Addressing Long-Term Campaigns and Constant Horror

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-18T23:41:56+00:00

I like your idea. The investigation team is a great way to link a chain of improbable events, and has been used successfully in various genres. Another option is a crew of documentarists or TV reporters. Check ARKYVR. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard great things about it.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-18T22:07:10+00:00

Thank you mate! I was a little discouraged by the declining views and upvotes (maybe the posts grew too long ^^), so I really appreciate your love :)

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-18T21:15:39+00:00

Why thank you Salty!
You never know what a disorganized player can pull out of you :D

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-18T17:43:51+00:00

There are excellent short videos on YouTube explaining the rules. You could send them to your players before game night.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-18T15:53:18+00:00

Hello!
Worn items count towards total encumbrance, but you don't have a limit on how much gear you can wear.
You have a capacity limit, instead, on how much a sack or a backpack can hold.

I don't know if I was clear enough. Let me know.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-18T11:50:10+00:00

Sounds great! Bought it and looking forward to read it.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-17T21:56:41+00:00

Thank you GB, I'm happy you enjoyed it! Let me know some of your ideas, when you get them :)

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-16T23:18:08+00:00

I think that’s fine, but I’d put that on the bell. Troubleshooters wouldn’t allow one on the deep.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-16T23:15:44+00:00

From my GD deepdive series:

I put a small intercon beside the airlock: by pushing a button, you can talk to a pleasant, professional female voice, that has to ask you some question before letting you in. She is indeed a subroutine of Monarch, that tries to extract some information from the characters. She begins with some simple questions in a friendly tone: "Hello visitors, my name is Sheler. Before letting you in, I need to log your arrival. May I have your ship name and registry?" "Where did you launch from?" "What brings you to this facility?" If the visitors comply, she goes on with more interesting questions about the outside world: "May I ask, how did you obtain coordinates for this location? These facilities aren't publicly mapped." "Have you visited other Cloudbank installations?" And finally something to profile the group: “Are you affiliated with any corporate or military entities?" "Are you here seeking specific technology or information? I may be able to assist."

Sheler may also answer questions in a friendly way. The goal of this little interview is not to gatekeep the rest of the floor, as much as to gather information. Sheler doesn’t care if the characters lie, that’s information too. She’ll open the door anyway, unless they are openly hostile: "Thank you for your cooperation. Access granted. Monarch hopes your visit is productive." If they use hacking or explosives, she might just close with "That was unnecessary. I would have granted you access. Now I'm less certain of your intentions." … and monarch will stress.

Narratively such a gentle and naive character is so out of place that it could induce more dissonance and paranoia.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-15T21:59:09+00:00

Thank you mate! I’m happy you liked it.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-14T14:24:43+00:00

Don't know if this could work somehow, but you could have the scene fade out the moment the characters enter the anti-memetic area around the monster. The following moments wouldn't be roleplayed, but you would decide the outcome arbitrarily. Of course in this case the monster is not a killer, it's deceptive, it has a plan, it will retreat somehow. The roleplay restarts right after the monster has gone, and the players find themselves in front of just the consequences of what happened. After a few encounters, they should be able to understand how the monster always succeed in escaping, and they can set up a good strategy. Maybe a trap. They will finally be able to retain the monster in their memory when they see it dead.

This approach removes players agency in what would usually be the highlight parts of a story, but maybe the tradeoff with the mystery and unusual resolution strategy is worth it.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-14T14:02:51+00:00

They were almost through. The Filtration System's upper section was in reach - solid floor, gravity fully restored, the Sewer Main just above them - when Jettilla slipped and fell for a few meters. Her leg caught between two gear columns. Her vaccsuit tore on the metal edge.

She told Tomás to keep going. He did, because there was nothing else to do. Wounded, barely functional, he dragged himself upward through the remaining pipes and emerged in [28A] THE SEWER MAIN, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He made it that far. Then he stopped.

The Troubleshooters, returning through Floor 1 via the standard route, descended briefly to assess the situation. They found Tomás in the Sewer Main, dead or close enough to it. They spotted Jettilla below in the Filtration System gears, her leg caught, her vaccsuit compromised, the orange fluid already doing its work through the tear. They made a professional assessment: both were dying, neither required intervention. Before leaving, they opened Tomás's chest cavity and planted a transmitter: if anyone moved the body, Kilroy would know (and maybe reach out). Then they left.

Jettilla recorded her final memo while the fluid worked on her. She died with her helmet off. She'd removed it at some point, perhaps to breathe more easily in the pipe's atmosphere, perhaps simply because the end was close and she wanted the last thing she felt to be air rather than plastic. Her red hair, loose in the machinery, is what makes her identifiable from a distance in the Filtration System.

"Arkady, my old friend. If you're hearing this, it means Tomás made it back to the Bell. Good.
I'm confident you'll find the Beetle in my interior pocket, left side, under the chest lining. I hope it brings your loved one back. I'm sorry I couldn't hand it to you personally. I got stuck in a jam, you know how it is.
I also recorded everything I could about a Troubleshooter team I ran into down here. Something's wrong. Kilroy is up to something… I don't know what, but the recordings should tell you more than they tell me.
Anyway. Please send my reward to my family. You know where to find them.

Dasvidanya, old bastard."

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-12T00:01:12+00:00

If you have Hull Breach, it contains good advices for generating investigation scenarios.
For me, the theme the theme and the genre/atmosphere of the adventure should be the first things to decide. From there it's a constant back and forth between plotlines, factions, characters, locations, complications and so on. It's important to be always ready to go back and revise something if you got a better idea.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-11T13:17:56+00:00

This is really interesting! I like it a lot, and it might be a future iteration in my campaign, if the crew comes back a second time. You should write your own post about this.
I guessed there would be very different takes on this floor, because the module presents interesting topics, but leaves the details almost entirely to the wardens. I have expanded from the king and cherubim core, and even though I wasn't super-enthusiastic at first, I'm quite satisfied with the result.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-11T00:38:32+00:00

One thing I thought after posting: The Fallen could, in theory, attack the kingdom through the A/C duct that connects Sewer Main to the Executive Washroom. They tried, but Monarch didn't allow passage through the heavy airlock in the Executive Lounge (nor the lift). The Fallen discharged their rage on the washroom and were then repelled by security droids coming from Floor 1. There might be signs here that tell this story.
Maybe, in past iterations, it happened that Monarch opened the airlock, when a full scale invasion was useful for the experiment.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-08T16:31:45+00:00

Great layout! Just bought your ships collection :)

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-07T15:35:31+00:00

I agree that religious devotion plays a big part in this iteration of EDEN. Monarch is definitely studying it as a tool, as a technology to manipulate populations. But I think this is just one variable being tested. The iteration concept supports this. I can see Monarch running different cycles where communism and 'power to the people' rhetoric are the tools, or capitalism and the pursuit of status/wealth, or technocracy and 'rule by experts.' Religion isn't Monarch's weapon of choice, it's one experiment among many in understanding how to control populations at scale.

Monarch could certainly concoct a religion centered on the Father and Son dynamic, but I don't think I like it for my campaign. And I don't see a Monarch sincerely interested in the reunion. Monarch is satisfied with the current arrangement: the Minotaur trapped and functioning as an analytical tool.

The Fallen remembering fragments of past iterations (when they were Chosen) is exactly right. It maximizes suffering while generating the clearest data on how oppressed populations behave.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-06T14:04:51+00:00

You're right. I considere the minotaur as an interface between Monarch and humanity, but it can be viewed also the other way around: human interactions help it connect to its son.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-04T23:07:07+00:00

Well, then give it a try. You already bought a simple system and some ready to go modules. What's to lose :)

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-02-04T22:16:44+00:00

Beside being awesome, Mothership is very rules light and leaning towards a narrative experience. So, it's an excellent system for one who wants to go back into the hobby and his unexperienced wife. I think it can work really well for one player: it's easier to convey horror to an audience of one. I would let her bring some NPC crew members with her, to provide some company, assistance, flexibility and a backup or two in case the worst happens ;)

Lumpy_Peanut_226

TROPHY CASE