Plant-Based Paranoia - After Action Report

20 Nov, 2024

Summary

• Adventure: Plant-Based Paranoia
• Group:
  • Id: therapy android, interested in human psychology.
  • Bruce: war veteran marine, jokes a lot.
  • Jacomé: scientist specialized in xenobiology.
• Duration: 6 hours and a half.
• Level of experience: I have DMed 4 previous Mothership sessions. All players were somewhat familiar with TTRPGs but not frequent players: two of them had played a Mothership one-shot before (with me), and the other one was completely new to the system.
• General vibe: it went great! Possibly the best session I've had so far with the system (perhaps tied with Another Bug Hunt's session 1).

What happened

• Adventure frame: A R&D enterprise recently went bankrupt and The Company acquired all of its assets, including a lab in the jungles of SOPHOS 5. Players were contracted to investigate the lab and retrieve the AI inside for a more detailed asset analysis.
• Players woke up from hypersleep inside The Company's ship, which had just entered the planet's orbit. A Company rep arrived and went over the mission objectives with them, which was funny because they had just woken up and were still in their underwear. Right off the bat it created a sense of discomfort and "inhumanity" in The Company.
  • They asked the rep how the transport was going to work. They were told that a shuttle would take them to the planet's surface and leave them there. When the mission was completed, they would have to use the provided Long-range Comms to call their ride. As the Marine took the comms, the rep heavily implied them that their transport back was conditional on them bringing the core back and completing the mission.
• In the shuttle, they were escorted to the planet's surface by 2 company marines, one of which (Rogério Vazquez) they ended up befriending. He told them about the distress signal that The Company just received upon entering the planet's orbit, but hadn't been divulged to the players since it would increase the Hazard pay (something The Company obviously didn't want). Players became worried and angry.
• After trekking through the jungle for long hours, they arrived at the lab. They saw the door, and a couple of pig-sized bulbous plants in front of it. Marine threw a stick at them, which produced no reaction, so he judged them to be safe and charged ahead. After a failed Body Save, the bulb launched a vine that grabbed him and started pulling; the other PCs managed to rescue him but his foot ended being partially burnt by the bulb's acid; I ruled it as an ankle wound which gave him [-] on Speed Checks. After this first dance with death, they decided to go around the entrance, climb up the "mound-like structure", and drop in front of the door.
• In the Atrium, they got the code from Joe the android and decided that their first goal was to find out where the generator room was. Blindly, they went into the office space.
• In the Office Space, they quickly followed the right wall and encountered the Generator Room.
• Upon entering the Generator Room, they checked out the generator and became confused about the corpses inside the generator. There was nothing in the corpses that screamed "clones!" at them, and I was a bit unsure if there should be. They saw the Emergency Power and their objective became "finding the fusion battery".
• Android checks the Storage area, finds the dead body and the note, which they don't understand. They get the pistol.
• Players explore the rest of the Office Space. When getting near the locked door to the north, they hear the Hydra trying to escape the elevator. As per the random encounter table, I also tell them that they can hear sobbing from the other side of the door, which stops as soon as they try to speak to it. Anxiety increases and they decide to go to the cafeteria.
• In the cafeteria, they become very cautious about entering the water, for fear of plants grabbing them (I described the flooded area as completely filled with roots and algae and lily pads). They send the android up front because "they aren't alive, so they might pass unnoticed". Android takes a deeper look inside the vending machine, finds the frag grenade, keeps it.
• In the kitchen, Android takes a look around. The other PCs roll a random encounter and hear footsteps in the atrium. They begin to go to the kitchen but suddenly stop and spend a long time discussing what to do. After 10 or 15 minutes of this I realize that I need to prod them further, so when the marine decides to yell out to the android, I tell them that a section of the ceiling in the cafeteria starts falling on top of them (which was supposed to happen in the Kitchen). The Marine fails the Body Save and receives 1d5 DMG and a dislocated shoulder, which the scientist completely fails to fix and ends up doing 1d5 more DMG.
• They quickly go to the Elevator Hall. The dead bodies don't scare them too much, but when I say to the scientist that one of the bodies has the same face as the guy in the closet who killed himself, the table suddenly goes quiet. After a few seconds he says: "shit man, that's fucked up." I ask him for a Sanity Save, which he fails, so he says "ok, I gain one stress.", to which the rules-lawyer android player replies: "no man, we all gain one stress. you're the scientist and this is a sanity save." Peak Mothership moments.
• Things become a little bit more cheerful when the Marine searches the bodies and finds a shotgun and the fusion battery. Then things get heavy again when the android asks me if there are pairs of bodies with the same faces, to which I answer: you're going to need a bit of time to sort these bodies out, do you want to do that? And they discuss it a bit and say: yeah. So they do it, and I rule that there are two pairs of bodies with the same faces and clothes, except that two of them don't have name tags, which writing this now I realize doesn't make any sense if the clones are able to clone clothes as well, but nobody complained so hey.
• PCs decide to skip the cafeteria and go straight to the office space by shotgunning the locked door, which I ruled would require them spending all of their shotgun rounds. They do it and, as they cross the cafeteria door, I ask them to roll a random encounter. They roll a 9, and I blank out. I go "Ok. Ok. Perfect. Ok." which they found very funny and understood (correctly) as me slowly coming to the realization that they were fucked. Hydra escapes!
• Marine drops the grenade with a successful Combat Check, buying them some time. Android and Scientist make a beeline for the Generator Room. Marine can't run because of the hurt ankle and starts to crawl among the cubicles, using his smart rifle to shoot the Hydra without much success. Hydra throws a vine at him and as he fails a Body Save, Android and Scientist arrive at the Generator room. I take the Marine player to another room and ask him to roll a d10. He rolls a 2 so it's clone time. I tell him he's a clone now, that his true body is downstairs, that this facility is a cloning lab gone wrong due to xenoplant shenanigans and that his goal is to turn on them at the worst possible moment. He nods and sounds excited.
  • As written, the Hydra doesn't snatch players, and should in fact have focused on the Android instead of the Marine. This is because I forgot to closely read the Hydra's stats and ended up winging it in the moment. It happens.
• Android and Scientist put the Fusion Battery and activate Emergency Power. The entire facility gets illuminated by ominous dim red lights. They decide to wait 15 minutes before going back to the Office Space, since they hope that during this time the monster will forget about them.
• That's exactly what happens: when they enter the Office Space again, there's no monster around. They explore the room to confirm it, and end up finding the very hurt Marine. They question him about what happened, but he says that he was knocked out and cannot remember much. In this moment, the Android and Scientist players make a momentous question: does the Marine have his prosthetic leg?
  • See, one of the questions that came up for the Marine during the Character Discovery Procedure (see below) was "What was your closest brush with death?", to which he replied that he had a prosthetic leg that was lost during a battle. Now, my very smart players wanted to capitalize on this knowledge, by using it to decide if this Marine lookalike was the real deal or a clone.
  • In that moment, I had two options. I could either reward them for their smart question and say that no, he didn't have a prosthetic leg, which would lead them to massacre the clone right there and then... Or I could say that yes, he had a prosthetic leg, just like they remembered. I decided for the latter, because heck if we are cloning clothes then why aren't we cloning prosthetics? However it did feel a bit "railroad-y" to me (as in: running over good player questions because you want the story to go one way), and I didn't know exactly what else to do. Ask the Marine clone to roll a d10, with 50%-50% chance of having a prosthetic? Not sure how the other players would react... Perhaps it would simply make them paranoid, perhaps it would give them the absolute confidence that this was a clone.
  • Anyways, I simply said that he had a prosthetic leg and they kept an eye on him, but moved on.
• Players decide that Scientist will go to the basement floor by himself and search for the AI core, while the Marine and Android will look for clues in the Office's PCs. Not sure why they decided to split up here, but hey, sounds good to me! I love when players split up.
• Turn 1.
  • Scientist enters the elevator, goes to the decontamination room, gets decontaminated.
  • Android finds a map in one of the computers.
  • Marine clone asks me, without anyone thinking it was strange: "hey, random question. does my smart rifle have a silencer?"
• Turn 2.
  • Scientist finds the cryo room, looks around, takes a shotgun from one of the frozen statues and leaves it on the decontamination room to unfreeze while he keeps exploring.
  • Android has no hacking skills and just searches computers randomly, finding some files related to another project by the defunct R&D enterprise, a research outpost in Tau Sigma 7 (HOOK!).
  • Marine clone asks me, in a completely straight face: "hey, if vines attack us again, it'll be good to have something sharp right? can I take a look around to see if I find some office scissors?". I contain my laughter, and I say yes of course he finds a pair of scissors after some looking.
• Turn 3.
  • Scientist finishes exploring the cryo room, enters the cloning room, where he finds tons of vats with humans growing inside them, many with faces that he has already seen above.
  • Android decides to find the cubicle assigned to the man who killed himself in the Storage Room. In it, he finds a bunch of files which sound paranoid and mention infiltrator androids created by some project "MONARCH" (HOOK!).
  • Marine clone says that they should go check out the scientist, there's nothing more to do here and the Scientist is taking too long. Android concurs and they go to the elevator.
• Turn 4.
  • In the Elevator Hall, Android and Marine clone see the Hydra in the Kitchen and just throw themselves in the elevator. They wait for the elevator to arrive at the underground level; while they do so, the Marine clone starts talking about "we are all part of something greater, don't you think?" and the Android tries to get some distance. They enter the decontamination room.
  • In the Cloning Room, Scientist finds a cloning vat with the Marine inside it.
• As the lights go off for automatic decontamination, the Marine clone jumps at the Android and puts him in a headlock, stabbing him in the neck with the scissors: "you can be part of something greater too, my man! we can all be!".
  • Since he went for the neck and Androids do not have arteries in the same way as humans do, I tell him it's just 1d10 DMG and nothing greater. He rolls a 2. Android rps it as 'shrugging it off' and though in a headlock, uses his stun baton to whack the clone behind him. Marine clone fails the Body Save and falls to the ground, stunned and losing 1 round. Android gets the stun baton and whacks him over the head again, with advantage this time. Marine clone fails Body Save again, and is knocked out. Android then takes the unfrozen shotgun in the corner of the room and blasts the clone's head off, taking his smart rifle with him.
• Scientist finds a door to the mainframe room, which I (per the module) describe as "Giant, industrial chamber. A long, elevated walkway terminating at a raised platform." To which they reply, laughing: "oh, so like that scene from The Incredibles". I continue: "There's a chasm below, filled with a dark vaccuum." To which they laugh, yet again: "oh, so it's EXACTLY like that scene from The Incredibles". I finish by saying that the raised platform has a lot of computers; we all laugh it off. Secretly, I'm thinking: "shit, I hope nobody notices I've never watched The Incredibles."
• We have only an hour left of playing (5h30 hours up until now) so I cut the Plant 42 showdown for time. Scientist runs for the mainframe and ejects the AI core, grabbing it as one of the tendrils grabs his leg. A 10 minute self-destruct countdown starts. A dozen naked clones are entering the room to prevent the Scientist from taking the AI core away; he succeeds in a Combat Save and neutralizes as many clones as he can, emptying his Revolver (the one from the Storage Room above).
• Android enters the cloning room and sees a bunch of naked clones waking up and going towards the mainframe. He uses his newly-acquired shotgun to neutralize them in droves, with a successful Combat Check and advantage (since they are funneling in the door and do not mind him). He enters the mainframe after them.
• Scientist has no more ammo, and the vine pulls him fiercely, so he falls of the walkway and grabs himself at the last moment with both hands. 3 clones still remain, moving as quick as they can towards him. Android enters the room, and uses his newly-acquired smart rifle to try and shoot the clones. I tell him it's advantage since the walkway is narrow and they are single file; he ends up not needing the advantage and rolls a magnificent 13. This player decided during the Character Discovery Procedure that before being converted to a therapy assistant, this Android was a combat robot, so it all melts together in this moment as the therapist bot zeros in his shots and empties his magazine to snipe out all the remaining clones.
• Scientist tries to pull himself away, fails Strength Check. He tells me: "I fall and die, right?", already somewhat sad, accepting his defeat. "No sir", I tell him. We are in fail forward country here, this isn't how we roll. I tell him: "You get pulled by the giant tree's tendrils, and through some miracle of nature, you manage to hold onto the walkway with one of your hands. As your body forth, though, the AI core falls down below". And the moment he heard that, he made what we call here in brazil "a face like a child sucking on a lemon". And in that moment, the player was enlightened.
• Android pulls Scientist to his feet. As the mainframe starts to collapse, they run as fast as they can. As they pass the cloning room, they see that one of the vats has not been emptied out: the one with the Marine. They ask me if it's the real deal or the clone, and I can't recall the exact argument that happened, but I told them that a d10 would decide if it was the real Marine or another clone. They decide that they don't have time for this and just run away.
• Not much time in the evening now so I just tell them that they reach the entrance. I forget to mention that the door is closing-and-opening: a real shame, since I loved this detail while reading the module. They start their journey towards the landing pad and, after a few moments, see the facility go up in flames.
• After a hour of walking, they arrive at the landing pad. And it is at this moment that they realize that the Long-Range Comms stayed with the Marine, and that they don't have any means of contacting the Company ship. They fail their Panic Checks and, fittingly, both acquire "Pessimist" as a Condition.
• I rule that Company protocol is to send a shuttle 24 hours after the initial landing, in the absence of any contact from the contractors. So after 20-some hours of waiting in the dense tropical jungle while losing their minds (or rather, the Scientist losing his mind and the Android being an Android), the company shuttle arrives and rescues them. They have a hard time with the Company rep since they not only exploded the entire facility but also failed to retrieve the AI core; however they work out a deal since they have some info about Tau Sigma 7 that the Company didn't have...

What worked

Module stuff

• I was a bit unsure if PvP would work out, and indeed it almost didn't. When the Marine clone player revealed himself and tried to backstab the Android, the Android player suddenly got very serious and the mood at the table suddenly changed. Thankfully the encounter didn't last very long (due to some very lucky rolls from the attacked players) but in that moment I could clearly envision a future where I'd need to make a ruling that would effectively decide which player would die. Though everything worked out great, I'll be cautious in the future about picking modules that are PvP-heavy, since I think things can go south if people are not prepared for it.
• I really enjoyed how the facility was different with the power restored! A very Zelda dungeon kind of thing. Loved it.
• Objectives were clear right off the bat, and even when they changed, players were never in doubt of what to do, only how to achieve it. This was great.
• Random encounters were great. I really hope more Mothership modules would include them -- they're a wonderful way to pressure players, which I often need since my players usually like to take a long time debating everything.
• Module was VERY easy to run, it's absolutely bonkers to me how people can recommend Haunting of Ypsilon 14 over this babe. Look at this crisp design and sexy bullet points, at the changing environments and the < 10 NPCs! I feel it's leagues above Y14, really.

Stuff specific to how I ran it

• Players enjoyed the framing of the adventure. They really envisioned themselves as people living on the fringe of the system, having to resort to dangerous jobs to keep themselves afloat. It really helped them get in-character and get a feel for the setting.
• 3 players is a good number. I've never played Mothership with 3 before and I considered giving them a Contractor, but ended up not doing it and I didn't feel it was necessary.
• As per the Warden's Operating Manual advice, I used "The Company" for everything. Players wanted to know where they lived? In a colony controlled by The Company. The marine asked the brand on the frag grenade? It's the armaments division of The Company. Where did the Scientist study? A Company university.
  • I thought this would feel too forced, but it actually created a nice feeling of "holy shit this company is powerful indeed"... which is indeed what the WOM said would happen. Incredible
• Character Discovery Procedure worked great!! It was my first time testing it out and it really helped to give some more substance to the player characters. A lot of threads came out of this procedure that I'll be using in the future (for example the Scientist has a crackpot theory about using metal vibrations to make long-distance space communications, which will DEFINITELY come up later)
• I'm new to this DM stuff so I felt very proud of myself when I managed to cram the hooks in there.

What didn't work

Module stuff

• How exactly does the cloning work? The module is very vague about it, and I decided to be as well, rolling with what the players tried to do. However this put me into some situations where I felt I was on unstable footing, such as the "prosthetics question" above and the "name tag" plot hole. Everything turned out OK at the end but I really would have enjoyed a bit more fleshing out in this area.
• That's it. No other complaints about the module. It's marvelous.

Stuff specific to how I ran it.

• Lack of prep for the Hydra, my improvising was ok but the module describes it in a cooler way.
• In retrospect, the plant pods should have been better telegraphed. I could have said that the Marine noticed them shivering when he went near, but I took his "I go to the door" as a "gotcha". I'm learning!
• Since I was running against the clock at the end, I forgot to tell them that the door was stuck in a rapid open/close cycle, which is a last 'fuck you' that I thought was incredible while reading it. Oh well
• Nothing more. I think this was a very solid session for me!

RIP Bruce

#session-report