them easy for Referees find easy to use.
I bought the 2e core rulebook, and that's pretty much how it's written. I prefer the original game.
There is something relaxing about going back and watching these videos a few years later.
It’s stunning how much your brother and you look alike. I can’t believe that you’re not twins.
I ran this module and I ruled that considering the climate pn the planet and that I "rolled" really bad storms for the next week they could't use the helicopters and other craft they had amassed on the ship, nobody in my group expressed any anger about this and I really think it is a slight oversight in the module.
Hey, Seth! Just GM'd my 3rd session of Rogue Trader on the weekend and I'm having a blast as are my players. Using a lot of your advice it is helping a lot! Actually I think I've decided I love to GM more than playing where for years I loved playing more. Keep up the fun, entertaining videos, mate!
Just when I was starting to itch for more Seth.
Yey! New video!
Nice t-shirt. I just finished reading the Alien RPG Starter Kit. Thanks for the review.
Seth, I like your approach to modify the module to "what works". I have hacked a lot of old school CT modules to make them unique so that my players are genuinely surprised at what unfolds because they've never seen it before. Awesome videos. Thx
Woho! More Seth!
Any chance of us seeing you do one for City Under The Sea, which is effectively a sequel of sorts to The Temple written by Lovecraft himself?
That sounds cool.
Thank you for doing your reviews. They are the main reason I sprung for Call of Cthulhu last week. Now to learn the rules and have things ready before I finish my Starfinder campaign
Another great review. Thanks, Seth!
GMs could always say that their vehicle is not set up for such extreme cold. Trust me, I'm Canadian and we know what cold harsh winters are like.
Nice. I enjoy seeing you review other game systems.
1 in 50 vehicles will not start due to an EMP. Tests done were for vehicles made during 1987-2002. Newer the vehicle the more problems you'll have. There is an EMP commission in the USA that did the tests and continue to make such tests.
Hi Seth, I watched both of your Traveller reviews and they are great as usual. It would be great if you'd do a general Traveller system overview. It doesn't need to be as detailed as your CoC stuff, an introduction would suffice as well.
Alaskan bullworm!
Love your videos Jack... I mean, Seth. Great mix of review, advice and humour, not many can acomplish that. And now I want to see a John Carpenter's The Thing conversion to module, maybe to Call of Cthulhu.
EDIT: now that I think about it that could be a new whole series: converting movies/books to modules.
So doable,
I had lots of fun with the Traveller series of games, 2300AD especially. I wish I had this sort of advice back then.
I enjoyed GDW's original (non-Traveller) 2300AD boxed set back in the day.
I read that Mongoose is supposed to be releasing a new 2300AD version for their latest Traveller edition, but I'm not sure how that's coming along. Last I looked, the previous version was the only one still for sale.
Thanks for your review, Seth! It does not disappoint. You hit all the main points I expected you to address, and it's great to hear that the scenario turned out well for your group. MJD included a lot of great ingredients for this adventure, but the recipe cooked up as written is pretty bad. The premise is contrivance stacked on artifice, with a little deus ex on the side.
It is absolutely worth the effort to fix, however, and it's encouraging that it worked for your crew. In it's defense, there are setting encumbrances that make the ATV gimmic hard to sell narratively, but the stock premise can definitely be improved upon. This adventure is best run early in a campaign, when the PC's are still gear-poor.
Great video dude
I hope we'll be getting more Traveller!
A bullet fries your EMP grounding device... this is why I prefer good ol flak cannons for grounding escapees.
Very late to the party here, but I thought of a neat way that you could explain the EMP. Let’s say they are powered by supercapacitors, which would totally make sense. Now, all capacitors leak some, but normally the EMP capacitors would only need a very small amount of power to keep them topped up in standby mode-say a few watts. But these ones are faulty (maybe damaged by extreme cold) and were turned off years ago to conserve power. When the mercenaries attacked someone tried arming the EMP device, but because the capacitors were drained, it took them hours to build up enough charge. The players could find the operator slumped over a terminal displaying over-current warnings and diagnostic logs that came up when they tried to arm it. The EMP is now in standby mode (albeit consuming quite a lot of power-say several kW-to keep the capacitors topped up), so if the players wanted to re-arm the EMP for any reason, they should be able to do so with an appropriate check.
Going to run this tonight and use your EMP idea. Thanks!
My group would land near the starport expecting a ambush
Seth, would love to see another war story
There is a place in the Dallas area I drive by quite often where I see a Scott Brown placard. I always yell "Scott Brown motherfuckers, get the fuck out! I got a showing!" every time. It never gets old.
Or maybe the weather or low air pressure or fuel freezing could make a helicopter or other airships dangerous or impossible to use
@Naren Gurrier-Jones The EMP probably is not an _Electro-Magnetic Pulse_ but a Cleaver Trojan Horse Virus ment to specifically target Anti-Grav Drives.
I caved and bought this to run for my group. Wish me luck.
High winds with constant change in wind direction make it Impossible to air travel without anti-Grav. Icey , ocean and lake weather causes this so. Whether like that is consistent in that kind of environment to.
Have you ever noticed that Jack the NPC seems to drink a lot? lol. Great video, as usual!
If you've been through as much crap as Jack has, you'd drink a lot too.
6:28 To whoever's writing the subtitles: I believe this should be "in our ship's hold".
Otherwise hey, thank you for the subtitles! :D
In the Mission ON Mithril module (Double Adventure 2), it is explicitly stated that "Mithril's climate is too harsh to allow use of an air/raft..." as the two parts of this Double Adventure were about forcing the characters to use an ATV to go across country in a harsh environment. If they'd included this, then this potentially closes one loophole (using a non-air/raft flying craft), but opens another (why is there an air/raft on the planet?).
Clearly a case of government spending. Whichever government funded the Mithril base decided they needed an Air/Raft despite protests from the Mithril crew. They were all, "No we don't want an Air/Raft," but got one anyway. It's been sitting in that storage building for years and is filled with boxes upon boxes of crap.
An air raft can take space but not arctic?
I intend to run this basic scenario for my first Traveller game to GM (moderately simplified). I really like the idea of the gorge, but my spin on it is going to be that the gorge wasn't there a few days ago when the scientist party split - it was formed by a particularly gigantic snow-worm passing through, maybe brought up by the engines of the now-broken scientist APC, or the gravity warping of the gravsled.
I have the original double adventure on the shelf next to me :-)
Mine's in storage. Those were the days...
BTW I am starting up , on-line , my next campaign homebrew with Mongoose Traveller ... frontier Belters and colony-building ... playing via Discord ... new players welcome ...
discord.gg/FvbkhWg2hV
Currently running it. A helicopter/ornithopter, etc. would be inadvisable due to the setting's weather. But yeah, the adventure does pigeonhole you into the ATV; but then, that was the point of the original adventure from the early 80's, too.
The original had the weather be so harsh that even air/rafts were unusable on Mithril, which was fine. But since this one has the archaeological team using a raft, it's arguable that the others could work too (though flying might prove to be pretty difficult). Hope you all have fun with the adventure.
@@SSkorkowsky
The archaeological team are offworlders who don't know enough about air/rafts to realize how bad an idea they are on Mithril (now WHY it is a bad idea when they can take outer space needs explaining)
I feel like feng shui would be right up your alley. Chock full of pulpy goodness
Pulpy?, Crazy more like, you can run across bullets mid air in first edition,
@@Tony-dh7mz - Feng Shui 2e also encourages such crazy physics. Of course, there is all kinds of thematic undertones, along with the "bullet time" physics-breaking, including time-traveling ancient sorcerers, and cybernetic uplifted apes from the future. Oh, and the famous attack bonus given for making a "Chuh-chuch" sound of racking a shotgun slide before attacking. Perfect for running something akin to a 'Big Trouble In Little China' style of RPG.
I actually just watched The Thing right before the video
First time I watched “The Thing” I was expecting to hear “It’s Clobbering Time!”
Imagine my disappointment....
I wish I could like this twice!
OMG how did I not know about this channel before
Could you do a review of the system for traveler?
Hello Seth! Thanks a lot for the review! I have a personal question. In the review of ‚High and dry‘ review, you mention, that the ship has broken G drive, but the crew can fly it by using the meneuver engines. What makes it impossible to do this again in this scenario, especially when this is the following adventure...?
It seems the mercenaries would see the player ship on the pad and make that a priority.
Also nothing to stop the players from taking the air raft and leaving the npcs to deal with the apc alone.
Since the ship is in lock-down, powered off, and under a few days worth of snow, the mercs move on the base first with plans for the ship later. Breaking into a starship takes a while.
And the Air Raft is busted. It had a part they needed to salvage off it, but it ain't flying again. But nothing ever stops the PCs from abandoning the NPCs except any personal feeling of morality or promises for reward.
Hey, Seth, Love your work. Have you ever heard of a Steve Jackson RPG called "Toon." It's unlike any other TTRPG I've ever seen on shelves in that you get to play a cartoon character instead of a more typical normal-ish person! It's a great time (when you have proactive players) and I would really like to hear a review of it one of these days. It's out of print, but it's still available on PDF for a very reasonable price.
Ran it, Played it,
It’s fun, but it’s one of those games you play rarely,
Not everyone’s cup of tea,
You really need to like WB cartoons to do it justice,
I'd like to think that the guy just panicked when he turned on the emp. Or the mercenaries wanted to delay investigation
I suspect having the EMP maguffin be the work of the bad guys is the key to fixing the worst part of this set-up.
Thanks Seth. What I would also find helpful is knowing how long the adventure took. How many sessions (or hours) did it take your group to complete.
This applies to any of the reviews you post, knowing how long they take would be a great bit of addition info. Thanks.
The module took us about 4 hours. The session itself was 8, but it started with doing a cargo run, getting passengers, and general playing before we got to the initial hook that sent them there, and then the journey to Mithril. So I can't say for certain, but at a guess, 4 hours from when their ship landed until they escaped the planet.
What would happen if the players decided to do a flyover and sensor check before landing?
It’s always fun to play with player expectations. Oh you thought this adventure would be The Thing? Boom! Ice (sand) worm! 😂
BTW I am starting up , on-line , my next campaign homebrew with Mongoose Traveller ... frontier Belters and colony-building ... playing via Discord ... new players welcome ...
discord.gg/FvbkhWg2hV
Star Trek was full of planets with atmospheres that were ionic or whatever that the shuttlecrafts couldn't fly through. Maybe the vehicles have to be specially shielded somehow to cope with the atmosphere in a way that any vehicles that the PCs bring with them aren't.
It sounds like the writer(s)/editor(s) arranged the information like a suspenseful novel as opposed to a game master reference book. Otherwise a very cool scenario.
Seth have you ever thought of actually producing the adventures you run with your group like Encounter Role playing or Into the Darkness does? I know I would love to see/hear you run and your group play Pulp Cthulhu adventures. I love the reviews but was wondering it you had considered this step? That said I do look forward to you running and reviewing Masks of N. some time in the future in your pulp fashion.
Any chance they mine a light but strong and easy to work metal on Mithril? Just a shot in the dark.
No, a Journey in the Dark
@@trequor guess they dug too deep
An EM pulse would effect all electrical components as in starters, and the like, so no the helicopter would be out too!
If that's how you want to rule it, that's fine. But the module is pretty specific that the device only effects grav-lifters.
Hey Seth, if you made patches for sale that said 'JACK THE NPC' I would totally buy one... Also, great video as always! When do we hear how you did at the Ennies?
Probably not workable with cost to produce, the price would be insane if I tried to sell them. So... here's where I got mine amzn.to/2k2Wvgb
ENnies will be announced at GenCon in early August. So we got a few weeks to wait.
@@SSkorkowsky Thank you, my friend! Sincerely hope you are well :)
Is there any chance that you might make a review for Cthulhu Invictus? I just got into CoC and I want to start with that one. And then with Down Darker Trails and so on till the modern day. That is the plan for my first CoC campaign.
Not for a while. I have it, but we haven't played it and it'll probably be a while before we do.
This being a sequel of sorts has me wondering: does anyone have any experience converting Traveler stuff from the 80s into the current edition? Does it work well or do the adventures have to be rebuilt from the ground up like with D&D?
Converting Classic Traveller scenarios isn't that difficult to do. A little harder than it is converting old Call of Cthulhu to current, but worlds easier than converting D&D. Hardest part for me is deciphering the University Personality Profile from old editions. There's conversion rules in the Mongoose Traveller Corebook (pg 52). It's not hard, but requires me to pause and think about it.
@@SSkorkowsky Reckon I'll pull the trigger then and let a new group explore the Annic Nova. I notice on their website they do the same thing Chaosium does, including pdfs when you buy physical books. Thanks for the feedback and for all the awesome content!!
Annic Nova is one I'm looking to run. Being as old as it is, there are a lot of fan pictures and theories on it, so you have a lot to pull from for it.
Hey Seth! Have you ever thought about doing a GM Toolbox on GM screens?
Ask and ye shall receive ua-cam.com/video/dihHP2dSfFQ/v-deo.html
LOL 9:35, "discress call." Oops.
I might be outvoted by the rest but just landing IN a silent downport isn't smart. no fly by with sensors? No parking over yonder on a rock and knocking with rifle in hand? Too genre savy? Yep. And what happens if the ship is hardened? Does that protect the things inside from EMP? Our favorite ship is the yacht (so easy to modify into a small merc carrier) so in all likelihood we just get picked up by the yacht and leave the ship's boat behind for a bit.
Wasn't John Carpenter's The Thing a remake of an old black and white movie from the 50's called The Thing From Another World? I mean in terms of the plot the only difference is that in the 50's film the Thing walks straight through a wall leaving a person shaped silhouette just as if it was a cartoon. The two films are a lot closer to each other than those other two crappy Thing remakes that came out recently.
Not really. Carpenter's movie was based on the short story Who Goes There. The 50's movie used the setting (sort of, Arctic rather than Antarctic, and the alien was a vegetable creature rather than a shapeshifter), and credited J. W. Campbell because they bought the rights to the story.
You know, you've got some really good points there. Thanks. I haven't seen the thing from another world in something like 20 years now. The two films still are very similar 'though.
edlaprade, that’s some serious hard core film nerdage right there,
I applaud 👏👍
edlaprade And “Who Goes There” was influenced in part by the novella “At the Mountains of Madness,” which was itself influenced by the short story “In Amudsen’s Tent” (readings of which may be found on UA-cam, and which I highly recommend as it’s a great story!)
@@edlaprade True, but Carpenter is on record as a fan of the 50s movie as well. He referenced the title sequence in The Thing, and had The Thing From Another World on in the background in Halloween.
I’m sold on Traveller. I see that a lot of the adventures are from different editions.
Do they all run on Mongoose 2e or would it be better to pick a different edition?
From the Classic Traveller modules I've tried out so-far, converting them to Mongoose has been pretty simple.
@@SSkorkowsky this is the way.
BTW I am starting up , on-line , my next campaign homebrew with Mongoose Traveller ... frontier Belters and colony-building ... playing via Discord ... new players welcome ...
discord.gg/FvbkhWg2hV
Space cape.
this was a modual i did last september (over zoom we were still on lockdown at the time) and everything went to hell and one of my players shot two survivor since my group and i are semi murder hobos and tempers flared
Seems like a fairly common thread on these RPG reviews is "Book is filled with cool backstory/details, it's a shame there is a 0% chance for the characters to learn that." I feel like you could make that one of your GM mistakes/tidbits in your RPG Philosophy/how to GM videos. Striking that balance between exposition dumps and your players not learning details about why they're doing what they're doing.
Or maybe you could use that for a video on how to write adventures. Telling people to remember that players won't be reading the book/gm notes so just having that detail exist isn't enough.
You should have played the main title score of the soundtrack to The Thing,
Either way, Carpenter-esq or not you will creep the crap out of your players....
Is one of the npc’s the monster?, is one of the players the monster?, is there no monster it’s just the GM messing with our heads?!, wait, that would make HIM the monster....
Creepy paranoia a go-go
Yes, I believe in using music (mostly before) for gaming,
Try using “Toy Soldiers” by Martika for a Twilight 2000 game,
While I don't play it for the players, before every session I choose a song as part of my pre-game routine to get into the mood. Song changes per campaign or system. For Traveller, I use Space Truckin' by Deep Purple.
Dude, I could write an essay on using music with games, it’s my thing, (I mean, you know what I mean)
As the way you play evolves so does the music,
For Traveller I use Brian Reitzell’s “Towers of the void”
Here’s a few tracks I use,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Anastacia, album “Anastacia”
Coriolis,
Warriyo, “Mortals”
Symbaroum,
Ramin Djawadi “There Is A God In You”
Top Secret SI (Played Cold War 80’s, think atomic blonde)
Peter Gabriel, “Games Without Frontiers”
Top Secret SI (modern)
Roxette, “The sweet hello, the sad goodbye” (bassflow remake)
All Flesh must be Eaten (default)
Busta Rhymes, “We Made It” (instrumental)
Or
We are the fallen, album “Tear the world down”
All Flesh must be Eaten (ultra gritty edition)
Zack Hemsey “Vengeance” (instrumental)
Witchcraft,
Evanescence, album “Fallen”
Darkwood (think Robin Hood)
Clannad & Bono, “In a Lifetime”
Tales from the Loop,
Nina, “Beyond Memory” & “One of Us” (lots of tracks, to many to mention)
Macross II,
Cheap Trick, “Mighty Wings”
A Song of Ice & Fire,
Lindsey Stirling, “Crystallize” (Orchestral version)
Chill,
John Ottman “Miranda’s Theme” (all of the Gothika album)
Serenity,
John Powell “The Fire Truck” (most of the Evolution soundtrack album)
Marvel Universe,
Fireflight “Unbreakable”
May post more if I remember more...
Mutant,
Liam Welton, “Escape from New York Theme remix” (see youtube)
Up coming Projects,
Gears of War (using Traveller)
Evanescence, “field of innocence”
Judge Dredd (using Traveller 4th ed (fixed), and a conversion of the Mongoose Judge Dredd)
The theme track to Apex Legends,
Polaris (French rpg, sci fi, subaquatic setting)
Ivan Torrent, “Amaranthyn” & “Neon Paradise” (for Equinox)
It sounds like they actually expected the players to read the beginning (at least) of the module, so they "hid" the pertinent data. (pun intended)
*Welcome to frozen planet .*
So...what *do* you think of Mongoose 2nd ed. Traveller?
We're enjoying the hell out of it. I just wish the corebook offered more examples.
I passed on buying it when I had the chance as I'd already invested *heavily* into 1st edition. Do you recommend I get into 2nd ed.? Did you ever play the original Traveller?
MegaTraveller, Traveller the new era, Traveller 4th edition, Mongoose Traveller 1st and 2nd Ed, Traveller 5th edition,
And let’s not forget Gurps Traveller, D20 Traveller, and Traveller Hero,
Which one do you mean?
The Black Box Traveller...
MG2E is the first edition I've played. I'd heard about Traveller before, usually from older gamers who always got a distant and nostalgic look in their eyes, like remembering attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. Mongoose sent me a haul of several books and a couple modules (High and Dry and Borderland Run) and I’ve since picked up several more (including this one). We’re very excited about the game.
I’ve also skimmed through a couple of the older books from the various editions (there’s 11, I think). Any good ones I find I hope to convert to MG2E and run. I'm open to recommendations.
This adventure seems very fun and interesting.
Hopefully no one has Gauss weapons.
Huh... Didn't know your group had a ship with a cockpit in the shape and functionality of a Kenworth Team Sleeper truck. :)
That's the APC :-)
I have no clue what the ship cockpit is from. Sci-Fi greenscreen backplates are a whole lot harder to find than I'd originally expected.
@@SSkorkowsky Ah... If that was the case, shame there were no references to Ice Road Truckers or Highway Thru Hell. :D
Emp took out the high tech grav stuff. did not take out high tech electronics or high tech computers.
Are Ice Lice super cold when you get infested?
I feel like this could be a good sci-fi FATE CORE adventure.
Everything can be a good FATE Core adventure!
This module turned out to be a nightmare for me to run and it almost killed my Traveller campaign. I don't think I'm a good enough GM to do the survival aspect of the game justice, and it just turned into a long boring slog for the players to get from point A to point B. I felt like there was extremely little content for such a long journey and I desperately tried to fill in the empty space with interesting events and locations but to no avail. Very difficult module to run in a fun and engaging way, especially for a new GM.
7:20 - This is the future, so what is the worst enemy? Interference!
After watching all the way through, taking your chasm / spy suggestion, here's how I would tweak this up a bit: Mithril is known for its odd electromagnetic properties which inhibit many types of communication and can wreak havoc during the stormy seasons. That and its rather vigorous wildlife has kept it something of an outpost even though it is not that far off the beaten track and has some incredible mineral deposits, so it has become something of a modern Casablanca, a waystation where people desperate enough, dumb enough or who want to hide will wind up. When they fly in, the planet is starting its stormy season, so they aren't too worried when they can't call down, but they are a little concerned. As they try to land, they get buffeted around a lot and might catch strong field or two, so landing is rough. The EMP could have been delayed due to battle damage, set off by their hard landing, or even an abnormally heavy storm burst. From the station sensors, they find the planet is being extremely active, a titanic storm is brewing far off and the distress signal. So now it is a race against the clock to save their skins, the scientists and get off the planet before the ice slivers in the wind flay them alive. It might be interesting to have a massive storm brew up as they are at the scientists' camp, with the best option to survive it being to get down in to the crevasse. Anything could happen down there - panicked creatures attacking, hidden caves with alien artifacts, mineral deposits, go nuts. Then they get a brief window after the storm when things calm down just to glimpse via sensor the merc. ship. Due to their taking cover, the titanic storm is now only a few days away, so they have no time to lose.
Comment left for engagement purposes.
I didn’t even know you were dating,
Hm...
I apologize for basically plugging something I'm a fan of, but Seth... I have an RPG I would like you to take a look at... BUT I don't think you should spend the money for it JUST to take a look at it, especially if you turn out to not enjoy it. There IS a significantly cheaper e-book, but... eh. It's more "I think you may like this, but I'm not sure, so take my words with grains of salt."
Zweihander: Grim & Perilous RPG.
Admittedly, the most difficult gate to get into it is the character creation. Except for picking Human, your races, racial abilities, stats, profession, and possibly even starting funds are all randomized by dice rolls. You could end up playing an Gnome Coachman, or a super-strong Ogre... that it turns out is some kind of user of arcane magic. Or even a peasant. You can actually go adventuring as an ordinary peasant!
I love this concept too much, but I can understand greatly why it would turn people away. Especially because, well... only SIX of the possible starting professions (each character can get up to three throughout their careers of adventuring) actually have access to magic. It's supposed to be a relatively low-magic system, though looking through the spells in the Grimoire chapter, it doesn't seem it.
For example, I joke-rolled as if this was an incarnation of Jack the NPC. Human, gets the Dauntless trait, so this version of Jack can't be Intimidated, Stunned, or Knocked Out. Archetype was as a Commoner, and from there, the starting profession came up as Rat Catcher. He gets the special trait of "Gutterspeak", allowing him to communicate with some specific smaller animals. He wallows through filth and grime to basically scour the villages and towns of their rodent issues... With the aid of a "small but vicious dog", according to flavor, though nothing actually says they START with the dog. With this, Jack would also get certain skill advances for this class, like Stealth, Folklore, Guile, etc, and Talents he can get with the necessary experience points (called "RP" in this game, hah.). Right there, after he completes the Ratcatcher skills, Jack could qualify from the get-go, if one chose, as a Dungeoneer, because of that Folklore skill. But he wouldn't have to. It's completely up to his player where he goes next with his life. There's also alignment being two-sided, being divided between Order and Chaos. There's also the part of it living up to the name "grim and perilous" with the damage threshold system. Armor doesn't affect getting hit. It affects how far the Damage Threshold a roll goes. So, yeah... "exploding dice" is also a thing, for damage. So it's possible to one-shot a big monster just as it's also possible to be one shot with any luck.
... Sorry for the long-winded explanation. It's a game I like the idea of too much. Like I said, I would LIKE you to give it a try... BUT I don't think it's worth the current asking price if "giving it a try" is all you're going to do with it. That money can go to something else you want to do, you know? XD
Mass Effect RPG - Mission to Tuchanka: Thresher Maw's den. Wait. It's not Tuchanka but Noveria. But why they put that thresher maw then? I also bet that among those archeologist you will find Dr Liara T'soni. She is searching for Protheans artifacts. And those mercs were either Eclipse, or Blue Suns. The other choice is Cerberus troops, who intercepted message and impose as mercenary group, killing original mercs just for fun. Or took them hostage, for later conversion into husks. Well, something like that. Btw if those archeologist are humans, they were indoctrinated. There's a Repear's "corpse" burried under ice. And that's why Cerberus showed up.
Thanks for the synopsis, but ye gods, what a crap adventure idea as-is. No Traveller group I ever played with would have landed anywhere near a starport that they couldn't get a comms response from unless the only other option was dying in space. Seriously foolhardy, especially if your ship's got any other landing options open to them. So, this would fail before it even started without major changes. Also, this EMP gadget - introducing something that can wreck all a-grav systems in a large area is game-breakingly terrible. If this podunk starport has one, they should be common as dirt, so the PCs will not only be afraid of facing them all the time (ruining many other scenarios) they'll certainly try to get one for themselves. They're also a phenomenal security threat, capable of causing massive damage if set off by terrorists (or amoral PCs) on a busy world with a lot of air traffic. It's a stupid idea, the kind of ill-considered add-on tech that gets thrown into badly written modules as a one-off to justify a scenario but winds up ruining a campaign. Not that I don't expect that sort of thing from Mongoose, but I'm surprised you didn't call it out yourself.
Totally agree The only purpose for it is to set up a Railroad. And a bad one at that. Your players are lucky that you managed to fix most of it, Seth.
This sounds like incredible boring adventure. GM and players must work hard to make it fun... 😅