Just started a campaign in a genre that can be roughly described as Anime Space Western, following the ideas in the Desert Moon of Karth. The plan was to bring up the Karth Moon as written, but "No Plan Survives the Session Zero", and now I'll have to deal with extra meta-plot twists, including psycho pandemic threat and a full blown galactic economy crisis. Something that's really hard to imagine.
But even before that Friday night revelation session I had two
problems to address. First was a choice of the RP system for a new
group - not a problem really. I'm sorry but there's no place for
Mothership in my heart, all is occupied by Whitehack. And the
second: I needed a short starting adventure, since the Karth module
has none... well, it does have the d10 random table for possible
reasons the players go to the moon, but not convincing enough to just
drop them all onto the space elevator. And so, I needed a one-shot
scenario. And a map.
At start I had no concrete idea of the adventure. Instead, I took a neat little Wallet Space Derelicts generator and rolled a seed:
+---+ +---+
| | |o o|
| o | | o |x2
| | |o o|
+---+---+---+---+
| o|o |o o| o|
| o | | | o |
|o | o|o o|o |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|o | |o o| |
| | | | o |
| o| |o o| |
+---+---+---+---+
|ooo|ooo| o|
| | | o |
|ooo|ooo|o |
+---+---+---+
And then, while unrolling that seed into a set of rooms with details
and encounters along the lines of the generator - that's where the
idea of an illegal drug refinery was formed. And painted with
watercolor paint on the same very pages of the Whitehack Notebook.
The inspiration for which comes from Michael Prescott's blog and
tutorials. The ASCII map was made the last, painted inside Emacs
artist-mode.
The key is given in reversed order to how the players would explore the level. It was an order in which I invented the rooms from their seed. I actually loved the outcome, and want to edit it after a playtest and drop somewhere on itch. A friendly reminder though made me to hurry up a bit and publish a preview here :)
ยง Coral Dust Derelict Factory
A Space Western Starting Adventure.
This one-shot scenario map is meant to kick-start a Desert Moon of Karth campaign module, but can be dropped in any game with spaceships and illegal drugs production. Even cowboys are optional.
Adventurers are hired by a galactic pharmaceutical or food production corporation to meet with their contact | informant | courier | corporate spy in the faraway system with a desert moon orbiting a gas giant. When approaching the rendezvous point the players meet no contact, but instead are lured to dock with unexpected derelict station floating nearby (or a shot from a flak turret almost immobilizes the characters' ship and they are forced to dock anyways).
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| J | Isolation chamber, now as it was before the conflict. Laser cage is broken, it's just the outer door that is jammed. The Informant that PCs were meant to meet is contained here, captured by the bandits. |
| O | The observation room used to be a lobby of sorts. An automatic guard turret (HD 2) will serve as a last surprise for PCs - that is, if the main power generator [B] is still on. |
| G | The former food printer and dispenser of the complex now also serves as the main habitat. Entrance is barricaded by the Ringleader (HD 2) and 2+d4 bandits. They are well aware of the PCs presence. |
| B | The power generator hall now is also a command center for what's left of the complex. Several engineers doing their best to keep the derelict's systems alive. The Chief Engineer's office on the second level. He will pretend he's also a captured civilian, but in fact he's not. Together with the Ringleader [G] they rule the complex, and actually the Chief controls remotely the Mining Bot at [C]. |
| C | The hangar that used to serve for repairs of small craft and bots. Now, an enormous skeleton of an ancient strange creature, blue-gray in color, is located here (partly disassembled). A Mining Bot (HD 3) will suddenly awaken when approached. Players could notice that it's physically attached to the power grid, and most likely controlled remotely. Under the floor bars there's a hidden compartment containing one valuable artifact: both Ringleader [G] and Chief Engineer [B] know the access codes. |
| S | The storeroom is powered but lacks part of an outer wall (looks like a damage left during a conflict long ago) - no breathable air here. One can clearly see spare manipulators for the Mining Bot. Supplies and even ammo can be found here. Some crates contain ossified blue-gray remains. Here lies an alternative route to this section of the complex from [M] using vacc suits, some can be found in [H]. |
| L | The archive is surprisingly well-preserved. Braking into the complex' network will provide PCs with the map and reveal facts from the pre-conflict history of the station (it used to be a military hospital complex; only the laboratory section remains somewhat intact after the civil war). However, a hacking attempt will cause the alarm, and the blast doors from both sides of the corridor will lock the PCs in this room. |
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| M | Medbay. Contains clever diagnostic armchair, pharmacy locker, a shower cabin and a strange rejuvenation capsule that looks very odd and out of place. The outer gate window overlooks the storeroom [S] interiors through its broken walls - but the gate is jammed. |
| F | Factory lab. Chemical instruments, reagents and analysis equipment all over the place. Packed product is passed to the warehouse [C] by means of the conveyor. d4 bandits guard a few frightened lab workers - the latter are harmless and useless, but if treated well one could learn that, unlike the rest of the complex' staff the Chief Engineer [B] is not kept here as a hostage but is actually united with the gang. |
| H | The stairs in this room lead to outer second level where the antique flak cannon is mounted. An attempt to point it at some part of the complex, like the power generator dome [B] will lock and revert the motion of the cannon's platform motors - the cannon is controlled remotely and the PCs are clearly being followed. Lockers on the first level contain vacc suits - just enough to suit up the whole party. One of them is damaged though, which is hard to notice indoors. |
| C | The warehouse and the docking bay. A receiving party of 2+d4 bandit guards is waiting for the PCs, but it's dark in here which might aid the characters a bit. Gateways to [F], [L], as well as to the outer shell of the complex. A pile of crates stacked near the conveyor from the lab [F]. Inside, the containers with a blue-grey powder drug are disguised as food product supplies. |
The ASCII map of the complex:
####### +-+
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....
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to Ship