Tarynt Essrog
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Joined: Sat 29 Dec 2018, 06:57

CotG: Mistake on Page 25?

Thu 30 Mar 2023, 06:51

We ran our first session the week before last. I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. A work emergency popped up earlier in the day and I didn't have the down time I was counting on to give the module a final once over before the players arrived. Otherwise I don't think I would have been thrown off so badly by what I think must be an error.

On page 25 it says, "While
cleaning up the control room restores the
reactor relay (no roll needed), repairs still
need to be made on the outside of the ship
to reconnect the relay to the four fission
engines themselves (HEAVY MACHINERY roll and
three Turns of work). The power generated
by the ship’s four engine pods channels
through the main relay here before being
distributed to the rest of the ship."

So, I know it says that Cronus's AI eventually powers up the reactor on it's own, which contradicts the statement that the ship's disconnected engine pods provide power to the rest of the ship. And, in hindsight, the reactor is obviously where the nuclear reaction that powers the ship and the engines takes place. But my players made a B-line for the reactor room before I initiated any events, and I relied on the room description that was in front of me when they said they wanted to power up the reactor. So I told them, "The power generated by the ship’s four engine pods channels through the main relay here before being distributed to the rest of the ship," and that they would have check the engines because the relays weren't getting any power from them. Less than a shift into breaching, before any mandatory events on the Cronus, they were on the outer hull fixing the engines.

The session ended with Cham (Lucas) quietly dispatching the Abomination on the outer hull and reconnecting the engines while the rest of the crew waited on the Montero. (Rye was injured and Cham/Lucas insisted on working alone. Greed seems to be driving the rest of the crew right now, and Lucas has decided that telling them about the abomination will only encourage them).

So that puts me in the awkward position of telling the players, "Oh, actually you didn't need to connect the engines to power up the ship." Since we are two weeks since that session, it wouldn't be too disruptive to just ask the players if they would have rather have used a shift to clean up the reactor room instead of connecting the engines; except that I already revealed the abomination on the hull and the player that killed it rolled exceptionally well and is feeling pretty badass right now; so they aren't going to want to retcon that and it wouldn't be fair to take it away from them. Plus, now that the abomination on the hull is sprung, retconning it would be like putting the snake back in the can and asking the players to pretend to be surprised the next time they open it.

This throws a bit of a monkey wrench in the script, though, because the Cronus engines are online two acts early. Does Wilson even need the Montero Crew anymore? Once the AI powers up the Cronus, he could just sneak over there and initiate Special Order 966. The Cronus takes off towards Earth on autopilot and leaves the Montero behind. Game over.
 
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_ArthurDallas_
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed 04 Mar 2020, 03:22

Re: CotG: Mistake on Page 25?

Fri 31 Mar 2023, 16:15

Sorry Tarynt Essrog, i'm trying to understand what is the problem, sorry it's been a long time since i've run COG.

If you can "resume" in few words what you have seen wrong please.

I'm gonna try to help you then.

Thanks, Arthur
 
Tarynt Essrog
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Posts: 29
Joined: Sat 29 Dec 2018, 06:57

Re: CotG: Mistake on Page 25?

Sat 01 Apr 2023, 06:42

The wrong part is the text in the Reactor Relay Room description that says the engines provide power to the ship, when in fact it is the other way around.

I'm pretty sure it should say that the ship is dead in space because the engines are disconnected from the reactor, and the players need to go out on the hull to reconnect the engines to the reactors to restore mobility; not that they need to reconnect the engines to provide power to the ship. I told my players that they needed to restore power to get life support online; and then, once they got to the rector room to power it up, that the real problem was that the engines were disconnected. (Because that is what the book explicitly says in the Reactor Relay Room description).So they went and conducted the repairs on the engines before hardly anything else has happened.

Yesterday, At the beginning of the second session, I explained the mistake to them; that they didn't really need to reconnect the engines to get power back on. The player that was playing Cham/Lucas had a last minute emergency and didn't make the session, and the other two (Wilson and Davis) agreed that they didn't want play further into the adventure without Cham, because Cham's resistance to Wilson's pushing to get the Cronus operational was the biggest source of conflict in the adventure so far. Wilson's player felt it would be unfair and unsatisfying to try to push his agenda while Cham was an NPC.

So I suggested that rather than play forward, we go back in time and explore what they were all doing while Cham was outside by himself fixing the engines. Wilson decided it was fair game to take advantage of Cham's absence on repair detail and try and get the rest of the crew back on the Cronus while Cham was distracted. He had already successfully manipulated NPC's Miller and Rye by appealing to everyone's greed, which happened to match up with the NPC's agendas anyway. Miller agreed to let Rye and Davis go back to the Cronus if they volunteered. Rye was Injured, but without Cham to talk her out of it she agreed to go back to the Cronus to get the Reactor Relay room cleaned up. Davis's player just went with the flow.

Once on the Cronus, Wilson "spontaneously" suggested that maybe he should go to the bridge instead of the Reactor relay room with Rye and Davis so someone would be able to get life support running as soon as they had power. In fact, Wilson was already planning on going straight to Cronus's MU/TH/UR and instructing her to turn on the reactor. Sending Rye and Davis to clean up the Relay Room and power up the reactor manually was just a ruse to get them on the ship. He also initiated Special Order 966 with MU/TH/UR, even though he didn't really understand what that meant.

So, all that happened. The reactor came online on it's own when Rye and Davis were only half done with getting the Reactor Relay Room controls online. Then they heard the drives kick in as soon as Cham finished reconnecting them. Cham and Miller start yelling at them over comms as the Cronus ripped of the Montero's umbilical. Rye runs out of air as she and Davis rush back up the the bridge, and then they are ambushed by a Neomorph. The Neomorph is dispatched surprisingly easily, but Rye panics a couple of times pushing her stamina rolls to not suffocate while they deal with it. In the end, all three crew meet in Vestibule 2 where I had said in the previous session there were spare oxygen tanks, with Rye just barely making it before suffocating.

We stopped there. I let the players know the that the adventure has gone a little bit off the rails and I need to look up some details that I hadn't anticipated needing, like can the Montero catch up to the Cronus (it can't) and how long they have before the Cronus speeds up enough to engage it's displacement drives.

But, in hindsight, maybe it hasn't gone that far off the rails after all. The Montero has been removed from the equation early, and in a less dramatic fashion that the module anticipates, but that doesn't throw things off too wildly. And the rules say it will take at least a week of FTL for even mild Neurological Distortion Disorder symptoms to occur, so I guess the Cronus shooting off on autopilot towards Earth in Act I doesn't make that big a difference either.
 
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_ArthurDallas_
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Re: CotG: Mistake on Page 25?

Mon 03 Apr 2023, 00:53

Here is my vision of it ...

Power is coming from the reactor (not the 4 engines).

So, there is a link with the reactor and the reactor relay room (that's where the power is distributed). This link should be reconnected (I would ask a comtech roll there + a heavy machinery roll + maybe a turn of work or more if you want). When the relay room is working, The ship should get power (each sector has a link with the power relay room that need to be fix at your discretion). The 4 engines are not working yet (ship will not move).

PCs need to go out (heavy machinery roll + 2-3 turns of work) and fix the link with the 4 fission engines with the relay room. Then the 4 engines should work.

You were right. Power is not coming from the 4 engines it's the other way around (Power is coming from the reactor). So, the reactor should still be working and the coolant tanks (water) should still be working too.
 
Tarynt Essrog
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Posts: 29
Joined: Sat 29 Dec 2018, 06:57

Re: CotG: Mistake on Page 25?

Mon 03 Apr 2023, 04:18

The module says the Reactor Relay Room just needs to be cleaned up, no roll needed. But I think it also assumes players won't be so proactive or single minded, and that Cronus's MU/TH/UR will bring the reactor online and power up the ship by itself while the players are still dicking around in the dark. So it might be trying to say that you only need to spend a shift cleaning of the relay room to get the instruments online and see that the engines are disconnected after MU/TH/UR has powered up the reactor.

I'll remember your suggested procedure if I have occasion to run the adventure with a different group.

In the current groups universe, the Montero and Miller have survived and don't know anything significant other that Cham and Rye's confused description of the abomination in the Reactor Relay Room, so they could easily pop up again later.

Cham might also be alive on the Montero. When i told his player what happened, that the Cronus's engines fired up the moment he reconnected the last one, he said he tried to shoot the Cronus with his grappling gun. I haven't even rolled to see if he succeeded yet, just gave him a list of the Cronus's crew in cryosleep to choose from. He chose Cooper, which is perfect. I'll take him aside and have him roll to see if Cham is still on the hull right after Cooper's head explodes.
 
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_ArthurDallas_
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Re: CotG: Mistake on Page 25?

Mon 03 Apr 2023, 08:33

Of course, any time MOTHER can block any system if she want ...

that's the beauty of this game ... even if PCs repair something, Mother can block it ...

enjoy your game.

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