Bruce Cordell’s Eschatology Code is an absolutely fabulous introductory scenario for The Strange.
I’ve run it four times and the opening scene has immediately grabbed hold of the players, yanked them off their feet, and plunged them into a deep end of extreme excitement every single time. The rest of the scenario is a pleasant little mystery capped with a health dose of awesome.
As with Monte Cook’s Into the Violet Vale, I prepped a bunch of resources for the Eschatology Code while preparing to run it at GenCon this year. And now that this scenario, too, has been released to the public I’d like to share them with you so that you can use ’em at your own table.
MISSION BRIEFING
We’ll start with an ESTATES EYES ONLY briefing document. You can use this to pitch the scenario to your players. Or you can hand it to them as they arrive for the game.
(Note: DL1770 is an actual Delta flight that goes from Seattle to Sioux Falls to Minneapolis.)
GM CHEAT SHEET
This cheat sheet should be fairly self-explanatory.
The OPENING SPIEL is a brief outline for introducing new players to both the rules and milieu of The Strange.
The DATE REFERENCE was designed to have the scenario dates land on the dates for GenCon when I first ran the adventure.
Most of the rest of the cheat sheet just consolidates the relevant stat blocks. However, I’ve also indicated where the appropriate HANDOUTS (see below) should be used. I’ve also added a few creepy details to flesh out the All Souls Church of Deliverance.
OTHER RESOURCES
In addition to the mission briefing and master cheat sheet, I’ve also prepped these resources:
- Cypher and Ability Cheat Sheets: These are designed to eliminate book look-ups for the pregenerated characters in the adventure. I’ve found that they save about 20-30 minutes of playing time, so their use greatly improves the pace of the scenario if you’re using Eschatology Code as a one-shot for introducing people to the game.
- PC Tent Cards: Once again featuring the pregen characters. I prep these and put them in the middle of the table. As people approach, they can select whichever character looks appealing to them and put the tent card in front of them. It’s a nice, quick way to facilitate character selection and also means that you (and other players) can quickly identify who’s playing who with a quick glance during play. These files are designed to be printed with Avery “Small Tent Cards” (template 5302), but you could also just print them on normal cardstock. What you need to do is take each A file and then flip it and print the matching B file. (Each sheet has four tent cards, so I’ve designed the three files so that I get two complete sets of character names if I print all three (to minimize wastage). If you just want one set, print sets 1 and 2 and you should be good to go.)
- Eschatology Code Handouts: These include a blueprint reference for the 787 flight the PCs are on at the beginning of the scenario; an informational handout for the All Souls Church of Delivereance; and graphical handouts photoshopped from the scenario. (These graphical handouts are designed to be printed as 4 x 6 photos.)
I put this to use this weekend for some new-comers to The Strange, and it was very well received. Thank you!
Just to let you know that your affiliate link to The Strange right in the first sentence is broken, it takes visitors back to this page.
Thank you for this, hopefully running one of these introductory modules during October with people who have never roleplayed before!
Any advice on running this adventure with 3 players? Will it work or are more players needed? Got a recommendation about which 3 those should be to have any chance of seeing the second half of the adventure?
I’ve found the Cypher System to be pretty flexible when it comes to the number of players involved. I don’t think you’d have any problems running this with three players. In fact, checking my notes I can see that I ran it for a three person group without any adjustment or problems.
If you’re nervous, use only one war-code activated acolyte in the first scene. But, like I say, I don’t think you’ll have any problems.
In general, making sure you’ve got a Vector, Spinner, and Paradox will keep the group balanced. But even that’s not really necessary. The Cypher System is really laid back on this.
[…] found another GM, Justin Alexander of “The Alexandrian”, that had put together some excellent handouts and prep notes for running this adventure. […]