EP quickstart adventure *SPOILER ALERT!*
Tue, 2009-12-15 22:57
Having read the adventure I felt I needed to give a bit feedback.
1. Plot is nice, no complaints there.
2. The writeup is a bit unclear. IMHO it would have benefitted from telling some semi-important stuff earlier than it happens, even if it would have meant expanding the synopsis sections somewhat.
3. Sniper bot with Kinetic Weapons 40 and being in range where there will be -30 penalty both ways! That has got to be the most daft adversary inculsion anywhere.
4. Rules-talk. I'd have upped the bot's Kinetic Weapons skill to at least 80 and gotten rid of all the no-names Moxies. In fact I would never even have thought of giving them Moxie in the first place, coz that's what the corebook suggested.
The only one aside Gray Xu who 'needs' Moxie in the scenario would be the sniper bot, which just happens to be the only one who doesn't have Moxie. Even Gray Xu doesn't really need Moxie coz he's there to die anyways, not to cause any grief for the PCs.
It probably was intended that the sniper bot wouldn't break the skillwire 40 limit. I can understand that, but in this particular instance that just sucks. Why not just replace it with a remote controlled drone instead of an bot? Or better yet, have an infomorph slave control it.
5. While I'm all for making adventures that leave plot-threads open, I do prefer that there would at least be some suggestions for me. This leaves a bit sour aftertaste in my mouth, especially coz this is so tiny adventure that no plot-threads should be open in so few scenes as this one had. It makes all of the adventure seem like a half-assed job ('round here here is a saying "urinated while running", but it doesn't translate to english so well).
Hopefully that came through as constructive, coz that's the spirit I made this post in. I have an unfortunate habit of sometimes 'sounding' a bit aggressive even when I don't mean it. I blame the language barrier 
Wed, 2009-12-30 11:21
#2
Re: EP quickstart adventure *SPOILER ALERT!*
I must admit I didn't like the adventure at all. Read it the other day and it's just waaay too linear and straight forward for my liking. "Go here, do this, find that, go there, do that..."
I understand this is a quickstart adventure. I really hope the devs stressed "quickstart" rather than "adventure" in the title, and that we will see more interesting stories coming up.
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Wed, 2010-01-13 06:38
#3
Re: EP quickstart adventure *SPOILER ALERT!*
I played demo few nights from now and i must say, it was fun. It's real simple plot IS blessing, beacuse this should only highlight ome things about the game, get playes and GM time to "get used to system". I think that if I would run it, I maybe add some extra subplots, beacuse i would porpbaly start new campign with that, but demo is good as it is. Maybe too linear, but cool scenes has . ;]
After the nanocanister burst and before no-one had the chance to make contact between PCs and Firewall proxy, one of the PCs had a bright idea to steer the ship into the sun.
I got exaclty the same idea, not knowing about the plot. It seams logical, in most S-F settings, to get away with something dangeous by steering the ship in to the sun.
Wed, 2010-01-13 21:00
#4
Re: EP quickstart adventure *SPOILER ALERT!*
I'm planning on running this adventure as the first part of a campaign with my play group, with the following changes:
Change 1. The mysterious third party which attacks the group on the scum barge and martian colony are jovian black ops. These groups are unknowingly working for an exhuman Neurode, who is covertly using the Jovian Republic's "clean" breeding stock to insanely advance it's exhuman schemes.
Change 2. On the scum barge i want to make Simulspace the best way to find the arms dealer, to introduce the characters to a Victorian Era Steampunk Simulspace, known as The Kingdom, that is prevalent through out the system, where many infolife chose to dwell.
Change 3. On the scum barge to make things tidier when Gray Xu is infected and realizes he will die, unless stopped he will remotely seal the ship and break away from the scum barge to trap everyone else and force them to die with him. Gray Xu who is an active player in the Night Cartel will use his resources to wreak vengeance on the party for costing him his life, his ship and his cargo (which he owes to the cartel....).
Change 4. In the ambush on mars one of the attackers is an undercover exhuman Predator. I imagined that he has a detachable jaw to bite and nano-infect investigators which would be stress inducing. This predator has real information about the Jovian Neurode, which can lead into the rest of campaign.
I see the story unfolding in 3 chapters.
Chapter 1. the modified starter adventure.
Chapter 2. The investigators collect information about the Neurode's schemes by visiting various habitats and their representations in the Kingdom. Large habitats/cities take on london like avatars while smaller habitats would be more like villages or colonies (The initial scum barge in the starter adventure will be represented by a sort of Jamaican Colony. (my group likes pirates. 
)
I would like to have at least one space fight. To illustrate dangers of the Neurode's work a small habitat will be infected with Exsurgent Virus, so that the groups has to do some zombie crawling to get back to their ship.
As the groups learns more abourt the titan technology which the Neurode is collecting, they find ETI coding in the predators and other weapons the Neurode is creating. Because of the Neurode's schemes ETI code may be showing up all over an unknowing and unprepared Jovian system, possibly putting them all at risk of outbreak and destruction. During this period the party is chased and attacked at by jovian military, exhuman predators hidden within the Junta perhaps as military officers and a reincarnated Gray Xu who wants vengeance on the party..
Chapter 3. The party infiltrates the Jovian Junta, locates the secret weapons research base where the Neurode is active, and destroys it. This will be a tactical raid on a secure location using whatever resources the party collects in the first two chapters. I want there to be some vehicle combat and some mechs.
We probably won't wrap up current campaign (pathfinder fantasy) for a month or so more.. 
can't wait to play some eclipse phase.
I had the chance to run this last night.
It wen't smooth. Actually we only had time for the first part that ended with the PCs getting blown up. There was one 'close' call though. One of the PCs was in an ambush/intel position with his inisibility cloak. Luckily he followed those guys that came to foul up the arms deal with Gray Xy and the PCs and came inside the spaceship at that point.
After the nanocanister burst and before no-one had the chance to make contact between PCs and Firewall proxy, one of the PCs had a bright idea to steer the ship into the sun. I don't believe that the players have properly absorbed how big the solar system is and how inefficient spaceship travel is. Nevertheless, that was a workable idea. Perhaps the ship would have reached the sun after all the PCs would have died a gruesome death. I probably should have rolled with that one, but I kinda wanted the players to know that their progress is being watched.