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Published Adventures - Wish list, adventures from other systems that fit into EP

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EccentricOwl EccentricOwl's picture
Published Adventures - Wish list, adventures from other systems that fit into EP
I love pre-published adventures. I do. Now, a published adventure can be a lot of things at once. First, they can be a crutch. The more rigidly you follow a plot, the less players feel like they're in control. Many published adventures can be rail-roady simply because they can't gauge or measure player response in the same way that a natural GM with intimate player knowledge can. Published adventures often focus on balance over set-pieces, on formula over randomness. I'd be willing to bet that there are more 'dungeon crawl' published modules out there than there are every other genre adventure combined. That said, they have benefits that in my opinion far outweigh the costs. Stories are the reason lots of us even play RPGs - I know it's the reason that I play a lot of video games. While I think most GMs can cobble together a decent enough story, a published adventure module can generally ahve a certain je ne sais quoi, an intangible quality of writing that has an even greater coherence than I could have anticipated. In games that require lots of thinking and problem-solving, especially GUMSHOE or investigative games, a module has an intricate web of events all planned out and waiting for the GM to use. This is to say nothing of the convenience; even if I did trust myself as good a writer as the venerable Robin D. Laws, I simply don't have the drive to cobble together something that has such grace. Since I've gotten on a tangent for the illustrious GUMSHOE system, I figure I'd point you guys (in case you didn't already know) to Pelgrane Press's "Ashen Stars" RPG. http://www.pelgranepress.com/?cat=66 It's a sort of gritty space opera investigative game, which in some ways can fit quite well into the EP setting. It's set after a disastrous war against an unknown enemy that the galaxy's races can hardly comprehend. The whole setting oozes with mystery. There are few different adventures that have been published, all of which work great in EPs setting. I know that I generally find myself starved for content to throw at my intrepid transhuman players. "Tartarus" http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=8671 is basically the 1986 classic "Aliens" with a little more weird. Survey team goes missing on an incredibly hostile world, hijinks ensue. A company sends your team down to the planet to figure out what happened and makes contact with a hyper-adaptive and transformative virus that might be an acceptable 'first sighting' of the Exsurgent virus for players. "Terra Nova" http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=5486 is another single-adventure volume that really reminded me of classics like "Dead Space" or "System Shock II." I was always trying to find a way to get my players onto a gigantic spaceship for them to explore - and "Terra Nova" was the perfect excuse. A gigantic cruise liner filled with the hyper-elite? Check. Nanofabricators gone awry? Check. The science in this one is a little softer, though, so if you have a particularly fastidious player base like I do you might get a few catcalls of "that wouldn't work!" "Dead Rock Seven" http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=5441 is actually 4 adventures in one, with a miniature story arc about a cult obsessed with paralell universes to boot. (Again, a bit of a stretch for Eclipse Phase.) The first adventure takes place on a 'pleasure planet' which practically screams 'Venusian Aerostat' and features a variety of enemies; heavily augmented human criminals, police, cultists, and even a few enemies that could be considered 'exhumans'. The other adventures weren't quite as big a slam dunk; there's an adventure involving exploring an old mining colony (since I assume most mines in EP are either automated or otherwise uninhabited, it took some finagling to feel 'right'). There's another that features a tyrannical government and the politics therein, and the last one is just really kooky (interstellar cook-off? Assassin nuns? Evil extradimensional beings? A desperate fight on the other side of a wormhole?) that really jumps the shark. Still, as I said - I love published adventures, and these were the best ones I've found to adapt to my favorite RPG, "Eclipse Phase." Do you have any others that might fit well into our beloved transhuman RPG?
Maskin Maskin's picture
I don't mind stealing ideas,
I don't mind stealing ideas, maps, characters and so on so thanks for the suggestions with EP relevant descriptions. I will assume we are excluding the EP official adventures, but I have to mention the many great EP scenarios written by Anders Sandberg on the off chance that you've missed them somehow (http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase), and of course Chain Reaction (http://eclipsephase.com/new-free-adventure-chain-reaction). Those out of the way I like referencing my Transhuman Space and Blue Planet books for ideas. I think Blue Planet can work great as an exceptional gatecrashing world that can be the focus of your whole campaign, but you will of course need to do a fair bit of adapting. Transhuman Space has lots of material that you can add to the EP mix and a few adventures. While quite similar in many ways it is a lot less apocalyptic and the detailed and very integrated setting will pose a bit of a challenge, but a lot of factions map fairly easily to EP. The two adventures that might be most insteresting with research and investigation style plots is Polyhymnia and Singapore Sling. Orbital Decay might be useful if you want a biowarfare nanoplage gone wrong on a station, but there are already several adventures like this specifically for EP which are more interesting (Continuity and Glory).
Transhuman Mind
EccentricOwl EccentricOwl's picture
I loved "Chain Reaction."
I loved "Chain Reaction." Ultra-high production qualities, excellent writing, and a load of interesting characters. :) The other ones, not quite as much. I feel they'd be better as short stories; they were not quite what I was expecting or hoping for. Many of them required an intimate knowledge of the setting or a willingness to go so far away from convention that it was a little disconcerting. (The ideas were excellent.) I forgot that there are other transhuman games. I'll have to take a look at Transhuman Space. Has anyone found any good adventures or seeds in that new FATE system transhuman game, "Nova Praxis?"
Gnothi_Sauton Gnothi_Sauton's picture
Anders Sanbergs adventures is
Anders Sanbergs adventures is written very "open" to avoid rail-roading. I love his style because they are very much in touch with the essense of Transhumanism. I like the adventure "My invisible friend" very much because it can end very much different depending on how the characters handle the whole situation; total dissaster with a burning habitat or a win-win where everyone shake hands and everything is forgiven. The players can become true heroes and keyplayers as main characters do in a teve-series. The length of his adventures can be varried depending on how long YOU want them to be. They are excellent to present the atmosphere in different habitats and places and thus make the characters stay in a place another experience than pumping action.
Baalbamoth Baalbamoth's picture
need a city book...
when I look up "best city design in an RPG" the only futuristic city that keeps popping up is "a/state" I havent read it but theres a lot of people suggesting that. I really would like a fully complete fleshed out city for EP, with many maps, adventure hooks, full NPC write ups, etc. one I could do a "travel less" campaign on sometime. Not sure if a/state would transfer over but I'm gonna look at that soon.
"what do I want? The usual — hundreds of grandchildren, complete dominion over the known worlds, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me."
Gnothi_Sauton Gnothi_Sauton's picture
Fun!
That could be a fun collaboration project for the community. We could describe, for example, a whole Torus-habitat. It could even become a whole campaignbook with a s*itload of NPC:s, gangs, places, hang-outs, etc. We have all done NPC:s to different adventures. All we have to do is to polish them up a bit. I have suggestions that i could contribute with; a nano-tattooer and his place with connections to the local gangs. What a heck. I can take responsible to even lead the project if no one else wants to. What do we need?