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high tech dungeon crawls?

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briansommers briansommers's picture
high tech dungeon crawls?
I was reading in the section on "The Game" that under the GM section, it talks about the possibilities of doing a high-tech dungeon crawl. could someone explain what this would be like? it almost implies that it would be easy to do.. some examples? thanks bs
GregH GregH's picture
Re: high tech dungeon crawls?
Methinks it referes to scavenging through an abandoned orbital or planetary facility for cool tech, cortical stacks, or information. Along the way running into traps, unpleasent residents, and whatever it was that lead to the abandonment of the place to begin with. Can be dovetailed into recon or archaeology. "Lack", the intro story, and nearly any mission to Earth, would be a good example. Other places that might be worth skulking about are lifeless habitats around Earth, the failed TITAN installations on Mercury and in the Saturn System (can't recall the moon at the moment).
GMJoe GMJoe's picture
Re: high tech dungeon crawls?
There's a lot of possibilities, really, but in my experience designing a dungeon crawl generally boils down into a number of fairly easy steps. 1. Architecture: One simple question with one complicated answer: Where does the crawl take place? In eclipse phase, most crawls will be in artificial strcutures, abandoned or otherwise - but what is the purpose of the structure? The mysteriously deserted orbital nanotech research facility 'Mary Celeste' will be a very different place to the breached scum barge 'Titanic.' The nanotech facility would be clean, easy to navigate, and well-suppied - wheras the scum barge emphatically wouldn't. 2. Unique Locations: One of the coolest parts of a dungeon crawl is learning to use the dungeon, itself, as a resource. Generally, this step is pretty easy. There are two sources you can turn to to work out what's in a dungeon: The answer to step one, and the type of thing players would have put in the facility if they were designing it. To continue the example of the wrecked scum barge from step one, chances are it'd contain a fair few things of interest to the player characters: vast quantities of personal effects, corpses (with or without cortical stacks), desperate refugees trapped in still-pressurised cabins or synthetic morphs, a maybe-repairable drive system... The Mary Celeste research facility would have a very different set of interesting spots. For one thing, it'd have nanofabricators out the airlocks - but not just that. Chances are, there'd be all sorts of interesting hard-wired security systems to exploit and experimental testing ranges to play around in... 3. Monsters: What's a dungeon crawl without monsters? Fortunately, Eclipse Phase comes to the rescue here. I've not read the spoilers chapter, but it seems like you could easily make very interesting combinations using just the augmentations and morphs detailed in the standard rules, given a little reflavouring or an unusual spin. For instance, a swarminoid with stingers? Nasty. And there's nothing like having to face off with non-uplifted wolf egos implanted into fury morphs. In the Titanic, monsters would either be security (in the form of AIs in synthetic morphs able to survive decompression) and survivors driven insane by seeing their friends and families die. There might also be AI-driven weapons that came with whatever caused the breach in the first place. The Mary Celeste, on the other hand, will probably have far stranger creatures: Nanoswarms, of course, but also morphs created or twisted into horrible forms by Proteans gone mad. Bubbling ichor will probably feature prominantly. 4. Friendlies: It may seem strange, but tossing a roleplaying encounter into a dungeon crawl isn't hard. Some morphs, due to luck or circumstance, could potentially survive in a very hostile environment. The help such inhabitants can offer or ask from the player character can vary. For the Titanic, I think I'll include an AI designed to pilot the ship that (for security reasons) can only be accessed from the bridge. While it's not the best of conversationalists, it does know the ship insde and out, and could provide all sorts of useful information - if the player characters think to ask. On the Mary Celeste, on the other hand... hmm. How about one scientist who managed to hide in a panic room just before the disaster struck? He won't come out lunless the PCs convince him it's safe (it likely isn't). However, he'll do almost anything if they'll get him out of there - including provide classified information about what kind of experiments were happing, and provide access codes for the secure parts of the facility. 5. Loot: Players like stuff. They like to get shiny new toys, try them out, and pose with them for photos. Since player resources are generally limited by reputation or credits, most players will be cheerful if you give them gear only slightly better than what they have. If you give them very expensive stuff, they'll be very happy indeed. And if you give them unique technology, information, and alien artifacts, they'll love you for life, or at least until they're taken away. Failing that, consumables such as ammo, nanoswarms, and drugs are always welcome. Be careful not to give your players too much stuff, or they'll get bogged down trying to haul and sell it. Sometimes the easiest loot to handle is a big ol' wad of credits. There'll be plenty of gear in the Titanic, but most of it'll be junk. In general, I'd assume a simple scrounging check would turn up anything of less than moderate value. The really valuable things here are likely the better-preserved of the dead morphs, the prize possessions of dead Scum, and any black-market goods the Scum had, such as unrestricted cornicopia machines and drugs. The Mary Celeste will likely have the more dangous kinds of loot: Information and experimental technology. In particular, there's bound to be large numbers of nanofabrication blueprints the players could use, particularly for things that are hard to obtain. 6. A goal: Generally a dungeon crawl will have some sort of goal. Generally, this'll be obtaining something (Information, an object, the cortical stack of a famous celebrity, the amulet of Yendor) that the player characters were sent of obtain - most likely by a patron or organisation such as Firewall. In general, the goal should require a fair amount of effort. The Titanic has a number of possibilities, from rescuing survivors and cortical stacks, to getting the core of the mysterious nmetiorite that breeched it in the first place. The Mary Celeste has a pretty obvious goal: Find out what happened the the researchers. Well, that's about it. Heck, you can even drop some of the above, if you want.