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New free adventure: Dance with the Devil

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Sun, 2013-06-30 19:36

Lalande21185 Lalande21185's picture

New free adventure: Dance with the Devil

My newest eclipse phase adventure: http://awdaberton.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/eclipse-phase-dance-with-t... also, the maps with no keys: http://awdaberton.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ep-dwd-maps-no-key.pdf This is only the second adventure I have ever written. Feedback is very appreciated. Next up is [em]Kill the Queen[/em]. Hopefully this one won't take me a year :)

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[url=http://awdaberton.wordpress.com/about/]Eclipse Phase Adventures[/url]

Thu, 2013-07-04 05:21

Jet Black

Comments

I just wanted to say that I really am a great fan of your adventures. Can't wait to run them for my group! Still, I have some trouble to get the "big picture" of these adventures. Maybe you could add a short overview, just a few paragraphs: what are the major factions and what are their goals? Who are the major NPCs and what do they want to achieve? Of course, you get all the information from the timeline and the text itself, but I feel that assembling the big picture from all the pieces scattered about is more difficult than necessary. About Dance with the Devil: the final encounter with the battle tank is brutal, nasty and lethal. I love it! However, knowing my players, they would try to have Proxy 21 contact the OIA and let them handle it, thus bypassing the whole encounter. What do you think about that? Keep up the good work!

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[i]"You're gonna carry that weight"[/i]

Thu, 2013-07-04 09:25

Lalande21185 Lalande21185's picture

Re: Comments

Jet Black wrote:
I just wanted to say that I really am a great fan of your adventures. Can't wait to run them for my group!

Thanks!

Quote:
Still, I have some trouble to get the "big picture" of these adventures. Maybe you could add a short overview, just a few paragraphs: what are the major factions and what are their goals? Who are the major NPCs and what do they want to achieve? Of course, you get all the information from the timeline and the text itself, but I feel that assembling the big picture from all the pieces scattered about is more difficult than necessary.

I understand exactly what you mean. However, space is extremely limited and the whole plot is fairly complicated (perils of the conspiracy portion of 'conspiracy and horror') so I don't have room to fit it in. However, in future adventures I was thinking of adding a sidebar or bulleted list (or a sidebar with a bulleted list) with the important NPCs and plots for that adventure listed with a short description. Things like (using [em]Dance with the Devil[/em] as an example):

Spoiler: Highlight to view

[list] [*]Prosperity Group - Major shareholder of the PC. Developing drugs for Project Savior in Olympus black lab. [*]Zaizan Bosshard - Escaped ComEx indenture. Created SKULD, Chain Reaction, and the Drive factory. Wants to stop Project Savior, Operation Warmonger, and ComEx. [*]Tu Tsui-fang - Shui Fong soldier, Zaizan's ally. Has means to determine Drive factory location. [*]Shinobu Urashima - Freelance interrogator, hates the Lost, is hunting Lilium. [*]SKULD - A machine that lets Zaizan see the future. [*]Operation Warmonger - A plan by the PC to conquer Locus with a fleet of ships. [*]Hyper-Drive - A drug that lets others use SKULD. Created by Prosperity Group. [*]etc. [/list]

Not quite a big picture overview, but more of a reference. Do you think that this would be enough?

Quote:
About Dance with the Devil: the final encounter with the battle tank is brutal, nasty and lethal. I love it! However, knowing my players, they would try to have Proxy 21 contact the OIA and let them handle it, thus bypassing the whole encounter. What do you think about that?

That's a pretty good idea; I wouldn't want to fight that thing either :) However, there are two things preventing it: time and operation security. First of all if the characters used SKULD to determine the location instead of the QE Comms, then they might only have a limited window of opportunity to act, and Proxy 21s allies in the OIA may not be able to pull together resources fast enough (they are really busy right now after all). Second is operational security: Proxy 21 needs to have only people she trusts handle the tank (because she doesn't want Chain Reaction falling into the wrong hands). With all the trouble in Olympus, her allies in the OIA may be too busy (or not have enough resources) to covertly get her a team of people capable of both handling the tank and keeping quite about it. P.S. I was totally watching Cowboy Bebop (I have the series on DVD) when I wrote this adventure :)

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[url=http://awdaberton.wordpress.com/about/]Eclipse Phase Adventures[/url]

Thu, 2013-07-04 09:58

Jet Black

Lalande21185 wrote:I

Lalande21185 wrote:
I understand exactly what you mean. However, space is extremely limited and the whole plot is fairly complicated (perils of the conspiracy portion of 'conspiracy and horror') so I don't have room to fit it in. However, in future adventures I was thinking of adding a sidebar or bulleted list (or a sidebar with a bulleted list) with the important NPCs and plots for that adventure listed with a short description. Things like (using [em]Dance with the Devil[/em] as an example):
Spoiler: Highlight to view
[list] [*]Prosperity Group - Major shareholder of the PC. Developing drugs for Project Savior in Olympus black lab. [*]Zaizan Bosshard - Escaped ComEx indenture. Created SKULD, Chain Reaction, and the Drive factory. Wants to stop Project Savior, Operation Warmonger, and ComEx. [*]Tu Tsui-fang - Shui Fong soldier, Zaizan's ally. Has means to determine Drive factory location. [*]Shinobu Urashima - Freelance interrogator, hates the Lost, is hunting Lilium. [*]SKULD - A machine that lets Zaizan see the future. [*]Operation Warmonger - A plan by the PC to conquer Locus with a fleet of ships. [*]Hyper-Drive - A drug that lets others use SKULD. Created by Prosperity Group. [*]etc. [/list]
Not quite a big picture overview, but more of a reference. Do you think that this would be enough?

Those bullet points are much appreciated and helpful! Still, maybe you could create a seperate PDF with an overview of the conspiracy and its major players as a quick reference for us poor GMs. Your plot has a lot of moving parts, so there is lots of room for making errors. ;)

Lalande21185 wrote:
That's a pretty good idea; I wouldn't want to fight that thing either :) However, there are two things preventing it: time and operation security. First of all if the characters used SKULD to determine the location instead of the QE Comms, then they might only have a limited window of opportunity to act, and Proxy 21s allies in the OIA may not be able to pull together resources fast enough (they are really busy right now after all). Second is operational security: Proxy 21 needs to have only people she trusts handle the tank (because she doesn't want Chain Reaction falling into the wrong hands). With all the trouble in Olympus, her allies in the OIA may be too busy (or not have enough resources) to covertly get her a team of people capable of both handling the tank and keeping quite about it. P.S. I was totally watching Cowboy Bebop (I have the series on DVD) when I wrote this adventure :)

Those are good points, thank you! Maybe you should include a short paragraph explaining why the PCs have to fight the tank personally in a future version of the adventure. I love Cowboy Bebop (hence my screen name), but your description of the walking battle tank reminds me heavily of Ghost in the Shell!

—

[i]"You're gonna carry that weight"[/i]

Thu, 2013-07-04 11:41

Lalande21185 Lalande21185's picture

Jet Black wrote:Those bullet

Jet Black wrote:
Those bullet points are much appreciated and helpful! Still, maybe you could create a seperate PDF with an overview of the conspiracy and its major players as a quick reference for us poor GMs. Your plot has a lot of moving parts, so there is lots of room for making errors. ;)

Okay, so add bullet points to new adventures and create a seperate pdf containing an overview of the conspiracies and the major players. Can Do!

Quote:
Those are good points, thank you! Maybe you should include a short paragraph explaining why the PCs have to fight the tank personally in a future version of the adventure.

I can do that as well. Consider it in the queue for v. 1.1.

Quote:
I love Cowboy Bebop (hence my screen name), but your description of the walking battle tank reminds me heavily of Ghost in the Shell!

It sort of does, doesn't it :) It's weird in that I never even noticed it before. Except this tank has a turret on the back and a crew of 4 of course. I wonder if a plasma rifles can be considered "your standard-issue Big Gun" :)

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[url=http://awdaberton.wordpress.com/about/]Eclipse Phase Adventures[/url]