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Something about... Shadows

S

Supplement Four

SOC-14 5K
I can't put my finger on it. There's something about the old CT adventure Shadows that has always interested me.

I've neved run the thing. See, although there's something about the 'feel' of the adventure that attracts me, it also turns me off a bit because there's really nothing to the adventure.

I mean, it's just a classic, boring GDW "explore the cave" type of thing. Even less than that--it's really just a set of floor plans with description. It's not really an adventure at all. There's no plot. There's not a lot of combat. There's just no "story" behind it.

Maybe I feel that Shadows is a lost opportunity. There's something about exploring an old lost, forgotten pryramid that appeals to me. Likewise, though, I feel the adventure needs a lot of work--it's really only a setting--on the GM's part to make it interesting for his players...whether it be something simple like using the setting as the pirate base or coming up with something more elaborate and interesting.

When you've run Shadows in the past, did you run it "as-is", or did you beef it up somehow?

Sit down, gents (and lady), it's story-tellin' time....
 
Shadows, was part of a larger campaign. I ran it, as part of the Mystery of the Ancients Campaign, in which, a precursor race had enslaved the local inhabitants of this world to make the pyramids and ruled like Aztec kings in the comfort of climate regulated spaces within the pyramids. Eventually, a slave revolt threw them out, hence the skeletons but by that time a large enough percentage of local inhabitants had become accustomed to the comfortable life of the Kings and died when the native atmosphere seeped in.

Within, the Shadows pyramid there were hints that this precursor race may be still alive indicated by a holographic starmap image of a supernova explosion that took place just outside of Chartered Space, which was detected by the First Zhodani Core Expedition far to the Trailing Edge of Known Space. Therefore, Shadows, formed an important first step of learning of this Alien race.

It also pointed them in the direction of moving the campaign into Zhodani Space, where Imperial characters were gradually replaced with Zhodani characters giving my players to interact as the Other and convincing various different Academies of Science & Knowledge of the necessities of a private expedition to the Core. This then opened the way for a Classic Star Trek type exploration campaign, as they gathered clues that would lead them they thought to a wonderfully advanced civilization.

There they encountered horrific creatures that were intent upon enslaving all sentients and create a second galactic Empire, which, the Droyne had their part in overthrowing. As a desperate measure, in an enormous self-sacrifice, in wild chase beyond Chartered Space, they led these creatures outside the galactic rim, where the players died never revealing the locations of Chartered Space hoping that time and reconciliation between the Imperium and the Consulate together might be able to meet this threat from beyond.

The Campaign ran about 8 months of bi-weekly play sessions with lots of red herrings that distracted the players from the overall mission but just another artefact, story, or rumour got the campaign back again. It was influenced as should evident by: the Classic Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Story of the Grail and Star Trek. The biggest challenge was to give them a ship that only had Jump-3 capacity and then have them essentially wander the universe for fuel and the clues that might lead to location of the civilization.
 
I ran it as-is, as a side scenario for a Twilight's Peak campaign. I've always been dissatisfied with the engimatic nature of those aliens. Deep Shadows didn't agree with me, for some reason.
 
I ran it as-is, as a side scenario for a Twilight's Peak campaign. I've always been dissatisfied with the engimatic nature of those aliens. Deep Shadows didn't agree with me, for some reason.
 
I ran shadows as part of my clandestine Imperial team back in the late 80's in my first Beyond sector campaign. It was kinda fun since the 2 heavy hitters in the team both were psis & were neutralized as much as the Zhodani officers. It was left to the doctor & the prissy little diplomat to save the day. I ran it with a 'slasher' horror motif. Of course I modified it. Far as I'm concerned, scenarios are mere outlines to be modified.
 
I ran shadows as part of my clandestine Imperial team back in the late 80's in my first Beyond sector campaign. It was kinda fun since the 2 heavy hitters in the team both were psis & were neutralized as much as the Zhodani officers. It was left to the doctor & the prissy little diplomat to save the day. I ran it with a 'slasher' horror motif. Of course I modified it. Far as I'm concerned, scenarios are mere outlines to be modified.
 
S4,

I plundered the ideas in Shadows a few times, but I can't remember if I ever ran straight out of the box or even in the general vicinity of the box.

Oddly enough, the adventure is one of the few I've played as a player. (I got stuck with the GM job very early on.) In that session I remember our GM playing up the corrosive atmopshere angle. I don't know if he had the JTAS supplement on atmopsheres, I think this was before it was published in JTAS.

Anyway, I do remember him telling us that our suits were good for a total of eight hours. Not eight hours at a time, but eight hours exposure to the planet's atmosphere in total before they required replacement or maintenance. That got us moving to find the source of the energy beam rather quickly.

He also emphasized minor suit damage as we explored the site. IIRC, you crawl down a shaft, mess about with heavy doors, and do other 'industrial' type things. Attacks by the various animals in the complex didn't help either. (One of the players had a belter's coverall for his suit so he was mostly immune to the bumps and scrapes the rest of us were worrying about, although the animal attacks effected him too.) IIRC, two members of our 5(?) man party had to evacuate the complex and go back to the ship due to suit damage. They were partly replaced by a NPC we'd left on the ship. (One player took over the NPC while the other helped the GM.)

We dodged the animals, lived through 2 earthquakes, found and turned off the energy beam with hours to spare, and then left the complex. The real trouble occurred when we tried to collect a few souvenirs; the figures on top of the pyramid. We broke 2 or 3 off and lugged them into the scout/courier only to have them foul the ship's internal atmosphere!


Have fun,
Bill

P.S. Like Robject, Deep Shadows never interested me. I'm sure I would have found something to plunder from it during my GM days, but the Shadows/Deep Shadows adventures and the 'mystery' they present is at a "mehhh..." level for me. Wasn't some minor race presented in The Challenge retconned as the Shadows race? The Hlkarr or something? Cigar smoking dinosaurs?
 
Wasn't some minor race presented in The Challenge retconned as the Shadows race? The Hlkarr or something? Cigar smoking dinosaurs?
Click to expand...
Yes, that's them. For me, that was just a bridge too far; I never much liked the concept.
 
Wasn't some minor race presented in The Challenge retconned as the Shadows race? The Hlkarr or something? Cigar smoking dinosaurs?
Click to expand...
Yes, that's them. For me, that was just a bridge too far; I never much liked the concept.
 
Originally posted by Supplement Four:
Besides...I always thought if I'd ever run Shadows, I'd run it as an Ancient site.
Click to expand...
That's an effective way of resolving an enigma... unfortunately for my group that would make it YAAS (Yet Another Ancients' Site); in other words, it would take away the mystery, and substitute it with my players' wanton high-tech-lust, regardless of how dangerous the site may be.

So, I'm still searching for the best way to use it as a resource.
 
I run Shadows as an introductory adventure, sometimes in a "tournament" style of play.

From the beginning, I've noticed a discrepancy. The starport designation is type "C" and the description of the starport matches type "D." I must either (1) change the designation, (2) change the description, or (3) wait for the characters to complain about "... those slackers over at the IISS who can't tell shingles from shinola!"

IMTU, the players have encountered a colonial administration complex that is strikingly similar to the complex in Shadows...

"Oh this?" he said, sweeping his hand in an arc. "This was here when we arrived. Had to scrape and re-paint everything, though..."
 
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