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Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback

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Omega Girl Omega Girl's picture
Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
Hi Everyone, New to the forums, but I've been itching to start an EP game for ages and I'll finally be getting the chance in a few weeks. I'm looking to run a five-part arc with a few of my co-workers, revolving around joining Firewall and accidentally uncovering a Singularity-Chaser cult. I'm planning on using this thread as my scratchpad and note space, but I'm also open to feedback and suggestions. I've been GMing almost as long as I've been playing, about 15 years now, and mostly enjoy sci-fi and superheroes. So while I'm new to EP itself, the genre concepts are familiar. I'm excited to play around with the ideas or conceits of the setting, and using those to give the stories a twist. Overview This as-yet unnamed campaign is meant to be run in five parts, probably over five to ten game sessions. Starting out, the PCs are not members of Firewall and may or may not know one another, but are all on board the Scum barge Without Limitations having just left Luna and now sailing towards Venus.
  • Part 1: One Breath to Many - When a courier is murdered onboard a scum barge, and her cortical stack carved from her skull, the PCs are the most obvious suspects. But when the murder victim seems to return from the grave, possessing random passengers and hunting the PCs, they need to take their survival into their own hands.
  • Part 2: Glamer in Pairs - Having been recruited by Firewall for their ordeal on Without Limitations, the PCs are asked to investigated a sudden, disturbing string of deaths where the victims spontaneously develop tumors and melt down into chemical soup. The trail eventually leads back to a black-listed bio-engineer and through him to an insane crime lord who needs to be stopped before she endangers an entire habitat.
  • Part 3: Three by Way of Midnight - Coming away from Venus with a wealth of genetic data, the PCs are accosted by asyncs who release an exsurgent virus into their courier ship. While the PCs, strangely immune to the virus, battle the resulting mutations, the asyncs farcast to Mars. Eventually following, the PCs must make do with the morphs available in the small colony and find themselves suddenly in the midst of riots between the local Consortium forces and Rusters. They must escape the riots and track down their stolen data before the asyncs can locate new farcasting facilities and move on once again. They learn of the existence of something called "The Trinity."
  • Part 4: Grand Betweens- Having found information linking the async attackers tangentially to a Titanian microcorp called Nu Clans, the PCs arrange a virtual meeting with a representative just as a massive cyberattack is launch against its network. Hearing the words Trois Grands Maux, they eventually track the phrase back to a now-derelict ship in Earth's interdiction zone, which they must board and search to learn the details behind these bizarre attacks.
  • Part 5: Fell Passages - Finally learning about the Trois Grands Maux cult and their plan to use the Titanian computer program and Bluebird's genetics data to hyper-mutate the Exsurgent virus, the PCs head to Extropia to follow their only lead on the singularity seekers. But no sooner do they arrive than the Trois begin hunting them, hoping to gain a DNA sample of the last component they need: the exsurgent vaccine their operative in part 1 was transporting, which the PCs were exposed to during the murder! Eventually they arrive at the Chapel, loaded with mad cultists, hideous exHumans, and the Trois' powerful leaders.
Background During the Fall, a research team aboard the Trois Grands Maux contracted with the EU to study the exsurgent virus and develop a cure or vaccine to prevent the TITANs from transforming humanity into a horrorshow. The Trois research team helped develop many of the safeguards and protocols used in dealing with the virus today, but ultimately failed to eliminate it as a threat. But in the process, team leads Emilie Girard, Aharsi Dutta, and Cameron Vargas found God in the impossibly complex code. The trio, easily the humans best-versed in the exsurgent virus, developed a cultish fascination with the subject of their research which they believe gave birth to the TITANs, rather than being their tool. They spent the final months of the Fall experimenting on captured TITAN war machines and humans alike, eventually faking the destruction of their ship and fleeing to an isolated habitat in the asteroid belt. In the decade since, the three gathered a rabid following of those left desperate or mad by Earth's destruction, luring in rich and poor alike with promises of ascension by way of their carefully-cultivated strains of exsurgent. This new Trois Grands Maux boasts impressive financial backing thanks to well-placed members within hypercorps and the hacking communities, and while fewer than 100 members overall, many of their number have also been exposed to the Watts-Macleod strain, making them far more dangerous than common opponents. Girard, Dutta, and Vargas, now called the Trinity, still pursue their work, often exposing volunteers, failed minions, and captured transients to ever-more-refined variations of the virus, hoping to unlock the god within the code. As the campaign begins, the Trois Grands Maux has begun taking steps towards a shotgun approach of forced evolution. Working with a Titanian microcorp and an insane crimelord, they've developed a process to mutate the exsurgent virus thousands of times faster, creating millions of varieties they ultimately intend to test in other habitats. Noteworthy Organizations/NPCs Trois Grands Maux - As mentioned above, the Trois is a cult of singularity seekers who hope to achieve godhood through a perfected strain of the exsurgent virus. Most members are insane, but highly functional, and a few enjoy positions of power from which they funnel credits to the organization. They operate out of an abandoned beehive habitat and manufacturing faciluty in the asteroid belt referred to as the Chapel, though fewer than two dozen members occupy the habitat at a time. The Black Knight - The Black Knight cartel, a Venusian representation of the Night Cartel, operates out of the Green Vegas torus habitat high in orbit. The cartel organizes much of Venusian system's black-market nanofab blueprints and dabbles in prostitution and infomorph slavery. They play a major role in habitat politics and are largely responsible for the colony remaining independent from the Consortium and the Morningstar Constellation. Gracious "Grace" Redeemer, a ruthless and efficient woman, directs cartel activities from the Black Knight casino. Unknown to her superiors in the Night Cartel and most of her underlings, Grace is a member of the Lost and dreams of washing away mankind in a flood of its own blood. As a pet project, she contracted a bio-engineer in Aphrodite Prime to perfect her own work on quick-growing clones, hoping to someday create an army of herself to personally choke the life out of an entire planet. Shevan Bluebird - Backed by the Black Knight and several other silent partners, Shevan Bluebird has made surprising progress in his rapid mitosis projects, creating drugs to accelerate RNA replication and in turn grow clones in a fraction of the usual time. Unfortunately, his process remains flawed and difficult to control once used. At present, his quick-grown clones survive several weeks, but eventually develop fast-spreading cancer and ultimately break down into component amino acids. Never one to pass up easy money, Bluebird has recently begun selling quick-clone counterfeit bio-morphs on the black market, disappearing long before the bodies literally melt down. Nu Clans - This Titanian microcorp was founded on the simple concept of expanding the transhuman population as quickly as is reasonably possible. While they initially followed a variety or wild theories, ranging from mix-and-match forking to free love colonization, they eventually settled on the topic of genetic diversity. Their latest project, Plethora, is a combination computer program and genetic manipulation designed to randomize a single genetic sample into upwards of 40 viable variations, essentially allowing a single body to be used as a template to create forty genetically unique siblings. Plethora's ultimate intent is to create a genetically diverse enough population for existing infugees to prevent the hereditary diseases that will crop up in a population of clones. Nu Clans enjoys comfortable funding, primarily from TAU and Somatek, but also from a number of anonymous benefactors.
The Green Slime The Green Slime's picture
Re: Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
Top notch stuff. Looking forward to reading more. The Plethora project is a particularly interesting party - there's some ethically challenging issues going on there, I can imagine.
Omega Girl Omega Girl's picture
Re: Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
Thank you! I'm still hammering out the details, but I think I've got a good start. I also don't think I did a good job spelling out the basic setup. The Trois Grands Maux wants to unlock the god-code within the exsurgent virus, and bring themselves up to the level of the TITANS. To do this, they need three primary ingredients, two of which they've been secretly funding through a dozen fake corporations and charities:
  • Bluebird's RNA Accelerator - An advanced cataclyst that creates fast but unstable cellular growth. It will speed the infection and maturation rate of infected cellular cultures to gain usable data in minutes rather than days. In addition, Bluebird's other genetic research will allow them to turn Plethora's theoretical genetic redesigns into functional organic output.
  • Plethora - A computer program designed to randomize human genomes into functional, stable new combinations. At present it can turn a single human sample into 40 new, genetically unique samples ready for growth into new biomorphs. With only minor modifications, it can turn one sample of the exsurgent into 100 new variations. The cult intends to use this to sift through the "chafe" within the code and find the most ideal variation of the virus.
  • The Basilisk Vaccine - A variation basilisk hack that actually rewrites a portion of their viewer's subconscious to edit in audio-visual noise when exposed to flashing lights, rendering them immune to basilisk strains of the exsurgent virus. The Trois Grands Maux intend to use the vaccine to help isolate the more aggressive strains of exsurgent and slow the rate of infection once they begin introducing the god-strain into their number, in theory making the transformation controllable with enough force of will.
I skipped this in the earlier write-up: When the campaign begins, the PCs are standing in a cabin with the dead courier and no memory of how they got there. The vaccine was developed by an recluse survivor and stolen by a Firewall agent (the courier) to bring to the closest Promethean for study. Once the Trois learned of its existence (through the same sources as Firewall), they sent one of their agents to retrieve the code. Ultimately, the courier opts to expose herself to the untested vaccine to keep it away from the cult, burning out her laptop (and accidentally exposing the PCs in the process) just before her murder, hoping that Firewall will retrieve her cortical stack and the vaccine now stored within it.
Monican Monican's picture
Re: Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
What a fun campaign! Your organization of it is really good too.
fellowhoodlum fellowhoodlum's picture
Re: Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
Looks great. Can I join in? o.o
uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture
Re: Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
Truly some cool stuff, it feels spot on and right out of the books themselves! Keep up the good work! +1
Exhuman, and Humanitarian.
Omega Girl Omega Girl's picture
Re: Building a Mini-Campaign; Open to Feedback
You guys are being too sweet. I'm putting this whole thing togetehr for two of my coworkers. One of them gave me the EP core book because he had an extra, and the other has never played anything but d20 an desperately needs to branch out. I want to make it a real tour of the setting for both of them (I'm just sad I can't work the Jovian Republic or any gatecrashing in there).