Adventure chaining in the Reach

[DeepSpaceAdventures]

Has anyone moved "Mysteries on Arcturus Station" to the Trojan Reach? It's a great adventure and I want to play it with my group. They are about to leave Tobia for the Borderland to get their first ship ("High and Dry"). So what's a good system to move Arcturus Station to (preferably in or near the Borderland)? Any suggestion is welcome.

 

[mavikfelna]

Has anyone moved "Mysteries on Arcturus Station" to the Trojan Reach? It's a great adventure and I want to play it with my group. They are about to leave Tobia for the Borderland to get their first ship ("High and Dry"). So what's a good system to move Arcturus Station to (preferably in or near the Borderland)? Any suggestion is welcome.

There don't seem to be any good asteroid belt only or asteroid belt primary worlds in the Reach. You could make one, or just look for a system with lots of belts and low pop like 1219 Torrance.

 

[DeepSpaceAdventures]

The closest existing belt system is Alexin 2405, but that is really far away. I see that a few Borderland worlds have belts, I just need to find the best system for the adventure or add a new belt to an other system.

 

[mavikfelna]

The closest existing belt system is Alexin 2405, but that is really far away. I see that a few Borderland worlds have belts, I just need to find the best system for the adventure or add a new belt to an other system.

Yea, I was looking for low population and lots of belts, but anything low pop is good if you don't mind adding belt to the existing system.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Or it could be mining Trojan asteroids of a gas giant or minor moons of such a giant rather than an asteroid belt. Even mining a ring system.

 

[mavikfelna]

Ok, latest update on the boy's game.

So the twins locked up the captain and the doc in the bunkhouse and set about to finish the defenses. They got one of the robots fixed, rigged up working batteries to the lights and piled up the barricade and retreated inside. The slugcat artificer then proved I'd probably been too generous with their explosive generation ability, even if it was only a 3D explosive, being able to throw one every round so long as they had a stock of rocks to coat and throw meant they could break up the attack waves fairly easily. Everyone else contributed well with a collection of shotguns and pistols that burned through a magazine or two each. I did forget to halve the value of the shotguns against the creepers' armor. But I figured with the lights and explosives, the creepers gave up and left to find easier targets after a few waves.

After a short sleep to recover, they let the captain and doc out to help them get the vehicles working and add makeshift seating to them so all 8 survivors could get away. They got everything done and their supplies loaded on the robot and took off about an hour ahead of dusk and a likely renewed creeper attack. They pushed on into the darkness until they were at the base of a natural mountain pass that they needed to cross to get onto the side of the continent they needed to be on to get into communications range of the starport.

The boys were smart in their camp setup and setting watches and so they avoided complications with the smallhualer crew. They started through the rough terrain of the pass in the morning and by midday reached the summit and were faced with a landslide that left the way ahead too rough for the vehicles. But, rather than abandon the vehicles, they used the slugcat's explosives, who got an absolutely phenomenal roll to figure out the best placement for explosives and to execute the blasting, and the mining robot cleared a rough enough way to get through and push on, and then the drivers doing a good job of getting through and then having to push quickly to avoid more landslides. They had to settle for the night when coming out of the pass and encountering a crevasse blocking their advance.

After night with strange dreams, everyone woke early and they started off to find a way around the crevasse. The crevasse wound down to a small creek they could cross but they discovered a wrecked ATV turned on it's side, looking like it got hit by a flash flood from the crevasse and got left by survivors who wandered off into the jungle. They couldn't determine when it happened beyond somewhat recently. They spent the rest of the day recovering the ATV and getting it running.

Camping for the night before continuing on, they were again troubled by strange dreams and the slightly precognitive, untrained noble psion was lead to the resting place of a fallen alien who was just bones and some equipment half buried in a mound on the side of the creek. He was compelled to put on the torc he found with the bones and had a vision of a war and a need to finish the final trap to eliminate the enemy. This lead to an argument, which ended with the other survivors taking the ATV and the robot and leaving Anson, the NPC, Fred, the Noble, and the slugcat with 2 buggies, a couple of tents and sleeping bags, a week of food and water, a med kit, a stunner, 2 pistols each with a single magazine of ammo, 1 shotgun with 2 magazines and a stunner with two magazines, a cutlass, 2 machettes and 3 knives. They also have a geigercounter and a bioscanner. Everyone also has a vaccsuit and a set of coveralls. A strange orb found with the bones seems to be the key to finishing the quest so they have that as well.

While getting ready to get underway, they did notice a strange red flowered plant and vine that seemed to be aware of them. The noble scanned it with the bioscanner and learned it had spores that were an irritant and possibly fully poisonous. Rather than getting close and getting a sample to get better readings, they bombed the plant and made sure the fire finished it off. With that, they set off in the direction the torc was pulling the noble in.

So ended Flatlined and started Forerunner. We had fun and the boys were excited to start a new sidequest. They also avoided the coup attempt that was coming quite handedly by splitting the party and sending the bad guys off on their own.

I do need some help fleshing out Anson. She's a competent but quiet ex-belter that fills out some skills the group needs but so far is a background character. She's also replacing Karine Lukowia from Marooned on Marduk as the local that has some ability to communicate with the other locals for when we get to that part of the adventure after Forerunner finishes. If anyone wants to give suggestions, I'm open to anything at this point.

 

[Endie]

I do need some help fleshing out Anson. She's a competent but quiet ex-belter that fills out some skills the group needs but so far is a background character. She's also replacing Karine Lukowia from Marooned on Marduk as the local that has some ability to communicate with the other locals for when we get to that part of the adventure after Forerunner finishes. If anyone wants to give suggestions, I'm open to anything at this point.

I find it is easiest to keep characters consistent and memorable by using stereotypes, and for Anson I chose the archetype of a bluff, frank, Yorkshire miner with no time for nonsense and fancy airs. I suppose West Virginia would work fairly well, instead of Yorkshire!

 

[Ragnar60]

The closest existing belt system is Alexin 2405, but that is really far away. I see that a few Borderland worlds have belts, I just need to find the best system for the adventure or add a new belt to an other system.

I would add an Asteroid Belt in the Blue system! Arcturus Station can replace Bulhai Freeport.

 

[Ragnar60]

Ok, latest update on the boy's game.

So the twins locked up the captain and the doc in the bunkhouse and set about to finish the defenses. They got one of the robots fixed, rigged up working batteries to the lights and piled up the barricade and retreated inside. The slugcat artificer then proved I'd probably been too generous with their explosive generation ability, even if it was only a 3D explosive, being able to throw one every round so long as they had a stock of rocks to coat and throw meant they could break up the attack waves fairly easily. Everyone else contributed well with a collection of shotguns and pistols that burned through a magazine or two each. I did forget to halve the value of the shotguns against the creepers' armor. But I figured with the lights and explosives, the creepers gave up and left to find easier targets after a few waves.

After a short sleep to recover, they let the captain and doc out to help them get the vehicles working and add makeshift seating to them so all 8 survivors could get away. They got everything done and their supplies loaded on the robot and took off about an hour ahead of dusk and a likely renewed creeper attack. They pushed on into the darkness until they were at the base of a natural mountain pass that they needed to cross to get onto the side of the continent they needed to be on to get into communications range of the starport.

The boys were smart in their camp setup and setting watches and so they avoided complications with the smallhualer crew. They started through the rough terrain of the pass in the morning and by midday reached the summit and were faced with a landslide that left the way ahead too rough for the vehicles. But, rather than abandon the vehicles, they used the slugcat's explosives, who got an absolutely phenomenal roll to figure out the best placement for explosives and to execute the blasting, and the mining robot cleared a rough enough way to get through and push on, and then the drivers doing a good job of getting through and then having to push quickly to avoid more landslides. They had to settle for the night when coming out of the pass and encountering a crevasse blocking their advance.

After night with strange dreams, everyone woke early and they started off to find a way around the crevasse. The crevasse wound down to a small creek they could cross but they discovered a wrecked ATV turned on it's side, looking like it got hit by a flash flood from the crevasse and got left by survivors who wandered off into the jungle. They couldn't determine when it happened beyond somewhat recently. They spent the rest of the day recovering the ATV and getting it running.

Camping for the night before continuing on, they were again troubled by strange dreams and the slightly precognitive, untrained noble psion was lead to the resting place of a fallen alien who was just bones and some equipment half buried in a mound on the side of the creek. He was compelled to put on the torc he found with the bones and had a vision of a war and a need to finish the final trap to eliminate the enemy. This lead to an argument, which ended with the other survivors taking the ATV and the robot and leaving Anson, the NPC, Fred, the Noble, and the slugcat with 2 buggies, a couple of tents and sleeping bags, a week of food and water, a med kit, a stunner, 2 pistols each with a single magazine of ammo, 1 shotgun with 2 magazines and a stunner with two magazines, a cutlass, 2 machettes and 3 knives. They also have a geigercounter and a bioscanner. Everyone also has a vaccsuit and a set of coveralls. A strange orb found with the bones seems to be the key to finishing the quest so they have that as well.

While getting ready to get underway, they did notice a strange red flowered plant and vine that seemed to be aware of them. The noble scanned it with the bioscanner and learned it had spores that were an irritant and possibly fully poisonous. Rather than getting close and getting a sample to get better readings, they bombed the plant and made sure the fire finished it off. With that, they set off in the direction the torc was pulling the noble in.

So ended Flatlined and started Forerunner. We had fun and the boys were excited to start a new sidequest. They also avoided the coup attempt that was coming quite handedly by splitting the party and sending the bad guys off on their own.

I do need some help fleshing out Anson. She's a competent but quiet ex-belter that fills out some skills the group needs but so far is a background character. She's also replacing Karine Lukowia from Marooned on Marduk as the local that has some ability to communicate with the other locals for when we get to that part of the adventure after Forerunner finishes. If anyone wants to give suggestions, I'm open to anything at this point.

Your boys are lucky to have you!

 

[mavikfelna]

Ok, new update. We've had a couple of sessions, though pretty short ones. Basically, the Psionic torc is pulling the noble son towards the destination and they moving ahead carefully. Everyone is on an environment suit or vacc suit but they don't have a filter mask for the slugcat, so any time they suspect there are spores about, he has to button the suit and drain the oxygen tank they can't refill. They did pull out the tanks from the other suits, so they have 18 hours of air for him, giving them a definite time limit.
The first village they found pretty quick and discovered Dr Hans Vokraz, his environment suit torn and melted from acid and his filter mask discarded, while he was in the midst of some form of transformation. With the help of the bioscanner and a good medic roll, they realize they could use one of their 2 Panacea injectors to cure him. So they do that, fix up his mask and put him in one of the vacc suits not currently in use. They find a safe spot to camp and question the doc on what's going on. They learn he's from Pharcore, on an expedition looking into the Psionic plants here on Marduk. They had an accident just after starting back towards civilization and then his companion Barbera went crazy and ran off. He was trying to follow her when he got attacked by the plants and they knocked his mask off.
Moving on, they came to the next village and found it guarded by a human-plant hybrid! The fight was sharp and quick, the creature missed his shot with an ancient rifle but hit the wheel on one of the buggies, wrecking it beyond repair due to the explosive nature of the bullet. The return fire included the ancient rifle with explosive bullets used by the noble, the slugcat's natural explosive bomb, Anson's body pistol and the Dr's stunner. The hybrid did not survive 6D of explosive damage (bullet and rock), the body pistol round and the stunner with lots of excess damage. Instead of winding their way through the plants to loot the body, they hopped back into the surviving buggy and hustled on, not wanting to waste precious air time.
Some difficult driving almost wrecked the buggy, but a brilliant save by Anson got them back on track and in a few hours, they found the entrance to an underground bunker in a hillside covered in the Psionic plants that were very hungry and trying very hard to lure in the Travellers. Everyone resisted, and with liberal application of explosive from gun and slugcat, and the Dr's stunner, they blew a pathway to the entryway.
They jogged the 5 klicks down the hallway without much problem until they suddenly emerged into a huge chamber full of angry plants that hadn't noticed the party yet.
The group moved very careful, quietly and slowly through the chamber and we're successful until about halfway through, when the noble missed a step, broke a vine and got splashed with acid! As one, the plants all seemed to turn towards them and as one the group basically said F! This and used the same tactic that got them through the door outside. Resources are dwindling as they are almost clear when another plant-hybrid jumped them and just missed the noble. The Slugcat tried to throw a rock, just a regular rock since they were out of explosive, and found themselves too near the tentacles of a plant, that immediately wrapped around their wrist. The noble tried to draw his sword, only to discover his grip to be too loose and he hurled it into a nearby treelike trunk. Anson, seeing her moment to contribute tried to pull a Trinity move and shoved her pistol into the creature's head with a "Dodge this!" Alas, the creature imitated Neo and easily dodged, getting a 12 on his athletic check to give -4 effect to Anson's roll of 8 to hit, turning into a solid miss. The Dr was apparently surprised,as he shot straight into the ceiling.
Seeing Anson as the bigger threat, the hybrid grabbed her in a powerful, crushing hug and started to drag her back into the plant mass. The slugcat pulled their knife, which they had treated with explosives earlier, and threw it at plant holding them! The explosion blew them free of the plant and near to where the nobles sword was stuck. Fortunately, the damage was minimal enough to not get through the vaccsuit protection rating. The noble pulled his knife, keeping ahold of it this time, and slashed the creature's arm, causing it drop Anson. She also pulled her knife and scored a hit, followed by another miss by the frustrated doctor.
The slugcat darted in, ripped the sword from the trunk, and jumped with a mighty cleave, striking the creature in the head and stunning it. The others hit it again with their knives and then the doc finally got his footing and as the creature was turned away from him now, hit it squarely in the spine, which dropped the creature for good.
Regathering his rifle, the noble and doctor finished blowing a path to the far wall and the hallway entrance there. Rushing inside it, they found a brief reprieve from the plants and spores and moved ahead, quickly discovering 8 mummified guards in full armor with swords and bracelets that looked suspiciously like the Noble's torc. Everyone grabbed a sword, and the noble grabbed a bracelet and they prepared to enter the main chamber.
And that, my friends, is where we find ourselves until next week.
Had fun with this and the number of fumbles, we use Seth Sarkoski's rule of 2s, was mostly a chance for humor as everyone scrambled to recover.