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What a good tutorial/beginner scenario to run?

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Mon, 2013-10-07 21:34
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Jackson6644 Jackson6644's picture
What a good tutorial/beginner scenario to run?
"Beginner" may be a little extreme, since we've been playing for a half-dozen sessions or so, but there are some pieces of the game and setting I don't really think my players are fully realizing just yet. A few areas in which I want them to flex their muscles a bit: - Combat: we've had a few fights, but things have mostly been very straightforward. I'm hoping for some ideas to throw in some more of the combat options in (though it may be difficult to get too tactically complex, since we only have two players for the next couple of sessions). - Hacking: I'd really love some suggestions for how to drive into the players' minds how omni-present the technology is in EP, and all the fun ways they can interact with the world. Was maybe thinking about having them come to a meet without weapons (or maybe sneak in a single pistol or the like) and then have to rely on hacking various things in the environment in order to survive. Any thoughts?
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Tue, 2013-10-08 05:36
DivineWrath DivineWrath's picture
Combat could be practiced
Combat could be practiced through "realistic" simulspace games. Simulations are really good in Eclipse Phase. Go have the players play a few games of capture the flag or something. Or let them choose a scenario they want to play (they can play a few games before things get serious can't they?). Go read up on (Core Rulebook, p. 262) for rules, and (Core Rulebook, p. 331) for prices. Considering that simulspace can be hacked, perhaps this would be a good chance to have the resident hacker to have some practice. Perhaps the opposing team is cheating, so you want to stop them or beat them at their own game.
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Wed, 2013-10-09 06:16
nizkateth nizkateth's picture
^_^
I started my players mid-fall then killed them as part of the introduction. That seemed to work well for some education.
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Reapers: Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball. My watch also has a minute hand, millenium hand, and an eon hand.
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Fri, 2013-10-11 04:50
Lorsa Lorsa's picture
The first thing I ever did in
The first thing I ever did in Eclipse Phase was to run a simulspace combat rescue-a-hostage scenario. I didn't actually tell the players it was a simulspace though, I just started them in the middle of the action. I find it to always be a good idea to try out the combat rules as quickly as possible in any roleplaying game, so you know how it works. It's better than being surprised later. So I would +1 simulspace fights.
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Lorsa is a Forum moderator [color=red]Red text is for moderator stuff[/color]
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Fri, 2013-10-11 11:12
bibliophile20 bibliophile20's picture
I ran Arenamontanus' Think
I ran Arenamontanus' [url=http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/ThinkBeforeAsking.pdf]Think Before Asking[/url] for my players as a standalone intro to get them used to and interested in the setting (and for me to get an idea of how the system worked in actual play as well). It worked out extremely well.
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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin

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Fri, 2013-10-11 11:34
hhexo hhexo's picture
'Lurking' is also good
Think Before Asking is great, but I find that 'Lurking' (again, by Arenamontanus) is also very good. Think Before Asking starts with a bit of investigation but is mainly a horror setting (abandoned space station, with crazy stuff going on and neotenic little monster girls, "come play with us"-style). The story is amazing, but it may assume players have a lot of knowledge about AIs and the combat may require a lot of zero-g rule usage. Lurking is an investigation story on Mars (featuring murders, drug trafficking gangsters, and insane artificial egos) that could be played as a sci-fi mystery thriller, especially if the players are Martian Rangers or mafia goons (two of the possible adventure hooks). The setting is definitely Eclipse Phase, but it is more... "conventional". It depends what your players like. I found that Lurking's story is simpler but it still touches on a lot of aspects of Eclipse Phase so I think it's very good for beginners. The only thing I'd skip is the initial "dream sequence", I couldn't find a way of realistically fitting it in (why would the characters just decide to try an illegal hallucinogenic drug, if they're investigating murders related to it?). [ Edit: Oops. I read the OP more carefully. If combat and hacking are areas to be researched, then definitely Think Before Asking is better. I would also recommend "Chain Reaction" (there's a thread somewhere in the Homebrew forum), which has a couple of nasty combats and some hacking may be required to infiltrate one of the areas. ]
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Fri, 2013-10-11 12:59
Jackson6644 Jackson6644's picture
So apparently I do need to
So apparently I do need to work on my GMing, because the scenario I was just running was Think Before Asking, and it went... well... http://www.reddit.com/r/eclipsephase/comments/1o82a9/think_before_asking... Short version: it went alright, though I feel like the players weren't driving the action quite enough. There were a number of times where they interacted with an NPC or a system or the like and they stopped after getting one piece of information out of them. I may have over-stated the danger of the AI, since they seemed perfectly content to see something that might possibly be connected to the AI and just completely leave it alone. I didn't want to nudge them too much with options, though maybe I should have been a little heavy-handed with it. For the next phase of the game, I've decided to lift from RPPR's No Evil campaign ("Only steal from the best," I always say). I'm going to have the scum swarm The Stars Our Destination arrive around Titan for a last re-supply before they turn around to salvage a dreadnought that was lost during The Fall. Obviously, Titan is way out of the way for the swarm, but I've decided that the swarm has undergone some engine and supply upgrades that allow them to travel at the speed of plot. Anyway, Firewall has gotten word of this and is very concerned about the possibility of a dormant TITAN infection on board finding its way back on board one of the larger scum swarms in the system. They're going to dispatch the team to the swarm, where they will have at least a month to introduce and ingratiate themselves with the various factions on board, in the hopes that they can take a prominent role in the salvage operation, hopefully steering the operation clear of any major dangers. It's going to be different, but I'm hoping that by putting the players more in the driver's seat in terms of what to do, they'll ask more questions and get a bit more engaged with the mechanics of the setting. It'll also give me the opportunity for all sorts of initial side quests where they can really play around with the mechanics. Any thoughts?
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