LOCATION
- 8 22nd Street; San Francisco, CA
- Down right on the bay, although a veritable ocean of shipping containers stacked behind a barbed wire fence separates it from the water.
- Walls of iron rusted blood-brown.
- Lines of windows around the upper level of the warehouse, with a lot of broken glass up there.
- Whole place is surrounded by a fence, with a sprawling loading dock on the the west side (away from the bay).
CARGO DOORS: There are a total of 18 big cargo doors around the perimeter of the building.
- East Side: EV 1-4
- West Side: WV 1-8
- North Side: NV 1-2
- South Side: NV 1-4
OLD MACHINE SHOP: The east side also has an old machine shop thrusting out of it. (Doors padlocked. Dusty, abandoned machinery from the ‘70s. Might be ventilation access from here into the ceilings above storage garages.)
UNIT WV8
CRATES: Several dozen crates. A few have been opened and their contents removed. A few have been opened and only partly emptied.
- The crates contain a lot of machinery components, many of them quite large and almost all of them custom fabricated by a wide variety of firms from the across the United States and China. There’s also a few crates from high-end German companies and Korean electronic manufacturers.
- Some of the crates were shipped from a local address (Eschaton Electronics).
- Prop: Eschaton Electronics Shipping Label
CYPHERS: Mixed in with the other equipment are three cyphers.
- Strength Enhancer (Level 4): The Strange, pg. 329 (takes the form of a multi-jointed mechanical device that attaches over and reinforces the spine).
- Vocal Translator (Level 1): The Strange, pg. 331.
- Antidote (Level 6): The Strange, pg. 313 (bulky, mechanical wristband with several glass tubes jutting out of it; when attached, it rapidly cycles the wearer’s blood through the various tubes).
MAP OF JOHN MCLAREN PARK: Pasted to the wall of the storage space.
SURVEILLANCE
RUKIANS IN A VAN: If the warehouse is placed under surveillance, a couple of Rukians show up in a white cargo van, unload several crates of equipment into unit WV8, and then return to Node 3: Water Tower to pick up another load.
- Observing/Trailing: Unless they’ve been given cause, the Rukians won’t be on the lookout for anybody (-1 difficulty on any Stealth-type tasks to avoid being detected by them).
- GPS Records: The van is equipped with GPS. The system can be accessed with an Intellect task (difficulty 4). On a success, you can pull up a list of location it has driven to (including Node 0: The House and Node 3: Water Tower).
- GM Intrusion: The Rukians arrive while the PCs are investigating the contents of WV8.
QUESTIONING RUKIANS:
- They know the general outlines of Enkara-ulla’s research and his intentions.
- They participated in the test at Node 3: Water Tower and know that it was a success.
- They were not told the location of the final test, but they know that Enkara-ulla was observing it from the roof of Node 3: Water Tower.
RUKIAN TECHNICIANS (Level 2): health 6, damage 3.
- Technician / lab assistant tasks as level 5.
- Note: These agents translated to Earth. They’re in context and look human.
When roleplaying, do you have any good tricks for indicating that Rukians are not from Earth? Little ticks, manners of speech, etc. that may alert players to the fact that something is amiss?
Somewhat depends on the faction and also on how experienced they are with traveling through recursions. (Rukians have more experience than basically anybody at moving through the recursions of Earth, so many of them are very, very skilled at blending in.)
For members of the Karum, I’ve actually found myself taking a cue from the aliens in Buckaroo Banzai: Even when they look human, they have nothing but contempt not only for other humans, but for the very planet itself. “It’s not my planet, monkey-boy!”
The other thing to look at would be the things that would be common place in Ruk which are missing for them on Earth. The All-Song is an obvious one here: They occasionally hum strange tunes discordant to human ears. They get a glassy gaze as if looking somewhere else and then shake their head angrily. They cock their head as if listening for something you can’t hear, and then pull out their cellphone to Google whatever they were thinking about. Maybe they get frustrated with the crude interfaces for technology.
“They cock their head as if listening for something you can’t hear, and then pull out their cellphone to Google whatever they were thinking about.”
This is perfect, thank you!
Thanks for posting these. I understand the theory behind node-based design but I have been struggling to go from a blank sheet to a functional adventure for my players. Seeing examples of how you’ve put this into practice helps.
@Rob: One of these days I’m going to write up a post about the “5 Node Mystery” structure I kind of default to when I’m looking to whip up something simple and quick. The short version looks like this though:
(1) Figure out what the mystery is about. Was someone murdered? Was something stolen? Who did it? Why did they do it?
(2) What’s the hook? How do the players become aware that there’s a mystery to be solved? (If it’s a crime, this will usually be the scene of the crime. It can also be something like the house in this scenario.) That’s your Node A.
(3) What’s the conclusion? Where do they learn the ultimate answers and/or get into a big fight with the bad guy? (Big fights with bad guys are a really easy way to manufacture a satisfying conclusion.) This will be your Node E.
(4) Now, brainstorm three cool locations or people related to the mystery. Ex-wife of the bad guy? Drug den filled with werewolves? Stone circle that serves as a teleport gate? These will be your nodes B, C, and D. (Hint: Brainstorm more than three items. Then pick the three coolest ideas. You’ll end up with better stuff. Also: Before you toss out the other ideas, see if there’s any way you can combine them with the three you picked to make them even cooler.)
(5) You’ve got five nodes. Connect ’em with clues. My default looks like this:
Node A: Clues to B, C, D
Node B: Clues to C, D, E
Node C: Clues to B, D, E
Node D: Clues to B, C, E
Node E: CONCLUSION!
The basic idea here is that Node A points you in three different directions (although, remember, the PCs might only find one of the clues). Then those three locations point to each other and towards the big conclusion.
In some cases, you’ll discover that the nature of the scenario will cause you to shift the pattern of the clues. (For example, this Violet Spiral Gambit I discovered that it made more sense for the House to point to two locations; have those two locations point to a third; and then have the third loaded up with clues pointing to the conclusion.) About the only thing you should generally try to avoid is having clues pointing directly from Node A to to your conclusion.
There is the possibility with this structure that the players might go A -> B -> E and skip C and D. In some cases, the scenario will be modular enough that this just means that the conclusion isn’t what you think it is. In other cases, going back to clean up Nodes C and D may provide leads to other scenarios.
This is actually a pretty good way to start expanding from 5 Node Mysteries to designing a more interwoven campaign: Design five 5 Node Mysteries. Structurally arrange those mysteries the same way you would the nodes and seed clues approrpiately: Mystery A points to Mysteries B, C, and D. Mystery B points to Mysteries C, D, and E. And so forth.
(In some cases, those clues will be the “pay-off” for solving the first mystery: You’ve taken out the Birdman, but who was he really working for?! But don’t fall into the trap of always putting the clues in the concluding node. Spread ’em around.)
That’s great! I look forward to the full article but in the meantime, this is just what I needed to start setting up the next adventure as my players wrap up their current scenario (and coincidentally, it DOES involve a stone circle that serves as a teleport gate).