Planet Fear
Appendix II: Troubleshooting
Heroes are Trouble
Sometimes heroes and the players that run them don’t like to “follow the path” and that’s fine. It’s a perennial problem with campaign paths/adventure arcs, etc. I tried to world-design this thing so that if the group gets off the path, they still have challenges that keep them interesting.
You have a few options if the heroes don’t want to “play the campaign.”
- Guide them back – If you like the developing story, ease them back into it by picking various scenes from the troubleshooting section or other episodes to get them back into the story.
- Let them wander – the troubleshooting scenes are almost “side treks” that can allow the heroes to approach the world in their own terms without the burden of a guiding story.
- Mix and match – If you like some of the story and not other parts, mix it up however you wish.
Overall Situation
In the story arc, the heroes have a couple of goals and they are faced with many challenges to reach these goals. Nothing in the adventure is “timed” so they can do whatever they want, really. What follows is an overall situation on the Planet of Fhere, so that you can make the choice how to approach using various scenes and troubleshooting encounters to build your own story.
Hero Goals
As written, the heroes have the following goals, desires, aims…whatever. But heroes are trouble, as I mentioned before. Maybe they love Fhere. Maybe they fall in love with an arachno-man and want to take up their cause and fly off to their jungle homeworld. Maybe the hero is lazy…you get the idea:
- Survive – the most basic of aims and not easy on this savage planet. But, if sessions consist of merely surviving one encounter after another, that’ll eventually get real old.
- Thwart the Vril – The Vril are coming to Earth. The heroes are the key to that. Ultimately, whether they help or hinder the Vril is up to their actions. Once it’s discovered that the heroes are from Earth and have powers beyond the Vril’s ken, they will be hunted.
- Find cosmitronic energy – The Mindhead sent them here to find cosmitronic energy, and it’s the only thing that’ll get them home. In addition, the energy fuels the amazing abilities that the heroes manifest once they reach the Planet of Fhere. In order to maintain and advance these powers, they must find sources of cosmitronic energy.
- Find a way home – Ultimately, they want to go home. If the heroes don’t share this aim or decide otherwise, then they’ll most likely need other challenges.
Complications on the Planet of Fhere
There are three competing factions and a handful of bit players on the planet that are embroiled in their own plots and goals. These are revealed throughout the story, but with heroes “off the path” they may be revealed otherwise.
Vril Conquest
The Vril take over planets and enslave the inhabitants. It’s what they do. Though their ultimate reasoning for this is complicated, they strip mine planets for resources, mentally and biologically manipulate intelligent and not-so-intelligent species, and generally search for greater sources of power all to fuel their unquenchable desire for conquest. When they become aware of the heroes, their strange powers and cosmitronic energy, finding out about all three becomes a priority. And when Vril want to find out about things, they capture, torture, and disassemble those that have the knowledge. Again, it’s just what they do.
Flight of the Arachno-Men
Enslaved and brought here by the Vril, the arachno-men want their freedom and a way home. Luckily for them, they are actually natives of this dimension. Unluckily, they have no technology and their home planet is light years away. With the heroes help, they hope to throw off their bonds, build or hijack a starship and return to their swampy jungled planet. Good luck intrepid arachno-men!
The Mindhead and the Darkmen
The Mindhead is a supra-powerful entity that seeks sources of cosmitronic energy. No one knows why. Perhaps it eats the stuff, bathes in it, or likes the pretty lights is makes when it’s contained in a force-beaker. Either way, the Mindhead scans the multi-dimensions looking for cosmitronic energy, and when it finds a source, sticks some group of heroes in an untenable situation so that they’ll bring back some of it. Whole star systems have collapsed in the Mindhead’s unending desire for cosmitronic energy, and the Darkmen have had enough. Ages ago, the Mindhead detected a vast source of the stuff, and knew that more than a handful of agents would be needed to bring it back. So, the entity placed an entire planet in peril, enslaved the intelligent population and sent them hurtling across the stars intent on gathering it up. Though many darkmen died, they managed to wrest control of the source from some species now lost to history, harvest cosmitronic energy, and begin delivering the stuff to their master. Within the darkman ranks, however, a rebellion grew, and eventually the darkmen figured out a way to spike the energy with a poison of sorts; one that almost killed the Mindhead. In retaliation for the attempt on its life and the loss of such a valuable trove, the Mindhead exterminated the entire race…well almost. Some darkmen slipped dimensions and now wander the multiverse seeking to thwart the entity. They’re not so hot on helping those caught in the entity’s throes, though they do use the Mindhead’s victims to their own ends. Since the heroes are affected by cosmitronic energy in unexpected ways, the remaining darkmen are coming to convince the heroes to not only make it home, but also to build a weapon that will rid the multiverse of the Mindhead altogether.
Other Parties
On Fhere, there are the Rat Lords, natives of the planet fighting a hopeless guerrilla war against the Vril, D’sluish, the Pantalic blob that serves the Vril as a gladiator master, Ana Benton, a mysterious and human-like star pilot from another universe, and the Vril princess who just wasn’t made like other Vril. These groups have their own agendas and axes to grind, making them excellent foils, hooks, and extras for plots and complications of your own.
Other Complications
The heroes manifest extraordinary powers on the Planet of Fhere due to their exposure to cosmitronic energy. As designed, the heroes must spend a few encounters getting used to being normal humans on the planet before their powers finally manifest and must find a source of cosmitronic energy in order to advance their seemingly super powers. A handful of scenes in the standard arc handle this story point and a few are presented in the Troubleshooting Scenes below to allow the heroes to advance as the Vril escalate their own attacks.
Troubleshooting Scenes
These scenes are intended to put the heroes in peril, provide them resources, or otherwise keep the action moving. Each scene has a loose tie back to various episodes in the arc, but these ties can be discarded if the heroes just aren’t interested in the story.
Resources
Determine what scene is most appropriate, then roll on (or just pick from) the Resources table to determine what information, gear, or other stuff the heroes can potentially extract from the scene.
Powers
If the heroes are off the script, I’d generally rule that the group’s powers manifest the first time any hero gets a Joker for initiative or by the third scene, whichever comes first. The point is to let them feel the pain of being semi-normal humans on a savage and dangerous planet before they get the sweet powers, but your group may vary.
Scene 1: Captured by the Overseers
In which the heroes are captured by the Overseers…
If at any point the heroes are taken in Fhere’s wilderness, the slavetakers bring them back to a slave camp, confine them in mindbinders and report the incident up the chain of command. The Vril Nobles take immediate interest in the humans and send a Vril patrol out to the camp after a few days. The heroes have several options, of course: they can wait it out, and end up in the slave pits after a session of “examination” by the Vril priesthood, attempt to escape, find out more information about the Vril, arachno-men and other captives, or some combination.
The overseer camp is manned…er rather…Vril’ed…by up to ten slavetakers and up to 20 slaves per slavetaker. The majority of slaves are arachno-men, though there are a few rat lords, and any Wild Cards or other personalities you want to include from the various scenarios here or your own devising. Each camp also has a small detachment of Teschact scouts (usually 3) each with a flying disc. Finally, there is a mess of pack animals (dringas and bracha), as well as converted flying discs and even a cobbled together hoverbarge.
About once a month, the slavetakers pack up their camp, or rather, direct the slaves to pack up the camp, and they bring the whole kit and caboodle back to a nearby settlement where the slaves are sold off to various laboratories, work gangs, or slave pits. See the Bordertown Blues scene below.
Dhoja Slavetakers (up to 20…about 3-5 per Wild Card)
Arachno-men Slaves (around 20 per slavetaker)
Rat Lord Slaves (a few)
Teschact Scouts (3)
Dringas
Bracha
Escape
The heroes are bound with mindbinders, a type of shackle that drains the will of the captive. With mindbinders in place, the hero must make a Spirit check before attempting any other attribute roll, otherwise they automatically fail to muster the will to accomplish the task. On a Spirit raise, the gain a +1 to the second attribute roll. The slavetakers liberally use Intimidate on every slave that falls under their gaze and are quick to apply the stinglance to anyone that appears to be defiant.
On a successful Lockpicking check(-2 to the check without a tools) or an Agility raise, the hero has slipped the bonds.
Scene 2: The Cave
In which the heroes find themselves a home…
Use this scene to provide the heroes with a safe haven, should they decide not to travel with escaped arachno-men. Suitable shelter can be found anywhere on Fhere, though the type of shelter varies by region:
Weeping Plains – Occupied Burrow
Wasted Hills – Occupied Cave
Starburned Desert – Ulgi Skeleton
Scene 3: Local Color
In which the heroes interact with the local flora and fauna…
Scene 4: Vril on the Move
In which the heroes make first contact with the Teshact…
Scene 5: Bordertown Blues
In which the heroes are sold off…
Scene 6: Fighting up the Ranks
In which the heroes spend time in the provincial pits…
Scene 7: Insurgent Arachno-men
In which the heroes encounter insurgent arachno-men…
Scene 8: Five Dirgets a Pound
In which the heroes encounter D’Sluish, the Pantalic blob and gladiator-master…
Scene 9: The Princess and the Five
In which the heroes save a princes who’s…different…
Scene 10: Aliens and Heroes
In which the heroes realize they aren’t the only outsiders trapped here…
Scene 11: Guerrilla Rats
In which the heroes become embroiled in the rat rebellion…
Scene 12: True Vril; True Horror
In which the heroes encounter their first True Vril…
Scene 13: If you really loved me…
In which the heroes prove their devotion to the princess…
Scene 14:
Random Encounters by Region
Weeping Plains
Wasted Hills
Inhabited Areas (Free - Outlying)
Inhabited Areas (Vril - Outlying)
Battlemoons and Cities
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