Running Continuity with EclipseSHOE

CC-BY-NC-SA Posthuman Studios

Character Creation

General Abilities not used in this scenario:

• Resources
• all Networking Abilities
• Preparedness

Instead of the normal amount of General Ability points, create the characters with 15 less points.

Let players choose from the suggested pregenerated characters. Note Backgrounds and Factions. Let players choose how to allocate rest of the points, suggesting that they follow the concept as closely as possible.

Suggestions for character generation:

• Encountering the Exsurgents takes a lot of Stability. Characters should aim for at least 10 Stability.

Tests and Spends

• Any Perception test can be succesfully completed by spending 1 point from the Investigative Ability Perception.
• Enabling the devices on board Kepler by testing Hardware. The Difficulty ranges from 3 to 6.
• Hacking the fabber can be accomplished with an Infosec test against the Difficulty of 6. Retries are possible, but just take more time.
• Closing the airlock is possible with a Hardware test. The Difficulty is 6 and testing takes an hour. Characters floating carelessly too close to the open airlock need to spend a point from Athletics of Sense Trouble or start floating out of the airlock.
• Hacking the server is not possible in the timeframe of the scenario. Ask any player attempting to open it whether they want to spend one point from any Interpersonal Ability. Any player that spends the point remembers joking with Hans about the server and can guess the passphrase. (It’s about Hansel, Gretel and following breadcrumbs.)
• In the last hour, anyone looking out of a window will notice Istari’s approach. If nobody looks out of windows, offer players a chance to spend a point of Perception.
• Communicating with the crew of Istari reveals subterfuge, if a point of Kinesics is spent. Note that the exsurgents will transmit the aural basilisk hack and attempt to infect anyone connecting to them directly with the digital Chrynalys virus.
• Encountering the Exsurgents requires a 4 loss Stability test. Encountering their own previous biomorph requires another 4 loss Stability test. If both happen at the same time, combine for 7 Stability, but make sure to emphasize to the player the horror of seeing themselves.
• Manouvering through chrysacid spur-infested areas of Istari requires either a Difficulty 3 or Difficulty 6 Athletics test, depending on how tight the space is. Ask to roll only once for each space. Once a route is found, it is easier to follow it again.
• Using the missile launchers requires hacking them with a Difficulty 4 Infosec test. Hitting any targets with the missiles requires a Gunnery Test, usually with a Difficulty of 4. Disabling the minimum-detonation range requires a Difficulty 4 Hardware test or the override code from Lila.

Losing Air

Without proper gear, biomorphs will start freezing in 20 minutes. After that, they lose 1 Health every five minutes or after each scene, whichever is easier to use.

In 45 minutes there isn’t enough oxygen to sustain biomorphs. They suffer respiratory distress and count as hurt. (Difficulty numbers + 1, can’t spend points from Investigative Abilities)

After about an hour, biomorphs will begin to suffocate. They start losing 1 Athletics every ten seconds. After that pool is empty, they start losing 1 point of Health every 5 seconds.

Note the radical shift in time scales. Make sure to warn the players about what is going to happen.

Robots

Dr. Bot

General Abilities: Athletics 4, Health 6, Medic 6

Combat Damage: manipulator limbs -2

Hit Threshold: 3

Armor: none

Alertness Modifier: -1

Stealth Modifier: -1

Automech

General Abilities: Health 4, Hardware 6

Combat Damage: tools and repair limbs -1

Hit Threshold: 3

Armor: 1 vs. shooting and melee

Alertness Modifier: +1

Stealth Modifier: -1

Servitor Bot

General Abilities: Athletics 4, Health 4, Hardware 6

Combat Damage: tools and repair limbs -1

Hit Threshold: 3

Armor: 1 vs. shooting and melee

Alertness Modifier: -1

Stealth Modifier: -1

Vector-Thrust Dwarves

General Abilities: Athletics 6, Health 10, Demolitions 6, Hardware 2

Combat Damage: heavy tools and limbs +0

Hit Threshold: 3

Armor: 1 vs. shooting and melee

Alertness Modifier: -1

Stealth Modifier: -1

The Chrynalus Virus

Digital Infection

Test against the infection if running on the same system as the digital virus. Points can be used from Sense Trouble and Stability. Difficulty is d6 + 3. Do not tell the difficulty to the player!

If the player wins, nothing happens (this time). If the player loses but rolls 4 or more, they are aware that they are being taken over. If they tie, they can spend 1 point from Sense Trouble or Stability to win the contest. Otherwise, they are infected.

Infected characters will become corrupted by the virus in 10 rounds, minus the number of rounds they lost the test with.

Infected AI’s and infomorphs can reboot to fight the infection. It takes them 1 round to shut down and 3 rounds to boot back up. After that they test again, with the same rules. Do not keep the same difficulty, roll again instead. If they lose this test, the virus managed to embed itself in their code before shutdown and they are infected.

Infected AI’s, infomorphs and cyberbrains lose 1d6 - 1 Stability per hour.

Aural Basilisk Hack

Can be played at normal speed or slowed down, making it very hard to notice for unaugmented ears.

When encountering the basilisk hack, test against the infection. Sense Trouble and Stability can be used in this test. The difficulty is d6 + 3.

If the player wins, nothing happens (this time). If they tie, they can spend 1 point from Sense Trouble or Stability to win the contest. Otherwise, they are catatonic for 1 minute + 1 minute for each point they lost the roll by.

Nanoplague

Any morph that comes into contact with a nanoplague is considered infected.

Three stages of infection:

1. Lasts for 3 hours. No outward signs of infection. Lose 1d6 - 1 Stability per hour due to paranoia and delusions.
2. Lasts for about a day. Growing masses of chrysacids pierce the surface of the morph. Lose 2d6 Stability. Lose 1d6 - 1 Stability per hour due to paranoia and delusions. Characters who become incurably insane due to this loss become Exsurgents.
3. Lasts for about a week. Chrysacids grow up to 3 m in length. Independent insectoid growths start to break off.

At the end of this time the biomorph has succumbed to the growth, but the chrysacid growths live on.

Exsurgents

Note that it is intentional that none of the Exsurgents have armor. The characters have only light weapons. If the enemies would have armor, the fights would slow down into a crawl, which is boring and detrimental to the atmosphere of the scenario.

Infected

The original crew members of the Kepler. They retain some of the qualities of the original characters, but for ease of play they are here given identical stats. You can change some the stats based on the original character, using these as guidelines.

General Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 10, Melee Combat 6

Combat Damage: spurs +1

Hit Threshold: 4

Armor: none

Alertness Modifier: +2

Stealth Modifier: +1

Locations:

1. Moves over from Istari to Kepler when the ships dock
2. Moves over from Istari to Kepler when the ships dock
3. In the recycling
4. In the Kepler shuttle
5. In the ops center
6. In the recycling
7. In the missile storage
8. In the recycling

If there are less than 8 player characters, leave out the last ones.

Chrysacid Forms

Encountering chrysacid forms for the first time causes a 7 point Stability test.

Whenever a character presses against a chrysacid form, they receive d6 - 1 damage. Receiving a wound from contact infects them with the Chrynalus virus.

Spurs

Dangerous only if bumped into.

Limbs

Attack anything that comes close by grapping and pinching.

General Abilities: Health 2, Melee Combat 4

Combat Damage: spurs -1

Hit Threshold: 3

Armor: none

Alertness Modifier: -1

Stealth Modifier: na

Spiders

Attack only if forced out of the shadows or forced into a corner.

General Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 5, Melee Combat 5

Combat Damage: spurs +0

Hit Threshold: 4

Armor: none

Alertness Modifier: +0

Stealth Modifier: +1

Spoiler-Free Images

Kepler

Istari