High Altitude Object
A scenario for Violence or the Panic Engine.
In February of 2023, an unidentified high altitude object flying over northern Alaska near Deadhorse was detected by radar. Flybys by U.S. fighters reported a cylindrical, silver, and apparently uncrewed object appearing to float by unknown means of propulsion. Some of the pilots reported the object interfered with their sensors.
The object was shot down by an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile fired by an F-22 Raptor, citing risk to safety of civilian flight and an abundance of caution. The debris fell onto the frozen Beaufort Sea.
Despite thorough attempts to retrieve the debris, the search was abandoned due to poor weather conditions and harsh environment. The object was never recovered.
One month later, Fred Ackerman, a roughneck on the arctic oil rig Mackova 13A, disappears.
Players
The players are a work crew on an artic oil rig. They are five days in on a two week rotation, before getting two weeks off.
2-in-6 chance you are a roustabout: you are a young, (18-20), unskilled laborer lowest on the pecking order. You do scut work, cleaning and hauling gear. You make more money than you know what to do with.
Otherwise you are a roughneck: hot shit of the oil rigs, because roughnecks drill the oil, and without oil no one gets paid. You have skills related to working a rig.
Everyone answers to the toolpusher, responsible for all operations, who answers to the company man, the oil company representative on site.
If running a paranormal agency/investigator type game have the investigators show up after Rogelio Santos, a friendly, calls the situation in. He doesn’t have details—can’t even be sure there is anything paranormal, just a gut feeling. Investigators will need some pretext for being on a private drill site and no weapons are allowed. The roughnecks are not thrilled to have to babysit outsiders getting in the way of the job.
The North Slope, Winter
Frigid wind whips over the flat expanse of northern Alaska coast, nothing to break its constant howl. Summers replete with herds of caribou and seals crowding the shore are a distant memory, the desolate ice haunted only by the occasional polar bear and big rigs crawling over ice roads.
The temperature is regularly 20 below zero, or colder. Unprotected, frostbite sets in in minutes, hypothermia close behind.
Mackova 13A
Breaking the flat expanse of ice and snow is a towering lattice of steel overshadowing huddled clusters of low-slung prefabricated buildings. Mackova 13A is newly established, the first grinding penetrations of the drill ring out across the rig, seeking the nectar below that will feed an unsatiable hunger just a little big longer.
Metal pipes and tubes wind between the rig and the pre-fab buildings, requiring careful navigation. Shipping container-sized dot the work site. Ice and snow rimes the parked trucks and a bulldozer parked outside. Long metal tubes rest on raised stands, waiting to be fed to the earth.
All descriptions of the work site and people within are as the situation stands the morning of the first day.
Camp
Three stories of long, prefabricated housing raised on pylons, kept at balmy temperatures to stave off the cold outside. Exterior stairs on the east and west sides of the structure are enclosed in heavy duty steel cages. The steps lead to double doors keeping the unrelenting wind and cold at bay. Taped to them are printed pages warning to secure the doors tight, accompanied by a printed photo of a young polar bear leering curiously in a camp hallway.
There are a few empty rooms in the rare case of visitors, laden heavily with lemon disinfectant spray, bedsheets and pillows folded neatly on the small beds. If the players are part of the oil crew assign them to these rooms instead.
1st Floor
Mud Room
The entry leads to a long low bench wrapping around the room, lined with boots. Heavy coats and high viz vests hang on hooks on the wall. On shelves above are hard hats and alone can of cola.
Meatball and Pettersen just came off shift from the drilling floor, looking pale. Meatball pukes his guts out on the floor to swearing from Pettersen.
Kitchen and Break Room
Well stocked with surprisingly good food. Quality and abundance serve to maintain worker morale. No alcohol though—the oil fields are dry, possession will get you booted and blacklisted. Hot meals are served up three times a day.
Casado scoops enormous piles of food onto his tray from the buffet before joining Wind Up at a table. Wind Up speaks in an increasingly animated matter about conspiracy theories and alien abductions and some secret research lab near Deadhorse where they experiment on people. Wind Up wants to save everyone from the hidden threats and tangles he sees in every conspiracy. Casado laughs and try to calm him down. No stranger to seeking salvation, he quietly tries to save Wind Up from himself.
Squirrel, a young roustabout, sits at a cafeteria table, nervously jiggling his leg and picking at a hangnail. Ackerman had taken him under his wing, and Squirrel looks up to him as a kind of father figure. Now that he’s missing, Squirrel is freaking out. Has a gut feeling something bad happened to Ackerman but can’t pin down what or why.
Offices
Two offices bursting with paperwork detail the rig’s operations and progress.
Fred MacNeil is doing paperwork in one office, preparing for the daily conference call to the company. Everything so far is running smoothly, aside from his missing roughneck, so McNeil is calm and reasonable. His notorious temper flares if delays start to pile up, hundreds of thousands of dollars burning up as time is wasted.
Bedroom 101
A single bed room with private bath, a luxury reserved for few in a camp building. Columbo, the cook, is one of the lucky few. A skinny, awkwardly lanky kid, Columbo got his nickname because all he watches in his spare time are old episodes of the show. He’s here because it’s just about the farthest he could get from his home in Florida. Whenever he can, he slips away to smoke outside, shivering just inside the bear cages.
Mechanics Shop
16ft high ceilings and a roller door to the outside. A three-ton overhead crane hangs from the ceiling. Tools and equipment for the rig are kept here and the attached workshop. The workbench in the back is strewn with clamps, pipes, drill bits and assorted tools.
Reese and Piece are working in the shop, Reese grinding down a length of metal at the work bench, Piece hauling in metal pipes. They earned their rig names because they are always found together. Even when they work other rigs for other companies, they always manage to find work on the same rigs, the same rotations.
Generators
Two power generators with 5000 gallons of fuel storage.
Water Treatment
6000 gallons of potable water storage and treatment systems.
2nd Floor
Worker bedrooms, two beds to a room. Stored away are each worker’s possessions, whatever can fit in an offshore bag that isn’t provided by the company. Two shared washrooms are centrally located on the floor. Lately they stink of bile.
Two exits lead to yellow railed catwalks across the roof and down stairs on the west end of the building.
Laundry
Washers and dryers thump as they work to wash the grime of the worksite away. Tim sits on a folding chair in his underwear, reading a book. “Miscalculated”, his only explanation. After this he’ll earn the rig nickname “Tighty Whity”.
Recreation
A large screen TV surrounded by several comfortable chairs, a gaming console someone brought in their personal effects hooked up to the display. The game is paused, a smear of muzzle flash and alien gore.
A roughneck called Boots is sitting in a chair in contemplation. He’s earned the nickname Boots because he never takes his fucking boots off, even though you aren’t supposed to wear them inside the camp, boot chains digging scratches into the cheap carpet. He’s eager to help anyone investigating missing persons. He expounds that MacNeil is really dropping the ball on this. He says he thinks there might be clues at the pit floor, he’s happy to lead you there…
Boots has been infected by the Riddoch in the pit room, his mind burrowed with wriggling bio-mechanical larvae. A process the creature dispenses reluctantly—too much risk of discovery. Too much risk the infection should slip its leash, transform from slave to child to rival. For now Boots serves to lure others to the pit when the Riddoch needs to feed, and to sabotage any efforts to investigate it. But even now he feels the potential squirming around in his brain.
Boots Boots’ nascent infection allows him to cause short-term memory loss, making targets forget they were interacting with him.
Violence:
- Evasion: -1 (accelerated reflexes)
- Shooting: Standard Melee: Standard.
- Harm: Treat first Down as an injury instead.
Panic Engine: C:30 Pipe 1d5 DMG or Doorway Effect I:60 W:3(10)
- Doorway Effect: Boot causes target to forget what they were doing.
Bedroom 201 — Meatball and Acosta
Acosta sleeps restlessly. He’s dreaming of horrible blooms of flesh and the pathetic cries of a wounded animal.
Bedroom 202 — Jasper and Squirrel
Unoccupied. A laptop sit closed on top of one bed, an unlocked user account for Jasper greets anyone who opens it.
Bedroom 203
Empty. Two beds, bedding folded up on top of bare mattresses.
Bedroom 204 — Pettersen and Kameroff
Kameroff is sitting in bed, texting. He tells anyone interrupting him to fuck off.
Bedroom 205 — TwoWords
Unoccupied. A single bed room with private path assigned to the toolpusher, TwoWords. It is tidy and clean, bed neatly made. A small frame rests on the desk: A weather-worn, smiling woman and a passel of children crowding the photo.
Bedroom 206 — Fred MacNeil
Unoccupied. A single bed room with private path assigned to the Company Man, Fred MacNeil.
3rd Floor
More bedrooms, and two more bathrooms.
Bedroom 301 — Doc Moses
A spartan single bed room assigned to Doc Moses, the drill foreman, an overnight bag half kicked under the bed, some crumpled photos of his wife and daughter taped to the wall.
Bedroom 302 — Rogelio Santos and Tim
Santos has been holed up in his bunk since Ackerman’s went missing, claiming the flu. In reality, he is intuitively sensitive to the paranormal, and has been in enough situations to know when something is very wrong. The pit floor sets off all his internal alarm bells and he is avoiding it, though he has no more memory of what lurks there than anyone else.
Tim has been avoiding his bunk, not wanting to get sick.
Bedroom 303 — Reese and Piece
Unoccupied. Posters of 80s and 90s action movies plaster the walls.
Bedroom 304 — Wrong Way Earl and Boots
Unoccupied. One bed is a crumpled mess, mud prints tracked on the floor. The other bed is made a book left open and face down: Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard.
Bedroom 305 — Wind Up and Meyrick
Meyrick is in bed snoring loud enough to be heard from outside the room, one arm flung over his head.
Bedroom 306 — Herman and Casado
Unoccupied. A white noise machine runs, left on from whoever was sleeping here last.
Bedroom 307
Empty. Two beds, bedding folded up on top of bare mattresses.
Bedroom 308
Empty. Two beds, bedding missing.
Storage
A closet with spare sheets and pillows, cleaning supplies, and a vacuum cleaner.
Mechanic Shop
Warehouse for working on rig parts with large roller door. A 3-ton overhead crane dangles overhead. Separate storage area holds tools and equipment: various valves, clamps, pipes, and other specialty parts alongside more standard tools.
Reese and Piece work together here, prepping parts for the rig. Reese is working a welder in the main bay while Piece is working on specialized drill components on the workbench. Reese and Piece earned their nicknames because they are never apart. Event across jobs on different rigs they always manage to get stints together on the same shifts.
The Rig
The latticed steel derrick rises high above the operating heart of the operation. Below are several enclosed structures around the dig site.
The Doghouse
Enclosed command and oversight of the pit floor, where the drill grinds away endlessly. Consoles give readouts of the drilling status. A microphone pipes out to the pit floor.
TwoWords, the rig toolpusher and Doc Moses, the drill foreman, monitor drilling progress from the control room, analyzing readouts and watching the roughnecks below. They murmur about the crew acting sick and strange, they hope a flu isn’t hitting the camp. TwoWords is also concerned about Ackerman going missing. People don’t just walk off a rig into the tundra, and Ackerman was a reliable roughneck who isn’t the type to go AWOL. Calls to local authorities haven’t turned up any clues.
TwoWords is a 25 year veteran of oil work, long accustomed to the long hard hours. He got is nickname because no one hardly hears him say two words. He approaches in the crew and work problems with the empathy of someone who’s been on the wrong side of the issue too many times to count. He aims to retire in a year or two, which scares him more than any kick from a well. He’s not sure what he’d do with himself down among the noise and warmth of a normal family life, without the work and the stark silence of the tundra to comfort him.
Doc Moses restlessly checks the equipment and checks again. He just got promoted to this position and doesn’t want his first shift in this role to be marred by a jammed drill or other setback. He especially doesn’t want that asshole MacNeil breathing down his neck.
Wrong Way Earl wanders into the doghouse to yells from TwoWords and Doc—he’s supposed to be down monitoring the mud tanks.
Pit Floor
The room where the drill disappears into the earth, accompanied by the grinding and shuddering of heavy machinery. Augers beneath the metal floor draw up drilling mud and waste rock, carrying the waste into side structures to be filtered and recycled in the mud tanks attached to the building.
No one likes to enter this room anymore. When they do their hearts beat a staccato against their chests, their guts churn, and they want to scream—but they don’t know why. It stinks of wet iron and sickly brine. Panic engine: Gain 1d5 Stress whenever entering this room. Panic if present when “seeing” someone consumed by the Riddoch. In neither case do you know why you are reacting this way.
Herman and Jasper are here now, monitoring the drill. Jasper just vomited in the corner. Herman can’t blame him, he feel like doing the same for some reason.
The pit floor, like many of the camp’s interiors, is kept balmy and warm. When the door to the outside is opened, billowing condensation fills the room as fog. In this obscurity, the vague and looming strands of the Riddoch can be made out in shifting silhouette. Obtaining further clarity allows the Riddoch’s manipulations to snap back into place, erasing memory of the horrid sight.
The Riddoch
An alien bloom of flesh and artifice has embedded itself in the wall of the pit floor, recuperating after a long crawl out of the frozen sea. It snatched Ackerman with its long pseudopods for sustenance. He’s still there, embedded in the ropy mounds of growth, whimpering slightly as he is slowly unraveled. The Riddoch keeps him alive as long as possible to extract the most nutrients.
No one who sees this remembers it, the horrifying visual instantly erased from conscious thought. The fear and disgust of the encounter is felt in the moment before erasure, spiking adrenaline and triggering nausea, lodging in the subconscious, a splinter of revulsion. The powerful mental suppression of the entity only works at close range. At a distance the Riddoch must rely on more mundane illusions, projecting visual lies and false telemetry.
Just because the Riddoch has anchored it self doesn’t mean it’s immobile. Should it be threatened sufficiently it will flee to the safety of another building to recuperate, likely the camp.
When the drill strikes true and opens up the black veins deep beneath, the Riddoch will have access to all the energy it needs to launch itself back into the sky, leaving behind the burning ruin of the derrick and an uncontrolled gout of flame.
The Riddoch
Violence:
- Evasion: -4 (Disorienting)
- Shooting: N/A
- Melee: 2d10. Can strike two targets at once. Anyone injured by a pseudopod is immobilized, and takes and automatically injury each round. Unless the Riddoch has been revealed, treat the melee contest as 4+ in the Riddoch’s favor.
- Special: Each person the Riddoch consumes adds a Disadvantage to the Harm d20 roll.
- Harm: Whenever the Riddoch would be Injured or Downed roll 1d20 and consult the results:
| d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1-6 | Miss, the Riddoch is not where you thought it was. |
| 7-12 | Injury. |
| 13-15 | Injury and the Riddoch loses ability to suppress memories. If the result again, it loses abilities to project illusions. |
| 16+ | Resolve injured/downed normally. |
Panic Engine: C: 75 2xPseudopod 1d10 DMG I:80 W:3(20)
- Surprise: The nature of the Riddoch’s manipulations means it automatically hits, unless it is revealed.
- Wounds: The Riddoch loses its memory suppression upon gaining a Wound. It loses its power of illusion after gaining a second.
- Pseudopod: Entangles and immobilizes victim. Deals 1 DMG per round automatically afterward.
- Each person the Riddoch consumes give it +10 max HP.
Timeline
Day 1: As evening sets a storm rises up. Transport out of the camp is impossible until it passes.
Day 2: In the morning the Riddoch will take Casado as another victim to feed off. Then Wrong Way Earl in the evening.
Day 3: In the early hours the storm becomes too dangerous to continue work, so the drilling operation is halted. Roughnecks retire to camp, bored. McNeil fumes and paces like a caged tiger. Boots will attempt to lead others to the Riddoch, despite conditions. If unimpeded, this spells the demise of Squirrel, Meatball, and Kameroff. The storm finally breaks in the late afternoon.
In the middle of the night the drill strikes oil. The Riddoch consumes as many people as it can, then siphons the oil and uses it for fuel to launch itself into the upper atmosphere.
February 28, 2026 Adventures Violence Verdigris Paranormal Scenarios
Carousing XP Bonus for Worn Items
Synthesizing this idea into a more “traditional” elfgame with XP and carousing, which I’ll probably end up using for Dolmenwood and similar campaigns I’m running. I like the idea of tying this to carousing, because then your players can wear their normal adventuring gear in the dungeon then get all dressed up to party.
This assumes using one of the many carousing rules out there, where money spent gives you bonus XP.
The basic idea is this:
When carousing, add the value of any worn clothes, jewelry, or other items of significant cost to carousing XP gained.
- The items should be visible and shown off. The point is you are flaunting your wealth.
- I’m inclined not to include magic item value to this, as magic items often don’t count when bring back treasure for XP. If magic items count, they may be at risk (see next point).
- If a carousing event or consequence ends up being rolled worn items are at risk. This should follow logically from the event: If you wake up in a muddy ditch, your nice silk shirt will be ruined. If you blacked out among a cadre of thieves, say goodbye to your jeweled rings. Had a rendezvous with a special someone? Maybe they expect a token of your affection to keep–failure to do so could mean they badmouth you around town.
Addendum for wearing fancy stuff around town
If you wear items of at least 1000 gp x Your Level of value, gain +1 to reaction rolls in settlements, generally. Some factions (disgruntled peasants, revolutionaries, or clerical orders of poverty) might incur an equivalent penalty instead.
Mothership Slush Pile
Ideas from my notes that are unlikely to make it into anything published so I’ll put them here.
Items
ShareMind: Cyberware, 1 slot. 10kcr. Must be installed in two or more people to function. This cyberware uses quantum entanglement to provide instantaneous communication and shared experience across installed users on the same “network”, no matter the distance. Unfortunately one drawback is a shared experience of pain and trauma. If one user in the network takes damage, the others gain an equivalent amount of Stress.
Dead Man’s Suit: Prototype battle suit, so called because it can continue to be operated remotely when the operator is killed. As Advanced Battle Dress, but when the user is killed gains 1 Wound and 10 HP, and can be controlled by remote control. Optional autonomous AI controller will automatically continue to engage last hostile targets (25% chance safeties fail and attacks anyone nearby instead).
Pale Voice: A pharmacological breakthrough, as a injectable “truth serum” that functions with 99% confidence. The subject becomes pliant, talkative, and honest following administration. Unfortunately, the drug is fatal, the subject invariably dying in 1d10 minutes.
Secret Android
A class modifier. You act and appear human in every respect (unless examined with specialist equipment, suffer damage that would expose your internal mechanics, etc.). Any Company issued limiters on behavior are loosened so you can act more naturally, and you even have a shallow layer of human blood circulating to keep up appearances in case of minor injuries.
Take stats as an Android with the following:
Trauma Response: You have the trauma response from another class of your choice until you are discovered, then this reverts to the Android trauma response.
Luck save
This save can be used in the place of any other save or skill check. The Luck Save starts at 100 (rolls fail automatically on 90-99 as usual). When this save is used, deduct the result from the save score—succeed or fail. Apply critical rolls as usual. When it’s gone, it’s gone… your luck has run out.
Company Man
The Company Man is one who has devoted themselves utterly to the Company. Their bodies are laced with cyberware dedicated only to enforce the loyalty of the bearer, their veins thrum with chemical cocktails that reinforce their commitment to shareholder value. A Company Man cannot betray the Company’s secrets, sabotage its efforts, or betray its members. To do so is an impossibility sewn into their flesh. Any who would try to pry such things free would only leave behind a molten, radioactive crater; a threat of deterrence for anyone who would think of the attempt.
One wonders why the Company would not just use an android, but no matter the prevailing thought of artificial personhood it is clear the Company thinks of androids as only objects to be used. They are unworthy of bearing the mission of Company Loyalty.
A Company Man is often proudly marked, a subsidiary logo or brand prominently displayed on their face to show the world what lengths they have gone through to prove themselves, and show what they are capable of.
Anyone can be a Company Man, just sign the relevant paperwork to get started.
C: 45 as Weapon I: 60 W: 3(20) AP: 5
MAD Protocol: If the Company Man’s internal datastores are tampered with or when manually triggered they explode, dealing 5d10 dmg to all in Close range and 2d10 DMG to all in Far range. All in Far range suffer the effects of level 2 Radiation while in the area.
Echny Alien Pet
Echnies are an alien species resembling a cat-sized, jellified tardigrade. Echnies have the bizarre property of having a linked memory and personality with every other specimen across any distance. In effect, all Echnies are one organism. Though by all accounts non-sapient, with the measured intelligence of a particularly smart dog, Echnies carry all the training and experience of each other leading to the unexpected expression of new skills and behaviors at random times. Additionally, someone well liked by a Echny is liked by all of them, and vice versa.
Echnies are capable of simple tasks, such as fetching items or simple object manipulation. They “vocalize” by vibrating their jelly-like bodies, but are incapable of speech.
Echnies are favored as pets, especially because in the unfortunate case of a fatality, another procured will still remember its owner just the same. Forgo the Stress gain or Panic check if an Echny pet is lost.
C:10 I:25 W:3
Adhere: An Echny may stick to and move along any surface.
Bouncy: Echnies roll up in a ball as a defensive measure (when taking a Wound), becoming extremely elastic. They will careen off any surfaces at high speed while in this state.
Ship Mind Class (Auxiliary)
Inspired by Culture ship minds and Ancillary Justice
You are a ship’s mind created to pilot with cutting edge sophistication and control artificial auxiliary units onboard. Use the ship stats of a ship you are installed in, but you may add your skills to ship rolls.
Stats & saves: +60 Int, +30 Fear save
Skills: Robotics, Planetology, Hyperspace
Auxiliary Body: Embody a humanoid sleeve that is controlled by your ship mind. Your physical stats (Strength, Speed, Body save) only apply to this body. Re-roll them each time you embody a new copy.
Trauma Response: if the auxiliary loses signal to the ship, the body acts autonomously: it gains +1 minimum Stress and loses stats and save bonuses from this class.
Cult of the Gloom
The Cult of the Gloom worships darkness and void, antithetical to the Solarian church. In a secretive occult ceremony, they may become Gloombrides, marrying the void by binding their left hand to an aspect of darkness. As a result is this limb withers away.
The cult has no hierarchical structure or official presence. Some of the more devoted also blind themselves, to better commune with the dark, and these are looked to by other Gloombrides as sages and teachers.
Alien Player Class (Morgi)
Morgi (pronounced more-guy, singular Morgus, though many call them “more-gee”). This alien race was discovered aboard wandering ships, but don’t seem to have a world to call their own. They have a septapodal configuration (a head and 6 limbs each ending in hand-like appendeges). Their limbs are powerful and versatile, allowing movement in various configurations, but when interacting with humans they mimic a roughly humanoid appearance. The Morgi are friendly enough, and fairly credulous.
Details about Morgi history can be difficult to come by, but it seems they were used as an underclass of laborers for another alien species—though no sign of such overlords has been found. The Company, of course, is happy to exploit them for labor. Morgi are not aggressive, and when attacked emit a calming pheromone as a physiological defense mechanism.
Stats: +30 Strength, +10 speed, -20 Combat
Saves: +20 Body save. +20 Sanity save, -10 Fear save
Trauma response: When you Panic, all other nearby non-androids lose 2 stress and spend their next turn in a stupor.
Skills: Industrial equipment, jury-rigging, zero-g. Bonus: 3 trained skills.
| d10 | Loadout |
|---|---|
| 00 | Morgi outfit (AP 1), multitool, light orb |
| 01 | Morgi outfit (AP 1), bioscanner, data cube |
| 02 | Standard crew attire (AP 1), assorted toolkit, Flashlight |
| 03 | Heavy work clothes (AP 2), Nailgun, paracord, rucksack |
| 04 | Heavy work clothes (AP 2), Electronic tool kit, chemlights (x5), body cam |
| 05 | Heavy work clothes (AP 2), Crowbar, lockpick set, emergency beacon |
| 06 | Vaccsuit (AP 3), Mag gloves, Hand welder, patch kit |
| 07 | Vaccsuit (AP 3), long range comms, Geiger counter, personal locator |
| 08 | Hazard suit (AP 5), sample collection kit, tranq gun, water filtration kit |
| 09 | Morgi powered harness (AP 5), heavy multitool, jetpack |
Rat With a Gun
You’re a rat with a gun. How does that work? Tiny gun? Big rat? Who knows.
- -15 STR, +30 SPD
- -20 FEAR, +15 BODY, +15 SAN
- Jury-rigging, Rimwise, Athletics. Bonus: 1 Trained skill.
Trauma response: You may choose to make a Panic check to gain [+] on a Speed check or Body save.
Loadout: Revolver (6 Shots)
Class Specialties
A class option for mothership classes. Class specialties are used to give a little flavor and specificity to the existing classes, particularly for something that might relate to a particular module. They have one mechanical ability and unique items. They are meant to be used with any class and granted when you interact enough with a specific aspect or faction. You can only have one specialty at a time, but they can be changed depending on circumstances.
Specialties for Prospero’s Dream
Specialties for the Dream with an Over/Under twist.
Local Teamster
Specialty: Jobs on the Dream pay you 10% more.
Item: Jumpsuit with Teamsters Local 32819L patch (AP 2), Union membership card.
Bratva Droog
Specialty: Waive the Dream’s O2 tax. You can call in one moderate favor from the Family.
Item: Bratva tattoos.
Solarian Faithful
Specialty: Free access to the Aarnivalkea. Recovery checks in its presence have [+].
Item: Solarian holy symbol.
Syndicate Suit
Specialty: Roll d100 each day under your high score. If it succeeds, gain 10x the result in credits.
Item: Kevlar business suit (AP 3).
Tempest Mercenary
Specialty: Once per day on the Dream you may call for backup. 2 Tempest Probies (APOF p.29) arrive in 2d10 minutes.
Item: Tempest badge.
canyonheavy Cowboy
Specialty: You may spend an hour each day to generate 1d10 tokens. Tokens can be spent on the Dream to give a bonus to computing or hacking checks equal to +1 per token.
Item: Encrypted personal computing terminal, cigarettes.
Baker
Specialty: You can improve a ration or meal. Eating it grants +5 on Rest checks once per day per person.
Item: Box of baked goods.
Mop Squaddie
Specialty: While on the Dream you have access to most areas that are normally restricted.
Item: Bucket and mop.
Gradient Descent Specialties
Veteran Diver
Specialty: Once per day you may lower Stress and increase Bends by up to 5 points, or vice versa.
Item: Multi-pocket vest.
Silent Takedowns with Surprise
I’ve been thinking on simultaneous combat resolution lately, and came across this great blog post by Underground Adventures discussing it, as well as surprise rules from Traveller which I like quite a lot (if you didn’t click through, the jist is you roll a d6 for both sides and if the difference is 3+ that side gains surprise. More importantly they keep surprise until something happens that would end it). This immediately evokes the trope of a squad sneaking through a camp, silently eliminating the enemy.
To that end I thought of some rules or guidelines for those silent takedowns for eliminating unaware enemies without relying on standard combat rolls (obviously, a lot of this is down to ref adjudication but here are some rules anyway):
Surprised enemies are generally found in one of two states—unconscious (sleeping, drugged, knocked out, bespelled, etc.) or aware (on guard duty, eating a meal, otherwise performing normal tasks).
Unconscious encounters:
- Coup-de-grace: If you encounter an unconscious enemy while you have surprise, you can silently and instantly kill them or knock them out. This assumes you have some sort of weapon to facilitate this, like a dagger or blackjack (movie rules apply where acute head trauma is no big deal). It also assumes human-equivalent enemies, or medium to small beasts. You cannot instantly kill a dragon, for example. For more powerful enemies, you can strike at them, automatically hitting and dealing the maximum damage for your weapon (or treat as a crit in your system).
- Sleeping neighbors: In the case there are many unconscious enemies near each other (like soldiers bunking in the same tent), there is a 1-in-6 chance they are roused for each enemy silently killed or bound. This obviously doesn’t apply if they have been drugged or are under magically induced sleep.
Aware encounters:
- Takedown: It is harder to silently eliminate someone who is awake. Doing so requires a check (against a DC, a contest vs. the NPC, or they get a save, depending on your system). On a success you kill or incapacitate them silently and immediately. On a failure they call out, raising the alarm and ending surprise. This applies to any human-like creature, even if they are a leader-type with better armor and stats than regular mooks. Against more powerful targets (like the aforementioned dragon), you can instead auto-hit and deal your weapon’s damage, rolling twice and using the better result.
Common sense applies: an unarmored thief stalking guards and taking them out one-by-one is doable, a party of 4 laden with gear sneaking behind each person not so much. But there is good opportunity for combo actions (gagging and tying up someone you want to carry off, distracting a guard looking at another so the second can be eliminated).
If surprise ends, start combat normally, which leads to the second part of the blog post, positing phased actions which are resolved simultaneously in each phase. I like this as it allow some tactical action while still being snappy and deadly, especially if paired with an auto-hit system like Into the Odd and it’s many derivatives.
As with my Mothership simultaneous initiative post, I really like the idea of giving the players opportunity to take priority, resolving their actions before enemies, but with a risk. To add this here, I’d say in each phase a player may make a check (probably dexterity, or a speed save, or similar) to take priority, but if they fail their action will resolve after the enemy’s.
Anyway, simultaneous resolution is really appealing to me, and I hope to try it out in various forms soon. Also the blog post above ends with a nifty little adventure, always a plus.