Review & Commentary On The Pay What You Want Adventure - 'Sleeping Giant' written by Joseph Mohr From Old School Role Playing For Cepheus Engine rpg & Old School Traveller rpg

"The travelers are offered a job with a substantial payday, The only problem is that the job is on a burned out radioactive world in the Sonora sector of space, An alien species, long dead and gone, once used robotic walkers to invade the planet Ceqal IV. The Olonsean Empire would like to have artifacts from these walkers. The patron, however, has other ideas."




 Joseph Mohr is an engine every couple of months a new OSR or Cepheus Engine rpg  adventure pops up on Drivethrurpg. And so its been interesting to see "Sleeping Giant" a pay what you want Cepheus Engine Rpg adventure  pop up yesterday. There been quite a bit of experince at the table top when it comes to using  Joseph Mohr Cepheus Engine rpg adventures that we have had over the last two years. Each one comes with a hook, a set up, the meat of the adventure, & then the conclusion for the PC's. And this isn't a bad thing at all. And this set up is highly effective; "Nehael Thriqu, an intelligence officer of the Ilsunsi Directorate, approaches the travelers when they are in star port with a proposition. The Directorate has received intelligence that the Olonsean Empire intends to send an expedition to the world of Ceqal to recover alien artifacts. The Olonsean Empire is an aggressive species of aliens who are always looking for artifacts which can improve their military. It is believed that the planet Ceqal IV may contain such artifacts as it was once the site of an ancient battle. This battle took place long before any of the races which currently inhabit the Sonora sector evolved or moved into this part of the galaxy. Much of the planet is covered in radioactive zones from the orbital bombardment that took place here long ago. A great deal of hazardous wreckage still orbits the world from the battle that took place in space around the system. It is considered dangerous place to visit and no one has after the first explorers visited the world nearly five hundred years ago. Nehael Thriqu offers the travelers CR 200,000 to visit this world and find whatever it is that the Olonseans are looking for before their own expedition arrives. He offers CR 100,000 as a bonus if the travelers can recover the artifacts and bring them to him. Alternatively he will be quite happy if the travelers can just prevent the Olonseans from recovering the artifacts by destroying them. To this end he will supply the travelers with military grade explosive charges (five) which should accomplish the task." One of the things that really shines out about  "Sleeping Giant" is how easy it is to customize & really play with to suit your campaigns.  "Sleeping Giant" has all of the ingrediants of a good solidly done original  Star Trek television episode in an adventure outline form.  "Sleeping Giant" could easily be adapted to a very gritty & lived in Cepheus Engine rpg setting like Zozer Games Hostile rpg setting.  Here's how it would work  with a Hostile style game. The Company patron comes to the PC marines with a purposal to recover relics or weapons from world of Ceqal before  the Olonsean Empire (effectively a group of alien pirates or marauders) recovers them first. Bonuses will be paid & there is propitiation of future missions. 



 And even the writer says it right at the beginning of the adventure; "This adventure involves an alien robotic walker which was once used in combat during an invasion of this world. The walker is basically a large mechanical warrior in which a crew once lived inside. Consider it a walking tank. It was heavily armored and equally heavily armed. There are many components to this device which the Olonseans would benefit from. Should they recover any of these components they will put them to military use and change the balance of power in the region. This adventure is set in the Sonora sector which is detailed in my previous work “The Frontiers of Space.” But it could easily be moved to some other part of the galaxy if needed." 

To make this work in Zozer Games Hostile rpg setting I'm breaking one of the conceits of this setting. Namely that there are no humanoid alien races within it. The Talon Sector & the Earth Empire that we've been using as the basis of our Hostile games does have humanoid races within it. Its a big galaxy folks and besides this something that the Aliens comic books from Dark Horse also played with. That's another blog entry.  "Sleeping Giant"  has random encounters, the robotic wreckage, and even the possibility of more relics.. There's a bit of problem solving & all together this works very well.  "Sleeping Giant"  is actually a nice campaign set up adventure for some experienced rpgers in the Cepheus Engine rpg. 
Could  "Sleeping Giant"   work for original Traveller rpg?! In a word very effectively because it hits the right buttons for original Traveller. You've got a solid mission, a post apocalytic alien world, a rival enemy hell bent on those same relics. Yes it works nicely..